Year 2012: Failed Apocalypse, Foundering Twinkies, and Falling Frogs

As 2012 ends, we did come through the alleged Mayan Apocalypse, not unexpectedly.

But what didn't?

Amazingly, we've known we all would survive since the broadcast of this Chevrolet Silverado 2012 commercial played during the last Super Bowl game (XLVI), in February 2012. Did that one ad give hints to other events and endings?

Unfortunately, Twinkies didn't fare as well as we did. 

Twinkies' company, Hostess, disappeared in 2012. Can we be assured that their revival through another owner will ever be as good? The survival of Twinkies after an apocalypse is a well-known allusion to the movie Zombieland.

The loss in 2012 is resulting in some future events, such as the tribute occurring on 1-3-13 in Austin, Texas.

But how about some other things?

Newspapers? Newsweek?

Drive-in restaurants? Like Big Boy?

How are the volcanoes?

UFOs? Seems more people are talking about Bigfoot, humm?

Then there are those Twinkies.

The ad ends with falling frogs. If we view the year by its Twinkies, why not its frogs?

The Year 2012 saw a rather well-documented report of falling frogs in the United Kingdom:

An actual fallen frog, Norwich, UK. Photo: ITV Anglia News 22 March 2012.

Reports of frogs raining down from the sky over Norwich have baffled weather forecasters at the Met Office. A viewer told Anglia News that she had been hit on the head by a frog while she walked along Prince of Wales Road, and that several more landed on the ground nearby. Source: ITV.

Of course, the falling frogs are a Fortean phenomenon and reference the movie Magnolia.

Magnolia, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999 (the year of the feared Y2K Apocalypse)

One of the actual frogs from Magnolia, 

at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Terrified horses, up on their hind legs, hoofing a storm of frogs.
Frenzied springboks, capering their exasperations against frogs that were tickling them.
Storekeepers, in London, gaping at frogs that were tapping on their window panes.
We shall pick up an existence by its frogs.
Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being, by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere. ~ Lo!, Charles Fort, 1931

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I'll spend some future time reviewing the rather incredible year of bloody, red dawn events, other than on today. For now, wish for lighter moments.

During December, hoping everyone enjoyed or will enjoy their Hanukkah (beginning sundown on 8th), Human Rights Day (10th), Wright Brothers Day (17th), End of the World Day (21st), Winter Solstice (22nd), Christmas (25th), Kwanzaa begins (26th), and New Year's Eve (31st).

Red Dawn (2012) Review

Red Dawn was neither Pearl Harbor nor Tora! Tora! Tora!

I guess it has taken me so long to write down my thoughts on Red Dawn (2012) because I found it to be such a horrible movie. I respect filmmakers for trying to do their best, and actors for their craft. But sometimes, motion pictures do miss the mark.

First thing that happened when I went to the opening week's showing is that it won't begin. It took the theater about 15 minutes to get the blank screen to reveal the images. That's never a good sign. Then the middle-aged man behind me kept kicking my chair. I finally had to give him a look that said "Stop it."

Okay, then I suffered through the film.

A lot has been written in reviews of Red Dawn (2012) about the move from the original setting in Colorado to Spokane, and the supposedly more urban surroundings. There also is the change from Chinese as the invaders to the North Koreans. It is almost as if the film was rather spineless before it even began. Those kinds of things tend to not work out too well in remakes.

Other reviewers have discussed the illogical aspects of the "occupation," such as why are some people put in the internment camps and why are others walking around. Several things in the movie seem not thought out clearly.

The preamble with the news footage of Obama, Biden, and Clinton just didn't make much sense either. The reasoning for this war was incomprehensible.

I found other little things bothered me. Like what happened to all of the dogs that would be roaming around, homeless, and looking for food, in the aftermath of an invasion? No feral pets wild in the streets? There was a sterility about the landscape.

How did the youthful guerrillas, the Wolverines, get food to survive? Yes, there was one moment of humor, when a Subway was taken over briefly by the Wolverines. But almost immediately, it felt like product placement, especially since the partner company, Pepsi, turned up, here and there, too.

Who would you want fighting for the USA? The 1984 rugged Wolverines or the 2012 seemingly prep school crew?

The choice is an easy one.

Why was that HHR (a Chevy product made entirely in Mexico) prominently in frame (in the new Red Dawn), near the prisoner camp, is beyond understanding. Was it a nod to the 1978 Chevrolet K10 Cheyenne in Red Dawn (1984)?

The new Red Dawn film had a midweek, Thanksgiving week release on Wednesday, November 21, 2012. Almost immediately, there was a theater incident.

In Rhode Island, a man was arrested on November 21, 2012 (n.d. JFK assassination anniversary is November 22nd, remember) for using threatening language in an East Providence movie theater.

Law enforcement officers were called to the East Providence 10 Theater around 6 p.m. on that Wednesday night, after a distressed moviegoer told them that a man standing in line ahead of him was talking to himself about shooting people and buying weapons.

According to police, Carl Butler, 41, of Central Falls, had just finished watching a movie (it has never been identified) and was standing in line to purchase tickets for another movie (also unknown). Three people standing in line overheard him muttering to himself that he wanted to shoot people at a motel he was planning on staying at.

Butler was inside one of the theaters when police arrived. Police say about a half-dozen officers arrived and evacuated the building for 45 minutes.

Police quickly located Butler and took him into custody. Butler was wearing a large jacket. He was searched, and police found no weapons on him, according to police. Butler allegedly told police that he thought nobody heard him and that saying such things "wasn't a big deal."

Some moviegoers were visibly agitated by what Butler said.

Butler was charged with disorderly conduct.

Enki, who sent along the tip about Butler, wrote:

The individual who was using threatening language is named Carl Butler. Carl = man, and Butler = server.
I am reminded of the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man," which was based on a story by Damon Knight. In this episode, the secret agenda of seemingly benevolent aliens is discovered when an alien book called To Serve Man is translated. The ending is memorable: "Don't get on that ship! The rest of the book To Serve Man, it's...it's a cookbook!"

And later:

There is a name game link to the {November 30th} SSA building bombing suspect Abdullatif Aldosary.  The name Abdul Latif is an Arabic name. In Arabic the meaning of the name Abdul Latif is: "One who serves a kind man."

Red Dawn (1984): Jennifer Grey and Lea Thompson

Red Dawn (2012): Chris Hemsworth and Adrianne Palicki

Red Dawn (2012, above, and 1984, below): Why was the original remade?

Red Dawn (2012) may have taken advantage of "something in the air," 

but they certainly didn't bring it home.

Red Dawn Is Coming

This Thanksgiving, the Fight begins at Dawn.

What will happen with this new film's opening on Wednesday, November 21, 2012? What sites of significance are tied to this movie? Products? Names?

Anonymous left the following comment on my earlier "Red Dawn" posting: "The original trailer, on the laserdisc release, includes a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonald's where enemy soldiers are eating. The scene does not appear in the final cut, and was likely removed due to a mass murder at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, CA, weeks before the film opened."

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

The San Ysidro McDonald's event was a mass shooting that took place on July 18, 1984, at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California. James Oliver Huberty (born October 11, 1942, Canton, Ohio) shot and killed 21 people (including five children) and injured 19 others.

First of all, for those who weren't alive then, the images above and below give you some idea of the Columbine-like wall-to-wall nature of the coverage. The media seized this reality form of broadcasting in 1963, when the television networks were made aware they could increase ratings as they covered the JFK assassination for four straight days in November.

How specific were the graphic images that were published at the time? One lasting picture was the following one. It showed Omarr Hernandez lying next to his bicycle on July 18, 1984. The photo would become a symbol of the "devastating McDonald’s massacre in 1984." The 11-year old boy was among the victims killed by the shooter. Photograph was captured by Barry Fitzsimmons.

This is a real boy. This is a real victim. His family and friends were forever changed by the event.

At the time it was released, Red Dawn (1984) was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute (Source). The DVD Special Edition (2007) includes an on-screen "Carnage Counter" in a bizarre nod to this.

It is worthy of noting that the first person killed in Red Dawn (1984) was the African-American teacher, Mr. Teasdale, played by former NFL player Frank McRae This link probably goes back to first person killed in American Revolution was an African-American, Crispus Attucks. Who is the first individual killed in Red Dawn (2012)?

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

Certainly, the San Ysidro-McDonald's event did change the Red Dawn that would be seen in 1984. It appears the filmmakers made a correct decision in changing the film, at least regarding the McDonald's "trigger" imagery.

Red Dawn (1984) was released on August 10, 1984.

San Ysidro, California, shooting site, 1984.

Red Dawn, deleted scene, 1984.

The new Red Dawn movie does not appear to have a "Colonel Ernesto Bella" in it, as in the 1984 version. "Bella" was played by Ron O'Neal (who became most famous as "Super Fly" in the movie of the same name, 1972, and then played minor roles, like "Charles Zurich" in Knight Rider's "Sky Knight" episode, 1985). O'Neal died in 2004.

Enki, who saw an early screening of Red Dawn (2012), writes: "I do not have much to report in the sync department, except for the fact that the new film takes place in Spokane, Washington instead of Colorado, and as Michael noted, Simon Bolivar is considered to be the George Washington of South America. The school shooting from the first film is absent from the remake, which was probably a no-brainer decision on the part of the filmmakers, and another memorable and unsettling scene from the original was altered to be less disturbing."

But recent copycat events are giving a bit of a pause. Enki forwards this, today: "Lammers allegedly planned to shoot up the B&B Bolivar Cinema 5, which is located on Bolivar's East Aldrich Road. Aldrich = old or wise ruler, which makes me think of a king. The accidental gun discharge took place at king-resonating Regal Cinemas on Sanguinetti Road in Sonora. Sanguinetti = little blood. The King-Kill current I was sensing seems to be coming to the surface. Might the next red dawn event be a political assassination?"

Needless to say, few of us have to be reminded that November 22nd is the anniversary of the JFK assassination.

What do you notice in this film?

One thing is certain. There is a new red dawn coming.

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For the links to older postings about 

Colorado's Aurora's red dawn symbolism, please see also:

Red Dawn 2012

Red Dawn Again

Red Dawn

Recent interviews, about the Aurora shootings:

WGN - Mike McConnell: Loren Coleman

The Corbett Report: The Copycat Effect with Loren Coleman

Binnall of America: Loren Coleman and Bruce Rux

Talk Shoe - 42 Minutes: Loren Coleman

Red Ice Creations: Loren Coleman

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)

The enemy takes over McDonalds, 1984.
What product placements are in the new 2012 version of Red Dawn?
Be alert: Look for Pepsi and Subway.

Source.

World On Fire: Updates

The Muslim protests have now spread to Australia. Police said that, about 1 pm on Saturday, a group marched from Sydney Town Hall to Martin Place, where a confrontation occurred between protesters and police outside a building housing the US consulate. Police used capsicum spray on the protesters, who at times pelted officers with bottles. Up to 500 people stormed through the city, working their way through Pitt Street before moving to Hyde Park amid a heavy police presence. The crowd ran on to the Australian museum.

Also on Saturday, 9/14/2012, thousands of Chinese besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles as protests broke out in other major cities in China amid growing tension between Asia's two biggest economies over a group of disputed islands.

Well, we knew this was coming...and more (see Cycles).

Read below, for Friday events.

The Master opens today, September 14th, in LA and New York City. 

Director Paul Thomas Anderson also steered Magnolia to the screen.

Bomb threats hit Texas, North Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri on Friday. 

Protests spread from one end of the Mideast all the way across Asia.

The world seemed ablaze on September 14, 2012. 

Here cars in front of the US Embassy in Egypt are on fire.

A Hardee's, a KFC and an Arby’s restaurant were set on fire 

in the city of Tripoli, Lebanon, on Friday.

Thousands of people streamed off university campuses in Texas and North Dakota on Friday after phoned-in bomb threats prompted evacuations and officials warned students and faculty to get away as quickly as possible.

The Texas university received a call about 8:35 a.m. on Friday, September 14th, from a man, allegedly with an Arab accent, claiming to be with al Qaeda who said he had placed bombs all over the 50,000-student University of Texas at Austin campus, according to spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon. He claimed the bombs would go off in 90 minutes and all buildings were evacuated at 9:50 a.m. as a precaution, Weldon said.

UT’s JJ Pickle Research facility in North Austin was also evacuated. The facility houses a a fully functional nuclear reactor operated by the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab department.
No bombs went off. No bombs were found.

Similar events occurred in Fargo. North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani said 20,000 people were evacuated from his school's main and downtown campuses in Fargo after the school received its bomb threat Friday morning. Officials did not immediately release details about the North Dakota threat.

No bombs went off. No bombs were found.

Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, posted a campus alert about potential danger during chapel break period, which happens at 11:15 a.m. Friday. The unspecified threat was made via a "graffiti message."

No bombs went off. No bombs were found.

Campus officials say a small college in Hiram, in northeast Ohio were evacuated because of a bomb threat. Hiram College posted a statement on its website saying it received a bomb threat Friday afternoon and was taking the threat seriously.

No bombs went off. No bombs were found.

Hiram is a very Masonic name. President Garfield attended Hiram College. He was a Masonic president. Interesting that he was initiated at the Magnolia Lodge. Very Fortean.

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD (1831-1881)

Twentieth President (July 2 - September 19, 1881)

MASONIC RECORD Initiated: November 19, 1861, Magnolia Lodge, No. 20, Columbus, Ohio. Owing to Civil War duties, Brother Garfield did not receive the Third Degree until November 22, 1864 in Columbus Lodge No. 30, Columbus, Ohio. On October 10, 1866, he Affiliated with Garrettsville Lodge No. 246, Garrettsville, Ohio, serving as its Chaplain in 1868-1869. Brother Garfield then became a Charter Member of Pentalpha Lodge No. 23 of Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1869; in fact, he was one of the Petitioners for the Lodge Charter.

At noon on Friday, September 14th, a man walked into the Richard Bolling Federal Building, 600 E. 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri, and said he was a terrorist. A bomb-sniffing dog has detected the presence of some sort of explosives inside the vehicle (above) of the man, which was outside the building. The Kansas City Police Department ordered the bomb and arson squad to his vehicle, located in the Fletcher Daniels State Office Building parking lot, 615 E. 13th Street.

No bombs have gone off. The dog detected explosives. No bombs have been found yet.

As all this was happening (and more?) in the US, the following hotspots ignited, according to several media sources:
~ Demonstrators breached the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia;
~ American school in Tunis torched;
~ German Mission in Khartoum, Sudan was set aflame;
~ British Mission in Sudan attacked;
~ Security forces in Yemen block streets near U.S. Embassy and killed two;
~ Fires and rocks being thrown at U.S. embassies in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt;
~ Effigy of Obama burned near Jalalabad, Afghanistan;
~ Thousands demonstrate against the U.S. in Gaza City;
~ Protesters throwing rocks and gasoline bombs near the American Embassy in Libya;
~ Demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
~ Thousands in Srinagar, Kasimir protest;
~ Hundreds in southern India;
~ Demonstrations in Indonesia;
~ Protests in Qatar;
~ Demonstrations in Kuwait;
~ Protests in Iraq;
~ Crowds continue gathering in Libya;
~ 5000 marched in the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, burning the American flag;
~ Troops fired over demonstrators in Jos, Nigeria; and
~ Hundreds of protesters set fire during attacks on restaurants in Tripoli, Lebanon, resulting in one dead.


Meanwhile, Fox News shares this:

Volcanic ash spews from the Volcan de Fuego or Volcano of Fire as seen from Palin, south of Guatemala City, Thursday, September 13, 2012. The long-simmering volcano exploded into a series of powerful eruptions Thursday, hurling thick clouds of ash nearly two miles (three kilometers) high, spewing rivers of lava down its flanks and forcing the evacuation of more than 33,000 people from surrounding communities. Photo: Moises Castillo.

Yes, Fox News said "as seen from Palin." The media gods do have a sense of humor.

Sep 14: Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated in Guatemala after the Fuego volcano eruption, which the specialists estimate to be the most powerful since 1999 in this Central American country, media reports said.

First Day of School: First School Shooting

It begins. How will it end?

After 2012's Summer of the Gun, no one should express surprise that the first day of the new school year would experience a school shooting. That's how the copycat effect works.

The shooting occurred at Perry Hall High School (established in 1963), located at 4601 Ebenezer Road, Perry Hall, Maryland.

Ebenezar means "stone of help."

This was the memorial stone set up by Samuel to commemorate the divine assistance to Israel in their great battle against the Philistines, whom they totally routed (1 Sam. 7:7-12) at Aphek, in the neighborhood of Mizpeh, in Benjamin, near the western entrance of the pass of Beth-horon. Ebenezer is mentioned three times in the Bible.
On this very battlefield, twenty years before, the Philistines routed the Israelites, “and slew of the army in the field about four thousand men” (4:1,2; here, and at 5:1, called “Ebenezer” by anticipation). In this extremity the Israelites fetched the Ark of the Covenant out of Shiloh and carried it into their camp. The Philistines a second time immediately attacked them, and smote them in a great slaughter, “for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the Ark of God was taken” (1 Sam. 4:10). And now in the same place the Philistines are vanquished, and the memorial stone is erected by Samuel.

Source.

Synchromysticism does happen. Between 9:55 am and 10:17 a.m. EDT this morning, Red Dirt Report editor Andrew Griffin and I were discussing films. He said he had just watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To which I replied,

Synchronicity strikes again: I just read the paper. The one thing that struck me was in the movie section. The only IMAX in Maine, ten miles away, which has been playing Dark Knight Rises since July 20, 2012, is mentioning a [new] choice starting September 7th. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, on the IMAX. Interesting you should mention the franchise.

The "Lost Ark" noted in the first Indiana Jones movie is about the Ark of the Covenant, not Noah's Ark, as is often mistakenly recalled. The name Ebenezar is a direct link to the Ark of the Covenant. So why would Ebenezar, Ark of the Covenant, and Indiana Jones come into play, here and now? Is the Cosmic Joker pointing out attention to Israel-Iran, even in events like this?

The calls to 911 alerting the police to the school shooting at Perry Hall High School started coming in Monday, shortly before 11 a.m. EDT.

Today was the first day classes for the 2012-13 academic year at Perry Hall High School, located near Baltimore.

Unconfirmed reports published by CBS News indicate the Perry Hall school shooting occurred in the cafeteria and the victim was shot in the back. Parents of Perry Hall High School students also told the local news affiliates that some type of threat about Perry Hall was posted on Facebook, but those claims are also currently unconfirmed.

CBS reported the Perry Hall High School shooting victim is 17-years-old and the alleged shooter, 15, was seen being escorted to a waiting police cruiser shirtless and in handcuffs (photos at top). The student shot at the Baltimore high school is reportedly in serious condition.

City council member David Marks, who called the shootings "horrific," lives near the Perry Hall High School and told The Baltimore Sun that he is currently hearing “a lot of helicopters” overhead.

Students are being escorted to the nearby Perry Hall Shopping Center at the corner of Ebenezer Road and Belair Road. "Belair" is from the French, a respelling of French Belleaire, a nickname for someone with a pleasant demeanor, from belle "lovely" + aire "demeanor," "manner." For more about the name "Bell," see here.

Update: The suspected school shooter is 15-year-old Robert Wayne Gladden, Jr., who has been charged as an adult with attempted first degree murder and first degree assault. He is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. (For more on the "Wayne" middle name game phenomena, see here, here, and here.)

In 1987, the John Waters movie Hairspray was filmed at Perry Hall High School.