Ricky Jay Dies

Ricky Jay, 72. R.I.P. June 26, 1946 – November 24, 2018.

Narrator, actor in Magnolia. Actor in X-Files. And more.

See my Mysterious America for more about Ricky Jay.

From 2016.

Richard Jay Potash (June 26, 1946 – November 24, 2018), known professionally as Ricky Jay, was an American stage magician, actor, and writer. In a profile for the New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive". In addition to sleight of hand, Jay was known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He also wrote extensively on magic and its history. His acting credits included the films The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, Heist, Boogie Nights, Tomorrow Never Dies, House of Games, and Magnolia, and the HBO series Deadwood. In 2015 he was the subject of an episode of PBS' American Masters, making him the first (and to this date only) magician to have ever been profiled in that series. Wikipedia.

Exodus 8:2

In the wake of the re-examination of the phrase "John 3:16" surfacing in the Aaron Hernandez suicide, here's an overview of Exodus 8:2 that was so prominent 18 years ago in Magnolia.

"Exodus 8:2 is alluded to over a hundred times throughout the movie." Magnolia (1999), Trivia, IMDb

Magnolia (1999), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Ambrose Heron analyzed the mentions of "82s" credited in the trivia for the film at IMDb, and came up with this list:

The first weather forecast is 82% chance of rain.
The gambler in the prologue needs a 2 in blackjack, but instead gets an 8.
The coil of rope on the roof when Sydney commits suicide.
One of the posters held up in the ‘What Do Kids Know’ audience.
The movie poster at the bus stop on Magnolia Blvd.
The placard on the third hanged convict.
Jim Kurring’s box number at the date hot line.
Sydney Barringer’s mother and father’s apartment number is 682.
The forensic science convention starts at 8:20.
Delmer Darion flips over a stack of cards to reveal the 8 through 2 of diamonds.
Right after Jim Kurring sees Donnie Smith climbing up the building, you can see a flash of a sign on the side of the road that says “Exodus 8:2” (it’s visible again when the frogs fall and hit Kurring’s car)
The number on the fire fighter’s plane.
In Marcy’s mug shots, her criminal record number is 82082082082.
In the Smiling Peanut bar, there is a chalkboard visible with two teams, the frogs and the clouds, and the score is 8 to 2.
Spray painted on the cement as graffiti next to Dixon.
The kids were two days away from entering their eighth week as champions.
The first two numbers of the Seduce and Destroy Hotline (1-877-TAME-HER) are 82.
At the police station in the beginning of the movie, the clock says 8:02.
When Jim Kurring notices Quiz Kid Donnie Smith climbing on the Solomon & Solomon building he drives past a luminous sign saying “Exodus 8:2”.

Miami Herald published many screen captures of "82s" in Magnolia.

As Rene Rodriguez notes:

If you're unfamiliar with the reason why there are so many 82s in the movie.... The answer is found at the start of the quiz game show sequence, in which an audience member is holding up a sign that is taken away by an usher (played by Anderson himself). You can see the sign on the left hand side of this frame:

 Later, during the peculiar rainstorm that happens at the climax of the movie, the same Exodus 8:2 reference appears on billboards, store signs and bus stops everywhere:

The Bible, American King James Version

Exodus 8:2

And if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your borders with frogs.

According to the PTA fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines:

…it became a pasttime on set for Paul and the crew of Magnolia to hide as many references to the numbers 8 and 2 as they could in shots.

Wikipedia straightforwardly addresses this topic in Magnolia, here:

Raining frogs and Exodus (Bible) references
At the end of the film, frogs rain from the sky. Throughout the film, there are references to the Book of Exodus 8:2 "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs."
The film has an underlying theme of unexplained events, taken from the 1920s and 1930s works of Charles Fort. Fortean author Loren Coleman's 2001 book Mysterious America: The Revised Edition includes a chapter entitled "The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia", addressing the film. The chapter discusses how one of Fort's books is visible on the table in the library and the movie's end credit thanking Charles Fort.
The only character who seems to be unsurprised by the falling frogs is Stanley. He calmly observes the event, saying, "This happens. This is something that happens." This has led to the speculation that Stanley is a prophet, allegorically akin to Moses, and that the "slavery" the film alludes to is the exploitation of children by adults. These "father issues" persist throughout the movie, as seen in the abuse and neglect of Claudia, Frank, Donnie, Stanley, and Dixon. Source.

An authentic falling frog prop from Magnolia seemed an important item for me to preserve for the Museum I founded. 

The actual number of characters in Magnolia reflects the 8:2 numbers.

There are 10 characters, consisting of 8 children/relatives and 2 fathers (Jimmy and Earl), which is possibly significant given that their particular relationship is central to the film. Source.

August 2 (8/2) does not ring a bell, yet, as far as having a fall of frogs.

But August 2nds have had threshold events associated with the date:

1923 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes U.S. President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.

1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.

1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.

1943 – World War II: The Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.

1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident: North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox.

1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.

1973 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

1998 – The Second Congo War begins.

1999 – The Gaisal train disaster claims 285 lives in Assam, India.

Eighteen years have passed since the film was shot and released. Perhaps, unconsciously, the 8:2 pattern has been a living sync. Who knows?

Strange Days in LA: From Magnolia to Inherent Vice

"It is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just 'something that happened.' This cannot be 'one of those things'...This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This was not just a matter of chance.…These strange things happen all the time." ~Magnolia

A small tornado hit South Los Angeles on December 12, 2014

 

Frogs fall from the sky in Magnolia, an American drama film written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, narrated by Ricky Jay, was released on December 17, 1999.

Meanwhile, what new film was released on 12.12.14? Something novel (as in a novel from Thomas Pynchon) turned into a movie from Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice:

Location of the plot of Pynchon's novel: "The setting is Los Angeles in 1970; the arrest and trial of the Manson Family is featured throughout the novel as a current event. Larry 'Doc' Sportello, private investigator and 'pothead,' receives a visit from his former girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth, now having an affair with the real-estate mogul Mickey Wolfmann."

Shasta Fay Hepworth links to the Fayette Factor, of course.

Someone wrote this about Magnolia at Wikipedia: "The film has an underlying theme of unexplained events, taken from the 1920s and 1930s works of Charles Fort. Fortean author Loren Coleman has written a chapter about the film, entitled "The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia," in one of his recent books [Mysterious America]. One of Fort's books is visible on the table in the library and there is an end credit thanking Charles Fort."

Several of the actual film prop frogs from Magnolia 

are at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Of course, Los Angeles became the Z-target of sharks from the sky when Skarknado was released on SyFy, July 11, 2013.

Magnolia's Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead

A talented actor who has appeared in several Fortean films has died. A star in many films, including Magnolia, The Master, and Hunger Games, Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead. (See more on the twilight language of The Master here.)

One of the actual film prop frogs from Magnolia, 

at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

The Wall Street Journal has posted:

Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead Sunday afternoon in his New York City apartment, a law-enforcement official said. The New York Police Department is investigating, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to determine exact cause of death. The official said Mr. Hoffman, 46 years old, was found dead at his apartment at 35 Bethune St. in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Mr. Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 2005 film, "Capote."

The meaning of Bethune is "House of God."
The New York Post noted:

Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent drug overdose — in the bathroom with a hypodermic needle still in his arm — inside a Greenwich Village home on Sunday morning, cops said.

Wikipedia's early life information details the following:

Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York. His mother, Marilyn O'Connor (née Loucks), who was born in Waterloo, New York, is a family court judge, lawyer, and civil rights activist. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, is a former Xerox executive. He had two sisters, Jill and Emily, and a brother, Gordy Hoffman, who scripted the 2002 film Love Liza, in which Philip starred. He had German, English, Irish, Dutch, and remote Polish, ancestry. His father was Protestant and his mother Catholic; Hoffman was not raised with a deep commitment to any denomination. Hoffman's parents divorced when he was nine years old.
Hoffman attended the 1984 Theater School at the New York State Summer School of the Arts. After graduating from Fairport High School, Hoffman attended the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program, continuing his acting training with the acting teacher Alan Langdon. He received a BFA in drama in 1989 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he was a founding member of the theater company the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller. Soon after graduating, he went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and remained sober until May 2013, when he entered a detox facility after briefly relapsing.

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

###

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).

The Master: L. Ron Hubbard?

The ultimate Fayette Factor movie is on its way. 

Coming sooner than you can imagine is The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The movie reportedly is about "The Cause," a seemingly disguised religion that has been compared to Scientology. 
It is due for release on October 12, 2012.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a character named "Lancaster Dodd." Dodd has a great deal in common with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986).  One item being mentioned on locations such as Wikipedia is that Hubbard "served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and after his release from the hospital founded the belief system" today called "Scientology" in 1952. 
In The Master, 1952 is the year for the founding of the film's religion too.
That's L for Lafayette, by the way, in Hubbard's name.


How deeply will this film explore the amazing fabric that is there to examine?


Even one-third of the occult material available from the life of L. Ron Hubbard would be intriguing to view via Anderson's directing abilities:

In August 1945 Hubbard moved into the Pasadena mansion of John "Jack" Whiteside Parsons. A leading rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Parsons led a double life as an avid occultist and Thelemite, follower of the English ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley and leader of a lodge of Crowley's magical order, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). He let rooms in the house only to tenants who he specified should be "atheists and those of a Bohemian disposition."
Hubbard befriended Parsons and soon became sexually involved with Parsons's 21-year-old girlfriend, Sara "Betty" Northrup.

 

Paul Thomas Anderson is also the director of Magnolia, the 1999 film which has become a Fortean classic, complete with frog falls, Charles Fort book covers, synchronicity incidents, and more. My chapter examining the 1999 film more closely is entitled, "The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia," and is in my book, Mysterious America.