Death Countdown to August 22/25

Everyone is waiting for August 21, 2017, for the Solar Eclipse. I'm more worried about the next day.

There are now elaborate Hopkinsville, Kentucky celebrations planned. These are in conjunction with the solar events, because in 1955, on August 21, the Kelly-Hopkinsville creature attack happened.

The Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter is a favorite among UFOlogists and even played a role in the making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It's also the inspiration for the Kelly Little Green Men Days Festival, held annually since 2011.
This year's festival, of course, has an added component: The full solar eclipse will arrive on the 62nd anniversary of the invasion and some wonder if the UFO will return under cover of darkness at 1:24 p.m. Source.

The Kelly creatures seem to have also inspired the look of the Gremlins in the movie of the same name.

Newsweek and other media outlets have noted that "THE SOLAR ECLIPSE COULD BRING LIZARD PEOPLE, SOUTH CAROLINA EMERGENCY OFFICIALS WARN (REALLY)."

South Carolina does have a history with lizard men...and the text accompanying the map, which graphed eight lizard-man sightings, suggested the department was somewhat serious with its post. It read: "This historical map is in response to recent media reports about possible paranormal activity associated with the upcoming total eclipse. SCEMD does not know if Lizardmen become more active during a solar eclipse, but we advise that residents of Lee and Sumter counties should remain ever vigilant." Source.

It appears much of this was begun with the Sunquatch map, as created by Joshua Stevens.

Bigfoot

Bigfoot

Bigfoot

UFOs

And, of course, Waffle Houses.

***

After August 21, 2017, is history, my concern is for suicides on August 22nd. I'm not kidding. It is the anniversary of Layne Staley's birthday.

Now, this week, a new Staley tribute has appeared. Interesting timing.

As I've noted in "Grunge is suicide," "Will Grunge Suicide Copycats Continue?," "Linkin Park's Bennington Hangs Self on Cornell's Birthday," and "August 21-22: An Eclipse, Disasters, and Suicides?", we appear to be building up to something. Who knows what?

It seems like there may be more "Grunge's Copycat Carnage," in store, especially after Chris Cornell's hanging suicide was copycatted in Chester Bennington's hanging. And Bennington tied it to Cornell's birthday. 

Please note. These Grunge artists are tuned into death dates, birthdates, and important anniversaries.

And copying each other's behaviors.

Just to review:

August 22 is Layne Staley's birthday.

Layne Staley was born August 22, 1967. He was a member of Alice in Chains, Mad Season, Class of '99, Alice N' Chains, and Sleze. Staley died due to a parasuicidal combination of drugs and not eating, resulting in his death on April 5, 2002. It is to be recalled that April 5th is the anniversary date from 1994, when Kurt Cobain died by suicide by gunshot. Staley and Cobain. Cobain and Staley. A strong Grunge link.

August 25 is Mia Zapata's birthday.

Mia Zapata was born August 25, 1965. She was the singer of the Seattle indie band The Gits. Zapata spent her childhood in Louisville, Kentucky, and founded the Gits in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1986. She relocated to Seattle and became a powerful female voice in the Grunge movement in the area.

On July 7, 1993, Zapata was murdered in Seattle.

At around 2:00 a.m. on July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata left the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. She stayed at a studio space in the basement of an apartment building located a block away, and briefly visited a friend who lived on the second floor. This was the last time she was seen alive. She may have walked a few blocks west, or north to a friend's apartment, or may have decided to take the long walk south to her home.

She was beaten, strangled, and raped in the Central District of Seattle. It is believed she encountered her attacker shortly after 2:15 a.m. Her body was not initially identified as she had no identification on her when she was found.

Zapata’s body was found with her arms out and her legs crossed, and she was placed between two Roman Catholic buildings on either side of the street. Zapata’s body was found, as Unsolved Mysteries noted, "lying face up in an almost Christ-like pose."

In "Joan Jett and the Jesus Christ Pose," I detail how Joan Jett in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent takes on the pose that Zapata was found in her (Jett's) role on that program.

"Joan Jett sings the music of murdered lead singer Mia Zapata"

Evil Stig = Gits Live

Let's see what happens on August 22nd. Or August 25th. 

In the meantime, save a life. Talk to your friends who are suicidal.

Joan Jett and the Jesus Christ Pose

As I mentioned earlier (see here), Soundgarden's Chris Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) explained the term "Jesus Christ Pose" and his song of the same name, thusly:

You just see it a lot with really beautiful people, or famous people, exploiting that symbol as to imply that they're either a deity or persecuted somehow by their public. So it's pretty much a song that is nonreligious but expressing being irritated by seeing that. It's not that I would ever be offended by what someone would do with that symbol.

In looking into the deaths of prominent figures in the Grunge community, I came across the story of Mia Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993), who was the singer of the Seattle indie band The Gits, formed in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1986.

After Mia Zapata's move to the West Coast, she became very successful and a surprise spokesperson for women's music in Seattle.

But the flame burned out quickly. In Seattle on July 7, 1993, Zapata was tragically raped and murdered.

How the body was left seemed highly symbolic.

A woman discovered Zapata's body in the street near the Comet Tavern, at around 3:30 a.m., near the intersection of 24th Avenue South and South Washington Street in Seattle's Central District.

Zapata’s body was found with her arms out and her legs crossed, and she was placed between two Roman Catholic buildings on either side of the street. Zapata’s body was found, as Unsolved Mysteries noted, "lying face up in an almost Christ-like pose."

"A Christ-like pose"?

In the aftermath of Zapata's murder, friends created a self-defense group, Home Alive, which organized benefit concerts and released albums with the participation of many of Seattle's music elite, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, and the Presidents of the United States of America. Joan Jett also recorded an album with the surviving members of the Gits called Evil Stig ("Gits Live" backwards).

Joan Jett and Kathleen Hanna (pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement) wrote a song called "Go Home" that was later released on Jett's 1994 album, Pure and Simple.

Jett also recorded a single, "Bob," whose earnings were contributed to the investigation of Zapata's murder. To this end, the band Gits and Jett appeared on the television show America's Most Wanted, appealing to the public for information. The case was solved in 2004, when Zapata's murderer, Jesus Mezquia, was brought to trial and convicted. (Yes, his name is Jesus.)

Intriguingly, on July 13, 2008, Joan Jett guest-starred in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The episode was named "Reunion," and Jett played a fading rock musician named "Sylvia Rhodes." 

"Rhodes" ends up dead on her apartment floor.

Lost on the 2008 audience, of course, was that the pose Jett took on the television drama appeared to mirror how Zapata was found in 1993.

Looking closer at the promotional photograph from the episode, the positioning also duplicates a side view of the Thoth Tarot card of The Hanged Man.

The Thoth Tarot is a divinatory tarot deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris according to instructions from Aleister Crowley. Crowley referred to this deck as The Book of Thoth. Lady Harris was invited to meet Crowley on June 9, 1937, and on May 11, 1938, Lady Harris became Crowley's disciple and also became a member of Ordo Temple Orientis.

And, I must observe, Chris Cornell went from the Jesus Chris Pose to The Hanged Man.