Review of "The Hero With A Thousand Faces"

If you are interested in Myth then this is a great book to read, but I would do a few things first. First, you will want to try and read up on some of the myths he looks at in this work. These include Greek, Christian, Jewish etc and works like Dante and The Kalevala to name a few. It will be easy to follow him if you are not reading about them for the first time. Second, I would read up a little bit about Sigmund Freud, maybe just his wiki, since this is also a large part of this work.

As for the book it self. It is about 330 pages, but there are many pictures and diagrams mixed in. So although, it is not a long read it is not the lights read. He does use a number or large words and if you do not have a back around in "the arts" you may have to look a few up. That being said the general ideas in the book are not to hard to understand and in this way it is not a hard read.

This book will make you think. It makes interesting points on a chapter by chapter base and in the over all thesis. Thus, anyone who reads the book a second time would get even more out of it. I will not give to much away since I think you should read it, but the over all thesis is that myth not matter the time or place share common characteristics.

If your faith is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition my should know that he treats your believes as myth, but in so doing will make you think about them in a good way.

One final note. This book was one of George Lucas's major guides for the Star Wars movies so if for no other reason than that you should read it.

A Downfall parody about Downfall parody

A Downfall parody about Downfall parody

http://ideas.4brad.com/studio-does-content-id-takedown-my-hitler-video-about-takedowns

Get Your Rabbits Condomed

And now time for an important public service announcement.

"There are no cats in America"

Last week at work I watched American Tale. I notice that many parts of the movie were historically sound. This clip above show a few of the main points.

1. Fievel's family is leaving Russia: Many people left Russia and Eastern Europe during this time and many of those people were Jewish ( its does not say that Fievel's family is Jewish, but they could be)

2. In the song two other groups sing: In the song both Italian and Irish mice sing as well. This to is very historically correct, as these to groups were two of the largest that came to America in the late 19th century

3. The idealized America: In the song America is very idealized. The words "There are no cats in America" reflect the idea that problems of the old Word will not be found in the new one. Early in the film "The Cats" are dressed like aristocrats or "Fat Cats". This idealization of America would not be what most immigrants would experience.

There are many other interesting historical points in this film including the changing of Eastern Europe names into Anglo names like "Smith"

This film shows the power of fictional works to give insight and to tell the story of non-fictional events.

Wisdom on Government

So I found this great site, http://freedomkeys.com/gummint.htm, it has some quotes on government I know you will like check it out. Here are just a few good ones.

"Government does not do ANY thing as well as the private sector does."
Neal Boortz

"We know that anything government does private enterprise can do for half the cost."

Nobel Laureate Dr. Milton Friedman to Charlie Rose

"That government is best which governs least, because its people discipline themselves." – Thomas Jefferson

"Talk about threats to national security -- how about government so big, so complicated and so unmanageable, it can't get out of its own way?" -- Bob Schieffer

"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other." Voltaire

"Giving money and power to the government is like giving car keys and whisky to teenage boys." -- P.J. O’Rourke

"Talk about the poor getting poorer tugs at the hearts of decent people and squares nicely with the agenda of big government advocates, but it doesn't square with the facts." -- Dr. Walter E. Williams

I will not give to them all, but those are a few of the jewels on this site.

Serenity, Whedon and the power of the Brown Coats

This article was linked to IMBD a few weeks back and it was so good that I thought I would re-post it here.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/serenity,38777/

To add my own feelings. Firefly/Serenity has to be one of the best TV shows to come out of the last decade. The problem is that, like shows like Arrested Development, people did not fully get them. Firefly/Serenity offers a SCFI show that is raw. It's not clean like a Star Trek, in this show the issues we face today are still around. Some may like to believe that racist, sexism, totalitarian governments, starvation and a long list of other problems will be gone in the future, however history and our currents course of events does not make me hopefully.

* If you are looking for another SCFI with a more raw feel to it, may I recommend the Battlestar Galactica made during the 2000s.

Review of Marvel 1602

Official plot- All's not well in the Marvel Universe in the year 1602 as strange storms are brewing and strange new powers are emerging! Spider-Man, the X-Men, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, Dr. Doom, Black Widow, Captain America, and more appear in the waning days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. As the world begins to change and enter into a new age, Gaiman weaves a thrilling mystery. How and why are these Marvel stars appearing nearly 400 years before they're supposed to?

My Review

This is one of my favorite (non-Moore) comics. It has many of the best characters of the Marvel. Its historic setting is very interesting to anyone who has studied his period of history. The story starts off a little slow, but it picks up in the late half and the becomes very good at the end.

As for the artwork, it is not the best I have seen, but it is still good. Little details like trying to match historic picture to the picture in the comic and the use of a style that matches a more historic work give it some great details.

For those of you who like Neil Gaiman other main work the Sandman be warned that this is not that comic they are very different, but if you like the characters in the Marvel Universe and you like history and the what ifs of history that you will what to read this comic.