Between the Buried and Me New Song 2012 - "Telos"

"Telos" <------ CLICK ME

I personally enjoy this aggressive sound. 

My favorite part of Thus Spoke Zathurstra

     "I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
     All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment...
     Behold, I teach you the overman. The overman is the meaning of the earth.Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go.
     Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him. To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing, and to esteem the entrails of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth...
     What is the greatest experience you can have? It is the hour of the great contempt. The hour when your happiness, too, arouses your disgust, and even your reason and your virtue.
     The hour when you say, 'What matters my happiness? It is poverty and filth and wretched contentment. But my happiness ought to justify existence itself.'
     The hour when you say, 'What matters my reason? Does it crave knowledge as the lion his food? It is poverty and filth and wretched contentment.'
     The hour when you say, 'What matters my virtue? As yet it has not made me rage. How weary I am of my good and my evil! All that is poverty and filth and wretched contentment.'

     "Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman--a rope over an abyss...
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under...

     "I say unto you: one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have chaos in yourselves.
     Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man.
     'What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?' thus asks the last man, and blinks.
     The earth has become small, and on it hops the last man, who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as the flea; the last man lives longest.
     'We have invented happiness,'say the last men, and they blink. They have left the regions where it was hard to live, for one needs warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs against him, for one needs warmth...
     One still works, for work is a form of entertainment. But one is careful lest the entertainment be too harrowing. One no longer becomes poor or rich: both require too much exertion. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both require too much exertion.
     No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.
     'Formerly, all the world was mad,' say the most refined, and they blink...
     One has one's little pleasure for the day and one's little pleasure for the night: but one has a regard for health.
     'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink."

The Dark Knight Rises Review - **TONS OF SPOILERS**

Whatever it is, it always comes in "threes."

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
 
The Dark Knight Rises is the third installment in the Christopher Nolan Batman transcendence from superhero to dark and logical figure of our creative passions. Nolan always does great work, even though I am not a fan of Inception, I must confess that it was well done. Memento is also a gem on Netflix, might I add.

What's the score on the final act of the 21st Batman? Here at (A)Spires to Write, I rate movies on a 0-10 Mark Twains. 0 Mark Twains will indicate an abysmal film which may have given me thoughts of drowning puppies. To give some relativist scores, I give The Dark Knight an easy 9 Mark Twains, S.Darko 2 Mark Twains, and Puncture  6 Mark Twains. I therefore, after consulting the Oracle at Denver, give The Dark Knight Rises 7.5 Mark Twains.

TDKR is a great film, don't get me wrong. And I understand that it is hard to keep a series consistently good, top Heath ledger in TDK, and even overcome armchair/Facebook artists choosing The Avengers as a lifestyle forcing them to drop their capacity to even see a Batman film... But, the film is very stagnant and weak. The opening is not as mysterious at TDK where you were almost shocked and unsettled by the acts that unfolded before you. The villain, Bane, is nearly inaudible most of the film and his mannerisms are unconvincing. His vague followers and leadership choices are uncomfortable. The major turning point, as the city spills out in chaos, is somewhat unconvincing. TDK convinced us that it was possible that the city was paying attention to the District Attorney because he was winning major cases, cops were being targeted and killed, and a subtle terrorist was rampant through it all. As those events were tying people in and showing them their city wasn't in danger of being physically destroyed, it was its soul that was being passed back and forth between good and evil. TDKR just has Bane on the steps pointing out that legislation that may not have been agreeable caused them their unhappiness, so disregard private property, markets, the rule of law, and go all Haight and Ashbury. Occupy Wall Street is either salivating at a loose (or moot) point or they are being realistic pragmatic people who are shrugging their shoulders and reminding everyone they just hate bankers. Regardless, chaos has to be convincing.

Gotham football is also sponsored by Under Armour. Robin shows up. Catwoman is just Selina Kyle. Gordon didn't get promoted (again) to Mayor ( hehe). Leonardo DiCaprio would have made an awesome cameo. Morgan Freeman didn't get a chance to put an Obama sticker on a car.

Great film, though. I enjoyed it. It will make for a solid finisher to Batman movie marathons to come.

R

Introduction

Classic question: Would the Joker exist if not for the Batman?