S01E187: Lexiclown
Tonight’s Tarot: THE HERMIT
Freaks of Hazard:
A monthly taste of charity from Sir Tjunta! - $3.33
A generous bit of value from Spaz! - $9.99
A brevetted ration from Captain Oblivious! - $5.55
Boolysteed for the clown/nephilim video and topic!
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"You sing of the young gods easily
In the days when you are young;
But I go smelling yew and sods,
And I know there are gods behind the gods,
Gods that are best unsung."
— Ogier, The Ballad of the White Horse
— TVTropes.com
BAZINGO!
THE OLD ONES
Clown Ancestors - Nephilim and Clowns
Clown 1 - Differences
Ancestor spirit worship passed down through oral and ritual tradition for as long as humans have been around
Affected by other religions that come along through history and add their flavor
A shaman or community dress up to channel the spirits
Usually painted white or chalked up face and skin
Red lines or patterns or polkadots on clothes
Red headdress, feathers, or embellished crown (jester’s crown)
Colorful psychedelic clothing
Oftentimes tall or giants, roughly humanoid in appearance but also otherworldly
Regional differences apply but certain things remain unchanged
Clown 2 - Voodoo Doctor
“Ancestor” worship does not refer to elders of your family who have died long ago. Instead it is more like “The Ancient Ones” the beings who built their culture, world, reality.
Dress like the thing to channel the thing
Haitian God “Baron Semedi”, a demon living between the human realm and the divine realm of the Creator Gods, or Bondye
Baron Semedi the Demon - chalked or painted white face, striped or lavish formal suit
Baron Samedi - The Powerful Lwa Of Life And Death In Haitian Voodoo | Voodoo Religion Explained
Clown 3 - Baron Semedi
Each religion provides guide to help deal with Death, i.e. Grim Reaper, Charon
Haitian Vodou has Baron Semedi (or Samedi, French for “Saturday”)
Tall skinny black man
White painted face
Top hat
Nice tuxedo suit of black and purple
Plugs his nose to protect himself from the stench of the dead
He is a trickster and a prankster. Why so serious?
Clown 4 - Tobacco and Alcohol
The Baron enjoys smoking and drinking
He sits at the point where the spiritual world crosses from the living to the dead
Voudo is a marriage of African and French Catholic religions, born from the slave-based colonization of the New World by French and other Catholic European superpowers of the time
In the world of the occult and even in popular culture, Vodou (Voodoo) has quite a presence. We get the word “Zombie” from them (Haitian French: zombi), the word and concept itself going back possibly to ancient Kongo.
Haitian Vodou is an alloy of many religions from all over the world and throughout time. It draws from African folklore, perhaps the oldest known to man. Back thousands of years ago or longer, sea-faring Africans rode the trade winds as far as the Caribbean and spread their religion and beliefs in what we call the African Diaspora. Many of the religions of the native peoples of the Caribbean, Central America, and even the Southern United States are influenced by Africa.
As you can see from the image above, the journey was relatively short, direct, and natural given global wind patterns. It was these same trade winds that brought Columbus to the very same place. Through the Atlantic Slave Trade, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were introduced and adopted by these African and African-based religions over the centuries, and the result is what you see today. Santeria is one we’ve covered before, a practice and culture more alive and popular than ever. Another is Rastafari, a personal favorite (Jah Bless). There are many, many iterations of this religion.
Haitian Vodou even has secret societies called Bizango. Anthropologist Wade Davis reported that the Bizango were involved in poisoning individuals and then providing them with an antidote to leave them in a pliant state, which he associated with zombification. In Davis' view, this was how the Bizango enforced their social codes against those who transgressed them. The Bizango's practice of capturing zombis is often taken as evidence of these societies' malevolent nature.
Fun Fact - The African country of Ethiopia has particularly deep ties to Judaism and Christianity. The word “Ethiopia” is used in Genesis in the Old Testament, and is mentioned no less than 20 times in the Bible. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a Christian church older than the Vatican, and there are groups of Ethiopian Jews that have been practicing for generations going back likely thousands of years, claiming to have been founded by one of the original tribes of Judah, or King Solomon (a character with whom the Freemasons are obsessed), or even Abraham himself, making their branch of Judaism older than Israel. In Babylonia of the Talmudic period the Jews adopted Aramaic, while Ethiopian Jews wrote their sacred literature in Ge’ez, a South Semitic language they considered holy. Ge’ez shares a significant portion of its lexicon with Hebrew and other Semitic languages. (The texts of the Ethiopian Church are likewise written in Ge’ez and have a similar status.) There is no question that the early translators of the Bible into Ge’ez possessed mastery of Hebrew, but the language was only rediscovered by Ethiopian Jews at the end of the 19th century, with the appearance of European Jews. In a strange PR move by Zionist Judaism, these Ethiopian Jews are today called “Beta Israel”.
As for the Afro-American religions, they believe there is a supreme divinity, the Bondye as they call it in Haitian Voudoo, a Top God or essence that created the universe or simulation in which they live, who also rules over Lesser Gods (or angels or demons). These are the Old Ones, divine beings from the spiritual realm who interact with humans on this plane, and are able to traverse between worlds.
These are the demons they wish to be possessed by.
CHASING COLUMBINE
DIVINE COMEDY
Clown 5 - Commedia
Italian theatre traditions developed and innovated through the Middle Ages into Commedia dell'arte, which brought a formalized semi-professional entertainment medium to Europe. This was street comedy that focused on everyday life and people rather than myths or Biblical Passion plays.
With stock characters that everyone understood, performers could make fun of (and criticize) their Kings, the aristocracy, and society in general. Up until this point, popular theatre had been essentially outlawed by the Crown and Church.
We might think of these famous stock characters like famous cartoon or comic book characters today. You can dress up as one, and everyone knows exactly who you are and what your character should be.
Commedia dell’arte has unwittingly set a standard for modern comedy over hundreds of years of trope building. Memes existed before the internet, and the spoken and performative traditions that pass stories and knowledge down for generations can be seen in the history and evolution of commedia.
The name Harlequin is taken from that of a mischievous "devil" or "demon" character that originates with an Old French term herlequin or hellequin, first attested in the 11th century, by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis, who recounts a story of a monk who was pursued by a troop of demons when wandering on the coast of Normandy (France) at night. These demons were led by a masked, club-wielding giant. This medieval French version of the Germanic Wild Hunt, Mesnée d'Hellequin, has been connected to the English figure of Hellequin, a black-faced emissary of the devil, roaming the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell. The physical appearance of Hellequin offers an explanation for the traditional colours of Harlequin's red-and-black mask. Lots of books on Commedia d’ell Arte can be found. This Harlequin demon is based on the European “Wild Man” or proto-human, or Ancient One.
Over time, Harlequin evolved into the stock character Arlecchino, named similarly to a devil called Alichino who leads an obscene band of mocking devils in Dante’s Inferno. At first a working-class character of cleverness and mischief, Arlecchino eventually evolved into what one might call a simp and a wagie. His schtick (or lazzo) was to appease his stupid bosses and try to seduce Colombina, the eye-rolling, sassy, clever maid character. Arlecchino was relegated to the trope of a lovable and acrobatic but otherwise hapless and eternally poor servant.
Puppets were big then, and Italian puppetry is some of the world’s finest (Pinnochio). The 15th and 16th century saw something like a Golden Age of puppetry, but the Italian tradition likely stems back to Ancient Rome and beyond. In a way, when you play a stock character like Arlecchino or Columbina or Pantalone, you are a life-sized puppet.
Clown 6 - Costume Change
Charles Dibdin and Son
Charles Dibdin Sr. - Famous 1800’s British composer and dramatist of sea songs sung by the 18th-19th Century British Maritime
Composed famous songs sung by sailors who fought in the Napoleonic wars, a time where the British were proud of their Navy above all other things. It was their strength and it let them edge all over France and kept England from being invaded during the worst parts of those wars. Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died destroying France and Spain’s Navy at Trafalgar, is perhaps England’s greatest military hero today. This guy Dibdin was a wealthy success.
Freemason, obviously
Son Junior, Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin Jr. or Charles Pitt or Charles Dibdin the younger (his professional name) was an English Dramatist who followed in his father’s footsteps as a theatre proprietor. He managed a popular and prestigious long-running theatre house in London, which performs strictly non-dramas because they don’t have a straight drama license.
Note - The theatre house was founded in a 17th century pleasure garden, still exists today, and has been rebuilt 6 times. Dibdin managed the 4th rebuilt theatre.
It was a rich and well-established theatre, but it was also alternative, often pushing what was possible to produce in a closed environment. They had giant pools and pumps for great water spectacles, sea battles, and Poseidon monologues.
There Dibdin the younger produced pantomimes, a British iteration of Italian commedia, with a new high-budget kind of renovation to the classic servant character.
His pantomimes and productions improved the fortunes of the theatre, and became a shareholder. He celebrated by installing a giant water tank and producing something he called “aqua dramas”.
<From the wiki for Aqua Drama>
“At the start of the 19th century, the already established Sadler's Wells Theatre came under the management of Charles Dibdin, Jr., a man who had big plans for the theatre's future. In 1804, he installed a large 90x24x3ft water tank that covered the entire stage. The water used to fill the tank was pumped in from the New River, which was adjacent to the theatre, by an Archimedes wheel. This process took twelve men twelve hours: four men would work in four hour shifts and then rotate until the entire tank was full. Even though the tanks were drained and refilled every three weeks they would become filthy. The water would become dirty not only from the shows, but the actors would bathe in the tank, along with rowdy audience members jumping in to see if the water was real. The Aquatic Drama was popular in the early 19th century, and with Sadler's Wells on the outskirts of London, the audiences, especially in the pit were unruly, loud, and most likely drunk. The large water tank that these disruptive audience members would jump into was not the only tank in the theatre, Dibdin Jr. had a second 5x5x5 ft tank above the theatre that was used to simulate waterfalls.”
Clown 7 - Blow High Blow Low
A hit of the time!
Clown 8 - Demon To Be Venerated
This wealthy dramatist family and others traveled the popular artsy tourist locations of 18th Century England. There they learned worldly religions from the East, and did their spin of it on a large stage.
Illustration of Joey the Clown’s debut at Dibdin’s theatre Joseph Grimaldi was the leading man to introduce the world to a new kind of “clown”. He is said to be the most popular entertainer of the Regency Era of Great Britain, 1795-1837. Born to a family of performers, Grimaldi started learning the demanding physical trade of Commedia at 2 years old. By 6 years old, his performances were being written about in the newspapers. “Joey the Clown” became a massive celebrity, the equivalent of a superstar sitcom character like Urkel or Kramer, developed by Dibdin’s plays. He was even an early pioneer of the catchphrase, famous for saying "Here we are again!"
Laugh track
Clown 9- TV Channeling
Modern circuses were established across the world by Freemasons
Secret societies worshiping death and serpents and fallen angels
The ringleader, just as Baron Semedi, wears a tophat and orchestrates the circus
Circuses used to be extremely popular, a psychedelic distraction full of lights and spirals that transports you from the normal world
Creates an environment to open channels with the spirit world and be possessed
Now the channels and clowns are on TV. Circuses are dead man
ALL ALONG THE WATCH HOUR
OKKULT
Oh wow, talk about a hella inspiring site!
🌙 https://okkult.it/
Who are they? They are a gif-centric (uwu)Tumblr based (Ew.mp3) created by Alessandro Scali and Marco Calabrese. From their site:
With the Excerpts project, Okkult Motion Pictures aims to bring to light the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright moving images occulted in Internet archives, through a series of animated gifs. A digital archivalism project for the diffusion of open knowledge.
At the same time, we create our own GIFs experimenting various techniques such as stereoscopic GIFs, cinemagraphs, ASCII GIFs, talking GIFs etc. to show all the potentialities of the GIF as a truly work of art, at the same level of a paint or a sculpture.
There’s some really breathtaking things in here, all pulled from public domain!
Clicking on the I’m feeling resulted in this beaut:
🌙 EXCERPTS >|< Spider Engineers (1956)
A series of GIFs excerpted from Spider Engineers, a documentary showing spiders as engineers of great skills and versatility. This case study presents four typical species: the orb weaver, the bolas spider, the diving spider and the trapdoor spider.
We invite you to watch the full video HERE
This link gets into their art as a business, some fun ideas for static gifs down towards the bottom.
🌙 Art GIFs
Okkult is based on two two pillars. Excerpts, which are the short gifs made from public domain videos, and Experimental gifs.
Under the pseudonym of OKKULT we work with various construction techniques such as stereoscopic GIFs, cinemagraphs, GIFs based on ASCII code or Talking GIFs, the first talking GIFs in the world.
Omg
Still in the context of animated GIFs, we were interested in how to exhibit a GIF and make it salable as a unique work of art, like a painting or a sculpture. Thus were born the Giphoscope and the Gipher, respectively the first analog player and the first animated GIF digital player in the world.
🌙 Holiday GIFt Guide — Giphy’s Picks For the Best Holiday GIFts
GIFs get old school with OKKULT Motion Pictures’ Giphoscope, a handmade analog GIF Player. The Giphoscope is carefully manufactured in Italy and turns a piece of digital art into a beautiful, hand cranked sculpture, reminiscent of childhood flipbooks. It creates an interactive experience between the viewer and the GIF art, perfect for creating a unique GIF display for a gallery, museum, or art collection. Team Giphy is a huge fan of the Giphoscope and how stunningly classy it looks (though we all know what we’d probably end up getting in ours)
Here’s some other posts that stood out!
🌙 EXCERPTS >|< The Skeleton Dance (1929)
🌙 EXCERPTS | CONFORMITY (1970)
🌙 EXCERPTS >|< Betty Boop in Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934)
🌙 A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
🌙 EXCERPTS >|< How the Eye Functions (1941)
🌙 EXCERPTS: Experiments in Motion Graphics (1968)
lolrip
PART OF THE CREW
It’s been fake news all along!
🌙 When Sailors Were Stagehands – Debunking a Bit of Rigging History
Coming up as a stagehand you we’re always told that a vast majority of rigging terminology and skills hailed from sailors making the jump from ship to stage…guess that’s not entirely accurate? The book referenced certainly sounds interesting. Not much is clippable in terms of the argument but there is this old ass stagehand video that I don’t believe ever got played on the show.
⭐
OPENER
INTERMISSION
Hermetic - Drifter Denim Cobra
CLOSER
PRESHOW
Denim Cobra - Sovereigns of the Air
[FREE] Pop Punk Rock Type Beat "Ex"
My Wicked Twin - Tach Needle
Stefan Soltero - the cover up
It Is Sacred Science by Aldous Ichnite
Empath Eyes - Momma Bear
Pixel Party by HoliznaCC0
Survival Guide - Bad Little Seed
Jack Phemister - Nocturne in Black & Gold
American Life (instrumental) by Silence Is Sexy
CityBeach - You Feel Like Home
Matt Bigelow - Man Done Wrong
Sir Seat Sitter - That Duck
SKA - Chivlok (INSTRUMENTAL USO LIBRE)
Daves Not Here - Dogs
Goofball Bucket - The Way You Make Me Feel
Ignite! (Instrumental) by Lemon Knife
BearSnare Records - Haunted
Battle Axe - Dagger Hammer
TAKE THESE, IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE!
