Coco By Lee Unkrich.

"My dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C.S. Lewis." ― C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Fun Fact:

It turns out Genghis Khan, former Khagan of the Mongol Empire, may have done some good for the planet...

He did more to combat global warming than any of us ever will. Between 1162 and 1227, Genghis Khan and his Mongolian armies conquered around 22% of the Earth's surface, killing as many as 40 million people. But he also cut 700 million tons of carbon emissions while doing so. By lowering the population of the world by as much as 10%, he allowed huge portions of cultivated farmland to return to their natural forested state and absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

"Conan Man-Ape" by Frank Frazetta.

Some hard questions (and my opinion on them)…

1) Pineapple on pizza is good? 😒 No, who in the right mind would put pineapple on their pizza? 2) Peanut M&M's are the superior M&M's? I haven't partaken in the M&M's recently. 3) Is Metal Gear Solid 2 the best game of all time? One of them, for sure! 4) Is Death Stranding the greatest game of all time? One of them! Absolutely! Great designs and great actors in it! 5) Could a hot dog count as a sandwich? I don't think so, because it's like a vertical sandwich. 6) Is cereal a soup? The way some people make it? Yes! Me, I don't use milk in my cereal. 7) Smoking is never cool? It only LOOKS cool, but it's not cool for the biology.

Mythic stories fall into several categories. There are sagas, epics, and fantasy stories called "märchen." These stories depend on something difficult for us to conceive these days: Simplicity or the "Logic of the Fairy Tale." In other words: things are just what they are, because that’s just the way they are.

These stories frequently examine or teach a moral lesson, exalting it or exposing a particular flaw. If the story is a parable or doctrinal, one of its goals is to delineate the characters as "types" in order to illustrate this basic lesson, characters which make the story whole and who are also contained by it. The lives of these "types" can and must have links with the past and the future but their role ends with the story.

In a magic story, the flow is more important than the logic. Man invented monsters to explain the entire universe (Norse and Greek mythology, for example). Once man began to live in an organized way, with a "social contract," an abyss was opened up between his instincts and his thoughts, and monsters started to REPRESENT another universe altogether: man's inner universe. The pagan prefigures the social and offers us a glimpse of the deepest reaches of man's soul, articulating a primordial, savage universe, populated by elves, fauns, ogres, faeries, trolls, and demons.

It's hard to believe it, but Hades (the Greek god of the Underworld) had 3 encounters with his nephew Heracles (Hercules) and was left humiliated. Each. Time.

The most well-known encounter is when Heracles travelled to the Underworld to capture the three-headed hound Cerberus for his 12th and final labor. Hades told his nephew that he could only take Cerberus if he could subdue him without using any weapons. But clever Heracles used the impenetrable Nemean Lion skin he wore as a makeshift muzzle and wrestled Cerberus until he was worn out.

The second time, Hades came to the surface to collect the soul of Queen Alcestis, who agreed to die in place of her husband King Admetus. But Heracles didn't like the idea of the happy couple's love being cut short and wrestled Hades into submission, just like he did his dog.

The third instance is the strangest though. When Heracles attacks the city of Pylos after its king refuses to purify him of his sins, Hades arrives to either collect the dead from the battlefield or defend the city (depending on the version). Either way, when Heracles sees his uncle, he shoots him in the shoulder with an arrow and Hades retreats to Olympus where Apollo heals his wound.

Haunted Britain: A Guide to Supernatural Sites frequented by Ghosts, Witches, Poltergeists and other Mysterious Beings by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe.

The Rock by Michael Bay.

A great action movie!! Perfect confection...

For some, this is the one good movie Michael Bay ever gave us (I disagree. I like this film and the first three Transformers movies).

The Man Who Laughs (1928) by Paul Leni.

One of the most iconic and influential silent films of all time (along with Metropolis, Nosferatu, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

A magnificent film and one of my favorites.

Highly recommend checking it out.

And, yes, Conrad Veidt's interpretation (and Jack Pierce's make-up) inspired The Joker.