[UA] Re: UA Digest, Vol 5, Issue 153

Thu May 3 11:46:31 PDT 2007

Elvis. Improbable magic tricks? Shazam! The King was (is?) an avid Captain
Marvel Jr. fan.

Here it is from the mouth of wikipedia>

The musician Elvis Presley <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley> was
a big fan of Captain Marvel, Jr., and styled his trademark
haircut<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haircut>after that of the comic
book character. In addition, some of Elvis' stage
outfits (with a half-cape similar to those worn by the Marvels) and his TCB
logo (with a Marvel-esque lightning bolt insignia) also show inspiration
from Captain Marvel,
Jr.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel,_Jr.#_note-0>Elvis'
childhood collection of Captain Marvel Jr. comic books still sits in
the attic of Graceland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graceland>.

In reference to Elvis' admiration for the character, Captain Marvel, Jr. has
often been shown as either a fan of Elvis or having been inspired by Elvis.
In *Teen Titans* vol. 3, #23, Captain Marvel Jr. is revealed to be a huge
fan of Elvis Presley <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley>. The
narrator (Superboy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superboy_%28Kon-El%29>)
states that "He's okay, just a little too into the retro thing for my
tastes. Loves all that rockabilly
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockabilly>crap. Flame shirts and hot
dice belt buckles". Captain Marvel Jr. himself
quotes Elvis (whom he refers to as "the greatest modern-day philosopher if
you ask me") as a role-model: "Do what's right for you as long as you don't
hurt no one."

On 5/3/07, ua-request at lists.unknown-armies.com <
ua-request at lists.unknown-armies.com> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Juan Peron (Bira)
>    2. Re: Juan Peron (Russell Rayburn)
>    3. Re: Juan Peron (Chris Cooper)
>    4. The Easterbunny (graver)
>    5. Re: The Easterbunny (Russell Rayburn)
>    6. Re: The Easterbunny (Shawn Isenhart)
>    7. Re: The Easterbunny (Unknown VariableX)
>    8. Re: The Easterbunny (graver)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 08:17:29 -0300
> From: Bira <u.alberton at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] Juan Peron
> To: "The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List"
>         <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <d391a7990705030417o33b478c3ob5575f7676184aed at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 5/2/07, Russell Rayburn <rusrayburn at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Likely?  We're talking about either making a wind-up robot killing
> > machine or impersonating a dead politician for magickal power.
>
> When you think of say, Elvis, which of the first two improbable
> magical tricks comes to your mind first? :).
>
> --
> Bira
> http://compexplicita.blogspot.com
> http://sinfoniaferida.blogspot.com
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 09:32:32 -0400
> From: "Russell Rayburn" <rusrayburn at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] Juan Peron
> To: "The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List"
>         <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <e878271a0705030632p28ad36f5l8be918c063eb8ea2 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 5/3/07, Bira <u.alberton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 5/2/07, Russell Rayburn <rusrayburn at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Likely?  We're talking about either making a wind-up robot killing
> > > machine or impersonating a dead politician for magickal power.
> >
> > When you think of say, Elvis, which of the first two improbable
> > magical tricks comes to your mind first? :).
> >
>
> Gotta say; I think of Elvis, I think of a rotting corpse in spandex.
>
> That, or an old guy in a rest home, who's best friend is a black guy
> who claims to be JFK, fighting off an egyptian god.
>
> Once we've accepted the fantastic, it's just a matter of taste.
>
> --
> It takes a village to raise a child,
> but just a van and a few puppies to catch one.
>
> http://blog.myspace.com/cthuloidgunnut
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 06:35:28 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Chris Cooper <insectking at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] Juan Peron
> To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID: <398697.36920.qm at web55303.mail.re4.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
> --- Russell Rayburn <rusrayburn at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Gotta say; I think of Elvis, I think of a rotting
> > corpse in spandex.
> >
> > That, or an old guy in a rest home, who's best
> > friend is a black guy
> > who claims to be JFK, fighting off an egyptian god.
>
> Ray-Joe Pogue dancing wildly and dangerously on the
> wall of Hoover Dam.
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 06:53:08 -0700 (PDT)
> From: graver <graver_13x at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [UA] The Easterbunny
> To: ua at lists.unknown-armies.com
> Message-ID: <892500.98587.qm at web31313.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hey all,
>
> I have a question in regards to the fluffy white bunny of easter.  While I
> know what the easter used to symbolize but I'm wondering if it's changed in
> modern times.  After all, industrialized nations are no longer bound to the
> land and the cycle of seasons nor do we have an intense need to create large
> families to increase the chances of enough of the children born making it to
> adulthood to carry us forward.  We might know the meanings of the symbols of
> easter intellectually, but are we actually connected to the symbols any
> longer or do they have different meanings for us now?
>
> I have come up with several different ideas as to what the easterbunny and
> easter have come to mean to a post modern sociaty and their roles in the
> present day global unconsciousness, but I'm only one person with my own
> perspective (which can sometimes be a bit strange, flawed, and a few steps
> from the norm) and was needing some others insights into this.  I decided I
> could either take a clipboard and hit the streets or take the easy way out
> and ask you guys... I chose the lazy option.
>
> So, what do you guys think the easterbunny and easter symbolize in a
> post-modern industrialized society?
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
> Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 10:10:12 -0400
> From: "Russell Rayburn" <rusrayburn at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] The Easterbunny
> To: "The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List"
>         <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <e878271a0705030710w30c49aaat10db958a9b6c9f6c at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 5/3/07, graver <graver_13x at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > So, what do you guys think the easterbunny and easter symbolize in a
> > post-modern industrialized society?
> >
>
> Easter Bunny in his off time:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPb0po2jzfg
>
> More seriously, the symbolism seems to represent comercialism to many
> people... as the symbology of a rabbit laying eggs for zombie jebus
> seems lost, it's presumed corporations use the symbology for candy
> sales.
>
>
> --
> It takes a village to raise a child,
> but just a van and a few puppies to catch one.
>
> http://blog.myspace.com/cthuloidgunnut
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 09:42:44 -0500
> From: Shawn Isenhart <isen0011 at umn.edu>
> Subject: Re: [UA] The Easterbunny
> To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID: <4639F4E4.1050906 at umn.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> graver wrote:
> > So, what do you guys think the easterbunny and easter symbolize in a
> > post-modern industrialized society?
>
> The secular side of a religious holiday.  The Easter version of Santa
> Claus.  What kids can relate to on Easter - baby Jesus is easy to
> understand, because everyone likes babies, but no-longer-dead Jesus is
> just weird.
>
> Russell's comment about the Easter Bunny as shill for corporations makes
> sense too - I don't see the Easter Bunny except when someone is trying
> to sell something.  Santa Claus you see in malls (where kids are asking
> for stuff), but Easter Bunny just gives you eggs no matter what.
>
> That, and sometimes I think of Bun Bun from Sluggy Freelance.
>
> --
> Shawn Isenhart
> University of Minnesota
> Office of Information Technology
> WBOB 229
> 612-624-7739
> isen0011 at umn.edu
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 10:01:06 -0500
> From: "Unknown VariableX" <unknown_variablex at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] The Easterbunny
> To: ua at lists.unknown-armies.com
> Message-ID: <BAY134-F29B87D256F230F240F66D86410 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> I think the symbolic stuff has no logical connection whatsoever, just like
> Christmas. Christianity couldn't out-and-out beat the original "pagan"
> religion with a holiday involving evergreen trees, so it had to assimilate
> the tradition into itself. Easter must be a case of a similar thing
> happening  with two different spring-rebirth holidays, one dealing with
> the
> eggs (symbols of growth and rebirth) and another with the rabbit (symbols
> of
> reproduction and the actions related to it on a massive scale).
>
> I think part of the stuff that eventually drove me to leave religion to
> the
> rest of my family and become a Man of (Mad) Science is the fact that
> Christianity couldn't come up with any decent holidays on its own. To
> spread
> and get more followers, it had to steal holidays from pre-existing
> religions. Or to put it better, when it spread into new areas where these
> festivals were key, it could not compete on the strength of its core
> message
> alone and had to make accomodations. Of course, that's probably a good
> thing, because religions that don't make accomodations are either (A)
> fundamentalist nuts who get easily angry for no good reason, or (B) cults
> who are in it for the money and the cyanide kool-aid. Compared to those
> two,
> mainstream religion doesn't look nearly as bad.
>
> But they still remind me a little of the tiny cleaner shrimp that clean up
> the larger sea creatures... and a lot of the cuckoo that leaves its own
> eggs
> in the nests of other birds. So I stay away from them. YMMV.
>
> -Variable (Your Messiah May Vary)
>
> ***
> "What is this? Did the quadratic formula explode?"
> -Strong Bad
> ***
>
>
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: "Russell Rayburn" <rusrayburn at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com
> >
> To: "The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List" <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] The Easterbunny
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 10:10:12 -0400
>
> On 5/3/07, graver <graver_13x at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >So, what do you guys think the easterbunny and easter symbolize in a
> >post-modern industrialized society?
> >
>
> Easter Bunny in his off time:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPb0po2jzfg
>
> More seriously, the symbolism seems to represent comercialism to many
> people... as the symbology of a rabbit laying eggs for zombie jebus
> seems lost, it's presumed corporations use the symbology for candy
> sales.
>
>
> --
> It takes a village to raise a child,
> but just a van and a few puppies to catch one.
>
> http://blog.myspace.com/cthuloidgunnut
> _______________________________________________
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> UA at lists.unknown-armies.com
> http://lists.unknown-armies.com/mailman/listinfo/ua
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Exercise your brain! Try Flexicon.
>
> http://games.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmemailtaglineapril07
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 08:40:36 -0700 (PDT)
> From: graver <graver_13x at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [UA] The Easterbunny
> To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List <ua at lists.unknown-armies.com>
> Message-ID: <319231.65703.qm at web31303.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Russell, thanks for the youtube link, that was hilarious!  And is it bad
> that I think my players (or one of them at least) would be able to relate to
> the various victims in that flick XD
>
> As symbology goes, nice thinking on the bunny... but what about the eggs,
> the hiding of them, the plastic vs colored eggs, and the candy?  Ya, I'm
> just fishing for more ;)
>
> VariableX, you are dead right in your statement that the bunny was
> barrowed from fertility rites and celebrations of more "pagan" people that
> were converted over to Christianity.  As you pointed out, most all Christian
> holidays are barrowed in this manner, but to be fair to Christianity, this
> is true of all religions, and to be fair to all religions, this is also true
> of most all cultures.  It's just simple cultural exchange and has happened
> for as long as there have been people of differing ideas and mind sets.
>
> When two such peoples meet up, no matter the outcome, whether bloody or
> harmonious, ideas and concepts will be exchanged and those gaining the new
> ideas will warp them a bit to own them and make them a part of their
> paradigm.  No religion or culture grew out of nor exists in a vacuum.  They
> were birthed and shaped by what had come before and continue to be shaped by
> what is.
>
> How ever, I was wanting to know what the easterbunny means to
> industrialized nations today, 2007, not what it used to mean.  We are a far
> different people now then the ones that first imagined him.  He has mutated
> and changed over time, from a fertility symbol to an odd seemingly tacked on
> after thought of a take on the rebirth archetype in the mythology of a
> predominant chunk of western religions.  As time goes by, more and more
> people in the industrialized nations put less stock in the myth cycles of
> their religion... at least in comparisons to 50 years ago.  That being said,
> I was wondering what he is today and what he is to most people today.
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
> Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
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>
> End of UA Digest, Vol 5, Issue 153
> **********************************
>

-- 
I have no choice but to dismiss you. It breaks my heart, but I can't expose
my guests to your firearms. It may be wrong of them, but they value their
lives.
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