The lizard king

Very few in the music world , got so much attention in so little time as Jim Morrison , a renegade poet , one of the most active in anti corporate slavery and iconic musician , he made a vital impact on rock and roll through his strong poetry , blending it with heavy guitars and drums , his music is described as cross between rock , blues and psychedelic . Morrison studied Film direction from UCLA but did not pursue it as a profession , instead he started writing poetry , Ray manzaric his fellow in UCLA came across his poetry and felt its potential in music , Jim and Ray were the first two founding members of the unnamed band , later denmore and Robby keigar also joined , they used to jam on a roof top which was lent to them by a friend , soon the group got an offer to play gig at whiskey a go go , a renowned bar and restaurant of its time . The manager wanted a name to announce , Jim came up with idea of Doors , from his favorite poem by William Blake "Doors of perception " . the band became popular and were invited to Ed Sullivan show , a very famous television piece that interviewed Beatles and Elvis Presley . The show were to air two of Doors songs , the producers insisted lyrics to be changed as it had some censorship content , but Jim refused to divulge , this made him a sort of rebel image in people of those times . The doors recorded a few of Albums , later that year they got a chance to tour Europe , after returning back to US ,Jim started to show a change in his personality and became a heavy drinker , he came late to the shows and was absent during the recordings , this made the band in chaos and they lost some their of live shows . Morrison tried to make a riot in one of the concerts for which he got arrested on stage , making him the one and only rock star to get arrested live on stage , the incident made him a Rock and Roll icon . 

the doors

With his wild lifestyle and heavy addiction to drugs and alcohol he started getting delusional and lost focus , he became more of a junky , roaming around in search of LSD and other drugs , he very rarely went to jam and was always drunk in the studio , bearing enough of his unprofessional attitude , the band members went their own way and the doors was abandoned for a few years , later doors reunited to record their last album L A women , after recordings and few shows , Jim decided to settle in Paris and pursue his poetry . A few months later Jim was found dead in his bath tub , cause of death was reported , due to drug overdose , but the true cause is still not known as postmortem was never done .

In popular culture Jim Morrison has made his Image as a Rocker poet , who did what he wanted without heeding much to society or cultural pressure , he was a Rebel , singer , songwriter and his wild stage performances made news after news , a groupie favorite , the doors had a bunch of strong followers who were present in every show . Jim's personal life was not much , but he had a girlfriend , and a string of affairs . its sad that he passed away so early at 27 , joining the 27 group of musicians , there came many musicians but never as JIM , alive and live in peoples heart , still his fans flock on his grave every year in Paris , remembering their Rebel icon .

Beautiful quote

Here is a beautiful quote which I came across reading a book from an unknown author, yes the author is unknown because, in early 19th and  late 20^th century controversial writers usually kept their name hidden, publishers would print their name or put a false name, so that no problem arise in the future, the unknown writer would be safe if any trouble incurs, and would also have a full payment. .

The saying goes something like this.

"I am what I am regardless of what anyone does, by using my own personal ability to focus thoughts I can achieve alignment with myself.

I remain regardless of what others do to me and act according to what I am, not react to what they are."

After reading this  I pondered over it for a while , thinking it to be so true , it dashingly says about your self-confidence and how you should not let others get through it .

stigmata

stigmata is a an inflicted injury on a persons body usually in extreme religious condition , the first stigmata was reported on saint Francis of Assisi , who was very active in worldly pleasures but gave up all , after he had a dream of god . st Francis left his trade and family to settle in desert , He fasted for forty days , prayed intensely and suffered from serious self mutilations , with extreme hunger and thirst , visions started coming to him , one day near a river he saw an angel with wings who had same injuries as Jesus , he was amazed and went to his cave to pray , after some time he himself had those injuries , this made him very adhere to faith and the sufferings Jesus had . His way of stigma seems to be in most of the religious conventions of extreme believes , after ST Francis many claimed to have seen angels , and started getting blood all over their hands , palms , head , feet and in severe cases in stomach claiming it to be stigmata . The movie more or less revolves around the same theme , directed by Rupert Wainwright ,starring Patricia arquette as an atheist hair dresser named Frankie , who gets a rosary from his mother as a gift , the rosary belonged to Padre Almeda , who was a renowned priest known for his devotion to god and stigmatic effects all over his body . with his spiritual depth and religious understanding he gets a huge following , After few years father Almeda passes away , the people in his funeral are amazed to see the statue of Virgin Mary bleeding from eyes and hands , one of the spectators is father Andrew Kienan who is a scientist , always in search of miracles and giving a scientific explanation to it ,but this bleeding of statue could not get him to any conclusion , father Kienan takes photos and mail them to Vatican , but the higher priests removes him from the project , saying its of no significance . Meanwhile Frankie starts getting stigmatic effects , one by one all over her body , one day while going in a train she suffers from a severe stigmatic attack , witnessed by many , one of whom was father donning a Jesuit priest , he takes out the CCTV footage of the incident and sends it to Rome , Andrew Kienan is assigned for this new project , he meets Frankie and asks her few questions , the next day he goes to her apartment were he finds her writing something on the wall in Aramaic , an ancient language used in the time of Jesus ,Andrew calls for a translator , the translation says that its gospel of Thomas , one of the first recorded speeches of Jesus , the texts says that you don't need any priest or church to find god , god is every where its just the right connection that you need to make . As soon as Vatican comes to know of this revelation , they demand for the texts and remove Kienan from the project , telling him to join father donning . The high priest from the Vatican takes Frankie to the main church , and performs exorcism , after some effort the spirit of father Almeda speaks through Frankie , about the true gospel and how the Vatican is cheating the whole Christendom by keeping it hidden , he says that the monopoly of church over the believers is the biggest sin the church and clergies are committing . Almeda says that he is determined to break that monopoly by even overcoming death , hearing Almeda the priest tries to strangle Frankie telling that the gospel will never be out no matter what . Meanwhile Andrew comes and stops the priest and pushes him away from Frankie , he drags him out of the room , the room catches fire all around and Father Almeda shouting that he will not leave unless his work is done , Kienan in polite manner tells Almeda that he will let the world know about the true gospel and carry his left over mission till its completed , Almeda leaves Frankie in peace , and she is finally relieved from all the pains . in the end we see Kienan taking out an old document from church compound which is probably the translation of the gospel done by Father Alameda . The movie is well directed by wainwright , with fast paced camera work , graphics simulated scenes , very rock oriented music in background and remarkable acting done by Patricia arquette , its a definitely a watch for Gothic and shady movie goers .

OCTOBER 9

A Martin Scorsese classic

                                               
                           
       The last temptations of Christ, title taken from Novel of Nikos Kazantzakis,  

Of the same name , is one of those movies which examines the human and divine nature of Christ , it shows Christ as human as any one of us but he was selected by god , and so he had to prove that he was not among the common mortal’s , but more of a prophet , with this story the movie explores Jesus struggling with his desires of lust , power , fear , hatred ,depression ,death etc. . Directed perfectly by Martin Scorsese, and haunting music by peter Gabriel, the movie takes you in a journey back in time when there was no technology, much of the work was done manually and people were mostly unread. Jerusalem 2000 years ago was a place of prophets declaring their truth with god , angels regularly visiting them , miracles happening every were , people switching sides and confused Romans sending armies Haywire around the city to suppress it . All this made Jerusalem a hot bed of controversies and still today it remains to be so. 

The movie was shot entirely in morocco, the old cast was replaced with a new one, as there were protests regarding the movies controversial story, and the shooting was canceled, only to be started a few years later, with a new cast.

Barbara Hershey as mary Magdalena 

Director Martin Scorsese wanted to make a movie on Jesus for a very long time, but was unable to get a good script, Barbara Hershey gave him the book by Kazantzakis to read and Scorsese found a movie in it. He and Paul Schrader developed the script from novel and the casting was finalized with William Defoe as Christ, Harvey kettle as Judas Iscariot, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene. Shooting started in October 1987 and ended at 25 December of the same year.

William Defoe  as Christ 

It took about 8 months in post-production and the film was released in august 1988. It screened at Venice international festival were it received mixed response. The right wing Christians organizations boycotted the movie, in Paris a group of left wing supporters attacked a theater and burned it , thirteen were seriously injured and two were in critical condition . This attempted violence made all theaters remove the movie , last temptation was banned severely in Turkey , Mexico , Chile and Argentina , as of 2010 the movie is still not publicly screened in phillipness and Singapore . 

Other than controversies the movie was taken as the most well directed and well shot, music given by peter Gabriel made him a well-known music director , Scorsese got the best director award , Hershey got the nomination of best supporting actress . The movie got into the list of top 100 banned movies of all time, and it still remains a subject of controversy.