easter-eggs

Whose religion is it anyway? Easter edition

Many of us were able to spend yesterday with family and friends, eating ham and potatoes and deviled eggs that mom (or another varied matronly figure) cooked up for the occasion. Some of us attended our local place of Christian worship in honor of the death and resurrection of Jesus (Yeshua), while others refrained.

Certainly, the Christian church (fragmented though it be) is the primary sponsor of this particular day of rest — which makes it so odd that it’s named after what is almost certainly a pre-Christian, Saxon fertility goddess, Ēostre. It’s sort of like if I created my own religion (like Scientology … but we’ll call it “Give-Jim-all-your-money-ism”), and then decided the biggest holy day of the year, the celebration of when … uh … Supergod ate all the alien bad guys 5 billion years ago … anyway, that day should be called “Buddha.”

To be fair, the early church didn’t start off calling the day “Easter.” In fact, it wasn’t even just one day (it still isn’t), but a whole week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, called then (and now, in most of the rest of the world) “Paschal,” which is a Latin derivation of the Hebrew Pesach, or “Passover.” Passover is the traditional Jewish holiday celebrating the time when God killed all the first-born Egyptian sons because the Pharaoh wouldn’t let Moses’ people go. The Jews were “passed over” because they sacrificed goats and smeared the blood on their front doors.

This event is one of the most visceral representations of the idea that the Hebraic God’s people can be saved (or forgiven, or redeemed) by offering up a blood sacrifice that runs throughout the Old Testament. Since the whole notion of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross ties directly into that, the early Christians decided to just steal the whole holiday: word, time of year, ritual, and theme, whole hat from the Jews (again, to be fair, they technically were Jews themselves … as are Christians, arguably, today — just an extremely “reformed” version).

So if the day already had a perfectly good, if plagiarized, name, why give it a totally different one in English? Simply put, when the Roman Empire started to spread Christianity to the Germans and the Bretons in the early hundreds A.D., those cultures already had an early spring celebration called Ēosturmōna? (“Easter month”). This was the big-deal celebration around those parts, and even if people were willing to be bullied into monotheism and whatnot, they weren’t willing to give up their annual “We survived the winter, now let’s get bizzay” traditions. So the name stayed.

But what do we know about Ēostre anyway? Not that much. There was an 8th-century account by a canonized monk named Bede attesting that the holiday of Easter Month was once used to celebrate a goddess, but that’s the oldest bit of writing available on the subject. It could possibly be that no such goddess had ever existed, and the Breton tribes used the word “Easter” to refer to the dawn (from Proto-Indo-European root aus, “to shine,” shared by the word “east”), and, therefore, to spring, since, y’know, dawn starts happening sooner in spring.

On the other hand, the dawn/fertility goddess of the contemporary Old High Germanic tribes was named Ostara, and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that many fertility goddesses, from Roman Venus to Babylonian Ishtar to Sumerian Inanna, all derive from a root goddess named something like “Hausōs,” the personification of dawn. It seems likely that the nearby Northumbrians in England would have taken the dawn goddess along with the other deities intrinsic to these cultures.

In the root mythology, Hausōs was a bringer of light who was punished for aiding humanity (much like Christian Lucifer and Greek Prometheus, but unlike Japanese Amaterasu). Typically, the goddess is imprisoned by a dragon or another god and gets rescued by a powerful hero, either another god or a mortal. This, of course, symbolizes the day/night cycle on Earth.

While we’re on the subject of Easter, a quick note or two about bunnies and eggs. Are they really just fertility symbols co-opted by Christians to represent resurrection? Well … maybe, maybe not. One popular theory about dyed eggs is that people had to hard-boil them to preserve them during Lent, when they weren’t allowed to eat them, and frequently put flowers into the pot to color the eggs to make them pretty. Then, the eggs were a treat on Easter Sunday.

As to the bunny, there was a peculiar belief in medieval times that hares were hermaphroditic and able to conceive without losing their virginity. Thus, the idea of the hare was linked to the virgin birth and showed up in illuminated manuscripts and paintings of Mary and the Christ child. That, however, has nothing in particular to do with death and/or resurrection, so it’s anyone’s guess how the Easter Bunny specifically landed the job.

Hope you all had a pleasant “East Day,” and feel free to consider joining the church of Give-Jim-all-your-moneyism. New members are welcome anytime.

Red carpet photos from the world premiere of X/Y, a new film by Ryan Piers Williams, also starring:

  • America Ferrera
  • Jon Paul Phillips
  • Melonie Diaz
  • Dree Hemingway
  • Alina Puscau
  • Danny Deferrari
  • Adam Rapp
  • Alex Wise
  • Special guest Judith Light
  • and photos of other cast and crew

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ac1-super

Up, up, and away! A history of Superman

“Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!

“Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands. And who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.”

No hero has penetrated the American mainstream more than Superman. Yet despite this status, Superman does not share the same level of financial success in 21st century cinema as his counterpart heroes. Superman is too boring and too powerful, many will argue. He’s the corporate hero, clean-cut and idealistic, fighting for an arbitrary ideal of the American dream: “Truth, justice, and the American way.”

But Superman wasn’t always the stringent representative of American corporate culture. Kal-El of Krypton was once the representative of the underdog, the immigrant, and social justice. The Man of Tomorrow has long been a representative of the ideals of today, changing with the times to act as a reflection of our own perception of society.

Superman, like many of the heroes who followed in his footsteps, was born of tragedy, both on the page and in real life. Brad Meltzer, author of The Book of Lies, theorizes that Superman’s creation is directly linked to his creator’s most tragic moment.

In 1932, a robbery led to the death of Mitchell Siegel. Whether his death was caused by a murder or a heart attack has never been fully clarified, but Meltzer believes this event led Mitchell’s son, Jerry, to dream of a man impervious to bullets and fearless of crime.

Jerry Siegel and his artist friend, Joe Shuster, were two poor Jewish boys from Cleveland. They first conceived of a “Superman” as a bald, telepathic villain, who more closely resembles today’s Lex Luthor than the Man of Steel. This quickly changed, however, and by the time the boys sold the first Superman story to National Periodicals, today’s DC Comics, Superman had become a hero, with traits taken from mythology, science fiction, and the immigrant experience.

Action Comics #1 introduced Superman to the world in 1938. From the beginning, the traits that define the Man of Tomorrow were on display. The world’s first superhero fought off criminals, showcased his fantastic powers, and, as the lowly Clark Kent, fumbled his way with Lois Lane to begin a 75-year love triangle. This strange relationship between Kent, Lane, and Superman has been the focus of many stories across the decades.

The tragic relationship among these characters is representative of an idea that certainly must have existed in Siegel’s mind. As something of a geek, Siegel certainly believed he was more capable than anyone would give him credit for. If only the beautiful girls could see the real Jerry, perhaps they would like him. It’s a story that every kid who’s been called a loser can understand.

It was very much the man of Superman that appealed to fans. Comic readers have always been marginalized by society. The readers of Action Comics were primarily young boys, many of whom had been bullied in their lifetimes and could relate to the character of Clark Kent.

Borrowing from his father’s immigrant experience, Siegel wrote Superman as a visitor from a formerly great society, sent to a new world to live a better life. The planet Krypton was written as the old country, like the Siegels’ home of Lithuania. Upon arriving in the new land, Superman, like the immigrants of the day, changed his name from the Hebrew sounding Kal-El to the very Anglican, WASPish name, Clark Kent.

Superman’s origin story has often led to comparisons with the story of Moses, as both were sent away from their mothers to survive inevitable death and become a hero to the people. In time, the story has also been seen with many Christian connotations, most famously in the 1978 Superman film, with Marlon Brando’s Jor-El sending his only son from the cosmos to save the people of Earth from their own mistakes.

Christian stories were not the original inspiration for the creators’ work. Rather, Siegel and Shuster took inspiration from mythological heroes Hercules and Samson and from pulp heroes Flash Gordon and Doc Savage, while naming their hero’s base of operations, Metropolis, after the classic Fritz Lang movie.

Superman began life as a voice for Siegel and Shuster’s politics. Their hero fought against evil in all its forms, whether on the streets, in boardrooms, or in the nation’s capital. Siegel and Shuster’s Superman, years before becoming the representative of Eisenhower’s America, was the champion of social justice, unafraid to bend some rules to right terrible wrongs. Action Comics #1, in fact, sees Superman take on a corrupt U.S. senator, prompting the official’s confession by terrifying the man with a display of Kryptonian powers.

These powers were, at first, comparatively limited. In this first appearance, it was said only that Superman could leap one-eighth of a mile, hurdle 20-story buildings, outrun a train, with “nothing less than a bursting shell [able to] penetrate his skin.” It would be several more years before the Man of Tomorrow would take to the sky.

Action Comics #1 launched a phenomenon. Soon, everyone was releasing superhero comics. These comics remained popular throughout the War years, appealing to kids and soldiers alike. Symbiotically, the comics were also heavily influenced by World War II. With the existential threat of Nazis and Imperial Japan, the Man of Tomorrow became a patriotic hero to inspire American servicemen fighting overseas.

superman-vs-hitler

Unfortunately for the comics industry, popularity waned for the superhero genre in the years following the fight with the Axis. Superman, along with his eternal counterparts Batman and Wonder Woman, became the anchors of National Periodicals, pulling the company through the industry’s post-World War slump.

Superman did his part by dispersing his supporting cast across numerous titles. Superboy, which told the story of Clark’s teenage superheroic exploits, was launched in 1949. Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane followed suit by starring in their own titles in the 1950s.

The superhero of the mid-century was different from the early Siegel and Shuster hero in more than just attitude. This Superman had been changed across several adaptations in different media to become the hero we recognize today. Some of the hero’s most enduring traits were actually just practical responses to real-world problems.

Kryptonite, debris from Kal-El’s home planet, was introduced in the Adventures of Superman radio program as a way to allow the actor portraying the hero to take some time off. Animators for the Fleicher Studios Superman shorts were the first to make the man fly, believing that a leaping hero looked poor in animation and that flying would simply be easier.

George Reeves brought Superman to life in the televised Adventures of Superman. To avoid the difficult question of how to make a man fly on camera, the producers decided to shoot Reeves either leaving or entering a building through windows to create the illusion of flight.

In 1978, Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve took the Man of Steel to the silver screen. Using new production techniques, the crew was able to simulate flight on film, allowing the movie to adhere more closely to the source material.

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The movie was a huge success, with Reeve stunning audiences in his convincing portrayal of both the confident Superman and the perpetually terrified Kent. This success spawned three sequels and the 2006 homage, Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Brandon Routh.

While movie audiences were enamored by the high-flying hero, comic fans were demanding more realism out of their heroes. In a daring move, DC rebooted its entire multiverse in the crossover comic Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986. A “last” Superman story, based in the original continuity, was offered to his original creator, Siegel, but had to be turned down due to legal disputes over ownership of the character. Instead, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow was written by Alan Moore, and told the story of Superman’s final adventure as a hero.

This “final” story was followed by a new “first” story. Man of Steel, written by John Byrne, retold the origin of the hero. Kent became the primary identity, with Superman being the secret. Krypton was explored further, extraneous elements to the mythos were dropped, and all of the hero’s adventures as Superboy were erased. Clark was now a young man coming into his own, trying to understand his supernatural powers and dedicating his life to helping the people of Earth.

Kent soon returned to television in the hit show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The eponymous couple were the focus of the show, with superheroics as just an added element. The success was short-lived after a jump the shark moment when Lois and Clark decided to get married, killing the sexual tension that made the show popular.

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The launching of Lois and Clark foiled plans to have the couple marry in the comics, and the writers were forced to delay the nuptials. Plans for the following year of comics had to be thrown out, and the writers decided on a bold new plan: kill the unkillable man.

Death of Superman is considered a landmark of comic book history. The book was wildly popular. Collectors bought issues with the expectation of an eventual return on their investment. That will likely never come to pass, of course. This being comic books, Superman remained dead for a mere eight months before returning, with a mullet, to fight the forces of evil yet again.

In the 21st century, the Man of Tomorrow has proven to be the Man of Today, finding success across several media. Smallville, launched on the teen-centric WB Network in 2001, told the tale of young Clark Kent in his decade-long journey to become Superman. The show was a success and humanized the hero in the eyes of fans new and old.

While Kent was finding success on the small screen, Superman was having a tough time on the big one. Superman Returns was financially successful but disappointed the brass at Warner Brothers who expected higher returns. In response, a sequel was aborted in favor of a reboot helmed by Watchmen director Zack Snyder. Man of Steel, released in 2013, again retold the story of Superman’s origin as an alien from a phallic-inspired space society who landed in the middle of Kansas — where human lives are apparently not as important as an explosive action scene.

Criticisms of Man of Steel aside, the movie was again successful at the box office and proved that Superman is still as marketable as ever. Superman will return to the big screen in 2016’s tentatively titled Batman vs. Superman.

Superman may be boring to some, but he sells comics and sells tickets. The Man of Tomorrow has endured across generations because he inspires us to strive for more. Sure, his level of perfection is unattainable, but the humility of this all-powerful alien warrior offers us an example to live by.

Superman may not bring in as much capital as Batman or Iron Man, but the hero from Krypton has always been about more than that. Superman is a reflection of our society. He reminds us that in our darkest hours, we can always look to the sky.

easter-wine

Ham, lamb pair with variety of wines for Easter

Easter dinners present somewhat of a challenge for pairing wines. Like Thanksgiving, the table is full of a wide variety of foods, with different flavors, spices, and textures. At the same time, your guests probably have vastly different tastes and opinions about wine, and you’re likely to hear things like, “I only drink red,” or (gasp), “Is there any White Zinfandel?”

Regardless, I’ve chosen these pairings that are focused on a main dish but will be versatile enough to complement side dishes as well. So whether you’re the one doing the cooking or you’re bringing a bottle as a guest, these should suit the occasion.

The classic baked ham is a mainstay of many Easter dinners. This tradition was likely born out of necessity rather than taste, when cured meats were the only ones that kept through the winter. Ham became an easy choice for the first big feast of spring. I like zippy white wines to pair with ham, like Riesling and Gewürztraminer. These can have a tinge of sweetness to them (even when dry), which really complements the saltiness of the ham, as well as any brown sugar or honey glaze.

It’s not necessary to pair white wines with ham, however. A fruit-forward, lighter-bodied red would work as well, like Pinot Noir. I would probably suggest one from California, where complementing fruit flavors are more prevalent, rather than of France, where you’ll find herbal, earthy, and savory characteristics that might clash with the ham.

The other classic Easter dinner is lamb. Here, you have plenty of options, though all are reds. Bold Cabernet Sauvignons from California will stand up well to the big flavors of the lamb, and the savory characteristics of Malbec from Argentina will complement the lamb’s gamey qualities.

But a nice Bordeaux might be the best pairing, if you want to go all-out. The blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot is powerful, brings fruit and spice flavors that complement the gamey lamb, and the earthy savoriness pairs perfectly with roasted vegetables.

Tempranillo from Spain or Australian Shiraz would also make for delicious lamb pairings.

Lastly, I’ll mention dry rosé. Is there a wine that says, “Spring is finally here!” more than dry rosé? A fresh, clean, acidic rosé, maybe from Provence, bursting with red fruit flavors like strawberry and raspberry, out on the deck in the sunshine, waiting for Easter dinner to be ready … What could be better?

second-screen

DVR, streams let TV-philes fan out on own schedule

Fanning out on the small screen has never been easier. I am taking a course on using film and media in the classroom. This week, I had to prepare a lesson on television to present to the rest of the class. Since I’m a big fan of television, I was excited to take on this assignment. (In fact, I volunteered for this particular topic.) One of the things I focused on in my presentation was how we watch and how much the experience of watching television has changed.

We can now watch TV anytime and anywhere; we are no longer obligated to watch a show at the time it originally airs or on our television. Even if you’re watching live when the show airs, you can pause the show or rewind at any point during the program with a DVR. If you can’t watch the show live, you can record it, watch it the next day OnDemand, download it from iTunes, or stream online through the station’s website or Hulu. You can catch up on entire seasons of shows via Netflix or Amazon. It’s heaven for fan*s like us.

The advent of streaming on Netflix and Amazon has really changed the way a lot of people view television. There are a lot of shows that I would love to watch, but I just don’t have enough time for while they’re on the air. It’s nice to know I can just wait for the season to come on Netflix to catch up.

This new reality even allows us to catch up on entire series after the fact. Now that all of Breaking Bad is available through Netflix, I plan to watch all five seasons this summer. At some point, I will also watch all of Mad Men (ending next year) and Chuck. Binge watching — spending hours watching entire seasons of a series online — has become extremely common now that shows are so accessible.

Availability isn’t the only change to how we view television now. The entire experience of watching TV has changed. Not only do we no longer feel the necessity to watch live, but we also divide our attention between the TV and various other forms of media while we’re watching. Texting, tweeting, updating Facebook — any number of activities now distracts us from the show we’re watching.

One of the most common ways many fans now experience their favorite shows is through social media. In fact, tweeting while watching television has become so prevalent that the Nielson Company announced in October it would begin measuring Twitter TV Ratings in addition to the normal ratings system.

Fans aren’t the only ones taking their viewing to a second screen. Series stars have started to live-tweet episodes and interact with fans while the show is on the air. This is a great way to encourage fans to watch live, so they can participate in the live-tweeting. Some celebrities even take the time to live-tweet shows they are not involved in — William Shatner and Orlando Jones have become particularly popular among the Supernatural fandom for their live-tweets, and Shatner has recently started live-tweeting Star-Crossed, which holds a special place in our hearts.

Lest they be left out of the chance to capitalize on additional exposure, the networks and series producers are getting in on the action. Many shows have official Twitter accounts that will tweet along with the show, and some even have Tumblr accounts where they will “live-blog” new episodes. This includes reblogging fan reactions and fan art, as well as photos and gifs the staff has prepared. It’s typically a good idea to avoid these official accounts if you’re not able to watch the show live, as spoilers in the form of gifs are usually posted in abundance.

Another way television shows encourage fan interaction on Twitter is through suggested #hashtags. This tactic can have positive and negative influences. In the bottom corner of a show, viewers can see a suggested hashtag for fans to tweet. This will help the show to become a trending topic on Twitter. The downside is that, occasionally, these suggested hashtags appear just before the action they refer to, thus warning viewers something is coming. This can lead to fans getting frustrated with the network for using the hashtags. However, I’m willing to bet the networks feel the good outweighs the bad.

The way we view television has also led to changes in who produces the shows we watch — and how. Netflix’s rise in popularity for viewing series led the service to begin funding their own shows, including the critically acclaimed Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. They also revived the sitcom Arrested Development for a fourth season. Netflix has proved itself a contender with the other networks when its shows were recently nominated for several Golden Globes and Emmy awards; House of Cards won three of the nine Emmys for which it was nominated.

Amazon has also begun distributing its own original content and, taking it a step further, has reinvented the pilot process for television content. Amazon has recognized the role consumers play in the success of a series, and therefore has created a viewer-centric pilot process. Instead of the typical method, in which a pilot is created and network executives make the decision whether or not the pilot will go to series, Amazon commissioned pilots for several potential series, then offered them all to be streamed for free on their site. Viewers were then asked to respond to several survey questions about their thoughts on the pilot they watched, in order to determine the interest in the show. Amazon is using the information from these surveys to make the final decision as to which pilots will receive a series order. One of the shows Amazon recently announced would be picked up for a series is The After, an intriguing pilot from The X-Files creator Chris Carter.

The availability and diversity now offered as a result of these advances makes it easier for people to watch much more television, even if they’re not watching when it originally airs. If there are four shows you want to see airing at the same time, you don’t have to worry about choosing among them. You can watch one, record another, then view the rest OnDemand (the Tuesday-at-8 p.m. time slot is a great example of putting this into practice, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Originals, Glee, and NCIS all airing at the same time).

We have come a long way since television was originally invented. We can now watch whenever and wherever we want. It’ll be interesting to see how the way we interact with television continues to evolve in the future.