Self Loathing Is An Ugly Thing

Only a person who truly hates themselves would play in Limp Bizkit and dress like this in order to add insult to self-inflicted injury.

Douchebag Alert! 5/20/09

http://www.romeorose.net/
Yes, he's 100% serious.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/20/martin.vick/index.html

If Michael Vick is allowed to re-enter the NFL, the author of this article should be forced to sleep with Vick's post-game jockstrap in his mouth for the duration of Vick's football career. HOw's that for "sanctimonious crap"?

What kind of music does the Joker listen to?

Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight is the greatest Joker ever. Period. Batman fans have spent endless hours debating this fact and I'm sure it will continue to be hotly debated until the end of the earth.

Some comic book aficionados have slammed their fists down that this version of the Joker was too far removed from the comic books. And it amazes me sometimes that some people who love comics (being a medium of complete fantasy in itself) can be so devoid of imagination when the boundries of what they're used to are stretched. But I enjoy seeing the flaws, the scars, the mental strain and all too human nature of my heroes and villians. And that's what The Dark Knight provides. I'm glad they didn't go the easy route and make just another crappy adaptation of a comic book, cheese and all (Spiderman anyone?). I praise director Christopher Nolan for having the vision, imagination and heart to take Batman from the contrived trappings most comics turned movies possess and giving the character a presence in the real world.

They've also claimed this Joker was far too psychotic to be the "Clown Prince of Crime" he's typically portrayed as. And I agree. And that's EXACTLY why I loved Ledger's take. Batman is one comic that has benefited greatly from the extra gritty realism added to the Bale-era Batman films. The Burton films with Michael Keaton were good and Jack Nicholson made a great Joker for the vibe of that film: comic pages come to life. Those Batman films were darker than any other Batman up til that point, but they still retained that aura of plastic coated storybook fantasy.

The Dark Knight has none of that. The Gotham City of TDK is a real, lived-in place. With real criminals commiting real crimes. It even made you think that a rich guy dressing up as a bat to fight crime was viable. And the psychosis of a criminal like The Joker is disturbingly real. He isn't a whimsical Clown Prince of Crime, he is a domestic terrorist. A being as scarred on the inside as he is on the outside and is out to punish the world for it. What makes this Joker so scary is you could actually imagine him being real. In the Burton films, Gotham City was out "there", way out in comic book land. But this Gotham City is YOUR city.

And that got me thinking about the other real life indiosyncrasies does the Joker have? Boxers or briefs... or is he a commando kinda guy? What does he like on his pizza? Does he hate humid days like I do? That big purple coat can't feel too brisk once the weather warms up.

The musical train of thought got rolling one evening while I was out with my wife at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, VA. We were passing by that haven for rebellious conformity known as Hot Topic and there was a group of about four Emo kids (the dyed black hair, bulemic body frames, ridiculously tight jeans and facial piercings that looked more like acne than individuality) out in front, all in Joker shirts talking about the ways in which they related to him.

And it made me laugh to think he had become such an Emo icon, because you know what? The Joker ain't Emo. An Emo kid wouldn't have the balls to do what the Joker did. An Emo kid wouldn't cut you..he'd just cut himself. And then write a bad poem about it. No, it takes an angry punk/metalhead to execute the total disregard for the conventions of society and take steps to act upon it. THAT'S a guy who would cut you.

The Joker exists in chaos. And I could see the anarchic, pissy and angry tunes of the Sex Pistols (Ledger did base some of his characterizations on Johnny Rotten), Black Flag, Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front and Sick of it All appealing to him. Doses of Slayer and early Corrosion of Conformity would suit him too. I could even see him digging some of Miles Davis' and John Coltrane's more experimental stuff; it can be just as jagged, formless and unpredictable as the Joker's mind. No classical, smooth contemporary jazz or new age music for him...he'd want music that reflected and focused the aggression and disdain in his mind, not somethng to to quell it.

Nope, just can't see Joker being an Emo fan (sorry to disappoint ya, Hot Topic crew). Although, it could spur him to more heinous crimes. Could be he'd hear the likes of Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory and Jimmy Eat World and become so digusted at what spineless, banal crybabies modern society has become it would inspire a holocaust of Biblical proportions. Or better yet, perhaps the Joker would happen upon a Limp Bizkit album and become so enraged at the mediocrity he finds on it that he abandons Gotham to seek out Fred Durst and jam that magic pencil through the top of his stupid red cap. It's too bad Ledger isn't with us anymore...I'd pay double the face value of a movie ticket to see "The Joker..He Killed Them All For The Nookie".

Joker n Johnny