The Faustian Administration: A Look into Trump's First Month

It's already over a month (over half way into the first 100 days) into Donald Trump's first administration. I already know I owe you guys lots of articles, reviews and more but I wanted to get this out of the way to ensure my own promises of writing more for this year. I am already disturbed by what has happened and what consequences we will reap from this. But first, let me tell you a story.

     In Medeval Germany, around the begining of the Renaissance for the German States, a renaissance man, learned in physics, law, alchemy, and medicine had lived. He was bored and searched for new purpose in his growing age. Learning all that could be, He decided to summon the angels and God. But they did not answer his call. Then his assistant, a man named Wagner, told him, "Good Doctor, I implore you to just be satisfied. God's grace shall come to the patient." 

The Doctor was displeased with his response. Instead, he gathered a small audience and told them he would summon the Devil. Instead, another demon came forth to them. Clad in black and red, he bowed to the Doctor and said, "I am Mephistopheles. Why have you summoned me?" 

"I wish for more." 

 "More? Not anything specific? Just more?" "Yes" 

 "Very Well. I shall give you more. 24 years of pure excess and whatever you desire. Of course, a paymennt so large, requires the largest fee. I wish for your soul."

The many people imploded the Doctor to refuse but he instantly agreed. He shook Mephistopheles' hand and signed a contract with his own blood. Horrified, the audience left but The Doctor was certain he would be ok. And for good measure, with a wave of his hand, Mephistopheles made the Doctor younger at the prime of his youth. "Doctor Faustus, go and enjoy yourself."

He indulged in everything. Hedonistic desires for sex, food, drunkenness. New insight and intellectual stimulation that was forbidden or had no limit on what could be learned. He had access to kings, emperors and the Pope to get new power and prestige. 

As the time went on, he finally felt satisfaction. However, Mephistopheles saw he could no longer feel pleasures from going so extreme and 24 years didn't pass. But he took Faustus' soul. He begged the demon not to take it but it was too late. After he took his soul, Mephistopheles summoned the lesser demons to drag Doctor Faustus to hell. 

The End

So some of you might know of The Faustian Bargain. If you're a fan of The Little Mermaid or Little Shop of Horrors, you've seen Howard Ashman have this as a theme of his stories. 

(Audrey 2 serenades Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors)

Whether be Audrey 2 promising you everything with the only price being a fresh human meal or Ursula giving you legs to possibly kiss the boy, the Faustian Contract has some well known steps, We sell our soul for something but the price is more greater than we realized, hurting us in the process. And often, our salesman tries to hurt or manipulate the terms to ensure the Piper is paid. Little Shop has the whole cast get eaten and world domination comes rapidly. Ariel at least gets a better fate since her father sacrificed his kingdom and power for his daughter. Ariel fights back to free her father and her love interest kills Ursula.

We in the real world aren't so lucky. We had an election and the Democrats lost. Not majorly, (The House is a few votes away from denying legislation. The Filibuster still exists.) but it was a wound licking trial. Trump has gotten every person he wanted for his Cabinet and he signs more executive orders than the media can fully keep up with. But this is the begining of Trump Faustian Bargain.

When we, the voters, voted Trump in, he sold us on his Make America Great Again manifesto once again. Blaming the Biden administration for a slow recovery from the Pandemic, Trump promised to put it in full gear and put the pedal to the medal. Grocery prices dropping on day 1, an immediate end to the Russia Ukraine war, more respect on the international level, and more money to burn than what we know what to do with it. Sounds good right? Right?

More like it was too good to be true. Let's look at the facts and situations. There is an Instagram channel now dedicated to tracking down egg prices until it drops to $1.99 for a dozen eggs. While I have kept asking them, they have not responded to where these prices are, understandable due to privacy and safety. Have a look on the prices around him. 

Ukraine and Russia talks seems to be at a standstill as of March 9th, 2025. Over a week ago, we had this friendly talk with Zelensky. Now we aren't financially backing him while Trump demands half the entire minerals of Ukraine. Zelensky has tried to say no until he has had a true physical commitment to the defense and survival of Ukraine. Zelesnky knows he's dealing with Mephisto and knows he wants to ensure the least harm to himself and others for the future. This is the issue of transactional leadership. Its good on a short term but long term consequences will always be behind until it shows up a year or two down the line. This video by Belle of the Ranch helps explain her issues but comes off in an informative and direct way for non-political people to understand. 

I don't think I need to showcase our broken Alliances with Europe, Canada, and Mexico but lets do it. Some are looking to our enemy China, a major geopolitical ally to Russia, for economic support. Our soft power of defending USAID will come at the cost of not a humanitarian crisis but of a vacuum needing to be settled. China has the funds and resources to help other countries at their own faustian cost. Maybe Trump learned the Art of the Deal from the Chinese government. Make a deal to where you win but they lose...dramatically. 

The tarriffs are an utter disaster and Trump plays with our economy and lives like he stole Andy's Toys from Toy Story. He plays stupid economic games and makes us pay the stupid prices. Canada openly had taken Tennessee Liquor off the shelves and did retaliatory tariffs. Mexico did the same. With friends like us in the US, who needs enemies?

(Statue of Mephistopheles and Margaretta from Goethe's adaptation of Faust. Artist unknown)

So what was all this for? It feels like another article I need to write but we have job losses due to many Federal Agents losing work and now must find new work, egg prices still aren't down and it's possible the corporations responsible might have caused these prices to be even worse, these tarriff games will make us an international pariah, what's next for us? 

We got a Secretary of Education deleting her department and claiming to help kids when she allows boys to be raped and molested by a former announcer. (Linda McMahon had indirect ties to The Ring Boys Scandal and is being sued along with her husband Vince). Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel don't seem to be interesting in stopping government spying by NSA and encourage it. RFK is ignoring the Measels and thanks to 2 deaths of unvaccinated children, he now discusses it. The list keeps going on. 

But the biggest surprise to all is that we didn't just sign a Faustian Bargain. Trump did too. With one Elon Musk. Musk paid for Trump's campaign and won big. Now he controls the government to where he might as well be President. Maybe King. But even that came at a price for Musk.

Right now protests in America and Europe are hurting Musk's reputation. His stocks are going down, (not fast enough for me) various Tesla dealerships are being burned and vandalized. Unfortunately Tesla Car owners are being caught in the crossfire though I would advise them to buy another electric car make and model to avoid radicals painting "Nazi Asshole" on their property. (Save it for Musk guys!) And of course, speaking of Nazi, his godforsaken salute where people claim he made an "autistic salute." God as an autistic man, it insults me so hard. This kind of talk comes from illiterate and uneducated philistines who never met autistic people or have infantilized us all our lives. Had to rant to piss on those type.

However, we shouldn't lose all hope. Protesting against Trump is a start! Nagging our representatives, regardless of their politics, will help. Espeically Hakeem Jefferies and Chuck Schumer. They need to go to the side and let real fighters in. We need to focus on community organizing through the philosophy of communitarianism. Trump's world is slowly crumbling. People are starting to realize Trump is only in this for himself as Mephistopheles was. But we got a lot of things to do. It's quite overwhelming. And since this article might be too long. I'll send some suggestions later for another article on what you can do. Remember my friends, United we Stand, Divided we Fall!

My Resolutions (2025) cause Why Not

So my dad, thank you dad, decided to push me a little with New Years Resolutions. Granted, I don't believe in them (and the statistics on how we fail our resolutions) but lets see how i succeed or fail them. 

1) Lose Body fat. Specifically, losing 30lbs of body Fat. Or just in general, lose weight altogether. 

2) Write and Publish 12 blog posts and write more of my stories for my writings. I'm planning to do this again and in October, I had started to write some more after meeting the local Writer's Guild.

3) Pay off some more credit cards. Ugh financial responsibility. I know I need to but its hard and the budgeting. But I got a secret weapon. My boyfriend. 

4) Also, I'm gonna try to save my funds with every paycheck. $50 to $150 so I got funds for Car repairs, post vacation money, and more. 

5) I have some major cell phone issues and I need to unplug. Luckily I have started to get away from it by putting my phone far away from me before going to bed. Then after I start my work week, it's getting it away from me or turning it off before I go to the gym on weekdays when I'm in-between by work breaks.

Yeah. I think that's it. But they're not resolutions! They're guidelines. But I it's always important to have a goal. Let's amuse ourselves shall we?

The Festivus Airing of Grievances: 2024

Well this year became even more unhinged at the end. I definitely have problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it once again. Let's start the most obvious and go down.

1. To Vice President Donald Trump for further eroding us into an oligarchy of the rich while we're poor. A schizophrenic syphilitic freak show of terrible proportions. And can you please choose one NORMAL person for your cabinet and other executive positions! You have questionable moles for other countries (Tulsi Gabbard), sex pests and abusers (RFK Jr. Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz) people who tolerated child sex abuse (Linda McMahon), the mentally insane (Kash Patel) or nepotism (Charles Kushner). Just choose someone who is the best to give the illusion you have things under control!!!!!

2. Now I'm coming for you President Elon Musk and your royal Squire Vivek Ramaswamy. You're both a word that would get me in trouble with so many people! And you both are really missing me off. If you wanna start some government efficiency, why don't you actually start with destroying all subsidies to corporations. I don't want to use my tax money to fund your Space X failures and your Twitter dumpster Fire Musk. You're a shit father! And you have too much power over us. We're not your peasants! We're people and we should strike more against you! Vive, as much as I wanna say more against you, I got nothing other than you come off as a token minority yes man more so than Uncle Ruckus (no relation) from "The Boondocks." You kinda deserve being verbally beaten down by racist Ann Coulter on your podcast. And that's a fate I normally don't wish on people to suffer the wrath of one of the Wicked Bitches of the Right Wing.

3. Now for the people! You suck, you mainly voted for Trump, imo, for trolling reasons! Not because you cared for the policies, you wanted a sensation. You wanted to own the libs. Don't expect sympathy from me. You voted against a possible add on to welfare a lot more of you need than you realize. So you guys better hope your churches are charitable enough to give you something cause I hope local left leaning charities and organizations will not. I know some of you have regret with the fucking around and finding out about things but tariffs don't work the way you think!!!! Why don't you start watching this video by Legal Eagle and this other one by attorney Leeja Miller to get a grasp of what tariffs will actually do. I can surely tell you eggs and gas won't be cheaper under tariffs! I doubt a lot of you guys actually do research which is even more painful. 

4. Let's talk about the "Bros." Specifically Podcast Bros. Joe Rogan, Jake and Logan Paul, Valuetainment/PDB, Lex Fridman, Theo Von, Flagrant, and Nelk to name a few! More specifically, These sucker's don't care for you! They're either in trouble with the law (The Paul Brothers specifically Logan), made a pyramid scheme organization (Valuetainment/Patrick B. David), or even are bought by other countries whether they admit it or not (Joe Rogan). To the boys and men listening to them, they're not your father, they never will be! Your need male role models doesn't mean you latch on to the first who speaks his mind. You guys didn't think about that when Jordan Peterson opened his dumb mouth! This is parasocial insanity! Wake up or you deserve a bitch slap!

5. Now to our LGBT Conservatives or more LGB Conservatives since the biological essentialists of Blaire White, Buck Angel, Scott Newgent and someone called The Offensive Tranny (I apologize for this but it's his actual username.) First I wanna ask these 4 when it comes to attacking other trans people, why are they almost always those who might have more fringe beliefs as trans people or have different aesthetics than the general public. Or more overweight. These 4, at the least, just come off as vindictive bullies and pick mes! I hope instead they join in a jail cell with Nick Fuentes, Pat Buchanan, Steve Bannon, Steven Crowder (it's always the damn Steves and stevens), VP Donny, and Elon Musk. I'm sure you fools could come to a logical and rational solution of how trans folks like you should exist while everyone else is your road to step on. And let's attack Gays against Groomers and The LGB Alliances. Both have been funded by anti-gay & trans organizations like The Heritage Foundation and have been seen in Conservative circles to try to make fake allies. Gays against Groomers couldnt even denounced one of their own gays, ex Gay Milo Yianopolous. He had his own sex abuse issues and God knows he was a Groomer that they were silent on, the bastards. 

6. Now for some Rainbow Capitalism with Disney. Iger, just step down and retire. You gave us Bob Chapek to replace you and thank god the board and the public wanted him out. Now step down. You forget that we, the gays helped create modern disney as much as your acquisitions. Howard Ashman, Andreas Deja made Modern Disney and both were gay men. One made The Disney Renaissance musical with his work on Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast. Andreas helps further show our love for Queer Coded Villains with Gaston, Scar, and Jafar. Maybe instead of you shutting down creatives at Disney Animation TV and Pixar with now allowing creative expressions with toning down various characters queerness, maybe let the animators and writers tell their stories and sit the fuck down! I'm sure we in the gay community can run Disney better with more theme park ideas, improving rushed movie ideas and more. 

7. Universal Studios, don't think I forgot about you too! You do just as if not worse than Disney on gay representation but lets talk about your bullshit with helping pay anti-gay politicians to promote their policies while you've done Gay Pride events at Hollywood! Go fuck yourself with that. You wanna be allies? How bout donating to queer organizations, respecting trans rights, saying gay and giving your employees in Florida the right to unionize. Yup folks, you think Disney is bad because Uncle Walt began Disney's union busting? Universal has successfully refused unions by firing anyone who discusses it. I highly suggest boycotting any movies even if we love them like Wicked part 2. I'm sorry Cynthia. I'm here for ya but Universal needs to do better. 

8. Now for a specific person. Or two. WholeWheatPete and D-Piddy. Fuck you two! I wish I had 1000 feet so I can put half in each of your asses. And kick you down freaking Hollywood Blvd. Pete has been on my shit list for being very improper, rude and a jerk at cons. Defacing and breaking property at convention hotels, assaulting people, harassing women, the list goes on. With the fake news of his arrest at Anime Weekend Atlanta,  people were celebrating but he denied anything happened. Its probably true he wasn't but it's possible he was banned from AWA. Maybe seeing how we all celebrated was a lesson to him on how much we all hate him and we will all come together to kick his ass out of the cosplay community. Now for Piddy. This guy was clever for his masked blackface portrayal of PDiddy and WWPete was Justin Beiber. Now he's playing off how he was once sorry but not anymore. If I was there, he'd be fucking sorry for trying this shit. The rainbow cosplay mafia is gonna go after his ass!

9. Now for Putin and his supports! Go back to Russia bastards. You deserve Russia and it's messed up economy because warfare is all they care for until they win a Trump Deal. It's  as Christian in performance as abortion rates are even higher than America if you looked at statistics. But we're Americans! Were supposed to be illiterate. Obviously Vladimir, you're a bastard who just wants to relive in Communists Russia's old days and your people want this to stop, your soldiers want this to stop, Ukraine, Zelensky, The world wants this to stop. You escalated this and the people in the west who supported you deserve to freeze their asses off til they're Popsicles. 

10. Now for War Criminal #2. Benjamin Netenyahu. Well it's hard to put everything in a small rant but let's start with, this history of Grievances needs to stop! This is just some religious war of insanity just to make sure that Israel is Jewish and Christian only. You have the money and weapons to specifically target the Hamas terrorists but you have successfully used Palestinians as cannon fodder for your war. And Hamas has already used that, as to be expected, as an excuse that you are genocidal because you are. And all the attacks on other countries are insane as Americans and other world powers will be stuck in a mess you made worse when we could've just attacked their leaders and attacked their banks.

11. Leading to this, let's talk about Anti-Semitism crocodile tears. Norman Finklestein, a Jewish American academic, has been known for attacking Zionism. I am an anti-Zionist but stupidly, our country and others keep equating anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism. So jews who criticize Israel's government for war crimes make them anti-semites? So many jews would be classified as this. Maybe they're open to admit that it's wrong. They're not "bad jews" as you want to scapegoat and gaslight them. If you wanna complain about Antisemitism, don't go to the campuses in America. Go to X. Elon had openly supported the free speech of Nick Fuentes, Dr. Anastasia Loupis, and Jackson Hickle. All have actually been openly antisemitic. But they're too blind to see the real monsters growing not from the public activism for human rights and anti-war peace talks but social media echo chambers. 

12. Now for a list of people who deserve my hate. Ben Shapiro: Shilling to a CEO ok with denying our fellow Americans Health insurance. Matt Walsh: a creepy man who can't stop thinking about trans women Glinner/Graham Linehan: Anti-trans activist who openly harassed and attacked a trans kid. Yes, he assaulted a kid! Doesn't matter what their gender was, this is unacceptable! Marjorie Taylor Green: a Bimbo Blonde Beta Bitch who the Conservatives need to shut the hell up. All she does is talk. Now that Matt Gaetz is outed as sex creep with all kinds of crimes, let's make sure she opens that list of those who did sex crimes. But she won't because she's a cowardly twatwaffle who's all bark than bite. Lauren Boebert: wannabe MTG who needs to fix her family before she attacks others families

13. Now for J.K. Rowling and her supporters. You people need to read something other than potter! You got Ursula K. LeGuin, Terry Pratchet, Octavia Butler, various manga authors, Larry Kramer, and multiple people to get better queer and Fantasy works. She doesn't care for gay people or as she loves to exclaim, trans people. J.K., your tragedy isn't an excuse for being a monster. You shouldn't have been beaten and abused by your ex but that was a cis man! And sex abusers, regardless of gender, will continue abuse regardless of a sign saying, "Girls only!" Trans people aren't your enemy J.K. but you working with all the conservative organizations and anti trans lesbians and feminists prove how intellectually and empathetically dead you are. 

14. Now for The Detransition Movement. Not the de-transitioners who stopped and despite what the media tells you, actually support trans people and their livelihoods. I'm talking of Chloe Cole and her Heathers/Plastics group. At first, she wants to stop kids from transitioning but her support for Trump and open hostility for anything trans has made her the poster child of the anti-trans movement with no sympathy for trans people, no reforms for medical procedures and more. It's all or nothing. Well, I demand Chole Cole actually tell trans and gay people in our faces, why we don't matter. 

15. Now for Left wing Online activists. Specifically, I mean those like The Kavernacle, Actually Jake and more. I'm sorry but you bastards didn't do much to help stop our issues from happening with anti-fascism. At least actually Jake had debated some but even debates go so far. We need more grassroots stuff. I realized that just being online doesn't do shit and telling people, I told you so, doesn't make you the noble shit like you think you are. It makes you just as willing to help make our lives miserable. Trust me. telling conservatives I told you so, is gonna make them double down on Trump. I know Kavernacles’ a Brit, but he has the choice of voting Lib Dem, the Green Party of Wales and England and more of the recent progressive coalition against the do nothing Labour party. That's real activism and to support those parties and showcase why the labour voters need better political action from people. I'm sorry but Politics isn't an idealistic fantasy. It's Pragmatic compromise we all don't like. But we can have control of the damage with assistance. In the US, I want to start demanding Progressive candidates fight against incumbents right now. We need Rank choice voting, we need 3rd party representation at the local level more than ever. 

16. Finally, Conservative artists and anti-woke assholes. Anna the Star Whores Girl, Malone Mac the butter faced bitch, Will Jordan the Alcoholic Asshat, Ethan van Sciver, Grummz, John del Arozz, YoungRippa, John Trent, Nerdrotic the meth head, Christie Mayr, the bimbo conservative, Film Threat, Clownfish TV, YellowFlash, It'sAGundam, EFAP (i wish that name was fake), Heels vs (man)Babyface, Dr. Doomfist. Like these people complain about how bad games are because of wokeness and then complain about how they attack how woke the games are when game companies use it as a shield for actual criticism. Well you know, you could criticize said companies first! We all know they do terrible dlc crap, force us to buy digital vs. Physical, commit sex abuses against female game developers and Hide it under the rug, do nft promotions, disrespect their iconic legacy characters, make crappy games without innovating anything, and I'm just talking about Ubisoft. See guys! It's not that hard! You all deserve the biggest bitch slapping while being humiliated for making crappy art. These guys make mediocre art that's just junk food. Nothing of real substance. We should throw their bland works in their face literally to help them make something better. Maybe that monkey & Shakespeare idea might actually work better than these nimrods.

Well that looks like to be the major people on my damn mind. Now we move on to the Feats of Strength! Happy Festivus 2024!

Pride Cometh and is Going towards a Fall: A Reminder

Pride is here again this year. And compared to last year, I want to warn all of you my LGBT+ friends and acquaintances. It feels however, the pendulum is swinging rapidly towards us and is back to being in the realm of LGBT intolerance, threats of violence, and we're going backwards with the progress made. Specifically it seems to be heavy handed towards the T part of LGBT, Transgender. 

Due to a recent situation I had, I was asked why pride. Well when I explained, it felt the response went one ear and out the other. So I'll explain it again. 

The Reason Pride Happened was because it started as a riot because we weren't gonna take it anymore! For the early 20h century, The Lavender Scare, the Holocaust (LGBT people were killed in the Holocaust), Police Raids, and having Homosexuality being classified as a mental disease, had all worked well in discriminating and even killing people. Hell, take a look at this propaganda piece of 1961, yes 1961 called Boys Beware to have a look at what people thought of homosexuals not even 62 years ago. (https://youtu.be/L62QF8NyHZo)  Then when the Stonewall bar got raided various individuals there from Marsha P. Johnson to Sylvia Rivera and all others fought against the police fights to be seen and heard that we aren't gonna be taking it back in the closet, arrested or go through conversion therapy. That is why we have Pride. It's both a celebration of the progress we made and the need to be ensured and to show that we are and can be safe and have dignity as people. But now it's June and I want to say a little more.

Last year, I noticed that it was a whole shitshow with Rainbow Capitalism than never before. (Rainbow Capitalism is as it sounds, corporations and buisnesses capitalizing on LGBT Pride Month with constant pandering without seeming genuine in support of LGBT people) Mostly this shit was sadly called out by a lot of conservative news anchors, activists, and culture war influencers and grifters who take advantage of this whole situation with Rainbow Capitalism and one politician, Ron DeSantis who made it his whole personality because of his ongoing fight with The Walt Disney Company. We'll be getting back to Ronny because oh boy, Florida is a shithole of discriminatory policies, Republican fear mongering, and Political Theatrics of inordinate proportions. These people used Disney's wishy washy attempts to be on support of LGBT, and yet have their major stockholders and higher ups in the corporation be supporters of various conservative politicians, to try to make it out as a woke boogeyman like its the end of the world. Today, its going to be this shit all over again with these corporations with rainbow logos and corporations apologizing to right wing individuals who can destroy their private property, in the case of Target last year, because they got their snowflake feelings hurt. But now they're trying again and it's more successful even with lying. The New York Post recently showed articles talking about the recent situation with a ring wing rapper making a song about targeting target, to claiming the tuck swimsuits are for kids which really got this going. The author of this article ( https://nypost.com/2023/05/24/targets-reputation-takes-a-hit-after-pride-2023-collection/)   claims that Target is selling swimsuits to minors with the ability to tuck, a phrase meaning to hide one's privates usually trans-women, for kids. But going on Target's online site tells a majorly different story. (https://www.target.com/c/pride/-/N-5589f) I went to the site itself and I checked that they only sold swimsuits on the adult side. Not kids, ADULTS! I decided to check the family side which included children. There were no swimsuits and you can check yourselves to see if. Maybe the New York Post should've actually went to their local Targets to be sure that their story was true but it's better to tell a story in yellow journalism than the facts. And the Post loves telling stories versus facts. And in recent months, Bud Light has been part of a more successful boycott due to just sending a specialty can to Trans-influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Everyone lost their shit just because they sent her specialty cans of Bud Light with her face on it. They had to deny multiple times that was specifically made for her and not a specialty sold can. It's like if any other influencer or celebrity had a special can from any beer company meant as a means to sell. But most right wing assholes from randos on the internet to has been celebs like Kid Rock shot up all their Bud Light. To make things worse but not a surprise, both Anheuser-Busch and Target, have caved to these people and have tried their hardest to stop all forms of their LGBT support or apologize. It's this stuff that shows that corporations never cared and we know it. This is bullshit from all side with corporations apologizing to a loud group of weirdos who probably don't actually buy their products in the first place. Surprisingly, Disney has kind of stayed firm but thats because of Ron DeSantis.

Now to Ronny. To a lot of Republicans, he is now a possible candidate to be in the White House but granted his policies and the policies of other Red States discriminating against LGBT, mostly the T. In recent, DeSantis had famously made the Parental Rights In Education bill, or as its popularly known, Don't Say Gay, into law. In the 7 pages, it primary has vague legalese but the main point is that the law originally claimed that it would prevent kids up to 3rd grade knowing or preventing others from telling them about any LGBT issues. Of course it didn't solve what of a kid who has LGBT parents and says it, teachers who are LGBT, or what specifically they don't want 8 year Olds to hear other than maybe, they just exist. But remember it was up to 3rd grade back last year. Well, they gave an inch, and went for the whole mile. 

 This is a picture of the PDF of the 7 page don't say gay bill which specifically says from Kindergarden to 3rd grade is when they wouldn't do this. And that changed for the worse. 

This bill you see here is the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida. This bill was passed by the Florida Board of Education. Among this, it says that 4th through 12th grade will be banned from any talks of LGBT related stuff if not applicable to the rules in the bill or for health related talks which parents can request having their kids out of, well granted that would've been a major given with how Flroida has grown more Republican than its original swing state situation with various elections. But in general, the same problem applies. No Discussions of people who are LGBT, have parents who are LGBT, if a Teacher is LGBT they should shut rheir mouth, but it also targets another aspect, LGBT high school clubs if I can go far with this. Because High School Clubs require a teacher to be a foundation for a club, and since they can't talk about it, they aren't allowed to have this club. I would argue this is a clear violation of Freedom of Assembly granted the rules of public school clubs and forming them. My own high school had a Gay Straight Alliance and its much needed to help youth transition into the world with knowing they're not alone and there are others like them but Ron DeSantis, Bill Lee (my governor) and others can't fathom this to happen because of their recent boogeyman of wokeness. (That can be an article in and of itself if you guys would like.) And these aren't the only laws. Let's go into one final example from my own state of Tennessee.

Governor Bill Lee, signed a law with ensuring kids wouldn't be near Adult oriented buisnesses. Naturally no one should be opposed to such a thing. But as we have just learned, reading between the lines has even more worse consequences. 

Here is the full picture of Senate Bill 3. This is what's called the Anti-Drag Bill but conveniently enough, it doesn't mention drag but "male and female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a pruient interest. First, what the hell doest that even mean? Second, translation. They claim its to target male and female impersonators who do any sexual things like provocative dances, stripping, etc. Now naturally those kinds of drag performances are the ones we don't ever take our kids to! So this whole law feels ridiculous to the common sense minded. But they specifically see that Drag Queens and Drag Kings of any kind, regardless of whether they have 21+ or family friendly shows and how they advertise their shows, are all bad. Anything from Drag Queen Story hours or family friendly brunches aren't to be allowed. But even when it's obvious that the shows are family friendly, no one wants to hear it. Shouts of OK GROOMER! are justified as an argument. Of course I could claim and talk about how many religious pastors, priests and church officials have been arrested and found to be responsible for actual child abuse, whether be emotional, physical, sexual, or in many cases, all 3 but the people who dress as the opposite gender are the problem. But even if they have the "prurient interest" aspect of the law, who says they can't abuse it? Some Have feared trans people could be targeted and honestly, I see their fears because the law is written in a vague way, anyone can interpreted it to where someone could report a trans person for not wearing the clothes of their biological birth. And Unfortunately, LGBT related issues are always seen as sexually inherent due to having non-heterosexual interests. So thus they can easily manipulate an argument to have someone arrested but there's one final demographic that can be targeted. One that I'm part of, The Cosplay Community.

I've seen men dress as female characters in a comedic manner. Lots of them dressed as Anya Forger last HolMat. Then there's cosplay drag Queens like Jimmy Sherfy, CoutureFX, and Annie Mae (Zachtherippercosplay). But lets not forget most of the cosplayers in the past were females and they were open to cosplay as males from various anime from Naruto to Hetalia. Anyone remember Hetalia? Even though it's obvious people crossplay for various reasons in convention settings, and despite being predominantly private events due to needing to pay to enter, if cosplayers go out in public, some Karen police officer can nag their way into worming people gettings citations or worse arrested. I also want to thank cosplayer aweirdonetoo3 for bringing this to my attention. 

To end this all, these as well as 556 various anti-LGBT laws restricting everything without reading the laws, putting targets over the community in general, mostly targeting trans people, it's time to show why Pride exists. It's our celebration and call to protest! United we Stand and divided we Fall! GAY PRIDE DARLINGS!

Happy New Year and a Quick thing on Resolutions and Comparing to my current trend of them now.

Ok everyone! Happy New Year's. Now that the New Year is here, let's get down to business. Now nothing is either more motivating or more loathed by than the New Year's Resolution.

Some claim if you we're going to change, you should've done it when you wanted too. That's true. And there are some who claim that no one can change because it's psychologically easy to go back to being the same. This is also true.

But the point is, can we really stick to our resolutions. Well... not really. And that's evident in my own personal resolutions. Let's take a look down memory lane at the beginning of the New Year and see what went right and what went wrong.


Ok. So I had 4 basic resolutions. Very Simple, general and a little specific.

"1) Lose some Weight. I have no real or clear goal but I do want to lose some body fat due to last years munchies and feasting due to some emotional and economic hardships and reanalyzing. So I'm hoping to lose 10 pounds overall in general if possible as I'd like to enjoy the upcoming 2018 Anime Expo again as I loved last years but I have to save up and really pay off some debts.

2) Pay off Debts. I got a lot to add onto but I know that I will fully pay of one I owe personally to someone else. I can't go into specifics in order to protect peoples Identities and for personal reasons. Also I plan to pay off more of my Credit card despite usual payments on to pay for car repairs.

3) Write More Often. I've been very lazy on completing my works and so I hope to finish 3 short stories, 1 play and a full draft of one novel. I'll be planning to write the 3 short stories soon with possible revisions later and I will be announcing my debut hopefully if I decide to though my original plan is to publish independently and then grow mainstream.

4) Read More Books. I have a lot to do with reading but I'm planning to read at least 6 books this year and work on 12 next year with a book a month unless I finish reading a book. So far on my list are The Vampire Lestat, We The Living, Nichomachean Ethics, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. All of various genres seen from Philosophy to Gothic Romance and Horror to Erotica."


Ok, now that I refreshed your memories. Let's look at how I did.

1) I did NOT lose any weight. I hate to say it but I gained weight and now I'm towards 179 to 180 pounds which is 10 lbs close to my old weight of either 189 to 191 lbs. There were days I shirked going to the gym and didn't get the grasp until later last year around August when I got to my aunt's gym since she's pretty much the fitness lady in my life. And trust me, eating a bar of candy a day didn't help either.

2) I did pay debts. I paid of quite the few but now I'm currently down to half of what I owed from the begining of last year though with some extra increases, I currently owe about $5,600 which is not too bad compared to most people around my age accumulating college debts of around $25 -$50-$100,000 dollars. ($25,000 to $50,000 I mean.) This is has been one of the more successful because I pretty much paid debt off every month because I have to with my credit card so kinda obvious but this year Might go better since this month, I'm finishing paying off one of my debts so that's good.

3) I didn't write as much as I should've. I haven't finished one short story. But honestly, I'm not losing too much sleep because I had to take care of responsibilities with bills, visiting my Great-Aunt and my current Lyft work first before hand and usually I have to jam all my resolution stuff in the morning. (A.K.A. writing and the gym) Even my blog posts are down because last year, I wrote about 23 articles compared to 65 but many of the 65 were pretty short. But also with the advent of me starting to work for The Gaming Lad, I also just began writing articles for video game reviews and I might expand upon maybe Opinion columns with them if I can request it. Oh also, just so you know, I'm going to be doing the Kingdom Hearts 3 review. Also NO SPOILERS! IF YOU DO SPOILS KINGDOM HEARTS 3 IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, WE ARE NOT FRIENDS AND I SPOIL THE OTHER THINGS YOU LOVE: MILK, CHEESE, MOVIES, SHOWS, COMICS, MANGA, ANIME, AND ANYTHING ELSE I CAN THINK OF! I will repeatedly warn you all! Ok, now that's out of my system, on to my final resolution.

4)I read 5 books last year. The Vampire Lestat, Rebecca, Nichomachean Ethics, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, and Wuthering Heights in that order. So not 6 books but I did a good job. Compared to ... well I don't know the average number of novels people read in a year but I swear that 25 pages a day did help and despite long breaks between books, I did have a good time with reading them in the morning though now I'm debating about writing notes in them but I'm a book purist (keep them clean) so it's highly unlikely.

So what's my point. My point is, If we made the effort, we would've done our resolutions at the beginning of when we noticed a deficiency in our lives. Remember that success is habit but habit is is sure foolishly easy or painstakingly difficult to create and/or break. Some of us still have bad habits, others just are pushing through because of will and mentality. Don't let it discourage you though because you always have something to work on. I'm still trying to get past my procrastination and it's not easy.

And so now you're wondering what are my resolutions? Pretty much the same just without too much to focus on because really I got a lot to do this year too. I'm helping my grandfather retire, cleaning out our dirty and unkempt garage, paying back debt that's mandatory, my Kingdom Hearts review coming up at the end of the month, But in the end, it all depends on where my choices I do take me. I might change different things or I might stay the same again from last year. But remember this one thing as you make your choices this year everyone, ...

AMOR FATI

(Love your Fate)

In other words, once you make your choice, accept both it's beauities and tragedies it causes. I know this pretty philosophical for those who you just started to follow me but this is sage advice. It's a form of peace with oneself and to me, philosophy helps us both live and die well. So I hope you might take it to heart. Especailly since this year, I'll be reading the philosopher who said this quote. So now I'm gonna see my aunt, Read Good Omens, and try not to stress myself out too much this month hopefully and enjoy my fate.

Fragment of Horror 3

I usually dedicate this blog to Video Games so it should be no surprise that one or two should come forward on this list for our entertainment. And I do have one in mind. But let's talk about the history of horror games by focusing on a main problem that early video games had that tried to bring horror to the table.

(Title Page to Ghosts and Goblins, one of the first known examples of horror video games)

With the picture, you think I might talk about this but since you know I want to surprise you guys, It's not the main feature. For Ghosts N' Goblins helped with shaping the horror video game landscape, it wasn't as scary with what we now expect from our Resident Evils, Silent Hills, Parasite Eve's (Go give the game a look; it has a pretty cool science fiction horror concept and a great score.), and Amnesias. Most video games of that time gave us a spooky level with monsters and zombies and a scary looking boss. But nothing that gives the aspects of horror the same appeal. With games like Ghosts' N Goblins, you get the full horror game but not the same survival horror aspects we associated with those games now. The elements of fighting the monsters are there but it's the subversion of power, the helplessness in taking away our power fantasies is what sells and makes a horror video game, a horror video game. And the game and the series I'm going to introduce features the beginning of those survival horror aspects. It's influenced two successors and both of them feature art from a die hard fan who finally accomplished his dream of making his own game. A game featuring the infamous Scissorman. My latest fragment of horror is ...

(Box Art for Clock Tower for the Super Famicom, only released in Japan)

... The Clock Tower video game series and Spin-Offs

(The Concept Art of the Barrows Mansion in Clock Tower: The First Fear)

Clock Tower came out around the time of Resident Evil would come out (1995) so you guys know this was the very beginning of what modern Survival Horror would be based upon. (Although there is a debate on which horror game came with survival horror first, I prefer to thing of more that a group of games created the atmosphere needed. The Big 3 being Parasite Eve, the cult classic with deals with bio-horror, Resident Evil, the Zombie horror dealing with Claustrophobia in a twisted mansion, and Silent Hill, the town with cults and devils abound.) Now Clock Tower is a cult classic due to some weird things with how it was distributed and how each game eventually came out.

First, there is Clock Tower, usually referred to as The First Fear because when the west and other countries got Clock Tower, we got Clock Tower 2, the sequel to the first fear. But then it's learned that The First Fear was also remade, but the remake is pretty mixed. But the general aspects of both remained the same. It was a click and point game focused upon escaping the stalking murderer, Scissorman.

In the first two Clock Tower games (We'll just call them the Clock Tower Canon for short because everything else has been sister sequels on name alone with some reverence in 3 (the official sequel of 2)) the game play is simple, you are stuck being followed by the Scissorman as he tries to kill you. But interestingly enough, the game has a bit of a background plot more explored than other killers. Scissorman is actually Bobby and Dan Barrows, the children of Simon and his murderous wife, Mary (insert Anti-Virgin Mary horror trope here) and the Barrows (Burroughs in 3) are a family interconnected with Satanic rituals and sacrifices and Jennifer, the main character of the first two games, must solve the mysteries behind them while surviving the best she can.

(If you play the emulation of First Fear, please get the perfume bottle mentioned)

Unfortunately, Clock Tower does suffer from some bad aspects that I do want to warn you for any casual horror game players here. You can only get the game through emulations for the SNES copy and the game play is SLOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I'm not kidding, You have to be patient. Or run by double clicking where you need to go. And it will be annoying because running makes you lose stamina in The First Fear. (In 2, you don't need to worry about that!) And if Scissorman ambushes you and you don't have enough stamina, you die! It's cursor is a turn off for casual horror games usually and when you saw in the above picture about how I talked about the perfume. It's true. There is no notice about investigating important items until you find them so places that might take 30 minutes to an hour for speed players, will take a couple of hours to be extra sure that you're doing things right. (And you might not be sure if you're doing it right!) And this becomes prevalent when I talk about the positives. And in Clock Tower 2 you must suffer bad voice acting! THE MOST SCARIEST PART OF THE GAME! MWAHAHAAHAHAAHA! OH It feels good to manically laugh!

(The Most Effective Weapon to Dilute attention and stop Scissorman. THE ... bedsheets? ... Seriously?)

But beside the clanky controls, the bad jokes I'm making, and some insufferable acting, the games have one thing right! Atmosphere and Horror tension. There are some jump scares, but instead of being forced upon us like FNAF (Five Nights at Freddy's for those who are unfamiliar with the acronym) and Spooky's House of Horrors, they build on the tension and the way Scissorman is avoidable by running but hearing the music change to a frightening theme is what really adds the pressure to escape insurmountable odds. Scissorman appears with some jump scares when you investigate locations you need to search very closely. But the horror is not the jump scares themselves but the tension as he creeps closer and closer waiting for you to make a mistake or run out of energy. In both Clock Tower 1 and 2, he does this with efficiency and skill. In Clock Tower 2, it feels even more random at times, and that's a good thing. But the replay ability is what makes these games work. You can have different scenarios and a host multiple endings from the worse to S or A Rank Best so you get to replay the game and maybe find a new story line you didn't expect to see. Of course, talking of the first two Clock Towers is incomplete without talking about the influences behind the game.

(Dario Argento's Phenomena, the hugest influence for Clock Tower)

Hufumi Kono, original director took his inspiration for the game from his obvious love for horror and we can see it through the love of Italian Giallo Director, Dario Argento. (I admit Italian Giallo is a repetitive because Giallo is usually synonymous with Italian Horror) The film Pheonomena (Creepers here in America) has been the greatest influence due to Jennifer Connelly's appearance and character in this move. Jennifer Corvino, yes Jennifer C. plays Jennifer C., is a girl who can communicate with animals of all kinds, mostly insects, and solves a mystery and SPOILER ALERT! it's criminals are an insane mother and her disfigured child. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! And the character of Jennifer Simpson is modeled after Connelly in this film.

(All the more Captivating. On the left: Jennifer Connelly in Phenomena. On the Right: Jennifer Simpson in Clock Tower)

(Another influence was this Cult Classic Horror called The Burning and has the pair of Hedge Scissors inspire Kono to create his weapon for his assailant.)

For the symbolism of the game, I think it's interesting to note that Scissorman isn't a traditional killer. What I mean is, sure Freddy has his Claw and Jason the Machete and Leatherface, the chainsaw, but all those monsters, when they were first created (The 80's) were all metaphors against teens having premarital sex. (But obviously that didn't help, but it sure is a common trope where the killer kills the couple having sex.) Their weapons all representing phallic imagery usually penetrating women commonly. (I don't even know how this was made as being a metaphor when one penetrates with pregnancy and one actually pierces your guts and isn't fun. But then what about the guys they kill?)

(All the Serial killers symbolizing teen sex who murdered guys)

Scissorman is just a maniac. (For the differences between Maniacs and the crazies, Maniacs will stab people with scissors to death, a crazy person stabs people with scissors to death but wears a Bugs Bunny suit. THANKS George Carlin!) And that's pretty much it for symbolism but if you want to know why Kono chose Scissors, it was generally to make the victims be tortured longer than anticipated. A Shank to the stomach and a gunshot is pretty cut and dry but Kono goes for sadistic torture porn style executions with Scissorman, although it's usually off-screen or Implied by some Game Over screens.

But now let's get to the Sister Spin offs. There are 3 but I say 5 because the main game series did inspire two spiritual successors. So we got Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within (Or GhostHead in Japan), Clock Tower 3 done by Capcom, and Haunting Ground for the first spiritual successor. Then you have two fan successors. One by Hifumi Kono called Night Cry and the other by one of the head artists and a favorite of mine Chris Darril, who developed Remothered: Tormented Fathers.

(Box Art for CT2:TSW)

All I can say about The Struggle Within is ... it's bad. But I don't think it's as bad as people like to say. To be honest, the main disappointment comes from the later parts of the game. The beginning is filled with good tension and horror anticipation. Though it's weak plot and the overly abundant confusion of the Hospital area in the game, it's generally ok. It plays regularly to the Clock Tower game. But there's a lot more cheesy voice acting. I hope you like House of the Dead Games and other cheesy voice acted games guys! But the Golden Radio award goes to the great Roger Jackson, who voices Bates in this game. If you're wondering why I haven't explained the plot, it's that it gets kinda weirdly melodramatic.

(Bates (Alyssa's alter ego) explores her cousins room. )

Basically you play Alyssa Hale, who visits her family after being moved to them. However, we learn she has a split personality named Bates. Her family is later revealed to be an adopted family and that her adopted father actually gave her biological father a cursed statue with a bacterium that creates zombies and they've been released upon the city. But the cursed statue also serves as a weird mcguffin since the player destroys the Statue but it leads more to discussing the Maxwell Curse (Alyssa's real name is Lynn Maxwell and her father is George Maxwell who has a family curse of twins who cause harm to the family and they bury the children alive.) Look I'm not gonna sugar coat this because the plot is ok. It's not twisted but it is kinda dumbly confusing with the unnecessary plot twists like how Alyssa is adopted which doesn't necessarily add to the horror. But let's get to the next game so we can get on.

(The Dark Gentleman appears near the Hamilton Mansion, the main hub of Clock Tower 3)

Clock Tower 3 has only 2 references to the original canon. This was the situation with the surname mentioned of the family of evil, The Burroughs (originally called Barrows in translations of the first 2 games but in the earlier clip comparing the Clock Tower Dubs from Japan and the West, they say the BURROUGHS mansion not the BARROWS mansion like the Western dubs. And the second is their not so well done tribute to the Scissorman characters, now instead of serious stalker serial killers, they're (it's a set of twins, one male and one female) portrayed as Jester Insane Killers who wield scissors and just carry the name though the game does give a little exposition.

(The Corroder, a former human who dissolved humans in corrosive acid and now tries to kill Alyssa, the main protagonist)

Clock Tower 3 was the first non Human Entertainment game made with Capcom making the game. However, this meant that a new team would be made and new ideas implemented. Involved in the making was the late Kinji Fukasaku, a famous Japanese screenwriter and film director, who helped give a film theme to the game, giving an extra depth to the game with mo-cap blocking helping the 3D team develop the game. (It especially helped that his last great film was the controversial and popular Battle Royale, now a video game genre and novel genre with Fortnite and the Hunger Games being iterations of this film concept.) But sadly despite this help and assistance with a good script and atmosphere, the game ended up leading to poor sales. Probably a big one being those who critiqued the shortness of the game and the mechanics feeling weak and out of place despite those who have played Clock Tower know this was part of the strength of the game. But you can't replicate everything but at least Capcom tried. And try they would again.

(The Main Cast of Haunting Ground (Left to Right) Debilitas, Daniella, Hewie, Fiona, Riccardo, Lorenzo)

Their luck would be on Haunting Ground. Another game with mixed reviews but this one had a different atmosphere. This one based on helplessness and Objectification. Poor Fiona Belli witnessed her parents death and has been kidnapped by a mysterious master of a castle. The place is owned by the mysterious Lorenzo, an alchemist. And apparently, his homunculi children, Debilitas, a Frankenstein monster with a childish persona, Riccado,  Lorenzo's clone and son, the maid Daniella, a beautiful woman who can't feel pain, all want Fiona dead to reclaim different aspects of how they view her.

Belli Castle, where Fiona's nightmares take place.

The atmosphere of Belli Caslte also helps with the telling of the story. It goes back to the First Fear days of a confusing and kerfuffled manor. And the taking of another Gothic house adds to the game's design and horror elements, tracking back to classic gothic stories like The Castle of Otranto. But as I said earlier, Fiona's objectification is what sells the horror of the game. Her helplessness in only having Hewie, a dog who serves as companion throughout the game. However, the game heavily relies on the scenes where she can't be with her pooch friend. Seeing them treat her as a doll (Debilitas) a female trophy (Riccardo), the only way to get to be human (Daniella) and an object to obtain immortality (Lorenzo), each of Fiona's stalkers lends themselves into having her for lustful, envious, or even toy like reasons.

(Concept art for Night Cry)

But then we have the final two selections. The recent revivals of the Clock Tower mechanics. We have Night Cry, where our Scissorman character is finally back with a new design and the identical MO. But sadly this game got mixed to negative reviews but if you are a fan of the Clock Tower series, it would still be worth having in your library. After all Hifumi Kono did develop the game and one of the main artists did help in creating the final game so far from the spiritual successors of Clock Tower. Remothered: Tormented Fathers.

(Logo Art of Remothed, done by Chris Darril)

Remothed: TF was originally supposed to be a remake of Clock Tower with added stalkers and just as creepy an artistic style and with updated mechanics and a new soundtrack. Now you've noticed the art of Night Cry in the last pic and this logar art is similar because Chris Darril, producer and art designer of Remothed, also did Night Cry and other game art all the while pursuing this goal of making this game. The game has received positive reviews and one has called it "The Clock Tower Successor You've been waiting for!" And now that part one is released, hopefully this will persuade him for getting the remaining two parts. And with that, we shall put the scissors away.

Thanks for enjoying this article.

Here's some resources and fun videos on the Clock Tower Franchise.

Remothed: Tormented Fathers on Steam

JonTron's Clock Tower Review and Look

Nitro Rad's Clock Tower 2 Review and Look

Clock Tower 3 (PS2 Review) from Stop Skeletons from Fighting

How Haunting Ground Scared my Teenage Self by ValkryieAurora

Fragment of Horror 2

Since it's Halloween, all the theme parks and Halloween inspired locals from all over the U.S. and the world will be opening up. Knott's Scary Farm, Halloween Horror Nights, the Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride in Pennsylvania (Running 28 years! Congrats guys!) Terror on the Fox in Winsconsin, Thrillvania in Texas, and others opening their doors and getting ready for a new season of terror and fright. But the most common of all these places is that at least they all have a big haunted house. And the idea, since the early Victorian Literature era, has influenced pop and high culture for so long.

(Concept Art for a famous attraction. Read further for the reveal of my second fragment of Horror)

Like the concept that we in this picture for the haunted house we'll see in this article, many stories either have ghosts or Gothic drama that happens and that gives a home/manor, a haunted house atmosphere. You have manor houses like Northanger Abbey, Manderlay from Rebecca, Shirley Jackson's Hill House (Soon to be a Netflix series and the trailer looks great. I hope the re-imagining of the story is a success.), Collinswood from the series (NOT THE MOVIE!) Dark Shadows, and who could forget The Overlook Hotel and Rose Red from Stephen King. But my second fragment of horror was a collaborative effect. One so famous that the concepts and ideas had so much that they had to find ways to remake the ride from a walk through, to a museum holding weird and creepy objects, a home to evil and treasonous people from history, and had a Bluebeard type wife killer. But it all eventually came to a simple philosophy about the ride "We'll take care and clean up the Outside, and the ghosts can take care of the Inside." This was said by Walter Elias Disney and the concept art you're looking at is ...

(The Haunted Mansion in all her Southern Gothic Antebellum Glory)

The Haunted Mansion, my second Fragment of Horror.

You're probably wondering, why the hell is this on here? It's not a scary ride. Well it scared me when I was young and I took thinks literal but don't insult me for it! But this article is more about the concepts and the impacting legacy of one of the most rumor and fan theory laden rides and sadly a dying part of a great theme park. A true and somber Gothic tale in it's own right. But most don't know that the concepts for this Haunted Mansion went as far back as the first days of Disneyland. In fact, Walt Disney himself wanted such a house in the most oddest of places.

In the early days of acquiring some orange groves, Anaheim would be forever changed by the vision of Walt Disney himself, his 9 Old Men animators and newly solidified cast of artists and designers who though, never made theme park attractions before, would now begin with innovating technology and ride ideas to make a theme park in Walt's vision. From a simple train ride though his Burbank back lot to grow ever bigger into the theme park we know today, Disney's original concept pitch for the mansion would be to put it, in all places, Main Street U.S.A.

The concept art you saw earlier was supposed to be in Main Street U.S.A. with the house on a hill, (All the Haunted Houses are on Hills, what is up with that?) And so you got a Haunted House near Main Street scaring the kids before they got into the park in contrast to the happy and nostalgic view of Main Street with late 19th-early 20th century America. But the main issue was how would this ride be sold to the audiences? Enter one Disney's greatest concept rivalries, Claude Coats, animator and set designer, who wanted a scary haunted mansion which would be attributed to how Disneyland would promote innovation and design in creating a new standard for theme parks, and Marc Davis, legendary animator and one of the 9 old men, who wanted a silly and family friendly ride since Disneyland's main attraction was to be sold as an experience for all to come.

(And our first two major players are here. Claude Coats, Disney's Gentle Giant)

(And Marc Davis, working on art for Pirates of the Carribean)

This rivalry happened for quite a long time. Two major and important members of the Disney staff, influencing the tone of what would be a beloved E-Ticket Experience. But in the end, we got a combo of both but this doesn't end the main problems of this ride. After all, it did take 16 years to get it all together. And 3 were without the main man at their side. But with a concept finally revealed, now it was the time to get the settings and illusions ready for the mansion. And with that, we have two other guests to introduce but here's a picture of my favorite illusion that stumped me for a while thinking ghosts did exist.

(The Ballroom Scene, depicting the famous stage and ghost illusion The Pepper's Ghost Trick)

Another reason why the Haunted Mansion works so well is because the Illusions are surprisingly effective and timeless. Though the illusions were developed by 19th century phantasmagoria thanks to magicians and illusionists who were popular at the time. Pepper's Ghost, the effect used in the ballroom. was commonly used in theatrical productions of A Christmas Carol, Macbeth and Hamlet, and other plays that feature ghosts. (If you wish to know more about Pepper's Ghost, click this link. It features a talk with Rolland (Rolly) Crump, one of the two illusionists and designers of the Mansion.) The Endless Hallway is another such illusion of the 19th century. (A Mirror being used and the lighting and darkness to make it appear as endless.) But with 20th and 21st century technology, we have the animatronics and the Holograms (some even describe holograms as perfected Pepper's Ghosts because they are inspired by the same technological idea but have more clarity for realism or whispiness for ethereal-ism.) that are made to look real towards us. It combines so well with the dark lighting to make the illusions realistic to make the haunting real towards us.

(Yale Gracey attending to the Hatbox Ghost)

(Rolly Crump taking a Tiki Room Tiki out of Disneyland)

All of the original Illusions came from the two guys who experimented with it, (Yale Gracey (who many attribute to being the surname of the owners of the mansion due to the Gravestone Tribue) and Rolly Crump (designer and Disney Legend)) And Rolly helped design some of the concepts for what would be included in the Mansion, The Museum of the Weird and it was as weird and scary for it kept Walt Disney awake and in his clothes the next day after he witness the designs.

(A Candle-holder Lizard and a Vampiress Statue)

(A Gypsy Caravan: A possible influence for Madame Leota)

(The Fortune Teller's Room with a Grandfather Chair. One would be in the Haunted Mansion in Disney World.)

Spooky isn't it! You Couldn't possibly imagine that people would accept this stuff in Disneyland. In fact, showing you this is actually part of all the concepts of the Haunted Mansion. You had the Museum of the Weird but some of the few mentioned usually focused upon Captain Gore. And God it was a lot bloodier than imagined. He was a Pirate who would tie into the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as a bloodthirsty pirate whose wife, Priscilla, learned of his pirating ways and would be silenced forever. The WDW tombstone tributes has a slight reference to this Bluebeard style evil with having a mausoleum an actual  Capt. Bluebeard have 7 wives who would die one after another except his last wife who would kill him.

(Concept Art from Ken Anderson of Gore and Priscilla)

But now for the rumors and theories. One of my favorites is why it took so long for it to come together. People actually thought it was so scary one person had a heart attack and that the Disney animators did their job too well. Some have also claimed in the trial run of the ride, someone tried walking out of bounds and fell into a snake pit and got nearly poisoned to their death. (I Learned about this one recently!) Another too scary theory goes into one of my favorite characters of the ride, the renewed variation of The Hatbox Ghost! Some people have wondered whether it was an illusion or just a Disney Secret that they had experimented with gone wrong and was too scary. It was seen in media of the Mansion but never made an appearance. It turns out it was there but it was removed because the head removal and reappearance trick didn't work out too well in the dark.

(Because nothing Screams Walt Disney and The Happiest Place on Earth like Suicide, Murder, and over morbid Death)

And now for the theories. One popular theory claims that you actually die in the Haunted Mansion. When you first enter through the doors of the mansion, you see simple tricks of the light and optical illusions, nothing too concrete. But one you finish your seance with the Madame, you are brought to the Ballroom to see the ghosts who vanish and reappear before you. After the Bride scares you, you fall down to your death from the attic and the reason the Caretaker is so scared is because he sees new ghosts to join the fray! And the Graveyard swinging wake opens ups to welcome you as newly made members and residents of The Haunted Mansion. Another is that people actually believe the mansion is actually haunted with real ghosts. The mansion is a popular resting place for beloved one's ashes and are usually distributed around the ride illegally and some have claimed they see ghosts that weren't audio animatronics. One lady spread her son's ashes saying this ride was his favorite and she would love for him to officially rest in peace here. (I mean The Haunted Mansion was advertised as a Retirement home for Ghosts.)

But yes, it's a lot to take in with everyone involved and it was a primarily collaborative effort. But in hind site, it references and is a sad reminder of what now happened to Disneyland. For this ride was one of the last remaining original Rides that would be in Disneyland. Think about it, most of the rides are all based on Disney properties. It's not a bad thing but it reflects a creative drive now gone that has to be molded to the style and appearance of that attractions property. Tom Morris (another Imagineer who retired in 2016)  confesses in this article some days back that "Walt allowed all of these people to show their own style. It wasn't a big corporate guidebook or style guide. Walt allowed there to be a Marc Davis style, a Claude Coats style, a Mary Blair style and Rolly — Rolly is definitely one of the Disneyland styles." Disneyland was the allowing of multiple artistic and aesthetic styles blended beautifully together and sadly, the Parks have mostly forgotten this. And this is why I noted this is a tragedy in the similar style of a Gothic Romance because The Haunted Mansion is truly the ghost of a Concept of Disneyland far forgotten. The last original Ride was Big Thunder Mountain with Tony Baxter (my favorite Imagineer) helping conceive the ride altogether.

Tony Baxter helping Shape the E-Ticket Ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

It's a dying art that Tony might be one of the last Imagineers to have his own style to the parks. In fact he himself shaped the European Village aesthetic most of us grew up with and don't even realize. So let's take a look at this Haunted Mansion with a new appreciation. A Gothic Southern Belle, like in "A Rose for Emily", reflecting days since past but instead of living in the past truly dead, let's live it up like the Ghosts and have a swinging wake of a time, with all the creative and artistic freedom to truly make wonderful things.

(A Panorama View of the mansion. And no that hearse wasn't carrying Brigham Young for his funeral.)

Thanks for reading this little gem. I would go on longer but there is so much more about this and would need a second article to reference more.  (From the Sister Mansions of Phantom Manor and Mystic Manor, to the expanded Dutch Colonial cousins that have a Library, Music Room, and in one, a room that M.C. Escher would love. And of course, the cast of voices to chill your spine and even the awful film (but it did have beautiful set designs) and also the new Ryan Gosling and Guillermo del Toro and other fun facts too. Even two different comic book series.) But enjoy the following YouTube posts and articles referenced and cite sources for this article.

Chef Mayhem's Doombuggies: A Tribute Site to the Haunted Mansion (You'll need to run adobe flash)

David Oneal's Haunted Mansion Documentary

LA Times: An early Disneyland designer won over Walt Disney with his rebel reputation. Now he laments: ‘The park is gone’

Disney's Haunted Mansion (Florida) Behind the Scenes Tour with Tony Baxter

Check Out Offhand Disney's 31 Nights of Halloween to some Haunted Mansion facts.

And for some Gothic Horror, here's the fan story Nuptial Doom: The Haunted Mansion and the Bride in the Attic. It features Kat Cressida, voice of Constance Hatchaway: The Black Widow Bride.