Chad Eagleton's Blog, page 27

Baphomet Rising, Part II: The Goat of Mendes

Part II: The Goat of Mendes Baphomet’s name would next be taken up by the son of a Paris cobbler named Alphonse Louis Constant. Constant was a smart boy, and despite being born poor, his parents groomed him for the priesthood. Accounts differ as to why he was expelled from the seminary; either he fell in love or he wouldn’t give up vocalizing “strange views.” Whatever the reason, he never fully shrugged off the fetters of his Catholic upbringing. The conflict between his religious educati...

Baphomet Rising, Part I: The Dark God of The Templars

I wrote a non-fiction piece to submit to a specific market that ended up falling through. Instead of tossing the piece aside. I figured I'll break it up and post here.



Baphomet Rising

"And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET."
—Aleister Crowley, The Gnostic Mass

In 2012, a private group funded the installation of a Ten Commandments monument at the Oklahoma state capitol. This clear and bold violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution received...

Pope Francis and the Problem with Truth

The reaction to Pope Francis meeting with Kim Davis says a lot about us.

I get the hero worship. Francis is a religious leader and that’s important to a lot of people. Spirituality, I think, is a part of what makes us human—I don’t have any issue with that until someone tries to impose their spirituality on someone else. Here in America, too, it’s simply refreshing to see a religious leader engaged in a meaningful way by urging action on issues that help people rather than focusing on who shou...

Oxide Pang's The Detective

Enjoyed Oxide Pang's Hong Kong neo-noir film The Detective. Not a lot of action but loads of style and atmosphere with a strong streak of black humor.

Aaron Kwok plays Tam, a PI working in Bangkok's Chinatown. Tam is hired by Lung, a guy he barely knows from a bar, to find a girl Lung says follows him everywhere and wants to kill him. The C grade detective bumbles into a puzzling string of murders.

Absolutely worth a watch but I've always preferred PI stories where the sleuth wasn't a slick bad...

The Waldo Moment

Made my way through Black Mirror on Netflix again. If you haven’t watched it, you’re missing out. It’s intense, smart, and imaginative satire. I really cannot think of a better description than “The Twilight Zone for the digital age.”

The entire thing is great but I think first season is better overall—though second season opens strong with Hayley Atwell in the gut-wrenching “Be Right Back.” Unfortunately, the second episode is more successful at producing arresting visuals than sustaining a r...

Control

Thinking about control today. How we're controlled. Think it comes down to four weapons. Those weapons are:AlienationIgnoranceDisinformationFearIt the modern age, these seems easily counteracted. So what then? What's the issue? Is it apathy, you think?

Brief Thoughts on "Political Correctness"

Mocking political correctness is the sneaky way to voice your fear of change. It’s the modern rewrite of “back in my day...”Often, it’s also a way for someone to cowardly acknowledge their resentment of those who are marginalized being empowered without being the person who says the racist, homophobic, or just plain hurtful thing out loud.At its worst, mocking political correctness is a ‘yes’ vote for the status quo. And voting ‘yes’ for the status quo gets us no...

Elementary

We haven’t had broadcast TV for a while, so if a show isn’t available for streaming on one of the services we do subscribe to, then I probably haven’t seen it. Hulu recently added three seasons of Elementary, so I’m finally checking it out.
I'm only a couple of episodes in but so far, I like it. Elementary offers a good take on Holmes and Watson with the whole sober companion shtick, really shows why the characters have lasted as long as they have. And the character stuff on the show is great....

The Blacklist Season Two

 I watched The Blacklist based solely on a friend’s recommendation and loved it. I loved the idea of the show. I loved its energy and its gangbusters pacing. I loved the sheer ridiculous pulpiness of it and how the show wasn’t afraid to just be what it was, a whole lot of fun. I loved that it teased big things to come, big reveals, and even more excitement. And so much of the awesome of that first season was carried on the shoulders of the magnetic James Spader.

 I devoured the first...

Quis Est Iste Qui Venit

Today is the release day for Protectors 2: Heroes. This massive anthology edited by ThomasPluck features work from big names like Joyce Carol Oates and Harlan Ellison, established writers, Indie favorites, and first timers. All proceeds from the book benefit Protect, the political lobby of the National Association to Protect Children whose victories include the Circle of Trust Act, which closed NY state’s incest loophole, and funding The HERO Corps, which hires wounded veterans to assist law...