I can trace it back to the day the King of Pop died, although for me it began earlier in the day with a sync connected with this series. The whole MJ thing didn't really touch me much, I was not a fan & I made the deliberate choice to stay away from the cultivated hysteria.
Nevertheless I feel something has changed. I've been likening it to the time waves that tidal-wave across the screen & change the world, in the movie Sound of Thunder. Somehow the energy since that day has seemed thicker & gooier, but perhaps it's just me.
Anyway let me take you on a rather rambling, bush-beating route to my own twilight-zone sync of that day.
Once more we return to Adrienne Shelly & her movie Waitress - don't worry all will make sense (eventually).
On this little trek through wonderland, we toy with the idea that movies venture way beyond story telling & weigh (heavily) into into the realm of occult ritual. In particular we t(r)oy with the priests & priestesses of these rituals, well actually just one for now.
For this playtime of ours I propose that we look at what actors actually do. They take on the persona of another character, & for a time they become that 'person'.
...Oh marvellous, I see the etymology dictionary saw me coming & is willing to introduce ACT I.
"person c.1225, from O.Fr. persone "human being" (12c., Fr. personne), from L. persona "human being," originally "character in a drama, mask," possibly borrowed from Etruscan phersu "mask." ."
For your visit here today, let us regard actors as people who wear masks.
What know you of masks & magic?
"The mask, as a means of the dramatic transformation of one person into another identity, perhaps ranks among the oldest manifestation of human culture. There is evidence of the use of masks long before people started to cultivate the soil, and certainly before they discovered about the extraction and use of metals"
" Many African societies see masks as mediators between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, ancestors and other entities. Masks became and still become the attribute of a dressed up dancer who gave it life and word at the time of ceremonies."
"Mask is a form of disguise. It is an object that is frequently worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks."
"The dancer who wears a mask in a ceremony is frequently believed to be transformed into or possessed by the spirit inhabiting or represented by the mask. Masks are often believed to contain great power, being potentially dangerous unless handled with the proper rites... Ritual masks generally depict deities, mythological beings, good and evil spirits, spirits of ancestors and the dead, animal spirits, and other beings believed to have power over humanity." 
"Ancient Greek drama was semi religious, rooted in masked ritual."
"The intended audience of each masked performance can be particular..."
"The change in identity of the wearer for that of the mask is vital, for if the spirit represented does not reside in the image of the mask, the ritual petitions, supplications, and offerings made to it would be ineffectual and meaningless. The mask, therefore, most often functions as a means of contact with various spirit powers"
Now this isn't a treatise on masks, ...mind you I can certainly see room for expansion, and I would certainly call this...
a mask, perhaps even a death mask.
For a nostalgic walk down the corridors of movie mask history, just gently squeeze your mouse eek ! (whoa I said gently).
However I digressed.
We were supposed to be looking at a psychopathic, woman-hating cleric - "a defrocked priest and serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least two girls, whom he lured with his stirring sermons and masculine charm" - you know the kind of guy I mean, don't you?
Meet Caleb from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a cure for Catholicism if ever one was needed.
"Ah but 'tis just a tv show," you say, "it's all make-believe & fantasy".
Do you really know that? What if it aint? What if our emotional connection to the 'show' du jour is something more? Lets take an etymological gander...
but don't squeeze too hard, 'cos he's got a nasty nip!
"show (n) c.1300, "act of exhibiting to view," from show (v.). Sense of "appearance put on with intention to deceive" is recorded from c.1526." Sounds rather like a 'mask' n'est-ce pas?
Let's look at the (forked) tale behind the lad with the dog collar. Let's look at the in depth 'stroy' line - oops there I go again getting my story 'spelling' mixed up.
Caleb channels the First Evil - (from wiki) "A being manifested from all evil in existence...Its only real weakness is that it is non-corporeal, and can therefore not do real physical damage. It is, however, expert at psychological manipulation, and can act through its servants, such as the Bringers, Turok-Han, Caleb or whatever person it can manage to trick...
The First Evil claims to be the source and embodiment of all that is evil. Older than demons, even the Old Ones, who themselves existed long before the first humans, it is older than the written word and transcends all realities and dimensions; it is older than any other evil being and may even be the very first entity ever to have existed. It is said that the First lurked in the darkness long before the universe was even created and shall remain long after the universe ends. Few have heard of it and even fewer believe in its existence.
The entity cannot affect the world on a physical level. Its power lies in its ability to deceive, torment and manipulate others. It can take the form of anyone who has died and can choose to be seen and heard by just one person or to everyone present. The First has a deep understanding of human nature since it can copy the thoughts and mannerisms of all human beings who have died. It uses the knowledge to drive others to madness and such acts as murder and suicide..." well you know the kind of guy I mean!
The One'st has his own rather in depth page on wiki if you want to take your mouse & have a gander
I just wanted to show you the colour & texture of the mask that actor Nathan Fillion was wearing a number of (Buffy) summers back.
"Behind his priest's collar, Caleb is a sadistic sociopath with a pathological hatred of women. Impressed by his body's fortitude as well as his single-minded nature, the First Evil makes him the commander of its campaign of carnage and mayhem. He likes to reenact his killings by asking the First to take on the form of the girls he killed, so he may "kill them again." ."
The man who wore the Caleb-First Evil frock & mask, went on to play the love interest in Waitress. He put on the mask of a cute & slightly bumbling physician & went on to have an affair with Jenna Hunterson (Keri Russell), the pie (Pi?)-making & pregnant heroine of the movie, but she's another story.
We're following the Fillion-trail a-ways for now, even though it looks like we're about to change tack.
I have been researching this topic on & off for over a year now. Some time last year I mentioned 'the actress in Waitress who was murdered' to a lady I worked with. She thought she knew who I was talking about & said oh yes the 'actress who was shot'. "No" says I, & wondered who this actress she mentioned was & why she had connected her with a waitress.
When she remembered her name, I proceeded to look up Rebecca Schaeffer.
Note the continuation of our story-telling theme in the name of thrice-named-killer, in the wiki clip that follows.
"On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer was murdered by Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had been stalking her for three years... In 1989, after viewing Schaeffer's film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, in which she appeared in bed with a male actor, Bardo became enraged and decided that Schaeffer should be punished for becoming "another Hollywood whore."...
...An hour later, Bardo returned to Schaeffer's apartment for a second time. Schaeffer answered the door again with "a cold look on her face," Bardo later said. Bardo pulled out a gun from a brown paper bag and shot her once at point blank range in the chest in the doorway of her apartment building..."
I travelled down a sidetrack on this story for a bit but felt I was getting pulled from my current theme. Nevertheless I did want to draw attention to a number of points, which make the 'traditional' looney lone gunman tale a little story-esque.
"Robert John Bardo was the youngest of seven (magical?) siblings" & the "son of a former Air Force officer" - aren't they always?
Rebecca Schaeffer was 21 years old. I apologise for the next bit but info was a bit scarce & this does come from a site called morbid Hollywood, so allow for 'dramatisation' - " ... neighbor named Richard Goldman heard the two gunshots and two bloodcurdling screams and rushed to her door and found Schaeffer’s body clad in a black robe... in the building’s foyer. He checked her pulse, but found none. Her arms were akimbo and her feet were wedged between the door and its frame."
"In a religious context the threshold is a crucial element in initiation rites, indicating the passage from the profane to the sacred."
"In some cultures the threshold is considered to be a dwelling place of ghosts and the souls of the dead, who lead an existence in between the world of the living and the world of the dead."
Water, which is a recurring theme in this series, is considered the most feminine of the elements "Objects in nature suggesting aspects of its energy are a tear, waterfall, cave, doorway, arch, veil."
The young woman who was murdered in a doorway was 21 years old, the age when one is given the key to the door & an age that seems to be rather sacrificially popular (we'll return to this next time.)
Her death echoes another doorway ritual nine years earlier, "when Lennon was the only person inside the entrance archway — Chapman called out, "Mr. Lennon." Then he ... shot Lennon four times".
And 10 years later - "On the morning of 26 April 1999, [Jill] Dando left the home of her fiancé, ... and returned alone to her house in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. As she reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head".
I believe the reason my colleague linked Rebecca Schaeffer with Waitress was because of the movie Moonlight Mile from 2002: "written and directed by Brad Silberling. This film was loosely inspired by writer/director Brad Silberling's own experience. He was dating actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the time she was killed by an obsessed fan in 1989."
In the movie, Diana, a bride-to-be, is killed in a restaurant. Versions as to what happens vary, but it seems she comes between a waitress & her crazed boyfriend. The waitress is also shot, but lives.
One of the reasons I followed Rebecca Schaeffer's trail was that she starred in a soap called One Life to Live. Some years later this very this same show gave birth to Nathan Fillion's career.
Other career moves of Caleb:
"Fillion has lent his voice to the animated series Justice League Unlimited (as Vigilante in the episodes "Hunter's Moon)". Looking further we find that "The Hunter's Moon (also known as Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon) is the first full moon after the harvest moon, which is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox... In the northern hemisphere, the Hunter's Moon appears in October or November, usually in October." We recall that Adrienne Shelly was killed on Nov 1st. Many months ago I was at a library contemplating should I really write this series when in the space of less than 30 seconds I found myself being flagged down by two separate book titles - 'The Time of the Hunters Moon" followed by a murder mystery involving a hanging. In Waitress, the main character, played by Keri Russell, is Jenna Hunterson. I might not have paid so much attention had there not been a second Hunter in the movie - a child leaving the presence of the 'good doctor', sometimes known as Nathan Fillion. Recall that the woman killed in Moonlight Mile, based on Rebecca Schaeffer, is 'named' Diana - the goddess know hi-story-ically as 'The Huntress.'
"Diana was the perpetual virgin goddess of the hunt... She was also a moon goddess, and an emblem of chastity (recall why Rebecca Schaeffer was apparently murdered) ... Diana was referred to as the Divine Huntress and Lady of the Beast... The name Diana means Bright One, and fittingly Diana was known as the Goddess of the Moon... It was fitting that Diana was the Roman Goddess of the Amazons, since she possessed both strength and beauty as well as unmatched skill as a huntress"
Keri Rusell & Nathan Fillion gave their voices to Diana Prince & her Prince Charmed Steve Trevor this year, in the newly animated film, Wonder Woman.
The reason I followed Nathan Fillion's trail (with Keri Russell still to come), is because famous Death & these two main stars of Waitress seem to have a close affinity.
Before I go on, I should just mention that I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm merely playing (very seriously), with what are often very dark events, because it seems to be one of the best ways to create new outlooks on damnable deeds. At the present, I see Hollywood as a deeply & darkly deeded place. I feel most actors are pawns, used because something or things fits the rituals errr I mean movies that take place. I have been wondering if, when actors don their masked roles, they create or somehow become doorways through which other entities or energies may enter. Is there a reason why the word ACTinG incorporates all our DNA?
"Soooo anyway Mr Shakespeare, what's in a name, besides roses of course?".
"The boy's name Nathan... is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "God has given". Biblical: Nathan was God's prophet during the reigns of David and Solomon."
&
Fillion: "French: from a diminutive of Old French fils ‘son’ (Latin filius), used to denote the youngest son of a family".
The son God has given is raaather a spiffing name eh what?
Ok time to buckle up for the weirdest ride I've ever been on. You'll need a very light hand on your plausibility controls. Still what follows is what & where I got a couple of weeks ago.
I looked at Nathan Fillions masked name in Waitress. His persona is of a gentle, funny, slightly clumsy & slightly adulterous doctor. His name is Dr Pomatter (pronounced something like parm-ader). I scratched away at the internet, but only ever found my way back to Adrienne Shelly's movie. It was only this very morning that this - "The last name of Jenna's doctor, Pomatter, is the combination of three of Adrienne Shelly's favorite Yankees players", turned up. Had I read that previously perhaps I might not have played with the good doctors name.
But I did.
I went from a brief ride down Italy's Po river, but didn't catch anything except a cold. Then I tried Po + matter, & before long came upon a bounteous site. Among the nuggets of treasure wedged there, were these three gems, though at the time they didn't mean much,
"PO abbreviation for Latin per os (by mouth, orally)."
"po (from the article `creation myth`) The Maori make the same point when they state that the world parents emerge out of po. Po for the Maori means the basic matter and the method by which creation comes about..."
"Po Symbol for polonium."
It was the second point that really revved my engine. Another designer synch that had specific relevance to me in NZ, in one breath making use of both the words I had sought.
When I checked out Polonium, I found Alexander Litvinenko. In case you are not alredy enlightened, you can check out the kiwi oops I mean 'wiki' site here.
As a conscious media abstainer, the only recognition I had of this story was having seen his picture in wide-screen format on the fronts of many a newspaper. My original thought on reading about a poisoned Russian turned to the umbrella murder of many a year ago & I admit I was intrigued. But no, it seemed this was a fairly recent event after all. So I read. It was strange though because I felt like I'd taken the wrong internet turn & if it was not for the very specific to me 'Maori clue', I would perhaps have wandered elsewhere.
Litvivenko died of Polonium poisoning on 23rd November 2006. Certainly it was interesting that he had died around the time of Adrienne Shelly's death, but there didn't seem much more of a trail.
It was finding out that he had been poisoned on 1st November 2006, that upended my world. Finding out that on the same day that Adrienne Shelly was hanged, Litvinenko imbibed "po or Latin per os (by mouth, orally)" "the basic matter and the method by which creation comes about" or Po-lonium 210 (the key to the door). In following the trail of the demonic Caleb, I had cossed the Atlantic & found something very toxic in-deed.
Two murders committed on one highly charged day. Litvinenko may have taken a few weeks to die, but from 1st of November 2006 he was a murdered man.
Adrienne Shelly had created Dr Pomatter. Could we say that she had done what her namesake, Mary Shelley had done when she created Dr Frankenstein & his monster nearly two hundred years before. Both had taken 'words' - "the basic matter and the method by which creation comes about" & created something 'alive'.
I had followed a trail of fiction & crash landed in the world of reality...
.............................To be continued
Gaugin - Te Po (the Eternal Night) 1893-94
