San Junipero: All My Questions

I'm late to the game watching the Emmy Award winning episode of Black Mirror, San Junipero, that aired over a year ago - and I have a lot of questions.

Just to give some quick background: San Junipero is a virtual reality party/vacation town for anyone who is dying, sick, or otherwise unable to experience an active life. They are allowed to hang out in this virtual space for scheduled periods of time to let loose and do whatever they want in a variety of decades. If you're definitely going to pass away you can set it up so your mind is linked to San Junipero, and then you can live there forever.

Questions:

Is San Junipero designed as a generalized concept of Heaven, and how much can you actually customize it?
We get the impression right away that this virtual reality experience is set in very specific years. The main characters choose to live in primarily 1987. The assumption is that anyone who is using the system chooses to live in a time when they were once young. No one in San Junipero looks like they're under 21 or over 35. That either means no one wants to or they don't have the option to spend their fun fantasy time (or their eternity) as a 10 year old or a 40 year old. I don't blame them.

I also get the impression that you can choose ANY year you desire to live in, and the system will strictly adhere to that year's clothing, media and music. Not sure how much leeway you get, considering in reality people don't change their wardrobe every year or stop listening to older songs. In San Junipero you just blink and the clothing has changed on your body, so you don't have to live as mortals do, saving clothing at a rate you can afford. But as far as music goes in the 1987 version of San Junipero: can you at least privately listen to songs from the 1960s, or music from the future that we all know exists? Or for the sake of creating the perfect time capsule are you relegated to listening to the same set of hit songs from that year until you decide you're sick of it and what to change time periods? Which brings me to my next question...

You can change time periods as a visitor of San Junipero, but once you're a resident (and therefore deceased) can you continue to change your settings?
This distinction is not made clear, but it's also not clear how the settings for time period and also pain threshold (eek) are set anyway. We don't see a San Junipero console, all we see is a little round censor placed on the temple, and a remote control with one button. Maybe most of the settings are just linked to brainwaves and you can control it with your mind in a way that we can't comprehend at this point in technology's history. If our consciousness is all that's controlling it, then why can't the disembodied consciousness of someone in San Junipero spend eternity visiting all the different time periods?

How many time periods are there actually?
The earliest year we see is 1980. In this future world that year might be serving the oldest citizens using it since the software was made. Assuming that these people were in their 20's in the 1980s, the software must have been made around 2040-2050. I don't know the most recent decade you can go in San Junipero either. But...

What about people who want to live the rest of their lives in 1940? 
Is there a market for that in 2040? Or do people from the future know living that far back kind of sucked? But if you can't get sick or hurt, why the hell not? I know there has to be some kind of limit though. The amount of effort put into designing the costumes and structures, and storing all the TV, movies, music, and video games, it might not be worth it to cater to an errant person from the future wanting to live like their great grandparents. In any case, an unpopular time period would be too underpopulated to be any fun. But having little human interaction might be your thing anyway.

Are there any fake individuals in San Junipero?
You know, to take up space or serve the visitors? I was wondering what the bartender's deal was. Is he a slave of sorts, or just a guy who wished to be a 1987 bar tender in perpetuity? Are there people paid to plug in just to be waitstaff.... or spies! Oh my God, someone write fan fiction about it and develop this world!

Is the fun beach town of San Junipero really the only setting or are there other climates you can live in?
Aside from a brief shot at the end of rolling hills that said 'Oklahoma' to me, all we see for a setting is this hip beach town where it's always warm and comfortable aside from some rain here and there. But what about people who love the snow? Or people who love New England in the fall? Those climes don't sound like 'San Junipero', they'd have to be set somewhere else. Is there another VR experience called 'Oak Dale' for people who love fall, and all they do is wear sweaters and drink Pumpkin Spice Lattes all day (and I guess it's gotta be at least 2003)? If this doesn't exist and everyone has to do San Junipero or bust, is that why the Quagmire exists? It's a club of sorts where you can enjoy the punk/alt music of the era while engaging in hardcore S&M. They allude to this as a dark place that people go to "feel something" when they're sick of San Junipero's squeaky clean scene. It seems like you can go there to get hard drugs with no consequences, and almost die on a loop.

Yorkie outside the Quagmire 

Was the Quagmire created by the designers because they new (or figured out later) that it was necessary? Kelly was able to make a custom house for herself but I don't imagine that the entire Quagmire could be created by the visitors or residents despite their perceived ability to customize their environment. Or maybe they can, and they did! If it was user created that would be interesting because it would call into question what people do with near limitless imagination, as well as the level of observation and maintenance of the company that facilitated the building of it. Would they care if the residents built a Sex Cauldron? Did they sit back and go, "Ok...fun... we'll allow it." It all brings me back to the question, what if your preferred lifestyle just doesn't fit in and there's nothing you can do about it?

If there are some resident's who are so sick of San Junipero that they hang out at the Quagmire all day getting suffocated with a plastic bag, then is San Junipero Heaven or no?
All I could think about while watching was how A) if this is the only town you could live in, wouldn't a good portion of the population hoping to die and go to virtual reality heaven be turned off of participating? Or is it so special and rare that you can participate in this at all, that most people go along with it? And B) even if you thought this was your idea of heaven, wouldn't you eventually go murderously insane? Especially if you had to be set in one time period for eternity.

But even if after passing on you could go to whatever time period you wanted and dress however you want, and never feel pain, and never have to pay for drinks, and be in the best version of your body, don't you still have the humanity left in you to get bored? Like really really bored. And then you get this Westworld kind of situation where people go rogue and start stabbing each other and try acting out their most evil fantasies. Even though no one is in danger of dying in San Junipero, wouldn't that be distressing to the experience of others?

Is there any kind of policing? 
Kelly mentions something along the lines of a "redlight" which might be like flagging a user for inappropriate content. I'd like to know how bad it can get before someone is removed for bad behavior. Do those people get shut off, banned, or if they paid to live there for eternity, get cordoned off in some kind of San Junipero jail or mental institution?

There was some talk about being able leave at any time, but I have my suspicion that this is only for visitors. If you could decide to quit as a permanent resident, (aka truly end your life) then wouldn't the idea of that option loom over you? In your darkest moments would you question going through with it and die a second death? You see characters in the episode look sad, dejected, disappointed, longing. Sure, some of these people are probably the ones with a human body to go home to and fret about the real world, but who's to say the consciousness of the dead version of you would be different? Care free no matter what? If you can still have those emotions how can nice weather, no paper cuts, and free booze ever maintain your happiness forever? With the human consciousness maintained there is no way San Junipero is heaven. It's a second universe, and at worst a prison.

What if something destroyed the system they're all uploaded to?
I guess that would be the end of it then. Oh well.

Conclusions:

- Under the assumption that you can only live in San Junipero and it's climate; you can jump from year to year, but the earliest you get is 1980; and everyone in existence is 25; it might not be the right experience for everyone.
- Too many time periods would get messy for designers.
- Too few time periods would be boring if you truly desire a time period predating your own, or are spending eternity within only 60 years to play with.
- They should make Ski Town for the snow birds.
- Westworld style hosts??
- People can't stay sane without being a little kinky and violent so the Quagmire exists, and might actually prevent people from ax-murdering everyone at the arcade by letting off steam.
- Never being able to die ever, AND being promised eternity with a permanent death of your choice are both maddening concepts.
- Maybe I'm just pessimistic but I cannot imagine this is a solid idea in reality, but a fabulous TV show!

The Grim Sleeper : Gripping South LA for a Reign of 25 years

We can be thankful that Lonnie Franklin is in prison for murder. On May 5, 2016 a jury found the so called "Grim Sleeper" guilty of the murders of ten women over the course of 14 years. This was relevant news to me since I was captivated by the HBO documentary Tales of the Grim Sleeper nearly a year before this conviction. At the outset of the film, directed by Nick Broomfield in 2014, we are made aware that the Grim Sleeper had been captured in 2010 and was awaiting the conclusion of his trial. The evidence was damning and he had little to prove innocence in court. But for over two decades Lonnie Franklin seemingly lived without fear of being caught for coldblooded serial murder.


Lonnie didn't hide, he just lived in a world where someone like him can rule the streets.    

At the start of the film, Broomfield enters Lonnie Franklin's South Los Angeles, CA neighborhood, and is treated with hostility by his former neighbors. They are in the mindset that Lonnie is innocent, that he was of good character, and it was all simply unbelievable. Maybe he was framed. Maybe it was lazy detective work. After spending more time in this neighborhood, and interviewing women - who did not have positive interactions with Lonnie - these same friends started requesting private interviews.

Still from Tales of the Grim Sleeper with one of Lonnie Franklin's friends and Nick Broomfield.

In these interviews friends would confess that they thought Lonnie was strange. He was kinky with women, he had his vices. He took photographs of women in precarious or violent positions. Lonnie had a gun. He wore it in his front pocket and showed it to people. It was the same gun the police would later identify as the murder weapon for seven out of the ten of his victims.

All of this was revealed and heavily padded with excuses and sheepish apologies. "I'm not proud of it." they would say. Lonnie's friends were well aware of his perversions, and they relished in it at the time. They swapped dirty photos, they shrugged and laughed when they saw hand cuffs in his car, and harbored the knowledge that Lonnie had a special van for putting women in bondage. But he was just "into women."

180 photos of women were found in Lonnie's house. Of the ten bodies found, all of the victims photos were in his collection.

When Lonnie asked some of these men to clean this van - on a fairly regular basis - no one thought twice when the rug had a dark substance in it. Then they convinced themselves it was oil, but looking back on it, it came up too easy to be oil. They can't quite picture it now. It could have been blood.

Later in the film other friends resurface to tell their tales, and they become more cavalier. Some of them are former crack addicts who admit they helped destroy evidence or even found women for him (who would most likely be his murder victims). These men did it for the crack he was supplying. It didn't matter that the car was filled with bloody clothes and God knows what else, these men needed to burn it to a crisp and get paid. It didn't matter that the woman they picked up was being tortured by Lonnie right in front of them, they needed to get high.

Forget about going to the cops. In this neighborhood the distrust for the police and the police's own disdain for this community helped facilitate a man like Lonnie. This was the perfect place to be a serial murderer. Women were being killed, and the cops weren't taking the time to investigate. These were crack addicts and prostitutes, or women who might fit the profile if you glance at the color of her skin and the street sign her body was found near.

The Grim Sleeper's ten identified victims

There are many survivors who were sexually assaulted and tortured. Women who tell the tale do not often have a section of the story where they report the crime to the police. At the time they were hooking and or high, and extremely vulnerable to arrest for their own crimes. All they could do was escape from his clutches, run for safety and learn their lesson never to sleep with him again. Lonnie knew this. That's why he got away with it for so long.

Near the end of the film, some of Lonnie's friends are laughing about him as they did at the very beginning. No longer are they hushed and concerned, ruminating over how someone they knew was very likely a serial murderer. Now they are quite sure he did it, and they gleefully approach Broomfield to share their anecdotes. All of their personal evidence has been compiled and outed among themselves.

Instead of laughing about how Lonnie would always be in his front yard chatting with the neighbors - truly painting an suburban ideal - they were laughing about how much Lonnie hated crackheads. They chuckled about how it was his first wife's fault that he hated crackheads, because she was one herself. They smiled about how he would openly tell them he was "cleaning up" the neighborhood. They all knew what it meant, and they were cool with it.

Lonnie was finally captured because his son Christopher was arrested. Lonnie had been arrested many times before for various crimes, but a new policy enforced by the LAPD to collect DNA from all arrested persons was only in existence since 2004. Lonnie narrowly escaped it after being convicted of a felony in 2003.

His son's DNA was a partial match to the DNA found on all of the bodies. Christopher could only be a relative of the Grime Sleeper. Besides, he was too young to have murdered the women who were killed in the 1980s. Lonnie Franklin's DNA was a perfect match.

Lonnie was sloppy. His DNA was all over the victims. The most vulnerable members of the community were too afraid to come forward. It was clear that the police didn't take it seriously anyway. Survivors that did come forward to the police went through the rigmarole of reporting, only to be filed away despite the multitude of evidence (descriptions of his appearance, the bright orange Pinto everyone knew he drove, bullets from the gun he consistently used, rape kits with his DNA). The key word here is consistent because Lonnie barely tried to hide, but it took 25 years for him to be stopped.

It's terrifying to think of the unreported crimes that occur in neighborhoods like this all of the country. Imagine a place the cops won't touch, the victims are doubly powerless, and a person like the Grim Sleeper will meet you in the middle. 
 

A Fire You Can't Put Out

"This process is necessary to prevent such a terrible thing to ever happen again."

- Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission Chairman William H. Brown III, 1985

Being nostalgic for the 90s is what people do now, and I'm no exception. I was 6 in 1993, so I was somewhat aware of the news but definitely not all the shady details. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary by Brett Morgan called June 17th, 1994 is amazing to watch if you know about the white Bronco chase with OJ Simpson, but didn't know it was one of the biggest days in sports history. Seriously - so many things were happening that day and history was being made, but OJ really cluttered up the news. It's a superb documentary, and the kind where the director lets the found footage do all the talking - which is my favorite style of documentary - but this isn't about June 17th, 1994. 

That doc about the 90s spurred me on to watch a doc about another event that happened in my lifetime, but was too young to understand. I started searching for Waco.

Director: Wiliam Gazecki 1997

On YouTube I found Waco: The Rules of Engagement. Directed by William Gazecki, the film mostly conveys an anti ATF stance, where footage and phone conversations between the cult group, the Branch Davidians, and the FBI show that the US government ruthlessly attacked women and children in the name of suppressing a group that was stockpiling weapons. During the 51 day siege, there were disputes over who fired the first shot, the ATF insisting one of the Davidians fired first, prompting the incessant teargassing and machine gun fire that would eventually set the compound ablaze and kill 76 people.

While the leader David Koresh was infamous for allegations that he was sexually abusing young female followers, certain scenes from the subsequent trial, implied that discussion about the sexual perversions of David Koresh were considered a diversion from the serious transgressions of the ATF. For instance, the ATF's defense brought in a witness who was molested by Koresh years before when her family was in the cult. While her testimony was tragic the prosecution questioned the relevance and reminded the defense that despite what David Koresh may have done to those poor people, the ATF was still under fire for possibly contributing to the effective execution of those individuals who were victimized by Koresh as they described. This thorough film makes a point to stay on track and focus solely on the siege and it's aftermath.


 With this still fresh in my mind, I searched Netflix for similar fare, and the title Let The Fire Burn caught my eye.

Director: Jason Osder 2013

As it turns out, eight years earlier, another group considered to be a cult, was burned alive in their compound. This time, it took place in West Philadelphia. It's 1985, Mother's Day, and the Pennsylvania State Police are once again after the black liberation / back to nature cult, the Move Organization. Move was thought to have stockpiled fire arms, in addition to creating dozens of complaints from neighbors concerning building codes and aggressive behavior. They, like the Davidians, experienced a siege. Theirs only lasted 24 hours, but managed to destroy 60 homes in a dense neighborhood. Only two people in the Move house survived.

Much like Waco, the facilitators of the siege were taken to court over the validity of the force and fire used to vacate the people of Move from their house; a force that appeared to be an outright murder rather than an evacuation.

It is disheartening to know that something like this would happen over again, and I wonder what other instances of this escalation have happened or could be currently happening.

This is a venn diagram of how the Waco siege and the Move siege held many similarities.

The opening quote spoken by William H. Brown III is from court room footage in Let The Fire Burn. The "process" he describes is the thorough interviews and testimonies given by the police, the remaining and former members of the cult organization in question, and the innocent civilians who were affected. All sides believed themselves the victims in some aspect, and it was important to hear all sides to find justice.

The similarities of this incident to Waco struck me, but I believe the Move siege appeared to have affected many more people who had nothing to do with Move or the Philadelphia police. On the one hand the neighbors did want to see Move, well, move. On the other hand the police wanted to smoke out 11 people from one building so badly 60 homes were destroyed in the process. While the citizens had negative testimonies concerning Move's relationship to the community, they were rightfully up in arms over how the Philadelphia police handled the situation.

Between the two documentaries Let The Fire Burn was my favorite. Waco: The Rules of Engagement
was informative, but very long, clocking in at over 2 hours. As mentioned earlier, I really enjoy a documentary that can convey it's message without talking heads or narration in the traditional sense, and Let The Fire Burn was successfully made in that style. Footage from local news stations of that fateful day are interwoven with segments of a student documentary from the 1970s about Move, and video of the court proceedings with some captions, but no narration whatsoever. It gives you a sense of the time period and the emotions flowing behind every viewpoint. It speaks to all sides of the story and attempts at purveying the truth.

I Ripped Off the Band-Aid and Watched Dear Zachary

"You still have children." says it all. It is a phrase that beautifully expresses what this film is about without giving too much away. I am glad that I am able to share it with you.

 

 

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is a 2008 film directed and narrated by Kurt Kuenne. I can't say too much without spoiling it, so I will be brief. It's a documentary about a man named Andrew Bagby and the immense wave of life and love that he spread over so many people. Production was between 2001 and 2003, but found footage dates back decades. Kuenne artfully edits in the old footage with the new, making humorous and also heartbreaking mirror imagery.

 

Some notes about Dear Zachary:

 

This film will make you grieve for someone you have never met.

 

It is a living and breathing project that took years to make and evolved in earth-shattering ways. 

 

It will open your eyes to how valuable a life is, and how life and death can be equally enormous.

 

This film will make you hate Canada. I know it sounds weird now - but trust me - you will.

 

It will show you how someone can go through hell and still go on living.

 

If you didn't know already, it will help you understand what it means to love a child.

 

You will cry.

That is all I am willing to divulge. IMDB might say more in the description, but if you haven't already read it or been told by someone else, just go straight from here to Netfilx and watch. 

#history

The song #Selfie by The Chainsmokers is the new Valley Girl.

 

That is all... 

 

Wait - Let me take a selfie.

 

 

Computer Chess: Through the Eyes of the Machine and All of It's Limitations

Computer Chess takes the period piece to a new level by filming with the period's own media. Director Andrew Bujalski creates a spot-on early 1980s mise en scene, but also adds the perspective of an early 1980s camera. Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation (2005) and Funny Ha Ha (2002)) filmed with analog black and white video cameras (save for a brief scene possibly filmed with color 8mm). The quality of the cinematography is what you would expect from a low budget documentary made in the early 1980s; a simple documentation of a low-profile hotel-hosted event. It's quivering, there's ghosting, it's in 3:4 aspect ratio, and nothing is ever quite in focus. At the start of the film we understand that this is footage from an early 1980s computer programing competition. It is hosted by a pompous, elderly champion chess player who will play the winning computer; the one best programmed to play chess.

The mockumentary status of the film only last for the first few minutes, until we are shown omniscient scenes and angles that could only exists if there were many many nosy, easy to ignore camera men. The camera man who films the actual documentation of the competition is often filmed himself, but by who? That's when it's clear this will be more than a mocukmentary, and the reality of the film is seen through the eyes of the machine and all of it's limitations.

One of the main characters is Wiley Wiggins who is no stranger to mind bending movies thanks to Richard Linklater

A film from 2012 called No used a similar technique by filming it's 1988 Chilean period piece with ¾ inch Sony U-matic magnetic tape. This artistic decision is a bold one, since there is a risk that viewers could just not get it and become frustrated with the quality, or on the reverse, be so distracted and enchanted by it's novelty that they would over-look how possibly awful it is on other levels. (I was going to use Casa de Mi Padre as an example, but no one was fooled by that one).

Bujalski uses this film style not only to be super realistic but as a metaphorical tool. Computer Chess is about exactly what it sounds like. The chess board is black and white, so is the film. The video camera is as much a part of technology as the chess playing computers, and by today's standards they are both laughable in their capabilities. Despite the decades of advancement, I can never claim to come close to the level of programing the characters in this film were executing. That said, it is a unique experience to see these characters working hard to find the answers behind a curtain of primitive cinematography, where they are portrayed as complicated and intelligent people and not the butt of a joke about how "simple" computers used to be. The point is that they have never been too simple.

While A.I. sounds like a Steven Spielberg movie from 2001, the characters in Computer Chess discuss the concept of Artificial Intelligence even while they work on computers that can't display video, don't have Internet, and need to be 50 lbs to play a game of chess - and only chess.

Of course the theme that begs to come along with Artificial Intelligence is the differences between computers and humans. Computers are numbers, boxes, logic, metal, wires; they can become stuck in a loop where logic fails. Humans are souls, emotional, social, sexual; they make mistakes but they have the ability to move forward despite this. The foil of the computer chess competition is a couples' retreat held by an African guru. Every day their sessions immediately precede the computer chess competition in the same function hall. The groups are fundamental opposites of each other. The group of computer programmers are in a competition, they are socially awkward and tense. The group of couples on their retreat are always huddled in a circle shouting out strange noises and having re-birthing ceremonies. They seem genuinely interested in the computer people, and want to interact with them despite the lack of reciprocation or outright hostility. The contrast is striking and important. As said by one of these couples, "We don't believe in coincidences."

Computer Chess is not what it seems. I will leave you with some key words and themes to remember: A.I., birth, loops, nature v.s computers, sex vs. nerds, the infinite, cats.

 

Toynbee Tiles and the Drive to Understand an Insane Thought Process

In case you don't know, the so called "Toynbee Tiles" are the epitome of underground gorilla propaganda.

First and most prominently found in Philadelphia - but also found in cities across the north east/west, and in South America - the Toynbee Tiles are messages adhered to the pavement. Starting in the early 1980s, the same message was seen repeatedly throughout Philly, "Toynbee Idea, In Kubrick's 2001, Resurrect Dead, On Planet Jupiter." Sometimes they would be accompanied by side notes that said things like,  'Murder every journalist I beg you.', 'That's when I begged them not to destroy it. Thank you and goodbye.' and 'I am only one man.' Absolutely the ramblings of a sad and paranoid individual. But no one could figure out who this person was, or even how they could manage to put these tiles on busy streets and highways all over the country and abroad without a trace.

The 2011 documentary by Jon Foy, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, follows a man's obsession with finding the meaning, origin, and maker of the Toynbee Tiles. Justin Duerr , the protagonist, says, "'Toynbee Idea' was the first thing I put into an Internet search." Obsessed with the tiles since 1994, Duerr and a group of like-minded friends set out to find the Toynbee Tiler and understand his message. Where Duerr and his friends take you is unexpected. In the course of the film they cover underground societies, railroad routs, shortwave radio, and the lore of Philly locals. 

Justin Duerr over a Toynbee Tile

What can be surmised from the main four lines spotted over 100 times throughout Philly, can be broken down as such:
Toynbee Idea - Reference to Arnold J. Toynbee, a British historian who believed that the molecules of the dead could be put back together to resurrect all previous human life.

In Kubrick's 2001 - Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which shows themes of cyclical life and death.

Resurrect The Dead - See Toynbee Idea above.

On Planet Jupiter - A monolith is found on Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey which is the only obvious tie between Jupiter and the rest of the lines. 

The tiler appears to believe that the movie 2001 takes Toynbee's idea further by showing how we can execute this theory on Jupiter. But how did this person come to that conclusion, why is it so important that the message gets across, and why do they have to be incognito? 

After learning about the tiles, the viewer needs answers. That's what makes Resurrect Dead amazing to watch: the palpable excitement of the chase. The documentary succeeds in making Duerr's enthusiasm contagious. Anyone can relate to the concept of seeing something strange that maybe most people overlook. It's the idea that someone out there is trying to send a message, and in their bizarre manner of doing so, it feels like it's just for you (since everyone in the street is just walking over it like it's not there, instead of making a massive crowd around it. No, it is just you standing there taking photos and getting in the way of commuters).

This story is reminiscent of my own case of unexplained phenomena. Over the past two years of living near a particular CVS in Allston, MA, I have noticed odd piles of ground up food next to an electrical box. The box is right outside the CVS and is not particularly close to any restaurants - not close enough to make this spot an obvious dumping ground. Every once in a while (I have not found a pattern yet) the food will be there at night. The offerings are either cooked rice, ground-up white bread, or a mix of the two. The piles are sometimes so big they lean against the electrical box as if it poured out of the vents. The next day it is completely gone, leaving a perpetual dark grease spot.

A massive offering that has been spread about.

A smaller, grosser looking pile.

I have never seen it being put there, or seen what eats it up/takes it away. My guess is that pigeons eat it, based on one time I found red beans scattered about as if rice and beans were put there but the birds could only consume the rice. And all the bird poop. But who is the person offering up this food like a sacrifice to an electrical box god?

Only red beans left...

Much like Duerr's Toynbee Tile investigation, I want to know what this person's intentions are. When the message is that cryptic, being able to solve it means to understand another person's thought process. A connection is made. The non sequitur becomes a sensible part of life.

 Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is available on Netflix.

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator

What is the worst thing that could happen to someone who has tons of money, never been told no, and has enough hubris leaking out of their butt to start a Greek tragedy fire?

As a follow up to my reflection of the 1990s in my last post, and continuing with this long trail of documentaries featuring tragic and bizarre events/people, I present to you, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator. 

Directed by Helen Stickler in 2002, this documentary delves into mid 1980s professional skate culture, explaining the conditions that could cause a horrific crime such as the rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten in 1991 by pro-skateboarder, Mark "Gator" Rogowski.

Stickler paints a picture of a young man thrown into fame in a niche culture, where his persona as an arrogant teen was praised and rewarded. After climbing to fame in the late 1980s as a vert skateboarder, Rogowski's behavior moved from typical teen antics to erratic manic behavior in addition to alcoholism. Street style skateboarding over took vert skating, and Rogowski had trouble catching up. After Rogowski and his girlfriend Brandi broke up, he lashed out on an old friend of hers, Jessica Bergsten; a woman he considered responsible for Brandi leaving him.  

Rogowski phones in his interview from prison as he serves a life sentence.  Since California law prohibits live interviews with inmates serving a life sentence, Rogowski's current appearance is left a mystery, save a couple candid shots near the end of the film, taken in prison at undisclosed dates. Stickler inundates the audience with images of Rogowski in his twenties: cocky, attractive, talented, funny, charismatic. Then every once in a while we are ripped back to reality, hearing Rogowski's voice crackling through the phone, haggard by regret. A major theme in this film is that nothing lasts forever, and it is particularly poignant to see the vestiges of Rogowski's fame, youth, and vitality remain only in old footage, while he currently has virtually no identity.  

This film is an excellent time capsule of the late 80s. It presents the neon punk attitude of the time, and injects it with a serious reality check.



Keep watching at the end of the credits, it shows the transcripts of police interviews with Gator, and a taped interview at a skating event.

Style Wars

Just as a disclaimer, I know it can be annoying to watch full-length movies on YouTube. Rarely are they in one piece, and good luck if you can find all of parts 1 of 8 in a logical order. Don't fret, because for your viewing pleasure, I found the full length version of the 1984 documentary, Style Wars.  Directed by Tony Silver, Style Wars follows the graffiti culture of New York City during the early 1980s. The film has a gritty, 70's quality to it, some of it shot in black and white.  If you like Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, and other movies about NYC before it got cleaned-up, this is for you. It is apparent that everyone is just trying to deal with this chaotic environment. The upright citizens bemoan the graffiti on the trains and lump the graffiti artists with other criminals, while the artists defend their craft, and paint whenever possible despite efforts against them. It is apparent that both sides are victims of their society. 

While some of the graffiti is impressive and obviously took a lot of skill to execute, I do think the young taggers for the most part were unwittingly sustaining the broken windows theory: basically if you leave a broken window, then crimes escalating in severity will be committed. The interviews with the young graffiti artists are eye-opening. These boys between the ages of 12 and 20 are well-spoken, and have strong beliefs in their art. It's amazing to hear them talk about why they tag, how they are building names for themselves.

Shots of the train yards at night are chilling. It's a place most people don't see, but the graffiti artists are very familiar with it. At one point an extremely panoramic shot of a fabulously painted subway train moves across the screen for about 2 minutes. As a photographer I am still a bit baffled at how they got the shot without any visible breaks in the image. Style Wars is beautifully filmed, a worth while exploration.