Musings from Ballantine 666
“Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions. Your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administering stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.”
― Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man
When you last heard from us over a year ago, we were writing with a spirit of optimism as we seemed to be emerging from a pandemic that had stolen a year of our lives.
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...Rachel: “It would be really weird to have sex with an invisible person.... I guess it wouldn’t be any different from a blind person having sex.”
Jon: “Yeah, Daredevil could date the Invisible Woman and he wouldn’t even notice she’s invisible.”
In our last post, we talked about the power of invisibility in comics and movies, first touching on some common mechanisms which render a character invisible, and then discussing the obvious benefits of such a power as well as some potential negative consequences.
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..."If I wanted to listen to people have random conversations, I'd turn invisible and go to a cocktail party."
-Rachel, on why she only really prefers very well-produced and well-structured podcasts, if at all.
The age-old debate, as exemplified by Act I of the This American Life episode “Superpowers,” asks people to decide whether they would want to be able to fly or turn invisible. Jon's opinion was that while flight would possibly be the most thrilling power and would be useful in at least a few types of situations,
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...“Eines der wirksamsten Verführungsmittel des Bösen ist die Aufforderung zum Kampf.” (One of the most effective means of seduction that Evil has is the invitation to struggle.)
- Franz Kafka, Die Aphorismen
So you want to be a supervillain, but you're worried that you might not have what it takes? Anybody can be bad or selfish…that's just a state. But becoming a supervillain? That's a career choice that takes dedication and preparation.
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...In December, we presented a weekly series of 10 cocktail suggestions for the holiday season. In the spirit of rejuvenation, we've decided to participate in Dry January. People may choose not to drink for a variety of reasons. Maybe they're permanently sober, maybe they're just taking some time to detox a little, or maybe they just don't want to drink every night of the week. Whatever your reasons, it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy something fancy or festive,
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...The Superhero Landing - sometimes referred to as a "three-point landing" - involves heroes touching down after flying or jumping from a great height by catching themselves on two feet and one hand, typically crouching into the kneeling position at the end, if not flat out landing on their one hand, one knee, and the opposite foot in a bend-leg crouch. Here to demonstrate it is Tony Stark - aka Iron Man - at his very own Stark Expo in Iron Man 2:
The landing is certainly impressive,
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...In the spirit of taking time to reflect on New Year's Eve, we want to present two sides of reflection: looking back and looking forward.
...For this week's drink, we review a Blue Motorcycle and a Sidecar, and consider who's driving the bike and who's riding shotgun?
...There's a surprising (and perhaps annoying?) amount of alliteration in character names in comics. Whether it is intended to be a clever play on sound or have some other purpose is not entirely clear, although the late Stan Lee claimed that he used the convention to make it easier to remember the names of characters that he created.
...In Week 2 of "Superman and God's Cocktail Countdown to the New Year", we've decided we should pay homage to the workplace of the world's greatest superhero by making drinks in honor of two of his closest friends and colleagues.
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