My “Batman only exists because of 9/11” theory
I have a theory: today in 2023, we have a Batman because terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Centre towers in New York City, a.k.a Gotham City.
My premise is that timing of My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade’s release influenced Robert Pattison’s Batman at an influential age and made him the Bruce Wayne portrayed in the 2022 film, The Batman.
The 2022 Batman was born in 1991 or 1992, making him “about 30” when the movie was released.
The Batman’s parents died in 2001 (possibly 2002), the year that terrorists flew into the World Trade Towers and changed the world forever. One such change being that Gerard Way formed the band My Chemical Romance in response to the attacks. The other obvious infliction point here is that the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne is the motivation for young Bruce to become Vengeance personified.
In 2006 when The Batman was about 15 or 16 ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ was released. Bruce is still rattled by his parent’s murders, growing up a young boy trying to figure out who he is and what his purpose is.
Your teenage years and the music you listen to through those years are formative to who you are and the music you love.
Look at some of My Chemical Romance’s lyrics from the Black Parade:
When I was a young boy, My father took me into the city, To see a marching band. He said, “Son, when you grow up, Would you be the savior of the broken, The beaten and the damned?” He said, “Will you defeat them? Your demons, and all the non-believers, The plans that they have made?” “Because one day, I’ll leave you a phantom…
Cut to 2022 in film, The Batman
“They think I am hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows.”
Bruce Wayne is the Batman we know in 2022 because of 9/11.
Goldie, who just turned two, just buckled up her own airplane seat and is patiently awaiting takeoff whilst playing peek-a-boo with three different strangers and babbling to her neighbour.
So yeah, I think she’s doing ok developmentally.
Nashville, Tennessee ✈️ Phoenix, Arizona ✈️ Kona, Big Island of Hawaiʻi
The news is incentivised to be broken and terrible
I was a media and news man for over a decade, I loved being - what I considered to be - an important part of the community, telling its stories and keeping the community informed, safe, and entertained.
But the industry isn’t doing well.
The second story on news.com.au today is about a Fox News story about a recent TikTok that went viral, which the newsdesk found out about through a Twitter user sharing the TikTok in three parts, and the TikTok was just a replay of a Youtube clip from a radio show four years ago.
Serendipitously the original clip and radio show was broadcast about one kilometre from where I type this in Franklin, Tennessee, but there’s no good reason for Australia’s national news website - news.com.au - to publish this as a second story today. That the second most important story in Australia today is a four year old viral video is an insult to the wealth of stories Australia has to tell, and the global stories it could engage with.
Yes, it gets the clicks. Yes, it’s actually an important story inside the video, be debt free. But from a professional storytelling point of view it’s embarrassing for the news.com.au staff. Even the actual article is poorly written and just lazy.
This is the downfall of society, our storytellers are poorly incentivised to do good work, and over incentivised to do work that gets clicks that advertisers want even though no-one is clicking the ads.
Will, a mate of mine has written and released a guide on working in film and television production, something he’s an expert in.
I thought readers of my blog might appreciate the book if they or people they knew aspired to work in film production (it’s a great and personal read, even for me, an old man without film and TV aspirations), but also, they’d enjoy this excerpt about what technology you should own and be proficient in before you start as a production assistant.
“Seriously, people will look at you like you have three heads as you drag that eighty-pound hunk of plastic with the extended numerical keyboard from your bag and plop it on the desk.”
If you, or someone you know, wants a start in the film and TV production industry Will’s the book is a must-purchase and must-read - and it’s now on Kindle.
Because I’m a man-child I wanted to share my two of my favourite photos from photographing the horse sanctuary in Baja
Reckon we could get the ChatGPT guys to spend an an afternoon working on spam filtering?
Once all the adults admit that they don’t know what a conservatory is we’ll finally get world peace
Bad news for plastic kitchen good lovers, Tupperware is about to go broke. Turns out they were about seven decades too early on the influencer marketing trend.
Six months a gringo and no bad days
Six months ago to the day we arrived in Baja California Sur without even knowing that’s what B.C.S. stood for in our hotel’s address as we filled out the entry cards.
Six months on I have a wealth of stories that I feel odd about sharing. Most of them are about how different it is in Mexico compared to Australia. Who knew?! But I can’t find a way to tell the stories without admitting that they were witnessed through my own lens of how the world should be. Paved roads, hot and strong coffee, tacos with proteins other than seafood in them, and the story about the story about George Clooney the bartender told me, all really don’t matter, unless we’re a few whiskies deep around a campfire. It’s different here, not all roads are paved, and gringoes like me have been walking in for years wondering why things here aren’t like home.
The truth is that Mexico is jam-packed with amazing people. We’ve never felt safer and we love it here.
My one takeaway today is that in six months I’ve seen about six clouds. Baja really lived up to its slogan: no bad days.
Our last Baja sunset for a while
Our last day in Baja
Last day of school for the girls in Baja
Never forget the French dancing plague of the summer of 1518.
Charlie Munger on how the world actually works:
Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.
I’ve thought about these three points pretty much every hour of every day since I first read it three days ago in James Clear’s 3-2-1 email
The future of content: video of someone watching a video of someone who wrote a song about their low self esteem sponsored by a real estate agent I’d not do business with if only because I’m not going to click an ad to take me away from watching this train wreck of a video.
Location, location, location #playacerritos
You’ve got to get up early to catch the Mexican Coke dealers
Todos Santos, BCS, on Good Friday
