After many months I can finally say that the back of this jacket is done!Will I ever add anything to it? Probably, but I am happy with it right now.
This jacket is originally from the clearance section of Killstar. I actually went around my town seeing what kind of denim jackets were on sale. All of them were more expensive than this one so I went for it. It came with the grommet lacing on the sleeves and with the ripped hole in the back. Everything else on the back I did myself.
Notice how I hung the chain from two safety pins on a seam. I was originally going to hang it from the bottom, but that top seam is very thick and can hold the weight way better. I also put a few safety pins on the bottom and hung some keychains from them. I got the patches and studs from Etsy. The most difficult thing for me was sewing the arm patches onto the upper sleeves, and placing small green and yellow pyramid studs below them.
The cool thing about this jacket is that if something falls off that’s okay because it is not meant to be perfect. For example, one of the upper safety pins I used on the Obey patch has come off and I am not worried about it. It’ll get replaced when I replace it. I used mainly green and yellow accents for this jacket because it goes well with the patches.
I hope this has inspired you to create some DIY projects of your own because it’s a lot of fun and in the end you get to wear something that is distinctly yours.
EDIT: Just noticed that I actually wrote about this film earlier so I guess this would be a part 2? That must mean I really like it.LOL
Before I get started talking about this film I want to let my new readers know that I don’t do strict film reviews. I like to talk about the social ramifications of films, what they can teach us and how they fit into our current dystopian hellscape. There will be SPOILERS.
I am a John Carpenter fangirl who loves his films and his music. With that being said this is my all time favourite film of his, because I feel like it actually ‘gets’ me. It takes a very sharp look at capitalistic consumer culture and what it does to a society who lets it take control of their lives.
This is not a very complex film, in either message or tone. A group of people living in poverty learns that the world around them is being controlled by Aliens who, through the use of subliminal messaging, bombard them with words such as obey, sleep and reproduce. When you think about it it’s an ingenious way for an alien species to invade Earth. Instead of having a military battle, in which many lives would be lost, they slowly tighten their grip upon society until people are so brainwashed they they really don’t care what is going on. If they can buy their new car, pop out a baby, and stuff themselves with food then everything is fine.
I was a teenager in the 80’s when this film came out and to say that the 80’s was a decade of conspicuous consumption is an understatement. If you were poor in any part of that decade you were made to feel like you were totally crap for not having the nice shiny things that everybody else had. Yes, this has happened throughout history, however it really peaked during that decade. I remember once wanting a pegged legged type of jeans and the only pair I could find were by Guess. As soon as I got home I ripped the label on the back pocket off. When I wore them to school people were asking me why I ripped the label off. No joke, people were befuddled as to why I didn’t want to wear clothes with blatant labels. I didn’t want to be in the part of society that worshipped brand names like they were gods.
A face that even a mother couldn’t love.
The downtrodden rebel group in the film start making sunglasses that allow people to see what is really going on around them. When worn you not only can see the subluminal messages, you can also see what the aliens really look like. The aliens have disguises that allow them to look human and they are everywhere; bank tellers, politicians, policemen,etc… They have infiltrated into every facet of life in a capitalistic consumerist based society, and their presence assures that things will stay exactly the same. People in the society are so conditioned not to question authority that when offered the sunglasses they will fight to the death rather than accept the chance to see what is really going on.
The themes in this film still hold true today. A whole segment of society will believe whatever they are told without question, and if somebody has a worse life than them it’s their own fault for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Since these people don’t have the money to buy nice shiny things then they should be forgotten. In this film people actually sell out and turn on their fellow humans because the aliens promise to make them wealthy for doing so. Gaining wealth is so important in that society, and in this one, that people will do anything to achieve it.
The 80’s was a very wealth obsessed decade, but with the advent of the internet new ways to perpetuate this line of thinking have come to fruition. ‘Influencers’ on social media perpetuate all of this. They basically want to be famous for not having any sort of talent, other than getting others to buy the products that they are promoting. They are capitalist consumer conmen. They promote products to their wide eyed audience as if they too can be an influencer someday if they also buy the product. Aspiring to be an influencer is seen as an actual career path by some of these people. Why go to school when you can get cash and free shiny things while having no discernable talent? Remember folks, acquiring shiny things makes you a vital part of society and better than those who don’t have them. The aliens in this film would be very happy about this state of affairs.
John Carpenter has stated that he made They Live as a statement against Reaganomics. He saw the American middle class being harmed by economic policies that only helped the wealthy and felt that he had to say something against that. What he ended up making is now considered to be a cult classic, a film that is as relevant today as it was over thirty years ago.
I would like to start this out by saying that I do not think that Disney World should be open right now. However, from what I have seen online, they are very strictly enforcing their mask mandate and are throwing people out of the park for taking them off. I’ve seen footage of this happening. They have been crowding the Florida parks too much though and that does piss me off. Disneyland Paris has been closed for months and won’t reopen till April or later, and I applaud this. It’s because the leadership in France isn’t as stupid as the governor of Florida. Has the French government done dumb shit? Of course, but in this case they are doing the correct thing and I applaud them for that.
Late next year I am planning a trip to Disneyland Paris for my husband and I. I am turning 50 next month, but since the park is closed I cannot go there for my birthday. This has me sad and pissed off at the same time. Sad because my 50th birthday is going to suck, and pissed off because a bunch of idiots can’t handle wearing a mask or socially distancing themselves from others. Now we are more than likely going to go in October of next year, since most people will be vaccinated by then and Halloween is our favourite holiday. I know that some of you think that Disney sucks, and I do take issue with some of the things they have done over the years. However, I haven’t been to a Disney park since the early 80’s and this has been kind of a dream of mine. Plus, I have MS and I want to go soon because I might not be able to walk in a few years.
With all of that being said I have been watching various Disney themed YouTube channels because I want to be full of excitement and knowledge by the time we visit the park. I have come to discover that there are many content creators on there that actively hate Disney so much that they make video after video of anti-Disney material. Most, but not all, of the time this is tied to the Star Wars franchise. I have absolutely nothing against people criticizing Disney, but many of their loudest critics also spout alt-right talking points. The fact that Disney is trying to become more inclusive really pisses them off.
Why would people be pissed off about a company actively trying to be more inclusive you may be asking. Could it be because they are stuck back in the 1950’s and don’t want the world to change? Are they bitter because Disney took away their press credentials so that they aren’t privy to new Disney news any longer? Do they hold Star Wars to a certain ideal and are permanently pissed off that Disney hasn’t achieved their level of perfection? Do they think that social justice warriors are evil and have ruined both Disney and Star Wars? The channels in question usually fall into one of these categories, but in truly special cases they fall into several of them.
A common thing that the anti-Mickey Mouse Club shouts over and over again is that Disney is failing and that they can’t wait for it to happen. Disney is cutting the racist crow scene out of Dumbo? ‘They are losing all of their supporters over this and are going down!’. Disney actively casts more women in their Star Wars films? ‘Disney is filled with swjs bringing the company down!’. Disney hired Krystina Arielle for The High Republic Show, a web series all about Star Wars: The New Republic? ‘Disney is going down because they hired a black woman who is racist against white people!’.
Yes, you read the last entry correctly. I listened to one YouTube channel in particular that went on and on about how Krystina was racist against white people because of some of the things she posted during the height of the BLM protests. Want to know what she posted? Here you go:
And I was in such a good mood. White People: You do not get to absolve people of racism. You do not get to point out their “Growth” when they say black lives matter after treating us as if we don’t. You don’t get to accept apologies on our behalf. That shouldn’t need to be said
I am assuming that all of you reading this are aware of what the term ‘racist’ means. If you don’t here you go:
the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another
How the hell is she being racist towards white people? The reason why these idiots are accusing her of racism is because they are projecting their own insecurities onto her. In other words the people in question are themselves racist. They are pissed off that a black woman got hired to host the show. They think that Disney has been taken over by sjws, and that their attempt at inclusion is to the detriment of white fans of both Star Wars and Disney. Also, they deem anybody who disagrees with them to be a paid Disney shills. Seriously. I wonder when my check is going to arrive?
Notice how I am not naming the guilty offenders of all of this? If you take a leisurely stroll over to YouTube it doesn’t take a very long time to find these channels. I refuse to name them because that is exactly what they want. They are like spoiled brats who think that all attention is good, even when it is negative in nature.
Please don’t think that all people who are into Disney and Star Wars are like this, because they are not. There are many fans out there who may dislike some aspects of Disney and Star Wars but they are not being racist and sexist bitches about it. I think constructive criticism is an awesome thing, and when done brilliantly companies do seriously listen. What Disney is not going to do is listen to are anti-sjw tirades that bring nothing to the table besides hate, jealousy and anger. If I can see through that crap then you can bet that Disney can as well.
Despite all of this I still love Star Wars and want to go to Disneyland Paris. I’m not going to let a bunch of racist narcissists spoil my fun!
EDIT: As I finish this article a negative YouTube channel that I have mentioned is now bitching about Disney wanting to deplatform them and other channels like them. I don’t know…maybe this could be the case because these channels have been constantly using alt-right talking points and have been openly racist and hateful towards people involved with Disney and Star Wars? Hmmmmm……………..
This is definitely one of the films that shaped me into the post-apocalyptic loving weirdo that I am today. I am going to assume that everybody who is reading this has seen this film already, especially since it’s approaching its 40th anniversary fairly soon. If you haven’t seen it in a while it’s up on Prime for free. Since we are in the midst of living in a dystopian hellscape I find this film to be rather comforting. Yeah, the world really sucks at the moment but at least we don’t have marauding cyborgs hunting us down to extinction. Sometimes you have to look on the bright side of things.
There is one huge question that this film poses. Would you really want to live through a nuclear war? Machines hunting you down is bad enough but having to live in absolute squalor while being dosed with fatal levels of radiation really brings the reality that this film creates to a whole new level of misery. The aftermath of a nuclear war that this film depicts is in no way sanitized or glorified. It looks depressing, because more than likely you would be scavenging for food and dressed in rags. Personally, I would only want to live in that timeline if I was located far away from a major population centre.
This was made near the end of the Cold War, a time in which nuclear annihilation was a real possibility. Back in 1984 the truly sci-fi aspect of the film was the depiction of cyborgs and drones going around hunting people. The really scary thing to me is that we now live in a world in which drones fly around dropping bombs. Drones controlled by humans who are thousands of miles away from where the action is taking place. These machines look a whole lot like the ones depicted in the film, which freaks me the hell out sometimes. Recently there has been news that the British MOD have created a drone that is equipped with dual shotguns that uses AI to assess targets in dangerous situations. Who the fuck thought that this was a great idea? People who have obviously never seen this film.
Would humans from around the world really band together to try to save all of humankind? The current pandemic has taught us that there are governments out there who just really don’t give a shit about their own citizens let alone people located in different countries. If there was a threat of a nuclear war the heads of such governments will bunker down and leave all the survivors to fend for themselves. I think our current situation has proved that when it comes down to it you have to prepare for emergencies because the government won’t be willing or even able to help you when the time comes. Be a Sarah Connor.
I’ll be back.
One of my favourite scenes in the film is the entire police station sequence, because it really shows how arrogant the police can be. The police think they are at the top of the food chain and that they can easily defeat anything thrown their way. Then a T-800 series of Terminator enters the picture and slaughters pretty much the entire station. If the film were to be re-released right now that scene would probably get a standing ovation. When the film was made it was still widely believed, by white Americans in particular, that the police were the good guys. These days it has been shown again and again that they are anything but the good guys, so it is only natural to cheer for the T-800.
Some people may find this film a little dated but I think it is actually timely when it comes to the crap we are living through right now. Always keep an eye on the news so that you aren’t totally surprised when something horrible happens. In other words always be aware of your surroundings, whether it’s your neighbourhood or the country that you live in. The rise of the machines in the film took people by surprise and that is why Skynet had such an easy time annihilating humans. Our current pandemic took a lot of people by surprise because they weren’t paying attention to the reports coming out of China. Reports that were fairly easy to find online. I, and a lot of others, knew about the virus even before our governments made official announcements about it.
As you can tell I am a huge fangirl of this film and for me it really stands the test of time because, as I have shown, its theming can easily apply to the times we are living through right now. If you have somehow never seen this film do yourself a favour and watch it because it is definitely one of the best post-apocalyptic themed films ever made.
The short called Alone, which really got me hooked.
Sorry I have been gone from here for a few days. A combination of it being cold as hell and constantly watching Dust have led me astray.
As you can tell from this blog I am a huge post-apocalyptic/dystopian film fan. So, imagine my excitement when I finally found out about a YouTube channel called Dust that shows two new sci-fi themed shorts a week. A lot of them are post-apocalypse and dystopian themed which is cool as hell! They have been doing this for a few years now so I feel incredibly out of touch. Like I’m an astronaut stuck on an alien planet with no form of outside communication.
The majority of the shorts I have watched so far have been quite good. If you are a sci-fi fan I think you will enjoy this because no matter how picky you are you will find shorts that are really entertaining.
WARNING…….SPOILERS This isn’t strictly a film review, instead it’s a conversation about the meaning behind the film’s events,etc…
I have seen tons of post-apocalyptic films through the years and Cherry 2000 is definitely one of the best to come out of the 80’s. Mostly because there is a woman lead character, Johnson, that doesn’t need constant saving. She is a total badass.
What is unique about this film is the theming. It looks obviously 80’s, but that aesthetic is blended with others to denote different locations in the film. You have the pick-up bar in which everybody has 80’s hair and make-up but with kind of a futuristic sci-fi bent. Then you have the town of Glory Hole which is 80’s meets westerns. Finally you have the enclave of Sky Ranch which is firmly planted in the 50’s with Hawaiian shirts and games of hokey-pokey. Visually it makes everything more interesting, rather than almost every character in every area wearing very similar clothes.
Speaking of visuals, I think the the guys who made Fallout 3 definitely watched this film before making the game because there are some similarities between the two of them. Specifically the enclave of Sky Ranch. In Fallout 3 there are small enclaves in the wasteland that are 50’s themed, that sometimes happen to be filled with cannibals. In Cherry 2000 we see a cookout going on in Sky Ranch in which they are grilling some meat and you have to wonder where the heck did they get the meat if they are in the middle of the wasteland? Yep, I think they are cannibals!
The film is set after the ‘border wars’ are fought. Who fought who? We aren’t given an answer, which is actually okay because we don’t really need to know. It’s a society where single people do one of two things for companionship; buy a sex robot or go to a singles bar. If you go to the singles bar and want to hook up you have to sign a contract of what will and will not happen, and lawyers are there to make sure everything is agreed upon. Sam, our lead male character, prefers his robot, a Cherry 2000 model. When she glitches and fries her circuits Sam goes to the town of Glory Hole, hires a tracker named Johnson and off they go into the wasteland of Zone 7 to find him yet another Cherry 2000.
The future portrayed in the film is kind of similar as to what is going on right now. Everybody recycles everything and there is a 40% unemployment rate. Yes, our current unemployment rate isn’t quite that bad yet, but we are heading in that direction this winter. Everything seems very soulless and people are very self-centred. If I had to live in the time of this film I would head out to the border town of Glory Hole, because at least life there doesn’t seem as manufactured. Yes, they have sex robots for hire there, but people aren’t playing it as safe. They are living life on their own terms, instead of living how society tells them to. There is something life affirming about that.
When Johnson and Sam finally arrive in Las Vegas things will look a little familiar. That’s because Blade Runner 2049 used some of the same visual landmarks. Others have argued that Blade Runner 2049 also stole the idea of a non-human companion. I wouldn’t go quite that far, because it’s a bit of a step from robots to holographs. However, I do think that Denis Villeneuve, who directed Blade Runner 2049, had seen Cherry 2000 before he made that film.
This film is pretty much a ‘falling in love’ story set in the wasteland. Sam, who only wants a Cherry 2000 for company, slowly realises that Johnson has something that a robot can never have; a soul. Cherry only ‘lives’ for Sam, does everything that he wants her to do. While Johnson does as she pleases and isn’t afraid to tell Sam when he is wrong. I think Sam realizes that Johnson actually cares about him, rather than being programmed to do so. This whole aspect of the film doesn’t feel forced, rather it feels like something that would naturally happen.
Feel like taking a trip through the wasteland? Then Cherry 2000 is definitely the film for you!
I love this film, and I feel that there is a lot of irrational online hive mind hate directed towards it. It is perfect? By no means, however its got a lot going for it. It’s got beautiful visuals, a cool storyline and Karl Urban looking very dreamy as Commander Vaako, one of the invading Necromongers.
Every single time I watch this I think about how cool it would be if the Necromongers invaded Earth. Sure, they are religious nutcases, but how is that any different to what we have to deal with right now? Instead of white Christian fanatics invading just countries here on Earth the Necromongers take it a step further and invade planets in the name of their religion. A religion that believes that each universe has a different god and that life is antagonistic to the natural order of the universe. To die is to overcome this and insure that one has a place in the Underverse, which is a place in which all life is cherished. So, basically it is like a cross between the Valhalla of the Vikings and the Christian Heaven. The most powerful of the Necromongers have actually made the trip there, and have come back with very strong powers.
The Necromongers are a warrior type society. If you kill somebody in battle you then own what they have. So, if you happen to kill somebody who is rich then you are in turn rich. This is also how the Lord Marshals of the Necromongers are chosen for the most part. The Necromonger who defeats them in battle then themselves becomes the leader. That is why Commander Vaako tries to kill the Lord Marshall with the urging of his wife, who by the way is a total shrew of a woman that I would proudly bitchslap.
Planets are given the choice to ether join them or be killed. This is how the Necromongers gain an endless amount of soldiers to use to force planets into submission. If they came to this planet all of the people who follow the Abrahamic religions would look at it as an opportunity to martyr themselves. On the other hand there are people such as myself who are morbid as hell and would jump at the chance to join. The Underverse sounds like more fun that ‘heaven’ and it’s a place that you can visit and come back from with magical powers such as separating you soul from your physical body. That sounds nifty!
Excuse me while I fan myself.
I think one of the main reasons why I like this film so much is because the baddies sound a lot more interesting than the good guys. I always tend to like the bad guys in films rather than the good guys. Bad guys quite frequently have a reason as to why they are invading, killing,etc… While the good guys frequently are just spending their time fighting the bad guys. They’re bad guys so they have to fight them, even if the logic of doing so makes no sense. Your life is total shit on the planet you are living on and there is no way to change that. Some aliens come to your planet saying that your life would be better under their rule. Would you decide to defend you planet, even though your life is shit, or would you welcome a better life with arms wide open? It’s logical, in such circumstances, to want to join the bad guys and have a better life.
Besides everything else I feel that the Necromongers have a really killer sense of fashion. Everything from their uniforms to their hairstyles really make my heart skip a beat. How could I think that Commander Vaako, Karl Urban, would be the wrong choice for a leader when he looks like that? My husband and I once went to a film museum in London and I got to stand in front of one of the Necromonger suits of armour. I felt like I had found my people!
When it comes down to it I would totally support a takeover of Earth by the Necromongers. I don’t care if that would make me a traitor. At least I would look good while ruling over all of you!
Building on Bayside Parkway in Fremont California. used as the headquarters for Cyberdyne in T2. There was a fake glass story added to the building that was blown out in the film.
It’s not very often when the sequel to one of your all time favourite movies ends up filming some scenes in the really boring Californian suburb where you are living. The principal photography for Terminator 2 took place from October 9th 1990 to March 28th 1991, so it happened within that time frame, but I quite honestly don’t remember the exact month. Camera phones had not been invented yet so I do not have any photos to prove it, so you are going to have to take my word on it. I’ve told this story so many times through the years that I’m sure that if you have known me in real life for any length of time you have heard it before.
I heard about T2 being filmed in a local office park through word of mouth. All of the weirdos in the Fremont area knew all of the other weirdos, and there was talk about whether anybody could actually manage to sneak onto the set of the film. It was kind of a dare type thing, and since I was a huge Terminator and Arnie fan I took that to be a challenge and ventured forth.
There were two other people with me as I made my way to the Valhalla of Terminator fandom. I remember knowing the general area where it was happening so I didn’t really have to drive around looking for it. Once there is was quite a site to behold. There were a bunch of cop cars in front of the building, the same as in the film, and there was maybe a group of twenty people in lawn chairs on a grass strip located outside of the yellow taped off area of the front of the set. From what one of them told us there was going to be a helicopter sequence filmed later that night. There was indeed a helicopter in another area of the large parking area. It was very evident that there was no way I was going to make it onto the set from the front area because of the lawn chair brigade and the film crew milling about.
Part of the Cyberdyne headquarters battle scene, featuring the cop cars I saw and also the helicopter. Oh, and also the building itself of course.
We got back into the car and drove around the business park. To our amazement the back entrance to the set had only yellow tape guarding it, there was no security! It still kind of trips me out that there wasn’t any. I guess Cameron and the producers thought why bother since the set was in a boring suburban business park. I parked my car and the three of us snuck under the tape and walked very slowly along the right side of the Cyberdyne building. There was absolutely nobody there, and after a couple of minutes we came upon some really giant fans that were going to be used for the helicopter scene. We almost made it to the right corner of the building before we decided to head back because we were within twenty feet of the cop cars, and there had been some crew milling on the other side of them that we had seen before.
I ended up being the only person in my friend group who actually got onto the set, which I have worn as a badge of honour for almost thirty years! Yeah, I’m a total film nerd and Arnie fangirl.
The Purge definitely ranks as one of my favourite modern dystopian films. The main reason is because the premise of it is so believable that there is no way that you can totally dismiss the concept as being too far fetched to actually happen. The best kind of dystopian films show us a reality that is possible if the wrong people get placed into positions of power. Since I have proven that we are in fact living in a dystopian society the events that take place in this film are just that much more believable.
The New Founding Fathers have declared a national holiday of crime that is to happen every year. The year that this film is taking place is 2022, just a few years after the first Purge was commenced. This day of violence supposedly rids people from wanting to commit crimes for the rest of the year. Have you always hated that little bitch who teased you all through high school? Well, you have permission to hunt her down and kill her! It will make you feel all better because the government tells you it will. The government never lies…or does it?
What I especially like about the premise of the film, and what is explored even further in the other Purge films, is that the homeless and poor working class are seen as disposable. The government wants these type of people gone since they supposedly ‘waste’ government money. Why should the government help these ‘leeches’ when they can’t even help themselves? The wealthy and ‘better’ people are urged to hunt these kind of people. As evidenced by the college students who demand their homeless ‘kill’ back when the young son of the house lets him in after he begs for help outside. This whole cultural event makes those that have money and power in society feel like they are at the top of the food chain.
What is really the most frightening aspect about this film, at least to me, is that you can’t trust anybody. Your boyfriend will try to kill your father because he wants him to stop dating you. Your neighbours will try to kill your entire family because they are jealous of your success. So, you have to basically make sure that you never piss anybody off, because when the night of The Purge arrives they may come after you. Do you really want to live in worry constantly? Is that really a healthy way to live?
These mysterious ‘Founding Fathers Of America’ use the same kind rhetoric as the Republicans in America and the Tories in the United Kingdom use to control the underclass. Does you life suck and you’re really mad about it? Don’t take it out on the government, the real entities who have caused your issues! Hey, see those poor and homeless people over there? They are the cancer affecting society and your life would be so much better if they were gone! In fact, here is a special night every year in which you can go kill whomever you want, and you won’t even get in trouble for it! Get rid of those homeless and poor people, because that would make life so much better for you!
Society, as seen in this film, is filled with people who don’t question what the government does. To show their support of Purge Night people place blue flowers outside their homes. If they don’t you get the sense that such people will be easy targets for those seeking to ‘release the beast’. So, by an extreme form of peer pressure, the government is able to make sure that everybody supports their legal night of murder.
Finally, what I would like to touch on is that it is claimed by the government that crime and unemployment are at all time lows because of Purge Night. What I’m guessing is that this isn’t the whole truth. I think it is yet another form of propaganda that the government uses to get people out there killing those pesky undesirables that the government seems to hate so much.
Could this scenario actually happen in real life? Of course it could, because when has the UK or US governments given a damn about the people in society who struggle to live?
EDIT: I wrote yet another post about this film because I had forgotten about this one. I’m going to keep both up because I make some different points in each.
Please remember that there will be SPOILERS in this article. Instead of reviewing films I am talking about how I connect to them and what they mean to me and society at large.
I am a John Carpenter fangirl! He will always be my favourite horror/sci-fi director, and I have seen most if not all of his films. Even when he makes a supposedly ‘bad’ film, such as Escape From L.A., it is still entertaining. Honestly, I don’t think he makes bad films. I just think that he makes great films and others that aren’t as great but are still fun to watch. I will be talking quite a bit about his films on this blog…because they are nifty!
The plot of They Live is pretty basic. Alien creatures from some far off planet have colonized Earth, and have gotten themselves into positions of power by successfully disguising themselves as humans. They subliminally influence and control the population by hiding words in programs, ads, books, etc.. How do they do this without people being aware of their evil machinations? What looks like a regular billboard adverting jeans actually says such things as ‘buy’ ‘consume’ and ‘conform’. The only way that humans can see what is really going on is by wearing some sunglasses that shows the world in black and white; the advertisement messages and the aliens out in the open. The sunglasses basically interrupt the signal that the aliens use to disguise themselves and their subliminal messaging. The good guys blow up the satellite that the signal comes from and then everybody sees life as it really is.
It is really obvious that They Live was meant to be a social-political statement against Reaganomics. Reaganomics was a ‘trickle down’ type political theory that stated the following; if the wealthy class of people are given tax breaks the money that they have saved will eventually reach the underclass. It was been proven wrong again and again. What the wealthy do with the extra money are things such as buying back company stock shares, and buying mansions around the world that they actually really don’t need.
How did Reagan, and his cronies, fool the middle class and underclass? They promoted conspicuous consumption as something good that everybody should do to help the economy. Want a new car but don’t have the cash to pay for it? That’s okay, just take out a loan with interest levels so high that you will never actually own the car. Who cares though! You are driving a newer car and people are noticing! That is what was so important in the 80’s, to be seen following trends no matter how ridiculous said trends were.
I am very proud to say that I never owned a neon piece of clothing in the 80’s.
What happened in the 80’s if you did not conform along with everybody else? You were thought of as strange, that something must be really wrong with you to not want to be like everybody else. So, if you looked different or listened to non-mainstream type music you would be confronted all the time. Other people listen to Wham and wear neon coloured clothes, why can’t you? No matter what answers you gave to these type of people they would never be satisfied because wanting to be different in a largely conformist society is just not done. You become the ‘other’, a type of person who doesn’t deserve to be treated well because how dare you flaunt your nonconformist ways. Often you would even be physically threatened or have things thrown at you when you are just minding you own business walking down a street. Quite often even in school you weren’t safe. I remember being sent to the ‘Student Responsibility Center’ one time in high school for verbally defending myself. The teacher who was in charge of watching us told me that I wouldn’t have so many issues if I just dressed normally. Yep, he victim blamed me.
For the record, in the 80’s conspicuous consumption and conformity was even done sometimes in the ‘alternative’ type communities. If you didn’t wear the right outfits or listen to the right bands you weren’t considered weird enough so you were banished to the bottom of the weirdo totem pole. So, not only did you get shit from the ‘normal’ people, you also got shit from others who thought they were better at being a ‘weirdo’ than you were. Instead of helping you learn about music,etc… they would hold the information out of your reach. You had to really be into ‘alternative’ type music and clothes back then to have survived all of that. I honestly don’t think that a lot of the younger folk into such music and clothes right now would have survived as a weirdo back then.
Does the society that They Live depicts seem eerily familiar even though it was made over thirty years ago? The lessons that John Carpenter wanted us to learn by watching the film have not been absorbed, and instead we are right back where we started from. Trump is yet another mentally deficient racist president who tells lies in order to hold onto the support of his fandom, who consist of mostly the white underclass. Trump is the greatest president that the world has ever known because they voted him into office and they could never be wrong, right?
What can you do to fight against such a society as the one we now live in? What has the film They Live taught us?
-Don’t buy crap you don’t need. You do not need to shop at certain stores or wear certain brands just because everybody else is. Also, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Use some common sense and buy things that you actually need such as food.
-Question authority. Always question leaders and people that sit in a place of power as to why they do or say certain things. Just because they got voted in doesn’t mean that their opinion should be taken as the truth.
-In the wise words of the Subhumans, just think for yourself.
