THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - 12 Dead on a movie house floor - as reel as it gets...pun intended

Can it get any more obvious? The frequency of the bored and disaffected turning to violence to satisfy their craving for attention.  Last  night's massacre in Aurora, Colorado... a "Dark Knight" indeed.   Kill as many people as you can in a highly dramatic setting [mid-night showing of a Summer Blockbuster movie] and then surrender yourself into the spotlight of celebrity.  Not brilliant, but highly effective.  The shooter James Holmes, a medical student who was "pursuing a PhD" in genetics. You can't make this stuff up.  What next? A  Professor of Chemistry, pissed off by some perceived slight, who decides to mix a batch of purple Kool-Aid and serve it to an American entire city?

Warmer Brothers is currently promoting GANGSTER SQUAD, and this is the sequence that should offend thine eyes.  We witness four men armed with .45 calibre Thompson sub-machine guns fire through a movie screen, emptying their magazines into the faces of unsuspecting movie goers. Mr. Holmes used an equally powerful weapon, an ArmaLight AR15 variant, with a 100 round drum magazine. That's the kind of firepower reserved for the exclusive use of the Police in Canada, but available to private citizens in the U.S.

In spite of the lying teaser "Based on a True Story", no such incident ever happened in U.S. history.  This cinema butchery is purely a cinematic creation.  As it happen Warner Brothers is the producer and distributor of the movie DARK KNIGHT RISES, which just had its premiere.  A movie which will last in infamy.  Would you take my fifty cent bet that the shooter last night in Colorado, had seen the trailer for GANGSTER SQUAD?  The irony is so thick you could lay it down with a trowel.  [Update - it turns out that the baby faced Mr. Holmes, "the accused," has been planning this bit of violent theatre for a couple of months.  He patterned his grotesque performance of violence after the character "The Joker" - Batman's nemesis.]

If you wish to view the trailer of GANGSTER SQUAD from which these screen shots were made, it  here at HEADLINE HOLLYWOOD -  GANGSTER SQUAD TRAILER.

Update: at 2:50 PMT the GANGSTER SQUAD  cinema massacre link is still 'hot," but I imagine that it will be cut before long.
UPDATE, July 24 - the head honchos at WARNER BROTHERS met this morning and discussed Gangster Squad. The news is that the cinema massacre sequence will now hit the cutting room floor, and a new scene produced for insertion.  It was an appallingly stupid scene to begin with.  No such incident ever happened in Grauman's Chinese Theatre, nor in any other American movie house.  The Joker Attack in Colorado three days ago is an entirely new category of mass-shooting.
Another odd twist - we learn that the Gangster Squad movie trailer ran in a few Australian cinemas, as folks waited to see the feature - THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.  Nobody appreciated it.

The Danzig Street Shootout - minute by minute on Twitter

I was made aware of the Danzig Street shooting by a YAHOO News headline, as I accessed my email. Toronto news is of no particular interest to a Vancouverite so the shooting didn't really catch my attention until I gave the CTV News Channel ten minutes of my time, over the lunch hour Tuesday.  The TV reporting was of the typical "I'm standing on the sidewalk where it all happened," variety.  Ten minutes Googling the story gave me a far clearer picture, and resulted in my posting last night's Blog article.  Scroll down for more on "The City, By Homicide" and NATIONAL POST graphic artists.

When I Googled the names of the four people listed as creators the NATIONAL POST  graphic, this is what I found.

Ian Vandaelle describes himself as "Morally, socially & financially bankrupt."  Does that make him dangerous? or just cute?

Samina Esha is a "shopaholic and bookie".   It's starting to look like the POST team has "street cred".

Jonathon Rivait is the punster in the pack. "My rock is cock hard."

Richard Johnson is all about "Sarcasm, cynicism, skepticism - in monster proportions."

What an interesting posse of crime reporters!  To be accurate, it is Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson who must take the lion's share of credit for the wonderful graphics the NATIONAL POST publishes on a fairly regular basis. Others contribute only research.

TWITTER REPORTING - the Danzig Street Shootout

The really significant thing about this shooting in Toronto is not the bombast and baloney spouted by the Mayor and Chief of Police. Rather it was the level of involvement by citizens participating in the mass crime, or reporting on it via their Twitter Accounts. An article written by Joshua Errett, editor at NOW Magazine in Toronto, is a good place to start.

Joshua's article is HERE.

Even now, two days after the shooting, you can get a far better sense of what went done on Danzig Street, by reading Twitter archives, than you can by reading commercial news accounts.  There is a lesson in this.  Should you ever be caught up in a big event... a natural disaster, a major crime, etc... task someone with downloading the Twitter chatter before it gets edited or truncated by deletions. It will later be a valuable resource for reconstructing chain of events.

DANZIG STREET TWEETS - The shooters "touched the wrong people".  .."there is gonna be a war".   On that point at least, the Street and the Mayor's Office agree.

Shootout on Danzig Street, Toronto - incredible grahics

Trying to keep up with Canada... one crime at a time. You just can't make this stuff up. I dare you.

Dateline, Toronto:  A multiple shooting amid the shrubs of a Welfare housing project on Danzig Street in Scarborough.  Hours later the Chief of Police holds a press conference, and delivers one of the most deliciously asinine remarks ever made by a Chief Constable in this country.  

"I’ve been a cop for 35 years and this is the worst incident of gun violence, in my memory, anywhere in North America."  (Bill Blair, Toronto Chief of Police)  Gee Billy... worse shootings take place on this continent every single day of the week. Take your medication. Calm down.  Your scaring your troops.

Late in the day, after perhaps gobbling a box of his favourite comfort food - a large pizza, Mayor Rob Ford issued a press release. It begins "Toronto is a safe city. It’s one of the safest cities in the world."  He drones on with the same old lines of B.S. worthy of any Toronto potentate, and then mid-way down the page this.  "Some people have suggested there is a gang war brewing. I don’t know if that’s true. But, I do know it’s time for us to declare war on these violent gangs."   

The Toronto Chief is peeing his pants and the Mayor has ordered the regimental bugler to blow the order to  "Charge!"  Don't panic Toronto!  Your leaders will do it for you.

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GREAT GRAPHICS

In case you haven't noticed, the NATIONAL POST publishes the best Information Graphics of any Canadian newspaper, and the POST just happened to have a new one ready to run with the story on the Danzig Street shooting. The graphics are the work of two of Canada's most talented news artists, Jonathon Rivait  and Richard Johnson.   If your not familiar with their work, it's time you paid attention.  Some of their stuff is simply brilliant.  A stellar example is "Anatomy of a Stoning," published in November 2010. It describes the murders of women in Iran - the entire process, and it's chilling.  My tear sheet is too big to scan but you can view it online here CLICK.  And  on July 13 the NATIONAL POST published a phenomenal graphic on the Mexican Cartels and a scorecard on the drug murders. (I guess Chief Billy Blair doesn't read the POST.)  In which other Canadian newspaper will you find a bar graph labelled "Decapitations - 2012 Monthly" ? It's HERE.  The POST calls these valuable employees "Graphics Journalists". I like that.

TORONTO - The City, By Homicide

Here is an interesting companion piece to the homicide graphic.  In the  NATIONAL POST today they included stats which profile the racial origin of both the killers and their victims in Toronto. (above)  Now it is not my intention to compare newspaper graphics here, but merely to supplement  the helpful information.  A few months back the TORONTO STAR published this very detailed Infographic which breaks down all Toronto crime along racial lines.  I had an inkling I might need it for a Blog in future,  and set it aside.  Today is that day.

This is half of what I prepared on the Danzig Street shooting. I will get Part 2 posted ASAP.

Luka Magnotta - Human Flesh is on EVERYONE'S Menu

We are truly living in the  "Age of Moral Relativism," don't you agree?  We adopt or adapt our  personal standards to fit the moment, and any community value that intrudes on our pleasure, we resent and resist.  No two people seem to share the same set of values unless they live in a village where the wearing of veils or of a halo is mandatory. Here in Canada the right to walk around confused is protected by law.  This is why I do insist that the Luka Magnotta case is the story for our times.  Luka is us, and we are Luka.

Chapter next...

Last week an overheated story connected American porn star Ron Jeremy to the Luka Magnotta case.   It was hustled first by the commercial news media and then played with by Bloggers. The NATIONAL POST had the best coverage of the story by any Canadian paper.  "Ron Jeremy courted to Play Magnotta bait in 2011 sting"  The Post article is HERE.  The story got quite a chewing but it had no real taste. Still I did  enjoy the Post's teaser headline, which had Ron Jeremy "courted" and not "pitched" as they say in the movie/tv business. Who said "There is no romance in porn films."?

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Ms. Luka Magnotta - She's out there somewhere.

The essentials of the Magnotta-Jeremy story are as follows.  Luka Magnotta is a wannabe porn star, and loves the lens.  Prior to committing murder in Montreal he had also posted videos of himself torturing and "murdering" kittens, and by doing so he pissed off a very dangerous crowd... Animal Protection Activists. In fact one such group in the U.S. had decided to pull a vigilante stunt and capture Luka, while recording the whole caper for reality television.  The vigilantes needed to bait their hook with something appetizing enough for Magnotta to consider crossing into the United States, where he would be vulnerable to a take-down. An attempt was made to seduce Ron Jeremy,  the King of Porndom, into co-starring in the production, but in the end he backed out.  Once Magnotta became the story of the moment, the vigilantes decided to get some press flogging a thin tale about how their Animal Rights efforts might have prevented a human murder.  

The Master Chef of Ass Meat, Mr. Ron Jeremy recently appeared on "The Peta Files".  Did you know that PETA uses pornography as a fund raising tool?  The essential logic to the ploy is that the older Christian crowd doesn't  give a shit about animal rights, but the younger generation is passionate about doing good... especially if you make it fun.  In fact the Press Releases for Jeremy's spot endorsing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was flying around at about the same time as news broke about the heinous butchering of Justin Lin in Montreal. Like every other video celebrity, Ron Jeremy must do charity work to build profile, maintain professional contacts and to help keep the jackals at the I.R.S. at bay.  The putative posse of animal rescuers in the story was said to be the big bad boys of RESCUE INK, a 'reality television' program I had never heard of.  Now that I have done my research, I never want to hear of them again.

The gimmick in RESCUE INK...  every "reality" show has a gimmick... is a group of tough guys with a past, all of them heavily tattooed (inked) and all born with a soft heart for little animals.  One is an ex detective, but the rest are... (well, read the details in an investigative story written by Long Island, N.Y. reporter Mark Harrington in 2009  MANY IN RESCUE INK HAVE A CHECKERED PAST.)

The story which we Canadians were exposed to last week was skimpy and didn't add up.  Yes, RESCUE INK were the heavily tattooed vigilantes who approached Ron Jeremy through intermediaries, including a couple of ridiculous bimbos, but what you need to know is that Jeremy has "people".  You have to pay for his appearances.  RESCUE INK sold just six episodes to the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC channel in 2009 but the cable-caster has gotten cold feet, and the show isn't in production  any more. (A website sniff detects stink.  The  dog lovers at RESCUE INK share fantasies of Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino or Dylvester Stalone playing their lives in a movie!) These bad boys were looking for a comeback and couldn't write Jeremy a check. Don't judge Jeremy by how he made his living. He's no Jethro Bodine.  In fact before he got into the lucrative world of ass meat he was a teacher. (According to an old interview has "a Master's degree in Special Education and two B.A.s in Theatre and Education".) The gossip we read last week in the NATIONAL POST was nonsense, but the whole Magnotta story is so grotesque and ridiculous that factoids are piling up like popping corn.

One of the few "reality" shows which we do watch and enjoy is Anthony Bourdain's  NO RESERVATIONS.  Hell, my kids even read his books.  Bourdain is shown in this photo quaffing some Ron de Jeremy  rum. (No kidding, the sausage man also has his own rum label!) Bourdain is a man of genuine wit who tries hard to deliver lines we haven't heard 10,000 times before, and he discussed the naughty side of cuisine when he hosted Ron Jeremy in an episode of his show.

The point is that there will be no Main Event.  The Magnotta trial next year is irrelevant. Everybody and his dog is trying to peel themselves a layer off the Magnotta onion  before the trial, and clever little bastards are out there now, hatching schemes to surpass Magnotta's super low budget production.  Magnotta is everything that defines the modern era... pornography, violence, celebrity, Facebook, gadgets, etc.  The craze to do something, ANYTHING, to get attention.  And we're watching.

Juxtapose 3 - Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta

I would not presume to compete with the folks at FRANK magazine, but there is plenty of potential for satire in this country. You would agree that humour is the safe and sane way to deal with  the ugly side of our culture.  The truth is that many of you found this Blog using Google's Picture Search.  You probably don't even know what a Runagate is, huh? Well,  I invite you to enjoy this juxtaposition of two Canadian careers that give me the creeps.

Hey, it's only posing if it looks like posing.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta are both into body culture and love to strip for the camera.  Trud's thunderbird tattoo dates from his toking days in B.C.  Luka has no skin art to exhibit.

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Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta both love to stage events for the camera and grew addicted to being photographed every day of their lives.  To keep from boring their audience, each changes his costume, hair style and venue  CONSTANTLY.

Luka uses Photoshop. It's cheaper than aviation kerosene.

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Do you think Trud's seen one too many Riefenstahl films?

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta rehearse their gestures in front of mirrors and only work with loyal and supportive photographers.

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The READERS DIGEST cover was a keeper, but Trud should

have flashed his thong for the boppers.  Remember how his mom

bought the cover of HIGH SOCIETY for the price of a

single untrimmed beaver pelt? You just know he wants to do it.

Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta have each made a study of Canadian tastes and conceits. They will spare no effort to capture and hold the spotlight. Each, in his own exquisite fashion, was bred for fame. 

There is of course a BIG difference between the theatrical styles of Justin Trudeau and Luka Magnotta.  Trudeau won't literally give head to get attention, but his brand of politics is pornographic.  There's no love in what he does.   And like another crass political showman I could name, the larcenous Svend Robinson, when Justin Trudeau crashes and burns, crocodile tears will not be sufficient to put out the burning makeup.

Juxtapose 2 - Luka Magnotta and Colonel Russell Williams

Two of Canada's most infamous killers have no ties to the Mafia, or to urban drug gangs, or even to any history of spousal violence.  Yet Colonel Russell Williams and porn actor Luka Magnotta share many life experiences and personality traits.  Here are just a few of the very obvious one.

Many Canadians were taken aback when the Federal government authorized a CC-150 Polaris to carry Montreal cops over to Germany to take custody of Luka Magnotta. The excuses were hollow but the interesting coincidence is that the bird,  No. 15005, is the same VIP Transport once flown by Col. Williams, the former Commanding Officer of 437 Transport Squadron. One of Col. Williams female victims was a military flight attendant who had also served onboard Polaris No. '05

These two men are the of the new breed of Canadian killer ... more savage, far more savvy, and with a taste for documenting their killings in the minutest detail.

- Luka Magnotta, as the world knows, recorded every detail on of his killing and sodomizing of the body of Jun Lin.  Wing Commander Williams recorded hours of tape of the rapes and murders he committed and he kept voluminous notes and trophies.

- both came from dysfunctional, broken homes, with parents who "called it quits" rather early.

- both have experimented with personal identity and were younger men under different names -  Magnotta was Eric Newman in Ontario and Williams was Russ Sovka in Ontario.

- both enjoyed posing as women.  Williams had a huge collection of women's underwear and enjoyed posing in bikinis and bras.  Magnotta, as we know, relished makeup and could pass as a woman.

- both were very mobile, very social and skillful at deceiving their closest friends.

One important new twist - Luka wanted to join the "big league" of celebrity killers and was aware of the governments suppression of the Karla Homolka tapes and of the Russell Williams video. So he made sure his video testament got uploaded before he left Canada. This is the criminal novelty which we will see again in the near future.  

So parents, as we are on the threshold of a "new age" in this great land, perhaps it is time to worry less about marijuana in your teens sock drawer, and focus more on who they believe they are, and who they fantasize becoming.  Just a thought.

Canadian Idol Luka Magnotta now has a fan following, just as he had hoped to achieve.  Some of the laudatory comments I've read on Facebook are almost beyond belief. Embarrassed by a crime which touched even Parliament Hill (body parts mailed to Federal Party offices) our government went so far as to apologize to China for Mr. Magnotta's crimes. The media rubbed it in, and his landing at Mirabel Airport got better coverage than the arrival of Royals.  Come to think of it - some of the Royal Family have also flown on Polaris No. 15005.   

JUXTAPOSE 1 - Bev Oda - the Fall from Grace

My last article was rather lengthy and a tad intense, but I am convinced that Luka Magnotta's theatrics have opened a portal into something very dark and unfortunately, very Canadian. But I must take a breath and step back from Luka for a day or two.  

The expression "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words" is certainly NOT a Chinese proverb. It is usually held to a "thousand" words, and in spite of what Wikipedia will assure you (ARTICLE), buttressed by plenty of Internet contagion,  advertising executive Fred Barnard did not coin the phrase. The "proverb" should be the unofficial MOTTO of the Legion of Lazy Bloggers who scrape and paste pictures, rather than trying to write words.

In the proposition that a little humour is good for one's mental health, I'll be offering a series of Juxtaposed images -  as a break between the longer articles in the Blog.

Canadian MPs waiting for carriages to arrive, circa 1875. It was Ottawa in the age of silk hats, walking sticks and horse drawn transportation.  These dandies were conscious of the presence of the camera  and of their image as members of a political elite. 

[Coll. of the Runagates Club Blog]

Newly resigned M.P. Bev Oda, Minister of the Crown.  In this photo she was caught in a sour mood and needing her nicotine - in front of the House of Commons.  You could almost feel sorry for her IF you were not aware of the millions of dollars of media training Parliamentarian's get at our expense.  Bev just does not give a shit.  She's 68 now and ready to lay it down in the sunny Caribbean.  [Photo taken by Chris Roussakis]

Editorial comment -  While I'm not a Tory, I take no pleasure from Ms. Oda's fall from grace, although the ankle biters have just cause for listing her many excesses - epitomized by the infamous $18 dollar glass of orange juice.   Today's updated burst of outrage is HERE.

Still, how is it that Ms. Oda gets kicked around but the truly odious Adrienne (Pon) Clarkson, the retired Empress of Canada - still gets to burn up our tax money from her elitist eyrie in France?  Grrrrr!  Bev Oda is a penny pincher compared to the wicked queen of the north, Madame Clarkson.