Masters of the Universe: He-Man - Vexilloids from the Live Action Motion Picture

A tacky delight from 1987 are the vexilloids in Masters of the Universe - The Live Action Motion Picture.  A colourful cheesy fun film for kids, that somehow got its own big budget movie.  Although He-Man had a sword, Skeletor has a Ram's Staff of Power. 

Large Skeletor Banners are hanging from Castle Greyskull on either side.  They are coloured mostly purple and black.







Long yellow vexilloids are seen hanging from a doorway.  The purpose is never explained but they have original movie made alien writing upon them.









Here is the best picture of a proper flag, that is barely visible in the background of some wreckage of some sort.

Courtney Cox is a part of the He-Man universe.  Believe it or not!  Our friend here is standing in front of the band's stage in the gymnasium.  Certainly Courtney Cox could star in the remake, but on the other side ...working with darkness this time?

Amazingly the Star Trek and the Friends universes are united though He-Man.   Cox's boyfriend in He-Man-land is Star Trek: Voyager's Robert D. McNeil.  Surely McNeil could star in the He-Man 21st century reboot?

Halloween Pennants in E.T. 1982

Perhaps one of the hardest to see vexilloids is the orange Happy Halloween pennant streamer hanging along a house.  It is visible when E.T. just happens to run into a Yoda, while trick-or-treating.  The vexiolloids are hanging from what looks like an open door garage.

E.T. meets Yoda in E.T. 1982.  The E.T. and Star Wars universes intersect more than once.  Several times, Star Wars toys can be seen in movie E.T.  Eventually Star Wars would repay the cameo, when E.T.s appeared in Episode I.  But the most important link between these movies is through the musical score of John Williams. 

Music is often the most important character in any movie, and Williams' role is understated, otherwise these movies would have most liked had lackluster, tacky 1980s musical scores, no doubt.

Pennants in E.T. 1982

 

Small pennants appear in secondary media items in the movie E.T. 1982.  When E.T. is reading an ABC book, he just happens to be looking at pages with the Letters D and C.  On the Letter C page, a castle is shown.  Upon lower red tower is a storybook castle pennant.

Although the letter D is the dominant page in the shot, on the right you can infer the Letter C page is there due to the word 'cat' and 'castle' appearing.  Most importantly here, for vexillology's sake, is the castle pennant.

Coincidentally it happens again in another secondary media item, a newspaper, while E.T. is reading the comics.  In this case E.T. gets the idea to send a signal home, since Buck Rogers was able to build a device to send a signal for help. 

However the pennants are on the lower comic where it features a tent pole with the pennants on top.  It is only an amazing vexillological coincidence that pennants would appear twice in a similar fashion in this movie.

US Flag in E.T. 1982

The best image of the US Flag appears during the human-home invasion scene in E.T. 1982.  This is a classic counter juxtaposition to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, since it is a reversal of the child abduction by an A.T. (Aboriginal Terrestrial) than by an E.T.

The US flag also makes an appearance in the Elliott's classroom.  Just as the themes of Close Encounters deal with psychic links, so does E.T. In this case E.T. is linked psychically to Elliott.  The link becomes established when Elliott was cut, and E.T. heals him with his bioluminescent finger.

But Spielberg takes it an extra level deeper in this story about aliens, adding a synchronicity element into the mix of E.T.'s and Elliott's telepathic connection.  In this case, the chaos of the classroom just happens to be synchronized to a television program that E.T. is watching at home.

The theme of love is mixed with an animal rights message, by a strange sequence of 'funny' coincidences.  This is a common theme in many art house movies, but in E.T. it is weaved with humour and a charming kind of silly sitcom emotion.

20 Grand Palace Vexilloids - War Games 1983

Video game arcades were the it places for kids, teens, young adults, and people who loved computer gaming.  Arcades peaked in the 1980s.  In the film, War Games 1983 an arcade is showcased, 20 Grand Palace near Seattle, Washington.

Here the hero of the movie is seen here playing Galaga.  In the right bottom screen his is rank, which indicates that he is at level 7.   Galaga, was a ground breaking game where a player's ship could get captured by the enemy, and rescued by risk.  No doubt a cheesy Hollywood movie about the Galaga storyline is due to come out.  Where we learn the back story of the insectoid versus human drama.





Back then in 1983, many people thought video games were a fad, look at them now.  You will even hear about persons who say they have out grown video games, and see it as a phase.  Boy are they in for a shocker. It's like those same people in the 1980s and early 1990s who said that the Sun was the only star system with planets!  Videogames will only continue to grow and expand, especially in the next 25 years.

US Flag in War Games 1983

The US Flag appears several times in the movie that is smarter than its audience: War Games 1983.  War Games is the first hard core hacker movie, that was actually done well.  And it has aged well.  It successfully explains the Internet before it became a thing way back in 1983.  It is a smart movie, that dose not dumb down its story to the audience.  It's a mix of teenage-hacker and end of times movie.  It is a kaleidoscope of English teachers delight: since War Games elegantly weaves the themes of man versus machine versus man versus self smoothly into one story line, with a tiny bit of romance!

Trust me there are certain Baby Boomers and persons from the Greatest Generation who can out app and know code better than any whipper snapper Merllennerler or Gerneretion Erxer.   You don't have to be young to be good at technology.

The Original Life Hack - War Games 1983, How to Butter Corn & the UK Flag

Life Hacks are something of popular thing these days.  Life Hacks are short cuts and answers to small problems and challenges that arise in every day life.  The first most popular Life Hack video was posted in 1983 in movie theaters across America in the film War Games, starring Matthew Broderick.  The Life Hack deals with buttering corn.  Many people still use the stone age process of using a knife with butter.   But here are the steps listed below, as shown in the movie...on how to easily butter corn.  Coincidentally the movie was about hacking on the computer!

 Step 1: Butter the Bread

 Step 2: Place corn cob on the buttered bread.

Step 3: Roll corn cob on buttered bread. 



Step 4: Add salt if desired, or pepper.

Step 5: Listen to British Rock from the 1970s and early 1980s.  This step can be inferred from the UK musical compact disc in the background.  It features a UK flag on the cover, as to who the band is, we don't know who, but it may be the Who? Who knows?

Step 6: Enjoy the fruit of your labor on this most delicious vegetable, which is scientifically a fruit of a grass.

Also note this scene in the movie has a zinger-joke.  You'll have to watch to movie to get the joke.  Or just watch the video below.

Ace of Base Flag from "I Saw the Sign" video - 1993

Flags are often used for military and patriotic purposes.  But flags are also flown for artistic purposes.  In Ace of Base's smash hit The Sign 1993, flags are used as an enchanting artistic element in the official video, which you can see below.  Here the silhouette of a man carrying a flag can be seen upon a yellow background.  He later appears doing a flip with the same flag and with a purple background.

Throughout the video is a modified spinning computer generated Egyptian Ankh.  In the background are the national colours of Sweden: blue and yellow flapping as a fluid wall.   The four singers from Ace of Base are native to Sweden.  They were a quartet of male and female voices that heralded a new vibe of the 1990s.  Interestingly other successful Swedish groups in the US also consisted of gender balanced groups like ABBA and Roxette.  Certainly, we are over due for another duo, quartet or sextet of Swedish pop stars to rock the USA!? 

Here the Berggren sisters perform together in the video.  Note the oddly shaped cross known as the Ankh is a paradoxical symbol for life, death, transformation, or change.  As the themes of the song deal with loss of love and new beginnings, its appearance in the video is appropriate.  As for the particular 'Sign' that the songwriter became aware - of the heartbreaking loss of love in transition - it could have been anything.  But rest assured, The Sign was tinged with a heavy spell of synchronicity.

Happy Analemma Day 2016!

Happy Analemma Day 2016!

It's that time of the year when the sun retraces its one footprint in the sky.  Coincidentally it is also when the new school year begins in the United States.  How synchronistically quaint!?

The Analemma is that odd design on many, but not all, the globes you see in classroom across America.  It can usually be found in the South Pacific nearer to South America on a globe.  Yet this astronomical phenomena is NEVER explained.  The longest night, longest day, equal times a daylight and nightlight are easy to explain, but not Analemma Day.  Maybe it is because a discussion of the Analemma in the classroom would lead to some low brow Beavis and Butthead comments from the peanut gallery.  Move over Uranus, the Sun has an Analemma.

In simple terms this is where the sun appears in the same exact spot in the sky for one day.  Every year the sun appears at this location at about April 14th, but then returns to this point at about August 31st.  Thus the last day of August when the sun is aligned to one day in mid April, keeping the cosmos in order.  For the rest of the year the sun appears in a unique original position, except for on the last day of August...Analemma Day!

Flags in the Video - Can't Stop This Feeling by Justin Timberlake: Official Song for the Summer of 2016

Mr. Timberlake does it again!  It's official the theme song for the Summer of 16' is ruled by Justin's Can't Stop This Feeling!  In the video sale feather flags can be seen in front of the Wash shop.  The official video features a number of talented and folksy Americans strutting their stuff in the song for all to enjoy.

This song has saturated the American Airwaves, and will pull us back to 16' when its 2026 or 2036. 

Before the Just Beaver, their was the Just Lake of Timber.  Although the Beaver has cut some timber, Timber stands tall and strong by the lake.

Shia LeBeouf - Rob Cantor Video with Red Dancing Vexilloids 2014

Exquisite, artful, and passionate silliness reign in red vexilloids in the video for Shia LeBeouf by Rob Cantor 2014.  New kinds of excellence parody, a groovy beat that showcases several art forms to perfection in this video.  It features a chorus of youth and a chorus of age, male and female dancers, an orchestra, and finally...a  modern beat. 

Long red rhythmic flags are twirled in excellent detail.  It is a six ring circus of delight, centered on the movie star of Transfomers - Shia LeBeouf. Amazing artful, silliness that just expands the mind.

Fire Hydrant Flag Marker

A new trend with fire hydrants is to add a flag.  Not a normal flag, it is a hard plastic trapezoid on a red and white metal pole.  It is supposed to help visually ID more quickly where the hydrant is located.

You can see "HYDRANT" upon the hard plastic vexilloid.

Life Guard Flags at Ocean, City NJ

 Green marker beach flags are used at beaches in New Jersey.  They indicate the safe area that swimmers should swim in between for life guard supervision.












 
     
These flags are currently made of a plastic material, which gives them a sturdy water proof aspect.  Red flag are the no swim zone, outside of the life guards view.

Ocean City, NJ Public Golf Course Flag

Golf flags come in a variety of colours and shapes.  At the Ocean City, NJ public golf course, 4 by 4 red checker flags mark the the target.

This course is a fun rookie to amateur course, worth ones while.  But remember to bring bug spray, since it is right on the bay by Bay Avenue and Tennessee Avenue.

Ocean City, NJ Golf Website:http://www.ocnj.us/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.pageDetails&id=6029&typeID=179

Rhythmic Gymnastics, The Flag of Olympic Elegance

Rhythmic gymnastics has the athele use a flag more explicitly than any other sport in the Olympics.  In this case a long streamer is held by the athelete. This vexiloid is intergral to the performace.  Like always these experts make this sport look easy, when infact it takes alot of concentration and effort.

Here Natalia Gaudio from the host nation of the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazil, is struting her talent with this highest of elegant flags in this demostration of artistic excellence.

Another shot of this beautiful of sports that is part dance, part art, and part gymnastics.

Wisconsin Flag in that 70s Show

 That 70s Show was a classic home town show about life in the midwest.  More or less focused on the latter half of the 1970s.  It effectively captures teenage basement culture.

Here our heroes sit in a classroom on photo, day.  In the corner is the Wisconsin State Flag. 



 
Here is another angle of the Wisconsin, State Flag.  Wisconsin really is in the middle of the world since a 45th Parallel North crosses its state lines. 

Prince Edward Islands Flag - South Africa

A flag for a small remote uninhabited isles of the coast of South Africa.  Not to be confused with Prince Edward Island of Canada. The Prince Edward Islands belong to South Africa.  

Instead of an oak, an acacia tree stands alone on the center.

Goblin Lance Pennons and flags from Labyrinth 1986

 All sorts of flags appear in the 1980s classic, over the rainbow type of adventure - Labyrinth 1986.





David Bowie is the Goblin King.  A Goblin with a red helmet pennon is seen in front of the King.  Also note the king carries a crystal ball staff.

 Another larger Goblin flag, were the Goblins rally to attack our heroes.

 Apparently in the Goblin King's chamber has the royal standard, that has purple with heraldic border of orange.

Here the Scare Crow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion with Toto look longingly at our heroine.  Oops, I meant the Cranky Hobbit with a heart of Gold, the Brave Tiny Humanoid Dog ,and Friendly Magical Hairy Oger, and the Shaggy Dog, Merlin. 

Vexilloids in Synchronicity film - 2016

The film Synchronicity 2016 pays effective homage to that Ridley Scott movie about that...movie...called....ummm Knife Jogger? Sword Sprinter? Dagger Dasher? or was it a Blade Booker?   There is one conversation about the Jungian concept of things happening out of groovy coincidental happenstance, but rather sci-fi time traveling hijinks of a Doc and Marty porportions are the main theme of the story.  Perhaps a better name for this movie would have been Temporal Dimensions or Time Runner 2016?

Maybe the underlying unsaid theme is that synchronicity events are actually waves of disturbance from parallel dimensions?

Nonetheless, this movie really captures the feels of the old 1980s sci-fi adventure.  A true blue blooded, shot in blue tones, sci-fi movie without CGI, less a cartoon and more a thoughtful diddy.  Of vexillological significance is the Japanese banner on the upper crosswalk.