FAVORITE BAD CHARACTER PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

Land Mark: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Evil Fictional Characters

Evil can come in all forms: man, woman, child, adult, real, perceived, clown, doctor…you get it.  There is much evidence on this earth to back up its existence, and has been throughout history, but some of the best depictions of evil have appeared as fiction–which is much better than having it in actuality.  Some inspired by actual evil individuals, others are purely abstract and fantastical- here is the top ten embodiments of pure evil in fiction:

Top 10 Pure Evil Fictional Characters

10. Cruella Deville

Is the main antagonist of Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney's 1961 animated film adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Disney's live-action film adaptations 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. As far as any animal rights advocate is concerned, Cruella might as well be Hitler. She desires nothing more than to see upwards of 101 puppies slaughtered in the name of pompous, polka-dotted fashion. Just hear her piercing banshee scream and observe that menacing look in her eyes, and you’ll soon realize she was born without a heart, but with a huge taste for dog fur.

 

9. Dr. No

Dr. No is the quintessential Bond villain:  secret underground lair, giant laser beam, member of an elite terrorist organization called S.P.E.C.T.R.E.  He is the archetype on which every Bond villain parody is based.  While his laser beam is designed to little more than hinder the U.S.’s efforts in the Space Race, it does seem that this individual has nothing but the most evil intentions- he is after more than just a hefty ransom.  Of course he wouldn’t be the last villain whose defeat–as guaranteed by Sean Connery–would be celebrated with martinis and sex.

 

8. Sauron

Sauron is the titular character of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

If Mordor is Hell on Middle-Earth, then Sauron is the devil, with his pervasive and all-seeing eye.  Under his dominion is an army full of brutish orcs and other hell beasts who wage war on neighboring races, meanwhile the all-powerful and much-sought-after ‘ring’ he originally forged has the power to entice and corrupt men, rendering them junkie-like slaves to its power.  And as we know, too much of a good thing can be horrendous.

7. Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character in a series of 

suspense novels by Thomas Harris.

This cannibal has a literal appetite for evil.  He is a man with refined taste in every way; he even considers human flesh a rare delicacy–one that he’ll make the effort to track down.  This is where his true complexity of character comes in; Lecter will attend an opera in tuxedo but then proceed to barbarously and remorselessly slaughter a man to see what his insides taste like with some fava beans and a bottle of chianti.  He also–while captive inside the most secure holding cell imaginable–helps detectives (i.e. Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs and Will Graham in Red Dragon) track other serial killers, seemingly just for the sport in it, equipped with a brain that treats life like one giant chess game.  He also thrives on how much said detectives rely on his insight, delighting to no end in watching them squirm for it.

 

6. The Joker

 Adorned with twisted clown makeup, the Joker thrives on chaos and mayhem.  He has been characterized a few different ways depending on which comic series you subscribe to; more often than not, however, he is a homicidal maniac who takes joy in his own sadistically warped sense of humor.   His calling card is an unnatural grin left on the faces of his victims.  Only Gotham’s greatest Samaritan could possibly keep his appetite for destruction in check.

5. Voldemort

Lord Voldemort (born Tom Marvolo Riddle) is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is spoken about with the same abstractly-repulsive fear as Evangelical Christians would Satan himself. The wizard community, similarly, thinks the very mention of him is enough to summon him, as powerful as he is in his Dark Arts.  He cannot truly be killed, it seems, as his serpentine face always seems to resurrect with the aid of his evil underlings.  Voldemort kills without regret and is a veritable bigot, despising impure blood in spite of his own mixed quantum.  Also, there is no more classic symbol of evil than a snake, which is the emblem of everything he is connected to (e.g. Slytherin, that snake-language Harry can somehow speak, the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets, etc.).

4. Emperor Palpatine
Palpatine is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise.

What we have here is the hyperbolic quintessence of a corrupt politician.  Starting out (humbly?) as a senator, he soon acquired a greediness for power, and a Macbethian willingness to let all suffer who stand in his way.  One part of a larger embodiment of evil, Palpatine figureheads the Sith–a.k.a the ‘dark side’–which holds itself diametrically opposed to all things good, just, and pure (i.e. what a Jedi knight is supposed to be).  Affiliations aside, the evil is immediately visible by the smile on his decrepit old face–and subsequent evil laughter–as he tortures his enemies with his finger-lightning.

3. Iago

Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello (c. 1601–04). The play's main antagonist, Iago is the 'Ancient' (standard bearer) of General Othello as well as being husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates Othello (who is also known as "The Moor") and devises a plan to destroy him by making him believe that his wife is having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio.

Biblically-speaking, deception is supposed to be the greatest form of evil, harkening back to the Garden of Eden, where the devil convinced Eve to eat the apple of wisdom, and man gained the capacity for dishonesty.  That, then, makes Iago from Othello one of the most evil characters in the Shakespearean canon. (Lady Macbeth is up there too, self-described as the ‘snake lying beneath the flowers.’)  He is a man who’ll do anything for power and promotion, which means lying, killing, conniving and feigning sincerity.  He sets a number of traps to have fellow soldier Cassio–who received a promotion Iago felt he deserved–ousted. [spoiler alert ] Ultimately, he convinces Othello that his wife Desdemona is being unfaithful, to the point of murderous jealousy (he smothers her to death and then proceeds to kill himself out of guilt).  All this waste lain, and Iago feels no contrition (he killed his own wife after she ratted him out).

 

2. Damien

 Damien is–at least in the 1976 film the Omen– the anti-christ, the devil’s jackal-born son.  With the family’s name on his head–literally, it’s etched there– Damien is expected to raise a lot of hell.  And he does at every attempt, riding his big wheels around the house, in a pre-meditated attempt to kill his adoptive mother and her unborn child.  All the while, Damien’s adoptive father, a U.S. ambassador for England, makes it his mission to rid the world of this ‘evil incarnate.’

1. Count Dracula

Bram Stoker’s pale face of evil may be incredibly horrible in fictional terms, but much more so is the actual person Dracula is based on: Vlad the Impaler, whose family name–as it turned out–was Dracula.  Vlad, as a ruler and prince of Wallachia, was wickedly enthusiastic about unspeakably cruel acts of torture in high volumes, ranging from blinding to genital mutilation to (his favorite act) impalement–a slow, graphic death.  His M.O. was fear, effectively-achieved through the agonizing visuals evoked by him feasting undisturbed while an executioner dismembered corpses beside him, or 20,000 impaled bodies rotting outside of his capital.  This legendary lack of sympathy is made more sinister by Stoker’s imagination, where Dracula has a literal bloodthirst and kills and fornicates with equal and undivided pleasure.

Source: Ryan Thomas on September 28, 2012 in Literature, Movies & Television

Character structure

A character structure is a system of relatively permanent traits that are manifested in the specific ways that an individual relates and reacts to others, to various kinds of stimuli, and to the environment. A child whose nurture and/or education are not ideal, living in a treacherous environment and interacting with adults who do not take the long-term interests of the child to heart will be more likely to form a pattern of behavior that suits the child to avoid the challenges put forth by a malign social environment. The means that the child invents to make the best of a hostile environment. Although this may serve the child well while in that bad environment, it may also cause the child to react in inappropriate ways, ways damaging to his or her own interests, when interacting with people in a more ideal social context. Major trauma that occurs later in life, even in adulthood, can sometimes have a profound effect. See post-traumatic stress disorder. However, character may also develop in a positive way according to how the individual meets the psychosocial challenges of the life cycle (Erikson).

 

Theories

Freud

Sigmund Freud's first paper on character described the anal character consisting of stubbornness, stinginess and extreme neatness. He saw this as a reaction formation to the child's having to give up pleasure in anal eroticism.The positive version of this character is the conscientious, inner directed obsessive. Freud also described the erotic character as both loving and dependent. And the narcissistic character as the natural leader, aggressive and independent because of not internalizing a strong super-ego.

Fromm

For Erich Fromm character develops as the way in which an individual structures modes of assimilation and relatedness.The character types are almost identical to Freud's but Fromm gives them different names: receptive, hoarding, and exploitative. Fromm adds the marketing type to describe individuals who continually adapt the self to succeed in the new service economy. For Fromm, character types can be productive or unproductive. Fromm notes that character structures develop in each individual to enable him or her to interact successfully within a given society and adapt to its mode of production and social norms, (see social character) and may be very counter-productive when used in a different society.

Fromm got his ideas about character structure from two associates/students of Freud, Sándor Ferenczi and Wilhelm Reich. It is Reich who really developed the concept from Ferenczi, and added to it an exploration of character structure as it applies to body structure and development as well mental life.

Reich

For Wilhelm Reich, character structures are based upon blocks—chronic, unconsciously held muscular contractions—against awareness of feelings. The blocks result from trauma: the child learns to limit their awareness of strong feelings as their needs are thwarted by parents who meet cries for fulfillment with neglect or punishment. Reich argued for five basic character structures, each with its own body type developed as a result of the particular blocks created due to deprivation or frustration of the child's stage-specific needs:

1. The schizoid structure, which could result in full blown schizophrenia: this is the result of not feeling wanted by hostile parents, even in the womb. There is a fragmentation of both body and mind with this structure.
2. The oral structure: from deprivation of warmth and milk from the mother, around age 1. The oral structure adopts an attitude of "you do it for me, because you didn't nurture me when I was young." Shoulders are usually hunched, head bent forward, wrists and ankles weak, as if to say, "I can't get it for myself."
3. The psychopath or upwardly displaced structure: this wound, around the age of 3, is around the parent manipulating, emotionally molesting the child, seducing them into feeling "special," for the parent's own narcisstic needs. The child resolves to never again permit themselves to be vulnerable, and so decides to instead manipulate and overpower others with their will. The body is well developed above, weak below, as the psychopath pulls away from the ground and attempts to overpower from above. This structure has variations, depending on the admixture with prior wounds: the overbearing is the pure type, the submissive is mixed with oral, the withdrawing, with schizoid.
4. The masochist structure: this wound occurs when the parent refuses to allow the child to say "no," the first step in setting boundaries. The child seeks relief from the rage that builds up underneath bounded muscle and fat, by provoking punishment from others.
5. The rigid: this wound occurs around the time of the first puberty, the age of 4. The child's sexuality is not affirmed by the parent, but instead shamed or denied. This structure seeks to prove to the parents and others that the child is worthy of love. The rigid structure is often beautifully harmonious, but there is a physical split around the diaphragm between heart and pelvis: love and sex. This person has trouble with being aware of their emotions, which are strong, yet buried. The rigid structure has many substructures, depending on the exact nature of the wound, the admixture with other pre-rigid (oedipal) structures, and the gender: in women, the masculine aggressive, hysterical, and the alternating; in men, the phallic narcissist, the compulsive, and the passive feminine.

While each of these structures has blocks, and these blocks to some degree resemble "armour," it is only the rigid structure that truly has what Reich called "character armour": a system of blocks all over the body. Depending on which version of rigid one is, the rigid character possesses either 'plate' (i.e. clanky) or 'mesh'(much more flexible) character armour.

BAD

BAD (word)

adj. worse , worst

 1. Not achieving an adequate standard; poor: a bad concert.

bad grammar

 2. Evil; sinful.

 3. Vulgar or obscene: bad language.

 4. Informal Disobedient or naughty: bad children.

 5. Disagreeable, unpleasant, or disturbing: a bad piece of news.

 6. Unfavorable: bad reviews for the play.

 7. Not fresh; rotten or spoiled: bad meat.

 8. Injurious in effect; detrimental: bad habits.

 9. Not working properly; defective: a bad telephone connection.

10. Full of or exhibiting faults or errors: bad grammar.

11. Having no validity; void: passed bad checks.

12. Being so far behind in repayment as to be considered a loss: bad loans.

13. Severe; intense: a bad cold.

14. a. Being in poor health or in pain: I feel bad today.

      b. Being in poor condition; diseased: bad lungs.

15. Sorry; regretful: She feels bad about how she treated you.

16. bad·der, bad·dest Slang Very good; great.

Usage Note: Bad is often used as an adverb in sentences such as The house was shaken up pretty bad or We need water bad. This usage is common in informal speech but is widely regarded as unacceptable in formal writing. In an earlier survey, the sentence His tooth ached so bad he could not sleep was unacceptable to 92 percent of the Usage Panel. · The use of badly with want was once considered incorrect but is now entirely acceptable: We wanted badly to go to the beach. · The adverb badly is often used after verbs such as feel, as in I felt badly about the whole affair. This usage bears analogy to the use of other adverbs with feel, such as strongly in We feel strongly about this issue. Some people prefer to maintain a distinction between feel badly and feel bad, restricting the former to emotional distress and using the latter to cover physical ailments; however, this distinction is not universally observed, so feel badly should be used in a context that makes its meaning clear. · Badly is used in some regions to mean "unwell," as in He was looking badly after the accident. Poorly is also used in this way. In an earlier survey, however, the usage was found unacceptable in formal writing by 75 percent of the Usage Panel.

Our Living Language Most people might think that the slang usage of bad to mean its opposite, "excellent," is a recent innovation of Black English. While it is of Black English origin, this usage has been recorded for over a century; the first known example dates from 1897. Even earlier, beginning in the 1850s, the word appears in the sense "formidable, very tough," as applied to persons. Whether or not the two usages are related, they both illustrate a favorite creative device of informal and slang languageusing a word to mean the opposite of what it "really" means. This is by no means uncommon; people use words sarcastically to mean the opposite of their actual meanings on a daily basis. What is more unusual is for such a usage to be generally accepted within a larger community. Perhaps when the concepts are as basic as "good" and "bad" this general acceptance is made easier. A similar instance is the word uptight, which in the 1960s enjoyed usage in the sense "excellent" alongside its now-current, negative meaning of "stiff." Reasonably good.

BAD (U2 song)

"Bad" is a song by rock band U2 and the seventh track from their 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A song about heroin addiction, it is considered a fan favourite, and is one of U2's most frequently performed songs in concert. A performance of the song at 1985's Live Aid was a career breakthrough for the band.

The live version included as the opening track of the Wide Awake in America EP is frequently chosen for airplay by radio DJs ahead of the studio version. The song is featured on the trailer of Brothers and in the opening sequence of Taking Lives.

History

"Bad" began with an improvised guitar riff during a jam session at Slane Castle where U2 were recording The Unforgettable Fire. The basic track was completed in three takes. Of its immediate and live nature, U2 guitarist The Edge said "There's one moment where Larry puts down brushes and takes up the sticks and it creates this pause which has an incredibly dramatic effect." Producer Brian Eno added the sequencer arpeggios that accompany the song.

The early 1980s recession had led to high number of heroin addicts in inner city Dublin. In concert, lead vocalist Bono frequently introduced the song as a song about Dublin. The Edge and the album's producers, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, were focused on the music and less interested in the lyrics. Bono left the song unfinished.

During a July 26, 2011 concert in Pittsburgh, Bono explained before a performance of "Bad" that the song was written for "very special man, who is here in your city, who grew up on Cedarwood Road. We wrote this song about him and we play it for him tonight." He was referring to Andy Rowen, whom the song was originally written about in 1984 and who was present at the show. Rowen is brother of Bono's Lypton Village friend Guggi and Peter Rowen, who is featured on the sleeve artwork for the band's albums Boy and War.

There are other versions of the story from Bono himself. His account from a 1987 concert in Chicago indicate "Bad" is about a friend of his who died of a heroin overdose and also about the conditions that make such events likely repeat themselves. Bono once commented in another concert (in the UK) about people lying in gutters with "needles hangin' outta their fuckin' arms while the rich live indifferently to the suffering of the less fortunate." At Eriksberg, Gothenburg in Sweden 1987, he said: "I wrote the words about a friend of mine; his name was Gareth Spaulding, and on his 21st birthday he and his friends decided to give themselves a present of enough heroin into his veins to kill him. This song is called 'Bad.'"

ZZ TOP PARTY @ T.R.A.C.S

Thanks to DJ Anj and our guests we had a
wonderful ZZ TOP PARTY at T.R.A.C.S.
Here are the snapshots I made during the party.

ZZ TOP PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

Land Mark: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band comprises guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist and co-lead vocalist Dusty Hill, and drummer Frank Beard. One of the few major label recording groups to have held the same lineup for more than forty years, ZZ Top has been praised by critics and fellow musicians alike for their technical mastery. Of the group, music writer Cub Koda said "As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom ... while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support."

Since the release of the band's debut album in January 1971, ZZ Top has become known for its strong blues roots and humorous lyrical motifs, relying heavily on double entendres and innuendo. ZZ Top's musical style has changed over the years, beginning with blues-inspired rock on their early albums, then incorporating new wave, punk rock and dance-rock, with heavy use of synthesizers.

ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. As a group, ZZ Top possesses 11 gold records and 7 platinum (13 multi-platinum) records; their 1983 album, Eliminator, remains the group's most commercially successful record, selling over 10 million units. ZZ Top also ranks 80th in U.S. album sales, with 25 million units. ZZ Top has sold over 50 million albums worldwide.

Gimme All Your Lovin'

"Gimme All Your Lovin'" is a song by ZZ Top from their 1983 album Eliminator. The song was released as the album's first single in 1983.

Initially unsuccessful in the UK upon its early 1984 release, in the wake of the band's American success (the single reached no. 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart), it was promptly re-released, and reached no. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. It ties with the band's 1992 cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" as their highest-charting single in the UK. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning.

Music video

The video features ZZ Top playing at a gas station, and introduces classic ZZ elements such as the red "ZZ Eliminator Car," the "ZZ Keychain" and the "Three ZZ Girls" as heroines. It is the first of a ZZ Top music video series. It was directed by Tim Newman.

Gimme All Your Lovin' Lyrics

I got to have a shot

Of what you got it's oh, so sweet

 You got to make it hot

Like a boomerang I need a repeat

Gimme all your lovin'

All your hugs and kisses too

Gimme all your lovin'

Don't let up until we're through

You got to whip it up

And hit me like a ton of lead

If I blow my top

Will you let it go to your head?

Gimme all your lovin'

All your hugs and kisses too

Gimme all your lovin'

Don't let up until we're through

[Incomprehensible]

You got to move it up

And use it like a screwball would

 You got to pack it up

And work it like a new boy should

Gimme all your lovin'

All your hugs and kisses too

Gimme all your lovin'

Don't let up until we're through

The Netherlands mourns

Flags on government and private buildings are at half mast in the Netherlands on Wednesday at the start of an official day of mourning to remember those who died on flight MH17. It is the first time the Netherlands has declared a day of public mourning since the death of queen Wilhelmina in 1962.

In total, 193 Dutch nationals died when the Boeing 777 travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down in rebel-held Ukraine, close to the Russian border a week ago. Many were families leaving for their summer holiday. The dead include 80 teenagers, children and babies.
The first planes brought back the bodies of 40 victims and they arrive at Eindhoven air base at 16.00 hours today.

Emotional MH17 Crash Speech By Netherlands Delegate to UN

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Frans Timmermans gives an emotional speech, on Juli 21 2014, from the UN Security Council Meeting on Ukraine. 

The Netherlands lost the most lives of any country, 193 of the 298 people on board, when MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine.

FROM OUTER SPACE PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

It was a hot evening here in the Netherlands when we

had our FROM OUTER SPACE party at T.R.A.C.S.

It was DJ Zee's first occurrence as deejay in our club.

DJ Zee had made a great set and Tim and I loved his performance, so we will see him more often as deejay
at T.R.A.C.S.

Here are the snap shots I made.