Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Who is in charge?


Socks the Cat


US TV debut Feb 20, 1974 from 8:30 to 10 pm on An ABC Movie Special "The Hellstrom Chronicle" (1971) Oscar Winner for documentary feature and Cannes festival award was 90 minutes for June 29, 1971 opening at basement theater that closed when the Gulf & Western Building became the Trump International Hotel and Tower.


The film combines elements of documentary, horror and apocalyptic prophecy to present a gripping satirical depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and insects.
It's on Youtube.

Related film & novel:

Phase IV (1974) sci-fi horror film after a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind, and build seven strange towers with geometrically perfect designs in the Arizona desert. The only feature-length film directed by graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass. It was a box office flop, however, over time the film has gained a cult following. RollingStone's 2024 article, The 150 Greatest Science Fiction Movies of All Time the film ranked #123.

Hellstrom's Hive is a 1973 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It is about a secret group of humans who model their lives upon social insects and the unsettling events that unfold after they are discovered by a deep undercover agency of the U.S. government. Dr. Nils Hellstrom, an entomologist, is a successful film maker and influential scientific advisor with strong political ties. Living and working with a small staff on a farm in rural Oregon, he attracts the attention of an unnamed government organisation when documents are discovered that hint on cult-like activities and a secret weapon project.

An operative from the government is sent, but is quickly assassinated by Hellstrom's operatives. Further operatives are sent and it is revealed that the farm is situated above a vast system of tunnels and caves, hosting a hive-like subterranean society of nearly 50,000 specialized hybrid human-insect workers. Hellstrom, thanks to advanced bioengineering, has been the appointed hive leader for more than 100 years. He is completely convinced of the superiority of the hive and its abandonment of conventional morals and ethics: sexuality or violence, indeed, any individual action, is rated strictly whether it strengthens or weakens the hive as a whole. The government spies soon learn the hive has progressed to using sexual "stumps," both male and female — "the stump of a human body from about the waist to the knees" — as a method of harvesting "wild" genes or maintaining certain breeding lines when the individuals are no longer trustworthy members of the hive. The hive have also developed a secret weapon that it will use to displace humans as the dominant intelligent species on the planet.

The story is told from various perspectives of members of both the nameless organisation investigating the farm and plotting against each other, as well as Hellstrom and several high-ranking hive members collectively dealing with the threat of being discovered and probably extinguished by "the wild ones". In the end, the hive's weapon project is ready to protect the hive and the upcoming 'swarming' - the gradual displacement of individual-based humanity.

David L. Wolper's quasi-documentary film The Hellstrom Chronicle, released in 1971, was the inspiration for Herbert's novel. In an interview with Tim O'Reilly, Herbert stated: "I said, 'In terms of what we want now, as we think of our world now, what would be the most horrible kind of civilization you could imagine?' And then I said, 'Now I will make... [the members of that civilization] the heroes of the story, by taking negative elements of the surrounding society and treating them as the villain.' That creates a very peculiar kind of tension."

With the success of DUNE I wonder if they'll ever adapt Hellstrom's Hive.
I mean with all the high octane UFO hive-mind lore from black project bioengineering gene harvesting to a secret subterranean society of hybrid human-insect slaves it would be very fitting in today's sci-fi media maelstrom. With the right director & actors this could be an Oscar hit!






R.I.P. Bobbie Wygant (born Roberta Frances Connolly Nov 22, 1926 – Feb 18, 2024) was an American television news reporter, film critic, talk show host, and interviewer who worked for Fort Worth, Texas television station KXAS-TV (originally known as WBAP-TV) for over 70 years. She was known for her filmed interviews with many, many celebrities.



Bobbie Wygant Tribute from NBC5:



Trailblazing NBC 5 reporter Bobbie Wygant dies at 97 (By Frank Heinz and NBCDFW Staff)


She's been on TV for 70 years (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec 16, 2018)

Bobbie Wygant Blog Archive

One of the many celebrities she interviewed was Ida Lupino for "Junior Bonner" 1972:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SF53ECpj1k

Mark Hamill "Star Wars" 1978 (Special Edit!) - Bobbie Wygant Archive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l0eUpe9ZBA


Feb 21, 1981: Charles Rocket dropped the F-bomb on SNL. Less than a month later he and several others including Gilbert Gottfried were fired.





Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy and Charles Rocket. Shortly after his firing from SNL, Charles Rocket showed up in TV ads for the soon-to-fold Washington Star which went out of business in August 1981. Rocket later appeared in EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY. He died in 2005 by suicide.

Charles Rocket STAR ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WI5t6RnsEg


Feb 19, 1990: Adobe Photoshop released...

And it changed the course of history on "perception".


Tom Cruise will single-handedly keep the movies alive even if it kills him.


Variety

Scientology must be the one true religion because how else does he do it. LOL.

Proof the cancel culture kids are finally running out of things to get offended by...


Mainstream German Ideology call for overhaul of antiquated system