Eye of the Goof

Bela Lugosi's dead... Lo! He is Risen!

Bela Lugosi's dead
No no no, He's outside
Lookin' in
He'll fly his vampire plane
Takes trips around the Bay
Bites your neck before break of day
Bela Lugosi
Bela Lugosi!

[with no apologies to the Moody Blues]

One's person Jesus is another ... oh well ...

A friend just pointed out that the middle photo looks more like Eric Idle from Monty Python than Bela. I told her she was worshipping false Idles.

[ba-da-dump!] Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

The most interesting Jesus I ever saw was Klaus Kinski in his "Jesus Phase" Check out Werner Herzog's film called My Best Fiend. It shows footage of Kinski raving like a lunatic about things Jesus etc.

When is Kinski *not* raving like a lunatic?

You wouldn't think it possible, but Bela's Jesus seems far more creepy than Dracula. Can you imagine Bela's heavy accent quoting scripture? Very frightening, indeed.

By the way, thanks for the publicity! I don't think it is a blog that will be embraced by the masses, but I hope it strikes some as interesting.

I think it's the monobrow that really gives him that extra-creepy edge, Mark, but yeah, I'll be hearing Bela's voice quoting scripture for a while.

Personally, I think your new blog's a cool idea, and hopefully, all the hostility I see towards religion in the blogosphere won't keep people away from it.

Yes that is true but raving in Jesus Mode he really hits full throttle Koo Koo.

Klaus Kinski ... I think the label madmen would be an underrstatement in his case!

Nothing gets crazier than someone who thinks they are Jayzuss and Kinski did .....which takes him beyond madness and more into the realm of full blown Koo KOO

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/swearingjesus.html
- Warning - Rudeness -

Hey, who you callin' pendejo, Pendejo?

I'm sorry but these photos just scare me. I'm a huge Lugosi fan, but jeez, I could have done without ever seeing him as Jesus--let alone that middle shot! Just creepy, dude. :D

But then I've always been sort of weirded-out by old pictures (actors, of course) and paintings portraying Jesus. Not entirely sure why.

When I was a kid we went to Tennessee one year and picked up tons of travel brochures throughout. We got this one for the "Smoky Mountain Passion Play", a live event held each Easter there up in an ampitheater in the Smokies. This brochure had plenty of old '60s-looking faded color photos of the event, and they just looked really creepy to me. Haunted me for years, those old pix of Jesus being crucified up on a gloomy stage in front of a large audience dressed in their Sunday best. I just could never quite wrap my little noggin around that whole thing in those days. My parents talked about trying to attend this. I trembled in fear at the very thought and begged them not to. Thankfully (for my sanity's sake), we never did.

If you've ever seen FEAR NO EVIL (1981), and the stuff that goes down near the end during the passion play--THAT'S exactly the sort of thing I was picturing happening if we actually did end up going to that one in the Smokies! Really. :)

Catholicism has always prominently displayed elements of the gruesome and grotesque. Visit the cathedrals of Europe and you'll see more bones, dried out corpses, and just-plain creepy artwork (like this statue of St. Bartholomew wearing his flayed skin like a toga) than there are beads on a rosary.