Speed is a 1994 American action-thriller movie set in Los Angeles, California. It stars Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Alan Ruck, and Dennis Hopper with Joe Morton. It is about a police officer (Reeves) who has to stop a extortionist (Hopper), who has put a bomb on a city bus. The movie was a box office success in many countries.
It was followed by a 1997 sequel, "".
Ares
Ares is a god in Greek mythology. He is the god of savage war and bloodlust, and represents the untamed, wild aspects of conflict. He is one of the Twelve Olympians. His parents are Zeus and Hera. He had a twin sister called Eris. Neither parent liked him. He is considered murderous and bloody. In the Trojan War, he fought on the side of the Trojans. He had six children with Aphrodite. His homeland is Thrace.
Ares' name is believed to be derived from the Greek word ἀρή ("arē"), the Ionic form of the Doric ἀρά ("ara"), which translates to "bane" or "ruin".
Anna Kavan
Anna Kavan (born 10 April 1901 as Helen Emily Woods, died 1968) was an English writer.
Her early work, comprising six novels, gave little indication of the style and content of her writing after 1939. The change of her name to Anna Kavan in 1940 signalled an experimental form, focussed on the 'nocturnal language' of dreams and addiction.
"I Am Lazarus" is a collection of short stories that address the disturbing unreality of mental illness, particularly as a result of [war-related] post traumatic stress disorder.
Kavan travelled extensively during the Second World War, spending 22 months in New Zealand. That country's proximity to Antarctica informed her writing of "Ice".
Kavan's biographical details have until recently been vague and sketchy, but recent discoveries of letters and unpublished manuscripts have shed revealing light on her life and times. Dr Jennifer Sturm of Auckland University has made a recent study of Kavan's writing, and has unearthed significant validation of her biographical details. Kavan is currently enjoying something of a belated interest. London publishers Peter Owen Publishers have for many years flown the Kavan flag and continue to do so, with the recent re-release of "Ice" and a forthcoming publication of "Guilty", a new posthumous release of Kavan's work.
Voodoo
The word voodoo, which has many different names and spellings (like "vodun, vodou, voudou, vudu, vodoun, vowdown, vooodooo, vundun") is the name of a West African animist, spiritual folkway. Some class it as a religion. However, voodoo is more a way of life. It is a supernatural ancestral connection, passed from generation to generation by word of mouth (oral tradition), rituals and spiritual practices. Voodoo has variations from tribe to tribe. Religion, on the other hand, is based on formal organization, myths and dogma in texts, buildings constructed for worship, and a hierarchy of ordained leaders.
Voodoo is animism or spiritism. That is, all aspects of the natural world are seen as having spiritual identity immune to physical death. Animism includes belief in a person's spirit surviving the death of the body. Ancestors' 'spirits' are called upon for inspiration, protection or other influences over the material world. The roots of voodoo in the Americas come from the Fon, Ewe, and Yoruba people of Africa.. The word vodún is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit.
In voodoo many gods and spirits are prayed to or called on. Both spirits of nature and of dead people are important. The spirits of family members who have died are especially important. Voodoo often has rituals with music and dancing. Drums are used to make most of this music. In voodoo people often believe that a spirit is in their body and controlling the body. Having a spirit come into is wanted, and important. This spirit can speak for the gods or dead people you love, and can also help to heal or do magic.
Another word for voodoo is "vodu", used in Haiti where the creole language is based on French language. African voodoo often has animal sacrifice (the animal is killed for the spirits), but this is not common in Haiti. Voodoo in Haiti and America has also added some Catholic ideas that were not known in African voodoo. The use of Catholic saints/iconography may have developed as a means of adaptation, and survival, but also as a safety precaution.
Voodoo is an important religion in Haiti. When Haiti beat the French in a war and became its own country, the people of Haiti believed that voodoo had helped them win. Also, in Haiti there are both good priests and "dark" sorcerers (called bokor). The bokor acts like a kind of religious policeman, and may curse bad people.
Voodoo originally entered the United States via immigrants from Africa and Haiti such as Marie LaVeau, "the voodoo queen of New Orleans". Marie was a pacifist and known for healing people. Though unprecedented, the local Catholic priest let Marie practice Voodoo in the Catholic Church, and as a result, she became famous, leading (along with others) many in Louisiana to believe in Voodoo.
Like many other religions and practices, people learn about voodoo and hoodoo through movies and TV shows, where it has gained the popularity it has today as a form of entertainment. Hoodoo was showcased in the 2005 horror-suspense movie, The Skeleton Key, starring Kate Hudson (correctly emphasizing that it was hoodoo that was being used), and in the 2009 Disney movie The Princess and the Frog.
<br>Zombies are a large part of popular horror culture, and they originated in voodoo folklore from the original word, “nbzambi”, which refers to the primary sprit and/or to one’s soul. The 2009 release of Zombieland and the 2004 movie Shaun of the Dead are both horror-comedies.
Just as there is Christian music, there is music that came from voodoo rituals, which influenced jazz, and many of the original jazz players are rumored to have had a connection to voodoo in some way, including Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong. Storyville, a district in New Orleans, was a place where, at night, Jazz was played and hoodoo was sold. There, jazz thrived and pulsed with the voices and instruments of Jelly Roll, Sweet Emma Barrett, and many others.
There are many songs and albums that reference voodoo and/or hoodoo, either in the title ("Hoodoo" by Muse )
or in the actual song, such as in David Bowie's song "Magic Dance", with the lyric, ""You remind me of the babe./ What babe?/ The babe with the power. /What power?/ The power of the hoodoo. /Hoodoo? /You do. /Do what? /Remind me of the babe!"". Another example is Rob Zombie who started the band White Zombie.
Loa (spirits of Voodoo) are depicted in Zadie Smith's 2005 novel "On Beauty". Loa also appear in Terry Pratchett's book "Witches Abroad" (1991). A powerful voodoo woman in novel "Witches Abroad" is named Erzulie Gogol. Baron Samedi (as the head of the Ghede family of Loa) is mentioned in the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series of stories "Live and Let Die." In the short story "Kum Ogun" by Jorge Amado, or the 2nd part of the novel "Shepherds of the night" (1964), is one of the title characters – Loa Ogun. The character Galeb from "Tales of Monkey Island" was based on Loa Papa Legba. Papa Legba, Erzulie, Ogun, Ghede and other popular Loa together with the adepts of Voodoo are depicted in Andrei Gusev's 2020 novel "Our Wild Sex in Malindi".
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury (Latin: "Mercurius") is the god of trade, commerce, financial gain, messages/communication, travellers and boundaries, trickery, merchants and thieves in Ancient Roman religion and myth. Son of Jupiter and Maia, Mercury was a major god in Roman state religion, being a member of the Dii Consentes, the principal group of ancient Roman deities. The Roman counterpart to Hermes, the god is depicted as holding a caduceus in his left hand. The planet Mercury and the element are named after him.
Medusa