Niki N. Phaser

Even before the release of The Dark Knight and, if I remember correctly, even before the death of Heath Ledger, there was a lot of buzz about his performance as Batman’s nemesis, The Joker. The shock of his untimely death, mixed with that buzz, created a suited environment for the birth of something… well, mythical, Hollywood style. When the movie came out, there was no disappointment, Ledger’s performance was as cool as everyone expected, even more. He received the entire package of acting awards and a new movie legend was born.

But since then, The Joker’s Glasgow grin has become a bit of a pop culture icon, finding itself on plenty of pop art items. I am not talking about Heath Ledger, who might or might not become the James Dean of our generation, but solely about his Joker, who makes Jack’s Joker a Joke… (some pun intended). Not only do we see his face on T-shirts and other clothing, but it actually became a hip thing to wear Joker-type make-up, on special occasions, like weddings and funerals… just kidding, but you do see plenty of Joker faces at concerts or clubs or whatnot. Youtube is filled with “Joker make-up tutorials”.

This face of evil might just become the next big thing in iconic pop images. Take down your Don Corleone and Scarface posters, replace them with the “Why so serious ?” series. Tatoo artists, start practicing Heath Ledger’s face lines. Pretty soon, it will become one of those images that few will remember where it came from, but they’ll know it’s cool to sport it. And the truth is, it is cool. I’m hesitant in claiming that it will equal the Che mania, but there will be a few bands in the future that will reference some of Joker’s lines, some parodies very soon, Halloween masks, the make-up craze will hit the mainstream and you’ll see a buch of pop stars all looking like pretty sexy versions of The Joker doing machine-gun moves and wetting their lips after every word. Just keep an eye on the process to see it unfolding step by step in front of us… And if I’m wrong I’ll probably delete this post, so no one will know…

SEE THE SIGN OF THE COMING

Actress Farrah Fawcett died today, June 25 2009, with the cause of death being cancer. There is no point in listing all her life here, all the scandals that surrounded her name. One thing is sure, her name will live on, not just as an actress, but as pop culture idol. She was the first to adopt the whole “I’m hot as hell, but still cool to just hang out” thing… Kinda like a Cameron Diaz of the seventies. Probably, that’s why Diaz played Natalie in the Charlie’s Angels movies. Another way Farrah Fawcett left her mark on the world was the hairstyle she was sporting back in day. It’s the wavy long do (like in the image), generally known as The Farrah Fawcett Hairstyle, which became an universal symbol of the 1970′s. Just think of all recent comedies set in that decade and you’ll always find that the hot-chick character(s) has a similar hairstyle. All of that started with her, so we have to grant her that much (and her stylist, too, of course). She also made us laugh on that classic Letterman episode, but it would be a little insensitive to bring that up. Anyway… it seems the Big C, the ”big chunky charlie” just woun’t stop…