Osiris Archives - Page 20 of 22 - Alex's Asteroid Astrology

October 30th, 2018 at 08:49am by Alex Miller

Slaughter in the Synagogue

Shortly after Shabbat services began at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday, October 27, 2018, a lone gunman entered and began shooting up the congregation with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and two Glock hand guns. He left 11 dead and another six wounded, including several police officers who responded to the 911 calls. The suspect, Robert Bowers, was apprehended after being shot by police and remains in the hospital, though he faces arraignment on 29 Federal charges on the Monday. Bowers had a history of anti-Semitic posts on social media sites, and told arresting officers that he “just wanted to kill Jews”, whom he accused of bringing terrorists into the US to destroy the country.

The rampage is the most deadly act of anti-Semitism in US history, and the 294^th mass shooting in the country this year. Obviously, we’ve been down this road many times before; it is wide and commodious, and there appears to be no turning.

October 1st, 2018 at 09:22am by Alex Miller

AAA Profile: Bela Lugosi

“Welcome to my house. Enter freely and of your own will.” From this first intonation of his opening line in the 1931 horror classic “Dracula”, Bela Lugosi was a star. Suave and elegant, with opera cape, top hat and cane, sans the fangs and gore, Lugosi’s portrayal of Bram Stoker’s malignant villain virtually singlehandedly vaulted the vampire from grotesque to sex symbol. His sophisticated appearance and exotic eastern European accent set him in the firmament of Hollywood glitterati, indelibly linked with his undead character for all time.

October 1st, 2018 at 09:05am by Alex Miller

The Birth of the Slasher Film: Forty Years of “Halloween”

On October 25, 1978, in Kansas City, Missouri, director John Carpenter premiered his third feature film, “Halloween”, with a plot involving a psychotic, knife-wielding killer stalking a group of libidinous teens in a sleepy Illinois town on Halloween night. The movie starred Hollywood scion Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, in her film debut, with a role that would soon become known as that of “the final girl”, that is, the lone survivor of the killer’s rage. A new terminology was required, for “Halloween” broke unhallowed ground in the horror genre, essentially inventing the slasher film

September 7th, 2018 at 03:34pm by Alex Miller

Aster-Obit: Burt Reynolds

On September 6^th, 2018, noted actor Burt Reynolds suffered a heart attack and died at a Florida hospital. Reynolds was best known for his popular action films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, including “Smokey and the Bandit” and “The Cannonball Run”, but also received an Oscar nomination for his work in 1997’s “Boogie Nights”. During his heyday, Reynolds’ life was frequent tabloid fodder, with long-term relationships with singer and talk show hostess Dinah Shore, actress Sally Field (his co-star in the “Bandit” films) and TV personality Loni Anderson, whom he eventually married, then divorced.

August 28th, 2018 at 09:24am by Alex Miller

Aster-Obit: John McCain

On Saturday, 25 August 2018, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) succumbed to his battle with brain cancer, at his home outside Phoenix, Arizona, just four days before his 82^nd birthday. The six-term senator, a former Republican nominee for president, had garnered a reputation as a maverick nonpartisan, a truthful, principled political actor who chastised his fellow Party members as freely as the opposition.

July 12th, 2018 at 09:20am by Alex Miller

Nicholas & Alexandra: A Royal Tragedy

July 17, 2018 is the centennial anniversary of the assassination of Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia, his wife Empress Alexandra, and their five children. Forced to abdicate in March 1917 in the aftermath of a disastrous Russian defeat in World War I, the family was held in captivity in various locations for almost 18 months, prisoners of one or another faction in the civil war which followed revolution, ending their lives in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, before an impromptu firing squad.