Watching Southland Tales On Easter Eve Almost Broke My Mind

by Travis Mateer

I had a hunch the timing was right for me to see this film, directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), but I wasn’t prepared for how explicitly synchronized my experience would be as Easter eve flipped to Resurrection Day for Jesus.

Are you ready to break reality with me? Because movies, and numbers, and the esoteric interpretations of symbolism and synchronicity can get pretty out there, so buckle up, readers, because shit is about to get WEIRD.

For me, number break-downs, like the tweet pictured above, aren’t compelling until additional synchronicities start accumulating. I’m especially curious about synchronicities that have fiction/non-fiction bleed-through, so to speak.

One example of this, to show you what I’m talking about, is the fact Dwayne Johnson character’s name (one of two) is Boxer Santaros. Why is this significant to real world happenings for me? Maybe this image will help explain it:

That’s right, last night Trump was ringside with BOXER, Mike Tyson, and Kid ROCK, the sudden critic of Bud Light. Do I need to mention that Dwayne THE ROCK Johnson has been a professional wrestler in his career? And should I mention prominent Bud Light ads can be seen in the film?

It’s also important to note, since we’re talking about JESUS in this movie, that some people actually think Donald Trump is the messiah, or anti-Christ, depending on where you’re standing. This perspective isn’t helped by the fact Mel Gibson, who made a little movie about Jesus, seemingly saluted Trump last night at this same event.

The cultural and personal references accumulated for me so quickly, and continue to do so this morning (Easter morning), that it’s going to be difficult to make this sound coherent. I can’t even put on a fucking t-shirt without the image directly connecting to the movie. Here’s a selfie, then I’ll explain the significance.

Here are some of the elements in this image sending me off the deep-end. First, the owl icon is from the movie Bladerunner, and it represents the Tyrell Corporation. That movie is based on a book by Philip K. Dick. You can see him pictured behind me, just above the tattoo on my arm, which is ALSO significant.

First, the book by PKD referenced in Southland Tales is titled Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, and the reference comes when a cop says “flow my tears…” before committing a double homicide. Going deeper, another character in the movie has a name that is really screwing me up on a personal level. How am I going to explain this without sounding nuts?

Ok, let’s start with the fictional name of the character, a cop by the name of Roland Taverner. That last name is a direct reference to the character in PKD’s novel, JASON Taverner. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is a 1974 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The novel is set in a futuristic dystopia where the United States has become a police state in the aftermath of a Second American Civil War. The story follows genetically enhanced pop singer and television star Jason Taverner who wakes up in a world where he has never existed.

Where things get weird for me is the REAL name of the actor who plays Roland (another name with significance I’ll get to in a sec), and that name is Seann William Scott. Why? Because William is my middle name, and the name I took on for my poet persona. And Seann (minus an “n”) is the name of the man killed at the homeless shelter where I used to work, Sean Stevenson.

It goes deeper, but I’m trying to pace myself, because now I’m going to discuss two famous poets, my middle child, and how the Stephen King reference plays in to all this.

One of the background storylines in the movie is a political campaign. The candidate at the top of the ticket is Eliot, spelled just like the poet credited for kicking off modernist despair with his epic, The Wasteland. Also, the name of my second child, who was born in October (the tattoo on my arm, visible in the picture, are the horoscope signs of my family, so you can see Eliot’s Libra sign).

The Wasteland is also a poem Stephen King references in his fictional epic, the Dark Tower series, which features the gunslinger protagonist, Roland. Another aspect of King that resonates with me is his choice of Colorado Springs as a key location in his book, The Stand. Not only does this location have Tesla/Trump connotations, it also has personal Sean/William significance. Are you keeping up, dear reader?

The other name on the political ticket is also a cultural reference to a famous poet, and that’s Frost, as in Bob Frost, or Robert Frost. If the name isn’t obvious enough, a line from one of Frost’s most well-known poems is used in the movie, the one about roads taken and NOT taken.

Have I mentioned that Southland Tales is about the Apocalypse? Maybe I should include a brief synopsis of the film before moving to the biggest synchronicity of all time. Ok, here it is:

On July 4th, 2005, in a fictionalized United States alternate history reality, two towns in Texas (El Paso and Abilene) were destroyed by twin nuclear attacks, killing thousands and triggering a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, sending America into a state of chaos and hysteria, as well as a Third World War (a fictionalized version of what the nation may have become under the War on Terror), with the US government re-introducing the draft.

The PATRIOT Act has extended authority to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant surveillance on citizens—even to the extent of censoring the Internet and requiring fingerprints to access computers and bank accounts. In response to the recent fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy, which is propelled by the perpetual motion of ocean currents, called “Fluid Karma”. However, its inventor Baron von Westphalen and his associates are hiding the fact that the generators alter the ocean’s currents and cause the Earth to slow its rotation, and that the transmission of Fluid Karma to portable receivers (via quantum entanglement) is ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.

In near-future 2008, Los Angeles (referred to as “The Southland” by locals) is a dystopian[11] city on the brink of chaos overshadowed by the growth of an underground neo-Marxist organization. The film follows the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now, a psychic ex–porn star in the midst of creating a reality TV show; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner, whose destinies become intertwined with that of all mankind. The Taverner twins are revealed to be the same person by the engineers of Treer, duplicated when Roland traveled through a rift in space-time, while Boxer has become the most wanted man in the world despite his political ties and his having the fate of the future, in the form of a prophetic screenplay foretelling the end of the world, in his hands.

I know some people who will be reading this post, and they live in Texas. That is where their family is from, though they have all lived in different places over the years. This family has an amazing patriarch. How amazing? I asked him for some credentials months ago, hoping to compel some state officials behind the scenes, but it never got that far.

Well, today is THE PERFECT DAY to show readers of this humble little blog the credentials of this impressive man, so here is a little idea of what my work is connected to:

A very brief Bio Biographical Background of Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson (shortened version) 

Dr. Kenneth Stevenson grew up in an inner-city Pittsburgh neighborhood. Stevenson won a Congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy, beginning a fourteen-year Air Force career which saw Stevenson graduate as one of only six blacks in his class.   Stevenson was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a B-52 co-pilot and later as an instructor-copilot.

In Southeast Asia, he amassed almost 1200 combat flying hours and 210 combat missions. He received ten Air Medals and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his service. He commanded his own B-52 crew at the age of 25, and was one of the youngest commanders in SAC.  

Stevenson achieved a Master’s degree Cum Laude in only nine months, from the University of Pittsburgh. Thereafter, he was assigned to the faculty of the Air Force Academy where he taught English. In 1992, he obtained his first doctoral degree, and in 1994, obtained a second doctoral degree.   The U.S. Jaycees selected Stevenson as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of America. Congressman Moorehead of Pittsburgh also recognized him in the Congressional Record for his outstanding achievements. 

Dr. Stevenson later worked as a marketing representative and a corporate pilot for IBM, where he received the IBM 100% Club award for two consecutive years.   In 1985, Stevenson and his wife Mary Ann founded Everlasting Covenant Christian Ekklesia in New York, a culturally diverse church of over 700. They also established and served as principals of Everlasting Covenant Christian Academy, a private Christian school for the pursuit of excellence in all life disciplines. 

Stevenson founded a second congregation in the city of Pittsburgh, and later a school there that would serve its underprivileged youth. Renaissance Academy of Pittsburgh Alternative of Hope (RAPAH) Charter School opened in 2003, achieving Four Star academic excellence. 

Dr. Stevenson has also published numerous works and has appeared on many television and radio programs. He was the Recording Secretary for the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), having accompanied the American scientific team to Turin in October 1978 to study the Shroud. Stevenson edited The Proceedings of the 1977 United States Conference of Research on the Shroud of Turin. and was the author and co-author of internationally known best sellers in the United States on the subject: Verdict on the Shroud, The Shroud and the Controversy,  Image of the Risen Christ, and his latest book, NAZAH: White Linen and the Blood of Sprinkling.

Dr. Stevenson has also authored other notable publications.  In addition, he produced the documentary “Behold the Man” which airs annually on Christian television. Dr. Stevenson and his wife, Mary, currently continue as co-pastors to the New York Congregation, and a growing internet audience.

Are you starting to make the connections? Are you starting to realize that the son of a man with a strong faith in God came to Missoula for help and instead found death? But not immediately. No, the assault was on January 3rd, 2020, but Sean Stevenson wasn’t removed from life support by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office until January 5th, three days later. Are you beginning to see what is happening here?

Look at the picture of this young man who became a father and lost a son. The synchronicities surrounding what is happening here have a depth that continually blows me away, and I haven’t even gotten to the biggest one yet, because there’s still Jane’s Addiction and rollerblades to deal with.

The timeframe of “three days” obviously has relevance to those of the Christian faith, since it was the amount of time Jesus spent dead in the tomb before resurrection. Three Days is also a song by Jane’s Addiction, one of my personal favorite.

Did I listen to Jane’s Addiction while rollerblading during the 90’s? Not that I can recall, but I HAVE spent time recently on wheels, and even more recently a semi-famous wannabe cult leader, who fled to Northern Idaho after being cancelled by Hollywood, has taken direct aim at rollerbladers.

While Benjamin’s tweets are pretty damn funny, I had an experience last summer where some bro-holes had some shit to say as I was enjoying a roll on a Missoula downtown sidewalk. So I took notice when Southland Tales has a secondary character get mowed down while rollerblading, clearly mocking this 90’s phenomenon.

The last connection that takes this out of the stratosphere is one I only noticed while write this post because I don’t recall Kevin Smith appearing in the movie, but he apparently did. Here’s the character he plays:

Why is this so significant? I’ll tell you, but I’m not going to tell you EVERYTHING in this post. What I will say is Kevin Smith made a movie, and that movie’s title is DOGMA. In that movie a synchronicity exists involving the Stevenson family, and it’s mind-blowing.

There’s enough information in this post, from my perspective, to put together what I’m not-so-subtly hinting at, but you have to CARE enough about Sean’s life to do some of the work on your own. I don’t feel the timing is right for complete disclosure yet.

Some of the references and ideas I don’t have space or bandwidth to go into deeply, but I feel are definitely noteworthy, include Justin Timberlake’s character, Private Pilot Abilene, and the prevalence of smiley faces everywhere around his character. This relates to water, and the technology in the movie that draws energy from the ocean. I have some thoughts on this that are no where near formed enough to share yet, but touch on the idea of “wet” circuits, AI, and quantum physics.

How is that for a 2023 Easter-year-of-the-rabbit-Sunday bonus post? If you would like to support my crazy approach to content creation, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is ready for your donation, as is the button at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

About Travis Mateer

I'm an artist and citizen journalist living and writing in Montana. You can contact me here: willskink at yahoo dot com
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3 Responses to Watching Southland Tales On Easter Eve Almost Broke My Mind

  1. Eric says:

    Nice tribute to Dr Stevenson.

    I think that since Sean’s killer was executed that the various government entities consider the case closed, and old news.

    Do you think there is more culpability here to expose?

    • I know there’s more culpability to expose because I’ve seen the images of his body and it does not correlate with the story Sean’s family was told about what happened inside the men’s dorm at the Poverello Center.

  2. Pingback: National Attention Descends On Montana, But The Synchronicities Are Telling Me A Different Story | Zoom Chron Blog

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