Johnathan Recor Revealed

Published October 9, 2009.

It’s 10 o’clock at night, and you’re beginning to wonder why you thought it’d be such a great idea to walk to FoCo alone. You pull your sweatshirt higher around your neck in a futile attempt to block the cold wind and glance around the deserted campus. You know Hanover is possibly the safest town in America, but you can’t help but a feel a little creeped out by the lack of human life. To top it all off, you’re sure you’ve been hearing the eerie beat of techno music playing somewhere in the night…

Suddenly, a flash of red in the distance. You stop dead in your tracks, staring intently at the Green, positive that you must have been hallucinating. But after a moment’s scrutiny you realize that your eyes are not deceiving you—you really are seeing a luminescent red light saber twirling violently through the air. You pick up your speed, eager to know who could possibly be performing at this hour. You’re finally close enough to see the source of this glowing dance when you stop dead in your tracks again.

The man before you looks as if he were torn from the pages of a comic book. He wears a traditional superhero getup: tight pants, a close-fitting shirt, gloves, and a marvelous gold and black cape. But his mask is unlike anything you have ever seen before. Golden spikes radiate out from an inscrutable white face; jewels and pearls dangle from the chin and the points of each barb. He is, without a doubt, the most random thing you have encountered at Dartmouth thus far.

No matter how your initial experience with Johnathan Recor occurs, it is undeniably a memorable event. We had our most remarkable Recor experience one night when walking back to our dorm. He was walking towards the Green with Matrix Man—who has now been identified as ’13 Dylan Calhoun—when we stopped to ask about the man behind the mask.

He informed us that he wasn’t actually called Light Saber Man (he prefers to go by Johnathan), and that he was a first year graduate student studying creative writing. Giddy with excitement, we gushed, “So what’s your inspiration for doing this?” Without missing a beat, he simply replied, “Love.”

The purpose behind Johnathan’s active theatrical performance is to physically convey his “life experiences as a developing human being in search of love.” For Johnathan, art as a piece hanging from a wall is simply not enough to convey his emotions. His goal is to create a timeline of sorts, one that describes the deep emotions he has felt at various times during his life, and to display, record, and embrace them in an open kind of journal, one that we each can look upon and empathize with. He also wants others to recognize the “importance of acknowledging the love that every individual carries deep within themselves; the love that every living creature possesses from within, and from this, being able to share this compassion among all you come across to help improve the conditions of our society, world, and humanity.”

Since our initial nighttime rendezvous, we have met Johnathan several times both in and out of costume. The disparity between the man in the mask and the real Johnathan is almost startling: the intense energy and violence that he radiates whilst dancing with his light saber are nowhere to be found in the quiet man who ordered Smiley Fries at our EBAs lunch.

Without the mask to hide his facial expressions, he is a remarkably genuine and open person. His willingness to show his true self is refreshing in a world where people so often hide their deepest nature in order to gain the favor of their peers.

On Facebook, Johnathan comments on how difficult it is to “unlock and express the vulnerabilities of [his] heart and soul for all to see, hear, and judge.” As cliché as it may seem, he wears his heart on his sleeve whether he is in costume or not, and he remains an open individual despite the criticism he has received over time.

Although he was initially discouraged because his performances were often misinterpreted—one girl reported hearing that the “Sun God” would try to abduct you if you got too close—Johnathan is now “more confident than ever that the quest in pursuing [his] dreams, despite any and all adversity, is the true path to [his] enlightenment as a student, artist, and human being.” Johnathan is calm and cordial in response to detractors as he thinks that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. This simple characteristic is what makes him so strong as an individual. This project is something he believes in; it’s his passion and his art.

Johnathan’s theatrical endeavors have evolved from a fusion of interests he’s developed over the years. His father introduced him to mixed martial arts at the age of fourteen after noting how disciplined Johnathan was as a child.

Despite ten years of experience—and a third degree black belt—he has only just begun to integrate martial arts into his everyday life. In high school, he dissembled toys, and mixed their various pieces into his own creations (think Sid from Toy Story). After producing an amalgamation of different pieces of toys, Johnathan would feel satisfied and content with his creation. He says it was almost as if the toys he made helped him “becom[e] what [he] was making,” growing bigger and better. His love for martial arts and model making has transcended into a deeper cause. His desire to integrate his passion for mixed martial arts, dramatic theatre, and creation have led him to his current mode of artistic physical expression.

Johnathan‘s performance is also about appreciating the joy and levity of everyday life. He tries to impress this light-heartedness on others by interacting with them through dance and various performances. He is starting up a new daytime project to complement his typical nighttime light-saber shows. He plans to gather a group of about 10 members who will perform across campus in a mixed martial arts fashion, interacting respectfully and playfully with stressed out students. He wants people to loosen up and have fun amid the rigors of both undergraduate and graduate school course loads.

While others may refer to him as the “Sun God,” “Light-Saber-Man,” “Big Love,” or even “Sparkle-Face,” he will be the first to politely introduce himself to you as Johnathan, because the character he is portraying is simply himself.

His Theatre-on-the-Walk Program is a physical representation of his innermost feelings, an embodiment of something you can see and become a part of. His art is something that is alive and real, and that is what makes it so unique. We should all take a lesson from Johnathon and not be so hasty to judge an individual who follows his passions as far as they take him. More people should pursue their desires while maintaining spirits as bright and sparkling as Johnathan Recor’s gold mask.

Inglourious Basterds

It's a crazy carnival of a film. Picture by Candais Crivello.

“Once upon a time…in Nazi-occupied France,” there was a group of Jewish-American soldiers so outrageously badass that they couldn’t be bothered to spell “bastards” correctly… or “inglorious” for that matter. Led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), the Inglourious Basterds meander about the French countryside, ambushing Germans, scalping Nazis and carving swastikas into foreheads as they go. Being called something as awesome as the Basterds, the individual members of the group have some pretty sweet nicknames—Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine), Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), and the Bear Jew (Eli Roth as Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz).
Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds is a mix of history and fantasy, centered around themes of revenge and betrayal. Set during the Second World War, the movie follows not only the feats of the Basterds, but also the life of Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) as she plots revenge against the Nazis who killed her family. Parts of the movie range from historically plausible to the ridiculously fantastic—but, then again, if you wanted to watch a historically accurate film you should have stayed at home with the History Channel where you belong. Besides, it’s much more entertaining to think that World War Two ended in one tremendous explosion than with Hitler’s lame suicide in some crappy underground bunker.

The film is classic Tarantino, gleaming with enough violence and sardonic humor to keep you flinching and laughing throughout the entire two and a half hours. The sardonic humor incessantly present in the film allows the viewer to enjoy the fairly morbid plot, which is plagued with grotesque elements of murder and revenge.

The introduction of Hugo Stiglitz is a prime example of this unique blend of violence and hilarity. In the middle of a scene, the frame suddenly freezes on Stiglitz; his name appears in absurdly large letters while an almost comical guitar rift wails in the background. As the film begins to depict his exploits as a German soldier, the narrator begins to tell us all about the thirteen Gestapo officers Stiglitz killed. The disparity between this scene and the rest of the movie had the audience doubled over in laughter, even as the screen depicted Stiglitz stabbing officers through pillows and even shoving his whole fist down another’s throat. Eventually, Stiglitz gets caught and goes to jail. When the Basterds ask him if he “wants to go pro” at killing Nazis, Stiglitz nonchalantly smokes and reads a paper despite guards being gunned down around him. The scene generated more than a few laughs from the audience, despite the absurd amount of violence that occurred.

The casting for the movie was superb: each and every character fit perfectly into the role they played. Using a mixture of German, French, and some prominent American actors and actresses, Tarantino adds plausibility to the film. Some actors, however, did fit into their roles better than others. At some points in the film, Brad Pitt’s atrocious Southern accent would begin to get on your nerves, although this may have been intentional on Tarantino’s part to emphasize his “Yank” status. French actress Mélanie Laurent and German actress Diane Kruger (as Bridget von Hammersmark) played their parts accurately and convincingly; both actresses did extremely well during their prospective death scenes. To top it all off, Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz), Hitler (Martin Wuttke), and Goebbels (Sylvster Groth) were all played by excellent actors who added authenticity and hilarity to the film.

We first see Col. Hans Landa in the French countryside, where he interrogates and searches the home of a dairy farmer. Making himself as comfortable as he would be in an old friend’s home, he pulls an absurdly large and decorated pipe from his coat sleeve in an almost cartoon-ish fashion. He likes to pull surprises on his company—much like a hawk striking unexpectedly at its rodent prey. Col. Landa is almost maniacally pleasant—you know he is sickeningly evil as he plots to seek out every guilty man’s secrets, but he cleverly makes himself seem like an ally to everyone he talks to, speaking in an exaggerated, overly friendly tone. Yet if you further analyze him, his undertones reveal a completely different meaning behind his goofy grin and cordial formalities. He is hunting and will go to any length to catch his “rats.”

Hitler is shown as angry and belligerent, bellowing useless orders that serve only to uphold the image of himself and his armies. His face is red as a tomato and his black, greasy locks are askew as he demands the complete subordination of all those he has power over. Most comically, he has an enormous, mural-sized portrait painted of himself as a grandiose Führer in a fur cape, mocking his psychotic, overwhelming self-obsession.

Finally, Goebbels, a “doctor” and right-hand man to Hitler, is an absurdly infantile and, of course, selfish man. He, like Hitler, is smug and bold in his self-gratifying manner, clearly more interested in himself and in his social standing than in the well-being of his countrymen.

The most evil characters of this movie were consistently depicted with some of the most comical personality traits, emphasizing their psychotic and unreliable mental states. The satisfaction of seeing such sickeningly incapable holders of power be taken down in the goriest, most Hollywood, most Tarantino-esque fashion is what really makes this movie a must-see.