posted December 12, 2006 09:18 PM         

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061208-apocalypto.html

December 8, 2006—Mel Gibson's new film Apocalypto, released in theaters today, recounts the mysterious decline of the Maya Empire through the eyes of an unfortunate youth selected for mass ritual sacrifice.

Scientists are still baffled by what caused the Maya—one of the ancient world's greatest civilizations—to begin abandoning entire cities starting around 800 B.C. (Related map: Maya Cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.)

But experts have pieced together much of what the Maya were like at the height of their influence—and anthropologists say it's a far cry from the depiction in the film. (Related photos: what the Maya Empire looked like.)

Watch clips from Apocalypto—then hear Maya expert Zachary Hruby explain how the movie's grisly take on Maya human sacrifice stretches far beyond the truth.

posted December 12, 2006 11:18 PM         

Exaggeration is what a film makes.....

Without exaggeration the viewer will be bored out of their minds for 2 hours!

posted December 13, 2006 01:41 AM         

December 08, 2006

Dear friends,

For those of you planning on seeing Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto this weekend, I want to suggest an alternative source of information about the Mayan culture, namely, their Sacred Calendar.

We've recently launched the Mayan Calendar Portal, in collaboration with Dr. Carl Johan Calleman, one of the world's leading authorities on the Mayan Calendar whose work is considered as valid and accurate by the Council of Elders of the Maya themselves. The purpose of the Portal is to provide information about the complex calendar system of the Maya, considered to be among the most accurate in human history, to the mainstream public.

The Portal can be accessed via www.maya-portal.net.

We feel Apocalypto should not be the only source of information about the Maya and their fantastic culture for mainstream audiences -- as does tend to happen these days, with major Hollywood films about
ancient cultures or historical events. Media reviews are already pointing to how violent the film is, and we're concerned this might make a certain impression on the public mind about the Maya that is not
completely accurate.

We feel this Portal is certainly of great relevance to the topic of ensuring the respect and integrity of other cultures and peoples, particularly when it comes to communicating their ideas, their beliefs,
their customs and their practices.

We very much welcome comments about the film, the Portal, and how the two might affect public perception of the Mayan Calendar, so please forward on to all your friends and family who may be interested in the film in particular and/or the Mayan culture in general.

Kind regards

Carl and Birgitte

posted December 13, 2006 01:58 AM         

November 24, 2006

8 - Crocodile (IMIX)

Hello Friends of Mayan Majix,

I have two announcements.

1) Today begins the 5th Day of the Galactic Underworld of the Mayan Calendar. This cycle will last for 360 days.

Ian Xel Lungold wrote this to describe what occurred in the previous 5th day's:

"The 5th Day is a period of “Light.” In fact the brightest period of “light in the entire cycle. In a plants life this is when new chemicals are produced that carry the message to form buds. In human history, it was this section when Art was invented, the message of Jesus moved over the earth, Mr. Einstein discovered the theory of relativity and America with the victory of WWI rose to world power. "

To read a recent article by Dr. Calleman on the 5th day go to this link:
http://calleman.com/content/articles/fifth_day.htm

2) Earlier this year we announced a proposal written by Dr. Calleman to create a Mayan Calendar Portal to connect the various Mayan Calendar websites that are in agreement with Dr. Calleman's discoveries. I have good news! The Mayan Calendar Portal is now complete after many months of development and we are excited to invite you to come visit the Mayan Calendar Portal. A Special THANKS to project leader - Birgitte Rasine at Lucita.net
http://www.maya-portal.net

You can help us out by telling your friends about this new website and consider linking to it.

If this announcement has been forwarded to you and you wish to sign up for periodic announcements relating to the Mayan Calendar, the e-list sign up box is toward the bottom of the Mayan Majix home page. Or you can e-mail me at admin@mayanmajix.com and I can sign you up.

MIKE
webmaster
Mayan Majix
admin@mayanmajix.com

posted December 13, 2006 12:03 PM         

There's a host of information on Mayan civilization.
A fictional film is not the last word on the truth of it. Or not even a truth at all! And the viewing people is pretty sophisticate enough to know that. That's almost 100 years of film history and experience between film/audience. We know what's told as truth and what isn't. Shoot! We can't even trust a work that cries that it's the truth!

Wow, just let it be....
What it is.

posted December 14, 2006 01:48 AM         

Yep, Saturday......

posted December 14, 2006 07:23 PM         

Its mesmorizing but to quote Marvin on this:

"What Mel Gibson has created is possibly the most intelligent, best edited, most beautifully photographed pulp fiction action movie ever. When I say ‘pulp fiction’, I’m thinking of the writer’s definition of the term.

“Pulp’ stories are lean, mean dramas designed to thrill and entertain. The structure of ‘pulp’ is very simple; the hero is never out of danger until the end. Crises overlap. Before your hero solves one problem, another emerges. He’s never at peace."

My only problem with movies like these... There are wayyy to many made on the genere. Epics however do have to do this inorder to capture audience attention (though I am not even gonna start with the flaws on Alexander and Troy.)

posted December 14, 2006 07:34 PM         

quote:

---

Daydreamer,
Exaggeration is what a film makes.....

Without exaggeration the viewer will be bored out of their minds for 2 hours!

Unless it's a real good documentary!

---

posted December 17, 2006 07:50 AM         

12.13.2006 - 08:00am ET

Press release from: LUCITÀ

The Mayan Calendar Portal Answers Apocalypto's Call for a New Beginning

New portal web site about the Sacred Mayan Calendar responds to public fascination with a civilization ahead of its time

(CSRwire) NEW YORK, NY -- December 13, 2006--Topping Hollywood box office charts at $15 million after its debut weekend, Mel Gibson's action film Apocalypto is attracting curious audiences and passionate opinions from all sides of the long-standing debate about the demise of the ancient Mayan civilization. Perhaps the most scathing criticism, coming from parents of school-age children to professors to film reviewers from The Hollywood Reporter and the New York Times, is the movie's extreme focus on violence and its complete exclusion of the Maya's brilliant advances in art, science, mathematics and astronomy.

But if Apocalypto is indeed trying to depict the end of a civilization, it completely misses the one thing that does explain it, according to the Maya themselves--the Sacred Mayan Calendar.

Answering that call is the Mayan Calendar Portal (www.maya-portal.net), a new web site that presents the world's first truly global effort to unify knowledge of and interest in the Mayan Calendar. The Portal presents a highly engaging interactive environment that includes information about the basic elements of the Sacred Mayan Calendar, a Mayan birthday calculator, images of sacred Mayan sites by photographer Martin Gray and a number of other supporting sections.

Funded by an international network of individuals and small businesses, the Portal was produced by the US-based communications firm LUCITA® in collaboration with Dr. Carl Johan Calleman, a Swedish author and researcher who has spent the last 25 years studying the Mayan Calendar. The content was meticulously researched using sources such as the books of noted anthropologist and archaeologists David Freidel and Linda Schele. Future plans for the site include expanded informational sections and translation into multiple languages including Spanish and of course, native Mayan dialects.

To honor the Sacred Mayan Calendar itself, the production team chose as the Portal's formal launch date November 24, the first day of what is known in the Calendar as the Fifth Day, a year-long period ruled by the Mayan Lord of Light--more familiar to us in his Aztec form, Quetzalcoatl. According to the Calendar, the energy Quetzalcoatl embodies is that of budding, forward movement, new life. In other words, the new beginning that Jaguar Paw was seeking in Apocalypto.

And it seems the public is ready to embrace the positive, forward-looking lessons the ancient Maya have embedded in their legacy. "Response to the Portal has been tremendous; people are writing in from as far away as Iceland and Australia," said Birgitte Rasine, producer of the Portal. "We're seeing an explosion of interest in a topic that we frankly thought would take a lot longer to permeate mainstream audiences. People are exploring the Calendar rings, finding out their Mayan birthdays, even sharing the site with their children, some of whom are coming home crying because they're learning in school that according to the Maya, the world will end in 2012. That's of course not the case, and only reflects the dangerous misinterpretation and misinformation about other cultures that persists in our own society and educational systems."

"The Mayan Calendar, viewed from the meticulous and comprehensive analysis of researchers like Dr. Carl Johan Calleman, has a great deal to say for our crisis-weary world," said Robin A. Ely MD, a practitioner of integrative medicine and one of the major sponsors of the Portal.

Dr. Calleman goes even further: he explains that the Calendar, used by the Maya for 2500 years, is not merely a calendar, but a system of structuring time in such a way that may help us understand the rise and fall of entire civilizations. "The Mayan Calendar," he says, "is a structure and system that allows us to unify science and spirituality in a way that has not been explored previously. The prospect of unifying the two could have profound consequences for human society. And given the considerable attention that the Mayan culture is now attracting, I feel it is important that people are given access to reliable information about this calendar."

With all this interest in a culture that survived for over a thousand years in a hostile tropical environment, and contemporary imagination running wild over the 2012 prophecies, modern society may indeed have something to learn from the Maya and their Sacred Calendar.

Note to editors:

For more information about the Mayan Calendar Portal, please visit http://maya-portal.net.

About LUCITÀ

posted December 17, 2006 07:23 PM         

I'm the same way. I'll like sit through a film I don't enjoy but will be tossing and turning and groaning and cynically commenting to myself the whole time! Not to mention sighing and rolling my eyes. Hmmm... Maybe I should just leave!
However, when I have to go to these screenings, if I'm dug in too deep in the audience, then I have to stay. Like for the Queen. I just kept asking, and they think this story is cinematic, why? Oh, my gosh, it was gruesome getting through that movie. But, hey, I guess I have to be British to care. And I just didn't see any cinematic, um, complication. To me it was monarchial propaganda. And, hey to each his own. Cause personally, I don't watch propaganda films. Especially, the Classical Hollywood Cinema get us to raise the flag and beat our chest and proud of wars that should've never happened. Okay, going off on a tangent here, real it in

But, Jazzabel, I'm a Virgo sun/Gem moon too!

Oh, by the way, didn't make Apocalipto!
Had a great time at great club last night though