The Wizard: Geneology of a Screen Name.

I've always wondered about the geneology of screen names. How do people come up with their Screen Names? Screen names signify things about the person, and I think, to a certain extent, the Screen names become a context specific identity. This isn't to say that its phoney perse, but that in someway, that the person isn't genuine in what they are posting or commenting, but that there is a liberating effect in being someone else, even virtually. So I decided to produce my own geneology...

First Off: I became The Wizard because of a song. Actually, two songs.

There is a song on the first Black Sabbath album called "The Wizard" which I have always loved. The mournful harmonica, the titantic riff, and the idea in the lyric that The Wizard as an agent of justice, as opposed to an agent of evil. There was something very appealing in that. That, and I was feeling rather "magical" at that moment. Egotistical-maybe. But something to strive for.

Misty morning, clouds in the sky,
Without warning a wizard walks by,
Casting his shadow, weaving his spell,
[Funny clothes]/[Funny cloak], twinkling bell* (*b-hell)

Never talking,
Just keeps walking,
Causing his magic

Evil power disappears
Demons worry when the wizard is near
He turns tears into joy,
Ev'ryone's happy when the wizard walks by

Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic

Sun is shining; clouds have gone by,
All the people give a happy sigh,
He has passed by, giving his sign,
Left all the people feeling so fine

Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic

The other song was a cover of an early T-Rex song called "The Wizard" by Johnny Thunders on his "So Alone". While the original is an excellent, trippy Marc Bolan acoustic number, Donovan-esque in some ways, Johnny's is a kind of dirty boulevard, finger snapping, doo-woppish work of genius.

Walking in the woods one day
I met a man who said that he was magic
Wonderful things he said
Pointed hat upon his head
Knew why people laughed and cried
Why they lived and why they died
Shadows followed him around
He walked the woods without a single sound
Golden eagles at his door
Cats and bats played on the floor
Silver sunlight in his eyes
The wizard turned and melted in the sky.

First time I heard it, I was drunk at a party, back in the old pink hair days. It kind of stuck with me. I liked the benevolent image of The Wizard, a kind of idealist dreamer who can really change things.

However, there are two other Wizards that really struck me and stuck with me; One was way back, as a pre-adolescent. In Dungeons and Dragons, I always played a Wizard, though my wizards were always brooding, complex misanthropes who concerned themselves with learning more than anything, accumulating magic as an intellectual excercise as much as with keeping the world at bay. The self identification, then and now, is somewhat obvious. The other Wizard was played by Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver, the streewise provocateur who could get anything, the man with his ear to the ground. This Wizard I found interesting because, in the context of the film, he has figured out how to survive. Though I disagree morally with this character's modus operandi, I have always been somewhat attracted to that.

Finally, and obviously, there's the Emerald City charlatan, the man behind the screen who appears as the uber Jombi, but is just a wise fellow. Outward bombast. Overly Theatrical. Yep.

Thank you for your kind indulgence...After the last post, I needed some fluff. Feel free to construct your own.