And so, I return home from Springfield, Illinois. Home of The Abraham Lincoln Museum, a Pub Food called "a horseshoe", and the heralded Route 66 Film Festival.
Firstly, the most important piece of news:
Horseshoe
(From Wikipedia) This open-faced sandwich begins with thick-sliced toasted sourdough bread, and a couple of hamburger patties or ham. The meat is topped with french fries and smothered with a "secret" cheese sauce. With its many variations, it is a local favorite not often found outside Central Illinois. It also sometimes known as the freedom sandwich.
Well, would you look at that...
The Mid-Western folks liked "He's My Dad".
Perhaps one day our films CAN be shown in Texas!
Long live The Hoogland Center, and the pageantry of its Award Ceremonies.
Frivolous photos and fun facts to follow, highlights including:
Late Night at Bennigans
I see two very nice looking women across the Bar at the Bennigan's where my brother and I are drinking. I decide to go over and give them a couple of postcards of the film, try to impress, get them to the screening. I hit them with the Pitch: "It's about a former Serial Murderer and his relationship with his sassy, 11 year-old daughter..." The sweet looking one says "Ohh! My boyfriend LOVES serial killers! He has a tattoo with 6 of their actual signatures on his leg!".
The other girl says "Does he have Gacy?"
The cute one says "Hell YEAH he has Gacy!" I slink away, suddenly wondering if the deadbolt on our door is thick enough.
Almost all of Abe Simpson's biographical information is supplied by himself. Many of his stories seem to be wildly inaccurate, often physically or historically impossible, and occasionally inconsistent even with each other, suggesting that Abe is quite senile. Not many people know that Abe is a decorated war veteran.
Maude Flanders
Maude Flanders was the happily married wife of Ned Flanders. With Ned, she had two children, Rod and Todd Flanders, in whom she instilled her unwavering piety. Maude was a woman with many qualities: faith, chastity, charity. Maude Flanders was a devout Christian who once attended a Bible camp to learn how to be more judgmental.
For more facts - which really don't seem terribly important - leap HERE.
Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane, has made available 900 boxes of material belonging to her late husband -- scripts, letters, designs, props, and photographs.
And so, some Letters...
SPARTACUS, 1960
June 5, 1959 To Laurence Olivier
Dear Larry, I am sorry the rushes were late yesterday and I was unable to come by for that drink. I hope that when you see the finished film you will be less disturbed about certain things than are now. In any case, I should like to thank you for the decent way you have behaved about the things with which you were in such disagreement. Good luck and Best Regards, Stanley.
June 26, 1964
Notes on a proposed deal with Columbia Pictures
I cannot accept this under any circumstance. I do not agree under any circumstances to be required to make any changes or revisions of the script, the picture or my style of combing my hair when ordered by Columbia. I do not wish to consult with Columbia on songs or instrumental numbers. It is utterly impractical and inconsistent with the artistic control I should have over the picture... I must have complete, total and final annihilating control over the picture.
Columbia should only be allowed to attend rushes at my invitation.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, 1968
March 31, 1964
Dear Mr Clarke,
It’s a very interesting coincidence that our mutual friend Caras mentioned you in a conversation we were having about a Questar telescope. I had been a great admirer of your books for quite a time and had always wanted to discuss with you the possibility of doing the proverbial really good science-fiction movie. My main interest lies along these broad areas naturally assuming great plot and character.
1. The reasons for believing in the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life.
2. The impact (and perhaps even lack on impact in some quarters) such discovery would have on earth in the near future.
3. A space probe with a landing and exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Would you consider coming sooner with a view to a meeting, the purpose of which would be to determine whether an idea might exist or arise which could sufficiently interest both of
us enough to want to collaborate on a screenplay?
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1971
Kubrick does not cede control easily, as seen by the involvement he ensures he has when the film head for the 1972 Venice Film Festival. He asks nine questions of its organisers.
July 26, 1972 To Umberto Orlandifont
What is the make and type of the projectors which will show the film? Will the film be shown on 2,000ft reels. Is there control of the sound inside the auditorium during the screening? If so, where, approximately is it located? Is there a sound system or telephone which is connected with the projection booth? Please describe this. If someone wanted to leave the auditorium during the screening and go into the projection booth, how long would it take to get to the projection booth and would it create a disturbance? Where is the film actually to be screened at Venice? What is the name of the place and its address? Are all the films at the festival being screened in the same room?
BARRY LYNDON, 1975
August 3, 1973
To the make-up team
I saw Ryan’s make-up tests and basically I think you are on the right track. I would criticise, however, that the ageing make-up on Ryan in close-up looks exactly like make-up but I think with a little less on the day it will be all right. The make-up for his young Irish look doesn’t work. In my opinion it looks like make-up and doesn’t contribute anything towards making him look any younger. I think we should just drop this. The bows in his hair in Germany and Dublin are too large and in many angles look unattractive. They should be smaller and I would like to see them redone and rephotographed next week when you have him again. best S K
EYES WIDE SHUT, 1999
June 27, 1995 From Frederic Raphael (Screenwriter) to Kubrick
Dear Stanley, Do you know the joke about the Jewish tailor, to whom his customer said, "The good Lord made the world in six days and you've taken six months to make one bloody pair of trousers? To which the tailor answered, 'Ah, but look at the world and then look at the trousers.' Why did this story occur to me? As ever Freddie.
And, since you made it this far, here are two treats:
A TV Promo, filmed as a one-take tracking shot from the point of view of Stanley Kubrickas he walks through the "Shining" set, ending up in his director's chair as the crew prepare to shoot the famous scene of Danny Torrance, the son of Duvall and Jack Nicholson's characters, riding round and round the deserted corridors of the Overlook Hotel.
A gut check, if you will, on my commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Elvis partied there, I knew. So did Kirk Douglas and Bob Hope. And so,I found six Angels, and I helped them to help me.
Now I go to hustle film in the desert, a barren land of cocaine and desperation, of parasites with bruised egos overcompensated for. A place where it's shady everywhere but where you need it to be.
Yes. It's come to this. A Predator/Senate update. Sigh. I really had to force myself to write this, but --
Jessie Ventura, "Blain" in 1984's "Predator", is following the lead of Sonny Landham, "Billy" in 1984's "Predator", into the "leader of men" foray. Again.
"All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?"
Hard to argue with the man, as Al Franken would probably belittle your attacker in aforementioned Dark Alley, making the situation much more dangerous for you. And Norm Coleman would side with the attacker as a matter of Political Principle, offering up all your fears and secrets for a piece of your pie.
It's a question I'd long been asking myself: who else from the movie Predator can we get to legislate in Washington? I've simply never been satisfied with only two cast mates.
Now, finally, an answer.
Sonny Landham joins Arnold Schwarzeneggerand Jessie Ventura in the very difficult transition from feared killer without feelings to Washington Politician. Landham is looking to be the Libertarian challenger to Republican Senate Minority Leader and lotharioMitch McConnell in Kentucky's 2008 Senate Race.
Sonny has been an iconic tough-guy, carving out a niche as the much feared "mysterious and dangerous Indian Guy" in classic 80's blockbusters Predator (as "Billy") and 48 Hours (as "Billy Bear"). He also starred in 1996's Billy Lone Bear, as Billy. And played Sheriff Billy in an episode of Hardcastle and McCormick.
But sensing a dearth in Washington of former porn-stars who have served time in a federal prison, Landham feels that now is his time to shine brightly again. Sonny is looking to drive (now Pilot) his own Straight Talk Express, saying "PC is BS. Say what you mean, mean what you say."
Sonny needs just 5000 signatures to get his name on the ballot. You can find the petition here. Of course, please be sure to fill out the petition in strict accordance with Kentucky Law.
Good luck, Sonny!
trivium -
Landham's character was not named Billy in 1975's The Passions of Carol, a hard-core pornography re-telling of Charles Dickens's classic "A Christmas Carol", staring Mary Stewart as "Carol Scrooge" and Arturo Millhouse as "The Ghost of Christmas Past".
This week, news broke that scientists at Zurich University in Switzerland found that a hormone that occurs naturally in a woman's body during pregnancy and sex - if marketed correctly -- could solve a myriad of our problems, including shyness.
"Oxytocin" is the key birthing hormone that enables the cervix to open and contractions to work, is released when mothers bond with their newborns, and is released during orgasm.
How would this effect Hollywood? Perhaps shockingly.
It can be argued that what makes one Actor succeed where another fails is exactly that: shyness, or lack there of.
When this "lack of shyness", or "ballsy-ness", occurs naturally - say in the person of a Vince Vaughn, a Sacha Cohen, or a Kristen Wiig - it can bring forth wonderful moments of creative expression in the visual arts. If we were to put that power in the hands of lab-coat wearing, oily-haired men, would that not affect the entire theatrical landscape in a very "left brain" way?
An "oxytocin spray" has also been successfully trialed at the University of New South Wales.
As I think about the future of Entertainment, this is the kind of thing that worries me.
(it's also being developed as a benign form of tear gas, quelling uneasy feelings among people, groups of demonstrators, etc... - I found that to be less important, so I saved it for the end)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Anyone who knows me well -- and there are now over four of you out there! -- know I love a good T-Shirt. If it were up to me -- and Lord knows I'm working on it -- T-Shirts would be de rigueur for every occasion, funeral to bris.
Here's a set I heartily recommend for your next bris...
A 2,000 year old seed -- found in Masada -- has grown...
The Date Palm seed, recovered from the famous site of the First Jewish-Roman War, has been radiocarbon dated to somewhere around 205 AD. That's kind of a big deal... More on the oldest seed ever grown HERE.
More on MASADA, starring Peter O'Toole as "General Cornelius Flavius Silva", HERE.
50 Years Ago Gerald Holtom designed the above symbol. 17 Years Ago I was the only graduate of my High School to have this symbol on my Gold Ring. It did not imbue me with the instant popularity I was looking for...
Click on the above for "This week in Peace History..."
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: 1- It's completely impossible. 2- It's possible, but it's not worth doing. 3- I said it was a good idea all along.
I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical.
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.
We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 - and half the things he knows at 40 hadn't been discovered when he was 20?
The world's now cold, featureless, and culturally dead; nothing really new has been created since the Overlords came... there's nothing left to struggle for, and there are too many distractions and entertainments. -- Arthur C. Clarke, "Childhood's End"
If you don't know about WATCHMEN, you soon will. Widely known as the greatest graphic novel ever written, Alan Moore's WATCHMEN has been turned into a film by Zach Snyder, he of "300" and "Dawn of the Dead" remake-fame...
Very widely anticipated by geeks and nerds everywhere, cast photos have now been posted on the movie's SITE.
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