Requests Before I Go... Or Should that be Demands?

So I was cleaning out the "project room," as we like to refer to it. All the junk from the world of smalltime indie films (Satanic Seal for sale... extremely heavy) and costume creations (aluminum armor can damage you emotionally too) and random attempts at learning new skills (using contact cement as a skin replacement, for example) and just plan cool whims (yeah, that's my pimp cup, bitch) have been shunted to this room.

Seeing as it is getting a little out of control, the time had come to clean. My project stuff was in veritable disarray anyway and the effort required to get the items one needed at a given time meant you had to recall what you had used it for last, and then find the bag with it. Heat gun... heat gun... creating fake limbs? No. Drying latex masks? No. Melting red crayons into "blood?" No. Reshaping sintra? Ah, there it is.

So I organized and cleaned, and its... not even close. But it is getting there, and that's something right? Yet another half finished project for me to have under my belt ( I'm an avid collector of them). And as I was doing so, I started pulling out the weapons made/purchased or whatever. And lo and behold, I remember how fun they were, and donned a couple.

This picture was the result.



I have made sure that my friends and family whom I've shown this too will hand it over to the media once I go on a shooting spree. That way news anchors will have something to cut to while they make statements like:

"If we could show that picture of the suspect once again. Clearly this was a disturbed young man and we have to ask why no one saw the signs."

Which will be followed by:

"Now police are telling us that before he took his own life, he screamed that video games and violent films were the cause of his rage. As you can tell from the photo it looks like he is carrying several bladed weapons from extremely bloody games like 'Riven: the Sequel to Myst,' and movies such as 'Lord of the Rings.' There also appears to be a pirate sword, like those used in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. Joining us is Dr. Laura, as well as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, none of whom are experts on anything, but sure espouse to be. Thank you for being here. Can any of you say "I-told-you-so" on behalf of the Conservative Right-Winged Religious Republican movement? And do you think the 'Golden Compass' with its atheist themes played a part in this tragedy?"

I'm glad I could make a contribution. But then, I don't really think I'll be going to postal anytime soon. Oh sure, working at the Mac Grill makes me slightly crazy. Just not that crazy. Although sometimes I wonder about some of my fellow employees...

Mostly, Knowledge is a Bad Thing. Mostly.

Let's be honest. Who wasn't excited to see the new Indiana Jones movie? To see our legendary hero in action once more before the grave calls him home... well that's a no-brainer.

Alas, I have a brain.

The movie itself was typical Indiana fare, with moments of over-the-top action and brash, deeply-accented baddies who just don't know when to stop (which always leads to an untimely demise). I know it is receiving mixed reviews, and truthfully who cares? The film is entertaining and pretty much everyone will see it. One critic complained that it was the same Indiana action movie of the past, and touted this as a negative. I'm not sure why this would be; nobody comes to a renewed action franchise like Indiana Jones with expectations of it being a groundbreaking departure from cinematic conventions. People want Indiana Jones, not Waiting for Godot starring Harrison Ford. In any event, it's a popcorn movie.

You know, I first heard that phrase from critics describing War of the Worlds a couple years back. Another Spielberg film, and perhaps one of the most painful experiences of my life. War blew chunks. And not just a little. Despite this, critics overwhelming enjoyed the movie! Why was everyone so anxious to (pardon the phrase) suck some Spielberg cock on that dismal attempt of a film? I will concede that the writing in Crystal Skulls might have been weak at times; there were definite holes in a few plot areas, but really, can we expect anything else from a George Lucas story?

And while we're on that subject, what the hell was up with those Star Wars movies? I mean hell... you want something to trash on, look no further than the story of sniveling young Anakin, and how His Whininess became a top-tiered dark lord. Right. I mean, all in all, Crystal Skulls was not even close to the realm of that train wreck in a Galaxy Far Far Away. Probably because Spielberg has redeemable qualities, such as the occasional penchant for actually directing. No questions that he makes crowd-pleasers most of the time that do well at the box office, if nothing for the stimulation of art in the minds of the people (although there are exceptions). But Lucas... well Lucas has given us a lot of beneficial technology, but really ought to leave the directing to others.

Okay, tangent finished. Plenty others have their opinions to dispense of this film, so I'm finished. See it for yourself instead. So, back to brains.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN CRYSTAL SKULL, THEN YOU MAY NOT WISH TO CONTINUE.

Didn't you love that part where Jar Jar Binks makes a cameo in the movie? Ha ha, just kidding. No, I enjoyed Indiana Jones, but I left with a heavy heart. The movie gave me more to think about than expected in its message about forgoing an education. Multiple lines in the movie inform us that as long as we're happy doing what we do (and drop out of high school to do so), its all good. Jones tells us to "get out of the library" and even the aliens, with their elongated heads proved to be nothing if not destructive with all their crazy learnedness.

But the real sign came towards the end, when our evil Ukrainian Cate demands that she be given all knowledge from the aliens. And they oblige.


Until this point, I had only been concerned about my overly large brain because of Zombies. Once the Umbrella Corporation experimental virus escapes, I know I'm a prime target. You don't find brains like mine anymore, with such a complex flavor and unique taste, nor of such size! I'm the kobe steak of brains, and as the population starts to be overrun by walking Undead, my days are probably numbered.

It turns out that not only am I at the top of the Zombie menu billing, I'm also in danger of becoming too smart. And as we all saw in the film, people who get too much knowledge are in grave danger of their eyes bursting into flame. And I'll tell you something, it didn't look to pleasant. I'd take stop-motion aging from the Cup of Christ any day over my eyes spontaneously combusting.



Doctors call this condition Ocular Knowledge-Based Combustion Disorder (or OKBCD) it's a very sad and real thing. One day you're just sitting there, relaxing with a good read on Quantum Physics and WHOOSH! Everything gets quite bright as your retinas leap into flame. After that, well you're just going to be toast. Getting too smart just might be the death of you. In a way I'm grateful for Spielberg showing me this, and educating the masses (although most are woefully under-intelligent anyway and not in any danger; how else do you explain saddling our country with George W. Bush two terms in a row?) about this potentially life-threatening situation. Now I know that I'll have to walk a very fine line for the rest of my life, avoiding Zombies, and occasionally trying to dumb myself down to avoid an O.K.B.C.D. accident. Perhaps I should drop out of college too - the movie makes a good case for this action.

In any event, reader beware. If you're bright enough to be my friend, you too might be in danger. And there's nothing worse than a blazing death by eyeball fire.

A Hearty Bowl of Welcome Chili

Please, do come in. Thank you for joining me this dark and stormy evening, refreshments will be served shortly.

Yes my friends, I finally have a blog, not associated with a random fan film. Nor associated with that bane of most people's existence, Myspace. That's right, here we are at the dawning of a new era: mine. This is attempt at holding onto a shred of sanity in this chaotic world; and believe me, my sanity is hanging on by the edge of its fingernails, which are slowly being pried right off their metaphorical fingers. And that hurts.

So come on baby, let's make it hurt so good, shall we?

My areas of expertise are of course limited, and never one to pass over a fault I will embrace that. Thus I intend to blog on anything and everything with an unequivocal lack of expertise instead. Now, I really don't know who will read this, or care, but I will write anyway, in the hopes that scientists of a mythic, long distant future where America is in the grips of uneducated tyrants and in peril from crazy theocratic right-winged hypocrites, will discover my blog and will learn something from it. Something like the history of urinals. Which reminds me, I need to backblog a bit, by moving over my pieces from my myspace blog. These will cover the last couple years or so, and quite frankly, they're archive gold. Enjoy them.

I will of course be adding new blogs too, so don't worry. Until then, comments are always welcome.



And remember darling children, we're all murderers. Why look at you! You killed the best part of yourself years ago.

What the hell is wrong with you people!

That's an angry subject isn't it?

I must admit, before you get too far into reading this and feel bitterly let down, that I don't have some witty or anecdotal rendering of society and its inherently stupid people. I do have some random thoughts on how I love Sundance Film Festival though. Or how I think our society destroys people.

My brief thoughts on that are this: why is it we are so consumed with idolizing or obsessing over notable figures? Is it because they are notable? Is the celeb really America's royalty? And do we push a little too far to find the next thing that will capitalize upon the masses and roll another dollar into some suited-fuck's wallet? I don't really know the answer to these questions; or maybe I do.

Why do we grab at celebrity news like it is... well, news? I look at things like Britney Spears, for example. Everyone loves to discuss Britney - good or bad, defensively or derivatively. But honestly, how can you look at a mess like Britney and not wonder how she arrived there?

"She couldn't take the fame." Or perhaps the fame takes no prisoners. I suspect that we overlook the underlying issue here, as we from our comfortable anonymous beds pass judgement on individuals because they make far more money than we ever will. Now I don't pretend to know Britney's motives for her actions or career path. But I do believe that the media, and the american public - all of us - destroy things put before us. Guilty too are the parents and moguls who pushed and shaped people into these marketable little icons of popular culture.

Part of this idea emerged in my head after watching "Gonzo," a documentary at Sundance about Hunter S. Thompson. Say what you will about his sanity; his journalistic and literary work was tremendously revered. In the end though, his success and fame made it impossible for him to create anything of value anymore and eventually he shot himself.

It makes you wonder if anyone is really built to deal with our invasive desperation.

Maybe it makes us feel better about our own sad, pathetic, lives. After all, celebrities have sad and pathetic lives, often though they also have any material possession within their reach as well.

I suppose in the end, the buck is really pushing everything. We live a limited viewpoint in the United States thanks to capitalism. Sure, it creates free markets and free trade that ultimate benefits the consumer. It also has allowed us to put a price on everything , even our own humanity.

We've lost scope of those things that are beneficial to expanding our minds to those that will makes us richer. Art, business, relationships, politics, and entertainment have been casualties to this cultural mindset.

Money may not be everything, but it certainly has it's fingers in every aspect of our puppet lives.


P.S. I'm starting to consider a move to an actual blogging site and a dismantling of my myspace (seeing after all how myspace is fairly retarded). More information to come.

Irritations and Authors

Wow its been a while since I blogged. I am sorry all you loyal supporters (are there any really?) of this blog.

So... as usual, I write when I'm:

a) tired. It must be that I want to write huge discourses but my exhaustion is naturally present during these moments and I wonder if it is impossible to get the same point across in ten words or less.

and

b) infuriated. There are so few things in the world to be angry at, right? Or perhaps so many its difficult not to be infuriated, if (that is to say) you're taking a look at the world around us.

And I am infuriated. There's a litany of things that I could go off on tonight:

Members of my family for their blind support of a President who, now more than ever, is one of the greatest forces for disaster and the downfall of america. They refuse to even discuss it, naturally, because I'm sure George W. Bush was ordained by the Lord himself, or some such. Even the Republicans are looking uncomfortable and staring at their shoes in the face of his behavior.



I could be angry about the organization that is religion, and how sometimes it can't helped but be seen as a controlling force used for the weak minded and easily lost. The recent "alteration" of the Book of Mormon's preface, seems to be one of those moments, a subtle softening of the Church's Lamanite heritage assertion in the face of DNA evidence.

Read it here: Book of Mormon Change

(Oh and, yes it is in the Salt Lake Tribune, but the Daily Herald covered it too, and being a liberal ex-mormon writing MY blog, you don't get to complain about me using this source.)

I could be infuriated with micro-managed and poorly run restaurants who are respond to worsening internal issues in all the wrong ways. Not that I have any experience in those (see picture below).



I might be vexed by the fact that militant and unbalanced right-wingers who desperately believe that their jesus is better than your jesus, and justify bigotry, oppression, governmental meddling, hatred, and the degrading of human rights in the quest for assuaging their souls about some unknown afterlife with a being who may or may not be there and may or may not reward you for your devoted animosity to your fellow man.
A quest which extends to denying people who love each other the ability to have equal status in this country. That is understandable however, since it is ludicrous to consider valuing love above irrational fear and hostility; almost as ridiculous as allowing freedom of speech to those who don't agree with my point of view, or NOT running secret prison camps and bugging people's phones illegally. Silly, really. The Canadians and Europeans show us up in their social progress.



That last bit makes a decent segue into what I am irritated about though tonight: author Orson Scott Card.

Random, isn't it? But you see, I've been a fan of some of his work - Ender's Game and his book of short stories Maps in a Mirror, to name a couple. But in looking at different fantasy and SF author's websites this evening, I came upon a little discovery. It is difficult for me to seperate my views of his art with his personal views, because often in art, they are driven by each other. Any art of real importance says something (though I believe I know a few individuals who completely miss this aspect).

That statement made, I can't always agree with some of the political grandstanding celebrities do (Halle Berry's Oscar acceptance, anyone?). I don't want to get into hypocritical waters here, so I should clarify. It is certainly their right, and if they've made it thus far in the world of fame, kudos to them - really, say whatever the hell you want from your platform. It is a temptation for me (and everyone, no doubt) to give flack to the ones whose opinions don't match my own, but I do my best to combat that, to understand where they're coming from. That is completely different though, than disagreeing with a famous individual's stance and letting that color my opinion of their work.

Its your freedom to voice your opinions, it is therefore utterly mine to reject them, if I feel so inclined. Which brings me back to the notion that personal beliefs tint the artist's creation - its inevitable. I recognize I'm just mad right now, but it is hard for me to accept that someone who writes with as much scope as Mr. Card can and does, is plagued by such a small-minded mentality, falling prey to a homophobic attitude that is hardly becoming.

He has been quite vocal, it seems on his opinions of homosexuality (which is quite odd, considering it is a rather alienating move, particularly for an author of his calibre, but then, perhaps not that odd for a hardcore mormon), going so far as to say that there ought to be laws against the homosexual acts (sodomy laws?).

Oh and it gets richer. He doesn't want to round up the homos and put them in jail with these laws, oh no. In a valiant stab at being the morally upstanding and superior individual he obviously considers himself, he hopes the laws would instead drive homosexual expression underground and into secret, "so as not to shake the confidence of the community in the polity's ability to provide safe, stable, dependable marriage and family relationships."

Right. I'm sure your bigoted suppression tactics are well meaning Mr. Card. No doubt others have professed a similar mantra towards those who are different in belief, color or creed. No doubt its nice to have strong supporters like Hitler, the KKK, Anna Coulter, and Fred Phelps who've got your back.

And worse, he's defaulting to that lamest of excuses, that it threatens the sanctity of marriage. I don't understand what that term even means, and I'm pretty sure nobody else does either. At least no one's been able to explain it to me, despite their willingness to throw it around like confetti. How does me marrying a man threaten your relationship? And if it does, well you've got bigger problems with your marriage than me walking the aisle. Arguments against homosexual marriage always boil down to either hating gays (which is YOUR problem, really), or "god says so." I think that's Genesis 1:4.

Moreover, Card goes on to say that he has many dear Homosexuals as friends. Hopefully they've long since left him behind, because anyone who favors legislation making the person and relationship most important in my life illegal wouldn't have and doesn't deserve my friendship.

He continues on, making a number of comments about the term homophobe being used to silence people, although as someone else pointed out, anytime an attitude moves from tolerance to suppression of the rights of a group - for whatever reason - it is a phobia. The author also claims that gays already have civil rights, and therefore the gay rights movement is, it is implied, some sort of agenda bent on the destruction of the family and america.

Essentially, I was just very surprised, and frustrated to find that even though he is LDS, Orson Scott Card is so wildly narrow-minded. I'm not advocating that religion or churches should recognize homosexual marriage - if you don't wish to, great. In this nation you're welcome to be racist, sexist, homophobic, or douche baggy as you please. But that attitude shouldn't extend or affect the government's mission to ensure equal rights to all.

I guess what it comes down to is a huge letdown with an author I found quite talented. Which he is. But I may not be reading much more of his, since there are a lot of authors out there to read and I don't wish to waste time on those who consider me a second class citizen.

Fuck you, Orson Scott Card.

This was all disclosed in an older article, written, admittedly for the church, although he has written other discourses on it and is quite adamant about his position on homosexuality. Don't believe me? Well as Reading Rainbow would say, "Don't take my word for it!"

"The Hypocrites of Homosexuality"

Love,
Peter

Watch Our Film Festival Entry!!!

OUR FILM FESTIVAL MOVIE IS NOW ONLINE!!!

Yes, it's true. I'm finally making my directorial debut, at least online. Many of you know I'm studying film, that I'm planning to make films. But few of you actually have seen anything by me. Well, here's your chance to see a film, made by myself and a select group of very talented team members.

To see it, you need to go and vote on our entry to Apple's Insomnia Film Festival.

We had 24 hours to put together a 3 minute movie, using all certain key props/locations/characters. We worked hard and to the end and now its online, waiting to be judged. The only way we win is by you, our friends, families and loved ones, voting for us.

Go and vote for us right now!! I could post it here, but instead I'm going to send it you to it so you can get an Apple ID (it takes 30 seconds, and you DON'T have to be a student, just enter your favorite school) and give us a 4-star rating.

Here's the Links:

It's called "Memories" and can be found here:

Memories
http://edcommunity.apple.com/insomnia_fall07/item.php?itemID=1393

if that doesn't work try this:

Apple Insomnia Film Festival homepage
http://edcommunity.apple.com/insomnia_fall07/contest.php?

Search for us under "Lead Pipe" or just the title, "Memories."

If you ever want me to talk to you again, or at all, vote for our film NOW!!!

Who Watches?

I just finished Watchmen last night. For those of you who don't know, I'm relatively new at this whole graphic novel thing, but there is a lot of hype to the Watchmen. My interest was struck at Comic Con this year, when Zack Snyder (director of 300 - huh.) gave a presentation we happened to catch on the film version (as always, completely unassociated with or approved by Alan Moore) being worked upon.

Though not a great public speaker, his passion and excitement for the subject, and his intention to remain utterly true to the material were very telling and my interest was aroused.

So a week or so ago I went out and bought it.

This comic is hailed as a turning point in graphic novel history - it is revered as the moment when darkness really started to come to comics, but more especially as a complex piece of art.

I'm happy to say it lived up to the hype, more in fact. And I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a grim, political story mired in psychology and human flaw. Its a fascinating take, but keep in mind it is extremely dense, symbolic and heavy. Not light fare in the least. I'd like to write more about it, and more particularly discuss it with anyone who has read it. Other perspectives always yield greater insight.

Alas, now I must find something else to read because I'm hungry for something as filling.



Read it.