Who’s Best for America...NOW!
Current mood: inspired
Category: News and Politics
Although I'm a registered Democrat, I like to keep an open mind about all the candidates. Originally, John Edwards was my pick. Who knows what scandals he might have brought to the White House. Edwards could have been great! Another Clinton? ; ) After Edwards dropped out, I was at a loss as to which of the Democrats I would then favor. There's Hillary whom I think was definitely presidential material. (I hate to admit it, but now known Sarah Palin is a lot more likable.) And then there was Obama. His speeches could win over anybody and anything. What concerned me early on was the rhetoric on the internet. Again and again I have been blown away by his passion for change. John McCain is just as passionate, but the amazing struggles he's had in war and post-war don't seem to measure up to the struggles McCain had in the first half of his nomination acceptance speech. There was one incident of someone completely disrupting his speech. But McCain had a difficult time battling the sometimes rowdy crowd as well. The second half of his speech which happen to be the heart of his campaign, about his life-long service, was fantastic and inspiring. His passion really came through there. The first half of McCain's speech really showed his age and how he's not the best person to be either giving a speech or reading a tele-prompter of a speech he should be rocking out on all the way through. I'm undecided about what I think of Joe Lieberman, whom spoke at my college graduation in 1992 as a devoted Democrat. The first time I watched Obama's nomination acceptance speech was tonight after watching McCain's speech. Honestly, I think either candidate would do a fine job for the next 4 years. Personally, I'm thinking about the next 8 years, not 4 years. There is no question in my mind that come November I will be voting for Barack Obama as President of the United States.
George Carlin was the greatest comedian. He was my favorite anyway. He was not afraid to call things as he saw them. There's a lot of truth behind his edgy ranting and complaining. It at least makes you laugh a whole bunch. God may have gotten many things off about the human race, but he sure got George Carlin right. RIP, George.
Two things first: I love "Nightline!" I hate Scientology! Things can't be so cheery if the niece of the current leader of Scientology is speaking out against the religion. Jenna Miscavige Hill spoke out to "Nightline" about the abuse she received growing up in the Church. She was in the Sea Org, an elite group of people who run the Church. At six years old, when normal girls outside of the cult are playing with Barbie dolls, Hill was collecting rocks at 'The Ranch' as a part of some exercise. Hill spoke to Nightline about how members do an exercise where they are tested by a machine to examine their feelings. She adds that often the exams at times become interrogations. It's as if they're taking lie detectors, answering questions about urges to leave the Church. When Hill was twelve she was sent far away from her parents to work for the Church elsewhere. She would be rebellious towards the people in charge of her and when she wanted to call her parents her supervisors hung up the phone. Hill tried to run out to call elsewhere, but was grabbed by church-goers and held down forcefully. She'd be grabbed again when trying to fly out to see her parents. Until she was sixteen years of age she only saw her parents about three times for 30 minutes at a time. Scientology strongly places the religion first over family. This is to serve the future of Scientology. Members that register sign a 'billion' year contract. Another young woman by the name of Astra Woodcraft was also having problems with the Church. Woodcraft was forced to sneak out to secretly visit her father on weekends as he re-signed from the Church. Members that wish to quit the religion have to sign a contract stating that they won't talk about the Church. Upon leaving the Church all friends and family remaining in the Church are to cut off communication with the person. Scientology calls these defectors S.P.s or Suppressive Persons. Woodcraft explained that when girls at sixteen were getting pregnant the Church would stress having abortions. Some girls would have up to four abortions. Woodcraft said that when she was in her teens the Church made a strict decision that no one else could have children at all. Woodcraft wasn't ready to make that kind of decision. What kind of future is Scientology building without children? Is only Tom Cruise allowed to have children?
In 1992, I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. While I started to attend Columbia College-Hollywood I was always attending other seminars on filmmaking. I saw an ad for a seminar being held at the Church of Scientology in Hollywood, the mansion-like building on Franklin Ave. It was like entering a dark castle out of a creepy Stanley Kubrik movie such as "Eyes Wide Shut" starring Tom Cruise except you could see everyone's faces. The film seminar was a decent lecture about the basics of filming. I even purchased a film book afterwards. As I was following other attendees out of the room, I was flanked by two people that wanted to escort me into an office talk about their 'program.' I was reluctant. I didn't know much about Scientology. I only knew they were some sort of self-help career-oriented organization. So, I humored them. Actually, being the writer that I am, always seeking good ideas, I was a bit intrigued. All I remember was that a handful of people shared the office as I sat in their comfy chair and listened to their pitch. They asked me about my career goals and pointed out that I hadn't met them yet and could use some help. One woman would pitch and then a man would take over. It was like they were feeling me out. How can we rob this guy? How can we make him feel worrthless like he needs to be here? Then they started throwing figures at me that if I sign up for this it would only cost this amount and then I would want to sign up for an additional class and buy Dianetics book from some L. Ron Hubbard loser. It felt like I was in that room a lot longer than 5 minutes. I stood up and even as I headed for the door they were trying to talk me into staying and holding my arm, etc. Now, every time I get that hard sell on anything I'm reminded of that day in Church. "Help me help you." I just thought of this line from "Jerry Maguire" starring Tom Cruise again. It brings a whole new meaning to the line. I have nothing against Tom Cruise. I just wish he'd simply sit on a chair, not jump on it. That day at the Church was in 1994. To this day Scientology still sends me junk mail, ridiculous newsletters. As it is Earth Week, how about saving a few 'billion' trees!!! I'm just one person that attended a film seminar in 1994. Imagine all the billions of people that have attended some film or any other seminar that have been receiving newsletters since then. If Scientology doesn't care about family they definitely don't care about trees. Their idea of going 'green' is in dollar signs.
Although there was some ’blood’ in "There Will Be Blood," there is a lot of blood in Tim Burton’s "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." I knew the moment the film started I was going to like it. The way the blood trickled and oozed into a river engulfed by mechanical devices was damn creepy. The team of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton shines again. I wasn’t a fan of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I was steamed they redid the "Willy Wonka" masterpiece. I was a fan of theirs before and I am again now. It was a risk to cast Johnny Depp into the film when no one including Johnny knew he could really sing. A lot was riding on whether he could sing. Johnny took lessons from an old friend from when he himself was in a band. They worked on his singing and made a CD. Burton ran into give Richard Zanuck a copy of the CD. Their shared smile has spread to millions now renting this wonderful, dark Stephen Sondheim story. Now you can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Helena Bonham Carter, although married to Tim Burton, had to prove that she could sing as well. She was a fan of musicals since she was a little girl and dreamed of one day when she could sing while serving special meat pies. Sacha Baron Cohen was fantastic! That’s Borat for some of you that know him by his other persona. Cohen grew up in the theatre and was accustomed to singing. And you can never go wrong with Alan Rickman as the villain. "Sweeney Todd" won an Academy Award for art direction. It’s in video stores now. I highly recommend it. It’s absolutely delicious! And now ’my arm is complete.’
Zombies are among us. Usually you would associate zombies with blood-curdling screams and people running to a secluded shack in the middle of nowhere to be eaten alive. Movies that usually come to mind are George Romero’s "Night of the Living Dead," "Sam Raimi’s "Evil Dead" and the most recent, "I Am Legend." The zombies in Grace Lee’s "American Zombie" are much scarier than the ones in the above-mentioned films. Lee’s zombies are just like us humans. SCARY. Grace Lee, known for making documentaries, teamed up with a friend, Rebecca Sonnenshine, to co-write a fictional documentary about zombies living among humans in Los Angeles. In the movie, Grace plays herself and teams up with another filmmaker friend to do a documentary on the zombies whom are very much treated like a new minority. The zombies have trouble getting jobs. Like smokers, there are certain areas in the workplace they’re not allowed to be in such as the kitchen area. There are different types of zombies. Feral zombies are the typical kind most die-hards think about, chasing humans and eating brains. There are the working class zombies that don’t do much, but work in factories 24/7. And then there are the more free-thinking zombies that work in offices, skateboard and pretty much do mostly what typical humans do. The documentary crew interviews everyday zombies. One day the crew discovers there’s an event like Woodstock or Coachella out in the dessert that only zombies are allowed to attend. The filmmakers have to be persistent on acquiring permission to attend the secret mysterious event. At the event the crew is kept away on the last night and their curiosity leads to the ugly truth. Making the ugly truth look so good is its wonderful cast, bringing life to these ’dead’ zombies. Austin Basis shines as Ivan the skateboarding zombie artist who works vigilantly on his fanzine, ’Hollywood Undead.’ Suzy Nakamura plays Judy, the vegan office girl that fantasizes about marrying a human. "American Zombie" is very clever. The film has a social consciousness. It conquers the everyday problems of minorities, homelessness and racism as well as other problems of everyday human beings. One zombie even seeks out a renewal in faith by joining a Christian group. The pastor, open to working with zombies, says the controversial saying, "Jesus was the first zombie." Are you enlightened yet? To find out the ugly truth you’ll have to catch it while it’s currently in limited release in few theaters. I viewed a screening tonight, Tues. April Fool’s Day, 2008 that included a Q & A with cast and the writers at the Laemmle Sunset V in Los Angeles. It’s playing for 2 more nights at that location. "American Zombie" is currently playing or soon-to-be in various American cities such as Austin, TX and Columbus, Ohio in limited release. If you miss it in theaters, catch the DVD release July 8th, 2008. If you don’t see the zombies, maybe they’ll go out of their way to see YOU! Who’s the fool now?
Visually stunning! I missed "Across the Universe" in the theaters which I now regret. The visual effects are breath-taking. Julie Taymor is a very gifted director. I haven’t been a big fan of her films until this one. AS a director and editor, it is very inspiring to see a work such as this one. I popped the DVD in not knowing exactly what the story was suppose to be. I figured out that the story is not about anyone specific person in history. It’s basically a love story taking place in the early 60’s expressing how torn people felt the war and protested it. Although the ’Jude’ character wasn’t John Lennon there were characteristics thrown in about his family background and being an artist. There are a lot of great up-and-coming actors in this film. Jim Sturgess, a musician in real life, was a natural for the ’Jude’ character. Evan Rachel Wood, perhaps the only somewhat known actress with film and TV credits, also grew up singing and doing theater. She was wonderful. The actor that I was most excited about was seeing Dana Fuchs in the role of Sadie. I had seen this woman with the most powerful voice perform in NYC at a small club. She’s female version of the young Led Zep Robert Plant. It’s no wonder she was picked to play Janis Joplin for Love, Janis on stage. I think there’s a movie in the works. If not, I hope there is. Bono was great in the film. The only character I thought was slightly mis-cast was Eddie Izzard. The part called for singing which he is clearly not a singer. I’d rather just watch the Yellow Submarine inserted for this section. All in all, a very passionate story...and the music!!! It’s about time to see a movie with the full appreciation for the BEATLES. Let those songs see the light of day. ’Strawberry Fields Forever.’
Into the Oscars? I feel like Oscar the Grouch!
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Nowhere in the Best Picture category do I see A) "3:10 To Yuma" or B) "The Kite Runner." Hello Academy! Is anyone home? Is "Atonement" really that good with Kiera Knightly in it??? I agree with the 4 other choices although I haven't seen "Michael Clayton" yet. I haven't seen "Sweeney Todd" to make a fair judgement of his Best Actor nom. I'm still trying to get over him in both "Pirates" 2 and 3 and I'll never forgive him or Tim Burton for doing a re-make of "The Chocolate Factory." Infact, just call up Gene Wilder and give him an honorary Oscar nom for everytime he sang in a movie back in the day.
Maybe the Writer's Strike is a good thing this year. The Academy needs to take a break.
Whoa! Film Editing lists "Into the Wild"??? The movie felt like the length of the journey that poor man took in real life. For the most part it was a decent film. Editing though. What did you edit out? The actor who's supposedly by himself most of the time breaks the 4th wall a number of times. And Sean Penn let that go? The film is WAY too long. Penn should know better and so should the Academy. Film Editing? Really?
My Newly Re-Designed Website with Added Reels and Shorts
Current mood: tired
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Hey movie peeps,
As most of you may know, I've been pursuing a career in film and video editing for the past few years. My newly re-designed website is now up and running. Mostly the site is the same as the old one with a sharp new black appearance. Some added reels such as music videos I've edited.
For those not familiar with my work, I have written and directed a bunch of shorts as well as a feature film. Info. for all things is available.
I'll be looking for editing work for March '08 and beyond. Until then I am editing "War of the Worlds 2." No, it's not a sequal to the Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg blockbuster. It's the H.G. Wells tale with a min-blockbuster with a mini budget with mini-crew and everything else. I started Jan. 2 and am so pumped up to be working on a sci-fi movie. It may not have Tom Cruise, but it has another Tom, C. Thomas Howell. He's that other Tom like Tom C. that was in "The Outsiders."
Anyway, let me know if you may know of any possibilities for editing work in March. You can direct people to: www.rosshmartin.com
Tonight I was blessed by seeing a Film Independent screening of "Persepolis," an old school animated film about a young girl growing up in a confusing times in Iran including the Revolution and the war with Iraq. When Marjane's talked back to the teacher too many times, her parents decide to send her to Europe for her own safety. She has trouble fitting in with life in France and later Vienna. She returns home to Tehran, Iran. She tries to deal with the politics of the day, but in the end she has to leave again for France. The visuals are stunning and its colorful characters have a wonderful sense of humor. The film has been getting festival acclaim and should be nominated for best foreign film at the Academy Awards. If you get a chance to see it, "Persepolis" hits theaters in NY and LA Dec. 25th.
Currently
listening
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Persepolis
By
Original Soundtrack
Release date: 22 June, 2007
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