Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 57 broken cloud cover, cool, a bit too windy 65° when back at home.
Podcast is The Playlist episode about The Bike Riders interview with Jodie Comer, who is one of my favorite actors since I saw her in
I'm editing this on Monday, the day I walked and listened to Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra. I'll mention it in the next blog. However, I wanted to mention its episode, Malmedy because everybody should listen to this entire podcast. And the previous season. It's our history. It's currently. It's a great example of how what is happening today, has happened before and we should be concerned, aware, and understand, it can't happen again, or where it failed before, it needs to fail now.
My Instagram post today using Everlast for music.
Listening to the podcast about cinema, he got me to thinking about my own films. My preferred orientation and film would be cinematography, as in the films of Peter Greenaway and others heavy on the visuals.
I think my own little film on a shoestring budget, “Gumdrop “, a short horror. There’s a lot going on in that film, which has been recognized by some of the awards it’s won at film festivals around the world. My favorite being an award for Best Director. What else did that win? Best Noir Film, Best Horror, Best Thriller.
Well, some of my local Indie Director friends are using a single lens with a zoom on films while on my films I use specific prime lenses with an occasional zoom lens when I want to flatten out the depth. I prefer much more specific, while time-consuming on set, in designing their most effective capabilities to change the lens as required for its desired affect.
Focus (pulling) is always an issue with a single crewmember production…that being, the filmmaker, the director acting as producer, screenwriter running the camera, sound, being key grip, gaffer, cinematography, etc. etc. It’s exhausting.
I've taken film production seminars, like by famed Director Stanley Kramer back in the 80s. Studied screenplay at University in team script writing and classes on lighting a film set.
Film production is collaborative. So on a one-man film set you’re only collaborating with the actors. They can have valuable input. They can also bog production down if you do not control your set. Of course, in post-production, I collaborated with the soundtrack composer. On Gumdrop, Andrea Fioravanti.
Wow, walking into the wind is really screwing up my voice to text transcription...
I just hit my turnaround point at the half-mile marker so now the wind is on my back and I can transcribe easier.
I've taken film production seminars, like by famed Director Stanley Kramer back in the 80s. Studied screenplay at University in team script writing and classes on lighting a film set.
Film production is collaborative. So on a one-man film set you’re only collaborating with the actors. They can have valuable input. They can also bog production down if you do not control your set. Of course, in post-production, I collaborated with the soundtrack composer. On Gumdrop, Andrea Fioravanti.
Wow, walking into the wind is really screwing up my voice to text transcription...
I just hit my turnaround point at the half-mile marker so now the wind is on my back and I can transcribe easier.
Been listening to an indie director for a while about making films. Interesting guy:
My No-Budget Documentary Made over $20,000 in 4 Months | J. Horton FilmsOn my "Gumdrop" film, I had my Master Shots book always at hand, and referenced it constantly. Before beginning the shoot the film, I was worked out shot setups and which lens I was using and why. I was concerned with lighting. One scene in particular, where a hitman "Rowan" (played by Jason Lockhart), enters the house and stands with his back to the front door. I must’ve spent, an hour trying to get the lighting set up so there weren’t any shadows and so it wasn’t too bright.
Jason Lockhart as "Rowan" and Tom Remick as "Sampson"
In the end, I couldn’t get it the way I wanted, but even though it stands out in lighting from the rest of the film, I kind of like how it turned out. Almost like it was showing too much reality/intensity in that scene. That character was supposed to be the most professional hitman in the film.
That character kind of reminded me a little bit of the big dumb lurking hulk/fixer & hitman for Don Corleone in the first Godfather movie, "Luca Brasi", portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and former bodyguard and enforcer for the Colombo crime family. Who has an interesting choice in being in that film and fit the role perfectly. While Kelly Hughes has used Jason in a variety of interesting projects, Jason is an actor. But his portrayal was exactly what I was looking for.
Anyway, film is a visual medium and in my mind, although the soundtrack may be 1/2 or more of a film in many ways, visuals should be as perfect as possible. Sometimes you want ugly visuals, just make them as perfect as you can. Rough can be good but sometimes what comes out rougher is a beautiful shot.
I know David Mamet thinks you just get on camera and say the words and don’t worry so much about the acting. I know he doesn’t exactly mean that, but he actually said it. That’s why his movies seem stiff in the dialogue. The spoken dialogue, not the written dialogue. I mean, I do love me some David Mamet. Perhaps an acquired taste.
Getting back to the podcast and Jeff Nichols' “The Bike Riders “, the host is saying Jodie Commer is the heartbeat of the film. I saw the first commercial for it last week on TV and my first thought was well, I’m not gonna watch that film! Seems like not my kind of film.
But that happens with trailers. And typically the director doesn’t make the marketing campaign or the trailers. But the host of this podcast is saying it’s one of his favorite films this year so, I will certainly give it a look, and the director's film catalog is certainly a decent one.
Regarding “Killing Eve“, I loved that series and was completely enamored of Jodie‘s performance and character. It was a darkly fun series.
To explain my attraction to “Killing Eve“ I’d have to say that I really like female assassin flicks or shows. I think some of that attraction is obvious, but some of it has to do with the necessity of exactness involved with these smaller then large musclebound types.
I studied Isshinryu karate under Steve Armstrong in the 1960s when I was a kid. And we were taught that a fight theoretically shouldn’t last longer than 5 to 8 seconds and should end quickly with a killing blow. I just noticed this, there is a Steve Armstrong Memorial Open Martial Arts Tournament and Seminars. Apparently, Steve's family is involved, and potentially his sons who I used to work out with at the dojo in the 1960s.
That requires a kind of orientation, technique and skill set. It’s what kept me out of so many fights when I was younger, into young adulthood.
See, we were told as kids at the dojo to always warn the person picking a fight with you, if you can, that you are trained in the killing arts and you refuse to fight them. And if they push you into a fight, your goal is to kill them as quickly as possible. We therefore had a responsibility in being trained to kill, to not kill if possible. That style was just designed for a farmer in old Okinawa to go up potentially against an armored Samurai.
Which is why I was so attracted as an adult, when I came across Aikido's "Art of Peace" orientation. With the samurai belief that although you’re a warrior, where your equilibrium is peace, not war.
I can remember a few guys when I was younger, who I thought would kick my ass, but after my brief but serious, due diligence monologue in warning them, they scoffed and laughed, but backed the fuck down. The first time that happened it was a shock to me.
Attitude. I think it’s the orientation. When you have a gun and aim it at somebody it had better be loaded and you had better be prepared to actually pull that trigger and be prepared to kill the person, in one shot if possible.
Because when you aim an empty gun at someone or you do not plan to kill them, you’re telegraphing that. You actually have to telegraph intent and reality. It’s highly effective.
About that killing attitude/orientation. I found that interesting in "Gumdrop". Except for maybe that one character "Rowan", I had the lighting issue within the film. I bought into him as a hitman. Don’t fuck with him. He seems simple, but don’t believe it.
Whereas the others assassin characters, I felt like although I bought them as assassins, using a rifle from a distance, maybe not so much with the up close killing.
There’s one scene where the lead character, "Sampson", it’s weird calling him a protagonist because he’s more of an antihero, if anything… A female assassin arrives to get a weapon and he gives them an additional small arm, a handgun. It’s an interesting moment of perhaps, compassion between two killers.
That wasn't presented as compassion. However, it is if you think about it, conceptually.
The woman didn’t have an order for a handgun. He was just reading into things that if something went wrong, she might need it.
Anyway, there’s a lot going on in that film. For instance, why does he give them a firearm with only a single cartridge? Why does one of them refer to that cartridge as that “magic bullet“?
As with all of my produced works, films, and writings, I like to create where you get more out of them with each revisit in reading or viewing them. I’ve not been able to survey people who have watched the film, because it’s been seen at film festivals around the world. Over 60. I would be curious to survey an audience to find out the things they were missing in each scene in the film. Like how many noticed “grandma‘s ghost“ in the background in a couple of scenes?
One time she’s out the window, kinda floating in the air outside the kitchen window. Another time, as "Sampson" crosses the living room she’s high up on top of a high stool against the wall, on the other side of the room. And that’s what you see of her until their interaction in the basement as dead grandmother.
Is he insane or is she a ghost?
I just made an Instagram video. I’ve made some good ones this past weeks, but they kept failing. This one seemed to post. I used to Everlast. I do like some of his music ever since I realized he did the title song for Saving Grace the TV show wit Holly Hunter. I really liked that TV show.
The woman didn’t have an order for a handgun. He was just reading into things that if something went wrong, she might need it.
Anyway, there’s a lot going on in that film. For instance, why does he give them a firearm with only a single cartridge? Why does one of them refer to that cartridge as that “magic bullet“?
As with all of my produced works, films, and writings, I like to create where you get more out of them with each revisit in reading or viewing them. I’ve not been able to survey people who have watched the film, because it’s been seen at film festivals around the world. Over 60. I would be curious to survey an audience to find out the things they were missing in each scene in the film. Like how many noticed “grandma‘s ghost“ in the background in a couple of scenes?
One time she’s out the window, kinda floating in the air outside the kitchen window. Another time, as "Sampson" crosses the living room she’s high up on top of a high stool against the wall, on the other side of the room. And that’s what you see of her until their interaction in the basement as dead grandmother.
Is he insane or is she a ghost?
I just made an Instagram video. I’ve made some good ones this past weeks, but they kept failing. This one seemed to post. I used to Everlast. I do like some of his music ever since I realized he did the title song for Saving Grace the TV show wit Holly Hunter. I really liked that TV show.
Soo...I really like this 3 miles a day thing. PNW weather can be sketchy and intermittent. Which is why I grew up layering my clothes. You’d be cold in the morning and then it would get too hot and then it might cool down, or rain. Lately, I’m trying to get a walk in between periods of rain. Today I’m looking at some really dark rain clouds, but they’re mostly up north.
Anyway, the 3 mile walk, over a 5 mile walk, is a lot quicker and a lot better odds at missing any rain or decreasing chances anyway of getting hit with a sprinkling or downpour.
Having grown up in the 50s and 60s... 70s and 80s too, I guess...I was never much into Rap when it first appeared on the radio. Initially, I saw it as percussion with spoken word. It was about the beat and pacing. I remember getting into an argument with a (white) guy that Rap was going to go nowhere. But if they will add melody, it could take the world. They did, I was right, and it did.
Whereas in a lot of these Rap artists and superstars may all have some really great songs, I’ve always been more into blues and hard rock. I was very also as a kid into heavy metal until they started calling I Heavy Metal when I thought it started going downhill.
I guess Ozzy Osbourne refused to call their music in Black Sabbath “heavy metal“ because when they started calling it that it had originally been to label Black Sabbath music as bad "heavy metal" music, and caught on as a term.
I heard Eminem, a white artist rapper from Washington state of course, pulled in a lot of white people. Not that there weren’t a lot of white people into Rap music back in the day, which was actually kind of weird in the beginning. I think although Rap enthusiasts thought it was great that it spreading in the beginning but, white people? Yeah, I get that.
But I do like, I would say, the majority of music by Everlast. Not into all of his stuff and some of his concept albums are artistically interesting, but I really just like some individual songs. I’m boring like that. Not to say I don’t dearly love some of the concept of albums I grew up with like "Tommy" by The Who for instance. Or Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull or they’re Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll, Too Young to Die album. Yeah, I was kind of into Prague rock (voice to text translation error). I don’t know about that. I meant. "Prog rock". Who knows, maybe Prague has some good music too. I mean, no doubt. Right?
I would say as a kid I had been into pop and rock music, classical, and certainly experimental music all through the 1960s. I liked Led Zeppelin and obviously Black Sabbath. I got their first album in 10th grade, but after my older brother got me stoned on weed in Mesa, Arizona in August 1972, it wasn’t until then that I really got into Led Zeppelin. Also Deep Purple. The Scorpions, which was really more during college starting in 1980. But Allman Brothers, some Southern rock, and so on...
I grew up listening to my mom playing 45s of old country music and some other things. I didn’t really like old country music. Twangy stuff. Until one day I started kinda liking it when my older brother said, yeah you like it because it’s basically country rock now, it’s not country/western anymore.
But what I came to understand and I think I may have developed this viewpoint from Professor Reese at Western Washington University in a class where he was teaching us about quality, creativity, and things like that in our psychology, major.
The thing is I like music. I like the creative arts... if it’s quality. So I can even like country music, if it’s good. Not a big fan of elevator music. But then we had people like Brian Eno who said, there’s no reason elevator music has to be shitty. Thank you, Brian. Check out his Ambient 1: Music for airports. Yeah, you may not like it.
Starting mile three…
Just listening to the podcast and Jodie Comer is talking and it flashed me onto something… When I was going to turn 19 back in 1974, I ended up living with my older brother in Apache Junction outside of Phoenix, Arizona. [Next day while I was editing this I turned on "Bar Rescue" and they were in Apache Junction at Tumbleweed Grill & Gold Rush Saloon, how weird]. You go out to that main highway, and you can see the Superstition Mountains at its end.
My big brother was married to a woman who had two previous daughters. One day the kids were in school and my brother and his wife had an argument. He’s a big fucking construction worker. She’s a little tiny lady. They were disagreeing and he was suddenly hovering over her and shouted her down until she sat on the couch shriveling. I was off to the side of the living room kind of in shock. I’d never seen my brother act that way. Later she said she was used to it and it was annoying.
I’ve grew up a little scared of him, not that he ever gave me reason to be. But he’s seven years older than me. The brother, I grew up with never acted like that.
I once played the lead in a short film for Kelly Hughes something about don’t kill the grandpa something. I’ll look it up. Ah: Don't Kill Grandpa Until We Strangle the Babysitter
I’ve grew up a little scared of him, not that he ever gave me reason to be. But he’s seven years older than me. The brother, I grew up with never acted like that.
I once played the lead in a short film for Kelly Hughes something about don’t kill the grandpa something. I’ll look it up. Ah: Don't Kill Grandpa Until We Strangle the Babysitter
My first real actual acting role. Kind of. Hey, I was the lead actor! Really, I’m not an actor. But Kelly likes using normal people for his actors. As I did in Gumdrop where I used Tom Remick and his son, Luke, and Luke’s two kids. They've already grown so much since the film. The kids were kids on set. Often hard to work with, one was much more into acting than the other.
Luke Remick as "Jinx" & Tom Remick as "Sampson.
Tom and Luke are incredible actors, just natural talents. Anyway, we got done with one scene in Kelly’s movie and he came over to me and said, "You know what? I think I just saw you actually doing some real acting." Well, that was kind of cool.
I mentioned this because of that scene in Kelly’s movie. I was a grandfather. We shot it at my old house where my kids grew up for 15 years, for the most part and the longest place we'd ever lived in the longest job I’d ever had. Beautiful couple of acres in the back woods of Squamish, Washington, where Chief Seattle is buried (below):
I mentioned this because of that scene in Kelly’s movie. I was a grandfather. We shot it at my old house where my kids grew up for 15 years, for the most part and the longest place we'd ever lived in the longest job I’d ever had. Beautiful couple of acres in the back woods of Squamish, Washington, where Chief Seattle is buried (below):
Anyway, in this scene shot in my living room, the "babysitter" is sitting on the couch. I’m supposed to angrily walk over to the actor, and just start screaming at her, looking down into her face, hovering.
I think we both found it a very affecting scene. I could see fear in her eyes. I know, she was acting, but it was unnerving. I could feel the power of a man stealing autonomy from a small woman. I found it extremely distasteful. I’ve actually never done that in my entire life. I mean I’ve had arguments with girlfriends or wives where we got loud at each other, but those weren't violent, just passionate and we both knew that.
I grew up with a mother who would have some pretty violent and passionate arguments with our stepfather. She often saw him as stupid. I don’t think he was the brightest bulb in the pack but he graduated high school, went through the war in the Coast Guard while my mom only got through ninth grade, but she was also a very clever person.
Anyway, that scene in Kelly’s movie, it never occurred to me till just now that I might’ve been associating in the back of my mind, that situation in Apache Junction so many years ago when I was 19. A year later at 20, I entered the USAF.
It changed somewhat how I saw my older brother. I’ve had plenty of drama across 3.5 marriages, but I never experienced any violence or my trying to be overbearing on them like that.
I felt for just a few minutes in shooting that scene, that I experienced what men feel when they abuse women, at least, verbally. And I have to tell you, I didn’t like it much at all. Having been bullied as a kid, and really I don’t bullies, to be one to anyone else.
On the podcast now they’re talking about "Killing Eve" and Jodie Comer’s character, Villanelle, and her abrupt end, which was a little controversial.
Jodie‘s also on set now shooting "28 Years Later" with director Danny Boyle. I did enjoy the first movie not so much the second, so I have high hopes for the third. The movie is also with Ralph Fiennes and Cillian Murphy, long one of my favorite (esp., Irish) actors..
That’s interesting. The host says he really loved the first of those films. Kind enough not to say anything about the second one.
About my brother. I had three. In 1975 my youngest brother by my mother, by five years, died of liver cancer mere weeks away from his 15th birthday. I also have a half-brother through my birth father who I didn’t grow up with after my first three years who's a genius and artist and we’ve been good friends as adults. I hadn’t seen him since he was 11 but got reacquainted with his family at our dad's funeral. He had a mother, deceased now, and nine other 1/2 siblings.
Then there's my older brother, seven years older. He once told me mom was a party girl. When she got pregnant, she got married. So we all have different fathers.
After I got married (the last time) and we were a couple years into it, when we had just bought our first house between us, I heard about my brother getting together with an ex-wife (he's had two, so I guess I won that "race", or he did, depending...) and it had failed pretty quickly for him.
I remember saying to somebody I don’t know why he finds it so difficult to stay married or keep a relationship going because all you've got to do is keep them happy. That didn't seem that hard to do (in my world, at that time anyway).
I started to realize the flaw in my logic when you reality you're married to someone who has mental and emotional issues. You’re possibly not gonna keep them happy.
In our last year or two of marriage, I had said to her that it seemed like nothing I did for her was ever enough. Her response was interesting because it shocked both of us. She said, "You’re right, that’s true." Well. That's telling.
At which point you have to think, "Wow. Well, this is over." Which it was. But we still tried nine months of therapy until finally, she gave up. I wasn't going to give up my son...marriage was over (they didn't get along very well).
Just passed my 2.5 mile marker finishing up my 3 miles for the day and The Playlist podcast is over, so I switched to Pod Save the World.
Oh no. Politics again!
After I got married (the last time) and we were a couple years into it, when we had just bought our first house between us, I heard about my brother getting together with an ex-wife (he's had two, so I guess I won that "race", or he did, depending...) and it had failed pretty quickly for him.
I remember saying to somebody I don’t know why he finds it so difficult to stay married or keep a relationship going because all you've got to do is keep them happy. That didn't seem that hard to do (in my world, at that time anyway).
I started to realize the flaw in my logic when you reality you're married to someone who has mental and emotional issues. You’re possibly not gonna keep them happy.
In our last year or two of marriage, I had said to her that it seemed like nothing I did for her was ever enough. Her response was interesting because it shocked both of us. She said, "You’re right, that’s true." Well. That's telling.
At which point you have to think, "Wow. Well, this is over." Which it was. But we still tried nine months of therapy until finally, she gave up. I wasn't going to give up my son...marriage was over (they didn't get along very well).
Just passed my 2.5 mile marker finishing up my 3 miles for the day and The Playlist podcast is over, so I switched to Pod Save the World.
Oh no. Politics again!
They’re talking about why Putin went to North Korea.
===
One of the biggest issues I'm seeing with those who lean toward Donald Trump in this election against Pres. Biden is their vast amount of delusional, ridiculously false-equivalencies between them.
Sloppy logic, misinformation, and confusion conflated with their misplaced frustration & anger. I offer this in example from a Face The Nation post:
"Raise your hand if any of you think about, for example, the state of our democracy. Does that concern you?"
@margbrennan asks our focus group of battleground state voters.
"Donald Trump does not want what's good for America. He does not want democracy. He wants to have everything his way," Marlene says.
"The same can be said about President Biden," Lydia adds. "He forced all the car manufacturers to convert to EVs."
===
Uh, NO! That's a ridiculously false equivalency.
While the Biden administration supports and encourages the transition to electric vehicles through a variety of policies and incentives, it has NOT forced manufacturers to produce EVs. Good grief.
You know, pathetic little shit national dictators need to stick together... and all that
The misanthrope misogynist autocrat club.
Remember when POTUS45 outed a CIA officer who did undercover work? No? Valerie Plame, look it up about "Plamegate".
You should read her book. Read her husband Joseph C. Wilson’s book. Or watch the movie about them, Fair Game with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
And there are some other books you can read that explain how our intelligence community kept telling Pres George W. Bush that Iraq was NOT involved in 9/11. But Bush (or VP Cheney, who was running a lot of stuff) kept refusing their denials until finally, somebody gave him what he wanted: manufactured evidence to allow them to attack Iraq, thus finishing up his father‘s business there from the Iraq/Kuwait invasion which led to George HW Bush's Operation Desert Storm.
Hey, where is our fictional narrative movie about a rogue SEAL Team Six who takes out a rabid career criminal misogynistic misanthropic POTUS, and his infectious viral Russian-oriented, political platform and party leadership? Where is that catharsis of a film? Are people still holding back on doing that because they’re afraid Trump might become president again?
Are we really stupid enough to elect Donald Trump as POTUS47? Where we actually elected him before as POTUS45 in the first place? Sigh...
How did America get that stupid? That delusionally disinformed and misaligned?
About a quarter of America needs a national psycho-social therapist and maybe we need to be put on some very heavy "psychosomatic" drugs before we continue with this self-harm and paranoia in seeing one another as existential threats.
Yes, we have some existential threats around, but the biggest of them is saying that those standing against them to protect America are the existential threat. It’s like a midnight nightmare movie.
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Maroney said as far as Russia's bid for peace: "It doesn’t make any sense for Ukraine to move out of Ukraine", since Putin wants to keep the Ukrainian land that he’s captured.
I know that Russia invading Ukraine is complicated. But it’s really not. If in your neighborhood one house invaded another house and took over a bedroom, would you say they get to keep that bedroom?
No.
I finished watching all of Shetland on BritBox (UK's form of Netflix, sort of), with a new season coming. Started watching Crime, set in Edinburgh, Scotland starring Dougray Scott.
Well, on that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and leave you with that.
Well, on that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and leave you with that.
It's 9:30AM.
Cheers! Sláinte!
Cheers! Sláinte!
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