About Angels

I'm reprising a popular blog of mine from back in 2011 on Angels.

Although I've made no secret of my Buddhist orientation at this point in my life, I was raised Catholic. I've always been fascinated by Angels. In my own way. I love the series films with Christopher Walken called, "The Prophesy". I've always found Angels as badasses. Great  not religious, but sci fi fodder.

Powerful, frightening, entertaining, but righteous in their dedication to what is right. Rr what they think their God wants. Or more interestingly, what they think may be right, even when they're wrong. It's a paradigm ripe for drama and intensity.

I have used them at least twice in my writings. Once in my book, "Death of heaven" where they are both a central force in the story and yet not there at all. I also used them in my novella, "The Unwritten" (as yet unpublished). In the latter story, I had no clue they were to be characters until nearly the end of the story and then, they became a powerful force and locus of the novella. It was fun to write. Pure weirdness. Both are, even if I say so myself, fascinating stories.

Christian mythology is fun. Vampires are afraid of a Crucifix, where Holy Water affects them and protects the poor Mortals. Push-button resolutions against terrifying odds.

I'm writing a novel where there is a character that has a relationship with an Angel. So I had to do some research. There is a thriving industry of commerce, in the world, on the internet. People claiming to speak for the Angels, selling online and in books and video, aspects of myth and information filling that void some people have in their lives for some connection to their Supreme Being, their God. Some even worship the Angels, but why you would want to worship anything other than the top dog, sorry, Top God, is beyond me.

Demons and Angels even come from the same beginning. The words for Demon and Angel have similar origins, and one can assume many of the demons mentioned were originally Angels Fallen Angels. And that is a consideration fascinating enough in itself and has been the focus of many interesting tales. What is an Angel's morality? Are they above it? Aside from it?

Here is what I found. There are many ways to interpret the literature, and so, this is my interpretation of what I found.

"ASSUMPTION of the VIRGIN" by Francesco Botticini showing the choirs of angels in the three Spheres.

There are three levels of Angels. The Top Choir, is the highest rank of Angels. They attend to God directly. They are his Holy Servants. Ezekial talks about Cherubin carrying God and his chariot. They were the defenders of God. Cherubin stand outside the Garden of Eden so Adam and Eve can't get back in. A Cherub is not a cute baby with wings, that thought came up in the Renaissance, they are not somebody to meet on a dark lane, as they could turn rather nasty. Don't screw with a Cherubin. This top tier includes the Seraphim, Cherubin, and Thrones.

Saraphim are always depicted in red, symbolizing Devine Love; Cherubin are always depicted in blue, representing Wisdom. According to Christy Kenneally, host of the Smithsonian Channel show, "Decoding Christianity": "Cherubs as cute babies are a Baroque and Renaissance fabrication. Angels didn't have wings in the beginning, because of possible confusion with the ancient Gods, like Mercury who also had wings. Artists had gotten things pretty close to correct up till then, when they kind of went off the deep end.

Once Humans started to become "enlightened" they lost their inner eye for that of science and began to lose their connection for that of speculation. There are no such thing as baby Angels. Cherubs were then reduced to the lowest level of the Angelic ladder. But they are one of the three most powerful and fearsome of all Angels."

The Second Choir are those in charge of the Universe. The Overseers of Nature and Fate and are: The Dominions, the Powers, and the Virtues.

The Third Choir are the Human intermediaries who deal with us mere mortals. They are our first and initial connection to God, going first through them, then through the rest of the hierarchy. These include: The Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels.

By Gustave Doré - Alighieri, Dante; Cary, Henry Francis (ed) (1892) "Canto XXXI" in The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Complete, London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Company Retrieved on 13 July 2009., Public Domain

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a book on Angels because there were so many questions during his lifetime about them. Do they eat, do they procreate, do they wear clothing? Do they have gender?

Rafael will blow the trumpet that heralds judgment day and of the end of the World to Muslims. To Jews and Christians, he is the Angel of Healing.

Gabriel is God's Messenger. To Jews he destroyed the city of Sodom. In Islam he brings the Koran to Mohammad.

Michael, is the most powerful Angel of all. To Jews he is the guardian Angel of Israel. In Islam he brought thunder and lightning to earth. In Christianity, he flung Satan and his army of rebel Angels into Hell.

Angels appear to a person as their greatest embodiment of their expectations, therefore, in the past they were always male angels, but now people are not so entrenched in a patriarchal society and angels can appear as male or female, but always as the greatest beauty in expectation of that individual's beliefs.

Michael's name means "he who is most like God". When Lucifer said, "I am like unto God." Michael merely responds with his own name, saying: "Michael (Who is like God?)." And at that moment, the war between the Angels begins. It is a spiritual warfare, a spiritual struggle.

Lucifer is then cast into Hell and named Satan. He is depicted as the Dragon, the beast. But Satan has a history that comes to us from preChristian origins. He gets his horns, his cloven hooves and some of his character from Pan. Pan the bisexual. For Christians, Satan represents the evil of paganism. In defeating a Pan-like Satan, Michael can also be seen as defeating the old Gods.

Michael, had a pagan ancestor too, the Roman God, Mercury. Monuments and churches dedicated to the Archangel Michael were almost always built on high places, and almost always on the ruins of the of temples dedicated to the God Mercury. Like Mercury, Michael always watched over commerce, communication and has healing powers.

In the 6th century, there was a plague. Pope Gregory prayed for help and there was a vision of Michael at what is now, Castle St. Angelo, on a site that was once a temple to Mercury. It was then that they began to call him "Saint Michael", or "Sant Angelo" ("Sainted Angel"). It seems to me an odd concept to Saint an Angel.

It was in the 5th Century, that St. Jerome expressed the concept of each and every person alive having their own "Guardian Angel" when he said: "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it." (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II).

I personally see that as somewhat limiting in an Angel's scope and power, but hey, it makes people feel better. The concept of intermediaries between we poor mortals and the Supreme Being, kind of makes sense. But one has to consider whether these are separate entities or simply minor manifestations of that Supreme Being.

When you consider according to Christian doctrine that God split himself in two, or three, being that also of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, why couldn't this "Supreme" Being split up in millions of ways? Even unto condensing elements into individual mortals such as we are?

It's an interesting consideration. Not only this, but all of the Angel concept. And it makes for great storytelling. Which I will soon be adding to, once I have completed this new novel. I can only hope that the fun in reading it will come through from the fun I'm having in writing it.

A Once Fair and Equal Plan No Longer

When there is a plan set up to be fair and equal and one side gets tired of losing, impeaches their leader (Clinton) on the other side and he still wins the next election, then they discover or simply decide to stoop to anything in order to win, at any or all costs to themselves, or to anyone, and when they do begin to win, does it not make the once fair and equal plan if nothing else, unequal. If not outright broken? Then to soothe their disheveled egos they merely point away and blame the other side for actions they themselves initiated and prefer time and again.

So how is the other side to adjust?

Stoop to underhanded, and similar even at times illegal means, or try to regain the upper hand through the old and accepted, that is, once considered honest methods?

Even when those methods no longer seem to function?

And what do you say when the ideology of the other side was so warped that it made their opponents appear at least to them, skewed, dishonest, untenable? Even those most of the rest of the entire world disagrees with them?

IF they then decide out of, if nothing else, sheer frustration to stoop to the actions of their now no longer opponents but simple enemies, then what is there left for everyone?

Anarchy and winner take all? That is what the first side chose.

Does that mean that now everyone has to live by their unfair and untenable rules? In a once fair and equal plan now no longer functional?

For then all those between and all those beneath will really be the true losers.

But how in such a post-truth society, does the more fair and honest side even attempt to try to restore equilibrium? When their actions will decrease the other side unfairly winning, who will then blame the fairer side for using underhanded means? When they are merely trying to restore a functioning system and a fair plan where merit should win and the powerful should have their place?

Is then restoring sanity and fairness, equality even if it had been unequal, to be again functional, even possible any longer?

Or, was that the unfair side's point in the first place? To break, to end, to raise up a new aristocracy, a new autocracy, a new kleptocracy that is openly vain and greedy, and accepted first by their supporters knowledgeable in their complicity, then by their supporters ignorant of their having cast the weight into those had always had been their enemies, until finally accepted eventually by all in simply no longer having any other choice?

What exactly do we really want to be?

Welcome to "Ugly" America Down the Rabbit Hole

Senate Republicans and their questionable leader have not cemented in the reality that a much "uglier" America is being led by a very, very "ugly American" and following his illiberal lead, some other "ugly" Americans.

Welcome to today's world where governments are being forced down a path by foolish "leaders" of an electorate based on a movement of self-perceived hurt egos in the realm of white supremacies, ignorance, greed, and foolishness.

It may not be bigotry and race war that is at the base of this movement greater than America, but it is a similar base of thinking in cognitive dissonance, in the abandonment of cognitive powers. Where they are turned against both the individual as well as the society at large. 

With little care, but with a great passion to continue the path one's on, regardless of the damage to themselves or anyone. Because they wish to believe, against all reality.

In a reference to Boris Johnson in the UK, an older woman caller from Wales said to David Dimbleby, Journalist and Podcast Host of "The Sun King", where Johnson's intentions in Brexit would financially harm Wales and this elder woman... her explanation was thus...and so very explanatory of what is also going on in the right of American politics:

"Cuz he's a liar! He's a liar."
"Why do you like him because he's a liar?"
"Because it means he's human. And he's got balls of steel."

What's that all about? Identity.

What's white supremacy about?
Identity. 

White Identity. And ignorance. And adhering to beliefs regardless of reality, because of assuaging perceived pain.

What's going on? A revulsion against politicians' divisiveness.
Lies behind painted faces.

This is what many think Trump supporters aren't seeing but feel is painfully clear. Maybe it will work out. But what we have is a delicate thing. As we've been warned time and again and time again.

"There are a variety of ways to gain power. There are illegal means to gain power through brute force; one can also gain power legally by winning a majority in an election. There are revolutions, Putsches, uprisings. But each of these methods requires a political group to win the sympathies of the broad masses, if it wishes over the long run to maintain is power. But the sympathy of the people does not come of itself; it must be won.
The means of gaining that support is propaganda. The task of propaganda is not to discover a theory or to develop a program, but rather to translate that theory and program into the language of the people, to make them comprehensible to the broad masses of the people. The goal of propaganda is to make what the theorists have discovered clear to the broad masses."

- Joseph Goebbels, Will and Way 1931

What is the solution voters, mostly right-wing voters have taken?

Just elect an outright liar. One you (mostly incorrectly) perceive to be lying FOR YOU. Rationalizing through incorrect beliefs in the economy, or whatever you can drum up to support you, to give you a perceived reason to be passionate, against all reason and at times, too many times, sometimes all the time, against all decency.

Alice (1988)

We have submerged beyond the rim of a rabbit hole it will take many years to extract ourselves from while many of us sit by a nearby tree, in the shade of reality, and wonder aghast, in pain, while those who were in pain, now feeling freed of that pain. [come on, follow along this is an Alice in Wonderland reference...rabbit hole, Alice, her sister waiting by the tree...nevermind...]

Why?

Because opiates, whether chemical or political or emotional, assuage one's pain, even if we should die because of it. Even when we are aware we cannot stop it.

And so, screw the rest.

Finally a bit of anonymous humor and a feeling for what's going on.

To end, just thought a little humor injected into this mess might help and offer some feeling for how this Senate "trial" is being perceived by many. From a friend of a friend of a friend:

THE ROAD SO FAR...

ALL THE WITNESSES: Ok we all agree. This is what happened.
Republicans: None of you were in the room!
BOLTON: *raises hand* Well I was in the...
Republicans: Who asked you?! Shut up! You’re a liberal pawn!
BOLTON: Um... I’m actually I’m a lifelong Republican and I was literally Trump’s national security advi...
Republicans: Shut your mustache! Somebody bring back the first national security advisor.
FLYNN: *in orange jumpsuit* Hey sorry guys I’m in jail lol.
Republicans: What? Why?
FLYNN: For lying to the FBI about the Russia investigation.
Republicans: Well what idiot told you to do that?!
FLYNN: The Pres...
Republicans: Shut up! No one believes either of you!
KELLY: *raises hand* I believe them. And I was Trump’s Chief of sta...
Republicans: Shut up! Let’s talk to the real chief of staff. Who is he?
MULVANEY: *raises hand* It’s me.
Republicans: Shit. Never mind.
PARNAS: *raises hand* I was also in the room. In fact, here’s a cell phone video of the President saying that...
Republicans: Wait what?! How in hell did you sneak a cell phone into a meeting with the President?
PARNAS: It was easy I just walked right in and...
Republicans: Shut up! You’re a criminal!
PARNAS: Correct. And I just walked right into...
Donald John Trump: I don’t know him.
PARNAS: And here’s 500 pictures of me with the President because we’re besties.
Republicans: Wait... What idiot introduced you to the President??
PARNAS: His personal lawyer.
Republicans: Cohen??
COHEN: *also in orange jumpsuit* Hey no sorry guys I’m in jail too.
Republicans: Why?
COHEN: For campaign finance violations.
Republicans: Who’s campaign?
COHEN: The Pres...
Republicans: Shut up!
PARNAS: It was Giuliani.
YOVANOVITCH: Giuliani! That’s the guy who had me fired from my job!
Republicans: Who are you??
YOVANOVITCH: I was the ambassador to Ukraine.
Republicans: Wait, you had her fired? Do you work for the government??
GIULIANI: Nope.
Republicans: Well who is the ambassador to the European Union??
SONDLAND: *raises hand* Me. I was also in the roo...
Republicans: F@$&!!!
Mafia and Russian Boss Vladimir Putin: *rubs his bare chest*

No More "Undecided Voters"

I would like to see the section in political polling about "undecided voters" disappear. Vanish.
Pick a side!

Stop being undecided. It's lazy, kind of fearful if not for some, cowardly.
it requires little to no thinking or decision making.
Chose a candidate when they are announced.
Then carve it down to the better candidate over time and stick with one, altering as info comes out until you cast a vote.

But no candidate?
Sometimes no candidate on election day?
Sometimes no vote cast?
Or not EVEN planning to vote at ALL?

That is what got us here. To this nightmare.
IF people would decide, would act, Trump would never have become our worst POTUS in US history.
So undecided voter. What will you be doing to us next time?
And the next...?
Make the effort.

Undecided voter, let's bring that number down to all decided. Stop being undecided. And don't be fearful of switching to a better candidate, rather than making no-decision. Taking a stance, quickens your understanding, your decisions, and leads people to interact more. 

I get it, introverts hate that decision. Kind of an introvert myself. But I make the effort. It's our duty to learn, think and choose. You can change your choice, but making no choice, drags it out, keeps you more ignorant than necessary and at times, leads some to never voting at all.

Because in doing so and doing so early, it changes how you think, it enhances your view, your position, your information. Because you have to seek more and become knowledgeable.
It makes you more fully, an American citizen.

A right thousands died for. For you, for us, and in the American experiment case, for Humanity.

On The Veracity of Trump vs Schiff

A Trump supporter said recently to me about Trump:

"...well everyone says stupid things here and there and why is it only women have the reserved right to change their minds. but this could depend on what deal he was working on and whose skirt he needed to blow smoke up that day? So why is it politicians aren't allowed to change their mind or positions?

That was in response to something I posted:

Video Resurfaces of Trump Saying George W. Bush Should've Been Impeached and Praising 'Very Impressive' Nancy Pelosi

I responded back: "Interesting comparisons lol And good to note, Trump's still saying stupid things. At least he's consistent in that sense. We've not heard Schiff literally rambling incoherently like Trump has, however.

"If you apply even loosely the rules of grammar on Trump's free-wheeling (not reading another's words off a prompter) speech, he literally does not make any sense much of the time.

"However, if you guess what he means, leaving many to read disparate things into it, working into Trump's hands, then it makes sense. It's just questionable what sense that may be. It's why he says one thing, then later the opposite and has to do with media platforms and news cycles. And a new form of plausible deniability most rampant among dictatorships and wannabes."

Except, the difference between a high level of communication (a lower score) and a lower level of communication (like Trump's higher score) is that the better you communicate the more succinct and understandable you are and the worse, the more what you say is left open to interpretation. It's a crapshoot sometimes what Donald John Trump is talking about and we see that in social media with people arguing over what he ever could possibly be talking about in his statements. Especially when one day he says one outrageous thing and then the next day says the opposite. On purpose. To confuse and inflame.

NOT POTUS MATERIAL at all.

It got me thinking...

I took a random slice of Trump and Adam Schiff's speaking and analyzed them. I didn't look at the content. Just paged down in the transcript, grabbed a random paragraph (no, honestly, I did not cherry-pick this. I hate people doing that. And, I'm not a Republican or Trump supporter).

The higher your score, the dumber you are, less educated, less articulate, and less meaningful. Typically we speak in less collegiate levels for ease and speed. But to descend into grammar school does a similar function to speaking at too high a level and leads to difficulty and ambiguity. That is to say, people have to guess at your meaning. Something you should NEVER see in a POTUS. It is behavior we see in dictators or wannabe dictators and people trying to sound smarter than they are in being consistently unclear.

Flesch Reading Ease:

Schiff: 55.03

Trump: 75.88

Adam Schiff on Face the Nation: "Well, we've gotten an initial briefing on it, and it really is too early to say. We grieve, obviously, for the families of those who were lost. And we're going to press Saudi Arabia to do a full investigation on their end, even as we do one on ours. And I wish the president of the United States, rather than trying to speak for the Saudi government, were pressing the Saudi government for answers. But we're going make sure that we not only get to the full truth here, but also that we review whatever protocols we have in place for the selection of people that participate in these military training programs both here and abroad, so that this kind of insider attack never occurs again."

Donald Trump Dallas Rally Speech Transcript – October 17, 2019: "The economy is booming. Our people are prospering. Our country is thriving and our nation is stronger than ever before. But the more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become. Crazy. They're crazy. They're crazy. At stake in this fight is their survival of American democracy itself. Don't kid yourself. That's what they want. They are destroying this country but we will never let it happen. Not even close. For three straight years, radical Democrats have been drawing to overthrow the results of a great, great election. Maybe, maybe the greatest election in the history of our country. They want to oppose an extreme agenda. They cannot pass it and they cannot win it at the ballot box. They're not going to win. The not even going to get they won't come close in 2020. They know it. They know it. They're not going to win it. They say, let's see. What's another idea? What's another idea? How do we win this election? You know, I really don't believe anymore that they love our country. I don't believe it."

The Flesch score uses the number of syllables and sentence lengths to determine the reading ease of the sample.

A Flesch score of 60 is taken to be plain English. A score in the range of 60-70 corresponds to 8th/9th grade English level. A score between 50 and 60 corresponds to a 10th/12th grade level. Below 30 is college graduate level. To give you a feel for what the different levels are like, most states require scores from 40 to 50 for insurance documents.

Trump, Soleimani Assassination and Reality

There's a lot to unpack in Pres. Donald John Trump's Qasem Soleimani assassination incident. One being that George W. Bush for two terms and Barack Obama for two terms BOTH decided it was more dangerous to kill this cretin. As it was with Sadman Insane, wiping him out was a huge mistake in his case because of the power vacuum it left. 

Yes, fine, kill Soleimani, or Hussein. But do it thoughtfully. Play the Chess game, or the Go game, but play it, don't just cut off someone's head. Have a plan. Have another to take over, one who will do the job we need, perhaps more so, the one that country needs.

Yes, Soleimani needed to go, but how we did it was important, that was the issue. Having not involved the CIA and the DNI in this decision is patently ludicrous, not allowing for truly assessing the repercussions and therefore acting without full consideration which is never advisable.

What conservatives think Dems are unsettled about is mostly not what they are actually unsettled about. We don't even have to go into the timing of the Trump impeachment or re-election situation or how such a distraction such as this was wholly expected. Or the desire for a war leading up to a damaged election on the administration's side is greatly desired.

Really, there's much more here than is superficially obvious.

One does not make decisions like this without the DNI and the CIA involved, and others like the NSA. they were not in the room in or involved when this decision was made.

Almost more importantly is this:

Trump's Soleimani assassination has taken an Iran with a fractured leadership and a citizenry becoming more united against them and turned that right about to the other direction.

What's not to know about that, we've been hearing it for weeks and months now. Then this happened and it reversed...not to mention Iraqis who saw him as a hero because when they were attacked by ISIS he was the first to show up and fight for them. This is much messier than the administration is trying to let on or those in full support of this action are realizing.


This is also the Middle East we're dealing with here. It's screwed up and interesting and educational to note that when Bush Sr. attacked Iraq, he left Saddam in power. For a reason. He didn't want to, he had to. He had been head of the CIA, which was why I voted for him, though it would be nice to have a POTUS who knew something for a change. He knew what he was dealing with. 

I voted for Reagan the first time, the year I started college. I knew him as a kid on TV and from movies. Then I saw on-campus protests against the Iran/Contra issue at Western Washington University, day after day. Why were they so against the guy I had finally voted for. See, when I turned 18 I voted that year. But that was it. 

Through the military and the Jimmy Carter years. I didn't know him, he seemed OK, but everyone in the military I knew at my based hated him, mostly because he was cutting bases, and closing them down. So after the USAF I thought I should vote next time and I did. 

So, I voted for, Reagan. Stupid? Yes. But. I didn't vote him for re-election, I didn't like things he did, or his view on the world, or his dumping government responsbilities for citizens onto Churches and charities. So very Republican, so very disingenuous. The "no debt because we sloughed it off to others", mentality. Lazy, ignorant, mean spirited, greedy, power grabbing, underhanded, all that has lasted until today and grown worse, in this current travesty of the GOP.

I'm fooliish at times, not stupid. But I did vote for Bush Sr. thinkinng it good to actually have a POTUS who knew the inside of intelligence and actual "Intelligence". I was proud of voting for who I thought was the best person for office, regardless of their party. I was raised in a Union household, a Democratic family. Liberal I suppose, progressive. 

Until recently when the GOP has taken a deep shite and a deep dive off the deep end of Reality. Literally denying reality, time and time again.

Sonny boy Pres. Baby Bush wasn't, didn't and so ignored dad and took Hussein out, with the nightmare that led to. But then W planned to do that even before he became POTUS anyway.

Nothing over there is easy, clean, or obvious. If it seems like that, there's something unknown lurking.

And now we have the same issue with Trump we had with Baby Bush.

Ignorance and satiation of one's beliefs desires and feelings over reality and associated issues. And of course, obfuscation, distraction, and redirection.

By the way, I learned my lesson with Bush Sr. Leaving Saddam in place left me very unsatisfied and upset with him for a decade until his son took him out. And then I learned how complicated things really are over there. You do what needs to be, not what you want or just think should be done. Just watch the near end of Lawrence of Arabia and know that it's all still going on.

Right and wrong are shaded with many colors, especially in the Middle East. And even when you're right at times you will suffer the consequences. This present situation will come back to bite us.

Gumdrop, a short horror - Soundtrack Update

I am currently in post-production with my short horror film, "Gumdrop, a short horror" which is beginning to coalesce into a viable film. It's now just under fifty minutes in length. Another thirty to forty minutes and it would be a full-fledged film and not a short. Technically at over forty-eight minutes, it is not a short film.

Post for Gumdrop, a short horror

I have been working since we wrapped principal photography last summer on editing this film. I haven't had the time every day or at times even every week to work on it, but it is finally approaching something that resembles a movie. I am still editing shots, sequences, and scenes, but I have also been adding audio effects and music and tweaking transitions.

By the way, my other major project, "The Teenage Bodyguard", my true crime biopic screenplay I have spent years researching and writing and am currently working on with producer Robert Mitas, is still healthy and underway. We're waiting on a lookbook to be finished up for the project and will then be moving on with finding a director and production company to film it.

As far as Gumdrop, I started looking into music for the soundtrack a few months ago. I contacted producer Joe Wilson who offered the use of one of his artists, Alex Dewell, with songs from her 2018 album, "Hund". It is on CDBaby and where you can hear samples of the songs I've used. I have discussed this artist in a previous blog in 2014. I met her some years ago and even then she was obviously talented.

The songs I settled on for "Gumdrop" are: Get Away, Gotta Run, IDK, and, Tell Me I'm Alright. This album was produced by Joe when he took Alex to London and recorded it at Abbey Road Studio with some great backing musicians. Here are some older songs by Alex on CDBaby.

They are already now incorporated into the film. These are lighter, more pop songs and represent a female character in the film named, Miranda (played by Aura Stiers, a practicing event "Mermaid" which I incorporated into the film.).

However, my film needs rougher songs, something harder for the main character, "Sampson" (played by Tom Remick). He who's Sampson character grew up extremely abused in old Czechoslovakia back when the Iron Curtain still existed back in the 1950s. I also needed more current music.

My original thoughts were to come up with some 1950s Eastern European Soviet Bloc country's music and maybe fuse it with heavy rock music of some sort. As well as plane old modern heavy metal, or post-metal, or Gwar or some such.

A while back, friend and fellow filmmaker Kelly Hughes at his Lucky Charm Studio, got hooked up with a band in Italy, Postvorta, when they contacted him about a collaboration. We liked their music and so he did a music video for them using their song, "We're Nothing."

I'd considered asking them if they would like to be involved with my film, as I knew that Andrea whom Kelly worked with on the video, was interested in doing some film soundtracks. So I asked Kelly to ask them about it for me.

We've been busy with our current endeavor, the Bremerton, Washington monthly event for horror and local indie horror filmmakers, "Slash Night" at the Historic Roxy Theater.

Brief aside... Slash Night has been going on now for four months as of this coming weekend event on January 11th, 2020. Last month our last show of the year was our best show so far and it's getting bigger and better each month. Drag performers Bobbie Lee and Bobby Rae, a local performance team did a live performance for us that they created just for this event and it was pretty amazing!

Since I hadn't heard back from Kelly yet on the Postvorta request I'd made, I was about to remind him, when...

I got a suggestion to like a Facebook page called, 22Decemeber Records. They claimed they were into Post Metal, Sludge, Post Rock and Ambient. Which I thought was great. What a coincidence!

So I liked them and emailed their 22December company email account. I got a timely response.

POSTVORTARavenna, Italy

As it turned out, they were interested!

But unexpectedly, it turned out that it was Andrea Fioravanti, from Postvorta! He whom Kelly had done the music video with. He was excited to look at my project. And so we are communicating and moving forward. Now that I think about it, I think Kelly did once mention something about a 22Decemeber. I just forgot. Living with my memory is an exciting and at times annoying condition. To be sure.

There is still much to do before finishing the film and getting it out there to film festivals. I project another month or two before I'm ready. I will be submitting it to our own Gorst Underground Film Festival, now in its third year. As I've been a judge and nurturer helping Kelly in his efforts (and each year it's been bigger and better),

I obviously won't be judging my own film. And I don't expect any extra consideration because of my position. Honestly, we just don't work that way. Trust me, Kelly is pretty critical. But then also, because we're an underground festival, we don't necessarily judge things as many mainstream festivals would. Which is part of our charm?

Our Slash Night monthly event is attached to our annual festival as a way to build a community for the annual GUFF event. But my film won't show in the monthly events as it is not a "short", even though, it is indeed, short.

GUFF will be moving to the Historic Roxy Theater this September and perhaps an after-party at another venue. We're still working out the details.

OK, Kelly is still working out those details. And a great job he does, too!

Stay tuned. For all of it!

Slainte!