At Home On Piety Hill

This post will take some twists and turns, but hopefully we’ll pass some points of interest for each reader along the way (all 3 of you).

We visited our friend, Joan, who was our next-door neighbor when we lived in the village of Sedgwick way back in ‘93. She owns one of the oldest, if not the oldest, homes in town. She was getting her wheel all ready for a spinning demonstration at the Blue Hill Fair. It seemed very appropriate to watch her at work in the parlor of the home, near the great brick fireplace and original paneling.

Joan also spins for one of my favorite artisans and former customers, Betsy Coakley of Mermaid Woolens fame. She designs some of the most beautiful sweaters I’ve ever seen. If you are a fan of woolen wearables, you simply must visit her site. I love this photo of a selection of her past designs — I think the backdrop of fallen snow make the warm, vibrant colors sort of leap out at you. She also paints stair treads and does a dozen other cool things. Be sure to read her bio, when you visit.

Now, speaking of the Blue Hill Fair, you probably remember it as the setting of the children’s story, Charlotte’s Web. Well, Charlotte’s Web was written by E.B. White, who lived in neighboring Brooklin Maine. Mr. White had two housekeepers, who I knew; Ethel and Tink. Denise and I became good friends of Ethel’s, so when we visit Maine we like to stay in the apartment above her garage. Sometime I’ll tell you about the wonderful conversations I used to have with Ethel and the stories she would tell. She is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met! She grew up over to Brooksville.

Now, Brooksville is on the other side of Sedgwick from Brooklin and, when you go there you will want to visit Buck’s Harbor, where you will find Condon’s Garage. That establishment figures prominently in Robert McCloskey’s One Morning in Maine. I think we have most of his books and my favorite is Blueberries for Sal. I have to admit that I enjoy his drawings even more than the stories themselves. Denise and I read that the garage was closing down and I think we saw it come up for sale in the multiple listings a year or so ago. 

Mr. McCloskey died in his home on Deer Isle not too long ago. Deer Isle was the home of famous primitive folk artist, George Hardy. One of our favorite documentaries of all time is Portrait of George Hardy by Gabriel Coakley (sound familiar?). Gabe won the Cine Golden Eagle Award at the US Super-8 Video Festival in 1995 and let me tell you - I’ve never seen anything that captures winter on the Eggemoggin Reach like that film, with the sped up sequences of wind blowing sea smoke across the chilly waters and Mr. Hardy bustin’ up the ice on his stoop, so he can get his door open. 

So, there you have it. A bit of serendipity, combined with free-writing and a little nostalgia of our time on the Blue Hill Peninsula, brought to mind by our brief visit in August. More to follow…

In a previous post, I identified Camille Paglia as my favorite feminist, lesbian, atheist humanities professor. Her latest opinion piece, Hillary vs. Obama: It’s a drawl!, is another splendid analysis of poilitics, pop culture and media. Camille rarely disappoints, so if you’re not a regular reader of her salon.com column, perhaps you should be. Here are some of her gems:

On Hillary Clinton
Hillary didn’t help herself with her over-the-top sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama, two weeks ago. Her aping of a black Southern accent from the pulpit was so inept and patronizing that it should get a Razzie Award for Worst Performance of the Year. At times, it approached the Southern Gothic burlesque of Bette Davis chewing up the scenery in “Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

The Fossilized Media
Of course, any Salon readers who still follow the mainstream media out of numbed habit will never have heard Hillary’s most extreme flights of faux gemutlichkeit. All that Sunday, network radio news, for example, betrayed its liberal bias by running clips of only her noblest phrases. Heaven help any Republican who had made so lurid a gaffe! Fortunately, alternative media now exist: On his radio show that night, Matt Drudge ran huge, hilarious swatches of prophesyin’ Hillary camping it up.

Fox Right Wing Bias
But Fox is certainly disingenuous with its absurd “fair and balanced” motto. Oh, come on, give it up! Why can’t Fox honestly admit its conservative agenda, as do major radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and simply argue that it represents a culturally necessary antidote to the omnipresent liberal line?

Thumbs Up On Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein is far more presidential than Hillary Clinton, who alternates between smugness and defensiveness before pulling out that tiresome middle-aged mom card. Feinstein, even when maneuvering strategically, always seems genuinely focused on the idea at hand, while Hillary isn’t really there — she’s just riffling mentally through her team’s cue cards.

A Sober Take On Ann Coulter
Coulter is a smart woman with formidable energy, and whether liberals like it or not, she is a high-profile feminist role model in her appetite for aggressive debate. But Coulter seems to be regressing rather than growing intellectually and sharpening her analytic skills. She evidently leaves no room in her life for study and reflection… Her books may rake in millions but won’t last because they are shoddily constructed. Coulter should be using her syndicated column for her topical opinions but her books for more considered contributions.

Cheney and Bush
The relationship between Cheney and George W. Bush is also perplexing. Despite the nearness in their ages, Cheney acts like Bush’s father (no coincidence since Cheney served in George H.W. Bush’s administration). There’s something creepy about how Cheney, after heading the candidate search, insinuated himself into the vice presidency. He locked onto Bush like a limpet… It’s an unsavory, toxic relationship, a vampiric pseudo-marriage like that of the shadowy, Machiavellian Roger Chillingworth and the impressionable, waffling Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”

A Diversion
I had a diverting experience last Saturday… While my family was at the Camden Aquarium for a special appearance by a SpongeBob impersonator, I walked around the once ravaged and still patchy and economically struggling neighborhoods, where Hispanic immigrants have settled. Suddenly, there was a stream of African-American men cutting across the streets and heading toward the Beckett Street Terminal for what was clearly the start of a work shift. I followed from a distance and gawked at the great warehouses of the South Jersey Port Corporation, which were stacked from floor to ceiling with tens of thousands of burlap bags containing a mystery product. As I approached the main security booth, beyond which only authorized workers could enter the dockyard, flatbed trucks with bright yellow cabs were emerging, one after the other, all laden with fat burlap bags. It was a phenomenally precise and synchronized procession, as each truck swept to a warehouse, was offloaded, and then circled back through the gate to the ship. I was full of admiration at this demonstration of the beauty and efficiency of the modern distribution system, which I extolled in the first chapter of “Sexual Personae” as a male-created artifact of civilization. It is one of the many gifts of capitalism that are invisible to academic leftists, who nevertheless expect the light switch to work, their cars to start, and the grocery store to be constantly stocked with fresh milk, orange juice and produce… I asked a guard what they were: “Cocoa beans”… With great delight, I spent the next 15 minutes dodging the trucks and filling my pockets with the best beans (to send with our son to preschool science class).

What About Capitalism?
Capitalism, which spawned modern individualism as well as the emancipated woman who can support herself, is essentially Darwinian. It expands any society’s sum total of wealth and radically raises the standard of living, but it leaves the poor and weak without a safety net. Capitalism needs the ethical counter-voice of leftism to keep it honest. But leftists must be honest in turn about what we owe to capitalism — without which Western women would have no professional jobs to go to but would be stuck doing laundry by hand and stooping over pots on the hearth fire all day long.

Britney Spears Gets A Break
I’ve commented on Britney’s travails and tacky exhibitionism for Us magazine and for the March issue of Allure (”A Case of Exposure”). The final question (from a lively young woman) after my lecture [video link] on religion and the arts at Colorado College last month was about Britney. My circuits began visibly to sputter and fry, like the overloaded mega-computer at the end of “Desk Set,” because as a public speaker I, unlike Ann Coulter, believe in tempering one’s witticisms out of respect for one’s hosts. Despite her current descent into squalor, I still see Britney as animated by a flame of original energy. Great stars make comebacks. Let’s see what Britney’s got!

Well, we quit Netflix. I found that I was watching more movies than I normally would, because I wanted to get my money’s worth. My discontent surfaced when I read about the class-action lawsuit filed against them for dragging their feet on fulfilling customers requests, who were signed up for “unlimited” rental accounts. I noticed that my service degraded around that time and their “cycling” became obvious and inconvenient for us.

Anyway, we are spending much less time in front of the tube, which is a real bonus and, now that I know what I’m looking for at the local video store, I can get in and out for about a buck. You can’t beat that.

Well, sort of. The left pulled out all the stops, including one final threat from President Clinton’s lawyers. But, a slightly edited version of The Path To 9/11 aired last night and the second installment (critical of George Bush) will go on tonight as scheduled, with no attempts by the Bush administration at censorship.

This, in spite of last minute threats by the enemies of freedom: Bill Sics Legal Eagles on ABC:

Clinton’s lawyer, Douglas Band, and the CEO of his foundation, Bruce Lindsey, penned the fuming missive to ABC bigwig Bob Iger.

An ABC statement on the situation said, “Many of the people who have expressed opinions about the film have yet to see it in its entirety.” The final edits were made, but reported to be minor in its showing in New Zealand. All sides are monitoring how extensive the edits are and they appear to be slight. The biggest change so far seems to be the disclaimers.

What a lesson this has been! Beware of people who trumpet themselves as tolerant, progressive and champions of civil liberties, while censoring the opinions of others, stifling the artistic freedoms of those who they find offensive and seeking to limit free speech in order to deflect criticism.

One of the two administrations faulted for not taking the war on terrorism seriously before 9/11 is freaking out over the ABC docudrama The Path To 9/11 and it’s starting to get scary. When one party threatens the broadcast license of a major network over a mini-series, it’s time to let them know that the Bill of Rights is just that… it’s not the Bill of Permits granted or doled out to citizens by government.

• Our borders and ports remain open to infiltration, Social Security is going down and what is the Democratic leadership in the Senate doing? Reminding ABC that they control the licensing of broadcast media.
• Meanwhile, President Clinton went straight to the top and demanded that the program, which cost ABC $40 million, be censored in order to protect his legacy.
• Then, he has his lawyers intimidate Disney.
• Madeleine Albright’s ability to earn a living as a consultant is threatened, so she started howling.
• Sandy Berger, convicted thief of classified documents, joined in the chorus of whining.

Meanwhile, yet another “hate Bush” film premiers in Canada, but the Bush administration calmly goes about their business. In this day of petulant pop-star politicos, it’s comforting to know there are some adults out there holding things together.

Denise and I don’t get commercial TV in our home (missed Katie’s big splash), but I heard about a mini-series I’d love to see: The Path To 9/11 on ABC, starring Harvey Keitel. We’ll either watch it when it comes out on DVD or perhaps a friend will invite us over when it airs (hint).

Evidently, the mini-series not only makes the Bush administration look bad, but makes out Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger (the guy who steals classified documents in his clothing) to be incompetent cowards. For those accustomed to hagiographical portrayals of the Clinton administration from the entertainment industry, this docudrama evidently crosses the line and troubles the faithful.

I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from people who have actually seen it from start to finish, but the bete noir bloggers and enemies of free speech on the left have reportedly tried to get ABC to edit it, because of “lies and half-truths.” All the clips I’ve heard and the in-depth reviews lead me to believe that it’s substantially accurate. But, even if it isn’t, since when are lies and half-truths a sin in the infotainment industry? Leave it to the “tolerance and diversity” crowd to impose their morality on the rest of us.

For my prog-lib friends, I would suggest that you watch The Path To 9/11 for the entertainment value first and historical accuracy second. I think that’s the way one would normally view other works of the genre, such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Who Killed The Electric Car, Bush’s Brain, Triumph of the Will, etc..

Today, I received my copy of the new 77s DVD Collection, featuring seven official music videos by my favorite band, The Seventy Sevens, as well as another disk of “live bootleg” concert footage going back to 1982!

It was just like Christmas in July, as Sean and Emma watched me excitedly tearing the cellophane off the case. They were also very understanding and patient as I rushed to the DVD player and cued up the first video, Mercy Mercy, which I had seen years ago. It was just as I remembered it. I was at a number of the featured concerts and, though they were 20 years ago, it was as if I had seen them just yesterday.

But, the most exciting discovery was yet to come. As the videos were playing and I was checking out the insert and liner notes, a familiar image caught my eye. It was a photo I had taken of the 77s at a concert back about 1987. When we went to see Mike Roe perform a few months ago, I had given him copies of the photos from that concert — he and his daughter got a good laugh out of them. But, they were actually pretty good b&w photos and he used them as a background on one of the pages. Check out the insert and my copy of the original photo.The credits on the back list a few photographers and then I am honored for my contribution:

Additional photos provided by Chris Knight, Brian Heydn and many others.

Yup, that’s me… many others!

I really enjoyed this television movie starring Don Rickles, Keke Palmer, Catherine O’Hara and one of my all-time favorites, William Macy. I believe he won a Golden Globe award for this film. It’s based on Jackie Gleason’s classic, Gigot, and it is a real upbeat PG-13 with some rough language and themes. On the other hand, we trudged through the Monkee’s highly-recommended psychedelic art film, Head. It was dreadful.

Okay, I’ve had a bunch of people ask me what I’d like to see under the Christmas tree this year… so, here’s the wishlist. This list is over at amazon.com and they have some cool stuff, but don’t feel like you have to shop there. You are welcome to locate the little treasures anywhere you like and if you’re feeling particularly generous, go ahead and upgrade the electronic items. I’m not stuffy either, these items may be pre-owned.

Now, if you move down the list, you will see Chanticleer’s We Sing Christmas — another splendid choral collection. You would probably like to see Denise and I enjoy that through the Christmas ‘05 season, so may I suggest that CD for a Thanksgiving gift? Remember, give early and give often. And, thank you in advance for your generous gifts.

DENNIS HOPPER - HOPPER KEEPS BUSH SUPPORT UNDER WRAPS: “HOPPER KEEPS BUSH SUPPORT UNDER WRAPS

DENNIS HOPPER

Veteran actor DENNIS HOPPER rarely tells people he voted for US President GEORGE W BUSH - because he fears being shunned by his liberal colleagues.

The 69-year-old EASY RIDER icon became a registered Republican in the 1980s, supporting late US President RONALD REAGAN’s administration.

And he’s remained faithful to the political party ever since, even though many of his Hollywood counterparts strongly oppose Bush.

He says, ‘I’ve been a Republican since Reagan. I voted for Bush and his father. I don’t tell a lot of people, because I live in a city where somebody who voted for Bush is really an outcast.’
07/09/2005 09:02″

Well, I guess it’s not much of a secret anymore. He must be mistaken about the “outcast” stigma, because the Hollywood establishment is made up of cultural and political progressives. I hear they are a tolerant bunch.

From The Telegraph Online:
Two of John Wayne’s best films from the 1950s – “The High and the Mighty” and “Island in the Sky” – have been missing in action for decades… the films, directed by William Wellman (“Wings,” “A Star Is Born”) and produced through the Duke’s own company, had fallen into disrepair… Already, “High and the Mighty” ranks No. 4 on Amazon.com’s presale orders list… Originally released in 1954, “The High and the Mighty” was one of the top-grossing films of the year and was nominated for six Oscars, including best director for Wellman and supporting actress nods for Jan Sterling and Claire Trevor; it won for Dimitri Tiomkin’s memorable score. The granddaddy of disaster films, it stars the Duke as an airplane pilot who guides a crippled airliner to safety on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. John Wayne wasn’t originally scheduled to be in the picture, said the director’s son, William Wellman Jr. The role of Dan Roman was to go to Spencer Tracy, but “at the last minute he decided not to do it.” Then, “they had trouble casting the two leading women,” Wellman added. “Every major star turned them down – Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Loretta Young. So they ended up with Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, and they both got two Academy Award nominations.”

This is certainly good news, because I have never seen these films and I’m always up for a good John Wayne flick. Yes, I said a good one. The Duke has made his share of stinkers over the years, as many fine actors have. However, growing up in the 60’s, it was often in vogue to talk about Wayne as bad actor or limited in his range or ability. This criticism has become cliche´over the years and when I hear it parroted nowadays, I simply chalk it up to ignorance or socio-politiacal elitism. The fact of the matter is, John Wayne was a talented actor and he starred in some exceptional films. Some pretty notable people from the film arts were impressed with his acting abilities:

“I’ve always thought [Wayne is] underrated as an actor,” James Stewart once said. “I think The Searchers is one of the most marvelous performances of all time.”

Stewart’s sentiment has been echoed by those on the other side of the camera, as well:

Film critic and filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said of The Searchers: “How can I hate John Wayne upholding [Barry] Goldwater and yet love him tenderly when abruptly he takes Natalie Wood into his arms in the last reel of The Searchers?” This sentiment was also voiced by film students in the late sixties and seventies who began to revise their opinions of John Wayne after seeing him in John Ford’s most mythic film, one that was largely misunderstood when it was first released in 1956 and features what is possibly Wayne’s finest performance… Directors and screenwriters as varied in background and style as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Jean-Luc Goddard, and George Lucas have all been influenced and paid some form of homage to The Searchers in their work. Scorsese, perhaps the greatest filmmaker of his generation, exclaimed, “The dialogue is like poetry! And the changes of expression are so subtle, so magnificent! I see it once or twice a year”… The Searchers represents the apex of the Western genre and stands as John Ford’s most emotionally complex and sophisticated film (It was also his 115th feature film!). But it is not simply a summation of the Western themes that Ford had previously explored in his films. The Searchers is one of the first Westerns to deal in a serious and unpretentious way with racism and sexuality. As Joseph McBride wrote in his monumental Ford biography, Searching For John Ford, the director’s decision to tackle such a complicated and ambiguous film dealing with race and sex during the 1950s “was a shrewd career move, showing a willingness to make a more ‘modern’-seeming Western for an audience that wanted greater psychological realism from the genre…”Not only does [Ethan] Edwards perform the only scalping shown in the film, but Ford presents the bloody aftermath of a massacre of Indian women and children carried out by the same clean-cut cavalrymen he depicted so lovingly in films like Fort Apache.” For most viewers, however, it is John Wayne’s performance in The Searchers that is a revelation.

Oh, and one last bit of trivia from The Searchers:

John Wayne’s catchphrase in the film, “That’ll Be The Day”, inspired Buddy Holly to write his hit song of the same name.

To those serious Star Wars fans out there, please believe me when I say, I mean no disrespect and I admit up front that there are some days I just shouldn’t go see a film (like that ill fated, rainy evening I viewed The Thin Red Line, but that’s another blistering post). The problem is, I usually don’t recognize I’m in one of my “moods,” until about ten minutes into the movie and by then, it’s too late.

I’m sure the Revenge of the Sith is a fine film, but there were so many elements of the movie that I just found distracting or annoying and I couldn’t get past them. Let’s get it over with. Here’s what bugged me:

1. The first thing I noticed was this large aerial battle with about fifty million different craft and drones and space junk flying all over the place. It was just too much: an ostentatious show of what a pre-teen mind would produce if he could get his hands on the hardware at Industrial Light & Magic. This is a distraction, which would surface over and over again as the film played out.
2. That leads me to the next major distraction: since we were viewing the film long after its release, the Del Oro had moved it into one of the smaller, cheesier, side theaters. Admit it… when you go to see a Star Wars adventure, you arrive with certain expectations. The most important part of the experience will be visual special effects, then high quality sound, followed by lots of action, interesting story, then perhaps some decent characters and, finally, some fairly believable dialogue (actually, I never expect that last one, but it would be icing on the cake). Here’s the problem…the SOUND WAS DREADFUL! It was stereo, from the screen with maybe a little low end going on, but that’s it. No surround! What? Star Wars – no surround? Barbaric. I literally sat through the movie, hearing the rear speakers of the big auditorium on the other side of our screen reverberating with the state-of-the-art sound from the new Batman film. I was thinking to myself, “I wish we’d gone to see Batman instead.” Perhaps the Revenge of the Sith will be redeemed when viewed at home in Dolby surround, with volume up to 11.
3. Okay, so we’ve lost the sound… There’s still the special effects to salvage the movie. Wrong. As I mentioned, I was immediately struck by the sheer volume of “really cool” fighters and stuff flying around in the opening scenes. But, sooner or later they had to land and that would lead to another tedious nuisance. Every time they landed somewhere, droids would walk, fly or roll out to greet them or to unload things and then I noticed that they were all different. It’s like I was viewing some crazy advanced culture, where they could come up with expensive, ingenious prototypes of every kind of robot imaginable, but somehow couldn’t master the simple technologies involved in standardization or mass production. Maybe none of these droids were as successful as, say, the clones or R2D2 or the protocol droids and that’s why they were consigned to be set “extras” in a Lucas space flick. Or, the more likely explanation is that the adolescent special effects guys at IL&M couldn’t resist piling on one more magnificent droid creation.
4. Lest you think I’m off on this, check out the dizzying array of intergalactic species, who/which/what are piled into every crowd scene or greeting of the senate or whatever. The original bar scene, way back in the olden days, was an appropriate, light-hearted venue to show off the different kinds of extraterrestrials the guys on the story board or in the “special effects” department brainstormed. It was a bar, a watering hole, set to a “frontier motif.” It was great… once! We don’t need the “bar scene” trotted out multiple times in every episode. The Jedi council compounded the distraction and I found myself harboring some very intolerant and uncharitable thoughts towards the masters. Here’s one example.
5. When the guys in the Jedi council are discussing serious matters, I found myself cracking up as I scanned the “august body.” I completely lost it when the camera panned to the guy who looks like an elderly version of Beldar the Conehead from Saturday Night Live. I mean, really. He even carries himself like Dan Akroyd would, leading me to believe there’s something common to the conehead makeup or getup, that makes you walk stiffly and turn your whole body, when you have to look in another direction. And, this is the sad part. When Order 66 (or whatever it was) was issued and the normally hapless storm troopers with poor weapons skills, start effectively and methodically assassinating the Jedi masters (another story problem), I found myself anxiously anticipating Jedi Knight Beldar getting zapped and let out a muffled cheer, when he finally got whacked. For once, I found myself sympathizing with the storm troopers.
6. Speaking of Jedi gaffs and guffaws. Did anyone else find it just plain wrong to have a wise-cracking Obi-Wan Kenobi in the film? I mean, when Han Solo rolled his eyes and clowned around in the good old days, it was appropriate… he was playing a rebel, a galactic James Dean of sorts. But, Obi-Wan yucking it up with young Anakin, after crash landing half a space ship, burning from reentry, with firecraft squirting it with foam at roughly 200 MPH, taking out at least one control tower containing hundreds of expensive droids (all unique prototypes of course) and probably hundreds of computer generated beings, representing scores of species… then, to jump out of the ship cracking jokes? Perhaps the Emperor was doing the universe a favor when he dissolved the council.
7. Which leads me to Anakin’s move to the dark side. If I were tortured by the stilted, boring, pedantic lectures Anakin was subjected to by Obi-Wan and the Samuel Jackson Jedi character, I would have been driven to the dark side myself. There’s nothing worse than a robed, wisecracking, monkish Al Gore type, wagging his finger and droning moral lessons with a first grade vocabulary. My light saber would be out of its holster in a flash and I would be decapitating every one of those hooded, inter-galactic Mr. Rogers characters!
8. I was emotionally flat-lined through the entire film until the Emperor stooped to the lowest level any space scum could possible descend to. Yes, one scene brought me to life and filled me with a bit of righteous indignation. The final irritant in the movie I can only describe as Muppet abuse. When the Emperor started picking on poor Yoda, the little fella had my sympathy. I revived, leaned forward in my theater seat, brushed off the popcorn debris and my lower lip began trembling with emotion (you know, like Stimpy’s did whenever he experienced some passion). But, my indignation turned to quiet laughter as I watched the little Yoda puppet figure sail through the air, slam up against the wall, and fall limply to the floor, as I had seen so many Muppet figures tossed about on their television show, 25 years ago. You know the drill: the Chef or Beaker would blow something up and the Muppet puppeteers would throw their puppets, arms and legs flailing across the set. Yes, that was funny on the Muppet Show, but in a dramatic film? It didn’t work for me. I looked at Denise and said, “You know, Yoda needs a cane just to get around… how will he even be able to move after being catapaulted against that metal bulkhead with the full force of the Emperor?” Yet, miraculously… well, you know the rest and it’s just not believable.

Am I being a little too harsh on Mr. Lucas, the creative crew or the cast? I don’t think so. I made about a dozen wisecrack observations to Denise throughout the film and normally she would shsssssh me. During the Revenge of the Sith, she either responded in hushed verbal agreement or the matter-of-fact “Joe Friday” look.

I’d like you to meet my new mates from Australia: (l-r) Adrian the soundman, myself, Peter the producer and Malcolm the cameraman. They were sent to our home by Beyond International to film a vignette for the television program Medical Incredible on the Discovery Health Channel. Since my miraculous healing and recovery from necrotizing fasciitis, the flesh eating bacteria, I’ve been contacted a number of times by producers of similar programs, but our plans always fell through. So, I didn’t want to broadcast this adventure until it actually materialized. This post will be a work in progress… my Blogger Dashboard is not working… I can’t edit posts or BlogThis!, so I have to post and update as I have time.

It was so much fun. They shot me running over the hill to our house about five times, up and down our street a few times, and the entire length of Gethsemane St. twice! They shot me coming and going, as well as moving along beside me in the van. I got quite a workout.

There were also family shots and what more appropriate than Denise and I relaxing in our hammock?

So, what were some highlights?

• The crew flew into San Francisco and our segment was the first one they shot. They were very friendly, patient, fun and we got along very well. The moment Peter the producer came through the door, we learned that he shared our love of retro furniture and knick-knacks. In fact, they had lunch at Planet Juice and Peter crossed the street to visit one of our favorites, the Hospice Thrift Store, where he purchased a real prize: A Canonette camera.
• Camille and Sue Bauman were on hand when my interview was shot. Camille was very helpful and spent time chatting with Adrian — they really hit it off. She also took the photos of the crew filming us. One of the lights was malfunctioning so they had to fill using a large reflector, which Sue professionally handled. Peter thanked her for her work as a gaffer, but quickly added that she wouldn’t be in the credits. Shucks.
• I suppose my interview went well enough… a little over an hour and I only got choked up a few times. Peter later informed me that they shoot about 6 hours of film, in order to get about an hour they can use and, then, the editor works with it, which results in a 10 or 15 minute segment for the show.
• We planned to get some tape of me playing basketball at Gold Run School but, fortunately, the District backed out. The Glenn’s had graciously allowed us to use the court, which hosts the annual GLENNBA half court tournament. So, we packed up the gear and headed over there. It was a beautiful afternoon with Melanie, Sydney and Beau there to welcome our Australian visitors with their usual hospitality and charm. Zach signed a release to become an unpaid television star and we went to work on the court. It was really cool, because they got all kinds of shots of Zach getting “nothing but net,” which they will edit with snippets of me doing jumpshots, so I end up looking like some sort of marvel on the court. They also took a lot of closeups of Zach and I guarding one another, but focused on our legs and the ball being dribbled. Finally, we lowered the backboard so we could stuff it and they shot that, as well. It will be fun to see what makes it into the living rooms of millions… I hope this is Zach’s big break!
• Denise came home from work and they interviewed her. She was very direct and to the point… she was Denise. Then, we all gathered around the table for homemade lasagna, salad, bread, a little red wine and our new found mates regaled us with tales from down under. We had a wonderful time getting to know these wonderful blokes.
• We were all pretty exhausted, but met early the next day to shoot a reenactment at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. It was awesome! Steve, the PR man for the hospital, arranged to have an ambulance and three EMTs perform their life-saving techniques on me, as I drifted in and out of consciousness, spiraling into a coma. Trish, Tim and Steve were absolutely great! It was just as I remember it — the ambulance even smelled the same! Doctor Hunter in the ER was very accomodating and they were having a slow morning, so the folks in the ER were cheerful and seemed to enjoy the deviation. It was neat, because it was sunny and bright shooting the interviews, but the day of the reenactment was dreary and rainy, just as it was when this all took place seven years ago.
• We returned to our home, where the crew set up the living room to reenact me on the couch, uncomfortable and writhing with pain. They filmed me rubbing and looking at my right leg, which appears fairly normal, and they will reverse the film to make it look as if I’m concerned about my left leg. Pretty tricky, eh?
• At noon, they signed our family guestbook, left us a bag of Minties (excellent) and assorted Cadbury Favourites, and they were off to film other miracles of modern medicine! I have a feeling they will also be meeting a number of folks, who see a gracious and powerful God behind their survival, as my friends and I do.

Inside Move: Fanatics laying it on the line –’Star Wars’ fans stew in queue

If a movie isn’t playing at a theater, will its fans still line up outside? For “Star Wars” fans, the answer is a befuddling yes.

Former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne donned his Emperor Palpatine getup and joined 10 other diehard Star Wars fans outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater. There was just one small problem: 20th Century Fox plans to open the film at the ArcLight theater a few blocks away.

Okay, so it’s not really Ozzy, but you have to admit there’s a real resemblance. Anyway, on with the story… This simple truth did not deter the faithful wookies, droids and stormtroopers from observing their ritual outside Grauman’s . The revelation (that they had camped out at the wrong location) failed to dampen their enthusiasm and, in fact, made them even more resolute in the rightness of their position — that is, positioned in front of a theater to see a movie which will not be there! This comical situation provides some valuable insights into cultic thinking, which sometimes results when members of a committed band of devotees are confronted with information flatly contradicting their deeply held perception of reality.

As I read this article in Variety magazine, I sensed an allegory coming on. I was struck by the unique way each individual dealt with the mental discomfort experienced when confronted by “anti-Star Wars” naysayers. Beyond that, I recognized some of the same thought patterns I had followed as a cult member and still do as a Christian, when my faith is challenged! Let’s identify and label some of these faulty responses with actual quotes from the article.

Denial
“We’ve heard all this before,” said Sarah Sprague, one of the designated spokesmen for the group. In 1999 and 2002, there were plenty of rumors (ultimately false) that the previous two pics weren’t going to open at the Chinese… Fox and the ArcLight… say they expect “Revenge of the Sith” to play the ArcLight… And Sprague was adamant the line isn’t moving to the ArcLight. “This is still the epicenter for ‘Star Wars’ fans. For the big iconic pictures of the 1970s, people lining up were here. They weren’t at the Cinerama Dome.”

Cognitive dissonance, giving way to mental confusion, ending in nihilism
“Even if it’s not here, we’ll just go see it somewhere else. We’re not doing this just for the movie.”… “What’s the point of lining up at the ArcLight if someone is going to go online and get the best seat in the house?” But wouldn’t that still make more sense than spending a month outside a theater that isn’t playing the movie? “Lining up for anything, what part of that makes any sense?” she responded philosophically.

Pragmatism in the face of contradictory and incontrovertible facts
“The telling thing is — for me, at least — if the film is not playing at the Chinese … I have zero desire to see it at all,” a fan who calls himself Obi Geewhyen posted on the message board at Liningup.net. “I’m in it for the lineup only and don’t give a darn about the conclusion of this lackluster, so-called ‘Star Wars’ series.”

True believers acknowledging the problem, while overestimating their ability to manipulate fate
A media-savvy bunch, those waiting at the Chinese hope press interest in covering (and most likely mocking) them would persuade George Lucas and Fox to move the booking.

Acknowledging the obvious, yet holding on to any sliver of hope
After the last two “Star Wars” films, “We’re all a little beaten down,” she said. “But this one could be it!”

The Christian exercises faith in historical, time and space events… what Francis Schaefer calls “true truth.” If these events did not take place, then Paul tells us that we are more pitiful than the Star Wars crew out in front of Grauman’s.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1 Corinthians 15:14 - 19

If you or I shy away from uncomfortable facts or refuse to consider serious challenges to a cherished idea or worldview, there could be serious consequences. We can’t say “I didn’t know.” And, we cannot shirk our responsibility to know what we believe and why we believe it. “I was deceived” is not a valid excuse for ignorance. Jesus put it this way:

If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Matthew 15:14

Notice that both the follower and the leader end up in the same pit. You know, it really does matter what you believe and it if what you believe is “true truth.” Jesus claimed to embody truth:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. John 14:6

That’s a claim worth looking into.