Pony R. Horton, LAND BARON part 2

If you read the post from a few weeks ago, you know that I'd been hoping to acquire a 2-acre lot in the mountains near Tehachapi. It was to be sold at a Land Auction last Sunday.

Well, I GOT IT!!!!!

I think it still hasen't totally sunk in. But, I know that I'll have a lot of work ahead of me. I have to grade the land to allow a parking area and homesite. I'll have to get power going, and septic, and water. Not to mention the building permit process and costs.

But, DAMN!!!! I own a beautiful piece of land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Son... stocks may rise and fall, utilities and transportation systems may collapse, people are NO DAMN GOOD, but they will ALWAYS need land, and they will pay THROUGH THE NOSE to get it! 'Remember,' my father said, 'LAND!' "
-Lex Luthor

Mike Jittlov: The Wizard of Speed and Time (1983)

This has always been one of my favorite short films, and I'm also honored to have the acquaintanceship of the filmmaker, Mike Jittlov. This film was made 'way before we had CGI. All the tricks in this film were created either on Mike's animation stand using meticulously hand-drawn cells, or live in-camera on location. Mike's one of the few filmmakers who has successfully animated live humans on-camera, using a process that is Technically Unexplainable.
I often use the film or it's soundtrack music as a "morning pick-me-up." With it's exuberance and humor, it does the trick every time.

Pony R. Horton, LAND BARON!!!

Well, okay, so I'm not a land baron. Yet.

However, thanks to my employer, Alan, I've gotten turned-on to LandAuction.com
They have auctions for land all around the country, and they'll finance people like me... Y'know, bums with bad credit!

Anyway, there's an auction coming soon, and I'm gonna bid on a parcel of land in the hills outside of Tehachapi. It's a small lot, 2.1 acres, but it's beautiful. It's at about 6,500 feet elevation, and is in a pine and oak forest.
Here's a picture of it...







I think I could wake up here every morning. And the snow at Christmas!






And imagine this as the view from the kitchen windows over the sink....

























Anyway, the auction is in another week or so. I'm sending a prayer that I get it. Who knows?

Sorority Girls from Hell !

Sorority Girls From Hell

And I also had to add this one. In my humble opinion, one of the funniest sketches ever! Note that Lois plays not only herself and Irma, she also plays the leader of the Sorority Girls! Whatever happened to her?

Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority

I wish I had one of these! I also wish I'd been funny enough to write this commercial.
Sometimes this is EXACTLY how I'd like to handle my neighbors!

Michael Nesmith - Cruisin'

I have always loved this video. I see it as Mike's homage to the Gay community. When I was a kid, I used to hang out at Mike's house. His son Christian and I were playmates.

DDDRRAAAAAAAAAAGGG RACING!!!

I am ashamed to admit, that I participated in something last week that I NEVER, in my wildest dreams, would have considered or approved-of, had you told me a month ago that I would be doing this...

I went drag racing!

Not just as a spectator, but as a participant! It was at the LACR Dragstrip in Palmdale. It was a Friday afternoon. My old childhood buddy Mike Kurthy invited me to join him at the strip. I thought we were simply gonna watch the races. I had no idea he intended to race his own car, a cherry 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner. He did three races, averaging about 85 MPH over the 1/4-mile. I videotaped the races, and on his third go, I rode in the car (taping, of course) with him.
I don't know how to explain it. I can see how compelling this activity can be. And the mix of people was incredible. LOTS of alternative-lifestyle people were there, lotsa tatted and pierced BDSM types, lotsa old gearheads, punks, Hippies, etc. They even had a jet-powered car there.
All in all, it was a great day. And the scary thing is, now I wanna soup-up the bug and hit that track someday myself!
Whodathunkit! Pony Horton, race car driver!

On another subject... AKEELAH AND THE BEE. I went to see it again, during an early-evening performance. This time, the audience was about 2/3 full. Wide mix of singles, couples, and families. This time, the audience became very involved in the film. They laughed, cried, applauded, I could hear people spelling-out the words as Akeelah did onscreen. During the winning moment at the climax, the audience cheered and clapped, LOUDLY! During the closing credits, more applause, and many in the theater stayed to read all the names as the credits crawled.
So, if you want a truly great movie experience, leave your c-y-n-i-c-i-s-m at home, and RUN DON'T WALK to see AKEELAH AND THE BEE!

Akeelah and The Bee

I just saw a movie last night that is one of the BEST films I've ever seen.
Akeelah and The Bee.

It's a sweet, well-made, challenging, and very inspirational film about an 11-year old girl from Crenshaw Middle School in South Central L.A. who has the gift for words, and goes on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. But it's so rich beyond that facile description. At one point in the story, Akeelah's mentor, played to perfection by Lawrence Fishburn, has her read, and interpret, the following quote...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous.
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us -- it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

If you need a boost in your emotions, if your spiritual tank is getting low, see this movie. You'll be elated and ecstatic by the end.

And Now... A Word from our Future...

Please...

If you love living on this Earth, see this film...

More Political Crap...or... The Shit's finally hitting the Fan! If you're a "Christian" you won't like this post!

I've been telling people, for years now, that based upon my experiences growing up in the various denominations of "Christian" churches, that most of those who spout the evangelical garbage we're hearing more and more of are out to re-mold the world in their own images and based upon their own ideologies. I've been saying for years that these fanatics are in fact trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to the crap written in the Book of Revelations (a true hoax if ever there was one!), and most of those I told this to would react with scorn, or disbelief, thinking I was simply a ranting fool.
Well, this is one fool who backs his opinions with research and fact, as well as a healthy dose of "jaundiced eye." So, with that in mind, read this article which just ran in the L.A. Times yesterday...

'End Times' Religious Groups Want Apocalypse Soon
'End times' religious groups want apocalypse sooner than later, and they're relying on high tech -- and red heifers -- to hasten its arrival.
By Louis Sahagun, Times Staff Writer
June 22, 2006


For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it.

Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah.

For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon.

With that goal in mind, mega-church pastors recently met in Inglewood to polish strategies for using global communications and aircraft to transport missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission: to make every person on Earth aware of Jesus' message. Doing so, they believe, will bring about the end, perhaps within two decades.

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a far different vision. As mayor of Tehran in 2004, he spent millions on improvements to make the city more welcoming for the return of a Muslim messiah known as the Mahdi, according to a recent report by the American Foreign Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

To the majority of Shiites, the Mahdi was the last of the prophet Muhammad's true heirs, his 12 righteous descendants chosen by God to lead the faithful.

Ahmadinejad hopes to welcome the Mahdi to Tehran within two years.

Conversely, some Jewish groups in Jerusalem hope to clear the path for their own messiah by rebuilding a temple on a site now occupied by one of Islam's holiest shrines.

Artisans have re-created priestly robes of white linen, gem-studded breastplates, silver trumpets and solid-gold menorahs to be used in the Holy Temple — along with two 6½-ton marble cornerstones for the building's foundation.

Then there is Clyde Lott, a Mississippi revivalist preacher and cattle rancher. He is trying to raise a unique herd of red heifers to satisfy an obscure injunction in the Book of Numbers: the sacrifice of a blemish-free red heifer for purification rituals needed to pave the way for the messiah.

So far, only one of his cows has been verified by rabbis as worthy, meaning they failed to turn up even three white or black hairs on the animal's body.

Linking these efforts is a belief that modern technologies and global communications have made it possible to induce completion of God's plan within this generation.

Though there are myriad interpretations of how it will play out, the basic Christian apocalyptic countdown — as described by the Book of Revelation in the New Testament — is as follows:

Jews return to Israel after 2,000 years, the Holy Temple is rebuilt, billions of people perish during seven years of natural disasters and plagues, the antichrist arises and rules the world, the battle of Armageddon erupts in the vicinity of Israel, Jesus returns to defeat Satan's armies and preside over Judgment Day.

Generations of Christians have hoped for the Second Coming of Jesus, said UCLA historian Eugen Weber, author of the 1999 book "Apocalypses: Prophecies, Cults and Millennial Beliefs Through the Ages."

"And it's always been an ultimately bloody hope, a slaughterhouse hope," he added with a sigh. "What we have now in this global age is a vaster and bloodier-than-ever Wagnerian version. But, then, we are a very imaginative race."

Apocalyptic movements are nothing new; even Christopher Columbus hoped to assist in the Great Commission by evangelizing New World inhabitants.

Some religious scholars saw apocalyptic fever rise as the year 2000 approached, and they expected it to subside after the millennium arrived without a hitch.

It didn't. According to various polls, an estimated 40% of Americans believe that a sequence of events presaging the end times is already underway. Among the believers are pastors of some of the largest evangelical churches in America, who converged at Faith Central Bible Church in Inglewood in February to finalize plans to start 5 million new churches worldwide in 10 years.

"Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to go to the ends of the Earth and tell everyone how they could achieve eternal life," said James Davis, president of the Global Pastors Network's "Billion Souls Initiative," one of an estimated 2,000 initiatives worldwide designed to boost the Christian population.

"As we advance around the world," Davis said, "we'll be shortening the time needed to fulfill that Great Commission. Then, the Bible says, the end will come."

An opposing vision, invoked by Ahmadinejad in an address before the United Nations last year, suggests that the Imam Mahdi, a 9th century figure, will soon emerge from a well to conquer the world and convert everyone to Islam.

"O mighty Lord," he said, "I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."

At the appropriate time, according to Shiite tradition, the Mahdi will reappear and, along with Jesus, lead Muslims in a struggle to rid the world of corruption and establish justice.

For Christians, the future of Israel is the key to any end-times scenario, and various groups are reaching out to Jews — or proselytizing among them — to advance the Second Coming.

A growing number of fundamentalist Christians in mostly Southern states are adopting Jewish religious practices to align themselves with prophecies saying that Gentiles will stand as one with Jews when the end is near.

Evangelist John C. Hagee of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio has helped 12,000 Russian Jews move to Israel, and donated several million dollars to Israeli hospitals and orphanages.

"We are the generation that will probably see the rapture of the church," Hagee said, referring to a moment in advance of Jesus' return when the world's true believers will be airlifted into heaven.

"In Christian theology, the first thing that happens when Christ returns to Earth is the judgment of nations," said Hagee, who wears a Jewish prayer shawl when he ministers. "It will have one criterion: How did you treat the Jewish people? Anyone who understands that will want to be on the right side of that question. Those who are anti-Semitic will go to eternal damnation."

On July 18, Hagee plans to lead a contingent of high-profile evangelists to Washington to make their concerns about Israel's security known to congressional leaders. More than 1,200 evangelists are expected for the gathering.

"Twenty-five years ago, I called a meeting of evangelists to discuss such an effort, and the conversation didn't last an hour," he said. "This time, I called and they all came and stayed. And when the meeting was over, they all agreed to speak up for Israel."

Underlining the sense of urgency is a belief that the end-times clock started ticking May 15, 1948, when the United Nations formally recognized Israel.

"I'll never forget that night," Hagee said. "I was 8 years old at the time and in the kitchen with my father listening to the news about Israel's rebirth on the radio. He said, 'Son, this is the most important day in the 20th century.' "

Hagee's message is carried on 160 television stations and 50 radio stations and can be seen in Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and most Third World nations.

By contrast, Bill McCartney, a former University of Colorado football coach and co-founder of the evangelical Promise Keepers movement for men, which became huge in the 1990s, has had a devil of a time getting his own apocalyptic campaign off the ground.

It's called The Road to Jerusalem, and its mission is to convert Jews to Christianity — while there is still time.

"Our whole purpose is to hasten the end times," he said. "The Bible says Jews will be brought to jealousy when they see Christians and Jewish believers together as one — they'll want to be a part of that. That's going to signal Jesus' return."

Jews and others who don't accept Jesus, he added matter-of-factly, "are toast."

McCartney, who only a decade ago sermonized to stadium-size crowds of Promise Keepers, said finding people to back his sputtering cause has been "like plowing cement."

Given end-times scenarios saying that non-believers will die before Jesus returns — and that the antichrist will rule from Jerusalem's rebuilt Holy Temple — Jews have mixed feelings about the outpouring of support Israel has been getting from evangelical organizations.

"I truly believe John Hagee is at once a daring, beautiful person — and quite dangerous," said Orthodox Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, vice president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York.

"I sincerely recognize him as a hero for bringing planeloads of people to Israel at a time when people there were getting blown up by the busloads," Hirschfield said. "But he also believes that the only path to the father is through Jesus. That leaves me out."

Meanwhile, in what has become a spectacular annual routine, Jews — hoping to rebuild the Holy Temple destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 — attempt to haul the 6 1/2 -ton cornerstones by truck up to the Temple Mount, the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock shrine. Each year, they are turned back by police.

Among those turned away is Gershon Solomon, spokesman for Jerusalem's Temple Institute. When the temple is built, he said, "Islam is over."

"I'm grateful for all the wonderful Christian angels wanting to help us," Solomon added, acknowledging the political support from "Christians who are now Israel's best lobbyists in the United States."

However, when asked to comment on the fate of non-Christians upon the Second Coming of Jesus, he said, "That's a very embarrassing question. What can I tell you? That's a very terrible Christian idea.

"What kind of religion is it that expects another religion will be destroyed?"

But are all of these efforts to hasten the end of the world a bit like, well, playing God?

Some Christians, such as Roman Catholics and some Protestant denominations, believe in the Second Coming but don't try to advance it. It's important to be ready for the Second Coming, they say, though its timetable cannot be manipulated.

Hirschfield said he prays every day for the coming of the Jewish messiah, but he too believes that God can't be hurried.

"For me," he said, "the messiah is like the mechanical bunny at a racetrack: It always stays a little ahead of the runners but keeps the pace toward a redeemed world.

"Trouble is, there are many people who want to bring a messiah who looks just like them. For me, that kind of messianism is spiritual narcissism."

But some Christian leaders say they aren't playing God; they're just carrying out his will.

Ted Haggard, president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, says the commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission has naturally intensified along with the technological advances God provided to carry out his plans.

Over in Mississippi, Lott believes that he is doing God's work, and that is why he wants to raise a few head of red heifers for Jewish high priests. Citing Scripture, Lott and others say a pure red heifer must be sacrificed and burned and its ashes used in purification rituals to allow Jews to rebuild the temple.

But Lott's plans have been sidetracked.

Facing a maze of red tape and testing involved in shipping animals overseas — and rumors of threats from Arabs and Jews alike who say the cows would only bring more trouble to the Middle East — he has given up on plans to fly planeloads of cows to Israel. For now.

In the meantime, some local ranchers have expressed an interest in raising their own red heifers for Israel, and fears of hoof-and-mouth disease and blue tongue forced Lott to relocate his only verified red heifer — a female born in 1993 — to Nebraska.

Cloning is out of the question, he said, because the technique "is not approved by the rabbinical council of Israel." Artificial insemination has so far failed to produce another heifer certified by rabbis.

"Something deep in my heart says God wants me to be a blessing to Israel," Lott said in a telephone interview. "But it's complicated. We're just not ready to send any red heifers over there."

If not now, when?

"If there's a sovereign God with his hand in the affairs of men, it'll happen, and it'll be a pivotal event," he said. "That time is soon. Very soon."


I am an American first and foremost. As an American, I believe one of my jobs is to defend this country against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic.
As far as I'm concerned, these people are ENEMIES DOMESTIC. They don't care about The Constitution, and with their attempts to enact "faith-based" legislations and alterations to The Constitution and other legal structures, they are the very thing our Founding Fathers were trying to prevent. If the ancient Christians were going around Rome and proselytising the way modern Christians are now, I can understand why they were thrown to lions, or tied-up and set afire for use as human streetlights. NO ONE has the right to change other people's spiritual beliefs, or EVEN SUGGEST that there's an alternative.
And now, these brain-dead, head-in-the-sand religious morons are now trying to do nothing less than END THE WORLD! And they're trying to force us to go down with them!!!!!
Considering the hateful way they're treating Gays and Lesbians, trying to prevent us from marrying, trying to force discrimination in our jobs and even our homes, while at the same time being so proud of the fact that THEY think it's good to breed like crazy, and poop-out more damn kids into a world that's so overpopulated that we're very close to a complete global meltdown, the way they feel they can picket the funerals of those who've died of AIDS and our Gay Pride fests, I think it's about time that Gays and Lesbians start picketing, protesting, and shutting-down these people's churches, violently if need be.

To those of you who read this and consider yourself "Christian" I advise you to open your brain and back away from this so-called religion. It's a 1,500-year old HOAX! God DOES NOT approve of this so-called "Christainity," and these "Christians" definately DO NOT represent God's will. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that God is REALLY PISSED about what they're doing to the planet under W as well as to the rest of us who are simply trying to get along. You want God's word? Well, here it is!
ALL OF YOU WHO ARE DOING NOTHING ABOUT THESE ZEALOTS, GET OFF YOUR FUCKING ASSES AND START ACTING LIKE THE AMERICANS YOU CLAIM TO BE! FIGHT THESE EVIL PEOPLE EVERY WAY YOU CAN!!
AND TO YOU "CHRISTIANS," STOP PERVERTING WHAT JESUS WAS REALLY HERE FOR; STOP TRYING TO DESTROY THIS PLANET, LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE TO PRACTICE THEIR OWN LIFEWAYS, AND STOP THINKING YOU SPEAK FOR ME!!!!!
YOU'VE GONE TOO DAMN FAR, YOU STUPID, PIOUS IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Apathy problem

Forgive me for going on a political jag over the last couple of posts, but right now I feel the need to use this forum in a manner that goes beyond mere "log entries."

I've spoken about the members of this society who are going through life with blinders on. I have often wondered if somehow this world has skewed into a timeline that we don't want to be on. Where did it start? Was it with the assasination of JFK? Was it the elections of Nixon or Bush?
Things are happening in this American society right now, very bad things, in terms of our rights as Americans, as guaranteed in The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. We are seeing decades of civil-rights protections being eroded away in just the last 10 years, mostly under Republican, nee, BUSH, governance. His government is spying on Americans with no legal justification or permission. More Americans are being arrested on any number of charges, and not given any rights to presumption of innocence or basic privacy.
I also see more and more individuals in the daily course of my life committing acts that are stupid, unthinking, WRONG-thinking, and sometimes downright dangerous. Not to mention apathetic.

Today I came across an Op-Ed piece that addressed the idea of "The American Trance." I have often wondered at how deep the apathy and stupidity I'm seeing in this country goes. This story helps explore those depths.

It was written by Leslie Brundige as a diary entry for The Populist Party. Here it is...

In order to understand why this trance persists, we have to look at a couple of issues.

Do you want to be entertained, or informed? Do you prefer C-Span or "American Idol"? Did you VOTE for a contestant on "American Idol"?

Do you feel a disconnect between what you believe to be true, and what you're told is true? If so, you're in the netherland between mainstream media and the truth.

Not everyone feels this disconnect, the majority of Americans simply don't want to know. These are the ones who vote for "American Idol", and ferverently pray for their favorites. As though it matters. Many people I know simply do not want to feel the outrage. They don't want to live their lives that way; simpler to go to work, take care of what's important to them, and assume everything will work itself out. This is America, what could go wrong?

It isn't a matter of intelligence or education. It often is a matter of political party, but I'll discuss that later. Smart people don't necessarily feel a need to speak truth to power, research the source of the facts they're presented with, or even catch the discrepencies that cause some of us to experience cognitive dissonance. For whatever reasons, their life experiences have led them to a place where going along to get along is normal. Why experience turmoil if you don't have to?

Here's the danger: The top half of one percent, the corporate elite, are counting on this apathy. How else to explain the first order of business for the Bush administration after his theft of the White House? The estate tax, cutting the uber rich's taxes to virtually nothing. We, the people these parasites live off of, are being raped in ways that only they and their financial managers can imagine. Obscure rules wrapped in benign sounding laws have a profound affect on us.

Perhaps the people in the trance are the sensible ones. Why make yourself crazy about something you can't change? They're right, we can't change it unless we identify it. We live in a capitalistic society, greed is admired and envied. This is America. Maybe someday you'll be that rich, and get all those benefits.

The people who control us are the people who pay for our "representatives" to get elected. Why else would the burning issues be how much of our tax money we should give to Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Whatever? Our "representatives" are representing their corporate donors. If they were representing us, they would be discussing our quality of life issues, like affordable health care, the homelessness that sprang to life under the Reagan administration (and we've come to accept as normal), why both parents have to work to maintain a household, what's happening to children raised by strangers or raising themselves. If they represented us they wouldn't have allowed usury, while making it more difficult to file for bankruptcy and make a fresh start. Can debtor's prisons be far behind? Do you see the pattern here? No health insurance, or only "catastrophic" coverage. Get hurt on the job or anywhere, miss a few weeks of paychecks, use credit cards for living expenses, or to keep your car on the road, interest rates on your cards go up, you owe medical bills that realistically you couldn't pay off in five lifetimes. . .

But in the Capitol they're milling around, discussing bills and laws that by and large are only remotely connected to our lives. George Bush is not stupid, he's clever, manipulative and cruel. And he belongs to the donor class, which donates to both parties, albeit more to the Republicans. This is the class that uses all of the infrastructure that this country has to offer, it's freedom, what used to be clean air and water, the integrity that was the U.S.A. Bush is giving them our national parks to mine their resources, allowing them to pollute OUR air and water, while contributing nothing except campaign money.

It always comes down to this: we can no longer allow our government to be funded by and at the bidding of these self-centered, out-of-touch parasites. Their great-great grandfather may have invented Gillette razors, or paper clips, whatever their fortune is based on it most certainly was not taxed. We must have public financing of elections, or not bother to vote at all. We must re-instate the equal time provision, that mandated both sides (all sides?) be aired on television. Reagan decided that cable television obviated the need for equal time.

When we continually hear that Hillary Clinton will absolutely win if she runs, because she has more money in her campaign fund than anyone else, we shouldn't feel a little unease. We should be outraged. When money trumps the issues that matter, when money is no longer tacitly accepted but overtly required as the measure of a candidate's potential success, we're not even close to being a democracy anymore.

Let's keep it simple. To break the trance, repeat the mantra "Public Financing of Campaigns". Campaign Finance Reform, as a phrase puts people to sleep. Putting limits on what can be spent, time limits on the campaign itself, and neutralizing the invisible bloodsuckers isn't as complicated as they would have us believe.

They need us, we don't need them.


Written by Leslie Brundige, (Send Her Email) who is a researcher and contributing writer at www.populistamerica.com



Here is another excellent piece, a series of quotes by various historic figures of note, that seems very relevant today...

Now is the Time to Stand Up for America


by Mick Youther


http://www.opednews.com

There is a celebrated quotation about the fate of civilizations:

• “The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”

The origin of this quotation is not known. It has been attributed to various sources, and may even be a combination of two separate quotations from difference sources. In spite of its dubious origin, it has been quoted by Ronald Reagan (3/5/64), Senator Strom Thurmond (1/9/65), P.J. O'Rourke in his 1991 book, Parliament of Whores, and many others. Whatever its source, the quotation now serves as a warning of the pitfalls that may befall any civilization.

The Founding Fathers had foreseen and warned of these dangers long ago:

• “A lady asked Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin, ‘Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy’ — ‘A republic,’ replied the Doctor, ‘if you can keep it.’” --from Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

• “Hold on my friends to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” --Daniel Webster

• “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever” -- John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, 1775

• “Yes we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path to destruction.” --Thomas Jefferson

Now, two hundred and thirty years later, the Founding Father’s worst fears are coming true; and how have the American people responded? A character, Alan Shore, on the ABC television show, Boston Legal (3/14/06) described it perfectly:

• “When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.

Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.

Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.

And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't. In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.

…The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest. …At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.

…And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled unAmerican.”

It is sad that I need to quote an imaginary character from a television show, but our representatives in the Republican-controlled Congress do not say such things. We have no Thomas Jefferson or James Madison to speak for us. Our representatives are busy considering Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage and flag burning--never mind the war, never mind the spying, never mind the Constitution. Our representatives do not have time to worry about such trivial things. They are too busy doing what they are paid to do by the corporations which now control our government and an ever-increasing part of our lives. It is up to us to do something.

• “The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.” --Albert Einstein (1875-1955)

• “We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts - not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution.” --Abraham Lincoln

We, as American citizens, should not be sitting around, waiting to see what the government is going to do to us next. We are the government, and it is time to remind our representatives in Congress of that fact. James Madison (Father of the Constitution) made that clear:

• “[A]ll power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution.”

• “The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much ...to forget it.”

The big question now is have we waited too long. Is it already too late? Have our elections become so corrupt that it doesn’t even matter if we vote or not? I don’t think so--not yet; but our time to act is running out. Right now, patriotic Americans are fighting to save the American Dream, but they cannot do it without our help.

• “One of the illusions [of life] is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” --Howard Zinn

• “If you join the battle, not in your hundreds of thousands, but in your millions, you will be greeted joyously by the rest of the world. And you will see how beautiful it is to be gentle instead of brutal, safe instead of scared. Befriended instead of isolated. Loved instead of hated….Yours is by no means a great nation. But you could be a great people. History is giving you the chance. Seize the time.” --Arundhati Roy, 5/13/03



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Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a Christian, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been aroused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.

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Happy Birthday (WARNING! Politically incorrect rants and raves! Rated-R for language)

Well, today I turned 48.Last night I took myself out to Stuart Anderson's Black Angus, and treated myself to a steak dinner. They threw in some chocolate cake for free.Anyway, the rants referred-to in the title of this blog are about what happened last night and today.Early last night, I go into the ARCO on Ave. I, and the guy behind the counter makes his interest in me quite obvious from the moment he sees me. Cute, hot young (30) Black boi. He slips me his number, we start talking, and we discuss the idea of a date the next morning (today). He seems very intelligent, extremely articulate, and very direct and affectionate. Not like so many of the Gen X'ers I see today who are pretty inarticulate, not to mention inconsiderate.Well, I call him this AM about 9:15 or so, and he says to come on down to his place in Palmdale. I get there, and he comes out, hugs me, and tells me he has to run to WalMart for some Pampers for his niece, and he'll be right back. (WalMart is about 6 blocks away)Well, 2 hours later I'm still sitting there, like a fucking fool.All I can figure is that either he's 1) a tweaker (he said he didn't do drugs), 2) a horrible accident could've happened to them between here and WalMart and he's not able to call to let me know he's gonna be late, or 3) he's an inconsiderate jerk who lives on what some of my "friends of flava" call CPT - Colored People's Time. He knows it's my birthday; it's 98 degrees out (I checked my thermometer), and he's off for two hours as a prelude to our first date!Well, at the stroke of the second hour, I wrote a terse note to him, stuck it on his front door, and left.In the note, I told him it was "damned inconsiderate" and that he missed-out on what could've been a good thing.
I really have to wonder about some people... sadly, many people. So many of them show an alarming lack of what I call "tactical awareness" or "leadership skills." They seem to just blunder their way through life, overworking their guardian angels and creating massive headaches for the rest of us.And it's time you know who you are!
You're the boor who gets in a checkout line with a cart filled to bursting with items, and behind you is a person with one item, and you just look at them and stand there in line, rather than letting them go ahead with their one item.You're the asshole who sees me put on my turn signal on the freeway prior to changing lanes, and races up from behind so I won't "get in front of them."You're the idiot who makes a right turn off of a main street from the middle of the lane, instead of pulling over to the right side of the lane like you're supposed to, and making all of us behind you slam on our brakes to avoid rear-ending you!You're to creep who takes a shit in a public restroom toilet, then leaves it there without flushing, for the next person to have to look at.You're the fucking breeder who throws her kids' soiled Pampers into the flowers of the nicely manicured gardens at the California Museum of Science and Industry, rather than using a trash can not 20 feet away!!!You are the whole bunch of FUCKERS who drive cars that are boomboxes on wheels and are so loud you can FEEL them 200 yards away. Where do you get off with that kind of selfish, inconsiderate noise pollution!!?You are, especially, the assholes who drive around with "BUSH / CHENEY '04" stickers on their cars. The Supreme Court has just stripped our rights to privacy in our own homes, we are paying an oilman from Texas to take huge profits from gasoline sales while he sends our soldiers over to be killed in a fake war, and then uses his religion to tell the rest of us what we can and cannot do in our private lives. And you people have the sheer, unmitigated stupidity to wave a banner for these robber-barons? GOD DAMN!!!
Anyway...
Sorry. Just had to get that off my chest.
Thanks Mark for the Birthday call and song, and thanks Shari for the shoulder, and the flowers. Shari, a woman I met through MySpace.com, sent me a bouquet of flowers for my birthday! Nobody's ever sent me flowers before, and I was really thrilled.

I want EVERYONE to read this! Liberty may depend on it!

Here's an Op-Ed piece I found when surfing this AM, looking around for opinions about the Supreme Court ruling that gives police the power to enter your home without announcing their identity or purpose.

This means that they can barge into your home if you are a "suspect" of some crime or other, without knocking on the door or announcing themselves verbally.

This development on the part of the nation's highest court has me, along with many others, very alarmed about the state of affairs in the good 'ol US of A.

Anyhow, read this article, and if it alarms you, do something! And hit me back in the comments section, I'm interested in your views on this.

The Eternal Value of Privacy
By Bruce Schneier

The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"
Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.
Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time.
Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.
We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.
A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It's intrinsic to the concept of liberty.
For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered.
This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
- - -
Bruce Schneier is the CTO of Counterpane Internet Security and the author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. You can contact him through his website.

Porn Star

Well,
Having made the plunge into professional adult video production, as an editor, I have, like so many in the adult industry, assumed a (GASP) psuedonym. A stage name. A nom de cinema (I like that last one.).

My pornstar name is....
Frank J. Silva, Harbormaster

As you can see below...


This credit appears on the end of Sex In Paradise II, a rather steamy video shot in Brazil. And there are definately some BAAA babes and BAAA boys on screen.

Now, how did I come up with that name? Well, they say that your porn name should be a combination of your first pet's name, and the name of the street you lived on as a kid. If that's so, then my porn name would be Kyta DeGarmo.

I don't think so.

In the movie JAWS, Spielberg put a few real Martha's Vineyard locals in scenes, including the local harbormaster, Frank Silva. He comes out of the office onto the dock during a scene of total mayhem, walks stiffly toward CAMERA smoking a pipe; stops with this silly, self-conscious grin on his face; turns to his left and just as stiffly as he approached, leaves FRAME. Well, my buddy Randy and I just love to see Frank every time we watch JAWS. For us it's one of the highlights of the movie. How I came to put the "J" in there is beyond me, but somehow in our minds, he'll always be famous as...

Frank J. Silva, Harbormaster!

Continued refurbishment of the Bug

Turns out, the DMV classifies my '72 Super Beetle as an antique. Wow.
Well, put in the replacement generator (myself), and it seems OK. Had new tie rods installed in the steering, and I myself replaced the old rear shocks with some nice coilover shocks.
My God, what a difference. Got the car up to 70 MPH the other day with nary a rattle or shake. 'Course, high winds tend to push the poor thing all over the road. Looks like the next thing will be wide tires, especially on the rear. Oh yeah, and probably a new clutch.
Damn!

Damn Bug; Gay Marriage; and other problems

Well,

I was driving home (as it were) the other night when my Bug's generator blew. Had to limp home on battery power. Got a new (reconditioned) generator at Auto Zone in Quartz Hill. Took three days to replace, having never done that operation before.
Got the car running. Get on the 14 Freeway. Go 2 miles and smell something burning, like paper or cardboard. Pull off and look under the hood to see smoke coming out of the new (reconditioned) generator. The bearing, apparently, went. POW. Need another new (reconditioned) generator.

Dammit!

Well, the Republicans are again using the Gay Marriage "controversy" to try to get more votes from the fanatic religious "conservatives." Many pundits say it has little chance of passing in the House. That's all fine and all, but we're aslso hearing, from many Gay, and "liberal" quarters to simply ignore it and it'll go away; that Bush doesn't "really give a shit" about it as one anonymous friend to a journalist; That we must never allow any Gay Marriage measures up for debate; or even "it's nobody's business if my partner and I love each other and are married or not."
Well, folks, seems to me that THAT is just the kind of thinking, and non-acting, that allows fascism and totalitarianism to take-hold. If we just ignore them, they'll be able to commit heinous acts of "legislation" right under our noses!

By the time we wake up to what's going on in our society, it'll already be too late.
By now, this is not about Gay Marriage for me as the only motivation to act. It's about personal freedoms of all kinds. Remember, bad things happen when good men do nothing.
'Course, they also say "history repeats itself."

A BUG owner once again!!!

Well, after having been Bug-less since 1985 or so, I now have in my greedy little grasp, ANOTHER BUG!!!

She's a cute little '72 Beetle with a 4-speed stick that had been sitting neglected in a field in Palmdale for about 5 years. My mechanic sold her to me for $500, and almost any Bug in running condition is worth 'WAY more than that!

I basically stole her.

Took her on her first real shakedown cruise "down below" (us AV'ers term for the L.A. side of the San Gabriel Mountains) with the operative word being "shake." And smoke. I gave her a complete flush and oil change yesterday, only Castrol GTX for my Bug. Got new Bosch plugs, too, but haven't put 'em in yet. Will be treating her to a front-end alignment and new shocks soon, too. But, she made it there and back!

Soon, she will be an official Starfleet shuttlecraft attached to my own starship, the U.S.S. Don Diego NCC-1840, designated #7, the El Zorro.

Here are before and after pix. She doesn't look like "after" yet, but isn't Photoshop a wonderful thing?

Renewing old friendships

A few months ago, I joined a site called Classmates.com, for the sole purpose of reconnecting with a dear old friend with whom I'd lost contact, Steve J.

It worked! Took about three months for a response, but Steve put an email in my inbox on the site yesterday! Man, am I jazzed! Steve and I were very close friends from Toll Jr. High and Hoover High, in Glendale, back in the early '70's up to our young adult years around 1980 or so. He got married, moved to West L.A., and we lost touch.
He sounded really happy to hear from me, and I feel likewise. Steve and I used to have a traditional pastime which we called the "Late Evening Sojourn." We would load our pipes, and around 10:00 PM we would start walking, from his house on Thompson Av in Glendale, cover about 3 miles eastward along Glenoaks Bl. until we hit either Kenilworth Av. or Pacific Av. We would then turn left, and head into the ritzy areas in the hills above Hoover High. Sometimes we would cut through the athletic field, reminiscing about our days as students there. Eventually we'd end up at Brand Park, and make our way back down to Glenoaks via Winchester Av, and conclude the walk. Our total mileage was somewhere around 6-8 miles. During these walks, we would discuss everything under the sun, and solve all the world's problems.

We would always hit the 7-Eleven on Glenoaks and Concord, about a third of the way into the walk, and always get the same things: Romona burritos, Beef & Bean or Bean & Cheese, with mustard on top, and a Coke.

God, I miss those nights. I still get nostalgic at the aroma of Balkan Sobranie, Dunhill Elizabethan, or Captain Black Gold tobaccos.

Steve if you read this, here's to more sojourns in our future. The world needs our problem solving now more than ever!

Aloha!

WARNING! This post contains sexual journalism!

Wind-powered energy farms along the Tehachapi Mountains. They cover many square miles of land.


Today I was at the AM/PM in Lancaster with my business partner, Ed. We were gassing-up the van for a trip around the AV to do some stock photography, when this pretty young Black woman came up and panhandled me. As I turned around to look at her, she exclaimed, "Pony?!"
I'm thinking, "When did I ever meet such a hottie as this, that she knows my name?"
It turns out that she was a woman I had had a relationship with about 16 months ago. She looked a bit different, thinner, kind of dejected. I wasn't sure, and I asked, "I'm sorry, but I've forgotten your name...?" The truth was, I didn't recognize her at all. We'd only actually seen each other and had sex once, those many months ago.
"I'm Shay! Remember?"
"Oh, my God!! Shay? Of course I remember you! Where have you been?" I was shocked. Not that she looked THAT much different, but that she was on the streets and kind-of looked it. Not dirty, just down-and-out. I, too, know the feeling, as I'm homeless right now, too. But at least I have my motor home, and my office space. Honestly, I was heartbroken. It was all I could do not to start crying right then and there. I had started developing strong feelings for Shay, to the point of telling her I loved her. She definately could make wyld baby zeebras kick. She knew I was Gay, and POZ, and she was OK wid it. So she likes sex with fag boiz, no problem for me. But after our first, and so far only time, she drops off the face of the Earth. Eventually I put her into the scrapbook of pleasant, yearning memories and closed the book. Now, here's my sweet-pussied little Shay, asking me for money. She'd had 19 months' sobriety, and slipped off the Wagon. God, with all my problems, at least I don't have alcoholism to deal with.
So, I gave her my number, held her in my arms for a while, and told her how much I missed her. I could see the destroyed self-esteem she's lugging around. Lord, please take her in your hand, she needs You right now.

On to better things, Ed and I braved snow, sleet, and high winds to get some really cool images today, including discovering an old mine shaft complete with ore car rails on the floor!







This is the headframe adjacent to the mine shaft we explored.


















And here's the interior of the shaft, only a few yards in.


















And here we are looking back toward the entrance.








Allow me to say right here, that unless you are an experienced caver or mine explorer, it is best if you STAY OUT of such places. You can easily be killed by methane gas, which is highly explosive and can be detonated by something as simple as a flashlight or a strobe unit. You can also accidentally fall down unmarked vertical shafts which have been covered by plywood. And there's the possibility of cave-ins. If you get injured in such a way, there will almost never be anyone to find you. And we haven't even touched on hibernating bears, rattlesnakes, ghosts or monsters. So, STAY SAFE BY STAYING OUT! We met a nice old-timer there, named Jane, who told us a bit about the mines where the shaft was. We'll remember to visit her again.


We also shot lots of stuff of the big wind turbines near Tehachapi.




Wind turbines near Tehachapi.



These turbines generate electricity for various power companies, such as Edison, as an alternative to fossil fuels. And yet, many of the locals object to them in the belief that they are a blight on the spectacular scenery of the area. The areas around Mojave, and the east side of Tehachapi Pass, are always very windy, and this is one of the best places for such turbines. I can remember clearly when there were no turbines, and the view was unspoiled. The environmentalist in me is divided: part of me appreciates the fact that we are harnessing a free, non-polluting energy source. The other part of me agrees that they are, in short, ugly. The view for many miles is marred by those wind turbines. Personally, I still want to see nuclear FUSION (not fission, as is currently used) developed, but as long as the current power interests are in place, that's not gonna happen. Development of fusion will eventually mean most homes and businesses could go "off the grid," and be totally self-contained, and the power and oil companies don't want that.







To give you some idea as to how big these things can be, this one is about a mile away, and on the other side on a mountain!















Many people who live in the area object to the turbines, and want further development of them STOPPED. What do you think? Post a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.






As to m2m sex, I answered an ad recently in one of the Gay websites, and the guy and I hooked-up. Oh, shit! It was an old boyfriend of mine from about 4 years ago! I had dumped him (at least I told him the truth of why and did it, in person, when I dumped him) those years ago after about three months of seeing each other. Flash forward to now, and it was a little awkward for about 1 minute, then we kind-of jumped into each other's arms again. He then took me up to his bedroom, and raped me. Of course, I like it when he rapes me. He knows just the right balance of love, force, kink, and fuck. God it was nice. Not that I'd want to be his steady, but I sure like being his sexbitch.

Later.

Moronic forces of evil strike!

It happened Sunday night. The L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. towed my car away, claiming that someone had reported it abandoned, and since the tags were not up to date, they took my only shelter with not so much as a "We're sorry."
I was able to get a few important things out of it before they hauled it off, but not everything. They kept rushing me, and threatening to drive off RIGHT NOW if I didn't hurry.
Goddamn, mother fucking Bush-loving, Sheriff Pigs!! They're a bunch of shit-headed bullies!

Now I don't have anyplace to stay. Oh, yeah; my current motor home cannot be registered because it may have been stolen! So, unless a deal with Mark works out, I and my pets are screwed.

Mark may have a motor home for me in trade for having me paint a mural on the side of the hat shop. It needs electrical work done on the engine, and registration, but at least the legal stuff will be easier to handle with this one as Mark's family are the actual owners.

Finally Finished!

The Baron's spot is titled,

BARON OF THE GREAT FEDORA





























This is, obviously, the DVD front cover.

Here's the backside...










































Despite a few visual effects issues and minor audio flaws, it came out pretty good.

The Baron's spot

The Tarantula and my hand.









Well, I've been editing this 11-minute spot for Baron's for about two weeks, now. It's coming along, just taking longer and costing more than we anticipated. It was also a real
bitch to shoot because I was suffering from some kind of illness due to taking Cipro. Hiking miles back into mountain canyons is no fun when you've got nausea, the trots, and are feeling less than 100%.

In any event, we got most of it shot, and had to do some pick-up's at Ed's house. It's looking pretty good, too. Still needs some major work, but coming together.

Here are some production stills pulled directly from my editing system. If the pointed mountain with me passing in front of it looks familiar, that's because it's the same mountain seen in the opening shot of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. It's called Anahola, and is on the island of Kauai, and is very well known. You can see it right from the road just outside Lihue. I've been there, but that was many years ago. This shot of me with the mountain is a composite. Still, we did it to pay homage to the Legend...

Wrangling Tarantulas!

Well, we shot most of the infomercial for Baron Hats over the last two days. The most cool part of the whole thing was getting to handle the tarantula. There's a scene where I bring the ruined, crushed fedora to Baron's for repair, and after I set the hat on the glass counter, a tarantula crawls out from underneath the hat and over my hand!

We rented a big, soft, furry brown tarantula from Peggy Woods Pet Emporium in Burbank. This spider was calm, easy to work with, docile, and even seemed to show some personality. She also became tired after numerous takes, and would tend to hunker down rather than walk after a while. But, all in all, she responded well, and became accustomed to me picking her up repeatedly. Mark was afraid to touch her, but Ed, Ray, and I had no problem with her.

Now the greenscreen shooting, and editing begins.

Brokeback Mountain

Well, I finally went to see Brokeback Mountain. To be honest, it wasn't nearly as emotionally powerful as I expected.
I honestly felt very little sympathy for the charcters. Of course it was well-made. Some folks have complained that the pacing was too slow, but I thought it was appropriate for that type and style of film.
To me, it just seemed that the story was, even for an American audience, 35 years out-of-date.
Maybe it's that I also have little sympathy for those who would indulge their homosexuality while refusing to stand up and be honest about it.
These guys had a thing when they first met. Then they get married to women, but they keep seeing each other every few years. Jack's character is open about it; Ennis can't handle it. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Honestly, even VICTOR/VICTORIA was more relaxed about being Gay than this film. We've had popular Gay-themed shows, or Gay characters on TV for years now. It's about time we saw them in decent relationships. Brokeback Mountian showed that, even if you're sure no one knows, someone always knows, and you'll have a tragic, homophobic end to your life. So, you might as well stand up, fight back, and have the balls to live your life the way you want. The Gay Liberation Movement; Gay Pride Month; National Coming Out Day; all of these things that we fought (and still fight) so hard for have, nonetheless, been a part of this society for over 35 years. It's about time we started reaping what we've sown.

It's about time THE FRONT RUNNER got made. That's the kind of Gay love story that broke down many of the barriers we had to face in the last century. Brokeback Mountain is timid by comparison.

Operating at only 70%

Well, I had to go to the hospital twice in the last week. The first time was to be given an antibiotic for a possible infection. The antibiotic they gave me is called Cipro.
I had to go back to the hospital day before yesterday because of the toxic side effects. The doctor, a pleasant Orthodox Jew, was very nice and easy to talk to. The only problem I had with him (and of course I never voiced this) was that, at about 5' 5" tall, this guy weighs at least 400 lbs! I mean, he was MORBIDLY obese.

Sorry for being an "ist" (ageist, racist, weight-ist, whatever) but I have a hard time taking seriously any advice on healthful living from a guy who looks like he'd need to be buried in a piano case.
When it came time for him to ask why I wasn't on AIDS meds yet, I explained my hesitancy, owing to the fact that many of the drug companies are still using us as guinea pigs, and honestly have no clue as to how to deal with this disease. The whole reason you're given a two-, three-, or four-drug "cocktail" is that the main drug you take is HIGHLY POISONOUS. The other drugs are to deal with the debilitating side effects.
So, of course this guy takes the standard AMA partyline bullshit, about how "Yeah, I suppose alternative medicine has it's place, but not in treating AIDS. Now is not the time for you to experiment."
He tells me that my nausea is because this antibiotic has stripped all the beneficial flora from my system, so pretty-much anything I eat is going to act like untreated well-water from The Congo. He suggests that i try some Acidophylous milk. I do, and it seems OK the first night, but the second night I take one swig, and ten minutes later I'm barfing my guts out.
Turns out, I check on the Web about side effects from this drug, and it says nausea and vomiting are the most popular, and to go to the hospital IMMEDIATELY should you have these symptoms.

Isn't Western medicine wonderful?

Baron's FINALLY comes through!

Well, after planning this for about 2 years, Mark (the owner and master hatmaker of Baron Hats in Burbank) has finally coughed-up a small amount of cash to make a short infomercial to be put on DVD and CD-ROM for inclusion in his proposal packet for Baron's expansion. He wants to put stores in a few key locations worldwide, like Vegas, Rome, Tokyo, etc.
So, I finally get to make a video for him.
Since Baron's built the famous fedora used in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, we are going with an Indy theme. Now, before you get going on copyright infringement, this will ONLY be seen as a free handout in the proposal packet for investors, and on a monitor in the shop in Burbank. It will not be sold, broadcast, netcast, etc.
Of course, I will be temporarily taking my cornrows down, donning the fedora, khakis, jacket, gas mask bag (no gun or holster, though) and, the best part... a Joe Strain Replica Indiana Jones bullwhip!
Joe is sending me a 6-footer, only because he had it in stock. He would've built me an 8-or-10-footer, but that would've taken too long. The 6-footer is a good idea anyway, in that the scene where I use the whip against a human skeleton come to life takes place in a cave, and the shorter whip will be easier to manuever in the close confines, as well as being faster.
"I' coul' go FASS! Real FASS, y'know I'm sayin?"

Today I went out to the thrift store, and bought the appropriate clothes for about $5 total. It was the belt and the bag that cost a bunch... $25 total!!!
The whip is only about... well, I won't say how much, but it's less than usual, because I'll be also giving Joe Strain an authentic Indy fedora made for him by Mark from the same pattern and blocks used in Temple Of Doom. Always great when you can barter a bit.
This will be my 5th whip from Joe. They are the best!

The story finds Indy in a cave with a snake, a skeleton, and The Maltese Falcon. The fedora is the prize he seeks (he's not wearing one at first). As he approaches the hat, which is on an altar, he accidentally steps on a booby-trap tile, and the roof collapses onto the altar, destroying the hat! He takes the tattered remains to Baron's, where they fix it like new, and he's able to return to his adventure, only now he looks the part! But, at this point, the skeleton comes to life and starts to menace him! He uses his trusty bullwhip to smash the skeleton to pieces, only to be attacked and chased out of the cave by an evil, posessed dog (my mutt Clancy). He emerges from the wrong exit to find himself on the edge of a chasm hundreds of feet deep with an alligator-filled river at the bottom.
And then the ledge he's on breaks away, and he falls to...

At that point the Baron Hats logo fades up.
The end.

Billy Jack keeps on kickin'

In case you didn't know, I am one of those refugees from the '60's and '70's who wholeheartedly embraced the BILLY JACK films. I wish I could have gone to the Freedom School. Those four films, especially THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK, helped put me on a road of spiritual enlightenment, pointing out the path of my own Native American lifeway (my grandfather, whom I never knew, was Cherokee or at least part Cherokee) and helping me attain my own manhood.
As a teenager, my heroes were Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Walt Disney, and Billy Jack.
In fact, during most of my high school years, I dressed in Levis, cowboy boots, a denim jacket, and black T-shirt. I could even do a halfway decent spinning heel kick. Those were the days before arthritis.
Well, Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor are still putting out the message of Billy Jack through their website www.billyjack.com, and now they've FINALLY put out the four films on DVD in the original screen format. Now, we can see these films in 1:85 ratio for BORN LOSERS & BILLY JACK, and in beautiful Cinemascope for TRIAL OF BILLY JACK & BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON.

In fact, it was thanks to TRIAL that I became interested in, and finally friends with, the great actor Victor Izay, who is not only a dear personal friend, but also plays William Mulholland in my (still being produced) film A TEST OF INTEGRITY. (see more about this film at www.geocities.com/zeebya)









The image at the top is Vic and me as Mulholland and Van Norman at the old aqueduct intake in Owens Valley. The image below is Vic as Doc in TRIAL OF BILLY JACK (taken from the novelization).

Tom has a blog site that is well worth visiting. If he were to run for president again, he'd get my vote!

What's cool about the new DVD release is that there's a bonus disc with original camera footage, as QT files, of the fight scene in the park outside the ice cream shop. They have a contest going to see who can edit the best fight scene from that footage, and man, am I gonna kick some ass with that fight scene. I just hope the contest is still on.

"There were probably no two people on this Earth more opposite from each other than myself and Billy Jack. And, now that I look back on it, it's hard to believe that the chain of events that could first bring us so close together, and then end up in so much tragedy and bloodshed, could begin with an early Saturday morning drive by Sheriff Cole over to his deputy's house."

Why all the school violence?

I read with interest Ruben Rosario's piece on the statistics behind school shooters. One thing that was not addressed, however, was one of the underlying causes of such 'over-the-top' violence in young people. And that's the continuing portrayal of, and purveying of, violence on TV and, especially, in video games. When I attended high school, in the '70's, we had violence and bullying also. But, if it ever got physical, there were rarely weapons involved. I myself once brought an antique handgun to school, a Sears Baby Hammerless .22 caliber revolver, made in the 1890's. This gun was in working condition, though not loaded, and I proudly showed it to my teachers as a kind of "show and tell." One of my teachers even suggested I go to the library and do research on it, which I did. At NO POINT was there ever a concern that I was trying to cause an incident, and nothing ever came of it. I brought it because it was a fascinating antique, nothing more. I, too, was one of the students who was often bullied (for being a Hippie and Gay, both of which I am) but I learned that the only way to stop those threats was to stand up to the bullies, using only my wits, humor, and where needed, a fist or two.
That stopped the problem.
Today, most kids have XBox or PS2 video game systems, and the EXTREME majority of these games use some form of gun-type interface, where the whole point of the game is to shoot as many opponents as possible. Same with American television programs. We freak out about anything sexual (except when we're trying to sell a product) and yet seem to have no problem with allowing our kids to see, and vicariously practice, violence on screen. What do you expect the kids to then do when confronted with a real-life situation that appears untenable? Just what they've been taught: pick up that gun, just like at home, and blast 'em.
This type of thing is not the fault of guns.
It's the fault of every film and game maker who pushes these kinds of violent programs, and the fault of the parents who allow such a mindset to be instilled into their kids in the first place. Additionally, a major part of the problem lies in the fact that our young people are rarely taught any form of leadership skills, or inculcated with the concepts of taking responsibility for themselves, their circumstances, and those around them.
Lastly, it's also the fault of the well-meaning but misguided groups who have consistently eroded the teachers' and principals' rights to enact corporal punishment. With youngsters, life is black and white. They don't learn respect because it's the right way to behave, they learn to respect because they fear the consequences of acting otherwise. When I was a kid, I knew perfectly well that if I got out of line, my teacher or principal could give me a swat with a paddle. I received a total of 9 swats in my school career, most of which I deserved. Only when I grew into adulthood, and had to deal with others on an adult level and in business, did I learn the true "give-and-take" of being respectful to others in order to gain respect. Today, kids know they can disrespect their teachers and parents if they want, and there's almost nothing the teacher or parent can do about it without fear of a lawsuit or termination, or having some overbearing "child welfare" agency come down and remove the kid from the home and arrest the parent.
I am a Liberal. But even liberalism can be taken too far.

10th anniversary of Mom's death

Well, it's January 11, 2006. Ten years ago today, my mother, Jean Elson, died of a prescription drug overdose. She was 70 years old, and if our genes are any indicator, could have made another 12-15 years.
Oh, well.
I had her cremated, and divided her remains up into two containers. One is the "urn" (a simple copper tooled box) and the other is the original cardboard and poly container they came from the crematorium in. Also, her ID tag from the crematorium is now one of my most cherished posessions. It says "Heritage Crematory," and is a round metal dog license-type of tag. It hangs on my Freedom Ring necklace.
After her death I started taking small amounts of her "ashes" and scattering them at the places we used to love visiting when I was a kid. Vasquez' Rocks, the rose garden at the L.A. County Natural History Museum, Hansen Dam, etc., all have a bit of Mom there now.
I wish everyone couldv'e had as great a mom as I did.
So, with that in mind, to my siblings, Elisabeth, Bobby, Steve, I know in my heart that Mom would have been very happy to know the adults you've become. I know I'm thrilled to know you.

Aloha

Editing, editing, editing...

Here I sit, broken hearted. Tried to edit but only farted.

Okay, okay, so it's juvenile. What's your point?

As I write this, my PC is rendering (for the second time) a segment from the latest DirecSource spot, this one about 4 minutes or so, for a trade show booth. It's in the form of a newscast with the anchorman wearing a globe on his head. We tried Ray first, but he got claustrophobic in that globe, so we went with me, which was fine except I noticed on the shot later that I seem to slouch a good deal in the chair. Never really noticed that before. I always thought I had good posture. Huh. Anyway, we shot the entire thing against a little green screen, and the company gave me a copy of their virtual set program, that seems to have a really good keyer. Anyway, I'm cuttin' away in this program, building my shots and roll-ins, and come time to save the scene as an AVI or MOV file, it wouldn't do it. I finally realized that the version I'm using needs to be activated (so the software company can verify ownership) in order to save films. Knowing I couldn't do that, as I don't own the program, I thought for a few minutes, then found I could bring their sets into After Effects and Photoshop as PNG files, so Viola' I was able to build the sets in AE, and even do 3D moves on them. So the edit is proceeding along. I'm currently re-doing a shot that took forever to render last night, because of one small but distracting flaw in the reflections on the top of the anchor desk. I had accidentally superimposed a reflection from another scene onto the reflection for this scene, and it looked weird, so I wanted to clean that up and render it again. The scene is 530 frames long.
So, in this video, the globe-headed anchorman, "D.S.," is getting live reports from around the world about how great DirecSource is for businesses that outsource to Asia. I named the reporters Justin Case, John W. Burns (after Kirk Douglas' character in LONELY ARE THE BRAVE), and Carol Shevis (after the late, great journalist and writer Carol Shevis, who mentored me as I was getting my start in journalism) as a personal homage to Carol.
We were all shot against a green screen, and I'm using Ultimatte to key it. The backgrounds for Carol and Burns are live video plates with 3D matte elements, like cargo containers and signage, added in. The background for Justin is a still from the virtual set program.

The images below are, respectively: me being helped by Ray, the greenscreen clearly visible; Carol's report composited; Wayne's report composited.










This is Burns' report.












Here's how the set looks when the computer finishes it's work.









Pretty cool, huh?

Well, it's back to work for now.

Aloha!