And I think Mom made a contribution of thirty votes to the cause.
SOUL PATROL!!!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
The mental captivity of the two-party believers
This is a paraphrase of something that I found on a political discussion forum earlier today, one well-noted for its rabid Republicanism:
"We can't afford to pay attention to a third party candidate or some other 'unknown'. That would hand the election over to the Democrats, which we absolutely cannot have. This is NOT A GAME! We have to PLAY TO WIN! First we get a super-majority of Republicans in the House and Senate and away from the Democrats, and THEN we knock off the 'Republicans In Name Only'. Only then can we be in a position to do anything meaningful. But we can't be bothered with somebody who is third party or is otherwise unelectable!"Let's address the obvious first: There will never be a so-called "super-majority" of either party in Congress... or at least not enough to satisfy this kind of mentality, which is all too dominant in America.
And even if one of the two major parties did overwhelm the "opposition" in a massive show of force, what good would it do? Neither one of them – and especially the Republicans of late – have shown the American people that they are as good as their word when it comes to adhering to the principles of the Founding Fathers.
The mindset that originated the above sentiment is at the heart of what is destroying this country. I don't know what is worse: the raw hatred this person has toward anything "Democrat" or his/her unwillingness to see that they have been perfectly indoctrinated by the two-party system into being a good little subservient.
Not even the slaves that lived before the Civil War were in so terrible a bondage as exists over the mind of the average American who refuses to look past his party affiliation.
Third parties and other challengers are not allowed a real turn at the table in America for two reasons: the first is that the two-headed monstrosity that is the Democrats and Republicans has too much power over outside challengers. It is the Republicans and Democrats who control the ballot-access laws. They are the ones who make sure the eye of the media does not fixate itself on any possible threat to their corrupt system. And they have the absolute ability to utterly destroy anyone who does manage to maneuver himself into making a kill shot at the beast.
The other reason is the one that disheartens me most of all: the apathy of the American people and their unwillingness to consider anything beyond the wicked machine of the Republican-Democrat duopoly. On command, the typical American turns his head away from the table as the Democrats and Republicans steal the food from his children.
And what is the reaction of said American? Nothing better than "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
It's time to ask ourselves: what good have the entrenched in power – the ones put there by political alliance or family connection or media favoritism – done for us, as our professed leaders and benefactors? They certainly have not been the servants that too many of them swore an oath to be.
How much longer can we let them get away with hiding behind the curtain of political affiliation? How much more of the fruit of our labors are we willing to let them take from us without recompense?
In short: how angry do we have to be before we lash out against the ones who've been playing games with our posterity's future?
Monday, May 22, 2006
In the pipeline: THE CHARLES SCHULZ CODE, feature-length feature, and something... controversial
Am working on getting the KWerky Productions blog going full-bore which is where updates on our film projects will be posted. But in the meantime...
Production on The Charles Schulz Code has been going on for about two weeks now. We've done some location scouting and have a few roles cast. This one won't be the 54-minute long behemoth that Forcery was: that length may have been a liability with our first movie. This one will be much more "digestible" i.e. less dense with detail. But don't fret: it'll still have plenty of stuff to laugh at especially if you're a fan of The Da Vinci Code or Peanuts lore. Expect it to be done and released in a few weeks.
Work on The Charles Schulz Code is something of a respite from the big project, the feature-length film which we're aiming to have in the can by the end of 2007. Right now it's still very much in the "research" stage, then I'll sit down and work on the script and prolly edit that down a lot. Am really looking forward to seeing the camera roll on this one: I'm just trying to figure out what kind of genre to define it as. It's definitely not humor or anything parody.
And yesterday an idea hit me to try something a little ummmm... eyebrow-raising. This definitely ISN'T something that falls under the KWerky banner: it's more for my own curiosity/enlightenment/satisfaction. A few years ago some guy re-edited Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace so that it was tightened up considerably (among other things, Jar Jar has a somewhat reduced role). Some people said that this "Phantom Edit" was an even better version than George Lucas's original cut. Well, I'm working on an already-existing movie and doing a few things to it that will make it... more timely, among other things. Lord only knows what the reaction to this is going to be.
Anyhoo, just thought I'd post an update on what we'll be up to film-wise in the next little while :-)
Wedding and alligators
At the beginning of this month Lisa and I attended the wedding of my good friend and collaborator "Weird" Ed and his lovely bride Olivia down in Charleston, South Carolina. Which was the very first wedding I ever attended at 11:30 AM on a Monday morning, but anyway... While we were there we got to hook up with one of Lisa's friends from college and she showed us around town. And now Lisa posts a report on her own blog about what went down, including the dozen or so live alligators we saw running around the wedding site:
THE NORMAN ROCKWELL CODE is now online!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
"The Age of Steel": New DOCTOR WHO gets FIVE STARS!! Plus: "Max Headroom" returns?!
"I thought I was broadcasting to the security services, what do I get: Scooby-Doo and his gang... they've even got the van.""I'm London's most wanted... for parking tickets."
"Even better... that's the name of my dog."
"Ex-cellent!"
"The human race, for such an intelligent lot you are all susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it."
"Upgrade THIS!"
"What the HELL was that thing?!?"
"Sally. Sally Phelan."
"This is the age of steel and I am its creator!"
"I'd call you a genius except I'm in the room."
"Ordinary stupid BRILLIANT people!"
"The most ordinary person can change the world."
"I'm sorry."
"That's the Doctor. In the TARDIS. With Rose Tyler."
"He's gone home."
"Nothing wrong with a van... I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck."
Once again, I had to download this week's new Doctor Who episode off the Internet via file torrent, a few hours after it aired in Great Britain. 'Cuz it'd be a year or so otherwise before we get it here in 'Merica.
I thought last week's "Rise of the Cybermen" was one of the best of the entire revitalized series, and definitely tops so far as David Tennant's time as the Doctor goes. Last week there was no "teaser" for this week's episode, and that was a very wise decision as it ratcheted up the "oh @&#$ NOW what?!" factor waiting to see what happened next time.
Well, "The Age of Steel" does NOT disappoint! If anything it's even better than last week's was. The Doctor and gang escape the Cybermen trap and make off in the Preachers's van (with a great Scooby-Doo reference by alter-Pete Tyler). Meanwhile John Lumic, the insane head of Cybus Industries, has decided to accelerate the "upgrading" timetable: thousands of Londoners get zombified by those earplugs and start marching into the Cybus factory. The Doctor and crew quickly come up with a plan to break up and do what they can to stop Lumic... who is about to get an upgrade of his own after his "children" have sympathy for him following an assassination attempt.
There is horror, there is humor, and there is heartbreak in "The Age of Steel". Remember how Aaron took that last look at the moon as he's marched into the death chamber in War and Remembrance? That's what I thought of as Rose and Pete feign going along with the crowd walking toward the conversion chambers. This episode, more than any other Cybermen story I can think of, brings down the boom on the fact that these are humans beneath the steel, as we see not only the business end of them getting cut apart and reconfigured but also what happens when these poor saps get their souls back and finally realize what's been done to them. One scene in particular might strike up some controversy: the Doctor practicing euthanasia on a cyber-converted woman who was supposed to be married. And then there's the heart-rending sight of this other world's Jackie as a Cyber-person.
But the biggest thing of this very emotional story is Mickey. This is Noel Clarke's final appearance on the show, and I've always liked his character immensely for some reason and am sad to see him go, but he definitely goes out swinging. He's been the "tin dog" for long enough and in "The Age of Steel" he makes his mark as fine as any other of the Doctor’s companions. In the end he decides to stay on this alter-Earth, despite the fact that the TARDIS can never return to this other reality, but here he still has a grandmother and now a mission: stop the Cybermen. The last scene is a real "go get 'em tiger" moment. Clarke and Billie Piper have a really sweet goodbye scene that will have some weeping for sure.
Plenty of everything in this ep, including some old-school Cybermen lore from the Doctor and a quick nod to last season's "Dalek" episode from Rose. Roger Lloyd Pack is still in fine form this week as mad industrialist John Lumic... and just as bad-a$$ as the Cyber-Controller. If you're an American on this side of the pond like me, don't wait for Sci-Fi Channel to run it next year, it's definitely worth grabbing off of torrent or wherever.
But there's one more thing that caught my attention from this episode that might be worth mentioning...
After the Doctor unleashes hell at the Cybus factory, there's a shot of Lumic - now the Cyber-Controller - sitting on his "throne" where he starts yanking cables out of his body so he can pursue the destroyers of his plans. And Lumic/Controller starts screaming "Noooooo..." in a cyber-fied voice. He does this again as he's hanging from the dirigible a few minutes later.
What I happened to catch was that while he's doing this, Lumic/Controller sounds exactly like the infamous "Max Headroom" video prankster who hacked the signal of a Chicago TV station in 1987 (click here to watch the actual video on YouTube). Not only does Lumic/Controller's scream sound just like "Headroom" but the hackers broadcast their pirate signal... while the station was airing one of the Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who!! I doubt that the BBC did this intentionally... but it was still something sorta ironic that I couldn't help but notice (though I do tend to notice a lot of weird things anyway).
Saturday, May 20, 2006
The wife and I go OVER THE HEDGE
Earlier this afternoon Lisa and I went to see Over The Hedge at the Brassfield here in Greensboro. It's a darned good cute smart lil' movie! I've been looking forward to this for awhile, being a longtime fan of the "Over The Hedge" comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis. The strip is about a group of forest-dwelling animals living on the edge of suburbia, where they make wry commentary and snide comments about the inanity and over-gluttony of us humans while wrecking havoc with the very things we buy and consume, like TV and fast food and lawn ornaments.And the movie did a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of the original cartoon, I thought. It seems to be like an "origin story" almost for how this group of critters first comes together. We see R.J. the raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) have his first meeting with soon-to-be best bud Vern, a turtle (Garry Shandling). Central to the plot is R.J. having to replace all the pillaged food that he stole from the den of Vincent, a bear who's promised to find and kill R.J. if the 'coon hasn't restored Vincent's stash in one week (Vincent, by the way, is voiced - somewhat appropriately enough - by Nick Nolte). The movie ignores a few characters from the strip (like R.J. and Vern's girlfriends, the woodtick etc.) but introduces some newer ones that are part of Vern's "family": William Shatner and Avril Lavigne star as father-and-daughter possums, Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy appear as the head of a porcupine family, and Wanda Sykes makes for more than a few outrageous moments as Stella, a skunk. The real scene-stealer has got to be Hammy the Squirrel (one of the comic's regulars), the most manic animated character I've seen in a good long time, played by Steve Carrell.
Well, we laughed a lot during Over The Hedge and the kids around us had a good time with it, even during the gags that were obviously intended for the "grown-ups" to catch onto (there's one hilarious reference to A Streetcar Named Desire that readily comes to mind). Definitely worth catching at the theater or later on DVD. If you need any more reason to go see Over The Hedge, it's that it features a much more realistic "treasure hunt" than that other movie opening this weekend has in it :-P
Friday, May 19, 2006
SITH Happened: One year ago today...
...the Star Wars saga finally came full circle with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
I actually saw Sith twice that day: at 12:01 AM with "Weird" Ed, Darth Larry and his wife and Phillip and a few other good crew, and then a much saner time that evening with my wife Lisa and Brian again ('cuz he and I weren't going to end that day without seeing Revenge of the Sith two and possibly three times :-P). And it just kept getting better and better.
Coming out of the theater that day was sort of bittersweet, but something of a relief as well. Knowing that there will not be anymore Star Wars movies, I felt like this series has accomplished what its creator set out to do, that it had nothing more to prove and now it got to go out on top. And now we could go on just being fans of a great saga, instead of fans so busy rabidly hanging onto whatever news trickled out about the movie that we forgot to just simply enjoy the thing. Believe me, as someone who once worked for a good while at what's still the best fan-run Star Wars site on the Internet (and here's hoping that you won the big race, Dustin :-), I've seen way too much of that to not know what I'm talking about.
Guess what I'm trying to say is that with Revenge of the Sith now behind us, I think that Star Wars fans can and finally have become what we were most supposed to be anyway. It's just hard to explain what that actually is, but I believe "respectable" is legitimately something that comes to mind :-)
And for me, on a more personal level, Revenge of the Sith and the closure it brought made me want that much more to be a father, and be able to share this beautiful story with my own children and wonder and cry and laugh right along with them as we watch it together. I really hope and pray that God will give me that opportunity someday, and not none too soon. If there had been the possibility (threat?) of more Star Wars movies, it would have taken away from that thrill. It would have become too much like Star Trek. No, this ended at just the right time, and it ended well. And it's in a good place now: on a bookshelf, waiting to be opened and shared with and appreciated by the next generations of "readers".
Well, I could go on, but that would just be adding "more" to what's probably been said a million times already. If anyone's interested, here's the review of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith I wrote the following day, and if you want a laugh there's also this now-legendary post about me and Darth Larry doing the final "Midnight Madness" of Star Wars toys... and the terrible hangover that ensued.
So happy birthday Star Wars Episode III. It was a heckuva fun ride: one for the ages, definitely :-)
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Something cryptic for your careful consideration
Chronolism is a crack in the crystal that is Creation.
Calculated contemplation of this conundrum causes considerable clarification concerning the curious cosmology of Christopher.
Last night's LOST (and a little bit about IDOL)
Lost is a show that has only gotten consistently better as the past season has progressed, especially the past several batch of episodes. Last night brought us "Three Minutes", and we finally learned what happened to Michael after he went running off into the brush with a gun to find his son. Speaking of which, we got to see Walt at last. Admittedly he looks a little bigger 'cuz of his growth spurt, but the Lost creators have said this is going to be addressed at some point soon. My theory: the DHARMA guys have been playing around with his genetics, as part of their age longevity program... would make a pretty plausible explanation given what is being leaked about DHARMA through the Lost online game and such. The new character Mrs. Klugh, I don't think she's supposed to be "the Man in Charge" but she's definitely one of the top dogs running the Others show. She was one character I wanted to see Michael go upside her head on, for sure. Definitely feel sorry for Michael, and maybe a little understanding of "why he did it" even though that still doesn't totally exonerate him. But after his exchange with Eko, I think forgiveness is one thing he certainly wants. All told, excellent episode that ends with an intriguing cliffhanger, that if you remember a certain inhabitant of the hatch from the beginning of this season then I think that's who the boat belongs to...
As for American Idol last night: I really wanted Elliott Yamin to make it through and it be him and Taylor in the final round. But Elliott is going to have a terrific career no matter what. Definitely think it'll be mah man Taylor Hicks gonna win next week: he'll probably pick up what votes Elliott would have gotten. Otherwise I really believe that Elliott might have won.
On a related note if I can figure out how to post sound files I'll try to put up my impersonation of Taylor screaming out "Soul Patrol!!" :-P
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Today...
You know Hugh Laurie's character Dr. Gregory House on the FOX show House? He's the doctor with no bedside manner, always looks grizzled and tired and surly and dresses as if he's a flood refugee. But he gets the job done.
I feel like House tonight, after a lot of things today. Not saying I'm that gruff and arrogant, but it's how he looks on that show... that's my picture of myself right now.
Long story about why that is, but right now I'm able to smile, and thank God for a few things. Was a really amazing day, and tomorrow promises more.
My thoughts on illegal immigration in a nutshell
We - and by that I'm generally speaking about Americans - have been given stewardship over this country by God. So too, has God granted stewardship of the lands of Mexico to her people.
Our house is our own to manage, just as the people of Mexico have their own to take care of.
However you cut the issue, it's wrong for one house to foist its problems onto another, instead of meeting and addressing them head-on, as best they understand and are capable of doing so. So too is it wrong for one house to expect it of itself - or to expect those living within it - to take on something that God never intended them to have.
This doesn't rule out legal immigration at all: that's something perfectly withing the rights of a house to manage itself. But the far more Christian thing to do in this matter would be to politely - and firmly if necessary - turn away illegals at the border, send them home... but with an affirmation that they not only are responsible for their stewardship, they can be stewards of their land.
Just my .02...
DA VINCI getting crucified in early reviews
"Tom Hanks was a zombie", "a stodgy, grim thing", critics laughing during the big revelation and giggling for the rest of the movie...
This is what so many of my fellow Christians have been worried about??
To paraphrase Kent Brockman: "Once again, we've been had."
Bold prediction time: this movie will mark the end of The Da Vinci Code phenomenon. The biggest part of this book's mystique has been the "Jesus Christ was married and had children" thing, that's what's put it in the mind's eye of the masses regardless of whether or not everyone actually read the book. Now that the story has been translated into the film medium (pretty darned close to the novel too, it's being said) and packaged for everybody to readily digest, everyone is now going to be finding out for themselves... that The Da Vinci Code really isn't that good a story.
Well, that's my prediction anyway. We should know within a week or two how the word of mouth is gonna treat this thing.
EDIT 2:48 PM EST: RottenTomatoes.com has given Over The Hedge a freshness rating of 75% so far... better than anything else on the boards right now including Mission: Impossible III (at 70%) and Poseidon (at 29%).
Meanwhile, The Da Vinci Code, with seven reviews so far, is clocking in so far at... ZERO PERCENT!
The lovely spousal overunit and I will be catching Over The Hedge sometime this weekend, in part because I'm a fan of the comic strip it's based on. If these measurements are any indication, that might be the one sound opening flick to catch in the next few days.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Superman returns?
He's FLYING AWAY FROM US!! Maybe this movie should be retitled "Superman Scrams"
Another dude's SOPRANOS intro parody
This is really amazing, I think. As the creator of another spoof of The Sopranos intro, all I can say is "impressive... most impressive." Last month or so is when The Godfather video game came out. Some guy used that to create a spot-on parody of The Sopranos title sequence done a'la the Corleone family! Check it out:
Two stories about America turning into a police state (and guess who's leading the charge?)
The FBI now admits that the Bush administration is letting them look at reporters's phone records to track down "confidential sources".
Meanwhile, Attorney General and member of La Raza (illegal immigration radicals) Alberto Gonzales wants your Internet provider to keep detailed logs on what you do online, for government perusal.
So all of the Bush supporters that I addressed last night also have a growing police state to answer for too.
While we're on serious discussion, I'm going to throw this out for comment from any readers I have: I'm thinking of "farming" the serious commentary/op-ed stuff onto another blog, and let The Knight Shift be for my more personal/upbeat side of things. That's not to say The Knight Shift won't see serious things, but for a lot of reasons I'm led to consider putting all the really hard-hitting stuff in one location away from the "happy" posts.
What say ye: would y'all be okay with that if I did this?
Monday, May 15, 2006
To everyone who (still) supports George W. Bush
"God's man" in the White House
A little over five years ago, I was a reporter with a small weekly newspaper. And I received an invitation to be at the big rally for then-governor George W. Bush at the presidential debate that was held at Wake Forest University.
I wasn't there for very long when I was ejected from the premises, practically at gunpoint (by the way, Forsyth County sheriff deputies and Winston-Salem police officers are good little goose-steppers), apparently on orders from Bush himself because I was small-time media, not affiliated with anyone "big". In other words: I was accountable to no one, and nobody could hold anything over my head. How was I supposed to know beforehand that Bush is afraid of being asked questions by "regular" Americans?
Word eventually got to me that Bush had referred to me and another reporter as "those assholes". The invitation was forcefully taken from me by someone that I have since come to refer to as "the anonymous Bush boot-licker" who then threatened me with physical violence.
Bear in mind that all I did was show up as a journalist from an independent newspaper.
I have since come to be thankful for the events of that evening, because my eyes were opened on the kind of man that George W. Bush really is. From that night forward, I've never been able to buy into any of the illusions that the Bush camp wraps around their man: that he’s supposed to be a "good Christian" and all that.
I got to know well in advance what a lot of Americans are just now coming to realize: that George W. Bush is a damaged, very small man at best, and thoroughly evil at worst.
I just read some of the speech that Bush is due to deliver in a little less than an hour about illegal immigration. The speech that is going to infuriate those of us who knew better already and maybe will knock some sense into those that have thus far refused to believe anything other than Bush being God's anointed man to rule America.
George W. Bush is not serving America: George W. Bush is destroying America. He practically has destroyed America. It will take decades to recover from the damage that he has inflicted on this land. That he refuses to take any serious action on illegal immigration is probably the worst thing that any President has done to America in her entire history.
I never supported George W. Bush. And I tried to warn too many of you about how foolish it was to cast your lot in with this very shallow, petty and vindictive little man.
George W. Bush is raping America without lubricant and telling her to lay back and enjoy it. Tonight's speech will more than adequately illustrate that to everyone.
It's like this: America either has secure borders and controlled immigration, or we cease being a sovereign country. Bush apparently prefers the latter. And so do those of you who still trust in "your President".
Like I said, I couldn't be more thankful that I got to know well ahead of time just what kind of man America was really about to start dealing with. I just wish that I could have done more to sound a warning bell before we started being invaded from the south.
EDIT 8:30 PM EST: Per my usual custom, I didn't "watch" this political speech. I listened to it instead, with my back turned to the television. That way I heard the actual words Bush was using, without being distracted by the television as a visual medium.
Bush said he's not supporting amnesty. Yet he wants to allow millions of illegal aliens who've been living here for years to go on living here without penalty.
And Bush says that's not amnesty?
He said nothing about enforcing the laws that we already have. He said the National Guard that he wants to put on the border (which would number far too few, by the way) would effectively have no real power or authority once assigned.
This whole speech was practically a big "winkin' at ya" to Mexican president Vincente Fox.
Heck he literally said that our border doesn't need to be "militarized". OH YES IT DOES MISTER PRESIDENT!!! The border with Mexico needed to be militarized, like four years ago.
Well, I could go on, but like I said before: I knew about this guy a long time ago, and have been saying all this time that George W. Bush has the spirit of a traitor. Unless someone is what the commies used to call a "useful idiot", tonight's speech should be more than enough to convince anyone about that, too.
Dear Lord, stop me from being this angry tonight...
...but it's hard not to be when you watch the fall of a once-great country before your very eyes.
