Suzanne Pleshette has passed away

Word is just now coming out that Suzanne Pleshette has died in Los Angeles. She was 70.

Pleshette did a lot of acting but she'll forever be known as Emily Hartley, the wife of Bob Newhart's character Bob Hartley, on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s.

Years later, Pleshette returned to the role of Emily in the series finale of Newhart, considered by many people to be one of the greatest final episodes of a television series ever. I watched it the night it aired, and if you've never seen it, trust me: it is an absolutely brilliant and hilarious shock twist that the show went out on, thanks to Pleshette's appearance.

She had been married to Tom Poston, who passed away last year. Now they are together again.

Thanks for the good laughs, Suzanne.

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George W. Bush has exactly one year left as President

As of today.

Don't breathe too lightly, children. This past week especially has illustrated how firm he is in his position as the worst President in American history ("stimulus package" my butt). And there are fewer things more dangerous than a President trying to secure his "legacy" with time running out.

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CLOVERFIELD ending: Where was it and who saw what?

Call it the Zapruder Film of monster movies: right now the Internet is buzzing with discussion about what might have happened in the very last shot of Cloverfield, which opened yesterday.

I went to see Cloverfield yesterday afternoon, and last night I posted my review of it. It wasn't long afterward that an anonymous reader made the following intriguing comment...

In case you are wondering where the monster came from in the closing scene where it is one month previous and they are at the beach if you look out over the ocean in the distance an object (presumably the monster) falls from the sky and right as it hits the water the camera turns to beths face. This is the only hint that the director said he put in there as to where the monster/creature came from. If you are going to see it again this weekend look for that in the final scenes.

I didn't remember seeing anything like that when I watched Cloverfield, and I like to think that I'm a pretty attentive guy to details like that. Unless it was something so incredibly obscure, and I don't believe that J.J. Abrams and the Bad Robot guys would obfuscate so major a detail that much.

Then I started reading the blogosphere, and it turns out that other people are saying the same thing too: that in the final shot of Cloverfield, in the footage from Coney Island a month before the attack, that something huge and often described as "dark" lands in the ocean, just before Beth tells Rob that she had a good day.

It bugged me enough to decide that I wanted to see Cloverfield again. And today.

So a bit before noon, Lisa and I got in my car and we went to the Brassfield Cinemark on the northwest edge of Greensboro. After hearing me talk about it, she decided that she wanted to check out what the hullabaloo is about too. We got our tickets and went in and watched the movie. It was just as good a second time around, if not better. As for what Lisa thought about it, ummmm... she might write a review for her own blog, so I won't spoil her thoughts on it :-)

The final scene was approaching. I literally pried my eyelids open with my fingers, doing my darndest not to blink at all. I kept my peepers focused on the much-discussed right-hand side of the screen, looking at the sky and the water off Coney Island.

Okay, I must say: there is something there all right. But the only thing I saw, at all, was a large patch of white foam in the water, like the wake of something massive. I did not see a "big and dark" object fall out of the sky and hit the water. But there is something out there kicking up the surf off Coney Island. What that is, I don't know. But right now I'm not convinced at all that it was something that came falling out of the sky. Out in the water, it doesn't take much to make a plenty big enough wake.

So I personally did not see the "thing" from the sky. And yet, there are lots of people who are swearing quite vehemently that they did see something. If it's a delusion, it's one that's being shared by quite a large number of movie goers this weekend.

At the same time I'm also hearing from other people who reported that they looked for this, but didn't see the falling object either.

Curiouser and curiouser...

A few problems I have with this, if it is indeed supposed to be the arrival of the Cloverfield monster. For one thing, Coney Island was a month before the night of Rob's party: what was the monster doing during all of that time? The more obvious question in my mind though is that if the monster was that enormous, then how in the world did its crashing into the water not get noticed by not only Rob and Beth, but by everyone else at Coney Island? I mean, if a skyscraper came hurtling out of the blue and into the ocean off-shore from a major amusement park, it seems like somebody would have taken note of it, right?

In light of how many people claim to have seen something fall out of the sky and into the water, and how many claim to have seen nothing at all, I have to wonder: is it at all possible that on some prints of Cloverfield there is a falling object, and it's deliberately missing on others copies? Cloverfield has already arrived at the box office after months of staggering hype fueled by massive speculation on the Internet. Would it really be past Abrams and Reeves and the rest of Bad Robot - the same gang that gave us Lost and Alias, mind ya - to do something this devious with the final film itself, so as to "pour gasoline" on the already out-of-control wildfire that is Cloverfield?

What if some prints of Cloverfield have the monster crashing into the water, and other prints of the movie don't show it at all? It would then become a game of wondering which theaters have which prints of the film.

Hey, Clue did something like this way back in 1986, with multiple endings (I think there were 3 or 4 different endings and which one you saw depended on which theater you went to). It was quite an innovative gimmick at the time. Maybe that's what's up with Cloverfield.

Okay so, now I'm hoping someone else will write in and tell me: what did you see at the end of Cloverfield? Where and when did you see it exactly, too: was it at the very beginning of the final bit of the Coney Island footage, or is it elsewhere in that scene?

I guess I'll have to see this again sometime soon (hey, another reason to play tricks with the ending, eh? :-)

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James Allan "Doc" Lewis was born 100 years ago today

Portrait of "Doc" Lewis that hangs in the Order of the Arrow Lodge Building (which is dedicated to Doc) at Cherokee Scout Reservation in Caswell County, North Carolina
(picture courtesy of the Old North State Council's article at Wikipedia)

This past Monday night at the meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education, I spoke during the public comments portion of the evening. Board Chairwoman Elaine McCollum had already shared some very wonderful words about Gene Saunders, and I felt led to talk about Gene too since I had been one of his students. But for the past few months I'd already had it in mind to come to this particular meeting so that I could honor someone else. It just so happened that instead of one person who made a tremendous impact on my life, I wound up going to the podium and talking about two.

After I spoke for a bit about Gene and how much of a difference he had made in my life, I told the board and everyone present that I had felt led to make note of the fact that the birthday of the man who had perhaps done more to further education than anyone else in Rockingham County was this week.

So it is that today, January 19th, 2008, is the 100th birthday of James Allan Lewis. Or as he was better known to Lord only knows how many people who he came in contact with over the years: "Doc Lewis".

He was without a doubt the most memorable character that I have ever known in my life.

And when I say that he was a "character", that is most assuredly not an understatement.

This is the man who defined the meaning of the term "larger than life". From the very first time that I met him, when I was just an 11-year old Boy Scout in 1985, I knew that God must have broken the mold when He made Doc Lewis. If anyone ever pitched a movie about his life to some Hollywood studio, he or she would probably be laughed out of the office and escorted off the premises by armed guards, because nobody could have lived a life like that... could they?

Well, Doc did.

Allan Lewis was born in Danville, Virginia on January 19th, 1908. A few years later World War I broke out, and Doc once told me about how on the day of the armistice in November 1918, that the whole town of Danville celebrated and were doing things like setting off fireworks and dragging an effigy of Kaiser Wilhelm II through the streets, while people spat on and made rude gestures toward it.

In the years prior to the Great Depression, Allan Lewis was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute, and then attended Lynchburg College. He then went on to pursue graduate work at Columbia University in New York City, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (which a lot of people will no doubt appreciate that Doc was a life-long avid fan of the Tarheels), and also at UNC-Greensboro.

And during all of this time, while he was pursuing his studies in the field of education, the young Allan Lewis... had an interesting life.

When he was in New York City, Allan became heavily involved with Broadway theatre and the vaudeville stage. How involved? Let's see: I know that Doc became friends with George Burns and Gracie Allen early in his life (yes, that George Burns and Gracie Allen). I know that Doc took Katherine Hepburn out to dinner at least once (yup, that Katherine Hepburn, too). Doc mentioned so many names of famous people over the years, that there's no way to compile a full list of who he knew and who knew him.

And then there's the story of about how he and some friends put their money together to buy a Model T car so that they could drive to New York City for the World's Fair. Doc told me that so many times on the way over there one (and sometimes more) of the tires got a flat... so they had to stop and put the tire in some water to try to find the leak and then patch it up before going on.

Well, there are many more adventures from the early days of Allan Lewis that I've heard over the years, but I would be sitting here 'til noon tomorrow if I were to try to compose them all for this blog entry.

In 1934, Allan Lewis became the principal of Sadler Elementary School in Reidsville. He served for some years there and then was made the principal of Wentworth Consolidated Schools. And in 1948, he was made superintendent of the Rockingham County School system. Keep in mind that the average term for most superintendents these days is about 3 years at any one system.

Lewis stayed on for 22 years. And in that time he not only guided the system through the turbulence of the post-war years, he also vigorously pursued the construction of new schools, especially a new central high school for the then-existing system. A few years after he retired, Rockingham County Senior High School opened its doors, including those for the J. Allan Lewis Auditorium.

But as magnificent and highly-renowned a career as Allan Lewis had as an educator, some will argue quite convincingly that his fame as an advocate for the Boy Scouts of America was far, far greater.

It was at the original Boy Scout camp for the Cherokee Council near Reidsville that Allan Lewis received the nickname that would follow him for the rest of his life. Lewis volunteered to work at the health lodge, and very early on in his time there the boys started calling him "Doc", because he was the one who patched them up. The name stuck.

Doc was an active Scouter for well over 60 years. And he was still working at the health lodge for most of that time, both at the original Camp Cherokee near Reidsville, and then in 1968 when the camp relocated to Cherokee Scout Reservation not far from Yanceyville in adjoining Caswell County.

(At this point I could also talk about "the hermit" who lived deep in the woods near Cherokee Scout Reservation, and how Doc and some other delegates were shot at while trying to visit him one day, and then that the hermit died before the camp was to open and how his pet wolves went nuts and how they found the hermit's bones at his cabin... and supposedly the cabin was haunted... but that's a story for another time.)

Throughout most of his time in the Boy Scouts, Doc became especially involved with the Order of the Arrow, the honor society within the Boy Scouts of America. One of Doc's proudest possessions was a photograph of himself sitting next to E. Urner Goodman, the founder of the Order of the Arrow. Doc was also friends with Carroll A. Edson, the co-founder of the Order.

I became a member of the Order of the Arrow in 1987. Doc told me on the night following my Ordeal that he was proud of me and that from now on, we were symbolically brothers. I don't know if he ever knew how to so many young men, he was far more than their brother: he was also their surrogate grandfather, and maybe even father to some.

I went to two national Order of the Arrow conferences with Doc: one in Fort Collins, Colorado and then a few years later to one at the University of Indiana. Going on a trip with Doc was an absolute hoot! Everywhere we went, he seemed to know something about the place. Chalk it up to him being such a widely-traveled guy: Doc had visited every state in the union except Alaska, and he had visited many countries overseas during his long career. He was also fun to have on the road or on the flight over for all of the hilarious jokes and stories that he would tell us.

Both at the Reidsville camp and Cherokee Scout Reservation, Doc not only was the camp medic, he also put the theatrical knowledge that he picked-up while working on Broadway to use. Among other things, during ceremonies for the Order of the Arrow he would sometimes have a Scout swim across the lake... while carrying a lit torch. He was also experienced with makeup and costuming.

For most of his career with the Cherokee Council, and later the Old North State Council after the Cherokee Council merged with a few others in the early Nineties, Doc served as the council's "Goodwill Ambassador" to the world. He was on the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America for 40 years, and was known not only throughout the United States but around the world for his work with the Boy Scouts. There was one fellow in particular who also was heavily active in the Boy Scouts movement, who Doc not only worked alongside for many years but also became very good friends with. You might have heard of him: his name was Norman Rockwell.

Doc was also a president of Rotary International of Reidsville. He was also involved with several educational organizations and at one time served as president of the Rockingham County Historical Society.

He was certainly an active, involved person. But you know... I still haven't really touched on Doc's personality at all.

Doc Lewis was always "turned on". He probably possessed the most indomitable spirit that I ever met in anyone in my entire life. Imagine Groucho Marx as a Jedi Master, and that was Doc Lewis. He was simultaneously the wisest sage that you'd ever come across and this wise-cracking comedian who would never fail to make you smile. And I don't know if it's really my place to share this or not, but it has to be said: Doc Lewis was the master of the art of the dirty joke. But not "dirty" in the modern connotation at all: Doc was sly and clever with innuendo and subtle terms, the way that such humor was done before it degraded into "gutter comedy". There's one joke of his that I am horribly tempted to share here, and to this day it's probably the funniest joke I've ever heard... but if I were to post it here, Google would not only wipe out my blog but it would also send goons to my house to apply a sledgehammer to my typing fingers so as to make sure that it never happened again. But trust me, it's hilarious (and also rather clean, believe it or not).

Doc was also a dancin' fool. Even well into his eighties, he had a spring in his step lacking in most guys just in their twenties and even younger. Anyone who ever saw him prancing in the amphitheater at the Cherokee Scout Reservation will not ever forget the sight of him hopping across the stage as he encouraged everyone to sing.

There's so much about Doc that I could share here, and I honestly don't know what I could possibly say about him that could do his memory the full justice that it deserves. He was just an... amazing person to have known. But I guess I need to wrap this up, so I'll relate just a few of my personal memories about Doc.

As I mentioned earlier, we met in 1985, when he came to a meeting of our troop one night. Later that week I was at a Boy Scout camporee and that's where Doc and I really started getting to know each other. To this day I'll never know why he took such a special shine to me, but he said many times over the years that he was really glad for our friendship. Maybe it's because Doc really was an offbeat person, and I was a much younger offbeat person that looked up to him as a model and an example that yes, it was okay to be a bit off-kilter.

I can also attest that I was one of the Scouts that Doc "patched-up" at the health lodge at the Cherokee Scout Reservation. It happened my very first day at the camp: I got a horrible splinter embedded in my foot on the dock at the lake. Two other Scouts had to hold me up as I literally hopped a half-mile to the health lodge. Doc propped me up on the table, took hold of my foot and pulled the splinter out with some tweezers. So yeah, I was one of Doc's patients. I honestly don't think that you could say that you had the full experience at Cherokee Scout Reservation until Doc fixed you up in the health lodge.

Doc was on my Eagle Scout board of review, and I'll always feel honored that he took part in that. He also came to the ceremony a few months later when Jamie Revis and I - the only two out of dozens of Boy Scouts who had been part of our troop with us that whole time - received our Eagle Scout rank. I've a picture somewhere of Doc leading us in the Scout Oath. That was one of the proudest moments of my life.

And then a few years later came one of the more hilarious experiences that I had with Doc. One day in the summer of 1994, I drove to his house and picked him up for lunch. We went to the Libby Hills restaurant here in Reidsville, which is where I was working at the time. Our waitress was this girl who, yeah I'll go ahead and say it: she was very sweet and very beautiful. And Doc thought so too...

"Who's she?" he asked.

"That's (name removed to protect privacy)," I told him.

"She's nice!" Doc said. "Do you like her?"

"Ummm, well... uhhh... well I don't think she's seeing anyone right now," I told him. And I'll admit it: she was that nice kind of girl that I had been hoping and praying to wind up in a relationship with. I found out a few years later that she had gotten married and was doing well, so I'm glad that she ended up happy.

But at this moment in July of 1994, Doc was hellbent on playing matchmaker.

"Here, let me leave the tip. If she asks, tell her that you wanted to do this for her."

Doc Lewis pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and plunked it on the table!

I tried, honestly I tried, to stop him. But Doc wouldn't have it. He wanted me to do something to impress that girl and make her notice me. And oh yeah she did notice. "Chris that was crazy! You didn't have to do that!" she told me a few nights later at work. I told her that my friend Doc had left it for her, and that he thought she was a good waitress and that she was a really sweet person. Yeah, I know: I didn't quite follow-through on Doc's plan. But I'm glad that she got to know that it was Doc and not me who left it for her. And in my own way, I did tell her that I thought she was a good person, too. Maybe that didn't lead to something that Doc might have had in mind... but that was two people who were made a little happier, however briefly, because of it. And knowing that made me happy, too.

So much else that I could write here, about Doc. All these years later after first meeting him, the impact he made on my life still can't be fully measured.

He was one of the greatest people that I never knew. And one of my dearest friends.

James Allan "Doc" Lewis passed away on December 8th, 2004, just over a month shy of his 97th birthday.

He was more than a friend. He was more than a symbolic brother. He was the grandfather that I never had.

I still miss him. And I still love him.

I know of no better way to wrap this up, and to honor his memory, than with a song. It's one that Doc Lewis himself wrote. It's the official camp song for Cherokee Scout Reservation, and has been sung at places such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Wright Brothers Memorial.

Here it is, sung to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad"...

"The Eyes of Cherokee"
(words by Allan "Doc" Lewis)

The eyes of Cherokee are upon you,
All the live-long day.
The eyes of Cherokee are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Do not try to escape them
At night or early in the morn.
The eyes of Cherokee are upon you,
'Til Gabriel blows his horn.

Until Gabriel blows his horn, we'll wait to see you again Doc.

(By the way, January 19th is also the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe and Robert E. Lee. Doc was always proud of the fact that he shared his birthday with those two historical figures :-)

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Review of CLOVERFIELD

Let the word go forth: as of January 18th, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eight, America finally has a cinematic mega-monster to call its very own.

Which is exactly what J.J. Abrams, the creator of Alias and Lost and the director of the upcoming Star Trek movie (and I also got to see a beautiful teaser for that before this started playing) intended when he set out to make Cloverfield. It was while in Japan that Abrams realized that his own country didn’t have a classic movie monster anything close to iconic as Godzilla is over there. And King Kong was too "adorable" as Abrams put it. He wanted a horrific force of nature that couldn't possibly be tamed, only confronted in the hopes that it could be destroyed. So Abrams hooked up with longtime collaborators Drew Goddard and Matt Reeves and told them his plan...

And now that Cloverfield has finally been released after months of crazy speculation, ever since that cryptic teaser in front of last summer’s Transformers, it must be asked: is Abrams's beastie on par with Godzilla as a mythic menace?

Yeah, I think it is. But I'll know for certain as soon as I can figure out just what the hell it is that I was looking at when I saw Cloverfield earlier today.

I'd wanted to catch Cloverfield last night at a midnight showing with my comrade-in-arms Phillip. Alas! The winter storm yesterday morning had turned the roads between here and Guilford County a bleak sheet of black ice. So Phillip went ahead and saw it. When he came back he was raving like mad about how good it is both in e-mail and in the review he wrote for his blog (and he says some things about Cloverfield a lot better than I probably could...). And then another friend told me that I had to see this as soon as possible. That settled it: after doing some errands I headed over to the Carousel Grande in Greensboro. And on the ride down U.S. 29, to kinda set the mood I played the Wallflowers's cover of "Heroes" from the 1998 Godzilla soundtrack on my new iPod. I know: bringing that particular movie up is baaaaaaad...

I have to agree with Phillip: Cloverfield is the first movie in recent memory that not only does not fail to live up to obscene hype, it wildly surpasses it. And I may have to see it again this weekend (provided we don't get the 3-4 inches of snow that the weather forecasters are now calling for tomorrow).

If you watched the teaser (which broke rules by itself in that it was the first teaser for a major motion picture that didn't reveal the title of the movie that it was advertising) then you already know much about how Cloverfield starts out. A group of friends in New York City is throwing a surprise party for Robert Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David), who's about to leave for Japan to take on a job as a vice-president of some big company there. And then, about twenty minutes into Cloverfield, all hell breaks loose. If the capsized oil tanker and massive explosion on the other side of town aren't enough to signify that Manhattan is in trouble, then the spectacle of watching the head of the Statue of Liberty crash out of the sky and onto the street will doubtless impress everyone with the severity of the situation.

Here's where Cloverfield differentiates itself from perhaps any other "big monster" movie that's been made: until the ground first starts shaking, I was so immersed in the story of Rob and his estranged girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman) and their friends, that I completely forgot that I was watching a big-budget creature presentation. This is not a movie about a giant monster per se. The monster serves as the disaster in which we see these regular people go through the worst day of their lives and how we see them do some extraordinary things as a result. And instead of seeing it as a standard narrative, Cloverfield is told through the perspective of Rob's video camera, operated for most of the movie by Rob's friend Hud (a great character played by T.J. Miller, who brings both gravity and at times much-needed and well-delivered humor to the role).

Obviously, this choice of story conveyance brings a lot of comparisons between Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project. But I think that Cloverfield might have pulled the trick off even better than the 1999 horror sensation did (and I say that as someone who has always liked The Blair Witch Project). The scene that really "does it" with Cloverfield is when we see Rob and his three friends taking shelter inside a subway station, and Rob has to share some heartbreaking news with someone on his cell phone. It's a scene that genuinely hurts the viewer to witness these friends have to share this tragic experience. It's not the monster itself that makes Cloverfield compelling viewing, but what happens to these characters as a result of the monster's wrecking havoc.

Don't be led to think that this means we get short-changed when it comes to actually seeing the monster in Cloverfield, because we do indeed get to view the creature up close. But this is not like the 1998 remake of Godzilla, where we hardly saw the title threat at all except for toward the end of the movie. The monster in Cloverfield is all over the place, even though Hud just barely misses catching the entire beast in his camera. Be kind to the man: he's shooting the footage while running for his life. It's a quite effective technique however, because we get lots of tantalizing glimpses of the monster (the creepiest might be when Hud is watching a news broadcast of the army fighting it and the thing starts dropping "dandruff" on the ground) that up the "wanna see" factor without over-doing it.

But as for the monster itself: I still have no idea what this thing is supposed to look like exactly. The various depictions made by artistically-inclined folk who have seen Cloverfield tend to suggest the general shape of the monster. But I've yet to see a single drawing or painting that completely nails it. The closest I can come up with in describing what the Cloverfield monster looks like, is to ask you to imagine the Kraken from Clash of the Titans with reverse-jointed legs so that it can walk on land. I can't even figure out whether the monster is supposed to be reptilian or amphibian, or something else entirely different. The one very good shot of the monster that we see is going to be in my nightmares for the next few nights, no doubt about it. The thing looks unnatural and unholy, as if it's a form of life that in a saner world would have no right to exist to begin with.

Where did the monster in Cloverfield originate? We aren't told at all, and there's no scientist who comes out in a white coat to explain to us where the creature came from or what it wants or how to get rid of it. But enough tantalizing info is spread here and there for the viewer to take a guess, albeit without knowing for sure whether that guess is anywhere close to being reasonably accurate. If you want to know what I think about it, here’s my theory...

SPOILER – highlight to read: The monster was in the "oil tanker", much like the 1976 King Kong remake. It had been found elsewhere - maybe near the offshore drilling station that's been talked about in the viral media promoting Cloverfield - and capturer: either by the Japanese corporation or the U.S. government. I think it was inside the ship and as it approached the terminal in New York City's harbor, it got loose. Why else would something like that turn up in New York City? It kinda makes sense when you think about it... END SPOILER

And so far as motive goes: there is no reason for why this monster is causing so much destruction. It's a natural calamity that cannot be reasoned with but only endured, in the hope that you’ll live to see tomorrow.

So much else that I could say about Cloverfield here. I am... extremely... overwhelmed by this movie and how it turned out. This is the movie that the 1998 Godzilla could have been and should have been. And I've come to realize that it was wrong to have even attempted to co-opt another country's classic monster character like that. With Cloverfield, American filmmaking has finally owned-up to that mistake.

And I also believe that film-makers would be wise to take note: Cloverfield represents, at last, the maturing of special effects as a true story-telling tool. A year ago Alfonso Cuarón did much the same with Children of Men, which was a much more serious story. With Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams and his crew at Bad Robot have proven that it can be applied just as effectively to a blockbuster tent-pole motion picture event. For thirty years now most escapist film fare has relied on eye candy to deliver the goods and bring an audience to the box office. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it's safe to say after the past several years of relative stagnancy that audiences are no longer impressed with being visually wowed as much as they expect deeper storytelling. The Bad Robot team has wildly succeeded in that endeavor with Lost on television, and now with Cloverfield they have demonstrated that it can – and should – be sought in feature films, also. I for one will certainly be examining Cloverfield closely, because there is a great deal of good that I believe can be learned from it.

How harsh a movie is Cloverfield? If you're prone to motion-sickness, you might wanna take a Dramamine before going in to see this film, because the camera is quite shaky, as has been widely reported. But after a short while I was pretty comfortable with it. And visually there are a lot of images that you won't easily shake-off, including something very nasty that happens to one of the main characters later on in the movie that was one of the ugliest and most unexpected things that I've seen in a monster movie. But I didn't see anything that was as big a gross-out as, say, Kane's death in Alien. Cloverfield definitely qualifies as PG-13 material, even if it does edge perilously close to a hard-earned R on several occasions.

Cloverfield runs for an hour and a half. And if you're trying to figure out how all that footage could fit on one tape in a camcorder, paying attention to the very first moments of the movie will reveal that this is all being pulled from a flash-based memory card (maybe Rob's camcorder is one of the models that debuted at last week's Consumer Electronics Show?). It's just the right length of running time for this story, although I'm also eager to see any deleted scenes when the DVD comes out.

By the way, see that graphic of the Cloverfield one-sheet poster? I received a real copy of that when I attended Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9 last month in Austin, Texas. It's been in a cardboard tube ever since, just waiting to see if this movie was worth having it framed and hung up in my video production suite. After what I saw earlier today, I can say that I'll have no problem putting it on the wall tomorrow morning.

Cloverfield might be the best take I've ever seen on the "giant monster" movie genre. And this is an absolutely amazing film to get 2008 – which promises to be a spectacular year at the movies – off and running with. If at all possible, try to see this movie this weekend or sometime very soon.

By the way, so far as music goes there is no orchestral score for the movie itself at all. But Michael Giacchino has composed a majestic overture called "Roar!" that plays during the end credits. It's well worth sticking around to enjoy listening to, and I hope that it'll turn up on iTunes soon 'cuz I will gladly buy it to put on my iPod!

I'll give Cloverfield a score of 9 out of 10. And will also say that this merits buying on DVD the very first day that it comes out. And hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to buy an action figure of the monster to pose atop my computer, too.

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Bobby Fischer, first U.S. world chess champion, has died

Let's get the obvious out of the way: yes, he was a very troubled person. His wild rants against the Jews alone hinted more of serious mental instability than sincere bigotry.

But in spite of it all, Bobby Fischer was - and to many people still is - considered to be the greatest chess player in history.

No man is perfect. And instead of harping on his erratic behavior and bizarre beliefs, it's a much better thing to mark his passing by toasting his talent. Indeed, his 1972 victory over Boris Spassky has been deemed an important moment in Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

For what it's worth, without passing judgment on his beliefs, I've always thought that the U.S. government went way over the line in harassing him after he met Spassky for a rematch in Yugoslavia in 1992. I mean, threatening a man with ten years in prison... for playing a game of chess?!? He never came back to America after that.

In the end, after a glorious youth that turned into years of reclusion and ridicule, Bobby Fischer has passed away in Iceland at the age of 64.

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NCAA clamps down on live blogging at college games

This may be the dumbest thing that I've ever heard from the world of sports journalism: a few weeks ago the National Collegiate Athletic Association implemented new rules for live blogging at NCAA-sponsored sporting events. The whole thing got started when a sports writer was thrown out of a college baseball game for providing an online chronicle of the action as it happened. The NCAA screamed about "infringing" on the rights of the broadcast partners.

In the wake of the uproar, last month the NCAA established some... strange... regulations for live blogging by professional sports reporters at college athletic events:

Football
- Three posts per quarter and one post at halftime

Baseball
- One post per inning, including extra innings

Basketball
- Five posts per half, two posts in halftime, two posts per each overtime

Not only that, but each blog must display the NCAA logo (what the... %@#&?!?!?) and all blog posts by credentialed journalists must be submitted to "the NCAA Blog Central" (?!?!?).

Naturally, sports writers are having a field day with this lunacy.

Check out Kara Ratliff's story at WebProNews (a website that I heartily recommend) for the skinny on the NCAA's bizarre blogging policy...

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Yes, it's true: REAL pics of the CLOVERFIELD monster are now online!

I've just seen it and it looks... interesting. There's yet to be a full-body shot of the creature but I think it's safe to say that some of the "artist depictions" that made their way through the blogosphere during the past few days seem to have been fairly accurate. I don't consider myself very much "spoiled" though 'cuz the pics don't give away too much apart from a vague silhouette and what looks to be lots of teeth. Consider me wonderfully tantalized, and I'm looking forward to seeing Cloverfield tomorrow that much more.

Oh, why am I not posting the pics here? Look, I've had enough "cease and desist" problems with Paramount's parent company Viacom to last me a long time (even though I did quite well on that one). I am not going to tempt fate here, 'cuz I understand that Paramount's legal department is already having websites who've published it to yank it fast. But now you know enough anyway: if you seriously want to see it, and if you're persistent enough, you'll no doubt be able to find it :-)

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Ten years ago today ...

... the first news in what became known as "the Monica Lewinsky scandal" came out, when Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report broke the word that Newsweek was sitting on a story about a sexual affair between President Bill Clinton and a 23-year old White House intern.

Those were very crazy days. Can't believe it's been ten years already. I still remember watching Clinton on live television wagging his finger at everyone and claiming that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky!"

I have a friend who teaches history, who predicted all the way back in 1992 that Bill Clinton would be the first in a long series of presidencies that lacked honor and ability and real sense of duty. When the Lewinsky scandal came out, I couldn't help but think back to what he said. And now ten years later, in the closing months of an even worse President and with not much better being rigged to succeed him, I have to wonder if this office will ever have decency and aptitude again in it anytime soon... if at all.

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First snow of 2008

Taken just after 7 a.m. EST outside our apartment in Reidsville, North Carolina...

Temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight and it's been dropping since. It's now just below freezing and it's not supposed to get any warmer for the rest of the day. The driveway is already slippery in many spots. The Rockingham County School System canceled classes for today late last night, so Lisa isn't going in. We won't be getting out today.

But Lisa went and pillaged the local supermarket and Wal-Mart last night for supplies. We've got plenty of food. And we've got plenty of things to entertain ourselves with (like the Wii that I got Lisa for Christmas, the one that I camped out overnight at the GameStop in Greensboro to buy it the next morning :-). And, for once, I don't have any projects that I'm rushing to get finished. And no bad guys that I have to really fight either. So I'm going to look at today as a gift from God, and He's finally giving me a chance to do something that I have not done in a very, very, very long time: relax and play.

Heck, I still have that Indiana Jones LEGO set that I haven't put together yet!

Okay, off to have breakfast. And then hang out with Lisa. And then do... other stuff ;-)

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Ron Price lawsuit abuse shows North Carolina need for anti-SLAPP legislation

The more I think about how disgraced school board member/admitted sign stealer Ron Price's lawsuit against the Moores ended (click here for more info, including links to the sworn depositions that the Moores, Price, and Yours Truly gave), the more I'm feeling honked-off to no end about it.

The man is certainly living up to his county-wide nickname of "Ron the Con" (one that I have heard bandied about everywhere from church to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Eden). Ladies and gentlemen, I posit that the whole sordid drama of this past year has been a massive charade perpetrated by Price and his attorney Douglas Hux. Because this lawsuit had nothing to do with seeking damages for legitimate libel. But it did have everything to do with an elected official using the law to intimidate and silence those who disagree with him.

Does anyone believe that Ron Price would have given up so easily, if he knew beyond all doubt that he possessed such a strong case against Richard and Debbie Moore?

Okay, let me ask this out loud: did Ron Price himself seriously believe that he could sincerely expect a judgment of a quarter-million dollars to be granted in his favor by a jury in a court of law, based on what was said about him in The Neely Chronicle and on WGSR?

I don't believe that Price was out for the money at all. But he was out to make Richard and Debbie Moore spend lots and lots of theirs.

Heck, Price practically admitted as much to The Reidsville Review: "I think we reached our goal", he told the newspaper. For once he wasn't lying, folks. The goal was never to achieve a quarter-million dollars judgment. But the goal was to keep the sword of veritable bankruptcy poised over the Moores' heads by compelling them to spend money on legal defense.

There is something very, very wrong with a system that allows a politician, a corporation, or any other entity to effectively shut-down critics by using a frivolous lawsuit to force those of lesser means into giving up their fight. In that regard, Ron Price did win: Political Soup, one of WGSR's most-watched shows, is no longer on the air (that alone has earned Price more loathing from people in Rockingham County than he would like to know).

Think about that for a moment: a government official - and one who admitted to taking something that wasn't his for the purpose of manipulating an election - has successfully abused the law in order to silence his critics and punish them for speaking out against him.

If that is not an example of tyranny, however localized, then I don't know what is. This kind of thing is supposed to happen in fourth-world banana republics, not Rockingham County.

I doubt that Ron Price feels any guilt or grief about it however. He's certainly of the "neo-conservative" stripe that believes he can get away with anything because God has supposedly "anointed" him, or as he put it "but I was elected."

This was the first time that to my knowledge a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) has happened in Rockingham County. I've never liked the idea of a SLAPP action and now that I've seen it firsthand, my hatred for the concept has grown immensely.

Currently, North Carolina does not have anti-SLAPP legislation on the books. Richard Moore is reporting on his website that in the wake of the Price lawsuit winding-down, that he is contacting members of the North Carolina state legislature about the matter. Since Richard does not believe much in archiving his own website (sigh), it falls to me to publish his salient points for posterity...

SPEECH IS ONLY FREE TO THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD ITThe final total is not in yet, but it looks like Price's vindictive lawsuit is going to end up costing us between $7,500 and $8,000. Contrary to the mythology, freedom of speech is only available to those who can afford it. It is now apparent that Debbie and I are not people who can afford freedom of speech, which is why Political Soup and the Neely Chronicle will not be returning.

Ron Price lost his lawsuit, but he has accomplished his mission ("I think we reached our goal"), and I have learned a painful lesson about being involved in political and governmental matters.

If Price had won his lawsuit, however unlikely, Debbie and I would have been stripped of everything we own - no money, no home. no cars, no furniture, no appliances, no clothes - nothing. For calling an elected official who stole campaign signs a thief, we would have been left standing naked on the side of the road without even a tin cup.

If the lawsuit had gone to trial and we had won, the cost of successfully defending ourselves would have left us financially ruined. Due to Price's magnanimous decision to dismiss the lawsuit, our finances are merely seriously mangled. Ron Price can now do a victory lap around the Rockingham County School Board dais. Maybe drink some champagne and drape himself in roses while Celeste and Wayne anoint his feet with oil.

Ron Price has defeated me, even though he lost his lawsuit. The newcomer has managed to do what many old-timers have tried and failed. W.L. Pryor, Don Moss, Wink Hoover, Jeff Sykes, Jeff Eanes, George Fleetwood, David Wise, James Festerman, John Henderson, Celeste DePriest, and many others were unable to budge me from my pompous little political pulpit. But the dark and handsome stranger from Florida figured out a way to hand me my head in short order. Reckless Ron dared go where no one else would.

Hail to Mr. Ronald Filer Price. I am a beaten man. I surrender unto Caesar.

Despite the fact that Ron Price will be hailed as a conquering hero by some folks, particularly those on the Rockingham County School Board and in local government, something is very wrong with a legal system that makes such things possible. In most states, this sort of lawsuit would not be filed because it would be too financially risky for a plaintiff to roll the dice on such a weak case.

The majority of states now have what are called "anti-SLAPP" laws. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. A SLAPP lawsuit is typically filed by a public official, sometimes by a land developer or someone seeking approval for a project, who uses a SLAPP to silence his critics. In states with "anti-SLAPP" laws, a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit has to assume the risk of paying the defendant's legal fees if the defendant is found not guilty. Thanks to mass communications, most people think that's the way it works everywhere.

Unfortunately, in North Carolina, there are no "anti-SLAPP" laws. If someone, like a school board member, doesn't like what you are saying, he can sue you without taking any risk. If the case makes it to trial and you are found not guilty because there never was any merit to the lawsuit, you are still saddled with paying for your defense. The plaintiff simply has to find an attorney who will work on contingency - it only costs the plaintiff a third of whatever he wins in the lawsuit. If the plaintiff's attorney doesn't win the case, then the plaintiff owes nothing. If the plaintiff does win, then he and his lawyer could both strike it rich. The defendant's ass is financially busted either way it goes.

North Carolina is one of only a few states where it is possible for an elected official to use the legal system to silence his critics without taking any financial risk. The First Amendment doesn't shield you from the financial punishment that North Carolina's legal system and a vindictive public official can dish out.

The conventional wisdom has long been "anyone can sue you for anything, but that doesn't mean they will win or be able to collect if they do win." The conventional wisdom, which was probably meant to bolster the confidence of people who would dare criticize a public official, left out a very important detail. It fails to take into account what it will cost you to defend yourself against a frivolous lawsuit filed in North Carolina. Conventional wisdom does not apply in North Carolina.

It is ironic that a confessed thief can skate right through our legal system, but his accusers end up paying a heavy fine. Excuse me if I look the other way the next time I see someone committing a crime, but I don't want to lose my home and I'm sure you don't want to see me standing naked on the side of the highway. I now completely understand why people say "I don't want to get involved" or "Please don't use my name."

Take my advice - don't get involved, mind your own business, let our public officials do whatever they want, and keep your mouth shut about it. My advice to you is now my personal policy.

Ron Price lost his lawsuit, but there is no victor in the suit. Debbie and I are certainly not victors. We are not crowing about beating "ol' Ron", as "ol' Ron" said we would. We have nothing to crow about. We've had the shite kicked out of us by "ol' Ron" and we're tired, very tired.

We are not ashamed of what we did, nor do we fear the truth, but we'll never again complain about a public official, or government employee stealing campaign signs, or embezzling money, or dong anything wrong again. "Ol' Ron" and the North Carolina legal system have taught us a lesson we'll not ever forget.

Freedom has taken a much worse beating than Ron Price and our wallets. Our lawmakers should be ashamed for allowing this threat to liberty to exist and thrive in our state. But, our lawmakers are probably glad to have the right to do some SLAPPing of their own should it become necessary to shut someone up. SLAPPING is a convenient and effective way to get around the First Amendment.

The above commentary has been sent to our state legislators in hopes of bringing some much needed reform to our state's legal system. I will let you know if any of them bother to respond.

So far, Richard is reporting that Representative Nelson Cole and Representative Bryan Holloway have responded and are "exploring new laws to prevent vindictive public officials from violating the First Amendment by filing frivolous lawsuits to silence their critics".

They really need to push for this. Because if it could happen to Richard and Debbie Moore, it could happen to you. It could happen to me. Actually it's probably happening to me already: I'm expecting a knock on the door any day now and a deputy sheriff serving me with a lawsuit. Or maybe Price will do the smart thing and forget about it... 'cuz you don't mess with a man crazy enough to blow up a schoolhouse in order to run for board of education.

All I'll say for now is: if Ron Price does hit me with a lawsuit, there's a whole new video already hosted on YouTube - that no one from the public can see yet - that is just waiting to be unleashed. And it's all about Ron Price. And it will have everyone EVERYWHERE laughing at him for all eternity.

That's my own perverse "insurance" against more legal abuse like what Price has already done against the Moores. But in the meantime, if you live in North Carolina, do the right thing: contact your state representatives and senators and tell them that frivolous lawsuit abuse must end. Because it costs regular people a lot more than money: it also costs them their rights... which we only have because many people fought and even died so that we might have them to begin with.

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The lost STAR WARS Tosche Station scene

Hot on the heels of the deleted Harrison Ford cameo in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial showing up on YouTube, an anonymous commenter points us to the mental_floss Blog, which discovered that the long-lost and rather legendary "Tosche Station scene" from the first Star Wars movie (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is also on YouTube. Here it is...

This is the scene where in the original script we first see Luke talking to his lifelong best friend Biggs Darklighter. In the Special Edition of A New Hope that came out in 1997, Luke and Biggs are reunited just before they fly off along with the other Rebels to take on the Death Star. This deleted scene puts that re-introduced bit into proper context. But otherwise, it does tend to drag the story down... had it made it into the final cut. And it must be said: Luke's dialogue with the droid at the beginning of the scene is awfully clumsy.

This scene never made it into any publicly-viewed cut of Star Wars. But strangely, for years there were many people who swore that they at least saw Luke and Biggs having this conversation when they watched Star Wars at the theater. The first time I ever heard of it (including pictures) was from the Star Wars illustrate storybook that came out around the same time as the movie, and the speculation is that a lot of people saw those pictures and somehow "grafted" them into their memories of the movie itself. I know: that sounds a bit wacky. But I've personally met folks who to this day swear that they witnessed this scene firsthand in a theater. And there have been a few rare cases where a film's print got out with material that was supposed to have been excised. So who knows...?

In addition to Biggs, we also see Fixer, Camie, Windy, and Deak. Camie was played by Koo Stark, who wound up being an actress in what some consider to be "soft porno" and later on had a relationship with Prince Andrew. Here's a better pic of Stark as Camie...

If only George Lucas hadn't taken this scene out, 'cuz Koo was this close to being the hottest babe ever made into a Star Wars action figure...

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As if I have to even try to spread the news ...

The seventh season of American Idol begins tonight on Fox.

I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to watch this time. Last season was so flat, I can't even remember who it was who won the thing. The two best seasons to me are still 2 (when it came down to Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard) and 5 (the one that gave us Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry, among others).

But I'll probably check out the audition stage anyway. So much good comedy to be found from the American cult of celebrity and those who'll do anything to get theirs...

8:58 p.m. EST: Whatever novelty that there's been to this show, is gone now. I'm not finding this particularly interesting at all. And there are better things that I can be doing with my time.

Somebody let me know if any talent on part with Aiken or Hicks or Daughtry turns up. I might pay some mild attention then. In the meantime, I'm gonna go read a book.

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The long-lost deleted scene from E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL with Harrison Ford as Elliott's principal!

Shortly after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1982, I heard something very interesting: that among numerous scenes that were filmed but deleted from the final print, there was a cameo appearance by Harrison Ford. He plays Elliott's principal, in a scene that takes place after Elliott goes nuts in the science lab. When Steven Spielberg re-released the movie in 2002 he re-incorporated a lot of the previously deleted material, but Ford's appearance wasn't among the additions. The story is that Spielberg wanted E.T. to be a movie about the children, and the principal's office scene lingered too long on the adults.

So for a quarter-century, I've always been intrigued by this scene. I never thought I'd ever get to see it. And then this morning word reaches me that the deleted Harrison Ford cameo from E.T. the Extra-Terrstrial is on YouTube!

Here it is...

Some thoughts here: I find this to be a fascinating sequence! No audience would fail to recognize Harrison Ford's voice and gestures in this scene. But did you notice how not once do we actually see Ford's face? The focus is still on Elliott and how he's perceiving his predicament. The principal is handled much like how Charles Schulz treated the adults in the Peanuts cartoons (minus the "wah-wah-wah-wah" sound effect).

Whatever Spielberg believed about this scene taking the focus away from the children, I couldn't help but think that it emphasized Elliott's conflict with the adult world that much more. The way this scene is shot, the principal - by taking away what identifies him most as a human, instead becomes an impersonal presence of authority - however soothing his words are - that reinforces this adult mindset that Elliott and the other children are coming to be set against.

Take note also of the very beginning of this clip, as the school nurses apprehend Elliott. Maybe you're wondering: "What's Elliott doing here?" I've seen photos of this over the years but again, this is the first that I've actually seen real footage of it. If you look at the board and the walls, Elliott is drawing what looks to be a diagram of circuitry. This is more of E.T.'s mental influence on Elliott: E.T. had taken apart Gertie's Speak & Spell and he was sending his thoughts about the electrical workings to Elliott, who responded by drawing them on the school walls.

I'd love to see this stuff implemented in a new edition of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at some point.

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SCHRODINGER'S BEDROOM ... now with full credits!

Over the weekend I finally, finally, found time to do an "updated" version of Schrodinger's Bedroom. This was the short film that I made last year as an entry for the short-lived Fox "reality" show On The Lot. It had already been uploaded to YouTube, but that was the version that was submitted for the competition, and unfortunately because of the limit on length that was in the rules I didn't have time to put proper credits in this film. That's always bugged me. So now I get to fix this and let it be, in my mind, a true and proper film that gives a nod toward everybody who helped make it.

So without further ado, here is Schrodinger's Bedroom starring Dawn Swartz, Chris Otto, Selassie Amana, Ed Woody, Olivia Woody, Doug Smith, Tyler Richardson, Melody Hallman Daniel, Chad Austin, Veronica Jones, and a cameo appearance by the director :-)

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Bush Administration claims public is "threatened" by gun ownership

So says U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, speaking on behalf of the Bush White House, which is supporting the District of Columbia's ban on personal ownership of handguns.

Clement also claims that the Second Amendment supports "reasonable regulation" on gun ownership.

They do all of this in the name of the "public".

But let's get real here...

Anytime the government takes more power unto itself, it will always excuse it by saying it's "for the good of the people". But it always, always, does it for itself.

American government long ago ceased being something of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Government in America... and I believe that the Bush Administration and the current Congress have exemplified this more so than at any other time in this nation's history... has long been about raw, naked, unforgiving power for sake of power. Government in America is now unbridled force without moral authority. It does what it will, without worry of retribution or consequence.

Of course this government will not want the people of this country to be armed!

I've said this before, and I will say it again, and I don't care if it does land my name in a database somewhere (which it probably will): the Founding Fathers showed profound wisdom in writing the Second Amendment. They knew fully well that human nature was corrupt and that human nature coupled with collective might was the worst element of our long history. And so there is the Second Amendment, as a last-ditch measure against that...

The Second Amendment is there so that the common American citizen will be empowered to overthrow his or her government, if and when that government becomes a tyranny... as all human government eventually does.

Let me put it another way: the Second Amendment is there to scare those in government with the fact that there really might be someone out there ready to shoot them, if they ever get out of line.

I know that there are no doubt a lot of people who are uncomfortable with that notion, but it's not my own, my friends. That was the belief of the Founders. And they weren't so arrogant as to believe that the government they were establishing was a perfect one by any stretch. They knew that someday, it too would become the very thing that they had already fought and even died fighting against.

Is that time, indeed, drawing near to us?

When government begins telling the people that they are to be limited in how they can defend themselves, then you have to wonder.

I don't think it's the American citizenry who should feel threatened at all. I do believe that the politicians and lackeys in this government should feel threatened, however. That's not too unreasonable a price to expect of them, if they truly wish to be entrusted with the power that comes with government.

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THE STAR WARS VAULT

One of the niftier gifts that I got for Christmas came from my wife Lisa: a copy of The Star Wars Vault.

If you consider yourself a serious student of the saga's production lore, this book is a must-have for your shelf. It's not merely a written tome: it supplements the chronicle of the development and marketing of the Star Wars movies with reproductions of several official documents (including the prospective audience members' questionnaire for the first screening of Star Wars, George Lucas's handwritten notes about The Empire Strikes Back and a copy of John Williams's original composition for the first movie's ending theme). There are also two CDs with audio material, and among them is what might be the closest thing there will ever be toward acknowledging The Star Wars Holiday Special's right to exist: the track of Carrie Fisher singing as Princess Leia!

2007 was the thirtieth anniversary year of the Star Wars saga. It saw a lot of tie-in products, but The Star Wars Vault might be the definitive book that encapsulates the effort and passion that went into crafting this story. I would exceptionally recommend it.

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