Here's the surveillance footage. It's like Ocean's 11 with a NASCAR pit crew...
Two things I'm compelled to say from the getgo: first, Jerry Lewis is one of the all-time greatest performers of stage and screen. And second, the Muscular Dystrophy Association is one of the finest charitable groups in the land. All of the money that's raised locally remains local and helps people in your own area. MDA has some of the least overhead of any organization of its kind. I've had a number of friends over the years that MDA has been there for, and has allowed them to know opportunities that they otherwise might never have enjoyed. So if you've some coin to spare, I'd like to urge y'all to donate to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Okay well with that said, let me take advantage of this Labor Day to enlighten you, Dear Reader, of an aspect of Jerry Lewis' career that you might have never known... until now. Because for good or ill that's the sort of thing we do here at The Knight Shift.
I had thought myself fairly well educated on the subject of the Holocaust in cinema. And my breadth of knowledge has not only covered Schindler's List, Europa Europa and the like but also the very real propaganda films of the Nazi government. I have seen Triumph of the Will. And I have also seen Jud Süß ("Jew Suss"): one of the most evil things ever committed to film. Along with very nearly every other movie and documentary pertaining to the Holocaust.
But it wasn't until about two and a half years ago that I first heard about The Day the Clown Cried.
It is a film that you have never seen and probably never will (unless you happen to be Jerry Lewis himself or one of those among his closest circle of friends and associates). The past few years has brought word that legendary "lost" movies like London After Midnight and the original cut of Metropolis may have been re-discovered and could soon see the flicker of light once again.
But that is not likely to be the fate of The Day the Clown Cried. Produced in 1972 and since mired in international litigation regarding ownership issues, it will perhaps forevermore remain the most legendary movie never seen by a public audience.
Maybe it's for the best. I'll let you be the judge. So what's The Day the Clown Cried a movie about?
It's the synopsis that I'll never forget as long as I live: "Jerry Lewis as a clown in a Nazi concentration camp!"
(Feel free to clean the coffee or Coca-Cola or tea from your screen after reading that.)
The Day the Clown Cried is about a washed-up circus clown named Helmut Dork (I swear, this is not a joke people) living in Germany at the height of the Nazi regime. One night while drunk in a bar he begins railing aloud against Hitler and the Nazis, and Dork is promptly arrested by the Gestapo. Poor Dork spends the next few years languishing in a camp for political prisoners, until he winds up making some Jewish children laugh with his antics. The prison commandant eventually puts Dork to work loading children onto train cars headed out of the camp. And then one day Dork accidentally gets locked inside one such car headed to Auschwitz. Upon his arrival Dork is employed by the Nazis as a "Judas goat"/"Pied Piper": entertaining the Jewish children even as he leads them straight into the gas chamber. At the end of the movie, overwhelmed with guilt and grief, Dork accompanies a group of children into the chamber and does his best to make them laugh. Their final moments are as happy as could be expected, before the Zyklon B lulls them into quiet death.
(Again, I swear, I am not making any of this up.)
This was supposed to have been Lewis' first "serious" movie. The script was first written by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton in the early 1960s. Lewis was approached with the project and initially turned it down, believing it was beyond his abilities: "My bag is comedy... and you're asking me if I'm prepared to deliver helpless kids into a gas chamber? Ho-ho. Some laugh... how do I pull it off?"
In the end Lewis fully committed himself to the production, winding up not only portraying Helmut Dork (as Jerry Lew-ish a character name as there's ever been) but also directing the film and co-writing the script. And then just before filming wrapped the money ran out and a very vicious fight over ownership arose (turns out that Lewis hadn't fully secured the rights to produce The Day the Clown Cried in the first place). And so it is that the movie has been tied in up legal limbo for almost forty years.
As for how good a movie The Day the Clown Cried is supposed to be, there is obviously little to go on since so few have seen it. One of them is Lewis' friend and fellow comedian Harry Shearer, who watched a cut of it in 1979. As Shearer put it...
"With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. "Oh My God!" — that's all you can say."But of course, as with such things, there is no dearth of information to be found about it on the Internet. So if you are interested in learning more about The Day the Clown Cried I would recommend checking out Subterranean Cinema's VERY thorough collection of resources about the film (including an exhaustively researched article from Spy Magazine in 1992), as well as FilmBuffOnline's review of the script (which can be found quite easily across the Intertubes).
Personally, having read the script: I don't see how The Day the Clown Cried would have been anything but a box office calamity. The screenplay is a very tired and tedious read, and the best editing isn't apt to salvage an outstanding product from the material. It's all just... irredeemably... wrong.
But in spite of how taken aback and even a bit horrified I was after reading this, I do also believe that there might be a unique place for The Day the Clown Cried in the chronicles of cinema. Having been produced barely a quarter-century after the Holocaust, it's very obvious from the script that the arts and entertainment industry was still struggling to understand how to approach this most delicate of subjects. It would be several more years - many would say that 1978's television miniseries Holocaust began the trend - before Hollywood would start to fully grasp with sensitivity the scope of the Shoah.
All films should be judged according to the period in which they were produced. So it is that for all the problems apparent with it, The Day the Clown Cried... regardless of lack of release... deserves to endure as a noteworthy entry in Holocaust literature and cinema. As much as for how not to make such a film as it is a benchmark of artistic courage to have even considered producing it at all.
Halo 3: ODST continues the legend on September 22nd.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."I've never shared much on this blog about how I came to be a follower of Christ. Lately I've wondered if perhaps it's time to elucidate a bit on how I arrived at that, now nearly thirteen years ago. Which in looking back, really does seem like the starting point of not just a phase in my life, but the beginning of true life itself. Perhaps you've heard the saying "Don't forget in the darkness what you've learned in the light." In retrospect there has been more darkness than light in my own time on Earth and considerably greater periods in the valley than on the mountaintop since I became a Christian.-- Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
And yet, the good times and people and opportunities, and most of all the veritable growth that I've experienced since first turning to Him in 1996 have served to encourage me, to uplift me, and to ever remind me that in defiance of all that this temporal realm insists is reality: the thing WORKS!
But how did I come to that place to begin with?
It was the culmination of a very long and difficult process, that at times I found myself confessing to be anything from a hardcore atheist, to a questioning agnostic, to what I found out later was a deist, and ultimately to believing in a personal God yet also holding myself as one who could never be reconciled with Him.
And then I wound up going to college at Elon, where God put some of the most amazing people that I've ever met into my life. I made so many new friends there who had this light in their eyes and in their lives, this sheer joy that to this day I can't describe how magnificent it was to see, to really see that, for the first time. And it wasn't long before I admitted to myself that I wanted to have that same joy in my own life. So now today I am a Christian... or as I much more prefer to be known, as a follower of Christ.
But even so, I do not now regret or feel ashamed at that long period in which I could not find faith in God at all. And neither can I think any less of those who do consider themselves to be agnostic or atheist.
(There's a marked difference however between atheism and "Big-A Atheism", but that's a topic for another day...)
In retrospect, I see now that even though I may have not been a "Christian" as most people understand it, that despite lacking a singular "salvation experience" that many Christians insist upon, I was yet already on the path that would take me there... and I cannot help but believe that God was going to see me through to it.
Why? Because Jesus promised as much in Matthew 7 when He taught us that "Ask... seek and you will find." He didn't say "you might find it". He said "you WILL find"! I was already searching out the truth, whatever that was going to irrevocably be. And in His own time, Christ led me to the discovery that He was the Truth. So He will do... and does do... for all who seek Him whether they realize it or not.
What does this mean for those of us who have at last found the Truth? I believe that even though "our quest is at an end!" (to quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) that our seeking for Christ yields to that which will never be completed in our time on this world: a seeking after Christ. Finding Christ is just the beginning. From then on in this life there comes the ongoing process of sanctification. We are not perfect in our time in this world and we're not meant to be perfect here either. But it is in our failings that His grace is made manifest as a testimony of Christ to those who are yet seeking for Him...
And trust me: there are many more people than we as Christians realize, who are looking for that Truth in one way or another. Maybe not to our own satisfaction... but God knows who they are, and He will not forsake them for their earnest seeking of Him.
All the more reason then for those of us who have found Him to abandon the pretense that merely finding Christ is the "be all and end all" of our spiritual growth. It's one of the saddest things I can think of when a person boasts of his or her own salvation and then sneers at the merest thought of having a life of change and growth - more painful than we often admit, it must be noted - that won't stop until their dying breath.
What's wrong with that though? We who claim to have found Christ and then deny Him so much opportunity to work in our lives and our hearts and our minds. There should be no shame in acknowledging that we have fallen but that He Who is within us has yet overcome.
That is not just a denial of Christ. That is a denial of the very Truth that we allegedly had been seeking out in the first place!
And if those around us are still seeking after Truth cannot see that we have faith in that Truth, then we have made their search only that much harder. Again, I don't doubt that God recognizes those who are looking for Him and that He will lead them to Him in His timing... but all too often we certainly don't make it any easier for Him.
And then there are those of us professing Christ who hasten to damn those who not only haven't found God on "our" terms already but seem to insist to one degree or another that they can't accept His being there at all.
Let me share something that some of y'all might find downright shocking: it is not a sin to be an agnostic. I don't know if it can even be said that it's a sin to be an atheist. And in my experience there is a huge difference between a person who humbly cannot believe in God and that person who harbors bitterness and hatred toward the very idea of God (but again, that's something for another post).
What else can I say? I know what I'm talking about because I've been there. And in hindsight my own atheism and agnosticism were just the first steps toward my eventual discovery of Christ.
Is there anything wrong with that? Is there anything inherently wrong with anyone who cannot help but find himself as an agnostic, provided he is yearning to see and seek the truth of the matter? Because truth is adamant and absolute. And for those of us in Christ already we should understand: He is Truth. We should put a lot more faith in Him in that regard... and we should have more faith in our fellows that they also can find that Truth. But it will be to God's credit and not ours that they find it.
Am I suggesting that the way to salvation is broad and wide open and that "anything goes"? Not at all. I am openly positing however that for those who desire salvation for the right reasons, that they will seek for it and that God will be faithful to bring them at last to Christ, for His sake and not that of any man, and that as always we have a choice to follow Him. Just as we who have chosen Him already have a lifetime of choice... which thankfully He will gladly forgive us for when we err and choose wrong.
So to my fellow believers in Christ who may be all too quick to condemn they who are deemed "agnostic" or "atheist": please, don't.
Because none of us have any real inkling at all about what the other person is going through in this life, and the search that he or she is likely on for the truth and the Truth.
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, LucasArts and BioWare's 2003 role-playing game, has just become available for purchase on Steam. For $9.99 you can download and play what many deem is not only the greatest Star Wars game ever, but has been wildly praised as one of the finest computer games of all time.Set four thousand years before the rise of the Empire in the film series, Knights of the Old Republic depicts a "more civilized age" for the galaxy. Unfortunately a Sith Lord named Darth Malak is leading a vast army of Sith against the Republic and especially any Jedi that happen to get in the way of his conquest. The game begins with the player's character waking up on a Republic ship that has fallen under attack by the Sith. And what happens from that moment on is entirely up to you: the choices you make during the game affects pretty much everything else that follows afterward, right up to which ending you get. Play the straight and narrow and you'll wind up a hero of the Republic, while yielding to temptation will lead to the Dark Side and all the power and glory and pleasures befitting the fallen.
Long story short: it's a very good game that's more than worth the purchase price. And hopefully LucasArts will also have Knights of the Old Republic II for sale on Steam sooner than later. So what are you waiting for? Buy it today, ya meatbags!
Sheetz opened its first (and hopefully not last) location in Rockingham County this past week, located in Eden at Van Buren Road and Stadium Drive (it's right next door to King's Inn Pizza for those of y'all familiar with local geography). I paid my first visit to the new place today and was delighted to get another of their scrumptious Italian sandwiches. Up 'til now I've had to go to Greensboro or High Point for the nearest Sheetz. Now there's one just 20 minutes away! And like all the other Sheetz stores it's open 24 hours, 365 days a year.
So since this is about Sheetz, like the other two times I've posted on this blog about this company here's that "Feel The Love" commercial that's been running all summer...
And then there's this other commercial from a few years ago for the chain, that shamelessly apes televangelism...
Anyhoo, if you're in the area there's a new place for great food whenever you get the munchies. Check 'em out!
He was so intoxicated that he could barely sit in his chair and soon fell asleep after only 11 moves.
His inebriated state cost Tkachiev the match after tournament officials decided he was in no condition to play and after Tkachiev had run afoul of the hour and thirty minutes time limit.
(Maybe Tkachiev should consider taking up chess boxing instead? :-)
And yesterday the site showcased the stunning work of some folks who took LEGO and rendered some classic images from the Dune saga...
I'm now tempted to break out my own LEGOs and see if I can build Leto II or a Guild Navigator :-)
Now comes word that the fire chief of the town has been shot at by Jericho police officers when he got into an argument with them about their out-of-control ticketing practices. Don Payne had to go to court twice in one day, and it was during his second trip that the altercation took place and Payne took a bullet to the hip.
Oh yeah, this was in the middle of the courtroom.
And according to the story, the town's prosecutor doesn't plan to file felony charges against the officer. Payne however might face a misdemeanor charge for the fracas (what the...?!). No word at all on whether the cop who shot him will be punished in any way whatsoever.
(Anyone else thinking that the "internal investigation" will come back and say that this cop did nothing wrong?)
Meanwhile, Jericho's police force has been disbanded for the time being and a judge has voided all the outstanding traffic tickets until the town's mess gets straightened out.
Considering that so many towns across the country are now short on cash, I wonder how many more times we'll be hearing about stories like this...
"Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out."I remember my Nintendo Entertainment system, and after a couple years' use something messed up inside that kept the cartridges' contacts from meeting those of the console when you pushed it down. I put in some cartridges and noticed that after inserting them fully they were coming back up very slightly. Just enough, I figured, to keep the console and cartridge from connecting with each other.
So I took some springy wire from a spiral notebook, and duct-taped the ends of it to the console cover and the cartridge-holding thingy. It provided the needed pressure to get the game's contacts touching those of the console. And I never had anything go wrong with it again.
It was a problem that I took some pride in figuring out on my own, by observation and deduction. Could kids today figure it out as well? I've no doubt that they can, but they'd probably run to Google first for a quick fix. Not quite as satisfying as conjuring it up with your own gray matter :-)
Here's the latest trailer for The Road...
There are five more clips from The Road up The Movie Rambler.
And if you haven't read it already, I cannot say enough how good a novel The Road is. You should be able to find it at most bookstores, on Amazon.com 'course and maybe even at your local "big box" store.
Martin Anderson at Den of Geek has written an essay about the corridor in science fiction, praising it as an effective tool for establishing setting, emotion and plot. Such an overlooked design and yet as Anderson notes, the sci-fi corridor has become as inspiring as it is ubiquitous. Quite a good lil' read :-)
"Weird Al" Yankovic just announced on his blog (yes Al has a blog now, in addition to his website, his Twitter account and his YouTube channel and his Facebook page... quite a technophile this guy is) that The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic will hit the streets and online retailers on October 27th.
What is The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic? Two glorious CDs (yes: actual physical media!) of choice goodness from Weird Al's first twelve studio albums. Check out this track listing!
DISC 1All of that Al goodness for only $15.98! And I must say, this is quite a smart assortment from across Weird Al's career: both parodies and originals (and there's even the extra gory version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy"!). If you've yet to discover the musical genius of "Weird Al" Yankovic (where the heck have you been?!) then this set is going to be a very good starting-off point. And if you're a longtime fan like me, well you and I are gonna buy this anyway... right?!?
1. "Another One Rides The Bus"
2. "Polkas On 45"
3. "Eat It"
4. "I Lost On Jeopardy"
5. "Yoda"
6. "One More Minute"
7. "Like A Surgeon"
8. "Dare To Be Stupid"
9. "Dog Eat Dog"
10. "Lasagna"
11. "Melanie"
12. "Fat"
13. "UHF" (single version)
14. "The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota"
15. "Trigger Happy"
16. "Smells Like Nirvana"
17. "You Don't Love Me Anymore"
18. "Bedrock Anthem"
19. "Frank's 2000" TV"
20. "Jurassic Park"DISC 2
1. "Since You've Been Gone"
2. "Amish Paradise"
3. "Gump"
4. "Everything You Know Is Wrong"
5. "The Night Santa Went Crazy" (extra gory version)
6. "Your Horoscope For Today"
7. "It's All About The Pentiums"
8. "The Saga Begins"
9. "Albuquerque"
10. "eBay"
11. "Bob"
12. "Hardware Store"
13. "I'll Sue Ya"
14. "Canadian Idiot"
15. "Pancreas"
16. "Don't Download This Song"
17. "White & Nerdy"
18. "Trapped In The Drive-Thru"
Years ago I bought a copy of The Atlas of Middle-Earth, Karen Wynn Fonstad's classic and exhaustively-researched tome dedicated to the geography of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. More than a decade and a half later it remains one of the favorite pieces of my fantasy/science fiction library. And almost immediately afterward I began thinking that the Star Wars saga needed some cartographic love too.There have been a number of attempts - both official and fan-driven - over the years to accomplish such a task, and now Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry have produced what is by far the definitive volume of maps from that galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars: The Essential Atlas (LucasBooks) is a whopping 256 pages packed with full-color maps, illustrations, diagrams and loads of fluff from the entire thirty-plus decades of Star Wars storytelling. I bought my copy a few days ago and since then I've spent quite a bit of time enjoying the overwhelming sense of place and history that Wallace and Fry have captured and conveyed from George Lucas' beloved space opera. All the eras that have been chronicled so far of Star Wars lore are covered: from the pre-Republic days and the founding of the Jedi Order, to the tumultuous millennia wracked by the Sith, on through the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire... and beyond. I caught a few minor errors in the book, but nothing substantially wrong. But then, I can only imagine that the biggest of Star Wars geeks (like me :-) would have caught them, they're so tiny. Indeed: a work as grand in scope as Star Wars: The Essential Atlas would normally contain many more and even bigger mistakes. As it is, the book stands tall as both a testament to Wallace and Fry's outstanding work, and the spirit of both Star Wars and its devotees in general.
There seems to be a good upswing lately so far as Star Wars literature goes. Star Wars: The Essential Atlas is certainly one of its finest, and well worth investing some coin toward if you're at all a fan of the saga. It definitely should not be missed from your Star Wars bookshelf.
What a year for weird crime. Back in February it was a robber armed with a Klingon sword holding up 7-Elevens in Denver. But the story out of Zachary, Louisiana is even more bizarre...Lisa Newsome (shown in the surveillance camera still on the right) has been arrested for theft. The crime she has confessed to police: stealing a 12-pack case of Miller Lite beer from Crossroads Grocery and attempting to leave the store with it... by carrying the beer between her legs and hidden under her oversized house coat!
If you look carefully at the photo you can clearly see the crate of Miller Lite protruding from... well, under her attire.
Police in Zachary are reporting that Newsome "attempted to show us how she did it, but we told her not to pull her pants down."
I wonder how far she got walking away with that thing?
(I've made some edits on the profanity and the phone number at the end, which according to the country code is based in Nigeria.)
RANKLE Jones The Golfer "Film Production"If this is meant to be parody, it's brilliantly written. And if it's legit well... maybe we should forward it to Hollywood? :-PDear Sir,
I have a full length tragedy movie script title: RANKLE Jones The Golfer. It is a new idea, full of suspense and thrill. I need a production company and financial investment into this movie production as it will make a block buster.
Jones enjoys golf playing, hoping to be a professional golfer like Tiger Woods. Professional golfers play in golf field, ours play at home. No f***ing son of a b**ch will accept correction. The pride of what is yet to be is a destroyer. Jones: Everyone in life have a dream and aspiration to fulfill, so I am too. My life, my all will go to a sport I love and cherish most. Golf is my dream game, a sport I love. Let’s go golfing.
Rudolf drug life flashes of wealth caught Jones napping as he was convinced to take part in one of the most bloody drug cartel deal.
Shelly is a desire of every men but her stinking lifestyle of prostitution can’t let her settle for a man.
Jones fought Elvis in the night club all because of a fames sex machine Shelly with Rudolf, Alex and others watch with no one allow to separate until someone quit for the other.
There are a lot of happenings at the night club.
Gangsters and Police combat force.
Why is Jeff called the master by Rudolf, Elvis, Jimmy and others?
It is traumatic to live with nutty breed of human, all in the name of family-hood. Traumatic experiences of Ray of hatred, alienation by all his family members, his emotional disgust and good moral negligence on the part of his parent on the family.
His erratic brother Jones gave him a blood bath, living his life-less body after which he was in oblivious state. Ray is cast away and also an object of mimic.
Hilda gave Ray a taste of love life which has been missing for years. I love you mum because you hate me. Cassandra my sister is no different from my mum Vera. Ray’s love life with Hilda left nothing to be admiring as it is an ocean of perfect love for both of them.
Jones finally golfed out daddy’s ''Kenny'' breath, as he was left to his pool of blood. Jones life turns sour of no savvy as he committed suicide. Those that bury mines indiscriminately will one day fall victim to mine explosion.
There are golf scenes, fist fighting, snake scenes, club scenes, sex scenes, drug scenes, Police shoot out, gangster, hovercraft, Apache helicopters and Belgian attack dogs.
The script is over 120 pages.
This production has good advert spaces that will be integrated into the movie without it interfering, as the production is purely commercial. This is a viable promotional vehicle to boost your products and services across the globe considering the much success this movie will achieve.
Thanks for finding time to read through. Only get back to me if you are ready for us to proceed with this viable movie production.
Best Regards.
PRODUCER
Onyema Emmanuel.
+234**********
And then Anderson told his congregation this...
"I'm gonna pray that he (Obama) dies and goes to hell when I go to bed tonight. That's what I'm gonna pray."(By the way, it's now being reported that Anderson has been visited by the Secret Service, parse that as you will.)
I know that Steven Anderson doesn't represent the vast majority of Christians in America. Just as I know that media sensationalism is likely to spin him as something more than what he really is... which in my opinion is just a petty thug who believes God has given him a mandate of hate.
But even so, I will be the first to admit that for too many Christians in this country, there is a very unhealthy and even un-biblical obsession with worldly politics.
Longtime readers of this blog know that I don't think much of what Barack Obama has done as President. And a lot of you know that I hold and still contend that George W. Bush was the worst President in American history (so far anyway).
Have either of these two meant anything to me - either negative or positive - as a follower of Christ? Not in the slightest.
Oh, I'll pray for Obama, just as I did for Bush, and just as I did for Clinton before them. But those prayers aren't significantly more or less than my prayers for anyone else in this country and in this world.
Because for good or ill, the office of President and every other institution of government is part of a world that we may have to live with, but as Christians we aren't meant to be living for. Those of us who follow Christ have been sent out into this realm as ambassadors for His kingdom, not to wage bitter battle for a carnal realm that is consigned to ultimate fire.
And then someone like Steven Anderson comes along, who demonstrates that obsession to the degree that he is willing to pray for Obama's death and damnation as opposed to Obama's salvation.
What does that speak of Christians and the faith we profess to have in God? Honestly, it's like Anderson doesn't have faith that God is capable of anything at all.
I know of too many Christians who rejoiced wrongly when Bush was President, and lament with equal or greater wrath about Obama being in the Oval Office. But in truth, it's not either of these men that have created or destroyed anything that might remain of virtue in America.
That is something that inevitably is the product of her people. And if the Christians of this land are incapable or unwilling to show forth the Christ that calls us to "love one another" and to pray for our enemies, then it is only ourselves as Christians whom God will hold accountable for the condition of this nation.
