Today's trial is tomorrow's testimony!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
It's dogs barking "Imperial March" from the Star Wars movies!!
This is a "teaser" for Volkswagen's commercial during this year's Super Bowl. Yes, Super Bowl commercials now have teasers for them. And even so this is already the greatest Super Bowl commercial in the history of anything...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Movies from alternate realities
It would probably look just like the poster on the right. And that's just one of the many very kewl "what-if?" scenarios that artist Peter Stults has come up with in "Movies from an Alternate Universe". Stults has brilliantly executed a series that... well, just try not to imagine Christopher Walken as the T-1000 when you see this rendering of Terminator 2: Judgment Day!
Great work Peter! And thanks to Kristen for directing our attention to this great feature :-)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
iPad fun with Zoe and Wally (AKA the girlfriend's cats)
This evening Kristen and I were hanging out in one room of her apartment when we heard her cats Zoe and Wally meowing outside the door. I had an idea so I grabbed my iPad, turned on the camera and slid it partly outside under the door. The results? Hilarity!!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Happy 40th anniversary to SANFORD AND SON!
It was forty years ago today, on January 14th 1972, that Sanford and Son starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, premiered. In the four decades since then Sanford and Son has come to be regarded as one of the funniest - and finest - television series ever.
You know you want it: here's the classic opening titles, with that theme composed by Quincy Jones...
But why stop there? YouTube is hosting full episodes of Sanford and Son so if you've never seen the show before (you big dummy!) or you haven't caught it in awhile, here ya go!
Special thanks to Chad Austin for alerting this blog to the day's significance. And beans and diseases to him!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Tired of negative political ads? So am I (and I'm gonna do something about it...)
Four years ago I made a solemn vow to myself, and I have kept to it. Not only that but my conscience has rested much better because of it...
I have created a new Facebook group, Political Candidates Running Negative Ads WILL NOT Get My Vote. It is just what it sounds like: a group for those of us who have pledged to not vote for anyone who runs a negative ad attacking a fellow candidate.
I pledged to not vote for any candidate for public office who runs even a single negative campaign ad against an opponent.
I'm telling y'all right now that the ballot I cast in 2008 had a lot of wide open empty spaces. But the candidates that I didn't vote for, it can't be said that they didn't earn that. Either because I believed they were not suitable for office on their own merits, or because they violated the terms of my vow.
Look folks, seriously: if a candidate spends millions of dollars attacking his or her opponent instead of telling us "This is what I believe and this is how I want to serve you...", why should we trust them with our precious votes?
Is a candidate more interested in being a public servant, or is a candidate more interested in the office, along with the power and influence that comes with it?
How a person conducts himself or herself during a campaign - I believe anyway - indicates the character of that person when he or she gets elected.
If a candidate can't run without running a vicious, nasty negative campaign attacking a candidate, then all that really tells me is that that candidate lacks the creativity, the vision, the leadership qualities to be in an elected position.
I know something of what I speak. I've run for office before, once. I produced three TV commercials on my own. I designed my campaign's yard signs and newspaper ads. Nothing of that material was negative... and I came really close to landing election. Not only that but the campaign earned worldwide attention and praise, so don't even think about telling me that "being nice" won't work.
I guess I just couldn't live with myself if I ran a campaign ad aimed at "the other guy". And I don't see how any other candidate could live with himself or herself either.
We need candidates who will present themselves and what they believe in, nothing more and nothing less than that. If they can't be honest in that much, then they shouldn't be running, period.
But as for the matter at hand...
I know. Some will be saying "But Chris, this is only electing the incumbent! Who is in office is more important than how they play the game, the ads they run, the attacks they make!"
I don't believe that. Because how they play "the game" demonstrates the kind of person that they will be when they get into office.
"We have to do whatever we can to (throw Obama out, defeat Mitt Romney in the primary, etc.)!!"
That's how it always starts. "Get the other guy." It is time for that to end.
There has to be a beginning somewhere. Let it begin with us.
Please keep in mind: This is NOT something I'm associated with or in opposition against any one political candidate or party. What this group is organized about is in regard to something that every political party... and too many politicians within each of them.... is guilty of perpetrating.
It's very simple: a candidate who runs even a single negative ad aimed at an opponent, DOES NOT DESERVE OUR VOTE.
Any political candidate that does this only demonstrates that he or she is after the office for its power, NOT to serve We The People.
Candidates should PROVE to us why THEY deserve enough of our trust to vote for them at the ballot box.
Telling us not to vote for "the other guys because...", ain't gonna cut it anymore.
I am fed up with candidates pulling this kind of crap. They are an insult to me, they are an insult to my community, and they are an insult to the United States of America.
There will be no change for the better in American government until we, the PEOPLE, choose AGAINST the negativity, the anger, the blind hatred that is dominating our political process.
Those who would exploit our baser instincts should be PUNISHED, not rewarded with elected office.
I pledge that if ANY candidate produces and runs for broadcast, print or any other published media even one negative ad or phone call or whatever, then I will NOT vote for that candidate. Ever.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Review of STAR WARS: DARTH PLAGUEIS: Luceno's latest well worth seven year wait!
"Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even stop the ones he cared about from dying."If you are a fan of Star Wars to whatsoever degree at all, leave your chair right now and IMMEDIATELY go to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy of James Luceno's Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. Or go to Amazon.com and order a copy from there. However the heck you must, well... you must! Because Star Wars: Darth Plagueis wildly exceeded my ridiculously high expectations for this novel: a tome that many of us have been waiting nigh on seven years for!-- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine,
talking to Anakin Skywalker
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
There are two massive reasons why I've been stoked about Darth Plagueis. That it's about the eponymous Dark Lord of the Sith who - if you read between the lines - you already know was the mentor of Darth Sidious, AKA Palpatine: the future Emperor and master of Darth Vader. All we've solidly understood about Plagueis until now is from that "ghost story" which Palpatine shares with Anakin in Revenge of the Sith: how Plagueis discovered a path to physical immortality. It becomes the most tantalizing lure that soon brings Anakin to embrace the dark side. But between that and how eventually he was murdered by his disciple, Darth Plagueis has been a massively black question mark: one that legions of fans of the saga have wanted to be addressed for most of the past decade.
The other big reason why I've been looking forward to Star Wars: Darth Plagueis is that it's author is James Luceno: easily among the top tier of Star Wars writers today. And this is a novel that he's been on record as wanting to write since 2005, just before Revenge of the Sith came out. At the time Luceno wanted to pen a tale about how Darth Plagueis and Qui-Gon Jinn in their own unique ways pursued immortality, but how Jinn found the "right" path to it. And for a time it looked like we were going to get that book, along with the backstory of Darth Plagueis.
Then about five years ago the word came down from on high at Lucasfilm that Luceno's Darth Plagueis book had been cancelled. The official rationale given was that it was "decided that this was not the right time to delve into Palpatine's back story and Plagueis's beginnings..." I figured that Plagueis and Palpatine was a subject that was going to forever be a gray area ripe for fan speculation. But then about a year and a half ago it was announced that Darth Plagueis WOULD be published after all.
So here we are in January 2012. Getting my copy of Darth Plagueis was the first thing that I did when I had time on Tuesday morning. I took my own sweet time reading this book and finished it yesterday afternoon.
So was it worth waiting seven years for? Do we finally get definitive answers about the shadowy history of the future Emperor Palpatine and his own Sith Master?
Ohhhhhhh yeah bay-bee!
Heck, I was authentically shocked at how much previously-hidden lore gets exposed in Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. This might be the most revelation-packed Star Wars novel in the history of anything. Luceno went for broke with this and apparently he had loads of input from George Lucas himself about Plagueis and Palpatine, and in my mind there is no question that this might be the most canonical piece of Star Wars literature in many a great moon. And in the hands of accomplished saga storyteller James Luceno - who previously delved into the history of that galaxy far, far away with Millennium Falcon and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader - Darth Plagueis is a masterful work of personal drama, political intrigue and philosophical treatise... all at once!
Darth Plagueis begins 67 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the entire book is essentially a "trilogy", with each third covering a two-year span of time. It's a lot of chronological ground to cover in what amounts to 368 pages of narrative, but Luceno's tactic is extremely effective. When the story begins we find that Plagueis, a Muun, has been apprenticed for many decades to Darth Tenebrous: a Bith Sith (who'da thought a race of jazz artists could produce such a dastardly Dark Lord?). Being of the line of Darth Bane, Plagueis soon dispatches Tenebrous in true Sith fashion. He then makes his way back home to Muunlinst where he enjoys public power and authority as Hego Damask, Magister of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Among other things, Damask runs his own Bohemian Grove-style yearly retreat for the galaxy's top businessbeings and politicians, complete with drunken debauchery and ultra-violent mayhem. But his real passion is for his secret lab: a place where Plagueis is doing all sorts of nasty experiments on living organisms and the midi-chlorians residing within their cells. You see, Plagueis is hellbent on stopping the Rule of Two for all time... by finding a way to be the very last Sith Master: one who will never die. His quest to accrue and consolidate his power behind the scenes soon brings him to Naboo, where Plagueis intercedes in a planetary political crisis. It is on Naboo that Plageuis comes to notice the son of a nobleman: a young man seething with ambition... and possibly something more.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is Palpatine. And we learn more about the future Emperor in Darth Plagueis than we have ever learned before. We come to find out about Palpatine's family, his formal education and the beginnings of his political career. We discover how Palpatine came to be a Sith Lord under Darth Plagueis (just as Plagueis also reflects upon how he became a Sith under Tenebrous). We are shown Palpatine taking his first Force-ful steps down the path of the dark side, and we are there as he is given a new name by his tutor: "Sidious".
Palpatine's rise to power and secret Sith education comprise much of the second part of Darth Plageuis, as Plagueis continues his dark experiments in midi-chlorian alchemy. One notable event which happens during this period is when Palpatine is given a Zabrak infant: the future Darth Maul (bigtime props to Luceno for tying The Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network in and how it gets reconciled with previous Maul-y material!). And gradually we begin to see other pieces of the larger game come onto the board: Jedi Master Dooku's growing dissatisfaction with the Jedi and the Republic they are sworn to serve, the cloners of Kamino, the corruption in the Senate, and the rise to prominence of gangsters like Jabba the Hutt and factions such as the Trade Federation.
And behind all of these disparate threads are the fingers of Darth Plagueis, who is secretly weaving them into the culmination of a thousand years of the Sith's plan to take control of the galaxy for the greater good. But things begin to go awry just as Plagueis learns that the Jedi have discovered a young boy on Tatooine with the highest midi-chlorian count ever recorded: something that leads Plagueis to wonder...
This is a dense book. I think even the font size might be smaller than normal for a Star Wars novel. And Luceno has packed it with lore gathered from the length and breadth of the Star Wars mythos. Expect lots of pleasurable nuggets to be found if you're a serious Star Wars enthusiast, but even if you aren't this is a rollickin' dark, violent, fun and at times even a funny read. In short: everything that a Star Wars story should be... and with Darth Plagueis, James Luceno has not only raised the bar but also put it on top of the whole heapin' mountain.
Star Wars: Darth Plagueis gets my absolutely highest recommendation. It may not have turned into what James Luceno had originally envisioned, but in my opinion what it has become at last is something far more accessible and enjoyable. And if the Flanneled One is wise, he will now let Luceno be turned loose on that tale about Qui-Gon Jinn and the Whills that we know is also out there somewhere.
In the meantime, go get Star Wars: Darth Plagueis. Do it now. Or, perish in flame. It's your choice, but not really.
Obama's recess appointments: I smell hypocrisy
So it's coming out that a bunch of Republicans, including senators Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, are expressing concern about President Obama making recess appointments when the Senate was not in session. Former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese is saying that Obama is committing "a breathtaking violation of the separation of powers."
Oh please...
The Justice Department headed by Eric Holder is defending the appointments as legal. Y'know, just like the Justice Department under President George W. Bush defended his firing of the United States attorneys as being legal. Just like John Yoo went out of his way to argue why his boss Bush should be given powers of a dictator in everything but name. Just like Samuel Alito sought to increase the power of the President by means of redefining so-called "signing statements".
But now the shoe is on the other foot. It's a Democrat in the White House. It's a Democrat running the United States Department of Justice. And right on cue, the Republicans are feigning righteous indignation when we all know that they would have been totally down with helping "their own kind" get away with crap like this.
Just another reason why I cannot in any good conscience support either the Democrat or Republican parties.
The end of general-purpose computing?
It's a bit of a long read, but Corey Doctorow has published an exceptionally well-written piece at Boing Boing about the direction that general-purpose computers are going in regard to SOPA (the "Stop Online Piracy Act") and other dubious legislation. Doctorow recounts the history of digital rights management measures, how they have all ultimately failed and will continue to fail, and how it is driving information as we know and enjoy it to become way too specialized.
Here's a snippet...
...Ultimately, the question is whether every PC should be locked, so that their programs could be strictly regulated by central authorities.Anyone else having visions of the future that William Gibson gave us in Neuromancer, with its black market computer shops and software dealers?Even this is a shadow of what is to come. After all, this was the year in which we saw the debut of open source shape files for converting AR-15 rifles to full-automatic. This was the year of crowd-funded open-sourced hardware for genetic sequencing. And while 3D printing will give rise to plenty of trivial complaints, there will be judges in the American South and mullahs in Iran who will lose their minds over people in their jurisdictions printing out sex toys. The trajectory of 3D printing will raise real grievances, from solid-state meth labs to ceramic knives...
Regardless of whether you think these are real problems or hysterical fears, they are, nevertheless, the political currency of lobbies and interest groups far more influential than Hollywood and big content. Every one of them will arrive at the same place: "Can't you just make us a general-purpose computer that runs all the programs, except the ones that scare and anger us? Can't you just make us an Internet that transmits any message over any protocol between any two points, unless it upsets us?"
"When PCs are outlawed, only outlaws will have PCs!"
Dude's BRILLIANT poem about why following Christ means rejecting religion
Wow.
Just... wow.
"So for religion, I hate it. In fact I literally resent it. Because when Jesus said 'It is finished', I believe He meant it."
I can think of any number of people who I would love to tie down and make them watch this video. This dude, well... he gets what it means to follow Christ.
Legalists, don't watch this if you hate squirming!
Monday, January 09, 2012
I need to laugh. Heck, we ALL need to laugh...
Trying to move forward on some things, after the events of the past few weeks. Our family is still dealing with Mom's passing, and all of the matters pertaining to that.
I'm gonna try to resume blogging in earnest during the next few days, 'cuz a lot of y'all have been sending some really nice compliments and condolences, and apparently this lil' site is a pleasurable pastime for more people than I had realized. That means more than I can possibly convey. So for sake of this site's regular readers as much as my own, I need to get back into the swing of things.
I can share the news that my first real film project in quite a long time is in the very early stages right now. It's something that Kristen and I had the idea for together so we're writing it together! Lord willing we'll start shooting it in the spring. The hard part is finding the right props, though I'm pretty sure the cigarettes and sweaters will be easy to score...
Okay well, we could all probably use a good chuckle, and I know I could. So here's something that I've always found hysterically funny for some reason or another. From 1941 it's Tex Avery's last black and white animated short: "Porky's Preview"!
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey: Where to buy it!!
This has been one of the crazier past few days in this blog's history. Ever since Discovery Channel aired the final episode of its hit series Moonshiners a few nights ago the traffic to The Knight Shift has been ginormous! Seems that all the writing I've been doing over the years about Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton has put me on the radar of likker lovers across the Intertubes. Since the Moonshiners finale aired many of those - and quite a lot of new readers - have been coming here with but one question above all others...
"How can I get some of that Popcorn Sutton moonshine???"
Here's the post that I made back in October when Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey first went on sale. Look at all those comments that have been left since the other night. That ain't even half of the correspondence that's been coming in to my e-mail address (one reader shared a rather interesting story about getting caught making 'shine in Saudi Arabia).
Okay well folks: I can't directly help procure Popcorn Sutton's moonshine white whiskey for you. But I can now point you to a resource that'll help you locate it for legal sale!
The OFFICIAL website for Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey went full-blown LIVE yesterday. When you get past the age-gate you can find plenty more information about Popcorn's life, his trade, aaaaaaand a page with locations of places now selling Popcorn's legal likker! Right now there are only three places listed, each of them in Tennessee (one in Knoxville, one in Nashville and the remaining vendor in Memphis). I am also receiving unverified reports that it has been spotted elsewhere as well (including one possible location in Charlotte, North Carolina). Anyhoo if you're hellbent on getting some of Popcorn Sutton's good stuff, your best bet is gonna be with visiting the website and going from there.
And in case anyone is wondering, I have not yet been able to treat myself to any of Popcorn Sutton's moonshine (regardless of what it's called). I'm not a drinking man by any stretch but for this, I do plan to make an exception. I figure I can't very well write as much about the man as I have and not sample his craft. I'm hoping to fix that soon however. Expect a write-up about it soon. And if y'all are really good there might even be some accompanying video :-)
Friday, January 06, 2012
Separated at birth?
Something I noticed a short while ago...
On the left is Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times. On the right is The Most Interesting Man in the World, spokesman for Dos Equis beer.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Watch MOONSHINERS on Discovery Channel tonight! So sayeth Popcorn Sutton's widow!
Recent events in my personal life have kept me from watching Discovery Channel's new hit series Moonshiners, but many have told me that it's a most excellent reality series about those free souls who make likker in true Appalachian style!
I shall however be tuned in tonight (as well as having my DVR set to record) as I have just received word straight from Pam Sutton, the lovely and vivacious widow of moonshining legend Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, that tonight's episode is supposed to feature Popcorn rather heavily.
I can attest that interest in Popcorn Sutton is soaring of late, as this blog is getting slammed with visits from people Google-ing about Popcorn and his trade. But I should also note that nowhere on The Knight Shift (so far that I know of) can there be found plans to build a moonshine still of one's own. And trust me: people are looking around here :-P
Incidentally, I have also received word that the Third Annual Popcorn Sutton Tribute is set for the first weekend of this coming August! I was able to attend the one this past summer and... well let's just say if last year's second one is any indication, the town of Maggie Valley has a huge, huge thing on its hands that is primed to become a major regular regional event. Will post more as we get closer to summer.
In the meantime, Moonshiners runs at 10 p.m. tonight on Discovery Channel!
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
We can go no further on this side of Jordan...
The array of flowers that were placed atop Mom's casket. The two pink ones are meant to represent her two children...
The teddy bear that my sister Anita placed inside Mom's casket on the morning of the funeral. I enclosed a letter: the last piece of writing that I ever did for my mother.
The casket at the graveside, immediately following the service...
The final resting place of Mom's earthly body, after the grave had been filled...
Southern hospitality
A representative sample of all the food that friends and family brought to our house last week following Mom's death. I swear, we had enough fried chicken alone to run the Colonel out of business!
Monday, January 02, 2012
Mom's memorial video from the funeral service
Three days ago we laid Mom's body to rest. I keep saying "Mom's body" because that wasn't Mom at all, not really. Everything that made Ruby Knight the wonderful, amazing and deeply beautiful woman that she was, God brought into His presence last Wednesday morning and out of that room at the hospice. All that we did two days later was to commit her earthly remains to the cemetery. It was as far as we are able to go in this world.
I am still recovering from it, although I'm sincerely shocked at how well I've been able to maintain myself through it all. Have there been tears? Absolutely. But... my girlfriend keeps telling me that I'm stronger than I was a year or so ago, when this would have completely devastated me. Probably to the point of needing severe medication. But this past week has seen me the furthest thing from that. Maybe the most composed in the face of tragedy that I've ever been. And I really don't know how that could come to be, except by the grace of God.
I am going to be writing a more fitting memorial to Mom on this blog in the next few days, as my thoughts are able to more clearly coalesce. But until then, thought I'd share this with all two of The Knight Shift's faithful readers. Wilkerson Funeral Service was extremely helpful to our family in this time of need, going above and beyond the call of a mortuary firm. But then, it's Wilkerson: I would have expected no less from such a fine, established company. I wish we could have had time to find more photos, but they did a terrific job in assembling the following video which played in the chapel during visitation. I just uploaded it to YouTube a short while ago, mostly so that family who couldn't make it to the funeral can get to view it. Thought I'd share it with this blog's readership as well...
