Christmas Held Hostage

The past 2 years Christmas was not held hostage. In the years past, Christmas used to be held hostage... by my brother.

Presents would be opened Christmas morning after everyone had eaten breakfast. No exceptions. Everyone had to have eaten breakfast. It's the rules. Since I am still a 5 year old somewhere in my fevered brain, I would get up early, eager to open gifts. My brother would get up later than the rest of us. At a certain point I would pound on his door to wake him, though I suspect he was awake but waiting.

But even then we couldn't open gifts because he hadn't eaten. It pissed me off that he would have my mom make him breakfast like he was a 5 year old who didn't know how to cook. Which is ridiculous. So he would have coffee and eggs and toast or some such. And he would chew slowly.

Are you fucking kidding me!?! It's Christmas! There's loot to open!

Eventually we would get to open gifts. All much later than if he didn't intentionally dawdle. He did it on purpose I think because that was the only power he had in the family dynamic.

But this year and last, for various reasons, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve. My mom used to do it that way when she was a kid on the farm she grew up on. Mainly because they had chores in the morning, I think. Cows to tend to and whatnot. So last year we opened the gifts on Christmas Eve for the first time ever. My brother just about had a meltdown. He hadn't wrapped anything, and there was no tree up, and, and, and...

He calmed down and we all exchanged gifts.

But what I secretly think is that he didn't want to lose his leverage over the rest of us. He could no longer keep us waiting by having a leisurely breakfast. i.e. Hold Christmas hostage to his timeline. We didn't have to wait for him.

I kind of like the opening of presents on the night before. And I really like not having Christmas being held hostage by my brother.

Determination and Goals

Jordan Romero of southern California has become the youngest climber to summit the tallest mountains on all 7 continents. He finished his last one recently. Antarctica. He did Everest at 13.

I wrote about this kid here: http://spartacus2001.blogspot.com/2010/06/bad-parenting-2-examples.html

I got to hand it to this kid. It's an impressive thing to do just one of the higest mountains. But Antarctica? That's a whole other thing just for the climate alone.

If he did this at 15, what will this determined kid do as an adult? He might be able to accomplish pretty much anything. I see a movie about him being made. A movie was made about the guy who got trapped an had to amputate his own arm. Think how much more uplifting this story would be?

So, congratulations to Jordan. You make the rest of us feel like slackers. Though I did climb Camelback Mountain again this past week. It's only 1300 feet high and a 1.4 mile trail, but not bad for someone who has not been 15 in a while.

Directors

I was at a screening of War Horse recently. There was a guy sitting in front of me talking to another guy. Apparently Guy #1 is in some sort of school. A directing program. I didn't catch which school. I was trying to read but this guy was saying some things that struck me as crazy. So I split my attention between my book, and Guy #1.

This directing school has him taking a lighting class. Ugh. Such a bother. (Really?) And he would have to take classes to learn about cameras. Ugh. (Really?) And they had done field trips to Panavision and Arri, and Clairmont.

This guy's thought was, "I'll just tell someone what I want the shot to look like."

This one statement made me think he had no idea or clue. Did he really think he could skate thru a shoot, any shoot without knowing how to line up a shot? Know something about lighting?

Most of the directors I know, either big time professionals or ones that do small projects, know how to handle a camera, line up a shot, something about lighting. Does this guy think that Speilberg doesn't know what camera lenses do? Yeah, you have a DP to do the heavy lifting, someone you can speak shorthand with, but really... On commercials I hear the director tell the DP to change lenses, go from a 50 to a 28 or something similar. They know what the lenses do, they know how it's going to look rather than describing "I'd like more of a fish-eye look..."

I know a director who teaches a class on guerilla film making at Comic Con every year. He seems to know something about probably every camera format there is for use by small productions. And probably the bigger systems. He's intensely curious and looking for the next thing that may be cool which he can use. That's the director I like. Smart, curious, and not someone who feels superior and entitled to a career.

This Guy #1 reminded me of a director I worked with on a sketch comedy show years ago. He was not very good. Couldn't tell the arc of a story to save his life or make the day go quickly. On a tech scout the DP said, "We could do this from the dog's POV." The director said, I shit you not, "What's a POV?" There was a pause when everyone stopped and looked at him, "I don't know and I don't care."

God forbid Guy #1 is connected or has a famous last name. I hope he has someone take him aside and mentors him on how things are done.

The Escape of Refrigetron

For years he was bound into service. His chains? A 3 pronged cable that secured him to the wall. He waited patiently and subserviently looking for a moment to escape. To be free of his oppressor, his jailor. Chances to escape were few and far between. The jailor was never far away and would come into the room, open him up and pull things from his innards. In his cold heart and freezing mind he endured the humiliation. He waited.

Years passed. A malady afflicted him, a coughing wheeze. Surely this would bring someone to save him, to diagnose and repair him. Maybe the sickness was enough to ensure his freedom, to be taken from this room and freed. But the jailor was smarter than he thought and dug into his body with tools. The jailor ham-handedly pulled the coughing wheezing malady out of him and replaced it with a new part. This made Refrigetron run better, smoother.

And he hated the jailor even more.

Years passed. Refrigetron formed a new plan. The only reason he was bound into service was because of his could heart and freezing brain. He decided to warm his heart and brain. He slept.

The jailor noticed water dripping down Refrigetron's sides and pooling on the floor. He pulled open the brain and despaired. This was a problem he could not fix. The age and the cost made it impossible to change the outcome. There were condenser coils and elements to create the cold. After years and years this was the death of his faithful servant. Quickly he pulled out the expensive parcels that were heating up and found a place to store them.

In less than 18 hours Refrigetron was dead. His once cold heart and freezing mind were blowing hot air in the empty innards. The jailor pulled the restraints, the 3 pronged chains, from the wall and got a mechanism to lift the carcass of Refrigetron. The jailor placed Refrigetron unceremoniously on the street. It was the first time the sleeping giant had been outside in years. The last time was before he was bound into service.

Refrigetron waited. He waited until dark. From the windows in his room he had seen the alternating light and dark as the days passed. Now he saw it for himself. When it was dark, and no one was around on the street, no cars, no people, Refrigetron woke. He shook off his years of lethargy and stretched. Legs and arms transformed from inside his boxy shape, his head popped up from it's hiding place. He looked around. No danger.

With slow lumbering strides from years of staying in one place, Refrigetron disappeared into the night, finally free.

Long story short, My fridge died. I placed it on the street, and in less than 4 hours it disappeared. I think it got up and walked away.

Everyone is a Geek

Everyone is a geek about something. This something is a topic they choose to explore and enjoy, obsess over, learn obscure facts about, practice, watch, chat with other people about over coffee.

But not everyone would call themselves a geek. Some are football fans. Some are baseball fans. Some are soccer fans. Also called football in Europe... But fans of sports probably wouldn't call themselves geeks for the Green Bay Packers, or the Boston Red Socks, or Real Madrid. But they are. When someone can tell the stats for a player or about a win or loss that still irks them. They are a geek.

Sci Fi Geeks get a bad wrap because the thing they are geeks about are kinda geeky. But they get the same kind of enjoyment football fans do. "But they dress up like Kirk and Spock!" the football fans might protest. "Yeah, but you have a Brett Favre jersey on. Same thing..." would be my reply. And then I would need to run out of the bar before they took a swing at me...

Being a geek about something is not a bad thing. It makes buying gifts a snap. My dad is a nut for 1957 Lincoln Mark II cars. He owns 2 and has a side business selling parts. So in the past 10 years I have found every model, toy and replica of a Mark II possible to get him as a gift. He loves them. Easy. I had a friend who was a huge Wonder Woman geek. I got her comics in French when I was traveling, and other memorabilia over the 3 years I knew her. She was easy to get gifts for.

I'm a geek about a lot of things. I have a lot of interests and accumulate information and trivia about them as I go thru my life. So be proud of your geek nature and let people know what it is. You will find out how many other people are geeks for things too.

OUTRAGE!

I can't tell you how OUTRAGED I am about the Penn State child rapist. I refuse to say alleged. He was seen anally raping a 10 year old in the shower by an assistant coach. The assistant coach told Paterno the next day. So legally he did what he was supposed to do, tell his superior. Paterno told the university president above him within 48 hours. That was what he was legally supposed to do.

Morally, the assistant coach should have walked into the shower fully dressed, pulled the rapist off the boy and beat the LIVING SHIT out of him. And as the coach lay bleeding in the shower unable to move, then the assistant should have called 91 fucking 1. To walk away from such a horrific sight makes this guy not even human in my book.

To not stop this attack, you former college football quarterback, is criminal. You are 28 years old, over 6 feet tall and you are afraid to stop a 55 year old man from raping a child? What the fuck is wrong with you? You might lose your job? He's Paterno's friend? Fuck that, save the child!!!!

As you can see I have a strong sense of justice. Or is that vengeance? This old rapist should be sent to jail for the rest of his life. But put in the general population of the prison. And the convicts should be told what he did. It's kind of funny, but criminals don't like child rapists. Even in prison there is a code of ethics. Things you don't do. Raping children is pretty high up on the list. I kind of think this guy should be fed to sharks as human chum. But repeatedly. He should be pulled out of the water, whatever parts are missing should be sewn up, and given time to heal, then throw him back in. Do this for about 6 months or until he eventually expires. Horrible? What the fuck do you think he did to those kids? Scarred them for life. This guy's life should be a horror.

I read somewhere a long time ago a pedophile saying that a 4 year old could take a penis in it's rectum without causing damage. Are you nuts? Insane? It's an abomination to even think that way. What makes this fucked up individual think any 4 year old conceived of such a thing?

People like that deserve no mercy. Bullet to the head is too quick.

Children are to be protected.

Concert Observations

I worked a Chris Brown concert last night. It was enough to make me realize a few things I had known for a long time but never stated.

But first a quick review of the concert; 12 Back up dancers, a multi level stage that lights up with LEDs, costumes that light up with pulsing LEDs, a huge video wall, lasers, pyro, compressed CO2 jets and a 6 foot mirror ball can't really hide the fact that Chris Brown is not a very talented guy who beats women.

His concert was a tribute to excesses in stage production for a singer. There was so much going on in the relatively small stage that it looked ridiculous. As we were setting up, a fellow rigger stated something I had known, but never thought about.

The acts who are the least talented have the biggest stages, a crazy amount of special effects, moving lights, lasers, smoke machines, CO2 jets, and pyrotechnics. This seems to me to be an admission by the singer or band that they really are there on the stage with a small amount of talent and style. So all the crazy effects and displays of technology are to entertain the audience because the singer alone isn't enough.

Another example of this was a Jonas Brothers concert I worked 3-4 years back. They had a huge set with multiple levels and they ran all over the place. They had more pyro than an AC/DC concert. Which is really hard to do.

I also noticed, especially now, the headliner brings out special guests to come out and sing or rap with them. This I find odd. If you are the headliner you should be talented and comfortable enough to carry a concert by yourself. Would Elvis had brought out Johnny Cash or Jerry Lee Lewis to help him out on a few songs? No. They may have been on the same hayride circuit in the South, but they were individual acts which needed no help to mesmerize an audience.

Many singers today can't really sing. There is auto-tune to correct or distort the voice. They can't sing live without help. So they dance and run around and have a stage full of distractions. The show in show business has gotten frenetic in the hunt for consumer's dollars. The talent which used to be impressive is diminished. It's prepackaged and over produced for the internet and television. A good look can be tweaked to make it appear like the singer has talent. Ke$ha is a great example of this.

The concert last night made me think of an MC Hammer concert I worked. There was a lot of dancers and dancing and Hammer ran around the stage constantly, but he rarely sang. Even then the stage show was to mask the lack of talent.

But what, you might say, about U2? Or The Rolling stones? Or The Who? Or Pink Floyd.

Those acts do have large stage shows. But they add to the music. The intent is not to distract you from the music. And if you really look, the singers, the band, are performers at a different level than Chris Brown. They are great writers and solid performers. The technology adds to the performances and the music. It isn't instead of them.

So when I see a small act roll up with 6 trucks or more I will know that I'm in for a show, and not much talent.

PS. My favorite part was when Chris Brown was lowered into the stage on an elevator while flames burned behind him and all over the stage. It looked like he was descending in Hell. Appropriate for a guy who beats women.