Downfall (2004)

Downfall is a truly amazing film about the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.

The film, based on the life of Hitler's last secretary, Traudl Junge, shows us the inner workings and true insanity that occured in Hitler's underground bunker in Berlin as the Russians and Americans took over their city. Alexandra Maria Lara plays the role of Junge and illustrates the innocence and loyalty that allowed her to be alive during this monumental time. Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler is nothing short of brilliant. His performance as the iconic, evil leader will stay with me for years to come.

The film, in German with English subtitles, begins with Junge and a group of other young ladies being called, in the middle of the nigth, to Hitler's bunker to interview to become his secretary. Junge's youth and the fact that she, as with Hitler, came from Munich, wins her the job. Hitler treats her with kindness and patience and respect, as a father would treat a daughter. On later occasions, however, when faced with the insurmountable task of defending his city and losing grip on his dreams, Hitler's rage is in full force. Every failure is treated as a personal betrayal to Hitler and he openly brags that he lacks any compassion, as it is a sign of weakness. When his decisions put the civilian population of Berlin in danger, Hitler blames them for the loss, believing that their weakness is at the root of the Third Reich's demise and that he shares no concern for their well being.

Downfall is one of those rare pieces of filmmaking that can actually be called a masterpiece. All of the actors are amazing and the writing is tremendous. To see such historic people at the end of the war is a stunning thing to observe. These leaders had tied their very existence to this dream of the Third Reich and as it crumbles around them, so does their own identity, their reason for living.

I cannot say enough good things about this film. Downfall is a must see film... period.

Planned Parenthood Turns Record Profit Hacking Up Babies

Exploitation of the weak for profit is a time honored tradition in human history. It worked for the Nazi's with the Jews. And the Confederates with the Slaves. Now with Planned Parenthood and Unborn Human Life. What trendsetters! Brilliant.

Per Lifesite News, Planned Parenthood reports a record $882 million income, $63 million of which is pure profit.

Who would have thought that a Nazi-esque medical experiment of chopping up babies in the womb so peoples lives wouldn't be inconvenienced by responsibility and accountability could be so lucrative.

It just goes to show you how great America truly is! All you need to do is take ANY idea, no matter how repulsive, convince people it will make their lives better, market it, sell it, get the government and the courts behind it and wallah! Pure profit. You can take it to the bank.

I can't wait to see this business model studied and lauded in such journalistic giants as the Wall Street Journal or Forbes. It's sure-fire winner.

Maybe they'll expand and open up Planned Grandparenthood, where they'll offer out patient euthanasia clinics. Or Planned Psychiatry, where they offer assisted suicide to anyone too depressed to know it's not a bad idea.

If only they would open up Planned Planned Parenthood, where they'd abort, euthanize or just kill themselves. That could be their ultimate gift to the world.

Goin' Out To Cally - Part 29, Fissure Formation

Our trip up and down the Canyon made me aware of one thing… Sunday was higher maintenance than I expected. Let me be clear, I’m not saying she was high maintenance, only that she was higher maintenance than I expected.

What did I expect? Me, of course.

At that age I expected everyone to look at the world, react to the world, approach the world with the same, casual “let’s have fun and see what happens next” viewpoint.

That’s what makes youth so stupid… ignorant expectations like that.

Tim had a similar approach to life to mine so we were completely compatible. Beth, not as much, but more so than not. In reality, Beth was more responsible and adult in her method, which annoyingly got in the way of Tim and me acting like immature and selfish buffoons. At the time, it seemed inconvenient. In reality, she was the most responsible of the group.

Sunday’s approach, on the other hand, was completely different. She wasn’t being difficult, she was just being her. And we hadn’t known her long enough to anticipate it nor would we have the patience, in the pressure cooker of this trip, to grow to love it.

She was put into this unique and stressful situation by yours truly and was responding to it the only way she could. I’m sure she was equally as frustrated by the fact that our approach to the world didn’t mesh with her own.

The critical areas of which Sunday and the rest of us differed was that Sunday never seemed to have a sense of urgency. Everything seemed to move about five miles slower for her than for us. Quite often we found ourselves waiting for her to catch up. I’m not sure if it was a play for attention or she just moved to a slower drummer than I did.

Plus, she liked to vocally comment on areas or concerns that were not of her liking, no matter if we could have changed the outcome or not. Men like to solve things. That’s what we do. Complaining about something to which we cannot control is equivalent to washing our face with molten lava. It’s extremely painful and requires more patience than is humanly possible.

My problem was that this situation was entirely and completely my fault. One-hundred percent.

What was I thinking asking Sunday to come on the trip when I didn’t really know her very well? I certainly didn’t think through the reality of the effects of taking such a close-quarters, long journey with varying personalities would have on each of us.

I couldn’t and never would blame Sunday.

Our personalities just weren’t mixing as well as I had hoped. Three parts water, one part gasoline… and a match just waiting to be lit.

In the end, the trip up and down the Canyon wall was memorable, but it left us all a little frustrated. More importantly, it started a small crack that, like the Grand Canyon itself, would grow to inconceivable proportions with me trying desperately to straddle it while struggling to keep a firm footing on either side.

********

Goin' Out To Cally - Part 29, (Text, Audio) Fissure Formation
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 28, (Text, Audio) Upward Immobility
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 27, (Text, Audio) The Long And Winding Road
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 26, (Text, Audio) Waste Not, Arrest Not
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 25, (Text, Audio) Nightlife At The BC
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 24, (Text, Audio) Bedless In Bedrock
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 23, (Text, Audio) Desert Rain
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 22, (Text, Audio) Bedrock City
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 21, (Text, Audio) The Outhouse
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 20, (Text, Audio) Riding The Hump
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 19, (Text, Audio) Bob Hope, Lil’ Debbie And Restless Gods
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 18, (Text, Audio) Unlevel Headed
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 17, (Text, Audio) Starry Night, Confusing Night
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 16, (Text, Audio) Three Beds + Four People = Oh Crap
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 15, (Text, Audio) Masculinity At Stake
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 14, (Text, Audio) Texas: Latin For Shoot Me Now
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 13, (Text, Audio) Cars, Crossroads and Cosmic Convergence
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 12, (Text, Audio) Tumbleweed Dreams
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 11, (Text, Audio) Wet, Rinse, Repeat
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 10, (Text, Audio) Divine Misdirection
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 09, (Text, Audio) Getting Nowhere Fast
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 08, (Text, Audio) The Cock Crows Nine
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 07, (Text, Audio) Is Jackass A Sign?
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 06, (Text, Audio) Leftovers
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 05, (Text, Audio) The Kiss Of Friendship
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 04, (Text, Audio) Scholastic Intimacy
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 03, (Text, Audio) Space Invaders
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 02, (Text, Audio) The Fourth Wheel
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 01, (Text, Audio) The Seed Planted

Jesus Is Offensive

One of the best Christian films I've seen is a movie called Flywheel. Those filmmakers have recently completed a new Christian film called Facing The Giants. They were surprised to find that the MPAA, which officially rates movies before release, gave Giants a PG rating instead of a G because... get this... there's so much Christianity that it may offend some parents. Therefore, they determined, parental guidance is suggested.

You can read more about this story from Scripps Howard News Service.

I think this is a first where parental guidance is required because people will be offended because the film blatantly states that Jesus is the answer to many of our problems in our lives.

Just another sign that the Apocalypse is inevitable. And another sign how God is becoming the exception to our society, no longer the rule.

I fear for the world in which my children will grow up.

Hangman's Curse (2003)

Hangman's Curse is an adaptation of Frank Peretti's novel about a potential curse on bullies placed on them by a boy who committed suicide by hanging himself. This family-friendly film is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences, but is overall tame in comparison to Hollywood's standards... perhaps too tame.

The story revolves around a family of "spies," for the lack of a better word, that infiltrate the high school to find out the source of mysterious events and illnesses surrounding a growing number of bullies on the football team. There are hints of witch craft and other supernatural events, but the local authorities have been unable to uncover the true cause and must rely on the Veritas group (Veritas meaning truth) to help them find the culprit.

The Veritas group consists of the Springfield family: The father, Nate, played by David Keith, takes on the role as school janitor. The mother, Sarah, played by Mel Harris, plays a school counselor. Their two children Elisha and Elijah, played by Leighton Meester and Douglas Smith, respectively, enroll in the school as students. Elisha joins the hip crowd while Elijah puts on the spectacles and instantly joins the nerd crowd.

The film deals with a lot of subjects... maybe too many. It succeeds at illuminating the effect of bullying on defenseless students and the price that costs them. It shows school cliques accurately and the struggles associated with trying to cross those imaginary social lines. It also deals with witch craft, curses, serpents, spiders and more. Overall, the film lacks an effectively scary punch, but is mostly entertaining from beginning to end.

If you're looking for a light weight film for your middle or senior high school student that deals with the subjects mentioned above, then Hangman's Curse is a safe choice.

Goin' Out To Cally – Part 28, Upward Immobility

The four travelers stood on the trail midway down the Grand Canyon wall, looking straight up.

“Boy, I didn’t realize we had come down so far,” I said to the others.

We stood there, silent for a moment. “Looks like quite a long way to get back up,” Tim added.

“Yeah,” we all chimed in without moving.

Another few moments passed. “The people on the top look so small,” Sunday offered.

“Yeah,” we all replied, again, not moving, our eyes focused upward.

With a surrendering sigh, Beth relented, “I guess we have to walk back up there.”

“Yeah,” we all said, reluctantly giving in to the long task that lie ahead of us.

As we started back up the trail we were passed by a young couple continuing downward with camping gear, back packs and plenty of water. After a quick inspection by the Ranger, they were allowed to pass and head toward the Oasis.

My legs, already overused from balancing on the decline down the trail, were starting to spasm as I slowly trudged my way back up the intimidating path. As I avoided a green, leafy mule dropping I was, for the first time, envious of those who had rented a beast of burden for the hike.

It was obvious that my unbridled youth had not yet conquered the concept of long term thinking. In my eagerness to experience the canyon, I didn’t contemplate the ramifications of those impulses. Now, only after my thigh muscles began to burn did I realize that a little less excitement and a little more thought would have come in real handy right about now.

"Ants" on the repeating Z

My introspection was interrupted, however, by two small Asian children running past me. “Ah, youth!” I said to myself. The children ran up to the end of a stretch of the repeating Z and collapsed onto the ground, panting. I looked behind me and spotted their Asian Father, his face beat red and not carrying any water, struggling up the path.

I waved to the children still sitting on the path as I turned and headed up the next stretch. The Father, with a deliberate and steady pace, continued passed them as well, his face relaying the feeling that if he stopped, he’d never be able to get his legs moving again. About half way up this stretch the children zoomed passed and again collapsed, exhausted at the end of the stretch, awaiting for their father to catch up to them.

I slowed slightly so the Father could catch up. His pained expression was so intense that it contorted his face. The only time I would ever see such constant pain and determination would be decades later, on my wife’s face, while she gave birth to our first child. I looked with great empathy on this poor gentleman and held out my half-emptied bottled water.

“Do you want some water?” I asked with such compassion that it came across as if I was pleading for him to take it.

The Asian Father simply smiled and nodded “No thank you,” without actually speaking, as if verbalizing any words would zap him of what little energy reserves he had within him.

The same routine would repeat itself up the canyon trail. I’d pass the exhausted kids, who would eventually race by me, collapsing at the top of the next level, totally spent, their father pacing himself behind me. Stretch after stretch after stretch.

At the end of each repeating Z I would, again, take a moment and look out at the breath taking landscape the Canyon offered, but I’ll admit that the pain of hiking back up greatly diminished the soothing effect of the view. The intricate colors of red and brown and orange intermixed over millions of years did little to sooth my throbbing legs. At this point I, like Tim, Beth and Sunday, all just wanted to be up on the top of the hill.

After more than over an hour of methodically walking, step by step, up the massive canyon wall path, we eventually made it to the parking lot at the top. We sat their, exhausted and silent, too tired to speak. As we sucked down the rest of our water the Asian Father nodded as he passed, his kids in tow, barely able to walk. In some odd way, we had bonded through the shared experience of suffering the journey. It was a short lived bond, but we exchanged a “we made it!” expression and went our separate ways.

After a few minutes we decided to head over to some picnic tables to eat a snack and rest up further. On our way toward the tables I passed by a Middle Eastern man with his son nipping behind him. The son was looking at his father with a great sense of curiosity, while his father, just having surfaced from hiking up the trail, was apparently at the end of his mental rope.

He stopped, exasperated and motioned out toward the canyon with great urgency, then turned to his son, angered and said, “What do you think, they cut it out with a knife???”

I couldn’t imagine how the conversation ended up with that one sentence, but it seemed to capture his moment in time perfectly.

I chuckled to myself and collapsed, along with my travel companions, at the picnic tables overlooking the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, resting my weary and aching legs.

********

Goin' Out To Cally - Part 28, (Text, Audio) Upward Immobility
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 27, (Text, Audio) The Long And Winding Road
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 26, (Text, Audio) Waste Not, Arrest Not
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 25, (Text, Audio) Nightlife At The BC
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 24, (Text, Audio) Bedless In Bedrock
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 23, (Text, Audio) Desert Rain
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 22, (Text, Audio) Bedrock City
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 21, (Text, Audio) The Outhouse
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 20, (Text, Audio) Riding The Hump
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 19, (Text, Audio) Bob Hope, Lil’ Debbie And Restless Gods
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 18, (Text, Audio) Unlevel Headed
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 17, (Text, Audio) Starry Night, Confusing Night
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 16, (Text, Audio) Three Beds + Four People = Oh Crap
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 15, (Text, Audio) Masculinity At Stake
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 14, (Text, Audio) Texas: Latin For Shoot Me Now
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 13, (Text, Audio) Cars, Crossroads and Cosmic Convergence
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 12, (Text, Audio) Tumbleweed Dreams
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 11, (Text, Audio) Wet, Rinse, Repeat
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 10, (Text, Audio) Divine Misdirection
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 09, (Text, Audio) Getting Nowhere Fast
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 08, (Text, Audio) The Cock Crows Nine
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 07, (Text, Audio) Is Jackass A Sign?
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 06, (Text, Audio) Leftovers
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 05, (Text, Audio) The Kiss Of Friendship
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 04, (Text, Audio) Scholastic Intimacy
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 03, (Text, Audio) Space Invaders
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 02, (Text, Audio) The Fourth Wheel
Goin' Out To Cally - Part 01, (Text, Audio) The Seed Planted

Take A Business Trip

The first production of our little company called Local Talent Productions was a film called Raw Footage about a public access television show that accidentally taped a murder and is then hunted down one-by-one. The film is shown as the raw footage from the camera itself.

The end product is not very good, but it was shot and edited in one day and got our feet wet. Raw Footage was intended to be one of a trilogy of shorts dealing with hitmen. The second was called The Business Trip about a lonely business traveler show takes on the identify of his corporate apartment's previous tenant in order to go on a blind date, only to find himself the target of a hitman.

The third yet-to-be-shot short is called 10 Reasons about a worn out hitman who gives his target the opportunity to give 10 reasons why he shouldn't be killed.

The Business Trip was shot last year and was intended to be shot over three days with elaborate direction. Due to last minute scheduling conflicts we had to shoot the 23 minute short in 14 straight hours. We had to compromise on lighting and shot selection, but we were able to pull it off. It's not as polished as I had intended, but it turned out very good considering out time limitations.

You can see Behind-The-Scenes Pics and other info about the film by clicking on the highlighted links.

I converted the film into a smaller Quicktime Movie. It's still pretty big, so you'll need a fast connection to watch it. Just click on the picture below and it'll bring you to the movie.

Or you can RIGHT CLICK HERE and save the short to your computer.

Hope you enjoy it.

Happy Birthday Dea!

Today we're celebrating my wife's birthday. Let's just say she's 29... again, for a few years now. We had a lot of plans this weekend, but they've all fallen apart. Our son got a stomach flu and work has impeded. Pretty much everything I planned as evaporated.

I promised her to make it up to her this week.

In any event... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!

Night at the Ballpark

While Paul, Jean and Jonathan were in town, I wanted to bring my Godchild Jonathan and my son, Gabriel, to a Tampa Bay Devil Rays game. The problem? The Devil Rays were on the road until the day after Paul's family headed back to Houston.

Pete, Jonathan and Gabe at the ballpark.

Okay... well, then how about the local minor league team, the Clearwater Threshers. They play in a beautiful new ballpark with a lot of amenities. The problem? The Threshers were playing away all week and only had two games nearby, at the other minor league team that is within close proximity, the Dunedin Blue Jays.

Gabe's streak of getting balls at ballgames
continues, this time one from the Florida State League.

So, Paul, Jonathan, Gabe and I all went to watch the Threshers vs. Blue Jays in Dunedin. Not as exciting as I had originally planned nor as impressive as Island of Adventure, however, the important thing was that we got to sepnd a lot of time together, joking and having fun.