Grampa John Bauer

I believe this is a picture of my father's Dad as a child.

(Click on picture for larger image)

Gramma Merrill's Brother

This is a picture of Joseph Buckley, my Grandma Merrill's brother.


So THAT'S where the unibrow in the family comes from! Thanks Nana! My son is especially grateful!

Gramma Merrill and Friend

The title of the picture is Nana and friend. I believe my grandmother is the young lady to the right , but she could be the baby. I'm not sure. On the original picture, some child appears to have used pen or pencil to scratch over the young woman's face and hat. I did my best to clean it up.

Mom, can you shed some light?

UPDATE FROM MOM: Okay, apparently the picture is my great-grandmother (my Mother's father's mother) who is holding the baby. The great-grandmother apparently died in 1929 when my Mom was three years old. The baby is guessed to by my Mom's cousin Patsy Lynch, but the woman beside her doesn't look like Patsy's mother, so we're not sure. The one thing we do know is that my original guess was completely wrong! :)

John Merrill, Sr

Here's another old family pic. I think this is my grandfather as child.

Mom and Family

I've been scanning pics from our family and cleaning them up in Photoshop.

Here we have my Mom's family, including Left to Right,
John Jr., my Mom (Catherine), Paul, Mary, Lorenzo,
Louise and in the front, my grandparents Da and Nana.

Click on Picture for larger image.

Update from my Mom - My Mom emailed me to say that this picture was taken on Nana and Da's 30th Wedding Anniversary in Tewksbury, MA. In this picture my Mom was pregnant with my sister Mary, which means that Joe and John were running around somewhere.

Fall Ball Ends...

Well, our Fall Ball Little League experience ended last night. My son's team, which was the only team that had more than one quality pitcher, ended up being 11-1. Most pitchers in the league walked most everyone and the teams would quickly reach their five run maximum per inning. We were fortunate to have five quality pitchers (Gabe, Jonathan, David, Noah and Mitchell).

Gabe up to bat in the last game.

Gabe and I had some very specific goals this fall ball, to make consistent solid contact when hitting and to throw consistent strikes as a pitcher. He was able to get better with each game and we ended up achieving both.

One of the hardest things to teach a young batter is to wait on slow pitches. What usually happens is the batter's bat speed matches the incoming pitch speed. If the pitch is slow, the bat swing is slow. If the pitch is fast, the bat speed is fast.

Teaching a kid to wait on the slow pitch and then swing fast is difficult. Gabe still hasn't mastered it yet, but he has improved. During the game the best player on the other team, Andrew, waited on a slow pitch and knocked it into center field.

After the hit, in between innings, Gabe and I talked and I asked him if he was capable of doing the same. Gabe is extremely competitive and he always seeks out the best player on the other team and wants to do better. He said he could hit it as far.

So, his next at bat Andrew is pitching and Gabe is hitting. The pitch count goes to 3-0 and Gabe steps out of the batters box and yells out to Andrew (who had hit Gabe twice in two previous games and walked him almost every time before as well) and said "you're not going to hit me again or walk me, are you?" Gabe's tactic worked and Andrew's next pitch was right over the plate, which Gabe knocked it to the base of the center field fence. After sliding safely into third, Gabe popped up and gave me a thumbs up.

He's better than I ever imagined and he's only ten. Granted, he's still just a kid and has a lot to learn, but his approach and talent compared to others of his age is pretty amazing to me. I take very little credit for it. He works hard, loves to play and is always thinking ahead. When I was his age I was the kid in right field wondering if I could convince my Mom to buy me bubble gum from the concession stand after the game.

Despite all that, the greatest compliment he gets from his coaches is that he's a very good leader and a very good sportsman. I feel very blessed.

Gabe ended up closing the game, walking one, striking out three. We're anxiously looking forward to moving up to the next level where he'll be pushed by kids much better than he is and where we can set higher goals.

There's talk about throwing together a tournament next week between the four teams, but we're kind of burnt out and could use a few weeks just focusing on football. If they have the tournament, I'll take pics and let you know how it turns out.

Memorable Bucs Game

For my son's birthday we went to the Eagles/Bucs game at Raymond James Stadium this past Sunday. It ended up being a very memorable 23-21 win for the Bucs. From Ronde Barber's two interceptions returned for touchdowns to Donovan McNabb having to call timeout because he was puking on the field from the heat to Matt Bryant's historic game-winning 62 yard field goal and the delerium that followed... it was certainly a memorable game on many levels.

Here my son and I snack at the Burger King before the game,
saving ourselves about $2 billion from
buying food in the stadium.

(This picture is warped because my cellphone
sometimes saves the pic all screwed up... like this one.)
The heat was oppressive. We were handed bandanas as we entered
the stadium. We stuffed them under our hats and used them
the keep the sun from baking our necks and shoulders.

Our vantage point at the game. High, but not a bad seat.
It was especially good when watching the winning field goal.

The most absurd moment of the day? The Buccaneer cheerleaders in the sweaty and skimpy outfits shaking their groove things in the End Zones to Aretha Franklin's song about respecting women. The juxtaposition was humorous to just about everyone in our section.

Nothing spells R-E-S-P-E-C-T like cleavage.

94% Of The Time Judges Allow Teens To Bypass Consent Laws To Get Abortion

Florida passed an amendment last year requiring women under 18 years old to get parental approval before receiving an abortion. If they want, a teen girl can request a hearing with a judge to allow an abortion without notifying the parents. And, low and behold, 94% of the time, they get it.

And who says the courts aren't liberal???? I wonder if the judge validates the father wasn't over 18 where statutory rape would have occured? I doubt it. Nah. A girl who doesn't even know how to drive is certainly old enough to know the ramifications of chopping up a baby in her own womb and sucking it out with a vacuum cleaner. Why require children to take responsibility for their own actions... after all, we don't have to as adults, do we? Oh, wait. We do.

You can read more about this on the St. Pete Times website HERE.

Sometimes this country makes me sick. When a society embraces a barbaric and unnatural act that would make Nazi Doctor Mengele proud as a woman's basic right... well, our moral compass must be seriously broken.

God forgive us.

Facing The Giants Opens Big

The Christian film Facing the Giants, made for about $100,000 and screening in limited release in theaters across the country has made $2.7 million in 10 days, just below the $60 million film called Flyboys.

Facing the Giants is made by the makers of Flywheel, a great Christian flick. My family and I tried to see it opening weekend at a local AMC Theater but found the showing sold out. We're hoping to see it this weekend, if our schedule allows.

This is good news for Christian filmmakers. Christian films have a market waiting to be filled by quality entertainment. The market is a niche market, however, so the budgets must remain low.

Congrats and continued success to Giants filmmakers. You can read more about their success on the Washington Post website.

North Korea At Night

Things are so bad in North Korea that they have to shut off electricity throughout the country after 9 p.m. The only city that has any electricity is the capital Pyongyang where dictator Kim Jong-il and his friends live in luxury.



The picture shows the stark differences between capitalism and marxism. In the free capitalistic South Korea, lights ablaze, food is aplenty and people are free to pursue their dreams. In the socialistic North Korea you have a totalitarian government where the entire country suffers at the whims of the demented leader.

You can read more online from the Daily Mail in the UK HERE.

Pope To Bring Back The Latin Mass

Reports are stating that Pope Benedict will allow churches to bring back the Latin mass at any parish unless the local Bishop explicitly forbids it in writing.

Personally, I would love to attend a Latin mass. You can read more about it HERE at the UK website Times Online.

Anyone out there old enough to remember when the Latin mass (pre-Vatican II) was the norm? What was it like? How was it different?

The Flu On Hold - Gabby Takes The Lead

After spending a lot of quality hours hashing out the Second Act of the feature script The Flu, I decdied to revisit the entire idea later and focus, instead on the kids feature called The Adventures of Gabby Wells.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the story of The Flu had taken some unexpected turns, as can happen during the writing process. Often times this is a good thing, some times it is not. In this case, it made me rethink the entire premise and will revisit it later when I've had some time to think about it.

In the meantime I'm fleshing out the full idea for Gabby Wells and hope to begin writing soon.

Short Takes

November (2004) - Courtney Cox plays a woman who deals with the murder of her boyfriend (James LeGros) at a convenience store. The film was one of the first releases of a company called InDigEnt (Independent Digital Entertainment) which was going to use a unique business model and new digital technology to create a new paradigm of filmmaking. On some levels it has worked, on others it has not. The paradigm, which pays every cast crew a low, flat fee with profit participation, which keeps the budget low, along with the focus of using digital technology was very exciting when it was first introduced.

In filmmaking, however, any new paradigm only works if the end product is good. November is an interesting project, but not very mainstream, which limits its financial potential. The story unfolds like a unique dream-like mystery and finishes up at around a quick 80 minutes. The film is broken into three sections where the story repeats itself as with slightly different outcomes.

Overall the film works as designed, but the audience will be limited.

*****

Behind the Nine (2003) - a microcinema feature film effort about a man who is sponsoring an illegal nine-ball tournament in his home concerned someone is out to steal the prize money. The film is solid for a microcinema effort, but uneven performances and not-quite believable and cramped set locations undermine the effect of the film. The movie did find distribution and was available via Netflix, which is how I came to view it, so good for them.

*****

Hubris (2005) - Hubrisis a very funny short film about a man, Jeremywho's attempt to help his best friend's dating drought by trying to manipulate a speed dating event to make his best friend Barry look the best. Apparently based on a true story, Jeremy gets a couple of friends to participate in his scheme and by portraying the worst men possible they elevate Barry's stature among the speed dating women. The humor of the story really kicks into high gear as we quickly move from one of Barry's friends to another, each one displaying some of the most inappropriate dating introductions possible.

The actors are all very solid and the writing is exceptionally funny at times. The momentum of the short loses a little steam as the dating event twists into an unexpected ending, but not enough to undermine the comedy that so effectively preceded it. Hubris is a well crafted humorous short that is an enjoyable treat.

*****

Perceptions (2005) - Perceptions is a short film about a young college student, Shawn who finds himself intertwined in a murder he did not commit. The story unfolds like repeating dream within a dream where Shawn relives various moments of the events, yet with slightly different outcomes. The film never quite comes to any sort of solid resolution, but the journey is an interesting one.

The cinematography is quite standard and actually undermines the effect of the living dream/nightmare quality of the piece. In such a story as this the audience is looking for hints as to what is real and what is fantasy where the mood created from the lighting could give, even on a subconscious level, a hint of the filmmakers intention. The acting is relatively solid with Jarrod Lawrence and Lisa Lee, playing his attractive classmate, offering the most natural performances.

Perceptions disjointed non-linear story telling is intriguing, yet not fully realized due to rather plain production values and occasionally distracting mediocre acting of some of the minor characters. Overall the short is a solid effort. I always appreciate filmmakers who use the microcinema forum to attempt varying styles of storytelling, even if the end result is not fully presented.

*****

Preserve Me a Seat (2005) - If you have a historic theater in your area, when was the last time you visited one? When was the last time you went to a movie theater, period? Preserve Me a Seat is a documentary by Jim Fields that focuses, primarily, on the attempts to preserve the last remaining Cinemarama theaters of it’s kind in the United States. The theater, in Indian Hills, Nebraska, is one of three designed with a completely circular structure. The theater was purchased by a local hospital and is scheduled to be torn down to make way for a parking lot. In quick fashion, people who grew up watching films in that theater form a preservation society in an attempt to stave off demolition.

Fields then takes us on similar journeys to other cities in Illinois, Utah and Michigan that have faced such tasks of trying to save a historic, yet financially struggling movie theater. Fields does a very good job of showing various tactics, each of which with different levels of impact and/or success, as well as unique ways a theater can be “saved” without retaining itself as a working theater.

I am lucky to live within a quick drive to the Tampa Theater, a grand movie house in downtown Tampa that was built in the 1920’s, with wonderful and opulent decorations, a starlit ceiling, balcony seating and an original organ used for re-showings of silent films. And the sad thing is that the last time I actually went to watch a film there was in 1990 to watch a Star Trek film festival called Sit Long and Prosper. Watching this film made me realize that I was long overdue to revisit my local historical landmark with my kids, who are now old enough to appreciate it.

Preserve Me a Seat also briefly deals with the growing impact of home theaters to the theater chain movie-watching experience. I understood the filmmaker’s concern, as I watched this film on theater preservation in the comfort of my own self-made home theater. With DVD releases coming so soon after theatrical release, I rarely find myself wit the urge to see a theater outside of my home. Which is why one has to wonder just how important theater preservation truly is since the trend is to not go to the theaters to watch a movie anyway.

This documentary is a perfect fit for film lovers and cinema historians. It shows what is probably the end of a movement, the last gasps of movie theater preservation.

Something Funny

My Mom emailed me asking me to post something funny on my blog. I have been very busy lately and have not had time to put my daily entry as I normally would, but who can turn down their own Mom?

So here goes...

1987. A local professional theater in Gainesville is putting on a production of the musical Hair. I had planned on auditioning, but a conflict with the performance schedule made me change my mind.

During one of my calls home I told my Mom that I had considered auditioning for Hair.

She asked, "Don't the actors have to undress in that play?"

"Yeah, at the end of the first act the entire cast is naked."

"I don't think I would be proud of you if you did that," she stated.

I replied with a confident, innuendo-filled tone. "Yeah you would."

After a moment she burst into laughter.

I love hearing my Mom laugh. When I can make her laugh I feel like I've really accomplished something special.

There you go, Mom... something funny. Though, the fact that a humorous story revolves around my nudity should make me a little concerned.

Guardian Angels

From Catholic News Agency, the Saints of the Day are Guardian Angels...

"For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.” - Psalm 90:11

The truth that each and every human soul has a Guardian Angel who protects us from spiritual and physical evil has been shown throughout the Old Testament, and is made very clear in the New.

It is written that the Lord Jesus is strengthened by an angel in the Garden of Gethsemane and that angel delivered St. Peter from prison in the Acts of the Apostles.

But Jesus makes the existence and function of guardian angels explicit when he says, "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 18:10).

In saying this Jesus points out that all people, even little children, have a guardian angel and that the angels are always in Heaven, always looking at the face of God throughout their mission on earth which is to guide us and protect us throughout our pilgrimage to the house of our Father. As St. Paul says, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14)

However, they guide us to Heaven only if we desire it. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that angels cannot act directly upon our will or intellect, although they can do so on our senses and imaginations – thus encouraging us to make the right decisions. In Heaven our guardian angels, though no longer needing to guide us to salvation, will continually enlighten us.

Prayer to the guardian angels is encouraged and the habit of remembering their presence and support leads to frienship with them. The prayer to the guardian angels has been present in the Church since at least the beginning of the 12th century:

Angel of God,
my Guardian dear,
to whom His love
commits me here,
ever this day
be at my side,
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.
Amen.

“Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, and in the protection of the God of heaven let us abide.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Writing About Not Writing

I haven't written lately because, frankly, I don't have a lot to say. Work has been busy and fall baseball has started, so my days and evenings have been pretty full.

I'm almost 50% through writing the feature Christian comedy called The Flu. It's been an interesting experience. It's harder than I thought to put fart jokes in a Christian film, but dangit, I'll make it happen! I'm usually pretty strict about plot structure before I begin writing, but this story has taken a life of its own and my original structure is no longer very applicable. So, I'm forced to redefine some of the plot elements before moving forward. It has taken a little momentum out of the writing process, but I think it's for a good reason.

Also - Facing the Giants is coming out and I strongly suggest everyone see this film. The filmmakers are from a Baptist church in Georgia that made another Christian flick a few years ago called Flywheel, one of the best Christian films I've seen. Facing the Giants is about a highschool football coach that takes over a losing program. When all normal attempts at making the team better have failed, he simply tells them to stop worrying about winning and just worry about praising God through their work. And that's when the magic happens.

You can watch the inspiring trailer HERE.

The film is being distributed widely and should be in a theater near you, so take the time out to support these tremendous filmmakers. Good entertainment for the whole family. Please support these filmmakers.

Short Takes

Fever Pitch (2005) - Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore play a couple dealing with Fallon's deep, deep, deep devotion to the Boston Red Sox. Very charming and funny and happened to be filmed when the Red Sox won the World Series. A great date flick, in the best possible definition.




After the Sunset (2004) - Salma Hayek and Pierce Brosnan play retired jewel thieves who live the life of luxury in a beautiful, tropical location. They are hounded, however, by Woody Harrelson, playing a relentless FBI agent who has been at the wrong end of their heists. The film is funny and clever. And, any movie where Salma Hayek spends 75% of her time in various bathing suits... well, just how bad can it be?



Firefly (2002) - The pilot to one of my favorite television series in history aired last night on Universal High Definition. I don't know if they plan on showing the entire series in HD, but it was great to see the fine cast perform the excellent script in beautiful high definition.

NBC Removes God From "Veggie Tales"

From LifeSite.Net, the beloved Christian biblical childrens programs, Veggie Tales, contracted with NBC to provide shows for Saturday mornings. At first, NBC asked Veggie Tales to remove the biblical references. Now they're demanding they remove all references to God.

If I were Big Idea, which produced Veggie Tales, I would simply remove myself from the agreement over this. However, I do not know how their contract is worded with NBC, so I am not sure of what legal recourse they have with them.

You can read more of the story HERE at the Lifesite website.

Must Win

It's terrible to have to say that game three of a 16 game season is a must win, but for both playoff teams currently 0-2, one of them is staring at 0-3 . Rarely can a team overcome an 0-3 start, especially when either Atlanta or New Orleans, who play each other Monday night, will be 3-0. It's almost impossible to overcome a six-game deficit as that.

So, the Bucs play at home, which should be to their advantage, but they have played so badly I don't know if it will matter. The defense suddenly looks slow and old and the offense looks anemic.

The Bucs follow up this game with a bye week. If they enter the bye with a third straight loss, tensions will only fester and a quarterback change could be in the works, which means throwing this season away. If they enter the bye with a win, they can try to catapult that victory into saving the season.

For a long, three month season, the Bucs success this year may all come down to this third game in the first month of the season.

Inside Man (2006)

Spike Lee's Inside Man, written by Russell Gewirtz, is a modern spin on the classic heist genre. We open with Dalton Russell, played by the charming Clive Owen, speaking directly to the camera explaining his perfect heist. We then see him and his team, dressed in painter's outfits, take over a bank and secure almost fifty hostages.

Will this be another Dog Day Afternoon? Not at all. This is when the standard heist film takes a completely different turn. Denzel Washington, playing negotiator Detective Keith Frazier, enters the storyline to follow the hostage situation playbook only to find that he's being played. We have Jodi Foster, an expense, elite problem solver hired by bank owner, played by Christopher Plummer, to somehow infiltrate the hostage situation to secure some of Plummer's belongings hidden in a safe deposit box.

The way the story unfolds is very intriguing because you quickly realize this film is not going to follow the standard heist clichés, but we are unsure of how the clever storyline will unfold. The cast is extraordinary and each of the name actors are at the top of their game. Lee's direction keeps the pace of the film moving and Gewirtz's script is every bit the mystery that one would hope for in such a film.

The only downside was the music, by Terence Blanchard, which seemed inappropriate and, at times, distracting. Other than that, this is a fun little thriller that follows a path not yet traveled in a heist flick. Good, mainstream, intelligent fun. Check it out.