North Carolina legislators have found something new to tax: movies

Let's be blunt: the lawmakers of this state are, for the most part, idiots.

North Carolina is one of the most heavily-taxed states in the country, or at least east of the Mississippi River. Sooner or later anything and everything here has a tax, or a levy, or a fee, or some obscure penalty attached to it. Our fuel tax makes the average price of gas higher than that of any state around us. Too many cities and counties are raising property tax rates which I've never believed in anyway: if you have to pay money for land that you own then you don't really "own" that land at all, you're paying the government a "user's fee". There's talk of raising the tax on cigarettes... which I don't smoke and don't encourage anyone to, but in this state a higher tobacco tax is tantamount to fiscal suicide. Sales taxes keep going up. More taxes are levied on things like dining and hotels. Meantime this state's governments are out of control when it comes to spending. I haven't had time to lately but first opportunity I'm going to look through the current budget proposal and report on any ridiculous appropriations... and there will be some, believe you me. The school systems here are a wreck because more money goes to administration than goes to actual teaching (one more reason why North Carolina needs a state lottery to shore up education, like what Georgia does with its game). This state's legislators aren't interested in cutting spending. They only spend more, and they never run out of things to tax to generate revenue from which to keep spending wastefully.

And now they want to hit both average North Carolina families and what could still be a major industry for this state: movies.

A little while ago I went to the theater to pick up some tickets for Batman Begins, 'cuz I'm going with three other friends this afternoon. The lady at the box office gave me a couple of fliers about Bill 622 in the North Carolina Senate, that would impose a 7% tax on movie tickets sold in this state. That's about $.40 per ticket. That may seem like chump change to some but for a family of four that's $1.60 extra they'd have to pay for an evening's entertainment. Over the course of a year that adds up. Lisa and I go to movies, on average, about once a month: figure that would be $9.60 going to North Carolina when we could be using it to buy already overly-priced popcorn (which is actually something I like). When you throw in seeing a movie four times already in the theater as I've done with Revenge of the Sith... well, you get the idea. And besides, it's just the principle of the thing: why the hell should I happily give over more of my money, even a little bit of it, when it's so well known for a fact that the state is just going to waste it too? When you have a drug addict you don't make him better by giving him more heroin, you take it away and put the guy through detox.

Imposing a higher movie tax (why should there be a movie tax at all anyway?) is just another line of coke for the druggie. It's not helping us and it's not doing the state any favors either.

Anyway, a group of North Carolina theater owners is banding together to fight this thing, and they've set up a good website that lays it all out better than I could that you might wanna check out, if you happen to live in this state. It makes the case for why this proposed tax is going to be seriously detrimental to not only the economy of North Carolina, but to families and communities as well.

When I said that most North Carolina legislators are idiots, I mean that. Some of them are pretty cool. But after meeting and talking to many of them in various capacities such as journalist, I've gotten the impression that too many of them are pretty sleazy when it comes to being entrusted with public funds. There's some phone numbers and addresses for several legislators on this anti-tax website: it wouldn't hurt to make some polite letters and phone calls to 'em and let them know that we're watching how far their hands go down into the cookie jar. We shouldn't have 'em putting it in our bags of movie theater popcorn either.

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Enough Star Wars to make you puke! Saga-inspired barf-bags at Virgin Airlines

Dad once told me that sooner or later "they're going to put Star Wars on everything" and looks like he was right. You can't make this up folks: from the official Star Wars website

All Too Queasy: Virgin Airlines' Unique Collectibles

June 14, 2005

While some Star Wars fans collect action figures or comics, others are on a quest to find unique items that most of us only notice when a plane ride gets a bit too action-packed. In collaboration with Virgin Airlines and Activision, LucasArts has released limited-edition airsickness bags to promote the Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Video Game, available in stores now.

Available on Virgin Atlantic flights, the four designs include: Knowing Your Lightsaber, Lightsaber Etiquette, The Art of Jedi Combat and Seating Jedi and Sith. The backs of the bags all have the same Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith Video Game cover art. The collectible bags are limited in number and will be available while supplies last...

Steven Spielberg should have thought of this over twenty years ago: think about how Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom could have cashed in with this kind of licensing deal!

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Sony signs deal with Warners to run The Matrix Online (NOOOOOOO!!!)

Let's put it this way: Sony Online Entertainment did to Star Wars what Joel Schumacher did to Batman.

Ain't too much of a gamer but the concept of massive-multiplayer online role-playing games is utterly fascinating to me. And being a Star Wars die-hard I had to give Star Wars Galaxies a try. I was with it for a little more than a year before it got too boring. Blame SOE: they saturated what could have been a viable component of the Star Wars experience with too much visual material, not nearly enough content and NO idea what Star Wars is supposed to really be about (hint: it ain't thirty thousand Jedis running loose at the height of the Empire). I cancelled and swore that when a new Star Wars MMORPG comes out someday it better not be SOE at the helm or I ain't buying.

But even without Star Wars Galaxies, I had The Matrix Online: prolly the first videogame to use armchair philosophy as part of the action. It has its faults, but overall it's been a pleasurable enough pastime... 'cept today Warner Brothers announced they're going to hand the game over to Sony! Ooh-boy.

From the press release on Yahoo!:

Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Collaborate for Online Projects
Friday June 17, 8:00 am ET
SAN DIEGO and BURBANK, Calif., June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment Inc., and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced exclusive long-term licensing agreements allowing SOE to develop a DC Comics massively multiplayer online game for PC and next generation consoles, as well as the acquisition of The Matrix Online game by SOE.

"By working with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment we will fuse the knowledge SOE has in the online space with some of Warner Bros.' phenomenal properties," said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. "SOE will work closely with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics to maintain the authenticity consumers demand from the DC Comics franchises. We will also take steps to continue the same high level of service that subscribers have come to expect from The Matrix Online game."

"Our goal is to deliver quality content and consistently advance our key properties within the online games space," said Jason Hall, senior vice president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "We've done just that with The Matrix Online. Because of our compelling work in developing and launching that game we can now move it over to the leaders in the MMO space, SOE. We look forward to working with SOE to enhance our overall services to massively multiplayer online gamers for The Matrix Online and a new DC Comics game..."

I can see it now: players running all over the Matrix looking for the elusive 8-track tape that will tell them which profession tree they have to master while a player-versus-player battle breaks out nearby involving twenty-seven "the One"s. Acquiring kung-fu will require a couch-crafting ability and those playing as spies will have NOTHING to actually spy on whatsoever, forever! SOE is going to take this game and make it like EverQuest just as they tried with Star Wars Galaxies... and in the end the Wachowski Brothers themselves will come out of seclusion brandishing katanas to pull the plug on what is now an abortion of a videogame, daring Sony to stop them.

Or, maybe they CAN make it a better game after all. But that better be a damned big alligator that they pull out of that hat.

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Talk about the pot calling the kettle black... (Bush on Iran elections)

Found this story at the BBC about comments President Bush made about elections in Iran and couldn't help but see this fly off the screen...

Mr Bush criticised Iran for blocking hundreds of reformist candidates from running.

"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy," he said.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president, is the front-runner against three major rivals.

So lemme get this straight...

Having two major rivals that block any earnest attempts at reform and rig the system to keep hundreds of potential candidates off the ballot at all is considered "real democracy".

But having three major rivals that do the same thing is said to "suppress freedom".

And before we strut around as an "elected official", why don't we check those Diebold machines out, eh Mr. Bush?

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Just saw Batman Begins

Now THIS is the movie I wish we had gotten in 1989!! Everything about it is just darned perfect. I can't possibly count all the smaller things that are in this movie that are taken directly from the Batman comics. Finally it's a Batman movie that's NOT focused on the villain, but focused on Batman (how the heck did the '89 one get away with billing Jack Nicholson as the Joker over the hero?). How well does Batman Begins work? During the first good part of the movie, well into when Bruce Wayne returns back to Gotham, I found myself having forgotten that this was a Batman movie at all, because first and foremost it's a movie about Bruce Wayne as a character and thenhow he acquires the look, the gimmicks, the car etc. They could have titled this "Bruce Wayne Begins" and I would have been totally happy. One of the most devious bait-and-switch plans I've seen in any recent movies, a believable city they're running around in, a music score that never overwhelms the action, NOTHING... as in not a single element of the plot... feels out-of-place or without a basis in reality. This movie could be based on true events. It could even be happening right now, you'd think. And isn't the ending of this quite the novelty for a Batman movie: it resolved this movie's story, while blowing it all wide open for plenty more to come.

Okay, gotta run, but trust me: Batman Begins is well worth the five bucks for admission (and the fifty dollars you'll spend on outrageously overpriced confectionary).

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Cinematical reviews Forcery!

Well whaddya know... our little movie is getting around! Thanks to Cinematical for the kind words.

(And of COURSE he doesn't look too much like George Lucas: the man just got pulled out of a freezing car wreck, fercryingoutloud!!! :-P)

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Mike Tyson quitting boxing to become a missionary

Iron Mike never seemed to be the missionary type. I always figured him to be Chewish.

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From Dolores Claiborne to Dolores Umbridge?

Today I found myself re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, sorta getting refreshed before the next book in the series comes out in another month. And this past week I finally saw the teaser trailer for the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, out this coming holiday season. It looks promising, but we'll see how well a 734-page book translates into a three-hour movie. Personally, even though it grows with each new viewing I was a bit disappointed when the movie for Prisoner of Azkaban came out last year, 'cuz it left out a LOT of neat items from the book, like who "Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs" really were, and Sirius giving Harry written permission to visit Hogsmeade, which is how the book ended.

My two favorite characters in the series so far have been Sirius Black and Professor "Mad-Eye" Moody. Moody's being played by Brendan Gleeson in Goblet of Fire, and it really does seem like he could look the part, that kind of wise/creepy combo. But as I was reading Order of the Phoenix I found myself wondering: who in the world could possibly play Dolores Umbridge?

For those who haven't had the mispleasure yet, Umbridge has to date been the most LOATHSOME character that J.K. Rowling has created in the Harry Potter books. Even more than Voldemort, you find yourself wanting this *itch ("w" or "b", your choice) to die die die. She's the bureaucrat from the pits of Hades. Imagine Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with a magic wand and gone insane with power. Umbridge is a metaphor for everything that is horribly wrong with modern public education, I'm positively certain. Yes, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a damning indictment against big government in the education business, which should... should mind ya... make some self-professed "religious conservatives" very happy were it not for them being too fixated on burning Harry Potter books. And most of this is all because of the character of Dolores Umbridge.

So who should play her when the movie version of Order of the Phoenix comes out? Call me crazy, and maybe it's only 'cuz I've spent the better part of the past year watching and re-watching Misery as reference material for my own motion picture, but it hit me today that Kathy Bates could probably pull it off beautifully... er, I mean wickedly. She's got that ability to turn on the faux charm and concern for others before trying to make their lives a living Hell. The only real strike against her is that she's not British (I think) and to date all the principles in the Harry Potter movies have been from the United Kingdom. There probably won't be any deviation from that and I couldn't really blame the producers for that, but the more I think about it, the more I'm coming to like the idea of Kathy Bates in what would certainly be the most EVIL role of her career.

But we'll have a little while yet to see how that turns out. And there'll be some other roles to fill too. I'd be willing to bet good money that Keira Knightly will get considered for the Tonks role. And isn't it hard NOT to imagine Samuel L. Jackson as Kingsley Shacklebolt?

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It was one year ago this past week...

...that Ronald Reagan passed away.

I know that there is - and probably will always be - some debate about his times as President of the United States. The man wasn't perfect by any stretch. Then again, who among us is anyway?

But I always admired Reagan. Part of his charm was that he wasn't afraid to admit having human foibles. He spoke with people, not at them or down to them. And they were people from all walks of life: foreign dignitaries, ecclesiastical authorities, or humble family farmers.

We were in Atlanta, me and Lisa and one of her friends from college, when the news broke that Reagan had died. We were on our way to the Lord of the Rings concert with Howard Shore conducting (I got the tickets about six months earlier, a Christmas present for Lisa). The concert was great, but all night it felt like... like the era of my childhood was finally, at last, finished. You didn't grow up in the Eighties without being in Reagan's shadow somehow: he was that kind of bigger than life. Nancy was bigger than life. Remember when we saw Reagan walking around the White House rose garden with Michael Jackson? Today Reagan is dead and Jacko is awaiting the verdict in his child molestation trial.

What the hell's happened to this country?

That was Saturday when he died. We were leaving back for home Tuesday morning and it was Monday night, while watching the mourners file past his casket at the Reagan Library in California, that I decided I had to go to D.C. and pay my respects to the man. We got back home about 10 that night and 12 hours later I hit the road again. Met up with some friends from the Internet along the procession route on Constitution Avenue and about 6 that evening the caisson bearing his casket filed past where we were standing...

I stayed in D.C. one more day, getting in line late Thursday night to try and get into the Capitol rotunda where his remains lay in state. It was like seven hours' wait from the far end of the Air and Space Museum, through five large "holding pens" on the Mall set up to accommodate the crowd, but just after the beautiful sunrise broke at dawn ("mourning in America", I couldn't help but think) our group got inside and were there for what turned out to be the next-to-last changing of the guard done in the Rotunda. Sure didn't seem like that long a wait though: all through the night I met with some really neat people from all over the place. Domino's and Papa John's were delivering pizzas to folks waiting in line (how they were told which holding pen to come to I've no idea). The Park Service had bottles of water for everyone. It was a little before 8 when we got through the buiding and I took the train back to my waiting car, drove to my hotel and packed up and went home.

I started writing about this a few days ago but got caught up in some things on this end. Wanted to come back and finish up this lil' tribute to the man. Wish this country could have other men of his kind of caliber in high office.

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The Nazis invented the sex doll (saywhuuuu...??)

Started randomly looking at other blogs this evening and found one called Suspect on film and since I'm a World War II freak his most recent post caught my eye. From Blogcritics.org...

The Nazis invented the sex doll

The Nazis invented the worst thing ever: the assembly-line death factory. But they also invented something else, perhaps the only legacy of theirs that endures to this very day. During World War II, Hitler's war machine created the world's first sex doll: Borghild.

The ”field-hygienic project” was an initiative of Himmler, who regarded the doll as a ”counterbalance” for the sexual drive of his stormtroopers. In one of his letters, he mentions the ”unnessessary losses” the Wehrmacht had suffered in France, inflicted by street prostitutes. ”The greatest danger in Paris are the wide-spread and uncontrolled whores, picking up clients in bars, dancehalls and other places. It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health, just for the sake of a quick adventure.” One assumes Himmler also wanted to stop any racial dilution of the great German army.

The project was considered ”Geheime Reichssache”, which meant ”more secret than top secret.” Himmler put Dr. Joachim Mrurgowsky in charge, the highest ranking officer of Berlin's notorious SS Institute.

The world’s first sexdoll – or ”gynoid” – was built in 1941 by a team of craftsmen from Germany's Hygiene Museum in Dresden. The project was supervised by a famous technician, Franz Tschakert. He was the ”father of the woman of glass,” which happened to be the sensation in the 1930’s International Hygiene Exhibition...

Ohh-kaaaay that's enough for now, don't you think? This is probably the weirdest thing I've EVER heard about World War II. Weirder than the "British aircraft carrier made of ice cubes" or the "Nazis trying to contact the subterranean supermen" bits, even. Squeeze here if you want to read more about them kinky Nazis.

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Check out the new Forcery website!

Awright, our lil' film is starting to get some press coverage so in advance of the good word and for benefit of anyone who might find their way to it, Ed and I have worked on-and-off throughout today to beef-up the official Forcery website. You'll find production photos, cast and crew bios, download links and more! We'll be adding more stuff to it soon as it develops. In the meantime, head over to forcery.kwerkyproductions.com and enjoy!

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Man in suit! Man in suit!

Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers was the first place (I think) that had the concept of strength-enhancing mechanized endoskeletons worn by humans. It's since been used in movies like Aliens and The Matrix Revolutions. Now it's become a reality...

From AFP via Yahoo! news:

Japan unveils "robot suit" that enhances human power

Tue Jun 7,10:14 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has taken a step into the science-fiction world with the release of a "robot suit" that can help workers lift heavy loads or assist people with disabilities climb stairs.

"Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor and engineer at Tsukuba University who led the project.

The 15-kilogram (33-pound) battery-powered suit, code-named HAL-5, detects muscle movements through electrical-signal flows on the skin surface and then amplifies them.

It can also move on its own accord, enabling it to help elderly or handicapped people walk, developers said.

The prototype suit will be displayed at the World Exposition that is currently taking place in Aichi prefecture, central Japan...

That's gonna be a pretty cool thing for pro wrestlers to wear.

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This blog's look will be changing soon

I redid its look back in January but the all-black "nighttime" style is really starting to bore me. And that picture of me at the top isn't the best: it looks like I'm smirking or something. The original is a photo taken of me for a newspape I worked at a few years ago and in larger size it looks great. Reduced size, it makes me look too much like a psycho. I'm going to find a better one. I'm going to monkey around with it some during the next few days and see what I can come up with...

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Bush wants to make destruction of Bill of Rights permanent (seeks PATRIOT Act renewal)

A lot of its provisions were intended to "sunset" when it was passed over three years ago. Except Bush wants to keep them around indefinitely. For the duration of the "emergency", you see.

This "emergency" will never end. The "war on terror" is not intended to have a substantive goal. This will never enter into endgame.

Might as well face up to it: Osama Bin Laden won when he sent the planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center going on four years ago. He made sure America would never be the sweet land of liberty ever again. The irony of it is, it wasn't Osama who did the really dirty deed against the American people. He merely instigated it. He hasn't even been adequately punished for it. Instead the President of the United States - who swore an oath to defend this country's Constitution - is too busy taking away basic rights like that of having an attorney and protection against unwarranted searches and seizures and letting our guard down along this country's borders, to do anything meaningful against whatever real terorrists are still out there.

The PATRIOT Act does not defend America. The PATRIOT Act defends politicians from the Americans they continue to steal from and rape of their freedoms. No wonder Bush wants to keep hiding behind it forever.

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The unfilmmable Watchmen claims another one

This time it's Paramount that threw its hands up in despair. Mash here for the full story. This is one story - graphic novel or not - that will never, ever, EVER be made into a movie and it still do justice to the original source material. The only way it could possibly be done is if someone like HBO turned it into a 12-part season-long series of one-hour episodes, one hour given to each chapter of the book. There's no way to cram something so dense like Watchmen into a three-hour long movie.

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Woman sues Stephen King after claiming she's real-life "Annie Wilkes"

Ooh-boy, this is just too rich. Ever notice how sometimes things just seem a little TOO coincidental? Today TheForce.net posted on their fan films section about Forcery and turns out it comes hot on the heels of this item from the Celebrity Justice website. A woman is suing Stephen King because she claims she was the basis of the Annie Wilkes character from Misery and that King never credited her. She's sued him before, saying that King has ripped-off a lot of stuff from her over the years. Sounds like a pretty scary lady.

Then again, anyone claiming to be the REAL-LIFE Annie Wilkes is gonna be someone you want to keep away from sledgehammers and firearms.

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"Weird Al" Yankovic watched Forcery... and he liked it!!

The entire cast and crew was really thrilled to hear that "Weird Al" Yankovic - the crown prince of parody himself - wrote in after watching Forcery. Yup, our first-ever movie was seen by the one-and-only Weird Al (which is only fair 'cuz over the years between me and Ed we've amassed quite a lot of Al's CDs and merchandise and t-shirts and we can recite line-for-line all the dialogue from UHF and are patiently awaiting the arrival of "The Weird Al Show" on DVD... we've watched HIM and now he's watched US!). Here's some of what Al had to say:

"...Nice job! Wow, how'd you ever get Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg to be in it? What a coup!"

It wasn't easy, let's just put it that way Al :-)

It was one of those things that you overlook when you're doing something like this, but the updated "Definitive Edition" we just made available this evening has some additions to the end credits: for all the inspiration that they provided us over the years, the cast and crew of Forcery thanks not only Weird Al, but Mel Brooks and the guys who made the Airplane! movies. We really strived to make Forcery resonate with the same tone of comedy that they're the masters of. Ed and Chad and I grew up with their music and movies, and we often talked on the set about how our own was a sort of homage to them and that period of our lives. Hope we did them an honor with it :-)

And so it begins: the start of my filmmaking career that will one day find me directing Weird Al and Leslie Nielsen in Spy Hard 2: Spy Another Day. In the meantime I must bide my time and climb the ladder...

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Forcery - the Definitive Edition - download now available!

Am using Ourmedia.org to host this on for the moment. We may get other hosting soon. One offer to mirror it has come up.

Folks, I'd like to ask something of you, but only if you really, truly enjoyed watching our little movie here. If you laughed and thought it wasn't a waste of your time and were genuinely entertained by it, I for one would REALLY appreciate it if you could spread the word on Forcery wherever you can. Point people to this blog and the links we have to it. There's a reason I'm asking this and I'm still collecting some thoughts on that. Right now, it means more to me than you can imagine if this film - which had a LOT of good people working on, and sacrificing for so that it could be made - could get a little (actually a LOT) more exposure. Some really good e-mails and comments have come in already, and I'm wanting to see this fly a little higher and keep on flying.

Consider this to be Version 1.1 of Forcery. In all respects the same as the initial release but we managed to fix a few things. The audio, for one: sounds MUCH better! A few of the special effects were recomposited/refined. The final scene was rebuilt completely from scratch (you'll definitely notice it when you see Frannie's lightsaber and the changed dialogue of the Mel's Drive-In waitress). Quite a few scenes were "tightened-up" to make it flow leaner and meaner. You probably won't notice these things if at all, but to me they came to stick out like a sore thumb. Right now, there's not much more that I know we could do, with what we had to make this with already. I'm more proud of it than ever :-)

As before, there are four versions of Forcery for you to download:

480 x 270 Extra Large - 508 Megabytes: the biggest/most robust version outside of the DVD.

448 x 252 Large - 355 Megabytes: the "regular large" version.

384 x 216 Medium - 192 Megabytes: medium-sized version.

256 x 144 Micro - 96 Megabytes: the "micro-sized" version. Still my favorite because it fits neatly onto a 128 MB USB flash drive (along with Quicktime installer) so I can take my entire motion picture around with me in my pocket. Or around my neck on its lanyard. Like the dead albatross from Rime of the Ancient Mariner...

By the way, if the download doesn't work for some reason at first, try again one or two more times: you will get through to it. Ourmedia's servers are a bit quirky sometimes but I've yet to see them totally fail to deliver the goods.

Anyway, enjoy the show! And please spread the word about Forcery! :-)

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Inmates in British prison watching Revenge of the Sith bootleg DVD

This story made me laugh for some reason. From contactmusic.com...

OUTRAGE AS STAR WARS ILLEGALLY SHOWN IN UK PRISON

A bootleg copy of the brand new STAR WARS movie, EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH, has been illegally screened in a British jail.

The pirate DVD was shown to prisoners at the Coldingley Jail in Surrey, despite the fact that the blockbuster has only been on release in cinemas for three weeks.

And police were amazed when an inmate reported the illegal screening, which is believed to have been organised by a prison officer.

One prisoner says, "Most people loved it. The last place you'd expect to watch pirate films is in jail.

"We don't have access to the DVD, so presumably a officer to put it on.

"It was a nice gesture - but pretty stupid really."

06/06/2005 14:02

This is sort of a step up from China, where they have prison inmates making bootleg DVDs :-P

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Okay, so it wasn't by LAST night, but Forcery Definitive Edition WILL be today :-)

Encoding to Quicktime is something I'm still striving to have some finesse at. Right now Media Cleaner is busy churning out four versions of Forcery - same sizes as the initial release - but with a few extra bells and whistles now that I learned how to do 'em. The movie should autoplay as soon as you open the file, and if you're downloading from the web it should start playing as soon as it's got enough info to run on while it's still coming in.

We'll have the website for it updated in the next few days too. Which'll include a VERY cool endorsement of the movie that I've been sitting on the past few days :-)

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Forcery version 1.1 available this evening

It's not a "special edition" like I referred to it as Saturday, more like how it SHOULD have been originally released had Fate smiled on us a little sooner. As it is, we did get lucky enough to have some things fall into place that let us improve on it a lot in places where it needed it. So no new material, but it is a better viewing experience. Melody and I happened to find ourselves each calling this one "Version 1.1" so that's what this, the definitive release, is going to be known as. When it's online later tonight just forget that the first release ever happened. Strike it from your mind. It never took place. You just imagined that you saw it already. "This isn't the movie you're looking for." Forget about it. Forget it, I say!! Maybe someday with a million dollars of funds I can give it a total work-over including new scenes and that'll be a real "special edition" but for now, let's just say that our first baby is walking around a bit.

In addition to a blooper reel, I'm also considering posting a "viewer's guide" to all the little in-jokes and sight gags that we stuck in this movie. Like, that's Chad's brother who's picture on one of the wanted posters in the sheriff's office. There's about five of them on the "Filks Found Guilty" newspaper clipping alone. All told, there might be a hundred such items spread throughout Forcery for both Star Wars and Stephen King fans (and everyone in between) to look for :-)

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AMC is showing Independence Day right now

Lisa said it was on earlier but it didn't register until now that she also said "it's on AMC!" Yup it's official now: Independence Day is an American Movie Classic. Funny thing: as much as I berate myself for the fact that I watched this seven times in the theaters when it first came out in '96, every time I wind up watching it again I understand anew what it was that kept me coming.

You see, this isn't a movie about evil aliens in fifteen-mile diameter spaceships blowing up the White House at all. Yeah the effects looked wicked cool, especially the scenes where the fighter jets are engaging the alien fighters beneath those monstrosities. Speaking of which, Independence Day probably ranks as the VERY LAST of the old-school special effects blockbusters given how ridiculously LITTLE computer-rendering was used in it, compared to something like Revenge of the Sith. That was neat eye candy but Independence Day was much like Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's previous effort Stargate in that it focused on the characters more than the techno gimmickery involved. To me, Independence Day was and always will be about the way America should be: a land where there really is no division or meaningless factionalism. A country where every man (and woman) really is considered equal, and not a favored elite by virtue of birth or corporate backing. Independence Day is not a movie that either so-called "liberals" or "neo-cons" should enjoy: a Jew and a black man fly a spaceship together and save the world, and no one ever takes notice of that. The President of the United States is a REAL Air Force flyer who's not afraid to strap into an F-16 and take off after the bad guys alongside refugees from an RV flotilla. No one is stopping to figure out how to capitalize on this mess: they're just fighting to make sure that their children will have a world to wake up to tomorrow.

Man, Independence Day may be one of the most politically mocking movies of all time. No wonder it's always resonated with me somehow.

Anyway, glad to see that it's now being played on AMC alongside such other classics of the American screen as Every Which Way But Loose, Smokey and the Bandit Part 2, Death Race 2000 and National Lampoon's Animal House :-)

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Kyle Williams made my brain hurt this weekend

But in a good way!

Every time this kid has something profound to say - which is just about every time - I usually make a post about it with a link to whatever is his latest essay. I didn't forget about that this time at all. It's just that this week's Williams piece was very dense: we're talking on the scale of Tolkien or Rand here. It provoked a lot of things to think about and I wanted to make sure my brain was thoroughly wrapped around it before saying anything about it.

Suffice it to say, it's a BRILLIANT piece Williams has up at WorldNetDaily this weekend. Titled "Idolizing intolerance", this may be his most powerful piece yet. From his article...

It bothers me that many members of my denomination, Southern Baptist, claim that sending children to public school is a sin against God. It bothers me that the evangelical spokespeople in America were almost universally and emphatically pro-war during the Iraq campaign. It bothers me that abortion and homosexuality are the only issues that national evangelical activists care about. It bothers me that, according to surveys, evangelicals are more likely to be racist than unbelievers. These things bother me.

I don't have an opinion on homosexual marriage. I really don't care, but I believe it ridiculous for Christians to expect unbelievers to act Christian. I believe abortion is murder and should be outlawed, but I believe those who have abortions need love and a change of heart, not picket signs and hate. I don't believe in beating society over the head with morality, because outward signs of morality are worthless divorced from Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we must judge those inside the church, while God judges those outside...

I don't have the heart to steal his thunder by quoting his closing thoughts here. Mash here and check it out for yourself.

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The things that make your phone ring at 11:30 p.m.

Last night was a little interesting. I was playing The Matrix Online with fellow mates of our faction (we're the Priory of Zion on the Method server) when the phone rang. A good friend - that I've mentioned here quite a few times already - called to see if I'd be willing to assist in something. I said "yes" immediately.

Now, the task itself is pretty neat, but what's really got me stoked is where this is going to be at.

Will be able to post more about it toward the end of this month. Suffice it to say, it's the kind of situation that might make some people crap in their britches when they learn where a guy like me is gonna wind up running around in. I just hope that my security clearance checks out :-)

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Forcery "special edition" coming soon

I may even have it ready to go by tomorrow evening, depending on some factors.

Awright, this past week was a little harsh on my baby, the first movie I've ever made (hopefully not the last though). It was harsh on ME: something happened that seriously, seriously got me feeling rather despondent. Ummmm... "betrayed" would be a good word to use. That's one thing I don't take very well. Betrayal, especially after you've spent a long time earning a trust, is... well, that's pretty low.

It all had to do with Forcery. The details of which I'll be disclosing more about in the days to come. Yeah I was brought pretty low (and there's nothing wrong with admitting that) but in the past day or so there's been some things that have more than lifted my spirits. And I've been doing some thinking on the matter too.

(This'll all make sense soon, trust me. I'm gonna come out both barrels blazin' but there's a proper time for that, and right now ain't it. Suffice it to say, some hard things need to be said openly, about some people, and I'll be unloading that soon enough.)

But I can say this: Forcery picked up a... I'd say it's a pretty darned good endorsement, from someone who seemed pretty impressed with the film and if HE was impressed... whoa momma!! Not too shabby for a first film out the gate :-) The other thing is, we've found some possible venues that would see it promoted bigtime. But we're gonna "fix" a few things first. I know, the audio ain't that great: already talked about what happened there. Lo and behold, that's going to be fixed, and we found a VERY neat solution to it! A few minor things, stuff you probably won't even notice. I'd say that this upcoming "re-release" should be the definitive version, and this one out now just the "preliminary". Which isn't the usual way to do things: next time, we'll know. And we'll do better.

So anyhoo, I'll be posting a honking big write-up about some things soon, and will be bringing you an improved version of the movie. Hope you'll find it entertaining and enlightening :-)

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Revenge of the Sith viewings to date: 4

Saw it with my friend Johnny last night, who I've always dragged into seeing a new Star Wars movie every time for the past eight years (since the Special Editions) but this time he dragged me! I don't know how well he liked The Phantom Menace and he kinda liked Attack of the Clones but he REALLY dug Revenge of the Sith! It sparked quite a lot of conversation late last night as we wound down the evening at the good ol' Krispy Kreme. That's four times now I've seen this movie (saw it again last weekend with a family from our church) and my goal is to catch it at least six more times before the end of summer. That way I'll beat my previous "most times I've seen a movie in first-run" which was 9 times for The Phantom Menace in 1999. Before that it was 7 times the summer of 1996 for Independence Day.

Yeah I still can't believe it either: watching Independence Day seven frickin' times in the theater! You can go ahead and ask, I don't care: "Chris what the *#&@ were you thinking? WERE you thinking?!"

The cool thing about that was at the time I was running an Independence Day website, and got a nice e-mail about it from Dean Devlin. That so ruled :-)

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So ummm... looks like Bush lied to the American people so he could have his lil' war in Iraq...

...and really, can that be disputed, in any sane and rational way, at all?

I'll admit to being a late-comer to this whole "Downing Street memo" thing that's starting to heat up the newswires. Hey I spent the better part of the last two months making a movie, you tend to overlook a lotta things when that happens :-) So this morning I sat down and tried to catch up on everything that I missed, and this seems to be catching on in a big way. And why shouldn't it?

Because based on everything I'm reading, it's (A) been verified as accurate by Tony Blair's own government over there in Great Britain and (B) proves that the entire case that Bush and his gang built up to justify our going into Iraq was falsified!!

Y'know, King David cooked up a lie that sent Bathsheba's husband to the front lines where David knew he'd get killed. That was the death of one man that Nathan the prophet came and condemned David for. Now, think about the sixteen-hundred or so Americans that have perished since this mess started two years ago, for the sake of a lie: what might God have to say about that?

No doubt that some Bush-bot is going to be tempted to add a snide comment to this post, as they usually are whenever they find me writing about this. Something to the effect that I'm "un-American", that I should be "standing behind our president" or something REALLY asinine like "would you have preferred John F'ing Kerry?" Yes folks, these "good Christian Americans" think it's an act of virtue to use the "F-expletive" in constant reference to Bush's Democrat opponent in the 2004 election. That says more about a lack of civility than an abundance of stupidity but I digress... The point is, either myself or someone else, and probably a whole bunch of someone elses, is going to be slammed because we bring this - an impeachable offense and way moreso than a semen-stained dress could ever evoke - to the attention of others and based on that ALONE we'll get painted as "spineless evil Democratic liberal bastards".

Well, I ain't a Democrat. Or a Republican. I'm not even really an American, not in the greater scheme of things: I'm just trying to do what God would have me to do. And the God I've come to know demands that I seek out and adhere to the truth.

To NOT say something about this lie, in my own way, however it is that I'm empowered to say it, after knowing about it, would make me complicit with the execution of that lie. And I do not desire to stand before God and confess to Him that I did nothing to refute this lie that has not only cost the lives of countless innocents, but is a mortal sin in its own right.

Now, do any supporters of Bush still believe they possess something "constructive" to add to the conversation?

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I just realized what's wrong with America

It's that too many people in this country have no way to create an identity to call their own, so that by the time they're old enough to want their own identity they've no idea what the hell to do. So, they grasp hold of whatever "identity" presents itself to them. It could be a sports team, or a political party. They latch onto it and lose any desire to ever have to think about why it is that they latched onto it in the first place because to do so destroys their identity. And for the rest of their lives, as is the case with a political party, they will defend that party and the "identity" it gives them to the death.

THAT is why so many people in this country do not think for themselves, instead letting a party - and whatever individuals that party has elevated out of its own interests - do the thinking for them.

I gotta wonder now: where does that leave the rest of us, the ones who DO think for ourselves, the ones with our own identities?

I'll admit there's more of "them" than there are of "us"... but sheer numbers never equalled moral or philosophical superiority, did it?

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Back in the saddle again

The past few days were a little... trying, you might say. Hence my abrupt departing message.

Things are better now. I'd even dare say "better than better" :-)

More later. Need to finish putting some thoughts together before making the next move.

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So, why DIDN'T the people who wanted war in Iraq want to go over there and be heroes themselves?

A follow-up to my previous post. Found this recent essay by Chuck Baldwin that lays it down in a way that I'm pretty sure the pro-war cowards (and really, what else CAN you call them?) will never stand up and answer to...

To those who are engaged in war, the consequences can be nightmarish! Arms and legs cut off. Eyes put out. Flesh burned. Intestines ripped out. Backs broken. Skulls crushed. Lives lost. Families torn apart. Homes destroyed. Children left without parents. Parents never able to see their children again. Wives without husbands. Husbands without wives. Souls snuffed into eternity. Emotional scars that never heal. These are the realities of war. And this is what the neo-cons who profit from war never have to see up close and personal.

Instead, pro-war neo-cons sit in their comfortable, air-conditioned offices and send other husbands, other wives, other parents, other children, other people to incur the "scourge" of war. But the neo- cons who trumpet war, who promote war, and who finance war never actually experience war.

Y'know, if General Robert E. Lee were still around, he would have condemned Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the whole lot of modern-day warmongers as being not Christian, or gentlemen, or even real men at all. Lee was horrified by war, and rightly so, "lest we should become too fond of it." But you gotta say one thing about Lee: he wasn't afraid to place himself in the same amount of danger as the men he commanded, for a cause that he did sincerely believe in.

So how about it, warmongers who wanted this mess in Iraq (and are now clamoring for Iran): if YOU believe in this fight so much, why don't YOU sign yourselves up, or YOUR sons and daughters, and go fight it yourselves?

You'll be "heroes", doncha know?

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Memorial Day musings...

I'm going to pose a question that I've been thinking about the past several months:

Does being a soldier who merely steps foot on foreign soil qualify that soldier as a "hero" who's defending his country?

Because I don't think so.

And yet so many are being sent to other lands to come back as "heroes" while those doing the sending, are all too reluctant to go and be "heroes" themselves.

Why should I feel compelled to honor anyone on Memorial Day? We don't even really have what so many fought and died for anymore. How DARE we go through the motions of suggesting that we would hold their sacrifices to be "sacred" on this one day when we can't even do it during the other 364?

Y'know, you don't have to be a soldier, or a sailor, or a marine to be deemed worthy of being a "warrior" in this country. Safeguarding our liberties is a job for all of us, and those without the guns have a helluva lot more responsibility than those with the guns will ever have.

Instead we've shirked our duty. And we pat ourselves on the back for thinking we're "good Americans" when we congratulate those coming back home without a limb, or an eye, or a life.

You can't really remember those who died for freedom when real freedom is already dead.

EDIT 10:27 PM 05/30/2005: just found a really good essay by Doug Newman titled "Memorial Day 2005: Are We Even Worthy that puts things a lot better than how I tried to describe 'em here.

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Time to say "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" to Star Wars Galaxies

Wish it could be reported that everything is going beautifully in these halcyon (final?) days of being a Star Wars supergeek, but alas! Some things are not the ideal they should be in that saga far, far away...

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies, the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) runs for LucasArts, ever since last January. I've been quite proud of the online persona of "Slanner Kwintz" that I invested countless hours in establishing as a smuggler/bounty hunter figure, and in proudly outfitting my SoroSuub yacht, the Mare of Steel, into a brutal business vehicle with refined elegance (I think I may have been the first player to figure out how to install a jail cell onboard a spacecraft in this game). I had a house on a hilltop on Tatooine that had a gorgeous view of the twin suns setting from the front porch, and I wound up meeting a lot of neat players.

But now it's time to hang it all up. Because this just ain't a fun game at all anymore.

It's not even really "Star Wars". It's more like "Star Wars Costume Party". SOE did a "Combat Upgrade" a few weeks ago intended to improve the (admittedly flawed but still fun) system of combat. Instead they botched things in such a way as to make the game darn nearly unplayable in anywhere near a sane fashion. Like, if you are wounded or killed (and respawn at a cloning center... why they don't call the cloning chambers "bacta tanks" and thus be more StarWars-ish I've no idea) you darn well better get used to being walking wounded 'cuz medical characters have NO hope to level up outside of combat. The crafting professions have been screwed up and my favorite profession, smuggler, is as far away from ITS much-needed revamp as its ever been.

The established characters from the saga are so ill-used it's laughable: Darth Vader, when he IS used, has become a corporate mouthpiece for the Galactic Empire instead of a dreaded Sith Lord. Yeah you read that right in SOE's hands Darth Vader has become a JOKE! There are scores of problems with the game, including some bugs that have still been in-game for months, if not ever since inception. SOE's manner of dealing with these failings has always been the same: introduce more Star Wars eyecandy, like better mountable pets and multi-passenger vehicles, and planets like the Wookiee homeworld to run around in. WITHOUT either addressing the present problems or working on the problems that crop up with EVERY "improvement" they roll out. SOE is trying to slap bandaids on a chestwound. And they're still wondering why the patient is still crippled. Fercryingoutloud they allow Tatooine banthas to run around on Naboo... where da heck is the famous Lucas-ian attention to consistency in THAT?!?

The problem with Star Wars Galaxies is that it no longer feels like real Star Wars. There's no sense of the spirit of the saga that was the allure most of us had in playing it to begin with. We wanted to be part of Star Wars, not players in a game that merely borrows from the look of Star Wars. And some players have started a massive online petition movement to make SOE enact some real changes to the game, but I've come to realize that anything SOE does would be too little, too late. This game is going down fast: at least 16,000 subscribers have publicly announced cancellations according to most accounts, and that indicates that many, many more players have called it quits already. This past week SOE brought Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience to stores: a compilation of the original core game plus the Jump To Lightspeed space expansion, and the new Rage of the Wookiees add-on, all for thirty bucks. Most players paid that much just for the space expansion. If you want just the Wookiee expansion you can download that directly for just about the same price. You tell me: be a new player and buy EVERYTHING for thirty bucks in one shot or a longtime veteran and have to pay the same price for ONE portion of the same game. How would YOU feel?

Man, it sucks to have to say this, but Star Wars Galaxies had a LOT of potential, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a good time playing it when I did. When it was still fun. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy at this point and up until recently I was a VERY faithful player: heck, my wife and I even attended the Star Wars Galaxies breakfast at Celebration III last month in Indianapolis. SOE took the Star Wars franchise and tried to run it like its own, when it's NOT like EverQuest at all: it's Star Wars. And this game needed people who knew and loved and understood what Star Wars was really all about from day one. They missed the mark and at this rate they'll always miss the mark, no matter how many hundreds of players they allow to pick up a lightsaber and call themselves "Jedi".

So I'm quitting Star Wars Galaxies. But I'm not giving up hope on there being a MMORPG someday that deserves being given the Star Wars moniker. This game doesn't just need an overhaul: it needs a total rebuild from the ground up. Players need to be given something more substantial than running around grinding for experience points and killing "Meatlump Buffoons" hoping to loot rug adhesive (yeah you read that right rug adhesive). They want to be part of the story, and there DOES need to be a sense that there's a grand, epic and sweeping story that's in the background that we're participating with, not merely onlookers of. The space ability needs to be built-in from the game's very beginning. Inconsistencies with the saga should be dealt with. None of this is happening. But it could happen, in the proper hands of people who actually care about it being legitimate Star Wars.

Until that day comes (and if and when it does, believe you me I'll be first in line at the local Best Buy, cash in hand, ready to plunk down and start playing) it's time to write off this attempt at a Star Wars MMORPG as a sinking ship. But if you want some real enjoyable action in a franchise-related online RPG, check out The Matrix Online. I've been playing that since day one of the retail version and its developers have proven that they are extremely committed to not only delivering an enjoyable experience for the gamers, but making it as substantial a part of enjoying this particular story as the movies were. I mean, The Matrix Online was ballsy enough to ASSASSINATE Morpheus a few days ago, and now every player is running around helter-skelter trying to find out whodunit. You can't kick it up another notch much more than THAT, right? :-)

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Some thanks that's overdue regarding Forcery...

I've thanked a lot of people already for helping make this film possible but there's one group of people that for some reason I really neglected to mention, because this movie practically grew up in the forum and if it wasn't for plenty of advice and suggestions on stuff like de-interlacing and rotoscoping, well there wouldn't have been a Forcery worth downloading, if at all.

So here's both a tip of the hat, and an invitation if you haven't already checked them out, to the good people on TheForce.net Fan Films discussion board. The best film school bar none that you could hope to attend without paying $20,000 in tuition. There wasn't much that I learned during the production of Forcery that didn't first come from these guys. So if you want to see some REAL creative juices percolating or take part in something that'll imbue you with considerable film education, you can't do much better than the TFN Fan Films board.

Appreciate the help, fellas :-)

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If you want to watch Forcery then please punch here -->

Yesterday Durbnpoisn at TFN FanFilms added Forcery to their Fan Films Hosting Pool: a collection of mirrors for various films. Forcery hasn't been hosted there yet, but I wanted to make an acknowledgement of that courtesy by them. See that sweet-lookin' "banner ad" on the right? If you click that you'll be taken to a page at TFN that has links to all four of the Quicktime versions without having to suffer from my commentary :-)

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Happy 83rd Birthday to Christopher Lee!

I still think he didn't get enough screen time in Revenge of the Sith though...

Anyway, in honor of the occasion and the remarkable life that Mr. Lee has led for practically its entire run so far, I thought it might be a neat idea to bring back to mind another article I wrote here a few months ago: THE KNIGHT SHIFT Exclusive: Christopher Lee's VERY FIRST Horror Picture Appearance!

And no it wasn't this guy either...

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Seeking Christian Wisdom from the Jedi Masters...

Well gang, for more than over a month I was working to get Forcery out and now that's finally accomplished. I can now set my sights on doing some other things that have been on the radar screen (and yes Brian I am going to be posting those pics from Star Wars Celebration III :-) Gotta bear in mind, and it's a whole new thing on the other side of the fence believe you me, but getting a movie out is a TOUGH thing to do!! There are always a zillion little things that could be better that you have to make judgement calls on, and decide whether or not the film would be okay with those things in there, knowing it would take forever to get ALL the wrinkles out. In the end, yeah it's not a *perfect* baby but it's still our baby, lumps and all. And I love it :-) And, it seems to be getting quite a bit of attention already. Time will tell how well it'll be received but I just feel good knowing that, hey, "I made a movie!!!!"

But while word on it gets around it's time to move on to other things. I wanted to mention this earlier but it kept getting bogged down in the back of my mind but there's a really good book out right now called Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters that Lisa and I found when we were in Indianapolis last month. It's written by Dick Staub and in it, he doesn't do like *ahem* some people have attempted to do and turn the Jedi way into a full-blown religion (what are some of you guys down in Australia and New Zealand thinking anyway?? :-) but he does use illustrations from the Star Wars saga to demonstrate what it means to be a Christian from the earliest, most traditional perspective. I'm finding that this book is a great introduction for someone who might not have been given a real explanation of Christian theology, and for those of us who are long-time believers Staub's book provokes a lot of challenge and encouragement to consider on our own what it means to be a Christian believer and to gain strength from even the most humble of life's circumstances. As the apostle Paul said, "I am become all things to all men..." and here Staub makes it clear that Paul even meant becoming a Padawan Learner unto those men who spent idle weekends walking around in vacuu-formed plastic armor. Anyway, it's a great book and I'm heartily recommending it.

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FORCERY World Internet Premiere: Download and Watch It NOW!!!

May 25, 2005. Ironically enough it's the 28th anniversary of the release date of the very first Star Wars movie Episode IV: A New Hope. The legendary story is that George Lucas was eating dinner in a restaurant across the street from Mann's Chinese Theater and didn't even realize until later that those throngs of people lined up outside the place were waiting to see his movie on opening day! Maybe lightning will strike the same date twice. Hey a guy can dream and wish right? :-)

So here it is, Forcery. You got several "flavors" of viewing sizes to choose from. Sometime soon we're going to have it where you can mail us a blank DVD and SASE and we'll return it to you (with a nice label if you pay a little extra to cover cost) with the movie, chapters selection feature, the gag reel, maybe a "making of" documentary, da works! Yah we're quite proud of our lil' film. But for now here's the viewing options for you to choose from. Special thanks to Ourmedia.org for providing hosting for these Quicktime files: Ourmedia.org is my new very bestest friend in the whole wide world! Or at least cyberspace.

Anyhoo, here ya go...

Super Data Rate Large Version (467 MB, 480x270 resolution): the largest available online. Pretty darned close to DVD quality. This was the first one encoded, before I really knew what to do with Media Cleaner. But I'm going to leave this one up for sake of anyone who may desire to download and watch this one. Click here for this version's homepage at Ourmedia.org.

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Regular Large Size (358 MB, 448x252 resolution): slightly smaller resolution than the Super Data Rate Large format and a slightly smaller resolution, but I imagine this one will be what ultimately be considered as the "mainstream" one. The only real difference between this one and the previous version is that this one was encoded with a somewhat smaller data rate. Maybe just a little bit of artifacting (most apparent around the "FORCERY" logo at the beginning, hence why screenshots of that are up) but otherwise a perfectly good large version. Click here for this version's homepage at Ourmedia.org.

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Medium Size (193 MB, 384x216 resolution): this one should be more "friendly" for anyone who's on a dialup connection, at least if they're okay with leaving the computer running all night after praying that nothing severs the connection. Ooh-boy, I still remember the old days of Trumpet WINSOCK on the Windows 3.1 machine that I was using right up 'til summer of '99. Good times! Trumpet Winsock, it was a socket layer/Internet dial-up utility that went between Windows 3.1 and the Internet, from the days before Windows came with built-in Internet capability. And you weren't supposed to be able to use it continuously unless you paid for the registered version but ummm if you knew a certain lil' trick you could keep using it indefinitely. You just had to "reset" Winsock by uninstalling and then re-installing it once a month. It wasn't anything "illegal" per se, it was a pretty blatantly obvious vulerability that anyone was able to exploit. But that lil' ritual became burned in my gray matter permanently! And if you weren't too spoiled on how fast your college's Internet connection was it was pretty good... until it got ticked-off and sometimes DISCONNECTED on you while you were doing 'net chat with that cute co-ed at the next campus over. Anyway, there's no shame in admitting it if you don't have a cable modem: lots of folks still don't, and cable and wireless can't go everywhere, right? Our first year of marriage, Lisa and I lived in a rented house so far out in the country that cable TV isn't scheduled to arrive for another forty years or so (telling you here and now I nearly went stark raving mad without my dose of The Powerpuff Girls). Or it could be that you're doing missionary work in the middle of Borneo and you're lucky enough to have a halfway decent 'net connection. Leave the computer running in your tent and pray the screen's glare doesn't attract any malaria-ridden mosquitoes or direly hungry lion in mating season, and you should be able to watch this version just fine. Click here for this version's homepage at Ourmedia.org.

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Micro Size (97 MB, 256x144 resolution): I mentioned in my earlier post this afternoon about how I made this size so that it would all fit neatly onto a 128 USB "flash drive" that Lisa found for me awhile back. I can carry the entire movie - plus a Quicktime installer for Windows XP - around in my pocket with this version. Or since the flash drive has this lanyard on it, I can hang the movie around my neck. Like the proverbial dead albatross in that old poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. That's what it is to be a filmmaker: you carry this dead weight around your neck and it seems like you'll never lose it. Like you'll go to your grave with this thing dragging you down. Or maybe it will be what drags you into your grave. And you pray to God that the day will come that it will finally slip from off your neck and into the depths of the sea and you'll be free to gaze upward a free man at last. Whatever. I think this may be my favorite of the versions because ya gotta admit it is pretty cool to be able to carry an entire, almost-full-length motion-picture - that you and your friends made - around in your pocket! O the joys of modern technology. Anyway, this really is more or less a "gimmick" for my own amusement but I wanted to make it available all the same anyway. So download if ya like. Click here for this version's homepage at Ourmedia.org.

I couldn't finish this premiere without once again acknowledging the hard work and sacrifice, and dedication that so many people gave in making the dream of this film a reality. Especially Chad Austin and Melody Hallman Daniel, who play George Lucas and Frannie Filks, respectively. Go visit Chad's blog and Melody's website sometime, they and I will be glad that you did :-)

Thanks to not only my partner and collaborator but also one of my best friends in this world, Ed Woody, for co-directing and co-producing Forcery, in addition to a lot of other things.

Very special thanks to my wife Lisa (who has a small role in Forcery) and my parents, in whose home we filmed most of the Frannie's house scenes. Thanks to Dad for providing the weapons that were used as props, and to Mom for all the catering that she did (so that no one went hungry under the obsessive direction of ANOTHER filmmaker - who shall remain nameless - who tried to become too much like George Lucas by demanding "FASTER, MORE INTENSE!!"). Lisa deserves all the praise in the world for putting up with me while I was working on this thing.

Thanks to Short Sugar's Drive-In of Reidsville, North Carolina for letting us film the Mel's Drive-In scenes at their restaurant. Thanks to Charity Baptist Church of Greensboro, North Carolina for use of the church parking lot (where some of the crash was shot) and the church offices (used for Sheriff Boozer's office and Steven Spielberg's office scenes). Thanks to Kenneth and Laurie Wright and their family for allowing us to film the Skywalker Ranch scenes in their home.

Additional photography was done on the Blue Ridge Parkway, including the area around Mount Mitchell, and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The library scene was film at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Many other notes of thanks are included in the end credits of Forcery.

Okay, enough talk out of me.

Go watch Forcery, now.

Or, perish in flames.

It's your choice. But, not really.

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"You haven't heard the last of Ernest T. Bass!"

Okay, now I am depressed. Saddened, even. Darnnit this has been an emotional week for me and just about all of it from the pop culture scene (which doesn't hardly happen, ever). But this one... hurts... folks, seriously. But we were blessed to have had him while we did, and now he's gone to that great celestial hollar up in the sky...

Howard Morris has passed away at the age of 85. He was pretty well-known in film and television circles but here in North Carolina, Mr. Morris will forevermore be known and renowned for something else entirely altogether: he was the man who brought the irascible, irrepressible mountain "nut" Ernest T. Bass to life on The Andy Griffith Show.

From the story at WFMYNews2.com:

Actor Howard Morris Remembered

Los Angeles, CA -- Howard Morris, best known for his portrayal of Ernest T. Bass on the Andy Griffith Show, died at his home in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. He was 85.

Morris died Saturday of natural causes, his son David said Monday.

Morris enjoyed a long and varied career in show business, from being a key player in the acting ensemble of Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" in the 1950s, to his stint on the Griffith Show, to providing voices for dozens of animated characters, including Beetle Bailey and Atom Ant.

He also directed TV shows and films, including the pilot episode of the Mel Brooks series "Get Smart," the Doris Day film "With Six you get Eggroll," and the film version of Woody Allen's "Don't Drink the Water," starring Jackie Gleason.

But it was probably as the love-challenged, poetry-spouting hillbilly on "The Andy Griffith Show" that most people remember Morris. His fan Web site is named for the character that appeared in only a handful of episodes, but made a large impact with viewers. The show was based in the fictional town of Mayberry, modeled after Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, N.C.

Morris was born in the Bronx, New York, on Sept. 4, 1919. He served in the entertainment unit of the U.S. Army during World War II, stationed in Hawaii.

After the war, he appeared on stage and enjoyed a brief stint as a Shakespearian actor.

In the 1950s, he joined a comedy sketch group including Carl Reiner and Imogene Coca on several TV variety shows, including "Admiral Broadway Review," "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour."

After his work on "The Andy Griffith Show," Morris provided the voices of possums, birds, monkeys, cats and alligators on several animated TV shows. He is credited as the "third buffalo" in a Flintstones episode that aired in 1963.

Also in 1963, Morris played the nebbish character "George P. Hanley" on an episode of "The Twilight Zone" entitled "I Dream of Genie." Hanley, hopelessly inept in social situations, is given one wish by a genie that appears after he rubs a lamp. After considering and rejecting numerous options, Hanley's wish is granted -- he becomes the genie.

Morris was married and divorced five times. His son David, 39, is a director of TV commercials.

In remembrance of the passing of Ernest T. Bass, we should all go out and throw a rock through a window.

Seriously though, he was a one-of-a-kind talent and will be missed. WFMY has a poll up right now about which was our favorite Ernest T. Bass episode, but they're missing a few classics, like the one where Ernest T. tries to get into the army, and the one where he's working as a school crossing guard (where the above photo is from).

But at least like Otis the town drunk and Floyd the barber, though gone they may be, they will live on, thanks to the flickering magic of reruns on syndication and TV Land. Ernest T. Bass will terrorize Mayberry forever, world without end, hallelujah amen...

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Forcery is coming soon. Like, TODAY!

I guess the last bit of "learning curve" that I'll have to go through so far as Forcery goes has come yesterday and today, when I've had to master all the lil' quirks that come with encoding video into Quicktime format. The first result was a 460 MB monstrosity that I'm going to keep online, just for benefit of anyone who wants that size and the slightly better video quality that comes with it. That's 480x270 resolution, the same as with what I'll call the "Regular Large Size" which only differs in terms of lowered data rate (not much noticable loss in quality, but it's 350 MB in size). There's also the "Medium Size" at 190 MB that's uploading to the server now (and still looks pretty darned good) and the "Micro Size" which I only really did 'cuz I wanted to be able to fit the entire movie onto this 128 MB flash drive that Lisa got for me awhile back, along with a Windows XP installer for Quicktime ("Is that a motion picture in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?") With the flash drive's lanyard I guess I could also have the entire film hanging around my neck, like the dead albatross that this whole thing has felt like more than a few times during these past nearly four years.

But, this really is all that's left to do, isn't it? To publish it I mean, and let the entire world take a gander. And hopefully smile and laugh a bit.

A few people have seen it and are seeing it now. We sent word out to a select number and so far, the feedback has been outrageously good! Can't wait to see what happens when more people start learning about it. I'm really hoping that this will become, not so much something for myself, but something good for everyone else that worked on it. Chad Austin pulled off a VERY spot-on George Lucas and Melody Hallman Daniel... well, let's just say that she deserves to be recognized by a lot of people after the performance that she did here, and all the passion and energy and dedication she gave, and outright sacrifice that she made to do this for us. Everyone gave it their all in making this happen but those two especially, I'm going to forever be indebted to for helping make this dream become a reality.

Okay, keep yer peepers on this space. Forcery is coming very very very very very very very very VERY soon!!

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"Think of the CHILDREN!": Christian group is wrong to demand end to Burger King Sith promo

Some people have way too much time on their hands. And I loathe them with a passion. A few years ago it was the bastitches at Center for Science in the Public Interest: the jerks responsible for making it impossible to ever again have real decent movie theater popcorn. I pray there's a special circle of Tartarus awaiting them for that.

Now it's some outfit called the Dove Foundation, who are honked-off that Burger King is doing a tie-in with Star Wars Episode III: Attack of the Clones because of its (gasp!) PG-13 rating. Here's the story from USA Today via Yahoo!, following which I'll explain why groups like the Dove Foundation are hypocrites giving the rest of us Christians a bad rep:

Group asks Burger King to halt 'Star Wars' deal

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY Tue May 24, 6:21 AM ET

The Force may - or may not - be with Burger King's latest Star Wars-themed Kids Meals.

One day after a record-shattering weekend for Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, an advocacy group is asking Burger King to stop the tie-in of its Kids Meals with the film because it is rated PG-13.

The same group, Dove Foundation, got McDonald's 13 years ago to apologize for "confusion" from its promotion of PG-13 Batman Returns with Happy Meals. Now, it's going after BK's latest Kids Meal promotion - targeted at kids ages 4 to 9. The meals feature characters from Sith or other Star Wars films.

"When Burger King puts that in a Kids Meal, there's an implicit endorsement of the movie," says Dick Rolfe, chairman of Dove Foundation.

This is no small matter. Product licensing and promotion is a $100 million annual business. Since the first Star Wars was released in 1977, the six films have racked up almost $9 billion in merchandise sales and product promotions.

For Burger King, the stakes are huge. The No. 2 burger chain is in the 16th month of a major rebound. The Star Wars promotion, dubbed "Choose Your Destiny," is the 50-year-old chain's first global promotion.

Burger King officials insist the promotion isn't specific to the latest film (the others are rated PG), but one that relates to the chain's long-term relationship with the Star Wars franchise. Executives point out that only four of the 31 Kids Meal toys are specific to Sith.

The toys "clearly celebrate not just one film but the entire Star Wars saga," says Edna Johnson, a Burger King spokeswoman. "The reception at our restaurants and from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive."

But Rolfe says "the tie-in is very specific to this film." Wrappers around Kids Meal toys all promote Sith, he notes.

Dove Foundation, a non-sectarian family advocacy group, sent an overnight letter to Burger King last Thursday requesting the promotion be stopped. It also conducted a national phone survey of 889 adults and says 83% felt the promotion was not appropriate for kids.

Another critic says the fault isn't that of Burger King but Star Wars creator George Lucas. "It's irresponsible of George Lucas to OK the marketing around this PG-13 movie to young children," says Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.

"Star Wars is broader than a single movie," says Lynn Fox, a LucasFilm spokeswoman. "Parents know that Star Wars has been a positive influence."

Now, I want to pose the question: ever notice that people like the ones at the Dove Foundation never seem to be on the radar screen, UNLESS there is something in the public consciousness that they feel a compelling reason to come out and attack? I bet most people had never even heard of the Dove Foundation until Revenge of the Sith and this promo with Burger King. But as soon as Sith started smelling like box-office bonanza, the Doves fly out and start squawking in shrill voices for their share of the attention.

These are the same Christians that make such a big deal about the Harry Potter books and movies. And I'm going to tell you a lil' secret: this faction of Christians is secretly thankful that there are such things like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings in this world. Because without them they wouldn't have a justifiable excuse - in their minds anyway - to outwardly express hatred toward something.

Christianity is supposed to be a faith that puts to death the things of the flesh... but these are Christians that are still enslaved to the meaner things of our earthly existence. Namely, the lust to hate and seek to destroy someone else. Ever heard of a guy named David Cloud? He's one of the more proud, arrogant and downright nasty Christians posting on the Internet. Sadly he's also one of the most cited by "fundamentalists". A few years ago he attacked J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings in a slanderous and hate-filled diatribe that could be considered nothing less than brazenly evil. What ya wanna bet that had there been no Lord of the Rings movie trilogy that he would have kept his mouth shut on the whole thing? Last year he came out and attacked Mel Gibson for his The Passion of the Christ, doing it so many times that he dedicated an entire section of his website toward cataloguing his mad rants at Gibson. I wonder if he'll do a hit-piece on the Star Wars saga now that some other Christians have turned it into a target.

Remember Dungeons and Dragons? The exact same kind of gameplay happens today a lot more than it did 20 years ago: it's just become computerized instead of resting entirely in the players' imaginations. If Dungeons and Dragons was really as satanic as some Christian groups were claiming it was, then there should covens of witches and warlocks operating in broad daylight all over the place, and more today than there were then. That obviously isn't the case. The fact of the matter is, Dungeons and Dragons was never an "evil" game. But it had to be perceived to be evil by some bunch of busybodies so they could be confident in showing everyone else just how capable and justifiable they were in hating something or someone else. About ten years later this same band of oddballs tried to ruin Magic: The Gathering, which I never played but saw enough of it to know that it was about as dangerous as a deck of Garbage Pail cards.

And so, it has been Harry Potter, and today it is Star Wars, and tomorrow after Revenge of the Sith has gone into second-run theaters and DVD release the same band of the bitter righteous will be girding-up to hate Harry Potter again when his next movie comes out. And they won't even think for themselves why it is that they hate the stories so. All they are concerned with is that they are told that they should hate... and that is more than enough.

Back to the Dove Foundation: I found their website and sure enough there's a review of Revenge of the Sith. To their credit they give Sith a passing enough grade that it could be recommended as family viewing, bearing in mind the violence. It ends the review with a statement that "Burger King is making a mistake by marketing this PG-13 Star Wars film in their Kids Meals". There's where Dove Foundation has jumped the tracks and gone loco: it sees the PG-13 rating and feels that is judgement enough against a movie to condemn it somehow. Sadly a lot of other Christians do the same: the first thing they look for in a movie is its rating, and if it's anything over a PG (and I know some that won't even go to anything over a G rating) then it automatically is stricken-down as verboten and branded a material act of Satan on Earth.

Now, stop and think about that: Christians condemning a movie solely because of its rating. A rating that was not affixed to said movie with Christian priorities in mind at all! These Christians are letting the world make a judgement for them that they are too lazy to use the brains that God gave them to think and judge for themselves. Instead they let the world think for them.

THAT is why the Dove Foundation is acting so stupid in trying to talk Burger King out of its promo with Episode III. They have to put on a show so that other Christians will be entertained by the gesture, enough so that they don't have to think on their own. Dove Foundation wants to be Christians thinking for other Christians. Hence, the Dove Foundation is a very functional part of the world that it claims it is trying to be apart from.

I wonder how many Christians really, truthfully, would be ready to be separate from this world, knowing how much power and affluence they would be forced to lose from it. The truth of the matter is these people DO NOT WANT to be separate from the world. They only want to believe that they can control it.

Fools. Every single damned one of them. Fools.

On a related note, I think Burger King's tie-in campaign is one of the more entertaining ones in many years. I'm enjoying the commercials and other stuff it's coming up with at least... though I gotta admit that their SithSense.com website is positively creeping me out.

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This movie just won't quit haunting me

And I never thought that would ever be coming from a Star Wars movie.

The first hour or so, it's pretty standard fare for the saga. But the next hour and a half is rife with so much disturbing imagery and dialogue... call me overly-sensitive but I've literally cried just *thinking* about some of the things in this movie.

Order 66 is something I'm coming to wish we had never had to witness. If you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about. Maybe you'll agree with what a lot of people have been saying the last few days: that Order 66 may be one of the most powerful moments in cinema history. Everything about that sequence... has been haunting me. That was the point that I lost it Wednesday night and the tears started flowing. Ki-Adi Mundi was the first to go, and then Aayla Secura. Plo Koon. Yeah I know they're fictional characters but they represent a noble ideal that we just don't see much of in the real world. The music for that whole scene, it's "Anakin's Betrayal" on the soundtrack CD, that is the sound of utter heartbreak. These were the good guys. And the last moments of their lives are spent in wild confusion not knowing what is going on and they will never know why it is that they are now dying. God help me, I wanted to scream "you #*@&ing BASTARD!!" at Palpatine after that. For years my screenname on Free Republic and else where was "Darth Sidious". Wish now that I'd never taken it: why the heck should I want to be associated with someone THAT evil?

What does that say about a movie that still bothers you on this kind of level days after you've seen it?

Wish that I could get that music out of my head, and the look of anguish on Yoda's face.

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Ruminations on the Sith

Well, twelve hours ago we were getting situated back at the Grande Theater here in Greensboro: Brian and I for the second time in less than 24 hours, along with Lisa and this couple from Brian's small group at his church one of whom, Zach, I never thought it possible to be a Star Wars fan and THAT big a spoiler virgin. Me and Brian were the only ones with any idea of what was gonna happen, and I tried warning Lisa all afternoon that it was a harsh movie, but for some reason I think me and Brian were more choked-up about it this time than the first. Or maybe it was 'cuz we weren't watching it during the hours most sane people are asleep :-)

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith may be the most perfect Star Wars movie ever. Possibly (shudder) even better than The Empire Strikes Back. The power of that chapter came from how all the different elements - the plot, the pacing, the music, etc. - worked together. So it is with Sith but on a far richer and grander scale. The example that's standing out in my mind a lot when Palpatine orders the clones to "execute Order Sixty-Six": one of the biggest tragedies in a movie rife with tragegies and Lucas orchestrated its execution into something genuinely moving and heartbreaking to witness as a moviegoer. And then again later when The Duel happens: I always wondered how it would be initiated, and the exchange between Anakin and Obi-Wan and Padme before sabers clashed so brought home just how real these characters have become, that it's been haunting me more than the actual fight.

Sheesh, I don't know where to begin talking about Revenge of the Sith, not really. It's a deep, deep movie and it's going to take at least two or three more showings for it to really sink in. But here's a few things about it since having a little more time to think about it...

The Good

General Grievous: MUCH better character than I thought he would be when he was first announced. Grievous is NOT on screen just to become a neat Hasbro action figure. It gets established pretty quickly that he's a legitimate leader of the Separatist faction and war criminal that must be taken down. I liked him a lot... but geez what the heck is up with all that coughing? Does this cyborg have emphysema or something?
The Sith's reveal: Not nearly as dramatic as I imagined it would be, but it couldn't have happened any better. It's NOT this big flashy show by Palpatine that "I am Darth Sidious, fear and tremble!" but something much more subdued and seductive. And though it lacks the "umph!" now 'cuz we did know for all these years that Palpatine becomes the Emperor, I imagine that in decades to come when kids will watch the movies sequentially 1-6 instead of 3,4,5 and then 1,2,3, that this will pack more of a punch and ratchet up the "oh &#@% NOW what?!" factor.
Plans within plans within plans: Episodes I and II are made better by III (and I thought they were pretty good anyway) because there was a LOT of stuff that we maybe didn't catch in the first two that come into play here. The Trade Federation guys? They weren't there just to be a vapid stand-in for the future Empire, there was a purpose for them in the plot and you see how that gets used. Remember that amulet that Anakin gave Padme on board her ship in The Phantom Menace? Well that makes a return, but it'd be a crime to say now in what context. Will only say that there's TONS of stuff that went unnoticed in the previous entries that you'll be slapping your head and telling yourself "why didn't I realize that?!"
The lightsaber battles: No less than five of them here, and they're easily the best choreagraphed of the series.
Wookiees Wookiees Wookiees: A whole planet of 'em. Armies of enraged Wookiees fighting the bad guys. The return of Chewbacca. And the moment that had everyone in the theater going "awwwwwww... how cute!"
The Duel: Wildly exceeded my expectations. I won't say any more than that.
Ian McDiarmid's acting: it was Lucas' original plan to film McDiarmid as the Emperor in Return of the Jedi and then use another actor to provide the voice for Palpatine in post-production dubbing, but McDiarmid was doing so well before the cameras that Lucas kept his own voice in the end film. 22 years later and that is now shown to have been a very, very wise decision on Lucas' part. I consider McDiarmid to be playing three different roles in this movie: the benign politician Palpatine, the Sith lord Darth Sidious, and the deformed but all-powerful Emperor Palpatine that emerges later on that combines the first two. They're all facets of the same evil mind and McDiarmid did an amazingly believable job pulling it off. The last time an actor in a Star Wars movie was nominated for an Oscar it was Alec Guinness for Best Supporting Actor in 1977 (he didn't win though). If the 2005 list doesn't have McDiarmid's name on it I imagine a lot of people - and even the more casual moviegoers - are going to be severely disappointed.
John Williams' musical score: Quite possibly the best for a Star Wars movie, and one of his best ever. Williams combines ALL of the elements of his composing style for the grand finale: the standard sweeping fare of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, but also a little touch of his work on Home Alone, the Harry Potter flicks and even Born on the Fourth of July and Schindler's List. The background track for when The Duel breaks out, "Battle of the Heroes", will get stuck in your brain but in a good way. We also get a return of "Duel of the Fates", used during the epic clash between Yoda and Darth Sidious.
"When Vader goes bionic...": That's what George Lucas told James Earl Jones back in 1994 when Jones asked when was he going to get to work for the Plaid One again. Whatever nightmares you've had about when Anakin gets horribly burned and turned into a malevolent mechanical melange... well, that's what you see here.
The portrayals of Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme: There should be no question now, at all, that Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are up to par with the classic trilogy's trio of Luke, Han and Leia. I'd even dare say that what happens to the core characters in the prequels is far more effective and moving than anything - including the Han frozen in carbonite scene - in the classics. And that's saying a lot.

The Bad

Count Dooku's time on screen: Was my favorite new character of Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He's in this one not nearly enough and when he does appear early on... ahhh, you'll have to see for yourself if you don't know already. Suffice it to say I was eager to see more of Dooku and was disappointed that Christopher Lee's character really had very little to do here.
Horrible makeup for Tarkin: Yup, Tarkin - Peter Cushing's character from A New Hope that bossed Darth Vader around on the Death Star - shows up toward the very end. Okay I can accept that this is supposed to be a younger version of Tarkin and not Peter Cushing, but geeeezzzzz Louise must he look like a walking corpse? Just plain sick looking. Or maybe that was the point.
Political backstory on the cutting-room floor: Scenes were filmed of the younger Mon Mothma meeting with Padme and Bail Organa in Padme's apartment, the idea was that we were witnessing the seeds of the future Rebel Alliance being sown. Two thousand or so senators try to stop Palpatine from taking complete control but they get slapped down as political enemies later on. That is now edited out of the movie, with only a cursory reference to calls for Palpatine to step down. It would have been great seeing Mon Mothma now so that her presence is established for Return of the Jedi but hey it's George Lucas' baby and this thing runs almost two and a half hours, and didn't we see enough of boardroom meetings in the last two movies anyway?
Yoda's fate: We knew already that Yoda winds up on Dagobah and I've seen a still or two showing him landing there. That got cut out of the end product too. You can find a good picture of the escape pod that he uses to arrive on Dagobah in the Episode III vehicles cross-section book though.
Alderaan: Not "bad" by itself per se but finally seeing it and how GORGEOUS it is makes what happens to it in A New Hope that much more painful to witness. Darnit why did they have to make it so beautiful only to trash it later?!?

The Ugly

Palpatine's makeup and burned Anakin: The stuff of nightmares for any little kids that manage to talk their parents into letting them watch this thing.

The Best of All

The final scene: There could not possibly be a better way to end this, the last and darkest of the Star Wars saga for the big screen. A classic pose returns, for the first time. Of all the bridges connecting the prequels to the classics, this scene was my most favorite of all.

I'll prolly watch it again this weekend. It would be neat if the number of times I see this in the theater can eclipse how many times I saw The Phantom Menace, which was nine times (only two more than the number of times I caught Independence Day during its first run... what the hell was I thinking that summer?). And then that'll be it for Star Wars movies on the big screen, at least until another thirty or forty years when Lucas realizes he can make more movies after all and does a trilogy that I'll be taking my great-grandchildren too :-P

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Last night's midnight premiere of Revenge of the Sith ...

They told me to bring Kleenex. I didn't listen to them. Titanic didn't faze me at all. The Passion of the Christ left me numb with horror but no tears there either. There were moments during Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy that welled-up my eyes but those were all "happy" tears, like when in The Return of the King when Sam tells Frodo "I cannot carry it for you... but I can carry YOU!" Until now the most overwhelming experience in a theater was when I caught Schindler's List back in '94, ironically enough that one also had a background score by John Williams.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the most overwhelming movie I have probably seen in my entire life. And I cried plenty of times.

I can't talk about it right now. It needs some time to sink in and we're going to catch it again with Brian AKA Darth Larry this evening. Lisa didn't go with me last night: it was Weird Ed, Darth Larry and his lovely spousal overunit, about a dozen of his friends and me in a Jedi getup. I got a feeling that my shoulder is going to get a lot of crying on before this night is over with... I just wish I had one to have cried on last night.

Dear Lord, this movie is brutal. More brutal than The Passion of the Christ in some ways, even.

Okay, more later after my brain has digested more about last night's show. But I'll end with this: The Duel did not disappoint!

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