GAY LOVE Is Worse Than BRUTAL HATE

WARNING: MOST OF THIS IS SATIRE.
I don't think the Mormon Church condones torture, I just think they don't not condone torture.

Mormon Church: "We hate this kind of love".

While the world watches a bloody and unjust war in Iraq, mass genocide throughout Africa, and a sudden fiery debate over illegal immigration, Gay people (with a capital "G") are still trying to get married. Yes, that's right. Gay people (human beings of the same sex who love each other) are still trying to have legal marital ceremonies to prove their responsiblity to each other and to society. And the media, with all their attention turned to the WAR and to GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, have completely ignored the PEOPLE WHO LOVE EACH OTHER GETTING MARRIED controversy.

Ok, enough satire. Whatever.

The Mormon Church this week bravely stepped up to the plate and read an Anti-Gay clause from thousands of church pulpits nationwide. They are 1 of 49 other religious organizations that support bans on Gay Marriage and an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. This endeavor is, of course, a high priority among this nation's idiots and nincompoops. Dullards have also become quite involved.

All this comes 6 months after the Mormon Church REFUSED to sign and support a letter SAYING THAT TORTURE TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING IS BAD. 46 other religious organizations nationwide got together, thought about it, and then decided to voice their non-denominational religious opinion that torture (such as that at Abu Gharib prison) might be against the teachings of Jesus Christ, etc. But the Mormon Church said, "The church has not taken a position on any proposed legislative or administrative actions regarding torture." They continued, "We're still thinking about it. I mean, torture, gosh that's quite a grey area".

So, here is the Mormon Church's current position on Gays and Torture (Gay people into S&M not included):

This is OK. Even though it is our hope and prayer that the man punching the living shit out of the naked Arabs eventually finds Jesus and pays us tithing.

This is also OK. Unless that blood is from the anus of a gay man who had too much homosexual sex and didn't know when to stop so he bled a lot. Only then would angels weep.

OK, we ARE against this. This kind of debauchery will not stand. Seeing that man's penis both confuses and infuriates us.

Check out JESUS' GENERAL original post on all this baffling behavior.

East of Eden

I just finished (in the last few days) John Steinbeck's masterful book "East of Eden."

It was amazing. The more amazing part about the book was how little of it was actually in Elia Kazan's masterful film "East of Eden."

I think that Ron Howard could actually do something reasonable with his version of East of Eden. I've written about "East of Eden" before, you might want to read those posts first (they can be found here and here.) According to the IMDb, Howard, who directed the horrible piece of turd "The DaVinci Code," is still listed as the director of a forthcoming version of "East of Eden."

Chances are he'll directly remake the film version, where Cal is the focus and no-doubt James Franco is in negotiations to star. This is an approach that is wrong. Cal shouldn't be in Howard's version of the film, well not as a teenager, anyhow.

If I were approaching the material, I would adapt Adam, Charles and Cathy's story. I would end with Cathy leaving and becoming Kate and Sam Hamilton punching Adam. That way, it would be like a prequel to the film that's already made and it wouldn't exactly contradict anything in either piece. If you ask me, both are amazing... (To be honest, I think I enjoy the movie a little bit more than the book, but I guess that's because I undertand and "get" movies more than novels.)

Anyhow, this is just a theory I'm throwing out there, and if Ron Howard would follow this plan of attack I'd be happy.

Will he? Probably not.

Let me know what you think.

Opinion Article

I just wanted to link over to this article that references This Divided State.

Enjoy.

EMAIL FROM A VETERAN

I get emails every week from people around the world who have watched THIS DIVIDED STATE. I got 2 last week from Denmark where the film is just being released on DVD. But this email greatly impressed me and so I thought I would share excerpts from it. It's from a veteran who served in the Army in the 1970's.

Folks,

As a Utahn who loves his home state, I have lived elsewhere for the majority of my adult life, your film, This Divided State, is so illustrative of where I am from, and while missing home and family in so many ways having lived in the Washington DC area for 16 years now, why I have not and can probably not live there full-time again. Still, there is so much more. It is one of the most important films ever made in and about the USA through the lenses of Utah.

Within and beyond Utah's borders, the messages of intolerance, blind following of political... now seen by so many of the blind for what they are and have been (both sides of the political, and I've voted and supported (dem/rep), your film is in my opinion one of the most important ever made given the critical times we now face, such division, "red, blue" BS.

One more thing. For all those flag waving "support the troops" with yellow ribbons; hats, shirts, everything imaginable made with the colors and patterns of the USA flag (something we were taught as kids not to do)..., where the hell were they in late 70's when I left for the Army, a tour overseas (NATO as an MP protecting against terrorism, the Soviet bloc...), where the hell were they then? As a different sort of "RM", I was never met at the bus station, or airport on the few times I could afford to come home by anyone (I made $17-18k total in three years, still we volunteered between GI Bills, got/get no veterans preference anywhere for jobs..., still can't buy a beer at a VFW... how many Americans know there is a generation of vets just like me, WHO ARE PROUD TO HAVE SERVED ANYWAY?).

We were told not to even wear our uniform in public because of the hassles and fights the public would put our way... and they did if you had a military haircut and a duffel, I was spit on in Denver Greyhound bus station in '79..., where were all those super-patriots then?

I'll end here with a true story to contrast what I just wrote: the VERY FIRST and only person to have ever asked me as a veteran to stand up and then thanked me, and encouraged the crowd to thank me for my service and that of my brother and sister veterans ... literally was Mr. Michael Moore in 2004 at a university in PA. It stopped me in my tracks. I could not believe it. Gave me a whole new level of respect for the man who I considered a true American patriot.

So, for those flag-waving folks who don't even take an few minutes to learn anything about Mr. Moore... and that what he is saying is not so much political... as American, I feel sorry for them and for the future of our country. I hope your film wakes at least some of them up to their own hypocrisy. I hope your film in a dozen years or so makes for a different and more tolerant Utah.

Your film, brought to me by Netflix yesterday and watched last night, was one of the more powerful I've seen. I put in an order on Amazon today so that I can show to my friends.

Thanks,

M. Whitney
Emmitsburg, MD

X3 review

Let's get some disclaimers out of the way. I'm a nerd. A huge nerd. I owned and ran a comic book store for two years. My son's name is Anakin. I'm a nerd. I like nerdy things. Disclaimer #2: There are spoilers in my ranting.

I loved the first two X-Men movies.

The fact that I love them forces my heart to break when I have to say the following: X3 was preposterous tripe.

Everyone was on autopilot. The story was filled with lame gimmicks. The script was filled with holes, one-liners and bad structure. The film was without drama or life. I don't feel like there was a soul to the movie.

In X2, when Jean dies, you feel a lump in your throat. In X3 (oh, sorry, I mean "The Last Stand") when people die you feel nothing. When Scott dies you don't even know it. Characters just start talking about it as fact ten minutes later in the movie. When Xavier dies, you doubt it happened it looked so silly. When Logan kills Phoenix, you've been laughing at the preposterous one-liners in the movie so hard it just doesn't matter. When they bring Xavier back to life and give Magneto hints of his power back, you want to laugh, because it's stupid.

When you see Juggernaut, you want to cry. He really does look like Ram-Man from Masters of the Universe. When you see Beast, you wish they had made him CGI...

I felt Storm was overused in the first two movies and in this movie, my God, she's actually in more of the movie. Why couldn't they have killed her? Why did they have to ruin any chance of future X-Men movies? And where the fuck was Nightcrawler?

My God. I spent 15 minutes outside the theatre tonight talking about how bad this movie was. I know a couple of people disagreed with me, and they are entitled to their opinion, but I think this movie was unforgivable. It's almost as bad as the Schumacher treatment of the Batman movies. No lie.

I raised my fist in the air as the credits rolled and cursed Ratner. But maybe that's not fair to him. The people at fault are the executives at Fox who rushed this movie through production in a year. This movie needed another year of script development and a few weeks of rehearsals. It also needed more time in production and more time for effects work.

Don't get me wrong, some of the visuals in the film were really amazing. Ratner knows how to handle action sequences and they are cool. But it feels like the movie is just special effects without a good story. And, one wise man once said, "A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." *

Man...

When I left the theatre from X2, I felt like I had to go see it again and again. I saw it three times in it's first week. This movie will probably not make another dime from me until DVD, when I will buy it just so I can have all the X-men movies. I might not even do that though... I don't own the Schumacher Batman movies. In fact, I've boycotted Shumacher completely for what he did to Batman.

Don't get me wrong. I wanted to like this movie. The powers that be made that impossible.

Anyhow, let me know what you guys thought.

*That was George Lucas for those of you who aren't as large a nerd as I am.

Utah Lawmakers Heartless Lunatics

Read this article. The behaviour of our State's legislative branch can only be described as reckless, selfish and against good Christian morals.

They voted (on a straight party line) not to even debate Governor Hunstman's request for $2 million to provide Dental Care to those on Medicaid.

Instead, they blew $15 million on a new parking garage for the capitol.

Who are these people? We're lucky this is an election year because now we know what these Republican clowns are truly about. Compassion and the ideals of Christ certainly aren't anything these Republican legislators are interested in.

Only in Utah County

I want to point to another member of the county I live in who is crazy.

Read this article entitled, "Can Students Talk About Sex?" from the front page of the Daily Herald. (Who, although the President of Mexico was making an unprecedented visit to Utah, decided to run this story and a picture of this years American Idol winner above the fold... Wow...) Anyway, the article is mind boggling.

An editorial in the student paper drew the ire of one Stephen Graham, president of the Standard of Liberty Foundation. "Sex activists are targeting kids," Graham said. "They know that high school newspapers can be highly effective carriers of anti-parent, pro-sex propaganda. School administrators are either complicit or clueless."
It's interesting to note the following: The opinion piece that is causing this row addressed a vaccination for human papilloma virus, which can be spread by sexual contact. In the opinion piece, Brimhall (the student) wrote that teaching abstinence is not enough to prevent the spread of HPV. "The promotion of abstinence is placed above the prevention of a disease that claims thousands of lives each year," she wrote.

But this guy is nuts. Check out the website of the Organization he is president of.
Here's the point of the organization: The Standard of Liberty Foundation is a non-profit coporation which exists to raise awareness of radical movements overrunning America's Christian-moral-cultural life and to promote public resurgence of religion and traditional sexual morality to counteract these trends.

There are also links to the "offending" article.

Only in Utah would these people get bent out of shape about a kid at a school trying to raise awareness about STD transmission.

Corporate Accountability

It's good to see that corporate ass-pirates like Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are finally being held accountable for their crimes against honest and decent people. The entire rolling blackout situation in California was their fault, make no mistake about it.

It would be nice to see politicians hit on this issue during the elections. There can be no doubt that the current administration is the "Enron" Presidency. (Did you know Bush and his team let Ken Lay interview potential cabinet members before their appointments? Awesome, huh.) The political climate created by the Bush Administration and most of the Republicans has bred this culture of raping the poor to pay the rich.

Enron is only one example.

And this is an issue the democrats can win on. No voter wants to vote for someone that had personal dealings with people as heinous as Kenneth Lay. No voter wants to vote for someone that is in favor of Enron style "Free Market Capitalism." Because this "Free Market Capitalism" is just a fancified term for the rape of the natural world and the poor.

People don't like that.

I don't like that.

Let's see something done about it in the mid-terms.

29th Birthday

Star Wars is 29 years old today.

That's sort of weird, isn't it?

Did you realize that Back to the Future and Ferris Buellers Day Off are both old enough to get into bars?

600th post

For the 600th post I decided to post up a .PDF of the screenplay that we've been shooting.

Head over to the Short Story page and give her a gander.

Notorious Bettie Page

I took a break this evening to go see The Notorious Bettie Page and it was okay. It wasn't a great movie. To be honest it was sort of bland.

There seemed to be virtually no drama in Bettie Page's life that was worth dramatizing. And it seemed as though Mary "American Psycho" Harron was actually pulling punches.

I don't know.

I left just not feeling satisfied.

I mean, maybe I'm just not enjoying it on the right level. It was nice to see all of Bettie Page's famous poses recreated by Gretchen Mol. She has an exquisite form. It just left something to be desired. The movie, I mean. Not Gretchen Mol. She was great.

Christ

Final Cut just boned me.

I spent the day ripping tapes and it turns it something got futzed with on my log and capture settings and I only ripped one channel of audio.

Christ.

I don't want to re-rip all of that footage.

But that is what I'll be doing for the rest of the night and tomorrow.

A Title?

I'm still editing. We've been shooting so much and I got laid up for a couple of days on crutches, so I haven't been working on any blog stuff.

The movie will be done (or at least in a very rough state) in about 2 weeks. Does anyone have any suggestions for a title? We've all been coming up with the lamest stuff as far as titles go and I was wondering if anyone who reads this blog might have an idea.

I'm sure you've got something witty Duckie.

Anyhow, I'll give the plot very quickly here and then watch the footage we have. Let me know. Leave a comment with your suggestion.

Mike and John work at a dollar theatre and it's boring as hell. John rides a bike and Mike has to get rides with his parents. Fed up with this situation, these High School students take matters into their own hands and plan a daring robbery of their workplace.

I would also describe it as a mix of Clerks and Bottle Rocket.

(and remember, the above footage is very rough)

Preposterous

Preposterous. That is my one word review of Ron Howard's "The DaVinci Code."

DaVinci Code. Ha! Dan Brown. Indeed. He should be called Dan Clown.

I'm not saying it's preposterous because of the premise behind Jesus or Mary Magdalene or anything like that. I'm saying that it's preposterous as a film. I'm going to ruin the film for you in this review, but the movie wasn't that good so I'm sure it won't be a big deal. I also never read the book, either, so... meh... This film was the heart of mediocrity.

Anyhow:

Preposterous thing #1: Why did Ian McKellan have to get Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou to work with him at gunpoint midway through his scenes in the film? His motives were exactly the same as before, their motives were exactly the same as before. When he was their friend, he wanted to solve the mystery with them. Suddenly he has a gun and he... wants to solve the mystery with them... And Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou want to solve the mystery with him, until he tells them forcefully and points a gun...

Preposterous thing #2: Why was Tom Hanks in this movie? There was nothing remarkable or extraordinary in it that required Tom Hanks. It could have been anyone. Literally any 45-50 year old male with a pulse could have played the part capably.

Preposterous thing #3: Things were too coincidental and easy a lot of the time. Jean Reno's character has a hard-on for Tom Hanks. Why? Because his Bishop told him to. It was that simple. Where is the map to find Mary Magdalene? Why, it was published in Tom Hanks' book. Who could possibly be the heir to Christ? Perhaps the only female in the movie. The movie was generally simple and predictable.

Preposterous thing #4: It seemed as though this movie was supposed to be a revelation about religion. But anyone with half a brain knows about things like the Council in Nicea and how there was no consensus about Jesus and his works until three-hundred years later. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that there are gospels of the same vintage with wildly conflicting accounts about Jesus (Job's is stirring up some controversy right now.) Every line was delivered as though it was supposed to blow your mind, but nothing really did. It was, at best, mildly interesting.

At the end of the day, the movie taught me two things that I already knew:

First thing I already knew: "It doesn't matter whether or not Jesus was real. What he had to say was what was important, whether he said it or not.

and

Second thing I already knew: "Every man is on a quest for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is Vagina."

(Having not read the book, I'm going to make an assumption: I think the reason the book was a runaway bestseller was the fact that it was smart enough for dumb people to follow along and feel like they had a hand in solving the mystery. Sadly, the movie puts you one step ahead of the characters to the point that everything feels tedious.)

Still No Trailer

Well, we still don't have a title and not enough footage for a trailer, but I wanted to show everyone who cares enough to read this a few scenes that the DP (Joel Petrie) threw up on YouTube.com.

"The Batman" - This first one is one of the first scenes in the movie. It's got the two main characters being totally bored at work.

"Cliff the Destroyer" - This is from later on that same shift, they are so bored, they decide to shoot a short film. (This is something that a few of us actually did when we had to work on slow days back in our youth (eight years ago, or so.))

"The Clever Customer" - This is a scene of them working later in the movie. Customers actually pull stuff like this. You would never believe it.

Just a bit of a caveat for this stuff: It's all still rough. The movie isn't done yet. There is no sound mixing here. There is no color correction. There is very little polish to this. This is a close to the raw footage you can get.

Also, this is very vulgar. If it were to be rated, it would certainly be rated "R." But who cares about the MPAA anyway?

Not me. That's who.

Let me know what you guys think about this stuff.

Greetings from the Editing Room

I thought I'd show you guys a picture (that I took with my phone) from one of the scenes I'm working on.

Yes. That guy is pooping in his hand.

More Apologies

I feel like a big tool. I try to keep this blog updated but I've just been so busy in the last couple of weeks it's really been hard to stay on top of it. I've got about 50 rough minutes of that Theatre Robbery movie done and I think that it's shaping up to be a nice little side project.

I mean, you can't expect a whole lot from a project that's shot one day a week in everyone's spare time for three months. But it's actually starting to look like a movie.

On top of that, Elias and I had that whole revision thing and before that the Sundance submissions, I've just been swamped.

So. Please accept my apologies for the infrequency of my posts.

Brick

I went and saw "Brick" last night and I would recommend that you go see it, too. It was a really tight and interesting noir film, set contemporarily at a high school.

The cuts and transitions were amazing, the dialogue was tight and snappy, the lingo was a treat to listen to, the acting was very good, the story formula was familiar but fresh. It was a cut above most films out there. I enjoyed it more than I enjoy most summer blockbusters.

The thing I liked most about it, I think, was the fact that it proves you can mix genres and styles of film to produce something that is truly unique and interesting to watch. I've been wanting to see modern noirs done for a long time, so this has actually filled a void in something I knew I wanted in the first place. I just wish I would have gone and seen it a year ago at the Sundance film festival.

I'm just curious where a first time director with nothing on his resume but "Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!!" gets $500,000 for a movie. It was certainly money well-spent.

Check out the trailer (it's a well-put together trailer, too) and go see it. Unless you're stupid (which is often the case) you'll be glad you did.

New Short Story

I was supposed to post all of this stuff yesterday, but the computer I was going to use was all broken and battered. I'm sorry I got all of your hopes up to read something yesterday and then dashed them all.

Any how, here's the link to a new short story. It's called "To Be Me"

Be sure to leave a comment there. If you take the time to read it, the least you can do is tell me why you liked or hated it.

Wow. 29%.

When was the last time a President's approval rating was so low?

Updates Tomorrow

I'm spending today getting a schedule for the last four to six days shooting on the Theatre Robbery movie and finishing up a polish of One Plus One for a producer as soon as Elias gets off work.

I will update tomorrow. I have a new Short Story for tomorrow that isn't half bad and I'm working on a post about the midterm elections.

If anyone is interested in doing some extra work on the theatre robbery movie, drop me an email and we could use you. We shoot, generally, on Sunday Nights. shineboxmp (at) gmail (dot) com.

See you guys tomorrow.

I guess I'm a mega-star, too?

I suppose it was only a matter of time. So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a link to a "fan" blog about me.

I must admit, it's way less obnoxious than the ones they put up about Steve. But, I guess, I'm not as abrasive to people as he is, God love him (if you believe in that type of thing.)

http://aboutbryanyoung.blogspot.com/

It appears as though it started yesterday. Most interesting. I suppose.

UPDATE FROM STEVE: Actually this site is more or less another Anti-Steven Greenstreet site. That makes 3 for me. They're just using Bryan as a neutral middle ground for more Greenstreet worship. Sorry Bryan.

UPDATE FROM BRYAN: It doesn't actually say on there that they don't like me though. And only a third of the posts make mention of you, Steve. So, my vote is that it's 1/3rd an anti-Greenstreet and 2/3rds pro-Bryan. That's 2/3rds more flatter than I'm used to.

Borrowed Time

Well, today is the day. Neal's new comic book, "Borrowed Time" comes out today. I would like to encourage everyone who reads this to take the trip to their local comic book store today and buy it. I would also encourage everyone who reads this to take a trip to their local comic book store every Wednesday just so they can support the whole medium.

Comics are an important piece of popular art and literature, even more so with books of literary calibre like those that Neal and those like him are putting out. (I suppose you might be able to count Pirate Club in there.)

I've been moved more by some Comic Books than I have by most books. (That isn't to say I don't read books, I go out of my mind if I don't read at least a couple a week.) But the point is this: comics are worth your time and money. Take the time to go to the Comic Book Shop and buy some comics. You'll enjoy it. You'll learn to love Wednesdays, so you can take that trip to the Comic Shop and buy your weekly stash.

I assure you, you won't regret it.

(If any of you want a few suggestions as to which titles you should be getting, ask and I'll post some. Right now, I'm reading all the "Batman" titles regularly. Those are always good times (even if a guy like Judd Winick is pissing on the series with his hack writing. (If Judd Winick manages to read this, (which I doubt) I'm sorry I called you a hack, but Batman Annual this year was one of the worst comics I've ever read. You shouldn't bring Jason Todd back. Period.)))

Also, in case you hadn't gotten the idea before, Elias and I have been working on adapting Neal's One Plus One with Steve producing. That's what has been stealing all of my time and making blog posts infrequent as of late. I just want to urge everyone out there to get a copy and read it. You'll understand why we want to get it on the big screen.

What?!

Does anyone else see logic in this:

It seems as though they are trying to raise the debt ceiling again, continue the tax-cuts and continue this downward spiral of unchecked spending.

Did someone forget to tell the conservatives that they were the ones who were supposed to keep the money reasonable?

Even Busier

Man. I don't know where I find time to sleep.

Elias and I are still hip deep in that re-write for One Plus One and I'm shooting today. Actually the rewrite is coming along nicely, but it's still time intensive and the shoot is fairly well planned and easy stuff and we're shooting mostly in the evening, but getting everything done always seems to be a little stressful. And no matter how well planned things are, you still never seem to have enough time.

Also, on a side note, Neal's new book "Borrowed Time" comes out this week I think. Check it out. I'm actually really excited for it.

Mission: Impossible III

I went to an early matinee yesterday of Mission: Impossible III with my brother. It was greatly entertaining but not a great movie. It was fun, the action was good, the special effects were amazing. It was well acted. Highlights were Simon Pegg and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Phil Hoffman is a joy to watch no matter what he's doing and this film was no exception. The best scenes in the film were those that he was in (particularly the business on the plane and the opening scene.)

The thing about this movie that kind of made me sad was the fact that this movie wasn't about the Mission: Impossible team. It was about Tom Cruise being a badass and taking things personal. I would have liked to see this be an ensemble vehicle and see each teammember do things as cool as Tom Cruise gets to. In this movie, though, the team is there to let Tom Cruise do everything but the mundane.

I understand why, he produced it and it's a Tom Cruise vehicle, but the one thing I liked most about Oceans 11 is that each character was a big part and had a vital role in the plan that was given as much screentime as any of the other parts. And each part was cool.

It was entertaining. Don't get me wrong. It just wasn't a great film. It was a fun movie. Something to watch on an afternoon with nothing better to do (or with better things to do but that you are avoiding.)

BEER WITH "SIGUR ROS"

Me having drinks with SIGUR ROS in Boise, Idaho.

So I went to see Sigur Ros in Boise, Idaho last night. For those of you who don't know, Sigur Ros is my favorite band ever right now. Even more than Radiohead (if that's possible). I saw them in Denver in February and then again at Coachella last week. The third time (Boise) would prove to be a charm.

Kristi and I left kind of late from Salt Lake City around 2:30pm. A 5 hour drive puts us there at around 7:30pm and the doors already opened at 7:00pm. So we hurry and find a parking garage and rush out onto the street towards the venue. As we were walking/running, I see 3 emo-esque guys walking next to us. I start to pass them and think, "Wow, that guy looks like the bass player in Sigur Ros." About 2 seconds go by and then I think, "Holyfuckingshit, that IS the bass player for Sigur Ros!"

I approach the group and ask, "You guys enjoying Boise?" They say (with Icelandic accent), "Yeah, it's very, very small, but quite nice." I then introduced myself and shook hands with them.

So, we went to a bar/pub about a block from the venue and had some drinks and sat around a table outside. They asked me about Salt Lake City and Mormons and about my LDS Mission to Venezuela. I asked them about Iceland. They told me the English translation for "Glosoli" is "Brightly Glowing". I didn't want to take up too much of their time so I rose my glass in cheers and wished them a good performance and then I left. They were amazingly down to earth and conversational.

No fucking joke. I sat down in Boise, Idaho and drank beer with my favorite band ever. That just doesn't happen.

SIGUR ROS performs about 35 minutes after drinking Coronas with them.

Better News

It seems as though George Lucas' reign as chief target for loser fanboys who think way too much of their own opinion is over.

They are releasing the Orignal, pre-Special Edition, Star Wars Trilogy on DVD for four months only on September 12th.

This is good news to some, great news to most. To be honest, I like the Special Edition. I like the prequels. Let me rephrase that properly, I love them. All of them. All 6 of them. I own these versions on Laserdisc, so I had access to them in a digital format anyway. The reason this is good news for me is that I don't have to hear people who are too stupid to understand the Special Edition bitch about it anymore.

Star Wars is one movie, not 6 and those over-zealous nerd talk-backers need to realize that.

Anyhow, they got their wish and believe me, I'll be first in line to get my set as well.

Man. I am excited about a couple of things though... No more Jabba in A New Hope... No more Jedi Rocks... No more Greedo shooting first.... Yes!

Good News

It appears as though the Soft Drink Industry has agreed to stop selling soda in schools. That is 100% a step in the right direction. Kids drink way too much soda.

I have a friend who works at a High School who got a bunch of students together to get the vending machines removed from the school. Predictably, the school and the soft drink companies were completely against the idea. Neither the school nor the company wanted the contract to end as they were both enjoying tremendous financial benefits. Despite overwhelming student support (petitions, etc.) they were told to go away. (actually, I was told the soft drink guys offered to give every kid a pedometer which never actually happened.)

I think the next step in the right direction is to keep businesses like this out of schools completely. The first step to doing that is properly funding the schools. And we need to get rid of Channel 1 as well. It's a big commercial for Pepsi and Mountain Dew. They should put the NPR or PBS team on creating a commercial-free news block for kids. You know the second they stop selling soda in the schools, their next top priority will be to advertise them so the second a kid gets out of school, the first thing he needs is a Dr. Pepper.

Like I said, this is a good first step, but sadly it's on their terms. The next step is eliminating these companies from having vending machines in the schools. The step after that is making schools "commercial-free" zones.

COACHELLA MUSIC FESTIVAL

Ok, I'm still in the process of moving into my new place here in Salt Lake City. So I still don't have internet, so I'm using the Kinko's down the street.

Coachella was amazing, inspiring, and extremely tiring. Here are all the bands I saw:

DAY ONE:

CELEBRATION
White Rose Movement
The Walkmen
WOLFMOTHER
Animal Collective
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
My Morning Jacket
KANYE WEST
SIGUR ROS
Ladytron
Franz Ferdinand
Depeche Mode

DAY TWO:
THE OCTOPUS PROJECT
Los Amigos Invisibles
James Blunt
METRIC
Wolf Parade
Bloc Party
Sleater Kinney
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Madonna
Massive Attack
Tool

KAREN O is the greatest ever.

The bands I put in all-caps were bands that absolutely blew me away. I mean I was tired and it was clear sunny with tempuratures in the 90's but these bands kicked me in the ass. Celebration was a nice surprise, Wolfmother lifted the roof, Kanye West was amazingly entertaining, Sigur Ros lifted my spirits, The Octopus Project had me wide-eyed, Metric actually made me head bang (and I want to marry the lead singer now), and KAREN FUCKING 'O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was hands down the best live performance of the whole festival.

I want to marry this girl. Anybody know her? She's in METRIC...

Madonna? Yeah I saw her. I actually got INTO the dance tent and saw the top of her head dancing around. I went out and flanked the tent a little and saw her full body. I was like, "Wow, that's Madonna. God, I'm hungry." Then I left and ate some burgers.

Random Highlight: Having a parking lot drinking party Friday night before going into the camp ground (no alcohol allowed in there). My riding partners, Davey and Nanci got retarded drunk and by the time we got to the campsite, they had passed out on the ground leaving me to put up the tent alone. It took me 3 hours. No joke. Davey drank almost an entire bottle of whiskey himself and he was like, "Dude, where are we? I'm serious man, I'm freaking out. Where the fuck are we?" That pretty much sums up our first night there.

Busy, busy, busy

We are all very busy right now, which is why the posts have been a little less frequent than we'd all like. I'm still editing footage (we got another 10 pages or so shot on Saturday) for that movie about the kids who rob the dollar theatre. Elias and I just finished and mailed away yesterday three (count 'em, three!) submissions for the Sundance Institute. On top of that, we're ass deep in rewrites for One Plus One and a screenplay for some other people. On top of that, we've got full time work.

So.

We're swamped.

The above image is of Florence. She's in the movie and is the object of every male leads attention. Creepy as it might be.

Rallies

Everyone should try to go to a rally or avoid buying anything today to show solidarity of support with the Immigration movement. This could be a very powerful movement in the coming election as well.

I was doing my job as a substitute teacher on Monday and was proud to hear that even students here, in Utah County, were organizing a walkout for today.

I read the article that was in the Post today and I came across something in the article that really sort of set things on their ear for me:

But there was little change at Labor Finders, a temporary office with several offices in the Denver area, spokesman Tim Kaffer said.

"The people who come in here really can't afford to take a day off," he said. "Their daily pay just takes care of their hotel and food."

It really sort of pisses me off that there are people in this country who literally can't afford to take the day off, any day off, to participate in civic duties. Even if these people are legal or not, they deserve better than that in the land of opportunity. There should be no job in this country that if you were to work forty hours a week you couldn't support your family of four.

That's what we need to make a reality. For Immigrants, Illegal Immigrants, Native Americans, 3rd Generation Immigrants, everyone. Everyone deserves that.

Why won't that happen? I couldn't tell you.

(On a sidenote, I wonder if they planned this day of protest to coincide with the 3rd Anniversary of Bush's declaration of "Victory" in Iraq.)