Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love

Does anyone have any information about this or any idea how to get a hold of it?

Apparently Rex Harrison tried hosting this unsuccesful show, but they actually filmed Kurt Vonnegut's short story masterpiece EPICAC. I don't know if any of you are familiar with EPICAC, I think it's been published in a couple of places, principally Welcome to the Monkey House (It might be a different collection, but I'm putting money on Welcome to the Monkey House). It's about a government super-computer that learns what love is and then kills itself. It's great.

But if anybody could even give me an idea as of to how I can get a hold of it, that would be dynamite. (I'm almost positive that there is no way I'll ever be able to see it, but one can dream can't he?)

And is it just me, or is anyone else thinking: "What business does Rex Harrison have hosting stories about love? Especially in 1974? That's comedy in and of itself.

Four Stars!

The Christian Science Monitor gave us four stars in their capsule review this week. That is their highest rating. You can check it out here.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian

Apparently, we're all over the place in this weeks SF Bay Gaurdian. Here. And Here.

It's amazing that we're mentioned repeatedly in the paper as something not to be missed but their advertising department won't call or email me back so I can place an ad in the paper. Sometimes people just don't prioritize things properly. But hey, this is way cheaper anyway. Screw advertising, grassroots all the way.

Jesus Loves Me

The Jehovahs Witnesses were in my neighborhood today so I gave them five minutes of my precious time and they gave me one of their lovely Watchtower pamphlets. Some people fear, hate or are just plain annoyed by Jesus people walking door to door, but I've always been impressed by their dedication so long as they're not too pushy. I especially enjoy the Watchtower pamphlets the Jehovas Witnesses offer. It's like The Bible For Dummies with bite sized scriptures and really cool paintings ta boot. And since using Jesus to justify your own political viewpoint is all the rage these days, I thought I would utilize this handy pamphlet and jump on the band-wagon. So Hey-Ho! Let's-Go!

From the "Who is The Devil" section: Satan also misleads people through extreme pride of race and the worship of political organizations. Some feel that their nation or race is better than others. but this is not true. [Acts 10:34, 35] Sing it brother!

From the "Practices that God Hates" section: It is wrong to take revenge or to return evil from the bad things that others might do to us. -Proverbs 24:29; Romans 12:17-21
Pa-Pow! 2 sources on that one. Take that Dubya! God hates you!

Other sections include: "Family Life that Pleases God", "God's Servants Must Be Clean", and "Showing Respect for Life and Blood", but I'll save those for another time.

I wish I were clever enough to post a picture. I'm telling you, these paintings are great. One time I saw this painting of this 6 headed beast of the Apocalypse on the cover of a Watchtower with a big 666 on it. I thought it was a concert flyer for a Norwegian death metal band or something. It was so cool.

UPDATE: We couldn't find that picture, but found one equally cool and scary.

Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons

I read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s material. I read so much of it in fact that I've read almost all of his books at least twice.

I was thumbing through Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, which is a wonderful book of his more journalistic work, and found a passage that I wanted to share with the community of people (all three of you) who read this:

Mr. Nixon himself is a minor character in this book. He is the first President to hate the American people and all they stand for. He believes so vibrantly in his own purity, although he has committed crimes which are hideous, that I am bound to conclude that someone told him when he was very young that all serious crime was sexual, that no one could be a criminal who did not commit adultery or masturbate.
He is a useful man in that he has shown us that our Constitution is a defective document, which makes a childlike assumption that we would never elect a President who disliked us so. So we must amend the Constitution in order that we can more easily eject such a person from office and even put him in jail.

I think that the second-such President to hate the American people so wholly is George W. Bush. I believe that you could replace Bush's name with Nixon's in the above statement and it would still be almost wholly accurate. And we still haven't learned our lesson, to amend our constitution so that we may eject bums like these from office and thrown them in jail more easily.

Amazon.com

This Divided State pre-orders at Amazon.com

New Poll Data

Now, I don't think polls are that accurate, per se. But I do find them interesting. Here's a new one that suggests that more Americans feel the same way I do about the "War" on terror. 56% of Americans beleive that the war on terror has made the country less safe from terror attacks, while only 34% are still under the delusion that the war on terror has made us safer.

I mean, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to understand how attacking a soverign nation in the middle of an already unstable region, occupying it indefinitely and causing the sorts of abuses that we are, would cause people to want to fight back against us.

And it's almost shocking that the number of people who have put 2 and 2 together is as low as 56%. It's shocking that the number of people who still believe in George Bush's skewed, unrealistic view of the situtation is as high as 36%. We need an informed electorate. I think the first thing to do to inform people is get rid of 24 hour news networks except for C-span and make people read 3 newspapers a day, each from a different country. Then they should listen to NPR. Maybe that's a little time-consuming. But people should go out of their way and spend time getting informed. I know a lot of people who are apathetic to anything that happens on a scale larger than their own front yard and it's disheartening. But spend time. Get informed and inform others.

I think people I know find me annoying because I start so many conversations with, "Did you hear what happened..." And then I'll finish the sentence with something I read in the news, heard on NPR or watched on C-span. (and I have to admit I'm a C-span junkie. When the senate is in session that is what I watch and listen to while I work. It's good times.)

The Pictures Business Part 2

See. Read this article and the article found in the article. I'm not the only one who feels this way about movie theatres.

It's about the experience.

To hell with corporate cinemas.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes has begun cataloguing our reviews. For any of you that would like to check that out, the direct link is here.

MTV Movies

I wonder where MTV got this picture of that really old poster for their website.

You should check out the final one-sheet at the imdb.

The Pictures Business

I read this article at CNN.com and it seems to me that people have begun to prophesize the doom of movie theatres.

I have to say that I think theatres are in a downward spiral, but not for the sorts of reasons cited in this article. Well, the one major reason is cited in the article, but aside from that there are others. The major reason is that six companies essentially run Hollywood. Why? I can't tell you, but it's forcing the quality of movies into the toilet.

I'll tell you my two biggest reasons theatre attendance is more sparse than it was last year:

1) NO GOOD MOVIES. Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 got peoples asses into the theatres. And not just the regular movie-going public. These are quality films. Of course people don't want to go to the movies if all they have the option to go see is some lame-ass remake of a shitty '70s TV show. They can watch the re-runs at home that are almost always, arguably, better anyway.

2) The theatres themselves. They've lost the know-how. They've lost the magic. They've stopped caring. When a company starts to think only in numbers (box office, concessions sales, per capita popcorn sales, bottom line, etc.) that means they've stopped caring about the experience. How many of these multiplexes have a qualified projectionist? Not many. They hire some punk 16 year old kid and show him how to thread a movie because it's cheaper than hiring someone who will do the right work and maintain the equipment. It boggles my mind how often I have to complain about sound and picture quality to theatre managers. One time I complained about a bad splice during the trailers to the point the picture was maybe 1/8th of a sprocket out of frame. That drives me nuts, so I let them know and the kid starts telling me about how there's nothing they can do about it.

I tore that kid a new asshole (I felt terrible about yelling at him, it wasn't his fault, he wasn't trained to care, I apologized to him later). They don't care about maintaining their equipment. The theatre I go to most often, The Wynnsong 12 in Provo, opened in 1997. It had beautiful 35mm projection equipment. I can't think of a single time I've been there in the last year, watching a movie on any of their screens when there wasn't a significant problem with the picture (out of focus, scratches, burns on the film, yellow splice tape in the middle of the picture, reels not properly spliced, sound too low, sound in mono, house lights 1/2 on through the whole picture, commercials on the movie, etc). There is always something wrong. I find that this is common to all multi-plexes.

The art houses are the ones with the antiquated equipment kept together with rubber bands and they always seem to have a projectionist that cares enough to keep it running at 110% and make the pictures look like they're supposed to.

All of these companies miss the mark with film. Film is an experience. I love watching a movie with a 500+ audience that's as in to the movie as you are, when you all gasp or chuckle or cry at the same time. There's a palpable feeling in the air when you watch a movie like that. But it's also great to go to a matinee in the middle of the week and have that giant auditorium all to yourself and your thoughts. But when I go to a movie, I want to see a movie, not all the commercials and the bad splices and the scratches and the what not. Care about the movie. Show it some respect.

I'm rambling. Sorry. But I think it's important. We need newsreels in the movies. We need cartoons before the features. We need one-reel movies back again, played in groups of 2 hours at a time. We need saturday afternoon serials. We need all of the culture that movies used to provide back in them again. People will come back to the movies if you give them that experience. We need double-features. We need revivals. I want to go see Casablanca on the big screen.

I got to see Bridge on the River Kwai on one of the largest screens in Utah and it took my breath away and blew my mind.

Take movies back to that, and movie theatres will stay around a whole lot longer.

Matt Drudge: A Heartless Mother Fucker

I just saw a "BREAKING NEWS" Flash on the Drudgereport. Matt Drudge dedicates an entire news report in order to tear apart the legitimacy of a mourning mother whose son was killed in Iraq. His point? She's a bitch because in 2004 she said "Bush is good." And now, in 2005, she says "Bush is a cocksucker because my son is dead". (Quotes paraphrased). Matt, Matt, Matt... She's a mother protesting the war outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Her son was killed because George Bush lied to him. Couldn't you give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she just MIGHT be rethinking her opinion of Bush? Jesus, is it really that hard to comprehend? What's wrong with changing your mind? Especially after your child has died. Matt Drudge, you are one piece of work. Suck my balls.

An American Face

God, his death just kinda came out of the blue. Wow, it's wierd. Rather, Brokaw, and Jennings are now all gone from network TV. Not that I watched any of them, but still... Jennings just had that voice and face that represented such a part of Americana. All of them did. Man, I can remember being 10 years old and hearing Jennings' voice while my parents watched the news. Life is too fragile. I gotta quit smoking.

George Romero's Damn Good Coffee!

I've just recovered after 6 straight days of 1-2 hours of sleep a night, sitting in front of my Powerbook, editing the deleted scenes and extras for the THIS DIVIDED STATE DVD. On Thursday night, I almost had to go to the hospital because my body suddenly stopped working. Yeah, just stopped functioning. Breathing, heart beating, sight? NAH! None of that! It just all went away. Well, I got everything sent out to New York and now I'm back to normal.

Right now, surrounding me, are 7 empty cans of Red Bull, and 13 cups of coffee. It keeps my blood flowing and my eyes open so that I can work on my film. Technically, I guess I should be dead by now.

Well, that's how things get done around here.

A Caveat

I just wanted everyone who reads this to know that I'm not exactly sure if this blog gives an accurate picture of who we are. I mean, I always sort of feel exposed every time I put an extremely opinionated post on the blog here. I feel like maybe I could be wrong, or an idiot, or naive, or just flat out stupid. It takes a lot for me to feel so convicted about something that I won't backpeddle. I think that all of us, and probably everyone in general, are a lot more coherent in an argument or ellucidating a point in person, as oppposed to behind this mask of virtual anonymity.

I just want everyone to know that it takes a lot for me to post things because I really do feel sort of exposed. And if I'm wrong about something, let me know. But I also don't want people to get the idea that they can get a sense of the three of us through this blog. We are a lot more interesting in person.

I hate to admit though, that I actually like this blogging business. So, hopefully, those of you who come through here and read our rants about film and politics and whatever are enlightened at least just a little bit. And slightly better informed.

56% think Bush is "arrogant"

The LA Times published this article. If it were really a liberal media, the headline would read something like this: "56% of Americans describe Bush is 'Arrogant'" not the actual headline of "48% of Americans describe Bush as 'Honest.'" I think it's a much larger headline that a majority of the country think that the leader of the "free" world is an arrogant prick. Ok, so I added the prick part. But it I guess it also seems like news that a slim minority of Americans are under the delusion that Bush is honest.


I guess it really depends on how you spin it. And I found a great definition of arrogant, too. This is from wikipedia:

In Christian dogma, pride (or vanity) is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is listed as one of the seven deadly sins, as superbia..

I just think it's funny that, depending on your definition, 56% percent of the country think George Bush could be a sinner.

Here's another defnition. This time it's from dictionary.com. I'm more in agreement with this definition:

Marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one's superiority toward others: an arrogant contempt for the weak.

Either way, support for Bush seems to be slipping. I just hope everyone pays attention during the mid-term election.

Trailer at www.movie-list.com!

Movie-list.com, which I go to every day for all my trailer needs, posted the trailer to This Divided State. You can check out the specific page here.

I would highly recomend this site to people who like movie trailers. They're pretty good about updating the site with all the newest trailers. And they're almost always direct-links to quicktime, which is good times. Windows media player and real player both blow for video.

Fox news spin

The headline of this article and the story lead in seems odd to me. The headline is this: "Bush: Threats won't deter U.S. in Iraq" and then the first three paragraphs talk about dwindling support of the war from US citizens and that despite that Bush says stay the course. That kind of seems to me that Fox news seems to think it's threatening to America that Americans are skeptical about the war. I mean, you've got to read the whole article, and in context it seems to fit the headline. But not everyone reads the whole article. And I learned from another documentary that the more someone watched or read Fox news, the less informed they were.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems sketchy.

San Francisco Examiner

The San Francisco Examiner ran a blurb about the film in Jeffrey M. Anderson's Art House Circuit column. Good times.

indieWIRE!

We made it into indieWIRE's weekly, which came out today. Check it out here.

Word up. Word is certainly getting around about the film.

That's Paul Green on the left, me on the right and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the middle.

Big Brother knows all, sees all

I was trolling search engines for news articles about This Divided State and I came across something fascinating. Check this link out and "find" This Divided State. This is an FBI news briefing about the goings on in Washington D.C. the night of our premiere at the E Street Cinema. It was seen fit to be included on this FBI news brief and I sort of find that hilarious.

San Francisco opens today!

We open at the historic Victoria Theatre today. For showtimes, directions, and ticket prices, go to their website: HERE.

Make sure that if you live in that area you spread the word and go see the film yourself. And to anyone who does see the film: feel free to send in reviews to places like Ain't it cool and Hollywood-Elsewhere.

Standard-Examiner Review

I found a review from the end of July that I seem to have missed. Here it is.

Cavalier Daily's review of the Films

Divided States of America

This review of the film hit the nail on the head exactly with the message we've been taking along with the film.

Revenge of the Sith

I went and saw Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith again last night. It is fantastic. I really, really, really feel sorry for people who can't tap into their inner 12 year old and really just appreciate it. It's fun, it's emotional, it's smart. I know some of the acting isn't the best, but acting in B movies isn't supposed to be great. No one bitches about Bruce Campbell acting cheesy, so why bitch about Hayden Christensen? (NOTE: I thought he was great in this movie)


But I just wanted to say how much I felt that Palpatine reminded me of George Bush. George Bush is a Sith. The difference is that Palpatine organized his take-over all by himself. W. had Rove to do that for him. But even down to the politics. Less freedom makes us more free. Less freedom makes us more safe. Palpatine was willing to take the freedom of all in the name of their safety. Sound familiar? *cough* patriot act *cough*

Well here's a quote from Benjamin Franklin:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Also, Sith are evil. They think inward, only of themselves. That's the basic tenet of the conservative "rugged individualism." It's nonsense. It breeds selfishness and greed. The Jedi use their powers for good. They care only about others. Sounds like what? Socialists? Damn straight. And what did the Sith do to the Jedi? Demonize them in the public and killed them. Well, the administration has the demonize part out of the way. What's next, I wonder.

The point is this: Star Wars is great and it's teaching our kids excellent moral values and telling them current events stories in disguise.

The Movie Blog

The Movie Blog posted the trailer on their website. They get close to a million hits a month. So that's good times for us.

13-20 Demographic

I was told that we needed some scantily clad babes on the site to help out the 13-20 demographic. So, here we go.

This is a girl that I saw at Star Wars Celebration III and San Diego Comic-Con.

She is very brave.

International This Divided State links

I wish I could read this.

Or this.

Or this.


UPDATE: Or this.

I wish the public education system would put a much larger emphasis on foreign language skills. It should mandatory for our youth to learn a foreign language during their formative years.

Ashdown '06

This is the guy who's going to (hopefully) clean Orrin Hatch's clock in the upcoming mid-term. I think it's smart that he's getting on the wagon now to try to beat him. He's going to need all the help he can get.

I'm not specifically endorsing him yet, per se. But he certainly gets an endorsement for not being Orrin Hatch. I really can't wait until he updates his issues page to explain to me how he can provide me, and all Americans, with free Health Care. If he does that, he has my vote clinched.

I do have to say though, his stance on copyright laws is impressive. Read about those here.

On an odd sidenote, it appears as though he's married to Robin Ballard. She's a Salt Lake City-based actress who appeared in a short film that Elias and I produced for an old friend a long time ago. She went on to act in a movie for that old friend as well. I wonder whatever happened to all that.

At any rate, check out his website. The more people know about it him, the more they can spread the word that there is actually a human being running against Orrin Hatch. Hopefully, he'll win on something more than a prayer and Hatch will have something less than a chance.

Blogshares

I have been participating in the Hollywood Stock Exchange for quite a while now. I find it's fun and forces me to keep a keen eye on the film industry. I think I've been actively trading for almost a year now. So I understand the idea behind "fantasy" markets.

And then I found this: Blogshares.

While doing publicity and marketing for This Divided State I have to look it up on Google everyday and see if there are any new links, reviews, articles, etc. that I need to know about so that I can put them here. And this one threw me for a loop. It seems as though there are people that buy and sell fantasy shares in blogs. I guess that's not so crazy, but I have to imagine that the "blogosphere" (lord, I hate, hate, hate that word) is way bigger than the Hollywood machine. And I can understand how you can assign value to movies, you have boxoffice. But do they track blog links and hits? I should investigate more...

Portland dates!

The Hollywood Theatre in Portland has decided on a date for the weeklong engagement of This Divided State.

9/9/05.

So, those of you in Portland and surrounding areas, mark your calendars now.

(Also: The Abbey Theatre in Durango, Colorado has moved it's date up one week. It will now be starting on September 2nd. So adjust your schedules accordingly.)

The balls on this guy

He actually did it. He recess appointed Bolton.

George Bush truly is a divider, not a uniter. This man spits in the faces of half the population of this country. And for what?

His own selfish interests.

I'll try to write more about this later, I'm swamped with work on the film right now.