Katie Couric forced to apologize for deceptive propaganda film editing.

http://www.politico.com/media/story/2016/05/couric-i-regret-portrayal-of-gun-activists-004556

p.s. Couric claimed that her film's 8 seconds of silence was standard 'room tone' taken by the film crew to establish the interview room's ambience. Well, that's the longest and loudest 8 seconds of silence any documentary has heard in a really long time and a gun shot would not have been louder than those 8 seconds. What's more sad about this situation (the doc film has now been officially pulled from audience viewings) is that Couric is now throwing the post-production team under the bus in an effort to protect her reputation. They cut that film as she had asked them to and as she supervised them to. I used to really like her, but not now. Couric is a journalist and she has a responsibility to approach issues like gun control and Second Amendment matters that are being debated in an absolute fair and balanced fashion, she has a responsibility to offer an unstained avenue for both sides of that argument to argue fairly. When a journalist of her caliber does something like this, it hurts journalists and journalism world-wide (not to mention the families who have lost a loved one to gun violence or families who have had their right to bear arms jeopardized). What she did and is doing with the staff that she paid, sucks.  I wonder if Sarah Palin is baking a cake tonight decorated in world newspapers that she does not read and hollering in that shrill,"Hey Katie C...ain't karma a bitch !"

R.I.P. Maya :(

bye.

NYC Still Life...

Title: 'MTV Unplugged'

" At sixteen I get drafted. When I read the draft notice, I cry. Not because I'm a coward - I'm not afraid of anyone. But I don't want to kill or be killed."  K Kinski

Budgets, time-management and pressures of an industry.

bye.

p.s.  Magazine interview time-managment is yet another thing to worry about.

                            

p.s. s.

Summer gardening.

To make a pizza garden, begin by marking out a circle. First tie a string to a stick or baseball bat; for a 6'-wide pizza garden, cut a string so that it's 3' long. Have one random stranger from the street stand in the center of the space and hold one end of the string while another random stranger holds the opposite end and walks around, marking the edge of the circle as he or she goes. The edge can then be marked with rocks or soda cans (preferably diet Pepsi) placed around the perimeter, and the pizza garden can be divided into "slices" by the addition of more rocks, pepperoni  or markers. bye.

A loose leaf time where computers did not store our data.

1971 is now up on NETFLIX for viewing. 

Interesting doc proving that big brother is not only watching us, but maintaining a love affair with us using mass storage. FBI = Federal Bureau of Intimidation. bye.

"Let's make America great again? " in 2016? Um, it does seem that we are doing much better than we were in the 60's and early 70's. That's for sure. We complain about bathrooms and Hiroshima apology trips now. bye again and heading to a Cure for Kids With Cancer fundraiser concert...

                                          

"There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

John Adams, 1814

As great as QUIET is, there is nothing that 'quiet' or so great as a rare Goblin concert that literally projects film imagery on a screen of the various 70's films it soundscapes and designed themes for while performing live ...

bye.

Boston does its coffee in style.

A Ford company that never went out of business.

Distant Vision PR from Jonathan Shahan on Vimeo.

New live cinema project being executed by Francis does seem very social and scholarly. Let's see how this pans out (pan not meant as a pun. I think. Actually, make it a pun). bye.

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

And remember our war vets by reading or watching the rare and classic, 

'The Park is Mine' (film starring Tommy Lee Jones). 
This film is one of the strongest anti-war stories around regarding how our vets are mistreated after serving for their country. Bye.

p.s. Todd's new one, 'Weiner-Dog' does look cute...

- "Why'd you name it that?
-"It felt right."

P.S.S.  The weiner movie above is not to be confused with this weiner below just released last week ...

So what's John Smith thinking right now?

p.s. This is what it looks and sounds like when Abe Lincoln looks down from heaven at both parties presumptive nominees in their rallies (and JFK nurses both of their forlorn head wounds with a snotty Kleenex)...Hit the PLAY button below. And remember that Kleenex have 'MADE IN CHINA' stamped on the side of 'em. Thanks. 

 bye.

  "No one has ever learned how to jump higher by lowering the bar."

'The Rise Of The Synths' documentary.

Film Synopsis: The film is a travel in time towards the roots of a worldwide grass-root music scene known as Synthwave, an irresistible blend of modern electronic composition with 80s pop culture’s nostalgia, that over the last two years has transformed from a whisper on selected internet hubs, to an ever-growing scene, expanding rapidly as we speak. Accounting millions of plays on social media, devoted fans are legion, but nobody in the mass media knows about them. Thousands of synthwave composers around the world are living out double-lives. Away from their normal everyday life they spend another half-life behind a faceless musical avatar, creating and uploading their own renditions of 80’s-styled film scores, sharing them with the world – surging the wave. They belong to an endless army of watchers for the master’s legacy: the sound that Edgar Froese, Giorgio Moroder and John Carpenter created in the late 70s. A time travel into the universe of creating sounds. A love letter to human fascination and the collective memories of an universe that never existed.

Kinda perfect brilliant...

          

     

      Fingers crossed on this. Wow. Big Wow. Bye. 

       And on a 'not so perfect' note, Bammy has lifted the gun sales ban on communist Vietnam, while fresh off of issuing a televised tearful executive order for gun control in the U.S. based on gun proliferation problems. The only consistency in life & politics is inconsistency. I'm gonna go blow my nose now. bye.

Commitment to creative labour.

   Sound Check. All systems go (going_filmsoundscape.studio_recordings) 

And NO I am not playing Purple Rain just because the damn lights are gelled ridiculous purple!

p.s. 

I love these guys!

New 'Halloween' contract with Miramax.

"So… I decided, after bitching for years and years about Halloween sequels, I would come aboard and shepherd this thing," said filmmaker John Carpenter.

So the Breaking News is: John Carpenter has signed a contract with Miramax to do a new 'Halloween' film. Interesting since he invented that story. Talk about kicking Rob Zombie in the gut (yay) after he bad mouthed you in the press because you did not support his re-boot of your movie. Well done, John. Since your creative collaborations with your son recently, it seems that you have gotten a second wind. Bye. 

Pool party with 'invited' blow-up alligators.

Having good form.

With film editing, 'form' should be articulating 'content' and not the other way around. Unfortunately, that's a big problem with movies today. 

Bye. 

Karaoke Monday Night

               

Running with a damned moment.

Just realized that reruns don't exist anymore because of streaming. That's kind of nuts. And, totally a damned bummer realization moment.

Running into a movie like this during afternoon bad television reruns is how a person learned about so many hidden gems out there in the world. I bet that many people do not even know that Peter Fonda directed some crazy amazing films back in the 70's. 

Making a soundscape out of nothingness? 'Im an analog guitar pedal jockey. I have a pile of guitar pedals, build contact mics, and do some circuit bending. I like to keep it low-tech. Pulling out the magnetic out of scotched-taped cassette music tapes is interesting too. Lately I've been using more feedback loops, raw signals that are fun to manipulate. I'm into that."   thanks.   bye.    

ADELE !

Congrats Adele ! BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR-  AND YOU DESERVE EVERY SINGLE ACCOLADE !

David Lynch on Mullholland Drive.

who else has managed to bring experimental cinema into American popcorn cinemas? umm, only him. Lynch. 'Wild at Heart'  'Mullholland Drive'  'Erasure Head' 'Twin Peaks'  'Blue Velvet.' And he had(has) no real formula. Just a unique voice, that reverberates.

       

Classic Television street salesman.

Free market. Free trade. $7 bucks a pop. Not bad, pops. Bye. 

                                        

p.s. Watch the classic award-winning documentary that integrates nature, science fiction and documentary aesthetics ... THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE ...