Hitting The Nuts

Here's the fruit of much labor...

Nothing Says Happy Anniversary Like....

So Jenny and I celebrated two years of marriage this past week. On Wednesday we received two anniversary cards in the mail from Jenny's great aunts. One with a nice little note inside, the other with a nice little note and a Jehovah's Witness track inside.

The Gospel According to the Blues Brothers

Through out the Bible, God calls out the rejects, misfits, and outcasts of society to be used for his purposes.
Orphaned criminals, Jake and Elwood, are given a mission.

His purposes often involve delivering an oppressed group or tribe from a tyrant, from the evils of society, and/or from their own self-destruction; not to mention a specific recognition to the importance of caring for orphaned, widowed, and elderly.
The mission is to save an orphanage. An orphanage taking care of orphans, ran mostly by older single females, which will be shut down by the government/bank, unless they are able to pay a significant amount of money.

Within these situations, God’s chosen one(s) face impossible circumstances, yet through His divine, and sometimes rather odd, intervention the impossible becomes possible.
Tens if not hundreds of police cars, a SWAT team, Illinois Nazis, violent country western musicians, and an illegally armed princess Leia attempt to stop and/or kill the Blues Brothers. Our heroes avoid doom by leaping bridges, driving through malls, flashing eyebrows, disrupting dinner at an expensive restaurant, and spontaneously executing a crowd-pleasing country and western musical set.

It’s not uncommon for the chosen one(s) to make terrible mistakes or selfish decisions along the way, but those actions don’t go uncorrected.
Elwood’s apartment is blown up, they are beaten by a nun, they pay back money they owed, and they return to prison.

And despite the overwhelmingly human characteristics and limitations of the reject(s), misfit(s), and outcast(s), God’s purpose is served through them.
They collect enough money to save the orphanage and restore hope for a vulnerable people.

Movies Movies

So I'm currently engulfed, absorbed, and preoccupied with filmmaking.
Soon, I will be teaching a class about that exact process. If you want to know more about the film, click on this link... Hitting The Nuts.
If you want to know more about the process, sign up for my digital filmmaking class by clicking on this link... Digital Filmmaking 101.

Eventful Early Summer

Well blog, it's been a while. A lot has happened since I last wrote you.

I now have purchased a house and a lawn mower.


I have begun Officially Funded PreProduction of a Digital Feature Film.


And I interviewed the residence of a homeless tent village community.

Why not?

Combinations, mergers, and mash-ups can be magical, amazing, and sometimes horrific.

Peanut Butter and Jelly, especially Jif and Smuckers Grape Jam, is a personal favorite combo.

I think the AFL and NFL generating the SuperBowl, is pretty magical.

Mike Sr. & Charlotte Ditka creating, Michael Keller Ditka is amazing.

Magic Johnson and late-night television was close to horrific.

This evening I decided to get creative with some random remaining groceries, draw from my Appalachian upbringing, and add to it my appreciation of Mexican cuisine. My efforts culminated with the debut of the Bologna Quesadilla.... I give it a B-.

Man vs. Dog

While waiting on media to render and transfer, I'm a little irritated by the amount of attention and level of concern the public and media have given to Michael Vick.
I think Michael Vick did some pretty bad stuff. I don't want dogs tortured and/or killed. I love dogs. I hope to have another within the next year or two. And I will name him Kevin.
But why do we place Michael Vick so high on the list of terrible people for abusing dogs? Why isn't this level of attention given to professional athletes who abuse their wife or persuade their teenage baby sitter to sleep with them?
If a grown man was going to either hurt my dog, sleep my 15 year-old daughter, or abuse my wife, I think I would let them hurt my dog.
I think what I'm getting at here, is saving the whales, saving the rain forest, and saving dogs is great; but can we focus on saving people first?