DC 9/11 - TIME OF CRISIS director to RUSH LIMBAUGH: SHAME ON YOU!…but don’t stop.

What does America need right now: blood sport politics as entertainment or serious analysis of the issues?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since Inauguration day, when we heard the door finally slam on the Bush Presidency, progressives have been engaged in a collective shudder of disbelief. How?!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Internet humorists offer these visual aids to help us process the WTF quality of the last 8 years. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MSNBC’s Keith Olberman & Dr. Rachel Maddow provide nightly therapy and they do so with minimal gloating. Not so on the other side of punditry. Radio road rage addict Rush Limbaugh’s used racist imagery in his defiant wish for Obama to fail. Click his beautiful face for the video:

 

Limbaugh’s unpatriotic hope for the future would cause the average American’s suffering to increase rather than decrease, in order that a further demoralized population would then return power to the architects of its problems. Rush has a first amendment right to free speech, but in fact his unfeeling cynicism does his side of politics no favors by reminding us how far they are prepared to go. Limbaugh and fellow narcissistic motor mouth Sarah Palin are powerful advertisements for keeping progressives in power. So, don’t stow your yap, Rush, keep on digging. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s going to take time to clean up the garbage. So although we should be looking forward rather than back, we still need to investigate the mistakes of the past so we can put checks and balances in place to ensure we never repeat them. That’s not vengeance. That’s common sense. Progressive pundits sifting though the garbage is a vital public education service. The revelations of the coming months will be staggering. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bet an enterprising theatre company will soon put a Bush Cheney spin on Bertolt Brecht’s “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Or one day we’ll be like the little girl in POLTERGEIST staring at the TV, saying:

“They’re back…”

OBAMA will be good for the entertainment industry…wait and see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 20^th. Wow! What a great day! The culmination of a seismic shift in political thinking that occurs, perhaps, once in a lifetime. When asked: where were YOU? When it happened? At last, we can think of something other than 9/11, or the tragic political assassinations of the 60’s.

 

 

 

 

I was privileged to be asked to an inaugural breakfast party by a great African American actress I had directed in 2003. Penny Johnson Jerald had played Condoleeza Rice for me in “DC. 9/11: TIME OF CRISIS”, and again for ABC’s “9/11 - THE PATH TO WAR”.  I have a feeling she’ll be playing Condi some more, as TV drama examines the last 8 years of misgovernment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penny as Condi and Lawrence Pressman as Cheney

Penny has also played the First Lady (scarily channeling Lady Macbeth) in the first two seasons of “24″. Consequently, KCAL Channel 9’s INSIDE EDITION had sent a camera crew to the party to cover her reaction to the Inauguration of America’s first black President, as part of a mosaic of reactions recorded nationwide.

Upon arrival, Penny’s husband, noted music producer/composer/singer/teacher/all round super musicologist Gralin Jerald (www.behindtheworld.net) introduced me to fellow guests, all family and close friends. Then, as the Inauguration coverage continued on the wide screen TV, as Obama’s speech unfolded, one that was blunt in its view of the problems the world faces, and sensibly more subdued in its rhetoric than his campaign speeches, we whooped and hollered, and shed tears of joy. (A little Champagne & apple juice works wonders on my inhibitions) It was a privilege I will never forget to share this experience with people to whom it had special significance.

 

 

Everyone had been asked to bring a framed picture to display on a table; a photo of an ancestor, one who would not have believed that a descendant of theirs would witness such an event. These ranged from poignant shots of dignified, resigned, uniformed railway conductors, butlers, etc, to the late actor Greg Morris (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, 60’s TV SERIES. I directed his son Phil Morris playing the son of his father’s character in 1988/89’s “MI” update series.) 

 

 

There was also a newspaper photo of somebody’s ancestor who had been lynched. I did not think it was appropriate for someone like me to bring anything, but I was asked to nonetheless.

So I brought a formal picture of a group of Royal Air Force officers, one of whom was my Australian father. They are all gathered in rows around King George VI, for a photo op, at Central Flying School, Upavon, England, where my father was an instructor, on May 9, 1937. This was at a time when Kenya, the birthplace of Barack Obama’s father, was still under strict British colonial rule. None of these men in the picture would have believed that any of their children, if still living in 2009, would see a person of color become the leader of the world’s most powerful country.

Yet, George VI’s daughter, Elizabeth The Second, Queen of England, and Flight Lieutenant Eric Trenchard-Smith’s son, purveyor of genre popcorn, have witnessed the triumph of reason over prejudice. In this time of crisis, we won’t always agree with everything President Obama does, but we know all those difficult decisions will be informed by a superior intellect and a moral compass, a rare combination in a politician. It is a great day for America, and the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO DILDOS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS MOTION PICTURE…

 

Dateline: PORKY’S - THE COLLEGE YEARS…

 

 

I had set up an “Austin Powers” style hide-the-penis gag, when Murphy’s Law bit us in the arse. Remember O’Toole’s corollary? - Murphy was an optimist. During the just concluded lunch hour, someone had walked off with our 8 pound phallus, the centerpiece of this key scene, irreplaceable in less than an hour each way to the nearest sex shop.

Cock Blocked in Canyon Country, where McCain/Palin bumper stickers still cruise defiantly…

Sex Comedy is no laughing matter,  when you make a film under the DGA ultra low budget deal. There’s no safety net in a 15 day shoot, if something goes wrong. Every hour you lose, when some element does not reach the set on time, is an hour you never get back to generate more images, more comedic moments. This is when the pressure is on The Props Guy to come up with a solution instantly. Luckily we had a resourceful man in the hot seat, Mike Marquez, the wily Odysseus of the Art Department.

With the clock ticking, Mike rapidly created a replacement for the missing member - he did the final sculpting with gaffer tape (!) - and got us shooting within 20 minutes. I think the shadow gag will work well.

“I want to go all out with sex toy wackiness” I had told Mike in our leisurely week of prep.  (I am a sick puppy)  Mike certainly was constantly inventive. Here’s an example of a piece of set decoration he added to the trashed party aftermath sequence.

Sheer genius. (I know, I am a sick and wicked puppy.)

Production designer Gene Wyrick gave me a lot of dressed locations and sets on a micro budget, ably supported by his team in the field. Props and Set Dec are sometimes under appreciated departments; they work hard and add invaluable texture. So recognition is nice. Mike Marquez got a battlefield promotion on the last day of the shoot. The producers made him an Art Director. I love when that happens.

You cannot make a good movie on a budget this size without a crew that cares. I was enthusiastically served in all departments. Even our blow up male doll pitched in to help the camera department with exposure.

Make up, hair, wardrobe, those unsung heroines of the front line, kept feeding me actors and crowd in correct wardrobe over a 7 day story span, monitored by continuity queen Erin Casteel. Smooth job all round.

Thanks to Ron Levy for stylish lighting and the best Jon Lovitz impersonations I’ve heard. Thanks to Al Lopez and the grip electric brotherhood for 180 degree lighting turnarounds in no time at all. Thanks to indefatigable producers Tony Roman and Chang Tseng for keeping the train running on time. Keeping it on the rails even, was no mean feat. Thank you to the whole PORKY’S cast and crew symphony orchestra. I enjoyed being your conductor.

With the right marketing strategy, PORKY’S - THE COLLEGE YEARS will be a nice little earner. More on PORKY’S talented cast in a future blog.

As for the Dildo Snatcher: I hope your holiday gift had the impact you intended. It is the season of goodwill after all.