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Thank You Kevin Smith

Back when I was wee lad I saw a Disney movie staring kid actor Johnny Whitaker (of Family Affair fame). It was called “Mystery in Dracula’s Castle”. In the film Whitaker and his friend use a Super 8 movie camera to film a horror movie at an old light house. They stumble on some jewel thieves and the high jinks starts.

What I loved about the movie was it sparked an interest in making my own movies. I went to the library and checked out any book I could find about filmmaking. I wrote some scripts and even did some crude story boards. My problem was that I didn’t own a Super 8 camera. Our family couldn’t afford one and one I did scrounge from my grandma didn’t work AND I couldn’t afford the film.

A few years later I got the bug again but this time I had some money and a local camera store rented movie cameras. It was like pulling teeth getting my mom to rent the camera for me. My first film was a simple 3 minute and 21 second story of a cola test that goes awry and Superman has to save the day. Having no editing equipment I shot the film in sequence at the end of one of my Boy Scout meetings using my troop as the cast. It took like 2 weeks to get the film back from processing and when I saw it for the first time my heart skipped a beat. The focus was a bit dodgy especially in zoom ins but it wasn’t bad.

When I got to Ohio State I found out they had a film department (this was in the mid 80’s). I took the beginning film class and we watched great films and planned to make our own 5 minute film as the final. By now I owned a Super 8 that I bought through a discount catalog so making my project was not a big deal. The film was about a killer issue of TV Guide and the cast had my friend Dave as the hero and girl I liked Heather who played the damsel in distress. The twist was she saved the day by setting the magazine on fire. Hearing my classmates applaud after showing the finished film to them filled me with joy. I knew it was something I had to do – be a filmmaker.

Life led me in another direction and while I continued to write my short stories and enjoy watching films and the process of filmmaking, I didn’t think I would get the bug again. That was until I met director Kevin Smith – again.

Smith wrote and directed the film Clerks. (1994) about a day in the life of a convenience store clerk and his slacker buddies. It was funny and crude. He shot it for $23,000 and change with one 16 mm camera and on black and white film. He sold it at the Sundance Film Festival for about $200,000 to Miramax Studio and it was one of the films that started the independent film craze of the 1990’s (along with Slacker and El Mariachi).

On a lark I bought the 10 year Anniversary DVD of Clerks a few months ago and the parts I loved is the behind the scenes stuff especially the commentary audio. I learned that Kevin was a lot like me growing up wanting to make movies for the passion of making them. He decided in 1993 to do it and he did.

Smith describes himself as a media whore and that is why I like him. He interacts on a daily basis with his fan base and tries to include them on his filmmaking journeys.

This year he started a blog called simply “My Boring Ass Life” where he details, as much as legally possible, his daily life. He writes of going to the bathroom, playing house with his young daughter, having sex with the wife, and the various goings on in Hollywood.

This week he has started filming the sequel to Clerks. called right now “The Passion of the Clerks”. Don’t think it will be a spoof on Mel Gibson’s “Passion of The Christ” but the title is a nice dig on that film.

As Smith says, Passion is a return to the well. I think he is at a point in his career where he wants to revisit the time when he had the most fun making movies. He gave up writing and directing two big films to do the sequel and he brought in the two main actors to reprise their roles from 1994.

He also started a blog detailing the “Train Wreck: The Making of The Passion of the Clerks” where in video entries he gives his fans a sneak look at the making of the film as it is being filmed. I’m sure a lot of the material will show up on the DVD but it is thrilling for me to come along for the ride as if I am on the crew. One entry showed Kevin being fitted for his Silent Bob mullet and another had Dave Klein, the Director of Photography telling about the 4 day camera prep the crew was doing last week to get ready for filming this week. Dave was also the DP on the first Clerks.

Of course being Kevin Smith, he has included a couple of funny fake trailers and spoofs of Hollywood.

The video blog, I’m sure will influence another future filmmaker just as Smith caused me to finally write and finish my first screenplay “Kindred Revision” and enter it in a contest.

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Gushing about Football

As a grad of Findlay High, I follow the exploits of the football team from afar as I live in Columbus now.

I am pleased as punch that the Findlay Trojans are 5-1 and as of last week ranked 3rd in Region 2 of the OHSAA computer rankings.

As I said, living in Columbus forces me to follow the team via the newspaper or over the Internet. WFIN, the main station in Findlay has been streaming football games over the Internet for several years. Even when they had to stop streaming the station due to royalty issues (thank you Napster) they still stream the games each Friday night.

I also get a chance to watch the team play live when they play a Columbus area team. This year they have been down in my neck of the woods twice. The first game was at Upper Arlington (which is funny because Hancock county has a village named Arlington) and then two weeks ago they played Worthington Kilbourne. In 2002, when the team made it to the state semi-final, they played Cincinnati Elder in Columbus Crew Stadium.

The recent Kilbourne game was a shoot-out that ended in a 36 to 36 tie. In overtime Kilbourne scored a touchdown and extra point then Findlay scored a touchdown during their possession and I’m thinking another overtime with the extra point. It was at this point Coach Cliff Hite reaches into his bag and sends the offense out to try for 2. I thinking “What??” The Coach is going for the win. If they get it they win and if they miss then Worthington wins. Wow!

The quarterback takes the snap and rolls to his right, the defense is closing in, he lets the ball fly, and it is… CAUGHT in the back of the endzone to make the conversion…. FINDLAY WINS 44 to 43! I’m looking silly dancing around my computer but the team just won the game in overtime.

I love Coach Hite and what he has done to make Findlay a power in Northwest Ohio. I was in High school the first time the school made the state playoffs so seeing Hite take the team to the playoffs several times is a good feeling. FHS is a huge school with something like 2,000 students so some of them have to know how to play football but it has only been in the last 10 years that FHS has been a consistently good team.

Back in the spring of 1985 I decided I was going to play football. I hadn’t played before on a team because my Mom wouldn’t give me permission, she didn’t want me to get hurt, but in 1985 I could go out for the team because I would 18 that coming school year and I could sign my own permission slip. My Mom was not happy but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Physical training was brutal for someone better at watching TV than running. In the first 2 weeks I lost 20 lbs of water weight in the July heat. The first day I puked my guts out.

Then two-a-days started. Being as big as I was I learned to be a lineman. Offense was hard with all the blocking schemes you had to learn and I liked Defense because all I really had to know was which side – right or left – to go to.

The veterans on the team allowed me into their circle even though several of them had given me a hard time when I was just a regular student. I got tickled to learn that my thighs were as big as the starting defensive end and the school only had two sets of thigh pads big enough for the both of us.

Having little experience playing football, the contact drills scared the hell out of me. We had one drill called the door drill where 2 JV players would hold a door up. On one side was a linebacker and lineman and the other side had a guard or tackle and a running back. The idea was for the offensive pair to pick a side of the door to run around and the defensive side was to keep them from getting past them. Even with the close proximity there was still some hard hitting especially the linebacker and running back clashing.

I hated the drill so I would float toward the back where the JV guys were while the coach would pick 4 players to do the drill.

One time my luck failed and the coach called me out. I would be going against the starting guard. I got down in my stance and as I looked from one side of the door to the other waiting I was trying to remember what I was suppose to do – stay low and make a pile, stay low and make a pile. I was also trying to remember the good way to tackle since if you do it the wrong way you can break your neck.

All of a sudden the guard comes from my right chugging in and behind him the starting running back. I lunge forward, turn my head to the right and slam my shoulder at the guard’s thigh. He had dipped his head slightly and our helmets hit *CRACK* and then I hit the ground to form a pile. My eyes are closed. I hear the linebacker rushing over me and hit the running back. The team is cheering as our pair stopped them. I don’t see any of it since my eyes are still closed and the 220 lb guard is lying on top of me. I’m spitting out the dust brought up from the action.

The others get up after the play and when I stand up the coach is smiling at me and slaps me on the helmet. “Way to go Berger! Good technique!” he says. I slip back into the crowd and get more slaps and pats from my teammates. One of the veterans, who was the worst to me when I was just a geek, grabs my facemask and screams that I did a great job and then he pulls me forward so we bang helmets. That hurt worse than the drill but I like the attention.

Of course I could give a “Rudy” story where I single handedly won the game blah blah but that would be a lie. I wasn’t that good. I tried but my inexperience prevented me from starting or even playing in a game except one. It was the last game of the season against Lorain Admiral King at home. They were ranked 13th in the state and we were 5-4 with no chance of playing after that night when the playoffs started. Lorain had to win to make it into the playoffs and they brought their band and a large number of fans to our stadium.

Being a senior I had to be on the varsity so I got all the benefits like dressing for all the games and traveling to the away games but I had the cleanest helmet on the team. In order to get my letter I was slotted to start as nose guard for the punt return team. Guys who played special teams got a “games played” exemption for a letter. The first time I went out when Lorain was punting was electric for me. It was a cold Friday night under the lights, the stands are full and cheering us all on. They hiked the ball, I did my nose guard thing (trying to keep the center from running down field) and it was over for me. At the time I didn’t know they wouldn’t punt the ball again the rest of the game. FHS dominated them all night.

With only about a minute left they get the ball back for one last series and we were on top 21 to nothing. I was happy to be on the team but sad it would be the last time I would be in pads on the sideline. Then the defensive coach calls out – “Berger! You’re up!”

“What?” I thought to myself as I went up to the coach.

“Take over at right tackle!”

I ran onto the field with the other bench warmers as the Coach lets us into the last of the last game. The stands erupted in cheers. I like to think it was for us, the ones who practiced our hearts out but never got in the game, but it was probably cheers for the starters coming out, for a job well done.

Dave, the defensive captain, who was still in the game called out to us as I took my stance across from the Lorain tackle, “Richie! Richie!” That meant when the ball was hiked I was to go to my right.

The ball was hiked and I did my technique to the right and I see Lorain running a misdirection to the left. I pivot around and plot a pursuit course to the ball and run. I get to the sideline just ahead of the runner and see him cut back to the right and as I turn to purse the other way I run into their offensive line man who is still blocking. The guy is about 6 foot 5 and he is as fast as me and I can’t get around him.

I can see the runner still running down field and the sick feeling that they may spoil the shut out pisses me off so I try to run faster then I stop and change direction to lose the lineman. I see one of our safeties finally bring the runner down. If he hadn’t then I was the last guy between them and the endzone.

It seemed like the play too forever but it was only about 30 seconds and Lorain would have one more chance. The Coach is smart enough to put the 1st team defense back in the game to try and preserve the shut out and I come off the field. As I jog off I see the defensive coach and he slaps my helmet and I say to him “I knew I could do it”. Yes, it was a stupid thing to say.

It was stupid but my whole experience then is etched into my brain. I can still see the eyes of that Lorain lineman as he stared down on me as he tried to block my way. I can still feel my gut twinge when I think about the “duck walk” or “hog jog” we did in physical training. I still feel the pain in my legs after running our wind sprints at the end of practice each Monday.

A lot of my Humanist friends either don’t understand or frown on my experiences playing high school football. One even suggested that schools should get rid of team sports completely. I disagree and will for the rest of the time I have on this Earth. To me team sports show off basic humanity of working together for a common goal. A high school sports team shows that people of different backgrounds can come together with a completely clean slate.

I also had one of my non-jock friends at the time comment that he didn’t think I would play football. He thought it was great that I tried new things. The experience also helped give me added confidence.

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Ohio Republicans don’t want democratic elections

This November, Ohioans will have a chance to make a fundamental change in the way elections are operated in the state. From donation limits, to independent redistricting, to “no-excuse” absentee balloting, and to removing politics from the administration of election, the four proposed constitutional amendments would try to make up for the joke of an election the state had in 2004 when we joined Florida as a laughing stock of the nation.

Of course the Republicans are against it as it might threaten their 10 year hold on the legislature and state elective offices as well as the number of the GOP sent to Congress.

Issue 2 would allow Ohioans to vote early or to vote by mail, ensuring easy access to elections. Issue 3 would put tough limits on campaign contributions, reducing the influence of money in politics. Issue 4 would create an independent redistricting commission to take the power to draw legislative districts out of the hands of partisan lawmakers. Issue 5 would remove partisan politicians from the administration of state elections.

Issue 4 is the most controversial.

Currently a panel made up of legislators draw districts after each census. Since how the districts are drawn can influence who gets elected and who doesn’t, the party in power tries to make as many districts “safe” for their candidate and protects their “majority” in the state house. They draw them in such away to remove the possibility of any serious competition by stocking the district with their party faithful. Since the party in power stocks the district it is near impossible for a candidate from another party to get elected.

With these “safe” seats the people in the district have little or no say on which candidate they can vote on as that is decided behind close doors.

In some cases, a current legislator is “promoted” to a state wide office or agency. That person then resigns their district seat and their party’s central committee appoints a person to fill the seat until the next election, then it being a “safe” seat, it amounts to the committee choosing who will be the representative for years to come with no input from the voters he/she are suppose to represent.

Issue 4 would stop the politicians from drawing their own legislative districts and puts an Independent Commission in charge of this process. It would return accountability to voters where it belongs.

In 2002, the nearby village of New Rome was in the news because of the undemocratic operation of the village council. It had not even bothered with elections they simply “reappointed themselves.” Half of the council members were found not to be in office legally. Even though there was a general lack of interest, from the residents, in the council positions, the state still passed a law that allowed it to force the town of 60 to go out of business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rome,_Ohio

If state legislators find the operation of New Rome to be so abhorrent to the principles of democracy that they passed a law to close it down, then it makes one wonder why they seem to be against protecting the same principles when they are subverted on the state level with created “safe” seats.

Reform Ohio Now

Common Sense Reforms for Ohio

“Statewide election proposals fare well” – Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch – 10/01/05

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How I lost my virginity in the College Republicans

I friend of mine posted a link to an article about College Republicans:

Swimming with Sharks: In the College Republicans, young GOPers learn to fight hard against Democrats–by practicing on one another.

The article describes the tactics CRs learn and use for the campaigns of the Chairman of the group and how it seems real familiar to those who follow real elections.

It reminded me of my short stint with CR back in the mid 1980’s and I thought I would share my story:

I grew up in a white bread conservative town where most of the city and county leaders were Republicans. Most of my friends in school were sons and daughters of Republicans. Even though the GOP didn’t really do anything for me as someone who was poor, lived in a trailer, and was on welfare from time to time, this was the Reagan Era and everyone was in love with the old coot.

I went to Ohio State in the fall of 1986 and when I made the move I wanted to be more political. Naturally I joined the College Republicans. It included the sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews of the big wigs of the Ohio GOP. The vice president of the group was the son or grandson of a former congressman.

I attended my first meeting and found someone else from Findlay there. In fact Jim was in my class at Findlay High. Not much about the meetings really stick with me other than at the time there was a governor’s race. Jim Rhodes, one of the most famous modern Ohio governors was trying again to be governor. Ohio had term limits and so he had to sit out for 4 years while his Lt. Governor – Democrat Richard Celeste ran the state.

Celeste was the last Lt. Governor from an opposite party as the constitution had changed to allow the Governor to pick their own Lt. Governor rather than the previous lesser vote getter getting the job.

Rhodes picked a youngster (compared to him) named Bob Taft to be his Lt. Governor. Yes, THAT Taft family – President, US Supreme Court Judge, two US Senators.

The OSU College Republicans invited Taft to speak at a meeting.

The day came and people filed into the classroom being used for the meeting and just before the event started a guy wearing an Army jacket and sandals sat in the back of the room. The CR suits were buzzing about this “hippy” in their mists but for the moment they left the guy alone. The meeting was public after all. They didn’t want any bad PR.

So Taft was introduced and began to speak about what he and Jim Rhodes would do to the state if elected. It was the usual “create jobs by cutting taxes.” A couple of minutes into the talk the “hippy” pulls out a sign from under his coat and holds it up. He doesn’t say anything. He just holds the sign up in protest. (I forget what the sign said but it was opposite what the GOP stood for of course.)

CR goons swarmed the guy looking like they were going to beat the crap out of him but Bob Taft told the guys to back off and let him protest – that he wasn’t afraid.

During the rest of the talk there were 3 goons standing near the guy staring at him waiting for him to do anything more than hold the sign. Taft finished with some Q & As then the meeting broke up into small talk. That’s when the “hippy” left.

Most of the chit chat was about the protester. “How dare he disrupt our meeting.” “We need to keep the riff raff out.” “Can you believe it, sandals AFTER labor day.”

It was on that day that I started not to have good vibes about CR or Republicans. I didn’t want to be part of a group that tried to control speech or who had shallow ideas about people. I was a poor person from a trailer – just image what they would say about me if they found out.

The other incident that finally caused me to quit CR was the OSU group sponsored a Reagan Birthday Party event as a fundraiser for CR and way for GOP members to mingle with the CRs. It seemed too much to me like when the Nazis use to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. They would sing songs about the fatherland and have a big cake.

Also being exposed to different viewpoints at Ohio State, I learned how closed minded and insular my hometown had been as I was growing up. It had been that way all along but I really didn’t see until I contrasted it with living in Columbus and meeting so many different people with so many different backgrounds. For example: I was shocked to learn that in other areas of the state there was subsidized housing. We were stuck living in a trailer for years because Hancock county had one apartment complex that was subsidized and the wait list stretched into years.

I didn’t go and join the College Democrats though because of my bad experiences with Political Correctness. That is another story.

My friend Jim stayed in CR and last I heard, after college, he was legal counsel for a state agency under former Governor George Voinovich (now our US Senator). Me, I worked as a security guard for a property management firm.

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The Democratic Party died today

I am announcing my official break with the national Democratic party.

I was never a party member. I have never declared my party at election time and I refused to vote for party candidates during the primaries, but in recent years I have voted Democratic and given them money – especially during the 2004 elections. But even that level of support has ended for me as of today.

The party died for me on Wednesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, announced his endorsement of Judge John Roberts, shortly after leaving the White House where the 2nd vacancy in the Supreme Court was discussed with President Bush.

Leahy said:

[Judge John] Roberts “is a man of integrity,” said Leahy, who told Roberts over the telephone about his decision. “I can only take him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda.”

John Roberts Picks Up Democratic Support

The problem is that Roberts refused to answer truthfully many of the questions during his confirmation hearing. For example:

“At least two other matters enjoy sacramental status. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Roberts — who had promised the committee to tell the truth, “so help me God” — whether he accepted the “absolute” separation of church and state and whether he would support giving special treatment to racial minorities.

Again, Roberts promised to follow the Constitution, which is why Feinstein undoubtedly will vote against his confirmation.”

The problem with Roberts

Basically Roberts is Scalia light. Someone who plans on ruling based on the 200 year old text of the Constitution rather than on the interpretation of those words as the court has done since judicial review – which by the way also isn’t in the Constitution – was invented.

Abortion isn’t in the text so women have no right to it. Separation of church and state isn’t in the text so it doesn’t exist either and so on.

Scalia’s Dissenting Rhetoric

The truthful answer he should have told Senator Feinstein was – No, but instead he side stepped the question with a vague answer.

So much for Roberts being a man of integrity with no agenda .

The only thing that could save my support for the Democrats would be that maybe Leahy worked out a deal – he gives up on Roberts and Bush nominates a less conservative woman for O’Connor’s spot.

Some how I doubt it.

Some would argue that the Democrats realized that the Roberts nomination was a done deal what with the GOP majority. It would seem that Leahy wanted to preserve what political capital the Dems have and hold off a fight until it really matters.

Bullcrap!

How important is the appointment of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court? Political and religious conservatives are frothing at the mouth to get Roberts on the court since they seem to think he will start putting the court back to where they think it should be – like “separate but equal” is ok and women *ARE* property of their husbands.

Face it, the Democrats got outplayed again by Rove and company and were handed their balls.

If principles don’t mean enough to them, to fight to the bitter end, then why should I vote for them or give them money?

I still don’t plan to declare a party but I do plan on supporting my local and state Democrats where it makes sense but my days of supporting the National party are over.

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