Bubble living.

Here's some quick, random highlights about being a kid in the 70's. I'm talking personal ones, not like....bell bottoms and tupperware and pop culture.

1. Riding in the back of my parents truck everywhere.

2. My dad taking me for short rides on his motorcycle...sans helmets.

3. The day I grew the balls to climb up the high-dive at the local pool and not go back down because I was too scared. I jumped. It was awesome.

I'm sure there's others, but I saw something today that reminded me of these things and of a point I wanted to make.

So, this nice lady was attending a baseball game at Dodger Stadium and when Todd Helton (from the visiting Rockies) swung his bat, it hit a ball and shattered. The bat went into the stands and hit her in the jaw. Ouch. Bummer. So now some yayhoo at Yahoo is jumping on board with what has thus far just been scuttlebutt about banning maple bats. Oh yeah, Helton's bat was maple which alot of players are using now because it "feels harder." O.kaaaaay. Anyway, here's the guys article here and it features just sad photos of the lady with her jaw bandaged up:



What bugs me (amongst other things) is how up in arms the writer and the ladies attorney are that the Dodgers won't cover her medical bills. People...right on your ticket it says if you get hurt from a bat or ball, the stadium and club aren't liable. They also announce it at the beginning of the game. I mean, the Dodger organization is total scum (go Giants!) but the whole injury by bat and ball is covered and they are totally right in saying "uhh...pay attention and duck next time." Again, not to be cold...buuut....as fast as MLB is you have plenty of time to duck/put up hands/push a guy in front of you/etc if something flies off the field. Go to a hockey game and track a puck when it leaves the ice. That's fast. Baseball-if you're actually watching the game-allots time for you to move if something comes your way. Or, catch it. You gotta be paying attention though. (Hint. Hint.)

I had an argument earlier this baseball season because all the base coaches in Major League Baseball have to wear silly helmets now because a coach...ONE COACH...one coach in how many years...got cracked in the head with a foul ball and died. So now everyone has to wear a helmet. Sure, it will keep them safer but I thought America was the land of freedom and choice? Well, I feel that a bunch of sorry sack liberals have done their best to ruin that in the name of "safety" and "equal opportunity" and "my best interests."

I don't mean to draw a line in the sand but I feel like it's the lefties who get on the "equal rights" bandwagon and ruin a somewhat harmful activity for everyone. Like...my mentions above of high dives, pick up truck beds and helmet free motorcycle rides. I mean really. Can't people make up their own minds on if they want to wear a helmet or ride in the back of a truck? Shouldn't every kid/teen decide "yes. I want to climb the high dive ladder before everyone in the public pool, gain all eyes on me...and JUMP." Some people don't dig that and that's totally, totally fine. But what happened to options?? What happened to choices?? I know it's weird reading a rant that doesn't accuse the right-wing of something, but I feel like the right wing are submissive to "the law" and just take whatever they're told to do and do it. "Vote Bush?" O.K...don't beat me. "Wear a helmet even though you'd rather just be dead if you crash your hog at 80 MPH? O.K...just don't ticket me." It just fees to me (and I could be wrong) that most changed laws or new ideas about keeping us "safe" come from injured liberals looking to make a buck. Conservatives just kinda "take it" but liberals wanna get paid and ruin it for everyone.

I guess from working with kids my whole life, I'm sensitive to the fact that most every adult has to have things "their" way. Like...if a field trip is scheduled and their kid is in summer school, I should reschedule the entire trip. Never mind the other 50 signed up kids who aren't in summer school...just you and your kid should be adjusted for, right?

Wrong.

In closing, when I was in high school some freaky girl who had a boyfriend who was a 30 year old biker (I'm NOT kidding) did a whole thing in our "speech" class about how it's un-American to make people wear seatbelts. At the time, we all railed against her but now, I think she's right. When does "for your own good" become fascism? When it's deemed "too" pornographic? The movies are TOO violent? Strange religious sects are too stange? Strong alcohol makes weak people do stupid stuff??

This whole potential banning of maple bats plus all the other "helpful" things our government has done just worries me to no end. Aren't we allowed to be free because our freedom allows us and helps us make the right choices for ourselves and our families? Do we need our hands held? I say...no. Bring back the high dives and summer nights riding in the bed of a pickup truck!!!

My March song.

March is probably my favorite month...next to October. I've always loved October cuz the weather here's always superb. Plus, it's my bday and Story's bday too...plus Halloween. But March is so fresh and sunny, yet rainy. plus, I get to go to SXSW every year.

Before I headed out to SXSW, I had some much chronicled Steve Poltz shows around here and I got both his new albums about a month before I headed to Austin. His song "Rains" reminds me of my daughter...plus, it's a way cool song. One night when I wouldn't leave Steve and his band alone at SXSW, I finally had the nerve to tell Poltzy that that song is about my daughter (which is a cheeeesy ass thing to say and I should know better, but I was drunk, tired and really missing my family) on my way out of their showcase. He stopped when I said it (and if you can get Steve Poltz to stop...for anything...you've accomplished something) and he said, "It is. It is about your daughter." But he said it in a way that was both funny and serious. Like, we both knew it wasn't but maybe I needed to hear that it was...or something. I dunno. I love that guy.

So, here's the video for Steve Poltz and the Cynics' Song "Rains." I hope you like goofballs and hamsters:



FYI...."Street Fighters Face" is my favorite song off the new record and here's Poltz doing that one as well as my third favorite song on the album:

http://www.kpbs.org/blogs2/index.php/culturelust/comments/steve_poltz/

Mmm hmm.

Keith Olberman is a bad ass and he's totally right here. Hillary is out of control and must go!!

Chasing away the blahs.

I've been in a kind of funk of late. The home front is good but work has been cloyingly busy and there's just not many films out that I'm excited to see. Well, IRON MAN was awesome but I certainly wasn't excited to see it. Not like I am for the new Indiana Jones movie. I'm REALLY excited for that one.

Last week we went to Disneyland and it was so-so. I didn't get to go on nearly enough rides and I was broke (which is always a major contributer to my shitty moods) so I couldn't buy tons of awful food nor could I buy the multitude of Disney paraphernalia I usually walk out of there with. But then I got an email saying I had been quoted in the movie trailer for BAGHEAD! That made me happy.

Baghead - Theatrical Trailer


It's not that I feel the need to show off or that I get some kind of ego boost from getting quoted, it's actually more basic than that. I just feel like NO ONE READS WHAT I WRITE. Not here, I love you guys. I mean, out there with Film Threat. Day after day I see bloggers and critics higher up on the food chain routinely blow off Film Threat and it's frustrating. Or they will run a series of articles or blogs that echo my sentiments and they don't include me. I take what I do there pretty seriously and I'm not 19 year old fanboy with a broken spell check and a prematurely cynical attitude. I'm a filmmaker and I have 2 different writing degrees (a BA in screenwriting and an AA in Journalism) plus I'm like 90% done with my Masters in Cinema Study. This ain't my first rodeo. I guess my beer drinking, goofball antics on the festival circuit leave me outside the realm of hipster douchebag festival junkies. I get that, but it's still annoying.

So having been quoted on movie trailers before, it was just a nice little vindication or pat on the back to have my quote (and it's a brilliant one if I do say so myself....not) used in the BAGHEAD trailer. I really loved that movie. However this morning I got an email from Mark at Film Threat who alerted me that Roger Ebert is a fan of mine. Holy Shit!

Here's where he mentions me...


and below is what I wrote on Film Threats message board where they had already seen the quote...

Wow. That seriously made my day.

Say what you want to about Ebert, but the man (and Siskel) are singlehandedly the reason I love film so much. When I was a kid, we lived in way, way rural central California and the only movie theater in town got movies like, a year after their release. This was pre-VCR (I'm old) and we couldn't have afforded one anyway.

But "At the Movies" was on channel 9, one of the 4 channels we got and I could sort of live vicariously through Siskel and Ebert. Their show kept me going until we moved somewhere closer to civilization.

Plus, it sometimes feels like you're writing reviews that head off into a void so it's nice to know someone reads what you write.

Thanks, Roger! You really did make my day. Hell, my month really.