Seriously.

Some more late additions to the “Zaguar Collages” show at the Wonder Fair Gallery back in July.

In Revolution of Character: Discovering Christ’s Pattern for Spiritual Transformation, Don Simpson presents a concise version of Dallas Willard’s popular book, Renovation of the Heart. In an opening statement, Willard notes that “the text of this book has been composed entirely by Don Simpson and expresses our shared understanding of Renovation.” This is helpful information and helps explain the format; broken into twelve chapters, each with several 1-2 page sections, the book is appropriated for small bits of reading and reflection. Each chapter concludes with questions for meditation and response.

Revolution of Character is published by Navpress; you may view more information here.

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In the opening chapter, A Revolution Has Begun, Simpson explains his use of the term heart and its interchangeability with the terms spirit and will. This is helpful, as Simpson mentions these three terms throughout. “From the contents of our heart,” he says, “we see our world and interpret reality. From that decisive place in our self, we make choices, break forth into action, and try to change our world. We live from our depths—most of which we understand only in part” (12).

The heart, therefore, plays a vital role in our spiritual formation, which he defines as “the Holy Spirit driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself…the outer life of the individual becomes a natural expression of the character and teachings of Jesus” (16).

Chapter two continues discussing the importance of the heart and explores the six human dimensions, with the heart at the center; spiritual transformation occurs when these dimensions work in proper order: (1) thoughts, (2) feelings, (3) the heart, (4) the body, (5) social context (relations with others), and (6) the soul (the integrator to all of the above). A helpful diagram provided by Simpson demonstrates the proper functioning of these six dynamics.

A significant amount of time is spent discussing one’s restoration and how the process of overcoming ruin contributes to spiritual transformation. “One of the amazing things about human beings,” says Simpson “is their capacity for restoration—a restoration that makes them somehow more magnificent because they have been ruined” (55). The key to restoration is one’s ability to die to self and therefore replace, rather than enhance, the ruined self. Chapter Four provides an excellent challenge, accompanied by practical steps, to become more like Christ through dying to selfish claims on life.

Simpson next explores Christ’s pattern of spiritual transformation through the process of VIM (Vision, Intention, Means). Vision applies to our ability to visualize the kingdom of God and to live fully in it today, rather than preparing only to live in the kingdom post-life. We live in the kingdom now through the process of intention. Of this necessity, and the connection between vision and intention, Simpson says:

“The idea that you can trust Christ for the hereafter but have no intention to obey him now is an illusion generated by a widespread unbelieving “Christian culture.” In fact, you can no more trust Jesus and not intend to obey him than you can trust your doctor and not intend to follow his or her advice. If you don’t intend to follow the advice, you simply don’t trust the person” (76).

In order to follow our vision through living intentionally, there must also be a means. The means, which Simpson in part contends is self-denial, helps to replace the lostness of our inner self with the characteristics of Jesus.

In Chapter Six, Simpson turns to the importance of our thought life in the process of escaping our ruin and moving toward transformation. “We first turned away from God in our thoughts, so it is in our thought life that we must ignite the revolution of character” (83). Simpson provides a striking quotation from Thomas Watson, written in the middle of the 17^th Century:

“The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are even upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God…The thoughts are as travelers in the mind…By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God?”

Chapters Seven through Nine explore the dynamics of our feelings, character, and body. These three dynamics are connected by their ability to spread and affect other people and other parts of our self. The final dimension of the spiritual life, the soul, covered in the next to last chapter, is referred to by Simpson as the “inner stream.”

“Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other element of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do because our soul itself is deeply rooted in the vastness of God and his kingdom. All else within us is enlivened and directed by that stream” (161).

Related to this inner stream is our need to understand that which is and is not within our control. We must “abandon outcomes to God” and acknowledge that “we do not have within ourselves…the wherewithal to make anything we do come out right…we simply have to rest in God’s life as he gives it to us” (165-6).

Following the final chapter, which provides a charge to be the light of the world through demonstrating a transformed life, Simpson includes a brief Afterword and Notes section.

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Though organized differently in the book than his diagram lays out, Simpson addresses each of the six dynamics required for spiritual transformation. Each is addressed in a succinct manner that can at times lack depth. Revolution of Character is a quick guide that is replete with applicatory actions. Despite its rather brisk description of the specific topics, which seems to be the intent, Revolution is a helpful guide worth spending time with.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND—This is a little experiment.

I’m posting this both on my Facebook page and on my blog, “A Tail in Two Cities,” to exploit social networking to its limits and to test the power of this novel and seemingly limitless medium of communication.

I’m hoping that people will not only take the time to read this (for which I am always grateful), but that they will go one step further, forwarding this to people they feel could be interested or who have the resources or contacts—directly or indirectly—to produce a full-length documentary film or television series.

Here’s my spiel…

I’ve always lived my life believing that dreaming was a good thing, inspired by something I heard as a young man—that if you don’t have dreams, you won’t have any dreams come true. I guess that’s something akin to you can’t ever win the lottery if you don’t buy a lottery ticket. I fear that perhaps life has hardened me of late, and I also fear that I no longer believe in the “dream come true” adage. Maybe it’s just me growing up a bit more (naah!). What I have come to believe is that dreaming is a total waste of time, better left to, well, dreamers. Doing, on the other hand, is the only way of achieving anything—after all, doers get things done (that’s why they’re called doers).

I want to make a documentary film (which can alternatively work as weekly reality-style television series). Oops. Key word: Want. Wanting is also a form of dreaming, isn’t it? (Wanting is dreaming’s ugly stepsister!): I want to be a millionaire. I want a Porsche 911 Targa 4S. I want a Twinkie. I want white teeth. I want to win a Pulitzer. All these wants, these dreams, fantasies and desires are what drives people to do extraordinary things with their lives, and Twinkies aside there are indeed people who are millionaires, own Porsches, have white teeth and win Pulitzers. Perhaps they’ve even accomplished these things without ever actually dreaming about them.

Back to my dream.

The documentary—or TV program—in question has the working title “The Long and Winding Road.” Not terribly original, I know, but it’s the perfect title for the film as it best describes what the documentary is about.

The documentary, to all intents and purposes, is the story of my musical life, from humble beginnings singing in my Hebrew school choir and in musicals at the local JCC to my years playing in and fronting bands in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Valencia, Spain. It’s also the story of the lives of those directly involved in my musical life, which has spanned four decades. It’s also a story about how sometimes dreams never die…

Thanks to the Facebook phenomenon I have not only reconnected with dozens of childhood friends, former colleagues, family members, teachers, students and a few old flames and rivals, I am now in contact with nearly all of the twenty or so musicians who were, from 1977 to 2005, the backbone, heart and soul of my musical projects—Strange Magic, The Convertibles, The Nots, Café Society and Brusby & Morris.

To begin with, I owe my initiation into the world of songwriting to Todd Berns (today an underground musician and political activist in Chicago known better as his alter ego Flabby Hoffman), who as early as the fourth grade introduced me to The Beatles and later on to songwriters, groups and soloists such as Todd Rundgren, ELO and Seals and Crofts. My earliest compositions, written on my mother’s old Wurlitzer spinet, were actually poems written by John Lennon in his book “A Spaniard in the Works,” a prophetic title as Todd and I would venture to Spain together in late 1987, where I subsequently remained for over two years and where I would return in 1996 to remain until this very day.

In the four or five years that Todd and I were together, we only managed to write about two-dozen songs together under the Berns & Morris signet (compared to the literally scores of original songs he penned on his own and the thousands he has penned since), but our youth-driven musical partnership proved to be the starting point of what was to become my deep love of music, songwriting and performing.

Todd and I put together the last incarnation of our band, Strange Magic (after a song by ELO of the same name) during the summer of 1980 and performed our first, only and last concert at the Dolnick Community Center on California Avenue on the 25th of September 1980, in fact it was the day that John Bonham, drummer in Led Zeppelin, died in Clewer, Windsor, England at the age of 32. Strange Magic’s lineup for that show was Todd and I on guitars, keyboards and vocals, Perry Myers (brother of my high school girlfriend) on drums and Eugene Canning on bass, who I borrowed from Rob Simon, with whom I was occasionally “allowed” to sing as vocalist and rhythm guitarist in his super rock band with Burton Korer (later of my Phoenix-based band The Convertibles) and drummer extraordinaire Dave Rubin.

After high school I moved to Phoenix, where my friend and bandmate from the Rob Simon Band, Burt Korer had moved a year earlier with his parents who opened up a dry cleaning shop in Scottsdale. Burt, a classically trained pianist had decided to try his hand at the bass guitar and we formed a poppy punk power trio with local drummer Monique Bera. Calling ourselves The Convertibles, we played together for about six months covering the local circuit of clubs and sarsaparilla bars around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe. We also recorded what was my very first studio demo—seven original songs—at Camelback Studios in early 1982 that I have managed to digitally preserve. Burt went back to school and became a registered nurse, which would sound funnier than it is had he not started one of Phoenix’s first home healthcare businesses which he parlayed into a brazillian-dollar business.

I moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1982 and immediately started looking for musicians to start a band with. One day at the gym I interrupted a conversation two guys were having about looking for a frontman for their new band. I mentioned the fact that I was a singer and guitarist and that I had my own material, offering to play them my demo if they were interested. I went to the drummer Ronnie Weiss’ house the next day where we were joined by the other guy at the gym, bassist Craig Nieves and a friend of Ronnie’s, Matt Evidon, who was thinking about joining the band as keyboard player. After listening to my demo, the four of us jammed and decided to become a band. We rehearsed for a couple of months until I had written enough songs for a full-length set and we decided to make a demo to shop to local clubs with the intention of getting our first gigs lined up. We recorded a six-song demo with a great Chinese-American producer and studio owner named Clive in the spring of 1983, just before my 20th birthday. We had quite a time coming up with a name for our new band and before settling on Café Society, we actually played a couple of gigs—the most memorable at Madame Wong’s in Chinatown, where the Police played their first gig in L.A.—as The N.O.T.S., which was an acronym for Name Open To Suggestion. Café Society in the Morris, Weiss, Nieves, Evidon configuration stayed together about two years. Some infighting led keyboardist Evidon and drummer Weiss to leave and Craig and I set out to find a new drummer and keyboard player. The drummer we found after a friend of mine had given me a couple of phone numbers of drummers his band auditioned and didn’t care for was Lee Coltman who agreed to join the band immediately and who was with me until Café Society split up for good when I decided to head off to Europe in the fall of 1987. In June of 1991, Lee, Craig and I—accompanied by Todd Berns, who had been living in L.A. at the time—reunited briefly to record my first seven-song demo of Spanish compositions I had written while living in Spain from 1987 to 1988.

Also back in the early days of Café Society we took on a friend of mine, Scott Metcalfe, to play keyboards. Scott’s grandfather was Mel Metcalfe, Sr., who won the Oscar for Best Sound for his contribution to the development of Sensaround which was featured in the 1974 Mark Robson directed “Earthquake,” starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. Scott dropped out early on as he got a job assisting producer Don Simpson on the “Top Gun” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies. Scott was replaced by my girlfriend at the time, Sari Myers, who, when Lee, Craig and I were desperate for a new keyboard player for an upcoming gig, suggested she fill in until we found a permanent replacement. She shocked us all by getting up and playing all the keyboard parts which she had learned by osmosis having regularly attended our rehearsals and secretly practicing on my keyboard at home when I wasn’t around. Sari remained in the band until we parted company in August of 1985, seven years after we started dating after having met while working on a play together at the Henry N. Hart JCC.

During Café Society’s final 18 months, Craig briefly left and was replaced by Chicagoan Jon Grimson, a brilliant Berklee-trained bassist who now works in the music industry in Nashville and keyboardist Ken Lee, a high school friend of my cousin Ross Drucker. At that time, I took on three horn players to give the band that “Chicago” sound and to try and add something different that the other 20,000 local bands we played along side of didn’t have. After working for weeks with composer Dave Cushman on the horn charts, newspaper ads yielded trombonist Dan Levine, who went on to play with Yo-Yo Ma, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, and trumpeter Ann Petereit. Struggling to find a sax player I finally got a call from an interested party who told me he had just moved back to the L.A. area and was looking to get involved with “something new.” I had never heard of Cornelius Bumpus, but I had surely heard of the bands he had played in during the 70s and 80s—Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. Sadly, Cornelius Bumpus died of a heart attack on a New York to L.A. flight in 2004. He was Café Society’s first saxophone player. After a few gigs, Cornelius went on to bigger and better things and Jeff Delasante took over on sax and continued with the band until the end. Café Society played their last live show at Madame Wongs in Santa Monica in March of 1987. In all, two studio recordings, four live recordings, a number of still photographs and one live video performance filmed in 1985 of Café Society remain.

After the impromptu recording sessions over two nights at a studio in Sherman Oaks, California in June of 1991 where Craig, Lee, Todd and I recorded my Spanish songs, I never reformed Café Society nor did I play with another band again. I did however play a number of shows as a solo singer-songwriter in Valencia, Spain from 1996 to 2001. The following year, just after Christmas, I met and started performing with Ian Brusby, an English singer-songwriter from Hull, England who shared a similar musical past of spending the 80s writing and performing his songs with a number of bands in England. His 1985 six-song demo included three numbers which featured the late bassist from The Who, John Entwistle, whose son he had befriended at the recording studio where Ian had been working on the demo and who had brought Ian’s music to his father’s attention. Entwistle liked the songs so much, he insisted on playing on the tracks. After two years playing at the few pathetic live venues in Valencia, Ian and I parted company. His self-produced first studio album—complete with bonus tracks of the original John Entwistle sessions—is widely available for sale on the internet.

Today, the long and winding road of my musical past has taken me, ironically, back to the place where my love of music began. To Liverpool, England, home of The Beatles, city of the Mersey Sound, which, in addition to Valencia, I now call my home.

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The documentary starts out in Liverpool, on the famed Mathew Street where the iconic Cavern Club is located, the place where The Beatles played during their early days and where many up and coming Merseyside bands still take the stage in hopes of finding fame and fortune, perhaps even aspiring to be the “next Beatles.”

From Liverpool I will travel back in time, to Chicago, to the humble middle-class neighborhood where I was born. There I’ll visit the synagogues of my youth, the first places where I sang and discovered the beauty—and power—of song in the rich melodic chants of the old world Hassidic prayers and hymns. I will talk with a rabbi who was instrumental in my Jewish education and attempt to track down Josie Myers, the choir teacher at my former Hebrew school as well as reunite with some of my former Hebrew school classmates to reminisce and sing a few traditional Hebrew songs.

All told, those are the threads which will be woven throughout the entire film: music, friendship, love and the resilience of the human spirit to carry on aspiring to do great things.

In Chicago I will reunite with Todd Berns, with whom I shared my earliest musical adventures. We’ll talk about our youth which was spent passing hours upon hours emulating our musical heroes, writing songs and recollecting the sleepless nights recording “albums” on Todd’s hi-fi. Those days were also memorable for the Beatlesesque rooftop concerts atop his Lake Shire Drive and Irving Park Road high-rise as well as the ones at his father’s condo high atop Sunrise Boulevard overlooking Ft. Lauderdale’s scenic Intracoastal Seaway and the vast Atlantic Ocean during two memorable trips we took to Florida together as teenagers. The Chicago-Berns-Morris segment will culminate with a concert at a local Chicago bar where we’ll reunite with our grammar and high school friends, some musicians, such as Adam Szwarek and Michael Dorontich, who still perform to this day and who will join us on stage for a selection of original songs written by Todd and I more than 30 years ago. Additional material from the Chicago segment will include an interview with Al Jourgensen, musician and producer best known for his band Ministry. Al, along side other local musicians singer Franke Nardiello (known for his stint in the band My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult), bassist Marty Sorenson and drummer Harry Rushakoff (Concrete Blonde) were my earliest local influences.

From Chicago I’ll travel west to Phoenix, Arizona, where I lived briefly from 1981 to 1982. There I’ll reunite with Burton Korer and Monique Bera, bassist and drummer respectively in my first band, The Convertibles. I will also locate and interview the musicians who played in The Jetzons, one of Phoenix’s best loved local bands during the early 1980s and whose shows I saw at Merlins in Tempe, who played a big role in my growth as a performer. Additional scenes from the Phoenix segment will be filmed at my former residence in Scottsdale, Camelback Studios where I recorded my first demo, and one of the clubs The Convertibles played at where Burt, Monique and I can play some of the songs from 1982.

From Phoenix I’ll make a short stop over in Las Vegas, where my earliest mentor Rob Simon lives. Rob was a child prodigy who by the time he was 15 could have taught Jimmy Page how to play “Stairway to Heaven.” I met Rob when my father introduced me to a young man, David Rubin, who he worked with at a Kosher grocery store, The Milk Pail, in Lincolnwood in 1977, the year I started high school. Dave was a drummer in a band led by Simon who had been looking for a new bass player to replace Eugene Canning (who later played briefly with Todd, Perry Myers and I in Strange Magic). They were also looking for a lead singer so I auditioned for both jobs. My bass playing wasn’t up to Simon’s standards back then, but he liked my range and took me on as his band’s lead singer, which in addition to Dave Rubin was rounded out by Burton Korer on keyboards. Rob was a perfectionist and while we were the same age, his musical abilities were light years ahead of mine and I learned a lot from the short time I sang in his band. Additional material for the Las Vegas segment will include an interview with my cousin Ross Drucker, who now makes his home there and who was Café Society’s manager in L.A. during the three years we played most of our live gigs.

Next I’ll travel from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where my musical life was lived to its fullest from 1982 until 1987. There, I’ll reunite—first individually—with the former members of The Nots and Café Society and then in segments where all of my former bandmates are brought together to talk about our “glory days,” jam and plan and rehearse a show to be given at a local venue. The L.A. segment, which will be the second longest, will include the original members of The Nots and Café Society as well as secondary source interviews from recording engineers, club owners, former fans and relatives who will share their recollections of the music and mayhem we made back in the 80s. Additional material will include a short segment about LAMAR (L.A. Musicians for African Relief), a project that I put together in 1985 during the time when the supergroup USA for Africa released their hit single “We Are the World.” I wrote a song, “There’s a Voice in the World That’s Crying,” that I intended to present to Quincy Jones with the intention of getting it on the USA For Africa album. In a matter of just a few days I assembled a group of about 40 musicians who I knew from the local L.A. band circuit and in one magical afternoon at Sunswept Studios in Studio City, California, we recorded my song. I’ll try to locate some of the musicians who participated in that session as well the owner/engineer at Sunswept or at Amigo Studios where the song was mastered in the studio next to where Exene Cervenka, John Doe and Billy Zoom of the L.A. band X were recording their new album. The L.A. segment will also include visits to venues where I performed, shops, restaurants, hotels and places of significant relevance to my years as a local musician.

The next and penultimate segment will be filmed in Spain, first in Granada where I lived form 1987 to 1988 and where I wrote my first songs in Spanish, and then in Valencia, where I have lived since 1996. I will introduce my Spanish songs performed with a backdrop of emblematic sights in the two Spanish cities where I have lived. I’ll reunite with English singer-songwriter Ian Brusby with whom I performed as part of the acoustic duo Brusby & Morris from 2002 until 2005. I’ll also pay a visit to Tabalet recording studios in the town of Alboraya on the outskirts of Valencia, where over the years I have recorded dozens of jingles, voiceovers, children’s cartoons and television commercials.

The final segment will be filmed at a country estate in the town of Picassent, just a few miles from Valencia, where I will be joined by all of the musicians who have appeared in the documentary, flown over to Spain where they’ll spend a week reminiscing, rejoicing and rehearsing a live concert to be performed under the stars on the grounds of the country house to an audience of friends and family members who will be flown in for the special event.

The film will close with the concert in its entirety; an evening of music, memories, friendship and love beneath a full Spanish moon on a warm summer night.

That’s my dream. To return once again down the long and winding road that has taken me on a far-reaching and meaningful musical adventure, one that I long to revisit, rejoining those who shared the journey, the music and the magic, to try—if only one more time—to recapture just a small piece of the past.

Finally, I’m not famous. My songs have not been made into albums or heard on the radio. I’ve not made videos seen on MTV or VH1. In fact, my songs—both in English and in Spanish—are very simple, most of them three or four chord progressions and highly unsophisticated both musically and lyrically. What my story and my songs do reveal is my lifelong desire to sing and entertain people, a desire that I share with perhaps millions of people all over world who have aspired to be rock stars, pop idols, country music legends or music video gods and goddesses. I’m hoping to be able to tell my story and share my simple songs and to prove to myself once and for all that I can be a “doer,” and that the unfulfilled dreams I’ve dreamed all these years have always been within arms reach.

Listening: ‘July, July!’ by The Decemberists

Reading: ‘Revolution of Character’ by Dallas Willard and Don Simpson

Thinking: I have faith that, in the end, this will work out. Not because of the human beings involved but because God can and does work miracles.

How to Annoy Me: Go wandering off when I am getting ready to walk out the door so that I have to go hunting you down.

How to Charm Me: Fight for me.

Quote of the Day: The greatest friend of truth is time, her greatest enemy is prejudice, and her constant companion humility. – Chuck Colson

1000 Words:

That Don Simpson embraced excess till it killed him seems to be the central thesis of Charles Flemming’s biography which is a pity since it misses some of the more intertesting elements of his life as a result. The least interesting things about Don Simpson are that he took the motherload of drugs and had a major thing for highly kinky sex with hookers. It was the 80’s and given the extensive lists Flemming provides of other players doing one or other of those things it was clearly pretty common. Famous people’s ‘this one time I took a ton of drugs and had a blast/bad trip’ stories are just as dull as anyone else’s. 

A more interesting element is what drove Simpson to this excess. It is clear that he was a man haunted by some spectacular demons. Flemming touches on his shyness, self loathing and fundamental narcicism. I have some sympathy for Flemming here in that he was clearly a complecated character and none of his close associates were going to co-operate with this biography (most remain to this day some of Hollywood’s most powerful). Which means that the psychological detail is sketchy at best. It’s clear that Simpson was highly unpredictable, poring scorn and vitriol on some while lavishing gifts and gandiose largess on others. He also had all the outward signs of a supremely confident narcicist but was papering over the cracks with coke and hookers. All of which can be hard to communicate but if you are going to try write a biography of a person like this you just have to. We needed to know more about where he was from who he really was but if Fleming knows he’s not telling us either. 

I found this a disconcertingly difficult read, the endless listing of excess just became really depressing. It’s hard to read about someone who should be living the dream (and who may have seemed to be), who is so obviously miserable. You want to shake him and tell him to grow up and cop on. All of which is made worse by the fact that I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. He started High Concept and now all Hollywood output is secondary to the big summer movie and the winter Oscar movie and there is so little of interest in between and I wanted to loathe him for his part in that. I love films and I like many hold him at least somewhat responsible for the mess they’re in but, in what make up some of the better passages of the book, Fleming covers Simpson’s moves around studios and difficulties with other producers and makes it clear that in the end the money guys didn’t get him or his style of film making any more than they get any other kind of film. The monster he created ate him too. 

While Simpson definitely had some problems with the studios it is clear that Jerry Bruckheimer helped him clear the path. It is in how this relationship developed and how the summer blockbuster came to rule the studio roost that I had hoped the bulk of the book would lie. They didn’t start it after all (we have Speilberg and Lucas to consider for that particular prize) but they did play a major role in manufacturing it’s current ubiquity unfortunately Fleming just occasionally touches on it rather than really getting in to it. Bruckheimer is the major hole in this book refusing then as I believe he still does to talk about Simpson’s life and I perhaps you can’t really understand any of that without him. Which begs the question why bother? 

Having finally finished this I closed the book dissasitfied. It told me plenty of what I already knew but little of what I wanted to know. If you want interesting Hollywood insider information read Peter Biskind.

As with his previous film, Bay demonstrates a good ability to create exciting action pictures though this does not feel as genuinely thrilling as Bad Boys. The film is paced very well and the action is fairly spectacular.

There is a problem, though, and it seems to come from Bay’s desire to work in close-up almost all the time and if he presents a wide shot, he cuts from it as quickly as possible. This is at its worst during the daft car chase and makes it difficult to follow. Bay simply never gets the pulse of the car chase correct, he messes up the dynamics of the car stunts and explosions by incorrectly editing the sequence. The great action directors such as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have the ability to provide plenty of visual information as opposed to plenty of visuals and, at their best, produce sequences that generate excitement through tension and character as well as rapid-fire editing.

Music is good and is probably the definitive Hans Zimmer score. It does help engender excitement in some places but doesn’t help in others (specifically the car chase which Zimmer doesn’t appear to have done). Zimmer’s insistence on bombast all the way and using the same music for heroes and villains and, well, every scene does undermine proceedings on a sub-conscious (and music teacher) level but, in the context of the movie, it does the job really well.

The script isn’t too bad. It does provide transparently silly moments such as during the car chase when Goodspeed declares "You’re goin’ down" for no apparent reason other than to make himself sound a little more tough. However, it also provides a whole pile of fun lines by punchlining the action or puncturing the violence when it gets a bit too serious.

There’s also fun to be had with the potential body count. The VHS cover put it at "five million" and characters in the movie put it at "one million" and "eighty thousand."

I’ve avoided the use of a pic of Robert De Niro, or Art Linson, or Bruce Willis with a beard, or a bear, for fear of being sued by Hollywood Moguls. So here’s a pic of me and Trev posing as media bigwigs from the 20th Century.

But to the point. I’ve just finished What Just Happened? by Art Linson. The book, not the film. I’ve not seen the film, but I’ve read about it. And I’m left bewildered. What just happened to What Just Happened?

The book is a slight but a fun read, if you like knowing just what happened during the making of a handful of films over the last few years. Take this snippet of dialogue between De Niro and Linson, as Linson tries to persuade De Niro to take one of the lead roles in The Edge, a David Mamet-scripted wilderness thriller (Moguls Wood?) which sees our hero grapple with an irritated grizzly bear;

The bear worries me.

The bear?!… …what part of the bear?

You know, fighting with a fake bear. Might not work.

We’re gonna use a real bear for some of the time.

A real bear is interesting.

Well, then we’re gonna use a real bear a lot.

A beat.

The bear… the bear still concerns me.

Imagine De Niro saying this, and it becomes priceless De Niro. (in the end, Anthony Hopkins fought the bear).

But if De Niro is playing Linson in the film, under another name, then who plays De Niro? It seems the film has decided to use fake films instead. In The Edge Alec Baldwin turned up for filming with a ridiculous beard. Eventually they persuaded him to shave it off. He’s a method actor you see, with a double chin.

In the fake film, Bruce Willis has to be persuaded to shave off a beard. and it seems the bear has been replaced by a dog!

Art Linson’s book details the troubled production histories of The Edge, Great Expectations… De Niro again…

The convict’s gonna be a great part.

It doesn’t have a bear in it, does it?

No bear.

I might get interested.

… and Fight Club. Guess what? The suits didn’t like it. Now there’s a surprise.

But why is none of this in the film? (Note. Reminder. I haven’t seen the film… yet. But from everything I’ve read it’s coming from a completely different book.)

We’re missing a treat here. De Niro arguing over the bear. Baldwin outshouting his famous speech from Glengarry Glenn Ross. De Niro getting interested at wrestling a real live bear… you growlin’ at me?

But no. they’ve thrown the book away and made it all up. Surely, surely, even Art must be shaking his head and truly asking himself what just happened?

Note to moguls; I don’t know what the rules are here. Please don’t sue me for quoting from the book. I like the book. And I have no money.

if you like reading books that dish the dirt on Hollywood forget Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and go straight for High Concept by Charles Fleming and Hollywood Animal by Joe Eszterhas; two of the most sordid books ever written and both great fun.

Remember my stickfigures from last month? My attempt att learning to draw from the beginning? Anyway, this is the next step: 

(for those who don’t see a difference stickish shoulders and hips were added )

People tell me I can draw, and admittedy, sometimes, by chance or fluke, a good drawing pops up that I can be proud of, but not often. Plus that I have a huge problem with picturing things in my head which seriously stunts my ability to think creatively. To tackle this problem I’ve looked around for some how-to’s in drawing.

The problem with most how-to’s in drawing is that the artist/writer takes for granted that one can draw already, and they start from point B and then continue into point C. What about the ones who don’t even know point A? But, I’ve found someone, finally, who’s tackled this wonderfully! Don Simpson is the name of the genius. 

None the less, step 1 was to draw simple little stick figures doing a variety of things, what is up to you. This is what I achieved. Nothing great, but drawing something so simple turned out being just the exercise my brain needed. Now, at step 2 (still stick figures, but with a few more lines) I noticed there were many more ideas popping into my mind. As I was about to fall asleep ones I saw, in my mind, a picture of something I wanted to draw. Not so remarkable to everyone probably, but for me, extremely. It’s just a part of the whole, we’ll see what I want to do with i, but I like it and maybe, for once I’ll put a little time into a drawing I want well done and get it done so I can show it off. Until then I give you stick figures.

Sweet kisses to all!

After the TMNT cartoon debuted in 1987 it became clear that the property would become the next toy/cartoon/media fad.  Mirage Studios worked out a deal with Archie Comics and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was born in 1988.  There is a widespread misconception, even among TMNT comics fans, that Archie was the creative force behind this series.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  While Archie handled support functions like distribution, editing, lettering, and coloring, the writing and the art were provided by Mirage Studios.

Things were kicked off with a 3-issue mini-series to test the waters.  When this was successful, a regular series was launched.  Originally, the stories were based on episodes of the cartoon series but with issue 5 of the ongoing series, original stories were used.  Soon, the stories and the tone of the comic veered wildly away from both the cartoon and the indie Mirage Studios series.  Many, many mutants, heroes and enemies were introduced.  The story was a true serial, with most issues leading straight into the next.  There were spin-offs, particularly a new team of mutants known as the Mutanimals who had their own series.

The early days: alternating artists

TMNT Adventures #7 art by Jim Lawson TMNT Adventures #17 art by Ken Mitchroney

The character development was surprisingly deep, although sometimes cheesy.  Raphael had a long-term relationship with a fox-lady ninja thing.  April started to train under Splinter.  Perhaps the main downfall of tis series was a very, very heavy-handed theme of ecological responsibility which often felt more like preaching than informing.  Early on, the series split art duties between Mirage Studios regulars like Jim Lawson and hand-picked indie guys like Ken Mitchrony, best known for providing the character design for Tiny Toon Adventures.  Writing was provided by Mirage regulars Dean Clarrain and Ryan Brown.  After a few years of this alternating format, Brown left the series and Chris Allan became the (almost) full-time artist on the series. 

Later years: regular creative team

TMNT Adventures #31 and 38 art by Chris Allan

Another series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Special, was launched.  This series was released quarterly for three years and featured stories by underground artists like Stan Sakai and Don Simpson.  Characters like April O’Neil and Leatherhead received their own mini-series.  By 1995, all things TMNT were winding down and the series was quietly put to bed but not before Archie tried their hand at taking direct control of the series, with poor results.

The spin-offs

Mighty Mutanimals #2 art by Ken Mitchroney & April O’Neil #2 art by Steve Sullivan

Related comics

In 1990, Welsh Publishing launched a quarterly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine (printed in Des Moines, Iowa, I might add).  Each issue featured a short comic story produced by the Mirage guys that had a tone similar to the Archie series.  This magazine lasted for 13 issues.

Also in 1990, Creators Syndicate began syndicating a nationwide newspaper strip.  Originally, it was produced by the same pool of talent that worked on the Archie series.  The stories were rather serious and attempted to convey serious messages.  After about a year, all responsibilities on the strip were assumed by Mirage regular Dan Berger.  Under Berger the series kept its serial story element but also became gag oriented, a very difficult balance to maintain.  The newspaper strip ended in 1997 and would be the last Mirage-produced TMNT comic material for almost five years.

The newspaper strip

 art by Dan Berger

Archie Comics TMNT Publication History

Series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1-72 (1989-1995)
Mighty Mutanimals #1-9 (1992-1993)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Special #1-11 (1992-1994)

Mini-series
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1-3 (1988)
Might Mutanimals #1-3 (1991)
April O’Neil #1-3 (1993)
April O’Neil: The May East Saga #1-3 (1993)
Donatello & Leatherhead #1-3 (1993)
Merdude #1-3 (1993)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Year of the Turtle #1-3 (1996)

Specials
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet Archie (1990)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie II – The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Meet the Conservation Corps (1992)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie III: The Turtles Are Back . . . In Time (1993)

Welsh Publishing TMNT Publication History
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Magazine #1-13 (1990-1993)

Creators Syndicate TMNT Syndication History
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Newspaper Strip) (1990-1997)

  kicknz

related posts:

• The History of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comics Part I: Mirage Studios (1984-1995)
• The History of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comics Part II: The Kids’ Stuff – Archie, Welsh, Creators (1988-1997)
• The History of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comics Part III: Image Comics (1996-1999)
• The History of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comics Part IV: Dreamwave Productions (2003)
• The History of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Part V: Mirage Studios Returns (2001-present)

click here for more tmnt related posts

Fãs de Um tira da Pesada já podem começar a contar com o próximo filme da série policial.

Eddie Murphy irá retornar às telas como o detetive Axel Foley em Um Tira da Pesada IV, (Beverly Hills Cop IV), trabalhando com a Paramount em conjunto com Lorenzo di Bonaventura como produtor, informa a revista “Variety”.

Rumores da imprensa brasileira apontaram que Brett Ratner, o diretor da saga “Hora do rush”, com Chris Tucker e Jackie Chan, como nome mais forte para dirigir o filme, porém informações externas da CraveOnline (dos EUA) não confirmam esta hipótese.

O novo regime da Paramount é audacioso em reviver a clássica franquia de ação-comédia. Murphy trabalhará muito próximo do estúdio e di Bonaventura no refortalecimento e atualização do projeto que foi uma vez muito lucrativo.

Os primeiros dois filmes da franquia, produzidas por Jerry Bruckheimer e seu parceiro original Don Simpson, proporcionaram uma gigantesca bilheteria. Um Tira da Pesada faturou $315,7 milhões de dólares pelo mundo, enquanto a sua seqüência faturou $299,6 milhões de dólares (também ao redor do mundo).

A franquia deu problema com o lançamento do “Um Tira da Pesada III” em 1994. O filme ganhou apenas $44 milhões de dólares nos EUA.

_____________________________________________
Eu sou fã da série..
pelo menos nunca perdi 1x que passou na sessão da tarde ! [que eu me lembre]

Top Gun is an Academy Award winning 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article written by Ehud Yonay for California Magazine entitled “Top Guns.” The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt.

The film follows LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a young Naval aviator who aspires to be a top fighter pilot in the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, which trains the top 1% of all Naval aviators. Maverick gets his chance to attend the school after one pilot drops out, allowing him and his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer, the “back seater” in the two-man F-14) LTJG Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw to train with the best. The film opened in America on May 16, 1986 to good reviews, the aerial scenes being most notably praised. Similar praise followed soon afterwards when the film broke records at the box office, becoming a mega hit. The film accumulated over $350 million world-wide, and broke home-video sales records.