It’s been two weeks since I’ve had this cough and it’s beginning to bother me. It’s not getting worse, and it’s not getting better either. At least I don’t have a cold, so it’s not that tiring. x]

This week is passing by so slooooowly. I want Saturday to come.
PS; It’s my Dad’s birthday on Friday and I still don’t have a gift for him. Any suggestions?

Förra veckan eftersökte jag fler kandidater från #Syd, idag presenterades alla de som har kandiderat för Piratpartiet till riksdagen. Det börjar allt ta sig, som pyromanen sa. Det hade varit skoj om vi bygger upp en fin bloggvägg över våra kandidater. En uppmaningen till er där ute är att det är viktigt att länka runt till varandra. Tagga era blogginlägg och twitter-meddelande med exempelvis #bygglista2010, alternativt #syd.

Anna och Janne har snickrat ihop ett fint samarbete på JAtillriksdagen.com. Marie och Egil har skaffat Marie & Egil till Riksdagen. Att visa på enhet är inte fel. Vi bör titta på dessa föredömen och kopiera lite. Får vi bara tummen ur kan vi allt skapa något fräsigt. Om någon i #syd vill sätta ihop något så bara bygg! Varken be eller fråga om tillstånd, det löser vi retroaktivt.

Här är listan för södra distriktets kandidater:
Leo Erlandsson
Klara Ellström
Christoffer Willenfort
Michael Møller-Kristensen
Johnny Lennart Hansson
Gustav Wetter
Gustav Nipe
Mimmi Lowejko
Daniel Gustafsson
Jan-Olov Viklund
Stefan Persson
Klara Tovhult
Tomas Kronvall
Jacob Dexe
Jonathan Kindh
Alexander Masic
Anders Hedberg
Rene Malmgren
Isak Gerson
Niklas Sternsjö
Peter Johansson
Marcus Borg
Tonni Strömberg
Snild Dolkow
Behgrang Kianzad
Gerhard Gaum
Sandra Grosse
Erik Andersson
David Radszuweit
David Hansson

Senaste veckan har vi sett hur folk på politiska institutioner agerar grovt felaktigt. Att låta FRA “singalspana” på Sveriges befolkning är fel. Om jag kommer in i riksdagen kommer jag arbeta hårt för att befria Ingvar Åkesson från sitt arbete som generaldirektör på FRA. Det kommer även att vara en ära att riva fuskbygget på Lovön. En alternativ lösning vore att låta Bofors testa sina nya pansarskott på Lovön.

Jag tycker att det är lite glest med kandidaturer till Piratpartiets riksdagslista från södra distriktet, här måste ske en förbättring. Observationen att det är få kandidaturer från södra distriktet har jag gjort genom att kvantifiera med hjälp av att räkna antal blogginlägg. Det är givetvis inget krav att man ska skriva en text om sin kandidatur, men som medlem i Piratpartiet bör man på något sätt göra sin kandidatur officiell via internet. Här följer listan jag har funnit:

Gustav Nipe
Jacob Dexe
Klara Tovhult
Marcus Borg

Personer som jag gärna ser skriver en kandidatur är Daniel Gustafsson, Ellen Söderberg, Snild Dolkow, Anders Hedberg, Christopher Willenfort, Sandra Grosse, Leo Erlandsson, Klara Ellström, Claes Gyllenswärd, Mimmi Lowejko, Jonathan Holmquist och Rene Malmgren. Skriv ett inlägg och kom loss! Denna lista på personer kan och ska givetvis kritiseras då nästan alla är ifrån Skåne, södra distriktet är större en så. Jag efterlyser folk från Småland och Bleking. Sluta gömma er i skogarna.

*Om jag har missat någon skriv det gärna i kommentatorsfältet.
**Klara Tovhult ska skriva ett bättre blogginlägg om sin kandidatur.

Följ även äventyret med projektet Piratfabriken. Målet är att ha en fungerade RepRap maskin till klimattoppmötet i Köpenhamn. Andreas W. har skrivit ett målande inlägg om hur första byggdagen var.

QANTAS Airways Boeing 747-438 VH-OJS (msn 25564) (Soccroos) SYD , originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Copyright Photo: John Adlard.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information and other photos:

http://airlinersgallery.com/2/2515beb/#/gallery/whats-new-hot-new-photos/qantas-747-400-vh-ojs-09-soccroos-grd-syd-j4-lr-903920/

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Boeing 747-438 VH-OJS (msn 25564) is pictured at Sydney with the new markings.

QANTAS Airways (Sydney) is supporting its national soccer (football) team with a new logojet introduced today. The Australian national team will compete in the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa.

Virginblue.com.au (Virgin Blue Airlines) Boeing 737-8FE WL VH-VUA (00-Mile High Karaoke) (Black Eyed Peas) SYD , originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Copyright Photo: John Adlard.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information and other photos:

http://airlinersgallery.com/2/24c7499/#/gallery/whats-new-hot-new-photos/virginblue-com-au-737-800-wl-vh-vua-00-mile-high-karaoke-grd-1-syd-syd-lr-903864/

The world is a mercurial and ever changing place. Continuous improvement, career enhancement and professional development are buzzwords that permeate every industry, even ours. So you think you know everything about screenwriting after reading a few books by Christopher Vogler, Linda Seger or Syd Field, think again. You always need to update your skills or even refresh them. Most of what you hear will be a rehash or reinterpretation of what you already know, but repetition is part of the learning process. Many success and self help gurus profess that you should align yourself with your heroes. Find out what they do and try do imitate it, but with your own spin. There is no formula for success. The long, hard road is really the only way. There are some fly by nighters who manage to sell a script quickly, but they rarely have longevity because they lack the gravitas and basis to proceed.

I’ve mentioned books and podcasts, now it’s youtube. Key in search screenwriting and see what comes up; lots of exciting interviews with masters and mistresses of the trade. They inspire and lead all writers by guiding us along the journey of screenwriting. Here are some of my favourites:

Paul Haggis on Screenwriting
Peter And Bobby Farrelly on Tricks of the Trade
Simon Kinberg on Dialogue
The Dialogue Series
Kurtzmann & Orci on Screenwriting
Callie Khouri on Screenwriting
Susannah Grant on Tricks Of The Trade
Nia Vardalos on Dialogue
Paul Attanasio on Dialogue
Syd Field with Stuart Beattie
Advice for Screenwriters by Walt Disney Pictures Executive
Breaking into Hollywood
Attracting a Literary Agent

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a good start nonetheless.

If you get square eyes watching videos, try reading. Any script you can get your hand on. Look for styles. Enjoy the whiteness of the page, the lack of huge chunks of dialogue and the clarity of award winning scripts. I love reading descriptions. I remember reading “she entered his grotty studio apartment that would even make a cockroach feel claustrophobic”. Visualize that!

Check out the WGA library in West Hollywood or your local library or writers’ guild. If you don’t want to leave the house, try the online script sites such as Simply Scripts, Drew’s Script-o-rama and imdbs.

«Non penso che quando parlo sia facile comprendermi. Ho qualcosa che non va in testa. E comunque non sono nulla di ciò che pensate io sia.»

Air Pacific (2nd)

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on photo for full view, information and other photos.

(Nadi) is coming under risk of failing due to QANTAS’s recent announcement it wants to sell its 46 percent share in the airline and V Australia’s announcement it wants to fly to Nadi from Sydney with Boeing 777-300 ERs.

News link:

www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=130857

Traveling weekly for work for more or less the past three months, the DTW airport has become part of my weekly commute. The convenience of a frequent flyer finds me parking in the same location and checking through and boarding the plane with little or no difficulty. Arriving at DTW airport on Thursday at 1:30pm in the afternoon with 2 hours before my flight to LAX was more than overkill, but I had my mother with me and it was an international destination, so we were going to follow the rules. Well, well…. no way around it, it turned out to be a NIGHTMARE.

As per my last post, my mother became back up for my husband. All went more or less well when I canceled John’s ticket and booked my mother on a VERY expensive ticket with a 7 day advance purchase. I had all of our paperwork printed out and I went to great lengths to have everything “just in case”. Well, thank goodness… to cut to the chase, the counter agent, Sybil, determined that when I canceled John’s reservation off of our ticket, the agent on the phone had canceled John’s reservation but MY ticket number. Apparently one has both a reservation as well as a ticket which is separate so everything was transparant to me as I changed seats and reconfirmed everything. The only red flag was when I could not check in online. No worries I thought. Oh was I wrong!

After an hour and 15 minutes at the counter with the Northwest agent speaking with 4 separate people on the phone before getting the “right” supervisor from Global Customer Support on the phone, we were sorted out. The Delta/NWA merger has been a nightmare for so many as I have come to find out. For me personally, it was the Northwest supervisor transferring us to Delta and then vice versa / meanwhile pointing fingers at eachother all the time. I was fortunate that Sybil was a 25 year veteran with Northwest and was able to get my bag put through and hold my seat for me and keep my upgrade while the whole situation was being delt with. I normally don’t send letters, but there is a big one coming from me to their management. In the end, we were literally running through the airport like OJ Simpson in the old Hertz commercials to Gate 74 — the furthest gate imaginable from the terminal entrance. We took the tram, of course, but we were 5 minutes shy of missing the flight.

While downing a large adult beverage I was able to calm down and call John before we left. I told him that “it was all his fault” as a good wife would in this situation. And as a good husband, he agreed. So we were off to LAX and the rest was uneventful on our journey to LA. Once in LA, I checked to make sure that my bag had made it on the plane (and fortunately they confirmed that it did / 99 percent for sure, of course) and we just hung out in the terminal lounge for the next 4 hours before our Sydney connection.

The flight to Sydney was, no other way to say it, LONG. 15 hours long. Mum and I both got a few hours of sleep after a pretty good meal on board and just distracted ourselves with a book and a few movies. I caught up on Entourage for 3 episodes as I haven’t seen one of my favorite shows since we canceled HBO at home. So that was a nice treat.

Once landing at SYD we had a really easy way through Customs, collected our bags, spoke with a customs official and wisked through (with all of our bags, thankfully) to the welcome arms of my cousin Ian and his wife, Jenny. It was a long journey, but we made it!

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on photo for full view, information and other photos.

Jetstar Airways (Australia) (Melbourne) has opted for the higher gross weight model for its new Airbus A330-200s on order. This could permit the lower-cost carrier to fly to Europe before the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners arrive in 2013.

Flightglobal news link:

www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/01/332966/qantass-jetstar-opts-for-higher-gross-weight-a330s.html

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on photo for more photos.

QANTAS Airways (Sydney) is planning to retire its first Boeing 747-400. 747-4H6 VH-OED (msn 25126) is due to operate its last revenue flight tomorrow (September 13) as flight QF 107 to Los Angeles and New York and then it will  probably be moved to desert storage.

Sathya Sai Baba

In the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney, Australia, I have a number of friends, most of them followers of Sathya Sai Baba. I would not have called Peter a Sai devotee at the time of this episode, but he was certainly interested in Sai Baba and perhaps it was to encourage this interest that Rocky Bugmann, an active member of the Sai centre in the mid mountains, gave Peter a very attractive, good-sized photograph of Sathya Sai Baba. Without framing it, Peter stuck the photograph on the wall of his bedroom in a position that allowed him to see it easily while he was lying in bed. Incidentally, Peter is a bachelor of middle age and lives alone except for his four legged friend, a dog named Adam. Perhaps Adam acquired that name because of his hatred of snakes. Adam of the Garden of Eden had no reason to love the reptile, for it was because of a snake that he was thrown out of paradise into the wide and terrible world.

Although Peter has a large house, he usually allows Adam to spend the night on the floor of his bedroom. It may have been no more than one or two nights after he had hung the picture that the strange phenomena began. While Peter was lying comfortably in bed with the light on, gazing intently at the photo of Sathya Sai Baba, it suddenly became three dimensional, that is, it stood out an inch or so from the wall. At the same time, the image of Sathya Sai Baba changed to a man who appeared to be an historical character. Judging, Peter said, from his clothes, style of hair and beard, he belonged to history but Peter could not identify him. After a while the photograph went flat against the wall again and Sathya Sai Baba was there. For the next five or six nights, the photo of Sathya Sai Baba played the same strange tricks, the only difference being that it was not the same person who appeared in place of Sathya Sai Baba. Each night there was a different one, always appearing to be someone from an earlier period of history and never identifiable by Peter. Peter was quite fascinated but puzzled. It must be some sign to him from Sathya Sai Baba but he could not figure out what it was meant to tell him. And who could help him? The only other person in the room to see this pantomime was Adam the dog, and he seemed quite unaffected by the strange antics of the picture.

Then came the night when, instead of another human being appearing in the three dimensional photograph, in the place of Sathya Sai Baba came a large cobra. It was raised and its hood was spread as if about to strike its victim. Peter was horrified. This, he thought, is a symbol of evil and he immediately turned out the bedroom light but it was a long time before he could go to sleep. He, like many followers of the Christian faith, perhaps through the myth of the Garden of Eden, regards snakes as an animal cursed by God and therefore evil. At last he fell asleep. No dreams came to help him with his problem and as soon as he woke in the early hours before full daylight came, he got out of bed with the intention of removing the picture. But it was not on the wall anymore. Knowing that he had not stuck it to the wall very securely, he looked on the floor below where the photo had been hanging. It was not far away but ripped into many small pieces. This must have been the work of Adam the dog who was lying near the heap, as if to protect his master from any evil that may remain in the torn-up picture. Peter gathered the pieces and burned them.

It was not many days after this that Peter informed Rocky and myself about the episode, about what had happened to the photograph. Both of us assured him separately that to Sathya Sai Baba, who is an incarnation of Lord Siva and his consort Parvati or Shakti, snakes are certainly not evil, just the reverse really. Illustrations of Lord ..Siva often show him with a necklace of snakes around his neck. They are one of his symbols and he has, indeed, appeared as a cobra to a number of people at his ashrams, including myself. The one that appeared to me was a beautiful white cobra in the garden at Brindavan. It had behaved more like a friend than an enemy of man. Peter understood readily and happily. He was very pleased when Rocky gave him another photograph. But he had had his ration of signs and wonders and the second photograph behaved as photos are expected to.

I think that Peter would now call himself a Sai devotee. There are, of course, many different brands and types of devotees and they meander to the feet of our Lord by many strange but interesting routes.

* * *

The Sai signs that came to the married couple, Syd and Karen Paterson were also strange and certainly significant. The Patersons live near me in the Blue Mountains and I regard them as earnest devotees who are making good progress on the Sai path that leads back to God. Strangely, they too witnessed some Sai photograph leelas but, unlike Peter, it was after they were already Sai devotees. It was in this case a framed photograph hanging on the wall of their sitting room. One day when they were sitting discussing Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings while looking at the photograph on the wall, it began to play some strange antics. It would, for example, move along the wall to left or right and sometimes seemed to come away from the wall towards them. At other times bright lights would appear around the photo, bright pink or green or just white light. Of course, they told each other what they were seeing after it had happened but to test that it was just not a fault in eyesight, they decided to tell one another at the time of the happening. For example, Syd might say, “The colour has turned to silver,” or, “The photograph is moving along the wall to the right,” and Karen would confirm that she was seeing the same thing. Then Karen might say what was happening and Syd would agree that he was seeing the same thing. So they decided that what they saw was actually happening and believed it to be a sign of God’s presence in their lives.

Other signs also came to them separately. For example, Syd who is a painter by trade, one day – and all day – during his work saw the face of Sathya Sai Baba appear on whatever surface he was painting, perhaps a door or a wall or a cupboard. This gave him great joy and he had a wonderful day.

Another sign that he spoke to me about was that one day he suddenly experienced adwaitha or non-duality – everything was one. This brought him a great feeling of bliss, an uplift of consciousness. Unfortunately, he said, this did not last all day but just for a short period. Nevertheless he has remembered it always and knows that the truth of Being, lies beyond what we see with our eyes and is in truth, oneness of all life.

Later on, about the middle of the year 1990, Syd had his first dream of Sathya Sai Baba and it was to him a very important prophetic dream. It remained very vivid in his memory. He told me that it seemed to begin with him standing talking to a neighbour who had lived next door to him in a Sydney suburb. Suddenly they saw the form of Sai Baba on the opposite side of the street standing on the pavement. Sathya Sai Baba had a white robe on, said Syd, but I don’t know whether he was aware at the time that white is the colour of mourning in India. Whether or not he understood the significance of the colour white, Syd knew instinctively that the old overcoat that Sathya Sai Baba had swung across his shoulder, represented the body of his own father. Sathya Sai Baba gave them a smile and a wave and moved off down the street. Syd was so full of his strong feelings that he omitted to return the wave but the neighbour did so, remarking something about Sathya Sai Baba being the head of some weird cult in India. Syd did not answer but remembered thinking, “If only you knew the truth!” At the first intersection, Sathya Sai Baba turned as if to go along the cross street but instead he faced up towards Syd and his friend and gave another wave. This time, both men returned the wave and Sathya Sai Baba vanished.

It was a sad dream for Syd because he felt sure that Sathya Sai Baba was giving him a sign that his father, who was very sick in a nursing home hospital, would not last very long. Thinking about this, Syd prayed earnestly to Sathya Sai Baba to be granted four boons. The first was that the hospital would warn him of the approaching death in sufficient time for him to let his old mother know, so that she, who was living in the same nursing home would get there in time for his father’s passing. The second was that he, himself, would manage to be present in the bedroom of his father at the actual time of his passing. The third was that his father would have a peaceful end with no pain and the fourth was that Syd would be aware of the actual moment his father left his body. Perhaps this was asking a lot, he thought, but felt sure that somehow Sathya Sai Baba would grant his wishes.

It was not long after this that the call came from the hospital telling him that his father’s condition had deteriorated so rapidly they were sure he did not have long to live. So Syd had time not only to warn his mother but also his brother. That morning they were all sitting in Father’s ward. Brother had brought along his wife too, but Syd had not brought Karen because at this time they were just at the very beginning of their friendship and Karen did not know his parents. The patient did not seem to be aware of their presence. He was sleeping peacefully with no apparent pain and so the hours dragged by, with a nurse coming in about every half hour or so to check the patient’s condition, which seemed to indicate to Syd that the end was not far away.

After a few hours of watching, mainly in silence, Syd felt that his mother, who was unwell herself, was looking as if she needed a rest. So he advised her to go to her room and lie down for half an hour then he would call her. She went and the brother, who had some urgent business to attend to, left too with his wife. Syd was left alone with his thoughts. His good father, for whom he felt great love, was still alive, breathing quietly. Then, after about ten minutes, something strange happened. A shaft of what seemed like dark blue energy about a yard in length and perhaps six inches in width began to emanate from his father’s throat chakra at an angle of about forty five degrees to the body. Then it vanished and the sound of the breathing stopped. At a later time, Syd learned from someone who had had a great deal of experience with death and dying and the hereafter, that this was his father’s astral body leaving the physical. But Syd must have known this himself intuitively because of what happened later.

The next event happened almost immediately. Sathya Sai Baba came into the room, not the usual Sathya Sai Baba but one about half the size of his small self, a dwarf Sathya Sai Baba and he was dressed in green, which is not a colour he ever wears. Syd took this as a symbol that his father had had a peaceful passing because to Syd the green colour meant peace, like the peace one feels in a green meadow. To emphasise the point further, the diminutive Sathya Sai Baba floated onto the bed and sat cross-legged on the chest of the dead body. Having emphasised the point to Syd of his father’s peaceful passing, Sathya Sai Baba vanished. Soon after that two nurses came into the room. One of them went and stood behind Syd with her hands on his shoulders while the other went to the other side of the bed to examine his father’s body. The one behind asked gently, “Where is your mother?” Syd replied “She’s gone and so has my father.” “Oh, no,” she replied, “I think your father is still alive.” But the nurse on the other side confirmed that he had passed away. Syd sat for a while in quiet remembrance of his beloved father and mentally gave his thanks to Sathya Sai Baba for granting him the four boons he had requested and indeed for being present and blessing the transition of his father who had not even been a Sai Baba follower.

Karen, who is very studious and gentle, has had her own experiences of God’s hand in her life. While her husband Syd has felt the unity of all life, she has gone beyond the maya in a different way. For example, she says one day at work, when everything seemed to be going at a mad rate it was as if worldly affairs in her life, that is the maya, was going around at an ever increasing rate and seemed impossible to handle, her mind went beyond it all. She saw it as it was, an unreal, crazy illusion. She wanted to laugh at the crazy antics of people, including herself. It was unreal and she stepped back from it all into the quiet peace of reality. She found that on future occasions when the worldly merry-go-round seemed to be getting out of hand, just to focus on the memory of this occasion was helpful in trying to re-establish that peace.

Earlier in the same year that Syd’s father had died, Karen too, had witnessed the compassionate hand of Sathya Sai Baba at her own father’s death. “Neither of my parents were followers of Sai Baba and they only ever heard his name when I was at home with them and could not help talking about him sometimes.” Her father was sent to hospital through his emphysema and the work of some other mysterious, tropical virus. She felt somehow that this illness was terminal but the hospital staff was not very co-operative about informing her and the rest of the family of his state of health. So either Karen’s mother, sister, herself or another member of the family spent a lot of time in the ward to check on his recovery or otherwise. One day when she was in the ward alone with her father, he suddenly asked to her great surprise, “You know that fellow you went to see in India I’ve forgotten his name what was it?” Karen told him. “Yes, that’s right,” he said. “I had a dream of him the other night.” Karen felt great surprise and delight to hear that Sai Baba actually visited in a dream, her non-Sai father. She questioned him about the nature of the dream. “Oh,” said her father, “He just walked up to me and shook my hand.” The pleasure Karen felt had a tinge of sadness. She felt sure that this handshake meant that her father would leave his body very soon. Then she asked her father, “How did that make you feel, Dad, when he shook your hand? Was it a good feeling?” “Oh, my word!” her father said. There was such enthusiasm in the old man’s voice that Karen felt assured and humble, with a rush of gratitude to the Lord that he seemed to be taking care of her father at this time of his great need.

A few days after this pleasing but worrying conversation, Karen’s father did, in fact, pass away. Only her mother was present and she told Karen that it was an easy, peaceful passing. He just seemed to stop breathing, she said. Karen knew with an inner knowing that Sathya Sai Baba had been present unseen and had given her dear dad a peaceful and blessed passing. She was very grateful and somewhat surprised that Sathya Sai Baba would in this way, help one who had never taken the slightest interest in him.

To me, the fact that Sathya Sai Baba gave loving help and compassion to the two fathers is a sign that Syd and Karen have their feel firmly on and are making good progress along the spiritual path. The ancient sage Narada in his Bhakti Sutras states that anyone well advanced on the path of devotion will bring divine help to several generations of ancestors and descendants. So I feel that Sathya Sai Baba’s blessing to one generation ahead, that is to the two fathers, is a result of Syd and Karen’s own devotional work and progress. Sathya Sai Baba is interested in and brings blessings to the members of the Sai devotees’ families.

Narada’s Sutra 71: His ancestors rejoice, the gods dance in joy and the earth gets a Lord and Saviour. Such a devotee who is full of God-realisation gives salvation to seven generations of ancestors and descendants in the family. The gods rejoice to see a man of God-realisation as he is one with God. The Earth gets in him a saviour who can bless all mankind.

Reference:: “The Lights of Home” by Howard Murphet

This landed in my Gmail inbox courtesy of Dunga, a well-known music producer in East Africa with whom I have been in touch periodically. DUNGA’s Mandugu Digital studios is in Nairobi, Kenya, where he has been recording with SYD, aka Sidney Kamau, the artist who raps on “Clande” in Swahili. Even though I hardly understand a word of this song, it will stay in my iTunes rotation because of the beat and SYD’s catchy delivery.

Clande-SYD (Sharebee)

(This is an old post, and a goodie.)

Armageddon. Pearl Harbor. Bad Boys. These movies have six things in common: bombastic action, ham-fisted acting, dumb explosions, ADD-like editing, unnecessary romance and Michael Bay. The cinematic auteur/Helen Keller of the movie industry, Michael Bay has managed to make a career out of catering to the lowest of the lowest common denominator–making popcorn flicks that are jam-packed with empty calories and brain cancer. (He centered Pearl Harbor, a movie about the BOMBING of Pearl Harbor, around a love triangle!) If any director is proof of making a deal with the Devil, it’s this dude.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

So it was no surprise that his work needed to be celebrated–any be celebrate, I mean mock openly and cruelly. Picking two bad Michael Bay movies was like picking which Wayans Bros. movie was not an NAACP violation. We ended up settling on The Island, a futuristic, high-concept/low-executed action flick, and Bad Boys II, a present-based, low-concept/lower-executed exercise in self-hatred. We didn’t even make it an hour into Bad Boys II, which says a lot about the quality and time length of this shit. (2+ hours for each movie? 2.5 hours for Bad Boys II?!?!?)

"Plan Your Escape... from the theater."

We started with The Island, which for most directors would be the black mark on their resume; for Michael Bay, it will be his magnum opus. The setting is a futuristic world where rich humans clone themselves for spare organs and parts. (If I spolied it for you, be thankful that you don’t have to see it.) The “insurance policy” clones live in an underground Arizona facility (yay?), cut off from the human world. The “Island” appears to be the nirvana the innocent, simple-minded clones are waiting for, with one person “picked” to leave the facility for an exotic giveaway; in actuality, it was their call-up to serve their function as organ/baby/limb generators. Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) learns the secret of The Island and the trappings of the underground area, freeing Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and discovering the truth–complete with dumb explosions. ham-fisted acting and bombastic action sequences in the process.

"We're in WHAT movie?!"

So what is bad about this, you ask? Good question, as it sounds pretty interesting. In reality, it’s far from it. While the movie sounds like the Blade Runner/Logan’s Run action-thriller that would have been nice, it was just another dumb Michael Bay movie. Bombastic action: check; That ham-fisted acting: check (particularly the overacting of Michael Clarke Duncan and the blank-slate blahness of Johansson); Dumb explosions: brain-rotting check; ADD-like editing: check (following this movie was like playing Pong on crack); Unnecessary romance: check (formulating a romance in a futuristic action-thriller is like the chocolate chips in a pancake-coated sausage-on-a-stick: superfluous, silly and stupid).

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson's romance in The Island.

And the two biggest crimes were that this shit went on for more than 2 hours, and that Johansson was refused the opportunity to do a nude scene. (In an industry like Hollywood that expects actresses to go in the buff to either lend a movie artistic credibility or save a B/C-grade pile of dreck, Michael Bay insisted Scarlett not take the naked walk–once again showing he has no idea what to do with a movie.) By the time the credits rolled, I felt robbed of a lot of things, and while it sounds like I’m being pervy by going on about Scarlett’s lack of skin, it would have made a horrible movie merely mediocre.

Speaking of horrible, we then watched Bad Boys II.

Look at the flames! Flames mean AWESOME!

Oh lord, this movie was bad. Because the world banged down Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer’s door for a sequel to the Shakespearean drama known as Bad Boys, we were shoveled this crap followup. Set several years after the first action-comedy buddy romp, we are thrust into a Miami ecstasy drug ring, and only our two joke-cracking wiseguy cop heroes (Will Smith as Mike Lowrey, Martin Lawrence as Marcus Burnett) can save the day!

"We're in WHAT movie?!"

Because we only made it through one hour of the 147-minute runtime (that’s 2.5 hours for you math-challenged folks), there’s not much to comment on. However, there was more than enough to hate. (And we missed the destructive car chase in Cuba, plowing through poor shanty-like homes like playing cards, as well as numerous N-word bombs.) Bombastic action: check (over-the-top violence and destruction); That hamfisted acting: CHECK (lots of yelling and mugging by both Lawrence and Smith; histronic cookie-cutter police chief Joe Pantoliano); Dumb explosions: check and check; ADD-like editing: check (I swear that I went cross-eyed at one point); Unnecessary romance: check. (Lowrey carries on a secret romance with Syd, played by Gabrielle Union, who is the sister of Burnett and is also an undercover cop. WHAT?!?)

Had we finished this epic crassness of a movie, there would be more to complain about. Perhaps that was for the best. Since we didn’t, here’s another AWESOME poster:

The flames! The explosions! The moistness!

This was the first time we were not able to fully complete a Bad Movie Night. I think that warrants a future Michael Bay Bad Movie Night to polish off the dirty deeds of the first. It should be fun… and awful.

Spotlight on a Great Blog

I have been perusing many therapy and mental health related blogs over the past few months and have found quite a number that I really like and have added to my blogroll.

Some of those blogs are of exceptional value to me — I feel compelled to call attention to them, as is the case with the blog I’m highlighting in this post. You may ask, “What qualifies as exceptional value?” Well, I value the following:

1) An overall focus on healing and moving forward — that doesn’t necessarily mean there is an absence of negative material; but rather, that it is balanced with solution-oriented insights;

2) Originality — while links to and reuse of enlightening material is good, original content is even better;

3) Relevancy — the majority of the posts are related to therapy and the therapeutic process;

4) Level of activity — the author(s) keeps the material fresh.

So, here is one blog that I feel qualifies as “highly valuable”:

I’m Just F.I.N.E. — Recovery in Al-Anon

This blog is written by Syd. Here is how he describes himself: “I’m an adult child of an alcoholic married to an alcoholic who is learning the steps to recovery through Al-Anon. This is my journey in search of serenity.”

He brings so much wisdom to his readers by sharing his struggles — and the mindset and tools he uses to pass through those experiences. His story is deeply personal and relevant to many people dealing with addictions. His writing is upbeat and warm — and very honest and authentic. He is an exceptionally talented writer, to top it all off!

Even if you are not personally dealing with substance abuse, I believe you can draw tremendous inspiration from his blog. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to swing by his blog and enjoy!

Copyright Photo: John Adlard. Please click on photo for more photos.

QANTAS Airways (Sydney) on August 24 took delivery of its fourth Airbus A380-842 registered VH-OQD (msn 26). The new airliner is named “Fergus McMaster” after one of its founders and its first chairman. The new addition will permit the company to increase frequency on the Sydney-Singapore-London and Sydney-Los Angeles routes.

Press release:

finance.yahoo.com/news/Qantas-Takes-Delivery-of-bw-1718711687.html?x=0&.v=1

Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong) is planning to park up to six passenger aircraft by the end of the year. One Airbus A340-300 has already been parked. Another Boeing 747-400 will also be parked. Five freighters are already stored. Traffic is down by 27 percent.

News link:

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aKIPpqyeDjt8