Lazy Sunday #239: Cookie Dough Vodka

When I was learning to drink alcohol –- and in my opinion –- yes, drinking alcohol is an acquired skill; I lived among folk who took their drinking seriously.

By that I mean, they didn’t approach it as a frivolous activity.

They might have a drink or two at the end of a hard day at work.

They regularly took a bottle down from the shelf when friends came over. They tucked a flask in their jacket when they went to a football or hockey game to stay warm.

They had more than a couple on a Friday or Saturday night when somebody was throwing a party, getting married, celebrating something special.

Sometimes they drank and drove. Sometimes they drank and got into fights.

But through high school, college and the rest of my youth, I never lost a friend to anything related to drinking. I never saw anybody drink enough to seriously harm themselves, their career or somebody else.

I didn’t know anybody who knew a bartender by their first name, or proclaimed the merits of one brand name over another (besides avoiding American beer at all costs).

Mostly, I never knew people who were “regulars” in a certain watering hole or made it a point of letting me know how much of whatever they were putting away.

Rehab was for a sports injury.

Maybe the people who taught me to drink just weren’t very sophisticated. Or maybe I’m just not that sophisticated myself.

But things seem a lot different now. And I’m not gonna go all “kids today…” because I don’t think the way alcohol is consumed these days has much to do with anybody but the folks who sell it.

My drug of choice is Vodka. And when I was starting out there was one kind. Lots of different labels but pretty much the same thing inside.

Then they started adding a touch of orange or pepper or juniper. And I began noticing that while one of those flavors would make a great Screwdriver, it had a negative effect on a Caesar or a Dirty Martini. And instead of having one bottle in the cabinet, I now needed three or four. Well played, Marketing executives.

Then I noticed I’d be in bars and the “Jager-Girls” would sidle over, or some cutie from Grey Goose would hint that pouring from that bottle would exemplify my refined taste. Branding could publically define me –- and my lifestyle.

The other night, I was in a liquor store and came upon a bottle I’d never seen before, purporting to contain “Cookie Dough Vodka”. Actually, a closer examination revealed it contained “imitation” chocolate and other flavors, which, in combination, would taste just like cookie dough.

Why?

I asked the clerk, who stopped picking at his new tattoo long enough to shrug and say, “Teenage girls seem to like it.”

Filing that away for the next time I might need to seduce a teenager and recalling all the Singapore Slings I’d put away during my early adulthood; I wondered if some of the problems we have related to alcohol and younger drinkers are because the people selling it are only too happy to warp their product to fit palates nearer to the enjoyment of candy and ice cream and cookie dough than something more mature.

An acquired taste implies the time and experience required to acquire it. Maybe not the best thing for a profit margin. But maybe a better thing for society as a whole.

Enjoy Your Sunday.

America, We Feel Your Pain

And we can help…

Lazy Sunday # 238: Winston

Friday morning, Canadian actor Winston Rekert passed away in his hometown of Vancouver. In addition to a grieving family and wide circle of devastated friends, he leaves behind a country much changed and greatly improved by the life he lived.

Win’s death cuts particularly deep for me, since I spent two years making him a guy you just couldn’t kill in the CBS television series “Adderly”.

Talking with cast and crew over the last days, I discovered we all shared much the same sentiment. We never considered that a time could come when Winston wouldn’t be there to save the day, either for us or somebody else –- either on screen or off.

He had a drive, a determination and a lust for life that seemed impossible to extinguish.

“Adderly” was green-lit in the Spring of 1986 as part of a late night drama slate CBS dubbed “Crime Time After Prime Time”. It was counter-programming to the pervasive late night talk format of the time, while mining the popular Private eye/Cop genre.

It was where I landed my first staff job in television and it would be Winston’s first series lead as well.

I didn’t know him, but knew of him when he was cast. And, frankly, I didn’t have a high opinion of his talents.

Winston had come up through theatre in Vancouver at the same time I was coming up through it in Toronto. And back then, the twain never met. So I hadn’t been exposed to any of his landmark and iconic West coast performances.

I’d only seen him in a couple of over-hyped and overwrought Canadian movies and didn’t think he had the weight to carry a television series. But casting decisions were far beyond my pay grade back then –- clearly with good reason.

When I finally met Winston, I was stunned at how damned handsome he was. But unlike a lot of good-looking actors, he was clearly a guy who didn’t rest on those laurels.

He was funny and smart, self-deprecating, self-aware and clearly focussed on disappearing into the character of a formidable espionage agent who had lost the use of one hand and was now relegated to the very lowest level of the spy game.

The conceit of the series was that each week Adderly would turn a nothing assignment into something bigger, outsmarting both his superiors and various foreign governments in the process.

In a lot of ways that was as far-fetched as the way Tom Selleck’s “Magnum PI” and “The A-Team” operated, at a time when those two shows were part of our competition.

In that first meeting, I took an immediate liking to Winston and walked away knowing we had a lead who would make the long hours of writing worthwhile. It was a sentiment that soon spread to every other department on the series. This was a guy who cared and worked just as hard or harder than everybody else.

Over the next two seasons, I can’t count the number of times Win’s unwavering sense of humor and dedication to getting it right combined to both inspire and reward.

Although already strikingly handsome, the network powers had an obsession with "hairstyles” that ultimately had Winston locked in a make-up chair for an hour every morning as an unmoving coiffure he dubbed “the helmet” was sculpted on his head.

Instead of complaining, he used that time to ramp up the make-up and hair crew for their day, making his arrival so high energy that we discovered others of the crew were coming in an hour or two early to join in the fun while getting a little ahead on what they had to accomplish in their day.

Initially, “Adderly” was conceived as a dark, Harry Palmer rather than James Bond version of the world of international espionage. But as the audience took a greater interest in the gallows humor of series characters relegated to the dead end security sector dubbed “Miscellaneous Affairs” it began to lighten, taking the business of spying far less seriously.

Sometimes, we all felt that went too far. But Winston always found a way to make everything believable and often better than it deserved to be.

We were likewise hamstrung on the budget side, knowing we needed to compare favorably to the prevailing notion of what constituted a “spy film” with less money than James Bond spent on a single car.

To succeed, we had to play “small ball” accomplishing in story and character what we couldn’t deliver as spectacle.

Unlike those series stars who make it all about them, Winston knew when scenes needed to be about somebody else, that he shouldn’t always have the best lines and that you didn’t quit until it was as good as it could be.

My memories of those seasons are filled with set-side conferences, coming up with cheats and tricks to make the show bigger than it was. Winston was always front and center, keeping it fun, transforming the psychic pain into a fraternal bonding and helpless laughter.

In 1987, Winston won his first Gemini for “Adderly” sharing the award with Eric Peterson of “Street Legal” (I believe the first and only time that has happened). It was a stunning moment for the Canadian television industry. A shock brought home when his co-star, Dixie Seatle, took the Best Actress trophy.

Until then, we were considered just another one of those “for entertainment purposes only” shows, not legitimately Canadian and certainly nothing with the weight and importance to be considered culturally important and award worthy.

There were many discussions at the evening’s after-parties about whether the firmament had shifted. “Gee, maybe we really can make shows that a lot of people want to watch!”

The next morning, I arrived at the studio to find Win’s statuette parked in a bowl of cream cheese on the craft service table, there to be shared with everybody else he knew had made it possible.

At wrap, a case of champagne turned up as well, with Winston popping the corks and filling the paper cups, making sure he thanked everyone personally for making his achievement possible.

After “Adderly” went the way of all television, Winston returned to Vancouver to create, produce and star in the series for which he became best known, “Neon Rider”.

Through that series, Winston not only gave about half the current cadre of film professionals in Vancouver their first jobs, he became involved in a variety of charities, ultimately becoming the spokesman for “Youth in Crisis”.

He was always there for somebody.

Winston would go on to win a second Gemini in 2003 for a guest role on “Blue Murder” and was nominated on nine other occasions.

Yet despite these accomplishments, the seismic creative jolt he gave the industry and all he accomplished in the world of charity, Win’s passing didn’t make the news much beyond his hometown.

Maybe that’s the way the world (or at least Canada) works when it comes to TV from more than a decade ago.  But I know that there are many in this business who wouldn’t be here without him.

And there are just as many like me who watched him and learned how to make production shortcomings work in our favor and find ways to overcome misdirected network notes.

More than anything, Winston helped me to understand that as important as making a good show is, it’s just as important to have a good time making them and to share any success with everybody involved in the process.

We lost a great talent this week. A regular guy. A decent man.

For those who didn’t know him, here’s the last episode of “Adderly”, a show that died so CBS could finally climb on the late night talk show bandwagon. But also a show that first told Canadians we could easily hold our own in America and the rest of the world when it came to making popular television.

It’s a fine example of both Winston Rekert’s talents and his love of life and those with whom we share it.

It’s of another time and another world, so forgive it that.

But appreciate it for the enjoyment it attempted to deliver.

And Enjoy your Sunday.

Damn Yankees!

Back in the days when my beloved Blue Jays were winning ball games with regularity, I walked into a New York Police Precinct in a tough part of town one night wearing a Jays cap.

A big, black desk Sergeant eyed me dourly over his reading glasses and quipped, “You trying to get shot?”.

There are no more entitled feeling fans than New York Yankee fans.

And there is no greater joy for every other fan in the league than watching your team beat the Yankees.

This season, for a whole lot of reasons, the Yankees have become adept at beating themselves. And God, that is just the icing on the cake for the rest of us.

Some have even gotten cocky about the pinstripe demise. And I think what follows might even bring a bittersweet smile to a Yankee fan.

Sorry, guys. Time to start bragging on the Rangers for a few months. Because this year, they’re lookin’ real…

Oh, wait…

The gates at the Gardens are locked?

Oh. This could be a real long, cold winter in the Big Apple, couldn’t it…?

Lazy Sunday # 237: Pipeline

One Saturday afternoon when I was a kid, my dad piled us in the car and we drove a few miles to where the Trans-Canada pipeline was being laid across Saskatchewan.

Pipelines weren’t much on my radar at that age. But I was told it was a really big deal and would take oil from Alberta and my home province down East and maybe all over the world.

The process was actually very cool to watch. Bulldozers ploughed a path, followed by these circular diggers that made a trench.

After them came gigantic claw arm thingies that picked up a line of pipe that seemed to stretch from one horizon to the other and lowered it into the trench as another machine wrapped it with something that looked like tar paper.

After that another line of bulldozers filled in the hole and steamrollers came last tamping it all down.

It didn’t seem to take long at all and within a couple of hours the long line of welded pipe that had greeted our arrival was replaced by flat prairie.

I don’t know if there was a lot of discussion about provincial and Aboriginal rights let alone a debate on its environmental impact when that line was built. Probably not.

At the moment, there are two major pipeline debates going on in Canada. One revolves around the Keystone Pipeline taking Alberta oil to refineries in Texas.

The other concerns the Enbridge Northern Gateway which will carry it across Northern British Columbia to the port of Kitimat.

I’m not going to get into detailed pros and cons of either. But I gotta say I don’t fully understand why we’re building either one.

As far as Keystone goes, it escapes me why we can’t just build a couple of refineries here and create the 10,000 – 50,000 jobs that its supposed to realize South of the border.

I heard somebody from the Alberta government say it was because we didn’t have the technical expertise to do that -- which kind of offended me on a bunch of levels and made me wonder how all the refineries we already have got here.

Meanwhile, both American presidential candidates have assured their electorate that the USA will no longer import foreign oil in 8-10 years. So why is anybody spending billions on a pipeline that won’t even be paid off by the time it is no longer needed?

Or do Americans think Canadian oil isn’t foreign?

As for the Northern Gateway, you gotta wonder if all the anger and division already associated with it will be worth whatever the final product brings.

If we want to ship oil to China, fine. But can’t it come down the same line or one built along the already negotiated right-of-ways that now carry oil from Edmonton to Vancouver?

How come it has to go across (and potentially put at risk) a vast expanse of pristine wilderness?

And if those presidential candidates are correct and Americans kiss oil from the Persian Gulf good-bye in a few years, why wouldn’t China buy what it needs from that region? Because no matter what route you take, it’s an easy thousand miles of Ocean closer than Kitimat.

So I get to wondering what’s really going on here. That pesky “Qui Bono?” question.

And those suspicions were heightened a little while ago when an animation by Vancouver Province editorial cartoonist Dan Murphy was pulled by publisher Postmedia after Enbridge threatened to pull its advertising from the newspaper chain.

Luckily, we still have Youtube for those who missed it.

And even luckier, it’s tough to keep a good cartoonist down. Because Murphy is back, his sharp sense of humor completely intact –- and perhaps greatly motivated.

This can’t be going over too well in somebody’s boardroom.

Enjoy Your Sunday.

A Different Drummer

If you’ve had a rough week, this should more than mend the ravelled sleeve…

…or put you on the floor.

The Four Truths Of Being An Artist

My life always seems to circle back through the theatre. Countless times, when I’ve felt confused, unsure of a direction or in need of perspective, a play or a conversation with a thoughtful member of the theatre community has come along to light the way.

It’s what the purpose of theatre has always been. And it works.

It’s what good writing, good movies, good television, music, painting and sculpture are all about as well.

Trust me, if fewer people devoted their time to reality television and focussed instead on the same stories told through the eyes of an artist, the world would be a much more contented place.

For the longest time, I tried to stay out of the current dispute at Toronto’s Factory Theatre. But then I realized I was one of those people of the theatre too and might be able to offer some light of my own.

That contribution earned me heaps of disdain and more than a few insults. But it also brought me back into contact with thoughtful theatre people who’ve been out of my life for a long time.

And it introduced me to dozens I may never meet, newcomers to the profession eager to be part of the work of the theatre and bring their own unique wisdom to the rest of us.

Yesterday, the Factory (while commencing mediation with its former Artistic Director) announced the appointment of a pair of interim Artistic Directors with a long history at that theatre. They also introduced two new playwrights in residence and a cadre of young writers who may shape its future.

I’m sure these announcements will be met with disdain and insults from some quarters. But I’m just as certain that others will look at these new faces and see the reflection of our society that theatres need to mirror to remain relevant.

Life goes on. Nothing is more certain than change.

And the hard truth of being an artist is that our lives are too short, our careers even shorter and change is ever present.

For me, that has always been a singular truth. But yesterday, Brendan Healy, a thoughtful theatre person and Artistic Director of Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre company laid out four truths of being an artist.

Of all the thoughtful insights ever given me, these might be the most essential.

Like all good professionals, I don’t imitate, I steal. And so I have stolen Brendan’s words to share with you.

Take them to heart. They will make your time in any creative industry that much more rewarding and far easier to bear in times of crisis or change.

Four thoughts for my future self

by Brendan Healy on Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 9:09am

1. I am not the theatre company and the theatre company is not me.

At its essence, a theatre company is a collection of ideas. It is this collection of ideas that draws people to the theatre. Not me. It is this collection of ideas that people wish to serve. Not me. I have had the immense privilege of being deeply intimate with these ideas for a moment in time. But these ideas exist outside of me, have existed before me and will continue without me.

2. The theatre company owes me nothing.

My job has required me to be completely devoted to the ideas that have created the theatre company and to push these ideas forward. Furthermore, my job has required me to be held personally and publicly accountable to how these ideas are managed. I have been paid to do this. These requirements are not extraordinary.

3. I will lose everything.

If there is one thing that cancer has taught me it is this: everything in this world is temporary. The process of living is ultimately a process of letting go: youth, health, relevance, people, status, power, etc. Life will always force me to let go. This will be painful. But, I believe that grace lies on the other side of that process. This belief is what will get me through.

4. My work exists inside the people that I have shared it with.

In the end, all that will be left of my work at the theatre company will be contained within people: the people I collaborated with, the people who came to see the work, the people who helped fulfill a vision, the people who inspired me, the people who I inspired. Whatever legacy I will eventually leave will be contained within them and not inside a show, not inside a building, not in a review, not in an award. It is these people that make this all worthwhile. I must cherish them.

Lazy Sunday # 236: Hard Workin’ Man

It’s Labor Day Weekend.

Go make somethin’…

Then party some…

And mostly – Enjoy Your Sunday.

The Twitter Fail

Those of us who were early adopters of Twitter became well acquainted with the above image. The new 140 character instant communication system seemed to temporarily collapse under the weight of its own success on a daily basis.

But we stuck it out and so did Twitter and I actually can’t remember the last time the “Fail Whale” made an appearance.

But that hasn’t prevented Twitter failing many of its users behind the scenes.

One of the benefits of the system is that once you establish an account and jump in –- you’re in. The entire Twitterverse is open to you. Link or find your way to anybody, any topic, anything. Only private conversations are off-limits.

Problem is – you can only continue to do that if you never change who you are –- digitally speaking.

A couple of years ago, I left my internet provider (Bell Sympatico) for Shaw. It was a smooth transition, one that thousands make, moving one way or another every day.

In the process, I changed my email address, dumping the one I had used when I set up my Twitter account. As far as my daily access to twitter went, I didn’t notice any change. Nothing changed my tweet experience.

Then one day, several months later, Twitter updated itself and asked me to log back into my account. I couldn’t.

And when I contacted Technical support, assuming I was doing something wrong (with Tech I always assume the problem is me) I discovered that this problem wasn’t.

Apparently, when I entered the email address and I used when setting up my account, Twitter “pinged” that old address, discovered it was gone and blocked my entry.

Okay, no problem. Everybody moves. Everybody switches ISPs from time to time. There had to be a way for some human or corporate algorithm at Twitter to update me.

But there wasn’t.

No matter how well I could prove I am who I am.

According to Twitter, the only option was to contact my original ISP and revive the original account long enough to log in and let Twitter “ping” it.

Problem is –- I couldn’t find anybody at Bell who knew how to do that.

And to tell you the truth, they’d really rather spend their time looking after their own customers, not those who use Twitter, let alone some guy who dumped them years ago.

Stumped, I discovered that Tweetdeck, the app I most use to access Twitter was operating perfectly. Cool. So life went on.

And then Twitter bought Tweetdeck.

And updated it.

But I still can’t access my Twitter account unless I find a way to exhume an email address that’s been dead for quite some time.

Luckily, I still have one computer which hasn’t updated Tweetdeck. But who knows how long that will last.

Now, I’m not going to tell Twitter how to run their business, because they seem to be doing quite well without my input.

And I’m sure this “first world problem” was adequately covered somewhere around Page 437 of that User Agreement me and nobody else ever reads when we’re signing up for a new service.

But it’s annoying. As is anything in which solutions can’t be found by reasonable people trying to help one another.

And it made me realize just how fragile all these systems we’ve come to take for granted really are.

How fast would Bell or Rogers or anybody else sell new customers if we customers had to first make a list of all the services we had to update – maybe before even knowing what email address or mobile number was available to us?

Do I need to bring a list of all my apps and online services along the next time I buy a phone or a tablet or an operating service?

Will the pimply faced kid behind the counter know all of them?

Wasn’t the whole point of technology to make our lives simpler, not impossible to navigate?

And while it might be a good thing that no personal information beyond an email address or mobile number is available to any third-world dictator trying to silence me on Twitter; it can’t be a comfortable position for anyone dependant on the service yet unhappy with their ISP.

So be forewarned. If you move or change your service provider, you need to let Twitter know –- even if you don’t know who you’ll be with once you get wherever it is you’re going.

Anyway…

Over the next few days, @decencylegion will go dark on Twitter and you’ll find me and The Legion at @jim_henshaw .

And don’t worry, I’ll be in touch with all those who hang on my every word to let you know personally.

Around here, we try to make life easy for our users. I hope somebody at Twitter realizes it really isn’t that complicated.

The Best Exotic Audience Demographic

With the Summer movie box office down 5% from last year, it would appear I haven’t been the only one having difficulty finding something worth paying to see on the big screen.

Every Friday, I’ve opened the paper for what might be available and been greeted by either another guy in tights, another reboot, another two hour commercial for a toy or some 20-something director’s examination of 20-something angst that I couldn’t get interested in when I was 20-something myself.

So, I eschewed the Imax/Dolby/$10 popcorn experience for episodes of “The Newsroom” and “Breaking Bad” or what was on Netflix.

But there’s a neighborhood multiplex down the street and two things struck me each time I drove past over the last months. One was how quickly the over-hyped Superheroes, Sci-Fi extravaganzas and raunchy comedies came and went.

The other was that one title stayed week after week after week.

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” opened at that theatre on May 25th and is still playing 14 weeks (one entire Summer) later.

To date, this modest comedy, made for a mere (in Hollywood terms) $10 Million, has earned $130 Million in ticket sales. In other words, more than the take home of a month’s worth of Hollywood mega-budget tent-pole franchises combined.

It’s a success that most in the industry have ignored, perhaps because the target audience is a group that Hollywood mostly ignores –- old people.

Now, I still don’t consider myself an old guy, but I’m obviously headed in that direction. And when I arrive, like a lot of baby-boomers, I’ll probably be there a while since 80 is widely considered to be the new 60.

I once had a psychic predict I’d die violently at the hands of a jealous husband in my 87th year. I always used that as proof of my ageless charm. But I’m sure he meant I’ll be on a park bench having an ice cream when some deranged cuckold goes on a shooting spree.

For the first time in my life an innocent bystander…

Anyway – I finally decided to see what the movie was all about last night, arriving as a busload (yes, I said busload) from a nearby Seniors home disembarked fellow patrons, all greeted warmly by the manager.

I got talking to him and discovered this is a nightly occurrence and that some have returned to see the film 3 or 4 times.

Now, you might put part of that return business down to the forgetfulness of old age. But I’m thinking that like Sci-Fi fans when “Star Trek” came along, “Best Exotic Marigold” is one of the few entertainment options these people have.

Chances are more than a few of them were also those self same under-served original “Star Trek” fans…

I don’t know why the entertainment business doesn’t cater to such a wide and growing audience demographic. But we don’t.

Maybe we’re a little afraid of one day becoming a part of that niche ourselves. Maybe they don’t fit our image of being cutting edge and cool.

“I’m the guy who’s ‘edgy’ not the one out edging his lawn.”

A couple of years back, I pitched a series to a Canadian network that targeted people over the age of 50. Mostly because I’d read a bunch of surveys indicating the majority of the North American TV audience is now in that age bracket.

The trendy, young network execs on the opposite couch couldn’t have been less interested. Story content aside, they had been tasked with attracting younger audiences, rescuing both they and the network from the Internet. As one defined the process, “planting them back on the couch”.

When I suggested that might not be possible since more and more people under 25 don’t even own a television set, it was suggested that my premise was based on “American numbers” and therefore not applicable.

As I talked with the theatre manager, I watched a stream of grey heads move from the refreshment stand into the theatre, many by way of the washroom to make sure they could last the running time of the movie.

Meanwhile, barely a trickle of younger patrons entered the auditoriums where “The Dark Knight”, “The Bourne Legacy” and “Expendables 2” were playing. After all, it was a Monday night.

But even on a Monday, the Manager was called away to resupply the candy counter. “I’ve never sold so many wine gums”, he said with a smile.

In a lot of ways, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” wasn’t my cup of Chai. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Instead it was telling all those whose grey heads shimmered with the reflected light from the screen that their lives mattered and a multitude of adventures they’d never imagined awaited them.

And isn’t that why we all go to the movies?

In the lobby afterward, there was a buzz of excitement and satisfaction. Something I don’t remember hearing from the far larger crowd with whom I’d seen “The Dark Knight Rises”.

Performances were praised. Jokes repeated. Names of those who needed to be told to see the film were exchanged. Fourteen weeks in and still the word of mouth growing.

Maybe it’s right that our industry keep pushing the creative envelopes and inspiring the young. But there’s another audience out there too. One that might just keep us in business.

And those wine gums really aren’t that bad either.

Lazy Sunday # 235: They Need A Bigger Wind

I’m a news junkie, a political one too. But days away from the beginning of the height of the political season in the US, I’ve decided not to follow it anymore.

The lying and the nonsense finally got to me. Mostly the lying. But the nonsense too.

All week long, American news organizations ramped up concerns that Hurricane Isaac would arrive in Tampa on Monday, disrupting the opening of the Republic National Convention during which Mitt Romney would receive the mantle of Presidential candidate.

Depending on your political leanings, there were any number of panel discussions on everything from disrupted flight schedules to the need for first responders to concentrate on helping the city’s population rather than protestors or visiting conventioneers.

One network talking head even chortled that this was God’s way of “smiting the GOP”.

Not once did I hear anybody remark that this was a pretty major storm with the power to wreak havoc on millions of people and probably cost several their lives.

Only this morning, when the storm track changed, moving Isaac away from Tampa and threatening to arrive in New Orleans on the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina did anybody seem to realize Nature has no political motives.

I’m sure there have been past political campaigns with the level of rancor, name-calling and ill-will of the 2012 election. I’m certain that all of them have included side-issues dominating the important ones and off-the-cuff remarks derailing somebody’s agenda.

But I don’t recall a time when somebody could be caught in a bald-faced lie and argue that them lying to voters wasn’t an issue.

Thursday night, I was watching Anderson Cooper on CNN reporting on the fallout from the incredibly ignorant remarks about rape made by US Senate candidate Todd Akin.

Cooper turned his attention to a fund raising letter sent out that day by Democratic National Committee Chair, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz which contained two lies, one being a truncated quote from the LA times revised to say exactly the opposite of what it had said in the first place.

Confronted, the Congresswoman deflected, insisting the lies weren’t the issue. The look on Cooper’s face was priceless. On a news show, he was being told that lies don’t matter?

And that was the moment when – for me – the penny dropped. This time around, as far as America is concerned, they probably don’t.

Both sides spin whatever they want to say with the help of enough media supporters that the mere half million who watched and may have been as equally shocked as CNN’s host really don’t matter.

Which maybe explains why a storm with the power to adversely affect at least that many lives has been mostly more important as a disruption to the ongoing political cat-fight.

So – I’m out. I’m gone. I got network executives who lie to me all day long. I don’t need more lying in my off hours, least of all from people who want to shape my opinion.

Although I won’t be wasting my time paying much attention anymore, I hope you guys living just South of me have a good election. I know about half of you won’t be happy with the way it turns out. But that’s the way it goes with elections.

At least, in the ones where people are being honest about each other and the issues, the losers tend to get over it and allow that maybe the best guy won.

When you know you lost because the other guy was lying, I’m not sure that’s the case. And it’ll take a much stronger wind than Isaac is packing to blow those kind of hard feelings away.

No matter how you vote, you guys need to hold your candidates and their political machines to a higher standard. Telling them to stop telling lies might be an easy place to start.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Lazy Sunday # 234: Don’t Turn Away

Take a moment.

Take twenty.

This is important.

Please don’t turn away.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Lazy Sunday # 233: Surviving The Punishment

As this summer racks up a long casualty list of failed big budget movies, some are beginning to wonder if Hollywood’s addiction to expensive, tent pole franchises has begun to undermine the movie business as a whole.

Traditionally, 20% of a studio’s output generates 100% of its profits. And when a film hits big, its studio feels more confident in green-lighting riskier properties; those with the potential to be break out hits, snag awards or attract the crowd less interested in comic book heroes or teen heartthrobs.

And taking more creative chances usually means the traditional hell of development and the career impact of not being part of a film that was supposed to be a blockbuster are less punishing.

Buoyed by fat profit margins and healthy stock options, the film executives riding herd on what comes next are less rigid in forcing square pegs into the round holes that worked last time.

They’re also more forgiving of the talent that didn’t bring home a pocketful of cash.

All the people aboard “Battleship”, “John Carter”, “Rock of Ages”, “Dark Shadows” and “Total Recall” are just as gifted and worked just as hard at making a good film as those on “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Hunger Games”.

But now their names are almost toxic in the executive suites where memos reminding all “What Worked Before” are not academic ruminations but clear marching orders.

If you thought development has been hell in the past or all the sequels and reboots this year were a sign of the Apocalypse, just you wait. There will be a lot of people both inside the dream machine as well as the multiplex looking for a way out.

Watching the one-two punch of “John Carter” and “Battleship” that was supposed to cement Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch as Hollywood’s new action hero turn into a couple of mean uppercuts from Mike Tyson, reminded me of just how much a big budget flop can punish everybody involved.

Back in 2004, Marvel Studios released a film based on their iconic comic character, “The Punisher”. It was expected to be a Summer blockbuster creating a new franchise to follow  “Spiderman”, “Blade” and “The Hulk”. And it would launch American actor Thomas Jane as an action hero.

I went to see it on its opening weekend, not because I was a fan of the comics, but because I was familiar with Jane’s abilities and had a great respect for his fellow cast member, Will Patton.

But the movie was awful. Horrifically bad, revealing all the faults of studio development that copycat past films and fail to understand the transition of a comic book world to film.

I felt particularly bad for Jane, who was hammered and vilified the way Kitsch is being mistreated now as the Hollywood machine directed the blame at him instead of where it truly belonged.

Somewhere during the intervening years, Thomas Jane either tired of taking the rap for “The Punisher” or decided that if you want something done right, you do it yourself. So, he concocted a ten minute film he calls a “love letter” to the character.

Others might call it “fan fiction”. And then there are guys like me who take it as proof that you don’t need a studio or the prolonged ride through development hell to create something a lot of people want to see.

Indeed, in less than a month, Jane’s film has probably been seen by as many people as saw the 2004 version on its over-hyped opening weekend.

So while those who track the ups and downs of the studios may bemoan the loss of films which may no longer get made, many of us are realizing they will still be made and made better by people who aren’t forced to think inside some corporate spreadsheet or creative box.

The Punishment may be over.

Enjoy Your Sunday.  

Hotel Whiskey Tango

In the Legion’s ongoing effort to support artists crowd-funding their creations, I direct your attention to “Hotel Whiskey Tango”.

“HWT” is the creation of New Orleans comic book artist Ron Domique. It’s the story of a retired Marine sniper who joins a POW rescue mission and becomes entangled in a global heroin operation.

A classic black ops, CIA, post-Vietnam adventure, it is currently available in digital form from the iBookstore for the iPad.

But now Ron wants to take his creation to a wider audience –- that being those of us who don’t own an iPad or prefer our graphic novels in a more tangible form.

What makes this book-in-waiting unique are the ancillary products it has already spun off. A soundtrack. HWT apparel. Quality art prints. Even a limited edition moleskine for those who want to imagine themselves as Michael Herr, slogging through the jungle, making the notes that will one day be published as “Dispatches”.

That’s one element of crowd-funding that few people acknowledge or address. This isn’t just about one artist funding one creation. It’s about supporting cottage industries that spring up because of them and employ talented people in many fields to both market and augment the primary creative product.

Ron is halfway to realizing his goal with about 2 weeks remaining. Consider making a contribution. A lot of people will be grateful.