There used to be a T-shirt popular among people who worked on movies (probably still is) that read "What I really want to do is direct". Like the movie set memes that now populate social media, it reflected the reality that a lot of people who wrote, produced, acted or crewed films actually didn't want to be a small cog in the big mechanism of film creation. They wanted to run the thing.
As I writer and producer, I can't count the number of scripts that were dropped on my desk by actors, grips, stuntmen and extras, almost all of them hoping a sale would vault them out of the position they held into a credit closer to the beginning of the picture -- with virtually all of them silently hoping a script credit would get them one step closer to their true holy grail -- directing.
I've often thought that when the desire to direct arises in people with a regular crew job, it comes from working under a director who isn't that good at what they do. Like those scripts I mentioned, I also can't count the number of times I've seen a director struggling to make his or her day when everybody surrounding them knows exactly what the next shot should be.
That said, it's still rare when the desire to run the show comes from someone who's not only exceptional at their niche within the production community but is much sought after by the very best directors out there.
Courtney Hoffman was the Costumer on "Magic Mike", "The Hateful Eight" and "Baby Driver". A year ago, she availed herself at an opportunity offered by Production entity Refinery29 to create a short film as part of their "Shatterbox Anthology" effort to find emerging female directing talent.
She created a film entitled "The Good Time Girls" and shopped it around. The result impressed a lot of people, including Steven Spielberg, who just hired Ms. Hoffman to direct a feature called "Ruthless" for Amblin Entertainment.
Which seems to prove that if you really want to direct the best path to that goal is to just go out and direct something. Maybe it's really that simple.
Actually, nobody's ever really known who to trust. At one point in my life I spent a lot of time shadowing cops -- cops who relied on confidential informants to do their jobs. Most of these CI's were scumbags, low-lifes, petty or major criminals. A few were even lawyers. Actually, more than a few. That attorney-client privilege thing isn't held in the high esteem you might expect.
I learned that when one of them dropped a little information on a police officer, the cop made a mental note of it and went on with his day.
"Hey, didn't he say some guy was getting whacked this afternoon?".
"Yeah. We'll see..."
No urgency. No way of verifying what was offered. It was just -- information. Perhaps ill-informed. Perhaps intended to settle a grudge.
If said cop then got the same information from CI #2, he might take out his notebook and make a note. But there was still no indication he was acting on what he'd heard.
But if CI #3 showed up with the same news. Then it was time to spring into action.
I feel like one of these cops every time I watch the news these days. I'm never sure how much trust to have in what I'm hearing. So I tend to look for other sources. If it turns up in three or more places that don't share the same ideology or political agenda, I'll go along with it. Otherwise -- we'll see...
Last week, as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida, CNN was wall to wall with the doom and gloom of a storm more dangerous than the planet had ever seen -- one that would level several American cities and then cut to anchors standing in the rain as approaching breezes tousled their hair.
Either CNN anchors are suddenly a dime a dozen and ten feet tall and bulletproof -- or maybe Irma had blown it's load in the Caribbean.
But that doesn't sell ads for Cialis, does it?
And this goes on all over the place. One week, Donald Trump is worse than Hitler. And the next, the very people who've called him unhinged and a Fascist are sitting down to have dinner with him. And the media who've promulgated those opinions are suddenly using terms like "eminently presidential".
Am I the only one who feels I'm being played?
Meanwhile, as Hurricane Irma threatened one coast, another storm dubbed Shapiro was threatening to bring death and destruction to Berkeley, California.
At least that's what CNN and a lot of people on Facebook wanted me to believe.
For those not paying attention, Ben Shapiro, a Fascist, White-Supremacist, was booked to speak at UC Berkeley, the birth place of the free speech movement, and after failing to prevent his appearance, the college and city had required Shapiro to spend more than $600,000 to make sure the students attending his speech did not come to harm.
For those who've truly been paying attention, Ben Shapiro is about as far from a Fascist, White Supremacist as you can get. He's actually an Orthodox Jew married to a Moroccan woman with whom he's had two kids.
He's also, according to the Anti-Defamation League, been the target of more anti-Semitic attacks than anyone else on social media. Attacks that came from both the Left and the Right.
He's also written a couple of books about how the media participates in the creation of our current culture of fear. Something, you'd suspect people in the media do not take kindly to.
So, he's labelled with the worst things you can call people these days as vast numbers on social media parrot the terms and demand he be silenced.
But Shapiro went ahead and spoke -- and nothing happened.
Oh, a few hot heads got arrested and some people who heard him might've had their opinion changed. But the culture of fear took the real hit because it turned out the guy isn't somebody to fear.
You can find Shapiro's entire speech here, including a half hour of engaging with people who disagree with him. Engagement that is intelligent and respectful and honest on all sides, proving that people can hold differing views without demonizing one another or pedaling falsehoods.
Below is a small snippet that will hopefully start some of you questioning the sources from which you get your news. Maybe it's time for you too to seek some additional sources.
A lot of people have trouble understanding my love of Country music. It just doesn't fit with the understated sophistication and intellectual acumen which are my trademarks. Which not only reveals how little they know me, but Country music as well. There's as much depth and variety to Country as any other musical genre and maybe more than some. You just gotta find that part of the pasture with the grass that appeals to you. Trouble is, given the picture of Country folk that's always been a mainstay of the media (particularly Hollywood) most people don't bother to give it much of a listen. I like to think I came to it honestly. My formative years were spent in rural Saskatchewan, where it was everywhere, with the same guys in pick-ups listening to Hank Snow and Marty Robbins were just as likely to pick up records by Perry Como and the Mills Brothers. It was just there. Another song on the only radio station you could get. Later on, I lived in LA when "The Eagles" were taking flight, among other Country influenced artists like "Linda Ronstadt", "Kris Kristopherson","Poco", "Little Feat", "Loggins & Messina" or "The New Riders of the Purple Sage". And trust me, when your only alternatives were Disco or some lounge singer ruining "The Doobie Brothers", listening to those guys was way better. More often, Country songs are stories, as the old Nashville radio adage goes -- "Listen long enough and somebody sings your life". But sometimes, it's just fun too. Friday we lost two giants in the world of Country. Don Williams and Troy Gentry.
Williams (top photo) was in his late 70's. Long retired from a career that saw him top the charts 17 times and have much of his song writing covered by other top selling artists. Gentry died when I helicopter ferrying him to a concert in New Jersey crashed. His Duo "Montgomery Gentry" formed in the 1990's with singing partner Eddie Montgomery also had a couple of decades of hits and Country Music Awards. Each, in their own way, represented those two sides of Country music, the stories and the fun. If you enjoyed their artistry as much as I did, here's a sample of each. If you weren't a fan, have a listen to what you missed. And -- Enjoy Your Sunday...
I got an amazing reaction this week on a Washington Post article I posted about the response of the so-called "Cajun Navy" to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
You can read the entire article here. But basically it was about a bunch of responsible, resilient and resourceful people doing what any decent person does for their neighbors.
Most of the feedback I got was positive. But in these divided times, I also got reactions from those who refer to themselves as progressive, or as some call them, "Social Justice Warriors" pointing out the Cajun Navy is made up of Southerners who fought in unjust foreign wars, wear a police uniform, probably don't like Gays, Muslims or Black people and doubtless voted for that douchebag Trump.
We've apparently come so far or are so far gone that people simply helping people is suspect and apparently you actually can tell a book by its cover.
Some of that can be explained by our political divisions. But I think much of it devolves to a divide between rural and urban, where the skills of one aren't appreciated by the other, as well as an additional schism between those who seek higher education and those who do not.
A champion of the latter group is Mike Rowe, a TV Host who gained fame with a series entitled "Dirty Jobs" where he got hired to do all those jobs most people just won't do.
That led him to developing a foundation to increase the number of people being trained to do skilled jobs. Jobs like being a plumber or electrician or house painter in a world that reveres rap artists, athletes and hedge fund managers while espousing the essential need for everybody to attain a college degree.
A few months ago, Mike was awarded the first "TV series" that would be produced and distributed by Facebook. That series is called "Returning the Favor" and its one of the most uplifting things I've seen in a long while.
I can't post the first episode of "Returning the Favor" here because it's still a Facebook exclusive. But if you're on Facebook, you can access it here.
What I can post is a video Mike also did this past week after somebody made the mistake of calling him a "White Supremacist" online. It's from Fox News, so those of you who feel you're somehow dirtying your hands by doing that can find a print version of Mike's response here.
Either way, d+o yourself a favor and reach across these seemingly unbridgeable divides by watching "Returning the Favor" on Facebook. At the very least it'll encourage them to spend more of their ad money on content.