The Last Airbender: The Last Disappointment



M. Night Shyamalan was out of his genre on this one and I'm afraid it showed. I was expecting The Last Airbender to rival Avatar since the Shamalyan/Cammeron feud over the use of the word "Avatar" started in the courts before either movie was released.



For more pictures and info:
 http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/

Unfortunately TLA fell far short of what it could have been. It is my opinion that Shyamalan muted the intensity of the film since it is basically a children's story borrowed from Nickelodeon. Night is capable of making this much more intense by unleashing the creative juices that fueled The Sixth Sense and The Village; however that might have caused the Nick at Night crowd a few restless nights.

The fact that the movie was not filmed in 3D and added as a post-production gimmick because "everyone else was doing it" just didn't work for me. The indoor scenes were dark enough and the silly 3D sunglasses made it worse. Once again, we don't know all that transpires behind corporate studio doors and my hunch is that the suits did a little arm twisting to the ratty-jeans-wearing producer/director.

The young stars did a commendable job and to those who poo-pooed their performance I say "get a life"! We, today's movie-going audience, are more sophisticated and tech-savvy than ever before. We pay attention to camera movements and lens choices, not to mention what's CGI and what's real. I wonder how Shirley Temple would be reviewed if she stepped out of a time machine and auditioned for a 21st century flick. I wonder if she'd even get a call-back?

The kids did great! Dev Patel, being more experienced and not really a kid, was a step better than the others, but I enjoyed all of them. That is thanks in part to all the AD's, AP's, and assistant-anything-elses that worked with them. Yes, the leads had their own trailers and tutors, but the other young actors went to school in a one-room school tent and would be gently ushered on set when they were needed. They did a commendable job. All were well behaved except one. There was this one eight year old with a too-long, shaggy, blonde Prince Valiant haircut that was a bit of a terror and his au pare had trouble controlling him. Had he been mine . . . let’s just say he would not have been such a terror, and he would have had a better haircut!

Overall, the movie was entertaining but not an award winner. If you are like me and take most movies for what they are and sit back and enjoy a video story, this movie is fine. The simple story line is good versus evil and being good isn't easy, it takes perseverance and sometime pain. Story lines don't have to be complicated. After all, look at Avatar isn’t it just the story of Pocahontas (at least the Disney version)?

Working on this movie with my bud Night, was an incredible education. Being one of a hundred nameless background actors is humbling. When they would cast scenes we would line up like kids on the playground waiting to chosen for a pick-up baseball game. But, unfortunately, art imitates life. It was rare that I was chosen for any smaller “intimate” scenes. I got in the large crowd scenes. You can look and look but I doubt you will find my bearded face anywhere. In one scene I was only two people away from the boom-mounted camera as it bisected the throng. I thought, this has to be in the movie! I envisioned my serious-looking actor’s expression to be eight feet high on the IMAX for the entire world to see. In the final cut, the scene starts from a point just after the camera passed my head. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait for my shot at universal fame.

I bought the DVD from Amazon – it was already on sale for $16.95. Imagine how cheap it will be by summer. I suppose I’ll find it in the dump-bin at the grocery store on sale for $5.99 by then. I guess it was unrealistic to think my movie would be the next Gone with the Wind, or, The Wizard of Oz. Heck, I’d settle for 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Thanks for reading me,
 
Don
 
PS: Even though I'm not likely to be seen in the movie, part of my home town is in it. The pagoda shown in the above illustration is the pagoda on Mt. Penn.

Eric Whitacre: Conductor, Composer, Virtual Visionary



Eric Whitacre (Photo by Marc Royce)



I ran across a very interesting interview with Eric Whitacre, an American composer/conductor currently living in England (Cambridge University). I know my colleagues with the Berkshire Chorale are familiar with his works since we performed his popular Sleep at our last concert.



During the interview he discusses a wide range of topics including:

• Fainting choristers, the four styles of fainting

• Vomiting choristers, not to be too graphic, but the word “projectile” was used

• Conducting, gestures he’s stolen from other conductors

• The Virtual Choir, its history and future

• Technology, he is a self-described geek

• Mullets, reliving the 80’s

• His desire to be a roadie for Depeche Mode



Mr. Whitacre’s embrace of technology is, in my opinion, one of the reasons his music has been at the top of the classical charts and even occasionally spills over to pop charts. After all, to attract today’s audiences, today’s promoter must use the electronic media that is so much a part of contemporary life. Eric is handsome, personable, and real, a perfect candidate to take advantage of this audio/visual electronic age.

The interview took place on Second Life this past Sunday. For those of you not familiar with Second Life, it is a virtual world populated by literally millions of people from around the world, each of which is represented as an avatar. An avatar is a graphical representation that has been created by its owner to show the world how he/she wants the world to see him if he had a chance to re-create his looks. Maddox Dupont created Eric’s avatar and did a heck of a good job matching the maestro’s likeness. I too am a member of the SL community and I can tell you first hand, getting an avatar to look exactly as you envision it is a difficult task.

This interview is a great example of the global scope of SL; the interviewer, Paisley Beebe, is sitting in her home in Sidney, Australia and Eric is sitting in his home in England. The interview took place in real-time and shown on-screen on a talk show type set. The audience is populated by avatars, all being operated by real people sitting at their computers around the world. Sometimes we forget there is a real person behind every avatar on the screen.

The bad news: this interview is 45 minutes long! The entire video is over an hour long and contains commercials (yes, Second Life is very much like real life) and a full-length performance of the Virtual Choir singing Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque.

I presume that, unlike me, most of you actually have a life and can’t dedicate that much time to listen to an interview, I completely understand. I suggest that you click on the link below then once the video loads use your mouse to randomly select vignettes of the interview.

http://vodpod.com/watch/5064737-eric-whitacre-talks-music-snowcrash-vomiting-choristers-and-the-virtual-choir-

Eric Whitacre is currently recruiting vocalists to sing in his Virtual Choir – all voice parts and all ability levels (everybody will be included). His goal is to have a record-breaking 900 voices singing Sleep. Eric says that one guy actually submitted videos for all four voice parts, and, according to Eric, the guy did a pretty good job on all of them! With less than a month to go it is doubtful the goal will be reached, however, if most singers procrastinate as I do, it could be a very busy couple of weeks coning up for YouTube. For more information go to http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir.

Now that the bulk of my seasonal singing is behind me, the Berkshire Chorale concert and another out-of-town gig (just a couple of church-related performances to go), I intend to submit a recording of Sleep to The Virtual Choir to be included in their record-breaking attempt. It seems that the record attempt is of secondary importance at this point. The important thing is to get a bunch of people together from all over the world and unite them in song, a beautiful, calming song. There couldn’t be a better time of year to have Whitacre’s dream come to fruition.

I hope you all have a stress-free Christmas season and get to enjoy the holiday to its fullest.

Peace,

Don

Not a good morning . . . or was it?

[This article was written on August 2, 2010 but for some reason never was published.]

My morning didn’t go well at all. Having said that, it was all inconveniences – nothing more. I didn’t have anybody call me saying that they were in an accident or that so-and-so is sick or any other bad news. It was just stuff that got my blood pressure up.

I parked in the parking garage about quarter to eight and walked to the Social Security office. The guard there told me that they didn’t open until 9:00 (I would swear the person I talked to said 8:00) and the earliest he could let me go up was 8:50. Grrrr #1!

So, I walked to the Reading Area Community College and had a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. I got out my iPod and (#1), I forgot my earbuds; (#2), the battery was dead. Grrrr #2! But, I did take a book (The Renegade Writer) and started reading and sipping.

At 8:20 I walked back to the SS building, expecting a line of people waiting at the elevator, there was none (Yeah!) I joked with the guard about beating the crowd and he told me that there were already a bunch of people up there. At which point I reminded him that he told me less than an hour before nobody could go up before ten of nine. He pointed to his watch and said, “It’s ten of now.” I pointed to my watch and said, “No, it’s quarter of now!” It was a moot point, when I got up there I saw there were already 40 people seated in the room and I was in a line of another ten people to just get in the door. Grrrr #3! I tried to make the best of it and joked around with the people in line with me. My kidding would have been more effective had it been in Spanish.

By the time I got inside it was about 8:55. Just inside the room there was a gentleman screening everybody, asking them why they were there. He would then touch a number on a computer screen to print a position number in line and a number for a particular window, there were only three windows, and hand the ticket to the client. Finally, my turn! “Sir, why are you here today?” I told him I wanted to apply for SS retirement benefits.” Hmmm,” he responded, “you’re going to have trouble with that.” (WTF?) “Why”, I said? He then told me he didn’t have the personnel available to handle that right now and if I waited I’d be there most of the day; I should call the 800 number and get an appointment. I replied sharply that I already did that and was told it would take two months to get an appointment; it would be faster to just show up. He told me that wasn’t true, if I called they could get me an appointment this week yet. “Well that’s not what I was told” I retorted with the wit of a five year old (not sure if I stomped my foot or not). So, that should be Grrrr#’s 4 through 10, but we’ll just leave it at #4! Hey, he couldn’t control what others said to me, so I tried my best to be polite, took the card with the phone number on it he handed to me, thanked him, and headed back down the elevator; only after someone already in the elevator allowed the doors to close almost catching my nose. OK, truth be told, it more likely came closer to catching my stomach. Anyway, I had to wait for the next one. Grrrr #5!

So I walked past the guard that doesn’t know how to set a watch and out into the fresh morning air. It was a few minutes before nine and even in downtown Reading the air was still crisp and fresh. The cool air reminded me of the Rocky Mountains and my frazzled brain flashed back to the wonderful time we had there. Ahhhhhh. The lower floors of the parking garage had vacant store fronts. I thought about how nice a location that would be for a coffee/pie shop. It’s directly across from the Imax theatre, a block away from RACC, next to the Goggleworks, and within a few blocks of numerous office buildings. Hmmmm. I took down the 800 number for the rental agent. The sign said “no investment required;” how can that be? I’ll call and find out.

Well, maybe this morning wasn’t so bad after all. I climbed the garage staircase with a bit of a spring as I thought about the possibilities I had just uncovered. Since the garage was almost empty when I got there, my car was at the top of the steps. I hopped in and began the twisty route to the exit – coming close to getting hit only once, by a petite blonde in a way-to-big Escolade. I got to the gate, inserted my ticket, and . . . nothing! The readout in the little window on the ticket/fee taker said “Invalid Card” (again, WTF?). I pressed the red button with a diagonal slash across it and the machine spit my ticket back at me. Hmmm. I re-inserted it. Now the window read, “Fee $10.00.” WTF! (again and again), I looked at my watch, it was exactly 9:00, the ticket showed that I came in at 8:43; that’s $10.00 for 73 minutes? Impossible! Grrrr #6!

It was then that I noticed that the gate in the lane next to me appeared to be open. I backed up the car slightly to get a better look at it. When I did I heard the machine with my ticket in it make some mechanical noises, and that wasn’t good. The gate next to me actually was not open so I coasted back to where I had been, pressed the red button to retrieve my card and start this thing all over again, only to find out the machine had swallowed my card and I could not retrieve it. Grrrr #7!

Ahhhh, good luck, there is a call button, I’ll press that. I could hear a phone ringing (great!) after four rings an answering machine came on the line, “You have reached the Reading Parking Authority, we’re sorry, but we can’t take your call right now. Please leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.” I grumbled a few four-letter words and hit the shiny chrome button really hard to hang up. Grrrr #8

After the breeze coming in the open window cleared away the steam that filled the car after I erupted, I calmly pressed the shiny button again. Ring, ring, ring, “Hello, Parking Authority.” Hoooray! A real person. His voice carried with it the caring and gentleness of a guy named Bruno or maybe Guido. I explained my situation to which he responded, “Ahh, OK.” His tone was as if I had just run over his dog. Hey, it’s your garage Bruno, let me out, I didn’t do anything wrong! In the background I could hear him talking on the walkie-talkie (are they still called that or are they just “radios” now?). Then all was quiet, he said nothing to me. I said “Should I move my car or just sit and wait here?” He told me to leave it there somebody would be there is a few seconds. Well, he didn’t lie. In a few seconds I saw Slim sauntering down the hill from another garage a block away. This guy was about six feet two and weighed maybe, on a rainy day, 125 pounds. He reminded me of the character Bill Cosby used to talk about. They would hold him by his heels and lower him through the sewer grate to get the quarters in the bottom of the sewer. Oh, sorry, I digress. Slim was actually a nice guy: polite and friendly, not like Bruno at all. When I told him it wanted to charge me $10.00 he said, “Yep, this garage is $5.00 an hour.” Fortunately he followed that with, “Ahh, don’t worry about it, I’ll let you out;” and he did just that. After going through the key ring on his hip that any maintenance man would be proud to own, he opened the panel on the side of the gate, flipped a switch, and the gate whirred up out of my way. I was free! Whoopee! Thanks Slim! Thanks for putting an upper on an otherwise downer of a day.

Going Pro

As of today I am a professional writer! Well . . . maybe. I am wondering if one actually has to have "received" money to be considered professional or if the "promise" of money is enough to validate the title.

I found a site on the web called Examiner.com; a sort of on-line magazine with thousands of "Examiners" (correspondents) from all over the US and the rest of the world. I filled out a form and submitted a sample of my writing. About three days later I got a letter from them congratulating me for being accepted as an "Examiner." To me, the word "examiner" conjures up visions of grocery store tabloids - nothing with which I particularly want to be associated. However, I figure it is a good way to get my feet wet and see if the rest of the world accepts my writing like my friends do. For those of you that told me I ought to write for a living (in the absence of a real job), this is for you.

As far as the money goes . . . not only won't I get rich doing this, it wont even pay my monthly internet bill. The company is very secretive about exactly how they pay, it is a covert formula, no doubt kept in the same safe as the Coke recipe. I do know this however, my page was just turned on this morning and already I have amassed three cents in my account. I visited the page three times this morning so if my arithmetic is correct, that means I get a penny a hit. Somehow, the time spent on the page is also factored in. That is the reason for the hyperlinks we are encouraged to use. I suppose if you are off surfing someplace else, my page is still open and the meter keeps running and the advertisers are charged accordingly (that's all just a guess).

Truth be told, I'd much prefer to write here, there are, for the most part, no rules here. I received file after file, page after page of information from Examiner.com, mostly Do this' and Don't do that's. Rules and regulations to be read - followed by - more rules and regulations. As a matter of fact, this morning I received an email to which four more pdf's were attached.

Before I signed my contract, I asked for an explanation regarding exactly what I was allowed to write about. Unfortunately my contact never saw fit to reply. In this morning's letter he said my page was now live and also said "Nice approach," which I take to mean he liked the way I addressed my subject. As you know, I like to travel and write about my experiences. Since I've been unemployed, I've found a few creative ways to stretch my travel dollar. So I approached Examiner.com with the idea of being a frugal traveler. They responded with the title of "Philadelphia Bargain Travel Examiner." I said I preferred "frugal" over "bargain," they obviously did not agree and kept the word bargain in the title. I intend to talk mostly about the travel and the places and throw in an occasional tidbit about how I cut expenses on the trip.

One of their rules regards the size of the articles. Although they do not actually limit article length, they prefer 300 - 400 words. My first article was over 700 words (and I had to abridge my original work to get it down to that). So, this should be an interesting experience.

Please visit my page at Examiner.com:
http://www.examiner.com/x-46401-Philadelphia-Bargain-Travel-Examiner

Thanks for reading me,

Don