The Big World of Li'l Treva

I wish you all a Happy New Year.

I'm rather fond of period films.  I am particular about which ones I truly like.  What most impresses me are the ones where attention to details for authenticity is obvious.

The Sting is a fairly good example.  Albeit, Robert Redford's hair style was a bit modern, but not to the point of distraction.

We were not overwhelmed by the details that were used to indicate signs of the time.  No need for a narrator to explain to the audience, because audience members were either older folks that remember, or young people that heard about the booze prohibition era, the resulting black market that thrived, despite the hardships of that Great Depression era. And the growth and empowerment of gangs, gang turf wars, bank robberies, and scam artist heists in response and in defiance of the hardships caused by the gloomy economic times and booze prohibition.  The Sting was an educational work of fiction, but not preachy.

The Sting is not only one of my favorite period films, it is also one of my all - time favorite grifter/heist movies.  It is a work of art as a story, a screenplay, and a major motion picture.  It had fascinating props and interesting sets and costumes. Scot Joplin's rag time tunes were perfect for this movie.  The storybook and page-turning wipes that were used to introduce each chapter/scene paid homage to similar techniques used in films back then.

Various influences compelled my desire to learn more about the 20's and 30's, starting with American life back then.  The Sting is one of them.  This movie helped me to better appreciate the flashbacks and explanations my elders shared with me, or just in my presence. It further encouraged my appreciation for history, while introducing me to rag time jazz.

(This post was intended for the Art As Cinema group, but I hope, it is interesting, or inspiring for anybody that might read it.)

I am so proud of the people in my adopted home state (Florida), including the civil rights activists and lawyers that have been working tirelessly and against great politial and bureaucratic odds to defend the voting rights of all Florida residents.

I still  have moments when I get choked up and my eyes go moist and blurry.  I feel a fluttery sensation rise up my chest and burst in my head, as if every chakra from from my heart, to the crown are havin their own Happy-Happy, Joy-Joy dance. Barak Obama is the first presidential candidate that got my vote and won!

I did a double-take when I first saw the words, "President-elect Barak Obama."  They flashed on the screen right after  I heard, "But it's still too soon to declare a winner..."

Once I was finally convinced that Obama was declared the winner, I sent up a prayer to request that our next president and his loved ones be kept safe and secure.  We pay the Secret Service to ensure it.  We won't accept any "excuses" if something dreadful happens to any of them, to put it mildly.

It feels great to know that we have made a big step to correcting the course of our nation.  But we sure do have our work cut out for us.

I hope, you take the time to read the following essays that were written by one man I've grown to trust -  Michael C. Ruppert Please not the dates.  I can personally verify that the dates are accurate, because I had read the two older ones shortly after they appeared online:

Interregnum (written Nov. 5th)
What Really Happened Today,  Written Sept. 29th, regarding the market crash, where Mr. Ruppert predicted that Obama would win, and includes speculations of what might be in store for us and our new president.
Now is the Time: There is hope, written Sept. 17, with more details of  predictions Ruppert made over the years which have come to pass.

I Voted Today!

Last I heard, Obama was leading in the Texas polls.

I dropped by the Democratic office to see if they needed any help.  While there, a white haired man stopped by, absolutely euphoric.  He picked up a bunch of first-time voters today to get them to the polls and participated in making sure that anybody needing a ride to go vote got transportation.  He said that there was a bus full of people being transported to their polling place and declared,"I haven't felt like this since I participated in the civil rights marches."

 Another phone call, this time to inform me that the response from those of us that were asked to count votes was so positive, they had to call some of us to tell us that we won't be needed.

The hand counting process for which I was originally called to do was for ballots with write in votes.  The machine used to count ballots rejects the ones with write in votes.  So the rejected ones must be counted and documented by people.

I feel disappointed.

I was then asked if I wanted to volunteer at the local Democratic office.  This reminds me of how obvious the people I met that work at this office appeared to zone out, as if they didn't hear me when I stated quite bluntly, "I'm non-partisan."

I won't mind volunteering to answer phones.  If it helps voters to get to their proper polling place on time, or to help anybody that might have complaints, or questions, I don't mind.

I just want this to be a fair election.

I received an interesting call yesterday.  I was informed that there is a shortage in my district and precinct of honest people to count ballots on Tuesday morning (election day here in the USA).  I was asked if I might be interested in working Tuesday morning to help ensure that every vote in the precinct and district where I live is accurately counted.

 I agreed to accept the job.  It's an honor, a right, and a duty.

So, I'll have to get an extra early start to cast my vote.  Then I'll be off counting ballots at the court house!

May the outcome of this election be fair and accurate!

Of all the stupid rumors about Barak Obama that have circulated this country (i.e., He's a Muslem trying to turn America into a Muslem ruled state.  He's Arab.  He's Egyptian. He's going to raise common people's taxes.), I think the one alleging him to be The Anti-Christ is the most amusing of all.  (However, the claims of him being Muslem, Arab and Egyptian were funny.)  This, as well as, the others, indicate desperation on the part of people that make up and spread these fabrications.  Such rumors are intended for gullible and ignorant members of America's voting population, the sort that believe rumors which are loosely based in scripture from the Christian bible. (Most often from the King James Version.)

Obama is not the first person accused of being The Anti-Christ.  I recall when Bill Clinton was pinned with this label during the 2004 election season.

Was Al Gore, John Kerry, or any other Democratic presidential  candidate for the 2000 and 2004 elections branded as The Anti-Christ during those election years?  If not, I might know why.

George W. Bush (most likely with the aid of Karl Rove) knew how to work the fundamentalist "Christians" without relying on the age-old "anti-Christ" scare tactic to attract these people's money and other support.  Bush used wedge issues like abortion, gay rights, including the controversy over gay marriage, to lure religious groups, particularly under the Christian banner, to support each of his presidential campaigns.  He wore religion on his sleeve, passing himself off as the kind of guy that prays for divine guidance and frequently called Billy Graham for advice since he was a kid.  Bush used his claims to faith in God and Jesus to attract  mass support from so-called "Christian conservatives" for anything in his regime's agenda. He and his regime added the religious based manipulations to other things, like physical fear of terrorist attacks, and patriotic (or rather, nationalistic) fervor to convince scores of Americans to readily sacrifice themselves, or their loved ones (including their own adult children).That was enough for him to rally political support from the so-called Christian conservatives.

If anybody was being called The Anti-Christ during Bush's first term, it was Osama bin Laden.  That didn't last long.  Once Bush, Cheney, Rove, and their pals decided that bin Laden was no longer an important tool (except when they needed the recycled and other suspicious "videos", reportedly of Osama bin Laden for diversionary causes), Saddam Hussein became The Anti-Christ.

When I was a kid, right-wing extremists tried to convince young Christians and Christian parents to help ban rock-n-roll by implicating certain rock and rollers  as The Anti-Christ.   Did you know, Elvis Presley was The Anti- Christ? He was rumored to mesmerize women and teen girls, not just with his good looks and songs, but also with his gyrating pelvis.

In the 60's and 70's, John Lennon (Beatles) and Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) were each accused of being The Anti-Christ. Little wonder with Lennon's social and political views, such as, his opposition to war, and Jagger's reportedly acid-trip inspired song, Sympathy for the Devil.

Ozzie Osborn, who openly described himself as a Satanist (before the luggage mixup incident which reportedly changed his religion), was called The Anti-Christ.  That was when right-wing extremists with a socio-political agenda set about their task of convincing concerned parents that Satanic cults were cropping up all over the country in every suburban and rural community, and every small town with a small-minded population. (Like the people of West Memphis, Tn.)

More believable:  the John Birch Society warned that The Anti-Christ would rise among the political and geographic rulers of so-called communist countries (where socialism and bans on free enterprise were used as a tool for mass control).  What made this more easily believed was that religious discussions, literature, practice, and institutions were banned by the governments of the U.S.S.R., the Republic of China, and Castro's Cuba.  As I recall, such bans also existed in East Germany before the Berlin Wall was breached and destroyed.

Why Barak Obama? What did he do to inspire some covert group of religious propaganda to elect him as the latest accused anti-Christ?

Obama is probably the latest alleged anti-Christ for the same reason why President Bill Clinton was so accused.  Talk of Clinton being The Anti-Christ seemed to circulate wildly around the time of the 1996  major US election season. His political enemies were calling him names like Slick Willie and Teflon Bill.  No matter what, they couldn't seem to ruin his popularity among more than half of the US voting population.  They had plenty of help from the so-called liberal media, which they condemned for not being severe enough on Clinton's image.  Clinton was too resiliant, and obviously more clever than his political enemies, until he testified in his own defense to the Grand Jury.

I've heard frequent remarks about Barak Obama's Teflon-like image. He's handling himself and his campaign quite well.  He's consistently leading in polls which are intended to compare his popularity among US voters, to John Mc Cain's.  In recent weeks, John Mc Cain's and Sarah Palin's popularity has waned, now that the newness surroundin Palin is wearing off, along with her "folksy" talk.  Additionally, Mc Cain appears to attract a lot of supporters that strike many of us as being ripe candidates for psychiatric evaluation. They've  been seen and heard on TV!  One (crazy lady with messed up hair) was parodied on the prime time Thursday night SNL specials.  This is causing desperation among partisan Republicans, especially since Bush's popularity dwindled lower than any US president's, even among the most mentally whacked, right-wing religious fanatics that had once held Bush as equal to Jesus.

One other thing:  Obama is the son of a black man and he has a Muslem-sounding name, according to some hicks in Wood County, Texas. Since high-profile Republicans don't feel comfortable with openly stating that they don't want any president with anything, except an all Caucasian family history, they must find another reason to discourage more voters (namely Christians) that aren't hung-up on ethnic backgrounds and names.

It is pointless to attempt to reason with the kind of Americans that really believe all this talk of Obama being The Anti-Christ.   If you've gotten to know any of these people very well, then you know that they are inclined to learn a lot of life lessons the hard way, regardless of how obviously foolish their choices tend to be.  They foresake logic and truth for twisted perspectives and lies that sound "right" to them, because those lies and twisted perspectives reflect what these people want to be true. Many of them never really learn from the consequences caused by their poor choices, no matter how many rounds of cause-and-ill-effects they experience.

My way to handle this is to laugh and shake my head.  If I say anything, it's, "So, this is the latest so-called anti-Christ.  I wonder, who will be the next one."

I don't know how long it will take for me to personalize this blog.  I'm not sure that I really want to put forth much effort to do all that, because all, but one blogging community that I've joined since 2003,  disappeared.  It's very discouraging for me.

I don't have time for much blogging.  I've been too busy writing a screenplay and technical scripts and with creating story boards, graphic illustrations for 3D models, texture files and a little bit of audio files.  All of this is for my first digital 3D animated movie.  I can't give away any details, except that it is a comedy, one intended for a mature (adult) audience, not for kids.

I can also mention that it is an indie production.  I first intended for it to be marketed directly to video.  Then I decided that I ought to prepare it for the big screen for film fests, including Siggraph.  For me, it is not about award-winning competitions, but exposure and an opportunity to sneak in and observe the audience's reactions.

It won't be a solo project, either.  I have some people lined up already to contribute the acting, sound and music.  I realize, the economy doesn't look promising, but I still hope that this becomes a financial success so that I can reciprocate the people involved, even if they've told me that it's all about us offering a hand up in support of each other's creative efforts.  Also, if this is a financial success, I can invest in providing myself a secure foundation and also invest in some causes of great importance to the compassionate side of my heart and mind.