Hey Joe!...the joys of being a Yankee sound-alike.

One of the lesser but still important themes of My Unmade Movie is Anti-Americanism. Anti-Americanism is as pervasive as American culture and American influence EVERYWHERE.
Personally, I have to make a conscious effort to keep mine in check...and therein lies the problem. I at least recognize that it is a problem and not an acceptable norm. How often do people in the outside world, i.e., the actual world that isn't America...and there's a lot of it...how often do those people stop and think, "wait a minute, maybe not all Americans think that way". Presently, a Republican politician, Ron Paul, has dared to suggest that perhaps American foreign policy is to blame for the enmity that showers America from off her shores. To use a great Americanism, "Well duh!", the Brits would call this restating the blinding, bleeding obvious; more succinctly one man's retaliation is the CIA's "blowback". Would it be wildly preposterous to suggest further that Hollywood or at the very least Fox news could just possibly, just occasionally, be producing what someone, somewhere else could rightfully describe as "propaganda"?
Personally I marvel when members of the American public ask, "why do they hate us so much?" Just ask your politicians, if their answer is anything other than "America's bullying foreign policy", then they're lying which of course should come as no surprise. In the outside world we have very little good to say about politicians generally, even if we like them! In the outside world we maintain a healthy skepticism.
It was your founding fathers who so perfectly framed all the basic principles of modern democracy; checks and balances, separation of church and state, and the right to a dissenting opinion; what the hell happened?, what's wrong with you (the) people?

Lewis Black one of my many, many favourite Americans addresses some of these issues, and is, as ever, very complimentary toward Canada. LANGUAGE WARNING!



more about all of this later...

My Privilege

I've been meaning to write for such a long time...and it's not as if nothing much has happened...although that wouldn't be unexpected around here; but if I do say so myself I do have something of a knack for having interesting things happen to and around me in the dreariest of times and places...
e.g. a couple of weeks ago I rather impulsively caved in and panic purchased what is certainly the second last multi-system VCR in Hooterville...possibly the entire world...(they ain't makin' em like that anymore!)...a beautiful Samsung machine which does standards conversion on the fly...anyway, the first thing I dubbed to NTSC VHS and then to DVD was an 8mm off air recording I made almost twenty years ago of an incredible film by an amazing director; I shant say more as it is hoped that this masterpiece may at last be released on DVD within a few months time...
I gave a copy to my friend Josh who promptly e-mailed me a link to the director's website; wherein I read that even the director himself had been unable to obtain a copy from the distributor!
I wrote to this director; as it later transpired so did my friend Josh. I offered to send this gentleman a copy/copies in whatever standard he preferred and received the kindest and most gracious reply...he's a major, though not mainstream, director; one of THE GREATS...took time to write me a nice reply...whereas local media "big shots" can't even return a call or even mouse click to acknowledge receipt of an e-mail. Real class shines through.

What all the fuss is about

I started painting about 10 months ago and at present have five or six unfinished canvases to my credit, not the least of which is this portrait of my darling wife...AKA...the heroine of My Unmade Movie...

Turn Right at Jupiter...'til you get to Saturn...

An early working title for Manila Envelope was inspired by a friend's directions to a cab driver. Jupiter was the name of a street not far from the apt. building where myself and some of my expat work colleagues lived. One morning as I was sharing a cab into work, my friend Rob Nothisrealname., instructed the driver to "turn right at Jupiter", which I loved, but let's face it, it's just too ambiguous.

Gentle Reader,

I've been on holiday for over a week, which has been lovely, but...
I haven't really done much of any of the things that I had planned to do...
like, PAINT!
...or...tidy up this Blog...write a few entries.

Tidy up our flat!...sort crap out; build some shelving.
Get my badly needed eyeglasses.

Lots of things have changed quite considerably of late, in ways that were not immediately obvious...I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that I suddenly feel more secure...but I certainly feel less insecure about our situation than I have for a very long time...maybe ever. Curiously enough we're all working right now; although at this writing only James is at work as this is the first day of Zen's break.
This is also the first real paid holiday I've had in years (as opposed to an unscheduled, unplanned for, sudden cessation of work (like in the God-forsaken animation biz).
I actually like my current job.

I've also realized; as I thought might turn out to be the case; that I've completely let go of any ambitions to ever work in the film biz at any level ever again...how did I ever get so hopelessly sidetracked?...what sheer folly!...of course there's still a part of me that thinks that having reached that level of detachment and cynicism I'm now better equipped to tackle it.
Anything for a quiet life...that has long been my guiding principle.

...but to digress, I have done some painting, and am enjoying playing with my new camera, a Panasonic FZ8, hence the space trip in the Intrepid class Starship Potemkin above.

Even I know that it's not all about M.E.

So much to write about and so much that is so much more important than my stupid Unmade Movie (M.E., Manila Envelope); but then, hey...I had to kick this all off somehow...I had a sense that this would start out one way and little by little become something else...in fact, I was kind of counting on it...

The BIGGEST and Best news is that my son, our son, started his first job today...he should be finished shortly so I'm going to go to pick him up...

I'm with Busey..sort of...

Me and my hopeless dream of making a movie...You and I both know that it's all been done before.
Not long after I left the Philippines, an Australian production company, McElroy & McElroy, (who curiously enough had offices in the same building as Hanna Barbera; where I first worked in Sydney) produced a very fine dramatic mini-series about the People Power Revolution and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino.
Much to my immense frustration it aired in Canada after I resettled in the U.K.
I finally saw it in London in '89, only three years after witnessing some of the real events first hand. I taped it at the time and again in '96 when Channel 4 ran it to mark the tenth anniversary of the revolution.
A couple of years ago I was able to track down an NTSC copy on Amazon.

A Dangerous Life
Director: Robert Markowitz
Writer: David Williamson (teleplay)



The Dynastic Duo
FM and FL*, are brilliantly portrayed by the much too lovely Tessie Tomas and the late great Ruben Rustia, whose performance is also a flawless vocal impression.

*Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady (the Filipinos love their achronyms and abbreviations)

Jake Busey looks so much like his Dad...wouldn't it be great, I thought, in a tangequel kind of way, to have a scene where my protagonist meets Tony O'Neil (this time 'round played by Jake Busey) in the lobby of the Manila Garden Hotel..."You know, Tony O'Neil, he's that muck-raking reporter for that American news channel who's always getting into trouble, yeah, I talked to him at the Garden, he's a really cool guy."

an accident of birth...eh

Oh Can'tada

What does Canada Day mean to me?...I can remember my first July 1st in Australia...working at Hanna Barbera and thinking Thank God I 'm not in Canada...