I really enjoyed Robert Wuhl’s ASSUME THE POSITION 101 and his follow up 201 where he sheds light on many history lessons we were taught that weren’t all true.
He truly makes history class fun. He compares the popular figures of yesteryear to today’s pop culture celebrities. For example, he said author Washington Irving was like Stephen King, Steven Tyler and Steven Spielberg all rolled into one because books were everything back then. He then proceeds to show how Irving’s books about Christopher Columbus gave birth to false legends that became historical facts. He shows several other things that we’ve all been taught as fact that weren’t true.

Assume the Position 101 followwed by Assume The Position 201

I am so thrilled that the beautiful and talented Laura Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. She wrote so many classic songs such as “Wedding Bell Blues”, “And When I Die” and “Stoney End” and she was such a powerfully soulful performer too. This was long overdue to say the least.
Laura died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in 1997, far too soon but thankfully she left us so many great songs from her heart and soul.

Here’s Laura singing “Stoney End”

In this information age replete with data overload and this TMI generation, the fine art of mystery and all its glory and power has all but been extinguished. In the past, we were intrigued and fascinated with mythic figures such as movie stars, professional athletes and such because we knew so little about them. Now we know WAY too much about EVERYONE and thus there went the magic.

Some will say this is a good thing…knowledge and information can only be a good thing but sometimes I wonder if that is true in all cases, especially when it comes to escapism with our movie stars and athletes. Do we really need to know how much money they make per inning or per movie? Also, do we really need to know that so and so is a bad tipper or was a bed-wetter?

Overexposure only hurts your “brand” as in the case of J.Lo who is EVERYWHERE…OK so she has a new album out, do your video and guest appearances on all the talk shows to push it but to be on national TV every week on American Idol and perform it there too and debut the video too? Then push your clothing line and perfume and pet day care service (OK I made that one up but don’t be surprised it comes next!) They think it’s promoting their work but it backfires a lot in most cases. Less is more. Give us back the mystery and you’ll get more interest and attention.

Which movies do you think portrays certain cultures better than others?
For example…
My Big Fat Greek Wedding does a good job for Greek families
Bend it Like Beckham does well for Indian culture (especially in England)
Goodfellas depicts the Italian experience well…ok a particular element of course…same with the Godfather series. For the family culture I would pickMoonstruck
The Commitments is my favorite film about the Irish experience but what do I know LOL. +Noeleen McGrath might pick The Wind that shakes the Barley…but that was such a downer.
The Joy Luck Club is a gem for capturing Chinese culture and history within the family dynamic, especially with mothers and daughters.
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a delightful look at being British.
Muriel’s Wedding makes you want to be an Aussie!

What are some other good and bad examples?

There seems to be a new trend for services that want to focus on establishing small private social networks, which I call MicroNetworks. This new breed of social networks are providing a private platform for people to connect with another person instead of large groups of people as on the regular social networks like Facebook and Google Plus. When Twitter first came out it was called a MicroBlog because of its abbreviated 140 characters. Well, these new services are built for those who believe less is more. Here are some of the MicroNetworks for one on one connections.

Pair is the latest entry in this one on one MicroNetwork genre. They let couples communicate via an app and it saves everything to document their relationship. Wondering what happens when couple breakup. Here’s a review that covers the thumb kissing feature.

Between is an app that creates a private universe online for lovers. VentureBeat covers it here.

OurSpot focuses more on the events, locations and memories that couples share.

So what do you think? Will these hyper-personal MicroNetworks stick around? Will people use such services and apps?

I’m a lifelong Yankee fan so I’ve experienced many World Series championships over the years (seven so far) but I would love to see the Chicago Cubs win it all someday in my lifetime. I think it’s possible since the evil Boston Red Sox proved that you can break a long drought of losing which they did in 2004 and 2007, the first championships since 1918. The Cubs have come close a few times over the years, perhaps their two best teams being the Ryne Sandberg 1984 team which lost in a close National League Championship Series to the San Diego Padres and the 2003 team that lost to the Florida Marlins that won it all. That was the series where the fan interfered with a foul ball.

I love this commercial for MLB 2012 which shows Cub fans enjoying a World Series title. It’s such a wonderful spot and totally moved me. I really wish Cub fans can experience this euphoria someday soon. There are some funny parts too like the guy who cuts his long beard.

I was pleasantly surprised when I decided to visit www.Celtx.com tonight and discovered their whole new website and platform. It’s always been the best writing tool for screenwriters with its free desktop application but now they’ve built a very useful writing desk in the cloud. They now offer all of the features that came with its premium account for free which includes the ability to share projects with others for collaborations. They plan to release premium plans again in the future that offer more bells and whistles such as more disk space but this free account is very impressive. checkout what it includes:

Controlled Sharing

• Share with any partner
• Your files cannot be re-shared by partners

Project and File Backup

Access every saved version

Personal Storage Space

• 2GB

Script Editing

• Write scripts in the cloud

Activity Stream

• Add comments and feedback to project and file updates

Mobile and Desktop Support

• Sync projects and always work off the latest version

Note: They also have mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. 

Summary

I am very excited about the new and much improved Celtx! I love that they’ve gone full throttle with the cloud and allow writers to collaborate for free now. I guess they realized that most writers were using existing online services like GoogleDocs and Microsoft’s Live Office (SkyDrive) platforms to collaborate so this was a smart move on their part. Their writing platform is second to none with just about everything you need to write screenplays, plays and even novels.

There was a lot of hype over the movie DRIVE starring Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks so I was looking forward to seeing it. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised over the fact that it was even better than I thought it would be. The music and the mood and the direction and acting were all amazing.
The director knew exactly when to do slow motion sequences and they used the perfect music for scenes.
Critics make references to Steve McQueen’s classic movie Bullitt and there are some similarities but I see more with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro as the driver. Both involve a dead inside loaner who deals with bloody violence to save a girl (in the case of Drive it’s a girl and her son).
Albert Brooks has always been one of my favorite actors, writers, directors so it was a true revelation to see him in the role he played here. He was amazing to say the least. He deservedly was nominated by a Golden Globe award but it’s a crime that he and Gosling were snubbed by the Academy. Each should have been nominated for acting Oscars and the director deserved a nod as well as the movie itself for Best Picture.

Opening credits

Showing the driver does best

Nice scenes showing the good sides of the driver

The elevator scene with the haunting “Under Your Spell” track

NightCall track with scenes from the movie

Love the song “A Real Hero” which was used at the end

Here’s the ending of the movie so don’t watch this if you plan to see it

Here’s a gift for all my fellow movie lovers out there. I created a checklist for all Best Picture Oscar winners that you can download and use. It includes the formula for figuring out what percentage you’ve seen thus far of the 83 winners. (I’ve only seen 42 of them). There will be a new winner by Sunday night (most likely it will be The Artist but The Help and The Descendants have a slim chance of upsetting it).

Note: you can upload it to your Google Docs or use it in Excel for mac or windows.
Right click the file and select download from here: http://bit.ly/paipublic

Here’s an excellent list of every winner and nominee in history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture#Winners_and_nominees

Reckless is one of my favorite underrated movies. Starred a young Daryl Hannah and Aidan Quinn just before they both made it big the next year in 1985: he broke through with Desperately Seeking Susan and she made a big SPLASH with Tom Hanks.
He was like a James Dean in this role… Written by Chris Columbus who wrote Gremlins that same year. James Foley Directed (he later did Glengarry Glen Ross)

The beginning

This scene is so cool as he hates the music they’re playing at the dance and changes it to fit his style.

The swimming pool scene with great song, Kim Wilde’s Kids in America

Here’s the ending. I love the use of “Roll me away” by Bob Segar as they ride away…. chilling..