Sleepless in Midland

Aggie Jokes in the Inbox

Two Aggie hunters from College Station, got a pilot to fly them to Canada to hunt moose. They bagged six.

As they started loading the plane for the return trip, the pilot said the plane could take only four moose.

The two Aggies objected strongly.

"Last year we shot six, and the pilot let us put them all on board; he had the same plane as yours."  Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded.

However, even on full power, the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down a few moments after take-off.

Climbing out of the wreck one Aggie asked the other, "Any idea where we are?"

"Yeah, I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year."

(Thanks Bruce.)

Accidental police gun discharge - San Antonio

Roughly one year ago I put an entry in the Guns category of this weblog titled Are Glock handguns safe?  The penultimate paragraph said this:

So as an exercise, just watch the news for items about accidental discharges of police officers' handguns.  They don't happen too often, but when they do you'll notice a trend.  Odds are it will have involved a Glock.

Are you ready for this?  Last week in San Antonio a police officer's handgun accidentally discharged.  Here's the Associated Press article about it: 

SAN ANTONIO Apr 21, 2005 — This is one story they'll be telling around the San Antonio Police Department for a long time. An off-duty officer was at a San Antonio auto auction house yesterday when nature called, a police spokesman said.

Officer Craig Clancy strolled to the appropriate facility and was lowering his trousers when his pistol fell from his waistband. When Clancy fumbled for the falling firearm, it went off, twice.

One of the bullets nicked a bit of floor tile into the leg of a man who was washing his hands nearby. That man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Police internal affairs [department] is investigating.

What kind of gun was it?  KSAT called it a "service revolver."  But, that had to be wrong.  The phrase "service revolver" is left over from the days of "Andy of Mayberry," and it would be a rare, and probably very old, police officer who carries a revolver today.  The San Antonio Police Department Armory website says that all SAPD cadets must qualify with a Glock 22, and the captions on the photos on the page say that the Glock 22 is the issue gun and that the Glock 27 is approved for off duty usage.  The website has an email link, and one week ago I emailed a query as to the make of the gun involved in the accidental discharge.  As of today, still no reply.  But I'm 95% sure that it was a Glock.

Here's the problem.  There's no manual safety, and there's no grip safety on a Glock.  They are made specifically to minimize the time between the first touch of the hand the discharge of the bullet.  Police officers and lot of civilian shooters love them for that very reason.  And they are very popular in IDPA competition.

The Glock internal safety prevents it from discharging when it is dropped, and the only way it should discharge is by pulling the trigger.  But the trigger is so easy to pull.  In a Glock pistol, the striker is 2/3 retracted by the cycling action of the pistol so that when the trigger is pulled it retracts the striker the final 1/3 of its movement and then releases the striker which fires the pistol.  [ Source. ]   So those who want to compare it to a revolver should keep in mind that it's more like a cocked revolver.

The San Antonio officer, according to the story, dropped the handgun then tried to catch it.  And that's when the trouble began.  While fumbling with it either his finger or thumb pulled the trigger.  Something similar happened at the Midland Police Department range two years ago, however in that case the bullet struck the officer's other hand.

There's an instinctual response to try to catch something that's dropped.  And some handgun competition rules even seem to encourage that by disqualifying a competitor who drops a loaded firearm, e.g., International Defense Pistol Association Rules.  But Glock owners need to learn that if the handgun is dropped they should just let it fall to the ground and face whatever consequences that might bring rather than risk a discharge by fumbling for it.

New Shooters, Use Something Other Than a Glock

If I didn't know it before the article of a year ago, I certainly know it now.  Glock owners are very passionate about their Glocks.  I think they probably tell themselves something like this: "Sure, an accident can happen, but it won't happen to me."  Okay, you win.  I know I'm not going to dissuade Glock owners.  But, please be very careful.  And when you are talking about handguns to new shooters, please be aware there are other handguns out there that have more built in safety features, and a new shooter is better off with something other than a Glock.  With an unforgiving handgun like a Glock accidents happen even to the most experienced shooter.  Just ask that San Antonio police officer.

Another Accidental Glock  Discharge

In an unrelated matter, Minute of Angle has an item about a DEA agent conducting a gun safety demonstration for a class of school kids in Orlando, FL.

The agent holds up his handgun, removes the magazine and says "I'm the only one in this room that I know of professional enough to carry a Glock 40."  And then KA-BLAM!  He accidentally shot himself in the leg with the bullet that was left in the chamber.  That was simply a dumb mistake.  But wouldn't you know it?  It was a Glock.  And that was an excellent demonstration of how easy they are to shoot.  If the handgun had a simple external safety lever then the accident probably wouldn't have happened.

Minute of Angle provides a link where you can watch the video in WMV of the incident.  It's priceless!  The poor guy is obviously wounded, but it's hard not to chuckle as he tries to carry on as if it's no big deal.  And the kids!  They're practically in full panic mode when he reaches for a long gun.  Via Lone Star Times.

Update:  See related entry of 11/30/05 titled Glock handguns -- another accidental discharge.

Test Your IQ

Well, I'm not as smart as I thought.  I only got eight out of 11 correct.  But if I had the inclination to do some research I might dispute one of those.  Here's what it predicts for my future:

Your Score: 8 out of 11
Your Rating: Honor Student.

Now Here's the Twist;
Your answers not only can tell your current intelligence,
but the combination can also forcast your upcoming love life:
Your Projected Love Life: Not Bad! Expect your love life to bloom soon!

Does that take any effort on my part our should I just sit here and wait for it to happen?  Test your own IQ at Monday Morning Test.  Thanks Gene and Anna.

Independent Movies - getting the product to the customers

The The Desert Reel Film Festival reached its conclusion Sunday afternoon, and it was an enlightening event packed full of independently made movies, documentaries, music videos and shorts.  Occasionally an independently made movie will hit it big, like "Sideways," but otherwise the indies just don't make it to very many theaters anywhere.  Those of us who live out here in West Texas don't get the opportunity to see independent movies except for festivals such as the one just concluded.

And that's a big problem for the independent film makers.  Some of them make the festival circuit trying to get noticed, but the goal for most of them is to get picked up by a distributor who will give them some exposure.  (Actually, if someone is looking to get into the movie business and doesn't need to be in the spotlight then the distribution side of the industry seems to be where the demand exceeds the supply.)

But there's something to look forward to.  We are in a new century now, and the internet has changed the way that many of us get information.  Currently the download time makes it impractical to download a full length movie, but that hasn't stopping some movie makers.

Here's an example.  One of the short movies (45 minutes) shown at the Desert Reel Film Festival was "Cypress," a movie about a couple who stumble onto an unbelievably low priced house in Odessa, Tx.  It was a story that could have been written by modern day Edgar Allen Poe, so there was eventually a price to pay.  It was made by 6 Bored Guys of Clovis, NM., and you can download the entire movie for free at CypressTheMovie.com.

Here's another example I stumbled upon:  Star Wars Revelations.  Some Star Wars fans made this movie which is available free to the public.  It has a run time of 47 minutes in either QuickTime 5 or Windows Media Player, but the download is a whopping 230 to 260 MB.

Perhaps someday there will be high speed download technology available so that anyone with an internet connection can download a full length movie in a minimum amount of time for a nominal fee.  And when that happens then there will be a whole new audience for independent movies.  But until then there are always the film festivals.

Desert Reel Film Festival - Conclusion

It's a wrap!  The The Desert Reel Film Festival had a very successful run this weekend, and the audiences saw a full range of independent films.  (I guess they are still called "films" even though most movie makers don't actually use film anymore.)

But it was a wonderful experience, and I'm still amazed that there are people making movies all over the country, not just Hollywood.  And some of those talented people are right here in the Permian Basin.

The Desert Reel Film Festival came off without a hitch.  And a huge tip of the hat should go to the co-chairs of the event, Chad Durham and Melanie Nicholas - they are the people you see in the photographs.  It must have been a tremendous amount of work for them, and they were volunteers.  So it was one of those jobs where the only reward was the satisfaction of having done such a wonderful job and having entertained so many folks.

And the theaters were great.  Some of the movies were shown in the Yucca Theatre in Midland which is an old movie theater that has been restored to its early splendor.  And on Saturday and Sunday the films were shown at the Ector Theatre in Odessa, another fine old theater that has been brought back to life.  The sight of the Ector at night is a sight to behold.

So thanks, Melanie and Chad.  It was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Desert Reel - Saturday at the movies

The Desert Reel Film Festival continued with screening of more films, some of them locally made, on Saturday at the Ector Theatre in Odessa, Texas.

"The Mind's Eye"

"Visualized, realized and finalized by Rick Owens."  So said the film credits, and the entire audience stayed in their seats until the last credit had rolled across the screen as we all wanted to see the names of the local people we recognized on the big screen.

Owens, who wrote and directed "The Mind's Eye," is a very resourceful and ambitious local film maker.  The film had some stunningly photography, too.  One shot of the pagoda at Beal Park in Midland had such beauty that it could take one's breath away.

The movie is about a woman who discovered her mother's body when she was eleven years old.  She developed a software program to record the dreams she has had about it so that perhaps she might be able to make some sense of it all.  The movie turns into a murder mystery which isn't solved until the end.

Caleb Brandon is an actor in the movie, and he was notable in the beginning for his stiffness.  They really have to scrape to come up with actors who will work for free, I thought.  Boy, was I wrong!  As the story progressed, Brandon really started to shine.  He goes through a transformation on screen that made all of us in the audience sit up and take notice.

"The Mind's Eye" certainly showed that director Rick Owens has some movie making potential.

Links:  The Mind's Eye website and the IMDB page for the movie.

"Unnoticed"

Another locally made movie shown at the festival was Unnoticed, directed by David Sean Stringer.  It's got government assassins, good guys and gals, bad guys and gals, preachers, intrigue, betrayal, the Midland Police Swat team, and an outdoor baptism.   You can find an excellent review of the movie at Bull Durham's Hot Corner.

"An Evening with Larry Breeze"

Larry Breeze is a jazz pianist who is the subject of the 33 minute documentary produced by Jeffrey R. Johnson.  Mr. Breeze himself can be heard playing the piano at Hemingway's in Midland on Thursday evenings.  Be forewarned.  Producer Johnson described Hemingway's as a cigar bar, so take a deep breath before going in.

Links:  "An Evening with Larry Breeze" at El Jefe Productions.

"Dirt"

The comedy "Dirt" cost around $300,000, and that's an astronomical sum compared with the budgets of the other movies shown at the festival.  And "Dirt" was actually shown on film which is apparently somewhat rare these days as most movies are shot digitally.

"Dirt" was filmed near Sanderson, Texas, but it had an out-of-town flavor to it.  For example, the West Texas accents didn't sound quite right.  Perhaps those were the accents that actors learn from the Hollywood accent coaches.  And the movie played heavily on what could be Texas stereotypes elsewhere, you know, trailer houses, evil sheriffs, dumb guys, dumb gals, toddlers in diapers with loaded handguns, etc.  The sort of things that might follow "you might be a redneck if ..."

The story was written and co-directed by Michael Covert who was in attendance at the screening.  He starred in the movie along with the co-director Tracy Fraim.  Patrick Warburton, best known for his role as Puddy on "Seinfeld" and perhaps less well known as "The Tick," played a brutal small town sheriff.

Mr. Covert said in the Q&A session that independent film maker's life is not for him as he prefers the knowhow available at the major studios.  But he observed that the expense of filming for seven weeks in West Texas was about the same as filming one day in Los Angeles.

Mr. Covert admitted that his native New Yorker wife, who accompanied him on the trip to Odessa, went into a Wal-Mart store Saturday for the first time in her life.  Bless her heart, the poor dear.  She'll probably have to get therapy after that experience.

But the movie had an important lesson to teach us.  If you're a redneck brawler who has never refused a fight, you can turn your life around by adopting the teachings of Gandhi.  And if after you've done that and you get beaten up by a monstrous bully, then a native American might come along and save your bacon, and you might end up with a gorgeous gal pal.

Links:  An interview with Michael Covert can be found at Filmbrats.com; here's the official  DirtTheMovie.com website; and here's the "Dirt" page at IMDB.

Desert Reel Film Festival - Friday Night at the Movies

The Yucca Theatre

The Desert Reel Film Festival continued Friday night with two full length movies and some shorts at the Yucca Theatre in Midland, Texas.

The inside of the Yucca Theatre is something you have to see to believe -- words alone simply cannot convey the scene.  It's a movie theater from the old days restored to its original look  with ornate decorations all over the walls and ceiling, and it has been refitted with chairs and tables to provide a cabaret type environment. The acoustics are terrible, but that's the trade off for such an elaborate interior.

"Happy Hour"

Last night the first movie up was Happy Hour staring Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz and Caroleen Feeney.  It's a comedy that demonstrates the funny side of bad jobs, good friends, and death by alcoholism.  The cost of the film was $1.2 million to date, so it was a low budget film by modern day big movie budget standards.

"Kicking Bird" - a movie filmed on the cheap

But talk about low budget!  Get a load of Kicking Bird.  It was literally filmed on a shoestring.  Director, producer and writer Kelley Baker was there for a Q&A, and he described raising the money for the movie.  He figured that he would need $10,000 to make the movie, and he mailed out requests to 100 friends for $100 each.  He got in only $4,900, so he came up with $1,000 of his own money to make the movie.

Kelley Baker is the quintessential guerilla marketer, a technique he teaches to aspiring film makers at workshops such as the one Desert Reel is putting on.  And he is very passionate about the subject.  His story brings to mind scenes from the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter" in which Loretta Lynn and her husband drove from town to town trying to get her records played on local radio stations.   Mr. Baker is going from film festival to film festival peddling his movies and other merchandise.  And he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it.

The way Mr. Baker described it, "Kicking Bird" was really done on the cheap.  Most of the services were donated and the equipment was borrowed.  The biggest expense was food for the cast and crew.

The movie is about a high school kid who is picked on by the jocks, if they can catch him.  But he turns out to be a very fast runner.  The track coach spies him running away from some bullies who happen to be the coach's best runners, so the coach recruits him for the track team.  But the coach has an ulterior motive -- he's really looking to hitch his wagon to a track star so he can bargain his way into a job at the college level.

Mr. Baker described how he called schools to get permission to use their campuses for filming, and results varied.  One of them wanted a payment exceeding Mr. Baker's entire budget for the film, but he didn't let that stop him.  He figured that he could just slip his film crew onto a school campus sometime when no one was looking.  He discovered that the ideal time to do that was on a weekend before a holiday, and so he would do hit and run filming and get away before anyone could muster up a complaint.

The result was "Kicking Bird," and it's obvious that Mr. Kelley loves his work.

To read more about Mr. Baker or "Kicking Bird" here are some sources:   an interview with Kelley Baker about his movie an be found at RunningMovies.com; IMDB has a page on "Kicking Bird;" and Kelley Baker's own Kicking Bird site provides more info.

The festival continues with more movies today and tomorrow at the Ector Theatre in Odessa.

Desert Reel Panel Discussion

Last night the Desert Reel Film Festival kicked off with a panel discussion among the guest panelists: movie producer Joe McSpadden, film editor Jon Alvord, film maker Kelley Baker, Channel 9 anchor person Stephanie Rivas and film maker David Parks.

One of the questions asked of the panel was whether they got more gratification from the actual process of producing their art or from the fame and recognition they might have obtained from their being in the movie making business.  Joe McSpadden had an answer for that.  There should have been a third choice, he said, and that would be the gratification one gets from entertaining and influencing other people.  Great answer.

Jon Alvord came from a long lineage of lawyers, but he became a film editor.  He told a story that, if true, gives us a pretty cynical vision of Hollywood.  It could be just an urban legend, but he said that someone took the script of "Casablanca" and changed the name of the movie as well as all of the characters names.  Then they submitted the new script to the Hollywood studios.  All of them rejected it.  Any wonder why these panelists are so fond of independent films?

Kelley Baker was a car salesman's kid who went to the U.S.C. film school.  Mr. Baker, who believes that people are taking films too seriously, said that the Orson Wells movie "Touch of Evil" was one of his favorites.  Well, if you say so, Mr. Baker.  But maybe one has to get a U.S.C. film school education to be able to reach that conclusion.

As the old saying goes, an expert is someone who drove more than 50 miles to get here.  So at first blush local tv news anchor Stephanie Rivas seemed a little bit out of place on the panel.  But she really showed us that she belonged.  She told a touching story about her original career objective:  she wanted to be a teacher.  She idolized her teachers when she was in school.  They were her role models.   But she ended up as a newscaster, and now she is approached by young girls who look to her as a role model.  You're a good example, Stephanie, keep up the good work.

A native of California, David Parks was born into the business much like some  who were raised in West Texas might have followed in our dads' foot steps.  Mr. Parks got kicked out of school and went to work for his cinematographer dad on the making of  the movie "Walk on the Wild Side."  He continued working with his dad who helped put together the team who made the movie "Shaft," "Superfly" and several others of that genre.  Mr. Parks has been in the movie business ever since.

The panelists certainly gave us an enlightening evening.  Their enjoyment of their work in the movie making business was almost contagious.  They made it sound so easy.  And out here in West Texas the only way to see the results of a hard working independent film maker is at the Desert Reel Film Festival where movies start tonight and finish on Sunday.  See you at the movies.

----------------------------

Notes from the cheap seats:  The panel discussion was free to anyone who wanted to attend.  And it took place in an arena style lecture hall at the Midland College ATC building.  I sat on the back row, and someone came in late and sat down in the seat beside me.  That person began taking notes and appeared to try to read what I had written in my own notes.  My hand writing is practically illegible, even to me, so the person began asking me questions about who was that panelist and what did that one just say, etc.  We were in a school lecture hall, and for a brief moment I felt as if I were back in high school and had done the homework but the person sitting next to me hadn't.  But, that's okay.  It isn't a competition.  It turned out that the person sitting next to me was a reporter for the local newspaper who was doing a drive-by reporting so as not to miss another event that evening.  So be sure to check out Saturday's edition of the Midland Reporter-Telegram for an article about this panel discussion.  But don't compare notes.  It's sure to be a better article than this one.

Updated 4/23/05, 8:20 a.m.:  Here's a link to the Midland Reporter-Telegram article.

A Journalists' Shield Law in Texas - What About Bloggers?

Rodney Ellis of Houston has sponsored a bill in the Texas Senate that will create a privilege for "journalists" in the event they are called upon to testify.  Senate Bill no. 604 has gotten out of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee with some changes, and it basically says that a journalist doesn't have to testify about any information he/she got while acting as a journalist.

But there are a couple of exceptions.  First, a journalist will have to testify if the person who wants that testimony can prove that the testimony is relevant, material and essential to his/her claim or defense.  In other words, a journalist must testify if the person who wants that testimony can prove that it's necessary to make the case.  The original version said that the party wanting the testimony also had to prove that the information could not be obtained through alternate sources, but that line was eliminated by the Jurisprudence Committee over Rodney Ellis' objection.

And there's another very important common sense exception.  If the journalist is an eyewitness or if he/she participates in the crime or tortious conduct then the privileged goes out the window.

The new version doesn't sound all that bad for either side, however the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, as of April 16, still opposed it.

But there's another group out there that doesn't get attention.  A question for the Texas blogosphere is whether bloggers are covered.  Should bloggers be covered?  There are those who say "no."  In an article by Josh Gerstein in the NY Sun, there's this:

An attorney for the Texas Broadcasters' Association, Paul Watler, said he doesn't see bloggers posing much of an obstacle to press shield laws. "You can look at the function journalists fulfill and distinguish it from what a blogger does," he said.

Mr. Watler pointed out that most bloggers comment on facts reported by others. "I think there's a distinction in how they go about gathering information," he said.  [Emphasis added.]

Mr. Watler seems to be saying that bloggers don't need to be covered, and it is hard to imagine a case in which a blogger would be called upon to testify about comments the blogger made about facts reported by others.  But "most" is not synonymous with "all."  There are blog that actually do collect and report original material, and you are reading one of those blogs right now.

It's going to be up to judicial discretion whether a blogger would qualify for the privilege under the proposed law, because any blogger who wants to claim the privilege will have to be able to convince a judge that he/she is a "journalist" working on behalf of a "news medium" as those terms are defined by the pending statute:

"Journalist" means a person, or an employee, independent contractor, or agent of that person, engaged in the business of gathering, compiling, writing, editing, photographing, recording, or processing information for dissemination by any news medium.

"News medium" means a person who in the ordinary course of business publishes, broadcasts, or otherwise disseminates news by print, television, radio, or other electronic means accessible to the public.

It would be hard for most bloggers to meet the definition of "news medium" because, for whatever reason we might have for doing it, it probably isn't a "business."  Main stream media is carving out a privilege for themselves.  And they want to be the exclusive beneficiary of that privilege.  Jonah Goldberg, addressing the jailing of the reporters in the case of the outed CIA employee, Valerie Plame, summed it up nicely:

What's particularly ironic is that the big-media lawyers fear the courts will allow a blanket shield for journalists because there's no way to exclude one-man-band web journalists — bloggers — from the new right. And what's the point of giving the nobility a new privilege if any peasant can take advantage of it, too?

By lobbying for legislation which would make it tough for a blogger to claim the privilege then main stream media are acting very elitist.

"Unnoticed," the Movie

One of the independent films scheduled for showing this weekend at the Desert Reel Film Festival is Unnoticed, a movie filmed in and around Midland and Marathon, Texas.

The fellow on the right of the movie poster in the photo is Sean Stringer, the director, and the one on the left is General Echols, the producer.  I never really knew for sure what exactly a producer does, so I asked him.  He chuckled and said a producer raises the money.  Oh.  That sounds like a very important job.

Movie critic and blogger Chad Durham has a review of the movie at his site.   Here are some key excerpts:

It tells the story of Bravo 1/Russ (Steve Hinshaw), a black ops soldier assigned to take down a terrorist threat in the Southwest Texas desert terrain somewhere along the Mexican border.  Or so he has been told.  Jericho (Jennifer Hart) is calling all the shots via satellite back in Eastern Europe and she fully intends to make Russ her patsy.  She orders Bravo 2 (David Dunn) to eliminate the threat posed by [Russ's] apparent disregard for orders. ...

Unnoticed is a high-concept, fast-paced action flick with a shocking conspiratorial plot, ...

The pacing is simply phenomenal.  There's little doubt in this critic's mind that Stringer has what it takes to become a big-time filmmaker.

Click Bull Durham's review to read the rest of his review.  And to view the movie trailer go to the "Unnoticed" movie  website.  It looks as if it's going to be a fabulous movie.  But what makes the movie really intriguing is that it was filmed locally and has a lot of local people are in it.

The folks who are putting on the Desert Reel Film Festival have really got some interesting things lined up for us.  Unnoticed is scheduled for showing this Saturday, April 23rd, at 4pm at the Ector Theatre in Odessa, Texas.

As Joe Bob Briggs would undoubtedly say, "check it out."

Pop That Bubble Wrap

You don't have to be Adrian Monk to get some pleasure out of popping bubble wrap.  At  Bubble Wrap Popping Machine you can try to pop all the bubble wrap bubbles on a sheet within a set time.  The unadvertised benefit is that after doing this a while you'll find out whether or not you have carpal tunnel syndrome.  Via here's my byline.

"The Mind's Eye," the movie

Julia Ramsey has a dream machine.  Actually it's a software program that she developed to record her dreams.  And dream she does!  She's had haunting dreams since that time in her childhood when she discovered the dead body of her mother.

There are a couple of full length locally made indie films scheduled for showing at the Desert Reel Film Festival, and The Mind's Eye is one of them.  There's a description of the movie at the Elevated Films website where we get this appetizer:  "The full power of the computer has been finally realized, and Julia has discovered that dreams can and will be deadly."  Sounds tantalizing.

I believe there has been only one official showing of the film, and that was a screening  for the key people involved in the filming.  A short review of The Mind's Eye can be found at the Basin Film Society forum.

IMDB has a page set up for it, but so far the only information available there is the list of characters and the actors who portray them.  The movie director is Rick Owens -- he's the guy in the spotlight in the photo -- and many local people had parts in the movie.

The movie is scheduled for showing at 1:30 p.m. at the Ector Theatre in Odessa, Texas, on Saturday, April 23, 2005, as part of the Desert Reel Film Festival.

As Joe Bob would probably say, "check it out."

Workshops at the Desert Reel Film Festival

As West Texas residents probably know by now, the Desert Reel Film Festival is scheduled to begin next week.  The event kicks off with a free panel discussion beginning at 7:00 p.m. on April 21, 2005, at the Advanced Technology Center in Midland.  Then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they've got films.  Lots and lots of films.  Here's a link to the event schedule.

And there will be workshops to help interested people learn more about the independent film business.  Here's a quote about the workshops from one of the organizers, Melanie Nicholas, in the  Midland Reporter-Telegram:

"We will do six this year that are focused on film-making basics or industry basics for beginning to intermediate film makers," Nicholas said. "We have lighting, guerilla marketing and self-distribution of your film, writing for films and television, how to be a lean, mean 'green' machine, acting and editing."

One of the big questions I have is this:  How does someone way out here in flyover country go about marketing an indie film once it's made?  Each film maker has probably come up with his/her own method, but one of the six workshops will address just that topic:  "Guerilla Marketing and Self Distribution of Your Film".

Here's a link to a rundown of all of the workshops at Bull Durham's Hot Corner.

A hotdog at the Rockhounds game - would Peta complain?

You know, the Midland Rockhounds could pull off a cute PR stunt by calling their hotdogs "Hound Dogs."

Oh wait.  Then Peta would be all over them.  I actually met a dues paying Peta member a few years ago.  Maybe she was at the Peta group demonstration at the KFC in Brownsville, Tx., the other day when the manager turned the sprinkler on them.  Source:  Valley Morning Star.  Via:  Jackson's Junction.

So the Peta lady says to me, "It's pet-uh," correcting my pronunciation.  I called it "peet-uh," but according to her, the first syllable is "pet" as in "I love my pet snail darter."

Well, Peta's image could certainly use a make-over.  But for me, it will always be Peet-uh.

As for the Rockhounds.  They beat up on the San Antonio Missions last night with a score of 7 to 2.  Good show, guys!

Updated 4/17/05:  Stewart Doreen, writing in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, hit on one of the design problems with the ball park here in Midland.  The home plate should be somewhere out there where the right field fence is.  The prevailing breezes come from the South and Southwest -- right down first base toward home plate.  And Friday evening it was the 20 mph wind that was on steroids.  That made it pretty tough to sock one over that right field fence, although one did get close.

Preparing for Terrorism

Last week area governmental agencies participated in a simulated scenario to test the limits of their ability to respond to multiple events. The group was trained to manage disasters such as terrorist attacks, and the objective for the participants was to determine what resources were available and how to secure and manage them.

[The original entry has been deleted per request.]

The Movie Business in Midland (part 2)

Bull Durham has a very informative update on the goings on with the local movie making business.

Also, check out this article about how to write screenplays written by one of our local movie makers, Jeffrey Johnson.

Oh yeah.  Don't forget the Desert Reel Film Festival in Midland and Odessa starts Thursday, April 21, 2005.

Sunday Afternoon Games

Here are a couple of Flash games that are worth a try.

First, there's Match Practice, a golf putting game.  Note:  it's a real challenge.  (Thanks to Don H. for the pointer.)

Next, there's TrackMania Sunrise in which the goal is to keep the speed of the car within the range marked on the speedometer so that the car can jump the water.  If the speed is out of that range when the car reaches the ramp then it won't be a successful jump.  (Via A Welsh View.)

Incoming

A first hand report about the WMD disaster training this past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Midland involving scores of city responders - check back Monday.

Hill Country Bluebonnet Update

Reports from the field suggest that this year's Hill Country Bluebonnet crop isn't as good as it might have been.  It's possible that everyone is using that crop of a few years back as the new standard, and if that's so, it's going to be hard to find anything that measures up.

In any event, here are some links to sites that provide flavor, photos and commentary.

Commentary and observations can be found at Wildflower Sightings.  More observations and some photos can be found in the forum at WildflowerHaven Community.   And, here's a link to the photo section at WildflowerHaven Community where you can see some very nice photographs.

Eric Jay Hammock: 5/20/1961 - 4/3/2005, R.I.P.

I'm usually a supporter of the police.  But, that support really gets strained when one of their members kills a friend.  Actually, I met Eric Hammock only once through one of his relatives, so I can't really call myself a friend.  But, he struck me as a very likeable fellow and not one to pick fights.

The funeral service today was a pretty good mixture of grief and disbelief.  It was a church funeral so there was much reference to religion as a possible source of answers to the unanswerable.  The slide show put tears in a lot of eyes.  And, one of the preachers summed it up nicely by describing the family's experience as a kick in the chest.

Here's the story, as reported by Ryan Myers in the Midland Reporter-Telegram [bad link, sorry].  Eric Hammock was driving back to his home in Midland after visiting his sister in Arkansas.  In Fort Worth, he was alleged to have driven into and out of an area guarded by an off duty police officer.  The off duty officer chased him in his personal vehicle and apparently caused Eric to stop his car and begin running on foot.  The off duty officer caught up with him and struggled with Eric.  Apparently, some other officers arrived and someone shot him multiple time with a Taser.  And, according to the article "Hammock was stunned at least once more by a different officer using his Tazer [sic] in stun mode, which requires touching the device to the subject..."  The result of all of this was Eric's death.

Where should we start?  Was the off duty police officer in uniform?  What efforts did he make to try to convince Eric that he was a police officer?  When civilians are confronted by non-uniformed individuals in Fort Worth claiming to be police officers who want to put us in hand cuffs, what the heck are we supposed to do?  Don't look to the Fort Worth Police Department for an answer to that last one.

Since the off duty officer was using his personal vehicle then we can assume that there is no video tape recording of this incident.  And, here's an interesting quote from Mr. Myers' article:  "[Lt. Dean Sullivan, spokesman for the FWPD] said Hammock was not within the waste treatment facility long enough to steal any property."  So, here we are left with a bunch of unanswered questions.

Then there's the Taser.  Goodness gracious.  How many deaths have to occur before this particular invention will cease to be sold as a "non-lethal weapon?"  Check out this quote from Mr. Myers article "[Sullivan] noted this is the second death to occur in police custody following the use of a Tazer [sic] gun."

Of course we can't judge all police officers by the actions of one or even a few.  In most cases they are well intentioned people who sincerely want to help others.

But, this whole thing was indeed a kick in the chest.

Local Casting Call for 4/16/05 in Midland

The other day I posted an item about the Movie Business in Midland.  Well, the local film company Elevated Films has a movie in the works right now.  And, they plan to have an audition in Midland for support roles and extras for the movie Wide Open to take place on April 16 beginning at 2:00 pm.

Elevated Films has an Audition link at their website, but the best source of details about the audition is at Bull Durham's Hot Corner.

See you in the movies.

Spring Forward - Fall Down

This week-end we will once again be forced to reset our clocks.  Is "forced" too strong a word?  Probably.  No one is putting a gun to our heads, but if we don't go along then we have to recalculate the time of every appointment and vcr setting.

But, I don't really mind being on Daylight Savings Time or on Standard Time.  It's the transition that bugs me.  And, the dog doesn't like it much either.  But, one easily solved problem is the time of day they make the actual change.  They would have it happen in the wee hours of Sunday morning when we should be sound asleep.

So, here's a modest proposal.  Let's change the transition time to a time of day that we can actually appreciate.   Let's spring forward one hour on the 1st Friday in April at 4:00 P.M.  So, all of a sudden, instead of 4 o'clock, it's 5 o'clock -  it's quitting time.  Who among us wouldn't appreciate that?

Then, in the Fall we fall back at a reasonable hour.  On the last Monday in October it could occur at 1:00 p.m.  ZAP!  We've got a two hour lunch!

The adjustment of our internal biorhythms won't be any easier.  But, at least we might be able to enjoy that one hour a little bit more.