ShowMeBlog

BBS: The Documentary Photos

  Jason Scott made “BBS: The Documentary” between July of 2001 to December of 2004.  He filmed it using a Canon XL-1.  He visited 30 states and one Canadian province.  He shot roughly 250 hours of video.  He interviewed 205 people.
  I was one of the people that he interviewed.  He came to Texas and took over 2 hours of video of me.  Of course only a very little of that shows up in the documentary. 
  One day that entire video will be on the Internet so after I am long gone someone can do research and use that interview and they can check and get information from the other entire 204 interviews.
  Jason Scott made a great documentary but he also has saved the history of bulletin board systems and created a great database of information that will be long after we all gone.

  He also took 11 photos when he interviewed me with a digital camera.  I do not think I have ever posted them all.  You may have seen a few of them.  I think it is about time for you to see them all.

 

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Pixar Grants Girl’s Last Wish to See Up

  I have never heard of Pixar or of “Up” but I just found this story on the Internet:

 A child's last wish
10-year-old Colby Curtin died of cancer this week, but before she passed away, her final wish was fulfilled. The child had desperately wanted to see the new Pixar movie, "Up." Unfortunately, she was too ill to go to the theater. According to various articles within the Buzz, Pixar was told of Colby's illness. The company sent a representative to deliver a DVD for Colby to watch in her room. Though she could no longer see, her mother narrated the action. Colby died several hours after the movie ended, and searches on "up movie make a wish" and "colby curtin up" both soared.

  That is so sad but it is so nice that her family worked so hard to get her last wish for her.  I know nothing about Pixar but that is so great of them to do that for the girl and her family.  God bless them.
  The story was on Yahoo! Buzz and written by Mike Krumboltz. 

Palin vs Gingrich

  The Republicans had a fundraiser.  Newt Gingrich was the speaker.  They were not sure if  Sarah Palin would show up for the event but she did and a great deal of attention was directed at her.  People seem to think it is a contest between Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin to lead the Republicans.  The “man of ideas” vs Sarah Palin wow.  Smile!  CNN reports that Sarah Palin stole the show and she did not even speak.  That might be a winning idea for her.  Oh no they tried that with her already.  Smile!
 
  I think Gingrich is a very smart man.  I wish he would give up the idea of being president and work with President Obama to help the nation in stead of working to help himself.  I have been sort of a fan of Gingrich but him saying at the event "this country would be amazingly better off" had McCain and Palin been elected makes me wonder just how smart he is in real life.  If John McCain and Sahar Palin had been elected I think it would have been the end of the United States. 
  Gingrich called former vice president Cheney an expert voice on national security.  

   “…Actor Jon Voight, an outspoken conservative who stars in the popular television series "24," emceed the event. In his opening comments, Voight blasted President Obama as "a false prophet" and "a soft-spoken Caesar" who bullies Israel and employed pleasant-sounding language to dupe the country into voting for him last November…”  CNN
   I am a fan of Jon Voight and it does not matter that he is a right wing  nutcase out of touch Republican.  It does not matter what his views are to me except for one great movie that I just love and it is “Conrack.”  I think his nutty support of the right wing has ruined that movie for me now.  That movie is a true story and I watch it from time to time. I sort of feel and think that it is Jon Voight’s life and now I will be thinking that is NOT him.  I am not sure I can enjoy the movie now.  I will just have to keep thinking that Pat Conroy is the author and writer of “Conrack.” 

God Grew Tired of Us

  I started out watching “God Grew Tired of Us” and it was excellent.

“God Grew Tired Of Us chronicles the arduous journey of three young Southern Sudanese men, John Bul Dau, Daniel Pach and Panther Bior, to the United States where they strive for a brighter future. As young boys in the 1980s, they had walked a thousand miles to escape their war-ridden homeland, and then had to make another arduous journey to escape Ethiopia.

During the five years they walked in search of safety, thousands died from starvation, dehydration, bomb raids and genocidal murder. Finally, they found relative safety in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp. In 2001, 3,600 lost boys, including John, Daniel and Panther, were invited by the United States to live in America. Assisted by Catholic Charities International, the three boys uproot their lives and once again embark on a journey, leaving behind thousands of other refugees who, in the course of their traumatic odyssey, have become their adopted extended family. They must now learn to adapt to the shock of being thrust into the economically intense culture of the United States, learning new customs, adapting to new and strange foods, coping with the ordeal of getting, and keeping a job, or multiple jobs, while never forgetting the loved ones they left behind in Africa. They dedicate themselves to doing whatever they can to help those they left behind in Kakuma, and to discovering the fate of their parents and family…”    Wikipedia

    The first half of the movie or most of the movie was excellent but it went on to long.  In fact I did not watch the end of the movie.  When they are in Ethiopia it is very interesting to see them and when they are thinking about going to the United States and on their trip to the United States I could not take my eyes off the video.  Their early life in the US and what the see and learn and how they re-act to the United States is wonderful.  Their basic plain simple believe in God is wonderful.  I got tried of the video when it got down to the daily grind of life in America.
    I know it was a documentary film but they should have showed them coming to America and trying to adjust to the United States and left us with the idea they were going to join the American melting pot and everything was going to be wonderful.

Elling

  I just watched Elling on YouTube. 

“Elling is an Academy Award-nominated Norwegian film directed by Petter Næss. Shot mostly in and around the Norwegian capital Oslo, the film, which was released in 2001, is based on Ingvar Ambjørnsen's novel Brødre i blodet ("Blood brothers", 1996), one of a series of four featuring the Elling character – the others are Utsikt til paradiset ("A view of paradise", 1993), Fugledansen ("The bird dance", 1995), and Elsk meg i morgen ("Love me tomorrow", 1999).

The movie deals with the main character, Elling, a man in his 40s, and his struggle to function normally in society. He suffers from anxiety, dizziness, and neurotic tendencies, preventing him from living on his own. Elling has lived with his mother for his entire life, and when his mother dies, the authorities take him from the apartment where he has always lived and send him to an institution. His roommate there is the simpleminded, sex-obsessed Kjell Bjarne. The Norwegian government pays for the two to move into an apartment in Oslo, where every day is a challenge as they must prove they can get out into the real world and lead relatively normal lives. With the help of social worker Frank and a few new friends, they learn to break free from their respective conditions…”  Wikipedia

  It was very good and I enjoyed the movie.  It was in Norwegian with English subtitles however.

Billy Bob Thornton

  I am a big fan of Billy Bob Thornton.  I did not know he had a band.
  Here is a CNN story about a Billy Bob Thornton music interview.

  (CNN) -- “Do not call Billy Bob Thornton an actor when you are interviewing him about his music.

A Canadian radio host learned that lesson when Thornton and his electric hillbilly band -- the Boxmasters -- visited his Toronto, Ontario, studio Wednesday morning.

When Jian Ghomeshi introduced the trio on his CBC show, he noted that its singer-songwriter-drummer was also an "Oscar-winning screenwriter-actor-director."

Thornton's publicist, Arnold Robinson, disputes suggestions that what followed was a breakdown by the actor -- hmmm, musician.

He "simply elected not to engage with the interviewer because of the direction of the interview from the outset," Robinson told CNN. Thornton took the reference to his movie career as an insult to his musical endeavor…”

  I think the interviewer did a great job.  If I had been the interviewer I would not have asked Billy Bob Thornton any more questions and I would have acted like he was not even in the room.  
  Or I might have just said this interview is over and then as they all left the room I would have told all the listeners not to buy the music and never watch any movie that Billy Bob Thornton had anything to do with etc.

  The following is from Wikipedia:

  “…On April 8, 2009 he appeared on the CBC Radio One program Q, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, with the rest of his musical group the Boxmasters. During the first half of the interview, Billy Bob sounded nervous or confused and gave erratic answers, such as answering direct questions with "I don't know". When asked about his musical tastes and influences as a child, he gave his longest answer, but it was about his favorite "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine. He also stated that he had told the show's producers to not ask any questions about his career as a screenwriter and actor. However, Ghomeshi did mention it in the introduction of the show, and this appeared to have upset Thornton. Later Thornton complained that Canadian audiences wouldn't get up and move, saying that Canadians were like mashed potatoes without gravy. This caused an outpouring of criticism from CBC listeners…”

Farrah Fewcett

“Farrah Fawcett has been hospitalized and is in bad shape, sources close to family and friends tell RadarOnline.com exclusively.

She has been battling cancer for three years and recently returned from Germany, where she had experimental stem-cell treatment. Sources told RadarOnline.com that she is critical but stable in a Los Angeles-area hospital. They also say she is unconscious and has been hospitalized for days.

Long-time love Ryan O’Neal has been by Farrah’s bedside, as has troubled son Redmond, who bolted from rehab earlier this week.

Farrah, 62, was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006 and later pronounced cancer free at a press conference.

It is not known whether she will survive.”

The above from RadarOnLine.Com

Farrah Fawcett (born February 2, 1947) is an American actress. She was a noted pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women, and a sex symbol for millions of young men in the 1970s and 1980s. She went on to become a critically accepted actress, appearing off-Broadway and in acclaimed television movies in challenging (The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story,Margaret Bourke-White, and sometimes unsympathetic Small Sacrifices) roles.

Good Bye, Lenin!

  I watched an nice little video called “Good Bye, Lenin!” and it was interesting. 

Good Bye Lenin! is a German tragicomedy film, released internationally in 2003. It can be seen as part of the ostalgie movement. Directed by Wolfgang Becker, the cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon and Florian Lukas. Most of the scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbauten near Alexanderplatz.

  Not sure any of you would like the video.  I listened to a lot of shortwave broadcast from the East in the past and heard their English broadcasts so I might like it better for that reason.
 

  I am going to watch “Towelhead” later today.

I want to be rich

  There is so much neat stuff out all the time and I want to own some of it.  I should have worked harder and saved my money when I was young.

 

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4-megapixel still image capture
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Slumdog Millionaire

  I just watched “Slumdog Millionaire” on DVD.  I hated every minute of it.  I watched almost all of it and I am not sure why I watched that much of it.  This is “The FEEL GOOD film of the DECADE?” 

“Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

Set and filmed in India, Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati, mentioned in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials.

After its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and subsequent screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire initially had a limited North American release on 12 November 2008 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, to critical acclaim and awards success. It later had a nationwide grand release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and in the United States on 23 January 2009. It premiered in Mumbai on 22 January 2009.

Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film. Slumdog Millionaire has stirred controversy concerning language use, its portrayals of Indians and Hinduism, and the welfare of its child actors…”

  This was NOT a good movie.  Why do I want to see that sort of stuff.  I know about the world and about the poor, sick, dirty and crime so why would I want to spend 120 minutes seeing woman and child being killed? Why do I want to spend money to see children picking and living in garbage and why do I want to see children having their eyes cut out so they can beg and make money for people.
  I was looking forward to seeing a great movie.  It was not “Slumdog Millionaire.”