Lilith.

The Santorum Files: Hypocrisy and Moral Decency. (NSFW)

WARNING: This post contains pornographic images. Please forward them to Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich’s offices.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to do an in-depth post on the hypocrisy of the GOP and the religious right, an idea that stemmed from my viewing of the GOP primary debates. In the time since then, the situation has not improved. Sure, Rick Perry dropped out of the race, but conversely Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have ratcheted up their incendiary polemics, and Gingrich in particular has seemed to have found a gambit in a flippant, Eric Cartman style ‘fuck-you-I’m-gonna-do-whatever-I-want’ attitude towards addressing his “ethical” beliefs.

In addition, we had the battle of SOPA and the government takedown of Rapidshare, two events that are an indicator that our freedom of speech is indeed under assault by the powers that be and that are unseen (hello, MPAA, I see you). Which is why a frank discussion on what we are protecting - and who we are protecting them from - in terms of an ethical corruption of commerce and self is very much required.

The GOP (and the neo-conservatives that have sullied the ideology of the party) have long taken the stance of being the moral and ethical higher ground, something that they’ve brilliantly marketed as “compassionate conservatism.” Under this oxymoron, the GOP has waged a war against the ‘ethical corruption’ perpetuated by the left, particularly a woman’s right to choose, stem cell research, gays in the military, and the right for gay marriage. It’s a powerful platform that stirs up the puritanical pillars of the Christian populace, a largely middle-class voting segment that has been fed the belief that their fundamental rights have been attacked. (Tim Tebow is being ‘persecuted’ for not being allowed to have biblical verses on his uniform. He also signed a $12 million contract to play a child’s game). Ever since Bill Clinton found his demographic - the suburban soccer mom - the issue of security and a threat the the American (re: Christian) way of life has been the paramount issue.

The reaction to a threat is to protect, and the lighting rod is the innocence of children. Parents fear their children losing their core Christian beliefs to a liberal media and government that allows gays to fornicate, and (gasp) to marry. Sex onscreen encourages the behavior, and because contraception and abortion are not in the teachings of the Bible, better to have a kid not see sex (straight or gay) and get any, y’know, funny ideas.

But let’s be practical here, and let’s talk economics. It’s supply and demand. The drive and curiosity for sex is a God-given trait, it’s something we’re all hard wired with when we hit puberty. Can’t avoid it, because it’s part of our basic function - to mate and to pass our genetic code along. Perpetuation of the species.

So in terms of economics, the demand for sex is constant. As long as we have hormones, we’re going to want to feed our libidos. We have three options - go out and have sex, suppress that drive, or find another way to feed that libido. We have to supply that demand.

Abstinence is not feeding the demand, it is actually increasing it by reducing the supply. It’s like the War on Drugs. We can try to stop the inflow of marijuana in to the US all we want, but as long as there are suburban white kids that want to get high, then the cartels will find a way to get it to them. But if we legalized pot - thereby killing the ravenous demand - then the supply will peter out accordingly.

Back to sex - by virtue of a hyperbolic rating system (NC-17 and XXX), and the illegality of prostitution, along with the religious damning of homosexuality, the act of sex has been turned into an act of moral corruption. To even talk of sex publicly is an act of indecency. We’ve gone so far off the deep end that a woman breastfeeding her child in public is deemed as morally inappropriate. I’m sorry, if you get off on seeing a baby drinking milk, then you’ve got bigger problems.

This moral high-ground is manifesting itself in every aspect of our public life, and more dangerously, it’s making its way into our public policy. But it’s one thing to try to enforce ethics in legislature, but to do it while being a hypocrite is peeling back the curtain to reveal the religious bigotry beneath. Perhaps the best example of this is the MPAA and the standards for film.

It has always confounded me. In a film, I can show this and get released wide in theaters across the country on 2,311 screens without protest:

But then if I show this, I’m deemed a corrupter of children:

I know the religious right will attack both films, but the former is allowed to be viewed as fantasy, while the latter is regarded as dangerous in reality. How so? Maybe for all we know it could be the portrait of a married couple trying to conceive a child, that most holy of purposes? For that matter if I made a movie about a married Christian couple trying to have a baby, and showed actual intercourse, would it be deemed as pornographic?

This is the root of the problem, Puritanism raising its ugly head. What we have to accept is that censorship by the neoconservatives is not about moral decency, it is about propagating an agenda of control. It’s about the profitability and sustainability of age-old religious institutions that have empowered men (not women) for centuries. The minute the masses start questioning, start taking control of their own bodies, and start applying the laws of rational human behavior, then the less power that the organized religions have. And it’s not just Christianity - it’s Islam, it’s Hinduism, it’s Judaism.

These powers are fighting back against free speech and free thought by making laws that make it illegal to express ourselves in an truthful and honest fashion. They draw up arbitrary lines of decency, but they are in fact highly calculated, done for perpetuating their own agenda.

Again, more hypocrisy. In one view, this can be seen as an expression of pure love between a man and a woman:

But then so can this be an equally meaningful expression of pure commitment and love:

Of course, which would a soccer mom prefer her daughter be doing? One is an institution, the other an intuition. Ideally, she should want both for her daughter. What parent wouldn’t want their children to be in a healthy, respectful relationship - emotionally and sexually? Zealots will argue to “keep it in the bedroom,” but then if that’s the case, then they must live by those words, and keep their religious beliefs out of everybody’s bedroom. Don’t tell me who I can and cannot have a relationship with, don’t tell me who I can and cannot have sex with, and if a guy wants to let his boyfriend blow a load into his mouth, then that’s his God-given right. And let’s not pretend that it never happens.

We’ve been trained to believe that all this is taboo, when in actuality it is our true nature. We’re made to feel ashamed of ourselves, all in the name of control. I’m not espousing a lawless society - there are always extremes of behavior and we have to do our best to educate on the consequences of our actions. But sweeping it under the rug and pretending it doesn’t exist only makes the situation worse. And making laws that force us to sweep it under the rug is downright totalitarian.

Being truthful takes work. I remember a quote from Louis CK about homophobia:

People try to talk about it like it’s a social issue. Like when you see someone stand up on a talk show and say “How am I supposed to explain to my child that two men are getting married? I dunno, it’s your shitty kid, you fucking tell them. Why is that anyone else’s problem? Two guys are in love but they can’t get married because you don’t want to talk to your ugly child for fucking five minutes?

We’re not willing to take those five minutes, in large part because we’re led to believe that being honest about what goes on in the world is an affront to our religious beliefs and our moral decency. No. Being morally decent is loving your neighbor and being truthful. And that takes effort. Don’t let Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum guide your moral compass, because they themselves lack it, and they are hypocrites.

Kindred Spirit: Ti West and ‘Slow Burn’ movies.

During early pre-production on Lilith, I remember watching Ti West’s indie horror film House of the Devil and being completely enamored with it. It was a film that spoke to me in terms of aesthetics, a commitment to technical precision, and most importantly, it understood that great horror requires context and characterization, something which needs time to develop in the pacing and edit. After I watched the film in my Cleveland hotel room, I immediately went down to the hotel lobby at 2AM, ordered a coffee and dissected my script. I had long been concerned that my story was unfolding too slowly, that I was spending a great deal of time establishing the normalcy of the protagonist’s world before throwing her into the bizarro rings of Hell.

West’s masterful use of pacing reassured me that I was doing the right thing, and I went ahead with my initial choice of doing what is called in the industry as a ‘slow burn’ film, something that carefully lays out the characterization and then methodically juxtaposes the macabre against it. In all honesty I feel this is the best way to make a horror film. Backed by West’s use of the same aesthetic, I stuck with my gut instinct and made Lilith in this manner.

Cut to two years later, and I’ve now had about 1,000 people view Lilith. While praise has been excellent - I’ve yet to have a negative review of the film - one of the consistent criticisms on the picture is its slow burn, the pacing. When presented with the idea of a girl going to hell - coupled with the bizarre images dangled like a carrot in the trailer - people want to see Julia in hell asap, but instead they have to wait a good 20 minutes before she even enters the gates.

It’s an interesting place to be in. I get the feedback that the film is slow in the beginning, picks up as it goes along and ends with a bang. When I hear that, it registers in my head as a resounding success, because that’s exactly what I wanted. But it doesn’t seem to sit well with some distributors. I’ve been starting to doubt the prudence of my choice to make a slow burn film, which is always a dangerous thing to start doing.

But as before, Ti West came to my rescue. In the latest issue of Filmmaker magazine, West is featured in a cover article that discusses his approach to indie filmmaking, and to also promote his latest film The Innkeepers (which looks brilliant, and is currently showing On Demand). In the article, West is asked about his penchant for ‘slow burn’ movies, a label which he has been saddled with on all of his films.

West’s response gives me great comfort:

I think in order to have a successful horror movie you have to have a pretty substantial amount of contrast between the horror and the non-horror because if you don’t give that contrast, it’s not shocking when it [the horror] shows up.

West continues, regarding the subject of pacing and dramatic structure of his horror films:

I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I read those words, as it’s been something I’ve been harping about on this blog for almost two years. I’m never going to insinuate that Lilith is as good as The Shining or Stalker, but I will always say that we took those kinds of insane risks to make something fresh, and that I set out to create a vibrant, interesting, well made, thought-provoking film instead of a predictable, gross, by-the-numbers horror film. Lilith is a highly original piece of work, it plays by its own rules, and I’m immensely proud of it and the positive response it has gotten so far.

West has also had a go with distributors who are more inclined to promote 80-minute torture porn flicks and PG-13 rated 3D remakes, and I have to believe that the makers of ‘slow burn’ cinema simply have to persist and find their audiences. I really love watching these kind of movies, and I have to believe that I’m not the only one. Ti West has a following for his patient films, a following that allows him to make a living and to continue to make his movies on his own terms. Lilith needs to find those people. I’m working on it. Furiously. And I’ll need your help.

West is currently at Sundance promoting his short film compilation V/H/S. Support and follow him on his Twitter @Ti_West.

I need your help…

…with identifying this piece of music. I want to use it in my Paul Pope script but I have no idea what it is. I’ve watched it over and over (which isn’t hard, given the subject matter), Shazam’d it, and asked a bunch of my colleagues, and we’ve come up with squat. In the recesses of my brain, I think I heard it in an old French film, something with Alain Delon, perhaps? I dunno. It’s killing me. Maybe you can help.

Any ideas?

Back Home.

Got off the plane to a cold, frozen Chicago late last night, but it’s wonderful to be home. India was a whirlwind, as we went to six different cities in 18 days. It’ll be nice to be stationed in one place for the near future.

Lilith premiered at the Festivus Film Festival, and from the initial reports it was a success, despite an attendance hit due to the Broncos playoff game. I’ve gotten a few emails from audience members and it seems the audience really embraced the film. I’ll get more details in the coming days, but Julia and Nancy both said it was an amazing time.

As for my short film in India, we didn’t get it finished. I shot a bunch of footage, but due to rains and time crunch, I wasn’t able to get it done. I however have a ton of beautiful images (including towering bonfires, bottle-nosed dolphins, and mass religious pilgrimages) that will no doubt make its way into another project. The film, which is titled A Brief History of Love, might also make another incarnation here in Chicago. It’s developing organically and we’ll see where it goes.

It was really wonderful to get away from writing and I’ve been fully inspired by the things I’ve seen and the people I’ve met. I’ve been dying to get back to work. Travel definitely enriches the mind, and I was scribbling down ideas, dialogues, and stories throughout my trip. I explored nooks and crannies of Mumbai, Chennai and rural India. I met scholarly beggars and illiterate billionaires. I saw relics of the past and the latest in cutting edge nanotechnology. I saw a snake and a monkey share an apple. I stepped in the crystal blue Arabian Sea and had sharks and stingrays graze my toes. I saw old friends and made new ones. I saw the entirety of HBO’s Mildred Pierce and fell in love with epic television again. I learned new things about my history, my family, and myself. I learned, and learned, and learned.

I haven’t been this excited in a long, long time. In India I saw hope, I saw enterprise, and I saw the future. And it looks glorious, so long as we are willing to work and be an active part of it. Despite sleepiness, jetlag and the climate change, I’m heading back to my office right now because I want to work. I want to work harder than I’ve ever worked before.

Thank you for your patience during the blog’s hiatus - many new topics and updates lay ahead!

The World Premiere of Lilith…

…is only eight days away!

Both Julia Voth and Nancy Telzerow, who plays Flora, Julia’s mom, in the film (it’s an absolutely brilliant and batshit-crazy performance) will be at the screening for the Q&A. For my readers in the Denver area, make sure to head over to the Festivus Film Festival ticketing website to find your tickets, which are selling out fast!

In other news, I’ve been struggling with writing the blog during my travels, and have amassed a dozen or so incomplete drafts. With that in mind, I’ve decided to put the Lilith blog on a temporary hiatus until January 18th, which is when I get back stateside. Apologies for the inconvenience, but I don’t want to compromise the quality of the blog just for the sake of posting something.

Plus I’m sure a little break will do us all some good. Until then, be well, friends!

15 Things I Liked in 2011, Part 2.

Landed in India yesterday and already hit the ground running, it’s going to be a hectic three weeks ahead of me. While on the plane I finished scripting my short film, and am in the process of locking down two locations. I’m going to try my level best to keep everyone in the loop on the short, which is titled A Brief History of Love, but as I’m operating out of a mobile office, updating might be a bit spotty.

But on to unfinished business, the final Top 5 of of the 15 Things I Enjoyed in 2011:

5) Vegenaise. I’m not a vegan. Nor am I a vegetarian. I eat meat and animal byproducts regularly, albeit in very controlled portions and it has to be organic, hormone-free, locally-sourced and free range. Those might seem like buzzwords but they are the few that I’ve found to have real nutritional and economic meaning, and not simply some food company passing off a vague idea of being healthy. Case in point, the whole gluten free phenomenon, where people are buying gluten-free products with the idea that they’re making a healthier choice. When you buy gluten-free, you’re not cutting out the carbs, you’re cutting out the protein – gluten – that many people don’t have the ability to digest. Don’t buy gluten-free unless you’re a Celiac or allergic – otherwise you’re robbing yourself of protein and texture, and you’re paying more for it than a regular loaf of bread or box of pasta.

Going vegan is, to me, more of an ethical choice than a dietary one (unless, of course, you are allergic to dairy or lactose-intolerant), and after much thought I do derive a very balanced diet from a limited intake of eggs, meat and dairy. I try to pay as much respect as I can to the animal when I consume their products by using everything, tail to snout – bones go towards making stock, eggshells are composted and whatever little is left of meat is cooked and goes to the cats.

Which brings me to Vegenaise. My wife brought some home after reading an article about it, and at first I was skeptical. First of all, was it even necessary? I did an audit of how many sandwiches I eat in a given year and yeah, I go through a ton of mayo and mustard. My mayo of choice is the Kewpie brand you find in most Japanese grocers, and it’s murder in terms of saturated fat and cholesterol. So it made sense to find an alternative. I had my doubts, but I made a ham and smoked gouda sandwich with Vegenaise and was ready to be revolted.

I wasn’t. Far from it. In fact I think it might even taste even better, and being that it has a very real sense of flavor, I tend to use less of it. I’m sold, and now we’re making more efforts to find healthier replacements to high-fat / cholesterol foods. I’ve tried cashew cheese, and I’m not sold on it. Strike one, likely the first of many. But it’s an exploration worth taking.

4) Andy Serkis’ performance as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.. Rise of the Planet of the Apes just barely missed my top list of films for this year, but that doesn’t change my thoughts that it contains one of the strongest contenders for the best performance of the year, and it’s an odd one at that. Andy Serkis, best known for his motion-capture work as the CGI creature Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, dons the ping-pong MOCAP suit once again, this time playing Ceaser, the legendary chimp-turned-military mercenary from the classic Planet of the Apes series. Caesar has been played by a number of actors who have given him his gruff, gravel-eating toughness and determination, but in Rise of the Planet of the Apes the story focuses on Caesar’s origins, which means an extraordinary amount of time is spent on Caesar’s life as an ordinary chimp. Blessed by an ever-evolving CGI technology, Serkis makes the most of the tools at his disposal, and imbues Caesar with a heavy-but-nuanced sense of pathos, and through the use of facial and body manipulations, Serkis bridges the uncanny valley and creates a character that is very real, and very relevant. It’s a real work of performance art, bolstered by technology.

There’s been a bit of a controversy brewing as to whether or not Serkis has earned a right to be mentioned in the Best Actor category for this year’s Academy Awards, and I think it’s a no-brainer. Yes. He should. And he should be considered as a top contender to win it. The Academy set the precedent when it handed the Best Cinematography honors to Maurio Fiore for Avatar a film that was so heavily CGI manipulated that one had to wonder if it was better placed as an animated film. According to the Academy, apparently not, and Fiore’s creative and conceptual contributions were deemed enough to be his sole work and skill, which includes giving lead to the small army of CGI artists who rendered his work into reality.

The same applies to Serkis, who provides all the motions, emotions, expressions and eyes to Caesar, and should be considered as an all-round performance, and not just as a motion capture performance. I challenge any actor to do what he did, as well as he did it. He’s emerged as a specialist in the field, and should be rewarded accordingly for it, and in my mind he joins Michael Fassbender (for his blisteringly brutal work in Shame, which I saw last week and will write more on in the future) in a two-horse race for the Best Actor award.

3) Tim Tebow. Like Lilith, will I be forever cast from the Garden of Eden for speaking the Lord’s name? TEBOWTEBOWTEBOW. The religious furor over Tim Tebow is epically ridiculous, so let’s set the record straight on a few things. Tim Tebow is not Jesus. The only Jesus I know is the one who makes amazing al pastor burritos at the taqueria down the street from my office. Tim Tebow is not being victimized for his religious beliefs. Not being allowed to put Biblical verse on your eye black or to be able to kneel in prayer in the end zone is not an attack on Christianity. It’s simply showing deference to all beliefs. Would there not be an uproar if one of the many Muslim players in the NFL kneeled in Islamic prayer after scoring a touchdown? Should not a player who is a Scientologist be able to thank the Thetans for clearing the path to the winning touchdown, thereby dashing Emperor Xenu’s dastardly design? If we allow Tim Tebow to do it, then everyone should be allowed to do it, and that’ll put the panties of all of Tim Tebow’s evangelical Christian flock into a collective bunch. So rather than face hypocrisy, the NFL wisely turned the other way and said keep your religion to yourself, and just play football on the field. It’s the right choice.

That said, I find Tim Tebow’s faith fascinating and inspiring. Not the faith he has in his God, but rather the faith he has in himself, his teammates, and everyone else around him. Rarely have I seen an athlete that simply makes everyone around him believe that they can achieve anything. And while the Broncos’ crazy run to make the playoffs is ugly and unworthy, it is a testament to dogged belief in achieving a goal. Love him or hate him, Tim Tebow is a winner, and you know he’ll do anything in his power to get his team a victory. You’d have to be a heartless, soulless thug to not rally behind someone like that. And despite his infinite references to god and the Bible, Tebow is ultimately respectful, kind, and ridiculously charismatic. He’s the kid of guy who is so nice that you want to punch him in the face, and when you do punch him in the face he’ll turn to you and say “are you ok? God forgives you for your transgression.” Fuck it, you just can’t beat this guy down. I’m a convert to the Gridiron Church of Tebow.

Oh and let’s debunk one more thing. Tim Tebow is not the next John Elway. John Elway is the fourth-highest passer in NFL history with 51,475 yards. He could throw the ball with pinpoint accuracy and with deadly velocity. Tim Tebow has a long, long way to go before being mentioned in the same air as Elway, Marino, Fouts, Bradshaw, Unitas, Manning, Kelly, Favre, Brees, Brady and the like. To quote Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, who, when asked about his thoughts on Tim Tebow, Urlacher shrugged and said “he’s a pretty decent running back.”

2) Protests. While The Occupy Movement has been dissolved, it has accomplished one of its primary objectives, which was to establish itself as a real player in the national dialogue on our planet’s crippling economic disparity. We cannot ignore this voice, and now s the crucial step to legitimize it on Capitol Hill. Grassroots must transform into a legislative organization. It’s vital, or else all the effort of the Occupy protestors will go to waste.

But the people who participated in the Occupy movements did so under minimum duress, although the kids at UC Davis would highly, and rightfully, disagree. Where the Occupy Movement created the start of dialogue, the rising in the Arab Spring was done in the face of brutal dictatorships, a rising that was paid in blood. One has to applaud and support the courage of the people of Egypt, Libya and Syria, and their efforts have shone the spotlight on other regions of strife, the crux of which is Palestine.

Because of our rampant cynicism we’re unable to full appreciate the scale of change we are seeing. What has and what continues to transpire is what will be recorded in history books as true, monumental revolutions that rival that of The American Revolution, the Tearing of the Iron Curtain, or Indian Independence. People have died for the freedom of their people, for Democracy. We are living in a time of historic, unimaginable change. And by all accounts, it is change for the better, change that is necessary in our evolution as a respectful, compassionate Family of Man.

Tyranny cannot survive. Not when people are committed to justice, and are willing to give their lives for it. For that, I am in complete awe, and must look at myself honestly in the mirror, and ask if I am doing my part. I am not. I have to do more.

1) Life. In the end I have to simply be thankful for the life that I have. Every day we creep towards the inevitability of death, and in that regard I can’t help but find the beauty in the struggle to live, to create, to leave something of value on this Planet.

It was a tough but gratifying year for my wife and I. We finally finished Lilith, Patang has been praised worldwide and has won many prestigious awards, we got a beautiful new kitty in Ezra the Pound Cat, and we celebrated five years of marriage. Five years. My grandparents recently celebrated their 60th. Which means we’ve still got a hell of a journey ahead of us, and so much more to discover, to create, to suffer with, to enjoy.

We plant seeds and take tremendous pains to make them grow, and few words can describe the feeling of seeing that first little shoot of green emerging from the soil which you relentlessly tended. I get that feeling when I see Lilith, when I see this blog surpassing 25,000 followers, when I see the enjoyment on my guest’s faces when the take a bite of the food I cooked. It’s the gratification of feedback, of knowing, by means of appreciation and discourse, that you’re on the right path.

And with the humblest of hearts and modesty, I am affirmed that my wife and I are on the right path. We share smiles, tears and small happiness with each other, our family, our friends, and with you. Whether you know it or not, you’ve been on this journey with us, and we thank you for your support, your kind words, and your belief in us. It means the world to us.

Have a great new year!

15 Things I Liked in 2011, Part 1.

I don’t feel like I partook in much in 2011. We didn’t go out to eat as much, in large part that I spent almost all of my free money on finishing Lilith. Movies were few and far between. Even my reading slowed down quite a bit due to my writing and work schedule. But, like last year, there were definitely some highlights.

15) Psycho Bunny. About two years ago I put a moratorium on buying any clothing made in China. It was largely an issue of human and worker’s rights. It’s also put a hell of a cramp on my personal style because everything I like seems to be made in China. And what isn’t made in China is ridiculously expensive. And then I found Psycho Bunny, a stylish British/ American label that makes some really, really cool clothes, and I don’t have to pay an arm for it. The quality is top-notch, the styles are kind of wacky with bold colors, and I was able to replace all the sweaters that were torn to shreds by our new kitten and not have to take a second mortgage out on my house.

14) Vinyl records with MP3 download codes. Just because you’ve got a set of pimped out Beats headphones doesn’t mean that you’re listening to music at its best quality. The amount of compression that goes into an MP3 is ridiculous, and the resultant sound quality is mediocre at best. The best sound reproduction quality, of course, is still found on heavy vinyl records, as it is a physical replication of sound. You don’t have to be an audiophile to notice the difference. But then there’s that issue of portability, and converting records to mp3’s is a pain in the ass. Just when iTunes was writing the death certificates of vinyl labels, they responded with a novel solution, which was to have a code to download the mp3s with the vinyl. This way, we get the best of both worlds. I get to revel in sleeve art, colored vinyl, and listen to the music the way it was intended to be heard, and I get to also listen to it all on the road without taking the ridiculous amount of time needed to convert it all. Three of my favorite vinyl releases were Matthew Friedberger’s Solos, Zola Jesus’ Conatus, and Electro Rapide by Jean-Claude Vannier.

13) Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines. It’s been a long time since a graphic novel has really challenged my brain, to make me question my moral responsibilities and my attitudes on life. I honestly think the last graphic novels to do that were Jimmy Corrigan and Maus, and both were a long time ago. And then in July, on a whim, I picked up a copy of Adam Hines’ Duncan the Wonder Dog. I saw that it had been the recipient of the Xeric Grant (always a fail safe barometer of a comic book’s quality), and while thumbing through it I loved the book’s graphic aesthetic, somewhere between a photoshop collage and the frenetic, midnight sketching of a classical artist trying their best to draw an adult animated version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

And then I read it, and by god I’m still trying to work it out in my head, and that’s a wonderful thing. Like Maus the book uses animals, but in this instance the animals are not parables to ethnic groups, they are ethnic groups themselves. Centering around an act of terrorism, the book has stories-within-stories, layering each of them like clear sheets of acetate with the smallest drawing in each corner. The details are unnerving, brilliant and brimming with authentic feelings. Supposedly this is the first in nine volumes, and if this book is just a hint of what lay ahead, then we have on our hands a series that is worthy of the attention of not just casual readers, but the dead-serious literati as well. A special and momentous book.

12) French Berry Lemonade from Trader Joes. I’m not an addictive personality, but if I do have one thing that’s close to an addiction, it’s juice. I go through a half-gallon of OJ about every three to four days, and I dream of Orangina daily. That is until I got my hands on Trader Joes’ French Berry Lemonade. Hoooolllly sheeeit this stuff is good. Like fucking crack. It’s ridiculous, and I have no idea how they make it. If I die an early death, perhaps the most truly poetic way to go out is to drown in a vat of this shit. Seriously. It’s that good.

11) The Vitamix 5200 blender. This was a gift from my mother, who saw me struggle to make our weekly micronutrient juice concoction (kale, apples, celery, beets, lemon, ginger, spinach, carrots and cucumber) and she felt bad that we were throwing out so much valuable fiber into the garbage. She also knew that we make a ton of soup, hence the Vitamix, which is one of the most powerful fucking devices I’ve ever seen. I can blend just about anything in it (although it is no Blendtech, but who really needs to grind rocks and golf balls in their kitchen), and it’s opened up my cooking repertoire tenfold. Aside from soups (my favs are sunchoke soup, carrot and butternut squash varieties), I can make marinades, sauces, and awesome desserts. It’s odd how one tool can make the world of difference in your cooking, something akin to when I got my first chef’s knife as a college graduation gift. Essential to the home chef.

10) Korean Tacos. It took me awhile to jump on the bandwagon because I hate bandwagon-jumping, but this was well worth joining the masses on. Seoul-food at its finest, the mix of kimchi, sriracha aioli, battered deep-fried fish/ shrimp or bulgogi beef all on a freshly-made corn tortilla is simply sex on a plate. I can eat this stuff forever and never get tired of it, although I must admit that the naan-wich (a sandwich made with Indian naan bread) is slowly creeping its way into my heart (or my arteries).

We’re definitely experiencing a culinary revolution, a new nouvelle cuisine, which was the French high -end repurposing of what we thought was ‘peasant food.’ Tacos made with wagyu beef, pork belly used in BLTs, gherkins instead of pickles, and the appropriation of international street foods into our domestic fare. It’s a great time to be a chef.

9) Black Up by Shabazz Palaces. This is the best record of the year, without hesitation. On one end we have Odd Future and Tyler the Creator trying to be dark by ratcheting up the taboos of rape and murder, and on the other end we have Shabazz Palaces plumbing the depths of darkness by dissecting the recesses of our civilized brain. This is real darkness, with no shock value at all, which makes it all the more chilling. It’s also a fine return to form for what’s left of the legendary hip-hop crew Digable Planets, who sadly were last heard being used as background music for a Tide commercial. The group also gave us what I consider the best music video of the year for their track Belhaven Meridian. Again unlike Odd Future, the video lacks any kind of pyrotechnics - it is simple, a single take with a literal twist. But its contents delve into the young history of contemporary black art and film, with a specific shout-out to Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, arguably the foundation of black cinema. It’s a wonder to simply roam in, and itself is a magnificent piece of art.

8) Cineskates. As the DSLR filmmaking revolution continues, we’re now in the battle of creating a stable image. Despite advanced anti-vibration technology, the DSLR image is still shaky and prone to tremors, but once stabilized, it can match a high-end movie camera in terms of image quality. Stabilization and movement are key components of storytelling and are a key differential between a shoddy vs. professional look, and to have to compromise on them due to technological limitation is a shame.

But as we are an ingenious breed, people are rising to the challenge with simple and elegant solutions to image stabilization. My favorite of the bunch has been the invention of the Cineskates, a simple set of rollerblade wheels that firmly attach to the legs of a Gorilla Tripod, which itself is a wonderful, wonderful invention. The Cineskates allow us to create a stable, smooth tabletop dolly that opens up our cinematic language with the DSLR, and it can be configured in a multitude of ways. The project started out as an idea on Kickstarter, and it went on to one of the largest collections in Kickstarter history. I’ve used the Cineskates and can attest to their quality, ans while it is no replacement for a dolly, it gives the DIY filmmaker a tool that can strive to a dolly’s greatness. Like any other grip tool, it requires patience, practice and precision, but once you get the hang of it, it’s absolutely liberating. Cat videos on YouTube will never be the same again.

7) The Republican Party. Usually it’s painful to watch someone go down in flames right in front of your eyes, but I’ve taken particular joy in watching consecutive GOP candidates shoot themselves in the foot and choke on their own vomit as they joust for the Republican presidential candidacy.

I’m not saying it’s a lock for Barack Obama to get reelected - far from it, as John Kerry proved - but it doesn’t hurt that the dipshit strategies of the GOP aren’t helping their cause. Obama has repeatedly stated that what we’re facing is a challenge, and that there are no easy solutions to our main problem - the economy. It’s the Achilles heel of the conservative agenda, which before has risen on the platform of being against gay marriage, reproductive rights, and stem-cell research. You can try to punch the homophobic ticket, but hey even an asshole bigot needs a job. You can try to justify the sanctity of unborn life, but even a teen mother needs health insurance. You simply can’t play religious cards in the face of a monumental economic meltdown. So the GOP, stripped of their bigoted security blanket, must face the music about the economy, and they haven’t got any solutions. Everyone’s at a loss. Only the face of leadership and forward-thinking will gain the Presidential throne, and so far none of the GOP has demonstrated that, as they continue to spin their assholey rhetoric. So keep being dickheads, Republicans, and reveal the ugly face of who you are so that we can continue to make an honest decision at the polls in November.

6) The BBC. Lost in all the TV-hubbub of the failed “marriage” of Kim Kardashian and the replacement of car-crash incarnate Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men is the stellar - nay, magnificent - track record of the TV output of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Taking the HBO lead of quality over quantity, the BBC has had an absolutely banner year - nay, decade - which has given us some of the finest short-form storytelling in recent memory. From gritty crime dramas like the chilling Luther (Idris Elba is a god, I tell you, a god) to whip-smart reimaginings of classics like Sherlock, to BBC historical stalwarts like Downtown Abbey and Cranford, the BBC has committed itself to character and quality. Each program is meticulously directed and lit, and the writing is some of the best in recent memory. Too bad then that these shows are destined to be remade in America and given the ‘TNT Knows Drama’ treatment, and the only American product to match the guts of their British counterparts was Boardwalk Empire. Even The Walking Dead, which I praised in my list last year, has taken a sour turn towards American soap opera drudgery. We’ve something else to learn from the BBC, which is knowing the right time to bring a show to its end. Although fans of Lark Rise to Candleford will disagree.

Part 2 next!

A new short, and Festivus news!

So I’m off to India next week, and in a bout of midnight inspiration, I’ve decided to shoot a short film whilst there. Two days, two actors, a vague concept, and a ton of improvisation.

My forays into particle physics and mathematics have inspired a short story about what it takes to leave our galaxy. There’s a huge spiritual component to it, as the energy required to transport an entire human being to a distant, habitable planet in another galaxy (see the exciting news regarding the Kepler Planets) is something short of a supernova. We’d need to travel at the speed of light (or faster, like a neutrino or tachyon) to cover such distance, and to do so would require us to relieve ourselves of all mass. Hence the importance of discovering the Higgs Boson, which is a theoretical particle that has no discernible mass.

Believe it or not, I’ve concocted a very sweet love story around this concept, the base idea being that the only thing that can match the energy of a supernova is a first kiss. I know, I’m a hopeless romantic.

I’ve packed up my 7D, a Zoom H4N audio recorder, two lav mics, a portable handheld mount, a gorilla tripod, a small, battery powered LED panel, five 32gb memory cards and a 1TB external drive. That’s it. Fits nicely into one little bag, and that’s all the infrastructure that I’m taking with me. I’ve already corresponded with a few actor friends in Mumbai and they’re up for the challenge. Zero-budget filmmaking at its finest.

This is exciting. Like shooting Lilith in Cleveland, I’ve got the entirety of India as my location, as I’ll be in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and the Maldives. The beauty of the 7D is that I can shoot on the fly, and even in a pickle I can shoot on my cell phone if need be.

So now I need to hunker down and hammer out the basic skeleton of a script, and get it to my actors as soon as possible. I’ll keep updating the progress.

Also, tickets to see the world premiere of Lilith at the Festivus Film Festival have gone on sale. If you’re going to be in the Denver area on January 14th, stop on by. The festival is also going to be doing a cool giveaway of one of our beautiful Lilith posters. I had it giclée printed on museum quality, heavy-stock art paper and signed it. And it’s HUGE - 30x40. Definitely a keeper. Find everything you need here.

The unfortunate news is that I will not be there for the screening - I will indeed be in India - *sigh* - but the much better result of that unfortunate event is that the lovely and talented Julia Voth will be at the screening and handling the Q&A. I’m pretty sure people would rather see her than some nerdy Indian director…