LIFE, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT...

A friend I had a conversation with the other day told me she was having a few problems in her family life. I asked her what the problem was and all she could tell me is "LIFE." Point of fact, it wasn't really a conversation in the traditional sense since there were no words exchanged between us but it was a text conversation, therefore her use of the word "life" was probably easier to say then typing out the whole problem.

Most middle income and lower income people, in my opinion, at one time of another have felt the strains of having no exposable income or an income that doesn't seem to stretch as far as we would like it. I make a fare amount on a yearly basis, more than many of my own friends and neighbors. I have no children. I'm single. And I have no pets nor my own house, yet every year I feel poorer and poorer when I should be richer and richer. We all have this feeling that no matter how much money we have we never seem to rise above our standing; we remain in a fixed situation in which every time manage to pull our heads above water there is always something to pull us back under. This can come in many different forms from an unpredictable pregnancy to government incarceration, a death/birth in the family and this is just the big things. Lets not forget about the small things such as Christmas which is always a drag on our finances, marriage (or a divorce), unpredictable medical bills or surgery, an additional family member in the house (or the exit of one). Then there are the rise and fall of gas prices and property taxes (among other types of taxes) and a plethera of other nuks and crannies that I can't even possibly imagine.

I on the other hand work over sixty hours a week and make a lot of money yet I'm always broke paying off old bills, paying off new bills, and then the biggest offense - paying off bills that I shouldn't even have. I make over $40k a year and yet at the end of it all I have very little. In the last five years I've had my car broken into twice, four of my cameras stolen, my appartment burned down, destroyed a laptop (my life's blood in my line of work), totalled my car (which lead to getting a new car), my tools stolen, and this is just the beginning. Most of this stuff had to be replaced...or that is what I've been told to think.

Most of this stuff has been replaced to a degree (although my replacement camera was also stolen...go figure...) and what hasn't been replaced I've gotten along fine without. It's just that latesly I've put so much money, time, and energy into the physical things that I own or I am attached to and completely forgotten what I should be spending my money on. Right now, I'm paying off a 2006 Jeep Liberty with high insurance, a school loan that's been kicking my ass since I graduated college, insurance I believe is too high, and an IRS bill for 2003/2004 taxes of which I will paying for for the next 12 months. All this amounts to a lot of bills and not enough money to pay them all off regardless of how much money I actually do make. LIFE - you gotta love it.

My friend...she has problems of a different sort. She's trying to get a divorce, handle her three children (two of which are twins who seem to hate each other), and deal with the fact that she's on unemployment because she was fired from her good job for something she was not responsible for. She seems to think she has bad luck and LIFE is trying to bring her down.

Life doesn't purposefully try to bring anyone down. It is not a "thing" or "entity" that thinks about what its going to do before it does it. It just is what it is. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it the Devil if you like. It is nothing more than a set of circumstances meant to test you to your fullest capacity. Without these tests and challenges we'd be nothing more than a hollow existence. A shell to be broken. LIFE has no ulterior motive. When a vocation destroys a small village or a hurricane kills a hundred people - LIFE is not made at us. It isn't malevolent. It is what it is- that is all, and even though we give these disasters names like Katrina or 9-11 that doesn't mean that they should be personified as such. They are what they are and we are what we are.

We all live on this small chunk of rock known as Earth (which we've also personified) and life has been here before us and it will be here long after us and to think that it has some ulterior motive against us is symply ridiculous. We should make good on the gift that we have all been given (whether it be by chance or God or whatever your particular belief) and make best the life we have and not the one we wish we had. We should not be afraid of the coming storm nor run away when you are facing down the worst fear of your life. We should bare our feet down in the gravel, stand our ground, and make damn sure that we won't let anything tear us asunder. That's what life is. That's what it's all about and once you forget that then you're no longer living.

You're dying and isn't that the greatest tragedy of them all - living a life that you've never really lived at all?

THE SEEKERS: ISH Screening at Gwinnett Center

My new company The SWIFF sponsored the first screening of the new Southlan-Films documentary THE SEEKERS: INVESTIGATING SOUTHERN HAUNTS, the pilot episode of a proposed series that was filmed over the last two years in multiple different locations. Being a skeptic of the whole paranormal phenomena I was aprehensive when I showed up on the set of the first shoot which was at a graveyard on Halloween night 2006.

I can honestly say that to me there was nothing present to indicate to me that there was any paranormal activity at the location.

The film and series in general, as produced by Ron McLellen, is meant to be an exploration of the Georgia Ghost Society as they go to various alledged haunted locations to see if they can prove or disprove the claims. Lead investigator Bob Hunnicutt, whom you may remember from several of my previous blog entries, is a devout believer in the paranormal and honestly wants to prove in its existence. Whether or not there is any "real" proof is second to experiencing "something." On the other hand producer/director Ron McLellen believes in the paranormal whether there is evidence or not. To parlay their enthusiasm about the subject matter and thelocations is investigator Drew Hester who seems to be a good moderator between the two.

All of these people were present at the screening which took place at the Gwinnett Center as part of The SWIFF's first Movie Event leading up to the actual film festival later this year. Although I do not believe in anything that was filmed or happened on set during the production of the film, the audience members who screened the filmed seemed to have liked and enjoyed the film regardless as they had many questions for Hunnicutt, Hester, McLellen, and Tim Beacham (also part of the team but whom was late).

The screening went over well with the audiences as well had about seventy people in attendance (out of eighty seats) and the Q&A session went longer than anticipated because of all the questions; Hunnicutt continued to answer questions long after the event had concluded.

As the Movie Event Coordinator there were many things that I needed to address, before, during, and after the screening, much to my surprise but this was our first screening/Movie Event and I will know better for next time. This was a learning event and we will know better for the next event.

I wasn't all that surprised that this event was going to cost me money in the end because I just wasn't prepared enough and this is after thinking that I was more then prepared. For the next Movie Event (which I hope will be a Cast & Crew screening of BAD LAND) there will be a different and more effeciant strategy and hopefully it will help shed more light on that which I am try accomplish with the Movie Events and the film festival itself.

THE GAITHER'S PLANTATION Pt. 4

Now that we are coming to the end of the night at the Gaither's Plantation I would like to shed light on the final incident that occurred. Unpon leaving Cecelia's bedroom we (Mui, Justin, and myself) ventured downstairs where he hooked up with Drew Hester's friend Charles. Not being one to be left out, Charles wanted to know if we wanted to do an other EVP session. I didn't care either way since I don't believe in there authenticity anyways but Mui and Justin agreed whole-heartedly. This time we decided to go into the basement of the facility which has a large stainless steel combination safe that was embedded into the wall and was probably used as a storage place for valuble items. The safe was now locked up tighter then Fort Knox, which didn't matter anyways because the combonation was probably lost through time.

Other than the safe the basement was completely empty with nothing else contained within. It was also very small and any more than six of seven people would probably make the place feel crampted. We decided that this would be the perfect place for our second EVP session of the night.

We each gathered up a chair and headed down into the basement. I don't remember who closed the door but the room became suddenly shrouded in total blackness and then I became truly aware of what it might feel like to be blind. This wasn't slight darkness, this was total blackness of all the senses. There were no windows from which the moonlight might creep through and no other rooms nearby. There was nothing but the sense of an enclosing blackness like the feeling you get when watching an eclipse.

We were each shrouded in the veil of night.

Unlike our previous location where even if all the lights were out we could still see and feel the warmth of the moonlight gleaming through the many windows, here it felt like a blackness of hell. Being shrouded in total blackness my senses began to dull. And quiet. And eventual take on a life of their own as I stopped hearing the breathing of everyone else in the room. I could hear no movement in the air nor feel it across my face because there was no air flow. I could not make out any shapes in the darkness. I began to look inwards slowly evolving and coming into a relaxed and meditative state.

I was alone. Or at least that's what I thought.

I don't know how long we were down in that room because when you enter a deep meditatiive state you tend to lose track of time as you become very in tune to not only yourself but your surroundings. This is what happened to me without me ever knowing it. My mind was blank. Calm. So calm that I don't recall anything from those moments other than I know I was not sleeping.

I know this because at some point during the session and my meditative state I heard voices. To me it sounded like children's voices. They were indistinguishable from one another and just sounded like noise in my head. The only thing I could do to quiet the voices was to yell out, "Quiet!" The voices didn't seem to hear me so I yelled it out again - "Quiet!"

Still no response so eventually I yelled, "Shut up the racked!" (or something to that effect. Since we were filming this I'm sure the exact words are on tape.) to which I finally realized the voices finally disappated. My concentration had been broken. I was fully back to the conscious world. At first I was a little peturbed but then I realized that everyone in the room was starring at me. And then it suddenlt dawned on me that none of them knew what in the hell I was talking about.

The EVP session had been interrupted by my utterance. I was a little embarrased at first but then when I told them my story I realized that no one else in the room had heard the children voices nor had they heard me say anything out loud other than my last line. They were under the impression that everything else was in my head.

"My head?" I thought to myself. Had I imagined it all? The child voices and the utterances for them to shut up? It felt really real to me even after they explanned it back to me. The whole incident was rather strange in that I usually didn't think that I could be so suceptible to such things. I don't know how to explain the incident.

All I know is that my conversation felt real at the time. I really believed that I was truly trying to get children to be quiet. I still don't know what to make of it all.

I walked out of the room a tad disoriented which is normal when you are put in such a situation and I began to question what was the point of it all. I'm not a palm reader and I don't see into the future nor know the past

What I did gather, mind you, was that there is more to this house then meets to I. Was I so enthralled in my meditative state that I lost control of what was fantasy and what is reality? Did I in fact hear the voices of children? Who knows? I don't really believe in the supernatural nor the religeous dogma that is inherent in every Christian myth and legend.

It was an unuasual incident in which I don't know how or what happened nor how it can be explained by someone like me who doen't believe in all of this. When I stepped out of that cold darkness and into the upstairs portion of the house I was extremely taken aback. I couldn't explain to anyon exactly what I heard or why I yelled out loud, but only that I did.

I was told later that the EVP session only lasted about thirty to forty-five minutes and to everyone else in the room this session was a complete bust. For me I had entered an unparralelled psychosis of pure relaxation and meditation of which I had never done before.

When we finally touched base with Ron McLellen and Bob Hunnicutt, Hunnicutt informed me that no previous owner of the house had children. This news was not what I was expecting as I was thinking that there might be ghost spirits everywhere. No such luck; therefore the nature and origins of these voices have up to this point remained a mystery to me.

As we packed up the gear at the slave quarters, in which David Vinson had spent his evening, the thoughts of the voices began to hound on me. We then all moved on to the church location where nothing happened or was caught on tape (that is nothing caught by the naked eye but maybe something would become better on a second viewing). Cleared perhaps?

The whole evening in my opinion was a bust but then again I was neither present at the slave quarters nor at the church so whom an I to say a word. My only experience on this investigation was as experienced at the main house where we were trying for a paranormal response.

I don't know how to evaluate these investigations therefore I don't. This is not something I always look forward to but it is part of my job as production manager on the film so I don't altogether mind. Although I failed to experience anything truly paranormal I look ward to each of these investigations because they are fun and inventive.

Whether or not they are real or not I leave it up to the audience(s) who view the film because ultimately they always have the benifit of the doubt.

THE GAITHER'S PLANTATION Pt. 3

That night of our most recent visit to the alledged haunted Gaither's Plantation did not, for me at least, seem to yield anything worth a damn but then again maybe I was just looking in the wrong place. As I've said before lead investigator Bob Hunnicutt and producer/director Ron McLellen were on location at the church while guest investigator David Vinson was in the slave quarters. Our production team of Vernon Mui and his friend Justin in addition to Charles (who was a friend of Georgia Ghost Society member Drew Hester) were also present.

Mui is a budding young filmmaker with an interest and curiosity in the paranormal. On the previous investigation at this location he engaged in his own private session with our guest psychic investigator to no avail so he was determined to try his luck once more in this house by use of an EVP session. If you are familiar with an EVP session then you know it is meant to be a way in which paranormal investigators try to illicit a response from ghostly spirits within an isolated room or domain. Since EVPs are electronic voice phenomena you are unable to hear the responses of ghostly spirits during the actual session; you must replay the session through your voice recorder or video camera in order to hear what a possible ghostly spirit is saying or would have said. It's a very shaky way in which to try to prove the existence of the paranormal (which is why it is not accepted in many corners) but it is a curiosity that begs to be investigated.

After I had my isolated session in Cecelia's room Mui wanted to conduct an actual EVP session in this very room. There was Mui and Justin and myself although point of fact I was nothing but an empty vessel and/or observer while they proceeded to ask the questions. We closed the door and turned off the lights and sat in total silence for a long spell before one of them decided to ask the "room" questions. The questions were very predictable at first which is to be expected by two people who had never been privy to an EVP session but were rather going off instinct with what they had seen on television. I, on the other hand, paid little attention to thing as I closed my eyes and sat back in one of the benches in the room.

The session lasted almost an hour and I recall absolutely nothing of what happened. This is not because I wasn't interested in the whole thing but rather my mind was fixated on the fact that my uncle had just died a day prior and I was trying to recall all the memories of him locked within my head.

What I do know is that Mui and Justin had now had a partial taste of what it was like to be a paranormal investigator but they soon wanted a full course meal.

We all went down stairs where Hester and his friend Charles made their presence known. The house now had actual bodies within it so it no longer seemed like a cold and lonely place (which is how I picture plantations in which slaves were used as manual labor). Although this hinted at the end of the evening, it would only be the start of Mui's investigations for the night in which I would find myself even more enraptured.

To Be Continued...

Praise For George A. Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD!

I thought I would never say this this close to the beginning of the year but "George A. Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD is the Best Horror Film of the Year!" Romero is back with a vengeance doing what he does best which are zombie films. After the anemic LAND OF THE DEAD you wouldn't think he could pull his ass from the fire but he does just that with his new film and he does it in style. Although DIARY comes as the fifth film in the series it really should be considered the first as it tells the story of the zombie apocalypse as it first happens and he does it with more craft and knowledge then any of the previous films.

The thing that audiences will enjoy most about the new film is that Romero makes slow moving zombies scary once again and he puts the term "character" back into horror films. DIARY is by far the best horror film to be released in the past decade (along side THE DESCENT).

I was able to catch a screening of the film last night at one of the only two theatres screening it in Georgia. It was totally by accident but I'm glad I decided to stop because of all the films being released in the coming months (they screen trailers for just about every one of them prior to the film) none look even remotely as interesting or as original as this film. Although there may be echoes of BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD do not be dismayed by the comparisons as DIARY still maintains that it is a "film" and not "found" footage therefore the "shaky cam" aesthetics of the former films are not present in this film and the story and characters contained within are just as harrowing as that depicted in Romero's NIGHT and DAWN films. This is truly a high watermark in American horror films as it not only ushers in the return of one of our greatest directors but renews or faith in American horror films as well.

THE GAITHER'S PLANTATION Pt. 2

In the upstairs bedroom of Cecilia Gaither I decided to see if I could illicit my own paranormal experience.

At the time Ron McLellen and Bob Hunnicutt were at the church continuing that investigation or conducting interviews that coincide with the night's proceedings while David Vinson was at the slave quarters experiencing his own personal enlightenment in the haunted attic. That left the house empty except for me and our production assistants Vernon Mui and his friend Justin. While Mui and Justin were downstairs I walked upstairs to Cecilia's room.

Now this isn't first time I've been up in this room as it was one of the key locations for our previous investigations of which I participated (I was the camera op for that investigation with an IR camera). This time I decided to lie back on Cecilia's bed and stare into the darkness of the room. The room was extremely dark as it had no working overhead lighting. The only lighting that illuminated the room came from the moonlight streaming through the windows and the headlights of a passing car (fellow GGS investigator Drew eventually arrived with his assistant Charles).

I laid back upon the soft bed and all I could think about was the death of my uncle which I had only been told about a day earlier. I couldn't think of the paranormal investigation nor any other aspect of what I was physically there at the location to do. My mind was in a land-lock. As I lay back on the bed allowing the thoughts to stream through my consciousness I eventually realized that my thoughts began to manifest themselves out loud until they were no longer just thoughts but a conversation with Cecilia herself. As if her spirit was actually in the room I began to foretell all my personal thoughts about the paranormal, ghosts, death, and my uncle. She was my psychiatrist as feelings and thoughts that I've never told anyone else began to ooze out of me like the simplest of exercises.

I sat up in that room talking to Cecilia for a good hour and a half, if not more, before someone realized I had even disappeared. By the time I was done speaking with Cecilia my consciousness was calm were once it was a volcano about to erupt. Now I have no accertions that Cecilia was actually in the room hearing me although it is a confront to think that maybe she was. I don't believe that anyone or anything was actually in the room but for that moment in my life I wanted to believe that maybe there is another life out there just on the cuspe of our own. That maybe there was someone or something in that room with me.

Never on any of these investigations have I ever wanted to believe in what we were filming. I've been on several of these investigations with two separate groups and not once have I seen or experienced anything that would give me the inclination that there is an alternate or afterlife beyond our own. It is easier for me to believe that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe and that there may be EBEs, extra-terrestrials, or aliens, then it is for me to believe that ghosts inhabit and roam the Earth after death.

That night I not only settled several personal issues that was plaguing me but I also had an alternative experience that as of right now I cannot explain. Upon breaking from my personal experience in Cecilia's bedroom I was more open to the possibilities present out in the world. So, I became more involved with the production and what better way to open up to this production then to volunteer for some seperate investigations.

While McLellen, Hunnicutt, and Vinson were off in their own little world, Mui and his friend Justin and myself decided to do couple EVP sessions. This is an area of the paranormal that Mui has found himself very interested in and he invited me to conduct one in Cecilia's room - one of the most haunted of the location's of the Gaither's Plantation.

Everything was about to change...

TO BE CONTINUED...

THE GAITHER'S PLANTATION Pt. 1

On Friday, February 8th at approximately 6:00pm we arrived at the Gaither's Platation in one piece although two hours late of our scheduled time. In the car was Ron McLellen (the producer/director), David Vison (our guest investigator), and myself - the production manager of this little paranormal investigation. Although this would be only my second time out at the location (last Halloween night 2007 was the first), this world be McLellen's forth or fifth as he and the other members of the Georgia Ghost Society have been at this location on many an occassion. I on the other hand do not believe in ghost or the supernatural and thus this second trip didn't appeal to me in the slightest. I was only on set for moral support.

Unlike last Halloween when we focused the investigation on the main house this night's investigation would focus on the alledgedly haunted church also on the property (although it did not originate with the property but was moved here several years prior). I didn't see this location on my last visist as we kept the investigation on the main house and the slave quarters (which were still barely intact). Tonight we will be setting up the IR (infra-red cameras) cameras to see if we catch anything on take. The church is one of the most haunted areas on the pl;antaton and McLellen and the GGS wanted to add to their other great footage filmed over the corse of the last two years. Their idea is to set up two camera's in the church for several hours and just let them record.

There are no trick photography or set ups - everything in the doc is actually filmed on set as it is happening. After setting up the main location of the church upon arriving on set, we set up the slave quarters set once again. On Halloween we had Abrey Britt Bailey (lead singer of the Worm Wood Project) sit in the attic by himself as he was being filmed to get his experience in the alledged haunted location. This time the guest was Vinson whom McLellen and myself work with up at Gwinnett Center; Vinson is a sound engineer who wanted to be a part of the paranormal investigation and this was the best opportunity that we knew how to get him involved. He would get to be the one up in the haunted attic by himself in the dark with only the IR camera on him for as young as the tape in the camera lasted.

Although we didn't need to film anything at the main house this time (as that was the main location of the investigation on Halloween 2007) it was our base of opporation and a good location to do the initial interviews between Vinson, McLellen, and Bob Hunnicutt - the founder of the GGS and our Host for the show and liasson for all the locations. Hunnicutt would be leading the investigation and provide us (and the production) with all the background info we need to conduct the investigation.

My job on set is as production manager, which means I'm the gofer and general "bitch" of the location getting whatever needs to be got and accommodating everyone whenever needed. This night I wasn't needed as much as usual (and frankly, I'm rarely needed on these paranormal investigations as it is. I'm just there when I can be or when I think I might have fun. They tend to run themselves.). This night would be a different night for me as I would have a different agenda for coming to the location rather than just being a part of the investigation.

Two days earlier I received the tragic news that my uncle had passed away while in the hospital. It was unexpected and took me by surprise and when I found out I debated whether or not I even wanted to continue with the investigation. I thought long and hard about it but in the end I thought that it would do me good to continue on with the investigation. I would continue on and hope that with this newfound tragedy in my life that it would all become something barable. I also had an inkling for wanting to believe that maybe there are "spirits" and "ghosts" out there trapped in their own purgatory. Maybe there is an afterlife.

But mainly I needed to believe. I needed to believe in something. Anything. And what better place to learn about believing in something then to go to a haunted house and see and experience something truly unique and truly extraordinary. Something that could possibly make me believe.

I would try to have my own paranormal experience at the haunted house.

To Be Continued...

Sylvester Stallone returns with a bang in RAMBO (2008)

I was pleasantly surprised at how well Sylvester Stallone was able to resurrect his Rocky Balboa character last year in ROCKY BALBOA and to my amazement he was able to do the same thing with his other iconic character John Rambo in the self titled RAMBO. In the new film John has lost himself within the mist of Burma and the genocide happening over there but that war is not his own as he only wants to be left alone and whither away in the rest of his existence. Like all the previous films Rambo has lost his faith - his faith in war, his faith in people, and his faith in himself. Then in steps Sarah (Julie Benz) and her group of missionaries who want to bring medical supplies, faith, and hope to a people who are mercilessly killed by an overlord general who kills and slaughters people with malice and steals innocent children to recruit for his army.
After helping Sarah's group cross the border into Burma, John soon learns that the group has been abducted by the general and he must enter into the confines of the jungle on a rescue mission. John isn't alone this time as a group of mercenaries have also been sent into the jungle to aid in the rescue.

The thing that differentiates this film from the previous films is that even though it brings out the same themes of the previous films - a man who has lost faith in the world around him and even in himself, this film brings the entire series home to a conclusive end. Like the Rocky Balboa films, this is series has finally come to a decisive end.This film will interest modern day audiences as it does not belittle or talk down to the audience by defusing the situation with unwanted and needless comedy or film commentary. This film is a relentless war film from beginning to end and has some of the most brutal violence seen in any of the Rambo films or any modern action film out today. This is no LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, THE TRANSPORTER, or any Michael Bay film, for that matter. Stallone presents an engaging look into war and genocide and it isn't pretty, which is what war truly is. War is death, destruction, needless, and sometimes necessary no matter how much we all wish for peace and this film presents it as so and it is all the better for it.

A Look at the IMAX Concert Film U2 3D

The face of watching a concert film is forever changed with the film U2 3D in which we watch the iconic rock band's concert in Argentina in glorious digital 3D on the IMAX screen in which everything is so much larger than life. It's not enough that the film is presented in the larger than life IMAX format but the filmmakers want you to be IN THE MOVIE and the technological advancements of digital 3D have now made that possible. While watching Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. you feel like you are one of the audience members as the performers step right off the screen and into your lap. It is an amazing experience to behold that takes the innovations of previous digital 3D films BEOWULF, HARRY POTTER 5, and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 3D, to a whole different level. Those films were beautifully presented but U2 3D is right in your face.

The4 cinematography is amazing as elements in the foreground, background, and mid-ground are separated amid the 3D elements creating a visual tour de force in which for the first time you feel like you can stand in between the audience and the band for an even closer experience with the band then even the original audience was able to get. Praise should also go to the production design as the two thrust stage performance areas put band members in the middle of the audience during certain songs enhancing the “up close and personal” aspect of the production and the 3D feel.

Not since viewing GRINDHOUSE on the big screen has going to the movies been such a jaw dropping experience. The band performs all their most popular songs and expands upon and enhances the concert experience that they brought to their 1988 concert film U2: RATTLE AND HUM. Although this film will have tough competition with the Hannah Montana concert film HANNAH MONTANA & MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT - DISNEY DIGITAL 3D (which at this time is the highest grossing concert film of all time), U2 3D like the band's previous concert film will be a bench mark in concert films that will be enjoyed for years to come.