Jan
31
URGENT Request For Help on Larry King Live Show Tonight!
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Ken Black asked:
Representatives from the the Humane Society and the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) were on the Larry King Live Show tonight on CNN, Saturday September 10.
Here is the latest update on the plight of dogs, cats and other animals WHO HAVE NOT BEEN RESCUED in New Orleans and other stricken areas :
The rescuers need more people, more people to help them rescue the thousands of dogs, in particular, left behind. The Louisiana and Federal Government (namely the US Coast Guard, the US Navy, FEMA etc.) are refusing to help them. Although they could help, they have been given orders to not pick up dieing and abandoned animals.
The Animal Rescue people are begging the government to help, but they will not.
I just saw a report on CNN just after the Larry King Show tonight. Many of you likely saw it also. A US Coast Guard officer checked a house, found nobody in it, and a small black Puppy ran up to him and begged him to take him with him (Rescue him). The man said no on TV and said that no, sorry we cannot pick you up little dog. The dog was left behind with nobody to help him.
That is what the Federal Government and the State government is doing.
In the Bible, Matthew 25 states …
“Then shall the King (Jesus) say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me …
They asked him : when did we do these things for you ?
He said “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then the Lord said to them that did not help him, that they would be cast into Hell forever, because they refused to open their hearts and care for those in need … those that they came across in need, in their life time.
Are not Dogs and Cats and other animals “some of the least of these” ? These were given to us by God as companions. In this major disaster because of Hurricane Katrina, there are still thousands of dogs, cats and other animals, that have been abandoned and are dieing due to our neglect and cruelty …
In this case, the government has the manpower in the disaster areas to rescue all of the animals and people in distress. But, they have decided to let the animals die.
Will God not judge all of the United States of America for this incredible cruelty ? God is not stupid. Unless things change dramatically and in a hurry, thousands of his creation will die.
How Can You Help ?
Raise your voice, send faxes or phone calls to your state and federal government demanding that they help those that are trying to rescue animals that have been forgotten.
Will you help ?
Please contact one or more of the following people who are in charge :
1. President George Bush at the White House
Comments: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
Email : President George Bush
2. U.S.A. Coast Guard Search & Rescue 1-800-323-7233
Phone: 1-800-323-7233 or (314) 539-3900 extension 2276 or 2277
In the New Orleans area contact the search and rescue emergency lines for the State Office of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge , La.:
(225) 925-7708
(225) 925-7709
(225) 925-3511
(225) 925-7412
3. Louisiana Office of
Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
7667 Independence Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
MG Bennett C. Landreneau - Adjutant General and Director of the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness
Phone: 225-925-7500
Fax: 225-925-7501
Please contact at least one of the above by fax and/or by phone as quickly as possible. The dogs, cats and other animals don’t have much longer to live ! Only your voice speaking out for them will help now !!!
Thank you for caring ! God bless you
William
Representatives from the the Humane Society and the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) were on the Larry King Live Show tonight on CNN, Saturday September 10.
Here is the latest update on the plight of dogs, cats and other animals WHO HAVE NOT BEEN RESCUED in New Orleans and other stricken areas :
The rescuers need more people, more people to help them rescue the thousands of dogs, in particular, left behind. The Louisiana and Federal Government (namely the US Coast Guard, the US Navy, FEMA etc.) are refusing to help them. Although they could help, they have been given orders to not pick up dieing and abandoned animals.
The Animal Rescue people are begging the government to help, but they will not.
I just saw a report on CNN just after the Larry King Show tonight. Many of you likely saw it also. A US Coast Guard officer checked a house, found nobody in it, and a small black Puppy ran up to him and begged him to take him with him (Rescue him). The man said no on TV and said that no, sorry we cannot pick you up little dog. The dog was left behind with nobody to help him.
That is what the Federal Government and the State government is doing.
In the Bible, Matthew 25 states …
“Then shall the King (Jesus) say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me …
They asked him : when did we do these things for you ?
He said “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then the Lord said to them that did not help him, that they would be cast into Hell forever, because they refused to open their hearts and care for those in need … those that they came across in need, in their life time.
Are not Dogs and Cats and other animals “some of the least of these” ? These were given to us by God as companions. In this major disaster because of Hurricane Katrina, there are still thousands of dogs, cats and other animals, that have been abandoned and are dieing due to our neglect and cruelty …
In this case, the government has the manpower in the disaster areas to rescue all of the animals and people in distress. But, they have decided to let the animals die.
Will God not judge all of the United States of America for this incredible cruelty ? God is not stupid. Unless things change dramatically and in a hurry, thousands of his creation will die.
How Can You Help ?
Raise your voice, send faxes or phone calls to your state and federal government demanding that they help those that are trying to rescue animals that have been forgotten.
Will you help ?
Please contact one or more of the following people who are in charge :
1. President George Bush at the White House
Comments: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
Email : President George Bush
2. U.S.A. Coast Guard Search & Rescue 1-800-323-7233
Phone: 1-800-323-7233 or (314) 539-3900 extension 2276 or 2277
In the New Orleans area contact the search and rescue emergency lines for the State Office of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge , La.:
(225) 925-7708
(225) 925-7709
(225) 925-3511
(225) 925-7412
3. Louisiana Office of
Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
7667 Independence Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
MG Bennett C. Landreneau - Adjutant General and Director of the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness
Phone: 225-925-7500
Fax: 225-925-7501
Please contact at least one of the above by fax and/or by phone as quickly as possible. The dogs, cats and other animals don’t have much longer to live ! Only your voice speaking out for them will help now !!!
Thank you for caring ! God bless you
William
Jan
26
Judge Judy: A Great Role Model For Older Women?
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Barbara Morris, R.Ph. asked:
I Love Judge Judy. If every kid to had a no-nonsense Judge Judy type mother there would be fewer problems in the world.
However, I’m not sure she’s a great role model for older women. This is why: Judge Judy was sharing her wisdom on the Larry King show, and the conversation turned to computers. Judy and Larry admitted they had never used a computer, and that’s okay. When you have people who can do what you don’t want to do or can’t do - that’s fine.
But here’s the thing. Judy implied that she was too old to learn. She didn’t say so in so many words, but that was her message, loud and clear. It should not have surprised me - on her show, she often makes comments about “getting old” or “being old.” As smart as she is, she seems not to understand that you are what you say you are. Chronological “old” is one thing. Mental “old” is something else. You can’t control the former but you are in full control of the latter as long as you have your wits about you.
Here’s what really bothers me: Her comment about age being a deterrent to learning new information compounds the widely held myth that old (or older) people can’t learn new things. Judge Judy is an extremely influential woman - we listen to her and accept her wisdom. While she was speaking I could just picture older women who have given up on themselves, silently assenting that they too are too old to learn to use a computer, thankful to Judge Judy that she has given them permission to continue to vegetate.
She often chastises miscreants on her show, suggesting that they need an “epiphany.” An epiphany, according the dictionary is a sudden realization, “a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.”
Judge Judy is not old, but her comments and demeanor make one think that she’s older than her reputed 56 years. She needs an epiphany. Not just for herself, but for the countless women who look to her as a role model.
That she has others who do computer work for her is great. It frees her up to do other things. However, I suggest that she keep her brilliant super-charged brain firing on all cylinders as she enters her older years by learning to use a computer. Other than doing crossword puzzles, I can think of nothing more challenging than doing battle with a dumb machine that makes you think far more intensely than you can imagine.
For example, remembering passwords is a major pain. I keep a log of passwords for handy reference, but I don’t refer to it until and unless I am stumped when trying to log into a password protected page or program. I constantly surprise myself that I can remember so many different passwords. For me, that is a major benefit of using a computer - the constant challenge to remember what I want to remember.
Age be damned, Judge Judy! You are too old to learn only when you say you are. Get a new attitude, Your Honor!
Frank
I Love Judge Judy. If every kid to had a no-nonsense Judge Judy type mother there would be fewer problems in the world.
However, I’m not sure she’s a great role model for older women. This is why: Judge Judy was sharing her wisdom on the Larry King show, and the conversation turned to computers. Judy and Larry admitted they had never used a computer, and that’s okay. When you have people who can do what you don’t want to do or can’t do - that’s fine.
But here’s the thing. Judy implied that she was too old to learn. She didn’t say so in so many words, but that was her message, loud and clear. It should not have surprised me - on her show, she often makes comments about “getting old” or “being old.” As smart as she is, she seems not to understand that you are what you say you are. Chronological “old” is one thing. Mental “old” is something else. You can’t control the former but you are in full control of the latter as long as you have your wits about you.
Here’s what really bothers me: Her comment about age being a deterrent to learning new information compounds the widely held myth that old (or older) people can’t learn new things. Judge Judy is an extremely influential woman - we listen to her and accept her wisdom. While she was speaking I could just picture older women who have given up on themselves, silently assenting that they too are too old to learn to use a computer, thankful to Judge Judy that she has given them permission to continue to vegetate.
She often chastises miscreants on her show, suggesting that they need an “epiphany.” An epiphany, according the dictionary is a sudden realization, “a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence.”
Judge Judy is not old, but her comments and demeanor make one think that she’s older than her reputed 56 years. She needs an epiphany. Not just for herself, but for the countless women who look to her as a role model.
That she has others who do computer work for her is great. It frees her up to do other things. However, I suggest that she keep her brilliant super-charged brain firing on all cylinders as she enters her older years by learning to use a computer. Other than doing crossword puzzles, I can think of nothing more challenging than doing battle with a dumb machine that makes you think far more intensely than you can imagine.
For example, remembering passwords is a major pain. I keep a log of passwords for handy reference, but I don’t refer to it until and unless I am stumped when trying to log into a password protected page or program. I constantly surprise myself that I can remember so many different passwords. For me, that is a major benefit of using a computer - the constant challenge to remember what I want to remember.
Age be damned, Judge Judy! You are too old to learn only when you say you are. Get a new attitude, Your Honor!
Frank
Jan
23
The Secret and the Science of Getting Rich
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Randy Baldwin asked:
Have you heard of the DVD called “the Secret”? Well it isn’t such a secret anymore. The DVD was released in March 2006 and according to Time Magazine, the DVD has sold 500,000 units within the first 6 months. Today it sells well over 5,000 copies a day! It ranked in Amazon’s Top-5 sellers during Christmas week; and a tie-in hardcover book just entered the Top 10 on the New York times bestseller list.
The amazing thing about “the Secret” is that you won’t find it in your local Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble, it is selling briskly through new-age bookstores, New Thought churches like Unity and AGape and the official website at www.thesecret.tv. “It’s become the biggest selling item in the 30-year history of our store,” says Harmony Rose Allor, a buyer at West Hollywood’s popular metaphysical bookshop, The Bodhi Tree. it is “word-of-mouth” marketing at it best.
So what is the secret to “the Secret’s” success? It’s is a “transformational movie”, where a person’s view on life and the laws of life will no longer be the same after watching this movie. In a sense, it has created the same kind of effect as “the Da Vinci Code” and the 2004 hit cult movie “What the Bleep Do We Know”. The movie has created such waves that it has already been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres show.
At the core of the movie is a central philosophy called “the Law of Attraction”. In fact, the movie itself was inspired by this very same law when the producer read a book called “the Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. This books was written in 1910!
This philosophy states that we create our reality, both good and bad! The message is delivered through 24 “teachers” which include prosperity preachers, chiropractic healers, relationship gurus, life coaches and motivational speakers — into one clear, cohesive voice. The movie is a “must watch” for anyone interested in taking charge of their life and in creating the life of their dreams.
Following on the success of the Secret, 3 of the core teachers - namely Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have collaborated to produce a wealth building program called “the Secret Science of Getting Rich Seminar”. This program is based on the book that inspired the movie and is set to make history as the fastest selling personal development program in history.
What is the Science of Getting Rich about? Well in the words of Wallace D. Wattles, “The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich.” The Science of Getting Rich is all about teaching how to do things in this “certain” way to create wealth.
The success of this program is built on several rock solid foundations. These factors include: the phenomenal success of “the Secret”, the timeless concepts from the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, the credibility of successful personal improvement teachers and New Thought leaders of our time, and the Internet as the distribution medium.
Click here to learn more about the Secret of Getting Rich Seminar and it’s affiliate program.
Hello From My Heart!
Warm Regards,
Randy Baldwin
http://www.BaldwinOnlineProfits.com
Agnes
Have you heard of the DVD called “the Secret”? Well it isn’t such a secret anymore. The DVD was released in March 2006 and according to Time Magazine, the DVD has sold 500,000 units within the first 6 months. Today it sells well over 5,000 copies a day! It ranked in Amazon’s Top-5 sellers during Christmas week; and a tie-in hardcover book just entered the Top 10 on the New York times bestseller list.
The amazing thing about “the Secret” is that you won’t find it in your local Blockbuster or Barnes and Noble, it is selling briskly through new-age bookstores, New Thought churches like Unity and AGape and the official website at www.thesecret.tv. “It’s become the biggest selling item in the 30-year history of our store,” says Harmony Rose Allor, a buyer at West Hollywood’s popular metaphysical bookshop, The Bodhi Tree. it is “word-of-mouth” marketing at it best.
So what is the secret to “the Secret’s” success? It’s is a “transformational movie”, where a person’s view on life and the laws of life will no longer be the same after watching this movie. In a sense, it has created the same kind of effect as “the Da Vinci Code” and the 2004 hit cult movie “What the Bleep Do We Know”. The movie has created such waves that it has already been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres show.
At the core of the movie is a central philosophy called “the Law of Attraction”. In fact, the movie itself was inspired by this very same law when the producer read a book called “the Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. This books was written in 1910!
This philosophy states that we create our reality, both good and bad! The message is delivered through 24 “teachers” which include prosperity preachers, chiropractic healers, relationship gurus, life coaches and motivational speakers — into one clear, cohesive voice. The movie is a “must watch” for anyone interested in taking charge of their life and in creating the life of their dreams.
Following on the success of the Secret, 3 of the core teachers - namely Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have collaborated to produce a wealth building program called “the Secret Science of Getting Rich Seminar”. This program is based on the book that inspired the movie and is set to make history as the fastest selling personal development program in history.
What is the Science of Getting Rich about? Well in the words of Wallace D. Wattles, “The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law that like causes always produce like effects. Therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich.” The Science of Getting Rich is all about teaching how to do things in this “certain” way to create wealth.
The success of this program is built on several rock solid foundations. These factors include: the phenomenal success of “the Secret”, the timeless concepts from the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, the credibility of successful personal improvement teachers and New Thought leaders of our time, and the Internet as the distribution medium.
Click here to learn more about the Secret of Getting Rich Seminar and it’s affiliate program.
Hello From My Heart!
Warm Regards,
Randy Baldwin
http://www.BaldwinOnlineProfits.com
Agnes
Jan
16
The Law Of Attraction - Ancient And Timeless
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Life Resources asked:
The Law of Attraction has been introduced by various people in the media, such as Larry King, Oprah and MSNBC. Actually, the law of attraction is a very ancient system of belief and existence. It dates back to the earliest humans, including the Egyptians, Babylonians, and even the precursors to ancient religions.
Simply put, the law of attraction states that like attracts like. This is a very simplified explanation and in reality, the law of attraction goes much deeper than that. Your very being, including your thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and everything about you combined acts as a magnet to attract certain things into your experience. Not just physical things, but also events, people and circumstances.
There are many self-help kits, coaches and gurus claiming to be experts on the law of attraction, but in reality, the law of attraction is something that can never be fully learned by anyone. Just when you think you’ve mastered it at some level, you’ll discover a much deeper level beyond it. Also, the law of attraction doesn’t just have one rigid way to harness it. It seems that for every individual, there is an individual way to harness the law of attraction, within given parameters.
So that means that what works for one person may not work for you. Alternatively, what has worked well for you may not necessarily work for others. That’s why there is so much confusion about the law of attraction. Lots of people have found something that works for them, and think that it is the magic answer for everyone else. So when someone doesn’t meet that same measure of success, they start feeling guilty about it or feel that they’ve done something wrong. Sometimes, things just don’t work for every single person on the face of this earth. Sometimes, you have to find your own law of attraction.
One of the best known books that talks about the law of attraction is called The Seth Material, by Jane Roberts. The Seth Material was talked about by Esther Hicks as she channels the Abraham consciousness. It was also spoken about on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio show. Jane Roberts channeled an energy consciousness, which she named “Seth” in the 60’s. Although, “Seth” does not call it the law of attraction, but he surely does explain how your thoughts and emotions create your reality. He explains how your emotions, visions, and thoughts all combine to create your reality, and how most of us create by default. We react to what is in front of us, thereby creating more of what’s in front of us, never realizing that we’re actually the key to changing that. It is a very fascinating book. It also touched on subjects that we’ve only recently discovered through quantum physics, namely the possibility of parallel lifetimes and universes. The Seth Material makes for excellent reading for anyone who is open minded about other dimensions and realities. It is also excellent reading for anyone who wants to know more about how the law of attraction works.
Tammy
The Law of Attraction has been introduced by various people in the media, such as Larry King, Oprah and MSNBC. Actually, the law of attraction is a very ancient system of belief and existence. It dates back to the earliest humans, including the Egyptians, Babylonians, and even the precursors to ancient religions.
Simply put, the law of attraction states that like attracts like. This is a very simplified explanation and in reality, the law of attraction goes much deeper than that. Your very being, including your thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and everything about you combined acts as a magnet to attract certain things into your experience. Not just physical things, but also events, people and circumstances.
There are many self-help kits, coaches and gurus claiming to be experts on the law of attraction, but in reality, the law of attraction is something that can never be fully learned by anyone. Just when you think you’ve mastered it at some level, you’ll discover a much deeper level beyond it. Also, the law of attraction doesn’t just have one rigid way to harness it. It seems that for every individual, there is an individual way to harness the law of attraction, within given parameters.
So that means that what works for one person may not work for you. Alternatively, what has worked well for you may not necessarily work for others. That’s why there is so much confusion about the law of attraction. Lots of people have found something that works for them, and think that it is the magic answer for everyone else. So when someone doesn’t meet that same measure of success, they start feeling guilty about it or feel that they’ve done something wrong. Sometimes, things just don’t work for every single person on the face of this earth. Sometimes, you have to find your own law of attraction.
One of the best known books that talks about the law of attraction is called The Seth Material, by Jane Roberts. The Seth Material was talked about by Esther Hicks as she channels the Abraham consciousness. It was also spoken about on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio show. Jane Roberts channeled an energy consciousness, which she named “Seth” in the 60’s. Although, “Seth” does not call it the law of attraction, but he surely does explain how your thoughts and emotions create your reality. He explains how your emotions, visions, and thoughts all combine to create your reality, and how most of us create by default. We react to what is in front of us, thereby creating more of what’s in front of us, never realizing that we’re actually the key to changing that. It is a very fascinating book. It also touched on subjects that we’ve only recently discovered through quantum physics, namely the possibility of parallel lifetimes and universes. The Seth Material makes for excellent reading for anyone who is open minded about other dimensions and realities. It is also excellent reading for anyone who wants to know more about how the law of attraction works.
Tammy
Jan
9
The Secret to Happiness
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Larry Danks asked:
*** Excerpted from Chapter 1 of: Your Unfinished Life by Lawrence J. Danks
(Helpful Media) ISBN 978-0-615-24207-1
Available 11/1/08.
People often asked me what is the most effective technique for transforming their life. It is a little embarrassing that after years and years of research and experimentation, I have to say that the best answer is - just be a little kinder.”- [Aldous Huxley -Quoted from The Power of Kindness - Piero Ferrucci ]
The search for happiness is a universal quest. It seems only logical it should center around us. Instead, it really centers around others. As English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham said: “Create all the happiness you can create, remove all the misery you can remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by a beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.” - [Quoted from Happiness: Lessons From A New Science - Richard Layard]
How often are people called to our attention and we think that somebody else will help or that it’s not really our concern? It can be as simple as giving or lending money, cutting someone’s grass or listening to a friend’s problems.
A decent, thoughtful man was walking home late one night and saw a pathetic drunk laying in the gutter. Suddenly, he found himself under a horrific attack of cynical thought and said to himself: “God, why do you let this man lie in shame. If you truly exist, why don’t you help him?” And into this man’s mind came this sentence: “I am helping him. I just brought him to your attention.” - [Power Thoughts- Robert Schuller]
Opportunities for kindness present themselves daily. By developing an enhanced sensitivity to our social environment, we’ll notice things we haven’t seen before. More people will be helped. And we’ll make ourselves more authentic and happier people in the process.
How To Have A Happier Life
You are the prospective parent of your own fulfilled self and your happiness. Dr. Martin Seligman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, in his book Authentic Happiness says this about true happiness:“The pleasant life, is wrapped up in the successful pursuit of positive feelings, supplemented by the skills of amplifying these emotions. The good life, in contrast, is not about maximizing positive emotion, but is a life wrapped up in successfully using ‘signature strengths’ to obtain abundant and authentic gratification. The meaningful life has one additional feature: “using your signature strengths in the service of something larger than you are.”
Mother Teresa was of the same mind: “I wouldn’t touch a leper for $1000, but I cure him willingly for the love of God.” It doesn’t necessarily have to do with God or religious faith. It simply has to do with doing something worthwhile for a higher purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, who as a Jew faced great religious and ethnic discrimination, rose to the top by “climbing the greasy pole” as he described it. He noted: “Life is to short to be little”. We should focus on doing important things. How big or little is your life? What else could you be doing that is truly important to you? By changing our focus, we can change our life.
Students in Dr. Seligman’s classes wondered if happiness came more readily by extending a kindness or by having fun. They were asked to engage in one pleasurable activity and one activity involved with helping others. Dr. Seligman reported that “the pleasurable activity paled in comparison with the effects of the kind action.” Kindness or service is not the sole road to gratification, but it clearly meets the standards of being an important source of it.
To determine what your own personal strengths are, read Authentic Happiness and take Dr. Seligman’s VIA Strengths Survey. A version of the test is also available online at www.authentichappiness.org. Reading his book will provide an improved understanding of your strengths and how they may be best applied in leading you to a happier and more satisfying life.
Take the long term view. Robert Schuller said that we should plan as if we are going to live to be one hundred. Whether we get there or not, having a plan will help us maximize what we’re going to accomplish in whatever time we have left.
Kindness As A Strength
Kindness is an important strength all of us can practice. It allows us to focus on something outside ourselves, something larger than we are. Being kind usually isn’t difficult. It requires no special training or equipment. It only requires attentiveness and willingness to help.
While sixty, seventy or eighty years of life may seem like a long time, time for all of us is finite. Joel Osteen, pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston notes: “Life is a mist. We’re here for a moment. Then we’re gone…Don’t just make a living. Make a life.” We have limited control over how long we live, but we have a great deal of control over how we live.
Our own life, when compared against the expanse of eternity and the generations that have preceded us, is startlingly short, but nevertheless it can be productive. How productive have we been so far? How meaningful are we going to be in the time we have left? Are we going to leave a legacy worth remembering? Maria Shriver puts a fine point on it in And One More Thing Before You Go: “You want to feel good? Then do good.” Joel Osteen mirrors that thought in his self-help book, Live Your Best Life Now: “You will never be truly fulfilled as a human being, until you learn the simple secret of how to give your life away.”
Kindness produces insight and creates an improved sense of self-worth. Get to know the real you. As James Hollis says in Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: “Deconstruct the false self…Live your life to produce greater substance…Don’t be afraid to be who you really are. Don’t be a false self. Be authentic.”
Many self-help books, including the blockbuster best seller A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle, have emphasized the importance of living in the present moment because that’s also where our future lies. All of us should be challenged by “the fierce urgency of now” to produce the positive change in our lives that Martin Luther King spoke of in a different context…
To view more sample copy, visit: www.yourunfinishedlife.com
Lydia
*** Excerpted from Chapter 1 of: Your Unfinished Life by Lawrence J. Danks
(Helpful Media) ISBN 978-0-615-24207-1
Available 11/1/08.
People often asked me what is the most effective technique for transforming their life. It is a little embarrassing that after years and years of research and experimentation, I have to say that the best answer is - just be a little kinder.”- [Aldous Huxley -Quoted from The Power of Kindness - Piero Ferrucci ]
The search for happiness is a universal quest. It seems only logical it should center around us. Instead, it really centers around others. As English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham said: “Create all the happiness you can create, remove all the misery you can remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by a beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.” - [Quoted from Happiness: Lessons From A New Science - Richard Layard]
How often are people called to our attention and we think that somebody else will help or that it’s not really our concern? It can be as simple as giving or lending money, cutting someone’s grass or listening to a friend’s problems.
A decent, thoughtful man was walking home late one night and saw a pathetic drunk laying in the gutter. Suddenly, he found himself under a horrific attack of cynical thought and said to himself: “God, why do you let this man lie in shame. If you truly exist, why don’t you help him?” And into this man’s mind came this sentence: “I am helping him. I just brought him to your attention.” - [Power Thoughts- Robert Schuller]
Opportunities for kindness present themselves daily. By developing an enhanced sensitivity to our social environment, we’ll notice things we haven’t seen before. More people will be helped. And we’ll make ourselves more authentic and happier people in the process.
How To Have A Happier Life
You are the prospective parent of your own fulfilled self and your happiness. Dr. Martin Seligman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, in his book Authentic Happiness says this about true happiness:“The pleasant life, is wrapped up in the successful pursuit of positive feelings, supplemented by the skills of amplifying these emotions. The good life, in contrast, is not about maximizing positive emotion, but is a life wrapped up in successfully using ‘signature strengths’ to obtain abundant and authentic gratification. The meaningful life has one additional feature: “using your signature strengths in the service of something larger than you are.”
Mother Teresa was of the same mind: “I wouldn’t touch a leper for $1000, but I cure him willingly for the love of God.” It doesn’t necessarily have to do with God or religious faith. It simply has to do with doing something worthwhile for a higher purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, who as a Jew faced great religious and ethnic discrimination, rose to the top by “climbing the greasy pole” as he described it. He noted: “Life is to short to be little”. We should focus on doing important things. How big or little is your life? What else could you be doing that is truly important to you? By changing our focus, we can change our life.
Students in Dr. Seligman’s classes wondered if happiness came more readily by extending a kindness or by having fun. They were asked to engage in one pleasurable activity and one activity involved with helping others. Dr. Seligman reported that “the pleasurable activity paled in comparison with the effects of the kind action.” Kindness or service is not the sole road to gratification, but it clearly meets the standards of being an important source of it.
To determine what your own personal strengths are, read Authentic Happiness and take Dr. Seligman’s VIA Strengths Survey. A version of the test is also available online at www.authentichappiness.org. Reading his book will provide an improved understanding of your strengths and how they may be best applied in leading you to a happier and more satisfying life.
Take the long term view. Robert Schuller said that we should plan as if we are going to live to be one hundred. Whether we get there or not, having a plan will help us maximize what we’re going to accomplish in whatever time we have left.
Kindness As A Strength
Kindness is an important strength all of us can practice. It allows us to focus on something outside ourselves, something larger than we are. Being kind usually isn’t difficult. It requires no special training or equipment. It only requires attentiveness and willingness to help.
While sixty, seventy or eighty years of life may seem like a long time, time for all of us is finite. Joel Osteen, pastor of the Lakewood Church in Houston notes: “Life is a mist. We’re here for a moment. Then we’re gone…Don’t just make a living. Make a life.” We have limited control over how long we live, but we have a great deal of control over how we live.
Our own life, when compared against the expanse of eternity and the generations that have preceded us, is startlingly short, but nevertheless it can be productive. How productive have we been so far? How meaningful are we going to be in the time we have left? Are we going to leave a legacy worth remembering? Maria Shriver puts a fine point on it in And One More Thing Before You Go: “You want to feel good? Then do good.” Joel Osteen mirrors that thought in his self-help book, Live Your Best Life Now: “You will never be truly fulfilled as a human being, until you learn the simple secret of how to give your life away.”
Kindness produces insight and creates an improved sense of self-worth. Get to know the real you. As James Hollis says in Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: “Deconstruct the false self…Live your life to produce greater substance…Don’t be afraid to be who you really are. Don’t be a false self. Be authentic.”
Many self-help books, including the blockbuster best seller A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle, have emphasized the importance of living in the present moment because that’s also where our future lies. All of us should be challenged by “the fierce urgency of now” to produce the positive change in our lives that Martin Luther King spoke of in a different context…
To view more sample copy, visit: www.yourunfinishedlife.com
Lydia
Jan
5
Jazz Essentials
Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Larry Blumenfeld asked:
I used to tell people I met on airplanes or at parties that I wrote about jazz for a living. Once they got past wondering just what type of “living” that amounted to, they’d smile and say, “I love jazz,” then pause, adding, “But I don’t know that much about it.”
They were leery, thrown off by chart-and-graph references to jazz’s development — stuff like how ’40s swing begat ’50s bebop, which gave rise to ’60s free-jazz and all that. As if there was a textbook (well, actually some critic friends of mine are writing one, but that’s another story) and there might be a test, you know. Not to mention the political squabbles: why swing was king or bop the thing or how ’70s fusion killed it all.
Or maybe they’d been put off by all that technical talk: flatted fifths and extended chords and the numbers behind swing’s rhythmic propulsion — like it was rocket science or something.
Then there’s the cult aspect: those older guys bending and swaying at the back of the club, making like Jewish elders swaying to an fro at temple, or the generalized bowing down before deities such as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker and John Coltrane (not to mention the infighting about just who deserves saintly status).
Thing is, jazz isn’t any of that — and is all that. Appreciation requires no previous knowledge, yet continued listening offers all constant enrichment. The technical aspects of jazz’s musical achievements have both the beauty and complexity of higher math: And the music has genuine religious heft, owing to both time-honored spiritual traditions and in-the-moment meditative thought.
I can’t give you a 12-best list, or tell you that what follows tells the story in full. But the following list expresses lineages of thought, instrumental technique, rhythmic ideas and group conception. The dots are easy to connect, the names clearly indicated and the sounds unforgettable.
And this list is like those sponge toys that, placed in water, magically grow overnight. Listen, and you’ll find expansive knowledge easily absorbed, not to mention natural links to many more artists and recordings.
Listen Hot Fives And Sevens
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Release Date: 1925
To tell the story of jazz without Louis Armstrong up top is to cut off the head of the living organism that is jazz. Armstrong was a giant of a trumpeter, he was an influential singer and perhaps most important, he transformed jazz from a strictly instrumental music into a complicated blend of solo and ensemble sound. In that sense, nearly all the 20th century jazz that followed flowed from the innovation of these recordings. Over the course of these sessions, you can hear the transformation in process, from traditional New Orleans collective style to a different blend, with the clarion call of Armstrong’s horn pointing the way.
Listen The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Volume 1
Artist: Art Tatum
Release Date: 2001
Any one edition drawn from this eight-CD set will do. And any one is enough to give a sense of the enormity of Tatum’s genius and its far-reaching effects on all the music that followed. Tatum simply played more piano — got more out the instrument — than any other musician. He was a direct link from the whorehouse piano men to the classical soloist. Here, late in life, he plays song after song and, beginning with “Too Marvelous for Words,” he builds each one into a concerto of melody, harmonics, and improvisation that set the bar high and establish the logic for much of modern jazz.
Listen The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
Artist: Duke Ellington
Release Date: 1943
Little in jazz compares with the majesty, finesse, integrity and spark of Duke Ellington’s bands during the ’40s. It was a moment when jazz straddled two functions as it never will again: it was popular music, reflective of the nation’s heart and mind, and artistic revolution, charting new waters. In Ellington, as perhaps in no musician other than Louis Armstrong, jazz had a leader who understood both drives. It was a dream of Ellington’s to play Carnegie Hall, and it anticipated the Lincoln Center achievements of Wynton Marsalis today. This recording contains both shorter tunes (marvelous miniatures of great scope) and Ellington’s more ambitious, longer-form work “Black, Brown, and Beige.” There are stellar solo statements by players including saxophonists Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges, but really, it’s the brilliant cohesion of the full band and Ellington’s overall vision that makes this music timeless.
Listen Tomorrow Is The Question
Artist: Ornette Coleman
Release Date: 1959
Ornette Coleman’s music has always leaned on tradition — listen to some Charlie Parker and you’ll hear echoes of it here — distilled into something new and pointed straight toward the future, or curled up like a quizzical phrase. Here, Coleman’s title begs both ideas. And the music announced his pianoless quartet setup: the harmonics of chord changes alone would no longer confine Coleman’s music, replaced by his own personal science bent on liberation. The way Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry shadow each other’s lines and exchange ideas, the process sounds closer to pure joy than hard science. Nearly a half-century later, it still sounds fresh.
Listen Alone In San Francisco
Artist: Thelonious Monk
Release Date: 1959
The hippest, most addictive thing I got turned onto in college was Monk’s music. I’d never heard anything like it, and it opened up a whole new idea for me of how the piano could sound and of what music could do: his compositions, his every arpeggio or tone cluster, contained math, R&B, Abstract Expressionism and slapstick humor. I went on to discover a world of jazz musicians, all touched directly or indirectly by Monk, but none who sounded quite like him. And though Monk recorded quite a few notable albums leading stellar bands, though his music led others to play with a special insight and cohesion, it’s Monk alone at the piano that I crave: Straight, no chaser. Here, early in his career, by himself, Monk transforms San Francisco’s Fugazi Hall with the unique architecture of his piano playing. This isn’t what all of jazz sounds like: It’s what the world of jazz after Monk looks like.
Listen Bill Evans Trio: Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Artist: Bill Evans
Release Date: 1961
There’s plenty of religious, folkloric and literary evidence to support the idea that three is a magical number: Bill Evans’s trio might be jazz’s mightiest argument for that case. Evans was one of jazz’s most lyrical pianists, and he’s at his best here. But it’s the nature of this trio that elevates most of all: neither Evans nor bassist Scott LaFaro nor drummer Paul Motian stick to customary roles. And in the three-pointed cheese slice of a room that is the Village Vanguard (the closest thing to sacred space remaining in jazz today) the music takes on a prayer-like quality.
Listen Live Trane: The European Tours
Artist: John Coltrane
Release Date: 1961
By 1961, Coltrane’s soloing style — the free flow through chord changes and scale-based improvisations that critic Ira Gitler dubbed “sheets of sound” — was his signature. His band concept was similarly bent on expanding boundaries and explosive energy. Coltrane may have laid down some of jazz’s most memorable studio sessions, but there’s really nothing like him caught live. These tracks, drawn from a three-LP set, find him in two powerful contexts over the course of four years: in a 1961 quintet including Eric Dolphy on alto sax, flute and clarinet; and fronting his classic quartet at concerts in 1963 and 1965. The fire and especially the communion between Coltrane and drummer Elvin Jones on the later material is a thing to behold.
Listen Spiritual Unity
Artist: Albert Ayler
Release Date: 1964
The first release on Bernard Stollman’s ESP label, this is the session that pushed Albert Ayler to the forefront of jazz’s avant garde. He remains a touchstone for any open-minded musician wishing to explore the sonic possibilities of a given instrument, to exploit the aggregate effect of any small group and to mine the spiritual heft of musical expression. To some, the arsenal of sounds Ayler coaxed from his saxophone — screams, squeals, wails, honks and a mile-wide vibrato when he felt like it — represented newfound contortions of sound; to others, they harked back to early jazz evocations, like Sidney Bechet’s soprano sax. Ayler’s appeal anticipates the current axis that connects punk rockers to free jazz: He took the simplest of song structures and turned them into the most complex of visceral splatters. His “Ghosts,” here rendered in two versions, will truly haunt you.
Listen Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods
Artist: Dizzy Gillespie And Machito
Release Date: 1975
Back when I edited a jazz magazine, I’d find regular annoyance with writers who thought Latin jazz was a tiny sidebar to American jazz. Jazz is many stories, a central one being the African Diaspora. The music of Latin America, South America and the Caribbean are cousins to American music (and they contain some rhythmic secrets we’ve forgotten, I’d say). Cuba in particular has a special musical relationship with the United States, and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was one among jazz’s ranks who honored that truth with depth and style. Though Dizzy made his Big Cuban Bang decades earlier, this 1975 session finds him with the famed band of Frank “Machito” Grillo, featuring the great Cuban trumpeter Mario Bauzá. Composer/arranger Chico O’Farrill’s “Oro, Incienso y Mirra” is as modern a fusion of cross-cultural ideas as you’ll hear today.
Listen Raining On The Moon
Artist: William Parker
Release Date: 2002
Born in 1955 [ck], William Parker is just a bit older than the music we know as free jazz. Some say that that musical revolution is dead: They’re wrong. The most vital life signs are found on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and at the center of this scene is the loud, insistent sound of Parker’s bass. He is something of a father figure, dispensing life lessons as well as musical wisdom, much like legendary bandleaders Duke Ellington, Art Blakey and Charles Mingus. Among Parker’s many bands is the quartet he leads here (with Leena Conquest adding soulful vocals). Among the deep connections he shares is the one you can feel powerfully throughout this music, with drummer Hamid Drake.
Lewis
I used to tell people I met on airplanes or at parties that I wrote about jazz for a living. Once they got past wondering just what type of “living” that amounted to, they’d smile and say, “I love jazz,” then pause, adding, “But I don’t know that much about it.”
They were leery, thrown off by chart-and-graph references to jazz’s development — stuff like how ’40s swing begat ’50s bebop, which gave rise to ’60s free-jazz and all that. As if there was a textbook (well, actually some critic friends of mine are writing one, but that’s another story) and there might be a test, you know. Not to mention the political squabbles: why swing was king or bop the thing or how ’70s fusion killed it all.
Or maybe they’d been put off by all that technical talk: flatted fifths and extended chords and the numbers behind swing’s rhythmic propulsion — like it was rocket science or something.
Then there’s the cult aspect: those older guys bending and swaying at the back of the club, making like Jewish elders swaying to an fro at temple, or the generalized bowing down before deities such as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker and John Coltrane (not to mention the infighting about just who deserves saintly status).
Thing is, jazz isn’t any of that — and is all that. Appreciation requires no previous knowledge, yet continued listening offers all constant enrichment. The technical aspects of jazz’s musical achievements have both the beauty and complexity of higher math: And the music has genuine religious heft, owing to both time-honored spiritual traditions and in-the-moment meditative thought.
I can’t give you a 12-best list, or tell you that what follows tells the story in full. But the following list expresses lineages of thought, instrumental technique, rhythmic ideas and group conception. The dots are easy to connect, the names clearly indicated and the sounds unforgettable.
And this list is like those sponge toys that, placed in water, magically grow overnight. Listen, and you’ll find expansive knowledge easily absorbed, not to mention natural links to many more artists and recordings.
Listen Hot Fives And Sevens
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Release Date: 1925
To tell the story of jazz without Louis Armstrong up top is to cut off the head of the living organism that is jazz. Armstrong was a giant of a trumpeter, he was an influential singer and perhaps most important, he transformed jazz from a strictly instrumental music into a complicated blend of solo and ensemble sound. In that sense, nearly all the 20th century jazz that followed flowed from the innovation of these recordings. Over the course of these sessions, you can hear the transformation in process, from traditional New Orleans collective style to a different blend, with the clarion call of Armstrong’s horn pointing the way.
Listen The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Volume 1
Artist: Art Tatum
Release Date: 2001
Any one edition drawn from this eight-CD set will do. And any one is enough to give a sense of the enormity of Tatum’s genius and its far-reaching effects on all the music that followed. Tatum simply played more piano — got more out the instrument — than any other musician. He was a direct link from the whorehouse piano men to the classical soloist. Here, late in life, he plays song after song and, beginning with “Too Marvelous for Words,” he builds each one into a concerto of melody, harmonics, and improvisation that set the bar high and establish the logic for much of modern jazz.
Listen The Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
Artist: Duke Ellington
Release Date: 1943
Little in jazz compares with the majesty, finesse, integrity and spark of Duke Ellington’s bands during the ’40s. It was a moment when jazz straddled two functions as it never will again: it was popular music, reflective of the nation’s heart and mind, and artistic revolution, charting new waters. In Ellington, as perhaps in no musician other than Louis Armstrong, jazz had a leader who understood both drives. It was a dream of Ellington’s to play Carnegie Hall, and it anticipated the Lincoln Center achievements of Wynton Marsalis today. This recording contains both shorter tunes (marvelous miniatures of great scope) and Ellington’s more ambitious, longer-form work “Black, Brown, and Beige.” There are stellar solo statements by players including saxophonists Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges, but really, it’s the brilliant cohesion of the full band and Ellington’s overall vision that makes this music timeless.
Listen Tomorrow Is The Question
Artist: Ornette Coleman
Release Date: 1959
Ornette Coleman’s music has always leaned on tradition — listen to some Charlie Parker and you’ll hear echoes of it here — distilled into something new and pointed straight toward the future, or curled up like a quizzical phrase. Here, Coleman’s title begs both ideas. And the music announced his pianoless quartet setup: the harmonics of chord changes alone would no longer confine Coleman’s music, replaced by his own personal science bent on liberation. The way Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry shadow each other’s lines and exchange ideas, the process sounds closer to pure joy than hard science. Nearly a half-century later, it still sounds fresh.
Listen Alone In San Francisco
Artist: Thelonious Monk
Release Date: 1959
The hippest, most addictive thing I got turned onto in college was Monk’s music. I’d never heard anything like it, and it opened up a whole new idea for me of how the piano could sound and of what music could do: his compositions, his every arpeggio or tone cluster, contained math, R&B, Abstract Expressionism and slapstick humor. I went on to discover a world of jazz musicians, all touched directly or indirectly by Monk, but none who sounded quite like him. And though Monk recorded quite a few notable albums leading stellar bands, though his music led others to play with a special insight and cohesion, it’s Monk alone at the piano that I crave: Straight, no chaser. Here, early in his career, by himself, Monk transforms San Francisco’s Fugazi Hall with the unique architecture of his piano playing. This isn’t what all of jazz sounds like: It’s what the world of jazz after Monk looks like.
Listen Bill Evans Trio: Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Artist: Bill Evans
Release Date: 1961
There’s plenty of religious, folkloric and literary evidence to support the idea that three is a magical number: Bill Evans’s trio might be jazz’s mightiest argument for that case. Evans was one of jazz’s most lyrical pianists, and he’s at his best here. But it’s the nature of this trio that elevates most of all: neither Evans nor bassist Scott LaFaro nor drummer Paul Motian stick to customary roles. And in the three-pointed cheese slice of a room that is the Village Vanguard (the closest thing to sacred space remaining in jazz today) the music takes on a prayer-like quality.
Listen Live Trane: The European Tours
Artist: John Coltrane
Release Date: 1961
By 1961, Coltrane’s soloing style — the free flow through chord changes and scale-based improvisations that critic Ira Gitler dubbed “sheets of sound” — was his signature. His band concept was similarly bent on expanding boundaries and explosive energy. Coltrane may have laid down some of jazz’s most memorable studio sessions, but there’s really nothing like him caught live. These tracks, drawn from a three-LP set, find him in two powerful contexts over the course of four years: in a 1961 quintet including Eric Dolphy on alto sax, flute and clarinet; and fronting his classic quartet at concerts in 1963 and 1965. The fire and especially the communion between Coltrane and drummer Elvin Jones on the later material is a thing to behold.
Listen Spiritual Unity
Artist: Albert Ayler
Release Date: 1964
The first release on Bernard Stollman’s ESP label, this is the session that pushed Albert Ayler to the forefront of jazz’s avant garde. He remains a touchstone for any open-minded musician wishing to explore the sonic possibilities of a given instrument, to exploit the aggregate effect of any small group and to mine the spiritual heft of musical expression. To some, the arsenal of sounds Ayler coaxed from his saxophone — screams, squeals, wails, honks and a mile-wide vibrato when he felt like it — represented newfound contortions of sound; to others, they harked back to early jazz evocations, like Sidney Bechet’s soprano sax. Ayler’s appeal anticipates the current axis that connects punk rockers to free jazz: He took the simplest of song structures and turned them into the most complex of visceral splatters. His “Ghosts,” here rendered in two versions, will truly haunt you.
Listen Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods
Artist: Dizzy Gillespie And Machito
Release Date: 1975
Back when I edited a jazz magazine, I’d find regular annoyance with writers who thought Latin jazz was a tiny sidebar to American jazz. Jazz is many stories, a central one being the African Diaspora. The music of Latin America, South America and the Caribbean are cousins to American music (and they contain some rhythmic secrets we’ve forgotten, I’d say). Cuba in particular has a special musical relationship with the United States, and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was one among jazz’s ranks who honored that truth with depth and style. Though Dizzy made his Big Cuban Bang decades earlier, this 1975 session finds him with the famed band of Frank “Machito” Grillo, featuring the great Cuban trumpeter Mario Bauzá. Composer/arranger Chico O’Farrill’s “Oro, Incienso y Mirra” is as modern a fusion of cross-cultural ideas as you’ll hear today.
Listen Raining On The Moon
Artist: William Parker
Release Date: 2002
Born in 1955 [ck], William Parker is just a bit older than the music we know as free jazz. Some say that that musical revolution is dead: They’re wrong. The most vital life signs are found on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and at the center of this scene is the loud, insistent sound of Parker’s bass. He is something of a father figure, dispensing life lessons as well as musical wisdom, much like legendary bandleaders Duke Ellington, Art Blakey and Charles Mingus. Among Parker’s many bands is the quartet he leads here (with Leena Conquest adding soulful vocals). Among the deep connections he shares is the one you can feel powerfully throughout this music, with drummer Hamid Drake.
Lewis
Jan
1
Compliments to Stephen King
Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Joseph Toth asked:
Being a very serious movie collector, I watch numerous movies in my free time. I’ve noticed not all writers have the same touch for the industry. Not saying of coarse some are better than others, but rather … they differ greatly in the types of product they come up with. I am a huge fan of Stephen King films. This is evident by the presence of a Stephen King chapter in my website. Am I the kind of fan that wants to follow the man around and know everything about him, … No, of course not. I do show a great respect for the enjoyable product he is capable of producing when it comes to the film industry. His work in my opinion is by no means a waste of money in any way, shape or form. The man has the mind for providing us with entertainment that will keep us coming back for more.
I own numerous Stephen King films on DVD, … I’m not disappointed at all with any of them. Night Flier, Thinner, Langoliers, Carrie, It, Sleepwalkers and of coarse two of my biggest favorites Storm, Of The Century, and The Stand just to name a few. There are a lot of films out there by Stephen King, and then there are a lot of films out there that were inspired by the work of Stephen King.
I have noticed a couple of things with Stephen King films. He uniquely signs many of them by showing up in the film playing a small acting roll. Think about this for a minute. In Sleepwalkers he has a momentary roll that comes up as the caretaker. The langoliers he shows up in a momentary roll as a businessman at a conference table. In The Stand he plays a small part as the man driving the brown Ford Bronco. I can’t think of any other way to describe this but ‘pure genius’.
Another thing I noticed is the fact that it is very hard to find bloopers or mistakes in his films. I haven’t found any.
I’ll use some other films as a example of what I’m talking about (without mentioning titles of course).
A western film which I’m sure most of America has seen, … in a scene showing the bust shot of two cowboys outdoors talking to each other, … way off in the distance you can see the top two thirds of a eighteen wheeler crossing the background. The whole thing lasted about two seconds, but never the less it shows up. The first time I saw this, I thought it was hilarious.
A vintage movie using a blimp to try and kill a stadium full of people. In the scene where they steal the blimp from the crew on the air field, … as the blimp is lifting off, look at it’s flat windshield, … it gives a very clear reflection of the entire filming crew and all the equipment, cameras, and cables laying all over the place.
A famous comedy trucker movie with a eighteen wheeler and a sports car being chased by a cop. In the scene where the sports car is speeding through front yards and knocking off mailboxes, … as the female actor is looking out the rear window of the car, you can see the shadows of studio equipment shining through to the floor of the sports car. This particular film is full of stuff like this.
Stephen King films, … it is hard to look for flaws like this. This could only mean that Stephen King has a eye for great detail, that won’t be compromised. He is very good at what he does.
Stephen Kings Cujo actually comes very close to something that could happen in reality. This work shows that something like this is believable and possible. That’s what kept me glued to the television as I watched this DVD. This film brings out a level of horror that is very gripping because it does come so close to reality. As with all of his work, a great pleasure to sit down and enjoy it.
Earlier I mentioned that The Stand was one of my bigger favorites from Stephen King. The reason for this is the theme and story of the movie is in perfect taste for the entertainment of a person such as myself. A outstanding cast of actors, great background music and perfect stage sets.
I couldn’t think of a better cast of actors to star in this film. Each character seemed to be a perfect professional fit for the actor playing that roll. It worked out really well and produced a film that gets high praises from me, and I’m sure many others.
Complete Cast:
Gary Sinise - Stu Redman
Jamey Sheridan - Randall Flagg
Ruby Dee - Mother Abigail Freemantle
Miguel Ferrer - Lloyd Henreid
Matt Frewer - Trashcan Man
Shawnee Smith - Julie Lawry
Joe Bob Briggs - Deputy Joe Bob Brentwood
Molly Ringwald - Frannie Goldsmith
Laura San Giacomo - Nadine Cross
Ossie Davis - Judge Richard Farris
Rob Lowe - Nick Andros
Bill Fagerbakke - Tom Cullen
Adam Storke - Larry Underwood
All star in this 1994, 366 minute film directed by Mick Garris.
The DVD includes commentary by Mick Garris, is digitally mastered and contains information on the cast and crew.
Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS
Jill
Being a very serious movie collector, I watch numerous movies in my free time. I’ve noticed not all writers have the same touch for the industry. Not saying of coarse some are better than others, but rather … they differ greatly in the types of product they come up with. I am a huge fan of Stephen King films. This is evident by the presence of a Stephen King chapter in my website. Am I the kind of fan that wants to follow the man around and know everything about him, … No, of course not. I do show a great respect for the enjoyable product he is capable of producing when it comes to the film industry. His work in my opinion is by no means a waste of money in any way, shape or form. The man has the mind for providing us with entertainment that will keep us coming back for more.
I own numerous Stephen King films on DVD, … I’m not disappointed at all with any of them. Night Flier, Thinner, Langoliers, Carrie, It, Sleepwalkers and of coarse two of my biggest favorites Storm, Of The Century, and The Stand just to name a few. There are a lot of films out there by Stephen King, and then there are a lot of films out there that were inspired by the work of Stephen King.
I have noticed a couple of things with Stephen King films. He uniquely signs many of them by showing up in the film playing a small acting roll. Think about this for a minute. In Sleepwalkers he has a momentary roll that comes up as the caretaker. The langoliers he shows up in a momentary roll as a businessman at a conference table. In The Stand he plays a small part as the man driving the brown Ford Bronco. I can’t think of any other way to describe this but ‘pure genius’.
Another thing I noticed is the fact that it is very hard to find bloopers or mistakes in his films. I haven’t found any.
I’ll use some other films as a example of what I’m talking about (without mentioning titles of course).
A western film which I’m sure most of America has seen, … in a scene showing the bust shot of two cowboys outdoors talking to each other, … way off in the distance you can see the top two thirds of a eighteen wheeler crossing the background. The whole thing lasted about two seconds, but never the less it shows up. The first time I saw this, I thought it was hilarious.
A vintage movie using a blimp to try and kill a stadium full of people. In the scene where they steal the blimp from the crew on the air field, … as the blimp is lifting off, look at it’s flat windshield, … it gives a very clear reflection of the entire filming crew and all the equipment, cameras, and cables laying all over the place.
A famous comedy trucker movie with a eighteen wheeler and a sports car being chased by a cop. In the scene where the sports car is speeding through front yards and knocking off mailboxes, … as the female actor is looking out the rear window of the car, you can see the shadows of studio equipment shining through to the floor of the sports car. This particular film is full of stuff like this.
Stephen King films, … it is hard to look for flaws like this. This could only mean that Stephen King has a eye for great detail, that won’t be compromised. He is very good at what he does.
Stephen Kings Cujo actually comes very close to something that could happen in reality. This work shows that something like this is believable and possible. That’s what kept me glued to the television as I watched this DVD. This film brings out a level of horror that is very gripping because it does come so close to reality. As with all of his work, a great pleasure to sit down and enjoy it.
Earlier I mentioned that The Stand was one of my bigger favorites from Stephen King. The reason for this is the theme and story of the movie is in perfect taste for the entertainment of a person such as myself. A outstanding cast of actors, great background music and perfect stage sets.
I couldn’t think of a better cast of actors to star in this film. Each character seemed to be a perfect professional fit for the actor playing that roll. It worked out really well and produced a film that gets high praises from me, and I’m sure many others.
Complete Cast:
Gary Sinise - Stu Redman
Jamey Sheridan - Randall Flagg
Ruby Dee - Mother Abigail Freemantle
Miguel Ferrer - Lloyd Henreid
Matt Frewer - Trashcan Man
Shawnee Smith - Julie Lawry
Joe Bob Briggs - Deputy Joe Bob Brentwood
Molly Ringwald - Frannie Goldsmith
Laura San Giacomo - Nadine Cross
Ossie Davis - Judge Richard Farris
Rob Lowe - Nick Andros
Bill Fagerbakke - Tom Cullen
Adam Storke - Larry Underwood
All star in this 1994, 366 minute film directed by Mick Garris.
The DVD includes commentary by Mick Garris, is digitally mastered and contains information on the cast and crew.
Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS
Jill