Monday, December 31, 2012

END OF 2012 GRATITUDE

I tenderly express my deep gratitude to Ngoc, Peter, Michael, Frank, Yen, Wang Toon, Joan, Allen, Lou, Fred, Toni, Peggy, Lee Ang, Rose, Barbara, Bill, Patrick, Bruce, Martin, Cesaria Evora, Khanh Ly, Trinh Cong Son, Daw-Ming, Judy, Kris, Ling-Hui, Jin-Ting, Huang, Chi-Kwan, and all the lovely men, women, artists, and students of Taiwan.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

WHY CREATE ART?






The point of creating Art, good or bad, is to communicate your existence, your alternative perception of reality, and to offer hope in a hopeless world....Selfishly, in a positive way, this also feeds your spirit and opens your heart to yourself....If you are lucky or fate is right, the process of creating will pass on love, and receive love, if you are open to it....Creating Art is the exact opposite of killing bodies, dreams, souls, potential, wonder, and passion. This is why artists are feared and murdered by those who are addicted to controlling society and being obeyed. Creators must be ignored and starved by those who have given up Life and accepted early death....Worthy ethical human animals do not torture weaker beings, or themselves, by withholding their creations. They contribute painful beauty with every ideal, vision, and touch in their being, until they disappear into cosmic dust.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Friday, December 28, 2012

A FATHER'S JOURNEY


New York Times:  December 22, 2012 
by Frank Bruni

FOR a long while, my father’s way of coping was to walk quietly from the room. He doesn’t remember this. I do. I can still see it, still feel the pinch in my chest when the word “gay” came up — perhaps in reference to some event in the news, or perhaps in reference to me — and he’d wordlessly take his leave of whatever conversation my mother and my siblings and I were having. He’d drift away, not in disgust but in discomfort, not in a huff but in a whisper. I saw a lot of his back.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

XMAS BIRDS



Art by Liu Wan-Wei

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

CHILDREN'S BOOK


The Boy

Who Had

Nothing

and

Was Very,

Very Happy

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

STATISTICS


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
Statistics lie. 
Statistics are used to support anyone's viewpoint.
Statistics are great gossip.
Statistics are not true.
Here are the latest "official" U.S. Government Statistics.....

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Saturday, December 22, 2012

PROPERTY RIGHTS

Property rights only exist until someone wants to make money from your property – then it is seized – in the U.S. by law, in China outside the law.

Friday, December 21, 2012

HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER

The most popular money-grabbing movie Hollywood could make is to show China as leading the world in business, culture, philosophy, social services, tourism, diplomacy, and concern for it's citizens. America would be portrayed as violent, selfish, condescending, Colonialist, deteriorating, and self-delusional. Chinese would be the heroes, Americans the villains....There's a pitch that guarantees a billion dollar box-office.... distributed worldwide by 21st Century Panda.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

APOCALYPSE


Mayor Michael Bloomberg and I just had a serious discussion on Skype about my plan to quickly put large balloons under Manhattan, so it will finally float above water during tomorrow's Apocalypse.  Staten Island ferries will be used to bring people to safety from the other Boroughs, with women, children, gays, and Queens getting priority.  The Bronx will be put on planes to Southern Puerto Rico, along with the Yankees.  Wall Street tycoons will, of course, take fairies back from Manhattan to Staten Island (and Brooklyn), to sacrifice themselves for the good of the planet.

MERRY MAYAN DAY!
The Dark Knight on a White Horse

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

CHINESE VS. AMERICAN DIPLOMACY


The reason China will ultimately defeat America in practical diplomacy, if not in every skirmish, is that our officials truly believe that our relationship is "maturing," when, if fact, it is and will always remain the same: America is too young and self-centered to realize when it is being manipulated by an ancient wise power that uses extremely precise methods with absolute clarity, whose only goal is to keep itself in power. (Darwin, not the Bible.)....If this means bettering the lives of Chinese citizens, they will do so. If it means destroying the lives of Chinese citizens, they will do so. To the Chinese in power, the fate of a single human being is as unimportant as walking on a thousand ants.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

(AMONG) ESSENTIAL NEW FLMS TO SEE


AMOUR….(France) Director: Michael Haneke. Act: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert. Genre: Romance/Drama. 80-year old lovers.
THE ANGEL’S SHARE….Dir: Ken loach.
ARGO….(USA) Dir: Ben Affleck. Act: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin,
Victor Garber. Genres: Modern history/war drama/thriller. Location: Iran.
BEASTS OF THE SOUNTHERN WILD….Dir: Benh Zeitlin (1st feature). Act: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly. Fantasy/Drama. 6-year-old girl tries to save her father; Nature rebels.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

GUNS: HOT ENTERTAINMENT REALITY FRANCHISE RETURNS




When I was young, idealistic, undiplomatic, and certain of right and wrong, I was outspoken. I said exactly what I believed, openly, in newspapers and magazines, on bulletin boards and telephone poles. I signed opinions, often including my address, and even, recklessly, my photo....

Friday, December 14, 2012

USEFUL FILM WEBSITES


http://www.indiewire.com
For independent filmmakers. Articles, reviews, interviews, links, discussion, and daily news.

http://www.snagfilms.com
Watch newest fiction, shorts, and documentaries films & trailers free online.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

HISTORY VS. TRUTH


History and truth are in the hands of the person in temporary power, subject to be changed at any moment by some writer who wants to win an award, secure tenure, sell books or a script. History and truth are relative.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS AT TNNUA



Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA) once had some of the best documentary filmmakers (students), from 1998-2006. The Department has been destroyed by the worst of Taiwan educational politics, power addiction, professor's ego, misguided academia, and fear of creativity. This is a major loss to Taiwan, truth-seeking, serious filmmaking, and to international audiences, who will forever miss the vital opportunity of experiencing powerful documentaries that matter.

Among the superb and good documentarians from TNNUA, 1998-2006:

Monday, December 10, 2012

MY CHINA


New York Times Book Review, by Jonathan Mirsky


TOMBSTONE
The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962
by Yang Jisheng  (translated by Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian), 629 pp., Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $35.

In the summer of 1962, China’s president, Liu Shaoqi, warned Mao Zedong that “history will record the role you and I played in the starvation of so many people, and the cannibalism will also be memorialized!” Liu had visited Hunan, his home province as well as Mao’s, where almost a million people died of hunger. Some of the survivors had eaten dead bodies or had killed and eaten their comrades. In “Tombstone,” an eye-­opening study of the worst famine in history, Yang Jisheng concludes that 36 million Chinese starved to death in the years between 1958 and 1962, while 40 million others failed to be born, which means that “China’s total population loss during the Great Famine then comes to 76 million.”

Sunday, December 9, 2012

CHOICES



DIFFERENCES

Everyone dislikes someone. Everyone living in a community dislikes something in the community: the age-condition-size of a home, noise from a barking dog-old A/C-music-TV-arguing-Mahjong, kids, visitors, too old-too big-too expensive cars/trucks/motorcycles/motor scooters, where and how vehicles are parked, trees or no trees, gardens or no gardens, ornaments, flags, decorations, degrees of neatness, unfriendly or too friendly neighbors, gossip-politics-religion-culture. Landlords-management companies-lawyers…..The list of personal likes and dislikes in a community, a country, and the world is infinite.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Friday, December 7, 2012

PASSIONATE LOVE: A SHORT LIFE


In fairy tales, love and marriage lasts happily ever after. Science, however, tells us that love has a limited life.

Western researchers tracked 2000 couples who stayed married over 15 years: newlyweds enjoy a big happiness boost that lasts just two years. Then the special joy wears off and they are back where they began, in terms of happiness. 
The good news is, if loving couples stay together past that two-year slump - for another couple of decades - they may recover the excitement, discovering each other and their early bliss, once again. 
When love is new, we are in “passionate love” -- intense longing, desire, attraction. This love changes into “companion love” -- deep affection and connection. Or love disappears forever. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

INEQUALITY



Beauty - Height - Weight - Muscles - Hair
Body shape - Breast size - Penis size
Voice quality - Speech - Accent - Tone
Friendship - Dating - Love - Sex - Satisfaction
Marriage - Children - Grandchildren - Caretakers
Family - Grandparents - Parents - Siblings
Childhood - Parental support - Psychological problems
Employment - Boss - Work - Job security - Career
Education - School quality - Intellect - Study - Learning
Spirit - Heart - Growth - Change - Contributions - Legacy

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

TOURISM


Every country in the world seems desperate to improve their Tourism Industry.  Tourists = Money.

What are “Tourists”?

Tourists are people who usually have (a lot) more money than the people they come to see.  They usually know little about the countries they go to, and don’t really want to know.  They prefer surfaces to knowledge, photos to communication, quick pleasure to intimacy.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

COMMENTS

You may post comments now. . .
I finally learned how to enable it.
Please be kind with any criticism.

LULLABY



     "Lullaby" (1997)-Frank Moore

Monday, December 3, 2012

VIRTUAL REALITY TV


[ WARNING:  This essay is written in over-the-top American English.... If you do not like this "style," please don't give up reading the rest of the Blog, which is written in more reader-friendly English to communicate clearly! ]

The mega-blockbusters, “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” and “America’s Got Talent” are the Titanics of TV, except they have happy American success-story endings and never sink, unlike America.

“The Voice” invented revolutionary hideously-designed spinning chairs and a beyond-silly singing wrestling ring. It also recognizes excellence, and, unlike some shows, has a beating non-plastic heart.  Of course, unlike Japanese and Mexican boy bands, Idol-with-Chairs contestants don’t have to be tortured into sleeping with Blake or Adam to further their careers. And there are plenty of non-black straight guys who like exaggerated Hispanic rears. “Voice” has a lot to offer everyone, even vicariously.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

VALUES


     For Sale: $65-million.



     Phoenix, Arizona.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

BEING PRESENT


INTIMACY FATALLY ATTACKED 

The strong, but fading responses against interrupting personal real contact with technological virtual contact is comforting, although it is a losing battle.  The war has already been won, and those who support intimacy are already dinosaur zombies. 

In defiance of the robotization of culture and communication, some rebels still are able to summon the positive energy and courage to resist massive social and planned-obsolescence pressures to spend, update, and boast.  

Friday, November 30, 2012

Play Review: "ICELAND"


ICELAND: A STATE OF HEART

冰島:心的國度

Iceland and Taiwan are both islands.  Iceland has volcanoes and melting ice.  Taiwan has corruption, pollution, volatile politics on the TV Yuan, and China.  Iceland thought it was safebecause it floated away as far north as possible from the insanity of Europe.  Taiwan thought it was safe because America passionately offers its stallion youth to defend democracy and oil around the world.and China.  
冰島和台灣都是島嶼。冰島有火山和融冰的威脅;台灣則要面對貪污腐化、環境污染、立法院搬演的火爆政治秀以及兩岸問題。冰島自認安全,因為它已儘可能飄流北方,遠離荒唐的歐洲;台灣亦自認安全,因為美國用種馬般的精力,積極捍衛全球的民主和石油。

Thursday, November 29, 2012

ART VS. DEATH


    25,000 years ago, France



    38,000 years ago, Spain


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

SUPPORT PEOPLE, NOT RULERS


It is a tragic fact that America, the beautiful Hope of the rest of humanity, usually chooses the wrong world leaders to support. This is due to our own fundamentalist close-mindedness, egotistical stubbornness, and self-deluding naïveté about life. It is also because, no matter what our glorious Constitution, Bill of Rights, and good-hearted American Myth say....our nation's crucial decisions are still made for extremely short-sighted, immorally pragmatic, and greedy financial reasons. It is entirely possible for us to support oppressed people who rise-up against every corrupt and evil dictatorship...but then those who are really in power in America would lose money, and we would all have to sacrifice immediate comforts. Can you imagine how the overwhelming majority of people on earth would react towards America, if we actually helped them, rather than their rulers? What a lovely dream.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

GRATITUDE


BOOK OF GRATITUDE

This Book was started on Thanksgiving Day 2011. Then every day when I wake up, I visualize other vital people and things, feel their influence on my heart and spirit, and ritualistically write their names…..

NATURE
I am grateful for hummingbirds, rabbits, trees, clouds, rain, snow.

HEALTH
I am grateful for breathing easily, seeing, moving my body, crying, making love, sleeping well.

PEOPLE
I am grateful I lived in the same centuries with Bob Dylan,
Jackson Pollack, Walt Kelly, Federico Fellini, Maya Plisetskaya,
Akira Kurosawa, Doc Watson, Jorge Preloran, Ingmar Bergman,

Monday, November 26, 2012

WHY I DON'T LEARN CHINESE


I’ve lived in Taiwan for 12 years.
No one can understand why I did not learn Chinese.
It’s absurd.

There must be a logical reason, so people imagine:
·                    I am lazy.
    I don’t respect Taiwan.
          I have a brain problem (besides age).

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

MOMENTO

One of the most complex film scripts written. Creative filmmakers were thrilled when Momento came out. No one had made a film like that before....and it’s hard to make a completely different film, because everything has been done many times. It is such a difficult film for audiences to understand, but it still earned $40-million, so audiences are NOT stupid, like some producers and studios believe.

The real editor is the Writer/Director, who is unique in cinema, like all great directors are. No one makes films like Christopher Nolan, from England. He studied English Literature, which is why his scripts are so intellectual AND smart.

He started making movies as a boy, with a Super-8mm home film camera. This is the passion needed to become a good filmmaker.

Friday, November 23, 2012

FILMMAKING & FILM SCHOOL


USEFULNESS OF FILM SCHOOL

There is no way to learn Art (creativity).
It is born inside us....
then (usually) killed by well-meaning parents, teachers, and society.

There IS a way to learn creative craft skills....
Find a good teacher / mentor, inside or outside school,
and become their student.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

FAILURE OF CONFERENCES


Most conferences, seminars, panels, symposiums, and forums
meant for students and those starving to learn --
to find out the secret of the holy grail (talent),
to "network,"
to find out how to get a job --
are not specific or useful enough.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

HOLLYWOOD VS. ASIAN FILMS


It REALLY is important to learn how each different Asian film culture started,
how it was developed, got stronger, and the many financial ups & downs.

Hollywood has almost bankrupted every country's vital film industry,
but most of them are recovering slowly,

TNUA


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

SEX SURVEY (2012)


In last 2 years, surveys (248 pages
in Europe, USA, and Asia, 
questioned over 200,000 gay men:

The average age of the gay men is 38 (USA), 34 (Europe) and 29 (Asia).
The percentage of the total general population with HIV+ is decreasing slowly,
but the percentage of gay men who have HIV+ is increasing.

In the US, new HIV+ diagnoses are 48,000 a year,
but young gay men it increased by 35% in the last four years,
and young black gay men by 50%.

There are big increases of HIV+ 
in Asian countries:

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Friday, November 16, 2012

NEW FILMS FROM CHINA


LACUNA   2012
一夜  
Director: Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wan. Producer: Pang Ho-cheung, Subi Liang. Screenwriter: Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wan, Zhang Youyou, Kuk Yuk. Cinematographer: Charlie Lam. Production Designer: Jeffrey Kong. Editor: Wenders Li. Composer: Alan Wong, Subyub Lee, Tom Lee. Cast: Zhang Jingchu, Shawn Yue, Chu Yue-sun, Yoga Lin, Lawrence Chou.
One morning a Hong Kong boy and a Mainland girl wake up in each other’s arms in the “Bed and Bath” section of a deserted high-end Beijing department store – without any idea of how they got there.

BUDDHISM


All religions seek a Father who is all-wise and all-powerful, who will guide us, threaten us, condemn us, hurt us or reward us, according to our complete devotion to Him.

He controls everything and knows everything, but he will not tell us everything, insisting instead that we just have faith in Him, so that He eternally remains in charge, obeyed, feared and worshipped.

What a remarkable position to be in! And He did not invent the position…we did.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

QUOTES - ART & FILM


“If Picasso limited himself in anything he would not be Picasso: he loves the world so much he wants to steal it and eat it.”......Randall Jarrett, Poet

 “The aim of an artist is not to solve a problem irrefutably, but to make people love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations.”......Leo Tolstoy

"While onegoalof movies is to entertain, the kind of film that I believe in and make, goes one step further. It compels a viewer to examine their own conscience. It stimulates thought." .....Sidney Lumet

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

DEER & RABBIT


I am the deer and the rabbit
and the invisible bear . . . . .

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

TOO MUCH TRUTH


Everything that every self-help book, cook book, medical book, philosophy book, political book, gossip book, make-over artist, and mange comic book says is right.

The environmentalists, educational reformers, and nutritionists, alternative medicine advocates, editorial cartoonists, columnists, educators, sportscasters, futurists, doomsday prophesiers conspiracy theorists, and art critics are all right.

I have to be afraid of H1V, swine flu, body fat, air pollution, chemicals on and in my food, water pollution, cell phones, drug interactions, anything made in China,

Monday, November 12, 2012

SCRIPT


DESIRE

REVOLT OF THE DOGS, CHICKENS AND DUCKS  

Final Scene

Copyright © 2012 
Reg. Pend. WGAW - All Rights Reserved Worldwide



INT. BEDROOM - night
[Note: This scene is described in great visual and audio detail, to capture and make clear the intended intensity.]
Moonlit shadows.

CU: Jackson Pollack abstract flurry of many-colored fabrics sensually cascading into the frame, up, down, crumpled on the floor.
SND: Exaggerated. Complex solos and symphonies of swishing, crinkling, metal… Cotton, synthetics, alpaca wool, silk, rubber, snaps, buckles, heavy, feather light.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

WHY WAR?


Though I am an educated, cultured, aware man, and even a professor, I am stupid. I honestly do not understand why America is fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am deeply sympathetic to the soldiers, their families, and the civilians on all sides who have died or been wounded, physically and psychologically, but do not know why they had to make such sacrifices.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

MEANING OF LIFE


What does it all mean?

The tornadoes, the tsunamis, rebellion against Middle East tyrants, the Tea Party, human rights in China, economic and political collapse in America, football and soccer fanatics, global warming or not?

We already have all the great thinkers we need to assure planetary survival, mental health, freedom, and happiness: op-ed columnists, professors, philosophers, self-help gurus, and thousands of known dead thinkers whose work survives on the same internet as Facebook.

Friday, November 9, 2012

AI WEIWEI









by Sophie Elmhirst, 10/11/12
Ai Weiwei doesn’t usually dream. He doesn’t remember his dreams, or if he does they are deflatingly
banal. Last night, for example, he says he dreamed he was hungry and feasting on cucumbers, but 
in his eagerness bit his tongue and woke himself up – “Ow!”. His unconscious imaginings haven’t 
always been so prosaic. When Ai was detained at Beijing Capital Airport last year and held in a
secret police cell for 81 days