Saturday, April 19, 2014

True artistic freedom (VII) - writing movies

  «Professional» (mainstream, established) scriptwriters keep telling me there is a huge difference between writing novels and writing scripts. I keep telling them that that just isn’t the case. The fact that most of them want to write mainstream, using the method demanded by the established industry certainly doesn't impress me.
  The writer/director, the auteur writes for himself/herself and not for other directors.
  I purposely do things at least slightly different, for instance to distance myself from mainstream filmmaking, among other things using a different font. I couldn’t be less impressed with experienced moviemakers threatening to not read my scripts if not everything is done according to their specifications, to «industry standard».
  The editor has a slightly different job description in the movie business compared with book-publishing, but they are just as much a tool for those in charge. The way films have been made for hundred years is mostly a result of how the early movie-making worked, particularly with big studio productions. It has no true relevance to how film should or can be made. Film, like books shouldn’t be made by committee, but by one storyteller in charge. At least it can easily be made that way. Even though I have enjoyed some films made by the system put in place by the major studios I don’t feel I own them any allegiance. Of course not! Film shouldn't be a business. It is right now, but that will hopefully change with everything else happening and remove the currently dominating production companies from the board. I will make film like I make music and write books; my way, or not at all. An auteur makes a film by doing all the parts of a given film he or she wants, no less. The very idea of leaving it to a glorified cutter during the final, crucial stages, while being very feasible and tempting practical-wise is asinine.
  And I will always do Final Cut.
  I will not attempt funding one movie, but will rather make many smaller, low- or/and zero budget movies, at least initially.

  Cheers to the digital revolution. It helped me publish my books in a very inexpensive way and without censorship of any kind. It allows people to make music and not be dependent on the industry. And it has, is democratizing movie production to a point where practically everybody can afford doing it.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014


  It felt so good to cause an upheaval among my Twitter followers recently. There’s been way too long since the last time I did that.
  We are told to be so cautious in this civilization of ours, to put our emotions in boxes and compartmentalized spaces. When a person confesses to feel hatred and «negative» emotions it is supposed to be something wrong with that someone. Expressing powerful emotions is virtually considered an aggressive act in our times. In my opinion we, human beings express powerful emotions too rarely.
  I deliberately gave points to my enemies some time ago, expressing my hatred for those supporting Israel, for those with rivers of blood on their hands. Israel, in their Hasbara, their propaganda is very good at using that word, using it as a way of turning the table at its detractors. But I have never let such shit stop me from expressing my opinions. I do hate supporters of Israel, with a vengeance. It is well deserved, is beyond justified.
  Usually I don’t use that word either, I’m afraid. I use words like «contempt» and «disgust», devaluing humanity and every horrible act all the time. But not that long ago, after too much coffee, perhaps, I cracked and became even more blunt than usual. Anyway, as always, I stand by my words, gladly.
  As stated we are taught to be wary of strong emotions and certainly of publicly expressing them. It has been a long time since I cared about keeping my emotions compartmentalized. That ending brought the start of my ongoing and unending liberation.
  There are others also deserving of my hatred, like big polluters and their eager supporters, but Israel, by its very existence is such a visible insanity, such an affront to our very humanity that it pushes all my buttons. That there are other such entities and events as well doesn't keep that from being true. One injustice doesn't justify another.
  The situation in Palestine is black and white. Israel is the aggressor, the tyrant and has been all the time and Palestine is its victim. The two sides can’t in any way compete when it comes to cruelty. Zionism is institutionalized racism, hatred beyond reason. The Zionists demonstrate that constantly, every second of the day to an ever more disgusted global Jewish community and the world at large. Invaded and occupied Palestine has the right and duty to do anything to defend itself against such ongoing horrors.
  We hate too little, for the right reasons these wretched days and too much for the wrong. The wrong is racism, hatred for what is different, for the Foreigner. We should hate inhuman acts and people acting inhuman and fairly often give voice to our hatred.
  And in the final analysis be cautious, after all to not let our strong passions consume us. We will fight those destroying other people. We won’t become them.

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Doubt disintegrated and gone

  "Antarctica and Greenland, the world's largest ice sheets, make up the vast majority of the Earth's ice. If these ice sheets melted entirely, sea level would rise by more than 70 meters".

Northern Europe with 100 meters sea rise

  Global average temperature has increased every decade since the fifties.
  The small doubt that was present concerning the validity of the human enhanced Global Warming, the human created Climate Change just isn't there anymore. If not for Big Oil and the billions they spent and spend on creating said doubt through several well paid researchers and facilities, it would have been gone from public consciousness long ago.
  Not only that, but the acceptance of the threat as rapidly increasing and practically imminent is breaking through, also in moderate and cautious surroundings like the IPCC. Very few, except the most power-loyal scientists, speak about the thousand-year or even the hundred-year scenario anymore. More and more reports are breaking through what was the impasse of denial and speak now about 2040 or even 2030 as the year when the shit really will hit the fan, not the end of the century. Hardly other than established media do that anymore. Scientists have finally started to speak candidly about their findings and are no longer afraid of being deemed «alarmists».
  The melting of the ice, the increase of stronger and more frequent storms is rapid and its threat is now, not in some far-fetched future.
  Then there is the early scenario caused by the rapid temperature rise, what will predate the later, truly major disasters.
  The WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) will break off from the mainland soon. Part of what has kept it in place is gone. Of the three Larsen ice shelves, A, B and C, A and B are gone. C is expected to go almost any day now. WAIS will follow very soon after that. That alone will make the sea rise about seven meters all over the world, and it will happen «over night», in just a few weeks tops. Eighty-four percent of the human population lives by the coast. Very few will manage to survive such an event, but it will still be the most massive migration in human history.
  I and others predicted in 2007 that the Arctic ice shelf would be gone during summer in 2013. We were not far off. It will be gone this year or next year or there will not be much left. This will not make the sea rise directly, but indirectly, because the sea is darker than the ice and will absorb more heat from sunshine it will make the sea warmer.
  The ice on Greenland is also melting fast, turning brittle, fading away quickly. That will result in seven meters more rise in sea levels.
  As «eternal» frozen ground melts, insane levels of methane are released from its confines, making the situation even more volatile.
  The temperature rise of two degrees is already in the system. Four degrees seem far more likely. If we reach six, there is a high likelihood that there will be a runaway greenhouse effect that will at least double average global temperature to twelve degrees Celsius.
  The melting of all ice on Earth will result in a rise in sea level of between seventy (lowest estimate) and three hundred (highest estimate) meters.
  Western politicians and lead scientists, in a desperate attempt to keep the population docile claim that people in the north won’t feel the effects as much as those in the tropics, a statement which is just more bullshit, deception and lies, of course. An average global rise of only two degrees will lead to twelve in the polar regions. It’s actually there the effects will be the worst.
  In thirty years or less the process of acidification brought on by the warming will kill off all vertebrates in the ocean, collapsing its ecosystem completely, and thereby cause the ecosystem on land to collapse as well.
  There you have it, guys. We've got thirty years or so… if we are lucky. For those in charge to do something? Not bloody likely. To prepare for personal survival? Definitely!

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Not impressed - a non-acknowledgement

  I can’t say that I have never received aid during my forty years as an author. There are those that have helped and supported me, and I have already thanked them many times and will always be grateful to them.
  But I find myself shaking my head when a given writer in their «acknowledgment» give thanks to their editors and agents and people from their publishers, all representatives for the established club making almost all books they release less interesting than a rock.
  Everything I've done, I've done myself, with very little help and support, and I’m confident that the result is far better than most mainstream publications.
  Though that in itself isn't that impressive in my eyes, really.
  I’m not impressed, no matter what mainstream stuff you present to me. I reject most of what is perceived as accepted truth, artistically, politically, scientifically and philosophically.
  Take virtually any «accomplishment» within the context of today’s oppressive society, and I treat it with the scorn it deserves.
  Discard accepted truths and your eyes will open to new and startling facts and experiences.