The Infamous Highgate Vampire

Graveyards are supposed to be a place of peace and quiet, an everlasting repository for those who have passed on before us, passed on to their final destination… whatever that means. Anyway, around the world there are certain bone yards that have gained a reputation for being the home to some pretty restless spirits. Grave stompers, actively seek such places of eternal rest out in an attempt to have an experience of the paranormal kind. Unfortunately though, these amateur ghost hunters, whether intentionally or not, tend to be disrespectful and London’s Highgate Cemetery has been the scene of much disrespect over the years and probably due to this is why this seemingly innocent looking graveyard is said to house not just the spirits of the dead but a creature, a monster, that has been the subject of myths and legends for countless centuries. A creature that feeds on the blood of their victims, this creature that haunts this London bone yard I speak of is of course, the vampire.

Founded in 1839 by the city London to ease the congestion of the seven surrounding graveyards, Highgate Cemetery has suffered much desecration in it’s rather dubious history. For many years local police have discovered teens and adults alike skulking around the tombstones and vaults wearing black robes and taking part in dark satanic rituals to raise the spirits of the dead and summon the minions of the evil one. Many local researchers believe this is why Highgate is a hotbed of paranormal activity with numerous apparitions being heard, felt and seen over the years.

Local researchers who have made Highgate the focus of their investigations believe that the spirit population is far to numerous to count. Over the years folks walking past the cemetery have reported seeing such apparitions as a tall gray man wearing a long coat and a top hat. Some believe this spirit is the phantom of a caretaker from the early twentieth century still walking among the tombstones making sure his undead charges are OK. Other folks have seen the phantasm of a ghostly woman riding a bike on the adjoining sidewalk. Some believe her to be a woman who was struck by a car and killed outside the gates of the graveyard. While still others have seen the face and heard the diabolical cackling of the spirit of an insane man who is said to stick his head out the gate taunting passersby. However, one entity that is said to haunt the graveyard caused a stir and a panic among the citizens of London between the years of 1969 throughout 1974. The graveyard was no longer safe to traverse at night because the undead were reported to walk among the graves seeking for a human victim. A vampire or vampires were said to call the infamous Highgate Cemetery home.

The legend of a possible vampire haunting the graveyard started in the winter of 1969. A few nights before Christmas a group of teenagers who had an interest in the occult broke into the cemetery to look for ghosts when one young lad, David Farrant claimed to have seen the tall dark figure of a man with a hungry look that gave off an aura of pure evil and for whatever reason Farrant believed this entity to be that of the undead. Farrant, was so convinced of this he wrote a letter to the Highgate express stating that he believed that the graveyard was home to a vampire after finding the dead bodies of small animals that appeared to have been drained of that oh so vital fluid, blood. The paper printed the letter perhaps as a lark, and one brave soul answered the call to investigate the possibility of vampiric activity in one of London’s largest cemeteries. Enter Sean Manchester, fearless vampire hunter.

Manchester, believed that in the early days of Highgate a group of men from eastern Europe brought the sleeping form of what he termed, “A King Vampire”, and laid him to rest in an unmarked grave. Unfortunately though, Manchester believed, satanists in their attempts to conjure spirits they awoke this dread lord of the undead and he now walked amongst the graves looking for a decent midnight snack. If London needed a competent vampire hunter to deal with this creature, Manchester was certain that he was their man.

In March of 1970, Manchester and several associates including Farrant, broke into the graveyard and went about the business of hunting down this undead spawn of evil. In his 1985, book chronicling the events that transpired at Highgate, “The Highgate Vampire”, Manchester goes into great detail about how he and his associates discovered the empty coffins of what he believed to be the resting place of the vampires and how he and his friends sprinkled holy water and left garlic shavings in the caskets.

Manchester, was convinced that such action would keep the vampires from entering their coffins at sun up after a long night of blood sucking and the sun would destroy them. Whether or not this actually worked is somewhat sketchy. However in August of 1970 a body was found that bore all the classic signs of a vampire being whacked by a brave vampire slayer.

On a hot day on August 1, 1970 several police officers found the still smoldering charred remains of a naked headless woman in the churchyard of Highgate. The police were convinced that this poor woman met her fate at the hands of satanists as some kind of blood sacrifice to the devil. Could this woman who appeared to be so mercilessly treated really have been one of the undead slain by Manchester and his cronies? According to the folklore of vampire hunting this corpse that was eight pounds lighter and fried to a crisp bore all the classic signs of a vampire that met it’s fate at the hand’s of slayer. Unfortunately, we will never know.

As if the events at Highgate Cemetery couldn’t get any stranger, they most certainly did. Police discovered Farrant, wandering through the graveyard clutching a crucifix to his chest and carrying a sharpened wooden stake in a deathlike grip in his other hand. Farrant, was arrested and charged with breaking and entering, however when the case went to court, the charges against Farrant were dropped and the young man was free to go. A few days after Farrant’s arrest, Sean Manchester and several of his friends paid a visit to Highgate during the day to search for vampires sleeping in their coffins. An alleged psychic who was along for the ride advised Manchester, that she could feel an evil presence very near and proceeded to point out the grave of a recently deceased woman. Convinced this woman was one of the undead, Manchester prepared to drive a stake through the wicked beings heart to send it along to hell. One of Manchester’s companions, for whatever reason stopped the fearless slayer of the undead from doing such a rash action so instead Manchester, poured holy water over the corpse and closed the lid. A few days later Manchester, claims to have cornered the corpse in the cellar of a nearby home and staked it through the heart. Score one for the good guys.

The vampire scare at Highgate Cemetery finally ran out of steam in the summer of 1974. Farrant was jailed on charges of desecrating graves and being disrespectful to corpses. Farrant, claimed emphatically that he was not responsible for the crimes and blamed satanists. However I’m sure, as were the London coppers, that Farrant believed the sleeping forms of the dead to be the bodies of the undead resting before the sun went down and it was time to once again party. And as for Manchester, well he believed that the vampire menace was now good and over and he returned to a relatively normal life.

So then when it comes to the bizarre events that transpired at Highgate Cemetery, what are we to make of it? Was the London graveyard the hunting grounds for a mythical creature of pure evil? Or were these two men caught up in the frenzy of a fantasy world populated by spooks, specters and ghosts? I don’t know I was not there, however something strange happened. Londoners and visitors alike still claim to see the apparitions of the dead on a daily bases at London’s Highgate Cemetery, but what of the vampire? Well it’s dead because one man was brave enough to kill the beast before things got out of hand (God, I love sarcasm).

Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in Highgate, London, England which opened up in 1839. It is the resting places of Marxist Karl Marx and Sir Ralph Richardson. The cemetery is known to supposedly be haunted by quite a few ghosts including a ghostly old woman wondering the graves and numerous ghost faces starting from the gates to the cemetery. The most famous of all the reported ghosts of the cemetery would be the Highgate Vampire.

The Highgate Vampire was a media sensation surrounding the cemetery dating back to the early 1970s. The hype began when a group of young people roamed the cemetery back at a time when it was heavily vandalized by intruders. David Farrant, one of its members, on December 24, 1969, saw a gray figure when passing by the cemetery which he considered to be supernatural. All the others claimed to have seen a variety of different ghosts they reported to be roaming Swains Lane in the cemetery.

Sean Manchester, a second local man, confirmed Farrant’s account and claimed that a “King Vampire of the Undead”, a medieval nobleman, who practiced black magic in the medieval Wallachia, had been brought to England in the early eighteenth century by coffin. Manchester claimed that modern satanists have roused him. He said that the right thing to do would be to stake the body, then behead and burn it, which is considered illegal so it was never done. Later, Farrant claimed to have seen dead foxes in the cemetery, with throat wounds and drained of blood. He later agreed that it might be a vampire.

Both Farrant and Manchester had an emerging rivalry between each other, fighting over which one would be the first to bring down the vampire. Manchester said to his associates that he would have a vampire hunt on Friday, March 13, 1970 to rid of the claimed vampire in the cemetery. Within two hours of having interviews of Farrant and Manchester shown on TV, a swarm of people climbed over the gates and walls of the locked cemetery beyond the police’s control.

Although the vampire was never found, Manchester kept making returning trips to the cemetery in later years. He had a psychic sleep-walking girl lead him to many places in the cemetery with some companions. She led him to a specific catacomb that was empty. After climbing down a rope through a hole in its roof, he found empty coffins into which there was garlic and sprinkled holy water put on. A few months later, charred and headless remains of a woman’s body was found not far outside the catacomb. This led to a massive surge in both Farrant and Manchester’s activities. Farrant was caught outside the cemetery with a crucifix and a stake. Manchester, led by his psychic sleep-walking friend, visited the cemetery a few days later, during the daytime. He was about to stake a corpse that he believed was transferred from a previous tomb until one of his companions asked him to desist and he did. In his book, he claims to of staked and burned a body in an empty house in the Highgate area.

Farrant was inevitably jailed for damaging memorials and interfering with body remains which Farrant claims to have been done by satanists, not him. Both Farrant and Manchester compete to this day on who is the more competent exorcist or better researcher of the paranormal. Hmmmmm…

An Inconvenient Stew

The following news items will indeed lend credence to the fact that we can never predict an outcome, no matter how much we may try. We can be optimistic, which I prefer, and live each moment as though we aren’t sure of the next, or we can flounder about in our own Inconvenient Stew, complaining about every last item on the Menu of Life. Regardless of which path we choose, there is really only one thing of which we can be certain: uncertainty. That being said, fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire.

The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask. A post-mortem revealed that the person died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries.

Dental records provided the police with a positive identification. Investigators set about to determine how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the coast some 20 miles from the forest. The fire-fighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and then flown to the forest fire and emptied. You guessed it. One minute the diver was swimming happily in the Pacific, the next he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket dangling, over 300 feet in the air above the ocean. Apparently he extinguished exactly 5′10″ of the fire. A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio and his wife was in the kitchen.

The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle when it accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the handle bars, was dragged through the glass patio doors and along with the motorcycle dumped onto the floor inside the house. The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining room and found her husband lying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the motorcycle lying next to him, and the shattered patio door. The wife immediately ran to the phone and summoned the ambulance. Because they lived on a fairly large hill, the wife went down the several flights of stairs to the street to escort the paramedics to her husband.

After the ambulance arrived and transported the man to the local hospital, the wife righted the motorcycle and pushed it outside. Seeing that gas was spilled on the floor, the wife got some paper towels, blotted up the gasoline, and threw the towels into the toilet. The man was treated and released to come home. Upon arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door and all of the damage done to his motorcycle.

He became despondent, went to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet and began to smoke… a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl, while seated. The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard the loud explosion and her husband screaming. She ran into the bathroom and found her husband lying on the floor.

His trousers had been blown completely away and he was suffering from third degree burns on the buttocks, the back of his legs, and his groin. The wife again ran off to the phone to call the ambulance back. The very same paramedic crew was dispatched and the wife met them out in the street. The paramedics loaded her husband on to the stretcher and began carrying him to the street.

While they were going down the stairs to the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked the wife how the husband had burned himself. She told them the story and the paramedic started laughing so hard, he slipped and tipped the stretcher, dumping the husband down the remaining stairs… thusly the husband also broke his arm.

If The Shoe Doesn’t Fit, Simply Stop Wearing It.

I’m sure you have felt it; change is happening at such a rapid pace that many feel inadequate to keep up. Few would argue that the unprecedented conflict in today’s world can be directly and indirectly credited to a clash of world views- old vs. new. The good news is that out of such conflict rises the potential for new creativity. The value of this process can be appreciated by anyone who has resisted change until they got ‘A Whack on the Side of the Head’ or ‘A Kick in the Seat of the Pants,’ (the titles of two excellent books on creativity by Roger Von Oech, Ph.D.).

I am not saying that a crisis is the best way for change to be initiated, but it seems to be the best method we can subscribe to by default. Humans have a tendency to avoid change until it becomes too painful not to change. The problem is that you can’t embrace the new paradigm unless you choose to let go of the old. And, well… we get rather attached to the “old,” don’t we? The old is familiar and comforting. We already understand it. We’ve integrated its laws. We know the rules of the game and how to play it. But just as children outgrow their shoes and need new, better-fitting ones, cultures outgrow their paradigms and need new, better fitting ones.

It is human nature for us to constantly seek greater knowledge and understanding, both of ourselves and the world around us. We must move forward with the new information and ideas of value that result from this search if we are to grow, develop, and prosper- both individually and collectively.

So… we know that there are times when we need to change. And we know that most of the time we don’t like to change. Out of the battle between the forces of “need to change” and “don’t like to change” rises a crisis. Unless effectively responded to in the early stages, the crisis will eventually grow to such a proportion that either it will cause us to finally act or it will overcome us.

Think of what might happen to a child’s foot if new shoes were not acquired in response to growth. First, there would be a bit of pain and discomfort, maybe some blisters. Then, toe deformation would start. In time, the child would become completely immobilized, every step taken becoming increasingly painful. Eventually, the foot could cease to grow in response to the confinement. Or, it could burst the seams of the shoe, freeing the foot.

What a glorious day for the child that would be! Either way, by the time things went that far, irreparable damage would have been done to the foot and much of the joy of living lost in dealing with the situation. As always, we have choices, even when we don’t think that we do. We can chose to do nothing and learn to live with the pain or we can face our fears and respond to the need for change.

The truly beautiful thing about a subjective universe is the fact that it is indeed subjective. We each are gifted with our very own, individual consciousness and are more than capable of perturbing subatomic particles. To create necessary change you don’t have to purchase any elaborate equipment. You don’t have to lobby some government agency. You don’t have to convince your friends and family to buy into this idea for it to work. All you have to do is embrace a new paradigm. All you really have to do is change your mind.

“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior’s indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.” -Carlos Castaneda

The Dead Horse. Let’s All Dismount, Shall We?

I have read that the “tribal wisdom” of the Dakota Indians [or so legend has it], passed on from generation to generation, says that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” However, as we all have discovered in one capacity or another- in the corporate world, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as… Changing riders. Re-structuring the dead horse’s entire reward scale to contain a performance-enhancing element. Suspending the dead horse’s access to the executive grassy meadow until performance targets are actually met.

Making the dead horse work late shifts and weekends. Appointing a committee to study the dead horse. Arranging to visit other countries to see precisely how other cultures ride dead horses.

Convening a helpful dead horse productivity improvement workshop. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included. Reclassifying the dead horse as now being “living-impaired”. Hiring outside contractors to ride and train the dead horse. Outsourcing the management of the dead horse. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed and productivity. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance ratio.

Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do live horses. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses, living and “living impaired”.

And, of course, the highly effective… Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Things To Do When You You Really Are… Dead.

This is actually a rather brief but noteworthy list of things to do for those of you who might just be… well, DEAD!If you haven’t come to that realization yet, you’ll have to give it some time… and trust me, you’ll have lots of it.

First up would be to Smell. Then Decompose until it becomes boring… Decide that the casket really is a bad color, especially since you are wearing a red suit and a polka-dotted bow-tie. Take a dirt nap. Scare the living crap out of people who dare to walk above you. Learn to count… for really long durations of time. Wander the nether verse, seeking vengeance against the unrighteous or anyone within a five mile radio us.

Claw frantically at the inside of your coffin and then admire the interesting “fringe” pattern you managed to create. Make a note to yourself about looking up Martha Stewart. Secretly hope the zombie apocalypse occurs so you can stagger around looking for brains to eat. Wait patiently for that ride home… Then, finish it all up by clipping your fingernails… just to prove a point.

Actress Crystal Chappell–– Compelling Poetry.

She fully appreciates a good Costco bargain, can easily install some blow-in insulation; enjoys Grey Goose on the rocks now and then and openly admits to being a fully-fledged Chelsea Lately addict. She perpetuates the impression of a playful teenager cracking suggestive yarns on the back of the bus. She’s the kind of gal who “has your back” no matter what; she’ll probably even provide you with a good alibi if you’ll provide the vodka and the sunglasses. If not, once you’ve been hauled in on those trumped up charges, you’ll make that one phone call to her. But when all has been said and done… “Compelling Poetry with a Wicked Sense of Humor” is the best possible way to describe actress Crystal Chappell. She is very rich in contradictions and filled with a luminescent spirit that’s very difficult to resist. She’s also a stunning looker who doesn’t care, a confident and wildly talented actress who is deeply sincere; an enigma who is articulate and acutely logical, and a consummate professional who knows the score and yet somehow remains fatally idealistic. Chappell is accessible and generous, and always (just ask anyone she knows and then read the first part of this again) a supportive and compassionate friend. It really isn’t hard to understand why most people simply love her. If every great actor embodies an essential paradox, Chappell’s is that she is both tigress-direct and fawn-subtle, quite often at precisely the same time–– the climatic cross section of haiku and a sonnet (the irony here is that she has actually written several volumes of original poetry).

You will literally find yourself watching and listening in wonder to unravel the quiet mystery in each of her words. But Chappell, like all great actors, understands the simple truths that bodies and words can tell. Discerning viewers have come to truly appreciate her innate gift for understatement; sweet-natured character interpretations followed by risqué, uncompromising, perplexing and emotionally charged performances in her Emmy Award-winning role… a role she will perhaps be synonymous with for the rest of her career… Olivia Spencer of Guiding Light.

Chappell has become nothing short of a huge cult phenomenon on the web. No one in the expensive suits upstairs EVER expected the cross-over appeal of her work, but here at UPBEAT, we’ve always known that this gutsy gal could stand toe to toe with the best, be it daytime or prime-time or film. And at the center of the entire daytime Internet universe, and Guiding Light (which will cease to exist as of September), is the unabashedly shameless Olivia Spencer–– sometimes cruel, irresponsible and yet completely irresistible. Played to sheer flawlessness by Chappell, Olivia is a sassy full-lipped beauty and feline, predatory in her own sexuality. When she’s on the television screen, you can’t look at anyone else. Olivia could easily have been a stereotypical daytime slut bomb. But Chappell doesn’t overplay Olivia’s shamelessly seductive antics or her moodiness; she gives an exquisitely nuanced and inherently layered performance that makes you glimpse Olivia’s better nature as well as her deepest insecurities. Olivia is a master of the come-on and the disposable desire. When she’s on the make, she drops her studied aloofness and gazes at her prey as if he or she is the most fascinating person in the world. Olivia represents tantalizing sexual freedom; she does exactly as she pleases and, up until the past year, has gotten away with it. The graveyard profession of Olivia’s undying, unconditional love for Natalia is one of the most mournfully perspicuous things ever put on daytime television to date. Chappell’s vulnerability courses through the scene like a profoundly audible heartbeat, even when, or especially when, she’s trying to treat Natalia indifferently. In her work, Chappell shows not only her playful sense of humor, but more importantly her ability to truly understand the feelings of others and to portray them both respectfully and sympathetically.

Chappell, unlike a number of television “it” girls, is exactly who she is–– down-to-earth, empathetic, loyal and sincere. Much like the legendary Audrey Hepburn, she has an exquisite sophistication about her. She is elegant, sexy, intelligent and charming, all of which contribute to her enduring style. It’s obvious however, once you speak with her at length that her style isn’t merely superficial. It is a true reflection of her character. Unlike a number of stylish people, she really does have depth. Chappell consistently maintains a touching sense of openness which she subtly infuses into her work. She possesses a raw sensuality, with a mere glance she conveys that smoldering “I want you” look–– even if she happens to be totally unaware of it.

I had what I now consider to be the privilege of engaging in a rather unexpected conversation with Crystal Chappell. I’m rarely that impressed or surprised by actors… or anyone else for that matter. But I do have to confess, I was pleasantly thrown off balance by what inevitably became a significant conversation for me… Much like the actress herself it was fun, clever, fun, witty, insightful… and did I mention fun?

UPBEAT Do you realize that your fans are now calling you the Goddess of Daytime and… are there any temples currently being built in your honor?
Crystal Chappell “Yes, there’s certainly a temple being built. My nine year old has a very large, very tall temple he’s building out of Legos. It’s the Goddess Temple of Legos.”

UPBEAT I’m sure he doesn’t call you Goddess.
Crystal Chappell (laughs) “I’m still working on him. I was going for queen.”

Read the rest of this interview at the following link: http://www.2upbeatmag.com/TUBE-FILE/tube_file_actress-crystal-chappell.html

Hey FOX! Dollhouse Has Earned More Seasons!

I am STILL trying to wrap myself around FOX-TV’s dumb-ass decision to possibly cancel Dollhouse! The Dollhouse Season 1 Finale was nothing short of PURE BRILLIANCE quadrupled at least 165 times! Joss Whedon has literally challenged every single thing about life/reality that we “thought” we knew with Dollhouse. And I believe for this reason alone Dollhouse MUST go on! It will perpetually piss off the religious right and I live for those moments when I can hear the moral majority screaming out in sheer unbridled agony at the thought of great art! And great art makes us think… it challenges our ideals and it yanks us out of those “comfort zones”.

Joss Whedon, simply put, “gets it”, which is precisely why he has such a rabid cult following. The man understands great art. He knows that in order to break barriers, in order to transform all of the bullshit we are spoon fed daily… we must risk it all and dive into the abyss, if only to evolve. Dollhouse bitch slaps the delegated set of society’s rules and dares to venture into uncharted waters with the perfectly timed twist of plot and unsurpassed dialogue. My, my my… how quickly those often blurry moral boundaries stop mattering when plot lines and are dialogue this extraordinary. And give me a break here FOX, we’ve been watching ethically questionable series with an unstoppable passion ever since Tony Soprano and his crew began brutally killing while worrying about their kids’ college funds, nursing home costs for their parents and whether or not the sausage was worthy of the grill.

The Dollhouse finale had it all and then some… twists, turns, season-long mysteries revealed and layered even more, along with a strong healthy dose of evil lairs, kick-ass fight scenes, clever banter, Nietzsche and Soylent Green references, and mind-ravaged, soulless human shells being used to create the perfect outcome for those who can afford it. Essentially Whedon and his crew pulled out every stop and left room for even more questions, observations, theological debates and riveting performances.

I have to assume that FOX will wake up from its self-perpetuated coma and finally begin to see the flawed and absurd Nielsen Ratings system for exactly what it is: USELESS and POINTLESS. I mean, c’mon, how many people do you know that schedule their lives around network television? I’ll tell you– that minuscule, meaningless cross-section of Nielsen lab rats who are forced to be reactive. Well, I’ve got a news flash for the technologically unevolved… WAKE UP! We no longer have to be chained to our television sets conforming to network scheduling debacles based on demographic groups that are far more diverse than what we’ve been told.

The entire system is painfully antiquated and it no longer represents a television show’s ACTUAL viewership numbers. Hello? Can we say “Internet”? There are so many ways to watch a television show these days that it boggles the mind. And Joss Whedon understands this. So does his audience. And once an audience is allowed to become “interactive”… “reactive” ceases to exist. So if the “suits” over at FOX are reading this… leave Dollhouse alone! Or at least be smart enough to move it to the FX Network to appease the dumb-ass 60+ white guys in the board room with no vision and even less purpose than the Neilsens.

The Indie Digital Internet Revolution

As the digital transition slams into our lives with an unbridled hurricane force, it’s important to remember that most of the mass media stories about technological change are generated from the point of view of those who sell the technology as well as those who are terrified of it. History has taught us that these PR-generated “Gee Whiz” articles seldom reflect reality. The truth is that none of us know for sure where the brave new world of digital technology will take us. However, in times of great technological change, we can expect there will be a restructuring of the existing pecking order. One institution already undergoing a rather extraordinary change is broadcast/cable television.

Here are my predictions about the future of the latest plasma/LCD tube… Over-the-air commercial television broadcasting and cable, as we currently know it, is coming to a fast and certain death….. If you don’t believe it, just look at the continuing trend of rapidly declining network viewership. The audience is quickly going elsewhere. Where? The Internet of course… the absolute freedom of an uncontrollable artistic revolution… it’s already there. The fact that you are reading this from a Blog is only a whiff of evidence. Despite vehement denials to the contrary, the network-affiliate television broadcasting system, as we know it, will soon end. It has served its usefulness and is now obsolete. The operative phrase being: “multiple revenue streams.”

All the networks want a greater return as they produce increasingly more expensive shows. They want to sell their premium programs to other media outlets such as cable, satellite and home video. When the networks start demanding even more income from all of the big three revenue sources– advertising, subscriptions and transactions– the old distribution alliances will crumble. And if they even “dare” to demand it from the Internet… the extinction will happen much faster….

Television stations will become vastly independent programmers for their community viewing audiences. The day will come soon when a network tells its affiliates that it plans to sell new prime time programs to multiple distribution outlets at once. When that happens, stations are going to respond that they in turn will replace poorly performing network programs with better performing syndicated fares and Indie offerings. At this point the cohesive network prime time lineup evaporates. Everybody then jumps into the programming fray for themselves. Viewers are going to pay for the good stuff. Only the sloppy dreck will be free. Remember those multiple revenue streams? The premium productions of the future will pull from all of them. Free TV (if there ever was such an animal) will not be the same place as it once was. Local TV stations will become bit casters (and that changes everything). This is the opening where a new generation of creative programmers and visionaries will inevitably make their marks on the future.

The democratizing force of Internet media allows anyone to become a star– and this, folks, is only the tip of the iceberg. The home TV project studio is already in a neighborhood near you. And it’s not just the porn industry. As television media outlets fragment and less money is available for production, creative individuals will continue making TV at home on personal computers. Writers, producers and actors will experiment even more with small scale television in the same way they mount low budget stage/film productions. Once there’s a major homemade hit, the project studio phenomenon that’s engulfed music production will move from television to the perpetual presence of the web audience which has grown exponentially….. As I have noted, the traditional television audience is going elsewhere. Everywhere and anywhere their interests take them, is the answer. It’s certainly not completely there yet, but we’ve gotten a MASSIVE free taste of it all with today’s broadband Internet and there’s no turning back now.

When the technology officially arrives (and let’s face it… it’s already here, simply waiting to be given the spotlight), we’ll access the media we like, when we want it, on OUR terms. Gone will be the “reactive” viewer… replaced by the “interactive” viewer who, as we know, will NEVER go back to being just reactive. The old media models will die and those who try to control information and content will have a real tough time trying to plug the dam with mindless dribble that’s there right now. And I am loving every last second of this unstoppable “movement”…

Late Night Cinematic Ramblings

I’m getting a little bored by the juxtaposition of American cinema between Indie and Studio. I no longer think this division is as true as it might have been in the 1980s, or the early part of the 90s. Cinema is a worldwide phenomenon. What is generally referred to as American-style films are, in fact, systematically controlled studio productions. It’s very hard to find critics or a magazine today that will publish material which is genuinely independent and written without any concern about being cut off of some distributor’s list or not be invited or flown into screenings. Many of the critics today get free airline tickets, hotel accommodations, bags, beautiful photographs, complimentary gifts and all additional/incidental expenses are paid by the distributors, and then these same writers are supposed to write serious objective articles about the movie.

How can they write anything independent under these circumstances? They can’t. Their living now consists of working and writing for the distributors.

Film is a very, very powerful medium. It can either confirm the idea that things are wonderful the way they are, or it can reinforce the conception that things can be changed. I think these two positions also go across the board- throughout the entire world… and the Internet punctuates this all rather effectively.

Entertainment today constantly emphasizes the message that things are wonderful the way they are. But there is another kind of cinema, which says that change is possible and necessary and it’s up to you. Any film that supports the idea that things can be changed is a great film in my eyes. It doesn’t have to be overtly political. On the contrary a film can promote the idea of change without any political message whatsoever but in its form and language can tell people that they can change their lives and contribute to progressive changes in the world. Any movie that has that spirit and says things can be changed is worth making.

Conventional commercial film tells you what to think, what is bad or good, and how to feel about it. And if it doesn’t tell you how to feel about it, it punishes the bad element in the story, or elevates the good. Films that don’t follow this simple rule usually don’t get made in Hollywood. This is one of the many reasons I am in complete awe of Christopher Nolan… what he was able to do with The Dark Knight just blew me away. And it was allowed to be made… which also blew me away.

I see a real value for the individual and for society in a cinema that doesn’t indoctrinate, doesn’t remove the audience’s own judgments from the experience. I want to make movies where the film doesn’t tell the audience… how they should feel about this or that, the audience can have a conceptualization themselves about the film… they can have a genuinely educational experience… maybe even a cathartic moment.

Linguine Gamberini

Ingredients:

1 pound of Shrimp; peeled, deveined
3 Cloves of garlic; finely minced
1 Onion; finely chopped
3 tablespoons of Olive oil
2 tablespoons of Flour
½ cup of Dry Marsala Wine
1 cup of Chicken broth
½ cup of Fresh Italian parsley; minced
Salt and pepper
1 pound of Linguine [I prefer Barilla]

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add onion and cook until transparent, stirring occasionally. Add flour and stir until well mixed. Whisk in the broth, wine and parsley. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Lower heat to medium and add shrimp; cook until shrimp are just pink and done. Serve over pasta, cooked according to package directions.