In a New York Minute...

A teenager died this morning.

There was a group of teenagers. There was a canyon road. There was alcohol. There were distractions. Not all the details are known.

The car roll six times when it missed a turn. One of the teenagers sustained severe head injuries. This car accident happened Friday, August 29, 2008.

This morning his mom called the school to say that her son took a turn for the worse. His brain had swollen and the doctors have pronounced him "brain dead".

The family cries.

Mom makes the decision not to put her son on life-support. She calls the school to let the principal know that her son is dead.

The school counselor and psychologist were immediately pulled out of a meeting that I was attending. They went behind a close door with the principal -- for a while.

The school counselor came out with tears in her eyes. She turns to the teacher I was sitting next too and says nothing. The teacher asked if she needs to take her mascara off. the counselor shakes her head yes.

They both have tears forming in their eyes.

An announcement over the PA is made to the small high school that lunch will be early today. As the students leave the classrooms, the teachers gather in the teacher's lounge.

The principal announces to everyone that a student is dead.

People cry - hold each other.

The principal apologizes for his quickness and maybe coldness in delivering the news. His job now is to give the teachers time to grieve before facing their students with the news.

Pages from the public school crisis manual are passed out- admittedly remorseless.

The principal asked that the group of teachers with the professional's guidance write a statement that will be read to the students when they return from lunch.


This was the prepared statement read to:

We recently learned that a fellow student, name, died this morning in the hospital from complications sustained in a car accident. We do not know all of the details. As soon as we learn new information, we will release that to you. The family has asked that you not drive to Salt Lake City, and we would like you to honor their request.

We have school counselors and psychologists in the building who can talk with you if you wish. We ask that you do not leave the school grounds. Also, please do not use your cell phones to call or text other students in other buildings. All other schools' administrations in the school district have been notified of the incident.

We will be holding school tomorrow.



Students cry.

Students who are not new to life's challenges and heart-breaks cry. Big, brawny male students cry, other female students just left the classrooms, sobbing. Some students hugged teachers and others just cry alone.

It did not have to happen - but it did.

Cloned Puppies and Kidnapped Mormon Missionary

SALT LAKE CITY: A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She's the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.

Dog lover Bernann McKinney acknowledged in a telephone call to The Associated Press on Saturday that she is indeed Joyce McKinney, who in 1977 became a British tabloid sensation when she faced charges of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and was never brought to justice.

Through tears, she explained that she went public with her efforts to replicate Booger, who died two years ago, hoping people would be able to focus on that story rather than the "garbage" of the past.

"I thought people would be honest enough to see me as a person who was trying to do something good and not as a celebrity," McKinney told the AP. "My mother always taught me, 'Say something good or say nothing at all.'"

"I think I gave people too much credit," she said.

British tabloids first recognized the blond woman's smiling face when she appeared in news photographs this past week with the five pit bull pups she paid South Korean scientists $53,000 to clone.

McKinney, who initially denied a connection between the two women, acknowledged that she was one and the same after the AP ran a story noting the striking similarities in arrest records and court documents for the names Bernann McKinney and Joyce McKinney. They had the same birth date and Social Security numbers, the same hometown of Newland, N.C., and Joyce McKinney's middle name is Bernann.

But the now-57-year-old McKinney said that, as far as she's concerned, the Joyce McKinney of 31 years ago doesn't exist. She maintains her innocence and says the woman of all those years ago is a "figment of the tabloid press. ... I don't want that garbage in with the puppy story."

The story of Joyce McKinney is the stuff of pulp fiction: a North Carolina-born beauty queen who moved west, won the title Miss Wyoming USA and went on to college at Brigham Young University, where she became obsessed with a Mormon fellow student.

When that young Mormon took a missionary trip to England, authorities say McKinney hired a private detective so she could locate and follow him.

She and a male accomplice were accused of abducting the 21-year-old missionary as he went door to door, taking him to a rented 17th-century "honeymoon cottage" in Devon and chaining him spread-eagle to a bed with several pairs of mink-lined handcuffs.

There, investigators say, he was repeatedly forced to have sex with McKinney before he was able to escape and notify police.

In a 1977 court hearing mobbed by the British press, Joyce McKinney said she'd fallen head-over-heels in love with the Mormon man and acknowledged tracking him to England. "I loved him so much," she told a judge, "that I would ski naked down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to."

But she denied a sexual assault, saying the young man was a willing partner.

In her call to the AP on Saturday, McKinney repeated the same argument her lawyer made all those years ago: There's no way she could have overpowered the young Mormon because he was much bigger and stronger.

"I didn't rape no 300-pound man," she said. "He was built like a Green Bay Packer."

McKinney and her accomplice spent three months in a London jail before being released on bail.

Press reports at the time that said the pair then jumped bail, posing as deaf-mute actors in Ireland to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto and eventually a bus to Cleveland, where investigators lost their trail.

Joyce McKinney surfaced again in Utah in May 1984 and was arrested for allegedly stalking the workplace of the same Mormon man she was accused of imprisoning in England. News reports say that police found a length of rope and handcuffs in the trunk of McKinney's car, along with notebooks detailing the man's daily activities.

Set to stand trial for lying to police and harassment in 1986, McKinney again disappeared just before proceedings and the case was dismissed.

It now appears Joyce McKinney may have escaped justice in the long-ago British case also. London police told the AP they've consigned the case to the history books because of its age and won't seek McKinney's extradition.

"They don't have a case," she told the AP. "It's been 31 years. They don't care."

"It's taken years of therapy to get past this," she said. "We go to church and serve the Lord and try to lead good lives and do good things."

McKinney refused to say where she was when she called. While in South Korea, she told reporters she was a screenwriter and handed out business cards with a Hollywood, Calif., address. The AP found that address did not exist.

At the Avery County courthouse in McKinney's hometown of Newland in the western North Carolina mountains, a clerk said she instantly recognized the woman snuggling puppies as the Joyce Bernann McKinney who has been a frequent defendant in court cases there.

"She is a person of note in our little community," said clerk Julia Henson.

Avery County Sheriff Kevin Frey said there are several charges on file against Joyce McKinney, including an active warrant seeking her arrest on a 2003 charge of communicating a threat against another woman.

Other charges include passing bad checks, an assault on a public officials and an 2004 animal cruelty charge alleging she failed to take proper care of a horse. That charge was dismissed.

James Stamey, the husband of the woman McKinney was charged with threatening, said that McKinney left Newland about two years ago and that no one had really seen or heard from her.

Until she showed up in the news about the cloned puppies.

"That's our Joy," Stamey said from his home in Newland.

Years ago, Stamey said, McKinney was a beautiful girl worthy of the Miss Wyoming USA crown.

"She's ugly as sin now," he said. "But, sure enough, that's her."

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=15132269

Hollywood could not make this stuff up.

X-Files the Movie Revisited and Review

The Second Time Around was Better.

After discussing X-Files with a few "experts" in the field, I decided to take a another look at X-Files: I Want to Believe. Initially, my expectations may have been set too high (I was a little excited) for a standard "X-Files" type plot. This time my attention was more focused on the Mulder/Scully relationship and what Chris Carter was trying to convey in this movie. Having done this, I found it a much more enjoyable flick.

I still struggled with seeing snow on the silver screen in the dead of summer.

I continue to stand behind my previous post that stated the top ten things that are wrong with the flick. However, today, I viewed the movie through a wider lens that covered religion, life choices, the growth of our beloved ex-FBI agents as both individuals and as a couple as the underpinning to the entire movie that C Carter wanted the true believer to walk away with.

I think, in retrospect, that if the audience throws out the actual "X-File" story and just looks at the case as a prime opportunity for Mulder to come out of hiding and the "B" story of Scully's young patient dying as a reason to pull her away from Mulder and reflect on her own life, then the picture has much more meaning and offers a little more than an extended TV episode. This movie was definitely intended for the "shippers" and now that the X-Philes fans have a real, passionate kiss to play over and over again on YouTube, it is at least one of many loose strings that has been tied.




BTW: This promotional shot was never in the movie. Never did Mulder and Scully look at a computer together. Only Scully used it for research and not in that shirt. She either wore a lab coat and/or scrubs while at the hospital.


I also plan to purchase the DVD. There were frames that I wanted to freeze to look at the background detail - like Mulder's home office. I also need to check on something that I think I saw. I believe that one of little girls who played Mulder's sister (the one with no language who as an eight year-old clone on a plantation with a massive indoor beehive) is all grown-up and walking past him at the FBI office as he was waiting, with Scully, to be invited in. I definitely did see Chris Carter in the hallway of the hospital holding a white urn as Scully walked to the door of her office to unlock it.

Sidebar: At the theater this afternoon, only one other family was there. At the end, when the credits began, I heard the father say, "You've got to be kidding me?!"
I almost replied that he needs to see it again with more of an open mind, but I did not think he or his family would have taken that advice from the only other person in a dark theater. Too bad they left before the Easter Egg :)

The end of the movie/thriller/X-File is a bit of a let down when you first see it - and the Russian bad guy was going to put his "husband's" head on a woman's body because, as Mulder pointed out later, the injured Russian was dying of lung cancer. But why would a gay man put his partner's head on a woman's body?

Anyway...

A second look for all you X-Philes fans who may have been disappointed the first go around that the end of the world as we know it (2012 has been the set date according to the now deceased Smoking Man) was not saved by Mulder and Scully or what is going on with William (and we may never know) or his half-brother the burnt agent Jeffery Spender can take comfort the Mulder/Scully relationship six years later. It was actually refreshing to see that Scully is not the same but Mulder is - that she finally said 'No' to "chasing the darkness" and stayed in the hospital to do her 'real' job. She is much stronger and Mulder is still strong-headed.

Hopefully XF3 will give the long-time fans the answers to the ultimate series questions. We want Mulder and Scully to save the world from evil!

I would also be good with a film that really focuses in on how and why and by whom Samantha died - dig deep into Mulder's fragile psyche and cause a real meltdown between the two quasi lovers. Either plot/adventure would be good and it would NOT alienate non-fans. Movie-goers can get both without knowing the series but it is the long-time fans that will pull in the bucks for the movie - they will see it ten or more times in the theaters.

Mr. Carter, don't turn your back on the loyal fans. Not all of us X-Phileses fold aluminum hats in our spare time, but we would like some closure please.

At least one excellent song BROKEN by U.N.K.L.E. was performed at the end. If you waited through the credits for the Easter Egg, you also got to listen to this song.

U.N.K.L.E - Broken lyrics

Gavin Clark :

Dead state I can feel the weight
Light streaming in through an open grate
Two thread score tearing up the floor
Out in the alley with the trigger draw

Numb hands I can see the strand
Hold it together with a severed ban

Three lost years I've been crying here
I'm over, I'm over, I'm over, I'm broken

Strung out with wings of the dawn
Hole in the black soul in the storm
Torn down through the cracks in the dark
We're miles adrift we're inches apart

I'm hit I can feel the grit
Sat in the asher on the beaten brick
Two thread main running through the vein

Out in the centre with a mirrored cane
Numb feet I can hear you speak
Hold it together with a severed streak

Three lost years I've been crying here
I'm over, I'm over, I'm over, I'm broken

Strung out with wings of the dawn
Hole in the black soul in the storm
Torn down through the cracks in the dark
We're miles adrift we're inches apart

Stood up on the side og the earth
Thrown back to the track to the dirt
Two thread lose an hour a day
We're miles adrift, we're inches away...

Hold it together with a severed bank
Can't feel the blood



Song lyrics | Broken lyrics

Other Movies

I recommend Wall*E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Both are good popcorn flicks.

Mirrors opens August 15th. It has been a good summer for flicks.

Six Degrees of Separation from David Duchovny

Many moons ago, there was a little movie made at my high school called Three O'Clock High. No one "famous" is in it (at the time). It was directed by Phil Joanou who has since directed U2 in both documentaries and music videos. It starred Casey Siemaszko, Richard Tyson, and Jonathan Wise.

When the movie came to town and folks found out who was to be in it and hit the movie theaters to see Casey in Stand by Me (1986) as Billy Tessio. The other two did not have any work out that was easily accessible (remember - this is pre-Internet).

The photos in the slideshow are pictures of pictures and therefore the quality sucks. Sorry. Back in the day, there were no digital cameras. These photos were taking with a Kodak on developed on Inkley's paper December of 1986.

The following pictures is the actual proof that I got paid to be in the movie as an extra but only twice. If you wanted to be in the film, you had to arrive at 6am and stay until 6pm (unless you were under 18 - which a lot of people were since this was a high school).

I volunteered a lot of my time on the set because I could not meet the time requirements. I was enrolled at the local college for my first semester in the fantasic world/school of business so I had to attend classes in the morning. As soon as my classes ended, I took the bus to my "old" high school and join my friends.

This movie was filmed from October to December of 1986 at Ogden High School. Check out the postage - 22 cents and that BIG chunk of change of $40 a day for 12 hours of work. These two checks were earned on the two Saturdays that they filmed the "fight" scene and needed hundreds of kids to show up.

Making a movie as an extra ain't all what it is cracked up to be - especially if the story takes place in the same day. Do you know what that means?

It means that you have to wear the SAME clothes for duration of the movie. When I was originally "hired", I had on a Disney sweatshirt. The casting person says 'no, no, no'. You can't "advertise" another place (especially since MCA owns Universal Studios and Disney is competition).

So I had to turn my sweatshirt inside out and where it that way for two months. Along with gray pants and sneakers... for two months.

I could not possibly wear these clothes everyday to college so I lugged them around in my bookbag.

When the casting director first meet me, she treated it like the "Second Coming". I was over 18 years old and a graduate of OHS. She begged me to call all of my friends and get them to the set. They were desperate for older-looking students to be around the 20-22 year-old actors.

Ogden High had a freshmen class which means that kids as young as 14 were surrounding the actors in the hallways and classrooms and just wasn't working - well not much about the movie worked but with was a priority for them to correct.

I explained that I could call a couple but most of my friends were either off to college or on preparing for a mission (a Utah thing). I could never be a casting director - the team looked stressed for the first month of the show. They wanted older, they wanted them daily and they wanted them now... casting got a few but not many.

The other reason they really, really wanted older (adults) is so the filming was not restricted by Child Labor Practices. I am not sure of all of the law's details, but I know that a child could not legally work the hours that the director wanted. When casting learned of the 14 year old freshmen, they were banned immediately. No one under 16 years old was hired to my knowledge because of these legal restrictions which added to casting's already mounting stress to find "legal" bodies.

A lot of my "volunteer" time was spent sitting in the auditorium waiting for the call for the masses to come out of classrooms and/or invade the hallways. During this time you got to meet some people which four of us did and hung out together for years after the movie completed and better yet, two in the group married each other and as far as I know are still together.

The teachers were pulling their hair out during this production for obvious reasons and were very happy when they left. Of course, the school district got a nice chunk of change for the use of the building but it could have mattered less to the high school staff.

My understanding is that another movie came briefly to view at the school and after that the principal said no more. The school is on the National Historical Building List which adds to the restrictions and paperwork to film there now anyway.

I am sure that you are wondering, possibly, why I titled this Six Degrees of Separation from DD. If you look through the list of credits at IMDB.COM, you will see that Mitch Pileggi had a role in this little flick. I believe, it is not clear in the summary, that he played the campus "security guard" (Ogden High never had one of those but sure could have used one). If that is the case, then I have a picture or two of him in his blue security guard jacket and glistening head.

So there it is. My 15 minutes of fame. Of all the time I spent in hallways and parking lots, there is only one tiny moment of myself that I can pick out as I am hopping out of a pick-up truck heading for the big "fight".

That is cool. I had fun. It was quite the experience and I got to document the making of film while maintaining a 3.0 my first semester of college (with accounting no less). I had some game back then - not so much now

So if I don't see you at the movies, maybe I will see you in the movies.

X-Files Episodes Seasons 5-9

Welcome Back X-Files Fans!

I reviewed my favorite episodes from seasons 1-4 so this will cover seasons 5-9.

Season 5
Wow! Where to start? Season 5 gives the fans only 20 shows instead of the traditional 22-25 but what good shows they were. The X-Files series is thick in conspiracy: Mulder has lost two "deep throats" to this point, Scully has cancer, the fans learn the origin of The Lone Gunmen, we get more episodes that feature Alex Krycek and the Smoking Man, Scully learns of her "daughter"and we are introduced to Cassandra Spender, Agent Jeffrey Spender, Arthur Dales, Faceless Aliens, and a cute little "special" boy named Gibson Praise. Again, it was absolutely impossible to narrow the choice to one so, chicken me, selected two and even that was tough!



Season 5, Episode 11: Kill Switch
Original Air Date: 15 February 1998




Original, fearless, shit blows-up - a lot, Scully gets to shoot her gun, which you never get to see, and Agent Mulder is trapped both physically and psychologically in a computer. Totally cool. The Lone Gunmen help Mulder and Scully and learn about an artificial intelligence that has deadly intentions.


Season 5, Episode 18: The Pine Bluff Variant
Original Air Date: 3 May 1998




I absolutely loved this show. Really FBI work mixed with Scully paranoia. Mulder is keeping a deep uncover assignment to himself and Scully, with all that has happened to her, is beginning to lose it. In all honesty, if half of have has happened to Scully happened to a 'real' person, they would have lost it a long time ago. Anyway...back at the ranch... Scully's intelligence and intuition has trumped her growing paranoia of 'trust no one' which, of course, helps her to maintain and learn the actual game. Additionally, this show had awesome special effects with the bodies in the movie theater. Kudos there.
My favorite part, however, is when Mulder gets head-butts the guy causing him pain who then gets up and breaks his thump - ouch! That hold scene rocks. I have watched just that scene several times for the intensity, which it still brings.


Addendum: I know that The Post-Modern Prometheus is at the top of everyone's X-Files list but I am really trying to hold true to my rules - two or less favorites per season. Besides, us women, only watching the ending over and over again, right?






Season 6
The season that David, rumor has it, got the show moved from Vancouver, BC to L.A. so he could be closer to his new blushing-bride. While Canadian fans burned X-File memorabilia in effigy, other fans from around the world awaited the new season with trepidation. However, to everyone's joyous discovery, this is one of the best seasons yet. The fans get access to never-seen-before actors such as Lily Tomlin, Ed Asner, John Hawkes, and a re-introduction of Raymond J. Barry as Sen. Matheson (and the question if even he can be trusted). So, once again, to select even just two shows from twenty-two was difficult but they are:


Season 6, Episode 6: How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
Original Air Date: 13 December 1998




Original, a dark comedy (which DD seems to like) and stars two of Hollywood's legendary actors that takes place in a haunted house but not on Halloween. What more could you want?
But my all-time favorite scene and subsentquently the reason I selected this show is the ghost Maurice's psychoanalyzing of Mulder. This has to be some of the best dialog written in the nine years of the series.

MAURICE: Why don't you have a seat, son.

(Short time later. MULDER is sitting with his face in his hands.)

MAURICE: You drink? Take drugs?

MULDER: No.

MAURICE: Get high?

MULDER: No.

MAURICE: Are you overcome by the impulse to make everyone believe you?

(MULDER looks up at him in surprise.)

MAURICE: I'm in the field of mental health. I specialize in disorders and manias related to pathological behavior as it pertains to the paranormal.

MULDER: Wow. I didn't know such a thing existed.

MAURICE: My specialty is in what I call soul prospectors-- a crossaxial classification I've codified by extensive interaction with visitors like yourself. I've found you all tend to fall into pretty much the same category.

MULDER: And what category is that?

MAURICE: Narcissistic, overzealous, self-righteous egomaniac.

MULDER: That's a category?

MAURICE: You kindly think of yourself as single-minded but you're prone to obsessive compulsiveness workaholism, antisocialism... Fertile fields for the descent into total wacko breakdown.

MULDER: I don't think that pegs me exactly.

MAURICE: Oh, really? Waving a gun around my house? Huh? Raving like a lunatic about some imaginary brick wall?

(MULDER looks over at … the brick wall in the doorway.)

MAURICE: You've probably convinced yourself you've seen aliens. You know why you think you see the things you do?

MULDER: Because I have seen them?

MAURICE: 'Cause you're a lonely man. A lonely man chasing paramasturbatory illusions that you believe will give your life meaning and significance and which your pathetic social maladjustment makes impossible for you to find elsewhere. You probably consider yourself passionate, serious, misunderstood. Am I right?

MULDER: "Paramasturbatory"?

MAURICE: Most people would rather stick their fingers in a wall socket than spend a minute with you.

MULDER: All right, now just, uh... Just back off for a second.

MAURICE: Spend every Christmas this way... Alone?

MULDER: (confident) I'm not alone.

MAURICE: More self-delusion.

MULDER: No, I came here with my partner. She's somewhere in the house.

MAURICE: Behind a brick wall?

(MULDER smiles and nods.)

MAURICE: How'd you get her to come with you? Steal her car keys?

(MULDER drops his smile.)

MAURICE: You know why you do it-- listen endlessly to her droning rationalizations. 'Cause you're afraid. Afraid of the loneliness. Am I right?

MULDER: I'd just like to find my partner.

MAURICE: Good... Easy. Piece of cake.

(MAURICE gets up and walks through the clear doorway. He turns back to face MULDER.)

MAURICE: Brick wall (indicates doorway) ... Or brick wall? (points to his head) Go ahead, change your life.

(MULDER gets up and starts to walk through the now clear doorway. He runs into an invisible wall which we quickly perceive as the brick wall again. MAURICE is now out of sight. MULDER turns to see the now dark library which quickly cuts to SCULLY's version of the library.)

SCULLY: Mulder?



Season 6, Episode 18: Milagro
Original Air Date: 18 April 1999




Chris Carter written and Kim Manners directed one of my all-time favorite episodes. If you haven't already, listen to the commentary by Manners as the show is playing. There is absolutely no flaws in this show and they could not have cast a better actor for Philip Padgett than John Hawkes who develops an obsession with Scully and moves into Mulder's building in order to be closer to her.
This show is beyond-classic thriller. What gets stuffed into this 42:30 minute show is unreal and how it ends is incredible and fantastic. We get to see Scully's vulnerable side, Mulder's brain just a working away on solve yet another X-File mystery and one of the best moments between Mulder and Scully to close out the scene. Major Kudos. CC, KM, and JH's kung fu is the best!


Addendum: I know that one show(s) that ends up on everyone's top ten X-Files list is Dreamland I and II. I liked it as well. But, again, sticking to my own rules, no more than two shows from the season, and that I happened to like a couple of others a little better, it did not list them.
Secondly, I have to mentioned couple of scenes from The Rain King. I have watched a couple of scenes repeatedly (as oppose to the entire show) because they are just soooo good. One was the look on Mulder's face when he realized that a cow was about to enter his motel room via the roof. There is NO other episode does Mulder give that same "Oh Shit" look. It was just perfect.
The other scene is when Daryl Mootz takes a swing at Mulder after stating "What does he have that I don't have?" with the scene ending with a kiss from Sheila Fontaine and Scully and the weather man walking 'in' on them.


Season 7
I like this season just for the fact we get a little deeper in Scully's character. We feel for her cancer and by this time the feature film Fight The Future so she has been abducted, again, she has lost her father (season 1), her sister (season 3) and losses her "daughter" and has a brother who hates Mulder. So, who was Scully before the X-Files? Also, now entrenched in the X-Files and follows Mulder around like a lost puppy sometimes, can she go solo. Well, season 7 gives the fans a new insight to Scully and adds some tension to the Mulder/Scully relationship. Now, this is also a big season for Mulder and his driving-force for doing what and how he does. With that, my first selection is:


Season 7, Episode 11: Closure
Original Air Date: 13 February 2000




Mulder meets Harold Piller, a police psychic, and begins the search for a missing little girl and ends with the pair discovering the truth about Samantha. Scully and even the Cigarette Smoking Man aid in learning the melancholy truth. However, we learn of Samantha's faith but we do not learn how or why. As a true X-Files, the show leaves more questions than answers.



Season 7, Episode 15: En Ami
Original Air Date: 19 March 2000




Scully gets sneaky with Mulder and with the Cigarette Smoking Man of all people. When Mulder finally learns of Scully's secret trip, he is beyond pissed-off at her. I like this show though because Scully takes a chance, without Mulder, keeps it from him and reveals the hypocrisy of Mulder can do anything he wants with or without Scully's knowledge but when she turns the tables, he ain't a fan. Of course, the data tape that she risked everything for becomes the physical proof for Mulder to say "I told yea so" - that no one can trust the Smoking Man.



Season 7, Episode 17: All Things
Original Air Date: 9 April 2000




Love this show. Written and directed by Gillian (with CC in the wings helping out when she asked). She writes Mulder out of the majority of the show so it can focus on Gillian and her past - and what a great, real-life past. It shows that she is human, had hard-choices to make, and old wounds can heel. Most importantly, her entire life does not need to revolve around Mulder and his never-ending chase for the truth. Scully can take time to reflect and accept - a healthy part of life.


Yes, I picked three shows. Deal with it.



Season 8
Lots of changes. People do not like change - especially fans. It did not matter who they found to "replace" Mulder, the fans were having none of it. Well, life goes and although I am proponent of ending a show when it is up and especially when one of the main characters exits, I have to give major Kudos to Chris and the team for pulling this season off. It was a lose-lose situation and they came out winners, in my humble opinion. Not all shows were good - some were even, well, not so good but Robert Patrick (got a love a guy who has two first names) just rocks.
He is smart, witty, funny, mature, and an all-around nice guy. Robert also came into the show knowing the odds and they weren't good. The fact he made this show happened not one but for two more season, major Kudos!
Now, for the season selection.


Season 8, Episode 2: Without
Original Air Date: 12 November 2000




I like road trips. It gets the gang out of that dank office and into some sun for a roll with the aliens and their conspirators. Scully, Skinner and Doggett travel to the toasty stat of Arizona to protect our favorite half-boy half-alien, Gibson Praise who is being chased by yet, another favorite character, the Alien Bounty Hunter but this time is disguised as the missing Mulder. Good times.
How can you not like this show? Doggett had clues before, because he is of course smart and an x-cop, that FBI and his new boss, FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh ain't all cherries and roses. When Skinner finally clues him in on 'being on the outside looking in', Doggett realizes he is on his own and the game is a foot. And the taste -the sweet but bitter taste of Scully being so close to finding Mulder, yet so far. Not knowing who to trust - not even old friends. Dealing with Shape-shifters, bounty hunters, and trying to figure out who is on who's side, is a daunting task for anyone. However, both Agent Doggett and Scully are able to stay a head of the game.


Season 8, Episode 17: Empedocles
Original Air Date: 22 April 2001




Empedocles is a solid, well-written and played episode that explores more in earnest Doggett's back-story. This is the only time that you'll see all four of the agents working on a monster of the week case together, though Scully is in the hospital most of the time. This episode offers humor with the "pizza man" and serious conflict between Agent Doggett and Mulder. You can sense a hint of jealous with Mulder and that Doggett has basically taken over the X-Files. The only problem I have with the show is that it falls on the heels of Mulder's being driven insane by a piece of paper with an "alien" rubbing and an abduction that was pretty tough to watch the first couple of times around. Mulder has been through all of this and Scully's baby and still can jump back into the game. Well, I guess that is why they call it the X-Files.



Season 9
Last Season - sigh. However, the show did good. Of course, die-hard fans will watch just about anything X-Files related but with both Scully and Mulder gone, there is no point. As good as the 'other' two agents are - they ain't them and it is time to let the sleepy dog lie. Given this, the obvious selection for my favorite Season 9 episode(s) is:


Season 9, Episode 19: The Truth: Parts 1 & 2
Original Air Date: 19 May 2002




A military tribunal. How fitting in today's world. In the X-Files world, however, it was a nice way to revisit the past, sprinkle in some missing details, and sum it all up. It was like watching an X-Files version of "This is You Life" and it played well. I think the fans were mostly satisfied with how it "ended". With Mulder and Scully as fugitives - last seen spooning in an Arizona's motel room - of course it leaves the series open for movies (which will be getting in less than 24 hours).


Sidebar: DD will be appearing on Letterman tonight and Regis tomorrow morning. I have already seen him on Jay Leno. He will not reveal anything about the movie but many share some bizarre "daddy" moments.

See Yea At The Movies!

Favorite X-Files Episodes Seasons 1-4

With some supportive comments from the main casts and creators, a few critics of the now acclaimed series said that the show stumble during the first half of season one. I strongly disagree. I think that the entire cast and crew hit the ground running and never looked back. Because of this basic fact, it was difficult to select just one favorite of the 23 shows. Therefore in most cases I need force myself to select just one show per season and they are:



Season 1:

Season 1, Episode 19: Darkness Falls
Original Air Date: 15 April 1994



I love the atmosphere of this episode, Olympic National Forest of Washington State. The plot is believable although not. It is one of the first times in the shows early career that the audience really feared that something fatal could happen to one or both of our FBI heroes. Also, as mentioned in a previous blog, Titus Welliver makes a TV appearance a decade before his re-occurring role in Deadwood.



Season 2:
The season that introduced us to Duane Barry, David’s g/f, at the time, Perrey Reeves in “3", a sewer-mutant, Scully eating live bugs in “Humbug” and Nicholas Lea in his re-occuring, and one of the best adversaries of the show, Alex Krycek (more so than the Smoking man and The Syndicate). Again, because of the great writing and vision for the X-Files, it was extremely difficult to select just one favorite. Honestly, half of the season ties for first place. However, the ultimate winner is:


Season 2, Episode 19: Død Kalm
Original Air Date: 10 March 1995




The “aging” ship that could be physical proof of yet another government conspiracy; the Philadelphia Experiments. Once again, the audience is drawn in to the possible peril of our brave crusaders and once again, Mulder comes so close of real evidence of a government-sanctioned ill-conceived project. Also, fans can picture our two heroes as no more than two grandparents slowing rocking on their wrap-around porch set near the ocean or on acres of prairie as they continue to look at each other in the same caring way as when they first became aware of their feelings for each other.



Season 3
The series is cooking now. David has a real girlfriend, Gillian as a baby and everyone seems to have settled into their award-winning roles. The writers, Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Howard Gordon, Darin Morgan, Vince Gilligan, Glen Morgan and John Shiban, have those creative juices flowing and practically every script written turns to insist gold. Given this, it was beyond impossible to narrow my selection to one favorite episode for season 3. Therefore, with a sense of defeat, I have selected two for completely different reasons.



Season 3, Episode 8: Oubliette
Original Air Date: 17 November 1995

Oubliette: a secret dungeon with an opening only in the ceiling, as in certain old castles.




Watching this episode is like a mini-show of Kiss the Girls. It is creepy. It is a real thriller. It involves mainstream FBI work with that X-File hitch. It illustrated both Mulder’s intelligence in profiling serial killers and compassion for those who struggle with inner-demons just like Mulder does. This show fosters a kinship bordering on love of Mulder for Lucy. You can see it in his eyes when he realizes that she is dead. Moreover, that her life-long pain is now gone.



Season 3, Episode 16: Apocrypha
Original Air Date: 16 February 1996




The episode has everything and everybody. There are plots within plots and mythology arc of this series. The lost digital tape is brought back into it, Skinner has been shot and now hospitalized, Krycek makes another classical appearance, the Syndicate just adds to the ‘craziest’ and tracking down the salvaged UFO all happen in 42:30 minutes of air time. It just kicks ass.



Season 4
Half-way through this world-wide phenomenon of aliens, secret governments within governments which in turns becomes the all-purpose bad guy (the government), there are 24 great shows to select my favorite from season 4. Although they were all awesome, there has been one that has always stuck out for me. It had a great plot that weaves in and out of Mulder’s life.



Season 4, Episode 10: Paper Hearts
Original Air Date: 15 December 1996




This is an original show, (which is saying a lot since Chris Carter has all but said that very little about the X-files is 100% original since “everything has been written - everything has been done”). It is, again, a thriller that involves Mulder both personally and professionally. It demonstrates how far he is willing to go to find out the truth of his sister’s disappearance and pushes Scully as far away as possible - not so much for her safety but for his own greedy, personal crusade to continue without her interference.

Additionally, any plot that deals with the killing of children is personally emotional for me, as I am sure it is for many. Tom Noonan, who was absolutely perfect as the serial killer, takes heart-shaped fabric from each of his young girl victims' clothing and hides in a place that Mulder is able to figure out because Mulder basically got “inside” this freak’s head. Creepy, awesome, don’t want it to end show. I am sure if Chris had thought about it, they could have turned this into a two-parter to drag on the suspense but hinder-sight is always 20/20.
This is arguably the best non-mythology episode of the nine-year series.

P.S. Later when the audience/fans learn of Samantha’s death as a child, it was never made clear as to who or how along she was taken at the age of 8 and died around the age of 14 so more than likely it was not at the hand of John Lee Roche.



Sidebar: About Fox Mulder

Full Name: Fox William Mulder

Date of Birth: 13th of October 1961

Birthplace: Chilmark, Massachusetts

Address: 2630 Hegal Place, Apartment No. 42, Alexandria, Virginia 23242

Badge No.: JTT047101111

CSI - Where Did Everybody Go?

Ok. Here is it. I may be a little late in addressing this Earth-shattering news, but Wm Peterson apparently has taken a page out of David Duchovny's book and is leaving CSI as the show remains on the air.

Can I just say how disappointed but does not surprised I am?

According to reports dating back to early July, William Peterson signed a new contract for the 2008/09 season (Season 10 of CSI) that states Grissom will be exiting the show by the tenth episode as a "full-time" series regular.

William Peterson announced in a July 11th interview that "return on occasion as a (very special) guest star". He will, in fact, stay on as an executive producer.

Executive producer of what? Who is left?

This makes three main characters exiting the show within two-years (Jorja Fox , Gary Dourdan )and now, Wm Peterson). There is not going to be much of a show left to produce.





I was so ticked when I read this that it has taken me days to sit down and write a blog that did not have expletives every other word.

Mr. Peterson also states in the same interview that he is "smart enough to know what will hurt the show". I would think leaving it as its main lead character would pretty much do it!

"I want it to work for the writers, I want it to work for the cast, and, most importantly, I want it to work for the audience," he added. "I don't want them to abandon the show."

Possible replacements are: John Malkovich, Kurt Russell, Tim Daly and Laurence Fishburne. Someone has jestingly suggested Duchonvy.

Thank God for Californication's success so that rumor can be squished immediately. However, can you imagine so of the other actors mentioned? John Malkovich? That just seems a little to top-heavy.

In the meantime, executive producer Carol Mendelsohn is plotting one hell of a send-off for her leading man. Just as this is a year of transition for CSI, so too is it for Grissom. The events of last season's finale -- specifically the death of Dourdan's Warrick -- will push Grissom to the breaking point.

So they are going to make the Grissom character mentally unbalanced due to the lose of Sara, which I thought Grissom took way to lightly, and the "death" of Warrick (there is rumor that his character may be pulling a Bobby Ewing stunt).

"It's all of a sudden becoming more difficult for him to do his job," William Peterson continued. "What had been a sort of fun job for him to do, because he loved the solving of the riddle, has become ever more taxing and difficult."

Helping Grissom through the crisis will be his true love, Sara, played by Fox, who is returning for multiple episodes, starting with the season premiere. While Petersen confirms that Sara will figure into Grissom's final arc, he stops just short of saying the couple will ride off into the desert together at the end of episode 10. "I wouldn't want to say exactly what we're going do -- I want people to watch, certainly," he chuckled. "But Sara is involved... It's often darkest just before the dawn."






I get that actors get bored after a time playing the same old character and want to move onto other these - that is human nature. But here is the deal. As a young actor, you struggle to find good work, make a decent paycheck and with a little luck, some recognition along the way. However, it appears to me, more and more, as soon as actors can afford that 5th Porches and 4th house, they drop the part that got them all those goodies to 'move on' while the fans a left with WTF.

They actors state that it is expand their horizons - to look for more challenging and fully work or even more money. The actors are happy that there is a fan-base to their shows or even to them- but it is time to move on. B.S.

In my humble opinion, if actors, especially the lead ones, want to leave the show, then the show should could to a graceful end. Lets not drop it from a 30-story building into tar and then kick the shit out of it while it rolling around on the ground. Let the show retire as a whole with respect and dignity.

I am predicting by the end of this season, Robert David Hall will be preforming an autopsy on the show as its own latest victim.

This is not happening just in TV. Actually, I think it happens more with music bands. The Eagles break for like a quarter of a century, get back together for a "reunion" when they say 'Hey, thanks for sticking with us while the band was in a sandbox brawl - you never know if we will do it to you again.'

Journey and Fleetwood Mac to name a few are having similar issues while the fans are going, 'Hey, we bought your records, we stood in line at 2am for wristband just to return the later to stand in line at 7am to purchase tickets with that wristband, we bought your t-shirts, and, now, even have our favorite songs as ring tones - where's the loyalty to us? Who is looking out for the fans? You take our money, have fight, break-up, and like a bad-marriage, you leave the 'kids' to deal with the mess.'

Do these break-ups of both bands and TV shows tick anyone else off but me?





Three out of five "regulars" gone by the end of this coming season. Althought this is Vegas, I am not liking the odds of survival.

What Do X-Files, Deadwood and West Wing Have in Common?

They have a lot in common. Warning, first off though, to the formatting. Since this site does not let you cut and paste a table from Word ™ to be placed in the body of the Blog, the tabs and margins are more than likely off.

What I have done and ATTEMPTING to display is list the X-Files episode in order of a actor who has appeared there and either in Deadwood (and there are many) and/or West Wing. I apologize in advance if it is difficult to follow. MySpace is not any better with the format. How difficult would it be to add the feature?



1. X-Files Season and Show Name
2. (Character's Name in X-Files)
3. The Actor's Real Name
4. Name of Character, what show s/he went to (West Wing - WW or Deadwood- DW) & year.


Season 1 1993/4

Pilot (Dr. Nemman). Cliff DeYoung played Rep. Kimball, D-TN:WW 2001

The Jersey Devil (Dr. Diamond). Gregory Sierra played Det. Sgt. Chano Amerguale (Barney Miller 1975/6)

Ice (Dr. Nancy). DaSilva Felicity Huffman played Ann Stark, the Majority Leader's Chief of Staff: WW 2001

Fallen Angel (Com. Calvin Henderson). Marshall Bell played Magistrate Claggett: DW 2004

Beyond the Sea (Luther Lee Boggs). Brad Dourif played Doc Cochran: DW 2004-06



Beyond the Sea (Scully's father -Capt. Scully). Don Davis played Reverend Don Butler: WW in "In God We Trust" (2005)


Darkness Falls (Doug Spinney). Titus Welliver played Silas Adams: DW 2004-06




Season 2 1994/5

Blood (Edward Funsch). Wm Sanderson played E.B. Farnum: DW 2004-06




Firewalker (Daniel Trekos). Bradley Whitford played Josh Lyman:WW 1999-2006




Humbug (Mr. Nutt). Michael J. Anderson played in "The Man from Another Place": Twin Peaks 1990-1 (which Duchovny appeared in 3 episodes of TPs)



Season 3 1995/6 No cross-matches found


Season 4 1996/7

Unruhe (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Gerry Schnauz played Mose Manuel: DW 2005/06


Season 5 1997/8

Travelers (Edward Skur). This versatile actor had TWO
roles in DW: Garret Dillahunt played Jack McCall in 2004 and Francis Wolcott in 2005




Season 6 1998/9 The 1st Season in L.A., CA after transplanting from Vancouver, Canada.


How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (Lydia). Lily Tomlin played Deborah Fidered: WW 2002-06


Milagro (Phillip Padgett). John Hawkes played Sol Star: DW 2004-06




Field Trip (Coroner). Jim Beavers played Whitney Ellsworth: DW 2004-06 and played Carl in WW in "Manchester: Part 1" (2001)




Season 7 1999/2000

The Amazing Maleeni (Herman/ Albert Pinchbeck). Ricky Jay played Eddie Sawyer: DW 2004


Season 8 1999/2001

Patience (Gravedigger). Brent Saxton played Harry Manning:DW 2005/06

Medusa (Steven Melnick). Brent Saxton played Harry Manning

Vienen (Martin Ortega). Migual Sandoval played Victor Campos: WW in "Ways and Means" (2001)

Alone (Dr. Herman Stites). Zach Grenier played Andy Cramed


Season 9 2001/2002

TrustNo1 (Patti). Allison Smith played Mallory O'Brien:
WW 1999-2006

Improbable (Mad Wayne). Ray McKinnon played Reverend H.W. Smith:DW 2004

The Truth (Special Agent Kallenbrunner) Matthew Glave played Scott Holcomb: WW in "California 47th" (2003)

Most X-Files Shows (A.D. Skinner) Mitch Pileggi played: Senator Dresden: WW in "Mr. Frost" (2005)



Additional Trivia:

Both David Duchovny and Robin Weigert, who played Calamity Jane 2004-2006 on DW, starred in "Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)"

Gerald McRaney starred in both WW, as USAF Gen. Alan Adamle in 2 episodes, and in DW as George Hearst 2005-2006 but not in X-Files.

Franc Ross played Sonny Saunders on WW in "The Midterms" and Louisthe bank guard on DW in 2006.

William Russ played Otis Russell on DW in 2 episodes (2004) and played Dan on WW "Message of the Week" (2005).

I could have cross-referenced may acts to CSI:LV since many from X-Files and West Wing have appeared in that as well or those who have moved on to "John From Cincinnati" (another David Milch creation) but at some point you have to say "Stop" :)
I just love talented people and I love it more when they find their way to great series like these.


Did you notice that quite of few of the cast of Deadwood appeared at least once on X-Files?

Movies and the Fear Factor

Ticket Sales
...



The outlook for theaters during this latest economic downturn seems brighter than Time Square on a Saturday night because few movie fans seem to be taking a break from one of the nation's favorite pastimes.

Nationally, summer ticket sales are strong and virtually on par with those from 2007. After the weekend of June 13, the 2008 year-to-date box office was $4.09 billion, compared with the record-breaking $4.1 billion box office for the same period last year.

Arizona box-office numbers were not available, but several theaters reported brisk ticket sales, with some predicting 2008 box-office numbers could surpass those from 2007.
...



A study done by the National Association of Theatre Owners in Washington indicates that box-office numbers increased during five of seven economic downturns since 1965, suggesting that movie attendance rarely decreases during a slowing economy.
...



In comparison to other forms of entertainment, a trip to the movies is more affordable than tickets to a baseball game or concert, he added.
...




The 12 theaters owned by the company in California and Arizona are doing so well that the company is planning to open six new ones in Arizona within the next three years. Most will be in communities without local theaters.
...

AMC spokeswoman Chris Hamele said the company re-evaluates its prices twice a year and that multiple factors, including high corn prices, prompted it to increase admission 25 cents a ticket in its Arizona theaters.

The adult general admission price at AMC's Arizona Center theater is $9.75.

Harkins Theatres in the Phoenix area last increased their prices by 50 cents in November 2006, making the general admission $9.50.

Despite good business, owners are paying attention to rising gas, energy and food prices.

Average gas prices in metro Phoenix rose from about $2.99 a gallon a year ago to about $4.14, which increases supply costs for theaters. Energy bills tend to be higher for theaters during the summer.

Additionally, corn prices have climbed from about $6 a bushel in late May to $7.46 as of Wednesday, an increase that could boost the price of popcorn - one of the most popular theater staples - which now sells for about $3.50 for a small container.
...




Harkins' Bowers said his company is feeling pressure from increased corn and gas prices and the minimum wage-increase that kicked in Jan. 1.

Bowers said Harkins made a conscious choice to absorb the cost increases itself in view of "what the economy was facing."

But not all theaters can absorb higher costs.

Chandler Cinemas recently increased its admission price from $1 to $2 to keep up with summer energy bills, said Andrea Beesley-Brown, the operations and booking director for the discount theater.

The ticket increase hasn't negatively affected attendance, Beesley-Brown said.

The other reason, besides an inexpensive family night out, for movie ticket sales to continue to increase is that we need an escape from 'reality'. Just a little break that includes getting out of the house. And Hollywood has not disappointed this year with its summer hits of Indiana Jones, Wall*E, Wanted, and, of course, last night's opening of The Dark Knight that has, by all industry measures, broke ticket sales across this great Land.




I am betting many of you are at the movies as I type...




Of course, I am all about the highly anticipated release July 25, 2008 of:




David Duchovny - X Files 2



See You At The Movies!

Californication - Season One

I am a David follower (no secret there) and will check out anything that he has done. Although I have not always been pleasantly surprised with his work such as "Playing God", most of his work is excellent, in my humble opinion.


From his first "real" role as transvestite DEA Agent Denise/Dennis Bryson in "Twin Peaks" (1990)...





Doesn't Mr. Duchovny look sexy as a woman?


to Kalifornia (1993) with Brad Pitt where David plays a journalist researching serial killers - most excellent show to, of course, his 8 year plus two full-length movies of Special Agent Fox Mulder of the X-Files.






I purchased this Californication - Season One DVD set sight unseen and was, again, very pleased with his performance and the writing of the show.






It is awesome to see David successfully play a character that has nothing to do with the FBI or guns but I do miss the suit. He looks very good in a suit. Some sex scenes can be a little much at first but beyond that there is an excellent storyline that you will want to follow like a good book that you can't put down and given the title, obviously, sex plays a BIG part in the series and does tie into the continuous story without the show being all about sex.

When I received the DVD set, I watched the complete two-disc set (6 episodes each) in one weekend. Last night I re-watched the pilot with commentary from David Duchovny (actor and producer), Stephen Hopkins (director) and Tom Kapinos (writer and creator) which is definitely worth listening too. Lastly, the soundtrack also rocks which can be downloaded from ITunes or purchased on-line. Check it out!

Sidebar: In case you haven't noticed, and even the casual Duchovny viewer has, David likes soft-porn. Have you seen this X-File promo photo?




Also his work on The Red Shoe Diaries (1992), and his backside nude scenes in both this DVD set and Kalifornia suggest that if he did not become a "serious" actor turned director and producer, he would have made a flick with Pamela Anderson... maybe he still will.

So, I recommend purchasing/watching Showtimes Californication and Hank Moody if you are a fan of David and material that deals and shows sex in every episode. You can view clips of the show at http://www.sho.com/site/californication/home.do

Happy Viewing!