tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225116192024-03-13T02:51:22.536-07:00Dirty Writersnotes on projects by the writing team of Gil Reavill and Eric SaksFreckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-48866593619014565902012-05-09T13:58:00.003-07:002012-05-09T14:00:09.552-07:00Upcoming: GR's Non-Fiction Mob Book on the Apalachin MeetingMAFIA SUMMIT: Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob<br />
<br />
A Non-Fiction Book by Gil Reavill<br />
<br />
In November 1957, members of warring Mafia factions gathered to iron out their differences in the small upstate New York village of Apalachin. A lone law enforcement officer exposed the mob summit, forcing the government finally to admit that the country had a problem with organized crime. Packed with new research, featuring not only the bloody mob battles that led up to the gathering but the turf wars between Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover that followed it, Gil Reavill’s MAFIA SUMMIT is the definitive look at a turning point in America’s long battle against the mob. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, WINTER/SPRING 2013.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-54738856647192113152009-10-15T09:18:00.000-07:002009-10-16T12:14:03.812-07:00Collaboration at the End of the World<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/StdPKefB9AI/AAAAAAAAAHU/BwwNevOBJUg/s1600-h/header_book.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 258px; height: 394px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/StdPKefB9AI/AAAAAAAAAHU/BwwNevOBJUg/s400/header_book.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392866120199959554" /></a><br /><br />Gil: I first met Rob Swan in spring 2008, and two weeks later I joined him on a ship traveling to Antarctica. It was, as Bogart says in <span style="font-style:italic;">Casablanca</span>, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Our collaboration has come to fruition with the publication of Rob's book: <span style="font-style:italic;">Antarctica 2041: My Quest to Save the Earth's Last Wilderness</span>. The book tells the story of Rob's life, as a polar explorer who became the first man to walk to both poles (as Rob would amend that statement, "I was the first man <span style="font-style:italic;">stupid enough</span> to walk to both poles"). It's a rollicking tale, as they say, full of ups and downs, tracing the author's progress until he finally arrives at his present-day position as a climate activist.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-87368121668460959172009-03-12T10:49:00.000-07:002009-03-12T11:25:45.523-07:00IN THE KINGDOM OF SHADOWS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-fP5GjrbcYgoHvQufkJgSO0SSq3RfxmLOb-IwKPYr4lL8o6qhsWfZMajgr4Ce9l9k1EFFocIoEjVIDNmyHHogabqxWZEEXvd6fOhjQmvFC766VvPVi2ov66Jm7wrki1wySZP/s1600-h/Ed_semi_mug.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 323px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-fP5GjrbcYgoHvQufkJgSO0SSq3RfxmLOb-IwKPYr4lL8o6qhsWfZMajgr4Ce9l9k1EFFocIoEjVIDNmyHHogabqxWZEEXvd6fOhjQmvFC766VvPVi2ov66Jm7wrki1wySZP/s400/Ed_semi_mug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312362828044139394" /></a><br /><br />Our new gig: working with ex-spy guy Edwin P. Wilson on his memoir. Ed's over 80-years-old now, but back in the day, he was a covert CIA field agent and bare-knuckle spook. Anyone who knocked around the docks of Hamburg and Marseilles (infiltrating labor groups) and sifted the dangerous sands of Gaddafi's Libya (selling the Libyan military weapons, while at the same time double-dealing them with his old contacts at the CIA) has got to have a little grit in his character. Not to mention spending 22 years inside federal supermax prison facilities, courtesy of a government campaign to ream, steam and dry-clean Edwin P. Wilson, the Spy Who Knew Too Much. If you've seen <span style="font-style:italic;">Syriana</span> you've seen Ed in the George Clooney character (the real guy is a lot more handsome). This is from the non-fiction book proposal for the project that we're calling <span style="font-style:italic;">In the Kingdom of Shadows</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Please allow me to introduce myself.<br /><br />I am Edwin P. Wilson; Edwin Paul Wilson; Ed Wilson the spy, the spook, the covert field agent; Ed Wilson Federal prisoner 08337-054; Ed Wilson the CIA’s man in Libya; Ed Wilson who’s been labeled a terrorist and bomber and traitor or worse in best-sellers and articles and commentary; Ed Wilson who was convicted of importing twenty tons of C-4 explosive into Libya packed in barrels of oil-drilling mud; Ed Wilson the international man of mystery, with a reputation blacker than the blackest ops, weapons trader, facilitator, hugely proficient professional creator of front companies for the Central Intelligence Agency; Ed Wilson the antichrist; Ed Wilson the martyr; Ed Wilson the spy who was hung out to dry; Ed Wilson, yours truly.<br /><br />“Please allow me to introduce myself” – yes, I realize that’s the first line of the Rolling Stones song, “Sympathy for the Devil.”<br /><br />Plenty of people consider me to be the devil incarnate. I’ve had a government official pronounce me “the most dangerous man in America.”<br /><br />But whether I’m devil or angel or, like most people, someone somewhere in between, I’m not after your sympathy. I reject being labeled as a victim. I refuse to cast myself in that role. If I had, I never would have survived solitary lock-up.<br /><br />Why would you read my story? What possible relevance today has a saga of out-of-control government power, Middle East skullduggery and corrupt officials desperately trying to cover up their incompetence and lies? But isn’t that a timeless saga, always relevant, the same one going down in Iraq today?<br /><br />You might prefer to believe that the American government maintains at least a semblance of legality and a passing acquaintance with fair play. My story (and recent history) demonstrates otherwise. Any citizen, immigrant or foreign national, anyone at all, can get instantly, thoroughly, royally screwed at any moment by the whim of snotty law-school-graduate GS-12’s with too much power and too few scruples.<br /><br />Some people won’t want to hear this saga because black and white is so much easier to deal with, even if reality is actually really herringbone. Or because it all happened thirty years ago, in another country, and besides the wench is dead.<br /><br />Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: “The truth? You can’t handle the truth!”<br /><br />But if you do want to hear it and can handle it, here it is, written in the pages of my book.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc19yG-xN-ZFlqqR4FI-5mJWp_eFajR5GWq3vLyUXVRrmiyP8JAKAxBqXZf7Hn5acMKPNT6jV03-5xXMvRNwT7cUyUwuBSeZx226Ag4RRMHiFifP4ZvF6zWCg5YQHHJyrDt-bj/s1600-h/Ed_Painting_cc-hi-con.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 384px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc19yG-xN-ZFlqqR4FI-5mJWp_eFajR5GWq3vLyUXVRrmiyP8JAKAxBqXZf7Hn5acMKPNT6jV03-5xXMvRNwT7cUyUwuBSeZx226Ag4RRMHiFifP4ZvF6zWCg5YQHHJyrDt-bj/s400/Ed_Painting_cc-hi-con.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312364365467072098" /></a><br /><br />That's Ed today, with the painting behind him a souvenir of his prison past, painted by a fellow inmate at Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. The glowering shot up top is Ed's 1972 passport photo, for a long time the only known picture of him, the one circulated by Interpol when he was out on the lam.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Specialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17188762110003420043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-87739592522856089752008-10-20T05:11:00.000-07:002008-10-20T05:19:40.068-07:00Pink Death Cameo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/SPx3Qp4u2LI/AAAAAAAAAHA/bzp4_v2irSQ/s1600-h/curtain1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/SPx3Qp4u2LI/AAAAAAAAAHA/bzp4_v2irSQ/s400/curtain1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259209592867313842" /></a><br />The Curtain of Pink Death made a brief but memorable appearnce in the AMC series <span style="font-style:italic;">Mad Men</span>, near the end of The Mountain King episode, during the tarot reading scene in San Pedro. The meme continues to infect the cultural body electric at an inexorable pace.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-12636040657139686762008-03-05T20:10:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:10.157-08:00WILD CHILD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16FIQEVfUMGWsMbIEBHR4yed3_kAWFfJhbFj3OJr7AoM5XrHBktalwR0HzT5MLW2p_4AvAAbG6JAKTKGgg3ZARbULwGEOeh53apNqM2UQF-47mgtZifw4ldk3XONMLqUq-rHI/s1600-h/_42342559_soldier203b.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16FIQEVfUMGWsMbIEBHR4yed3_kAWFfJhbFj3OJr7AoM5XrHBktalwR0HzT5MLW2p_4AvAAbG6JAKTKGgg3ZARbULwGEOeh53apNqM2UQF-47mgtZifw4ldk3XONMLqUq-rHI/s400/_42342559_soldier203b.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174480321570116914" /></a><br />Gil: I remember in the 1980s Tuli Kupferberg, the Fugs co-founder, cartoonist, all-around American anarchist and provocateur, put out a pamphlet he called "Child Pornography." It was page after page of black-and-white photos of child soldiers. As writers we've always been into the strange clash of violence and innocence (vio-cence?) of kid soldier culture, from clockers in Chicago to <span style="font-style:italic;">Kdogos</span> in the Congo. Now we've got a project up and running that will help funnel all our passion about the subject into a screenplay, and rendered all the more interesting considering the news out of Colombia and Ecuador lately.<br />Right now we're calling it Child of God, after the Joni Mitchell lyric: <span style="font-style:italic;">I came upon a child of god/He was walking along the road/I asked him, Where are you going?/This he told me...</span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">CHILD OF GOD</span><br />Treatment for a screenplay by Gil Reavill and Eric Saks<br />Adventure drama<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Log line</span>: After a ragtag crew of teenage soldiers take captive a wounded U.S. Army Reserve physician in South America, the doctor and the young warriors develop a complex but dangerous friendship.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Synopsis</span>: Everett Fahey, 50, a middle-aged doctor conflicted about his role in the Army Reserve, joins an official humanitarian mission to northern Ecuador. He treats poor villagers but also CIA-funded mercenaries battling Colombian guerillas in the border territory. His risk-addicted behavior takes him ever deeper into the hot zone, where rival gangs of drug importers battle for turf.<br />In a blazing nighttime fire-fight, Fahey is wounded by a machete attack and left for dead. He regains consciousness as a prisoner of a teenage militia, none of the soldiers older than 15 years. His motor and speech capacity deeply impaired by the attack, Fahey is alternately tormented and nursed by Lorenzo, 15, the self-styled “Subcommandante” of the group. The orphaned Lorenzo is brilliant, Jesuit-educated, and he hides his adolescent neediness beneath a sardonic, macho exterior. Fahey slowly heals and his speech facility returns, while his relationship with Lorenzo and the other boy soldiers deepens.<br />As the CIA-funded mercenaries move in for the kill, Fahey must confront not only his conflicting allegiances but his own personal demons – to recognize the “child of god” within himself.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Specialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17188762110003420043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-37835777798953870342007-11-11T16:32:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:10.912-08:00The Plan for World Domination Proceeds ApaceThe Goodness Publishing House in Taiwan will publish a Chinese (Complex Characters) edition of Aftermath, Inc. Can't wait to see how they translate "ballpark figure" into ideograms. The title might be rendered 后果 if our handy-dandy online translator is correct. This seems to combine the ideogram for "bloody good" with the ideogram for "book," so it seems right. Along with the U.K. and Dutch editions of the book, and combined with the Russian and Polish versions of our film <span style="font-style:italic;">Dirty</span>, it looks as though the Curtain of Pink Death might soon envelop the world.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZTwas1WQJrLFxLkhsnw2qM9B_p0qwKfw2lUmKf7QROXcQb56YYGiVTbPKT2dIFHgj11euphiU6BZ3CmxSiQSNA6mN60GMJsEplWOIYbJeqfT4Qp14_UahVxlnp4UJG5r813G/s1600-h/resize.asp.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZTwas1WQJrLFxLkhsnw2qM9B_p0qwKfw2lUmKf7QROXcQb56YYGiVTbPKT2dIFHgj11euphiU6BZ3CmxSiQSNA6mN60GMJsEplWOIYbJeqfT4Qp14_UahVxlnp4UJG5r813G/s400/resize.asp.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131748597050504466" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBlhgtKd9830geX1gy0vNEquDsKjvNetRmuvx7uGwRl3XQAiY8VmbAokpFwK0AtHyw6H7Oq_pCryqSATquQ4AA957gbh-eX23o_VRmG7f7_xXhtSazsslE9Dx22lXSIwcbCH7/s1600-h/150_images_brudnesprawyimperialdvd.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBlhgtKd9830geX1gy0vNEquDsKjvNetRmuvx7uGwRl3XQAiY8VmbAokpFwK0AtHyw6H7Oq_pCryqSATquQ4AA957gbh-eX23o_VRmG7f7_xXhtSazsslE9Dx22lXSIwcbCH7/s400/150_images_brudnesprawyimperialdvd.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5131748764554229026" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Specialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17188762110003420043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-26833809151619824582007-10-26T07:46:00.000-07:002008-12-09T11:49:12.018-08:00The Ghost in the Machine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIOMLFrntI/AAAAAAAAAEc/IJ4o0_ahfec/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIOMLFrntI/AAAAAAAAAEc/IJ4o0_ahfec/s200/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125674928198885074" /></a><br />Gil: I woke up yesterday morning to discover that I had somehow become one of the top ghostwriters of the day. A dubious achievement, to be sure, but one I treasure even more because I am reading Robert Harris's new thriller, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Ghost</span>. Harris is pretty hilarious (and dead-on) about the Zelig-like transformations, jaundiced compromises and questionable blandishments that are the ghostwriter's lot. In this passage Harris's unnamed ghost apostrophizes to his computer: "We had endured rock stars who believed themselves messiahs with a mission to save the planet. We had survived footballers whose monosyllabic grunts would make a silverback gorilla sound as if he were reciting Shakespeare. We had put up with soon-to-be-forgotten actors who had egos the size of a Roman emperor’s, and entourages to match." <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIEk7FrnqI/AAAAAAAAAEE/wb2BMlp_8BU/s1600-h/51lInUIuWlL._AA240_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIEk7FrnqI/AAAAAAAAAEE/wb2BMlp_8BU/s200/51lInUIuWlL._AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125664358284369570" /></a> Well, Tiki Barber had a lot more to say than Harris's (racist) metaphor might convey, and the rock star I'm working with isn't messianic so much as endearingly diffident. The metaphor I always use is a lawyer, providing a voice in court to those who don't know how to speak legalese. As everyone has the right to legal representation, everyone should have the opportunity to tell their story to a ghost. A trippier view of the ghostwriter (more politely and euphemistically called a "collaborative writer") comes in Philip Roth's <span style="font-style:italic;">The Ghost Writer</span>, one of his best. Most recently, I helped Terri Irwin pen a memoir of her husband, Steve "The Croc Hunter" Irwin.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIDLLFrnnI/AAAAAAAAADs/-PWb-m7bPiw/s1600-h/21Vtpr40OIL._AA115_.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIDLLFrnnI/AAAAAAAAADs/-PWb-m7bPiw/s200/21Vtpr40OIL._AA115_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125662816391110258" /></a> In fall '07 Simon Spotlight Entertainment published <span style="font-style:italic;">Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond</span>, by Tiki Barber with Gil Reavill. That followed <span style="font-style:italic;">Ruthless: A Memoir</span>, by Jerry Heller with Gil Reavill. This all came in the wake of my original collaboration, the <span style="font-style:italic;">New York Times</span> best-selling <span style="font-style:italic;">Beyond All Reason: My Life with Susan Smith</span>, by David Smith with Carol Calef (written with my wife, and credited pseudonymously to our middle names).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIHz7FrnsI/AAAAAAAAAEU/6kVlS4X6VHs/s1600-h/21A0AVWFC2L._AA115_.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyIHz7FrnsI/AAAAAAAAAEU/6kVlS4X6VHs/s200/21A0AVWFC2L._AA115_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125667914517290690" /></a> The only common thread I can pick up in this quartet of authors is that they all wanted their stories told. My friends make fun of me for always becoming such an enthusiastic fan of my subjects. And the job of ghostwriting does require something of the Zelig sensibility. But I would want my lawyers to believe in my case thoroughly before they ever venture into court, especially if it was my life (or my biography) that was on the line.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-56569157108007123852007-10-25T08:05:00.000-07:002008-12-09T11:49:12.295-08:00Secret Handshake Grasps Aftermath<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyCygrFrnkI/AAAAAAAAADU/PDUigCQGz_Q/s1600-h/logo.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RyCygrFrnkI/AAAAAAAAADU/PDUigCQGz_Q/s320/logo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125292650339737154" /></a><br />Producer Dena Hysell and the folks at <a href="http://secrethandshake.com/aboutus.php">Secret Handshake Entertainment</a> are developing <span style="font-style:italic;">Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home</span> into a feature. Dena has successfully run multiple entertainment companies, inside the studio system and independently. She began her career at Gold Circle Films (<span style="font-style:italic;">My Big Fat Greek Wedding</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">White Noise</span>), and moved on to run Just Singer Entertainment. Most recently, she ran the feature side of Slate of Eight (principal Alan Jacobs; <span style="font-style:italic;">American Gun</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Nina Takes a Lover</span>), where she developed a dozen film projects in budget ranges from three million to eighty million dollars.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-69792246611049898992007-08-17T08:44:00.000-07:002007-10-25T08:57:40.918-07:00Praise for Aftermath, Inc.“A crime classic.”<br />Jason Kersten, author of <span style="font-style:italic;">Journal of the Dead</span><br /><br />“An interesting, quick-moving book that gives the reader a true glimpse into the world of murder and mayhem.”<br />Stephen McCaskill, <span style="font-style:italic;">CSB: Crime Scene Blog</span><br /><br />“Violence on steroids...a funny and oddly soothing guide to Aftermath, Inc., a company that cleans up the gore at crime scenes after the police have finished with them.”<br />Anne Stephenson, <span style="font-style:italic;">Arizona Republic</span><br /><br />“...Utterly absorbing and interesting. A unique look at investigations and what happens after. It proves that truth really is stranger than fiction... While I wouldn’t want to do what Reavill did, I sure was fascinated reading about it.”<br />Jon Jordan, <span style="font-style:italic;">Crime Spree magazine</span><br /><br />“...a fascinating read... Gil Reavill leaves no gory detail untold, no victim or clean-up technician unprofiled, and he does it all with a certain morbid flair."<br />Jessa Crispin, Bookslut<br /><br />“I enjoyed this book... Believe it or not, it occasionally made me laugh. If you’re curious-but-not-dainty, a true-crime fan, or if you believe that TV is a real representation of life, Aftermath, Inc. is a book you’ll be dying to read.”<br />Terri Schlichenmeyer, syndicated newspaper book review<br /><br />"When Aftermath concentrates on pure reporting, it is gold. Reavill is a self-deprecating narrator.... His descriptions stem from a sharp eye for the smallest detail...Reavill's reportage and curious nature allow for an emotional heft....When CSI goes home, much of the real work begins, and Reavill's ability to show just how far-reaching and important this work is makes Aftermath, Inc. a fascinating read."<br />Sarah Weinman, <span style="font-style:italic;">Philadelphia Enquirer</span><br /><br />“A deeply thoughtful and well-crafted meditation on the meaning of the messiness of life when it is viewed through the lens of the messiness of death...Reavill writes about crime scenes with a staggering depth of interest that outshines the rote formulaism of the contrived crime shows. Reavill’s passionate interest in literature, music, history, philosophy, biology—all things human—informs his approach to coping with the horrifying messes and tragedies he confronts throughout the book. Most importantly, Reavill is a deft storyteller... Highly recommended read, but not during lunch.”<br />D.A. Kolodenko, <span style="font-style:italic;">San Diego CityBeat</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-61492861615129541472007-04-08T09:41:00.000-07:002007-10-25T18:56:48.547-07:00Book Reading<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=190334&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA" height="300" width="400"> <param name="quality" value="best"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"> <param name="scale" value="showAll"> <param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=190334&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA"></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/190334/l:embed_190334">guy blows brain out while wife sleeps in alcoholic stupor...</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/gogofreaky/l:embed_190334">Aftermath Guy</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/l:embed_190334">Vimeo</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Specialisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17188762110003420043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-18402576144919882262007-02-19T20:01:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:14.212-08:00Rock Stars Of The Afterlife…<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQ3tmhVhpieI58P9wDqZoOkAEbJEnQZ8_j4pAJAioZs6ovCs50-7ypgrO-8oHwgy0_OsrfXXQo8KKUo1SdsM_vXck2ViR57gN0whZ6SALo8kjr-1cbovspCsKuUgKCmpjGA91/s1600-h/right.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQ3tmhVhpieI58P9wDqZoOkAEbJEnQZ8_j4pAJAioZs6ovCs50-7ypgrO-8oHwgy0_OsrfXXQo8KKUo1SdsM_vXck2ViR57gN0whZ6SALo8kjr-1cbovspCsKuUgKCmpjGA91/s200/right.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5033464294031478786" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxdO7m6pPapQWEO8atBRmFhjUi3TCxtjTsOHUN4LUd5HvKnUn0f4VSeeuY-zCRbmO2-2hy-jLABtInTt7do9_-XOLYMWxSTm1l1sZuzFyRjXSwY335Rnv0b8nk7LtEQYERTAu/s1600-h/left.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxdO7m6pPapQWEO8atBRmFhjUi3TCxtjTsOHUN4LUd5HvKnUn0f4VSeeuY-zCRbmO2-2hy-jLABtInTt7do9_-XOLYMWxSTm1l1sZuzFyRjXSwY335Rnv0b8nk7LtEQYERTAu/s200/left.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5033464285441544178" border="0" /></a>Eric: I had a big hand, a kind of slight of hand, with the <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span> DVD. Now in stores on 2/20.<br /><br />What I quite like about Christopher Nolan’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span>, is his vision, a foresight that includes all the creatives and talent who conspired to tell a story about a time and place not dissimilar to now, a world in turmoil, searching for bigger truths.<br /><br />I think the period culture in the movie is so rich texturally that it is almost an epic. The movie manages to depict a new era zeitgeist at the crossroads of a fin de siècle, an amorphous London full of conflicting desires born out of war and the spectacle of new sciences transforming the world; a sea change crashing in without the purview of Christianity.<br /><br />But, critics focused, mostly, on the lackluster of the story's big reveal “magic trick” in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span> compared to the “trick” in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Illusionist,</span> that are in both cases, cinematic slights of hand to the audience. Or, cinema pundits have merely zeroed in on how <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span>’s story is about obsession as it too was one theme in the book. I think Nolan really wanted to show that magicians of the day were the rock stars of the time—to achieve that, he could have shown more of the audience reaction and awe to the conjuror theatrics.<br /><br />Everyone interviewed for the making of documentary, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Featurette</span> as is it is more femininely called, had quite interesting things to say about their research for the movie. DVD documentaries being what they must be, meant that only so much of the deep and brainy ideas discussed in interviews could fit into the editorial without making a feature in itself. I tried to put in as many revelatory insights as I could.<br /><br />And, funny, I can’t remember all that went into the final cut of the DVD documentary of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prestige</span>, but here is a bit from Hugh Jackman, who so interestingly talked about background of the movie during the original interview on set: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEickYYdGxAOCHXAYJhywWapo2ueg9RTlo3Cc5CY6JSBn1qdFhYuKERvfuUCYGqJVbUTjX5IVFf4-YnnPmrgIhmjC7jeTANCn1GXz3hmjnIWhtiJQegVwI97elFDFprvgt3tNrJp/s1600-h/prestige_lights.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEickYYdGxAOCHXAYJhywWapo2ueg9RTlo3Cc5CY6JSBn1qdFhYuKERvfuUCYGqJVbUTjX5IVFf4-YnnPmrgIhmjC7jeTANCn1GXz3hmjnIWhtiJQegVwI97elFDFprvgt3tNrJp/s200/prestige_lights.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5033464294031478818" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hugh Jackman (Angier) :<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">“</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">There was, this era that was fascinating because you have to understand that in America at this time, spiritualism was a greater religion than Christianity. So there were more spiritualists than there were Christians. And leading up to and post WWI because so many people died, the obsession with contacting the afterlife, being in contact with séances so on, informed magicians acts and what made them seem incredible. If you remember with WWI; I mean it decimated the male population of most of these countries so many people were obsessed with being in contact with the other world, the afterlife and magicians seemed to offer that as a real possibility. And so many of the shows, not only did they have death defying feats, and things like chaining themselves up, and drowning themselves, and being under water and life threatening situations, there was a lot of ghosts coming to life, you saw a lot of that stuff on stage and magicians was where it started. It then translated to the theater. People used magicians, like <a href="http://www.thurstonmastermagician.com/" target="_blank">Thurston's stuff</a> , they used bits from his stage show to do Macbeth, the ghost of Macbeth. I think magicians back then are now the people who do special effects on movies. I mean, these guys were incredible engineers, their imaginations were incredible and they were given this impossible task and told let’s see if we can make it happen and you see that on a movie set almost every day.</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">”</span><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6f4a2l_w3Y"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6f4a2l_w3Y" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br />Well, seeing the DVD (all the extras on it) is like seeing and experiencing a different version of the movie; it sometimes is like seeing the movie and reading the book that the movie came from, hearing a radio show conversation about the movie and spying in on how things really happened to make the movie.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-88664393346133747212007-02-10T11:44:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:14.329-08:00Aftermath Ink<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rc4jnwLkdwI/AAAAAAAAABs/IeONd_kkwUg/s1600-h/Aftermath+cover.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rc4jnwLkdwI/AAAAAAAAABs/IeONd_kkwUg/s200/Aftermath+cover.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029996999674722050" /></a><br /><br />Reactions are coming in from the folks to whom Gotham Books sent galley proofs of Aftermath, Inc. Check it out:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Luc Sante, author of LOW LIFE</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Gil Reavill's Aftermath, Inc. is at once sprightly, grave, morbidly fascinating and conducive to contemplation. It is about the wide consequences of crime and it is also, vividly, about what people will do to earn a living.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Kathy Reichs, practicing forensic anthropologist, author of BREAK NO BONES, producer and creator of the Dr. Temperance Brennan character featured on the hit TV series "Bones"</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Stimulating and brainy, Aftermath, Inc. amounts to a thinking-person's guide to scenes that are either hidden from sight or slashed across news screens. A fascinating and entertaining book.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Kim Wozencraft, author of THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">The first suicide case I worked as a cop took place in a kitchen. There was blood everywhere, bits of skull and brain matter splattered on the walls. As we left the crime scene, I asked another officer if he knew who would clean up the mess. He said there were a couple of firemen in town who hired out for that kind of work when they were off-duty.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">By turns bizarre, gruesome, philosophical, and humorous, Aftermath, Inc. is a fascinating look at crime and death as seen from a most unusual angle. I couldn't put it down.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Linda Fairstein, former chief of the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and author of the Alexandra Cooper mysteries</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Aftermath gets into the underbelly of the beast that is violent crime and takes on a terrifying tour.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-79537566464256833362007-02-09T04:09:00.000-08:002007-02-10T12:04:11.141-08:00Hard Body<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/1600/216898/ForTheme7-2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/200/390608/ForTheme7-2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />We got these hella kool body-armor vests. We got ‘em off one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdSense"><span style="font-style: italic;">Google AdSense</span></a> links that kept pop’n right here on this blog. Why do we need body armor? We think wearing body armor is a good tactic for pitching our new two-hander about "ATF" agents (ATF is now ATFE – E for Explosives, only they didn't add the E to the official acronym because of budgeting since all the feddy $ goes to the Department of Homeland Security) So, back to the story. Our ATF agents (without the E) go up against some mad bombing skills in an onion-layered conspiracy. You shoulda seen the look in the eyes of the D-girl taking notes on the side of the room.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/1600/224575/pastedImage1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/200/303883/pastedImage1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/1600/843855/pastedImage0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/200/735721/pastedImage0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />So, if you wanta get yourself some ultimate pitch vests, go here: <a href="http://www.interamer.net/" target="_blank">INTERAMER</a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/1600/225977/pastedImage.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/200/172837/pastedImage.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-9393379498847506742007-02-08T14:28:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:14.609-08:00Writing Between Trees Produces Results<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyY0l-WJxGVRA-bicVdYwq2Ypft9zEDnXYgeslZ_0-NGR_MwQS5eILDb9uvj1Rh47TMe6Ujx_f0XB4ERPTDFsT3VdMa1-Z9mlW8kby2y8Wt0VXXJaOugeE8iSb_aRIQZFnIkb/s1600-h/MacDowell_bike_painting_2.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 243px; height: 311px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyY0l-WJxGVRA-bicVdYwq2Ypft9zEDnXYgeslZ_0-NGR_MwQS5eILDb9uvj1Rh47TMe6Ujx_f0XB4ERPTDFsT3VdMa1-Z9mlW8kby2y8Wt0VXXJaOugeE8iSb_aRIQZFnIkb/s320/MacDowell_bike_painting_2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029293562959482754" border="0" /></a><br />Eric was a recent fellow at the <a href="http://www.macdowellcolony.org/" target="_blank">MacDowell Colony</a> in the fall of 2006. During a splendid but all too short idyll amidst the whispering maples, birches and New Hampshire pines, he completed a new draft of his co-written (<span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">+Gil</span>) feature screenplay, <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Joshua Tree</span></span>, which he hopes to direct.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERUax8Kdnn_42YPh1APqOq4esEnPd7stY4_Wi9xyJ76jfF7wXjmqORMJnytrUd5Uo8-2PRSnW5KWgVohk9eQ9PeaqaafEpTS2qtBPA8OvO-Me94wDs6XNOTKKHhmXyKMEbAX2/s1600-h/skin_story.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhERUax8Kdnn_42YPh1APqOq4esEnPd7stY4_Wi9xyJ76jfF7wXjmqORMJnytrUd5Uo8-2PRSnW5KWgVohk9eQ9PeaqaafEpTS2qtBPA8OvO-Me94wDs6XNOTKKHhmXyKMEbAX2/s200/skin_story.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029298059790241698" border="0" /></a><br />Eric also developed and wrote several short film projects, that Gil and Eric went on to further rewrite through the fall of 2006. He is now producing one of these film shorts in 2007, entitled <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cupcake</span></span>, about an abducted child who escapes from their captor.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1170170235758013332007-01-30T07:14:00.000-08:002007-01-30T07:17:16.093-08:00New Favorite Quote<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/1600/175258/images.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/200/206563/images.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />It's not living alone if you keep a rifle under the bed.<br /> - Chuck Palahniuk<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1170168143606739712007-01-30T06:29:00.000-08:002007-01-30T06:42:24.253-08:00Aftermath, Inc. Excerpted<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/1600/909687/Maxim_Order_Sidbar-Covers.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/200/449631/Maxim_Order_Sidbar-Covers.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The excellent literary periodical Maxim just contracted to excerpt Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home in its May issue. Editor Jason Kersten (a brilliant writer in his own right, and author of The Journal of the Dead) called the book "a crime classic" and is putting together a crime-photo heavy lay-out. So everybody out there who insists they only look at Maxim for the photo spreads will have something to read.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1170103005110862722007-01-29T12:30:00.000-08:002007-02-08T20:44:19.945-08:00Mike S. Ryan on Misguided Liberals<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/1600/144601/4703.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/320/854262/4703.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Check out our pal Mike S. Ryan (Junebug, Palindromes, Forty Shades of Blue) on the perils of soft-headed, well-intentioned thinking in his post on Grace Is Gone, a new John Cusack film that premiered at Sundance.<br /><br />"Donald Rumsfeld and all pro-war Republicans will love the new John Cusack film, Grace is Gone. Others, some whom may be liberal, agree: it could be a crowd-pleaser able to reach beyond the indie ghetto. It was bought earlier this week for $4 million.<br /><br />"Rumsfeld will love how the film shows a family coping with the grief following the death of the family's soldier mom. There is no anger at the film's end; we are left feeling that this grief will be healed. The film offers a positive portrait of how a family can pull together in such sad circumstances.<br /><br />"Rumsfeld will love how the film's one dissenting, anti-war perspective is mouthed by a clichéd liberal couch potato. Alessandro Nivola plays a 31-year-old bearded lay about. We see him in mid-afternoon on his mother's couch, dozing off in front of cartoons. This liberal also has unfocused opinions, no ambition, and is really only concerned with eating. And being unable to pay for his own meal, living in his mothers home, he is seen as mooching off the system.<br /><br />"Rumsfeld and most Republicans will agree with Cusack's response to his older daughter's questions about the war. To question the value of the war would lead one to a scary place, "we'd be lost," he says. Better to stay the course and trust that the government has our best interests in mind.<br /><br />"Cusack may think that by showing grief and the pain of a soldier's loss, he's made an anti-war film. He couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, he may have inadvertently made a pro-war, pro-Bush film. I think all Republicans will endorse Grace Is Gone; it does not question the war's purpose, instead it focuses on how the country will get through this difficult period.<br /><br />"Assuming the filmmakers are liberal -- and don't intend to come off as supporters of Bush or the war -- how do we explain these sloppy aesthetics? The filmmakers have said they want to reach the biggest audience possible; they feel the subject of their film is nonpartisan. Truth is, though, there is nothing nonpartisan about the war: you either support it or feel that it was a tragic mistake, one that has resulted in countless innocent Iraqi and American deaths.<br /><br />"The 'nonpartisan' excuse is really just a cover-up for the fact that the goal of the film is to make as much money as possible. Profit drives its aesthetics, just like profit has driven this war. In this sense the film is the worst kind of exploitation film -- a film that profits off the unjust deaths of innocents is a heinous, odious thing. Like war profiteers Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and Bush, the filmmakers proceeded ahead without truly and fully thinking out their strategy and understanding the consequences of their choices. But as with Halliburton and Bechtel, their choices will very likely result in enormous profits for them and their clan.<br /><br />"Shame on all war profiteers. And please, let this be a warning to all liberally minded filmmakers: let's think out our choices carefully before proceeding with a war-themed film. We may end up doing more harm than good."<br /><br />Read all the comments on the <a href="http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2007/01/rumsfelds-favorite-in-dramatic.php#comments" target="_blank"><span style="font-style:italic;">Filmmaker Magazine</span></a> site to gauge what a tempest Mike stirred up.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1170085885885654272007-01-29T07:51:00.000-08:002007-02-08T20:49:02.528-08:00Murder of Crows on 2/02/2007<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tt8AmfeGxEI"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tt8AmfeGxEI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br />Even when you work on a movie doing only the BTS (behind the scenes) documentary coverage, it can be years before you see anything on screen, and I mean, any kind of screen, whether it be on the interweb or mobile phone screen.<br /> <br />So, alas, The Messengers, directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, is hitting theatre screens, finally; and all the BTS I (Eric) produced and directed on it is out there somewhere in the digital ether.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/1600/700200/bros.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1091/2290/320/462703/bros.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a> <br />Here are a few links to see my work for the movie: <a href="http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/themessengers/index.html" target="_blank">The Messengers Webisode "Pang Vision"</a></li><br />( go to the "video" section ) And... <a href="http://www.ghosthousepictures.com/" target="_blank">Ghost House site (Mr. Rami's horror production Co)"</a></li><br /><br />I directed 10 webisodes and 10 mobisodes (for G3 phones in Europe and Asia.) but because of the unknown vagaries of the movie industry only certain BTS webisodes are still around – one main reason is the webisodes gave away a lot of details about the story and effectively were spoilers, revealing too much about how scary the movie is. Also, they re-shot and changed the movie a whole bunch after I did webisodes on principal photography.<br /> <br />One thing I liked about checking these tag-team directors in action is, that besides pinch hitting for each other in the directing dept. (one brother one day and the other brother the next day in the director’s chair), these twin-bros directors would direct a scene, even a single beat, according to how they saw it edited in their head. So, on set, you’d invariably here Danny or Oxide yell “Cut,” right in the middle of an actor’s performance of a line because they knew they’d be on someone else’s face in the editorial; then, they'd move on to the next set-up on their shot list.<br /> <br />I knew about this directorial style as a way to save money in production from reading about Hong Kong films, but to see it in action really blew my mind. It blew the actor’s minds to say the least. I think it might be the first Hollywood film that was directed in this style.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1169909943544530692007-01-27T06:56:00.000-08:002007-01-27T07:14:22.573-08:00Still Our Favorite Review<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/1600/16872/evRvarietylogo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/200/960153/evRvarietylogo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Dirty<br />A Silver Nitrate Releasing release. Produced by David Hillary, Tim Peternel. Executive producer Ash Shah. Co-producer, Tierre Turner. Directed by Chris Fisher. Screenplay, Fisher, Gil Reavill, Eric Saks.<br /><br />Salim Adel - Cuba Gooding Jr. <br /> Armando Sancho - Clifton Collins Jr. <br /> Lieutenant - Cole Hauser <br /> Baine - Wyclef Jean <br /> Capt. Spain - Keith David <br /> Brax - Wood Harris <br /> Roland - Robert LaSardo <br /> Manny - Lobo Sebastian <br /> Taboo - Ramirez <br /> Splooge - Khleo Thomas <br /> Rita - Aimee Garcia <br /> (English, Spanish dialogue)<br /> <br /> By ROBERT KOEHLER<br />The cop genre receives a shot of adrenaline in helmer Chris Fisher's "Dirty," a no-nonsense dramatic response to the LAPD Rampart scandals of the '90s. Pairing a transformed Cuba Gooding Jr. and Fisher favorite Clifton Collins Jr. as morally compromised beat cops enduring a bad day on the streets is just the start of film's smart moves. By handing theatrical release reins (for spring opening) to exec producer Ash Shah's Silver Nitrate, Sony has missed an opportunity to earn serious coin with a pic that should have terrific crossover appeal among multicultural aud niches, though studio (which holds vid rights) will enjoy bang-bang ancillary returns.<br /><br />Though it was never conceived as the finale of a trilogy, Fisher's latest completes a rough and very raw cycle of Los Angeles crime movies, starting with true-life serial killer dramas "Nightstalker" and "Hillside Strangler." While he retains certain touches of shock and horror -- along with a decibel-busting soundtrack -- from earlier pics, Fisher takes huge strides forward in "Dirty," fashioning a complex morality drama that overshadows films with similar themes from "Training Day" and "Crash" to "Dark Blue."<br /><br /> Collins' Officer Sancho narrates, in classic Los Angeles cop fiction style, the story of his dangerous transformation from gangbanger to cop. But on a sunny, yet grimy, day (brilliantly and seamlessly lensed in smog-stained color by Eliot Rockett and Danny Minnick), Sancho is on the brink of coming clean with LAPD's Internal Affairs department about his involvement in drug-related corruption in his division, led by Capt. Spain (Keith David).<br /><br />Sancho's partner Adel (Gooding), so thoroughly corrupt that his upside-down nametag is a symbol of his rottenness, has no idea that Sancho is talking to IA cops, who are also investigating Sancho for accidentally killing a bystander during a shootout.<br /><br /> Spain, along with his nefarious Lieutenant (Cole Hauser), view the gang-infested streets as a war zone where any tactic is suitable, even if it includes ordering Sancho and Adel to remove a 13-kilo bag of heroin from an evidence room to frame Canadians horning in on the business of drug kingpin Baine (Wyclef Jean). Sancho rightly views the assignment as rife with traps, but he can't control Adel's urges to harass and abuse civilians, from white out-of-towners to Venice homies.<br /><br />For a movie that stays true to its low-budget roots as a decidedly prol genre work, "Dirty" draws a vast panorama of Los Angeles street life and the similar hierarchies that rule black and Mexican gangs as well as the LAPD. There's always some higher authority to answer to, just as there's always another hidden agenda designed to bushwhack the unsuspecting foot soldiers, whether or not they wear a badge. It's this parallel of criminal and law enforcement elements, along with its pointed portrait of non-Anglo cop partners on quite different moral paths, that distinguishes pic from other recent genre works.<br /><br /> Just as a certain fate seemed to hang over the serial killers in his previous thrillers, a dark cloud looms over Fisher's cops here. This inevitability unfolds with genuinely tragic power, not only because of Fisher's confidence in his material but also because of Gooding and Collins' lusty embrace of their roles.<br /><br />Collins adds to his fascinating gallery of portraits of bad men -- or, in this case, extremely flawed men -- internally tortured by their actions, but Gooding is a revelation. His Adel is a nasty and self-hating cop who has been so undone by what he's witnessed on the beat. It's just the tonic for an actor who has drifted into too many goody-goody roles since "Jerry Maguire."<br /><br />Supporting cast is studded with extremely vivid perfs, including the always magnetic David in his best role in years, Jean in colorful overdrive (and speaking a Jamaican patois that's subtitled) and Robert LaSardo dominating a finale sequence rife with unbearable tension.<br /><br />Pic looks and sounds fabulous, with Fisher showing off his love of soundtracks layered with noise, quiet and bone-rattling music. Los Angeles is a major star in the film, and with no iconic or familiar sights on view, it's framed as only a local is able to. <br /> <br /> Camera (color, Super 16mm-to-35mm), Eliot Rockett, Danny Minnick; editor, Tracey Wadmore-Smith; music, Peter Lopez; music supervisor, Greg Danylyshyn; production designer, Anthony Rivero Stabley; art director, Chris Davis; costume designer, Johnny Wujek; makeup effects designer, Robert Hall; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Jim Dehr; sound designer, John Marquis; supervising sound editor, Marquis; special effects supervisor, Chris Bailey; visual effects, Digital Domain; supervising stunt coordinator, Dain Turner; police technical adviser, Chris Craig; line producer, Richard Middleton; assistant director, David Cluck; casting, Shannon Makhanian. Reviewed at AFI Los Angeles Festival, Nov. 10, 2005. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 97 MIN.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1169908761384875692007-01-27T05:36:00.000-08:002007-02-26T19:19:50.441-08:00Curtain of Pink Death<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/1600/398002/curtain1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1896/2290/400/263058/curtain1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />"Hey, what's up with that curtain thing?" asked a fellow human being about our signature image on emails and posts. Curtain of Pink Death Productions is an umbrella d/b/a for our movie and screenplay work. And "curtain of pink death" was the sobriquet that referred to the nether parts of a mutual girlfriend of ours. But the image itself Eric found on the web, provenance unknown. Or maybe it appeared to him in a dream. Meditate on it long enough, and you will find yourself eternally marooned in a hallucinatory bardo in which mimicry passes for life. <br />A view of a generic biege-pink brick-shuttered McMansion seen through a window on a lightly stained recently curbed concrete street, with a curving sidewalk nobody ever walks on leading across a threadbare, newly re-landscaped lawn. The naked shivering tree, a brutalist marker for housing development existentialism. The pot of flowers, a lone bit of color, to the left of the front door, looking as though it were dropped off there by a realtor lady working on half commission. Blank-faced double-garage doors, hiding either a meth lab or a collection of never-ridden bicycles, des vélos de ville solides, conçus pour la rue.<br />And then, on this side of the belvedere, the curtain itself, draped and tied in a uterine way, suspended from a faux-brass rod from Home Depot, occluding washed-out, insipid, afternoon light from the biege-painted drywall of an unseen room. "What cannot be said," wrote Jim Harrison in his notebook, "will get wept."<br />In the bottom left corner, a digital date stamp in red: 2006 4 27. Of no significance, unless you remember April 27 was the day Kepler fixed upon as the date for the creation of the universe, in 4977 B.C., which would be 6,983 years before this snap was shot. Could the precise timing of the curtain of pink death photograph indicate the re-birth of the universe into a new, all-biege, all-homeostatic reality? Or was the date stamp merely an ironic comment on the detached, still-born suburban meringue in which our countrymen's lives have become irretrievably clotted? You decide.<br />To come: the CGI animated version of the image, with the curtain billowing in a hand-of-God wind, courtesy of Eric Saks.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1169792695358348882007-01-25T22:16:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:15.159-08:00Old Poem<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rcyi1QLkdsI/AAAAAAAAAA8/DqgrSInHyQU/s1600-h/images-2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rcyi1QLkdsI/AAAAAAAAAA8/DqgrSInHyQU/s400/images-2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029573919626262210" /></a><br />Gil: I turned this up sifting through old papers recently. I wrote it in college, at the University of Colorado. My writing teacher at the time, the poet and playwright Sidney Goldfarb, said this poem would "be remembered when someone like Robert Creeley is long forgotten." He was wrong, but it was quite a generous thing for him to say. I don't know what he had against Creeley. Pagoda Mountain is in Rocky Mountain National Park, above Boulder. It's in the middle of the photo above right.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">THE WINDS AROUND THE PEAK OF PAGODA MOUNTAIN</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Down from the peak of Pagoda Mountain, winds blow</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Clouds the color of honey across the rough face.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">We've come to Sandbeach Lake to spend the night,</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">And sprawl on the sand, laughing loud drunk</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Or fiercely preserving the silence. Four or five</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Rainbows idle in the shallows, a mongrel cries</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">In the jackpines by the shore. We count stars</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">As they come out, one, two, suddenly</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">We hallucinate thousands, blinking</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">And slipping out from under our count</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Like trout. We drink more wine, forget</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">About the sky, never notice when the winds</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Around the peak of Pagoda Mountain</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Blow loose the stars into darkness.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RcyjjgLkdtI/AAAAAAAAABI/p2IUcNS9Ps0/s1600-h/goldfarb.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/RcyjjgLkdtI/AAAAAAAAABI/p2IUcNS9Ps0/s320/goldfarb.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029574714195211986" /></a><br />The roly-poly <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/English/faculty/facpages/goldfarb.shtml">Goldfarb</a> and I had a somewhat tortured history subsequently. He took off for Europe on a summer sabattical in 1979, and had me house-sit his cabin in the canyons above Boulder, near a small hippy hamlet called Wall Street. Sidney had already left when I moved in, and the first thing I noticed was that his stereo and all his record albums had vanished. A bad omen at the beginning of my stewardship, but I sort of fecklessly considered that perhaps Sidney had taken his tunes with him to Europe (or Yurrup, as Pound used to spell it). I spent an idyllic time at his cabin. We had a lot of wine-stained dinners and created a sweat lodge in the mouth of an old mine-shaft just up the draw from the cabin. Things might have gotten away from me. When the estimable Professor Goldfarb returned from estivating abroad, he was dismayed to discover that the front door to his cabin was wide open with no one at home. An oversight on my part. He discovered his albums missing, and other irregularities: a few colorful woolen blankets he had purchased in Mexico were now stained with black charcoal, a consequence, I fear, of our sweat lodge adventures. Goldfarb cooled to me. In fact he never spoke to me again, and gave me the stink-eye whenever we passed each other on campus. A friend of mine, whom he picked up hitchhiking, made the mistake of telling him that she knew me. He pulled over to the side of the road and made her get out of his car.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rcz0igLkduI/AAAAAAAAABU/3U8_KwwT2cQ/s1600-h/images-3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Atv0aWPHGPg/Rcz0igLkduI/AAAAAAAAABU/3U8_KwwT2cQ/s400/images-3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029663757457192674" /></a><br />That "mongrel" in line six has a story behind it. A group of friends, Paul Rogers among them, did indeed head for Sandbeach Lake one weekend to ingest hashish and forget how to count. Paul brought his dog Oliver along. Strictly forbidden to have dogs within the confines of the park, of course, a Federal rap, in fact, if you're caught. So on the way up we concoct a story, agreeing on a false address in case we were stopped. We enjoy a glorious night at Sandbeach Lake, and Oliver howled at the coyotes in the Ponderosa pines ("jackpines" scanned better, even though there is none in the park). On our way down the trail the next morning, sure enough, we encountered a park ranger. He busted us on the dog. Summoned each one of us away from the others down the trail twenty yards, giving us the fifth degree to see if our stories matched. They did, fake address and all, except I forgot the agreed-upon house number. Oops. Smokey wrote us all summonses and let us go, after verbally ripping into us with righteous naturalist anger.<div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1140314115640831942006-02-18T17:54:00.000-08:002006-02-19T17:07:32.206-08:00DIRTY = Rampart = C.R.A.S.H = Hansel and GretelNotes from the co-writers of Dirty, directed by Chris Fisher<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/dirty_poster1%20copy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/320/dirty_poster1%20copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />November 2005.<br />GIL: Do you remember our first spit-ball sessions on Dirty? You always told me that in the land of the LAPD there are one million stories to tell.<br /><br />ERIC: I had dug into news reports about police corruption, and fixated on an LAPD officer named Rafael Perez, who in 1999 threatened to tell all one million of those stories.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/perez.0.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/perez.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />GIL: I couldn’t believe it – here was a cop who had stolen SIX POUNDS of cocaine from a police evidence locker. So Perez gets immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying about a sweeping pattern of misconduct by “dirty” cops.<br /><br />ERIC: Perez’s tales threatened to overturn thousands of LAPD conviction cases, costing the city of Los Angeles millions. Perez also pointed fingers at about seventy fellow CRASH officers during his grandstand days in court.<br /><br />ERIC: So then…<br /><br />GIL: …Chris Fisher comes into the picture.<br /><br />ERIC: I knew Chris through my friend Elliott Rocket, the cinematographer on Dirty. Fish is a director who made some very interesting films about crime, one of which made Sundance.<br /><br />GIL: Fish asked us to come up with a story about the LAPD CRASH unit shenanigans after reading my Rampart scandal article from Maxim magazine about Rafael Perez. <br /><br />ERIC: CRASH, that stands for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/you_run.2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/320/you_run.1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />GIL: I love police acronyms!<br /><br />ERIC: Fish’s mandate for Dirty was to have us deal with how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Within an all-powerful organization such as the LAPD, the ones who get punked the most are its own foot soldiers, the guys on the street.<br /><br />GIL: We thought the title “Dirty” would be perfect for a film about corrupt cops.<br /><br />ERIC: In the movie, fictional cops Armando Sancho and Salim Adel are undercover warriors sent on a fool’s errand. They get punked, but they achieve some measure of redemption, too.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/hansel_gretel.0.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/hansel_gretel.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />GIL: Do you remember who brought Hansel and Gretel into play? Was it you?<br /><br />ERIC: It was Chris.<br /><br />GIL: We thought he was off his rocker! But it proved exactly right. First off, I fucking hate seeing people say Dirty’s just like Training Day. Because Dirty is way deeper than an errand boy-cop-buddy punks newbie-buddy-cop. The plot we hatched is more Machiavellian.<br /><br />ERIC: Chris Fisher told us to think of it as a Hansel and Gretel story. There is direct allusion to H&G in the first few minutes of the movie as Adel’s kids watch an animated Hansel and Gretel cartoon. <br /><br />GIL: The L.A. powers-that-be send these two lost children out into the dark woods of the city, hoping that they would just get gobbled up.<br /><br />ERIC: We decided to take the Hansel and Gretel model back beyond the sanitized middle-class 19th-century versions to the medieval core of the fairy tale. In the Middle Ages it was a common practice to commit infanticide because of the constant shortages of food. Brother and sister, Hansel and Gretel, are left in the woods to die because the parents can’t feed ‘em.<br /><br />GIL: Our early drafts of Dirty were way more dark than what the story is now. Remember the exploding microwave?<br /><br />ERIC: And how Rita put her lipstick on the bullets she intended for Adele?<br /><br />GIL: The cops in Dirty are dirty, but they are most definitely NOT rogue cops, because they have the full endorsement of command, a top-down license to manufacture “crime reduction” at any cost. Get the public approval ratings and make the front-man mayor look good.<br /><br />ERIC: I always loved the character of a gangbanger with an attack of conscience.<br /><br />GIL: Or a dirty cop with an attack of conscience. Sancho is both!<br /><br />ERIC: What happened was that Fish took our script, stripped it down, added his magic to it, and then cast some of the greatest actors in movies to give it life, improve it, improvise around it. But what you see up on the screen…<br /><br />GIL: That’s our movie, right?<br /><br />ERIC: Right.<br /><br />FROM GIL AND ERIC: To Cuba Gooding, Clifton Collins, David Keith, Cole Hauser, Aimee Garcia, Wyclef Jean, Taboo and all the cast members, to Chris Fisher, Elliot Rockett, Ash Shah, Tim Petrenel and everyone else involved, you are incredible, and you made an incredible film.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/today3x5.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/today3x5.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1140297459940167922006-02-18T13:15:00.000-08:002007-02-08T20:50:46.370-08:00LAPD Badge Deconstructed<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/lapd%20badge.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/320/lapd%20badge.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> 1 -- BADGE COMPOSITION: 10 PERCENT KRYPTONITE<br /> 2 -- 20 YEARS "ON THE JOB" RETIRE WITH FULL PENSION<br /> 3 -- MASONIC SUNBURST LINKED TO TEMPLAR CONSPIRACIES<br /> 4 -- ABU GHARIB PRISON (LOCAL BRANCH)<br /> 5 -- PROTECT (OUR OWN ASSES) AND SERVE (UP ASS WHUPPINGS)<br /> 6 -- STATE-SPONSORED INSTITUIONALIZED TERRORIST UNIT<br /> 7 -- FASCES -- MUSSOLINI'S FAVORITE SYMBOL<br /> 8 -- BADGE NUMBER (OFTEN OBSCURED WITH ELECTRICIAN'S TAPE)<br /></div><br />(Jan 2006.) Our courtroom sketch artist connection fed us this...<br />And, as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Adele </span>says in Dirty, <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">"Number one, motherfuckging rule is that you run, you get a beat down."</span><br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/lapd%20badge3.jpg"><br /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1140226273280678762006-02-17T17:30:00.000-08:002006-02-17T17:31:13.283-08:00Skyhead in "Wildfire" film<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/red.0.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/red.0.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/green.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/green.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/SKYHEAD-LEMON.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/200/SKYHEAD-LEMON.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />November 2005. Yes, the rumors are true. Eric continues to shoot bit by bit, his H5N1 Avian Flu saga, his film "Wildfire" with his monster muse "Skyhead."<br /><br />STORY SYNOPSIS: "Wildfire"<br />In an apocalyptic world plagued by a lethal airborne virus, two men battle each other to win the attention of a woman – Only one will survive.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/1600/bog_saks_small.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1091/2290/320/bog_saks_small.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22511619.post-1140213828275697392006-02-17T14:02:00.000-08:002008-12-09T11:49:15.313-08:00Ruthless Book Proj.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7ViDA2IfwKhQLvwh3UlFda67_80b86N6b_xvYQpOBiZegyiw1WWcAKIuCGzwNyc4F1F-2tMGWLkWcH2QVhQ-6vpG8TanIXnvqYHGpP7LlExIrVrda4nml6czzEUb2_WNCgfi/s1600-h/BC_1416917926.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7ViDA2IfwKhQLvwh3UlFda67_80b86N6b_xvYQpOBiZegyiw1WWcAKIuCGzwNyc4F1F-2tMGWLkWcH2QVhQ-6vpG8TanIXnvqYHGpP7LlExIrVrda4nml6czzEUb2_WNCgfi/s320/BC_1416917926.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5029354925157240754" border="0" /></a><br />10/10/05. Reavill: In time for my birthday, the long-aborning<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=23&pid=520208">JERRY HELLER MEMOIR PROJECT </a><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>finally got sold to Simon & Schuster’s Spotlight Entertainment imprint. This’ll be a ass-kicking project that will set the hip-hop world on its collective ear.<br /><br />Check out the flap copy:<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> “PAYBACK’S A BITCH, JERRY.”</span><br /><br />The words scrawled crudely across Jerry Heller’s bedroom mirror that afternoon meant the rap wars had suddenly escalated. In the battle of his life over the ragingly successful music label he helped found, Ruthless Records, Heller had seen death threats, extortion, strong-arming, and beatings. Now the violence had come home when his enemies burglarized his house, jacked his Corvette, and left behind this sneering piece of graffito.<br /><br />Heller didn’t get mad, he got even. Ruthless tells the explosive story of Jerry Heller’s alliance with Eric Wright, a.k.a. “Eazy-E,” one of the legends of rap music and a founding member of “the world’s most dangerous band,” N.W.A. As a long-time music industry super-agent, Heller had the skill and insight necessary to guide N.W.A.’s comet-like rise to the top of the charts. Along the way there were raucous nationwide tours, out-of-control MTV pool parties, and X-rated business meetings. Heller held on through the brutal shocks and reversals of the Ruthless Records era, which saw the label being targeted by the F.B.I. and its principal artists locked in back-stabbing and betrayal, until a final turnaround placed Ruthless at the top of the heap once more. Always in the middle of the whirlwind were Jerry and Eazy, an odd-couple pairing that represents one of deepest and most appealing stories in American music.<br /><br />You don’t have to be an N.W.A. fan to love Ruthless. Heller turns the music industry inside out, exposing its strange logic and larger-than-life personalities. Ruthless provides keen insight into the popular music scene, with an unforgettable portrait of its rollicking excesses, life-churning drama, and multi-million-dollar highs.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-style: italic;">RUTHLESS A Memoir</span><br />The Explosive Tell-All Memoir of a Maverick Music Mogul with an Ear for Talent and a Talent for Controversy<br />by Jerry Heller with Gil Reavill<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">BACK FLAP COPY:</span><br />Across five tumultuous decades, Jerry Heller has helped shape American popular music, breaking new talent, developing new trends, and forging an industry-wide reputation as “the guy who gets there first.” He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a “super-agent,” ranking with such legendary names as David Geffen and Freddie Fields, importing Elton John and Pink Floyd for their first major American tours, representing Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Boz Scaggs, The Grass Roots, Guess Who, Marvin Gaye, Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison, War, Average White Band and Crosby-Nash.<br /><br />In the mid-80s, Heller was the moving force and marketing genius behind the world-wide emergence of West Coast rap music. He not only founded Ruthless Records with the late Eazy-E, but discovered or managed N.W.A., Egyptian Lover, World Class Wreckin’ Cru, L.A. Dream Team, Black-Eyed Peas, J.J. Fad, Above the Law, Rodney O and Joe Cooley, the D.O.C. and Bone Thugs 'N Harmony. Dollar for dollar the most successful music executive of the rap era, Jerry Heller continues to work and prosper in a changing music business. He lives in Calabasas, California with his wife Gayle, sister-in-law Vicki, and their four dogs, three cats, and a parrot.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=23&pid=520208&agid=2" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">READ AN EXCERPT HERE: X</span></a><br /><h3>Product Details </h3> Simon Spotlight Entertainment, September 2006<br />Hardcover, 336 pages<br />ISBN-10:<span class="jajahWraper"><a class="jajahLink" title="Click to call this number with JAJAH..." jajahtargetnumber="" href="javascript:void(0)"><span class="jajahInLink"></span></a></span><br />ISBN-13:<span class="jajahWraper"><a class="jajahLink" title="Click to call this number with JAJAH..." jajahtargetnumber="" href="javascript:void(0)"><span class="jajahInLink"></span></a></span><br /> <!-- /content --><div class="blogger-post-footer">new word-mentals and factoids from G. Reavill & E. Saks</div>Freckle Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12029913804749010611noreply@blogger.com