Oddments

The Zen Noir DVD

It will be released on November 14th. The best place to purchase it, for the time being, is from our very own website, here. (There won't be an actual "click here to purchase" link till the 14th, but the link above should at least get you in the neighborhood.)

The commentary tracks are a lot of fun--particularly Marc's conversation with Brad Warner, author of Hardcore Zen, about the Buddhist principles underlying the film. I'm not a Buddhist but, as you might guess, I've learned a lot about it from working on the movie, and the part about Buddhism that I find the most attractive is exactly what Brad talks about in his book: the imperative for every Buddhist to question authority, to accept nothing as writ. As a punk-rocker (and not a "former" punk-rocker, either), Brad's discussion with Marc is definitely not polite and New Age-y, it's irreverent and a little blasphemous and a hell of a lot of fun. We could have loaded up the DVD with deleted scenes and whatnot, but for my money, this particular commentary track is alone worth the price of admission.

Don't Forget to Vote

I am just about the biggest believer in voting you will ever find. For one thing, I keenly appreciate the part of citizenship that most people like to ignore: the responsibilities incumbent upon every citizen. It's why I'm such a fan of jury duty, for instance: we get plenty of benefits from being American citizens, and aside from paying taxes we rarely get asked to give anything back. But voting is the number one, tip-top item on that list, and I never miss a chance.

Besides--if you don't vote, you give up any right to complain about the government. Simple as that.

Am I excited about Democratic prospects? Not quite. For one thing, rampant gerrymandering has me worried (I really wish that last year's attempt to revamp California's redistricting process had passed); and the possibility of election fraud has me worried as well. Besides, even if Democrats do regain control of one or both houses of Congress, then they have to actually govern--and given how rotten things are at the moment, there are so many gigantic problems to fix that it may be too late for anyone to do any good. Thus allowing Republicans, in two years, to claim that Democrats didn't do any better than they did, thus allowing people to go back to voting for the Republicans who screwed things up in the first place.

Sadly, perception is everything in an election, and recent reports that Republicans are making a last-minute surge in the polls suggest they might actually be able to pull themselves out of the fire. Because if people start to think the Republicans will win again, then the Republicans will probably win again. Here's an example of why:

Back in the 1980 election (Reagan/Carter), there was a significant third-party challenge from Illinois Congressman John Anderson. I was still too young to vote, but my mother was an Anderson supporter. On voting day, she found herself in line with the usual assortment of fellow neighbors, and they got to talking. People asked Mom who she was going to vote for and she said Anderson. "Oh, I like him," they almost all said.

So Mom naturally asked, "And are you voting for him?"

"Oh, no, no."

"But if you like him, why don't you--"

"Because he's not going to win."

So there you are. If it looks the Republicans might win, they will probably win. No one wants to "waste" a vote by voting for a loser, because apparently being part of the winning team is more important than actually making sure your team wins.

Yes, a Very Nice Weekend, How 'Bout You?

It's freakishly warm for November, but surely that's just an anomaly and not part of, let's say, global warming. In any event, it made for a nice weekend, even if I did have to spend almost all of Saturday going over accounting issues for the upcoming DVD release (got to know the right way to count our money!) and a good part of Sunday indoors yet again, working in Final Cut to put together what will eventually a director's reel for Marc. (We will send it out with copies of our next script, for maximum impact.)

But even with all of that, there was more time this weekend for catching up on movies, and even for some reading, than there has been in quite a while, and I'm awfully grateful for it.

And you?