Kelly Thomas Update

 After seeing this horrible video, I stand by everything I said on NPR.

 I said "The police were the truly mentally ill ones," i.e. they attacked and killed an unarmed man.

I honestly believe that every single one of these cops involved are all extremely disturbed sociopaths.  

Each cop deserves life in prison without the possibility of parole.

I have nothing else to say. In other words, I'm utterly speechless.

RIP MCA

More silly original iPad art.....

The LA Times & NPR

I’d like to thank everyone for reading my Op-Ed in the LA Times and for tuning in to me on NPR.

In case you missed either of them:

NPR: Click here: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/02/149857042/a-patients-perspective-police-and-the-mentally-ill

LA TIMES: look here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-valone-police-and-mental-illness-and-kelly-t-20120311,0,7465544.story

I’d just like to clear up a few things:

1.I don’t write things in hopes of getting a pat on the back nor do I expect sympathy-more so I expect empathy. There is a big difference, and the empathy I expect to go for all of “us.”

2. After being called “Fantastic,” "Inspiring" and then being called “Lunatic” or “Insane” by complete strangers I am more apt to say this is the first and last time I will ever read my “online critics.” In other words, whether they be negative or positive feedback, I actually get my validation from my own self worth. (Although I do appreciate the positive support!) And now I really do understand why Woody Allen never bothers with critics. As critics are just that: negative critical people who probably would rather not be critics, usually with some sort of agenda attached to a number of their own personal issues. I can only imagine how lousy it must be to be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-I’d imagine they don’t even have a modem at home let alone any form of magazine subscriptions. Art is often subjective and some art works for some and some art works for others.

3. I don’t consider myself a “mentally ill” writer. I will give you that it is a topic in some of my creative non-fiction writing but I also write fiction, screenplays, and even stage plays. I also paint and am fond of existential writers, philosophers, and the Muppets-I have to mention the Muppets. Let me ask you, was Basquiat a black painter or a painter?

4. Yes, I am re-editing my memoir about my days of what most would call “being mentally ill.” It’s taken a while, but I think I have it under control.

5. I don’t let my past, present, or future define me as a writer. Nor do I let my race, gender, or sexual orientation define me as an author. To live inside other minds, hearts, and lives is the job of writer, not just to re-live one’s own experiences.

6. Thank you for reading my rant, which isn’t particularly directed at anyone at all, but more so just some things I wanted get off my chest that would not fit nor work as a tweet.

Here is Happy in the snow. Have a great week.

The Trees of Los Angeles

Here's the rough cut of a photo essay I've been working on. All shot with toy film cameras i.e. Holga cameras. It was lots of fun and that's what counts.



Sorry I don't really update this blog anymore. I have been super busy. My twitter is the best way to catch me these days.....

A dead Christmas tree is still a dead tree.

It's rather funny what we do to the world. Not funny haha but funny ironic. A few weeks ago there was a terrible wind storm. As a result nearly million people were without power and thousands of amazing, old and dare I say wise trees fell to their untimely deaths.

All we could was say, "It's such a shame so many dead trees."

(Griffith Park 12/11)

Now a few weeks later in places like NYC, Washington DC and my home of LA we kill trees on purpose. We kill the same amazing, old and dare I say wise, defenseless trees all in the name of holiday decorating? Pine trees taller than 75 feet and nearly 100 years old, killed just because.

(NYC 12/11)

In this case we are the real shame; this species we call human beings. I may sound harsh but killing so many trees when one doesn't have to out of need or necessity is harsh and it is cruel.

Consider an alternative to killing a tree. Consider something new, something alive that can be replanted or consider dedicating a tree with these guys instead:

Tree People

Occupy the World

Take Shelter

Go see Take Shelter if you can. Michael Shannon again is quite brilliant.

The film and script are a great examples of how just a simple idea can be ten times more scary than any CGI monster-shark-or masked killer.

The real fear is that we all are the bad things we see in the the world.  And that's all I can say-I'd hate to give away anything from this one.

(Excuse my short rant here-at the moment I kind of feel sick.)

My future.

Lessons from the Twilight Zone....

 I often hear the phrase, "there is no such thing as an original story," and most of the time it is a correct statement.   Over the 4th of July I was watching the Twilight Zone marathon on the Syfy Channel. 

TWENTY TWO: 

I was watching this one particular Zone episode called "Twenty Two" from the year 1961,  written by Rod Sterling which was derived from the other following stories:

(Wikipedia except)

The episode "Twenty Two" is an episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone. The story was adapted by Rod Serling from a short anecdote in the 1944 Bennett Cerf Random House anthology, Famous Ghost Stories,^[1]which itself was an adaptation of "The Bus-Conductor," a short story by E. F. Benson published in The Pall Mall Magazinein 1906.

 

(The trailer for "Twenty Two")

The episode stars a Barbara Nichols, who was considered a minor rival to likes of Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield and a number of rather sexy ladies from that era. She keeps having a dream over and over again which causes her to have an extended stay at the local mental hospital. The dream is the same sequence over and over again which is the most un-nerving thing for her.  The dream's sequence is a combo of the following imagery: a ticking clock, a falling cup of water, seeing the number 22, and then the phrase "room for one more".  The episode then ends when Barbra is at the airport, she breaks a cup, notices a clock and then finally notices her plane is flight number 22. She goes a bit mad after a flight attendant says "Room for one more",  refusing to step on the plane and then the plane blows up. 

FINAL DESTINATION: 

Now we fast forward to the following movie "Final Destination" from the year 2000 directed by James Wong and written by Wong, Glen Morgan, and Jeffery Reddick. Now most would argue that this was a very successful and original film that started an even more successful franchise of movies. 

In the following trailer we see actor Devon Sawa, having the same dream again and again. It also has a very similar sequence: seeing the number 180, a series of missteps and conversations by his friends and then gets in fight after going a bit mad convinced the plane will blow up. He gets ejected from the plane and it blows up. 

 

(The trailer for "Final Destination") 

Now is it possible that the Final Destination movie franchise made in 2000 which will probably keep being made until 2012 was originally conceived in the year 1906, then re-imagined in 1944 and then re-imagined again in 1961?  Yes, it is. As I said there is no such thing as an original story and the truth is, only the details of any story make it more original or better yet just more different than it's predecessor.  

I am not calling James Wong un-original obviously he went much farther than the original storyline in the Twilight zone. Also nor am I saying Sterling who took his idea from the original story from 1906 was un-original either. But I am saying when you write, be original.  Don't repeat the same exact story details and replicate them to a tee-otherwise it all just winds up looking derivative unless that's your intention.  And if that is your intention, always give credit for where the original story came from. 

Let's face it, all art is derivative from other art, the sooner you realize this the better off you'll be.

And in closing, I think I speak for all of us when I say we have had enough of re-makes, sequels and flacid story-lines. There was a big reason why Alfred Hitchcock never made one sequel, they usually suck. 

Tree of Life

To get deeper about Tree of Life, it’s like this; I do believe some films can be criticized as good or bad but Tree is neither of the categories. Obviously there is such a thing as great film, and bad film. Then there are films like: Tree of Life, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2001, Donnie Darko, Butiful, The Shining, Lost Highway, Talk to Her, 8 and ½, Match Point and so on.


Tree like these other films is much more like a painting than a film. Some art just has to exist and you either accept it or deny it. And you know that it is something beyond beauty, limits, words, and or one particular feeling. The art becomes a moving breathing poem that has no real language to call its own. I don’t think one particular critic needs to make any comment on Tree of Life. To me it was like staring at one of my favorite paintings made by one of my many favorite painters for a good two and a half hours.

If I told you how that painting really made me feel or what it meant to me personally it wouldn’t make any sense to you. It’s more a personal interpretation of art. I also think the world expects way too much from most all directors of film, television and or art in general. No owes any one of you an explanation about anything. In the big picture, the original intention of any art is to mean something different to all of us.

I assure you, I don’t love the same things you love, and nor do I hate the same things you hate.

Otherwise, it would be a tired, boring world we live in now wouldn’t it?

Xo