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Listen to my podcast about Star Wars Episode III here.

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Hat tip to Fark.

In a few hours, I will be sitting down to the familiar screen crawl and opening credits of the new mythology of mankind.

It will also most likely be the last George Lucas Executive Produced Star Wars movie. However, don't count that as truth on your tally sheet yet. I have a feeling that something even more profound and special will be coming out of Lucasfilm in the next ten years (especially if I have anything to do with it--wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

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Hat tip to Fark.

I actually purchased a National Enquirer today. I bought it because my electronic communicating compadre Shane Nickerson (a television actor and producer best recognized in the Friends episode where Rachel tells Ross that she is pregnant--Shane is the guy in the married couple who keeps getting all the free stuff on their Honeymoon while Chandler and Monica get bupkus).

About a week ago, Shane broke a story on his blog that a reporter came to his door with photos of him with Cameron Diaz and that they would be playing up an affair story.

Now, I have communicated with Shane via e-mail twice and we've linked to each other's blog another few times. I subscribe to his blog's RSS feed so that when he posts a new blog entry, it gets downloaded to my news aggregator (which, thank God, integrates with Outlook 2003) and I've got a dose of what Shane's life is like in Hollywood. I have to admit that sometimes I'm envious of the weather (sans mudslides and earthquakes) and the famous people he gets to hang around. But then shit like this situation happens and it makes me very happy to be living infamously in the Midwest with our icestorms one Saturday and cook outs and hackey sack on the lawn the next.

My ability to wade through bullshit is nil and I would not be able to put up with the politics, ass kissing, soul selling and camera flashing that the American entertainment industry has become. Shane is a better man than I, with a much kinder soul, to derive his living income from such a system that is built on building people up to knock them down so hard that they just might not get back up again. It's a sin against our fellow man that is just plain cruel.

But the con, the sly and the trick are just so damn intriguing!

The amazing thing, if you read Shane's Blog on a regular basis, is that you are getting a filtered view into the man's emotions, ideas, beliefs and passion. He is enormously talented, even watching his B part two liners in that Friends episode just goes to show that this guy is going somewhere (it's kind of like watching an early Tom Hanks on a guest appearance in The Facts of Life a year before Bosom Buddies broke). So, you get the idea of how much I like Shane's electronic identity that I have associated with for two months now.

But after reading the National Enquirer, and not having read Shane's blog about it TWO DAYS BEFORE IT BROKE, I would have thought he was guilty. And you know what, he might be guilty. I mean, I don't know the guy beyond what I've read on his blog and his e-mails. But from what I have read, I would say that he loves his baby girl, adores his wife and partner and is truly content with the career path he has chosen in life. I respect that because that is the goal that all American males should be striving towards in their personal relationships.

And you know what, I don't care if he did it or not because the repercussions of his personal actions do not influence my appreciation of his ideas and experience that he so readily shares anyway. Believe me, there are people doing much more horrible things in this world to their fellow man than banging Cameron Diaz.

Shane, I'll defend what I know of your character because that's what we each must do as individuals when the Main Stream Media train of pitiful endless distance charges up for another character assassination on we human beings who are prone to making dumb mistakes when it comes to our emotional attachments when relating to others in the moment.

Shane, this blog's for you.

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Hat tip to Fark.

This is absolute bullshit!

I've had a few electronic conversations with Shane and, reading someone's Blog on a consistent basis lets you into their lives in a weird and private way. I think Shane is a stand up guy who is very talented and has a bright future ahead of him.

The Mainstream Media, in all forms, must go. One of my life missions is to help destroy it and clear up the channels of communication in society.

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You guys think I'm bullshitting but I am going to bank roll the invention of an actual light saber one day soon. I am going to support the creation of a Jedi Knight who isimpartial to the religious and political institutions of mankind but takes up saber in defense of the individual citizen's rights.

You think I'm kidding but you don't know me very well. I always get what I want.

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This sucks.

Hat tip to Fark.

Sylvester Stallone is one of America's true great artists who has made a career of balancing artistic writing and unique acting. Many critics have bashed him because of his "popular culture" style of writing, juvenile plot lines and base emotional appeal; but they said these same things about George Lucas. All the piercing judgments in print do not change the fact that Rocky is as American as a fine piece of art can be.

And do you want to know why you should respect Sylvestor Stallone? Because Rocky's heart came from him and Rocky's belief in success came from him and because Sylvester Stallone believed in himself.

He wrote the Rocky screenplay in three feverish days of frantic scribbling on a yellow pad with a #2 pencil. He was inspired to write the story after watching a no-name ugly ass white dude fight Mohammed Ali and knock his ass down. The white guy didn't win the fight but he stood toe to toe with the world's best and knocked the world's best on his ass! Awesome!

To Stallone, this seemed like a metaphor for the greatness that lies in every individual. Most people don't even get their shot to express their talents, skills and experience--to make their voice heard in the raging storm of other voices that we call society. But the choices we make--Rocky's creation of the name "Italian Stallion" which Apollo Creed picked up on as the perfect theme for his next public relations spectacle. Appollo's greed, ambition and pure arrogance put him in connection with Rocky's matter of fact, this is what I am--take it or leave it--lifestyle.

So, the fighter went the distance and knocked the champ on his ass. But that wasn't even the best part of the story--because while everyone was circling the ring in a frenzy after the fight, Rocky was already focused on what mattered most in life to him--his love for Adrienne. See, Apollo was a warrior with heart but not heart like Rocky had. Rocky inspired Apollo to become a better person as the character developed; he inspired everyone around him to become better. And he went the distance...every time.

It wasn't about winning or losing--it was about being on your feet when the bell rings at the end. It was about taking the best shots from your opponent and giving back your best.

So Stallone wrote Rocky in three days. The big wigs in Hollywood offered him $100,000. Stallone barely had $100 in his bank and almost had to sell his dog to feed himself. But he knew that he should be the one to play Rocky. He held out until the price was $360,000 and, finally, the producers caved and paid him like $100,00 for the scripts and actors' minimum wages to act the part. He did it and the rest is history.

Stallone is one of the greatest American artists this century because he heard listened to his creative vision and adhered to it even when corporate interests tried to divert the vision through financing.