Did You See That

It was my day off, I'm happily in the middle of nowhere, and there's Hugh Laurie of the TV show, "House", or at least someone who could earn a living looking like Hugh Laurie. Within the past fifteen minutes I've already seen someone who brought to mind a girl I knew named Laurie. So it's quite clear to me someone wants me on that page, whatever page that may be. Being secretly super-important, I am no stranger to people going to certain lengths to get me onto a certain page. I continue along, wondering what this Hugh Laurie stuff is about. I threw around some possible reasons but came up with nothing. I don't even watch the show.

A newspaper vending machine shows that day's USA Today contains an article on "24", and naturally I've already decided to purchase a copy before the day is over. The show's just been canceled, and I blogged (March 28th) about Kiefer Sutherland, that show's star, deliberately choosing to drive by me on the day that important announcement was made (March 26th), it being that I'm secretly super-important. Of course I would be buying USA Today, anyone could see that.

And so the inevitable happens - I get around to buying USA Today, and read the article. And that's when I find out why Hugh Laurie or someone who could earn a living looking like Hugh Laurie drove by me (slowly making a turn in front of me with his window rolled down so I was provided a good look). The article about "24" states several reasons for the cancellation:

"....and the network wants to build new shows in the key Monday time slot behind hit medical drama House."

House = Hugh Laurie.

Notwithstanding the fact that "24" is actually on immediately following "House", making this statement a minor head-scratcher, it seems that they've made Hugh Laurie the new man of the hour (or minute), the person momentarily assigned the task of absorbing some of the blame.

I myself do not believe for a moment that decisions of that nature are made the way the article described. What I do believe is that it helps the public to be provided with a set of different explanations for the decision, any or all of which may or may not be partly true. It diffuses the responsibility of the decision, a rather large decision if you see things of this type as affecting an important part of our collective spirit. I've already gone on about the importance I attach to "24" in my March 28th blog - I don't happen to have the strength just now to go there all over again. I'm sure you know what I mean, and you don't, and you think I'm making all this up about who I am and what I see and when. And you don't. [Different font colors used for different uses of the word "you" to denote different types of people. The French have two words for "you", but we're in mixed company, so let's just leave it there.]

Simmer, Cool, Simmer Again, Whatever

Julie, Julia, Clerp, Jerp, and Amy
The following videoclip, which includes our first introduction to Amy Adams' Julie character in the 2009 movie, "Julie and Julia" (now available on TV for the first time on "Starz On Demand-Early Premieres"), should be filed under my March 21st blog (two blogs ago), in the section, "Pavlov's Chef":




Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire
A person I've referred to here and there in previous blogs, Kiefer Sutherland, again drove past me. It was while I was on my way to work Friday, March 26th. I am nearly certain it was he, despite the sunglasses and semi-upbeat expression.

His face divulged nothing about a bombshell that was about to be dropped on the world later that day, not that the explosion would have been preventable even if I had foreknowledge: "24" has been canceled. Jack Bauer will not live forever - at least in terms of new episodes of "24" (after this season). I also read that there may be a movie. I think back to the expression on his face for some indication of exactly how dead Bauer might be for Sutherland, but as I find myself unable to visualize ketchup splattered about, it is difficult for me to envision death and Jack Bauer next to each other to the extent that it is now so.

We have been left with a serious void on the landscape of our shared, common focus on matters related to terrorism against the U.S. Do not underestimate the value of a singularly iconic fictitious character of this variety at this point in the history of the world, particularly when one considers the degree to which we as a society have come to use the medium of theater to digest events that would otherwise be too difficult, perhaps even impossible to wrap our hearts and minds around.

We can come together over nobody in particular when we say here comes the sun, we may never need a sun king to say "here comes the" about, but we are not so good at not having a human to focus on when real events turn us towards this side of reality, and occurrences that could conceivably lead to the end of reality itself. I don't see anyone coming close to a Jack Bauer, just a whole lot of James Bonds, Sherlock Holmeses and what not.

On the bright side, Sutherland is now free to do a sequel to "Dark City" - though I have the feeling I'm alone in thinking along those lines.

It's Just Another Vote
Several days ago on my way home from work, at about 5:30pm, about 30 minutes before the final reconciliation vote on healthcare reform (after the House passed the healthcare legislation and after the Senate then passed the agreed-to reconciliation amendments and then the amendments went back to the House - I believe this was Thursday, March 25th), "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart may or may not have driven past me. The show has been on vacation this past week, so it was definitely possible for him to be in Southern California. Also, as occasionally referred to in previous blogs, over the years I have occasionally been an influence on his and Colbert's show, sometimes to no small degree. He appeared very serious. And his hair was not slicked down as one normally expects when looking at Jon Stewart. I don't think his was searching his mind for a punchline just then. Then again, it could have just been someone whose job it is to bring Jon Stewart to someone's mind at the precise right moment. I get a lot of that.

One On One
Ben Stiller, whose appearance at the recent Oscars was largely in relation to my "Gosk 2" video (see my March 13th blog), drove by me yesterday (March 27th), while his two recent late-night talk show appearances made no inside-references for my benefit (of which I am aware). I think that puts things where I'm supposed to.... no, can't say I know exactly.

The late-night talk show appearance in February by Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton's wife, on Craig Ferguson's show did make inside "Gosk" references for my benefit. These references to "Gosk" were not even close to being as clearly delineated as Burton's "Gosk" references in "Alice In Wonderland" (see my my March 16th and March 21st blogs). I do not feel that husbands and wives should be considered contractually obligated to be identical in the degree to which they make references to "Gosk", nevertheless, I will not permit Carter's references to dilute the intensity of Burton's references, and will therefore confine myself here to this general a description of her action.

Regis Philbin's recent late-night talk show appearance on Ferguson made absolutely no inside-reference for my benefit of the variety I have come to expect, though Ferguson isn't Letterman, which is where/who this normally can be relied upon. Is this non-relationship over? If so, I do not yet feel the void, and for now will make no assumptions.

Face To Face
Immediately after I emailed someone (a fellow CalArts alumni, aka a "CalArtian") asking what gives with Tim Burton and his Steinhoff references in "Alice In Wonderland", where's my $11.23 (I did the math and decided I was at least entitled to enough money to purchase 9.2 chocolate bars), I received an invitation to be the Facebook friend of someone else, someone I hadn't spoken with in about 30 or more years, and a non-CalArtian. Adding this person as a Facebook friend required that I logon to my Facebook page for the first time in about half-a-year. This caused me to see that another CalArtian I knew (different CalArtian) had visited my Facebook page, indicated to me by way of that privacy-violating way Facebook has of showing Facebook users this like it or not. This led me to feeling inclined to look up that particular CalArtian on Facebook and the listing of her Facebook friends - which included Tim Burton. I suppose it is a given that when Tim Burton uses your material in a big way in "Alice In Wonderland", trails of breadcrumbs are headed your way. Now send me a trail of breadcrumbs I would want to follow more directly, please.

The REAL Key To Good Health

Well, the "game" is finally over - healthcare reform legislation has passed!  And so now, at last, the truth regarding my important role can finally be told:

1. Rachel Maddow, as some of us have come to realize, has emerged as one of the true, vital, positive spirits of the new "the-left-doesn't-need-to-hide-its-we-won't-kiss-your-ass-with-self-defeatist-submissivism-you-rightwing-creeps" movement.  (This is an extremely new movement, in fact, I just named it a moment or two ago.)
2. Rachel Maddow recently called upon her viewers to participate in a "Filibuster Challenge" contest to rename the word, "filibuster", as an expression of outrage over the Republican "filibuster-the-world-into-submission" movement. (This is an extremely old movement, though I just named it a moment or two ago, and though the word "filibuster" only appears in that movement's recent incarnation, for in other incarnations the word "filibuster" is interchangeable with other words, such as "redneck", "slander", "swiftboat", e.g., "swiftboat-the-world-into-submission", etc.).
3. I made three submissions to Rachel Maddow's filibuster contest.  My important submission was #3586 Feb. 13, 2010, 1:43pm, as JonathanDS:  "What we need to "re-brand" is the phrase 'kill legislation' - the word 'kill' couldn't swat a fly anymore as an attention-grabber. So I suggest the phrase, 'murder legislation'.  We need to see the blood on their hands, sense that there are lives on the line, not just go for clever."  This submission should still be viewable, though I don't know for how long, by registering at newsvine.com and then going to Rachel Maddow's Filibuster Challenge contest.]
4. The winning entry that Rachel Maddow ultimately selected: "....Waldman wins the Filibuster Challenge by christening the problem that's choking the last breath out of democracy as 'the Tarantino.' Because, of course, it kills bills."
5. If "kills bills" was the idea that won, and my entry (which included the specific explanation that we should "re-brand" the phrase "kill legislation") was "murder legislation", ipso facto, I was right THERE.
6. Let's not forget to add in the fact that I am generally a secretly major person who frequently has a major impact on major matters. 
7. Then there's the fact that I once (only once) emailed Rachel Maddow (my subject: she was mistaken in feeling appreciation for the anti-filibuster rhetoric uttered by Evan Bayh when he resigned his position as Senator, considering how he had previously threatened to stand with Lieberman in an anti-healthcare reform filibuster, an especially brazen and corrupt stance if one considers the fact that Bayh's wife is on the board at Wellpoint, the biggest health insurance company in the nation).  The day following my email, Maddow wore on her show the same fake crown I wear in my photo whenever I post a comment on Huffington Post as JonathanDS2U.  It has become my experience that such acts should not be seen as coincidental.
8. I believe it is therefore reasonable to conclude that it was because of my contribution that "kills bills" was ultimately selected as the contest winner.  It comes that close to me, the elephant in the room.  It would therefore be I who brought to the healthcare reform debate table a congealing of our collective, inner feeling that, somewhere (in the world of Rachel Maddow) there is a real connection between the words "homicide" and "filibuster", in terms of what "filibuster" represents in this situation.  One cannot endeavor to devise a tactic to massively undermine the health and survival of the underprivileged, and then escape being associated with words like "kill" or "murder".  Maddow's appreciation of the Tarantino association with the words "kills bills" generated the suggestion of "murder" that my "murder legislation" intended, and so "kills bills" reached the 9th yard line only after I brought a close variation of it to the 15th yard line (all of my ideas are automatically placed on the 15th yard line, because of my secret importance/the automatic seriousness attached to my actions).  
9. Touchdown. 
10. You don't have to thank me.  (Just do me one small favor: please don't follow with football references in discussing healthcare reform - I know you will forgive me my moment of "touchdown" - it just seemed to work, at least for a second or two.)

A Good Diet Is The Key To Good Health

Several things to report, though for the most part they are things that fall into the category of being unsubstantiated by anyone other than myself. Approximately 29.2% of the things I describe in my blogs fall into this category. The way I figure it is, owing to the 70.8% of the extraordinary things I describe that can be substantiated, though some effort may be involved (such as checking that the timestamp/copyright at Archive.Org is intransmutable; viewing those videos of mine posted there when I indicate that such action is relevant to the information being conveyed; putting 2 plus 2.2 together; etc.), I'm legitimately entitled to some real cred.

Addendum In Wonderland
After I posted my immediately preceding blog, which focused on Alice In Wonderland with relation to the bucket scene in my "Gosk 2", it occurred to me that the hat scene in "Gosk 2" immediately follows the bucket scene. This is the scene where all you see are intercut shots of Vinakalert's hat, framed such that one does not see his head beneath it, while he talks to himself about his high school girlfriend, Gosk (only direct mention of Gosk in the video). This hat scene should also be seen in connection with my fellow CalArtian's movie, owing to the context as described in my preceding blog. I should also take this opportunity to mention that the other CalArtian described in that blog, a woman I knew at CalArts, was never my girlfriend, I regard her as someone who was a friend. Whether or not people such as Paul McCartney or whoever saw in that relationship material for songs is more of a reflection of the fact that he tends to make quite a bit out of any relationship I have with members of the opposite sex. I have come to look upon any woman I might or might not have any kind of relationship with in terms of whether this is something they are secretly taking into account.

Wagon Train
In my June 7, 2009 blog I described something that happened the moment I came back to California for the first time in 15 years, during the early '90s, half-a-year after a movie that originated with something I sent to Steven Spielberg became the biggest movie of all time ("Jurassic Park", though this movie has subsequently lost this status - to other movies upon which I have also been a significant influence):

"....approximately one week after I moved to Southern California in the early 90s, when I was driving in Van Nuys when suddenly I found myself driving alongside Steven Spielberg, with two motorcycle police riding alongside each other in front of us."

The other day I saw on the highway four policemen riding together on motorcycles. Being aware that this did not constitute being under alien attack, and furthermore that it could easily contain zero significance, I did not see it as necessarily relating to the afore-described Steven Spielberg experience. It nevertheless seems odd to me that about four hours or so later, in a completely different neck of the woods, someone I believe may have been Steven Spielberg drove by me, though some of the hair on top of his head seemed darker than one would expect, and though he was driving a red pickup truck. A few moments later I came to an establishment called, "Stagecoach", which is also the name of a movie, about people on a road trip having to contend with being the target of attacks yet without the security of motorcycle policemen driving in proximity. At the time I saw the motorcycle cops there no was indication I would later be driving by "Stagecoach", so I can't say the whole thing in every detail was planned that way from the start. On the other hand, people know how to find moments to do things that are more opportune than other moments.

I already had been given a clear heads up that I was being followed that day (as if I needed one, as I can generally expect to receive such a heads up on most trips), when I saw someone driving by me who resembled Rob Hahn. I had just brought up Rob Hahn in conversation at work two days before, so it seems very unlikely to me that the siting of his look-alike in the middle of nowhere was a random event. By the way, Rob Hahn was among the people I assisted on an AFI film shoot during the summer of 1975. He had been the boyfriend of Amy Heckerling (now a well known director) at high school in New York, afterwhich they came to AFI together, afterwhich they broke up, afterwhich they were both working on that same AFI film shoot. I first met Stuart Cornfeld on that AFI shoot (now a major producer whose film company has their films distributed by Spielberg's DreamWorks).

Pavlov's Chef
Only because of my strange experiences in life and not because I consider it something that would ordinarily occur, I believe it possible that the Merryl Streep movie, "Julie and Julia", was made partly because it could later become connected, in a certain way, with my YouTube posted video, "Recipe For Fun" (I have not yet seen this Streep movie, however). "Recipe For Fun" (not to be confused with my "Recipe For Fun Epilogue (Non-Ketchup Version)") resulted from Lorne Michaels eating a sandwich on SNL, which itself had been the result of my sending Michaels something several days earlier wherein he eats a sandwich (my "Frozen" comedy sketch idea, which I subsequently made into a video that I've posted on Archive.Org - about The Beatles reuniting for an SNL appearance with a little help from cryogenics). The day following "Recipe For Fun", wherein the specific ingredients of good comedy are conveyed, ketchup being specifically portrayed as one of the major ingredients, the husband of the head of Heinz ketchup (former Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry) got into serious trouble, regarding which he could only defend himself by saying that he had told a bad joke. He had been misunderstood. He wasn't trying to say people who go into the military have a lower IQ. So I sent a message to Paul McCartney that this mishap, which had been set off by "Recipe For Fun", etc., should be addressed by McCartney being in a comedy sketch. A former candidate for President of the United States of America is not a small potato (I didn't put it exactly that way). Basically, I was saying, "Clean-up on Aisle 7" (I didn't put it exactly that way either). Several days later Paul McCartney made a surprise appearance on SNL in a comedy sketch about poison in a drink, which naturally made me think of "Recipe for Fun", though I am not Julia Childs. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were also in that SNL poison comedy sketch. So years later, when Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were together again, this time in a movie, I also thought of "Recipe for Fun", though I have not seen this movie yet ("It's Complicated"). Meryl Streep was also in that movie with Martin and Baldwin. Martin and Baldwin just cohosted the Oscars together - this made me think of "Recipe for Fun" as well. Streep also justed appeared in "Julie and Julia", about famed chef Julia Childs, which might also bring "Recipe For Fun" to mind (it brings it to my mind, anyway). I'm seeing this great big Baldwin, Martin, Streep stew, and I'm sure you could too, if you just put your mind to it.

The very last moment of Barbara Walters' very last Oscar Night interview (she will no longer be doing this show) had Barbara Walters and Sandra Bullock toasting Meryl Streep.

My own "personal" Meryl Streep story involves when I went to see her in "Taming of the Shrew" at a Shakespeare In The Park performance in NYC in 1976 or 1977. A heavy downpour occurred during the performance, which prompted Streep's costar, Raul Julia, to say, "And NOW my reign begins." I subsequently learned that there is no such line in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew", though it was certainly a relevant thing for Raul Julia to say. I tended to enjoy this anecdote more when I thought it was Shakespeare's line benefiting for the moment from Julia's inflection. Now I realize Shakespeare isn't very much a part of the anecdote at all. Raul Julia just ran with the moment, apparently.

In any event, the anecdotal significance of this line from the Meryl Streep play, "And NOW my reign begins," comes to mind (as I associate it) during that toast at the final moment of Walters' show:



This all makes me think of "Recipe for Fun". In recent blogs I promised to describe in an upcoming blog the significance I found in this Walters-Bullock moment. Sandra Bullock has since that promise of mine leaped into the headlines, or was pushed, owing to her marital problems. I am most reluctant to appear to be inserting myself into that situation. I have influenced the work of Sandra Bullock in the past ("The Lake House" comes most immediately to mind) without acknowledgment, and hope to continue this non-relationship with her in the future. I do not wish to be in relation to her current situation in any way, and am confident that this attention I am drawing to that toast will not leap anywhere near the headlines. If that wouldn't make me seem opportunistic I don't know what would. Perhaps Paul McCartney could do a song that will straighten all this out.

Kalorping Against The Jabberwocky

There are many things many people can and will say and think about the somewhat amazing 3D movie, "Alice In Wonderland". Amidst all that, it has fallen to me to speak in relation to this movie in a manner that will surely be regarded by the "uninitiated" as strange - though I suppose that by now I should be quite accustomed to being cast in a role such as this.

Tim Burton, the auteur of the work to which I refer, not only attended CalArts at the same time as myself. Tim Burton has consistently been influenced by me/my work in a major way. "Alice" is no exception.

A woman who was a friend of mine at CalArts also existed in the realm of Tim Burton, has worked with Tim Burton, in fact, according to her website, she was responsible for CG (computer graphics) on "Alice". I do know that she worked on Burton's "Beetlejuice", yet there is nothing to confirm her assertion about "Alice", other than her own statement. I choose to believe her, however, it being that she always liked the low-profile route, and once you've reached a certain height, who really needs all the baggage that comes with being known as someone with that particular kind of status?

I have not spoken with this woman in about 30 years, yet Tim Burton has occasionally been known (to some anyway) to shine the "spotlight" on various things that passed between myself and her all those years ago.

With "Alice", Burton has outdone himself in this regard (and in other regards as well - it really is quite a movie!). No small number of times while watching "Alice" I found myself saying (not aloud), "Hey, that reminds me of a conversation I had about 30 years ago with (blank)." After a while (actually after the first one) it became obvious to me: she had confided the most insignificant things regarding our conversations to Tim Burton, who then instructed the writer of "Alice" to include them in the movie, who then included them in the movie, and then they filmed them for the movie, then edited them into the movie, then made the whole movie 3D (I have no idea how they did that part), put the completed film into film canisters, had someone drive the film canisters to movie theatres around the world, etc. For some people I might have put in the "etc." considerably sooner, but I always like filling people in and keeping the lowest common denominator among us in the loop. It's my inclusive nature.

There were also things in "Alice" that came from my creative work, things of consequence to Tim Burton's movie. I think it unlikely you would recognize these things, however, without knowledge of the fact that Tim Burton often does this in relation to me/my material. You would tend to be oblivious to the context necessary to appreciate my point. If I may therefore ask those of you who don't see eye to eye with me on this to kindly leave so that I may continue speaking with those who know what I'm talking about. Thank you ever so much.

In my Dec. 26, 2009 video, "Steven Spielberg and the 'Mall Man' Factor" (see Archive.Org), I detail how Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," in addition to its numerous references to my "Mall Man" video, also included something from my original "Mall Man" film treatment (sent in '92/'93 to Spielberg's good friend, Sean Daniel, the first person from whom I learned of CalArts). Specifically, I refer to the part in "Indiana Jones" where the statue is restored to wholeness through the returning of its head. And so I recognized something familiar when, in "Alice", significance was attached to Alice restoring wholeness to a suit of armor by bringing its sword to it following a special journey. I know this general concept is not new to various genres of storytelling - however, the shorthands I am "in on" led me to regard this as more specifically having been done as a reference to Spielberg/Steinhoff. It was then that I recalled how in "Alice" there is an important thing where The Mad Hatter's head is restored to his body. I see this as reinforcing my initial impression. Plus the restoration of Indiana Jones' hat to his head in that movie having a Hatter-esque dimension, a device used in the Spielberg film as something to correlate with the crystal skull's being returned to its proper place.

There was another important event in "Alice" that left me with a much stronger sense of my influence. That movie has a very important moment where The Mad Hatter throws his sword onto the ground as if it has suddenly come upon him that the sword is of an alien nature. Around this same exact point in the movie, The Mad Hatter does a very special dance, and for those who have seen the movie (did I forget to say "spoiler alert" somewhere in here?), this special dance of his is not merely in the category of someone dancing on-screen. It is a pre-anticipated, significant moment. Not unlike the extreme specialness of a dance as conveyed in the very first lines of the Procol Harum song, "Whiter Shade of Pale" (following the organ introduction): "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels 'cross the floor." These song lyrics go well beyond being a mere mention of a dance. And this brings me to this videoclip from my 1998 video, "Kalorping For Gosk, Part 2" ("Gosk 2"):


As for the white dandelion particles we see here and there in "Alice", I apologize, but I am under contract to only discuss such things as they relate to "Avatar".

And again, I postpone for another blog my description of the last moment of Barbara Walters' last Oscar Night interview as it relates to me. You can see how it doesn't belong in the same company as this "Alice" blog.

Blue for Green

When last we left off in my previous Avatar-related blog (two blogs ago, dated Feb. 21st, "James Cameron and the Steinhoff Factor (non-3D version"), we were treated by me to (among other things) a clip from my 1998 video, "Gosk 2". I am referring to the "Gosk 2" clip included in that blog under a section entitled, "Something In The Air", it being that there were several "Gosk 2" clips in that blog. Now put on your special Tunnel Vision glasses (located in the section of your brain that can't bear to be pulled in more than one direction at once), because here comes another clip from "Gosk 2" (made newly relevant by the Oscars), continuing in that 1998 video of mine precisely from where the other clip left off (I've included three or so seconds of overlap with the previously-featured clip in order to help you see it in that context):

Excerpt from "Gosk 2" (1998)

And now I take you to the March 7, 2010 Academy Awards and Ben Stiller (someone I've occasionally referred to in my previous blogs, it being that he and Stuart Cornfeld,who I sort of knew in the '70s, together run "Red Hour Films" (Stuart being someone I refer to much more occasionally in previous blogs):

3.7.10 - Oscars Watercooler Conversation for Billions #1

Okay, now please remove your Tunnel Vision glasses - because instead of there being just one instance during the March 7th Oscars ceremony wherein I was being provided with something to fit in with my above "Gosk 2" clip, there was also this unforgettable George Clooney moment as well, which picks up from (fits in with) the very moment the above "Gosk 2" clip ends (you might need to imagine seeing Clooney in this clip as wearing blue skin and women's clothing in order to better appreciate the connection -unfortunately I have no special glasses to assist you in envisioning this, which I expect many will see as being for the best):

3.7.10 - Oscars Watercooler Conversation for Billions #2

I'm Dreaming of A White Dandelion Particle

I would close this blog with an observation about the images of little white flakes used as part of the recurring Oscars background graphics, however, I have neither the strength nor the patience to argue with everyone who would presume I must thereby be laying claim to every image of snowflakes ever created. My counter-argument to that would have been that, if that were the reason for their use of this graphic, why did they choose this year's "Avatar Oscars" (aka "Oscars") to use it? Hasn't it been snowing since even before the first Oscars ceremony in the '30s (not continuously)? Kinda funny they chose this year for it, ain't it? Oh yes, and were I to have closed this blog with mention of those little white flakes and their Avatar/Gosk tie-in, I would also have had to steer your special attention to the special significance the white flakes in “Avatar” have in connection with"Gosk 2", by steering you to my coverage of this subject in that above-referenced Feb. 21st blog. I would also add that many, many, many major awards shows seem to find a way to include as part of their recurring graphic backdrop images with clear similarities to ones I had recently generated (in this case, one of mine given recent significance). However, as I've already stated, I shall not be closing with this observation about the ceremony's use of the white flakes, you will instead have to imagine I did on your own, and imagine all that would have followed. Again, unfortunately I can offer no special glasses to help you imagine this.

I will instead close this edition of my blog with a slightly less controversial special thank you to Ben Stiller and George Clooney, not only for secretly pointing towards me, but also for their singular significance as being non-secret pointer-outers of the cause of the Haitian people as well.

["Alice" will have to wait for a future blog; as will mention of the special Steinhoff connection to the very final moment of Barbara Walters' Oscar Night interview, her final installment of this Oscar Night tradition.]

Honk If You Like Cars

I've been accumulating no small number of things to describe of considerable significance, at least by certain standards, however, for this blog installment I will limit myself to addressing something of potentially great significance.  It could regard the automobile accident (that may have been no accident) experienced yesterday by the wife of Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader.

However I lay out the basis for this statement, it requires a little time, a little research follow-through on the part of the reader.  So please get the bleep out of here you tedious know-it-alls who entitle yourselves to opinions without any sense of the importance of arriving at an opinion in a responsible, intelligent manner.  This isn't the place for you.

• As I describe in my July 3, 2009 blog (and elsewhere in various other blogs of mine), the weekly TV sitcom that was Tom Hanks' first really big break, "Bosom Buddies", resulted from a conversation I had with someone.  

• In my December 26, 2009 video, "Steven Spielberg And The Mall Man Factor" (posted at archive.org), I show how the Spielberg/Hanks movie, "The Terminal," was very significantly influenced by my 1993 "Mall Man" video (also viewable at archive.org).  

• It therefore did not come out of left-field when Hanks' image on the cover of Time Magazine a week or so ago bore a strong similarity to a recurring image in "Mall Man":

In both instances, the photographic efffect is to use a very pronounced concentration of light on the face of the subject, in contrast with everything else in the image.  This isn't to say that no one else has ever used this effect - of course it is something we see from time to time.  Rather, the significance lies in the alignment of the previously described details in combination with the usage of this effect in this instance.  The fact that it was only recently (Dec. 26, 2009) that I pointed out the relationship between Hanks and "Mall Man".  I suppose, if you are very young, something that happened two and a half months ago was not recent.  If you are Tom Hanks, my December 26th video should have been an event containing a degree of significance.  One would not be surprised to find a reaction - a reaction in this form.  One may also wish to read (or reread) my January 23, 2010 blog.

• A day or so before the appearance of this Time Magazine cover, I saw for the first time in years (driving by me on my way to work) a woman I knew, or a look-alike of a woman I knew, whose family was close to mine when we were young (including going on a vacation together).  Her late father became Senior Editor of Money Magazine.  Money Magazine is part of the same company as Time Magazine.

• A number of years ago, while her father was Senior Editor of Money Magazine, her brother, Woody, who was also a friend, was killed in an automobile accident (that may not have been an accident).  His car suddenly got a flat tire, he had to suddenly pull off the freeway onto the shoulder to fix it, which was when he was run over and killed.  This could have been a set-up.  One has to consider this possibility, if one is realistic about the nature of the position his father held.  The Senior Editor of Money Magazine makes decisions that can affect how people invest billions (collectively), and we all know that when that kind of money is involved, shady doings designed to gain influence/control can occur.  As is also true if you are the Senate Majority Leader.

• Yesterday, the same day as this "accident" experienced by Reid's wife, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg were guests of President Obama at The White House, a "movie night" for the screening of something they jointly produced, entitled, "Pacific".

This would not be the first time that someone performing an insidious act threaded it through matters that connected in some way to me, nor would it be the first time that the perpetrator(s) threaded into it matters connected in some way to Steven Spielberg at the same time as myself.  As an example, one may wish to read my blog of March 23rd (and others) regarding the death of Natasha Richardson, whose husband, Liam Neeson, was working with Spielberg at the time of her death.