DB#433 - Hollywood Drama
In today’s Daily Breakfast: Pakistan and Mexico; Heath Ledger’s death; Cloverfield, the Blair Witch Project and Godzilla; iPhone and iPod Touch developments: beyond music and movies; the MacBook Air and teh MacBook Pro; God in Space and Babylon 5; another Phonejingle entry my Canada itinerary: meet me in Winnipeg, Toronto or Montreal!
Link: more info on how to get tickets for the Alumni Dinner at St. Paul’s in Winnipeg
Download or listen: Today’s Show
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Enjoyed watching you record this morning on UStream.
I totally agree with what you said about Hollywood celebrities and the need to pray for them rather than gossip about them. I made a similar decision re: Tom Cruise a couple of years ago. I had some Masses said for him, and also wrote him a personal letter. More about this on my blog:
http://www.doxaweb.com/blog/2005/07/to-gossip-or-to-pray.htm
http://www.doxaweb.com/blog/2008/01/interceding-for-stars-part-2.htm
I also started a Facebook group for those who want to commit to praying for Tom Cruise — for his conversion / return to the Catholic faith:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7071364682
Fr. Roderick get with the program and get Babylon 5.
I am a major Star Wars, Star Trek fan, but Babylon 5 is my favorite SF series with a great five year story arc. Though BSG is a close second in storytelling. Even thought the writer of the series is an atheist he weaves religious themes into B5 that are quite respectful.
Britany Spears needs prayers desperately too. She could so easily end up like Anna Nichole Smith. I felt bad when Anna Nicole Smith died, it was so useless. Granted, she made her choices, but her life in the last year was tragic with the loss of her son. These people do need our prayers! Good point, Fr. Roderick!
Hello Fr. Roderick, I think the keyword to dress yourself for the freezing weather of Canada is layer. It is better to wear several thinner layer instead of one thick piece of cloth. This way you can easily adjust how many clothings you wear depend you’re inside or outside. Oh, and of course, don’t forget your scarf!
Father, don’t start your exploration of B5 with the “Lost Tales”. They are a little slow, done on a shoe string, and are kind of an experiment at marketing directly to DVD. I think the stories would have worked better in print. Just get the original series and remember that the Story is told in seasons 1 to 4. It’s not as grim and gripping as Battlestar, but I don’t think the new BSG could have been made, and certainly not marketed, without the B5 epic.
The suspected advances in the ipod touch you described, sounds a little like a new and improved Apple Newton
As a fellow Aussie and as a huge film fan I was devastated to hear of the news that Heath has gone to God. His family, especially Michelle and little girl Matilda are in my prayers.
I would like to point out though that most people close to Heath do NOT believe this was a suicide. There are rumours he also had pneumonia and he was taking a sleeping pill that has been banned in some places (stilnox).
It’s such a tragic waste. Ten Things I Hate About You was one of my favorite funny films and it’s just really sad I couldn’t help but shed a tear.
I agree also with Susan Bailey. It’s important to Pray for Britney and all the troubled stars and indeed-everyone in the world who is down and out.
I really don’t believe Heath’s was a suicide though.
I have been Praying the St. Dymphna prayer for Britney. Find it here….
Oh and thanks Father Roderick for all the great shows.
God Bless y’all.
The Aussie Jedi.
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/novenas/p00039.htm
I went to see Cloverfield on the night that it opened. No matter what the movie, if it is one that has been greatly anticipated, opening night is a lot of fun. I took my 13-year old son, Sam, and left my 7-year old with my mother. Sam had heard all the buzz and really wanted to see the film, hence our braving the crowd on opening night. I wouldn’t call Cloverfield a great movie by any stretch. However, I did find the way that it was shot interesting. The filmmakers managed to shoot the entire film as though it was filmed by someone using a hand held video recorder. The last time that I saw a film where the way it was shot was so central to the film was when I saw Rope done by Alfred Hitchcock, which was edited in such a way that it appeared to be shot in one continuous shot. My son was disappointed because the movie didn’t follow a conventional story arc. He felt cheated by the ending. I don’t see how it could end any other way if they were going to hold firm to their decision to have every shot appear as though it was shot through the video recorder that the characters carried with them. Once they made that choice and set the film up by having the audience view film “found” at what used to be Central Park, the choices that they had for an ending were pretty limited. In a way, the ending that they decided on was probably the most definite one they could have chosen. Any other would have been a lot more uncertain as to the outcome.
Here’s a pretty funny example of how cold it is in Winnipeg right now:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/od_nm/thieves1_dc_1
I can relate to your reference to the so-called “rear end” calls, whereby people don’t lock the keyboards of their cellphones when they put them in their pockets and the last dialed number or one of the speed dial numbers gets dialed instead. I’ve gotten a goodly number of those myself.
The other question this particular incident raises, however, is why are people adding the listener feedback number to their speed dial list in the first place? Perhaps it’s for convenience. On the other hand, maybe the jingles aren’t working for some. They sure have worked for me.
Father - it would be a bit refreshing NOT to jump on the tabloid band wagon when a celeb is called home. It would have been appropriate to say a prayer of mercy for his soul and his family to cope with the loss.
Joe, that’s exactly the point I was making during the show, and what I asked people to do.
I agree with Joe and was dissapointed to hear Fr. Roderick mention the notoriously error filled sensationalist internet tabloid “the sludge report” mentioned. Fr. please keep in mind that that piece of internet garbage has put out numerous blatantly false stories and rumors as purported truth(i.e.- president clintons black son & many more).
I trust and pray that this will be the first and last time a notorious error filled rumor tabloid like that will be mentioned as a source for the daily breakfast. Ugh! talk about an integrity crash!
The best indications are that Heath Ledger died of an accidently overdose from a combination of 3 medications and Not a purposeful suicide.
Ok, for adults the Cloverfield movie probably isn’t even worth a bargain movie price or rental of $3 but how it was shot was interesting:
The Real Camera Behind Cloverfield:
http://gizmodo.com/347463/the-real-camera-behind-cloverfield
More On How Cloverfield Was Shot:
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/issue_pdfs/def29/cloverfield.htm
and this article:
Cloverfield Shot on a cheap Consumer Camera?:
http://www.freshdv.com/2008/01/cloverfield-shot-on-a-cheap-consumer-camera.html
P.S. - Fr. Roderick, the next chance of the MacBook Pro’s being updated will be at the NAB Las Vegas show in April. Although that might be a little early because they were just updated a few months ago but one never knows.
@Michael C: Hey! I was just using the info available AT THE TIME! It had just happened, nobody knew anything. The Drudge Report isn’t a souce in itself. The site linked to stories on AP and Reuters. At the time, police didn’t rule out drugs/overdose/suicide. I did NOT sensationalize the story.
fyi — but you perpetuated “hear say” because the reason of his death was not determined.
Fr. Rod Hey Okey Dokey! I believe you. What I took issue with was that the story was attributed to “the sludge report” which has a infamous history of sensationalizing stories and perpetuating false rumors.
I didn’t think you were relying on the notorious false rumor gutter dwelling Matt Sludge.
In this specific instance the facts found show that Heath Ledger was using the proscribed sleeping medication Ambien along with 2 or 3 other proscribed anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications. Unfortuately far too many people in the world have too many prescription medications and they forget far too easily that they can be deadly in combination and especially when alcohol is used while using them. The biggest abuse of drugs by far in the world is of prescribed drugs.
Although that website is mostly just a bunch of links “Matt Sludge” does put a lot of sensationalistic and frequently false headlines on so called stories.
Fr. Roderick,
Thanks for playing my feedback about Christmas in Pakistan. I think I only sent that within the past two weeks, so it wasn’t long delayed
Also, just saw Cloverfield last night and loved it. This is one of those “love it or hate it” kinds of stories, so it’s obvious why some people don’t like it. However, I usually fall on the “love it” side of a unique movie like this. To me, few movies are worth $8-12 to see in the theatre because most follow a predictable arc.
Since it’s J.J. Abrams, you probably won’t be surprised to find out there are some hidden things in the movie. During those short segments of the original tape that was recorded three months prior are clues that point toward the impending disaster on Manhattan. The only thing I caught was in the very last scene, if you look in the upper right corner of the screen. But I’ve heard each of those scenes includes a clue, so I definitely want to rent this one so I can pause and search for them.
God bless,
Jason
Charisma as Natural as Gravity - Heath Ledger
Film director Christopher Nolan who just directed the coming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, pays tribute to the immensely talented young late actor Heath Ledger in this short article in the latest Newsweek(feb. 4, 08) magazine:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/105580
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Interesting stuff about Hollywood Father! to clear something up though, Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) was killed on the set of “The Crow” by his best friend Michael Massee (who played the part of “Funboy”) in a very early on scene. the guns were all real, but they use what are called squibs (i.e, blanks). In the scene Brandon lee died in, Massee was supposed to fire the gun at hiw, and nothing was supposed to happen. BUT, a squib was lodged in the barrell, and when the new one fired, it forced the other one out, which is what killed Brandon Lee.
How do I know this? I spent quite a bit of time on the comic book circuit one year talking with Jame O’Barr, the man who created the story “The Crow”, and thats where my info came from. Sadly, this was 2X tragic for O’Barr, as the entire story of “the Crow” was his own form of therapy in dealing with the death of his fiancee at the hands of a drunk driver. he wrote the story out of sheer agony, found a way of dealing with the pain, only to have it bite him for a second time.