"Mav·er·ick"
a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.
(initial capital letter) an electro-optically guided U.S. air-to-ground tactical missile for destroying tanks and other hardened targets at ranges up to 15 mi. (24 km).
I had a dream last night where i saw the Eastern Sky Grow Dark and in the West a Pale light Lingered with voices crying.. "Doom is near at Hand"... and i was confronted with a sadistic choice... dye or dye trying... thus... There is only 1 real choice... Maverick's bane must be defeated before Zero Dark Can Prosper.
To do so i must re engrain in my heart The Maverick Kommandments
Today I shed my old skin. The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those who have failed are piled one atop another casting a shadow down upon all the SkyScrapers of the Wold. Yet I will not fail because now I hold the charts that will ascend me like a jet pilot to the battlefield in the clouds!
Two years ago I failed to charge ahead in the trenches of Los Angeles. I left and retreated to the mountains of Pasadena then went back home for what I thought was going to be a week and turned into 8 months. Upon returning I became lost in those same mountains only to return to the fray. A year passed and i was sent back to the beginning once again. Each time i strike Hollywood i gain further into an industry that i consider the Vatican. One doesn't simply just walk into the Hollywood Vatican. Riddled with tradition and ritual that consumes the people creating a barren wasteland of fire, ash, and dust. The very air your breath is a poisonous fume and its black gates are guarded by more than just soldiers. The Collective Consciousness is a dense ether than inhibits the freewill of art and drives the artists to Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.
ONce again i must go to the front lines of the battle for the city of lost angels only this time I am returning with the Legions of Zeniths under the Flag of Zero Dark!
Way Back Somewhere along the way people began calling me "Maverick" I don't remember who where how or why to this day it sill makes me wonder never the less before I left I was known throughout the film industry as 'Maverick" It was in this moment that I picked myself back up and was born again with a new identity, a new purpose, and new troops to command. Somehow the name followed me back to l.a and I decided once and for all to embrace it rather than play it down.
On Dec. 25th 2007 while everyone was hanging with their family I was alone in the mountains so I decided to do something Maverick. I hiked to the top of Sierra Madre "The mountain mother' One of the tallest mountain chains in the L.A. area armed with only a camera.
6 hours later tired, starving but determined I made it to the top. Overlooking Hollywood from the distance I realized it was time to be a Maverick. Time to be the best, Time to live or die. It was time to go back! When I reached the bottom 12 hours after departure I brought down with me what I like to call the 10 MaVerick Kommandments. They are the Maverick habits that I will maintain, which will jet me off of the ground and back into the clouds.
Following the last crusade i became aware that a Maverick can't take on the world alone... Thus i created Zero Dark and now that Zero Dark is becoming what i envisioned, its time to re establish the Maverick Kommandments. These are the Kommandments of Maverick and Zero Dark that will lead us to Victory in the Hollywood Vatican and then onward..
Below is the video that came down with me from the mountain. Its also the video that inspired the Zero Dark Chronicles.
The MaVericK Komandments
MaVericK Kommandment I
Today I shed my former skin which hath, too long suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.
MaVericK Kommandment II
Today I will ask the light to assign me tasks to which others have failed; yet guide me to pluck the seeds of success from their failures. I will ask the light to confront me with fears that will temper my spirits; yet endow me with the courage to laugh at my misgivings.
MaVericK Kommandment III
Today I am natures greatest miracle because no man in the city nor beast in the forest can create the same way I do. Value is placed to all things scarce: I am rare and therefore I am Extremely Valuable.
MaVericK Kommandment IV
Today I will multiply our worth a million fold. Today I choose to plant my dreams like a grain of wheat to multiply a million fold to feed all the people of earth.
MaVericK Kommandment V
Today I will Laugh at the world. We are the only beast in the forest given the gift of laughter and I will use it to ensure I continually rise from the ash of misfortune yet also use it to bring my inflated glory back down to earth.
MaVericK Kommandment VI
Today I will be the master of my emotions. Unbeknownst to most, but our moods are constantly churning in a cycle from happiness to depression and then back again. Weak is the one who acts in accordance to his emotions. Strong is the man who forces his actions to control his emotions. I will master my emotions through positive action.
MaVericK Kommandment VII
I will greet THIS Day with Love in my heart. Only the unseen power of love can melt all hearts and soften the hard edges of competition like rain upon the clay. Love will be my shield to thwart the arrows of hate and will forge my sword to slice through the negativity of the moment. Who can turn me down who's heart has opened to me.
MaVericK Kommandment VIII
Today I will persist until I succeed. Bulls are tested in the Orient by how many times they charge ahead despite the sting of the swords blade. Likewise i shall attack with the same steam. Always will i take another step for no one knows how many steps are required in order to reach my goal. I will always assume it lies around the next bend.
MaVericK Kommandment IX
I will Act NOW. Goals are Worthless, Dreams are but Dust. Only action will ignite the map's dashes to lead me to my treasure. Only Action can rip through the tide to take me to shores that only yesterday were but dreams. And if action is the principal by which my goals will be met then i will act NOW!
MaVericK Kommandment X
I will live THIS day as if it were our last. Today I realize that there were many who awoke believing it was just another day and before the sun set they lost their lives. Why have i been granted this extra day when those who didn't desearve to die fell and how many of those tragic stories were threaded with a mundane existance. If they only knew that today was there last day they would have lived it to its fullest. Therefore i greet the sunrise like a newborn given the gift of one more day and with this last precious day i shall rip and roar burning all the tires and lighting all the Fires!!!
Each week i am going to devote to one of these Kommandements and offer wisdom in my Dark Blast Newsletter for all the Zeniths to ponder and become stronger.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
NeoSurrealism
Where are you? Where am I? Where are we going? Will we ever meet? Will we ever see each other again? I love you regardless...
what is your state of being? Are you constantly in a state of here and now, or in a state of coming, or in a state of going. I personally am constantly in a state of going.. Where exactly am i going? why do i break the chains of now moment by moment. it is always in the next moment that glory is to be met with an eager eye and finger on the red button.
How can i be followed if i vanish before the tow rope can be tied. All this just spewed from my being while i ponder the direction of my direction. The film industry is changing and i am going to edge of where it will soon be. Before Hollywood was built the United Artists left New York looking for new ground and broke it in the valley of California that would become Los Angeles. They were escaping the rigid corruption of New York Cinema. Now Hollywood is the Vatican in a country that is on the verge of being "Compromised"
The state of America reminds me of the postwar Italian movement NeoRealism. this movement took its cue from the French New Wave and yet offered a distinct idea. French New Wave could be considered the equivalent of America's independent Film Movement and now that Independent film has been swallowed up by Hollywood.. What's next for Cinema?? Well if history rhymes could Neo Realism be reinventing itself in America. If so what would it be? For that lets look at the essence of Neo REalism
From WALT OSTRANDER
THE IMMORTALITY OF ITALIAN NEOREALISM
The influence of Italian neorealism in the cinematic world is extremely difficult to overstate. One can highlight its methods in American film noir of the late 40’s and early 50’s, its obvious links to works in the French new-wave, and its influence on international third world film of the time for its depiction of common people and its portrayal of the “real.” Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves is certainly neorealist; every principle of the movement is utilized within the film. It is a quiet, tragic anthem to the poverty-stricken working class of postwar Italy, and a beautiful work that has been part of the pallet of the auteur in cinematic movements ever since. It is perhaps the very antithesis to Hollywood film in its subject matter of “life as it is,” as screenwriter Cesare Zavattini has put it.
The stylistic characteristics of what is known as neorealism are readily identifiable, perhaps one of the most important being visual representation. The most appropriate subject for representation (at least from a “pure cinema” point of view) is reality itself. This is achieved perfectly in Bicycle Thieves by its method of filming on location, out in the real world, outside of a studio – not a created world inside a studio as was popular in Hollywood films of the time.
As powerful and provocative a style as it was, neorealism was very short-lived from an historical point of view. Only twenty-one or so films were made in the vein of the movement in a course of seven years, mainly because the creative energy behind it all was completely due to a real historical crisis. By the time Bicycle Thieves was conceived in 1948, the “revolution” of neorealism had reached the end of its rope as a style in itself. Italy was reinvented after the war as a capitalist society stuck in a stasis of unemployment. The film (as noted by the previously mentioned facial expressions of the actors) is balanced on a thin line separating ever-looming melancholy and idealism.
---
They say that once you hear about something its already over. the Wave of Trends are only pure in their first light and their first darkness. Everything else in between are the shadows of the True Light that has already come and went.
I always believed that history doesn't repeat it rhymes. NeoRealism will always be the Italian movement we all remember yet within the economic crisis that is America after the fall of Independent film what could be the equivalent to NeoRealism. I desire so much to discover this trend that has yet to be born. Its emerging right now in the consciousness of all filmmakers here in America. Though those who later will provide the commentary for what is certianly emerging will eventually name the movement that is gravitating towards itself i wish to privide a working title to the wave that is forming. I call it NeoSurrealism.
Why be too realistic when we have Reality TV... Why be Hollywood, which never seems to truly change. Why be independent when the essence of independent is dead. This leaves us with what... A unique blend of gripping provocative relentless film that mixes art and provides a surrealistic approach to the NOW and the moments JUST BEFORE and RIGHT AFTER.
and to avoid the potential cheesy conclusions brought forth by all those Matrix fanatics. Yes Neo is an apt word for none other than the idea that if True Immortal Cinema is the Zion of Human existence and the machines are most certainly Hollywood. They have killed cinema movements many times before by swallowing them whole and are going to enjoy watching this new movement die. After-all didn't Hollywood swallow itself by doing a complete 360 degree turn and became the Oppressive New York Cinema Machine that in its inception desperately seeked to abandon. Could NeoSurrealsim be the final battle, the dawn of peace where cinema goers would accept it as cinema for the people and not entertainment to be "Compromised" and "Exploited"
Only the shutters of lenses and eyes will tell.
what is your state of being? Are you constantly in a state of here and now, or in a state of coming, or in a state of going. I personally am constantly in a state of going.. Where exactly am i going? why do i break the chains of now moment by moment. it is always in the next moment that glory is to be met with an eager eye and finger on the red button.
How can i be followed if i vanish before the tow rope can be tied. All this just spewed from my being while i ponder the direction of my direction. The film industry is changing and i am going to edge of where it will soon be. Before Hollywood was built the United Artists left New York looking for new ground and broke it in the valley of California that would become Los Angeles. They were escaping the rigid corruption of New York Cinema. Now Hollywood is the Vatican in a country that is on the verge of being "Compromised"
The state of America reminds me of the postwar Italian movement NeoRealism. this movement took its cue from the French New Wave and yet offered a distinct idea. French New Wave could be considered the equivalent of America's independent Film Movement and now that Independent film has been swallowed up by Hollywood.. What's next for Cinema?? Well if history rhymes could Neo Realism be reinventing itself in America. If so what would it be? For that lets look at the essence of Neo REalism
From WALT OSTRANDER
THE IMMORTALITY OF ITALIAN NEOREALISM
The influence of Italian neorealism in the cinematic world is extremely difficult to overstate. One can highlight its methods in American film noir of the late 40’s and early 50’s, its obvious links to works in the French new-wave, and its influence on international third world film of the time for its depiction of common people and its portrayal of the “real.” Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves is certainly neorealist; every principle of the movement is utilized within the film. It is a quiet, tragic anthem to the poverty-stricken working class of postwar Italy, and a beautiful work that has been part of the pallet of the auteur in cinematic movements ever since. It is perhaps the very antithesis to Hollywood film in its subject matter of “life as it is,” as screenwriter Cesare Zavattini has put it.
The stylistic characteristics of what is known as neorealism are readily identifiable, perhaps one of the most important being visual representation. The most appropriate subject for representation (at least from a “pure cinema” point of view) is reality itself. This is achieved perfectly in Bicycle Thieves by its method of filming on location, out in the real world, outside of a studio – not a created world inside a studio as was popular in Hollywood films of the time.
As powerful and provocative a style as it was, neorealism was very short-lived from an historical point of view. Only twenty-one or so films were made in the vein of the movement in a course of seven years, mainly because the creative energy behind it all was completely due to a real historical crisis. By the time Bicycle Thieves was conceived in 1948, the “revolution” of neorealism had reached the end of its rope as a style in itself. Italy was reinvented after the war as a capitalist society stuck in a stasis of unemployment. The film (as noted by the previously mentioned facial expressions of the actors) is balanced on a thin line separating ever-looming melancholy and idealism.
---
They say that once you hear about something its already over. the Wave of Trends are only pure in their first light and their first darkness. Everything else in between are the shadows of the True Light that has already come and went.
I always believed that history doesn't repeat it rhymes. NeoRealism will always be the Italian movement we all remember yet within the economic crisis that is America after the fall of Independent film what could be the equivalent to NeoRealism. I desire so much to discover this trend that has yet to be born. Its emerging right now in the consciousness of all filmmakers here in America. Though those who later will provide the commentary for what is certianly emerging will eventually name the movement that is gravitating towards itself i wish to privide a working title to the wave that is forming. I call it NeoSurrealism.
Why be too realistic when we have Reality TV... Why be Hollywood, which never seems to truly change. Why be independent when the essence of independent is dead. This leaves us with what... A unique blend of gripping provocative relentless film that mixes art and provides a surrealistic approach to the NOW and the moments JUST BEFORE and RIGHT AFTER.
and to avoid the potential cheesy conclusions brought forth by all those Matrix fanatics. Yes Neo is an apt word for none other than the idea that if True Immortal Cinema is the Zion of Human existence and the machines are most certainly Hollywood. They have killed cinema movements many times before by swallowing them whole and are going to enjoy watching this new movement die. After-all didn't Hollywood swallow itself by doing a complete 360 degree turn and became the Oppressive New York Cinema Machine that in its inception desperately seeked to abandon. Could NeoSurrealsim be the final battle, the dawn of peace where cinema goers would accept it as cinema for the people and not entertainment to be "Compromised" and "Exploited"
Only the shutters of lenses and eyes will tell.
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