Drive-In Saturday: 'OUR DEAD'

"OUR DEAD" was my final project in TV Production 2 class at Pensacola Junior College in 1984. We used a video camera that weighed about 25 pounds and required you to wear a battery belt weighing about 15 pounds. We were absolutely ordered not to point the lens into the sun or get the camera wet. Did you see the sunset we shot into, or the rain on the window panes? Even so, I got an A. Wish I recalled the names of the folks who worked with me on this, but it was long ago and far away.

Peace.

Colors, Patterns & Textures

I'm heading tonight to the opening of a solo art show by Melissa Arrant, wife of my friend Chris Arrant. The show is in the Amelia Tapper Center at Gulf Coast Community (State?) College from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Come out and say hello. The show is called "Colors, Patterns & Textures," referencing Melissa's colorfield work.

EDIT: Back from the show, which had a BIG turnout. Here's a shot of Melissa getting her picture taken:

Meanwhile, I've obviously been away from the blog for several days. You might be distracted or entertained by the way I've been wasting my evenings, which will begin to become clear tomorrow as I launch a new regular feature that I'm going to call "Drive-In Saturday" (with that ever present wink and nod to David Bowie).

I have been salvaging old videos I created over the years and will be finishing the edits on them to make them presentable if not actually artistic. One per week, starting with my earliest effort, a "final exam" project for my TV Production II class at Pensacola Junior College in 1984, a mean and simple little black-and-white zombie short called "Our Dead."

Here's a screen capture from the film:

Next up, will be a 30-second PSA I made in 1989 for a contest I'm pretty sure I never entered. I call it "Future Warning," and it has been fiddled with a bit. Here's a screen capture:

Yes, that's me transmitting from the far future date of 2005. I have several others I'll be working on over the coming weeks, but the one I'm most pleased with getting some closure over is the one that goes with this screen capture:

That's the Scoutship Nokomis coming in for an emergency landing on an uncharted (and unfriendly) planet. My former brother-in-law, the late Karl Esneul, and I spent a long Saturday in 1989 shooting models and lasers and explosions to make special effects for a movie that we never got around to shooting the live action for. I have recently built a miniature set and used a vintage G.I. Joe astronaut figure to create a few segments that will allow a story to be told, though I confess that I don't recall if we ever actually came up with a storyline or just strung together some FX. This one is for Karl.

Look for the films every Saturday for the foreseeable future. (I have a lot of old video to work through.) If you see something you enjoyed, please let me know. It's pretty embarrassing to be putting some of this out there for the public to chew up. But then, I do that with my stories, too. So I guess I can take the shots.

Hope this finds you all well, and I sincerely hope the new year is being kind to you. Thanks for following.

Peace.

What a strange Shyamalan year so far...

LEFT: A woman feeds a two-headed calf born this week in a village in the nation of Georgia.(AP)

Here we are, nine whole days into a brand new year, and I don’t think I’d be the only one who’s ready to call a do-over. This has been one long, weird week.

Does it seem to anyone else like we’re living in an M. Night Shyamalan movie? I keep waiting for the twist ending.

I mean, look at the evidence: 3,000 blackbirds fall out of the sky in Arkansas after apparently flying themselves to death; another 500 plummet to the earth in Louisiana. Hundreds more fall in Kentucky, 100 in New Zealand, 50 in Sweden.

Is it a “Happening”? Are the trees making them suicidal? Are they smacking into invisible spaceships? Is this one of the “Signs”? Have they run afoul of “The Last Airbender”?

Scientists say not to worry, that this kind of thing happens all the time. (Such as the mass whale stranding in New Zealand, fish kill off New Jersey and penguin die-off in Brazil, all last year.) Experts blame cold weather — or in the case of the Arkansas blackbird massacre, fireworks, maybe.

Meanwhile, two million dead fish float in Chesapeake Bay; 40,000 dead crabs wash up in England; a fish kill in Brazil is estimated at 100 tons — all in the last week or so. Is it the fault of “The Lady in the Water”?

It’s enough to make you consider reading (or re-reading) the book of Revelation. A learned friend assures me there’s nothing in there about birds falling from the sky, but with all the visions in there you just never know.

Not all of the weird the news is bad, however. In a Georgian village, a two-headed calf is born and becomes an instant TV star. And in New York City, a man jumps from a ninth-story window and survives by landing — no, not on a two-headed calf from “The Village” — in a giant pile of garbage. Is it possible he’s actually “Unbreakable”?

On second thought, maybe the fact that I didn’t have to make any of this up bodes well for the news business in 2011. It’s just going to be another typically strange new year. I have a “Sixth Sense” about it.

Peace .

Tim Dorsey on Serge and Electric Barracuda

Someone you should know more about. Tim Dorsey is a Florida treasure.

Glimpses Through a Bay Window

Short photo post tonight:

After leaving work, I headed over to the library where a showing of Barbara Mulligan's work is being exhibited this month. Tonight was the opening of her posthumous "Bay Windows" show, which will hang until February. Read all about it here.

I got to speak with Barbara's husband, George, and her sons Sean and Mark, all of whom were very kind in remarking on my columns or reporting in the past. I also got to speak with some friends and acquaintences, including Bettina Mead and Rebecca Saunders of the library, Martha Spiva (who is still finalizing her husband Ernest's memoir), Carroll McCauley, John McDonald, and Alvin Peters.

Above left is George, talking with visitors to the exhibit. At right are Rebecca and Bettina, discussing upcoming library events.

(The big event coming up is the annual Books Alive festival of reading, which will be Feb. 5 at Gulf Coast Community College. Some years I have participated as a local author, and some years I have served as a moderator and author wrangler. I hope to do a little of both this year. I'll let you know.)

If you're in the area, make time to go see the art and consider the talent and dedication of a truly visionary local artist.

Peace.

Goodbye, Altaira

Anne Francis, the actress who first made her mark as "Altaira" (or Alta) in the classic "Forbidden Planet," died Sunday of complications from pancreatic cancer. She was 80. Read the People magazine story here.

We watched Forbidden Planet on Sunday night after all the family visitors had left, not knowing that she had died. I had recorded it from TCM over the weekend. At the time, we talked about her costar, Leslie Nielsen, and what a dashing leading man he made as Capt. J.J. Adams of the United Planets starship C57D, an obvious template for James T. Kirk. Neilsen died Nov. 28 of last year.

As I write this, Francis' official website is down, having been overloaded by visitors. Apparently she had used the site to keep fans updated about her battles with cancer. You might try it later, if you're curious.

She was also Emmy-nominated for her single-season role in 1965 as "Honey West," a noir detective who lost her clothes as she solved murder cases. And you might remember her from her Twilight Zone appearance in "The After Hours," in which the mannequins come alive after a store closes.

You can sign the online guestbook for Francis here.

Rest in peace, Ms. Francis.

Library art show pays tribute to Barbara Mulligan

PANAMA CITY — Barbara Mulligan’s latest show will give you a glimpse into the natural world that she so loved — the wildlife and ecosystems of Bay County.

A talented and accomplished artist and writer, Barbara passed away on Aug. 28, at age 75, after succumbing to a brain tumor. But Barbara already had her next exhibit lined up, longtime friend Bettina Mead said.

“Well over a year ago, Barbara asked me if she could have the first show of 2011,” said Mead, who arranges events and art exhibits for the Bay County Public Library. “Naturally, I said yes. Of course, none of us knew at that time how tragic 2010 would be for her, her family and for all of us who loved and admired her.”

The show Barbara wanted to display was her “Bay Windows” series, a collection of art that was first presented in the state Capitol while Jeb Bush was governor. The work on the series was begun in the fall of 2003, and the show was hung in the Cabinet Meeting Room in Tallahassee from May 22 to Sept. 8, 2006.

The official opening will be Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at the new Bay County Public Library, 898 W. 11th St. in Panama City. The show will hang there through Feb. 5. The event and viewing are free to the public. For more information, call 850-522-2120 or e-mail bmead@nwrls.com

Mead said she was hoping for a good turnout for the opening ceremony.

“Her family is so pleased that we are having the show per her wishes,” she said.

In a written description of the Bay Windows series, Barbara explained how she wanted to create a “stained glass” look for the work, first carving woodblocks that were printed onto watercolor paper. She also used custom frames to resemble old window sashes. The paintings were mounted on mat board and sealed against double-strength window glass.

“A ‘clear glass’ window pane was left in the lower half of the work to create a ‘view’ of a scene one might see in Bay County,” she wrote.

It’s also a view into the heart and soul of a mature talent, nonetheless taken too soon.

Peace.

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(This was my "Undercurrents" column for The News Herald on Jan. 2, 2011.)