Quite a Buzz April 17, 2011

I met Ed Asner yesterday, and, as an afterthought, wished I’d taken more time to chat with him about his long career in film and television.

He had quite the paparazzi around him; with folks shooting video and snapping pictures so wildly, I thought I was at a fireworks display due to the bright lights!  Santa-like is a good description, and “old school” is another.  Mr. Asner got his start in Hollywood as Dave Keller in The Murder Men in 1961.  He did several films, but became exceptionally famous for his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Later in the spinoff, Lou Grant, which ran from 1977-1982, that role won him five Emmys. Asner has won more Emmy Awards for performing than any other male actor (eight total). In 2003, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

Asner is a member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a free speech organization that is dedicated to protecting comic book creators and retailers from prosecutions based on content. He serves as an advisor to the Rosenberg Fund for Children, an organization founded by the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, which provides benefits for the children of political activists, and as a board member for the wildlife conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife.

Ed Asner’s always been an activist, and he has always speculated that due to his political views at the time, his successful TV series, Lou Grant, was cancelled due to the wide publicity of his position on issues.

He is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and following his military service as a young man, Asner joined the Playwrights Theatre Company in Chicago, but left for New York, where to further pursue his acting career.

Recently, he’s been portraying President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a one-man play entitled FDR, which is why he’s in Alaska.  There are two shows today; and then later this year, he will star in a feature film ‘The Doppelganger Principle’, a courtroom drama, where he’ll portray a defense attorney.   ’Doppelganger’ will film in Anchorage using mainly an Alaskan crew and cast.  Ed got ahold of the script, and immediately found himself at home with the intriguing story.

In 2009, he starred as the voice of Carl Fredricksen in Pixar‘s award-winning animated film, Up.  In July 2010, Asner completed recording sessions for Shattered Hopes: The True Story of the Amityville Murders which is a forthcoming documentary on the 1974 DeFeo murders in Amityville, New York. Asner serves as the narrator for the film, which covers a forensic analysis of the murders, the trial in which 23-year old DeFeo son Ronald DeFeo Jr., was convicted of the killings, and the subsequent “haunting” story which is revealed to be a hoax. Earlier this year, Asner has been part of the sitcom Working Class on CMT, as butcher Hank Greziak.  At the age of 81 he is a Hollywood living legend.

Sweet Escape April 7, 2011

The first horror film dates back to 1915 when the movie The Golem featured monsters.  Just like present times, people like to be terrified, scared and surprised.  Horror film pioneers delighted in terrorizing us, using dark, shadowy images, and loved to keep us on edge.  And people keep paying for this privilege.

In earlier decades, the predatory nature of characters were prevalent, such as a part-wolf character, then in the 1990′s a more calculated personality was brought out in films, causing us to examine the psychopathic nature of people.  Look at more recent spooky, dark films, to see this point:  Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal.

While psychotic thrillers are not really my cup of tea, it makes me wonder why people love these so much, and why they are box-office hits.  Psychologists say we’re a species of habit, prone to overdoing whatever it is we like doing, and say we learn from awful, painful experiences.  We also live to soak up knowledge, and to gain an emotional high, no matter how gruesome, ugly, or unpleasant it is.  Our brains are trained to seek emotional stimulation, so even if we are watching a play, a dance troupe, or a singing performance, we respond with a positive appreciation of beauty, or a work of art; but we also have a response even if it’s negative.  So while we go to see a movie or read a book expecting a positive response, and a corresponding response emotionally, we also respond to negative exposure.  So, when we watch a horror film, we are fearful, but we are also cognitively aware we won’t have to do anything about the awful thing about to happen to the victim.  We want to help, but know we can’t, thus we know at a cortical, cognitive level that we do not have to act in a responsive way to those sub-cortical, emotional signals we are receiving.

Recently there was a Zombie movie filmed here, and now two other horror shows are slated for shooting in Alaska this summer.  I recently watched Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, about a ghost writer is hired to complete the memoirs of a British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan), but whose life is eventually put in jeopardy.  Ewan McGregor stars along with Timothy Hutton, and Kim Cattrall and James Belushi in this intriguing political thriller.  While there were moments of darkness in this film, it certainly was nothing compared to Polanski’s 1965 horror work, Repulsion.   The basic premise is the main character, Carol, has a fear of men.   She meets a man, withdraws further into her fear, suffers hallucinations, and propels into further madness.

Horror films seem to allow escape the depressions of life, (like any entertainment does), and the longer our economic crisis, the more we’ll need a sweet escape!

To Be or Not to Be April 6, 2011

Life’s decisions are tough.  What to do, when to console, when to discipline, when to love, when to leave everything alone.

While some choices and direction seems to get easier as we age, decisions aren’t always smooth sailing as we get “silver streaks”.

There are black balls you can twirl or shake and it tells you “YES” or “NO”.  Then, there are Wives Tales of how to tell if you are having a boy or girl by using Drano crystals.  That is supposed to help you decide how to fix up a new baby’s room–for a girl or boy, and what infant clothes to buy.  And, some people believe you can read Taro cards to predict the future and make decisions.  To me, it’s all really a crap shoot sometimes.

Certainly there is security in having someone just tell you what to do.  The military for instance, is pretty good at that.  Then there are factory jobs, or prisons.  Those places have very stringent rules and they can’t be broken.  The people in charge are constantly telling you what to do.

But, I’m talking about job choices, and life choices, and decisions that affect others.  It is very, very difficult to guess what is the best path when making personal choices.  Buying a house, getting married or divorced, taking a new job or deciding to have children are really big decisions; some of the biggest in our lives experts tell us.  They are intended to be life-long, and sometimes have us sitting on the fence when we can’t decide, or second-guessing if it truly will be the right choice.

It might help to pray or meditate about tough decisions, and others find it easy to just “go with their gut”.  I’m more methodical about choices, which of course, sometimes causes anxiety or much more time spent deciding!

All of us wish there was a magic wand we could wave, and clarity would appear. Well, someone please tell me when that gets invented!  Until then, guess I’ll agonize over my logic, and hope I do what’s right for the situation!!