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January, 2004 Vol.5. NO.1.......................................................Pages 6 and 7
Excertped
From Armada of Terror Heading Towards British Ports and Oil Rigs By Gordon Thomas Britain’s
North Sea oil rigs and costal refineries are prime
targets for Al Qaeda’s fleet of twenty-eight ships.
The vessels are feared to contain suicide bombers and
cargoes of explosives and poisons, including anthrax.
Code-named “Operation Noble Eagle,” the ships
are being hunted in the biggest sea search since the
Royal Navy tracked and sank the Nazi raider, Bismark, and
the pocket battleship, Graf Spee, in World War Two. Recently,
“important information” was gathered by US
officials from some of the nine British terrorist
suspects held at Camp Delta on Guantanamo Bay. They
agreed to talk to MI6 and CIA agents in return for a
guarantee that they will be sent back to Britain to face
trial. Three of the detainees at Camp Delta provided
“hard details” about the bin Laden fleet. They
identified their countries of registration, the flags
that they fly under and the names of their ships. A
senior US Navy intelligence officer helping to hunt Al
Qaeda’s armada said: “Oil rigs and refineries
are at their highest risk since 9/11. We have good
information that some of the bin Laden boats are carrying
high powered speedboats. These could be launched off
shore with a thousand pounds of explosives on board.
Their suicide crew could ram them into an oil rig or
refinery.” Articles
also available on weblog -
http://www.globe-intel.net/weblog, e-mail Gordon Thomas
at gthomas@indigo.ie
Good Sayings Friends
don’t let friends take home ugly men Beauty is
only a light switch away. If life is
a waste of time, and time is a waste of life, then
let’s all get wasted together and have the time of
our lives. Remember,
it’s not, “How high are you?” it’s,
“Hi, how are you?” Fighting
for peace is like screwing for virginity. No matter
how good she looks, some other guy is sick and tired of
putting up with her shit. At the
feast of ego everyone leaves hungry. It’s
hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been
anywhere. Make love,
not war. Hell, do both—GET MARRIED! If voting
could really change things, it would be illegal. If pro is
opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?
Congress! Express
Lane: Five beers or less You’re
too good for him. No wonder
you always go home alone. A
Woman’s Rule of Thumb: If it has tires or testicles,
Taking Over the World Movie
Making in New Mexico I had to
see for myself. After
writing about its process for over a year, from Imagine
Productions taking over Garson Studios in November
’02 to the invitation only showing in Santa Fe
November ’03, I finally caught “The
Missing” last week on the big screen. It was Ron
Howard, I had high hopes. Argh!
What a horrible movie to look at. My jaws
hurt from clenching my teeth for two hours. All that
money, all that talent, all that work, yet they still
somehow made New Mexico, and Cate Blanchett look grim and
ugly. I’m
not here to pile on another bad review of “The
Missing.” There are plenty Screenwriter
William Goldman wrote in his book: “There are
three types of movies. Those that try to be good
and succeed, those that try to be good and fail, and
those that have no intention of being any good. Most
movies fall in the last category.” Let’s
not concern ourselves with the third category
type—movies like Ravenhawk, Kickboxer 4, Suspect
Zero, Santa Fe, drivel of that ilk. Plenty of
those have been made in New Mexico. Kickboxer
4 would make a terrific case study for practitioners
of alternative healing. How to restore the Chi of a
person whose life force had been completely sucked out
after watching Kickboxer 4. If the Devil ever
comes to your door, invite her in to watch K4.
She’ll never bother you again. Of
course, there is the special case of the movie that had
the audacity to be titled Santa Fe. Written and
directed by Andrew Shea, who apparently lived here for 6
months, hated everything about it. Naturally, he had to
make a movie. If you ever rent Santa Fe,
be sure to have your acupuncturist and hypnotherapist on
call ahead of time. If you ever meet Andrew Shea, kick
him in the ass. Ron
Howard makes decent movies. The Paper,
Backdraft, Apollo 13. Nothing great, but fun,
very watchable. Then he comes to Santa Fe, with his
fine reputation, stellar cast, and a budget big enough to
add a new lane to Cerrillos Road. What he turns out
is the grotesque: The Missing. Lawrence
Kasdan’s credentials are impeccable. Body Heat,
Grand Canyon, The Big Chill. He came to New
Mexico with a big cast, big ideas, and big money, what we
got was a big nothing: Wyatt Earp. In Arizona that
summer, at the exact same moment in a parallel universe,
they made Tombstsone for a quarter of the money in
half the time. A much better movie of essentially
the same story. The
lovable John Carpenter made the wonderful Starman,
and the dark fun Halloween. Put him in New
Mexico and he cranks out the misogynist monstrosity Vampires.
Or the deadly dull Ghosts of Mars. What
happens? Is
it because they make these westerns? Are westerns a
dead genre? No. Clint Eastwood made the fine Unforgiven
in 1992. Dances With Wolves was another good
film. Westerns aren’t the problem. Is
it the rarefied air of New Mexico that befogs the brains
of the out-of-staters? That may be, but I perceive
something else at work. It
is something as simple as saying grace before a meal,
honoring the food and where it came from. In the
opening scene of Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye
shoots a deer, his Indian father, Chingachgook, stands
over the slain animal and intones a blessing, honoring
the deer’s spirit and bravery, thanking it for being
their food. It
is the same with the land. If you honor the spirit
and the energy of the place, you will learn something,
and get something in return. When
P.J. O’Rourke wrote about Las Vegas, Nevada, he
talked about the history of the land, which had always
been strange. Tales of tribes that vanished
overnight. He wrote: “It was as if the
land itself demanded that a city like Las Vegas be built
on it.” What
does Santa Fe demand? Perhaps the movie makers come
to New Mexico with preconceived ideas, ideas that
don’t fit in here. Well, how could they know? No
one ever taught them. What if the very land itself has
dreams, what if those dreams have nothing to do with
movies? If
film makers want to shoot on Zia Pueblo, before they
begin they are required to have someone do a ritual,
honoring the spirit of the place. That’s a start.
The
mountains, the trees, the crows, were all here long
before we came. The mountains send down our water,
the trees give us wisdom, the crows keep the Sacred Law.
Perhaps we are here only because of their grace. If
I was a movie big shot coming to New Mexico, I might take
the Zen approach of Beginner’s Mind. As if I
knew nothing. Even before I signed and sealed the
deal, I might take a walk in those mountains, sit
silently to declare my intent, and ask the spirits what
they require. Maybe
I’d leave a copy of my script and some scraps of
meat in a place where the crows gather. Find out
what they think. “All
calculations based on our experiences elsewhere fail in
New Mexico.’’
—Lew Wallace Governor, NM
Territories 1878-1881
Special thanks to Donald Du Pont of De
Vargas Center Cineplex
Advertising Deadline for the Febuary,2004 issue is December 19, 2003 For More Information call (505) 471-5177 or (505) 747-0589
FILM INDUSTRY OFFICES SPACE FOR RENT----------SHORT OR LONG TERM FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL ORLANDO VIGIL 505-473-0669
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Inside This Issue
About the Cover....... 3 Ad Sales Person Wanted.... 2 Armada of Terror...... 6 Book Reviews............... 15 Gathering: The Sacred Breath...... 5 GE-Free Northern California. 4 Good Sayings6 Homeless Assistance Monies...... Inside the Camper Shell............... 10 Local Organic Profiles... 12 Mad Cow Disease... 11 Movie Making in NM...... 7 No Child Left Behind..... 1 North Central NM Events 3 Pregnancy Q and A...... 15 Testing Faith............... 14 Urban Legend............... 14 What Bush Wants, Bush Gets........ 14 “What Does Love Mean?”.... 8 Why Can Tattoos Kill............... 11 |
