The waiting is the hardest part....

I'm still waiting to get this powerbook!! Hopefully it will be this weekend. In the meantime, last night I went to see a documentary called "Trumbo", it's all about the screenwriter/author Dalton Trumbo who was blacklisted in the 1950's for having supposed ties to the Communist party. Trumbo, wrote the 1939 anti- war novel "Johnny Got His Gun" (Metallica used clips from the film version of "Johnny Got His Gun" which was made in the 1970's and directed by Trumbo himself in their video for "One"), he wrote the screenplays for "Thirty Seconds Over Toyko", "I Married a Witch" and "We Are Who Are Young" prior to being blacklisted.

Trumbo along with Ring Lardner Jr. (who wrote "MASH") was part of a group called "The Hollywood Ten", they were ten actors, directors and writers who were blacklisted and ostracized because they refused to rat out their friends. And so therefore their careers in Hollywood were pretty much over in the late 1940's and for pretty much most of the 1950's. Trumbo continued to write screenplays during this time under assumed names, the screen plays that he wrote at that time when he was blacklisted include "Roman Holiday" and "The Brave One" for which he won the Oscar and didn't collect that Oscar until 1975. Dalton Trumbo, began writing again under his own name in 1960 when he wrote the screenplay for "Spartacus".

"Trumbo" is a really fascinating look into the rebellious, stubborn and funny mind of Dalton Trumbo. The film is also a really interesting look at his life especially during the period that he was blacklisted and the effect that had on his family. Among those people that are interviewed are his son and youngest daughter, the widow of fellow "Hollywood Ten" writer Hugo Butler and Kirk Douglas. Actors such as Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, Donald Southerland and Paul Giamatti read the letters Trumbo wrote throughout the years to various people everyone from directors to the telephone company.

If "Trumbo" is playing at a theater near you I would suggest going to see it. I would also suggest picking up a copy of "Johnny Got His Gun". You'll find that Trumbo's work mirrors what is going on today.

Okay onto to the music for today.

Elvis Perkins In Dearland "All The Night Without Love" it's just so good and pretty.



And here is the Metallica video for "One", this is actually one of my favorite Metallica songs. And I think the video is really well done.

Opitimism....pass it on

Going on a bit of a dork rant here... but I really do mean this! Sometimes it's very hard to be optimistic and to really believe in ourselves and not believe our most negative of reviews and not loose sight of what we want in life. I saw this PSA when I was watching TV last night and rarely do I get moved by the message of a PSA on TV. But I thought the concept of this PSA was cute and the message was a really great one! Pay it forward my friends!!