"In honor of our friend reneeelisegoldsberry whose documentary "Satisfied" premieres at The Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, we flashback to a scene from OLTL. Either John McBain was the least sensible character I ever played (who wouldn't commit to this girl?) or this is one of the better jobs of acting I ever did (because no one should believe you'd let her walk out the door). For her part, Renee was deservedly nominated for an Emmy (mostly for being brilliant but also for having to put up with me for two years) and the entire time I worked with her I knew she was destined to do amazing things with her life and she has. Sending love and congratulations."
-Michael Easton on Renee Goldsberry, June 14, 2024 via Instagram
A documentary that will provoke discussion and debate about the ethical implications of Christian missionary work.
The true story of how one young man’s obsession with evangelical religion proved fatal provides the shocking backbone to co-directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s “The Mission,” a documentary that will provoke discussion and debate about the ethical implications of Christian missionary work. By interviewing friends, family, researchers, and fellow proselytizers, the film examines the…
It looked like there was a little more going on here than just a simple screwing around with guns when the defendant puts a clip in the chamber and points the gun and says, 'Do you feel lucky?’ -Judge
Riley Andrew Spitler, Michigan inmate 974460, born 1998, incarceration intake March 2016 at age 17, released September 2021
Manslaughter, Controlled Substance Delivery/Manufacture, Use of a Weapon the Commission of a Felony
In July 2019, a man who shot his brother as a teen was resentenced to four to 15 years in prison. Riley Spitler was 16 when he was charged with pointing a gun at his 20-year-old brother Patrick and pulling the trigger, killing him, on Dec. 6, 2014.
Originally, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in 2016, but the conviction was overturned twice by the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled that Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain improperly handled the admission of testimony made by three friends of the victim.
In January 2019, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear the state's appeal, and it was left up to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office to decide to retry the case or resentence Spitler. The prosecutor’s office chose the latter, and Spitler, then 20, was resentenced on one count of manslaughter.
“I’ll always love my brother. There will never be a day where I don’t miss him, where I don’t think about him,” Spitler said at the sentencing. “ I wake up every single day and look outside and think about what I’m incarcerated for.”
While Spitler’s lawyer, Alfred Brandt, argued that the incident was an accident, and that Spitler didn’t know the gun was loaded, the Judge said it seemed like more than just an accident.
“The unfortunate thing here is when you read one of these (cases) you think about all the other cases where you see the accidental shootings that got out of hand,” the judge said “..It looked like there was a little more going on here than just a simple screwing around with guns...(Spitler) puts a clip in the chamber and points the gun and says, 'Do you feel lucky?’”
According to police, Spitler said he de-chambered a bullet and then said “Let’s see if it’s your lucky day.” Spitler called 911 and Blackman-Leoni police found his brother with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
Spitler is also serving time for additional convictions of possession with intent to deliver marijuana and two counts of felony firearm, with a sentence of four to six years in prison issued in March 2016.
“I started reading Ed McBain when I was probably 11 or 12,” [Stephen] King said, looking at his row of several novels by the prolific author of crime procedurals. “The bookmobile would come by. We lived out in the country. The first thing I remember is, I’m reading one of these books, and [detectives] Carella and Kling go to interview a woman about some crime. And she’s sitting there in her slip and she’s drunk, and she grabs her breast and squeezes and says, ‘In your eye, copper.’ And I thought to myself: This is not the Hardy Boys. Okay? It made an impression. It felt more real.”
Also, King about why he doesn’t think about his legacy:
“There are very few popular novelists who have a life after death. Agatha Christie, for one. I can’t think of anybody else who’s a popular novelist, really. People like John D. MacDonald, he was a terrifically popular novelist in his day, but when he died, his books disappeared off the racks. They were ultimately disposable. I think that a couple of the horror novels might last. They might be read 50 or a hundred years from now, ‘The Shining’ and ‘Salem’s Lot’ and ‘It.’ If you ask people, ‘What vampire do you know?,’ they’d say, ‘Dracula.’ ‘Well, who invented Dracula?’ ‘I don’t [expletive] know.’ So, 50 or a hundred years from now, people will say: ‘Oh, Pennywise, the clown. Yeah, sure.’ ‘Who is Stephen King?’ They won’t know.”
— Book Tour: A tour of Stephen King’s personal library
Now I’m thinking about deceased popular novelists who are still bringing in new readers in large numbers. Asimov? Bradbury? Is Hemingway widely read by anybody younger than Boomers?
"...INSTRUMENTAL DRIVING MUSIC FOR FELONS" -- ONLY ON MAN'S RUIN.
PIC INFO: Spotlight on front, back cover art, & CD release poster art for "The Desert Sessions" Vol. 1 & 2 by alternative musical collective THE DESERT SESSIONS, released by Man's Ruin Records in 1997. Artwork by the late, great Frank Kozik.
Featuring: Josh Homme (KYUSS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE), Ben Shepherd (SOUNDGARDEN, HATER), Brand Bjork (KYUSS, FU MANCHU), John McBain (MONSTER MAGNET), Alfredo Hernandez (KYUSS), Pete Stahl (EARTHLINGS?, WOOL), Fred Drake (EARTHLINGS?), Dave Catching (EARTHLINGS?).