#thank you dallas for giving me this program a whole new world has opened up for me

[maxillo]

corn

youtube link

[clericbyers]

I JUST CONNECTED A DOT okay so i was thinking about it and?? remember that news program at the end of s3?? where they’re talking about like demonic powers at work in hawkins or w/e and zoom in on the dnd book?? when i first watched i was like “haha funny they think it’s caused by dnd” bUT WHAT IF IT IS BC MINDFLAYER IS HOMOPHOBIA AND UPSIDEDOWN STUFF IS GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO FIND AND DND IS BYLER AND THEY’RE COMING TO TERMS WITH THEIR FEELINGS AND SGDJGKBGNGNFNDJFKFK -7s

OH??? OH....ohhhh...I think you connected some dots here! Let’s get into it, yeah?

So, this is the shot in the TV special broadcast about Hawkins where D&D is mentioned.

The narrator says, “Some believe a rise in Satanism is to blame.” Blame for what? Blame for the mysterious happenings in the heartland / Hawkins in particular.

Now, as you said it’s funny that the focus is on D&D here when it comes to “rise in Satanism”. The 80s was full of “Satanic Panic” (like rock and roll and punk and horror films and all that) as much as it was about the Soviet Union and the Cold War. It was sometimes tied hand in hand. D&D was considered “Satan’s game” back in the day, much how I guess it’s seen in today’s time that video games with gun violence encourage people kids to use guns. D&D was thought to be the game occults, Satanists, and witches used to recruit kids into their cults. The obsession with these role-played characters was often mislinked to the role players’ deaths, in particular, the story of James Dallas Egbert III in 1979. Long story short, Egbert was a 16-year-old super genius, but he had a lot of stress from school and his parents as part of the prodigy circuit, he wasn’t very popular, and he coped by diving into drugs and D&D. When he disappeared, D&D was to blame, but there was also information about his drug use and his struggle with coming to terms with and hiding his homosexuality. Yup, Dallas was gay.

Talk about Egbert’s drug use and sexuality didn’t float for his parents so the detective, William Dear, (he later wrote a book about it all) turned media attention toward D&D (for the sake of privacy) but the media ran with that blamed Egbert’s disappearance on delusion thanks to LARPing via D&D. Egbert was then thought to have been sacrificed in a Satanic ritual as D&D has in the DM guide (paraphrasing a bit here but you get the point) and basically, D&D was hailed as the evil Satanic game in the media. There’s more to the story of course but I’ll stop there for the sake of keeping to what dots we want to connect here about D&D, Satanism, the UD/MF, and Byler. (Which is such an odd sentence but anyway, let’s move on.)

You know what else is deemed satanic, especially in the 80s? Homosexuality. And if the Upside Down / Mind Flayer represents homosexuality and/or at least internalized homophobia, and the Upside Down is the Satanic presence in Hawkins that is to blame for the conspiracies and evil in the town, then the connection of bringing up D&D, thought to be a game for Satanists, when referencing what is to blame for the evil in Hawkins makes sense. But we know that D&D is also the metaphor used for Mike and Will’s relationship. A gay relationship that would have been seen as satanic just as much as D&D was in their time. So Satanism is to blame, Satanism tied to D&D, D&D being tied to Mike and Will’s shifting relationship, a relationship that, if it was only friendship, would not be considered evil. 

“Some believe a rise in Satanism is to blame,” can then be turned into, “Some believe a rise in D&D is to blame.” Knowing that the events of the UD/MF are based off the campaign the Party is playing, we can then substitute D&D for the MF as so: “Some believe a rise in the Mind Flayer’s presence is to blame.” Also knowing that D&D is the show’s metaphor for Mike and Will’s relationship gives you, “Some believe a rise in homosexuality is to blame.” Homosexuality is akin to Satanism for many at this time, especially in the heartland of America, so it’s an apt substitution even without referencing the Mind Flayer. Thing is, what is a “rise in homosexuality” anyway? And that brings me back to your point about Mike and Will coming to terms with their feelings.

The part of the Mind Flayer that was in Will still exists in this dimension and that is what they fight off in ST3. If the Mind Flayer represents puberty and growing up, that also includes coming to grips with one’s sexuality and facing both internalized homophobia and homosexuality itself. I’ll note that Will knows the Mind Flayer is back after he’s just finished destroying his childhood safe space and has to come to grips with liking Mike and Mike (in his mind) not liking him back. He knows the terrors of being gay and the internalized hatred of it is back, he has that connection to it because it is his darkness, the part of the Mind Flayer in him that stayed, the part of his thoughts filled with love for Mike and self-hatred for feeling that way, has come to terrorize Hawkins again.

The Mind Flayer is defeated by happy memories, by comfort, by love: the opposite of the darkness that it is. The opposite of hatred is love after all! That being said, it also means that the Party as a whole has bonded again through love themselves (as we see when they finally reunite just in time for the final battle). Mike and Will though have a schism that is tied to the Mind Flayer as much as they bonded through love against the Mind Flayer in ST2. In those three months after Starcourt, we learn that this split is no longer (the Mind Flayer is defeated after all), Mike and Will have made up, and D&D is a focus between them again. Not to be cheesy but..love wins, my dudes. Anyway, we have here D&D the Satanist game, the game that got popular media attention because a closeted gay teenage prodigy from Ohio played it (might I add that the book Dear wrote about that whole case came out in 1984), the game that is a marker of Will and Mike’s relationship. You can see where this is going.

Back to “rise in homosexuality.” It’s not so much a rise in homosexuality (though on the surface people still think of it as a fad) as much as it is a rise in acknowledging it, in coming to terms with homosexuality and defeating the self hatred, ie. the Mind Flayer.

Now real quickly, the Mind Flayer is an enemy monster in D&D, it’s not unique to Stranger Things. It’s also called an Illithid and these are psionic creatures that feast on their enemies’ brains. A lot of what the Mind Flayer does in ST3 is similar to this thing called ceremorphosis (basically what the MF did when it took over the Flayed in ST3, as in taking over their brains and their mannerisms like a parasite does to a host body). In ST, we see that played out in a more literal sense of being flayed with the Meat Flayer (as I call it on occasion). Now the thing about the Mind Flayer is that it’s a physical monster but it is also a representation of the spread of ideas (it’s a parasite in the brain and that’s essentially what ideas are, or as Dawkins puts it, a meme). The idea in this case is homophobia, the self hatred in Will that spread to an outward hatred that then comes after the Party and in particular El. Why El? We could say it’s because she is the one in the way of Will’s affections but also, she is the one that Mike (who has been proven able to pull Will out from the Mind Flayer’s influence, out of the internalized self hatred) has been using to avoid coming to terms with his own sexuality.

El is a barrier for Mike. El, who has powers and the ability to destroy the monsters, is a shield for more than just defeating the physical terrors of the Upside Down, she also shields Mike from facing his truth, the metaphysical terrors of the Upside Down. When her powers are taken away by the monster itself, by the spread of this idea, Mike’s shield is gone. El survives, she still manages to turn Billy for him to make the sacrifice play because she has the happy memories and the love, but the shield is broken. It’s broken the entire time the Party confronts the Mind Flayer. Also noting that Mike is the one who tore off the giant piece of the Meat Flayer that was still on El’s leg back in the cabin before they made it to the supermarket. He is the one who tries to save the shield from the bite / infection of the idea and tries to salvage their relationship too in the supermarket, but El still has the Meat/Mind Flayer in her and taking that out in Starcourt destroys the shield (her powers and in a way, Mike’s attraction to her--I mean, she was like a real life Will the Wise if we get down to it). Mike then is face to face with his biggest fear: growing up in full--not what he thinks it should be as he parroted to Will in that argument, but what it is for him--which means accepting his sexuality. By three months in, it seems he’s done that, or is at least open to the prospect if standing in front of an open closet door while not responding to a kiss from his supposed female love interest shortly after flirting with his male best friend is anything to go off of.

tl;dr D&D is a metaphor for Will and Mike’s relationship, but D&D was also seen as a Satanic game and homosexuality was considered a disease from Satan. The Mind Flayer represents homosexuality/internalized homophobia and is a native monster to D&D, tying the Satanic references even closer. The final piece is that D&D is used throughout ST to represent/reference Mike and Will’s relationship. D&D which is being referenced as satanic in that TV spot, something Mike and Will’s relationship would be seen as if it wasn’t just friendship, meaning it’s romantic or at least something they want to be romantic.

even shorter tl;dr Mike and Will are gay and the world is scared of their love for each other as much as they are scared of their love, too.

[videoassocdallas]

Bart Chat 2/23/19 Greetings all,   We are very excited about DOCUFEST coming up October 3rd-6th at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, but before we get to that, we have a program coming up this Saturday at The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth.  As you may or may not know, they have a great Gordon Parks photo exhibit going on there. Most People know Gordon Parks from Shaft fame but he was also a great photographer and seeing the show is worth the trip.  We are teaming about with Amon Carter to show his earlier documentaries, Diary of a Harlem Family (1968, 20 minutes) and The World of Piri Thomas (1968, 60 minutes). Parks tells the story of the Fontenelle family. He was inspired to make this film after photographing the Fontenelles for a Life magazine photo essay on race and poverty in an attempt to show that, regardless of race and class, families across America all work to provide for their children. This a rare opportunity to see these films so please check them out. The World of Piri Thomas gives an unflinching view of the “mean streets” of Spanish Harlem as told by one of its most noted inhabitants. In this film, Thomas, who was a painter, poet, author, ex-con, and ex-junkie, shares his experiences and reads from his book, Down These Mean Streets.   Now back to DocuFest.  We live in, shall we say, unique times when questions about what is real and what is fake constantly permeate decision making. Should I click on that? Can you believe what he said? Can that be true? In these titles, DocuFest presents fresh oasis of media that ascribes to presenting reality and framing reality in a way to make us better citizens, to create awareness, and make us whole in a time when the news makes us feel empty, angry, less connected to the world and in the end, less human. Come to the Angelika Film Center Dallas and spend four days with us and you can rediscover joy, brilliance, tragedy and be moved by it all. This fest is more than just a series of movies, it is a way to reconnect with your sanity. (Did I oversell this?)    The first two nights, we have two theaters. Opening night, we start with a preview of Flannery, a new feature film about the great southern writer Flannery O’Connor.  This is a really great doc by a good friend, Elizabeth Coffman, whose work we have shown before, but this is her best film to date. If you ever read O’Connor’s work, this film tells her fascinating story in a style that works with her style.  At the same time, in another world in the next screening room, we have Now or Never: A Tony Romo Story.  We have seen him play, we have seen him talk, now see how he attained success with interviews of family and friends who knew him back in the day. Then our late shows on Thursday have A Woman’s Work, by Yu Gu, a documentary about NFL cheerleaders who are fighting for their rights.  It follows class action lawsuits and the women who have the courage to stand up to the NFL for their rights. Then we have a classic: When DA Pennebaker passed away, we wanted to show one of his films to honor his memory and what he meant to documentary film. We thought of The War Room (directed by Chris Hegedus) because we have an election coming soon and we thought about Don’t Look Back, which is the obvious choice and we don’t do that, so we went with Ziggy Stardust to remember both Pennebaker and Bowie.    Pretty cool for opening night.   On Friday night, we start with a new documentary about legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham, in 3D!!!!!!!  It’s hard to imagine modern dance without the influence of Cunningham and his lifelong collaborator and partner John Cage. In his film, the filmmaker assembles dancers from the Merce Cunningham dance company to perform the classic works, in a new way. Often 3D can be a trick or a gadget but here with an artist working with moving in space, 3D brings it alive. At the same time (sorry, on Thursday and Friday night you will have to make tough choices) we are proud to show Midnight Traveler, the story of filmmaker Hassan Fazili’, who had a bounty on his head from the Taliban and had to leave with his wife and their two daughters. In this film, shot with a mobile device, he documents the everyday moments of family life interspersed with the peril of this dangerous journey. This film helps put a voice to the people who are having to leave their countries, seeing, knowing and understanding their struggles.   The late-night Friday program is just as special. Varda by Agnes is a film that was on many best-of lists from Toronto. Agnes Varda has had a long and fascinating career as a filmmaker, and she gets to tell her story in this doc. (We have been happy to show her work for years, including the great Beaches of Agnes.)  In this film, we see her in many different audiences talking about her work. It is a great way to hear her talk about and view her work. It’s a must-see.   And finally, the last program is controversial (Can you believe we would do that?) It is American Dharma, Errol Morris’ film about Steve Bannon.  This played a few festivals last year and Errol got blasted for giving Bannon some oxygen.  Indeed, I was not keen on the idea of the film and then I saw it. Bannon does get to put this burn it all down point of view in the film, while Morris does call him on things, it is not as much as most audiences would like. However, as we get into this next election cycle, it is good to see what made Trump’s campaign successful, at least from one person's point of view. Also, I think it’s better to get into the heads of an opponent than to think you know them.   And the actual film is fascinating. Bannon is very much influenced by films, and he has made films of his own.  He talks about 12:00 High, a classic film about the Air Force, heroism and WW2. Morris recreates the main set of 12:00 High and the interview takes place in the set. It brings a strange unsettling context to their discussion, and I think it works. That’s just the first two nights and there is so much more, which I will detail in the next newsletter.    Speaking of immigrants, last night I got to see a special screening of Detras de Realidad which will show in Frame of Mind October 10th at 10:00 PM. This program is made by women about their own journey to Texas and what their life is like here. Frank, honest and in their own voices. I really liked what they did, but I was so happy to meet the makers who learned how to control the image and use the medium to tell everyone their stories. Thanks so much to Amber Bemak who taught then and Ignite Dallas at SMU for making it happen.   Speaking of Frame of Mind we have a great new show on Thursday night at 10 PM. Each year on the series, we feature a retrospective of a Texas filmmaker and usually, they are old folk. This year, we took a different approach.  Explordinary is Sarah Reyes and Daniel Driensky. They are great at straddling the world of digital and analog media, as well as film as art and commerce. They have traveled the globe documenting, in their unique way, artists, skaters, film labs and many other things. They put together their own retro and it rocks. 10:00 PM Thursday, Sept 26th.   What else is happening around town?   On Thursday, there is a special screening of the Princess Bride as a benefit for Hope Kids of North Texas.  Next weekend, there is the North Texas Film Festival in Plano.  There is the Alice Cooper film that played at DIFF and things like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Poltergeist, and Reanimator, so if you are into these and many are, not so much me, go for it. My favorite film they are showing is Mack Wrestles, a short I saw at SXSW about the Mack Beggs, a local athlete who goes through a sex change and still wants to wrestle. This is a must-see.   As for The Texas Theater, on Wednesday, they are showing a film that has been getting lots of buzz (I have not seen it, yet) called Anthropocene the Human Epoch. It is one of those national we are all showing the same film tonight, programs.  On Thursday, they are showing not one but two Les Blank films (I love Les Blank films) called Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazón. These are newly restored, so they should look great. They are some of the first films that showcase Texican border music, including Flaco Jimenez and they sound great. Then they are showing the Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool film that was on PBS, made by the great Stanley Nelson. We have an interview with him about this film and the rest of his work on the podcast The Fog of Truth. Then Friday night, Theater Cine Wilde presents a film that is actually wild, Todd Haynes' Poison. A really great film that showcased his voice is his Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.   On Tuesday night, The Magnolia Theater is showing Yentl, Barbara Streisand’s film about gender inequality in the Jewish religious community. Bart Weiss Artistic Director Dallas VideoFest

[newstechreviews]

When Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, was in third grade, his world changed. He grew up in Celina, Texas—the son of a single mother, and one of the few Black kids in what was then a small town north of Dallas. A girl—Lynn thought she was cute—was handing out invitations to her birthday party one day, when Lynn noticed she skipped him and a Black girl in the class. When Lynn asked why, the response left him devastated. It’s because you’re Black and my parents won’t allow you to come to my place.

“After that moment, I never saw things the same,” Lynn, now 51, tells TIME in a video call from his office in Costa Mesa, Calif., where the Chargers are headquartered and holding training camp. “That’s when I knew the world was different. There’s a difference being Black and white. Then I started seeing color.” Lynn says this, and other experiences with racism throughout his life, helped motivated him to reach the top ranks of the NFL, where he is now one of just three Black head coaches. “I didn’t didn’t like the fact that people didn’t think I was equal, or thought they were better than me,” says Lynn. “I can’t say race wasn’t a big part of why I’m where I’m at. Because it pushed me.”

Now, the realities that Lynn confronted head-on in his life are at the forefront of his job as head coach. He sees systemic racism in the NFL, a league in which Black men are 60% of the players, but less than 10% of head coaches. He sees it in the streets, with the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake. “I was like, wow, again?” Lynn says of watching the video of police shooting Blake in Kenosha, Wis. “It’s always unarmed Black men. And seven times? That just made me sad, man. I got emotional.” On Aug. 26 the Milwaukee Bucks declined to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic; other teams across sports also staged strikes, effectively shutting down the games. The Chargers were supposed to hold a scrimmage at their new home, the $5 billion SoFi Stadium, the next day. Lynn called a team meeting, and let players express their frustrations. “After that, no way could we take the field and practice,” says Lynn. “Because something was more important than football at that time.” The scrimmage was cancelled.

Read more: Why Jacob Blake’s Shooting Sparked an Unprecedented Sports Boycott

Lynn’s Chargers will kick off an NFL season like no other this weekend. In the midst of a pandemic and national reckoning on race, L.A. travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, quarterback Joe Burrow, on Sunday. While Lynn says he would have supported a player walkout in Week 1, he did not encourage it. “If I thought not playing Week 1 would make a major change, I’d give these boys the whole week off,” says Lynn. “I wouldn’t show up. But we’re football players, we’re not politicians.”

Still, don’t expect silence. In the past, Lynn says he’s tried to keep talk of controversial social issues—like Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the National Anthem—out of the locker room, lest it become a dreaded “distraction.” “We can talk about that s–t in February, in late February hopefully,” says Lynn, explaining his prior philosophy. Not so this year. “If I was to suppress this, I think it would hurt their passion and I don’t think they would play the game that they love well,” he says.

After Los Angeles made the playoffs in 2018, his second season as Chargers coach, Lynn’s team finished 5-11 last year. He’s under pressure to correct the course as the Chargers move into a new home. Lynn’s team will share SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Rams while desperately fighting for fans in an L.A. market that has greeted them mostly with indifference since moving from San Diego in 2017. Still, Lynn says his focus is not just victory on the field. “We have committed to winning the championship,” he says, “and fighting for social justice.”

  A bunch of plays are diagrammed on a white board behind his Lynn’s desk; he’s wearing a Chargers cap and jacket during our interview, and some gray stubble is peppered on his chin. Lynn’s no typically programmed football coach. He talks in a real, conversational manner, which is all-too-rare in his ranks.

As a kid he played quarterback on youth teams in football-crazed Celina. In seventh grade, however, a coach informed Lynn he’d be moving to running back. “He goes, ‘Black kids can’t play quarterback,'” Lynn says. Lynn asked why. “Well, they’re not smart enough,” the coach responded.

These accumulated experiences with racism “made me more aggressive,” says Lynn; he got into fights in school, but he also channelled his anger onto the football field, eventually earning a scholarship to Texas Tech University and playing in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos; he won a pair of Super Bowl rings with Denver in 1997 and 1998.

Tensions boiled over during Lynn’s senior year at Texas Tech. Lynn says police were gathered at an apartment building where two teammates were staying; when he went to see what was happening, the cops “just jacked me up against a wall.” They asked if he was a drug dealer. “And I just lost it, man,” Lynn says. “The next thing I know I’m fighting with his cop and I’m on top of him and I get hit in the back of the head with a billy club and they got me tied down on the ground and they’re taking me to jail and the one officer kicked me inside my head.” Thanks to Lynn’s football connections, the cops eventually let him go. “Today, I would have been shot,” says Lynn. “I mean, think about that. I said, ‘I would have been shot.’ I was dead wrong going off on that cop. But it was just years of accumulation of this and that. I can’t go to the birthday party. I can’t play quarterback.”

Lynn stresses that he has great respect for police officers. In 2005, after he was struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street in Ventura, Calif., police officers helped save his life. The near-fatal incident left Lynn with temporary paralysis and injuries that required four surgeries. He has remained friends with one of the officers who rescued him. Still, he tires of the constant stings of racism. Just last year, he was pulled over for what he calls a “bogus reason.” Before a white officer asked him for license and registration, Lynn says, he asked if he had been in jail or on probation. “I’m afraid for some people that might not be as strong minded, if they hear something like that too many times, they start to believe it,” says Lynn. “That they’re not better. That they’re not equal. That’s my biggest fear. But for me, it just pisses me off. It always has.”

READ MORE: America’s Athletes Are Finally in a Position to Demand Real Change. And They Know It.

Lynn’s also irked that only three of the NFL’s 32 head coaches—Lynn, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin—are Black. “I’m not comfortable with that number,” Lynn says. As recently as 2017, there were seven Black head coaches in the league. (Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera, who’s Latino, is the NFL’s only other minority head coach). The Rooney Rule, which was implemented in 2003 to guarantee that at least one minority candidate is interviewed for open head coaching positions, seems broken. Is this the product of systemic racism? Lynn agrees that’s a fair assessment. “I played in this league for eight years, and a player knows a head coach when he sees one,” says Lynn. “There were African-American coaches that could have been head coaches but just never got the opportunity.”

How do you fix this? Lynn believes reforming the head coach feeder system will help. Between 2009 and 2019, according to a recent study from Arizona State University, offensive coordinator was the most frequent former position for head coaches: 40% of NFL head coaches were hired from offensive coordinator spots (NFL defensive coordinator, and NFL head coach, were the next most frequent positions). During same period, however, 91% of offensive coordinator hires were white.

“I’ve seen so many play callers get head jobs that have no personality, no leadership whatsoever,” says Lynn, who during his 17 years as an assistant coach in the NFL never entered a season holding a coordinator position (a few weeks into the 2016 season he was named offensive coordinator in Buffalo; that year he took over as interim head coach for one game after Rex Ryan was fired). His coaching career previously saw him as mostly a running backs coach and assistant head coach. Broadening the feeder system would result in a more diverse—and talented—candidate pool. “And then you wonder why every year in the National Football League we are firing anywhere from six to eight head coaches?” says Lynn. “If we open this thing up to position coaches, assistant head coaches, then you’re going to have more African-American applicants.”

He also believes Black coaches have to win faster than their white counterparts to keep their jobs secure. “I’m not happy with the leash that African-American coaches get,” says Lynn. “I had my first losing season last year. And I come home one day and my wife is like, ‘Honey, are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I be? I’m fine’. And she’s like, ‘Well, do you not know half the country wants you fired?’

When he entered coaching, Lynn understood the hurdles. The memories of being told he couldn’t attend a birthday party because he’s Black, or being asked if he was a drug dealer, were never too far from his mind. Lynn’s grandfather once told him he’d always have to be better because of his skin color. He’s never forgotten those words. “It’s a shame, but I know that going into it,” says Lynn. “I know I’ve got to turn this damn thing around, soon. But at the same time, I’m going to stand up for what’s right. I’m going to speak out when I have to. I’m not going to let that scare me from doing that as a human being.”

To wit: he’s unafraid to say that Kaepernick got a raw deal. Lynn is happy with this current quarterbacks, but did express some interest in Kaepernick earlier in the summer. “I do think there’s a possibility that Kaep could come on somebody’s roster this year because you can hold roster spots for veteran players now because of injuries and because maybe of COVID,” says Lynn. “There’s still a possibility there. But Colin’s busy doing things to help make a change and he’s signing big deals, he might not have the time to come back and play NFL football. But I know over the years he should have been given an opportunity. There’s no doubt about that. We’ve had those discussions. I can say that. We’ve had those discussions.”

  Jayne Kamin-Oncea–Getty ImagesHead Coach Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers on the sidelines in the first half of the game against the Oakland Raiders at Dignity Health Sports Park on Dec. 22, 2019 in Carson, Calif.

Lynn is facing unprecedented challenges in carrying out his team’s turnaround plan. Start with his own bout with COVID-19; he was diagnosed while on a trip to Dallas, to visit his mother, in late June. “You always say, well, it’s really only killing 1%,” says Lynn. “But when you get it, start thinking about that 1%.” He’s not sure how he got infected. “I mean no one was more paranoid about this than me,” Lynn says. “You’re talking about a guy that has hand sanitizer in his front belt loop everywhere he goes. Wears gloves, masks.” Lynn’s lungs collapsed during the car accident 15 years go, which he feared would make him even more vulnerable. “And so it was some anxiety there for a little while,” says Lynn. “For me it was a really, really bad flu for about three or four days.”

Read more: Coronavirus is Placing College Sports on Hold, Putting Students, University Budgets, and Entire Towns At Risk

In training camp, Lynn believes COVID-19 has affected team chemistry. “A big part of football is camaraderie,” he says. “When you have to social distance, it’s hard to build a team.” The first full in-person, locker room team meeting Lynn had was on Aug. 27, at SoFi Stadium, to discuss the Blake shooting. “I could just feel the people craving that community, that fellowship,” he says. “We haven’t had it. It’s going to be difficult to build tight teams and trust with new players when you don’t have that. The longer we do without it, the more of us see it. I mean, this is Zoom all year. Are you kidding me? It’s going to be different. But we knew that it was going to be a challenge and we’ve got to figure out a way to still make it work.”

The Chargers enter this season with veteran Tyrod Taylor starting at quarterback. A potential franchise QB, Justin Herbert—the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft, out of Oregon—will be the backup. (Quarterback Philip Rivers, who started every game for the Chargers the last 14 seasons, signed with Indianapolis in the offseason). Preseason games were cancelled this year; in some ways, this made Lynn’s training camp smoother. Because if Herbert shined in preseason games, screams to start him right away would have been pronounced.

In sticking with Taylor as the starter, Lynn cites John Elway and Peyton Manning, two legends who started their rookie years; each threw more interceptions than TDs (Manning threw a rookie-record 28 interceptions in 1998, tops in the NFL that year). “But those guys are two real strong-minded individuals, Hall of Famers,” he says. “Not everybody’s wired that way, man. It’s not everybody that can overcome that. So I don’t expect [Herbert] to come in and play right away. I think sitting him for a year would do nothing but benefit him.”

Does Herbert seem to have the Elway-Manning mentality, or is it too early to tell? “He is a leader in his own way,” says Lynn. “He’s more of an introvert. He quieter, but he communicates when he has to with his teammates. And people try to say that was a knock with him coming out. Said he has all the tools but wasn’t much of a leader. Introverts get labeled that way. I just know these players react well to him.”

The Chargers spent the last three seasons playing in a Carson, Calif. soccer stadium that held just 27,000 fans, by far the smallest capacity in the NFL. Now, they will move into a shiny $5 billion palace playing in front of zero fans, due to the pandemic, making the team’s effort to win the hearts and minds of Los Angeles even more difficult. “L.A. is a hard city,” says Lynn. “You have to be successful here, bro. You’ve got to win. And if you don’t, people just do other things. And there are other sports franchises here that people are attached to. So it’s no doubt a hard market. But people respect that hard work, young men of high character that are helping their communities and doing things that we’re doing. It’s just a matter of time before we have a strong fan base here. But we knew when we moved here it wasn’t going to happen overnight. Just like social justice. It isn’t going to happen overnight.”

More than ever, social justice will be a major theme of the NFL season. An Alicia Keys rendition of “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” a song known as the Black National Anthem, was played before Thursday night’s season-opening Kansas City Chiefs-Houston Texans game. At least some players are likely to kneel during the National Anthem or utilize some other form of protest when the NFL kicks off this weekend. Lynn recalls the reaction of his players after Blake’s shooting. “I’ve been dealing with this s—t since since I was nine years old,” says Lynn. “I was more sad that day for how they felt. We’ve got to move beyond it. We’re certainly not going to forget about it. But I wish I could do something to make them feel better in moments like that.”

Still, the Chargers coach remains confident that his recent powerful wave of sports activism will bring change, both inside and outside the NFL. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never seen so many people from all different backgrounds and colors come together and want change,” says Lynn. “So man, I’m hopeful. I’m very hopeful.”

[ourdallasvideofestthings]

Greetings all, I hope you are safe and that you’re finding ways to be inspired in these strange times. Venues are starting to open up and there is the temptation to go out and have a “normal” existence, but please stay safe—wear masks, social distance, wipe, hand sanitizer, and stay healthy.

Speaking of opening up, Frame of Mind, our TV show on KERA TV is coming back. This year’s official season starts September 24th with a very special episode that I will discuss later.  We have 10 official episodes this year, but we have two special pre-Frame of Mind season shows, and the first one is THIS WEEK.   Last year, we created The Norm Show—the official title is  Norm Hitzges: An Opinionated History of Dallas Sports. It’s one of the most requested episodes we’ve ever produced, and it airs this week on Thursday at 10:30, our new time slot this season. It will also be shown on Monday, September 14th at 1:00 AM, if you’re awake at that time.  If you haven’t seen it yet, go to your DVR and set it up to record now and while you’re at it, just set it up to record the whole season.  I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to produce this show, and I really want to give a shout out to Mary Beth Boehm, Anne Bothwell, and Bill Young, who put up with my insanity and make this possible. I can’t think of a filmmaker who gets to do something like this. As the show is getting going, we’re also moving forward with DOCUFEST, which will be the first weekend in October.  We were hoping to have an in-person festival, but I just don’t think it’s safe yet, so we are doing a hybrid of on-line and drive-in at the new Tin Star Drive-in. Because we have an election coming up, we have some programs that will put perspectives on how we ended up in our current political situation. We have some fun and culturally significant programs and the usual things one would expect for VideoFest programming.  We are working on a special program and perhaps you can help us out. I want to do a program of Dallas area arts organizations that have used zoom, video, or audio to reinvent or adapt their artistic practice to their audience. So, if you know an artist or group, please let me know. (bart@videofest.org) If you are still reading, thanks, and I would like to take a moment to ask you to consider making a donation to the Video Association of Dallas on North Texas Giving Day at the link below. Think about it. Where else do you get your information on films all in one spot? Where else can you connect with film lovers from The Cinematic Conversations?  We do so much with so little. We could do so much more with a little more, and you could help make that happen. Okay, that’s the end of pledge break, and now back to the music. Last week, we had a really great Cinematic Conversations with Sam Feder about his film Disclosure, . The section in the documentary show the people that were interviewed in the film is particularly interesting and brings up a discussion that should be in the documentary film world. This week, we are very lucky to have Peter Simek with us to discuss Peter Weir‘s 1975 classic Picnic at Hanging Rock. I haven’t seen it since 1975 and we can find it on HBO Max, Direct TV, TCM, The Criterion Channel for free, and on Amazon for 2.99.  We’re so happy to have Peter with us for this. When Peter writes about film, he brings such insight that it makes us wish he had time to write more about cinema.  For those unfamiliar, Peter writes for D Magazine, and whatever he writes about, it is great. Join us on Wednesday at 7:30. Speaking of D Magazine, we are sorry to hear of the passing D Magazine’s creator Wick Allison. Think about all the ways that this magazine has impacted our lives in this city, for a moment.  I once heard Wick talk about the history of Dallas, and I learned so much.  While he has passed, the institution he created lives on. Some theaters are returning to live screenings. The Angelika is showing Tenet, as is The Alamo. The Alamo is also showing a film I was planning on showing at DocuFest called, Feels Good Man about Matt Furie, the guy who created Pepe the Frog. I would still like to show it, so if this is interesting to you and you WILL NOT be seeing at the Alamo, let me know. (bart@videofest.org) As for our two landmark theaters, The Magnolia is still not open, but the Inwood is showing Tenet (who isn’t?) and also All In The Fight for Democracy, a film about voter suppression. This is such a critical issue at this moment and the film screens upstairs on Wednesday and Thursday. The Texas Theater is still closed, but they are showing A Fistful of Dollars on Friday the 12th in their drive-in. Speaking of the drive-in, Bar Brizo in Richardson will be showing Ford vs Ferrari and I hear there will be cars representing! There is also a film festival coming up this weekend. Women in Film Dallas has their festival, which has had a few different names over the years but is now the Topaz Festival. Most of the films in the festival are shorts divided by genre, and most I haven’t seen, but I can very highly recommend the only feature in the festival: Julia Knots’ Inez, Doug, and Kira. I have loved and shown Julia’s work for years and I’m happy this film will get a screening, even if it’s virtually. The festival is September 8-13th. When I was a kid, Labor Day was a big deal. It marked the end of summer with swimming races at the pool. When I got older, I would also hear people talk about the importance of labor.  There would be editorials in the paper, and people on TV, but that is now missing from the national dialogue.  Automation, robots, and AI are challenging our concept of labor, and politicians are not interested in ensuring people get paid a good wage. But this year, labor has bigger challenges. The people who work at meatpacking plants, at our stores, in hospitals, people who are on the front line in our battle against the virus, some of these folks, while risking their lives for your comfort and sustenance, are not being paid a living wage.  When you’re at the grocery store, thank the folks who are working there. When you have an opportunity and if you can afford it, tip people well. I challenge you all to look around you and think about all the hands that helped get you the things you have needed during quarantine.  Be thankful for what these laborers are doing for you. Congrats, you made it through another week!

[ilvoloflightcrew]

Red Ronnie had announced it, with great pleasure, a long live interview.

It lasted more than three hours, in which the boys, absolutely at ease, spoke, played, sang, all without rehearsals, in live, and freedom of serious talk and even laughter.

But before you see the whole video, I show you the precise moment when I thought intensely about you and your joy in hearing and seeing this.

There are no words. ❤️

🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸 🌟 🇺🇸 🌟

But now enjoy the full live, and I, broadly speaking, will translate what was said.

(I warn you that at the beginning the voices are not heard because they were not miked and sometimes the video freezes, but only for a few moments.)

The boys immediately feel comfortable in the studio, and they play and sing, but they make a big mess, none of them cares about the camera. Gianluca shows his cell phone to Red, Francesca is probably on the line, and in fact Red greets her by saying “Ciao bella”. There’s also Barbara who says the new studio is beautiful.

Michele also appreciates the new studio and tells Red he would like to be his partner, the two shake their hand.

Gianluca proposes to sing “Suspicious Minds”. This evening Michele has more fun for him, on the drums.

Red launches an advertisement and then tries to explain that they are live on many platforms, but fails because Piero enters and immediately starts singing. Red says it is not impossible to make a program this way and Piero replies that it is the most beautiful thing in the world!

Red leads Ignazio to see the jukebox with a ban sign and his picture on it. This is because during last year’s visit Ignazio was fascinated by the jukebox in the studio. He unplugged it, plugged it back in, opened up the front was touching the record inside. He just couldn’t keep his hands off it. So now there is a sign that states “I cannot”. ��

The guys are attracted to a basket of organic products, biscuits and honey, and ask if they can eat (they have just returned from a dinner).

The woman who produces the food is present.

Red says that Piero told him he was very tired, but he didn’t want to miss this appointment, because here, Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca have fun, with some musical instruments, they are like three happy children.

They talk about Torpedine and Piero says, he is the fourth member of IL VOLO.

There is a great confusion, and the phone calls begin, nothing is understood and Red shouts and tries to get everyone’s attention.

The boys sing “SOMEBODY TO LOVE” and then sit down and answer a few phone calls.

Then, they dedicate to a girl “POR UNA CABEZA”.

Everyone laughs because Ignazio drops the guitar and the CD advertising sign, a disaster.

So Ignazio talks about a Sicilian singer he met as a kid and who is no longer here.

Red asks to promote their new CD, but none of them, not even Barbara or Torpedine, have brought a CD to show.

The boys perform the refrains of all the songs on the new CD.

Red reads some comments that arrived on Facebook.

Ignazio plays and sings a beautiful song by Gianni Fiorellino and then, “Tirichitolla”.

Red retraces the 10-year moments of IL VOLO and asks if they immediately agreed and Ignazio says no, because Gianluca was with a small group and not with them.

Gianluca joking and answering, he says that he is a prince and they (Piero and Ignazio), are the plebs. Piero, murmurs “….. a horned prince.”😁

The boys say that at the beginning they were successful only abroad, in Italy they didn’t do concerts, they knew them but because their songs were considered “old” and they were not appreciated.

Red confirms, that even now, apart from the fans, here in Italy, they are still a little snubbed, by those who have “the stink under the nose”.

Ignazio says that in the musical field, being snobbish is a symptom of ignorance, because music can like or dislike, but it must all be respected. A person can say, “I don’t like it, but I respect”.

Gianluca replies that we are not all the same and if certain people think in this way, that they are free to listen to what they want.

Red confirms that Ignazio is right, because a person cannot buy a record of a singer that he doesn’t like, but if this singer is a reality appreciated by many people, he is an artist that must be respected. He also says that music can give or not give emotions, and they of IL VOLO, given the results, give many emotions.

Piero says that their music represents the Italian melody, but many are ashamed to show their Italian character.

Ignazio says that we should never be ashamed of the country where we live, and says that they have felt the love for the Italian flag 🇮🇹 at Eurovision.

Red recalls, that at Eurovision they were first with the votes of the public but were penalized by the juries and Ignazio says that after what happened to them, they changed the voting system at Eurovision.

Then they talk about all the shows in the US in which they participated, but always with simplicity. They remember the concerts with Barbra Streisand.

Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca, eat biscuits and honey, Red is desperate.😁

Piero talks about the 100 concerts that will take place from 2019 to 2020.

They start a debate about who the critics are and Red says that sometimes critics love a song but they would never admit it, because it would be like disavowing their words, because critics have good words for what they think can be good (even if they don’t like it).

Ignazio says that in Sanremo they were interviewed by all the journalists, except for one, who never called them, not even when they won Sanremo, because this journalist doesn’t really consider them, for stubbornness ……. (he is an overpaid journalist who works in the national television network, Ignazio does not say his name, but Red understands who he is).

Gianluca instead says he does not understand how some critics can still reject the evidence, Il Volo has made a great journey in 10 years, 24-year-old boys singing for Pope Francis in Panama, it doesn’t happen every day, and this reality has been ignored.

Red says he has never met such simple, funny and clean guys, like Il Volo.

They sing “Musica Che Resta”.

Ignazio gives advice to Michele and Red says that a boy wants to give lessons to a master, but Torpedine says that Ignazio plays the drums better than him and that he also has some very beautiful insights.

Ignazio wants to sing with Piero and Gianluca, but those two refuse and then Red asks Ignazio to play Pino Daniele. ❤️

After Ignazio, Gianluca says he would like to sing “Henna”, a beautiful song by Lucio Dalla (author of Caruso). Red explains the story of this song and Gian sings accompanied by Ignazio (it’s the first time they sing it and play it). ❤️

Piero says that his musical tastes, instead, lean more towards the lyric genre and he admits that during the tour in Japan he had the courage to sing “PORQUOI ME REVEILLER” of the opera Werter, in French (a pity we didn’t hear it). Red asks him if he wants to do it at that moment, but Piero says he needs voice warming, and also that it’s very difficult.

Gianluca performs “IN THE GHETTO”.

And then, later they perform the beautiful American national anthem “THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER”.

🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸  🌟 🇺🇸 🌟 🇺🇸 🌟

Follows, a nice piece in Japanese language.

Calls flow in from all over.

Piero sings “O SOLE MIO” in English / Italian version.

Then they play a nice rock and roll.

Other phone calls and Red is amazed at how Gianluca remembers all the girls.

Piero plays the camera man.

Piero he says that in Guatemala, while they were in concert, the thieves entered the hotel and stole all the safe from the wall, which was in Piero’s room.

Gianluca says that every time they go to Guatemala, there is so much affection for them, on the part of the Guatemalans.

Red looks for Ignazio, who is talking to Torpedine, in the next room. Michele says they have to register “GRANDE AMORE” in English, because they had this request, for the English and American market.

In addition, Michele announces that they will be on a famous Italian satirical news program STRISCIA LA NOTIZIA on 18 November.

Red asks why they go to that news and Michele says it is to promote their CD, there is no hotel destroyed .

Red remembers that, they had been interviewed by that news program, due to the hotel being destroyed, and ask to Ignazio if that thing was true. Ignazio replies that they do not destroy hotels, only here from Red, a little.

(At this point, there is a very important moment, which definitively silences certain unjust attacks that are still done to the guys, on the question of the Swiss hotel.)

Torpedine says, “It was so destroyed, that we won the case and then we gave that money to charity”.

Red adds that no newspaper wrote of this, they only wrote that Il Volo destroyed a hotel and not, that they won the case and gave the money to charity. Michele adds, that the newspapers say only what they want and never talk about the real things of the group and their successes in the world, they never write it, because it bothers them.

At this point the boys are attracted by a magnetic turntable, which has the disc plate that remains suspended in the air. Red is worried because he’s afraid they’ll break it 😁, Ignazio says he wants to have it.

Red asks Ignazio how they spend their money they earn. He replies that he bought a nice car and has a house, because it is important, even if they are away, to have a house to go home to and then he helped his family. He says that all three of them come from families full of feelings and emotions, but not economically speaking, so they helped their families, they allow to themselves some things, but they are very responsible boys, who don’t do crazy things.😘

Red asks Piero the same question. Ignazio says that Piero is stingy. Piero says he is not, he says that all three are quiet boys, that they give value to money, because they all come from humble families, artisans, so they know the value of hard-earned money. Now they are lucky enough to be able to live thanks to the work they do, they are three very privileged guys who therefore try to help the people who need it most.

Ignazio says they are generous boys.

Piero confirms and says that they do not like to make it known, in fact Ignazio says that he was at the Santa Caterina (Hospital of Bologna). Red did not know it and says that it is right to tell these things, but Ignazio says that it is an act that he does for himself, not to make it known to others.

Beautiful things have been said, and Red says, that every once in a while, digging, a diamond comes out.

They made an evening in total freedom and made so many people happy that they saw the guys of IL VOLO, in a different way. With the phone calls that have come from all over the world, they have also shown (if needed) that Il Volo is really known everywhere.

Red then asks to do another evening, where they will be prepared to sing, with musical backing and Ignazio says they can come with their band. Red immediately wants to set a date before their departure in January.

Piero says that from Red they come willingly and Ignazio adds that they feel at home there, an evening with friends.

Torpedine remembers its beginnings. Gianluca says that Michele sees himself in them.

Red sees the tattoos of Ignazio and one says SAUDADE (nostalgia) and Ignazio says, he is one who needs moments of sadness.

Red asks Torpedine to tell the difference between the first singers he has followed and Il Volo, and Michele says that he has been living these last 10 years big time, he has started breathing again and he says it to everyone, because boys and their families are honest people and special and he notices this even when they are traveling around the world with the band and the crew, everyone wants to be with them, like a big family.

Finally there are real relationships, they are serious, and then they play, but always with education, respect and gratitude. They consider Michele an important person.

Torpedine says that he and Renis, at the beginning, saw in them some child prodigies, but then when they grew up, their value was very well understood. Red asks to finish the show with a song.

Some more phone calls and Red is amazed because Gianluca remembers all the girls who are calling.

The last phone call is from Lucrezia, an Italian girl who at the concert in Rome, had a sign saying: “I’m beautiful, I’m rich, I’m smart. Piero, want to marry me?” Piero in Rome, he was joking and answered yes! Piero remembers everything and now asks her if his two friends (Gian and Igna) are good as witnesses and Red can sing the Ave Maria. 😁

Gianluca shows Red the photo on his cell phone, a vegan breakfast and Red says he and Piero are planning a wedding and Gian shows him a breakfast? Red says these guys are crazy.

Piero dedicates the last song to Lucrezia: “Grande Amore”.

Gianluca confirms that another evening will come, with the whole band, and will prepare and perform their songs.

Red asks them to set the date for January 13th. They perform, “GRANDE AMORE”.

Red gathers all three for the final greetings. He takes Ignazio’s cell phone and sees that his mother, Caterina,sent him a message that Red reads: “You are all wonderful, I love you, my little one.” Then Ignazio shows the picture of his Arturo and says he lives with him , but now he is in Sicily, because they are always abroad.

Piero is very tired, sleeping on his feet, and Red calls his father Gaetano who is there with them. Gaetano is a very shy person and of few words. Red asks if Piero has his head mounted and Gaetano answers, absolutely not, then he says he lives in Naro.

Red asks for a close-up of the faces of Ignazio, Piero and Gianluca, to show how tired they are.

Final greetings and thanks.

The boys say “A big hug to Red” and they all throw themselves at Red. ❤ 🤗

(Please click on each photo below to view a larger version.)

This video, instead, was published the following morning by Red Ronnie, many beautiful words for IL VOLO.

“What a night last night, we finished at 1:00 a.m., I went to sleep at 3:00. It was incredible, to say that guys are happy, that is to say the least. We have reached an impressive number of people around the world with this live. We have demonstrated the incredible popularity of Il Volo.

What happened, it was fantastic, also because we had fun. Everything was out of control, everything was spontaneous. This morning I saw only the beginning and I had to force myself to stop, because I would see everything again, for how beautiful it was.

I’m very tired.”

(Red reads some comments.) He says that the January date is not confirmed but Monday goes to dinner with Torpedine and they talk about this. Red states that you cannot know what it’s like to do a live like last night, because it was a completely improvised program so you had to adjust the microphones every time, but it was wonderful.

He confirmed that it was incredible yesterday with Il Volo, something amazing, fantastic, they will repeat this experiment.

(Red reads a comment): What do you think of Il Volo?

They are fantastic guys, I I love working with simple people, I don’t like rock stars. (Now he reads a comment from Ercole Ginoble) – Hard to keep them at bay, Ercole !

Don’t tell me, I know it! With them it is always a great success. The thing they have shown is that people believe that Il Volo are young-old, absolutely NO, they are fantastic, they are very punk, much more punk than they may seem.

I will go to lunch with Torpedine to talk about an evening with the whole group, where we mix the talk of everything, with live songs. I talked about it with Piero this morning. The most meticulous is Gianluca and Ignazio is a disaster! They were themselves last night. I just wanted to say that last night was magical.

Francesco Facchinetti (the one who defended them this year, denouncing the Sanremo journalists) is in Mexico, and sent me a message with the words THAT SHOW. Always good music from me. Ciao guys, see you!

Beautiful evening in complete freedom. Simple and fantastic guys. In spite of everything, the boys took off some pebbles from their shoes, concerning certain journalists and critics. Wonderful to know that they won the lawsuit for the Swiss hotel and that they donated the money to charity. Fantastic audience response from all over the world. Thanks Red, we look forward to the next live.

Daniela 

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.

IL VOLO FROM RED RONNIE 2019 by Daniela Red Ronnie

[jurassicparkpodcast]

Jurassic June Highlight: Dinosaurs roam the land in this post-apocalyptic Jurassic Park fan film

It’s time for another Jurassic June project highlight – and this time, we will be looking at a fantastic live-action Jurassic project.

The Jurassic Park community is arguably one of the most creative on the internet – with hundreds of people producing dinosaur filled content every week. So; imagine my delight when Brad let me know I had a new interview with another community member – Todd Jason.

Todd released a Jurassic Park fan film (Jurassic Park – Life Finds A Way) on his YouTube channel. Clocking in at around thirty-four minutes, the film is a nice romp in a post-apocalyptic landscape littered with dinosaurs. Many – such as Steven Ray Morris of See Jurassic Right – have spoken about how they would love Jurassic World 3 to be akin to something like The Planet of The Apes – and Todd’s film is a nice look at what this could present itself as.

Take a read of our Q&A below, and check out the embedded movie at the bottom of this page. 

Hi Todd – thanks for taking the time to sit down with me! So firstly – how did your Jurassic Park story start? Where did your love for this franchise begin?

Every little boy has a stage in life where they’re just obsessed with dinosaurs. I am no different. I watched the first Jurassic Park almost every day growing up. What I didn’t realize at the time was that every time I watched the film, I would go into the extras menu on the DVD and watch the behind the scenes feature. I was learning how the film was made at the age of five. So, when I decided to become a filmmaker I wanted to make my own Jurassic Park movie. And so that’s how to whole thing began.

The Opening Monologue and accompanying video incorporates some nice CGI for Jurassic Park: San Diego. How did you go about achieving this?

First, thank you for complimenting the CGI. I wanted the opening scene to have shots of a functioning Jurassic Park. And right after you hear the part of the monologue “they had killed us all” all hell breaks loose. Due to limited time and limited budget I had to come up with something else. The next idea I had was to have a Fallen Kingdom moment where you have the monologue against some creepy music, there’s rain, thunder, lightning, dramatic timing with the monologue and lightning, etc.

Can you outline the basic plot for readers, and how you came up with this?

Sure, the basic plot is In-Gen created Jurassic Park San Diego in 1997 (from The Lost World). It becomes successful and they create a chain of theme parks. All the parks eventually get destroyed, and now the world is taken over by dinosaurs. And the film follows three survivors who must stay with one another to stay alive. How I came up with this story? I wanted to do something different. Most Jurassic Park fan films out there have one thing in common. They either return to Isla Sorna, Isla Nublar, or go to Site C. I didn’t want a film that was the same, I wanted to make a film that was different from the rest. One that stands out from the crowd.

How did you go about choosing the dinosaurs you wanted to feature in your short film?

Obviously, dinosaurs we’ve seen in the films. You can’t have a Jurassic Park movie without the T-Rex and the raptors. The brachiosaurus scene was to pay respects to that iconic scene from the first movie. The Spino I wanted a character to have a tragic history with. The Carnotaurus was inspired from another dinosaur movie and Fallen Kingdom. And the Stego and Ptero I wanted the audience to see them in that final shot in a herd. Kind of a poetic moment going back to Alan Grant’s famous line “they do move in herds”.

We see the Spas 12 featured which is a nice addition. Did you guys channel your inner Robert Muldoon when working on the film?

As a matter of fact, yes. While we were filming that scene with Danny (Brady Box) and the Wounded Survivor (Chad Leath), I told Brady to kneel a couple times. I chose this because that is what Muldoon does a lot before his fate is decided by the raptors.

I get the feeling that this a post-apocalpytic Jurassic story where the dinosaurs have taken over the planet. Kind of like Planet of The Apes. Was that the vibe you were going for here?

Yes that was the vibe I was going for. Great films like Planet of The Apes played a huge role when coming up with the tone of the movie.

We see the Ford Explorer here – but obviously, we are not on Nublar. Is this meant to be a fan-made Explorer which the guys stumbled across and have adopted? Almost a super fourth-wall reference to the community.

You’ve read my mind. One thing I wanted was a Jurassic Park vehicle but the original intention was the Jeep. So, I started searching throughout the Jurassic Park Motor Pool trying to find a Jeep in my area. I live in the small town of Liberty Hill Texas, about 30 miles from Austin. All the Jeeps were from Dallas, San Antonio, or Houston. Too far of a drive for them. So, I found somebody in Austin who had the Ford Explorer and he was willing to lend it to us for as long as we needed it. We had it for two weeks, and it was a great moment seeing that vehicle sit in my garage. One of my goals in life is to build the Jurassic Park Jeep someday.

In the film, we see a scene where an injured person talks about humans attacking other humans. We never really see this in other Jurassic films, so how important was it to convey this in yours?

It's important to me that I included this in the film because, I think most Jurassic Park fan films focus too much on the dinosaurs. Don’t get me wrong, we all love our precious dinosaurs. But I feel like having a human threat as well as a dinosaur threat, it’s more realistic. If a zombie apocalypse were to happen right now, the walking dead wouldn’t be your only concern.

One of the big adversaries we see in the film is the Carnotaurus. Was this inspired by its presence in Fallen Kingdom? 

It kind of was. Like I said earlier growing up I was constantly watching Jurassic Park. That wasn’t the only dinosaur movie, Disney made an animated movie back in 2000 called “Dinosaur”. I love that movie, and one of the main antagonists was a Carnotaurus. It used to scare me a lot when I was a kid. So, when I was writing the script I wanted to include the Carnotaurus. Then Fallen Kingdom came out and we see the Carnotaurus. That just gave me more motivation to keep that dinosaur in the film.

I love how the Spinosaurus was identified as a Baryonyx later in the film. Was this a nod to Billy misidentifying the Spino?

Yes, it was a nod to Billy. You’ll notice during that scene, I never showed the full body of the Spino until the final shot in that scene. That last shot confirms that it’s a Spinosaurus. But if someone is a serious JP fan like you and me, then you’ll immediately know it’s the Spino because we know how it looks and how it sounds. For people who are not a serious fan, I think not showing the full body until the end is more powerful and adds to the horror of the moment. 

Later, in the film we see the JP gates and fencing. So – going back to my earlier point, is this perhaps intended to be Nublar? Or did you decide you wanted to take some creative liberties so you could include reference to the original park? 

I wanted to use my own creative voice when it came to this film. Before Isla Nublar, John Hammond start working on the San Diego park. I thought to myself, “what if he never thought of Isla Nublar?”. This goes back to what I said earlier about being different from the rest of the JP fan films out there. That scene you’re referring to is supposed to be a park that was in construction and almost finished. That’s why you just see “Jurassic Park” at the gate and not “Jurassic Park Wichita” or something like that. But in the end, it became a scene that pays respects to the film that started it all.

CGI is a big factor of the film and is very well done. How was this achieved?

Thank you. The CGI is one thing I really wanted to sell, and that was the goal in post-production. A couple years ago, I started conducting CGI tests for dinosaurs, and the first one was with green screen CGI you can download from YouTube. Then I stumbled upon a 3D program called Blender. It’s a free, yes, a FREE 3D program. I started learning it and creating my own dinosaur animations. It wasn’t until I recreated that epic wide shot from Jurassic Park where the T-Rex steps through the fence and does that iconic roar. At that point, I realized that I was ready to make the movie. Now ILM is the best visual effects company in the film industry, they have access to all this expensive 3D software. What I learned overtime, however, is that it’s not the software; it’s how you use it.

The film gives fans something long anticipated. The Spinosaurus/T-Rex rematch. How important was it to you that this got an inclusion in the film?

Ah the epic rematch. The idea behind that is a debate between fans I believe. A lot of people want the rematch and a lot of people don’t want the rematch. But I wanted the climax of the film to be huge, go out with a bang. So that is why I included it. One of my favourite shots in the whole film is that epic 360 shot where our heroes are hiding between two trees, the camera turns around and you see both animals in an all-out brawl. I love that shot and it’s meant to reference the final fight with the indominus from Jurassic World. The amazing long take of Blue and Rexy destroying the Indominus.

Finally – anything else you’d like to add? 

One experience I will never forget. 

The day we filmed the Spino scene with Danny and Lauren (Jamie Brownwell), we all rode to the location in the JP Ford Explorer. It was the only vehicle we had. It was time for a lunch break so we all got in the Ford and drove to Dairy Queen. We sat by a window so I can always have eyes on the car. I didn’t want anyone to screw with it. I see a father and his son walk up to the car and start looking at it. I watch them and I see the kid just lose his mind. He was wearing a Jurassic Park shirt as well. He was so excited and his dad took a picture of him next to the car. 

I then later walked up to them and I told them about it, where I got, why we had it, etc. It was just a great moment to see and one I will never forget.

Thanks, once again, to Todd for sitting down and working on this fun interview! I always love gaining insight into fan projects – and I think it’s fascinating that so many of us have our own ideas for stories and follow on pieces which have their own unique merits. Wherever the films go in the future, I think the Jurassic community will continue to make fun alternative and creative projects which explore this incredible universe.

Make sure you check out Life Finds A Way below.

Written by: Tom Fishenden

[thornburgrealty]

Bowl stuff venue went through super; regular were younger

Represented financing company class actions involving sent wholesale nfl jerseys china to customers. He was hittable and struggled control . Four earned runs 80⅔ Garfield Vol. 1 innings. These are things that when I lay my head on the pillow at night, I think about, and it keeps me up pretty late, he said. 21, which several Predators could not finish the game due to a bout of food poisoning. They say it’s going to be about a week, then they’ll how it goes afterward. The why this The Media and Social Theory (CRESC) case is befuddling. At times, basketball jerseys for sale will do too much dancing if there isn?t a clearly blocked running . It just loses purchasing power, he says. Clinton-Dix? ‘s hat instead went to North Carolina guard Joe Forte. Tzu’s The Art of War instructs us … … if you know your enemies and know yourself, you not be imperiled a hundred battles; if you do not know your Keelan Cole Youth Jersey enemies but do know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you be imperiled every single battle.

You can’t find a whole lot negative with ‘s start tonight, Rangers manager Banister said. Said Christensen: We must address this on a regional basis to begin we can coordinate and gain efficiencies of resources and efforts. Even the elite guys who haven’t been playing poorly like and Jaylen Brown have not outwardly broken out. On November 13, made a critical penalty when he facemasked Cowboys’ Tight End Witten with less than 30 seconds left the fourth quarter. After a morning workout, Beal headed East to give the Wizards owner Keelan Cole Authentic Jersey his autograph. The NFL trade deadline is just days away. As underprivileged Latino a single-parent home, Estrada qualified for nike nfl jerseys size chart a tremendous amount of financial aid, which, along with athletic scholarships, covered his entire tuition and then some. Andruw was one of absolute favorite players growing up and, opinion, he is absolutely a Hall of Famer. Reserve a basketball jerseys for sale spot by Feb. You’ve got to give them credit, they didn’t quit when they were down. What is too easy to forget is that Pappas was the winningest pitcher modern Orioles history when he was dispatched to Cincinnati.

Q: What video are you playing now? Street Bottom Line. Timo Meier stood out, scoring his hat trick albeit thanks part to the fan-friendly officiating and setup. The price not be cheap for Archer. But still, there has been no title. Both sprained an ankle yesterday. On December 6, Reshad Jones became the first player Miami Dolphins history to have over 100 tackles, 4 interceptions, 2 wholesale nfl jerseys china sacks and 2 defensive a single . That, too, is completely ridiculous production for a defenseman. A http://www.authenticpackersproshops.com/lane-taylor-jersey-c-1_19.html lot of the stuff is abstract. He will lose nearly $360 salary during the suspension, but he affirmed his belief the league’s Lane Taylor Jersey drug testing programs. During a search of Smith’s car, police found about 35 grams of cocaine and open container of alcohol, the release states. But Sutton proclaimed that Reeves would stand the test of time. nike nfl jerseys size chart As long as the Kings linger near the crowded eighth spot the West, competing for the final conference playoff berth with Portland, , New Orleans, Minnesota, Dallas, the Los Lakers and Phoenix, Joerger appears intent on tinkering with Un morceau de ton rêve...: Underground Paris-Madrid 1966-1995 (French Edition) his rotations but sticking with his more experienced and proven players.

When a club has its worst at 59 after having a winning at 83 the previous year, it is necessary to change some of the leadership. time, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offseason trade of Dansby , and Ender Inciarte to the Atlanta Braves for turn out alright. Although Mullin missed all of rookie training camp and six regular- before coming to terms with the Warriors, on the day he signed, he played 24 minutes and scored the winning basket with 15 seconds remaining. His second time facing opponents, he was 8 with a 2 . cheap jerseys elite delivered wholesale nfl jerseys china a commemorative plaque to , cheap jerseys elite honoring his team-record nike nfl jerseys size chart 58 home runs 2006, which earned NL MVP honors. The new running back recruits, including , have speed, but whether they be up to speed for Oklahoma’s Sept. It’ll be years before Guerrero’s close to making a big league impact, but believes the potential’s there. We want to do what we can to make the Leafs. The moves create enough space for Philadelphia to sign their undrafted free agent group. – Please enter your email address associated with the account we can help reset your password.

‘t believe cheap jerseys elite it? A lot of that is dependent upon Hawes and Batum returning to their pre-2015 form, which isn’t out of the question. Castillo play for the Dominican Republic next month’s World Baseball , Rojas of ESPN Deportes reports. He is the No. This not just be lip service from , who ran for 1066 yards 2015 en route to making basketball jerseys for sale the Pro Bowl as alternate. By posting your comment, you agree allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. Personal: …

from WordPress http://www.thornburgrealty.com/2018/07/02/bowl-stuff-venue-went-through-super-regular-were-younger/

[nancygduarteus]

Transplantees Find Catharsis in Holding Their Old Hearts

Kamisha Hendrix’s heart lay on the table between us. Seventy days ago, this heart had been beating inside of her, back behind the dark scar that plunged into the neckline of her blouse.

“No—my heart didn’t beat,” Hendrix clarified. “It trembled.”

The chemo used to treat her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had damaged her cardiac muscle irreparably, reducing its strength to 15 percent. She regularly lapsed in and out of consciousness. “I felt like I was moving through mud,” she recalled.

Hendrix looked at the heart on the table, the organ she had carried for 44 years, and spoke in its imaginary voice. “You wanna live?” She gave the heart a whimpering intonation. “Okay, I'll give you another beat.”

She switched back to her own voice, “Thank you, heart. Thanks a lot, friend.”

Three months ago, Hendrix’s mother, Carolyn Woods, had already written her obituary and tucked it away in a drawer. The theme, Woods explained, was For Whom the Bell Tolls. “It was about everyone coming to pay their last respects—and the people are the bell. All that crying and wailing would be the people tolling for her.”

Ultimately, the story of Hendrix’s heart did end in a funeral. Somewhere, on a clear May morning, an organ donor died. Within hours, Hendrix received a new heart.

The transplant saved Hendrix’s life, and yet—it would also be technically true to say that in the process, a part of her had died. We were in Dallas, Texas, at the Baylor Heart and Vascular Center to reunite Hendrix with her native heart and reflect on what it means to live without it.

The idea for this kind of encounter originated with William Roberts, Baylor’s chief cardiac pathologist. In 2014, Roberts began the Heart-to-Heart program, inviting cardiac transplant patients to see and hold their former organs. The primary objective was education. Roberts delivers a health lecture with the patient’s own heart as Exhibit A.

For transplantees, compliance with doctors’ lifestyle instructions is critical to recovery and longevity. One recent study found that in the domains of diet, exercise, medication, and tobacco avoidance, noncompliance ranged from 18 to 37 percent. Furthermore, compliance was observed to decrease over time.

While Hendrix’s heart failure was primarily due to another cause, her condition was exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyle choices—a factor that impacts nearly all heart-transplant patients. With Heart-to-Heart, Roberts has found a way to clearly demonstrate the effect of these choices on the heart itself. According to a study co-authored by the cardiologist, 75 percent of program participants reported that the experience has changed their health-related behaviors “to a great degree.”

James Murtha's heart (Roc Morin)

Roberts begins each session with raw statistics.

“In the United States, there are 6 million people living with heart failure,” he lectures in a honeyed Georgian accent. “Every year, only about 2,200 of those people receive heart transplants. So, you are very, very special. You’ve been given a second chance.”

Unceremoniously lifting the surgical cloth that covers the heart, Roberts describes what he sees. The history of the heart is there, incontrovertibly embedded in the organ. Most are cocooned in hard yellow fat.

“If you dropped this in the Mississippi,” Roberts opines, “it would float all the way to the Gulf.”

“Oh my god!” Hendrix gasped. “Look at all that fat! I guess those chips have gotta go.”

“That’s right,” Roberts replied. “And those cows, chickens, and pigs on your plate.”

In addition to education, the reunion also provides an opportunity for closure—a benefit that Roberts didn’t initially expect. After facing death—what transplantee John Bell prefers to call “the abyss”—survivors are frequently left traumatized. That reality is apparent in the standard warlike medical rhetoric, with doctors and patients alike speaking the language of soldiers. Together they fight their battles, target the enemy, eradicate and annihilate. With the focus on winning, dedicated opportunities to stop and reflect are rare.

Tina Sample’s ordeal began with a massive heart attack that was misdiagnosed as a gastrointestinal issue. After days of breathless agony, she was finally correctly diagnosed at a different hospital. “I had what they call ‘the widowmaker,’” she recounted, “100 percent blockage. I had a massive amount of blood clots throughout my heart. The doctor had never seen anything like it in his 24 years of practicing medicine. He called me a miracle.”

In the months that followed, Sample lived in constant fear of death. “I was just so scared every night,” she confessed. “I had this terror that this could be my last night on earth, so I’d try to keep myself awake. I would keep myself awake until 4 or 5 a.m. I wanted to see my son graduate college. I wanted to know my grandkids. There were so many things I wanted to see.”

James Murtha had been healthy his entire life. “I’ve never broke a bone in my body,” he insisted. “I’ve never really been sick at all, except for the flu once and chicken pox when I was a kid. So this—when it hit, it hit hard.”

Murtha had been driving home from work when he began to shiver and sweat. It was a heart attack. Later, he recalled being in a hospital bed, on life support, his liver and kidneys failing. He says he had a vision of his mother, lying in a similar bed half a century earlier. It was one of his earliest memories.

“I basically went back in time,” he began. “I was five. They brought us all in, the night she passed away. I remember her telling me, ‘You’re gonna be good for your dad now, aren't you?’ There were five of us kids, and she made my dad promise that he'd keep us all together.” She died in that bed, at the age of 25, from a rare cancer.

As Murtha lay suspended between life and death, the visions continued. His wife grasped his hand as he described what he called an out-of-body experience: “I was in this place looking for my older brother Mike. We had been talking about getting together. He was a dreamer. Oh, it had been over 30, 40 years since we’d played together. And then he died. But, I was in this place, like a green forest, meadows, and there were these bright figures all around. And, there was this one figure, I couldn’t—it was just really bright, and he was in a robe like Jesus. And, he told me, ‘Your brother is home, you need to go find yourself.’”

Murtha awoke in an intensive care unit, with a new heart bounding in his chest. His old heart went first to the pathology lab for an autopsy. At that point, Roberts claims, “99.5 percent of hospitals throw the hearts away. They just don’t have the space to keep them.” Baylor is different, however. Their lab contains thousands of hearts in permanent storage, making it one of the most extensive cardiac research facilities in the world. The availability of these organs creates a unique opportunity for a program like Heart-to-Heart. Each transplant patient at Baylor is routinely informed about the option, which is promoted as an educational opportunity.

On the day of a viewing session, clinical coordinator Saba Ilyas carefully retrieves and prepares each organ. The patients come in, sometimes alone, sometimes with their families, all eyeing the tray with the bulging surgical towel.

Hendrix had expected to see something “black and shriveled, probably three times the normal size, and just jello-like.”

Bell had expected a big red ideograph, “like when you open a Valentine’s card.”

“It wasn’t like that at all though,” he continued. “What it reminded me of, was a piece of roast beef.”

Under the glaring examination lights of the Baylor pathology lab, the visceral reality of what had actually happened to these people was an abstraction. I was there, holding a lump of raw meat in my hands, trying to feel the life that had once pulsated through it. Across culture and time, the heart has been a metaphor for love, for valor, for the soul itself—for everything we can sense but never touch. Here too, at the viewing, it was evident, by the gentle reverence it inspired, by the tender way in which it was held—the meaning of this organ transcended its mere function and form. Each transplantee was left to interpret the significance of this experience for themselves.

James Murtha holds his own heart. (Roc Morin)

“The whole time you’re holding your heart,” Bell described, “your brain wants to have a little conversation with you—like you shouldn’t really be doing this. This is not normal. And, you’re like—well, but here it is. I have my heart right here in my hands, and it’s normal to me.” Bell later recalled opening his eyes for the first time after his operation. “In a very poignant moment, I told my new heart that I’d take care of it as best I could for as long as I could.”

Hendrix speculated about the identity of her donor. Based on the frenetic surge of energy she reports experiencing since the transplant, she mused that “it feels like a tennis player.” Afterwards, she spoke again about the borrowed life source she carries inside of her. “It’s like the donor, in some way, is still alive. I think, if the donor was a happy person, they’re still a happy person, it just manifests itself through me.”

For Sample, the heart in her chest feels palpably foreign. She has dreamed about her unknown donor—envisioning him kneeling before her, offering up his heart with his own two hands. She has stopped using the common phrase “my heart” to describe her feelings. She has replaced it, sometimes haltingly, with “my mind.”

Bell held his former heart in front of his chest, with hands that shook from the drugs he must take for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting his new organ. The survivor found himself unexpectedly smiling. “To see my native heart, this thing that had caused so much pain and heartache, and to be able to walk away [from it]—I felt victorious.”

Hendrix thought of God, and of all her mother’s fervent prayers. “It made me feel how truly blessed I am to be here.”

Sample’s emotions overwhelmed her. “When something is gone that’s been a part of you—the thing that gives you life—there’s a sense of loss. There’s a grieving process that you have to go through. It’s crazy, but it’s like a person. It’s dead. My heart is dead, and there it is, lying on the table right there. If your mind goes to that place, then you can’t help but feel that loss. I told my heart ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t take care of you better.’ It brought tears to my eyes, truly. I needed to say goodbye.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/heart-to-heart-transplants-therapy/537504/?utm_source=feed

[ionecoffman]

Transplantees Find Catharsis in Holding Their Old Hearts

Kamisha Hendrix’s heart lay on the table between us. Seventy days ago, this heart had been beating inside of her, back behind the dark scar that plunged into the neckline of her blouse.

“No—my heart didn’t beat,” Hendrix clarified. “It trembled.”

The chemo used to treat her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had damaged her cardiac muscle irreparably, reducing its strength to 15 percent. She regularly lapsed in and out of consciousness. “I felt like I was moving through mud,” she recalled.

Hendrix looked at the heart on the table, the organ she had carried for 44 years, and spoke in its imaginary voice. “You wanna live?” She gave the heart a whimpering intonation. “Okay, I'll give you another beat.”

She switched back to her own voice, “Thank you, heart. Thanks a lot, friend.”

Three months ago, Hendrix’s mother, Carolyn Woods, had already written her obituary and tucked it away in a drawer. The theme, Woods explained, was For Whom the Bell Tolls. “It was about everyone coming to pay their last respects—and the people are the bell. All that crying and wailing would be the people tolling for her.”

Ultimately, the story of Hendrix’s heart did end in a funeral. Somewhere, on a clear May morning, an organ donor died. Within hours, Hendrix received a new heart.

The transplant saved Hendrix’s life, and yet—it would also be technically true to say that in the process, a part of her had died. We were in Dallas, Texas, at the Baylor Heart and Vascular Center to reunite Hendrix with her native heart and reflect on what it means to live without it.

The idea for this kind of encounter originated with William Roberts, Baylor’s chief cardiac pathologist. In 2014, Roberts began the Heart-to-Heart program, inviting cardiac transplant patients to see and hold their former organs. The primary objective was education. Roberts delivers a health lecture with the patient’s own heart as Exhibit A.

For transplantees, compliance with doctors’ lifestyle instructions is critical to recovery and longevity. One recent study found that in the domains of diet, exercise, medication, and tobacco avoidance, noncompliance ranged from 18 to 37 percent. Furthermore, compliance was observed to decrease over time.

While Hendrix’s heart failure was primarily due to another cause, her condition was exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyle choices—a factor that impacts nearly all heart-transplant patients. With Heart-to-Heart, Roberts has found a way to clearly demonstrate the effect of these choices on the heart itself. According to a study co-authored by the cardiologist, 75 percent of program participants reported that the experience has changed their health-related behaviors “to a great degree.”

James Murtha's heart (Roc Morin)

Roberts begins each session with raw statistics.

“In the United States, there are 6 million people living with heart failure,” he lectures in a honeyed Georgian accent. “Every year, only about 2,200 of those people receive heart transplants. So, you are very, very special. You’ve been given a second chance.”

Unceremoniously lifting the surgical cloth that covers the heart, Roberts describes what he sees. The history of the heart is there, incontrovertibly embedded in the organ. Most are cocooned in hard yellow fat.

“If you dropped this in the Mississippi,” Roberts opines, “it would float all the way to the Gulf.”

“Oh my god!” Hendrix gasped. “Look at all that fat! I guess those chips have gotta go.”

“That’s right,” Roberts replied. “And those cows, chickens, and pigs on your plate.”

In addition to education, the reunion also provides an opportunity for closure—a benefit that Roberts didn’t initially expect. After facing death—what transplantee John Bell prefers to call “the abyss”—survivors are frequently left traumatized. That reality is apparent in the standard warlike medical rhetoric, with doctors and patients alike speaking the language of soldiers. Together they fight their battles, target the enemy, eradicate and annihilate. With the focus on winning, dedicated opportunities to stop and reflect are rare.

Tina Sample’s ordeal began with a massive heart attack that was misdiagnosed as a gastrointestinal issue. After days of breathless agony, she was finally correctly diagnosed at a different hospital. “I had what they call ‘the widowmaker,’” she recounted, “100 percent blockage. I had a massive amount of blood clots throughout my heart. The doctor had never seen anything like it in his 24 years of practicing medicine. He called me a miracle.”

In the months that followed, Sample lived in constant fear of death. “I was just so scared every night,” she confessed. “I had this terror that this could be my last night on earth, so I’d try to keep myself awake. I would keep myself awake until 4 or 5 a.m. I wanted to see my son graduate college. I wanted to know my grandkids. There were so many things I wanted to see.”

James Murtha had been healthy his entire life. “I’ve never broke a bone in my body,” he insisted. “I’ve never really been sick at all, except for the flu once and chicken pox when I was a kid. So this—when it hit, it hit hard.”

Murtha had been driving home from work when he began to shiver and sweat. It was a heart attack. Later, he recalled being in a hospital bed, on life support, his liver and kidneys failing. He says he had a vision of his mother, lying in a similar bed half a century earlier. It was one of his earliest memories.

“I basically went back in time,” he began. “I was five. They brought us all in, the night she passed away. I remember her telling me, ‘You’re gonna be good for your dad now, aren't you?’ There were five of us kids, and she made my dad promise that he'd keep us all together.” She died in that bed, at the age of 25, from a rare cancer.

As Murtha lay suspended between life and death, the visions continued. His wife grasped his hand as he described what he called an out-of-body experience: “I was in this place looking for my older brother Mike. We had been talking about getting together. He was a dreamer. Oh, it had been over 30, 40 years since we’d played together. And then he died. But, I was in this place, like a green forest, meadows, and there were these bright figures all around. And, there was this one figure, I couldn’t—it was just really bright, and he was in a robe like Jesus. And, he told me, ‘Your brother is home, you need to go find yourself.’”

Murtha awoke in an intensive care unit, with a new heart bounding in his chest. His old heart went first to the pathology lab for an autopsy. At that point, Roberts claims, “99.5 percent of hospitals throw the hearts away. They just don’t have the space to keep them.” Baylor is different, however. Their lab contains thousands of hearts in permanent storage, making it one of the most extensive cardiac research facilities in the world. The availability of these organs creates a unique opportunity for a program like Heart-to-Heart. Each transplant patient at Baylor is routinely informed about the option, which is promoted as an educational opportunity.

On the day of a viewing session, clinical coordinator Saba Ilyas carefully retrieves and prepares each organ. The patients come in, sometimes alone, sometimes with their families, all eyeing the tray with the bulging surgical towel.

Hendrix had expected to see something “black and shriveled, probably three times the normal size, and just jello-like.”

Bell had expected a big red ideograph, “like when you open a Valentine’s card.”

“It wasn’t like that at all though,” he continued. “What it reminded me of, was a piece of roast beef.”

Under the glaring examination lights of the Baylor pathology lab, the visceral reality of what had actually happened to these people was an abstraction. I was there, holding a lump of raw meat in my hands, trying to feel the life that had once pulsated through it. Across culture and time, the heart has been a metaphor for love, for valor, for the soul itself—for everything we can sense but never touch. Here too, at the viewing, it was evident, by the gentle reverence it inspired, by the tender way in which it was held—the meaning of this organ transcended its mere function and form. Each transplantee was left to interpret the significance of this experience for themselves.

James Murtha holds his own heart. (Roc Morin)

“The whole time you’re holding your heart,” Bell described, “your brain wants to have a little conversation with you—like you shouldn’t really be doing this. This is not normal. And, you’re like—well, but here it is. I have my heart right here in my hands, and it’s normal to me.” Bell later recalled opening his eyes for the first time after his operation. “In a very poignant moment, I told my new heart that I’d take care of it as best I could for as long as I could.”

Hendrix speculated about the identity of her donor. Based on the frenetic surge of energy she reports experiencing since the transplant, she mused that “it feels like a tennis player.” Afterwards, she spoke again about the borrowed life source she carries inside of her. “It’s like the donor, in some way, is still alive. I think, if the donor was a happy person, they’re still a happy person, it just manifests itself through me.”

For Sample, the heart in her chest feels palpably foreign. She has dreamed about her unknown donor—envisioning him kneeling before her, offering up his heart with his own two hands. She has stopped using the common phrase “my heart” to describe her feelings. She has replaced it, sometimes haltingly, with “my mind.”

Bell held his former heart in front of his chest, with hands that shook from the drugs he must take for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting his new organ. The survivor found himself unexpectedly smiling. “To see my native heart, this thing that had caused so much pain and heartache, and to be able to walk away [from it]—I felt victorious.”

Hendrix thought of God, and of all her mother’s fervent prayers. “It made me feel how truly blessed I am to be here.”

Sample’s emotions overwhelmed her. “When something is gone that’s been a part of you—the thing that gives you life—there’s a sense of loss. There’s a grieving process that you have to go through. It’s crazy, but it’s like a person. It’s dead. My heart is dead, and there it is, lying on the table right there. If your mind goes to that place, then you can’t help but feel that loss. I told my heart ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t take care of you better.’ It brought tears to my eyes, truly. I needed to say goodbye.”

Article source here:The Atlantic

[junker-town]

NBA mock draft 2017: The Lakers finally zero in on Lonzo Ball at No. 2

Happy draft day, everyone. Here is our final mock before the 2017 NBA Draft.

The 2017 NBA Draft is finally here. After 12 months of hype, the players making up one of the most exciting draft classes in recent memory are about to learn where they will begin their pro careers.

There will be no drama at the top when the Philadelphia 76ers get on the clock. With the trade up to No. 1, the Sixers have zeroed in on Markelle Fultz to finally get the franchise out of the lottery and into the playoffs. The Lakers could throw a wrench into this mock draft with a surprise pick at No. 2, but it would be shocking if they actually passed on Lonzo Ball.

The rest of the top 10 falls nicely into place after that. Boston and Phoenix both need big wings with Jayson Tatum and Josh Jackson sitting right there. The whole NBA knows the Kings want De’Aaron Fox. What do the Knicks do at No. 8? It feels like they could go in any direction.

This is our final mock for the 2017 draft. Happy draft day, everyone.

1 Philadelphia 76ers - Markelle Fultz, G, Washington

Fultz is the total package for a guard. He has ideal size, a reliable shooting stroke from three-point range and a unique ability to create offense for himself and others out of the pick-and-roll. The trade up to No. 1 was a grand slam for Philly. If Joel Embiid can stay healthy and Ben Simmons reaches his potential, the 76ers suddenly have the brightest young trio in the NBA.

Here’s our first feature on Fultz as a high school player, from Dec. 8, 2015: Markelle Fultz went from JV to one of the best prep point guards in the country in 2 years

2. Los Angeles Lakers - Lonzo Ball, PG, UCLA

The Lakers’ decision to trade D’Angelo Russell clears the way for Lonzo Ball to be the second pick in the draft. Ball possesses a gifted basketball mind to go along with deep shooting range and great size for a lead guard at 6’6. A year ago, UCLA was one of the most disappointing programs in the country before Ball transformed them into the greatest show in the sport. Don’t bet against him having a similar impact on the Lakers eventually.

Our first Ball feature from the 2016 McDonald’s All-American Game: Basketball has never seen a player like superstar recruit Lonzo Ball

3. Boston Celtics - Jayson Tatum, SF, Duke

Tatum offers classic go-to scoring ability on the wing. He has great size (6’8), advanced footwork and an array of moves that are developed beyond his years. It’s fair to wonder if Tatum is a bit of a ball stopper who struggles to make his teammates better, but the fit with the Celtics should help mitigate that problem. Brad Stevens has a way of getting his teams to play together. Now he’s going to have an incredible offensive talent on the wing to push his group to the next level.

Our first Tatum feature, from July 9, 2015: 5-star recruit Jayson Tatum has the basketball world in the palm of his hand

4. Phoenix Suns - Josh Jackson, SF, Kansas

Jackson seemed likely to go the 76ers at No. 3 before the trade with the Celtics. Now he should be there for Phoenix at No. 4, where he looks like a perfect fit with the Suns’ young roster. Jackson is simply the type of player who helps you win: he’s a great athlete, ruthless competitor and unselfish when the ball is in his hands. If the young front court of Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender can come into its own, the Suns will suddenly have a great collection of diverse talent.

Our first Jackson feature, from Oct. 6, 2015: Josh Jackson is the blue-chip recruit who could be a college superstar right now

5. Sacramento Kings - De’Aaron Fox, PG, Kentucky

Fox turned in the most memorable individual performance of the college basketball season when he dominated Lonzo Ball in the Sweet 16. He’s known for his blinding speed, his ability to get to the rim and his tenacity on both ends. The Kings need a point guard, but even more than that they need a new face of the franchise. Fox checks both boxes.

6. Orlando Magic - Jonathan Isaac, F, Florida State

What makes Isaac unique is his ability to impact the game without demanding the ball be in his hands. He is a phenomenal defensive talent as a versatile forward who can slide his feet with guards and protect the rim like a big man. His offensive skill set is raw, but he has a nice face-up jumper (35 percent from three) and will bring value as a cutter.

7. Minnesota Timberwolves - Lauri Markkanen, PF, Arizona

Markkanen is an elite shooter at 7-feet tall with an ultra quick release. That should help open up driving lanes for Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and even Karl-Anthony Towns. Think of him as a bigger Ryan Anderson. He’ll need to add strength and improve defensively.

8. New York Knicks - Frank Ntilikina, PG, France

If the draft breaks the way I think it’s going to, the Knicks have the most interesting decision of the top-10. Malik Monk, Dennis Smith Jr. and Frank Ntilikina are all great prospects in their own right. You can argue Knicks can’t go wrong with whoever they chose — though surely they will try. I’m putting Ntilikina here because he feels like the best fit for Phil Jackson’s beloved Triangle offense. He’s not going to break you down off the dribble like Smith or catch fire as often as Monk, but he’s the longest and most intriguing defensive prospect of the bunch. He reminds me of a young George Hill.

9. Dallas Mavericks - Dennis Smith Jr., PG, NC State

Smith is a mega-athlete at point guard who is at his best attacking the basket. Throw him in a spread pick-and-roll offense surrounded by Nerlens Noel, Dirk Nowitzki and Harrison Barnes, and he should be immediately successful.

10. Sacramento Kings - Malik Monk, SG, Kentucky

Someone is going to fall to No. 10. If it’s Monk, he’ll be set for a reunion with Fox to keep the Lexington-to-Sacramento pipeline alive. Monk isn’t a perfect fit with a similar player in Buddy Hield already on the roster, but he’s too talented to pass up at this point. We’re like a year away from John Calipari accepting a godfather offer to become the new emperor of the Kings.

Our first Monk feature, from July 21, 2015: 5-star recruit Malik Monk wants to be more than a mixtape legend

11. Charlotte Hornets - Luke Kennard, G, Duke

The Hornets have Dwight Howard now. It's been nearly a decade since the peak of the late 2000s Magic teams that starred Howard with shooters all around him, but why not attempt to run it all back? Luke Kennard went to Duke nearby and might be the best shooting prospect in the draft.

12. Detroit Pistons - Donovan Mitchell, G, Louisville

Reggie Jackson’s future in Detroit is uncertain at best. Can Mitchell be the Pistons’ point guard of the future? It’s possible. While he typically played off the ball at Louisville, Mitchell has the length and athleticism to overwhelm opposing guards defensively. He isn’t a natural ball handler or shooter, but he did hit 37 percent of his threes as a sophomore. More than anything, he feels like a Stan Van Gundy type of player.

13. Denver Nuggets - OG Anunoby, F, Indiana

The Nuggets have a pair of budding offensive talents in Nikola Jokic (already a star) and Jamal Murray (looked good as a rookie). Now they need a strong defensive presence to tie the lineup together. Anunoby can be exactly that. He’s a strong, long-armed defender who should be a great fit for Denver at the four once he recovers the ACL he tore in January.

14. Miami Heat - John Collins, PF, Wake Forest

Collins led all DI college basketball players in PER this season thanks to efficient inside scoring and incredible rebounding. There are questions about his shooting range and lateral quickness, but it’s hard to ignore that type of production.

15. Portland Trail Blazers - Zach Collins, C, Gonzaga

Collins could go as high as No. 10 in this draft, but there’s usually one player who falls out of the lottery every year. There’s a lot to like about his game: a combination of shot blocking and perimeter offensive skill, namely. By the end of the season, he might have been the best player on Gonzaga’s first ever Final Four team.

16. Chicago Bulls - Justin Jackson, SF, North Carolina

If Jackson is available, recent history would suggest he’ll be the Bulls’ pick at No. 16. Chicago’s front office has long favored veteran college players from winning programs who improved over time. In that sense, Jackson is similar to the Bulls’ first rounder from last year, former Michigan State senior Denzel Valentine. If Jackson’s not around, the Bulls could go in any direction. Texas’ Jarrett Allen or Creighton’s Justin Patton seem like strong possibilities.

17. Milwaukee Bucks - D.J. Wilson, F, Michigan

Wilson enters this draft looking like a boom-or-bust selection. He wasn’t all that productive at Michigan until the end of his junior season, but there’s a lot to like about his physical tools. Namely: at 6’10, 240 lbs. with a 7’3 wingspan, Wilson offers a rare combination of shooting and rim protection. If everything clicks in the NBA, he could be a major sleeper in this draft.

18. Indiana Pacers - T.J. Leaf, PF, UCLA

Leaf hit a scalding 46 percent of his three-pointers playing next to Lonzo Ball at UCLA. The only issue is that he didn’t do it at a high volume, canning only 27 threes all season. If his efficiency can maintain as his volume rises, he deserves to be a lottery pick. He’ll have to answer a lot of questions defensively either way.

19. Atlanta Hawks - Jarrett Allen, C, Texas

The Hawks just gave away Dwight Howard, so a center at No. 19 makes a lot of sense. Patton and Allen are arguably the two top available talents at the position. Allen’s superior defensive potential gives him the advantage here.

20. Portland Trail Blazers - Ike Anigbogu, C, UCLA

Anigbogu profiles as a classic rim protector who can set screens and catch lobs on the offensive end. That’s a dimension Portland doesn’t have right now with Jusuf Nurkic.

21. Oklahoma City Thunder - Derrick White, G, Colorado

It’s wild to think White anyone played one year of D1 ball at Colorado. He has a complete skill set for a guard: he can shoot, pass and handle with enough size and athleticism to play either backcourt spot. I see him as a player who could eventually either play next to or backup Russell Westbrook.

22. Brooklyn Nets - Harry Giles, C, Duke

Giles is the perfect pick for a team that has multiple selections in the first round and needs to swing for the fences. He was the former No. 1 high school player in the country before repeated knee injuries took a toll on his production at Duke. If he can get and stay healthy, hopefully he can still fulfill the potential so many scouts saw in him as a prep star.

23. Toronto Raptors - Semi Ojeleye, F, SMU

Ojeleye has three level scoring ability in a ridiculously strong 6’6 frame with a 40-inch vertical. There are questions about if he has the lateral quickness to defend threes or the length to play the four, but he’s skilled enough to carve out a role either way.

24. Utah Jazz - Tyler Lydon, PF, Syracuse

Lydon hit 40 percent of his threes over two years of college ball at Syracuse. There’s a spot in the first round for a front court shooter like that.

25. Orlando Magic - Terrance Ferguson, SG, Adelaine

Ferguson is this draft’s top high school player who decided to go overseas instead of play college basketball. He has great size (6’7) for a two guard with a nice shooting stroke and impressive athleticism. Scouts will question his feel for the game and his ability to break down defenders off the dribble. At this point in the draft, he’s a good gamble for the Magic.

26. Portland Trail Blazers - Kyle Kuzma, F, Utah

Kuzma is a big 6’9 forward who is comfortable making decisions with the ball in his hands. Portland could use a different dimension at the four and Kuzma’s combination of size and feel for the game would offer it.

27. Los Angeles Lakers - Justin Patton, C, Creighton

Patton could legitimately go in the lottery. He’s an athletic center who can run the floor, score around the basket and is just starting to scratch the surface of his skill level. It feels like there’s one player like that who falls every year. Skal Labissiere is the patron saint.

28. Los Angeles Lakers - Wesley Iwundu, SF, Kansas State

If Iwundu’s jumper comes around, he’s going to have a long NBA career. He’s a 6’7 wing with good defensive potential and impressive passing ability.

29. San Antonio Spurs - Anzejs Pasecniks, C, Latvia

A 7’3 center who can shoot? He feels like one of the biggest sleepers in this draft. Of course the Spurs get him.

30. Utah Jazz - Frank Jackson, G, Duke

Jackson is an athletic 6’3 guard who can hit jumpers off the dribble. He didn’t get the opportunity to show everything he can do at Duke, but he has the talent to carve out an NBA career. He also grew up in Utah. It’s a nice note to end on.