And I’m starting over. It’s too sterile. I want to punch you in the face in the span of three thousand to five thousand words, not rock you in my arms and feed you a bottle. Time to load up the gloves. I’ll be done when I’m done.
Update: Listen to the message Rob Zombie recorded for PETA’s Holiday Hotline, created in response to Butterballs’s Turkey Talk Line (click here for audio message).
I know this won’t make anyone change their minds, but I can’t in good faith, with ready access to a medium of mass distribution, neglect to urge everyone to consider non-animal options for their dinner tables. Here’s some info from PETA.org and GoVeg.com about turkeys and the way they are treated in factory farms.
Please read these little tidbits, watch both the videos, then ask yourself why a turkey or a cow or a chicken or a pig deserves to be treated differently than a dog or a cat or a child.
And don’t kid yourself into thinking that this Butterball slaughterhouse is any different than any other company, even the kinder-sounding organic or free-range farms. Is there really such a thing as humanely killing another sentient creature for food, especially when we’ve developed other, cruelty-free means of sustenance?
Turkeys have been genetically modified to gain weight rapidly because fatter turkeys mean fatter wallets for farmers. But in nature, the turkey’s athletic prowess is truly impressive. Wild turkeys can fly at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and run at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. The natural lifespan of the turkey is between 10 and 12 years, but on factory farms they are slaughtered when they’re just 5 months old. Turkeys are born with full-color vision just like our own, and in nature they stay with their mothers for up to the first five months of their lives. These gentle birds are very bonded to their young—in the wild, a mother turkey will courageously defend her family against predators. Many respected researchers have spoken out on behalf of this intelligent, social bird. Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage says, “I’ve always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings. The ‘dumb’ tag simply doesn’t fit.” Even a popular turkey-hunting guide admits that turkeys are far from feather-brained. According to the Remington Guide to Turkey Hunting, turkeys will “test your wits as they are rarely tested in modern life.” Erik Marcus, the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, has spent a considerable amount of time with turkeys on farm sanctuaries. He reports, “Turkeys remember your face and they will sit closer to you with each day you revisit. Come back day after day and, before long, a few birds will pick you out as their favorite and they will come running up to you whenever you arrive. It’s definitely a matter of the birds choosing you rather than of you choosing the birds. Different birds choose different people.”
You wouldn’t eat your dog. Why eat a bird? Please think before you eat.
I’m not sure why, but I have recently begun listening to Lyle Lovett music on an almost constant basis while writing. I’m not sure what this means, but as my headline said, and from the research I’ve done on his fan base, I am either old, uncool, extremely hip, or a lesbian. I urge anyone reading to weigh in on this topic and tell me (1) what I am, and (2) what this means. I appreciate it.
Before you comment, I offer you a sampling of the man, the myth, the frighteningly ugly legend that is Lyle Lovett.
This is the closing paragraph of “On The Road,” which I referenced in my previous post. Even though it’s as long and freewheeling as the rest of the book, I think it brings things to a slow close rather than a screeching halt. It doesn’t get too much better than this.
“So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”
For all those waiting in quiet anticipation for its release, here it is, the latest effort from the collaborative efforts of Chapter 11 Productions and Brain Jail Productions:
“Vigilance,” starring Joe Fallon and George Kennedy.
As I wrote over the weekend, this film was made for the National Film Challenge, a.k.a. The 48 Hour Film Project (click for details). We were given the following information with which to make a short film in a little more than two days:
Genre: Detective/Cop
Character: Cheeks Easton, celebrity impersonator
Prop: Bubble wrap
Line of dialog: “It’s impossible not to look.”
Both Joe and George gave us great performances. I’ve always known Joe to be an intense, somewhat frightening guy, but I never expected him to be able to deliver like that with no real time to rehearse or prepare. He did an amazing job. On more than a few occasions, the way he delivered a line or a look he gave the camera freaked us out a bit. He sold the character about as well as you could, under the circumstances.
George also did a really nice job selling his fear. We were able to use so many tight shots because the emotion coming through looked so real. That’s something we were just lucky to get from them. The entire process went so smoothly because they were able to rip through these long takes, executing all the dialog perfectly. Both of them had Tim, Lennon and I staring at one another, wondering if it should be this easy.
In past years, I’d have a lot to say about problems we had or things we had to correct in editing to save the cohesiveness of the story. But nothing like that happened this year. This was our third year doing this competition, and it was by far the best effort.
Of course, it’s hard to separate yourself from the movie and view it objectively when you’ve spent the last 72 hours working on it, so we’re really curious to hear what other people think. I’ll be sure to share with everyone involved any comments left here. Thanks for watching. Enjoy the film. And make sure the kids are out of the room.
I refuse to believe it. I simply refuse.
I went to the website. I will call these people soon and berate them about their product. Video/audio coming soon.