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Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Monday, 07 April 2008

  • Pulitzer What?


    There is a quote by someone famous somewhere about how when the world ends, it will be with smiles on our faces and to the sound of applause.  Perhaps it is a quote from a movie.  Whatever the case, it often rings eerily true.

    I haven't read the details about the recent announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes, nor do I really wish to.  The prize, at least how it seems to have evolved, is as ignorant of larger moral issues, the hearts of the common people, and unbiased political perspective as the Oscars so often are.

    I can't bear to read any more about how or why it was given - all I can recognize is the distinct anti-American strain that seems to run throughout the brief summary for each prize.   I am not so glib and juvenile that I think that criticism of American government is never appropriate - but I think that patriotism and moral clarity have their own influence, which should be greater than anything else.

    You read the Pulitzer list, and some of the online noise about the prize, and it makes reporters sound like they are heroic six-gunning lawmen of the Wild West, keeping the evil forces of tyranny at bay, with their gutsy penmanship, staying up late at night, surviving on cheap cigarettes and old brandy to expose yet one more atrocity done by none other than yours truly, the people we have put in power.  Here's a photo of the Washington Post staff celebrating:



    The sheer domination of anti-American issues on the list reeks.  Where are all the articles about radical Islam and how it is a threat to the free world?  Wouldn't you think an article like that, if it actually existed amongst the Ameri-European elite, would deserve a Pulitzer, when journalists have been murdered on their own city streets in Europe for having the courage to speak against it?

    Or, perhaps at least one or two articles about the millions of children who were slaughtered by abortion last year in the name of convenience and moral monstrosity?  If this is the best we can write as Americans, we are a sad, sad child, living in a blind universe, one that would rather beat its own parents when they are down than recognize the great moral evil that lies within and without us. 

    We hardly deserve the country we have inherited from those who saw so much, and gave even more.  It also begs another question which I do not have time to address - for all their insistence on moral and philosophical relativity and frequent condemnation of religious people, why do liberals so often sound so, so, so self-righteous? 

    Here's a brief snatch of the topics that some of the biggest prizes went to:

    Army "abusing" veterans at Walter Reed hospital?

    Dick Cheney being a complicit, behind the scenes shark?

    Private security contractors in Iraq being trigger-happy, crazed, lunatics who are only slightly more evil and berserk than our own "unhappy" soldiers?

    There seems to be a theme here.  I am saddened, and dismayed.  No, more than anything, I am disturbed.  I remember a vague sense of the same feeling the last few times the Pulitzers were announced.  For too long, I have felt I am attending freedom's funeral.  The feeling is growing. 





Sunday, 06 April 2008

  • R.I.P. Charlton Heston



    Charlton Heston Dead at 84

    By BOB THOMAS
    The Associated Press
    Sunday, April 6, 2008; 12:23 AM

    LOS ANGELES -- Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.

    The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

    Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.

    Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."

    With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.

    The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.

    In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."

    Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."

    That same year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.

    He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.

    © 2008 The Associated Press


Tuesday, 01 April 2008






  • Well, it has been a long time since I've written anything.  I've finally become a bit more organized with all my different web accounts.  It can be a bit overwhelming these days trying to pick and choose where to spend one's time on the web and feeling which location and amount of time is really worth it.

    I was never into MySpace, it was always too MTV-ish for me - but I now have Facebook, Blogspot, Flickr, Photobucket, and that's just the short list.

    I have been putting a lot more effort into my photography, I have begun shooting weddings for commercial work, and I am doing any and all available types of photography for work.  So, I have created a flickr site, and a new blog just for my photography. 

    The debate for me has been, which is better for traditional writing? Facebook, or a blog?  I think a normal blog is definitely the answer, because posting something on Facebook can at times be like firing an SOS flare out into the ocean... you might get a few looks or glances, and people might think it's just a distant meteor.

    So, I did a bit of reorganization, and I am going to use my xanga site for writing, and everything else in its proper place.  With my xanga site, I will focus on the occasional political/religious issue as in the past, but I also hope to make it a place where I review movies, books, even games occasionally, with a smattering of creative writing thrown in.

    So, here is my photography blog:

    http://israelgrovemanphoto.blogspot.com/

    This is my flickr site:

    http://flickr.com/photos/anunkasan

    THIS IS MY NEW WEBSITE WHERE YOU CAN SEE MY RATES AND ARCHIVAL QUALITY PREVIEWS OF MY WORK:

    http://www.israeldavidgroveman.com

    I just saw Atonement last night.  I don't have time to review the entire movie, but boy oh boy was I amazed at the probably now famous take on the beach at Dunkirk.  It's a 5-minute long Steadi-Cam shot, and if you know anything about movies, that is probably a world record feat for single longest take without any cuts.  It is an amazingly complicated shot, which communicates the feelings and wanderings of three characters all at once, and helps to climax the story in a way that really brings out the journey and the tragedy of certain characters.  It took them over a day just to plan out the entire shot.  I was very impressed.  It was a good movie, with some shocking, horrific things in it, but they were put towards good use as the whole story basically describes the effects of guilt, lying, and deception... and not in the way you'd come to expect from that description.

        

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

  • I'm Back

    ahhhh pirates

    Well, it has been a long time since I've actively posted on xanga - I will be making it a priority again.

    Part of it is just the monumental task of summing up this year - after working in South Dakota for 6 months and having my first child, little Quinn Wallace Groveman who is now 2 months old, catching up in the way I deem sufficient has been hard to do.

    I also have gotten into Facebook, which is much more fluent in some ways - but it's not as writing focused as xanga, which I would like to return to doing regularly.  I recommend getting into Facebook if you don't have it, though.

    I start with an article about a real-life pirate battle.... no, that much hasn't changed.

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igroveman

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    • Name: Israel
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About Me

  • Chingachgook: "The frontier moves with the sun, and pushes the Red Man of these wilderness forests in front of it until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more... or be not us." Hawkeye: "That is my father's sadness talking." Chingachgook: "No, it is true. The frontier place is for people like my white son and his woman and their children. And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like you will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once... ...we were here. -The Last Of The Mohicans directed by Michael Mann, based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper

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