The Passing of a Legend

One of my heroes just died. Charlton Heston passed away at age 84 this past evening. He was most definitely one of the few remaining true stars of the silver screen - a group of people that has almost completely left us. He had class, high morals, and he was even married to the same woman (Lydia) for 64 years.

His acting accomplishments are well documented, but I have to say that I believe it takes a larger-than-life man to play the roles of Judah Ben Hur (for which he won an Oscar), Moses and John the Baptist. The man that can pull off all of those roles in one lifetime without it going completely to his head deserves everyone's respect.


Some of my favorites of his other roles include: George Taylor in "Planet of the Apes", Stewart Graff in "Earthquake", Capt. Matthew Garth in "Midway" and Robert Neville in "The Omega Man" - a movie that Will Smith just remade entitled "I Am Legend". He also had the small but important role of Henry Hooker in one of my all-time favorite westerns, "Tombstone".

He was a man's man, not just because of the roles he played, but because of what he stood for. He was an Air Force veteran, a social activist in his latter years, and in 2003, he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this nation's highest civilian honor.

As I said, there aren't many genuine Hollywood stars left. I am however thankful he came along to fill the need Hollywood had for a true hero.

Charlton Heston has left an opening for the next genuine Hollywood hero. Who can possibly fill it?

New Projects Now Out on DVD

Last fall and early winter, I mixed a couple of indie features (one documentary and one drama-mentary), and they have finally come out on the market.

Morristown is a feature-length drama/documentary based on a ballet school in a small town of the same name. We had several sound challenges, but overall I think it came out sounding very good. (And myself being someone with a limited eye for dance, I think there's some great stuff of that sort in there too.) Check it out at: morristownthemovie.com. (no imdb page as of yet)

The Sophisticated Misfit is a documentary that follows the life and art of Los Angeles based artist Josh Agle (aka: Shag). He has a remarkable style that is often imitated, though never really equaled. (That's his work above.) See about getting the movie HERE. I have fallen into his fan-base, though unfortunately, I'll probably never have the opportunity to get one of his original pieces.

This film also had challenges in the production sound, but we got it dialed in pretty well, and I think the content of both of these movies makes up for any of the sound flaws. The filmmakers, Christo Garcia (Morristown) and Mark Chervinsky (Sophisticated Misfit) are now film partners, so they are collaborating on their projects. They make a good team.

He Is Risen

He has resurrected me too.

The Awareness Test

You may be surprised:

Sound Effects Doing Their Job

This is a great example of sound effects telling the story. The animation for Simon's Cat is excellent, but it's the sound that makes me laugh. Never underestimate the power of a quality soundtrack.

Drumming For A Lifetime, pt. 10

It's self explanatory, and it's beautiful.

Riding Again...

Okay, this isn't a photo of me, but it's how I feel on the inside again, because after a little over two weeks off, I am finally riding again.

I was sick for a week, then the California rains came for the entire next week (I'm not hardcore enough to choose to ride in the rain).

Though waiting for the rains to end was a bummer, the payoff of our way-ahead-of-schedule rainfall for the year has left us with gorgeously green mountains, where they had been a deserty dull brown the past couple of years.


I know what you're thinking: "That looks like Austria, circa 1965, and maybe a screen-grab from 'The Sound of Music.'" ..................... Yes, okay maybe, but I couldn't find any good pics of So-Cal mountains that have a greenish hue to get my point across.

All that to say, I'm glad to be riding again and the scenery is even more amazing than usual. Knowing California, the green will fade to brown again as the rains become a distant memory. That will just make it all the more sweet again when the rains come again.