Memorial Day 2008: Alexander Kelly USCT Medal of Honor

Today we honor soldiers like Alexander Kelly.

Thank you sir.

Paul Parducci

My Buddy David's New Blog

Put this one on your "Must Read" list:
NEXT SET-UP
Later,
Paul Parducci

Nightmare Boss: A Very Grateful Bladder Problem

I want to thank all the folks who are watching "Nightmare Boss" on Vodaphone in the UK and beyond. Also,I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to let me know how much you enjoy the series.
Here is Nightmare Boss #14 "Bladder Problem."
Later,
Paul Parducci

Edinburgh, Scotland: If You Can: Go And See The Ghosts

Edinburgh is a great town filled with interesting , friendly people.

It still bothers me that they can't fly St. Andrews Cross above the UK flag. (I guess I'm just an obstreperous American so in order to avoid an international incident I'll stop right there.)

Anyway if I were there this coming week I would head over to their annual Ghost Fest.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Ps: The great photo is frome here.

Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing

A fantastic Noirish Psychological thriller- well worth a look.
Here is Chris Fujiwara's piece from Senses of Cinema on Mr. Preminger.
Later,
Paul Parducci

The Voynich Manuscript

Among the many strange objects floating around our planet, this is one of the strangest.

The Voynich Manuscript.

John Baez's Overview

If this is a Hoax, it is an astounding one.

Later,

Paul Parducci

My Scriptapalooza Script "Ghosties"

Just before the strike a script I had submitted to the excellent Screenplay Competition:
Scriptapalooza ended up as a Semi-Finalist. Consequently I have had a lot of interest in this project and I want to commend this competition for doing an excellent job.

Here is a promo for it:


Later,
Paul Parducci

Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels

Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels is both a film that works and an excellent commentary on the value of entertainment in general and comedy in particular in a world that frequently has little of either. Oh and there's Veronica Lake as well.
Later,
Paul Parducci

CERN's "GRID" and The Death Of The Internet

A couple of Slide-Rule types in Switzerland are getting close to realizing the Web's next iteration: The Grid.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Attention Los Angeles Readers! My Pal Drew Friedman's "More Old Jewish Comedians."

I'm in the production bubble of my latest project so I will regrettably be unable to attend.(The second part of that sentence sounded very Oxford didn't it?) But everyone else should head on down to Skylight Books today between 5 and 7 PM. This book is if possible even more amazing than his last one, every page is literally soaked with Drew's unique brand of stunningly brilliant and table-poundingly funny personality disection.

Congrats Drew! I'll catch you at the next one.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Charles Bukowski's "this"

self-congratulatory nonsense as the famous gather to applaud their seeming
greatness


you
wonder where
the real ones are


what
giant cave
hides them


as
the deathly talentless
how to
accolades


as
the fools are
fooled
again


you
wonder where
the real ones are
if there are
real ones.


this
self-congratulatory nonsense
has lasted
decades
and
with some exceptions

centuries

this
is so dreary
is so absolutely pitiless

it
churns the gut to
powder
shackles hope

it
makes little things
like
pulling up a shade
or
putting on your shoes
or
walking out on the street

more difficult
near
damnable

as
the famous gather to applaud their
seeming
greatness

as
the fools are
fooled
again

humanity
you sick
motherfucker.


This poem can be found in the excellent collection of Bukowski's works; "run with the hunted" a charles bukowski reader edited by John Martin.
Later,
Paul Parducci

Henry Hathaway's "Kiss of Death"

A classic of the Docu-Noir style crime film, Kiss of Death still holds up very well even in this day of non-stop CSI and police procedurals.) Directed by the perrenially under-rated and from all accounts hot-tempered Henry Hathaway on location in New York it is one of the few Noirs to feature a female narrator. Richard Widmark's portrayal of the psychpathic Tommy Udo earned him an Academy award nomination. This one is mandatory for the Noir fan.

Later,

Paul Parducci

A Little Bit About Current Projects

I realized I hadn't mentioned much about my creative work lately, So for those interested; as of this moment I am in pre-production on a comedy project that I am directing that shoots at the end of this month. The scripts are strong and I am very pleased with the casting so it should be a lot of fun.

I have also been working on a darker feature project that I anticipate completing sometime in the Fall. (On this one I am wearing three hats: Writer/Director/Producer.)

Nightmare Boss continues to be very popular world-wide in fact it is now running on Vodaphone in the UK so I recently directed a few Promos for that series as well.

Add to this various meetings,pitches and scribbling and a nice formula for staying out of trouble emerges.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Photo by Cmiper

Doodles Weaver

I used to love watching these shorts when I was a kid. And I was very pleased to find some available on the web.

"A Day With Doodles"Film

"The Helpful Houseguest"

Doodles was a very talented and troubled man. Here is a good place to start to learn about him and the world his best work sprang from.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Chris Marker's La Jetee

This amazing film composed almost entirely of still photos inspired Terry Gilliam's equally brilliant "12 Monkeys."
Chris Marker is a fascinating Artist of great scope, he avoids publicity and doesn't give interviews, but this is a solid overview of his life and work.


Later,
Paul Parducci

Roy Scheider 's First Film:Del Tenney's "Curse of the Living Corpse"

Years ago while living in New York City I passed a running Roy Scheider as I was running (in the opposite direction) on 5th Ave. He was of course and will continue to be a great of American Cinema. A fast Google will give you many facts about his full and successful life, but in this post I want to highlight his first film which he made with the uniquely American Auteur Del Tenney.





Later,
Paul Parducci

News of the Strange: This Week

What's this?

Thanks,

Paul Parducci

Florida Fireball

Here is another view.

Tom Epperson's "The Kind One"

Regular readers of this blog know that I enjoy Film Noir. Some years ago I had the opportunity to work on an excellent Film Noir"A Gun, A Car, A Blonde" written by an amazing writer with a strong facility for dialogue and tone. His name is Tom Epperson and he is also just a great down-to-earth guy. (i.e: No Hollywood here.) He's recently moved into the Novelist chair and his page-turning new work is called "The Kind One."

If you live in LA he's holding a signing on the 13th.(All the info is on the above flyer.)

Congratulations Tom!
Later,

Paul Parducci

Shaking Hands: A Sign of Respect

I recently encountered a Studio Executive who after yammering on about collaboration and respect for Filmmakers declined to shake my hand and the hand of another director also present. (Awkwardly begging off while mumbling something about illness-the exec looked healthy to us by the way.) I felt insulted as did my friend.

This got me thinking about the hand shake and it's implications. (Here is an overview of the history of Hand-Shaking.) I was taught to always shake hands as a sign of respect and I plan to continue to do so.

For the hand-shaking challenged here is an excellent review.

Later,

Paul Parducci

Stan Brakhage's I...Dreaming

A film made in 1988 by Visionary Filmmaker Stan Brakhage


Later,
Paul Parducci