Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 80

March brings with it Women’s History Month, as well as…

…the launching of our Indigogo campaign to raise the funds that will allow us to produce our short film LEAVE.

And, not coincidentally, both Women’s History Month and our film LEAVE share the goal of highlighting and raising awareness of the many valuable contributions women have made and continue to make to societies all throughout the world.

In my effort to celebrate and support both Women’s History Month and the funding of our short film LEAVE, I am asking you to share your creative efforts here — either as an anecdote, a very short story, a poem, a photograph, or artwork — that seeks to raise awareness of women’s issues…

Because we all know that women’s issues are everyone’s issues.

To augment these Guest Contributions I hope and expect to receive, I will be sharing past submissions from our Relating to Humans Women’s Issues archive.

Even though I haven’t been promoting it lately because I’ve been so involved with other projects, the Relating to Humans feature is still very much a thing here and I encourage you to check it out and consider submitting your work to any/all of the issue features.

All submissions I receive for Women’s History Month will be published on the blog and on the Women’s Issues feature page.

So, if you have something to say that raises the awareness of women’s issues, please consider sharing it here. To submit your work, please follow the Submission Guidelines found on the Relating to Humans page.

And also, please consider supporting us in our efforts to produce LEAVE, a short film that seeks to both entertain and inspire discussion for positive change.

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This article has been updated to reflect the change in submission guidance. This will allow all articles to go live on the Women’s Issues feature page immediately and will provide links back to the author’s website, versus submitting them through the Contact page and having to wait for me to publish them.

 

 

Filed under: Human Relations Tagged: equal pay, feminism, fundraisers, gender equality, independent films, LEAVE: A Short Film, movies, sexual assault, short films, submissions, women, Women's History Month, women's issues, writing

So here’s my conundrum…

WARNING: This is a very, very long and a way TMI post about US politics, serving mostly as a therapeutic discussion between me and my inner political demons. Believe me you, your safest and smartest bet it to just scroll right on by…

So here’s my conundrum…

While I never voted for Dubya, a claim I am very happy and proud and relieved to be able to make — and one which I’ll boldly make whenever the opportunity allows, a la this post — it was at the end of his disastrous presidency that I vowed I would never allow myself to cast a future vote for a member of a political dynastic family.

And that vow of the time of course included and was primarily directed toward Jeb and Hillary… then later, as we got closer to the end of President O’s tenure and the talk of a successor to his movement began to bubble, Michelle.

Of course Jeb’s genetic political ineptness removed him, thankfully, from the discussion…

But as for Hillary and Michelle, it’s not that I don’t think that either have the portfolio of experience and intellect to be president… it’s far from that: I think they would both be formidable presidents.

It’s just that as one who drank the “American Dream and Ideals” Kool-Aid long ago, I am inherently opposed to dynastic privilege and nepotism whatsoever and however slight, and regardless the political sex appeal the family member/heir to the political throne may have.

However… little did I know at the time I made this vow that the Republican Party (a party my own political solution would probably round to if I ever were to do the hard math of me [ Strong National Security(Unbeatable, Agile Military + Highly Sophisticated Intelligence Community) + Aggressive Foreign Policy + Pro Business and Free Trade Policies / Moderate to Liberal Social Policies + Strong Environmental Protection Policies = Kurt (or someone who closely resembles Barack Obama) ]) would morph into Dr. Frankenreagan’s Monster.

The only Republican candidate I would even remotely consider voting for would be Kasich, not because I agree with him — not even sure where he stands on things — but from what I’ve seen of him, he seems like a pretty normal politician; plus, I kind of remember him as a pretty good budget guy as a congressman back in the Nineties – what a great decade that was.

But, it doesn’t matter – Kasich doesn’t have even the remotest chance of winning the Republican nomination and he’s probably staying in the race now just to be someone’s (Trump’s) pick for Treasury Secretary.

So come November, that leaves me only with a vote for the Democratic nominee.

Well, you could vote for a third-party candidate, I hear you saying.

To which I reply – Hell no!

During the 2000 presidential race, because I already knew there was no way I could vote for Dubya, and because Al Gore seemed like such a stale replica of a wannabe political Everyman, I threw my vote away on Ralph Nader.

Had I known how close and dirty the vote would be, and how truly bad Dubya would be as president, I would have had no problem plugging my nose and voting for Gore. To this day, I still regret that third-party vote.

So, like I said, my vote is stuck with a Democrat, like it or not.

And it appears it is going to be… or not.

I have been following Bernie Sanders since he was a congressman — it was easy to do since he has always stood out with his outspoken attitude and exceedingly liberal ways.

If it were not for Trump, I would never even consider voting for Bernie.

To be honest, if it does come down to The Bern and The Donald… I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Which leaves me left with the political, dynastic dynamo of Hillary.

As far as my vow goes… as long as Trump is in the picture, that vow, without a second thought, is expeditiously cast out the window.

However, I am having a very difficult time fully supporting her…

For, you see, she has a lot of weighty baggage holding her down — most of which I could overlook, especially in critical times such as these.

And while I can overlook most of her weighty issues, she does have that one issue that I’m not sure I will be able to overlook.

And it’s the issue of the way she (mis-)managed her emails while Secretary of State.

Now, you’re probably thinking: Personal email servers? Come on, Kurt, forget about it… It’s Donald Trump we’re talking about!

To which I reply: Yes, I understand; however, there is something you probably don’t know about me that needs to be considered when considering this issue of Hillary’s email server problem.

And that is, not only was I in the military for twenty years, I was also a member of the Intelligence Community (oxymoron, I know…) in some capacity (military/DOD contractor) for nearly thirty years.

So the mismanagement of classified information is a pretty big deal for me, as it is for others of my military/IC ilk.

Now, based upon history, I’m sure this email server issue of Hillary’s won’t land her in jail (as it probably would someone of my lowly ilk); nor will it even derail her campaign.

But, when looking deeper into this, I find that this security issue of Hillary’s, when taking her politically dynastic family into consideration — is not just an isolated incident.

While president, Bill Clinton lorded over two serious security incidents similar to Hillary’s: Sandy Berger, his National Security Advisor, was caught removing (and by “removing” I mean stuffing them illegally into his briefcase) classified documents from the National Archives, and John Deutsch, his CIA Director, was caught with classified information on unclassified computers in his home.

Of course, as it always is with the political elite, and as it will be with Hillary, it was brushed under the rug and nothing serious happened to either Berger or Deutsch as a result.

But, it is this pattern of bad, security-related behavior of the Clinton’s and of those whom they reign over, that really concerns me.

And with this, my friends, we reach my conundrum…

As I mentioned earlier, I am proud Kool-Aid drinker of the Grand Ideals of America (while understanding that, while close, America has a way to go before reaching the complete grandeur of these ideals)…

And, to me, one of the basic tenets of this Grand Ideal is that all are treated equally under the law.

And it really pisses me off when the political elite can easily get away with breaking laws that would put us non-political elites smartly in jail.

I get livid when thinking that General Petraeus, the Iraqi War Whisperer and disgraced CIA Director – remember him: sharing classified information with his biographer/lover – has been allowed to retire with all four of his general stars, while respectably earning a very hefty salary teaching at elite universities.

Deep breath…

Big sigh…

So, yeah, considering all that is at stake right now — the soul of my country; my self-sense of integrity and well-being…

Hillary is a very big and dangerous conundrum for me.

Filed under: Politics Tagged: #longreads, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Bill Clinton, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Dubya, dynasties, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Michelle Obama, nepotism, politics, Republican Party

Write What You Know, You Know…

They say, Write what you know…

And in response I say, Okay…

So when I began in earnest to write stuff for people to read way back in the early Nineties – what a great decade that was – about all I knew about life outside of my personal life which I didn’t and still don’t have the guts yet to truly explore, was all pretty much navy-related.

Hence, the stories I wrote at the time were all pretty much, well… navy-related.

And therein lies the primary challenge I have when it comes to convincing and conniving folks who look a lot like you to read my writing… and now, to support a film based upon my writing: that even though the stories may be navy-related, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are stories just about the navy.

Some of you, many of you, are probably new to this site so understandably there may be a few things about me that you just aren’t aware of:

Like, even though my undergraduate degree is in English – which probably explains my nerd obsession with arranging and amalgamating morphemes into new and creative and interesting ways for you to read stuff, my graduate degree is in a completely unrelated field (well, maybe it’s a little related) of Human Relations – which probably explains my obsession with trying to understand why it is you think and behave the crazy and unpredictable way you do.

To satisfy my morpheme amalgamating obsession, I began to write; to satisfy my relating-to-humans obsession, I took a few years off from my primary career field in the Intelligence Community (oxymoron, I know…) while in the navy, to become a certified Equal Opportunity Advisor, where I spent much of my time providing counseling and training in diversity management.

And it is this relating to humans-related stuff that I would like to think is what my stories, while even though they may be set in a navy-related world, are all really about…

Like, as explored in my novel The Sea Trials of an Unfortunate Sailor, how do our perceptions and stereotypes influence our decisions when confronted with situations like homophobia and harassment and abuse?

 

Or, as explored in the short story and soon to be short film LEAVE, what was the environment really like for that courageous female sailor who took that first assignment to a warship with an all-male crew?

 

While these stories are set on navy ships during the Nineties, it is my belief their underlying themes and messages are relevant even, and especially, today.

Just recently Congress has authorized women to serve in all combat-related duties, not just some of them like back in the Nineties.

Right now there are courageous, pioneering females all throughout the US military – and throughout society in general – who are opening doors that have previously always been closed to them, and setting off on a course that clears the way for many more courageous females to forever follow.

So, yeah, we writers have always been told to Write what you know…

Just as you readers have always been told to Never judge a book by its cover…

Especially mine.

 

Open Books Open Minds…

www.facebook.com/leavethemovie

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: books, feminism, films, homophobia, independent films, Indie Authors, LEAVE: A Short Film, LGBT, literature, short films, short stories, the sea trials of an unfortunate sailor, women's issues, writing

While going semi-viral…

I posted this about an hour ago on my personal facebook page and it seems to have hit a positive nerve (for the most part). I figured I might as well share it with a broader group of friends to see what you all think, as well.

What I like most about ‪#‎Trump‬ is that he…

– makes me feel smart

– makes me feel more appreciative of my chemo-crazy hair

– makes me feel much more humane and sensitive to others’ needs

– makes me laugh because he is such a dork

– is regarded negatively by 70% of our voting population

What I like least about Trump is that…

– unbelievably he seems to be the inevitable ‪#‎Republican‬ nominee and his popularity only seems to be growing within the party

– as president he would do more damage to us as a nation than even Dubya did, if that can even be imagined

– he’s so hard to look at with all that orange glow going on

Anyway… I especially like Trump because of the opportunities he provides for such fun spoofs of him such as this Game of Thrones version…

Regardless whether you like Trump or not, enjoy the video and keep having fun…

That’s all there is to it. You can view the associated Game of Thrones spoof video at my public facebook page; or, apparently there is a way you can follow my private face page without actually doing the friend request thing because, I didn’t realize this until now, but I have a few hundred followers and it seems to be they who have sparked all the shares and whatnot of the post.

It’s a bit frustrating to think that I have close to 12,000 followers of my public facebook page but I hardly reach any of them unless I pay Magic Mark Zuckerberg to promote my posts.

Anyway…

I guess you can say I have a love/hate relationship with facebook.

Meaning I love to hate it!

:)

 

 

Filed under: Politics Tagged: Donald Trump, dorks, facebook, going viral, marketing, politicians, politics, Republicans, social networks, viral posts, writing

While waiting impatiently yet steadfastly for my #shortfilm funding campaign to begin…

I invite you to pass the time checking out the short film funding campaign for a good friend of mine, Jeffrey Stackhouse.

Jeffrey – an award-winning screenwriter and all around talented/good guy – and the rest of his cast and crew, have just launched a fundraising campaign to produce “I Am The Doorway,” a ‪‎film adaption of a Stephen King short story that is endorsed and encouraged by King, himself.

Already there is discussion that Jeff’s film has the makings to be the best cinematic adaptation of King’s work yet.

If you’re a fan of King, ‎horror, independent film-making, or all of the above, please check out Jeff’s work and support him – monetarily and/or socially – if you are able by clicking here.

Thanks, all.

—–

P.s. – In facebook’s never-ending effort to make money (nothing wrong with that, btw) they make it very hard for public pages to be seen unless they pay to promote their posts. It gets very expensive so please share this as both an act of kindness and as an easy, inexpensive way to support The Arts.

Here’s their pitch video from the film’s director:

To sign up to be notified when the funding campaign for my short film begins, please click here.

 

 

Filed under: Movies Tagged: films, funding campaigns, horror, horror films, I Am The Doorway, independent films, Indigogo, Jeffrey Stackhous, screenwriters, screenwriting, short films, short stories, Stephen King, writing

So I’m Going To Make A Movie… UPDATE #1

As you may already know, a short film is going to be made of a screenplay I adapted from LEAVE, one of my short, dramatic stories about what it may have been like for the first females sailors assigned to warships back in the Nineties.

It probably isn’t much of a spoiler to say that in both the story’s and the film’s interpretation, it is quite a challenge for those courageous women, seeing how the all-male crew of the ship they’re reporting to would rather go to war than have their ship be invaded by female sailors.

Indeed.

So… I’ll be going out to Los Angeles in April to begin work on the production, but first we have a small detail of raising the funds.

Yes, I’m looking at you…

We plan to film on the battleship USS Iowa, which is now a museum ship out in LA. Unfortunately, even though the Iowa staff are willing to significantly cut the price because I’m an old salt of a retired sailor, it still costs a pretty penny nonetheless. And there of course will be other production costs to factor in, as well.

We’ll be kicking off an Indigogo campaign to raise the funds at the beginning of March but I just wanted to give you all a heads up that we now have a “Coming Soon” page where you can sign up to stay informed on project updates and be advised when the campaign is live.

Our vision for the film is to:

Create a Cinematic Work of Art that both Entertains and Promotes a Discussion for Positive Change

 

Needless to say, your support of our efforts, not just through donations, but also through your outreach to all your family and friends on our behalf, will be key in helping us turn our vision into a reality.

We’ll be introducing our award-winning cast and highly accomplished crew very soon so please check it out and join our team at:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/leave/coming_soon

Okay, I have taken off my PT Barnum wannabe Promoter’s Hat and have now put on my wannabe highly esteemed and influential Author’s Hat…

First off, I would like to report that building a campaign to raise the funds to produce a short film is taking a lot of my very limited brain power.

We have decided to go with Indigogo to raise our funds instead of Kickstarter. The main reason for this decision is that you get to keep the funds you raise with Indigogo even if you do not meet your goal. With Kickstarter it’s all or nothing – if you don’t meet your goal, you don’t get the dough. Indigogo does however/of course, charge higher percentages for their service and transfer fees.

So once our funding site was decided, one of the first challenges I had to confront was the “tag line,” one of the first blocks that has to be filled out when building the pitch for the campaign.

One of the toughest things for me to do as a writer is to condense big meaning, metaphorical concepts with a lot of words into a synopsis of a paragraph or two. Having to condense down even further into a tag line that allows only 100 characters, such as Indigogo’s, is close to self-inflicted murder.

Fortunately, I had already gone through the painful process of coming up with a logline, which was needed for pitching the screenplay.

A sailor’s desire to be with his sick mother is complicated by the unwanted influx of his ship’s first female sailors and a looming war

But the problem is that logline is 133 characters and Indigogo’s “tag line” only allows for 100 characters. So, after more painful paring, this is what I came up with:

A sailor can’t be with his sick mother due to an influx of despised female sailors and a looming war

I’m still not 100% loving it but my head hurts after all that editing out and then having second thoughts and editing in and then having third thoughts and editing out again and on and on…

But, it’ll do for now as I now have to continue on with the rest of the pitch development which, hopefully, won’t hurt my head quite as much.

Stay tuned! The campaign will be kicking off at the beginning of the month.

TTFN and Write On! my friends.

 

Coming Soon!

For details, click here

 

 

Filed under: Movies Tagged: authors, fiction, films, fundraisers, independent films, Indie Authors, Indigogo, Kickstarter, loglines, Los Angeles, movies, screenplays, short stories, writing

While Hacking at a Log

I wonder…

What is more important to most readers of literature…

Just the words as they are written?

Or the why the words were written – the author’s motivation?

Or the how the words were written – the author’s background?

When reading a thesis that may influence one’s medical or legal decisions, knowing that the author has the requisite knowledge and training to write with such influencing authority – the why and how of the words – probably should be important.

However, when it comes to literature – does it really matter what schools the author attended, or how well-read an author is?

Or would most readers regard a work of literature by a less-than educated or less-than well-read author similar to someone hacking in mad rage at a log with an ax and when she comes to her senses she discovers that she had, in her blind passion, formed a beautiful wooden sculpture*?

Would she have created art?

Should she then be considered an artist?

I wonder…

 

*This is far from an original thought of mine but unfortunately I cannot find the original quote to give proper credit. If you know, please comment.

 

 

Filed under: Writing Tagged: art, art theory, authors, creativity, credibility, Indie Authors, literary criticism, literary theory, philosophical questions, philosophy, quotes, writing

Because of You

This rather abstract photo with its completely abstract title – is it an accusation or an expression of love? – by the lovely and loving Megi of HappyNest in America evokes much thought and feeling from me… as those of her expressive photographic oeuvre so often do.

Because of you – the collective you, surely (which then surely means me, as well as you), reminds me (and hopefully you, as well) that we all are accountable for the resources that we expend upon ourselves and those in our charge; and that it is the essence of Mother Nature to provide for us, regardless how often – and all too often how thoughtlessly without regard – we shorn from her all that she willingly and effortlessly does provide.

Filed under: Photography Tagged: abundance, accountability, climate change, country living, environmentalism, farms, harvests, human nature, metaphors, Mother Nature, philosophy, photography, resources, writing

I was going to review Hemingway’s A MOVEABLE FEAST, but…

…I am knee deep (I’m pretty tall dude so that’s pretty darn deep) into so much stuff* — stuff being formatting my two latest books HOW NOT TO DIE and SHORT VERSES & OTHER CURSES into print editions; setting up the logistics for the film adaptation of my short story “Leave” (fundraiser announcement soon – that’s right, I’m looking at you); adapting my novel THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR into a screenplay (so that I’ll have it to shop around when I go out to LA to work on “Leave”); and of course the latest WIP — that I’v given up on it.

If it matters, I do feel quite guilty about it…

In fact, I feel quite guilty about not publishing much at all around here lately.

Publish or perish, an all that…

But, as a consolation for my quitting on this review, I recently read this interesting read from the Paris Review, which kind of (but far from exactly) reflects my thoughts on my relationship with Hemingway, and I offer it as a very nice, if not nicer, substitute.

In addition to discussing things such as my relationship with the Big Papa, I also had good intention (and we all know what the path to hell is paved with) to compare and contrast Hemingway’s view of Fitzgerald and Paris in the Twenties as found in his memoir with the beat up protagonist in Fitzgerald’s short story (perhaps a view similar to one he had of himself) “Babylon Revisited” (one of the best short stories ever put to paper).

I probably would have giddily gushed a bit about Woody’s “Midnight In Paris,” too…

However, because of all the stuff presented above and the nice PR essay, I lost my head of steam for it all and this is as far as I got/am getting with it…

The Romance versus the Reality of Hemingway’s Paris of the “Lost Generation”

BOOK | NON-FICTION | MEMOIR

A MOVEABLE FEAST

by Ernest Hemingway

RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★

If you want to see what I think Hemingway and other authors would like as clowns, click here.

 

The memoir >>

The short story >>

~~~~

Rating System:

★ = Unreadable

★ ★ = Poor Read

★ ★ ★ = Average Read

★ ★ ★ ★ = Outstanding Read

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ = Exceptional Read

That’s it. That’s alls I gots…

Pretty lame, I know; but what can say other than that the offer I presented in my “Hey Reader, What’s Your Angle?” post still stands. I’m still looking for good reviews to read, and perhaps reblog, that illustrate your reading and critiquing strategy… a bonus now for me would be ones that discuss Hemingway and/or Fitzgerald.

Can a brother get a link or two to a review, or what?

 

*Isn’t it funny how I’m always whining about how much I have to do, yet I somehow still found the time to promote inform you about all the stuff I have to do? Weird.

 

 

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: A Moveable Feast, Babylon Revisited, book reviews, books, Ernest Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, fiction, films, memoirs, non-fiction, screenplays, short stories, writing, writing fails

An Introduction to Author MB Bissett

In my last post “Hey Reader, What’s Your Angle,” I invited you all to share a link to a book that you’ve reviewed that provides some insight, via your writing, as to how you apply your critical thinking strategy towards the books you read.

I’m so happy that MB BLISSETT was kind/brave enough to take me up on the offer; for, not only did he introduce me to THE FEVER by Meg Abbott with his interesting and insightful review of her work, he introduced me to a new eclectic world of creativity and intellect that can be found all throughout his website.

After reading his review that I introduce here, I strongly urge you to then head straight to his About page as it is most interesting and entertaining – I read it and I feel a strong kinship with his outlook toward writing and his literary taste.

Comments are closed here so that you can share your thoughts directly with MB at his website.

MB Blissett

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs posits that when base needs are met, then your desires become more refined. Which usually means that your fears probably work on the same level. If you’re not risking death every single time that you give birth, then you’re worried that they will live to be healthy adults and when they’re healthy adolescents, you’re worried about any number of factors. Within the haunted house of parenthood and adolescence, Megan Abbott knows where the ghosts live and shows them to you.

The Fever ably captures the beauty and passion, the terror, the contradictory desire for freedom and privacy, the secrets that women keep from themselves and one another. She uses social media and how it intertwines and defines the worlds of young people subtly and effectively. In the iconography of the modern world, the online video is the sermon, the blowing of the whistle or in this…

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Filed under: Literary Tagged: active reading, authors, book reviews, books, literary, literary fiction, literary theory, literature, poetry, poets, reading, reviews, writing