Paused in the shade
The knowing ivy drinks in the moisture I only smell
Rich with green life
Whose gift flows through stems and leaves
Makes for me a canopy
Shades the sun, cools the earth beneath
Simply nature at home
Taking its place among the neighborhood of trees and bushes and grass
I walk only through it
Am I of it
I feel but a guest
Invited to look
Nay to keep
Beautiful Losersbegins with archival footage shot as early as the 1980’s. It tells the story of outsiders who came together and found common ground in a small New York City storefront gallery. These individuals, with diverse backgrounds, including sub cultures like skateboarding, hip hop, surf, graffiti and punk began to invent their art. With no real training they established trends in pop culture based on their Do It Yourself (DIY) backgrounds. Today many of these non-traditional artists have become mainstream in the Pop Culture area and are sought after for various types of projects including art exhibits and by advertising agencies. Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Chris Johansoon, Geoff McFetridge, Jo Jackson, Magaret Kilgallen, Stephe Powers and Thomas Campbell are names you may or may not recognize. However, their work is unmistakable in style and content.
This documentary is unique in that the artists seen in Beautiful Losers, turned filmmakers and documented themselves along the way. Aaron Rose uses that footage along with interviews to create a history of the artists, their progress and ultimate notoriety and success. This is mainly a linear journey which at times seems to slow the very interesting and informative film down. Beautiful Losers is not very cinematic in it’s storytelling approach. There is no real sense of beginning and middle, although it does build up in the last minutes to an inspirational end. This is not to say what is presented isn’t interesting and valuable. There is a pattern of talking heads illustrated with archival “B” roll that feels redundant in what it has to say about the process these artists went through. What the documentary lacks is very much action. In some respects it feels like it was edited to fit a 90 minute time frame.
The editing in Beautiful Losers is a mundane mix of interviews, archival footage taken over the years, of varying quality, and “B” roll. Beautiful Losers is essentially a compilation documentary building on archival footage taken by the artists of themselves over the years. The footage does give you a feel for what it was like for these since they came together in the eighties but it does slow down the film. Ken Burns as said that sometimes it’s good to slow things down, so that the intent of the shot becomes apparent, “that meaning accrues in duration.” Unfortunately that idea only works when the footage speaks for itself. In some cases the archival footage does speak for itself but there is so much of it that the pace stops being engaging. However, the interviews themselves are good and the artists involved project their personalities, views and ideas. The interviews combined with seeing the work is the best quality of this documentary.
Despite these storytelling difficulties Beautiful Losers is worth seeing because it ultimately has a message that creative people in the arts will be able to relate. The work of Fairey, Tempelton, Margaret Kilgallen and others is seen over time becoming more sophisticated. Their thoughts about their work and how they relate to main stream art is also important. In the end their work is setting trends in the advertising of many products that you may be surprised to see. They face becoming mainstream and part of the establishment. and not rebels in their Pop Culture world. Some seem to enjoy the new fame and fortune others eschew it but can’t turn down the money.
If you are involved in any area of the arts this is a documentary well worth seeing. Beautiful Losers is both entertaining and informing.
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS -2008 – 90 MINUTES – DIRECTED BY AARON ROSE
TRAILER
Beautiful Losers
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.
I am an artist and have been making and teaching art most of my life.. It is really who I am and in my senior years I realize that my personal philosophy about the act of creating a work of art is not about the skill of translating exact replica’s of Natures images, but rather making visible, the invisible joys, sorrows and wonders of life, fully experienced by the art maker.
The two following excepts seem to epitomize that concept for me and I share them with you. So much has been written about art on so many often quite opinionated levels. But art just IS and we know it not just when we see it, but when we feel it! And it can nourish us the viewer in many personal ways as it tells our story.
The first excerpt is from a book “Life, Paint and Passion” by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley. I used the book as a guide in teaching my class ”Artplay for Adults”, offered at the Cancer Caring Center for cancer survivors, of which I am one. Both the students and myself enjoyed this experience of making expressive art from our inner selves and being at one with both the media and the message.
“Paintings must be viewed on the same ground which they were created——their aliveness, their energy, their vulnerability—in order to be appreciated. The visible painting is just an echo of a much greater process. What is reflected in the forms, images, and colors is the by-product of a journey that has taken place on an inner landscape. The real painting has been created on the canvas of the psyche; the true artistic product is the personal transformation that has taken place within the painting experience itself.”
And secondly, I find the following, this offering by Muhammad Ali, in it’s simplicity so deeply inspiring.
“And so it has taken me all of sixty years to understand that water is the finest drink, and bread the most delicious food, and that art is worthless unless it plants a measure of splendor in people’s hearts”
Forks Over Knives is both a personal journey story and an educational documentary. It explores the world of nutrition and the damage foods derived from animal-based food products (meat and dairy) may be doing to human health. Forks Over Knives also makes the claim that “most, if not all” degenerative diseases that plague humans can be controlled or reversed by moving away from animal-based and processed foods.
Forks Over Knives is written and directed by Lee Folkerson, who for personal health reasons, looks at the affect of processed and animal-based foods on his health. The research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn a former surgeon at the well know Cleveland Clinic is highlighted. According to the filmmaker, Esselystyn and Campbell’s separate, independent studies into degenerative diseases, proves there is a connection between eating processed and animal-based foods and diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other problems.
The opening scenes of Forks Over Knives begins with the following quotes, “the average American now carries twenty-three extra pounds.” “ Heart disease and stroke will claim the lives of 460 thousand American Women,” and “We’re talking about diabetes and hypertension, bone disease and osteoporosis…” also facts about the food we eat and health problems in the United States and other countries. Food and the drugs we take may be extremely harmful to the health of adults and children in the long run. According to the film the US spends five times more on health care then the defense budget. Why are there so many health problems? Bill Maher is quoted saying, “…There’s no money in healthy people or dead people. It’s the people in the middle; people who are alive with one or more chronic conditions…” Others like Michele Obama talk about “Obesity,” and other conditions as seen in a montage of film clips. These facts are well documented and the problem well stated to set the investigation conducted by the documentary.
One of the marks of a good documentary story is not to have a string of talking head interviews. In Forks Over Knives there is a continuing montage of action and “B” roll that parallels what is claimed with graphic evidence making for a convincing argument.
Forks Over Knives takes an unexpected turn when it takes goes to China and a study done there initiated by Chinese Premier Zhou En-lai, who is suffering from bladder cancer. Six hundred and fifty thousand researchers cataloged the mortality patterns caused by several types of cancer for the years between 1973 and 1975. The study covered every county in China and over 850 million people.
Based on the study by Dr. Campbell they found some important correlations between what people in China were eating and the types of cancer and other diseases they contracted. An in-depth food and nutrition study ensued looking at the diet and lifestyles of people over many years. The results were conclusive. In 1990 after ten years of intensive work, Dr. Campbell and his team published the China Study. It identified no less than ninety-four thousand correlations between diet and disease.
Forks Over Knivesis a documentary that may well change your life. There is important information here that cannot be ignored. This is a film well worth seeing, that makes a definitive statement based on fact and not speculation. It is informative and educational. It may save your life.
FORKS OVER KNIVES – 2011 – 96 Minutes – Written and Directed by Lee Folkerson – Virgil Films Entertainment
LINKS
Forks Over Knives
Books by James R Martin Available on Amazon
Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.
Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)
I AM – What if the solution to the world’s problems was in front of us all along?
I AM is a good documentary that makes many worthwhile observations about how we live, what our values are and what we might do to reverse some of the more dangerous trends in our current version of civilization. It is well paced and makes its point-of-view known early in the story. I AM explores how we have evolved in our perception of ourselves and the world around us. One major theme is that we have survived not necessarily by “survival of the fittest” but by cooperation with others. That in fact only one aspect of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has been promoted while the his theories about cooperation as part of survival and evolution have been ignored. What emerges is the idea that we have separated ourselves from nature so completely that it could destroy us. Science evolves in it’s theories but the documentary claims that there is too much reliance on science in our culture. (SEE TRAILER – END OF POST)
Tom Shadyac, director of Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor is living high. He has it all, luxurious homes, corporate jets; the life style of the rich and famous until one day he has an accident riding his bicycle. The concussion he received in the accident puts him in the hospital for an extended stay. Even when released he suffers from Post Concussion Syndrome – the same malady pro football players experience. When he finally recovers he decides he needs to find the answer to two key questions: “What is wrong with our world?” and “What can we do about it?” With a small documentary film crew of four, Shadyac goes on a quest to find the answer to these questions by interviewing some great minds including authors, poets, teachers, religious leaders and scientists (Lynn McTaggart, Desmond Tutu, Thom Harman, Coleman Barks, David Zuzuki and others).
“We started asking what’s wrong with the world and ended up discovering what’s right with it.” — Tom Shadyac.
Tom Shadyac sets up this hybrid documentary with what appears to be reenacted scenes of him in the hospital, leaving the hospital, and recovering. Before long there are shots of his past opulent Hollywood life style with one or two large, nouveau riche decorated homes. This opening seems a little long but does make the point of how rich Shadyac is and how he seems to have been, like many Americans, obsessed with material wealth. But the central theme of this story is not material wealth. It also appears that while Shadyac “lived the life” he did so because he thought it was what you were supposed to do.
One of the first ideas presented inI AM is the reliance humankind has put on science. I AM does not appear to be an anti science documentary. It simply offers human realities to be considered in addition to scientific theory when it comes down to human existence. There is no doubt that scientific theory can be and is questioned by scientists themselves over time. The documentary does make a false analogy between what has been considered scientific fact at a given point in history by one culture and reality. In some respects it equates scientific fact with how it is interpreted by society. The film does seem to try to make the point that somehow science equates with a mechanistic view of how humans behave and eat. It is easy to blame science and the government for all that is wrong with the world. Perhaps the problems lie with individual people, who they select as leaders and not faceless institutions.
David Zuzuki, Scientist, Author “The Sacred Balance” is one of the first individuals interviewed, he is insightful. He makes the case for a holistic view of what humankind have created as their reality of the world. He also points out how we have come to treat “The Economy” almost as if it were some natural force, beyond human control. The premiss that “Greed is Good” has become commonplace.
I AMcovers a number of contemporary issues about how we live and brings to light not only the problems but possible solutions. It is fast paced, incorporates archival footage and graphics to tell the story. I AM is well directed, edited and shot. Director Tom Shadyac chose to treat the story as a personal quest. At times he seems very self-conscious in this role. There is something to be learned from watching I AM. I think it’s interesting that a filmmaker made a documentary that in part talks about humans cooperating. That’s what we do making films. We cooperate to create something larger than the sum of it’s parts, something that wasn’t there before. I feel that idea coming through in this documentary.
After it’s all over, when you measure things, this year’s camping trip took far less time and covered less distance than last year, close to a third of the distance and a third of the time at 4080 miles and one month on the road. Yet every trip has its own character, spirit and goals that the end leads you feeling successful for totally different reasons.
Our plan was visit with family around Philadelphia and also visit my wife Tracy’s family in VA beach. In addition we had the goal of driving the length of the Skyline Driveand the Blue Ridge Parkway. On my bucket list for the journey starting from Florida was a week visiting with daughter and family near Boston while they prepared to move to Seattle. Also on my list was to explore the area from Johnson City, TN to Binghamton, NY on either side of I-81. That’s basically the valley between the Allegheny and the Appalachian mountains. Generally we did all that and much more, while having a lot of fun along the way, plus we got to see a few family members and friends.
Driving North solo I camped my first night at High Falls State Park (SP) in Georgiafollowed by a stop at friends who live near Asheville NC. By luck I was able to attend a birthday party for one of their neighbors and got to meet many people.
Douthat SP Bridge Virginia
High Falls SP, North Carolina with Newton
I left North Carolina looking for a Shenandoah Valley experience and soon found it at Douthat State Park (SP) in Virginia. Up in the mountains west of I-81 and hard to get to, yet one of the oldest CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)built parks in the country. No Cell, no Radio, no TV, or for me because of the thick tree cover, no XM sat radio either. If you wanted a newspaper they might have one in a town some 8 miles away. Talk about disconnecting from the grid this is what I needed to get in sync with the other part of me, the one that can take off his wrist watch and “chill out” with nature in the mountains or at sea. I got the camper set up outside and was putting things in order inside when I glanced out the back door to see a deer feeding some 25 feet or so away, a good sign.
Deer Feeding at back door
Douthat SP has lots of hiking trails that I got to try until my old hiking boots decided to come apart. Campground neighbors invited me to their grill out one night of my two there, southern hospitality has not diminished in this neck of the woods. Leaving Douthat and returning to cell phone range I found out I really didn’t miss anything in the world save for some distressed calls from Tracy concerned about my welfare. Oops! Just never know when that link to the world will be lost, sorry honey!
My plan was to stop further north in the Shenandoah Valley and look up an old sailing friend who bought a farm and opened a cabinet making shop. Either he had moved on or was flying below the radar because I found no sign of him. Even other cabinet makers in the area had never heard of him. I wonder what happen to him and his dream.
I made my way north on I-81 with a stop overnight in Pennsylvania and one near Woodstock NY in the Catskill Mountains. Woodstock was like a time machine in that folks there age but stay the same. There were hippies in the road, they were out in the pasture, might even have been dancing and one geezer who looked like Santa Claus in jeans was trying to climb a tree via his bicycle. I wondered if the whole town was stoned!
Onward to my daughter in North Reading just north of Boston. They were in the throes of moving to Seattle and I soon found myself helping load pods and keeping the grand kids out of the way. For the next week they loaded and prepped for their journey since they planned to rent an RV and drive across the country in two weeks. Cars and belongs packed while the cats were flown out earlier in the month.
MYSTIC SEAPORT WOODEN BOAT SHOW
After Boston I drove south to Mystic, CT to see the Mystic Seaport Wooden Boat Show. Aside from my love for wooden boats as a surveyor it doesn’t hurt to keep up with the latest in composite boat building. Wooden boats are seldom planked any more. Laminates and epoxies have taken over. I enjoyed myself at the show and on Saturday drove down to North Wales, PA to my brother’s house where my wife Tracy would join me on Sunday.
The second half of the trip began with a visit with family in Pennsylvania and a stop to visit my Mother who lives in a nursing home in Montgomery County, Pa. After a great couple of days we drove down to Tracy’s sister’s home in Virginia Beach to help her celebrate the 4th of July. Not that she needed any help; there were 53 people at her July 4th party which she and friends handled pretty well. We had a nice couple of days there and by Friday we were driving up to Front Royal, Virginiaand the Skyline Drive. A weather note, since arriving in Pennsylvania the East coast began baking in a record-breaking heat wave of 100 degrees plus! Maybe you’ve seen people walking on hot coals, that what it felt like walking on the beach. I thought I would be damaged for life! A little ice and I was okay. We were hoping the mountains of Virginia would offer some relief.
One thing we like to do is stop in visitor centers, be they state or in this case the Skyway Drive. We find lots of great information and maps in these stops. We arrived at a Skyway Drive Visitor Center around lunchtime so it was a dual-purpose stop for us. I took care of our dog Newton letting him stretch is legs and use the potty while Tracy headed to the camper to make us lunch. It wasn’t long before Tracy informs me the deadlock on the camper is broken. We have two locks on the camper and try to lock both never wanting to have the door pop open while driving. We are locked out and no matter how many times I spin the tumbler the tail is not catching the deadbolt. We have snacks in the truck so we won’t go hungry, but I need to figure out how to get in to the camper without breaking the door or some other part. I finished walking Newton while Tracy checked out the visitor center. All I can think about is the deadbolt. We didn’t have far to go to our campground at Mathews Armso we proceed and once at the site I take up the task of getting into the camper. I know I can take a big screw driver and bust the lock but rack my brain for an alternative. Unfortunately no alternative presented itself so I ended up busting the lock to open the door. Now I know why we really had two locks on that door! Crisis over we resume life.
You might wonder, what you do when driving the Skyway or Blue Ridge Parkway? One thing to do is stop at the many overlooks for the view, also critter watch mostly to avoid hitting them and then visit some of the attractions along the way. The views are incredible and they show up on either east or west side since you are up on the ridge. We spot deer and wild turkeys along the way.
Only one of us was able to sleep our first night up on the Skyway, to me the 70s are comfortable, need I say more. We planned to go to Luray Caverns our second day and camp at a place with electricity and showers both perfect defenses for heat waves. The caverns were a cool 57 degrees and the camp had a pool. This being my first visit to caverns I’m in awe, we walked about a mile and a half underground. Amazing! We met another couple at the pool who went to high school with one of my brother in laws. It’s a small world.
Luray Caverns -165 feet Underground
Back on the Skyway the weather is still hot but there is talk about a front rolling in that night that will cool things off.
The Skyline Drive is part of the Shenandoah National Park and 105 miles long it connects with the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is 465 miles long. That night we camp to the Peaks of Ottercampground, which is on a mountainside along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I should note that before the heat wave hit there was a nasty storm, a “derecho” that did some major damage in Virginia. The area around the Peaks of Otter had just that afternoon gotten their power back on, some nine days after the storm. Our front moved in with much less violence and dropped the temperatures some 30 degrees creating some good sleeping weather. One of the noticeable things along the Blue Ridge is hundreds if not thousands of downed trees, caused by the storm. Many had been removed from the road. We got to see a few deer in our camp ground that morning as we left.
Mabry Mill Wheel
We stopped and toured Mabry Mill, VA and also got to see a hang glider jump off the Blue Ridge successfully. Our stop for the night was off the Blue Ridge at Fancy Gap where we would food shop and fuel up also, and another swim in a pool, hot showers, even laundry done in a delightful campground.
Fancy Gap, Virginia is just north of the Virginia border with North Carolina where we wanted to stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center. Even in the clouds and rain you hear the music when you open the doors of the truck at the music center. What a treat to hear it live and to tour the center’s history exhibit. We continue on in the clouds with a side trip checking out a campground along the Blue Ridge that takes us a mile down into the woods on a gravel road in the mud and rain. This campground turns out to be a very rustic spot. We drove back up the mountain unsure if it is right for us. Another stop in a clearer moment is at the Moses Cone Mansion which has been converted to an Arts Center with a commanding view of Blowing Rock NC. That night we camped at Julian Price CG in North Carolina, along the Parkway.
The next morning the rain and low clouds continued to make driving hazardous so we decided to seek lower elevations in the hopes to finding a little comfort. Tracy found a campground right under Chimney Rock called Hickory Nut Falls and we headed for it. It seems the campground has drifted towards trailer park with majority of residents living in their trailers permanently or seasonally. There is one section along the Broad River that they saved for campers that is very nice so we were comfortable that night. The roar of the rain-swollen river bouncing through the boulders does dominate but we had no problem sleeping that night.
We do a lot of “strategizing” about how to continue camping abet the rains and poor visibility on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We wanted to spend a night at the Pisgah Campground and have dinner at the Pisgah Inn at 4800 feet. Last night we walked down to the road and could see Chimney Rock and Hickory Nut Falls briefly which encouraged us but this morning there was no visibility. We came up with a compromise of sorts; we picked a campground in Georgia that would take us pass a road leading to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mount Pisgah Inn and if it looked worth it we would drive up to the lodge. When we got to that intersection we decided to try seeing what the weather was at Pisgah Inn and at worst have lunch there. The 15 mile drive which took us past Davidson River CG and the Cradle of Forestry Center wasn’t bad but as we approached the Parkway the clouds moved in and once again we were driving in poor visibility. The Pisgah Lodge is 3 miles from the exit so we make the effort and did have lunch there. Lunch was excellent. Afterward we noticed several RVs in the Lodge parking lot. We wondered if they gave up driving and were staying at the Inn.
Our drive via route 64 and 106 to Dillard Ga. Was through some twisting, winding roadway but for a short section is out of the clouds. We have been to Black Rock Mountain State Park before, liked it and were hoping for a break from the rain and clouds yet as we climbed up to the 3600 foot high campground back in the clouds. We chose to spend just one night there and head to southern Georgia to try to dry out. Tracy found a state park not far from Adel Ga. So still dripping wet we departed Black Rock Mountain CG for southern Ga.
We decided to fuel up prior to driving the five miles to the campground. When I went into the camper to get some cash to pay I discovered that the Barbecue sauce had leaped out of the cabinet and exploded on the floor somewhere along I-75 after lunchtime. Quite a mess but it was cleanable. Reed Bingham State Park turned out to be very nice and we spent the night drying out. The next day was an easy drive to St Petersburg and home.
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