A Tribute to Tim Mackie

     Silently,  I have set here looking out at the ocean.  Peering and studying each incoming wave.  Fascinated by the water I look but do not see.  How could I?      Dead to the world, alive only in my thoughts.   Imagination whisks me through forgotten times, and places never seen before.   The images pass before my blank eyes at the speed of light.   And again I fail to see.

      Around noon is when I start to think about it.  That first pint of Guiness.  When my shirt is sticking to the sweat that's pouring off of me.  My muscles ache with a dull pain.  I know will only increase as the day drags on and my head is pounding, with the thud of the hammer and constant roar of the generator.  That's when I first begin to smell the bitter slightly chocolate aroma.

    “My friends let us not run away from the issue's of the day, but let us embrace them.  We should not find disenchantment within ourselves.  We need only to strive for enlightenment.  Take a moment with me now, to look into your heart”.      I turned the channel as soon as I saw what Liz was watching.   The Reverend Jimmy Holiday, what a joke.   The church of enlightened reason, God help us all.   Sam Kinison was right we do have God's SPECIAL EDUCATION TEAM here in America.      “Hey, I was watching that”.      What in the worlds wrong with that girl.   I don't know what her problem is, but if she thinks I'm gonna sit around and listen to the Reverend Jimmy, she's sadly mistaken.   She's not that good a piece of ass.       “I offer you hope.   By joining my ministry I can bring you the piece of mind you so richly deserve.   We are the Lambs of God.   Let me shepherd you into a new life of peace and tranquility.   Call today and order my new book

     When I make a film its a creation.  No matter if its short or long, serious or funny, what genre I follow, or what story or plot lines I use it's a new creation when complete.  It comes from within me, to have an effect on everyone who views it.  This effect can be either large or small, profound or insignificant, but there is still an effect.  The joy of film then for me is to make a film which will have a profoundly, positive effect on those people who watch it.  Film is the key to changing the world, documenting our place in it, or for distraction and relaxation.  I went into police work with the idea that I had a responsibility to help the world and the people in it.  I found police work to be ineffective for the purposes I joined it.  I now find film to be the place where I can achieve those goals.      In the movie The Glass Shield, Charles Bernett does not depict black life in the standard media fashion.   Instead Bernett chooses to show several different aspec

     Tom Casey waddled away from the barbecue, cursing under his breath, heading for the kitchen.  A heavy man in his early thirties he both loved and hated to barbecue.  He loved them for the food, he could taste the sausage patties already.  He hated them for the time they took, and the sun.  He had only been out in it for two minutes, and already rivers of sweat were pouring down him.  From the top of his balding, bleach white head, down past his rounded cheeks and double chins, and soaking his extra, extra, large blue work shirt.      Stepping into the kitchen, the yellow tile floor caught the light and shined into Tom's eyes.   As he turned his head to avoid the light, he noticed the linoleum counter top, for what seems like the first time.   A flood of memories hit him all at once.   His father used to put him up on counter tops like this one in his kitchen.   He had been abused.   Abused by his father, and it was all coming back to him now.   Coming back in force.  

     Three in the morning and Randy woke up with a start, he'd been dreaming about cats again.  This was the fifth time in as many night.  They were getting to him, he'd always considered himself a dog person.  So,  he couldn't understand why he'd dream about cats.  The dreams were getting worse to.  It had started with just one cat, that's all.  One persistent, little Tabby, who wouldn't leave his dream that first night.  Now though, there were hundreds, thousands maybe.      They weren't nightmares.   Not really, not in the true sense.   They were just disturbing.   The cats never did anything, they just wouldn't leave him alone.   It was all becoming to much for him.   He decided to go downstairs and get a glass of milk.   Milk, he thought, wow far to close to a cat.   I think I'll have a soda.      In the kitchen, Randy's brother Jake was sitting slumped over a glass of soda.   It was amazing. Jake looked like Randy felt.   Randy

     I didn't see it coming, and I fuckin see everything coming.  I was wandering aimlessly through the halls of Johnson County Public High School, skipping class, and trying my best to avoid anything that might be considered work.  It's the hump day before Christmas vacation, and I'm in my junior year of incarceration.  I have no doubt that my sentence is unconstitutional in its severity.  Its like any other high school in middle of the road, middle class, Mr. and Mrs. small town boring America.  The hallways are painted with the usual blah colors, and the rows of lockers show a lively coating of blue or red in a misguided effort to cheer up the prison atmosphere.  The same might be said for the fresh day old wax job given to the scuffed up tile floors that just gleam with dullness.  I occasionally meander past a classroom, where some indifferent drone spouts out sentence after sentence, and word after word into the faces of some mindless zombies, sleeping in militant ro

     My dear friends, I hope this letter finds you well and in good financial standing.  For it's not the commoner, whom I wish to speak.  As you are no doubt well aware, a plague has infected our Colleges and Universities,  Our once proud, private Universities are being infested with undesirables I am certain that, like myself, this infestation goads and appalls you to no end.  The thought of inferiors rapping our gifts.  Fear not, my compatriots, I believe I have come upon the solution to our problems.      First, let me bring you some good news, and confirm what many of you have already suspected.   There has been a decline in the amount of Finical Aid awarded in recent years.   This bright ray of hope has occurred on both the Federal and State levels.   It is do largely impart to the efforts of our Republican brothers.   This drop in charity has imposed a great impact to the numbers of our enemy.   Most notable to the minority and lower middle class waifs, who will no l

     I once told a friend that I am fearless.  Her father was dying, and our conversation naturally turned to that of death and what lay beyond.  I told her I was fearless because the spirits of my ancestor's are watching over me.  They will protect and guide me.  Because we are family and clan members, they will be there to help me through anything.  The spirits of the past, of people who lived in a different country, in a different time, people who I've never once seen, people who never looked upon me, never knew me, when they were alive.  I know they are watching over me.        I could almost see and feel them.   From somewhere bagpipes are playing.   They are behind me in military formations with swords and spears at the ready.   They move around me, encircling me, making a protective barrier.   There they stay waiting for my signal, waiting for someone to challenge them.   It's a wonderful thought, and I can't say that I don't still believe it in some

     Guess who I say today?  I saw Elvis at the shopping mall.  He was walking through the automotive section of Sears in a sequined jumpsuit.  I decided to follow him and see where he went.      He seemed to wander aimlessly through all the aisles of the store until he saw the empty shoe department.   Once he saw that it was empty he immediately tried to jump up on a shoe platform only to find that since he had gained approximately 300 lbs. He could not jump high enough to get his feet off the ground.      Once on top he started singing “Blue Suede Shoes”.   Instantly everybody's grandmother who was in the mall came screaming over to the Sears show department.   They started throwing money at the surprised sales clerk.   After his show concert ended Elvis left the store.      I almost lost him after that as I was so engrossed in watching the sales clerk count all the money he had made, and all of the security people who had somehow shown up in the middle of the sho

      The bar my friend John and I find ourselves find ourselves in tonight is pretty much like so many others I've seen.  Even up here in Maine, where we're vacationing these places are all the same.  There's an oak bar against one wall.  All the walls have a pine paneling, which are covered with pictures.  There's a jukebox and a pool table in the back.  The folks are just regular folks, they look comfortable and secure here with their friends.   The women are always beautiful and the locals never realize it because they see them all the time.      We hadn't been there very long when John spotted a particularly leggy blonde at the bar.   She was with some friends, but they had gone off to play pool in the back.   This was the opening John had been waiting for.   He was off like a Flash.      “Hi my name's John Philip Sutton.   Perhaps you've heard of me, I produce films”.      The opening line is always the same.   God only knows how or why i

     Getting into college, that's probably the most important thing.  You know, the really good college nobody can afford?  If you can afford it, than you probably don't need to go there anyway.  You don't need to learn anything, you'll have enough money to do whatever you want with your life. For the rest of us, however, to wonder where all this money is going to come from.  Well, let's go with the easy answer, our parents.  Honestly, don't they deserve the bill?  After all, they've put us through to this point.  They've prevented us from learning at our maximum potential.  Always telling us to slow down, be careful, not to grow up to fast and putting down everything we believe in simply because they don't understand it.  Yeah, let them foot the bill.      Only they're not going to foot the bill, are they?   Oh yeah, sure they say they will.   And they initiate the loan and finical aid forms and plans, assuring you this is the way it'

     In my life of twenty five years I believe I have seen quite a lot.  I have traveled, through the Marine Corps and seen some of the world.  Through my job as a military policeman in the Marine's I have seen and dealt with some of the more unpleasant parts of life.      Since leaving the Marine Corps and coming home to Ne York I have concentrated on making a living for myself and more importantly on my school work at Duchess Community College.   While at DCC for the last few years I have been regrouping and finding a focus and direction for my life. At DCC I have found new ways to use the skills life and the Marines have taught me.   For myself I see the   things that I once thought of as impossible and now are completely open to me and and any one else willing to try for them.      I have been described by people I know as being the strong silent type.   I'm not sure how true that is.   I have always seen myself as being somewhat impatient and I have certainly nev

     My reason for transferring is quite simple, I will be graduating in May from the Community College I am presently attending.  I have heard about the programs at Ithaca through some of the students and teachers at Duchess Community College and was interested enough to ask you for a brochure.  After reading it, I have come to the conclusion that I will do very well at Ithaca and wish to attend.      The objectives that I would hope to accomplish at Ithaca are very simple.   I would like to learn as much as possible in the field of film making, as to feel comfortable in taking a job in field of film making upon graduation.   Other things that I would like to accomplish at Ithaca are to work on my fiction writing skills, to make film industry contacts and to basically enjoy the experience of being in College.   The meeting of new people and the learning of new ideas and concepts are just two of the things I look forward to.      As for the long term goals that I hope to le

     In the last four years there has been one major change in my life.  Four years ago I was a military policeman in the Marine Corps planning on either staying  in the Corp. or getting out and joining the police force somewhere. I am very proud of my service to my country and of the things I accomplished while in the Corp.  However while I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina some events occurred that caused me to rethink the plans I made for my life.d      Neither of the events I'm going to mention to you are earth shattering and are for the most part, I believe common in the life of a policeman.   The first is the day I and another Marine MP had to search a house that had just been burglarized.   This was not the first house I had, had to search; however while searching this house there was an excellent opportunity to catch the burglar still inside.   For me this elevated my consciousness that I was holding and ready to use a loaded p

     Robert Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1948.  At the age of four he taught himself to read, with the help of his twelve year older brother.  He is a graduate of the Citadel with a degree in physics and served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army.  He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with “V”; and two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry.      Robert Jordan is a history buff who has also written dance and theater criticism.   He currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife Harriet.; and the indoor sports of chess and pool.   He has been writing since 1977 and vows to keep writing until his coffin is nailed shut.      Robert Jordan writes mainly fantasy and science fiction novels.   The main theme that runs through these books is about fate.   The stories in these books is usually dealing with someone's struggle against oppression or some other evil.      He is best known for his series of books enti

     My life as it pertains to writing and the events that have let me to this particular point in my life are quite unique and complex.  To quote the Grateful Dead “What a long strange trip its been”.  During the years in which you are to shape your personality and find who you are I can honestly say that I had no interest in writing at all.       This is true in my life from the beginning to about age twenty.   I would guess that this was the direct result of dyslexic.   Reading and writing did not come easy at all to me then and truthfully I still know absolutely nothing about spelling and grammar.   I spent all of my school years in the special classes working very hard to be almost as good as the rest of the kids my age.   I was told early on that I did not have what it takes to get a New York State's Regents Diploma and that I would probably never have a very high reading level.   It sounds worse than it was honestly.   Looking back I don't think I would want to c