Hypnosis Addiction

Dragon Moon

2009-12-27T20:25:30Z

Just having some fun, a preview to a future animation maybe, we shall see.

Dragon Moon by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Jellyfish Animation

2009-12-22T15:17:32Z

This is just something I was experimenting with, doing a flash animation in 3D space. I named it jellyfish because it kind of reminded me of that type of motion.

Jellyfish by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Taste for Blood

2009-12-19T21:37:51Z

I've been trying to do some realistic looking teeth, I think I'm finally getting close.

Taste for Blood by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Ice Goddess

2009-12-19T05:43:42Z

I started this image about a month ago to enter into a contest. The contest was being run by a content vendor and the rules were you had to use one of their products. I chose this rather funky looking hair, the choices were limited, and I think I may have posted that image here.

Anyway they were supposed to start the voting like two weeks ago and they still haven't. Starting to wonder if it was just a scam to sell more of their stuff. So I decided to modify the image to my true liking, ditching the hair lol.

Think that I'm done with still images for awhile, now its time to do some animation. This could be fun :)

Ice Goddess by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Delicious

2009-12-18T20:08:10Z

I think this one came out fairly well, after I rendered it about twenty-five times lol

Delicious by =stagehand007 on deviantART

TRUEBLEACH

2009-12-16T20:02:35Z

I was trying to figure out what to do with this image, her teeth were too white for a good vampire image, then the idea hit me :) I haven't taken the time to do a parody before but this was a lot of fun. For all the True Blood fans out there.

Ritual Embrace

2009-12-16T03:03:14Z

I think it's fair to say that I've found my niche in doing vampire themed art. Maybe niche is too strong a work because it implies some level of expertise I think. I'm no expert but I am having the time of my life learning.

Looking at some of my earlier work, stuff that I thought was good at the time looks very poor now. Part of that has to do with the fact that I could and did crank things out rather quickly. As I've said before, it's not all that difficult to render an image with Poser, and one of a beautiful woman at that. I guess it's an impulse sort of thing.

Same with many of my published hypno based animations. A quick idea, throw in a spiral, and here's an animation. Now I've become more critical of my work and trying to add in the details. It's those small details that often make the difference between a piece of art and one that is just a quick flash that all your friends say is great.

Speaking of hypno based animations, it's been well over a year now since I published one. I did mention to a few people that I had one almost finished, and I did sort of. I spent about four days trying to get the sound to loop correctly. Finally it dawned on me that even if I had the sound working the way it should, the animation would not be much different than the dozen or so previous ones that I've published. Yet as a 3D artist, I feel or at least hope that I've moved onto another level in the types of things I can do.

So I still have the animation but rather than do another fifteen second loop sort of thing, I think I'm going to do a linear animation. Two, three minute sort of thing. This will take some time, but I have some cool ideas and I think in the end it will be something that brings me some satisfaction.

As my last few posts here will confirm, I've been spending a lot of time at DA. Making a few new friends and being quite awe inspired by the work of some others.

Ritual Embrace by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Devious Journal Entry - Butterflies are Free

2009-12-14T06:17:22Z

Skin textures I was painting for a vampire turned out to have a different purpose :)

Butterflies are Free by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Devious Journal Entry - The Hunt

2009-12-12T17:52:49Z

The Hunt by =stagehand007 on deviantART

Devious Journal Entry - Vampires Promise

2009-12-11T12:08:56Z

Vampire's Promise by *stagehand007 on deviantART

The Pipeline

2009-12-07T06:05:43Z

Since the beginning of the summer I've been working almost exclusively in Cinema 4D. C4D is a full package professional level tool. Among any of the 3D modeling tools I've used, it is by far the easiest to use and the most powerful. My skill level barely scratches the surface of what can be done with C4D. Most of my work continues to be character bases and since Poser materials can be used within C4D, it's been rather easy to make that my exclusive tool.

For the last week or so I've been trying to build up my network at Deviant Art and in the process I have seen some stunning work. A lot of that work I noticed was done with Daz Studio. Daz has been around a long time as a sort of Poser clone and for years has been free. It's still free, but they also now have a commercial version. I have played around with Daz here and there but never truly serious. Since been forced to use a different computer than my primary machine, I decided to download the 30 trial and give it a serious look.

The image below is the same character I rendered yesterday in C4D, this time rendered in Daz Studio. In my opinion the results are certainly an improvement. The difference being while C4D is certainly very strong with it's texture tools, the character textures are native to Daz, and therefore have much more control in that area.

For this image I have used Bodypaint, the 3D painting tool in C4D, then configured the textures and rendered in Daz. I still have some work to do on her eyes, but she is getting closer to the character I am looking for.

Most 3D work is done in some sort of "pipeline". The modeling, the rendering, and the post work are typically done with different tools, those best suited for the job. I think I got a little off track and consumed with C4D that I started to lose sight of that. I consider myself very fortunate in that I have access to several different great tools, Daz/Poser for character set up, C4D for modeling, Bodypaint for 3D painting and texture work, Vue for environments, and Photoshop for textures and post work. If and when I find the time to get back into animation add in After Effects and Flash.

Ten years ago some of these tools were not even heard of, others were in their infancy. Despite the general state of the world, it is a good time to be into digital art.

Vampire WIP

2009-12-06T01:01:17Z

I've been working on painting her skin textures and made a test render. She will be part of a full scene once she is finished.

Feedback

2009-12-02T03:42:33Z

Anyone who has ever done anything creative and posted it on the web has heard from "ugly feedback guy." They are many who carry the same name, you certainly know what I mean, ufg looks for every opportunity to say bad, and some times mean things about the work of others. And of course ufg never does anything creative himself, just carries an attitude, the world owes him something and is most certainly jealous because he has no real talent himself.

No one knows for sure what ufg looks like, but I always envision him as weighing close to 400 pounds with bed sores on his rear end because he rarely gets it up off the couch.

Mostly due to my personality, and partly because of ufg, anytime that I provide feedback for someone it is usually positive and or constructive. I know how much work it takes to make a video, write a story, produce a piece of art, or any of the other ways people may choose to share something of themselves, I appreciate that.

One of the digital art communities I belong to, Renderosity, is kind of like the polar opposite of ufg. Nobody ever leaves any bad feedback at Renderosity. Initially that might sound like a good thing, but I really have to say, not so much.

It's kind of one of those deals, that if you leave feedback for me, I'll leave feedback for you. Which seems fair, but the result is a lot of one word feedback, "wonderful", "excellent", "stunning", all fairly meaningless. And of course the people that do this a lot, tend to get a lot of comments on their work in return. Guess what? Renderosity posts "top lists", the most views, the most comments, etc, so you see the motivation there.

I guess you could say its mostly harmless, but I've formed the opinion that it tends to encourage poor and sometimes bad work. I can say if the only goal is to render a 3D scene, its not all that difficult if you don't pay a lot of attention to the way the final product will look.

Last night I was browsing the gallery, I should say there are some amazing artist there no doubt. But I came across one piece, it was in the realism category. The person who posted it, has over 400 images in his gallery, so been doing this awhile. The comments ranged from "Awesome, fantastic render" to "Incredible work of art", six people had added the image to their favorites list.

The scene was outdoors, the main character was dressed like she should be on the beach, the scene was like a nearly deserted downtown. The lighting gave the mood of it being overcast, the sky was clear blue. The character looked like she was made out of plastic and the shadows from the character did not match the background. In a nutshell, it was awful.

I wanted so badly to give the guy some constructive feedback, but the first thought that came to my mind, was I would look like ufg by doing so. So I took a pass. But honestly, its what I would prefer others do for my work. I have a passion for this stuff, I don't want the meaningless ufg comments, but something that will help me grow and improve, isn't that what every true artist wants?

English

2009-11-26T17:30:10Z

As I was growing up and in school, I frequently thought it was a waste of time being required to take English classes. I mean we already spoke English. The answer I received when asking the question was, "it is important to have good communication skills by learning how to speak and write correct English, otherwise you will never be employable."

That response was not exactly an overwhelming motivator for me at the time. It was not because I did not care about being employable, it was because, with a lot of things at that age, I failed to see the connection.

Later in life, especially with written communication, it did begin to sink in and for me has become something that I am continually working on to improve.

It is also something that tends to drive me absolutely crazy, when I read something written in very poor English. I cannot help but gather the impression, when something is written in very poor English, that the author is not intelligent. Items such as not using proper tense or numerous misspellings. This would include my own writing, and something that also drives me crazy. I frequently have issues with the thoughts in my head and having my fingers follow along as they are typing. This results in words that I had every intention of saying, however somehow forgot to type them.

Going back to the original thought of this post, the importance of having good communication skills in order to be employable. Is it just me or has the importance of good communication skills diminished in recent years?

A large percentage of people that I work with, and granted English is not their first language, possess extremely poor English skills. It is to the point where a brand of Pigeon English is used to communicate in my work place. I work in an industry where good communication is important if not vital. Yet there is no encouragement nor effort I see to improve English skills. And it is not only my business, I see the same thing daily with other companies that I interact with. Have we reached a point where good proper English is no longer important? I am also curious as to the response elementary school students receive today when they ask the question, "Why do I have to take English classes?"

Starbucks

2009-11-23T01:01:55Z

First an update on Fred the missing cat who lives in my backyard. It's been three days now and there's been no sign of him. It's been really cold and dreary out the past few days, I hate the cold, so he might have found a place to stay warm. I've just been very sad since he's been gone. I hope he is ok and at this very moment bringing someone else some joy, that's a thought that makes me smile.

On a positive topic, I know they have their critics but I think Starbucks is a cool business. As compared to the post I made about walmart a couple of days ago, Starbucks is 180 degrees in the positive direction.

A lot of people will say their coffee is over priced, you could certainly make it yourself much cheaper, but that's missing the point as far as I'm concerned. This might be contrary to most people's point of view, I don't go there because I like the coffee. The coffee is decent, but mostly I go there because I like the customer service.

It's become my habit, as I'm commuting home from work on Friday evening to stop at the book store to see what's new. That stop always includes a visit to the Starbucks attached next door. It's one of the few businesses I actually look forward to visiting.

It's kind of like the whole week I've been putting up with the piles of BS and fixing peoples problems, so it's a recharge to start my weekend. The people that work there are friendly without being overbearing. And if I decide to hang out for awhile, the atmosphere is pretty cool too. Starbucks is a company that gets it from my point of view.

At this very moment I'm rendering a new animation. It's got 150 frames in total. It's been going for three and a half hours and only up to frame 55 so it will go all night looks like.

The project started out as a still image for another contest I was going to try and enter. Along the way of modeling the scene it started going off in a direction that was outside the constraints of the contest, so I just kept following that path. Some time late last night I realized that animating it might actually make for a decent hypno themed thing, so that's what its going to be. It's been over a year since I've done any hypno themed projects, we'll see how it all comes out.

Missing

2009-11-20T03:14:11Z

For the past couple of months a stray cat has been living in my backyard, as in out there almost constantly. He is the friendliest cat and I've grown quite attached to him.

This morning as usual he was clawing at the back screen door to be fed, and I fed him his breakfast. A few minutes later I heard some noise from the backyard, when I looked out Fred was gone and the neighbors dog was in the backyard eating Fred's food. I chased off the dog and put another can of food in Fred's dish.

When I got home tonight, Fred was not waiting by the front door as he usually does. And when I went around back to put some food in his dish, the food I had put there in the morning was still there :(

I'm hoping that he's just off on a side journey to someone Else's yard, but I can't help worry that he's hurt or something.

Experiment

2009-11-15T02:22:45Z

There was a time for the past few years where I didn't worry too much about money. I mean everyone worries about it to a degree and it wasn't as though I had endless piles of it to spend. Just that I had enough to pay my bills and enough left over to enjoy a few extras. That has not been the case this past year however, with a salary cut and the general rising of expenses money has started to become tight, and the worry level has significantly risen.

One thing in particular that seems to have gone over the top is the grocery bill. I mean way out there, and not like I'm buying a lot of stuff, its just gotten a whole lot more expensive. I feel like I really need to get that expense under control so I decided to try an experiment and for a month do my grocery shopping at <play Darth Vader sound effect here> Walmart.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am hanging my head in shame as I write this, admitting that I've actually gone into one of those stores much less actually bought anything from them. I've been very outspoken against that particular establishment as one of the prime roots of all evil. That being said, I've expressed those opinions mostly on hearsay and never truly being a customer to experience first hand. So I did give it a try and this past weekend marked a month since I started, so now I can report.

On the first couple of shopping trips, it did seem as though things were much cheaper, I don't know if there is some sort of psychology going on there or what but I found myself lulled into the sensation that every time I tossed something in my cart that I was saving money. And indeed on my first two trips my grocery bill was significantly reduced. That was the good part, the rest I have to say is well, not so much.

I've been spoiled most of my life shopping in regular grocery stores, having the ability to casually walk up and down the isles, and if I need some help, its usually not too difficult to find it. Was I ever in for a rude awakening.

Customer service, well, at Walmart I'd have to say, "not so much." There is kind of the weird vibe, hard to exactly put my finger on it but there is kind of an aura that hangs in the air that if you happen to do something the wrong you're going to get kicked out of the place. It's certainly not the kind of place where you're likely to hear someone say, "do you need some help?"

At one point a couple of weeks ago I was in the yogurt section looking for some plain yogurt, granted not very popular and not always easy to find anywhere. As I'm carefully scanning every cup on the shelves, there is a guy there stocking them. Now in any other store I've ever been in my entire life, the reaction from the employee is going to be, "can I help you find something?". This guy however just kept working, in fact he was right in my way, he didn't say excuse me or anything, just went about his business.

Finally I asked him if they had any plain yogurt, then I realized why he hadn't said anything, he didn't speak English. Now I don't know if it just happens to be this particular store, but in the month I shopped there it appeared that none of the shelf stokers spoke English. I have to wonder with 12% of the population out of work in this area, why are they hiring non-English speaking employees? Just a thought.

Of course since this is a "super store" you also have this huge department store stuck to the grocery store. And falling for their trap, last week I ventured over the electronics section to pick up some ear buds. My first clue should have been the fact the $10 ear buds I wanted to buy were locked to the rack, I had to try and flag someone down to release them for me. Then I either had to pay for them right there, or after a searing look of suspicion upon me, the clerk finally agreed to place them in a security box so that I could pay for them with my groceries. That took twenty minutes for her to find one and the correct key to lock it up. I mean the place has more security cameras than a casino, is that really necessary?

Again with the department store effect. Some things one happens to buy at a typical grocery store aren't actually considered "groceries." For example cat food, its completely on the opposite end of the store. Evenably after making that trek and back, I'd remember that I also needed some shampoo and other half mile walk to go find it.

As far as actually shopping for food, they seem to do a masterful job of placing all the high carb junk food disguised as dinners in prominent places. That sales technique appears to be highly effective, because among my fellow shoppers, there are some HUGE people shopping at Walmart. By the way, they don't have a health food isle, I know image your surprise.

They also have this other thing, "Value Brand" or something like that. You see the packages all over, a throw back to a decade or so ago when "generic" food was popular. White boxes, black lettering, plain zero faceless products. I could easily envision a time, five or ten years from now where their shelves are stocked with nothing but. Once they've driven all the other retailers out of business and have complete control over what to sell you. Kind of like Soilent Green come to be, scary thought.

Finally there is the checkout stand, that alone is an adventure. Of course they only have three open out of the fifty or so available. And again the type of people who shop there. Slow lethargic, "you take the items out of your basket and put them on the belt", what's so difficult about that. I didn't see any signs anywhere explaining this, but without exception every time I shopped there, the person in front of me would change their minds on a third of their basket, just piling the stuff on top of the National Enquirer racks. Good a place as any I guess.

The thing is yes, I did find cheaper prices, but I noticed each week I spent more than the week before. The individual items in some but not all cases were cheaper, but I was buying more of it. Stuff I didn't really need, again with the psychology. Have to hand it to them, they know what they are doing. I just don't like being a victim when I do my grocery shopping.

Hypnotic Addiction Dot Com

2009-11-08T02:31:51Z

I received an email from Youtube last night. Apparently my animation now has enough views that they are now interested in "partnering" with me. Potentially I could make some money on the animation, hmm ok, yes I'm interested.

So I go over there and check out the tutorial, which is displayed as a wizard. The first page basically explains the program, it's based on Adsense. I already use Adsense on one of my web sites so I'm cool with that.

The next four pages go on to explain the video can infringe upon copyrights, and explain what that means. I thought, this is a little tad over kill but then I thought maybe its a good thing, might say there is a bit of an issue when it comes to people understanding what copyright is on the Internet. The animation is completely my creation, so no worries there, thinking maybe ok I'll do it.

Then I come to the last page, once I submit my "application" they will approve it. I thought they contacted me with an invitation, now turns out they still have to approve it. And here's the kicker, if for any reason they don't approve the video, it gets deleted. Huh?

Are not Youtube the most awesome people? Raise your hand if either yourself or someone you know has had their youtube account deleted for no apparent reason and with no explaination. That's what I thought, think I'll pass on the partnership for now.

If you haven't seen the animation, I present it here for your enjoyment, thanks for stopping by.

Don't Go In There!

2009-10-31T18:39:20Z

They just announced the contest winners for that Halloween contest I entered so I can now post my image, I didn't win but the one I voted for and thought was exceptionally better than any others including my own didn't finish in the top five either, guess I'm just a little out of sync.

This is the text that went along with the entry:

"The gossip around the neighborhood, the Beaumont twins were quiet and kept to themselves. Most everyone was certain they had been introduced at one time or another, yet if they thought about it no one could remember when they had or whether or not they had ever been guests in the old Beaumont home.

Yes the twins were quiet, no one could complain, most assumed they both spent a lot of time out of town, usually the only time anyone ever saw either of them was late at night.

It was different on All Hallows' Eve, the twins hosted a party every year and they both did enjoy a delicious party. And this year as opposed to past, several from the neighborhood were invited. Most could not wait to get inside."

This image was inspired by my fascination with vampires. With the exception of the characters, clothing, and hair everything was modeled and textured by hand, including the character's skin textures. I used C4D for modeling and rendering. Photoshop and Bodypaint were used for materials. Additionally PS for some touch up postwork.

Not sure about how many hours, but I worked on this image for about 10 days. I had a blast working on this and being very much a student of digital art learned a ton.

Best of luck to all others who are entering, and most of all thanks for sharing your art.

.

Stroking

2009-10-23T01:06:23Z

No not that kind of stroking ;-) What I really mean is petting, in particular a cat. My cats absolutely craved to be stroked. and especially love their cheeks rubbed. I'm not a total expert on why they love to be petted but from I do know it is part of their instincts to rub up against objects with the sides of their faces. There are glands there that leave their scent, part of marking their territory the way I understand it. So it becomes a very strong need for them.

I also understand that putting a cat will actually lower blood pressure and relieve stress. One of my cats gets so much into it when she is being petted that you just can't help feel all the stress levels dropping. It's no wonder that humans and felines have learned to live in harmony, seems like a good partnership.

The Fourth Dimension

2009-10-22T04:29:07Z

Thought

2009-10-22T01:26:18Z

I've intended to make a post on this topic for a few weeks now, and just recently got into some conversations that have helped me to formulate just what I'd like to say.

My family is from the mid-west, the bible belt you might say, although by the time I was old enough to form any memories we had moved to the west coast. Even though both of my parents had grown up with some religion in their lives, it was not practiced in my immediate family. My grandparents would occasionally haul my sister and myself off to church but never too frequently.

When it comes right down to it, the only true direction I received as a child towards any belief system, was that I was free to choose whatever course I wanted to take in terms of religion or any other types of beliefs, my mom told me almost those exact words on several occasions. By the time that I reached my teens, I was officially referring to myself as an atheist. Why? because even at that young age it was the only thing that made sense to me.

A few years later I did become involved with a mainstream religion, and yes there was a young lady that created some motivation there. It lasted a few short years in the grand scheme of life until eventually I returned to the way I felt before and continue to this day. I feel there is so much we don't know, so much more exploration to do, and that simply because we don't have the answer for something making up something to fill in the unknown is not the correct course of action.

I know a lot of people who have mainstream religious believes, many of them very cool people. I would never make any direct efforts to change their minds, because as I was taught as a youth that the most important thing is for everyone to make their own decisions on the matter. And likewise I would never want to offend anyone on purpose.

That being said, there are a few things that have churned within me that I feel the need to express. The primary issues that I have with most religions is that they suppress thought. It's by design, and I happen to feel a method employed to control people. People are taught not to question, and in fact it is one of the requirements, they refer to it as faith. With any rational thought it makes absolutely no sense that the earth was created in seven days and that the age of the planet is a mere six thousand years. Yet people are required to suspend that rations thought and except on faith something that is completely irrational.

It is interesting to me that during the time I was involved in a mainstream religion, I made some of the worst decisions of my life. Some of those decisions I will never recover from. Perhaps I would have made those bad decisions anyway, but I have to wonder had I exercised thought the way I should have, and have the ability maybe I wouldn't have made those decisions.

There is also this perception in life that a religious person is a good person. That someone who does not believe in a god lacks morals and therefore can feel free to do bad things. Well, while I'm not perfect and admit to having done things from time to time in my life that I'm proud of, overall I would consider myself and most people who know me as a good person. I can honestly say the same thing about nearly everyone else I know who has similar thoughts about meaning of life and existence. Interesting enough the vast majority of people who are in prison for heinous crimes consider themselves to have strong beliefs in a deity.

I have always thought with wonder about the universe for the majority of my life. In fact often times just sitting and pondering what is out there and how it all works can bring me actual physical pleasure.

While I was never given any formal direction in a belief system as a youth, one thing I did have was a poster on the wall of my bedroom. I have no recollection of how it ever got there, but it was a poster of the solar system with various facts about the planets. I loved to look at that poster and study it, I believe I still may have it tucked away in a box somewhere.

Carl Sagan once answered a question about the future of our planet. He said it concerned him that when a young child asks a parent "why is the grass green?" or "why is the sky blue?" all too often the child receives ridicule about concerning themselves with such things. They parent often replies that they should just accept things as they are. Dr. Sagan suggested that rather than gloss over the question how wonderful it would be if the parent took the time to truly explore the question with the child. Thereby giving the child the gift of thought.

Whomever it was who hung that poster of the solar system on my bedroom wall gave me the greatest gift I have ever received.

Mausoleum

2009-10-18T20:43:49Z

I modeled this image after some of the pictures that I took at the cemetery last weekend. A really cool way of doing things rather than just trying to picture in my head how something might be put together. I'm a little bummed because I probably would have made a few more adjustments and renders, but I forgot to save before going to bed early this morning. When I go up my PC had done an auto reboot for an update, so I lost a bunch of work. I should know better, oh well.

This was modeled completely in Cinema 4D and a lot of the materials were done in BodyPaint. BTW a few people have asked me about the name on the mausoleum and whether or not it means anything, answer is no it doesn't have any special meaning, I just picked a name and didn't want to use like Smith or Jones.

I'm also trying something different with the full size image, it's in a plain HTML page, I wanted to do it that way so that it would display the true full size.

(click on thumb to view full size)

Old Cemetery

2009-10-11T03:22:13Z

I've been modeling some things for a new project that I'm working on, the ambition in me wants to do a Halloween themed animation base in a Gothic cemetery. Whether or not it ends up being an animation or a still remains to be seen but I'm having fun regardless.

The other night I was attempting to model a mausoleum, initially going off what I thought it should look like. That wasn't happening too well so I decided to go looking for some reference images. After an hour or so of searching and not quite finding the perfect image, it finally dawned on me that like most major cities, we have a few old cemeteries right here. Might as well go out and take my own reference images, what a novel idea!

I absolutely love exploring old cemeteries, talk about seeing so much history right before your eyes. It's especially cool to see the old elaborate tombstones. Death is the one mystery that is impossible to solve, the primary reason for religion because as a human beings we can't quite wrap our brains around it, so theories are invented which over time become fact in some peoples minds. Cemeteries are so full of those rituals and myths, perhaps its why we have them in the first place.

So anyway, I had an awesome time and did manage some good reference materials. I can't say that I'm much of a photographer any more, but thought I would share a few.

Dead Peasants

2009-10-04T04:43:20Z

Went to see Michael Moore's new movie tonight. As far as movies go it wasn't quite up to par with "Bowling for Columbine" or "Fahrenheit 911." There were some parts that just didn't seem to flow together, for example he spent some time discussing big corporations who make it a practice of taking out life insurance on their employees without their knowledge, the corporations being the beneficiary in the event the employee should die. The corporations have a term for such an employee, "dead peasant."

The fact that corporations engage in this practice, by doing so they suddenly have a vested interest in the mortality of their employee, brings up all sorts of ethical questions and the topic could have made a movie all on its own. In the case of "Capitalism, a Love Story", it felt more like filler.

Michael Moore tends to elicit criticism of his movies, usually by those who have an agenda and will claim that some of his facts are inaccurate or things taken out of context. Those who dwell on such criticisms or even my own about the flow of this movie in particular are missing the point. For in my mind what he has done with this movie and all his previous films in general is to raise awareness of topics that a select few would much prefer stay out of sight out of mind.

A significant point made in this movie drives home the fact how effective propaganda is used to convince people to favor that which is completely contrary to their own best interests. The current debate over health care reform is a prime example, a topic covered in his previous movie "Sicko."

This past week I finished reading Jon Krakauer's new book, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman." Together with this movie is a common theme of how much control the rich and powerful have and the sobering truth that most of us are nothing more than pawns or peasants. Their agenda is not in most of our best interests.

It does concern me that so many have been lulled into a state of apathy, many friends and people I have a lot of respect for, either don't have the time or just aren't interested enough to pay attention. If life appears good at the moment, it's much easier to take the Alfred E. Newman approach of "why worry?" The reality is we, the middle class, are in a downward spiral and until we reach the point where we open up our windows and scream to the top of our lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more", we'll continue on that spiral.

The one thing I did very much appreciate about "Capitalism" was rather than simply leave the audience with an education of the problem, Moore showed examples of those who have chosen to take a stand, to make their voices heard, and to fight back. We need a ground swell of that because otherwise we all look forward to being dead peasants.