Once Upon A Time In The West "Man" Lines

My favorite piece from Once Upon A Time in The West:

Frank: Morton once told me I could never be like him. Now I understand why. Wouldn't have bothered him, knowing you were around somewhere alive.
Harmonica: So, you found out you're not a businessman after all.
Frank: Just a man.
Harmonica: An ancient race. Other Mortons will be along, and they'll kill it off.
Frank: The future don't matter to us. Nothing matters now - not the land, not the money, not the woman. I came here to see you. 'Cause I know that now, you'll tell me what you're after.
Harmonica: ...Only at the point of dyin'.

Wired Articles on Silent Films

Yes, this article is here for a reason. Silent film can allow low budget directors a chance to tell a story, and tell it in a unique way, especially if they don't think their actors are really up to par for a script's dialog. Also, It can be used just as a way to work on methods and to do a fun film project. I remember in Austin the Alamo Draft House doing silent films with love scores as well. Anyway, here is the story:

Filmmakers Seek Future in Past

By John Brownlee
02:00 AM Feb, 23, 2007

Silent film was never meant to be silent. It was meant to be heard. Orchestras swelled in the pits of the cinemas, crescendoing their strings when Chaplin's Tramp gave his girl a daisy, or smashing their cymbals when Buster Keaton fell down a flight of stairs.

So, when the modern silent Passio premieres Friday at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia, it will be accompanied not by the spooling whir of film feeding through the projector of an otherwise quiet theater but by a symphony orchestra and dozens of singers.

The work is one of the most recent and ambitious in a revival of silent film -- a medium killed nearly 80 years ago by advances in sound recording. Over the past two decades, artists have explored the legacy of silent cinema, not as a dusty anachronism but as a rich medium from which lessons about music, performance and art can be drawn.

Prolific modern-day directors like Guy Maddin work largely in the medium of silent film to convey postmodern tales. Silent film festivals are held annually around the world: from San Francisco to Kansas, from Italy to Australia. The Chilean subways are plastered with thousands of still images, coming to life as contiguous strips of film as the trains rumble by. And numerous groups throughout the United States have been inspired to compose and perform live original scores to silent film.

Books in 2007, first Mcgee

Basket Case
Skinny Dip
The Quick Red Fox

The problem with reading Travis McGee books is one feels like so much less of a man than McGee.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

That's right kids, all is right with the world as Pitchers and catchers report today. Full squads start reporting next week. MMMM, best time of year.

Microdistillers

This has been needed for awhile:

Brewpubs seek to make distilled spirits

By NATE JENKINS, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 9, 3:50 AM ET

LINCOLN, Neb. - Zach Triemert wants to bring what he learned in Scotland to Nebraska, and it isn't how to play bagpipes.

"We hope to use Nebraska grains and fruits to make world-class spirits," Triemert, who earned a master's degree in brewing and distilling while in Scotland, told a legislative committee recently. "It will bring another source of recognition and pride to our state."

Upstream Brewing Company in Omaha, where Triemert is head brewer, is one of an increasing number of brewpubs nationwide that wants to add distilled spirits such as rum and whiskey to its list of alcohol offerings that are made onsite then sold to customers and wholesalers.

A bill before the Legislature mimics what was done for Nebraska beer makers almost 20 years ago, when restaurants where allowed to craft their own brew. Now there are about a dozen brewpubs in the state.

When Nebraska passed the brewing law, there were about half a dozen similarly run microdistilleries in the country. Today, there are 88, said Bill Owens, president of the American Distilling Institute, who says the sharp increase is part of a general rise in demand for a range of specialty products, from beer to bread.

Big distillers are also cashing in on the demand for high-end booze. While revenues from sales of the cheapest, or "value," spirits decreased from 2005 to 2006, revenues from the most expensive spirits, called "super premiums," jumped nearly 19 percent during the same period, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group that represents mostly large, mainstream distillers.

Revenues from sales of super-premium vodka jumped the most — more than 43 percent — a figure sure to catch the attention of distillers because vodka, based on sales, is the most popular spirit in the country.

The heightened demand is partially due to more exposure to high-end spirits at tastings and other venues, and a national resurgence of "cocktail culture" where booze "mixologists" generate the same sort of excitement as top-level chefs, said Shawn Kelley, spokeswoman for the council.

"People aren't drinking more," she said. "They're drinking better."

Winemaking states such as California and Oregon lead the microdistilleries pack, but increasingly the endeavor is moving to the country's midsection. Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado all have what Owens calls "craft distillers."

When Seth Fox started a distillery in Kansas 1 1/2 years ago — the first distillery in the state since the 1880s — he figured he might be able to sell up to 1,500 cases of his Most Wanted Vodka. He sold double that, and has since branched out to produce other spirits. He uses Kansas grain to make the vodka.

"Kansas? Vodka? People don't believe me," Fox said.

Microdistilleries like his have popped up despite a mishmash of state and local laws that in some cases haven't been reformed since Prohibition and can take more than a year to navigate before operators get a permit, Owens said.

The government arm that regulates alcohol in Nebraska does not view the potential for microdistilleries as a threat. Hobert Rupe, director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, said the interest in niche liquors is simply the third step in an alcohol evolution marked by more consumer interest in high-end, locally made products.

First it was beer, then wine and now spirits, Rupe said.

"You're seeing people go higher end, the idea of going local is appealing," he said.

___

On the Net:

American Distilling Institute: http://www.distilling.com/

New Hot Fuzz Trailer: La Boomstick!

The funny for the day.