Tuesday, September 24, 2002

“The Fans in the Plastic Bubble”


Last season the NHL and its’ fans were shocked and saddened when a little girl was killed after being hit by a puck. In a freakish event, the puck deflected off another fan and hit her in the side of the head. She seemed to have just been hurt first and actually left her seat on her own legs. Later that night she died in the hospital.

The tragedy cast a dark cloud over the remaining days of the Blue Jackets’ season. The tragedy also resulted in the NHL mandated nets on the ends of the rink. Everyone at the time was all about it of course they needed nets .000000000000000000000000001 % of all people that have attended a hockey game have been killed by a flying puck.

Now I do not mean to come off mean spirited here. I realize that a human life was cut short sadly days before the young girl’s birthday. However, what occurred was simply a freak accident. People are more likely to die in car crash traveling to the game, than meeting the reaper via a flying frozen piece of rubber.

It would not be a big deal if it did not affect the game at all. However, after viewing the Flyers first televised preseason game I wonder how well the NHL thought this idea through. I had read that the net (black in color because supposedly it reflects less light) would not show up on television; of course having a communications background and being a cynic, I had my doubts.

Every time the action swung behind a net and CSN switched to the end camera the net was blatantly visible. The net also appeared many times on replays. However, the net would vanish on some shots without switching camera angles. Perhaps the camera operators must focus immediately when the shot is thrown to them. When a camera has an object in front of the camera will focus on that image. I have yet to experience the game in person. Plus I don’t sit behind the nets anyway.

Okay, the annoying interference with the viewers at home might seem superficial, but at the very least the FU center has a problem on their hands. Either the net has to be adjusted or the referees will have more problems than calling clutching and grabbing. Twice tonight, the puck hit the net and fell back into play. Both times the referee did not notice for several seconds. Just imagine how more wild regular season games can be, and how many times the puck will be sent back to the ice.

Perhaps the net simply needs to be tightened, but it just goes a long with a trend where we play everything too safe. Little kids that simply want to go for a bike ride have to dress up like Storm troopers or your a bad parent. I thought part of being a kid was getting bumps and bruises. Kids can’t play dodge ball anymore at school, because it could hurt feelings.

What will happen if a baseball kills a baseball fan? It is a terrible thing that the girl was killed, but a net won’t bring her back. Anytime you leave the house you run the risk of dying in a freak accident. Maybe we should just all walk around in big plastic bubbles, perhaps I am just going to hell for writing this post. I will say hi to Hitler for everyone.

p.s. I am in love with a girl that works at the local Rite Aid, but that has nothing to do with this post.

Monday, September 23, 2002

"Playing God"

Mel Gibson who has had much mainstream success with the Lethal Weapon movies, Braveheart, Ransom and most recently last summer's mega hit Signs has an unusual project lined up next. Gibson plans to direct a movie currently title Passion, about the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ.

Since he comes across as a somewhat religious person and his last role even dealt with faith doing this doesn't come as a surprise. However he plans to have the entire movie done in two ancient tongues Latin and Aramaic. Both languages are pretty much dead today. If that isn't odd enough as of right now, there will be no subtitles either. This will certainly frustrate anyone trying to sell this movie not only US audiences, but the ever important foreign market. This doesn't sound like a movie Warner Brothers will want to invest time or money into, however Gibson sees it as a chance to do something different.

"For me that's more real and hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling," Gibson said.

Shooting will switch between the famous Cinecitta studios just outside Rome and cave-riddled Matera in southern Italy. Gibson who holds church services entirely in latin in his CA home in Latin seems pretty passionate about the film.

"Many people have told the story but ... it's like looking at it from the wrong end of the telescope....No-one wants to touch something in two dead languages. They think I'm insane, maybe I am,"

Jim Caviezel who stared in The Count of Monte Cristo and High Crimes will portray Jesus. I have never seen either of these movies, so I have no idea if that is a good choice. Gibson who can play anything from a villain (Pay Back), to a suicidal hero (lethal weapon) to warm hearted father with a touch of depression (The Patirot, Signs) is not likely to actually appear in the movie.

I'm currently enrolled in a film class, and are viewing silent movies. These movies had to rely on actor's body language (many times having to be cartoonish in order to convey emotions) having your entire cast using words movie audiences won't understand seems to be along the same lines. Granted Gibson will have the luxury of actual dialogue to express emotion and anyone going to see the movie is likely to be familiar with the story of Jesus. However unless the movie is amazingly directed audiences are likely to be alienated by the film.


Most Underrated Gibson Movie:
Conspiracy Theory

ps. I have figured out how to edit posts after I have put them up on Tucker's world. So now you can leave comments about the mistakes I make (not that I will correct most of them, I even managed to screw up the title of the last blog when it was first posted.) on my nonexistent comments link. Seriously feel free to email me. Im also touched that Drew pointed his TERMINUS readers to check out "War...What is it Good For?"