Daniel Craig Matt Damon

One thing that could be seen as a cursing or a blessing is the ability to watch movies while editing photos. I’ve never watched so many movies is so short of a time. Typically I will watch the same movie for about a week or so. I do this so that I can look and study the nuances of the movie and find little easter eggs that the director has put out there. That’s what makes wedding photography so great, the nuance of the bride and groom and their love. Anyways, back to my topic.

A few years back I was photographing a radio producers conference in which a speaker was educated the audience about the change in culture, particularly with movies. He stated that gone are the days of Bond who was very clean cut and polished. Our heroes we going to be more dirty and not have their lives so much together as Bond seemed to have. Everything was given to Bond. He didn’t have to work all the time for his nice cars or his lady friends. He was just given to him.

Bourne on the other hand wasn’t given anything that he didn’t work for himself. He woke up one day like a child and didn’t know who he was or even who he wanted to be. He was like a child because children just wake up one day and have to figure this world out. They are given talents and abilities and have to learn how to use them. Bourne was this way. He woke up and through circumstances he begins to understand that he is a trained assassin and is determined to find out where this all started.

I found this blog and full report that talks about the difference between the two.

The Bourne Ultimatum’ star thinks Bond is old fashioned and says his own character, former CIA assassin Jason Bourne, is a superior modern day action hero.

Damon said: “Bond is fundamentally different from Bourne. Bond is an establishment guy. He is a misogynist, an imperialist, he’s all the things that Bourne isn’t. He kills people then drinks a Martini.”

“The director of ‘The Bourne Identity’, Doug Liman, said to me before we started the first one, ‘James Bond does not speak to me at any level and I think it would be cool to have a James Bond that people our age can relate to.’ Bond is a character left over from the 1960s.

Also take a look at this blog about the difference between Bond and Bourne

It is true that there is a marked difference in the cinematography between the feel of Bourne and the 1960’s Bond. While reading these statements it occured to me some points of interest.

• Bourne is attempting to find out who he is. Bond already knows who he is and what he is about.
• Bourne’s government is bad who attempts to kill innocent people if need be while Bond is the reflection of a government that acts in the best interest of the United States.
• Bond’s world wasn’t as violent and raw. Violence was mostly assumed through assumption and sound. Bourne’s violence is put out in the open for everyone to experience through Bourne’s eyes.

It seems that most would prefer Bourne’s look because it represents today. During the 60’s violence on TV isn’t as accepted and encouraged as it is today. We expect overt violence in action movies because we want sensory over load. We want to empathize with those that we associate ourselves with. We like Bourne because he is a man trying to find his way in this world and in the end is successful. No matter what happens Bourne always comes through.

But Bond and Bourne are really the same in principle but different in time:

• Bond held the ideals of the day about the good of the government.
• Bourne was created by the system for evil and now must use that training against the system.
• Bond was the everyman of his time. People and families wanted to live the “good life with good things”
• Bourne was the everyman in that people want to be seen as overcoming their situation through their wits.
• Bond didn’t have complex fighting scenes because they didn’t exist.
• Bourne has complex fighting scenes because they have been around for a while.

What we want to see are the personal struggles that they have. We want to know that they are feeling what we are feeling and are they going through what I am going through. No matter what your social economical status is in this world you have demons you are fighting.

I think the idea of identity is something that I might what to look into later. What do you think about my assessment.

In addition, we got to see Phelps get one more medal than Spitz did. Once Phelps won the medal I told the guys that ratings were going to go down because Phelps just blew any reasonable perception of medals. Well, ESPN just put out an article that NBC worried that ratings were going to go down because Phelps was finished for the games. Think about it…..with every race or competition in the games there will be winners and losers. We expect this. However, we don’t expect people to not only break world records but also break records that could easily go unbroken for another 7 - 10 games. I wonder if the networks are going to start years in advance to help create hype and build it. Also, if you watched the race did you notice that there was a VISA commercial right after it congratulating Phelps. I don’t think that this is bad but only proper planning and hind-sight 20/20 ROI. Phelps is only 23 and has a good many years to go to break even more records. Hopefully Phelps will be able to handle the stress of being a celebrity a little better than he did before. As you know he was put on probation for a DUI.

Phelps has a great opportunity to be a positive influence on a great number of people. I would think that there is going to be a marked increase in people who are going to get in the pool to help sustain the feeling of a little victory that they felt watching Phelps win all those medals.  One thing I learned from my dad was what he would tell us before leaving any camp ground, “Son, you have to leave it better than the way that you found it.” I think that this would be something that Phelps and really anyone else should keep in mind. No matter what stage of life you are in or what recourses you may or may not have….leave this world better than the way you found it. It is because of this mindset that Newton wrote to Robert Hooke stating, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Leave the world better so that those who may come after us will have clearing so that may see clearly to go farther than we were able to.

I think what attracts us to Phelps is that he is living the classic American Dream. He worked hard and made the proper sacrifices to prepare himself for these races. I also can’t say enough for the sacrifice of his family and mom. Parents consistently sacrifice their wants and desires for their children’s wants and desires. I think that one of the most memorable experiences that I had with my mom what when she took me to visit the Santa Clara Drum and Bugle corps just because I wanted to video tape them. So go MOM and other great MOM’s of the world.

A Short Aside: The only sad part about Phelps and this winnings is that I didn’t try to be friends with him on FaceBook before he got so proper. I hope he doesn’t think that I want to be his friend because of what he did. That would be soooo shallow!!!!!!

This weekend I am visiting a few of the guys I went to college with at Myrtle Beach SC again this year. As always I got there a little late and because of some other prior obligations I couldn’t leave until 10:30pm. From Atl. it is about a 6 - 7 hr drive. After taking a quick snooze at a rest stop for about 2 hours I drove into Myrtle Beach around 7:30am. I didn’t think that I would be going to sleep anytime soon so I thought I would take a quick run on the beach with my new camera.

Well, here are some photos from the morning run….enjoy!!!

From the Sixth Floor

Its the kiddie pool so don’t forget to grab your floaters

The water

Father Daughter Time

Son and dad time

I don’t know how this happened, well i think that I just might have a good idea but the airlines companies have seemed to follow suite with the phone companies in their pricing of services. I remember that I was flying out west and missed my flight on an airlines that I like to lovingly call “the grayhound of the skies.” When I told the checkout lady that I was there for the flight they stated that I had missed the flight and if I wanted to fly out again I would have to wait until the following day in addition to paying for a new ticket. Let’s fastforward a few months later. I was coming back from Vegas on the “the grayhound of the skies” and had this following incident. The flight was leaving from Vegas at midnight but the plane was about an hour late. I had a 45 min layover in Ft lauderdale. Suffice it to say…I missed my connecting flight. They told me that the would put me on the next flight without charge 8 HOURS LATER!!!!!

I told them that I appreciated the gesture but I had to be back in Atlanta for a special meeting that afternoon. I asked that I be put on another plane (it didn’t matter to me what airlines that was…in fact I think i would have taken a ride on Air Chicken if I needed to). The clerk said that she could do nothing and that I had to go down to the ticket counter and discuss it with them. Remember that I would have to go past security to find out what the next flight I could take. If they found me a flight then I might not make it because I would have to go back through security and we know how long that can take.

So I head on down to the ticket counter and tell them that I need to get to Atlanta at my original time that the “the grayhound of the skies” siad they would get me there. The clerk told me the same things that the previous one. This I expected so I asked to see the manager. The manager came out and asked me what the problem was. Well, I will give the shortened version.

I told the manager that I had to get to Atlanta because of a very special meeting and that it was obviously not my fault that the planes were late. The manager promptly stated, “Well, I would have made sure that I got there a day early so that something like this would keep me from missing it.” Oh, yes I was a little hot at this point. “Why is it that if I miss a plane because of something outside of my control you force me buy another ticket but if you are late then somehow I need to understand and deal with it” I retorted. He then just walked off and started helping another customer!!! So I followed him wherever he went to let him know that I didn’t think that we had finished our little discussion.

He got a little angry I think because he threatened me, “If you don’t stop then I am going to get the police” he said. Well, I thought this might be a good idea. So I encouraged him a bit, “Well, go get the police maybe they can help us sort this out.” He promptly left and to no one’s surprise he never returned.

With no other means I got on a terminal bus and will I was heading to the next terminal I called Delta and in a few mins I had a flight First Class to Atlanta. I made my special meeting on time and without harm. You know, although paying cheaper prices may allow you to save more of your money, in the end may cost more of your sanity.

In any marriage there are going to be times when one spouse tells the other that he/she should listen to them so that things will go as they should…AKA the best way to do things.  Well, here is a husband who explained to his wife the importance of handling a gun safety. It seems that she didn’t take heed to his advice of and the husband resorted to using negative association to remind her of his advice. Well, watch the video and tell if you think that this was the best way to go about it. By the way…it was a wife that introduced the vid to me and she thought that it was really funny. I hope you do too!

I was introduced to this video not to long ago and I thought that it was one of the funniest “I’ll get you back” situations ever. Maybe it is because I can see a little of myself in this. Although let me tell you that I think I would have chosen a different method but it is really funny never-the-less.

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