Back in the day, my younger sister committed a very very serious crime. She told me a spoiler. And it wasn’t just any spoiler. She told me that Bruce Willis’ character in Sixth Sense was actually dead from the start. Whoops, did I just spoil the movie for you? Perhaps not (it’s almost a decade old!).

You’d think I would kill my sister for blurting out the story’s twist, but I wasn’t really that angry. I actually didn’t care at first (I watched the film months after that shocking revelation). But from that point, my sister stopped “sharing” story lines in advance. It was I who was out for sweet revenge (yes, even eight years after) by kidding around with story twists and endings of popular movies. And whenever I open my mouth attempting to “share” she would cover her ears and mutter incomprehensible utterances in order to drown out my voice.

From that point on, I was somewhat desensitized with spoilers. Even if I hear people talking about major story plots or twists, I would take it with a grain of salt, and still enjoy the movie/television show/book even if I knew the ending. No suspense, you say? Well, I’m one of those who tend to think that too much suspense would spoil a story anyway. Let a story take you through the ups and downs of a storyline and pretty soon you’ll be left too exhausted to enjoy it.

Perhaps this is the reason I sometimes watch movies and TV shows twice in a row. I try to seek out details (including imperfections and bloopers) the second, third, or fourth time around. I even scour the ‘net for reviews and recaps.

Sometimes, even before I download episodes of favorite shows online (Bittorrent or iTunes), I check ahead for recaps from those who were able to watch ahead. Silly, some might think. But in my busy lifestyle, I have no more time to actually get shocked and excited over details. I like having them in advance, and watching out for them during the viewing itself. Sometimes people who write recaps and reviews have different perspectives and I find them mistaken (ah, the shock value is there after all).

Some people I know are quite averse to spoilers. When downloading episodes, they try to keep away from any spoiler sites or recap resources. They even turn off their Twitter and IM clients just so people won’t accidentally share any details with them.

But that’s them.

I’m okay with spoilers. Call me weird.

Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.

I won’t quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. You must reach the emotional and intellectual level of ability where you can go out stark naked, emotionally, in front of an audience.

If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

It’s hard enough to write a good drama, it’s much harder to write a good comedy, and it’s hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.

Nobody deserves this much money – certainly not an actor.

Stay humble. Always answer your phone – no matter who else is in the car.

[tags]jack lemmon, actors,walter mattau, marilyn monroe,shirley maclaine,some like it hot[/tags]

Of Ukranian descent, Palance was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a coal miner. In the late 1930s he started a professional boxing career. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing a decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi.

With the outbreak of World War II, Palance’s boxing career ended and his military career began. Palance’s rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was disfigured when he bailed out of his burning B-24. Plastic surgeons repaired the obvious damage but left him with a distinctive, somewhat gaunt look. After much reconstructive surgery, he was discharged in 1944.

Palance graduated from Stanford and made his Broadway debut in 1947, followed three years later by his screen debut. He was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving a nomination for only his third film role, as Lester Blaine. The following year, Palance was nominated again, for his role as the evil gunfighter Wilson. Several other Western roles followed, but he would also play such varied roles as Dracual and Attila The Hun.

Palance’s first wife was Virginia Baker (1949-1966). They had three children: Holly (born 1950), Brooke (born 1952) and Cody (1955-1998). An actor in his own right, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns, and was 42 when he died from melanoma in 1998. His father now hosts The Cody Palance Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness, and funds, for a cancer center.

Since May 1987, he has been married to Elaine Rogers.

Palance paints and sells landscape art, with a poem included on the back of each picture. He is also the author of The Forest of Love, a book of poems, published October 1, 1996, by Summerhouse Press.

Palance quotes:

On tabloid stories: “I’m amazed people read this crap about us – about me most of all.”

“The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed.”

[tags]jack palance,westerns,melanomas,young guns,dracula,movie greats, obituary[/tags]

“I have a theory of relatives, too. Don’t hire ‘em.”

“You were very good playing a bitch-heroine, but you shouldn’t win an award for playing yourself.”

“I’ve got America’s best writer for $300 a week.”

Some ticket buyers think they don’t like Jews.”

Career:

Worked in brother Harry’s shoe repair store in Baltimore; 1905—sang illustrated song slides in nickelodeons; with brothers opened Le Bijou nickelodeon in Pittsburgh; 1906—formed the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company; opened production studios in St. Louis and Santa Paula, California; 1917—My Four Years in Germany established Jack as a major producer; 1918—took sole charge of Warner Bros. Hollywood operation; controlled the studio until 1967, then independent producer

Awards:

Academy Awards for The Life of Emile Zola, 1937; Casablanca, 1943, and My Fair Lady, 1964; Irving Thalberg Award, 1958; US Medal of Merit; Order of British Empire. Died: Of heart disease in Los Angeles, California, 9 September 1978.

[tags]hollywood, jack, Jack Warner, actors[/tags]

“Hereeeee’s Johnny!” ~ The Shining

“You make me want to be a better man” ~ As Good As It Gets

“I almost lost my nose last night and I like my nose. I like breathing through it” ~ Chinatown

“You can’t handle the truth” ~ A Few Good Men

“Wait’ll they get a load of me” ~ Batman

“I tell you Aurora, I don’t know what it is about you but you really do bring out the devil in me.” ~ Terms of Endearment

“I’d rather stick needles in my eyes” ~ Terms of Endearment

“Not that many more shopping days till Christmas” ~ The Evening Star

“No Novocain! It dulls the senses!” ~ The Little Shop of Horrors

“I’m trying to teach you things and what do I get? Prime shit, shit, shit and more shit.” ~ Blood and Wine

“Go with a smile.” ~ Batman

“Little people, why can’t we all just get along?” ~ Mars Attacks

“Over a dog. Over an ugly dog!” ~ As Good As It Gets

“Are you serious? Peanut butter and Jelly is mother’s milk to me.” ~ Wolf

“Soup’s on!” ~ The Border

“Just your average little horny devil.” ~ The Witches of Eastwick

“Now what did I do?” ~ The Fortune

“Think white and get serious!” ~ As Good As It Gets

“And you walked on the earth. It’s a nicer place.” ~ The Evening Star

“I know I can do better than that.” ~ As Good As It Gets

“I want you to hold it between your knees” ~ Five Easy Pieces

“You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s going wrong with it.” ~ Easy Rider

“How about it you creeps, you lunatics, mental defectives. Let’s here it for bull goose Randall back in action….The metal defective league in formation.” ~ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“You don’t have to be shy with me.” ~ Man Trouble

“Five fights huh? Rocky Marciano’s got forty and he’s a millionaire.” ~ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Darling! Light of my life! I said I’m not going to hurt ya. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said I’m not going to hurt ya!” ~ The Shining

“Get on your knees, put your ass in the air and don’t move until I say to.” ~ The Two Jakes

“May not be scientific, but it’s real.” ~ Prizzi’s Honor

“Let’s sing all the songs we know about babies.” ~ Heartburn

“Never let a stranger in your cab, in your house, or in your heart..unless he is a friend of labor.” ~ Hoffa

“My father couldn’t hold on to a job. He kept giving me advice. The more he failed, the more advice I got.” ~ Carnal Knowledge

“Only the good die young.” ~ Blood and Wine

“I was trying to give you a boost!” ~ As Good As It Gets

“This is New York. If you make it here, you can make it anywhere!” ~ As Good As It Gets

“Hey, what’s the matter with ya? You’re screwing’ just like a Chinaman!” ~ Chinatown

“We can go as slow as you want, why not?” ~ Man Trouble

“Would you like to be on the top or the bottom?” ~ The Witches of Eastwick

“But I tried didn’t I, god damn it! At least I did that.” ~ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“If you wanted to get me on my back, you just had to ask me.” ~ Terms of Endearment

“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” ~ Batman

I have a confession to make- I’m a closet Deepak Chopra fan. I’m pretty cynical over a lot of the New Age stuff, but his logic cuts to the quick with me and I end up remembering his pearls of wisdom, quite unintended.

One phrase of his that sticks to my mind is Divine Dissatisfaction. And it’s a good one when thinking of how to build a successful blog. In the past, I have often gone quite potty in not understanding why, despite being somebody who would like to think of himself as “aware“, I can’t seem to ever sit back and just relax with a particular project. I can never say “job well done- that’s perfect.” Because it never is perfect. Resting on laurels just doesn’t ever feel right. So when Deepak articulated this in one of his books, it made me suddenly feel like I wasn’t some neurotic freak on his way to the asylum. Aaaah! It’s okay never to be quite satisfied….in fact….it’s recommended.

As Deepak recently wrote on the Intent Blog-:

Just as growing from infancy to adulthood radically shifts what you want from life, so does growing spiritually. Desire is always involved. The twists and turns of the detachment argument have worried generations of seekers, and still do. Nobody can adhere to all of these dicta, and since they often contradict each other, the result is conflict and confusion.

Desire….to make your blog as good as it possibly can be. Unlike static websites- blogs will not forgive neglect. Busy for a month and no time to post? Won’t do. Blogs need constant, tender care. Insomnia aside, what would be the driving force to make you go the extra mile? Greed? I doubt it- we’ve covered that one (I hope). Egocentrism? Maybe. What better motivating force could there possibly be than a thirst, ay a need, for perfection? And that this thirst is doomed to be forever unquenched, the need unfulfilled, the accomplished perfection to be elusive. But what great feats you will have accomplished on this frustrating path! In all aspects of your blog- content (break it down: grammar, spelling, interest…), design, technical and marketing- you are to be obsessively improving and improving and improving. Never satisfied.

How poetic is that!?

It does seem fitting to end with a quote from one of the greats, Robert Browning-:

“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp….”

For a vision on what I would like the Bloggy Network to become in future years, I have looked into my own family’s past for inspiration. My great-grandfather, Georg Hirth, ran a magazine in Munich, Germany, in the late 19th Century/early 20th Century. Jugend Magazine was all about “expression” in the most liberal of senses- giving young artists and writers an avenue to publish their work in an environment that was apolitical and nurturing to the “new style“. And thus “Jugenstil” became “Art Nouveau“. Bearing in mind a dark shadow cast by the background of two terrible World Wars and the shame that was bestowed on Germany by Nazism (whose advocates burnt the very artwork Jugend was helping to create), it is remarkable that the spirit of Jugend Magazine still permeates into our culture today. There is no better example of this than seeing how Kley, Walt Disney’s greatest artistic influence, was a Jugend artist who would not be known today- had it not been for Hirth.

It is unfortunate that the legacy of Jugend Magazine has been damaged further by false word association, in that the German term “Jugend“, meaning “Youth” became remembered post WW2 as a Nazi reference, as in “Hitler’s Youth“. My family were forced to leave Germany in the 1930s and so today we have none of Hirth‘s substantial art collection in a physical sense, although I’m slowly but surely buying up all the old issues of Jugend that I can find online.

From research, I know that Hirth was already fascinated in the technological developments of his day and was communicating with the likes of Edison, Graham Bell and Emile Berliner re: the invention of the gramaphone. He wrote on subjects like conserving forests and I have in my home a picture of the Hirth household in color- years before Kodachrome film was invented. I genuinely believe that Hirth, a man not scared to embrace the unknown, would seize on blogosphere‘s potential for spreading authentic, creative energy around the globe to friend and foe alike.

If we can in any way emulate what Hirth did (& I know we’re far from achieving it..) by creating a sounding board for talented, aspiring writers- we will have done a great deal. To read more about Hirth or the Jugend Magazine, you can visit our website-: TheJugend.com.