Adventures in Modeming

Helping an author with some background info on Ernest Lehman, I ran across this article about the WGA's BBS system from October 1991. (Early days of the internet.) 

As published in “Written By” October 1991.

Ah, VHS.

ADVENTURES IN MODEMING

It was over a year ago when I discovered the voice in my phone Modem. I was recovering from the stinging reviews of a film I had co-written and directed called Limit Up when I discovered that Gene Siskel was the resident critic for Prodigy - the Sears computer network that includes subscribers from across the country.

I thought that Siskel had been overly critical of the film in his review, and owing to the fact that he and Ebert disagreed on every other film on their show but mine, I realized he might have been giving it a "thumbswayyyy down" in the excitement of being able to agree with Ebert on anything.

Dean Stockwell, Nancy Allen

But I was able to tell him so in front of a national audience. I posted a letter to him on the Prodigy service using my computer and phone modem, telling him what I thought of his review, and specifically what I thought he had missed in the story. And at computer terminals all across America, subscribers signed on co find the writer/director of a film publicly proclaiming that a reviewer was wrong and it was up to the audience to make up their own minds.

Siskel posted a reply that he hoped he would appreciate the next movie I make more, and explained that he wasn't paid to root for films, only to critique them. But nonetheless, what I felt had been a mean spirited attack on a friendly spirited film had been countered by the film's parent.

Ray Charles, Danitra Vance

Finally a film critic could be criticized in public for his critique. After that, Gene Siskel didn't app ear on the Prodigy service for a couple of weeks; perhaps he had a vacation coming to him. I prefer to think that he took time off to cool his hot toes.

Not much later I signed up for the MCI mail system so I could file my occasional music reviews that I was writing for Variety (which I approach with trepidation and over conscientiousness), and in perusing the MCI system I found Roger Ebert's mailbox.

Ray is God. Nancy is a Soybean Trader.

I sent him a copy of the rave Limit Up re¬ceived from Entertainment Today, rating it a B+, and asked him to consider giving the film a second viewing for his next foray into compiling movie reviews. He replied that he felt he had bent over backwards to give the film a fair review, I said that I thought calling it 'dumb, dumb, dumb' hardly constituted bending over backwards. He eventually told me that he, too, was stung by the reviews of his book about Cannes from his own newspaper.

I was happy to be able to discuss it. Usually the artist is skewered, his work ridiculed, his fortunes dashed - perhaps justifiably so, perhaps because the reviewer wasn't in the mood for that type of film on that given day - without any recourse but an angry letter to an editor or a pithy telegram.

One of our movie posters

I'll leave the values of honesty in reviewing to an in-depth study of criticism in general, I was just happy to find a voice through my computer, enabling me to have a dialogue with those who review my work.

But there are other voices to be found in my phone modem. Recently I was auditing a writing class at USC, when the subject of act breaks came up regarding the film North By Northwest. The teacher handed out an outline of where he considered the act breaks to occur, and I didn't agree with him about the end of the first act.

Ernie

So when I got home to my computer I dialed up the Writers Guild BBS and left a note to Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter of North By Northwest. What ensued was a series of letters and an on-line discussion of what constitutes an act break and whether these rules apply to his film, as well as some great stories about what it was like to work with Hitchcock and Grant. (About the first act, Ernie happened to agree with me, and I was able to report back to the class, a la Woody Allen pulling Marshall McLuhan out of a ticket line to refute a point in Annie Hall; I was able to find the voice of irrefut¬able proof inside of my modem.)

The realm of communication that was first dominated by long distance runners, then handwritten wax sealed envelopes, Western Union telegrams, and eventually faxes, now has a faster, farther-reaching, and more convenient carrier.

Ernie and Hitch

The modem has provided a way to have a long distance conversation- or at least an exchange of letters in a short amount of time - so anyone with a phone modem, computer and an ounce of determination can participate. And perhaps all parties can come away with a better understanding of each other's point of view. It may be just a matter of time before they launch a United Nations BBS so world leaders can chat each other up from time to time, and find out exactly who meant what, when, and why they said it.

Richard Martini wrote an directed “You Can't Hurry Love,” and co­wrote (with Lu Anders) and directed “Limit Up.” His modem resides in Santa Monica.

Thinking Outside the Box

"It's all about the box."

A bunch of boxes at Pere LaChaise cemetery in Paris

Some years ago, when directing my first feature film "You Can't Hurry Love," I was basing the film on my short film "Video Valentino."  And in that story, I had the character working on the beach at a skate shop not far from my apartment in the Sea Castle. I even kept the sign "Skate City" after the place was demolished - too bad it was filled with termites.



But "Skate City" had an unusual cat working there.  He lived in a box next to the shop.  I mean it was a long crate, made out of wood, the kind of crate one might ship bicycles in - about four feet high and ten feet long.  He had furnished it with books, a mattress, even had a TV in there with him.  I remember Tony showing me his box, and he said "Everyone lives in a box."  

He was slightly off kilter - and when I turned the short film "Video Valentino" into the feature length "You Can't Hurry Love" I included a Tony character in the story, played by household name and soap star Anthony Geary.  He played the role of the Greek chorus, who was advising young Eddie on how to live his life - and how to keep it "100%" while everyone else was lying.

The premise of the film - Eddie comes out from Ohio and is told by his cousin "In LA everyone makes up who they are, they pretend to be someone, and then that's their reality."  So he goes into a video dating service and lies about who he is to go on dates with women - but of course "everyone" including the women he dates - are lying about who they are as well.  The moral of the story "You don't have to be someone else in order to be liked."

Charles Grodin is in "You Can't Hurry Love"
Studio said "We'll make it if you can get celebs
to cameo. Charles did it as a favor. Thanks.

Oddly enough, a woman came up to me at a party some years later and said "You directed "You Can't Hurry Love?"  It changed my life."  I looked around to see what smartass had sent her over to talk to me.  I said "I think you're thinking of "You Can't Buy Me Love" - much more successful."  She said "No. I saw your movie six times. I really needed to hear the message that I didn't have to be someone else in order to be liked.  It was an key moment in my life where everyone was trying to get me to be somebody else. Thank you."

I laughed.  It's like I made the movie for this one person to see, and they got it!  No review, no comment, no critic came as close to telling me why I made that film.  And here at a party, I met the one person on the planet who understood it.

But back to Tony.

"Everybody lives in a box, man."

It's true.  We tend to think of our apartments, our houses, our estates, our mansions as "property" or something we "own."  Something we aspire to own. Something that we design, work hard on and inhabit.  It's still a box.  Just a big elaborate box.

A box of ashes of my friend Paul Tracey.

Cars are just moving boxes.  I mean, yes, there are Italian boxes, German boxes, Japanese and Chinese boxes (not too common, but I've been in them.)  Indian boxes too (Tatas rule!)  There are boxes from Detroit, boxes from Tokyo, boxes from "across the border."  But make no mistake - no matter how much money has been spent on the box; it's a box on wheels.

A royal box in the UK

There are two wheeled boxes - but that's another illusion as well.  Cars - if they were built out of glass - would be hilarious to see driving down the street. People sitting down, hands in front of them - eating chips, listening to tunes - driving glass boxes.

Then we have the stories of people in car accidents who at the moment of death suddenly say to the EMT; "I can't die now. I just one a million dollars. I just signed a contract. I have a new life to lead." (as Sam Kinison reportedly did just prior to death - argued with the guides who showed up to take him.)  "It's not my time!"

A big box in Rome

And then what happens?  

They go into a box.

Some call it a coffin. But it's just another box.

We enter the world coming from dark to light - from mom to world - from womb to birth... a metaphoric box perhaps, but eventually we all go back to the box.

Unless you're cremated. Or blown to pieces in a bomb blast.  Maybe not so much of a box, but you get the idea.  It's all temporary. 

We spend so much time trying to get into our giant box, our giant car, our expensive plane, our giant moving boxes - our floating box, put up a wall to protect our box, put concertina wire around the box - and then when we're "outside the box" - we go back home.

No boxes there. No boxes on the Flipside. 

Standing in front of one of the most famous boxes:
the mausoleum of the Taj Mahal

I mean, we can create one with our mind - we can imagine ourselves in some kind of construct where we exist in a home, or a place - even a car I imagine - but it's just a construct as well.  "living in a box."

So the next time someone says "Think outside the box" - imagine they're saying "Don't think about the things that you think you can acquire, own, or put yourself into - the box of the false sense of reality.  Put yourself outside that box, and see the nature of reality for what it really is."

Sad to say, I was on Santa Fe and Los Angeles streets  in downtown LA yesterday.  Rows and rows and rows of homeless people living in tents. Living in cardboard boxes.

A box at Alcatraz

And there are people on the planet living in giant homes. Gigantic fortresses.  Living in homes where they need cellphones just to find or reach their children.  Giant boxes.  They spend all day driving in their box, then going home to their box.  And they can't see the people who don't even have boxes to sleep in. Just tents.

What kind of screwed up planet is this?

Never mind.  

The box that you seek you will find. Even if it's only one to be put six feet under the ground. My two cents.

Outside the box in Muir Woods looking at ... a mysterious box.

A Happy New Year from the Flipside and talking about the OA

Had an unusual conversation this morning...

The Original OA. "Oculus" di Mantegna

For those familiar with my writing about the flipside, or how I prefer to call the "afterlife" - I was pretty much open mouthed and dumb struck as this story was told to me.... a couple of hours ago. It might as well have come from one of my books...

For those unfamiliar with "Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" and "Hacking the Afterlife" - the points of this story all converge in the same place: "The OA."  Now, the OA as depicted in the series is a shortcut term for "Original Angel."  Which is like calling someone an OG or "original gangster."  It doesn't mean they're THE original angel.  But it does refer to being an Old School Member.

I was filming an interview on Santa Monica Beach
with Jennifer Shaffer when my high school buddy came
through. He had just passed that morning and Jennifer
said "Oh Billy is here."  I asked him some questions about the Flipside.
"You can move around a lot quicker."

So in the OA we meet characters who have been with us for many lifetimes.  Like the character Brit Marling meets during her near death experience as a young girl. She meets the character known as Kaithun (which means "Origin" in Arabic) - did she have a previous lifetime with Kaithun?  It's possible.  

Our spirit guides sometimes accede to our request ("please! I can't get through this lifetime without you helping me!") but by and large, our spirit guide (we all have ONE and some have more than one, but basically one is the "main person" for each of us) does NOT incarnate with us on Earth (or wherever we CHOOSE to incarnate) because after all, how can they help us if they're always there by our side guiding us?  Do we learn better by doing it ourselves? Or by being shown how to do it?

I'll let the crickets answer that one.

So back to this story I heard today.  I ran into a friend, a fella I met recently who has read my books, who was chatting with a friend who HAS NOT read any of my books.  (I know this because at one point he said "Have you heard of "Coast to Coast" radio?" And I said "Um... yeah. I've been on there six times so far.")  

So this is not a fan of my work, has not read my descriptions of near death experiences, of out of body experiences, or between life sessions - in fact he knows nothing about my version of the flipside whatsoever.

This woman was 120 years old when I met her on Dominica

(Our discussion went sideways when he brought up the Seth teachings that say that "time doesn't exist" on the flipside - (actually Seth's offering is that "time doesn't exist until we invent it" which is another way of saying that "time is relative") to which I said "Actually, it does exist per se, just relatively and differently from our experience here.")  

This new friend argued that he was aware that time does not exist, that "everything is happening simultaneously" (as Seth has been quoted) to which I replied "Seth is not omniscient.  He knows and relates based on his lifetimes and whatever knowledge he can access. But it's not omniscience. By saying "Time does not exists because it's all happening simultaneously" or saying "Time exists relatively because it feels like it's happening simultaneously" - a big difference in my mind.

(No disrespect to Seth, but this is a frequent discussion I've had with folks knowledgeable about his "teachings" - and I find it amusing that people get so upset about the idea that time does exist on the flipside, just differently. They should have known I'd make that argument.)

The reason it matters (at least to me) is because I've heard - "If everything is happening at the same time, then what's the point? What lessons can we learn?"  Which would be accurate if that was true. If you were five and ten, twenty and sixty at the same time - what the hell could you possible learn?  My point is that the research is consistent in this area - that time on the flipside is different, amazingly so, by which I mean it's both linear and non-linear.  And we come here to experience linear time so we can progress back there... meaning we grow from young souls to older souls, from novice to knowledgeable.

The path to enlightenment. Or the Santa Monica Mountains.

That we find young souls on the flipside, and then old souls - there is a progression, which is relative to each person. And the punchline is that the future does not exist yet, because WE HAVE FREE WILL. We can always change our mind about what we thought we were going to do. That's universal. And people do often change their mind from moment to moment.  When people predict the future they're seeing "likely outcomes."  I've heard this over and over again in the research.

I know that ruffles some feathers - or wattles - after all this is the New Year of the Fire Rooster, and some "wattles" are more orange than others - but I digress. I came here to tell this story about Russell, and not get bogged down in a discussion of time.  Let's put it this way, if time exists simultaneously, then there's no point in reading the end of this paragraph. You already know it.  

But for those who've stuck around - and want to know - how does this story he's about to tell relate the series "the OA" - let's continue, shall we?

This fellow told me that 40 years ago he had this profound "dream."  He didn't call it a dream, because it was more vivid than that - and he said the elements of it were as real as his talking to me 40 years later, the details as vivid in his mind's eye as the day they happened.

He was in bed, when he felt himself being escorted somewhere.  He didn't see he was "out of his body" because he wasn't aware of that. But he was aware that some individuals were walking him through what appeared to be a warehouse of some kind. (or in this case "an aware-house.")  He said "Like in those James Bond films when they're walking across a construction site or platform..."  The escorts kept telling him "Don't worry, you'll be fine."  At some point they made it to an elevator and these fellows either put him inside of it, or escorted him into it.  He said as it rose, it started to go faster and faster until it was going at an incredible rate of speed. 

He said the experience was painful. That he was scared and in pain during this portion of his journey.  But when he arrived at his destination, he was aware that he was out in deep space, that he could see the earth through some kind of window, and the stars beyond. 

(Note: for those familiar with "Flipside" this kind of out of body experience to go and visit a loved one is what began my journey to the Flipside. I had the same experience of "travelling through space" at an "incredible rate of speed" but had not feelings of pain.)

Gateway perhaps?

And he became aware of his friend Russell, a teenager who died at the age of 15.  This experience occurred about a decade after Russell's death, so he was surprised to see the tall (he said about 6'7") teen coming towards him.  He was consciously aware of Russell's death so he said "But how could you be here, since you're dead?"

To which Russell replied "But look at me.  I can't be in front of you if I'm dead, can I?"  

Andromeda.

Then this fellow said he was overcome with a strong emotional feeling of being "HOME."

(For those of you familiar with my research, this is what nearly everyone I've filmed has said after recalling a "previous lifetime" while under deep hypnosis (including myself.) When the hypnotherapist asks "So now where would you like to go?" I said - and most of the people I've filmed said - "I want to go "home."  As in "not here on this planet.")

He said he felt the profound feeling of "Oh, right, this is home, how could I ever forget this feeling of being home?"  When asked about what the meant, he said it was a profound feeling of overwhelming calm and peace.  (My friend asked him "Unconditional love?" to which he said "Yes" -- which would have been my question as well.  But he offered the word "home" and not the concept of "unconditional love.") He said it was a "profound feeling of being connected."

He said he became aware that his friend Russell was "like a scientist" of some kind over there.  He said the environment he had stopped in was "some kind of laboratory, with equipment" but that he could see "out into the stars."

(In "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" one person recalling visiting the between lives realm recalled seeing a laboratory with equipment, where her spirit guide was waiting for her.  As mentioned in "Flipside" and "Hacking the Afterlife" I myself have been to visit a number of "classrooms in the afterlife."  No other logical way to describe them - but as "classrooms" or auditoriums with a stage. Here's the documentary FLIPSIDE for those who might want to check it out.)

Then he said he was worried about telling anyone about this experience - that of seeing his deceased friend still in existence on the flipside. Russell said to him "Don't worry about what other people think about this experience. Speak the truth. You'll always know the difference."

(My brain froze for a moment when he said this -- I noted to this fellow that 30 years ago, I wrote and directed a film where the character Tony Geary ("You Can't Hurry Love") said that same exact line;  "Eddie. It doesn't matter whether people believe what you're telling them is the truth or not, as long as you know the difference." Weird for me to hear it said back to me in this context 30 years later.)




(This is the film "You Can't Hurry Love" and that's Luana Anders in the photo - she's the one who passed away and brought me over to the Flipside to find her, as I've documented in my books. It's 90 minutes, I present it here because it's nearly impossible to find elsewhere).

Then he asked Russell "How do I stay in touch with you?"

(In between-life sessions, the hypnotherapist will often ask a "spirit guide" to "put a sensation somewhere in the body" of the person they're speaking to, so they can always refer to that sensation as a connection to them. That "shiver" that goes down your spine, or a "ringing sensation" in your ears could be your guide trying to let you know they're staying in touch with you.)

Russell's reply was to walk forward and put his forehead inches away. The friend said that Russell stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity.  And then Russell said "If you ever need to reach me, just remember this moment."

A window that looks Home. (NASA)

And then when this fellow zoomed back to the planet, back to his bed, he said he was moving so quickly that he bolted out of bed as if he was trying to stop.

My friend looked at him, gestured to me and said "You're telling this story to the right fellow."  I chuckled, asked this gentleman if he'd ever read any of my work on the topic. (Not that he should, I was just wondering why he was telling me a story that seemed to spring forth from my pages.) He hasn't.

I said to him "Do you want to speak to Russell? Because you can."  He said he'd very much like to.  I recommended he see Scott De Tamble in Claremont.  As I pointed out to him, Scott's done 35 sessions with people I've filmed (I've done four session with Scott myself, and one other with another therapist to see if I would have the same visuals - and did.)  Scott's at lightbetweenlives.com - having a hypnotherapy session allows a person to experience an out of body experience, or a near death experience again without the stress.

So what does this have to do with The OA?

You remember the two times that Prairie goes to see her spirit guide Kaithun on the show?  Both times she was speaking to her spirit guide in different languages while the spirit guide spoke to her in Arabic. Prairie spoke the first time to her in Russian, the second in English.  But that didn't matter, because the "universal language" of the mind can be understood anywhere.

Kaithun and Prairie first visit (the OA)

The place where she was visiting her spirit guide was almost identical to what this fellow was telling me - some place "out in deep space," where stars and planets make up the backdrop, where he could clearly see that he was looking back on Earth but not in any realm he could identify.  It was the same environment where Prairie saw her spirit guide, although this fellow's experience happened 40 years ago.

What are the odds? That I would run into this guy was I was walking out of an office two hours ago?

But let's tie this together for a moment for whomever it is that has stumbled across this blog, this post....

No matter how many difficulties that come in our lives, no matter how stressed, alone, unhappy, unloved we feel... it's important to know, and it's important to state - there is ALWAYS always ALWAYS someone keeping an eye on you.  

Your spirit guide to be sure. Perhaps a loved one. Perhaps you have your own Russell out there keeping an eye on you. But your loved ones ARE ACCESSIBLE. Not in the same way they used to be - imagine for a moment that they're living in Tibet and  the only way you have to communicate is via an old cellphone that has a crackly connection - but you KNOW they're there, and they can hear you.  You know that they hear you when you say slowly and loudly: I LOVE YOU.

THEY ARE ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE.

Michael Newton told me (via Jennifer Shaffer) that "all you have to do is say the name of the person you want to speak to." (as noted previously on this blog)  I asked him if the name needed to be said aloud or in our mind?  He said "Either, doesn't matter."  I asked "How can a person discern, or know that their friend is responding to them rather than than it might be their imagination or wishful thinking?"  He said "When the answers come before you can form the question, you'll know they're speaking with you."

In a still from the film "Flipside" Michael Newton (the Newton Institute)

This is the time of year when people start thinking they'd be better off if they weren't on the planet.  The future looks bleak, the past may look happier - whatever.  I'm here to tell you, to shout at you: YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON!!!!

You just need to reach out to a loved one, or a guide for guidance.

It's hard to know the reason why we struggle.  It's hard to see the reason why anyone struggles.  That's okay.  If it was so damned easy to know why we were here, we wouldn't learn anything while we are here.  Who learns the lesson better? How do we learn the lesson the best? Someone who stands behind us and tells us how to do it? Or by doing it ourselves?

Photo of a spirit guide. Or a cloud. I can't tell.

 It took courage to come here.  It takes courage to stay here. Have courage.There is someone here that you're supposed to help. There is someone you promised you'd come and guide and hold their hand. 

Carrie Fisher came here to explore and teach people about mental illness. She needed a giant platform from which to do so.  Her mom came here to pave the way for Carrie - to give her that platform. And George Michael came here to teach us that being gay or straight is a concept - when it comes delivered via a divine voice, we can't do anything but stand in awe and appreciation.

We are all connected all the time. It's all energy. Easy to say; hard to see.

 Look around you. Someone you know and love right now needs your help.  It might be to turn them on to the show the OA. It might be to turn them onto this research. It might be to laugh with them. It might be to cry with them. 

It might be to look them in the eye and say "Remember this moment.  I am always nearby. I am always accessible to you.  Just remember this moment... and I will be there."

Happy New Year.

New film clips on youtube.

Added some clips to the Martini Ouevre.  Oover?  Ovray.

You Can't Hurry Love

You Can't Hurry Love is finally available.  While being released as the second film on a two bill  - with some other Love title, I found a place where you can get the title by itself.

Here it is:

YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE




starring David Packer, Scott McGinnis, Bridget Fonda

with appearances by Charles Grodin, Sally Kellerman and Kristi McNichol.

Enjoy!

you can't hurry love

check this out...

you can't hurry love

here's the short film that it was based on:

Video Valentino