My Kickstarter Campaign

Hi all,

Well, I've finally posted a link to my Amelia Earhart Doc - through Kickstarter.  If you have a couple of bucks in your pocket burning to be free, sign up and donate!!! It's for a good film.

Best,

Rich

FLIPSIDE: A Tourist's Guide on How To Navigate the Afterlife

I've finally published my Kindle book about my documentary about reincarnation.  Here's the Kindle book:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RJ12R0

Here's a link to a ten minute promo for the documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9gTU1j0imY

Charles Grodin Live!

Friend and mentor Charles Grodin has been doing hilarious, insightful commentary on CBS radio in NY for awhile now.  Could it be ten years?  Maybe more.  I've had the privilege of knowing Chuck for about 30 years now, and every time I talk to him on the phone or see him in person, I come away feeling lighter, more energized, seeing the world in a different fashion.  He's got a unique vision, and is hilarious as well.  Here's a link to his website in NYC.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/audio-on-demand/charles-grodin/#

You'll hear the past two months of his commentaries about life in the city, life in the country, and life in general. Enjoy!

Here's a picture I found recently, taken on the set of "Movers & Shakers" - Charles invited me to be the dialog coach on the set - meaning I got to spend time helping actors rehearse their lines.  Walter Matthau had an amazing memory, and could memorize huge sections of text in a few hours - his secret was that he recorded all the lines on a tape recorder and kept it playing around the house.  So in this case, I was his tape recorder, and would follow him around on the set, helping him with his lines. What a delight.

Anyways, here's the picture, with the gentlemen pointing out I've spent too much time around the craft table.  Enjoy Chuck's commentaries above!

Limit Up

I made this film in 1989.   The other day, a technician at a lab and I were chatting about it, and he asked to see it.  He's 26, African American, grew up in the projects and made his way to LA.  I gave him a copy and he raved about it; he wants to show it to his church, he wants to show it to his pastor father in law; he wants everyone in his life to see it.  Needless to say, I was moved.  Twenty years ago, a group of people came together to make a little fable about capitalism, about how hard it was for a woman to become a soybean trader at the Chicago board of trade, about racism. The cast includes the amazing Danitra Vance (Colored Girls on Broadway in the 70's), who plays the guardian angel of Nancy Allen.  Ray Charles plays God.  It's a paean to Chicago, an homage to the soybean pit where my brother toiled for many years.  The original cast was Daymon Wayans and Sharon Stone, but the producer wouldn't let me cast them.  Either way, it's a PG13 family flick, Brad Hall, Ron Howard's dad Rance are hilarious - Dean Stockwell, Nancy Allen are a hoot - "cornball" as Ebert puts it, but hey, something to be said for the only film ever made about soybean trading.. I still have no idea why anyone would hate this film.  Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ - but sadly, it's disappeared into the great cinema vault in the sky.

Here's a clip I put on youtube of Danitra and Ray in the final scene, sadly, both not on the planet anymore:

Here's a clip from the ending with Danitra and Ray:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhQzQ3opivE

Here's the Entertainment Weekly Review:

VIDEO REVIEW

Limit Up (1990) B+

Reviewed by Cynthia Grisolia | May 04, 1990

Who would have thought that someone could make a feature film about a subject as unsexy as soybeans and it could turn out to be as charming as this.

Limit Up stars cherubic Nancy Allen (who shifted from sexpot to Kewpie doll somewhere between Dressed to Kill and Robocop) as Casey Falls, a ''runner'' on the floor of Chicago's Midwest Grain Exchange, where traders, in a wild jitterbug of coded hand signals and general pandemonium, control the output of America's No. 1 cash export: soybeans.

In a facetious bending of the Faust tale, Casey sells her soul to a delegate from the devil (Danitra Vance, in a role undoubtedly written for Whoopi Goldberg), and soon is rolling in high-protein dough.

If you're thinking of stopping here because you've heard this before, don't. Limit Up may have an oddly misleading title (''limit up'' is commodity-trader jargon indicating prices are frozen and trading has stopped), but it's really a splendid comedy with just enough corkscrew turns and wry jokes to make thisfaux Faust pretty sprightly.

All the elements are here: good cast, good script, tidy direction, and an ending that's sunny but not so much that it will make skeptics gag. And Allen is particularly delightful as the ambitious trader forced to make a tough decision when her marker comes due. Also, look for Ray Charles in a small but significant role and a cameo by Sally Kellerman.

Another Tibetan tortured for being Tibetan

A Tibetan Political Prisoner's Life Under Threat: Report 

[Thursday, 30 December 2010, 6:07 p.m.]

---

Jigme Gyatso/File Photo

DHARAMSHALA: A Tibetan political prisoner named Jigme Gyatso serving a 17-year long prison sentence in Chushul prison near Tibet's capital Lhasa is in critical health condition due to severe torture, according to a report received by the Central Tibetan Administration.

In 1996, the Intermediate People's Court in Lhasa levelled alleged charges of counter revolutionary activities against Jigme Gyatso along with a group of Tibetan residents of Lhasa. Jigme Gyatso was subsequently locked up in Drachi prison to serve a 15 year jail term with hard labour.

While in prison, Jigme raised slogans of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's long life which resulted in a 2-year extension of his incarceration. Nevertheless, he remained firm in his resolve for which he was severely tortured and beaten up rendering him physically very weak.

The severe beatings continued after he was shifted from Drapchi to Chusul prison and presently his survival is on stake due to the debilitating health condition.

Jigme was born in 1961 in Sangchu in Tibet's Amdo Province.

He used to live in Lhasa before the arrest and his mother passed away two years after he was arrested.

He was one of the first Tibetans who worked for the just cause of Tibet in Sanghcu, Ladrang in Amdo Province. During his stay in Lhasa he joined Tibetan friends and dedicated sincere efforts in number of activities for Tibet.

Notwithstanding physical weakness caused by beatings under the Chinese government's captivity, many Tibetans like Jigme have kept up their spirit of determination and courage to brave the repression. 


FOR SOME EXCERPTS FROM MY DOC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g9PurojxAU

MartiniLeaks

Hmm.. could there be a trend here?  Just thought it sounded funny.  After a couple of Martinis, who doesn't leak? Or feel like they're leaking?  "I am Spartacus!"  "I am a wikileaks!"  Find their mirrors here: http://wikileaks.info/

I was in India some years ago, and they had this t.v. show called "Tehelka."  And it was basically the same thing, but with video - and they caught these govt. guys robbing the country blind.  I watched as the Indian Defense Minister was caught on camera taking these huge bribes - and huge in India means stacks of rupees that are stapled in the middle - suitcases full.  And this guy was sitting there in front of a hidden camera, piling these stacks of cash in front of himself, promising the guy behind the camera that he was going to approve the Defense contract he was bribing him for.

A went back a couple of years later.. and nothing happened. Nobody got fired. Nobody got nothing. Same Defense Minister, they had a "commission" look into the details.. but basically; nada.  So, despite all the hoopla over Wikileaks revealing our state secrets (and to their credit, they had local journalists redact any names in the documents that might have cause problems with local contacts), we're able to get a glimpse into the darkest corners of our state secrets.  It's just about the biggest thing that's every happened to the Fourth Estate, and if you're behind the maxim from the Bible that says "The Truth Shall Set You Free..." --

which by the way, adorns the entrance to the CIA --

you must be for truth in all endeavors.  Julian Assange is merely a figurehead for thousands of journalists who are working behind the scenes to "keep 'em honest."  I'll predict that in ten years, there'll be a "wikileaks" t.v. channel, ala "Tehelka" in India.  Unfortunately, I also predict NOTHING will change.  Figures lie, liars figure, and everything will go into another closet.  But in the meanwhile, enjoy the holidays and the show!!!


"May you live in interesting times." Old Chinese Curse

Rich (my two cents)

Martini On The Rocks CD

Okay, after waiting 20 years, I've finally posted a smathering of my tunes.  Still waiting for itunes to put them online, but in the meantime, Amazon.com has put them up here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_1?rh=k:rich+martini,i:digital-music&keywords=rich+martini&ie=UTF8&qid=1290469417

Apologies for the off key notes, the clams, and the other obvious mistakes that I've made compiling this songbook, that dates back to when I was 18 and playing piano at the James Tavern while attending Boston University and had to write some tunes for my weekly gig.  Later, I wound up playing these songs in pubs and bars around the planet - so if you want to experience them the way you normally would - have a couple of cocktails and put some peanuts on a napkin.  I was the Piano Man for a certain portion of my life, and the songs reflect it.  I think you can sample them for free, so enjoy.  There are ballads, and instrumentals, and a recurring blues riff that I put in the movie 'Cannes Man.'  There's also the great Craig Cole, making an appearance from the Great Beyond on a couple of tracks.   But over the years, people would ask me for a cassette, and later a CD.. so here you go.  If you can't bear to part with the buck, email me and I'll send you a sample track.

best,

Rich

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!