The Dying Western Scores a Huge Win at the Ivy Film Festival

by Pa Rock
Shameless Braggart

I received word from my good friend Bob Cronk (whom I have never actually met in person) that The Dying Western won the Grand Jury award for Best Film at the Ivy Film Festival at Brown University in Providence, RI. This particular film festival always snags big names from the film industry, and one was this year's speakers was Jack Nicholson!

The Dying Western was based on a short story written by my son, Tim, and he also co-wrote the screenplay. It was put together by students from the Film Department at the University of Ohio. Bob Cronk's son, Wes Cronk, was the film's editor - and he did an outstanding job - as did all of the crew and cast!

I had the wonderful opportunity to be with Tim and his siblings in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago when this film won Best Student Film at the Las Vegas Film Festival. It was a great weekend, one of those rare times when all of the kids can get together.

Tim knows that when he finally gets to the Academy Awards (a year or two down the road - at most!) that I plan on tagging along - and I want to be seated next to Cher! I hope that my heart can stand it!

The Las Vegas Film Festival

by Pa Rock
Proud Father

Our family group enjoyed some fine film fare this afternoon at the Las Vegas Film Festival, our reason for this springtime outing to Vegas. The Festival was held at the Eastside Cannery, a very nice and relatively new hotel and casino located several miles off of the Strip. Tim's movie (well, his and the film department's from the University of Ohio!) was shown in a block of seven short features. Theirs was the longest in that group, running thirty-four minutes, with a couple that were under ten minutes in length.

The Dying Western, the movie that we all came to see, played first in its block, and it was far superior to the other entries. (I'm not sure how they are judged. The Festival lasted four days and contained feature length movies starring names that were readily recognizable, as well as a few other blocks of short films. There will be an awards ceremony later tonight which reveal the level of intelligence of the judges!)

The other six entries that we viewed included a war picture, a dance, a gimmick or joke flick, a tired romance, and two screaming mother horrors. My second favorite film of the litter was the dance film from Belgium entitled Fertilize in which a beautiful female (the egg) fends off a hundred or so dancing men (sperm) until she is able to latch onto the one she wants. Pag-Asa, the World War II movie, was a submission from the Philippines and dealt with two Filipino soldiers in a moment of crisis. The shortest entry of the group, The Heist, (the gimmick film) was a product of Canada and clocked in at just four minutes. Both screaming mother nightmares were of domestic origin, which probably says something fairly significant about our national psyche!

It was a great afternoon! All of my children have made me very proud!

(Bob Cronk, you have plenty of reason to be proud also. I met Wes - The Dying Western's film editor. He is a very nice young man and is certainly skilled at his craft!)

A Bone to Pick with T. Boone

by Pa Rock

A few weeks ago I used this forum to promote a wind power energy plan concocted by greedhead Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens. (www.pickensplan.org) I made the pitch with a certain amount of trepidation, because I did, in fact, have some knowledge of his scurrilous past - i.e. helping to fund the crap-filled Swiftboaters for Truth in the 2004 election. But the plan sounded good, and basically is makes sense. Al Gore is essentially blowing the same trumpet.

Good friend, Bob Cronk, forwarded the following site regarding T. Boone's scheme. It indicates that the old leopard may have not changed his spots after all, and may be using this project as cover for a nefarious scheme to lay claim to the largest water aquifer in the US and direct its gurgling H2O to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area where it will flow through the old coot's water meters and make him even richer. I don't know how accurate this video is, so check it out yourself and reach your own conclusion. Here is the site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70HFEHB6dag

Wind and solar energy are still our future, regardless of the pickpockets and charlatans who may be trying to make obscene profits in the process. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

The Dying Western

by Pa Rock
Proud Papa

Anyone who brags on one of my kids, especially in writing, automatically lands in Pa Rock's Ramble - whether they want to be there or not! The following email arrived this morning:

Hi -

I saw your blog entry on the movie that was made from The Brass Teapot. I certainly think that your son is a talented writer.

My son, Wes, is one of the core team now working on The Dying Western(http://www.thedyingwestern.com). He's doing the editing now for the screening on June 8th at Ohio University. I wish we could be there, but Athens, Ohio is quite a ways from Colorado.

It's a very talented group of guys and I have high hopes for the new film. Wes says he's pleased with the quality. Let's hope the film gets some notice.

Bob Cronk

Godspeed to Wes and his colleagues at Ohio University. I hope that their film is a blockbuster!