TerryWalstrom

Joined

• started 313 topics
• posted 1,550 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by TerryWalstrom

• 
  9

  A CHUCK BERRY MEMORY (Chuck Berry – Dead at 90)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a chuck berry memory.

  it was the first day of june in 1987 and the hard rock cafe in dallas had set aside the afternoon to celebrate and honor the pioneer of rock n’ roll, chuck berry.how did they propose commemorating the legendary inventor of the ‘duck walk’?.

  a stained glass window was to be unveiled by the man himself.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Rock n Roll, sex, misbehaving? Hard to believe!
  
  
• 
  15

  GETTING FIRED VS QUITTING

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  getting fired vs quitting_________________________my specialties in life are great and many, but none more fabulous than the talent i've possessed for getting fired and/or quitting a job.how many jobs and careers i blazed through would spin your head!

  suffice it to say, more than you've time or patience to hear.. there is something in my psychology and verbal arsenal too prone toward candid criticism!

  i find myself blurting out what i really think before even i can stop myself.i worked for an art gallery owner once who had everything going for him except good sense.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  As I've gotten older, my memories of things I've said and done while employed make me wince.

  I may be wrong about this, but I think much of my non-compliant nature came as a reaction to having been a Jehovah's Witness and going to prison for absolutely no good reason other than doing as I was told by people who had Truth on their side.

  NOT!
  After that experience and especially after leaving the Organization ( hey--I was fired!) I really became 'mouthy' and said what I thought was true and correct even to a Boss.
  
  Without the wisdom and experience of age (which I'd like to believe I have now) I did the best I could at the time. Yet, I can't acquit myself and pretend I wasn't a pain in the ass or insubordinate.

  Hey--I'm still insubordinate. I'm just more apologetic now :)
• 
  9

  A CHUCK BERRY MEMORY (Chuck Berry – Dead at 90)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a chuck berry memory.

  it was the first day of june in 1987 and the hard rock cafe in dallas had set aside the afternoon to celebrate and honor the pioneer of rock n’ roll, chuck berry.how did they propose commemorating the legendary inventor of the ‘duck walk’?.

  a stained glass window was to be unveiled by the man himself.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  He really was a powerfully creative force of innovation which Rock n' Roll wannabees looked to for a template.
  His guitar licks were like Jerry Lee's block chord rhythms, but his style was straight ought of his electric personality and larger than life persona.
  
  His music was extremely energetic and faster than the comfort level of James Dean era white folks--except--the young kids caught on fast and within a decade, music had been transformed by those who worshiped Chuck's ethos and adopted it.
• 
  9

  A CHUCK BERRY MEMORY (Chuck Berry – Dead at 90)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a chuck berry memory.

  it was the first day of june in 1987 and the hard rock cafe in dallas had set aside the afternoon to celebrate and honor the pioneer of rock n’ roll, chuck berry.how did they propose commemorating the legendary inventor of the ‘duck walk’?.

  a stained glass window was to be unveiled by the man himself.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  A CHUCK BERRY MEMORY

  
  

  It was the first day of June in 1987 and the HARD ROCK CAFE in Dallas had set aside the afternoon to celebrate and honor the pioneer of Rock n’ Roll, Chuck Berry.
  How did they propose commemorating the legendary inventor of the ‘duck walk’?

  A stained glass window was to be unveiled by the man himself.

  
  

  I was there with a last minute substitute photographer for ROLLING STONE magazine, my newly wedded wife, Leslie. She had special equipment which needed carrying and perhaps a bit of moral support through all the frantic hubbub which attends such public events.
  
  There was a schedule published in the Dallas newspaper, but that didn’t mean it was really organized by anybody who knew what was going on or who had the experience necessary to ride herd over the ensuing chaos!
  In fact, it soon became all too obvious that Chuck Berry was his own man who, after landing at the airport, submitted a list of demands as to what sort of car was allowed to pick him up and carry him to the HARD ROCK CAFE, what he wanted to eat when he got there, where he would be staying, and on and on…
  One by one these demands were met. What choice? He was THE EVENT!

  
  

  From The Dallas Morning News, June 1, 1987

  
  

  As fans, friends and diners applauded, Berry pulled a rope to reveal the colorful, ceiling-high window picture that shows him in a familiar, wide-legged pose, playing guitar. Berry's picture joins stained-glass murals of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

  
  

  Introduced by club owner Isaac Tigrett as "the living king of rock 'n' roll,' Berry nodded, waved and blew kisses at the audience, but did not speak. Later, the bemused veteran said he always wonders, "Why is that my (stained-glass) window and not the guy's next door?'

  
  

  More than 300 patrons, including actress Linda Gray of the Dallas television series, were on hand as Berry, 60, unveiled the window and also removed a velvet cover to reveal a brass star bearing his name on the "walk of stars' on the sidewalk outside the club. Berry's star took its place between stars for Presley and Lubbock rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly.

  
  

  Later, Berry recalled that his first appearance in Texas was in a Houston nightclub 30 years ago. He said he no longer tours, and plans to release in September what he believes will be his last album. The record will be released in conjunction with an autobiographical book and movie, he said.

  
  

  The two-record album will contain "a couple of spirituals, a couple of country-and-western songs and lots of new rock,' said Berry, well-known for such hits as Maybelline, Sweet Little Sixteen and Memphis.

  
  

  Berry said he disapproves of current efforts by some citizen groups to label, and sometimes censor, adult lyrics in rock songs. He also criticized "the 3 percent' of singers who produce such songs.

  
  

  "It's not necessary in the music,' he said.

  
  

  In the 1970s, Berry did record a song -- My Ding-a-Ling -- with racy lyrics. He noted that the song is more than 13 years old and said he never performs it unless it is requested. "After all, how old can a ding-a-ling get and still perform?' he asked.

  
  

  As Berry held court, Ms. Gray came in to proclaim her admiration. Asked to pose for a picture, Berry immediately stood, swept the Dallas star into his arms and directed the photographer to "send me an 8-by-10 in color.'

  
  

  Berry declined to speculate why his music has attracted a following that continues to grow.

  
  

  "I don't make the hit,' he said. “People who buy the albums make the hit.”
  _________
  
  After all the photos had been posed, flashed, posed, flashed, and mailed off to ROLLING STONE in the pre-internet days when snail mail was THE mail, Leslie and I made our way back to Fort Worth to reflect on the overwhelming sense of history we’d witnessed and participated in.
  
  For instance…
  After the official ceremony noted above, the press and photographer were gathered in a “secret room” upstairs at the HARD ROCK CAFE where the reporters asked banal questions and completely missed the humor of every witty quip from Chuck Berry’s lips.
  I laughed at everything, but nobody else seemed to get it.

  The last question seems to me today to be rather poignant, yet still amusing.

  A pretentious young reporter in solemn tones asked Berry this question.
  
  

  “What do you want on your tombstone?”
  Chuck Berry looked straight into my eyes as he grinned and replied,

  “A smooth finish.”
  
  Now, that man is gone. His impact on the world is phenomenal.
  _______
  Writer Stereo Williams said it best in an article for The Daily Beast.
  “Chuck Berry is the greatest rock ’n’ roll artist of his generation. Elvis Presley may have become the hyper-branded icon and Little Richard may have the larger-than-life persona, but it’s Chuck with the richest body of work. His distinctive guitar riffing made him a fixture on the charts in the 1950s and it made the instrument rock ’n’ roll’s definitive symbol. Unlike Elvis, Berry wrote and played his classic tunes, and unlike Richard, Berry managed to extend his career past his 1950s run with a string of strong singles in the early 1960s. Berry’s influence is impossible to overstate—as a songwriter, lyricist, and guitarist, he’s the most complete summation of what “rock ’n’ roll” is at its purest.

  “Chuck Berry, he just leapt out of the radio at me,” Keith Richards said while honoring Berry at the 2013 Polar Awards in Sweden. “I ate him basically, I mean I breathed him—it wasn't just food, he was the air I breathed for many years when I was learning guitar and trying to figure out how you could be such an all-rounder. Such a great voice, such a great player and also such a great showman… it was all in one package.”
  ______
  Post Script: The 35mm slides were rejected by ROLLING STONE as unusable.
  Faulty synchronization between the light flash and shutter speed, as I recall.
  Sigh.
  
• 
  4

  kingdom hall construction scheme revealed!

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  here in notheast ohio a kingdom hall closed and proceeds of the sale will go directly to nearby hall for total remodeling.

  so it's obvious any new hall or remodeling will be paid for from funds from sale of any sold kingdom hall.

  so basically it's a self funding project fund.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Just the opposite of Scientology which is building lavish IDEAL ORGs worldwide which nobody fills because it's all a daft PR contrivance.
  Who will vanish first, I wonder?
• 
  182

  Words for the Day; please share

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  greetings, word lovers:.

  in my job, i work with words and wrangle them into shape, well, in a manner of speaking.

  one word might be mistaken for another, a word with either a similar or identical sound.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Thank you!
  
  The other day, I came across this on a Blog. I was gobsmacked!
  ____________

  Grammar is “racist,” according to the professional staff, tutors, and the Director of the writing center at the University of Washington at Tacoma.

  To combat this perceived racism they promise to “emphasize the importance of rhetorical situations over grammatical ‘correctness.’”

  Forget learning how to write correctly, now a “big part” of the work of writing consultants “is to help students become more critical of these unjust language structures as they affect students’ writing and the judgment of that writing.” Instead of teaching students to write well, consultants will “discuss racism and social justice issues openly in productive ways.”
  
  (http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/can-grammar-be-racist-university-washington-thinks-so)
• 
  15

  GETTING FIRED VS QUITTING

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  getting fired vs quitting_________________________my specialties in life are great and many, but none more fabulous than the talent i've possessed for getting fired and/or quitting a job.how many jobs and careers i blazed through would spin your head!

  suffice it to say, more than you've time or patience to hear.. there is something in my psychology and verbal arsenal too prone toward candid criticism!

  i find myself blurting out what i really think before even i can stop myself.i worked for an art gallery owner once who had everything going for him except good sense.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Someone on Facebook pointed out to me that I hadn't definitely 'splained what the out come was.

  So, here it is.
  
  The day the Winner of the sales contest was to be announced, I called in and told the Office Mgr. I wouldn't be coming in.
  An hour later, Chuck Mitchell phoned me and asked why I wasn't there.
  I told him.
  I quit.
  "You don't even know who won!"
  "Yes, I do. But I know that you have found a way for it to be Mike. There will be some bullshit technicality. You just want me there so you can announce it in front of everybody. So, rather than continue to play your moronic game, I quit."
  Mike got the money.

  
  
  
• 
  15

  GETTING FIRED VS QUITTING

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  getting fired vs quitting_________________________my specialties in life are great and many, but none more fabulous than the talent i've possessed for getting fired and/or quitting a job.how many jobs and careers i blazed through would spin your head!

  suffice it to say, more than you've time or patience to hear.. there is something in my psychology and verbal arsenal too prone toward candid criticism!

  i find myself blurting out what i really think before even i can stop myself.i worked for an art gallery owner once who had everything going for him except good sense.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  GETTING FIRED VS QUITTING
  _________________________
  
  My specialties in life are great and many, but none more fabulous than the talent I've possessed for getting fired and/or quitting a job.
  How many jobs and careers I blazed through would spin your head! Suffice it to say, more than you've time or patience to hear.

  There is something in my psychology and verbal arsenal too prone toward candid criticism! I find myself blurting out what I really think before even I can stop myself.
  I worked for an Art Gallery owner once who had everything going for him except good sense. He drove a Mercedes, lived on the beach, belonged to the Young Millionaire's Club (yes, there was such an enterprise) and he even read self-improvement books, and yet he lacked "common sense" to the extent I got sideways with him over and over again.
  For example...
  This boss of mine, let's call him "Charles" (because that was his name, although everybody called him Chuck) had contacted a client who was in charge of purchasing Art for the regional headquarters of AAA Auto Association. In the course of wooing this potential client Chuck had over-extended the generosity of the discount.

  Charles foolishly promised the man a 50% discount on a purchase of 300 or more pieces of Art. The next day, Charles called all Art Associates into his office to break the big news.

  I entered the office and sat down.
  I was wearing a name tag which I had concocted. It read:

  T.E.Walstrom and underneath I had printed neatly and professionally, "Art Ass."
  Just to the left of that, in a teeny font, I had included (sm).

  Charles didn't find this amusing and told me so.
  This was said while everybody else in the room cracked up.
  After the laughter died down, Charles took a deep breath and commenced his wonderful news announcement with these words.

  "I have an idea..."

  I immediately interjected: "Beginner's Luck!"

  So you see, we were off to a rocky start.
  ______
  Charles told us we had to pull down every piece of art in the Gallery and reframe everything with cheaper materials ASAP because his new client was coming in the next day to select Art for the AAA regional headquarters. The promise of 50% discount would destroy our profit margin unless we acted post haste!

  The crowd of us groaned. Pulling down hundreds of pieces of Art, dismantling them, rechoosing, cutting and fitting mattes and frames? It was insane!

  I blurted, "That's incredibly stupid. Let's just change the price tags instead. We'll double all the prices. There we go, problem solved. Next order of business!"

  Charles and the others were stunned. The Boss's mouth worked like a goldfish, soundlessly opening and closing without even a bubble of comment.
  ________
  Although I didn't get fired (my solution was brilliant because it was moronically simple) I was on Chuck's shit-list for awhile.
  What ended my (sm) ART ASS. job for Creative Galleries was this.

  Charles decided to have a sales contest.

  The sole purpose of this contest was to humiliate me.
  Chuck's best friend (and roommate at the beach) was named Mike. Mike was always the top salesman at the Gallery. Mike was a god. He was German Master Race blonde, with curly hair, sharp handsome features, a baritone voice, blinding smile, and a line of bullshit that could keep a field of alfalfa green all summer.

  Mike and I were sales rivals. Nobody could beat Mike. Mike was the Terminator; a juggernaut of salesmanship. Of course, there were reasons for this unbroken record of achievement. Charles let him cheat! Charles didn't care how Mike made a sale as long as the sale was made. The rest of us? We had to obey the rules.

  For instance, (sm) ART ASS. salesmen had a rule about alternating who approached walk-in customers. It was called the UP system.
  If 3 of us were on the sales floor, we took turns. Next UP was not the same salesman twice in a row.
  Simple?
  Hell no.
  Mike would speak to three or four people simultaneously and pretend "he thought" they were in a group together. Like a Disney Tour guide, Mike stopped the crowd in their tracks and "briefed them".
  He had a canned speech. The upshot of this speech ended with the command, "Just come to me and I'll see that you get the best price and personal service." Flashing a neon smile and jutting out his manly chin, he was the neighborhood dog peeing on every tree, marking his territory.
  ______
  In the weeks leading up to the Big Contest, Charles had gone out of his way to compare Mike's winning sales totals to my sales totals. This wasn't to encourage competition--it was to incite me to embarrassment in front of the others. BIG MISTAKE.
  ______
  The Big Contest would last one month. Whichever person collected the most $$ would get a special Bonus, $1000 in cash!
  I don't know if you've ever seen Alec Baldwin in David Mamet's film, Glengarry Glen Ross. In the film, there is a sales contest for 4 worn out Real Estate agents. Baldwin is a genuine asshole from Corporate headquarters brought in to fire up the crew. He gives a speech which is cold as ice and sharp as razor blades.
  The speech Baldwin gives could have come right out of Chuck MItchell's script of sales cliche's.
  "ABC.
  A, Always,
  B, Be,
  C, Closing.
  Always be closing.
  Always be closing.
  AIDA. Attention. Interest. Decision. Action...
  Attention. Do I have your attention?
  Interest. Are you interested? I know you are 'cause it's fuck or walk. You close or you hit the bricks.
  Decision. Have you made your decision for Christ?
  And action. AIDA. Get out there. You got the prospects coming in, you think they came in to get out of the rain? A guy don't walk on the lot lest he wants to buy. They're sitting out there waiting to give you their money. Are you going to take it? Are you man enough to take it?"
  ______
  Chuck closed his Contest speech with this gem.
  "First prize, as I said, is a thousand bucks. There is no 2nd, 3rd. or 4th place prize. Winner takes all."
  _____
  
  Mike was a terrific fellow with a big heart. He was a loyal person. He and Chuck had met in the Air Force in Taipei. They were both hustlers when it came to life; especially with women! Mike could "Get any girl" he wanted. Just ask him, he would tell you. Chuck was always interested in business. He wanted to be a millionaire before the age of 30. (Spoiler alert: he succeeded.) But Chuck and Mike had a touch of larceny in their friendship and their bone marrow.

  The idea behind Creative Galleries was simple. Chuck bought five hundred very cheap oil paintings in Taipei from a slave shop. He paid two bits apiece for small ones, half a buck for medium sizes, and a full dollar for large paintings. These were paintings on canvas.

  Have you ever heard of "STARVING ARTISTS"? This was Chuck's dream. Except, the artists were anonymous sweatshop victims of greed and exploitation.
  Chuck and Mike got out of the Air Force and moved to Southern California, in Manhattan Beach. Chuck found an abandoned Bakery complex and set up his gallery right across from the Antique Guild.
  This was a prime location.
  Why?
  It was half a mile from MGM STUDIOS.

  The Antique Guild sold fake antique clones of real antiques and movie stars, actors, and upwardly mobile customers couldn't get enough.
  If you walk in or out of the Antique Guild, there was CREATIVE GALLERIES with a large banner, two brightly colored posters on easels just outside, and an eager and smiling Mike Kisgyn standing like a Carnival barker at a fairground hustling Rubes into the Funhouse to be fleeced!
  ________
  Mike and Chuck had parlayed those cheap oil paintings into real money.
  How?
  They bought a large van and approached the aerospace and credit industry office buildings to set up a special and exclusive STARVING ARTIST sale on weekends.
  These employees made a lot of money and were only too happy to buy genuine oil paintings with fascinating biographies of the wannabe artists (which were fictional concoctions) and a piece of worthless paper in the form of a Certificate of Authenticity. (Confederate money was worth more.)
  This went on for a year or so until the oil painting market dried up and Chuck and MIke decided to go Legit. They would buy and sell REAL Art. This meant the gallery transitioned from schlocky framed oil paintings to colorful posters in metal frames and limited editon lithographs, etchings, silkscreen works, etc.
  Since I had a background as an Artist in an atelier (etching studio) I was hired. That's how this saga had come together.
  ______
  The Big Contest had begun and I had been set up to be trampled into a humble also-ran status. Mike would fatefully grind me into a paste and I would have to learn humility. That was the gist of Chuck's scheme.

  I knew going in, Mike would cheat.
  I worked at Creative Galleries for a year. I knew all of Mike's shady ways, scumbag moves, tawdry double-dealing, finesse tactics, and I was inclined to make counter moves with countermeasures.
  _______
  Are you curious how an Art salesperson earns a living?
  If you sold a piece of Art for full price, you earned a 15% commission, unless you extend a discount, then your commission dropped to 10%.
  Simple enough?
  No.
  Mike was Sales Manager and he had the discretionary power to adjust the amount of discount by a margin greater than the rest of us were allowed.
  For example.
  If a piece of Art sold for $400 and an interested customer was hesitating and about to walk, we had options to sweeten the deal.

  "Did I mention you can take this Art home and hang it on your wall for a full month and live with it, see how it goes with your decor, invite your friends' comments, see how it works in your everyday environment--and if it doesn't please you fully--RETURN IT for refund without hassle, no questions asked."

  If the customer still hesitated, we could add another incentive.

  "I'm authorized to deduct ten percent of the sale for special customers. We get many celebrities in here from the studio down the street. I could extend to you the V.I.P. discount IF you make your decision right now. I'll write up this transaction, wrap the piece and deliver it to your home and hang it for you. How's that for service?"

  Yes. We actually did that!

  Except--MIke was empowered as Sales Manager to offer up to a 50% discount at his discretion.
  Half off would remove the profit from the sale--but--the idea was that sometimes snagging a high-profile client (a CEO or person of influence) would lead to future sales.
  Mike would surely go crazy with his tremendous advantage! Chuck would let him.
  ______

  I knew all this and so did everybody else.
  Mike and I had been pitted against each other on purpose by Charles. Mike was Chuck's henchman.

  Chuck had told me in confidence one day, "You can think of it as a footrace at a track. The starting gun goes off and the runners run as fast as they can. But Mike, he's going to win even if he has to trip you at the start. He'll do anything to win. He hates losing. Losing is impossible to accept for him. That's why he'll always be my number one salesman. I have seen others try who were smarter and smoother, but they all went down in flames."

  Yeah yeah. I get it. I get it.
  ______

  At the end of 30 days, all the sales slips were totaled by the office accountant. A sale was only counted as a true sale IF the money had been collected in full. Because of the 30-day return policy, no sale was counted as final unless a full month had passed from the date of the sale itself.
  Consequently, the Big Contest wouldn't be final until another full month went by.

  Mike had tallied invoices each day keeping a running total so he knew where he stood. In the last few days of that Contest month, Mike had tried every trick. He offered to give me extra days off "for a job well done." No thanks. He promised if any of my customers came in on my actual days off, he would put my name on any sales which occurred.
  I checked the next day.
  He always put HIS NAME down and I always protested and he always played dumb and apologized!

  I got a phone call at the gallery toward the middle of that month from one of Mike's special clients. She was very nice. She had worked with him for several years. She worked for a design firm called DESIGN ONE which was all women. They did interior decoration for businesses. Selecting Art was part of their service. Mike had charmed the owner at first, but over time she had seen through his not-so-subtle larceny. She became fed up with him. Why?
  She explained.
  "Mike has slept with every one of my employees. He makes promises he never keeps and he's got them all fighting among themselves. I'm sick of it. I want you to be my contact from now on. You have always been professional and give excellent advice. Mike pretends to know what he's doing and yet he doesn't have a clue. We want to continue working with Creative Galleries because the prices and service are better than any other place we've found. Any suggestions?"

  She told me one other bit of and I did have a suggestion.
  
  In fact, I had a great suggesting.
  _________

  In the last few days of the Big Contest, Mike and I were neck and neck and he was terrified! He was in a panic! He went so far as to intrude on my sales presentations and try to butt in and take over while I was speaking to customers!! Embarrassing himself came easily. I didn't get angry--I just called him out in front of the customer with a jovial tone.

  "Oh, don't mind Mike--we're having a sales contest and he's doing so badly I don't blame him for losing his sense of professional courtesy since his reputation is on the line."
  _________

  By the end of the last day, somehow or other, Mike had bested my sales figures by $123. His grin made the moon look dim. He was in a GREAT MOOD strutting around slapping the other employees on the back.
  The sales accountant reminded Mike, "It's not over until all the money is final. Don't forget the returns figure into this!"

  Mike scoffed. He was So-o-o-o-o-o confident of success!
  ______

  In our previous conversation, DESIGN ONE had broken the news to me Mike had not spent any time at all following up on a big job. His selection of art for a prepaid installation did NOT meet with the approval of the Project Manager! The art was rejected.
  I had explained to the owner of Design One why Mike didn't want to spend any time outside the gallery while the contest was running. Winning mattered more than customer service.
  I made a suggestion.
  Can you guess what it was?
  ________

  Two vans pulled up in front of Creative Galleries. A load of framed art was being returned. The owner asked for me personally to assist in choosing NEW art for the installation.
  I humbly complied.
  The owner spent an hour in owner Chuck Mitchell's office giving him an earful. She smiled as she left. Her two vans were filled with replacement art. She signed the invoice and paid the difference between the refund and the upsell I had concocted.
  The difference?
  $124.
  _______
  After I quit Creative Galleries, I became an independent agent for Design One and several other galleries and decorating businesses. Life became less stressful without the onus of competition at uneven odds.
  Being freelance had one huge advantage.
  
  YOU CAN"T BE FIRED and you don't need to quit!
• 
  7

  MOVIE REVIEW; SILENCE (A story about Faith, Martyrs, Apostates, and Stupidity)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  silence (movie review)_________.

  unless you are a catholic, ex-catholic, an evangelical christian, or a total apostate to your former religion or church--this film is not for you!_____.

  martin scorsese has wrought a filmwhich no 2 eyes will see in the same way.. on the surface, it is about the clash (the push back against christianity and priests by buddhists and officials particularly in nagasaki) resulting from catholic evangelism inside japan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  Martin Scorcese is a seeker after some peace of mind and heart with a view to making 'Spirituality' work somehow in a secular world.

  He's the only filmmaker I know asking these questions and the amount of money this film is losing means nobody else will follow :)
  
  I give him credit for what he's put on the plate. I simply disagree that a willingness to die for what you believe is automatically noble. The men who flew jet airliners filled with passengers into the World Trade Center were men willing to die for religious beliefs too.
  
  The naivete' a human must have--the innocence of heart--is more troubling to a mature man (myself) than to a young one. Why? We want to stand for something meaningful, to make our life count when we are young. As we age, we see none of it mattering much in the long run. Or is that too cynical?
  
  Good comments from one and all, btw. Thanks!
• 
  7

  MOVIE REVIEW; SILENCE (A story about Faith, Martyrs, Apostates, and Stupidity)

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  silence (movie review)_________.

  unless you are a catholic, ex-catholic, an evangelical christian, or a total apostate to your former religion or church--this film is not for you!_____.

  martin scorsese has wrought a filmwhich no 2 eyes will see in the same way.. on the surface, it is about the clash (the push back against christianity and priests by buddhists and officials particularly in nagasaki) resulting from catholic evangelism inside japan.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TerryWalstrom

  SILENCE (Movie Review)
  _________

  Unless you are a Catholic, ex-Catholic, an evangelical Christian, or a total Apostate to your former religion or church--THIS FILM IS NOT for you!
  _____

  Martin Scorsese has wrought a film
  which no 2 eyes will see in the same way.

  On the surface, it is about the clash (the push back against Christianity and Priests by Buddhists and officials particularly in Nagasaki) resulting from Catholic evangelism inside Japan. Yet--honestly--the movie has reached beyond the history into a No Man's Land of self-sacrifice and lunatic zeal.

  We go on a journey and become eyewitnesses to a beautiful display of utter STUPIDITY (i.e. becoming a 'Fool for Christ') and the bottom line reckoning of two men with the actual human cost of spreading YOUR faith to others living inside a foreign way of thinking.
  ______
  SIDEBAR:
  As a former Jehovah's Witness, my ears, and eyes perked up from the get-go! (Oh, how we loved to throw ourselves into harm's way to prove our zeal and faith! Oh, how seemingly noble it all was (in our own mind) and Oh how empty it all was of rational meaning!)
  ______

  How then, to review this film?
  
  If you are at all familiar with the classic novel HEART of DARKNESS you'll understand the architecture of this plot.

  Two young priests mentored and converted by an older Priest (Liam Neeson) are vexed to discover a report that he has renounced his faith and has become Apostate after converting thousands of Japanese to Christianity.

  The two priests feel called to take a gargantuan journey into Darkness in hostile Nagasaki to find and "save" him from his renunciation.
  Why?
  They love him...and "saving" is what Christianity does--right?

  Along the way they discover, much to their horror, dozens of desperate Christianized native Japanese hunted and brutalized into near extinction.
  The Japanese Christians are desperate because the man (Neeson) who converted them was captured and tortured and removed--they have no one as Confessor to absolve them of their sins.
  ______
  I won't go into the in's and out's of the journey and people because it's meant to be a learning experience for the Priests and US in the audience.
  ______

  What you will witness is harsh, blood-curdling torture along the way whereby Christians are given the choice of STEPPING ON JESUS (a medallion with an iconic image of the Saviour) effectively publicly renouncing Him and Catholic beliefs altogether. If they comply--they go free! Otherwise, the torture continues to the point of being burned alive, drowned, decapitated, or...well, you get the idea, right?
  _____
  I'll stop right here.
  Why?
  An intelligent human being should clearly be able to reason their way out of such a situation--so you might think--right?
  You go to God in prayer and say, "Hey Lord--I'm loving you all the way but I'm going to pretend to renounce you. You forgave Peter for denying you 3 times, right?"
  STOP!
  I never did this as a Jehovah's Witness. The Christians in the movie didn't do it either. Why not?
  BECAUSE a FOOL doesn't think.
  A FOOL follows orders blindly. We listen to our leaders!
  _____

  If you go see this film, you are waiting for the final confrontation between the former mentor (Neeson) and his battered and beleaguered younger self in the form of the young man, Priest trying to save him.

  This conversation was like sticking my head inside a giant bell and having the outside struck by a hammer!
  It resonated into every cell of my body because I have been both men in my lifetime. I clearly understand the argument from both sides. I have reached the conclusion you will discover at the very end. I already reached this conclusion years ago.
  
  Imagine an Apostate in Jehovah's Witnesses who was former Elder, Pioneer, a Ray Franz sort of fellow sitting down with a younger Elder whom he converted years previously---this is the conversation at the film's climax.

  Should you spend the time necessary to go see such a movie?
  I can't answer for you. I can only say I'm glad I did.