A New Year’s resolution resolution

     The custom of resolving at the commencement of a new year to abandon a bad habit or embrace a good one is a particularly agreeable tradition, or so it seems to us. What better time to initiate a new beginning in an individual’s life than at the onset of a newborn annum?

     Of course, it has oft been noted that the successful and lasting observance of a New Year’s resolution is a curiously infrequent achievement in the harsh reality of this world. Most of us simply find it too difficult to maintain for long periods of time that sincerely felt sense of intensity and determination that accompany the initial formulation of an NYR. Why do so many of us ultimately fail in this simple and well-meaning enterprise?

     Perhaps the answer lies in the deeply ingrained human tendency to overreach. It could well be that we must mitigate our ambitions somewhat, and aim a little lower in our resolutions.

     Rather than committing to major, life-changing resolutions like quitting smoking or being nice to people, perhaps we should pursue more modest goals like never leaving the toilet seat up, or refraining from flipping people off on the freeway. We at the Crusader family have all pledged to observe these two particular NYRs in 2005.

     By starting out slowly and cautiously with our resolutions, we may find that the more challenging goals that we would like to pursue in our lives will suddenly seem somewhat less daunting down the road. Good luck to us all.

     And a Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to our dearly beloved readers!

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The Crusader welcomes your letters at jdacrusader@aol.com

Chuck’s Corner
News From Around the Block and Around the World
by C.H.Bueker
 

Winter 2004 Edition

Today in Chuck’s Corner we are fortunate indeed to present this exclusive interview with Charles Bueker, world-renowned writer, cinematographer and producer.  Charles is also the creator of Fahrenheit 3219, a collection of recently unearthed home movies that is seeing its much anticipated release this Christmas.

Chuck’s Corner:  Welcome to Chuck’s Corner, and thanks for being here!

Charles:  Always my pleasure, Chuck.

CC:  Tell us about these films!  Where did you find them?

Charles:  Well Chuck, they were in a box, on a shelf, in a cabinet in my house.  The box was marked "old films and stuff," or some such thing.

CC:  Ummm…  I don’t understand.  Why did they go missing for so many years, then?

Charles:  I guess because my life is so cluttered with crap that I can’t begin to keep track of it all.

CC:  I see…

Charles:  My guess is that the box sat untouched in that cabinet since the day we moved to Ahwatukee, some 18 years prior.

CC:  Wow!  That’s interesting!  You shot these films in the 70s.  How good is the visual quality?

Charles:  I shot most of three of the five films.  The images are often dark and grainy, and the subject matter at times bizarre.  The film itself is scratched and filthy, having suffered along with the rest of us through those turbulent late 70s.

CC:  Wait, you mean that movie film carries the scars of social upheaval, just like people do?

Charles:  No, not like people do.  Like film does.  Don’t be silly.

CC:  So, the film is all dark and grainy, then.

Charles:  No, not ALL of it.  Some of segments are amazingly clear.  People just need to remember that most of this stuff was highly experimental, and was produced long before I had made my mark in the film industry.  The camera I was using was rather primitive.

CC:  Tell us about your equipment.

Charles:  I beg your pardon?!?

CC:  The camera, and lights…

Charles:  Oh!  The camera was a French 8mm handheld model that I bought at Guild Camera on Camelback with money I had earned working for Bayless.  It had a nice Angenieux zoom lens, but didn’t gather enough light to work well indoors.  To compensate, I had a two million watt light bulb with a pie pan reflector dangling from the socket and a frayed and dangerously overloaded power cord.  It didn’t give much light, but the heat it gave off would roast a chicken at twenty paces.

CC:  You’re exaggerating, aren’t you?

Charles:  You’re right.  It wasn’t quite a proper pie pan.

CC:  Tell us about the two films in the collection that you didn’t shoot.

Charles:  One piece is an old, double-exposed roll of film shot in Michigan in the early 50’s, I’m guessing.  It has a very dream-like quality, abounding in priceless images of my young parents that float through a gauzy mélange of baseball players and I-don’t-know-what-else.

CC:  And the other?

Charles:  I was getting to that.

CC:  Sorry…

Charles:  The other film is an antique cartoon short purchased by myself in Fremont, California in 1972.  It stars Oswald Rabbit, who is hunting ducks with a shotgun.

CC:  Doesn’t it seem odd that a rabbit would be hunting ducks?

Charles:  Yes, it does.  For one thing, rabbits are largely vegetarian, from what I understand.

CC:  …and you’d think that a rabbit would have a bit more empathy for the ducks, being itself a hunted creature!

Charles:  Exactly.

CC:  So you’ve now got these films on DVD.  Is there any other “bonus” material?

Charles:  It’s ALL bonus material, Chuck.  But, yes, there are a few other cinematic delights included on the disk, including the two movie trailers that have been showing in theaters this past summer.  I’m not going to say what all is on there, you’ll just have to see for yourself this Christmas.

CC:  We can hardly wait!  Thanks again, Charles, for the interview as well as for your tireless dedication in achieving this breakthrough cinematic event.  The expense in time and money needed to bring this treasure to the small screen must have been incredible!

Charles:  You’re welcome, Chuck.  I thought that I owed this to the world.

In addition to his work in cinema, Charles Bueker is an artist, engineer and inventor of the Spanking Machine.  He lives in Phoenix with his beautiful wife Linda and oftentimes their two children Gwen and Andrew.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been petitioned to add a category for Home Movies to the award ceremony in 2005.

 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________JDA

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