Richard Sherman

Ok so we full time sports fans, and part time playoff sports fans, have all made it abundantly clear that we're unhappy and disgusted with the "unsportsmanlike" conduct of Richard Sherman's post game interview. Outraged, appalled, angered, and down right pissed off that an athlete would show that much emotion and honesty in his post game interview. "How could he act so foolishly?" "He's an idiot, and now I'm definitely rooting for the Bronco's!" Well to Richard Sherman I say, Bravo! and a big bravo at that. We have spent most of our lives watching athletes regurgitate the same canned responses game after game, week after week and year after year. It's annoying and frankly, really, really boring. We have called for someone to actually speak their mind and tells us what they're really feeling. It was a pleasant surprise to see a fired up, adrenaline filled, super-athlete finally have the guts to say something other than, "He was a great competitor and made my job really tough, but we were fortunate enough to come out on top today." I say B.S. to that! I've had conversations with nearly everyone I know about the boring and politically correct responses by athletes game in and game out, and how we wish someone would actually speak their mind. Well, here he is ladies and gentlemen, I give you Richard Sherman, and I hope he doesn't stop until he gets his ass torched for a game winner. But until then, Mr. Best Cover Corner In The NFL, keep talking. Better yet, keep showing up and shutting receivers down, and express your feelings vividly so we can all have a little post game fun.

A little something for my Film Studies class.

My first film was made as a student project in my last year as a Digital Filmmaking student at Herkimer County Community College in New York. This semester was the first time I had picked up a video camera and was introduced to any type of video editing software. The camera used was a tape based, prosumer style camera, and the editing was done on Avid. It was truly a pleasurable experience for me as I finally felt the satisfaction of seeing an idea evolve into an on screen movie. A year after that I created a 24 minute short film titled Tooth & Bieber that was shot on a $200 budget with amateur actors and was shot in numerous locations in Upstate New York. I decided to spend time working in hopes of tightening up my "chops" but found that you either need to go where the work is and hope, or go back to school, work hard as hell, and hope some more.


With the little production experience I have, I hope to learn more in regards to the jargon and principals of filmmaking as well becoming highly skilled in the techniques it takes to create high quality films. I also hope to learn much more through collaborating with fellow filmmakers as ideas should be shared and discussed; this often times breeds greater results in the overall outcome of any creative outlet.


In 10 years I plan on being an intricate part of a team that will win the Academy award for Best picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Cinematography. This feat cannot be accomplished alone, so I want to learn as much as possible at UNCW and meet serious filmmakers that want to work hard and shoot for the stars. I also want to give back to eager film students and others like me who have worked hard in this business only to be shut out time and time again. The film business is a difficult one to get into and I have had very few people reach back to me when I reached out to them, I want to change that for others and give back as much as I can.

After graduating from high school I spent the better part of 20 years traveling the country and looking around as much as possible. I do not like the grass growing under my feet just yet - there is much to be seen. I want to laugh, a lot. We should all laugh at least 20 tomes a day. Sometimes I forget though, and I find that I'm too serious or overthinking how to print a document in the library or wondering if my professors will be big and mean, and intimidate me into complete and utter failure. Then I realize that I should just relax and find something to laugh about.

Pay the rich and close the schools.

This will prove to test the new attention span of modern humans so if you can't make it all the way through please read during commercials or on your occasional breaks from Facebook. Thank you. - The Author

I love sports! I love movies! I watch sports and make movies! Sports, movies, sports, movies! I can't get enough, apparently no one can. The obsession over sports and entertainment has gone on since the first living being watched someone, or something, and thought, "wow, I wish I could do that!" Most of us seem to understand that sports and entertainment go hand-in-hand and encompass huge dollar amounts while attracting the attention of millions of viewers. And many of us realize that the reason the performers are on the fields, courts, stages and screens, is simply because they have talent - a talent we can only dream of. We are spectators, and spectators watch and criticize. Then criticize and watch some more. But what we don't realize is this - we, the non-entertainers and non-athletes, are the reason we are merging schools, closing hospitals and have a very thick line drawn between the "haves" and the "have-nots." It's our faults and we must accept this blame.

In 2011 the NFL's players and owners were fighting over 9 billion dollars of revenue to divide between themselves. The average NFL player earns $1.9 million. Now bare with me on this, I'll be throwing numbers at you that will hopefully make you think about why we are in the financial state we are today. The average NFL team is now worth $1.04 billion and there are 32 teams. The NBA created $3.817 billion in 2010-11 in what is called BRI - Basketball Related Income and the average players salary is $5.15 million. In 2010 the average Major League Baseball team was worth $491 million and there are 30 teams in the majors. The revenue for 2009 was $6.6 billion and the average player salary was $3.4 million.

Now for the movies and entertainment. Here is a quote from the NY Times - "North American ticket revenue for 2011 is projected to be about $10.1 billion, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data." How about this one - HBO made over $1 billion in 2011. Game of Thrones anyone? Here are the top five Hollywood salaries for 2010-2011: James Cameron - $257 million. Johnny Depp - $100 million. Steven Spielberg - $80 million. Christopher Nolan $71.5 million. Leonardo DiCaprio - $62 million. And one for the females, Kristen Stewart falls to #13 on the list with a woeful $28.5 million.

These statistics are from solid sources so please feel free to dig. But what I am saying here is again, this is our fault! We, the quickly disappearing middle class, are to blame for this issue. We spent our youths dreaming of being on stage or on camera, or hitting the "big shot" to win the game. We were in love with fairy tales and happy endings and believed we could write the next great movie or win an academy award. We hoped that Hollywood would, and still believe, that it WILL call our names and give us our big break. The players take us from our current lives and bring us back to the smell of the fields or the squeak of the sneakers. While movies take us to places we wish were real or believe can exist. We want more, or less, or SOMETHING, ANYTHING different from what we have. We all want stardom, everyone wants stardom, but we can't all have it. Yet we can all have art, music, literature and sports in our schools.

Before I get attacked for the trickling down of lost jobs for the "little people" who get paid $10 an hour to run the behind the scenes of sports and entertainment, let's think for a minute - jobs would be created through bettering our failing towns and cities. Money would be put back into our pockets and schools, and we would, as a community, reassume the temporarily misplaced "community spirit" that is causing so many of us to up and leave our struggling towns. And I am not calling for the extermination of professional sports and entertainment, just to find a way to have them get paid less by us not spending as much on them.

Why should a an athlete and an actor make more than a doctor? Why are teachers salaries being frozen and mergers our only options? Athletes and entertainers are making more now than ever before, but we are still looking for ways to save a school. The Minnesota Vikings just approved a $950 million stadium and Dallas Cowboy Stadium is worth over $1 billion, but schools are closing.

Now for the juicy part. We have NO right to complain for the state of our society. It is our faults. Anyone who subscribes to HBO, Showtime or any pay channel. If you spend $80 at a movie or shell out $300 for a ball game. If you buy your kid those $150 kicks, flat brimmed hat, and a Lebron jersey. If you purchase the NFL network, NBA League Pass or MLB Network as well. It's our faults and we are to blame. All that money could go back into our pockets, back into our schools, back into our towns, back into our families. More teachers, more firemen, more hospitals, post offices, libraries, musical instruments, art supplies...

Our small communities pour out millions and millions of dollars to the sports and entertainment industry and then we complain that athletes and entertainers make too much. It's essentially "we the people" that pay the salaries of those we criticize for making too much money. An empty arena, field or movie theater will build our schools and hospitals and prevent mergers and closings of all types. I have to stress here that if you are not the type to complain about athlete and entertainer salaries, then bravo no sweat off your back, but if you ARE the type, then you should put your best efforts into a major change. The new "Just Say No!" is for Americans to stop letting big business, big money and the big time, stop running our lives. We are like the Romans who got fat and lazy watching the Gladiators while society was crumbling down around them. Our needs are overshadowed by our wants! Oh by the way, all the time we spend on Facebook contributes to one guy's net worth of $17.5 billion and counting. Are we contributing to the wrong charities? I believe we are.

Candy

We Should all be able to experience an extraordinary life. A life with court side seats and private jets, with caviar and Crystal champagne, where physically beautiful people surround us and make us feel wanted. We should have backstage passes and camps with boats, or ocean-view-homes on the coast with yacht's, and a Mercedes Benz or a Harley Davidson and a Bentley stocked full of single malt scotch and Heineken. A life where Beyonce and Jay-Z high-five us on their exit from the Grammy's, and Brad and Angelina give us air-kisses after their premier in L.A. We should all have the ability to climb to the top of Mount Everest or explore the abyss of the ocean. I believe that we should all have our own TV show and share dinner with The President, or hang with Hugh and shoot a round with Tiger. Just once in our lives we should be invited to attend a Hilltop party that overlooks the valley where the models are high and the artists are higher. A party where Italian Marble cools our feet and French cigarette's heat our lungs, where our whistles are moistened by expensive vodka - flavored with cherry, or banana, or mango, and where the small are SO small that they're never even thought of and most of the guests often forget where they are from. We should all experience that. And then we should all experience the place where the game is far from the working man's grasp and his kid can only see it on TV. where a jet is the name of a football team and champagne is something we only see in the movies or taste at a wedding. The place where beauty is found in the soul and in the heart of a person, and feeling wanted would be a blessing to the lonely. Where we would only dream to own a camp or live on the ocean and play in the water for hours and a small splash won't ruin our day. A simple place where floating on the water is getting into a canoe or a kayak, but that is a luxury one can only rent. A trying place where owning a car is the highest luxury, but often times a curse, and where single malt scotch is appalling while Heineken is for the "Richies" and the preps. We should all live a life where we've only seen Beyonce and Jay-Z on TV and it wasn't even in high-def. The sad life where we can't afford to take our families to a movie and the only Brad and Angelina premier we see is the trailer or on a public billboard. A place where the highest mountain we try to climb is the pile of bills we've stacked on our counter tops ultimately leading us to the abyss of self-loathing brought on by the inability to climb said mountain, and where our own TV show is a grainy home video of our second birthday. Sharing dinner with the president will only happen in our living rooms eating a TV dinner under the light of a shaded orange-hued tungsten and wishing we were Hugh or Tiger - still. The party on the Hilltop is the place where we slide in winter and the valley has few lights. The life where getting high is induced by cheap wine, 30 packs of Bush and local weed and where artists never, ever, see a gallery. This is the place where Italian marble is in Italy and French cigarettes are over priced. Where flavored vodka is the addition of cranberry juice or tonic with lime, and where WE are so small that that the images of the rich and famous seem like a candy that we will never taste.

The Guardian

The Guardian2

Closed doors and the Hollywood labyrinth.

It has been a while since my last blog, simply because I forgot I had one - some serious blogging going on here.

To the point.

Hollywood - and by Hollywood I mean all that resides on the mountain of untouchable greatness known as - The Movies.

Hollywood. Agents, producers, talent, the talentless and DOORS! Lot's and lot's of doors. Closed doors with locks on them from the top to the bottom that have been bolted, soldiered and bricked in. Hollywood is as tangible as the marine layer over San Francisco and as welcoming as Paul Giametti when forced to drink Merlot.  This anomaly know as Hollywood is more baffling to me than anything I've ever encountered - and that includes trying to understand woman and why they often hate everything.  In an attempt to enter the world of the film industry I have been ignored, denied, directed, discouraged, diluted, discombobulated and confused and above all, motivated.

Given the fact that everyone in Hollywood is "uber busy" and has 200 meetings a day and receives 300 screenplays in the mail and flooding their emails a minute; I can see why no one is willing to help new talent. Is no one is worthy of a chance to make it in the "biz"? I get that there are thousands of people trying to make it, and most are finding that everyday is a closed door that refuses to budge because you really have to know somebody, who know's somebody. And even then you're still screwed because those somebody's are trying to find work themselves. To quote the very talented, chaw spittin' and hard working actor Barry Corbin, "I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good!" It amazes me to hear everyone say that in order to have one person even read your script you have to send out hundreds of query letters and those letters either have to be represented by an agent - none of which get back to you because they've never heard of you - or requested specifically by the production company who have never heard of you because you can't get an agent to read you because again, they've never heard of you.

Needless to say that Hollywood is not a warm fuzzy blanket in the rough Siberian winter, nor does it have a conscious that cares enough to give us a little pat on our behinds and say "you just keep trying little fella, you'll get there." And to all of the agents, agencies and production companies: come on, really? We have to have lunch and meet at a mixer that is 3000 miles away from my job, you know, the one that puts a roof over my head and food on the table, but doesn't pay enough for me to move where "the work is", come on , really? Just give the dang thing a read and pick me up or let me down easy or hard your choice, really.

Dear Hollywood,

     Please don't be upset with my previous rant.  I still love you and will continue sending letters and making films and writing scripts and bothering the hell out of anyone who might give me a chance. So someone please give me a chance.

Sincerely,

Chic Scaparo

Racism and the white Central New York SU hoops fan

Georgetown fan! That's me. Central New York is where I live and spent most of my life. Spending most of that time amongst white Central New York Syracuse University basketball fans. Not easy territory for me to be in during the heavy rivalry between the Hoya's and The Orangeman during the 80's and 90's. This rivalry has seen its best days but has begun to claw its way back into the mainstream of college basketball's center stage. We'll never see the likes of Patrick Ewing and Dwayne "Pearl" Washington again, but the the mentality of Central New York will most likely never change. SU fans have always disliked The great coach John Thompson's approach to giving inner city black kids the opportunity to play and succeed at arguably one of the nations most prestigious colleges because there were few, if any, suburban white kids on the squad. John Thompson had allowed his players a great opportunity by giving them the best chance to succeed. Coach Thompson: " maintained a graduation rate of (97%- 76 of 78 students who stayed four years) " -NCAA.Com March 27, 2008. While Jim Boeheim only hovers between 50-67% depending on which article you read.
This isn't a knock on Coach Boeheim or his staff. This is a blog about the hundreds of SU basketball fans I have encountered throughout my life in Central New York that have had no problems dealing a blow on the side of racism. It was Friday, November 13th, 2009 and I was sitting in a bar in Herkimer, NY. Through normal sports conversation it was brought up that I was a Georgetown fan. And not so shockingly, the 50-something year-old guy sitting near me set his drink down and in stride of many who came before him, ingeniously said; "throw him a banana." This was of course followed by a few laughs and other less than intelligent remarks. This is obviously not an isolated incident as racism never is. One of my all time favorites happened back in 1987 during a G'town, SU game, I was watching with a group of friends when a buddy of mine asked me; "what do the Hoya's do during halftime?" "what?" I asked, "go to the parking lot and steal hubcaps" he replied. In no way do I feel all SU fans are racist, in fact the majority probably aren't, but I can say it is far more than a hand full. The comments regarding the players and coach Thompson throughout the years have been appalling and not worth repeating.
This isn't totally about college basketball either, this is about the mentality of Central New York and the sad fact that racism exist heavily and deeply throughout the area. I have encountered more white people who harbor negative feelings for other races in Central New York then I have in any other part of the country. People here are afraid to be different, to accept anyone and everyone for who they are. So the rednecks, teachers, lawyers, judges, students, parents and sports fans will continue to shake the hands of all the races and bad mouth them behind their backs. Maybe the welcome sign on your way into this part of the state should read: "Welcome to Central New York, we're big on hiding racism."