bernie

BERNIE

yes bernie did it
he couldnt take it anymore

the movie about bernie  (jack black) who was loved by all
the people in town
killed the old lady (shirley macclaine) whom everyone hated
the prosecutor (matthew macconaughey) moved the trial away from
carthage texas as he felt that the carthage jury would let bernie off

no its not a made up story
its a true story

bernie was filmed in austin bastrop and carthage texas
some in carthage did not want the movie made
didnt want the town made fun of
heres a link to series of articles on the east texas view of
the bernie story

here is the link to a texas monthly article on the bernie story
in a q&a with the writer skip hollandsworth

the big concern was that the story of a murder was made into
a dark comedy

well i watched the movie several weeks ago at a showing to
raise money for the devastating worse texas ever fire in
bastrop texas
several of the locations that were filmed in the bastrop area
burned during the fire as well as the director richard linklaters
property

the murder story made as a dark comedy made this a better movie
laughter helps us deal with dark things sometimes

jack black has done his best performance of acting ever in this movie
maybe an academy nomination

i interviewed someone who worked on the movie
(ok it was my rainwater tank nephew who didnt fall into my
tank going after that limestone rock in one of my tanks)

the scenes he enjoyed the most were making the musical scenes with
jack black
the ones in the church in the mortuary and in the plays
we only see a few minutes of them but he got to see jack black and
the other singers go on for several minutes and do multiple retakes
he was impressed

the non star actors he liked the best were the people of carthage
that were just being themselves

what was jack black like to work with
he was his favorite actor ever
he is just as nice on the set as off the set
he is like a normal person just a funny one

how did it feel to be in the movie
it was exciting
he was one of the dead teenagers in one of the scenes
jack black poked him in the stomach and made him laugh
his car was in the scene but it was cut in the final editing

one bad thing was this was an internship and he didnt get paid for
working on the movie
but it has lead to several jobs on movies tv shows and commercials

he did get paid for his scene as a dead teenager

there was nothing bad about making the movie except
some of the people were suspicious of the movie and were upset
that it was made into a dark comedy

(after seeing the movie the director did good using the dark comedy
method to make this movie)

the carthage people who have seen the movie for the most part have
liked it

so if you like jack black youll like this movie
i plan to see it again and plan on buying the dvd when it comes out

its first weekend its the most successful independent film of the last year
see this link

if you are from the south and especially from texas youll enjoy it
some of the lines you wont catch if you are not a southerner
but yes those yankees should like this movie also

worth the price of admission

the organicgreen doctor

medal of honor-true hero, bernie review, football

MEDAL OF HONOR-TRUE HERO
everyone needs to watch this video of the new
medal of honor recipient
he is a true american military hero
there is no fake stuff or bs stuff
its all real
this is from the local kxan news station in austin
he at one time lived here

click here
to see the video and read the story about
dakota meyer

even his name sounds like a hero

BERNIE REVIEW
we saw the movie bernie with jack black, matthew mcconaughey,
and grouchy old shirley macclaine
jack black was an undertaker who befriends a rich grouchy widow
shirley macclaine and matthew mcconaughey played a district attorney
its called a dark comedy
its is said to be one of jack blacks best works
after seeing it i agree that its one of his best acting jobs

its set in carthage texas
its written based on a true story and tried to stay as close to the
story as possible
richard linklater the director has had this in his brain for years and
teamed upped with texas monthly writer skip hollandsworth to write
the movie

if you are from the south you will probably understand this movie
much more than people from other parts of the country
although it was well received when shown in los angeles recently
enough to be picked up for release sometime early 2012

i laughed all the way through the movie and laughed all the way
home and am laughing some as i think about it while im writing
this

the movie was mainly filmed in bastrop texas
the site of the most recent fires that devasted the area
many of the locations and areas where scenes were filmed have
been totally destroyed
richard linklater the director of the movie lives some in bastrop
the  homes around his were destroyed and some of his property
was damaged also
he grew up in carthage and the longview area and loved bastrop
because of the pines that are just like east texas
he is quite saddened by the destruction

all proceeds from this screening were donated to the bastrop fire
relief
a lot of organizations and celebrities donated to the cause
a lot of firefighters from bastrop were there and received a large
round of applause

my nephew he of the rainwater tank fame was our hero in his scene
as the injured teenager lifted up my jack black
a star is born

would give this movie 2 thumbs up
enjoyed linklaters unique way of telling the story
know my white on white relative will love this movie
watch for it in 2012
plan to watch it at the alamo drafthouse here in austin when it
comes out next year
great place for this movie

FOOTBALL
those cowboys will try to steal your heart if you let them
dang cant they just beat the heck out of someone and get it
over with
sure glad they won that one
it would be cowboy romo trashing all week if they had lost
keep it going boys

horns a young team showed great promise for the future in
their win against ucla
think they have their
quarterback
running back
defense
tight end
wide receiver
they will all only get better as the season progresses
they will get tested though with their next three games
well see how ready all these young guys are

note this could be decision week for conference realignment
??big 12 vs pac ++ vs acc vs independent
should be interesting

hogs will find out how good they are this weekend when they
play alabama
should be one of the best games on this weekend

the organicgreen doctor

bernie benefit, adipose gas guzzling

BERNIE BENEFIT
bernie is a richard linklatter movie starring jack black, matthew
mcconaughey,shirley maclaine and my nephew he of the rain
water tank fame that did not fall in my rainwater tanks last fall
going after a rock i dropped accidently into one of my tanks
(on the right of this blog go to google search  then type
my nephew he
and click to read about this)

well maybe hes not starring in the movie but he was on the
film crew that filmed the movie and they snuck him in the
movie as an injured high school student
to us he is starring in the movie

last time he came here to film a movie he brought tons
of rain with him
hopefully he will do the same this time

richard linklater has property in bastrop that was
damaged by the fires here recently
his neighbors property burned up but his was only
partially damaged

much of the movie was filmed in the bastrop area

they had scheduled a crew and cast screening of the movie
before it was released but he decided to do the benefit
showing earlier to raise money for the bastrop fire victims
all proceeds and donations will go to them

jack black plays an undertaker who befriends shirley maclaine
a rich widow then .........
watch the movie to find out what happens
its pg13
look for my nephew
he is carried by jack black in an accident scene

donate or buy tickets at the paramounts theatre ticket
website here
click the admit one ticket on the right to buy a ticket or donate

ADIPOSE GAS GUZZLING
we all know about miles per gallon (mpg) when it comes to gas
milage on our cars

now theres a mpg bmi ratio-i made it up
(bmi is basal metabolic index a measure of how obese you are
no its not like mpg where the higher number is good
ideal is <25 obese is >30 morbid obese is >45)

i propose a normal ratio is 1.6
eg my car gets 40 mpg and my bmi is normal at 25
so my ratio of mpg to bmi is 1.6 is normal
lets see a morbid obese bubba in a dooley getting 15 mpg
ratio would be 3.75
maybe a tax credit could be given for a low ratio
sounds good to me

it seems as the bmi goes up the mpg goes down
the us consumes an extra billion gallons of gas each
year because of our high bmis ie were obese

dont hear the politicians talking about losing weight
to help get us off foreign oil
wouldnt that be a green way to do it
for each lb of weight we gain we as a nation
consume 39 million gallons of gas a year
(39,000,000 x $3.50 per gallon = $136,000,000)
or overall
(1,000,000,000 x $3.50=$3,500,000,000)

WOW

the organicgreen doctor just figured out how to
maybe get ourself off foreign oil in a green way

maybe relieve some pollution and global warming climate
change or whatever you call it
(something exists from this pollution from the cars maybe call it
smog-whatever its is its not good for us)

maybe balance the federal budget

maybe increase money back into the economy to stimulate the
economy with no new taxes or federal spending
(bet the tea party folks like this)

maybe reduce medical costs and increase longevity

maybe it is this simple
could we trim the deficit by trimming our selves
nah surely its not that easy

numbers dont lie though
fix your ratio

the organicgreen doctor

help, fires

HELP
no this is not about the movie which i havent seen yet
but its on my next to see movie (afer the movie bernie-more
on that tomorrow)
this is about the help i received that influenced me and
what i did with my life

my family while we were in high school and while i
was in college were probably at or near the poverty level
we did not have a lot of things at home and did a lot
of sacrificing to get through this period of time

those programs that helped me are probably not available
today and today i would have more difficulty making it
through the 4 years of college (married) and 4 years of
medical school (married with one child) and my 3 year
residency program (married with 2 children)

i think about this when i hear all the talk about program
cuts and what effect these may have on some boy or girl
that is in the situation i was in
will they have the same chance i had

i only hope they do

in high school a federal program was established to allow
high school students work at local hospitals in medical
areas with hopes that many would go into the health field
in our group mostly sophomores and juniors that worked
together in the summer and holidays many became nurses,
respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and doctors and
some how one became a lawyer
i was one of the ones that became a doctor

we were exposed to a lot of things during those years
we were paid minimal wages
for me it allowed me to have clothes and shoes to wear
and extra money to spend and save for school

i worked as what is now called a medical assistant in the
hospital but also got to see deliveries of babies, surgeries,
emergency room activities such as trauma, resuscitation, and
also death
this was an important experience for me both financially and
by stimulating my interest in medicine and later provided me
a means to work while in college

when i did eventually make it to college i was married and my
wife she and i both were in school together
we both worked 20-36 hours a week and attended school
full time
i worked in the emergency room as an emergency room technician
skills i had learned while working in the local hospital in high school
we were poor but happy
we also benefit from grants and scholarships that help pay our
way through college
we also had federal loans that we had to pay off later
probably half of our college was covered by federal programs
that probably dont exist now

for medical school we had no money but i went ahead and
applied and was accepted
on day one of school we had no income and only a minimal
amount of loan money available
thanks to one of my older brothers he loaned me enough
money to get started that year
even though my wife she was working we were not making enough
for all the expenses of living and for school

a federal program called the national health service was established
which i applied for and got accepted
it paid my tuition and books and gave me a monthly stipend
my sophomore year i also got a job which was also federal and
state funded which required being on call and working in the
summer time

after graduation from medical school and finishing my residency
program i then had a federal obligation to work in an underserved
area for three years which i did
that program was gutted by president reagan and only partially
exists today

as a physician practicing medicine for over 25 years i have paid in
taxes many times over the monies that were spent on me by
all of these programs
the last ten years i have paid close to $500000 in federal  taxes
a good investment by the feds i would say

so i am a product of these federal programs that are being
wacked away at
i would not have made it without them
how many kids are out there now that are in the situation i was in
will they get help
i sure hope so

FIRES
the large bastrop fire is 80% contained now
however
we are now setting new records for high temperatures for september
it is dry
now the winds are starting up again
this time from the opposite direction-originally they were from
the north
now they are coming out of the south
fire officials are slowing down the rentry to the burned areas
because of these conditions

rain please

the organicgreen doctor