Damian, the director of Off the Rails, a movie I co-wrote and produced about a time in my life, is winning the argument I had with him. The movie has a good plot, great music, and great cinematography, but I told him that I thought there were several “cringe-worthy” moments in the movie that hurt it badly.

Damian assured me that I was overreacting.

The movie’s European premier was in Liverpool in October. It was a small festival, but it had some good films competing with ours. I was surprised when Damian told me that Off the Rails had won best actress and best feature film.

Since then, it’s been accepted for a half-dozen other festivals and is up for awards in half of them. So that’s promising.

The US premier is at the considerably larger Miami Film Festival (March 3 through 9). Festival producers selected it as the opening film and are showing it twice. It was given a nice writeup, too: “Off the Walls is a spirited and energetic comedy tinged with the warm afterglow of nostalgia, and is easily one of the most feel-good movies in this year’s Festival.”

Not bad, right?

It will also be shown at the Woodbury Film Festival in Salt Lake City (March 8), at the Phoenix Film Festival in April, and in St. Petersburg, Florida, in April.

Am I too pessimistic? Too critical?

I don’t know. But the evidence is piling up against me.

If you haven’t seen the trailer, GO HERE.

An African gray parrot can have a vocabulary of 200 words.

It was an uphill kind of morning. Slept only five hours. Needed energy to face the day. The news, as usual, was down-lifting…and then I saw this…Gas Station Karaoke Jam Session…

In ancient Japan, there were public farting contests. Prizes were awarded for both loudest and also longest.

Ready for a world-class family vacation? Here, according to Travel and Leisure magazine, are the “top 50 family resorts.” (And, yes, our Rancho Santana made the list!)

There are physical ways to pray. Some Native Americans dance. Some Sufis whirl. Christians fold their hands and bow their heads. Jews sway and bow. Muslims kneel and prostrate themselves. Quakers keep silent.

Look at This: Pace and timing are two critical components of comedy. If this were 15 seconds longer, it might not have worked, but it does… or did… for me.

The word“news” comes from north, east, west, and south – not the plural of new.

An amazing display of craftsmanship…

The Debt-to-GDP Ratio, Historically

Until 1935, the ratio of debt to GDP was in the teens and 20s. That climbed into the 40s as FDR struggled to battle depression and prepare for WWI. It spiked during the war at 119% and broke below 90% in 1950. Then it gradually dropped into the low 50s and high 40s during the first half of the 1960s. It dropped into the 30s in the late 1960s and 1970s, and stayed in that range till 1985. After that, it gradually climbed as high as 65% in 1995, then went back down to 55% in 2000.