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THANKSGIVING AND BEYOND...

Just so you know, I might be moving my blogspot to another name.  Not yet, but I will let this blog know.  I am trying to find a simpler way to make blogs from my iPad and this account seems to be problematic in hooking up with my e-mail. It's complicated.  

Anyway, just got back from Vegas (over a week ago).  My mother went home for the week from her cancer treatment center in Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  My dad, who I think can't live without mom, was missing her. So Steph and I drove down to see both my sisters and my parents. It was warm (it's 30 for a high now in Utah... winter has arrived). 

It was a wonderful time.  My mom looked great.  She continued to watch what she ate, even during Thanksgiving.  My sister Connie, who made the whole meal, made a dish just for her.  I am proud of my mom for taking the steps she needs.  I sit and think if Steph or I was diagnosed, I don't know if I could change the eating habit, but I would certainly not take chemo. 

I then got to see my sister Pam for a bit.  Her son, who has autism, is a good kid.  And one thing he has done well is play the drums.  So she got him a drum set for Christmas.  I had fun putting that together and playing on them for a short while.

Steph, my dad and I took a little road trip down to Hover Dam to see the new bridge they built.  I remember taking trips passing the dam.  It took forever because the road was a single lane.  There is now two ways to get through the dam and the engineering is remarkable. 

Now that I am home, business is on.  Steph and I are remodeling part of our home.  I have totally repainted the bed room we are moving into.  We moved Stephanie's girls around, giving them their own room. So we took their room and repainted it totally.  It looks great and nice to see what can be done.  I just wish I had more time to get it done faster.  I don't like living in the middle of messes. 

The Last Eagle Scout is almost done.  Just got a few effect shots today and waiting on the music.  Oh, these artists... they work on their own time (I know, I am just as guilty).  Hoping to make the first showing at the LDS Film Festival.  Then, on to other places (LA, Washington DC, Dallas to name a few).  We shall see.  I am eagerly writing a sequel. 

Phoenix part 2

I have been here for about 4 days and it has been interesting.  In the above picture is Robyn Openshaw, otherwise known as the Green Smoothie Girl.  She has been studying under Doctor Lodi at the Oasis of Healing while mom (on the right) checks herself in.  It has not been easy for mom, a 76 year old woman having to change her eating habits in order to save her life from the ovarian cancer she was diagnosed with 2 years ago.  She went through 3 rounds of chemo and it did nothing but make her feel crappier.

So we are now here where mom is handed a green drink every morning and a smoothie later in the day.  They do give her some kind of something to eat for dinner, but I wouldn't have the patience.  Some of it is actually not bad, and I think this is the best thing for her right now.  I am learning as much as I can in the case that Steph or I get in this situation.  NO chemo, I am dead set against it.

We have met a number of people with illnesses that are serious, cancer and leukemia.  One woman in particular, Christine is a beautiful 40 year old woman with a family of 4 children and she runs several business.  When she found a lump in her breast a few months ago, she chose to come here rather then go through chemo or radiation.  It has made her come closer to her family and to God.

The doctor gave us a great speech about his mission.  Dr. Lodi is an interesting fellow and he definitely IS on a mission. I will not be surprised his life will be made into a movie.  He told us tonight how he has no friends because he lives what he believes.  He feels doctors are living a lie (not all intentionally) and quit his own practice to focus on helping people with cancer naturally.  In his personal life, he has a fiancee who is dying of cancer herself and will not go the natural way, but is on chemo.  But she's dying of the chemo.  So his mission has become personal.

Robyn has been checked in as if she was a cancer patient herself, so she is doing pretty much everything that my mother is doing.  She understands much more how this all works (plus she is very adaptive to the food and green smoothies and juices they are providing).   She has been learning a lot and I am honored to be here filming all of this.

Oh.. and I miss my wife.  Love you Steph.

More later...

Phoenix with my Mom

Kind of a long day.  Today is the start of a new journey for my mother.  She has been fighting cancer for the past two years and made a turn around that was basically timely.  I am still working on the whole story, but here is the scoop:

I have been doing a TV Pilot show for the Green Smoothie Girl, Robyn Openshaw.  While in post now, (which I am looking for a good voice over talent to cover) Robyn came to me about a new documentary about the effect on cancer while eating raw foods.  She started meeting with these cancer treatment centers that fight cancer naturally in hopes of getting to the meat of the problem.

All at the same time, my mother has been doing chemo for the past two years with little or no results.  Actually, she was told her numbers were good at one time, then told she was going to have to get used to it for the rest of her life.  Then, she heard the doctor accidentally talk about medicine that would be given to a younger patient.  She confronted the doctor and they had no answer.  In other words, there was rationing going on. (Like I said, still piecing the story together).

Now my mother has had enough and is going to take Robyn up on her challenge to meet with the place called An Oasis of Healing in Phoenix.  I decided to be a part of this documentary on my own merit.  I flew to Vegas this morning and then drove down to Phoenix with my mother and we are now in a condo. My mom will be here for about a month, with no idea what she is getting into.  I will be here for a week as well as Robyn, filming and researching.  I also brought the editing system down with me to see if I can finish The Green Smoothie Girl Makeover TV Pilot while I am in the mind-set (Blendtec has been keeping me busy.  A new blender is on the way.  Will be for another Blog post).

So I will keep this blog updated on the events of the day.  I have shot a little video so far, mostly of myself on the iPhone talking about the drive down.

FALL AGAIN...

This time of year always brings a number of anniversaries. And this year new ones will be created.  It was Halloween of 2005 that I came rolling into Utah after living in Virginia for two year with a series of emotional challenges.

Divorce comes to mind, but also comes a renewal of life.  I came to Utah in my car with only the things I could carry (namely, my computer, my clothes, etc).  The following day, I had a meeting with a blender company to see if we were a "fit" for me to work for them as the video producer.  I had a great meeting and was hired 10 minutes later.  Then, I left to find a place to live, right across the freeway, and just like that... life started over for me.

Knowing that I had much to explain to the hundreds of friends I had left two years earlier, I didn't run to any of them for quite a while.  In fact, when I first came back the night before my interview, I got a hotel instead of the many options I could have taken.

But after a little pain, things got better and I moved on. A year later, brave enough to meet with women again, I met the love of my life, probably the sweetest woman I have ever known (even after now being married to her for 5 years).  We work hard to still be "boy friend, girl friend".

Another landmark for this time of year.  It was 5 years ago November 2 that I posted the first WILL IT BLEND episode. What started as a joke and a "let's see what happens" to the new venue called Youtube, had turned into a phenomenon that we have had to work hard to control.  After 130 episodes, 300 million views on youtube and the website, many awards and being used as a prime example in college text books, not to mention the growth the company has seen from the success of this web series, we were just recently named by Ad Age magazine as the most successful campaign in the history of Viral Marketing.  It has definitely raised my level of confidence and ability to execute other things in my life. In my opinion, it is time to move on.  In Tom Dickson's eyes, it has only begun.  Huh...

The Last Eagle Scout is now scheduled to have a premiere at the LDS Film Festival, but I have had to hold back that news because things keep interrupting the final parts of post-production.  I am told we are well on our way, so when I feel it to be right, I will announce it.  My dream is to premiere it at the LDS Film Festival, which is the last week in January, then release in three markets the week or two after, Salt Lake City, L.A. and Dallas (the home of the Boy Scouts). We are now also looking at Washington DC and others.

While I was healing from the hernia operation, I took advantage of the percocet-induced time I had and quickly wrote the sequel to The Last Eagle Scout.  Amazingly enough, I wrote the whole story late one night.  There is so much happening in this country that concerns me that I just took the next chapter to the next level.  More controversial, more action and faster paced.

We shall see what happens.  But for now, the photo below speaks the truth.

"Don't have a hernia about it!"

I remember as a kid saying that kind of dialogue, encouraging people to not worry about what ever they are worrying about.  Looks like I did that myself.  Eat my words.

I have been carrying a hernia about a year or more.  Not sure why.  I was going to the gym pretty regularly and lifting weights, could have been that.  Or, just the stress of having a merging family about the house (who I love very much).  In either case, I got it, and I needed to do something about it.

In this photo, I am noticing how lucky I was to have a dial that controls how warm it is in my crotch. A little air vent that puffs up my belly with warm air.  Plus, I think I was high as a kite in this photo and about to go out for an hour or so.  Didn't remember the operation at all.  Love that!

Now I am home recovering, trying to recoup all of my thoughts and on-line marketing as I prepare for the release of THE LAST EAGLE SCOUT.  The LDS Film Festival is around the corner (January 25-28) and that might be my release time.  Still making sure.  Waiting on music and effects.  And I am eager to start writing the sequel.  Or what ever film is in me.

As you can tell by my writing, I am high on the good stuff.  This is an excellent time to write, when I am high on medication.  I have been watching other films, getting inspired.

While this is going on, I now also have to worry about my mother.  Her tumor has grown bigger (ovarian cancer) and Connie (my sister) and I are feeling like mom has been lied to about cleaning out her cancer.  So we are going to do this naturally.

Let me back up.  I have been doing work with Robyn Oppenshaw, otherwise known as THE GREEN SMOOTHIE GIRL, on a few projects in cooperation with Blendtec.  She has a new one where she is dealing with healthy eating curing cancer.  She was looking for a few subjects who would go to one of these high run, natural cancer treatment centers.  I was able to get my mom on that list.  So in November, I will be spending a week with her (and camera in hand) and following what they do for her in helping cure her cancer.

Obviously, this will not be a cure-all, but I will say it will probably be much better then the crap she keeps getting with chemo.  That stuff is terrible.  This documentary will probably be controversial in that Robyn is on a mission to uncover the cancer epidemic.

I will keep updating on this blog what I see.  But as for my mother, this journey is now personal.

Ahhh, Fall.

I Love it when Fall comes. Parke and I were looking at our iPhone temperatures over the next few days (we have a camp out on Friday). Either we have been spoiled with the 80 degree weather we have been having or something is wrong because we are about to get a major change in the weather (possible snow as low as 6000 feet by Wednesday). Ick!

Over the weekend we had no younger kids to attend to, so Stephanie and I decided to play. Play!? Yes, something I haven't done in a while. I figured before it gets cold and depressing, we should take advantage of the warm weather.

Friday night, Steph and I decided to try out Parke's scooter I got him and rode to the movies. First we went to the cupcake store (my new guilty pleasure, gotta love the red velvet cake) and bought a few treats to sneak into the movie theater. I accidentally left the key on the scooter (battery died), so we ended up rolling the scooter to the theater (good thing it was across the street).

We went to see COURAGEOUS. I have been very impressed with Alex Kendrick films (Fireproof, Facing the Giants, Flywheel). Especially with his focus on the message. You notice that his films have not always been the best technically, but his message rings true (and each film has profited financially). I actually was able to contact Alex and tried to get him to play a small roll in THE LAST EAGLE SCOUT. He respectably declined, saying he was too busy doing Courageous, which I totally understand.

So the question is, in comparison to LDS Cinema, why is it that his films, which are half good, really preachy and sometimes bad acting, can do well. Where as most LDS films, which are always worried about being "too preachy" and looking good technically, can't do well financially? I still remember film after film, people from LDS Film would always blame LDS Cinema's failures on being "too preachy" or "not good enough technically", "not enough money" or "bad acting". Alex Kendrick has suffered all of these, and yet the Lord continues to bless him with the finances to keep making movies.

My number one answer (besides audience reach, etc) is one word... spirit. When I watch the behind the scenes of all his movies, you hear the discussion go with the way of God. "This is God's movie" or "The Lord helped us" or you see them praying between takes.

In LDS Cinema, I am afraid the focus has always been on "me". My performance, my movie, my vision, and very little "God" involved in the making of LDS Films. That is just my opinion. I am just as guilty of this. As I have made THE LAST EAGLE SCOUT, I have tried to focus on message and the Lord helping me (even though this film is not LDS Cinema stuff). I am still dealing with The Constitution and freedom, both gifts from God, and I have had to be on my knees alot, repeating in my mind that that the Lord is in charge.

The next morning, my assistant at Blendtec, Kyle Jacobson, just finished his first short film he produced. It was a sweet film about a boy who falls in love with a woman who writes on a white board. The film starts out with him just goofingly writing "Hi" on the board. Then, the board writes back "hello". After a while, he keeps writing messages to someone that isn't there and builds a romantic relationship with the person writing. It is a cute concept and I personally think he can make it into a feature film, but we shall see.

Back to the weekend, Steph and I rode trax to downtown Salt Lake City. It was Conference weekend, but we didn't have tickets. We just wanted to see the camaraderie that usually comes with downtown SLC. We went to Deseret Book and saw TC and the cast of 17 MIRACLES signing autographs of the film on DVD. It was good to see him again, it has been years. He is one of the best guys to work with/for in film and he deserves all the success he has gotten on 17 MIRACLES.

So now, I look at the weather and realize that our camp out this weekend might end up being an early Klondike. I just realized that I am going into the hospital on Wednesday for a hernia operation. No worries. Just a day in the life.