Bruce Sallan gave up a show biz career to parent his two boys and now writes about his experiences on "A Dad's Point-of-View" and is the house dad at "Mom Logic."
For some of us, “of a certain age/generation,” every new tech thing is yet another time we can get flummoxed and frustrated. How often have you opened that new tech device, camera, digital picture frame, or new “smart” phone, and felt anything but “smart?” I sometimes put the “thing” aside, stare at it a few days, and then finally get the courage to open it up.
What often follows, more often that I’d like to admit, is something doesn’t work right. Even learning the so-called simple things, like attaching and sending a photo via e-mail can sometimes be confusing. My favorite is when the only help you can get is online, but you can’t get online because of some connection problem. Or better, when you take their suggestion to call them for help before you return the darn thing.
Call them? Are you kidding me? Do you really want to be connected to someone who doesn’t speak English all that well, in a far-away time zone. That’s, of course, after you’ve gone through the voice-menu options, and typed in your life story, which when you finally do get someone on the line asks you for all that information again! ARGH!
The site devoted to the upcoming book --A.D. After Disclosure -- has been steadily growing in traffic and, from time-to-time, explosively so. With so many new readers over there, co-author Richard Dolan and I decided to let our "early adopters" recommend some of their favorite material based on the number of page views our posts have received. This comes down to a Baker's Dozen for us -- 13 posts, some of heavier weight than others but all of them, by virtue of our readers so far, worth recommending to those who are joining the conversation in progress. So, for my, shall we say "broader spectrum" readers over here at For What It's Worth, here's the sampling.
What If UFO Secrecy Ended Tomorrow?This is far and away are most widely read post -- it's the entire word-for-word "Introduction" to the upcoming A.D. After Disclosure book. It lays out the mission of the book in detail but, beyond that, it even breaks down what readers can expect in each of the ten individual chapters. If you're thinking about buying a copy, this is a good way to see what you're getting ahead of time.
If This Isn't a National Security Issue, Then What Is? Written by Richard Dolan to coincide with the news conference held in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club on September 27, 2010. If you want the basic case for UFO interference with the world's nuclear missile sites, this is the primer you need to read.
Shame on Evan Davis and the BBC British news "presenter" Evan Davis managed recently to write a column that was so over-the-top in its arrogance and bias toward UFO research, that it merited special attention and analysis. In fact, we put more thought into our deconstruction of his flimsy reporting than he obviously did to his work in the first place.
60 Years On -- The McMinnville PhotosThe two photos taken by the Trents in 1950 have stood the test of time and hard-nosed scrutiny. We summarize the story behind the story of the photos but also use it to show a faux-Time magazine cover that the case would have merited if the national media gave UFO reporting anything approximating the coverage it deserves.
The 1947 Twining Memo Anniversary It was 63 years ago that a high ranking United States Air Force General, Nathan Twining, said -- in writing -- that UFOs were the real deal and that people who were seeing them were not crazy or liars but were reporting a real phenomenon. You can read about it, and the even read the memo itself here.
"The Event" Probably Isn't THE EventThere's been a lot of talk about NBC's new series, "The Event," and whether or not it has an extraterrestrial explanation. While the jury is still out on that, it does seem that even if there is a connection, it will not be dealing with Disclosure in the real, practical way that it will eventually happen, something that gets pointed out in this piece about what true Disclosure really means.
Art Imitating Life: JFK and Disclosure Colonel Phillip Corso is famous (or infamous) in UFOlogy for his book, The Day After Roswell, where he claimed to have helped implement key reverse engineering with the Roswell wreckage. Open Minds unearthed an interview from before Corso's death where he also said that President Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy also knew, something that formed the backbone of the 1990s NBC drama series, Dark Skies.
Mad Men with Aliens Coming to DVDDark Skies, like Mad Men, was set mostly in the early 1960s, with all the same great costumes, cars and sets. Now, after 13 years of non-stop attempts to get the 20 hours of episodes released so they could be seen outside the hit-and-miss NBC program-and-pre-empt strategy, it has finally happened. This post contains the details on the January 18, 2011 release, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of President John Kennedy, the time period that begins the series pilot.
Small Steps and Giant Leaps Where were you on July 20, 1969? Everyone who was alive then has their own set of "Moonwalk Memories" that brings the time to vivid life. Here is one about fathers and sons, being fired for the first time, and the importance of history. We urge you to read it, and leave your own story in the comments section.
Our Majestic 12 (Documents) Here are a dozen documents that takes UFOs very seriously, several of which you may be unaware of, many of which were brought to light and clarified through the Freedom of Information Act. From the Twining Memo to the Teheran Encounter to the Rendlesham Forest incident, if you read this post, you will know more about the subject that 99% of the people you are likely to meet in your daily life. Impress them with your command of the facts.
Testing Reactions to Disclosure This is the story of Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, one of the astronauts who died in the 1986 Challenger crash, and how he claimed to have been exposed to a "test" of UFO Disclosure while being stationed at McClellan Air Force Base in the 1970s.
What Value Do UFO Photos Have?We talk about them all the time, there are thousands of them out there, and yet -- in our reader poll -- photos were considered the absolute least likely "trigger event" to force Disclosure.
Edgar Mitchell Says "Prepare for the Inevitable" Apollo 14 lunar pilot Edgar Mitchell has generously recommended this book and when you see the kind of interest his comments generated, you can see what kind of high esteem he is held by people in the know.
I understand (and my wife constantly reminds me!) that not everyone shares the same compulsive fascination as I do with this subject matter. Still, if it's true (and I think it is), then you'd have to agree that knowing a bit more about it is a good thing. That's a fine place to start.
A.D. After Disclosure ships in late October. If you want to ensure that a copy is shipped to you in the first mailing, pre-orders are being taken through the PayPal button below. It is not necessary to be a PayPal member to order this way, however.
While it's possible this could be a spectacularly bad idea (or just an ignorable one), I thought I would take my new found semi-knowledge of Twitter and try to Tweet from this year's Primetime Emmy telecast.
This will be my 13th straight Primetime Emmy show that I've attended. I got to go for four years as the "Writers" peer group Governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, then I got elected Chairman/CEO and actually appeared on three of them. Besides the obvious service aspect of the job, the other great perk of the Academy chairmanship gig (besides sitting with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks one year, and introducing Walter Cronkite another) has turned out to be the lifetime awards show tickets. Jackie and I go every year and we love the going, even when the show is sometimes off.
During the commercial breaks, however, while you're going to the bathroom or fixing a new plate of nachos, we usually sit more or less silently. You don't usually know who you're sitting next to, plus you really don't want to be too vocal in your opinions. Tweeting seems like the perfect pastime to avoid boredom and to occupy the mind.
If you're Twitter savvy, I invite you to join me and follow by clicking on the link above. Help me answer the age-old question: "If an ex-Chairman tweets from the Emmy theater and no one receives, did he make a sound?" So, if you're game, follow, re-Tweet and comment as you see fit.
P.S. A few years ago, I put together a photo album from my time as Chairman of ATAS that I'd like to share. It was an eventful time, 2001-2003. As you might recall, the Emmys had to be postponed twice after 9/11, something that happened on my watch, the month after I got elected.
First off, thanks for dropping by. As it turns out, I'll be on Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory on Monday night, August 9 with UFO researchers Stan Friedman and Don Schmitt. They've got us slated to talk about "Hollywood and UFOs" in general, and specifically about a new film project, Majic Men.
Coast-to-Coast AM has monumental importance to the Disclosure movement, so this should be something to look forward to.
Along with my fellow producer Don Most, we have optioned both the life rights to Stanton Friedman and Donald Schmitt but also the book rights to Friedman's Top Secret/Majicand Schmitt's (along with Thomas Carey) Witness to Roswell.
From this we are now beginning to develop and find the right creative partnership to make Majic Men which will be the story behind the story of breaking the Roswell mystery into the open secret it is today. We hope to do for this story what All the President's Men did for Watergate and to use some of the same visual energy as was found in JFK. But with just enough humor to justify saying it's about two down-to-Earth guys who are breaking a story that is out-of-this-world. Lots more coming on this Monday...
There are some other highlights to look forward to in that show, however...
First,there will be a major announcement about Dark Skies, the NBC series I co-created with Brent V. Friedman in the 1990s. It told the story of the UFO mystery through the eyes of a young man recruited into Majestic-12 in 1961. The first season told his story (and the UFO cover-up's) until its final episode which took place in 1967 during the "Summer of Love" in San Francisco. I've been waiting years to say the words I'll get to say Monday night out loud and the fans who have written me so regularly about the series should be happy to hear them. Details, coming up on Coast-to-Coast -- a place that is close to my heart -- because during the production of the series I appeared twice on Art's show as his guest, and returned the favor by casting Art as member of the Majestic-12 control group.
Second, and this is very real and very immediate, the book that I am co-authoring with UFO historian Richard M. Dolan, A.D. After Disclosure: The People's Guide to Life After Contact, is nearly finished, and goes to the printer later this month and will be published by Keyhole Publishing on September 23. We believe that it is the first non-fiction book to be devoted entirely to discussing the impact that Disclosure will have on the world and how it will change everything: politics, military, economy, culture, industry, science, religion, media and particularly government. We have some breaking news about a bold new way that book will be presented to the public, too, and hopefully I'll be able to share that as well Monday night.
Richard Dolan and I met professionally when my company -- Stellar Productions -- optioned Richard's outstanding first two volumes of his UFO trilogy as the basis of a television series (UFOs and the National Security State). While that is still the plan, we realized we shared a mutual vision about the post-Disclosure world and we've thrown all our efforts into this coming book first.
If you join our Facebook page, however, that's where you'll find over 1300 like-minded people discussing this topic, links to this site and other places of interest, and discussion groups. You can click on the image in the right-hand sidebar and it'll take you right there.
Finally our first promotional video has just debuted on Youtube and we want to invite you to give it a watch. The music is the trance-like instrumental background track of "Need-to-Know: The UFO Disclosure Song" as written and performed by Damian Valentine. The pictures come from the Hubble telescope.
We have a second trailer, as well, this one uses the full "Need-to-Know" song complete with lyrics and some very interesting classic UFO photos.
Thanks for coming by. Here are a couple of other links you may want to check out:
My co-author, Richard Dolan, spoke on Monday, May 10 -- just two blocks away from the White House -- as part of the X-Conference held in Washington, D.C. He announced our book A.D. After Disclosure and even gave a plug to the song Need-to-Know: The UFO Disclosure Song. This video got an editing "upgrade" and has some fun stuff and easter eggs in it, so please check it out.
Feel free to embed this in your own blogs. By the way, both A.D. AFTER DISCLOSURE and NEED-TO-KNOW: THE UFO DISCLOSURE SONG both have their own Facebook pages. Join up if you're on Facebook, we'd love to have you!
There is a revised version of the video that just went up on You Tube and looks like it's getting a lot of traffic. But you don't even have to go yourself because For What It's Worth is a full-service blog, and we offer it to you below...
Bottom line: At least some UFOs are real physical craft from some place that isn't here. A cross-section of people in and out of government know a lot more about what's really going on than they're letting on. That's just the truth of the matter.
Although my knowledge on the subject has definitely increased over the years, my passion to tell this story has been strong for decades. I've written a movie about this important issue ("Official Denial," Sci-Fi, now Sy-Fy) and created a series about it ("Dark Skies," NBC). Now -- and I realize this is slightly, as they say in Hollywood, "out of my wheelhouse" -- I've co-produced a song about it with my friends Cherish Alexander, Damian Valentine and my wife, Jackie Zabel.
It's called "Need-to-Know: The UFO Disclosure Song" and I'd like you to have a listen. It's a professionally produced song that makes the case for finally ending all the UFO secrecy we've been living with.
You can find it right now on iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. But first, the reason behind the song...
The issue that got hushed up by one generation and turned into an object of derision by another now demands to be heard straight up in ours.
The battle for UFO disclosure has been a political movement without a rallying standard for too long. To bring people together and create change, we need an anthem that gives voice to our feelings through the powerful medium of music. We need our "Blowin' in the Wind" and "We Shall Overcome."
Maybe it exists, but I hadn't ever heard such a song before in the way I needed to, so I rolled up my sleeves with some talented musician friends and we've done our best to provide one. It speaks to us, maybe it will speak to you.
Those of us who worked on it for these past few months want you to hear it, then hopefully turn your friends on to it. If enough of us start talking to others about what it means, we may just change the world.
Like the song says, we're ready to be told and, yes, we do need-to-know.
"Need-to-Know" features another knock-out performance by the extremely talented Los Angeles singer-songwriter Cherish Alexander. She and I first met and collaborated on the television series I developed and executive produced, "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven." Cherish and her band performed several important songs for that drama series. Her work was haunting and soulful, and it also rocked with power and passion.
It made me think. Who better to bring the UFO disclosure anthem to life? When you hear her vocals on this one, you will see why she was my first and only choice.
Jackie and I co-wrote the lyrics to “Need-to-Know” and Cherish and music producer Damian Valentine gave them life in song. Damian really brought some intense mood to this party, giving us a hypnotic, trance-like power-drive.
For a parting shot, here's the "Wordle" for all the song lyrics (which you can read at the site):
My friend, Lauren Kessler, is not only an incredibly prolific published writer, she is also a ridiculously trusting mother. I say this with great affection for her but I simply can't ignore her insanely risky choice to co-write a blog with her teenage daughter.
"Yes...it's true. Lizzie and I have launched a mother-daughter blog. We're writing our way through the sturm und drang of teenagehood... about the things that divide and unite us... offering our distinct teen girl/ midlife mother slant on such subjects as: hot guys, junk food and what we want to be when we grow up."
You can visit it now and watch and read about Lauren's high-wire act of parenthood "live," as it's happening. Or maybe LIzzie is the brave one here; I'm not so sure.
As I understand it, though, Lauren and Lizzie will be blogging about the regular stuff --movies, music, Facebook surveys -- as well as those other things that cause moms and daughters to, well, yell at each other, often loudly. I take Lauren at her word that her relationship with Lizzie has been "sometimes stormy." This means, to me, that there'll be some juicy conflict ginned up from time-to-time about everything from homework, to online overdosing to school night bedtimes -- and even the challenging stuff like boys & sex.
But back to the Two-L's and the method to their madness. There's also a book coming out on August 5 which -- surprise -- can be pre-ordered now from Amazon. Here's the blurb on that.
A bestselling journalist navigates the stormy seas of the mother-daughter relationship as she strives to understand her charming, alarming almost-teen daughter.
The book that tries to answer the question plaguing every mother-of-a-teen: What is the worst time in a woman’s life – when she was 13… or when her daughter is?
With the keen eye of a reporter, the deep curiosity of an anthropologist and the open – and sometimes wounded – heart of a mother, award-winning author Lauren Kessler embeds herself in her about-to-be-teenage daughter’s life. In seventh and eighth grade classrooms, at home, online, at the mall, and at summer camp, Kessler observes, investigates, chronicles – and sometimes participates in – the life of a 21st century teen.
As she begins to better understand and appreciate her mercurial daughter, their often troubled relationship – at first a mirror of the author’s difficult relationship with her own mother – slowly, bumpily moves in new directions. With the help of a resident teen expert (her daughter), teachers, doctors, therapists and other mothers, Kessler illuminates the age-old mother-daughter struggle from both sides, gracefully interweaving personal experience with journalistic inquiry. Funny, harrowing, poignant and invariably insightful, My Teenage Werewolf explores the fascinating and scary world of today’s teen as it comes to grips with the single most important relationship in a woman’s life.
My only regret as the father of a daughter who just survived teenhood and is about to graduate spectacularly from UCSB and make her father very proud is that I didn't have Lauren's book as a reference. My wife and I had to do this flying blind!
New Year's Eve will be here before you know it. We know it's an important night so we want to help you be prepared. Let's play a "what if?"
What if your plans to take a Lear jet on a cross-country journey, toasting Dom Perignon at every time zone, fall through at the last minute? Suddenly, your options shorten and the only friend you have left who hasn't accepted an invitation to a cool party that you can't get into at this late date says, "Hey, why don't we rent a couple of movies and have a double-feature?" Well, if that happens, we've assembled a list of ten films that all either take place on New Year's Eve or have scenes and plot points that take place at that time. We've even put them in this great new incredibly zazzy poll so that our readers over at our Movie Smackdown site can help you decide.
Aside from the ten films above, some of the New Year's Eve themed runner's up include: Waiting to Exhale (1995), Trading Places (1983), Assault of Precinct 13 (2005), About Last Night (1986), Strange Days (1995), An American in Paris (1951), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Holiday (1938), End of Days (1999) and, of course, the original Ocean's Eleven (1961) and the re-make Poseidon (2006).
In any case, whatever you end up doing on New Year's Eve, we hope it's a rockin' good time. We'll wave at you from the jet when we cross your time zone...
Coleman Luck is a Hollywood writer/executive producer known for such TV series as "The Equalizer" and "Gabriel's Fire." His first novel, Angel Fall, has just been published. He posts regularly on his blog, Coleman's Strange Journey.
In Memory of Edward Woodward, "The Equalizer"
This morning came the word that my old friend and colleague Edward Woodward had passed away. He was 79 years old. Over recent years our contact was pretty much limited to the exchange of Christmas cards. The one he sent last year carried the note that he was still working at 79 and wasn't that a wonder?
I didn't create the classic American television series of which Edward was the star. It was created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. Michael was a busy writer/producer and Dick was a top-level executive at Universal Television. After the pilot was written and produced, because of their commitments, neither could join the on-going staff of the show. It was turned over to others.
I came on board the team as the junior writer/producer in the fall of 1985. It was show eleven. I had worked on only one other series and that one had lasted for just eight episodes. When it ended I was offered an exclusive deal at Universal TV. I was thrilled to be there, but for months there wasn't much for me to do. Then came a call. Would I like to join the staff of a new series that was in production called The Equalizer? The concept sounded interesting so I said yes.
Almost immediately I ran into a false conception that plagued the show from beginning to end. When I told a woman writer friend that I was joining The Equalizer she looked disgusted. Why would I want to write for a show about a vigilante? To this day that's how many people perceive The Equalizer. But for those of us who worked on the series it wasn't about that at all.
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