Temple Grandin

Posted by Neal Campbell on Mar 21, 2010 in animals, books, dogs, DVDs, movies, People | 2 comments

My favorite people are, and have always been, animal people … people who deeply care about animals. The day I met my wife at church, I also met her mom and sisters. They told me about all their dogs, cats a rabbit and a pot belly pig. They had me at dogs.

Last night I was flipping through channels and landed on a biopic about a woman named Temple Grandin. Claire Danes played the leading role. I’ve loved Claire Danes since My So Called Life so I started watching even though the movie was already half over. Now I can’t wait to go back and see the whole thing.

From my perspective, movies hardly get any better than when they tell a real life story about a person who struggled through life to make a difference. Temple Grandin is now a Doctor of Animal Science and professor at Colorado State University. She also has autism.

Because of the way she was rased, she pushed through limited expectations to do something that changed the way we treat the animals we eat. Autism gave Grandin the gift of thinking different. As a grad student, she had to visit a stockyard where cows were being prepared for slaughter. She reacted to the stress the cows were going through and went to work figuring out how to alleviate the stress. She says, “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” She designed a system that not only got cows from stockyards to slaughter peacefully, it also saved money.

In addition to her work with animals, Temple Grandin is also an advocate for autistic children. She’s been able to explain to worried and confused parents of autistic kids what the kids are experiencing when they spin in circles, put their hands over their ears or rock back and forth.

I’ve never heard of Temple Grandin before last night so I figure I’m not alone. The movie I watched is in rotation on HBO, but if you care about animals, you might want to order it from Amazon. She wrote a book called, Thinking in Pictures, one called, The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s and another one called, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. I can’t wait to learn more.

Here is a video of Temple Grandin speaking at TED. Tech people need to see this!

My Top 5 Favorite Movies

Posted by Neal Campbell on Jul 15, 2008 in movies | 6 comments

I’m curious if there is something my top five favorite movies have in common. I think it must be a quiet rhythmic pace than is as relaxed as a hot Southern Summer afternoon. Or maybe, I’m just full of it. At any rate, here is my little list:

1. Spanglish
2. Junebug
3. Elizabethtown
4. In Her Shoes
5. About a Boy

The Modern Dunkard

Posted by Neal Campbell on Sep 16, 2007 in alcohol, books, movies | 0 comments

Over the weekend, I read a book called The Modern Drunkard. As a lover of alcohol, I expected very much from this book, but boy was I ever disappointed. Rather than a celebration of the almighty drink, this book was a celebration of party culture. I didn’t identify with the book at all. It listed 25 Signs that You Might be a Drunkard and I only identified with one!

I skimmed through so much of the partying stuff, I may have missed what should be a necessary reference to The Thin Man series of movies. I don’t buy anyone’s appreciation for alcohol if they don’t have some allegiance to The Thin Man.

300

Posted by Neal Campbell on Sep 13, 2007 in Cali/Luria, DVDs, movies | 0 comments

We spent the afternoon yesterday at a Doctor’s office trying to figure out what’s wrong with Luria’s (Cali) hands. No clear word on that, yet. We have to go back for more tests today.

We got home, Cali took medicine to help with the itching, and we put in the movie 300 based on a Frank Miller graphic novel. This genre isn’t our taste, but we LOVE Sin City.

That we love the movie Sin City surprises us to no end because we hate violence in movies. We don’t oppose it, we just don’t want to see it. The violence in Sin City rises to the level of art, and somehow, it’s beautiful.

300 didn’t quite work for me on that level. It succeeds in looking different than any other movie I’ve ever seen. Some of the erotic black and white scenes are as beautiful as scenes from Sin City, but I still found myself wanting to fast-forward through the battle scenes.

If it hadn’t been for Sin City, I wouldn’t have watched this movie at all, and I’m certain I would have enjoyed it more if I was more interested in that period of history or war movies in general. It just wasn’t my thing.

Tonight we’re going to watch Brick. I’m extremely excited about this movie. It’s a modern film noir set on a high school campus. I can’t wait!

Saint Ralph

Posted by Neal Campbell on Sep 4, 2007 in DVDs, movies | 0 comments

There are about four hours a day we take for ourselves. Two of those hours are usually spent watching a movie. Tonight the movie is Saint Ralph.

It’s a coming of age movie…probably my favorite genre. My favorite coming of age film is Just Looking. It was directed by Jason Alexander from Sienfeld. Saint Ralph is turing out to be just about as great. Plus, it has Campbell Scott in it, and he just happens to be one of the coolest dudes on the planet because he narrates the Hermux Tantamoq audio books.

Home from the Road Trip and Fracture

Posted by Neal Campbell on Aug 31, 2007 in DVDs, movies, travel | 0 comments

There’s a Southern Gospel song that kept ringing through my head as we wound our way back home. It says,

They say that Heaven’s pretty and livin’ here is too,
But, if they said that I would have to choose between the two,
I’d go home. I’d go home, where I belong.

The song is talking about home being Heaven. In my head, home was just home, and it’s good to be here.

After we crashed for a day, we started back to work. We shot a Brief yesterday and two more today. Now we’re watching an Anthony Hopkins movie called, Fracture. It’s one of those quiet crime dramas that remind me of a rainy afternoon in the fall. There is no rush or dependence on noisy action.

Usually films like this are set in New England. This one is set in Sunny L.A., but it still feels rainy.

This is Anthony Hopkins at his best. The character he created is brilliant and confident. He is evil and lovable at the same time.

These moments when we put work aside for a couple hours to watch a movie…that’s home.