Category: Hymn

Thanksgiving Tragedy

It has become tradition for my family to spend Thanksgiving with the family of my mother’s sister and her husband and this year was no different. Tired parade floats and badly synched singers vied for screentime as we prepared for the trip southward. Per tradition we left left the house late and fussy. Traffic was relatively light and in thirty minutes we were in sight of the pastures (my aunt and uncle have cows). As we approached the western edge of the property we spotted my uncle doing something with the old red barn set behind the barbed wire fence, less than thirty feet from the road. What he was doing was staring. Someone had crashed into the barn and the remains of the eastern corner of the building were strewn across pastureland as though a tornado had been through.
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Scott Stephens’ Passing

This past week word went up around Atlanta that Scott Stephens passed away unexpectedly at home. Scott was among that group of people who, in the 1980’s, helped forge the professional film and commercial community that exists in Atlanta today and was one of the earliest members of the IATSE Local 479, the Atlanta chapter of a professional union for motion picture technicians. Scott worked between Atlanta and Los Angeles as a Propmaster on feature films and television series, but his heart always led him back to the South. Ironically, his heart would occasionally fell him in the height of battle – Scott had heart disease. Everyone who knows Scott has heard some version of the story of how he had a heart attack while on the set of “Dances With Wolves”. That had to be a great story for Scott to break out at wrap parties as film crews are always trying to top each other with the weird and wild things they’ve witnessed on set.
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Passing : Jack Frost IV (aka LoCash)

I just found out tonight that Jack Frost died this past Saturday. Even though he lived and worked in Atlanta I never met Jack in person – I only knew him as “LoCash” on an Apple computer fanboy messageboard where he participated as an administrator. Jack was a graphic designer, a web designer and a prankster extraordinaire. The funniest thing he did lately was to share the transcript of an instant message conversation he had with one of his friends about the movie ‘Congo’. I’m copying Jack’s story from AppleNova.com in honor of his mischevious memory and a totally awesome story he wove about killer alien engineered ape/laser hybrid monsters.
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A Note from Douglas Adams

Of the many comic influences I’ve had in my life, the late writer Douglas Adams figures prominently. He was, and continues to be a strong influence on my inner comic voice; my meter, my rhyme, my ideas about low-budget science fiction television and so much more.

Back before Douggie left us, he had a website that he kept maintained for the fans. Not because he was egotistical, not because there was some kind of profit incentive….he did it because he genuinely liked the fans. A writer is never more appreciative than when they find a receptive audience because it generally means that they can step beyond all the awkward ideological translations and move straight into whatever it is that they’d like to discuss.

I dimly recall being excited at finding that “official” Douglas Adams website, and was delighted to discover that the man would actually answer people’s questions from time to time….even one of mine….
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