DAILY CALL SHEET: NOVEMBER 25, 2023

Calvaire (2004) A low rent lounge singer's car breaks down in the most backwoods rural setting France has to offer. The good news for our hero(?) is one of the locals offers to help. The really bad news is this leads to the gayest version of Misery one could imagine. Actually, the film seems to be asking what if male characters in movies were treated in the same manner many female characters are. The answer, apparently, is that things would quickly go out-of-control bonkers.

TIL: It probably goes without saying, but the Church considers kidnapping and hostage taking a great evil. Such actions are an offence against bodily integrity, something recognized by the Church as a nearly inviolable human right trumped by very little except for, in some instances, the right to life.

Fortress of Amerikkka (1989) Having served time for a crime he didn't commit, a Native American returns home to start a three-way war with the corrupt local police force and a backwoods militia full of social deviants. It's Rambo by way of Troma, with everything that studio name entails. That might be okay in small doses, but the filmmakers decided this thing needed to be a nearly two-hour opus because... I don't know, they hate you, I guess.

TIL: Decades before his death in Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe founded The Militia of the Immaculata. Rather than an amateur fighting force, backwoods or otherwise, it's a worldwide evangelization organization formed to encourage total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

THE LONG DARK NIGHT GALLERY OF THE SOUL #004: RENDING THE VEIL

The Long Dark Night Gallery of the Soul #004: Rending the Veil

"So Russell, What Do You Love About Music? / To Begin With? Everything." - Almost Famous

I've hung out with a lot of musicians over the years, which has often left me with the desire to create an album. The problem with that is... I have little to no musical talent. Still, I can make my own version of an album, in an offhand way. This piece consists of nine "tracks", each of which is 4x4-inches, so when you put them all together the whole thing becomes the size of a standard vinyl album cover. I also decided to make it a concept album so, while each individual track has its own story behind it, they're all linked by a common theme. Like any concept album, some of the individual tracks are weaker than the others (I'm looking at you Track 5), but hopefully it all comes together to make a coherent whole. Now, as to what the unifying theme is, it's there in the album's title, Rending the Veil, a reference you'll probably get if you paid attention in Sunday School. But how does that theme relate to each track? Well, I'll leave that up to your imagination for the moment. Try to figure it out, or don't. Either way is fine. As always, critiques and criticisms are welcome.

Here's the track list... 

Rending the Veil Track 1 - Stendhal's Garden

Rending the Veil Track 2 - Pay No Attention

Rending the Veil Track 3 - All Ye Who Enter

Rending the Veil Track 4 - Another Midnight Conversation

Rending the Veil Track 5 - Skirting the Edges

Rending the Veil Track 6 - The Silent Walk

Rending the Veil Track 7 - Chapel of Salt

Rending the Veil Track 8 - After All, It's Not Easy

Rending the Veil Track 9 - Shall Not Prevail