Sunday, December 29, 2013

Listen to Angela: GH Preview for Week of Dec. 30 - The Pillars of Creation



The Pillars of Creation






About 7,000 light years from Earth storms the Eagle Nebula, a vast open cluster of gas, dust, and brave new things. At approximately 3-4  light years high, the Pillars of Creation are just a small, but stunning part of the existing whole. Stars are born there. Heat and momentum create light which lasts eons. But these are not easy or quiet beginnings.  This is creation of the most volatile nature, creation that shakes and burns and boils. It’s birth and death at the same time.  It’s loud and painful and leaves a mark. But it’s also the most lasting and beautiful thing that comes from the cold and dark places. 

Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
 
Sabrina’s holiday had the cheer pretty much whacked out of it starting with Patrick’s gentle, but devastating rejection, and the fact that he also left his Christmas gift behind. Add to that, her ex-boyfriend showed up panting and bloodied from a gunfight shootout with his fellow mob playmates, and then to top it all off, Felix came home and found out about both Patrick and Carlos. Rather understandably, Sabrina has been tossing cookies almost non-stop, but with enough regularity that it doesn’t appear to be simply nerves or stress. Felix, employing his nosy Yenta training and degree from nursing school, has an idea why his best friend is hurling every five minutes, and it’s not a proposition which Sabrina greets with glee and excitement. If anything, it might make her feel like another communion with porcelain.  But it’s a possibility she has to consider seriously—so, while Robin and Patrick are ringing in the New Year with hope for their future life together, a shocked Sabrina makes some  resolutions of her own.

As Maxie prepares to leave town on her vision quest, she stops at Lulu’s for a tense, if cordial visit before heading out.  Things are delicate between them, and it’s an open question as to whether Lulu, made of stern Spencer stock, can ever forgive this person she loves so much, but who has also brought her so much pain. Maxie prepares to leave, and just before she heads out, she meets a very handsome, very mysterious man named Nathan West – who has some business of his own to take care of with certain people in town.



Britt takes Ben with her to the hospital and runs into Dante, letting him know she’s meeting his wife for tests—starting the process all over again for surrogacy.  Britt grapples with her secrets, feeling the mounting guilt on her shoulders like a yoke.  Compounding her shame, she ends up having to give Lulu distressing news—news which causes the frustrated, hopeful mother-to-be to take stock and make an irrevocable decision with no option for turning back. 

Tonight Tonight
 
Monica Quartermaine learns some news – news pertaining to her former position as Chief of Staff at General Hospital. Being no shrinking violet, she surprises an unaware Silas – and Sam – of said news. This in turn befuddles and flummoxes the good doctor to the point where, when Sam asks him what it was he wanted to talk about, he tells her he’s just happy to be spending New Year’s Eve with her.

Given their track record for disaster dates, they get points for sheer bravery and resolve, but this time, the universe cuts them a break. The two spend a romantic and blessedly uninterrupted evening together – bringing in the year with a new beginning and their relationship to a new level of momentum, heat, and light. 

Dead Meat
 
There’s a lot of guilt going around Port Charles these days, and Morgan Corinthos is carrying his own self-carved yoke with increasing oppression. Incensed, his father confronts the prodigal, finally fed up with protecting and enabling – and hurls down a challenge that rends what little obstinacy Morgan had to shreds. The mini-mobster wants out.
 
Julian senses this waning enthusiasm, which was a liability at the warehouse and will probably only become a worse burden in the future.  Morgan is becoming an albatross, and Julian’s confidence is waning right along with Morgan’s accountability.  It makes Ava very nervous, and she takes it upon herself to plead Morgan’s case to her brother, defending Morgan defiantly and vigorously. She is set back on her heels, however, when she later learns just how much Silas and Sam’s relationship has evolved and intensified.



Also Next Week: Nathan brings pressure to bear on Silas, while Duke presses Anna for more information on the warehouse shooting. Shawn tries to convince TJ to keep quiet about what he knows, but Rafe may be a problem, as he seeks an audience with the Commissioner to tell what he knows. 

Songs:
 
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt: We Are Scientists, With Love and Squalor
Tonight Tonight: Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Dead Meat: Sean Ono Lennon, Friendly Fire

Additional Song Title assistance from @Jerron1234

You can find information, lyrics, and artist bios on the song titles in this preview at   


 General Hospital airs weekdays at 2PM EST/PST on ABC and is available on Hulu.


 DISCLAIMER:  

All General Hospital previews written and posted on this site are entirely from source material given to me by ABC.

  I do not source any material published on my site from message boards or other sites. ABC is aware of my previews and content. Thanks for reading. :)

General Hospital Video Preview: "More!"

"More!!"



Thank you, SoapNet. We'll miss you.





Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Listen to Angela: GH Preview for Week of Dec. 24 - Vesuvius



Vesuvius


  

Wide Sargasso Sea


For Patrick and Robin, the holidays bring a renewed sense of hope and excitement as they begin a life together—again.  Bolstered by optimism and the joy of a whole new life in front of them, Patrick makes a bold and impulsive suggestion to Robin – while Sabrina finds comfort with friends from her present as well as her past. Felix comes home from North Carolina, replete with Mama Dubois’ cooking and fortified for new battles – which he finds when he discovers an unexpected guest in the apartment, and a stressed-out, queasy Sabrina.











While Milo and Diane stay by Max’s bedside, willing him to pull through his surgery, Dante wants answers and heads to PCPD to get them.  Predictably, he asks Sonny what really happened at the warehouse, and predictably, Sonny sticks to his original story – his gun went off by accident.  Having seen his father use a gun, Dante would normally find this plausible, if not for the multiple shell casings that forensics found littering the crime scene floor. 





Working New Year’s Eve day, Silas has a consultation with military veteran CPO Hicks (Played by Christopher Allen, a real-life US military vet with four years’ service in the USAF), who believes he might have cancer, and asks Dr. Clay for a prognosis. Hicks confides to Silas that he’s been keeping this potentially painful secret from his beloved wife, and doesn’t like lying to the most important person in his life. Silas relates this to his own situation, wanting to finally reveal his past to Sam.  Later, he asks her out for New Year’s Eve – even though their dates tend to culminate in either disaster or revelation – and confides that he has something important to tell her.



Also this week: Sam wonders if her advice helped Patrick, while Nikolas and Britt venture an angst-ridden visit to Lulu for the holiday.  Ava zeroes in on AJ and sharpens her claws.



Songs:



Wide Sargasso Sea:  Stevie Nicks, In Your Dreams


You can find information, lyrics, and artist bios on the song titles in this preview at   


 General Hospital airs weekdays at 2PM EST/PST on ABC and is available on Hulu and SoapNet. 




The “Home for the Holidays” episode with Christopher Allen as CPO Hicks airs FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27 (2:00-3:00 p.m., ET / 1:00-2:00 p.m., PT/CT).

 

 DISCLAIMER:  

All General Hospital previews written and posted on this site are entirely from source material given to me by ABC PR.

  I do not source any material published on my site from message boards or other sites. ABC PR is aware of my previews and content. Thanks for reading. :)

Friday, December 20, 2013

Enough to Stop the Water - GH Friday StoryBullet for December 20, 2013

Enough to Stop the Water
Friday 




At the warehouse, things escalate to deadly levels. 


Diane drops in to give Ava a message. 


Sam and Silas find Rafe in the ER with a minor injury and a major broken heart. 



Patrick decides. 










Ten With Matthew Modine

 Ten 
With Matthew Modine 

I’ve met Matthew Modine before. It was a long time ago; I remember introducing myself and having a brief conversational exchange with him. What we talked about, I don’t remember at all. I hope I was somewhat dignified.  He was lovely and charming and approachable – not at all aloof or intimidating. Smiled easily.  The kind of person you enjoy sitting down in comfy chairs over drinks and talking for hours about politics, activism, theatre, books, people…and before you know it, it’s midnight and you’re wondering where the time went.  Those qualities haven’t changed, except maybe they’ve deepened.

He’s the kind of person who is interested in everything, and may sometimes find himself frustrated that there aren’t enough hours in the day to explore everything he wants to see.  It’s a stretch to say you ‘know’ someone from interviewing them or conversing with them on Twitter, but the words and impressions I have of Matthew are:

Kind
Conscious
Invested
Committed
Interested
Concerned
Amused
Curious
Engaged

He’s also very intense. Very goal-oriented, though he can also stop and take it all in. It’s a good quality to have as an actor or artist—particularly if you have as many projects on the hopper as he does.

A California native, Modine is the youngest of seven children; his father was a theatre manager. He moved to New York City after graduating high school and began studying with the legendary Stella Adler, landing gigs while he was still a student. And he has worked steadily ever since, appearing in some of the most critically acclaimed, influential, and sometimes controversial films of his generation, notably The Hotel New Hampshire, the cult classic Vision Quest, and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, a film that was as challenging to make as it is to watch – and HBO’s Emmy-winning, groundbreaking And the Band Played On (1993), playing an overwhelmed epidemiologist in the early, terrifying days of the HIV epidemic.  Most recently he appeared as Sullivan Goff in ‘Weeds’ and as Foley in The Dark Knight Rises.

Like most creative souls, he channels his enormous energy towards other outlets that are equally fulfilling and dynamic: Modine was the 2013 recipient of the ShortsHD Visionary Director award for his six short films; six little pieces of his thoughts – some humorous, some offbeat, some controversial. His most recent short, Jesus Was a Commie, is a provoking, almost free-association narrative on the nature of communism, socialism, and religion, as well as modern society’s need to label and define.



One

ARD: I love the Punky Dunk Project! This is really an adorable idea; I want it for myself, and I’m 42 years old! It’s an obvious question, but how did you become involved in this project?


MM:  My producing partner, Adam Rackoff, and I were looking for an animator for a feature film we were developing. Adam met Kat Llewellyn, a wonderful artist, who was working on the idea of creating the Punky Dunk app. We partnered and worked with her and Steven Landess to create what I believe is one of the best apps available for young, and as you say, playful, young-minded adults.




Two

ARD:  Were you actively involved in the App design and production/animation? What sort of input did you have? I imagine it was rather hard work; did it surprise you?

MM:  The creative design of the book began with the original artwork of the century old children’s book. Kat and Steve worked closely with Glow Interactive to make the app fully functional and fun to play with. I was cast to read the story and find talent for the Spanish language version. We were able to get the very popular Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo to record this version included in the app. We continue to make plans to cast actors and actresses from many different countries and record them. Imagine Punky in Japanese, French, Italian! What a great way to hear and learn new languages!

Three

ARD:  The Full Metal Jacket Diary. I want it, gonna get it. But what I’m struck by is that this film and Pvt. Joker evidently affected you in some very close places that you still contemplate and touch today. While listening to a sample of the audio diary, I was struck by – I don’t know, the apprehension in this young Matthew – his trepidation, maybe his fear?  Am I wrong? Am I right? And can you talk about your relationship to that film, not so much as an actor, but as a person who contemplates the experience he went through?

MM:  I’m glad the book was published and now this amazing app. Both are there to explain, or give a personal insight, into the making of the film, and of course, working with Stanley Kubrick. I’m happy because now I don’t have to explain any longer. The film came out 26 years ago and you can imagine how many times I’ve been asked about the experience. What I am most pleased with about FMJ is that it is one of those very rare films that stand the test of time and continue to be relevant to modern audiences.

(Smiling) So, if you want to know more about my participation and the two years I spent in London with Kubrick, get the Full Metal Jacket Diary iPad app.



 Four

ARD:  Okay…now I’m gonna ask about Kubrick. How did you perceive him then, and how do you perceive him now? Has your view of him changed in any way? Do you think you would relate to him and talk to him in the same way now as you did then, or, if not, how do you think that relationship would be different for both of you?

MM:  Well, we would both be 25 years older, so of course we would relate to each other differently. I respected him very much, so that would not have changed. Because Stanley was always curious, I doubt our conversation would be about our shared past. I believe we would speak about the present and - no doubt - about projects we were both planning and hoping to make.


Five

ARD:  Jesus Was a Commie made me want to sit down over a pot of strong coffee with you and talk about the shades of gray between faith and politics, and faith of politics. Why do you think people misidentify/misinterpret what Communism truly is? Or Socialism or Marxism, for that matter?

MM:  The communism we are taught is through the biased lens of capitalism. First, I want to make sure you don’t think that I, or the film, is advocating communism as a solution to our current environmental, economic, and religious problems. It’s not. The film is a tool for dialogue and discussion. We are taught in school that communism caused the suffering and murder of millions of people. Stalin was a tyrant and a dictator and a paranoid murderer. Ditto Chairman Mao. Stalin instituted a campaign against alleged enemies of his regime called the Great Purge, in which hundreds of thousands were executed. Major figures in the Communist Party, such as the old Bolsheviks, Leon Trotsky, and several Red Army leaders were killed after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the government and Stalin – who  was detested by the communists because they recognized him for what he was, a murderer.

We were taught and grew up believing that murder and mind control were two of the goals of communism. This was neither Karl Marx’s vision or goal. *Marx's theories about society, economics and politics—collectively known as Marxism—hold that human societies progress through class struggle. 

What is happening today is, perhaps because of the growing human population, is individuals are losing the ability to negotiate fair salaries and working conditions. Capitalists do not like communism, or socialism, because it desires to protect the rights of workers. Capitalism wants low salaries and high profits. Capitalists aren’t much concerned with environmental protection, unless they can sell their products for more profit because they are “environmentally correct”. Simply put, socialism and communism cut into the profits of capitalists. Social Security is a successful example of Marxism. Medicare is another. Neither programs murder people or seek to control our minds.

Six

ARD:  So, are humans capable of love and forgiveness without greed? Does altruism only come from dissociation from ‘things’?  Anarchy = breaking cycles?

MM:  Yes. We are capable of love and forgiveness. First, we don’t have to seek love and forgiveness because they exist inside of us. But in order to feel it, to experience them, it requires us to let go of materialism. Once again, materialism is a goal of capitalism. The sale and purchase of things. This is the greatest threat to modern humanity. The compulsion to own things. To define our lives by the things we own. Not understanding that the things we own, really own us. Not fully comprehending that the world cannot support a consumer economy. There is a finite amount of earthly resources and we are consuming what the planet can offer at a unsustainable rate. It is only a matter of time, and a very short amount of time, before complete environmental collapse. Our collective goal should be to do whatever necessary to avoid environmental collapse. If this happens, it will not only be the end of the very complex symbiotic relationship of millions of species we share the planet with, it will mean the end of life as we know it.

Seven

ARD:  Do you think we tend to use faith and/or religion as a method of rationalizing our own lack of altruism? (I’m not even sure if that makes sense, but I really wanted to ask this question)

MM:  I think religion had its place in history. In the past it was a good and necessary organization used to bring people together. In the case of Christianity, (because I am not versed well enough in other religions) they took the simple teachings, the parables of Jesus and used them to enlightened generations of people ready to hear and practice his teachings. People today have grown confused by the teachings, disillusioned by religion because the teachings have been so misused. So often used to justify horrors never intended by the author. Killing in God’s name, justifying the murder of another human being in God’s name is the height of absurdity. The enlightened teachings of Jesus and Buddha contain the seeds of altruism. Loving forgiveness. Not seeking God from without, but from within.
  
Eight

ARD:  This film has some very stark, visceral imagery in it – photos that can’t really be viewed without a measure of shock. As you were developing and editing the film, what was your reaction to these images that made you choose them?

MM:  Terence Ziegler and I had to find many ways to transport the viewer in a story driven by narration. Thankfully, Terence is a great artist and editor. Each time I watch the film I am more and more aware of his genius.

Nine

ARD:  You told me that there are often discussion sessions after screenings of this film.  Can you tell me about your experience with some of them? What kind of reactions people have had, and are they candid with you about those reactions?

MM:  The most wonderful thing that happens is when there is someone enraged by the title of the film and then, after having seen the film, they are reawakened to the ideas of love and forgiveness. Of cooperation and responsibility to others. It’s as if they’d been wearing blinders (like on a horse) that has restricted their full view of life, and the film has pulled them off. Allowing them to replace their anger with joy. The film is, for some, like a small torch that helps them to see in the present darkness. That’s pretty amazing.
  
Ten

ARD: Twenty years ago, “...And the Band Played On” shook some complacency out of the general public perspective.  We knew so little about HIV and AIDS then, but it did feel like an inexorable slide to those paying attention. What was your outlook on the future battle at the time, and looking back, do you think you were too cynical, or too optimistic?

MM:  At the time, the bulk of the population felt there was a disease that had a sexual preference. The Gay Plague. Thankfully there were reasonable scientists and doctors that understood the foolishness, the ignorance of this. There is a very good line in the film, “When a house is on fire, you don’t wait for scientific proof. You grab the first hose and you start putting it out.” HIV/AIDS was perceived as a disease only effecting one portion of the community, a community that the President of the United States (Ronald Reagan) didn’t think mattered or chose to ignore. This ignorance, or as you say, complacency, costs thousands of people their lives. Because it greatly effected the artistic community, you had people familiar with speaking to people rationally and effectively. Artists, actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, dancers, the Broadway and Hollywood community all raised their voices to save the lives of their friends and families. I was honored to be a participant of such an important film.

  

You can learn more about the iPad app at The Full Metal Jacket Diary

Watch Jesus Was a Commie HERE

 The Punky Dunk Project 
$.99 Holiday Special! (From $2.99)