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Re: Fwd: The Big Year rumors

From:

Jim Stasz

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Date:

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:43:44 EDT

 
Hi Folks!
 
If you want real comedy, go birding with me and my friends  :-)
 
Jim
 
Jim Stasz
North Beach MD
_jlstasz@aol,com_ (mailto:jlstasz@aol,com) 

 
 
In a message dated 3/14/2010 1:39:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
 writes:

If Hollywood is anything it is consistent in its ability to  screw up 
reality in everything. 

The movie "Pushing Tin" was based  (VERY loosely it appears) on an article 
that was written in the a New York  paper's Sunday magazine about the air 
traffic controllers that work in the New  York Traffic Control Room (TRACON), 
specifically the Newark Sector. Having  read that article and being an air 
traffic controller myself, I couldn't  wait for the movie to be released. I 
can tell you that except for a scene  in the first 10 minutes or so of the 
movie, the movie "Airplane" had a  more accurate portrayal of the air traffic 
control world and was much more  entertaining. The manner in which 
controllers were portrayed in "Pushing Tin"  was beyond ridiculous, but 
unfortunately, we often believe what we see on the  big screen. For years people came up 
to me and asked if that was how it really  was. Of course, I told them that 
the way that they showed these controllers  playing chicken with thousands 
of peoples lives every day was exactly how  it was in the real world
and how I worked traffic every day of my  life.

I'm hoping that they will dig up P. Caspar Biddle  (Cox) and Jane Hathaway 
to play the birders again, at least that  stereotype was funny. I'm actually 
expecting them to make this a silly farce  with a lot of slapstick and 
absurd situational humor. The way that these  characters will add species to 
their lists will border on, or cross over, the  ridiculous boundary. People 
don't want to go to the theater to be  'entertained' by a serious reenactment 
of how someone sat a the Ocean  City inlet all day and got a Dovekie flying 
into the channel at sundown. Or  how someone walked the 8-mile Boot Spring 
Trail in Big Bend to add Colima  Warbler to their list. OOOH! How exciting! If 
they do show this last bit,  the character will have to battle scorpions, 
tarantulas, rattlesnakes and  jumping cholla cactus to tick it off.

If that characterization  will bother you, I suspect you'll have to stay 
out of the theater and  keep your hobby a secret or otherwise be embarrassed 
to be identified  with the folks in this movie. Perhaps I'm wrong and they'll 
find a way to make  it both accurate and funny at the same time. I'm 
betting not, I just hope that  they'll have someone to get the birds right. 
Otherwise, I might just have  to go back to sniffing glue. (If you don't 
understand this last line, do  yourself a favor and go rent airplane again).
Edward  Boyd
Westminster, MD  




________________________________
From: Nancy Martin  <>
To:  
Sent: Sun, March 14, 2010 10:16:47  AM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Fwd: The Big Year rumors

Hi  All,

This brings great trepidation to my heart. I still have not  completely 
recovered from Wally Cox in "The Beverly Hillbillies" being the  media image of 
bird watching. Given this is not a Christopher Guest parody but  instead 
has all the earmarks of Big Hollywood (director of "Marley & Me",  Steve 
Martin, Jack Black) what are the odds this will establish competitive  birders as 
crazy fools for some time to come? As I recall the tone of the  source 
material was often not very flattering and Hollywood often goes for  hyperbole 
with the parts that tickled the producer's fancy (this being Mr.  Cruel 
Humor: Ben Stiller). You heard it here first. I sure hope this is done  in such a 
way as to make us look human as well as funny, but I feel  fear.

Good (wet) birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa  Road

Chestertown, MD 21620
phone:  410-778-9568
e-mail:   <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

"A person who is looking for  something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. 
White (in "Stuart  Little")


On 3/14/2010 9:57 AM, Rick Sussman wrote:
> If they  could make it like that film, it would be an instant classic!
> 
>  Rick Sussman
> Woodbine,MD
> 
> -----Original  Message-----
> From: Gail  Mackiernan<>
> To:  
> Sent: Sat, Mar 13, 2010 9:44 pm
>  Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Fwd: The Big Year rumors
> 
> 
> I  hope they make some attempt for accuracy on the birds and on birding  
--
> ne of the reasons we dog show people LOVE Christopher Guest's "Best  in
> how" movie was that it is only a *teeny bit* exaggerated, and all  of us
> now folks who match each of the characters!
> Gail  Mackiernan
> Colesville, MD
> on 03/13/2010 4:58 PM, Phil Davis at   wrote:
>