Joshua Walters - Educating and Inspiring

Hello gang!

Chris French here from Modern Midwest Entertainment. I was sitting here, just surfing around on the Internet and was told to check out a website called TED.com. Me, being the curious sort, I decided to take a look at the site. It’s an incredible site where just about anybody can speak on subjects that they know about and help teach and reach people! I think this is great! It’s almost like the Learning Annex, but online and for FREE!

While looking on TED.com, I came across a young comedian named Joshua Walters. He spoke a bit about his background in the nearly six minutes he was on the stage. Here is a young man who is diagnosed with Bi-polar Disorder. For those of you who aren’t sure, that used to be called Manic-Depressive Disorder. This young man was inspiring to me personally. I have worked a day job in the mental health field for the last 10 years. To see a young man who has had the experiences he has, such as being committed to a psych ward, taking medications and such going out on stage and educating people with humor about his own illness is very inspiring.

It warms my heart to see that someone with a diagnosed mental illness has done something positive with their life. Many people, unfortunately, once diagnosed, tend to slip into self-pity, and blame the world for their problems. Joshua Walters inspires me to want to reach out to those people and tell them, “Hey, look, you don’t have to turn into a lump! Look at this guy, look at what he’s doing.” This young man is entertaining people, he’s enjoying what he’s doing and still, he’s diagnosed with a mental illness.

It truly makes me stop and think about all the actors, actresses, singers and entertainers out there who are also diagnosed with mental illness. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in the Star Wars films). She was touring with a national production called “Out of the Shadows”. She discussed in the show her struggles with Bi-polar Disorder and how she overcame the diagnosis. She discussed her setbacks and successes. It was a very moving show.

Well gang, I hope my blog today has been some food for thought. Just because someone is diagnosed with a mental illness, doesn’t mean they can’t entertain people. It’s inspiring to see.

Another look at film theft (Something I'm rather passionate about preventing)

Hello again gang!

Chris French here at Modern Midwest Entertainment! Awhile back, I posted a blog about film theft and the Motion Picture Association of America’s actions towards stopping it. The site www.fightfimtheft.org is the MPAA and National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO)’s website that is trying to help combat film theft.

As I wrote in my previous blog, a standard procedure is in place to stop someone who is suspected of trying to bootleg a film in the theatre. I spelled out the procedure in my previous blog about film theft. I recently went to my local theatre in Hillsdale, Michigan, and asked about the instances of film theft in their theatre. I was told by the staff there that they have actually used the procedure put in place by MPAA and NATO and have stopped “a few” instances of attempted bootlegging. 

As I mentioned in the earlier blog, the ad campaign by MPAA and NATO to combat film theft is both creative and entertaining. I personally feel that they should show these ads in EVERY movie theatre in the United States, but unfortunately, they do not. When I asked the staff at Hillsdale’s movie theatre about this, they told me that they did not even know the ads were out there. I directed them to fightfilmtheft.org and asked them to take a look at those ads.

Like I previously said, film theft, whether people believe it or not, IS A CRIME. You who bootleg films are not only cheating the public by giving them low grade, crappy looking films. You are cheating the very people who put their time and creative energies into creating the film you’re ripping off. I shouldn’t have to be the one to get up on the soapbox and tell you this, but I am. The entertainment industry, for as much as folks seem to complain about it, is still giving people the entertainment they desire. So please, for everyone’s sake, don’t steal films. If it keeps up, pretty soon, studios could lose money, forcing them to close. . .then there wouldn’t be any films LEFT to steal.