|
November 29, 2011
 From
USA Today:
In the 1960s, community activists
in San Francisco operated free stores and organized
free medical care and other services. They called
themselves the Diggers, after a 17th-century
egalitarian English group of the same name. They
also borrowed from "potlatch" ceremonies where
Pacific Northwest tribe members earned prestige by
giving away their possessions, says Peter Coyote,
an actor who was a founding member.
"Free stores were just a way of creating a parallel
economy based on community," Coyote says. "As people
get poorer and as they get more disenfranchised and
as they get more cut out of the cash economy, they
start to barter and trade."
He thinks renewed interest in free stores, like the
Occupy Wall Street movement, is a manifestation of
frustration with greed. "Poverty is going to
reintroduce people to some long-lost ideas of
kinship, community, cooperation and mutual aid that
they'll find deeply satisfying," he says.
November 22, 2011
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just released
1985's THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN on DVD as a
"Columbia Classic". The films stars Helen Slater in the
title role, and the unrelated Christian Slater as her
brother. Peter plays the sympathetic police detective
while Dean Stockwell plays the district attorney. From
hero to cult film favorite, the film tells the story of
young Billie Jean Davy, who leads a band of notorious
fugitives when a local rich kid steals and wrecks her
younger brother’s motor scooter. Her brother shoots the
kid’s father by accident creating a generational culture
clash. The soundtrack included music by Pat Benatar,
Billy Idol and the then-unknown Australian band
Divinyls. Earlier this year, the movie was adapted into
a musical at the Cavern Club in the hip Silver Lake
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
"My son was born during the filming of this movie, so it
has special meaning to me,” says Coyote. “I loved being
with all these bright talented kids on the set and
getting to play a pretty nice guy for once. I’ll be
happy that a new generation gets to check it out."
October 20, 2011
Word
has it that the HBO TV movie, HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN,
will be aired in May 2012. The film, directed by Philip
Kaufman, recounts the passionate and tumultuous marriage
of literary master Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and the
up-and-coming war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole
Kidman), following their epic romance through seven
countries - from the Spanish Civil War and beyond. As
she grew in reputation and stature, the spirited
Gellhorn stood toe-to-toe with Hemingway, putting his
famous bravado and iconic style to the test. Peter takes
on the role of literary editor Maxwell Perkins.
 "White
Water, Black Gold", with a voiceover by Peter, is a
new film about the inextricable link between water and
oil in our modern world. It gives an investigative
point-of-view about David Lavallee’s journey down the
Athabasca River and across western Canada watersheds
(Edmonton, Vancouver, Fort McMurray, Fort Chipewyan,
Kitimat) in search of answers about the activities of
the world's thirstiest oil industry - the tar sands.
Following an imaginary drop of water, and later an
imaginary drop of oil, he discovers the threats to the
third largest watershed in the world and two separate
oceans.
October 6, 2011
 Filmmaker
and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain opens her new
documentary "Connected: An Autobiography about Love,
Death & Technology" with a personal confession: She
once faked having to go to the bathroom during dinner so
that she could check her email on her phone. For many
web-addicted people, that might not be too shocking a
reveal, but for her it was a wake-up call — one that
comes close to capturing the film in a nutshell. This
latest documentary, narrated by both Shlain and Coyote,
screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and has been
making its way internationally around art houses this
fall. The 80-minute film addresses how increased
technological connectivity effects environment,
population growth, the economy, relationships and how we
think and process information. Peter previously provided
the narration for Shlain's film, "The Tribe", an
exploration of American Jewish identity and the Barbie
doll.
September 27, 2011
 The
documentary "Prohibition" that premieres on PBS
next week will become available on DVD on October 4th.
Nobody does American history as artfully as Ken Burns.
He and colleague Lynn Novick chronicle the movement that
banned alcohol in this country from 1920 to 1933.
Narrated by Peter, the nearly six-hour film is an
examination of the law that led Americans to lawlessness
and sparked the debate of just what kind of role
government plays in the lives of the people. Fans of
Burns’ projects will likely not be disappointed. The
film dives into the Prohibition era and leaves not a
single segment unexplored. Broken into three parts - “A
Nation of Drunkards,” “A Nation of Scofflaws” and “A
Nation of Hypocrites” — Burns travels everywhere from
the homes of those wives desperate to abolish all
alcohols to the speakeasies that multiplied in the law’s
wake. What Burns does exceptionally well is give an
all-encompassing history lesson without ever getting
boring. There are plenty of historical photos and film
footage. There’s plenty of sensational stories, heroes
and villains.
September 1, 2011
On
August 20th Peter was ordained as a Zen Buddhist
priest by his teacher, Chikudo Lewis Richmond Roshi,
in the lineage of Sunryu Suzuki Roshi, who founded the
San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch Zen Center and
Tassajara Monastery. The ordination ceremony was held at
the Community Congregation Church in Tiburon,
California, because this is a "lay" lineage, meaning
they do their work in the world and do not own a temple
or permanent center. Peter's Buddhist name is Ho Sho Ji
Shi, which means Dharma Voice, Compassion Warrior. In
the first photo, from left to right, is Peter
Schireson,a senior teacher assisting, ordinee Karen
Geiger, teacher Chikudo Richmond, Peter, ordinee Al
Tribe (brother of Laurence) and Ed Satizahn, another
senior teacher assisting.
The little "bib" they are wearing is called a rakusu. It
is a miniature Buddhist robe made in eactly the same
manner as the formal okesa, the priest's robe which
Peter spent a year sewing. In the ceremony the ordinees
are given the large black robes called koromos, which go
over the white jabon and the grey kimino underneath.
They are also given a set of three nested bowls,
chopsticks and a spoon, which are wrapped and used for
eating during long retreats. They are called oryoki. The
okesa is worn over the left shoulder, but they have been
removed since the ceremony is over. The rakusu is the
easier, but less formal equivalent than the okesa.
The second photo shows Peter with his daughter Ariel
just before they left for the ceremony. She flew out
from Utah to witness this important event in her
father's life. The third photo depicts two "envelopes"
which Peter sewed for the okesa and the rakusu.
|
