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A South Carolina sheriff's office is investigating whether Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoked marijuana on the University of South Carolina campus.

Highlight video of our recent visit to the annual AZ Auto Show over Thanksgiving weekend. http://cactuspix.blogspot.com/2008/12... Link to our latest blog about the car show...

SOMETHING WEIRD!!!

This was, to be honest, simply a different kind of journalism. I've never done anything quite like it.

See our latest video webisodes by visiting CUPICtv on YouTube... http://www.youtube.com/CUPICtv

Okay, we have a new website on You Tube to showcase our short films. For a while we were looking for such a venue, there were also talks of bringing back Fiction Theater. The FT project was sidelined after our local Public Access TV station was discontinued and taken off the air. We worked on other projects, mothballing this venture.

I have to admit that in the early days of You Tube, I was skeptical of the direction that it would take. The videos that I saw where similar to those amateur videos that were spoofed on recent Geico commercials with the guy making faces in the camera, the other with a pair of puppet eyes on his chin, chewing celery, and the college dorm hallway mattress duel. Such videos are still there, but there are also real programs. It is the return of public access, but ten times better.

We have a few of shorts online right now; CLOUD 9, ATTACK OF THE COTTONMOUTH VIPER, BRIGHT IDEAS, and THE MESSENGER.

Visit our site @ http://www.youtube.com/RCWMediaWorks


Visit the new site and we will keep you updated.

Okay, we'll I'm fed up... I saw five near accidents on my drive today, all due to cell phone use. The first was a woman who was in her huge Excursion was looking at her phone (probably sending a text message) and came inches from rear-ending me. The second and third were two cars, one on my left and the other on my right lane changing without checking. And quess what? They were both more interested in their cell conversation than driving. The fourth incident happened two miles later when I was attempting to make a left turn at a major intersection. A distracted driver decided to enter the left turn lane in the opposite direction, distracted by his call.... yeah... can we say head on... The last was almost a multicar collision at an intersection a few blocks later when the driver of a huge Dodge Ram decided to concentrate on his phone call instead of paying attention to traffic and ran the red light. Luckily, the drivers saw him in time and slammed on their brakes. No accidents... This was like an over the top action/ disaster film, but the truly sad part is that it was reality. Look, I know we all do it. But some of us forget that we are on the road and driving is, believe it or not, a challenging enoungh task by itself. Unless it's a call from the white house and only you can overt WWIII, your wife is in labor and you have to talk her through it, or your phone call will stop an alien invasion, let your voicemail kick in and take your call in the Fry's parking lot after you set the parking brake.

This was copied from my blog @  http://cactuspix.blogspot.com/2006/04/film-review-from-rod.html

I am vocal about the movies that I see that move me, captivate and inspire me. United 93 is one of those films. I recently had the opportunity to view this picture and am glad that I did. I realized by the end that I barely took my eyes off the screen. It was shot documentary style, as if someone was merely holding a camcorder capturing the events as they unfolded. I like that, in this case, because it really got me more into the story than fancy camera angles and dolly shots, etc. The movie is also in realtime, closely following the events of that pivotal morning in American history as they unfold.

Strong in my memory, the events that unfolded that day. I remember doing my morning pre-work ritual that included making breakfast and getting caught up with the news. I remember turning on the TV in my room and saw CNN reporting that a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. Oddly enough, days before this incident, I watched a show on the history channel about a bomber that accidentally hit the Empire State Building in the 40s and the newscaster made that comparison as well. I was thinking about how odd it was that something like that could happen in this day and age. I ran out to the livingroom and turned on the set, my roommate at the time walked and asked me, "Are you watching this? How could a pilot not see those buildings?" After a few quick back and fourth comments between us we were off to work. Neither one of us realized what was unfolding in front of us until we got to work. I could pinpoint the spot in the movie where I came in with that viewing of CNN, so I was felt attached to the characters for that reason.

As a passenger, you are already in a situation that is not in your control and your trust is in the guy in pilots seat. For some of us, there is a little comfort knowing that there is someone who is trained to be there is there with confidence. Imagine that bit of comfort was taken away in such a violent manner. I watched as I remembered the events of that day.

As the movie ended, I found myself sitting there in silence. It was an emotional rollercoaster, I felt anger, dismay, and was just downright uncomfortable. The movie did it's job... It was a film that was not meant to entertain you, not full of special effects, but to visually tell the story of the people who took a stand and didn't let the madness of the day continue. They were headed for the capitol and they couldn't let that happen. It was a job well done... I would recommend this film to everyone.