Born on the 4th of July (NL)

(for English scroll down)

De 4de juli kan ik niet zo maar voorbij laten gaan. Bijna iedereen weet dat op deze dag de onafhankelijkheid van de US wordt gevierd. Maar ik heb het uiteraard over de film die een andere kijk op de Vietnam-oorlog geeft. Er zat weer een grote jongen aan te komen, dat het een grote jongen werd wist ik toen natuurlijk nog niet... Pas later als zo'n productie allerlei awards binnensleept en een kaskraker wordt krijg je enig idee waaraan je hebt meegewerkt. Willem Dafoe met in zijn kielzog Tom Cruise die er net 'Topgun' op had zitten. Ik had op dat moment nog nooit van hem gehoord en de film ook niet gezien..

Willem

Tom

  En Tom Berringer, inmiddels ook een legende op het witte doek.. Als director verscheen ook een oude bekende, Oliver Stone, deze keer vergezeld door vrouw en kinderen die de kerstvakantie op de set kwamen doorbrengen..

j Als director verscheen ook een oude bekende, Oliver Stone, deze keer vergezeld door vrouw en kinderen die de kerstvakantie op de set kwamen doorbrengen. Ik kende hem al van Platoon. Deze keer gingen we voor 'Born on the 4th of July. De oorlogs-scenes voor deze film werden geschoten in hetb uiterste noorden van de Filippijnen, op het strand van Laoag, de hoofdstad van Ilocos-Norte, de thuisprovincie van president Marcos. Een onrustige provincie met regelmatig geweld, het militaire materieel dat we gebruikten was eigendom van de Philippine Army zo ook de tanks, APC's die werden ingezet. Echt spul dus. Het was eind december 1988, de geplande opnamen werden aangepast omdat de tanks die we nodig hadden de nacht ervoor waren ingezet tegen rebellen en nog niet terug op de set waren.. Toen ze uiteindelijk arriveerden waren de lopen bij wijze van spreken nog warm.... De 'Direct' wilde de dag afsluiten met een ondergaande zon tegen een decor van oprukkende troepen tussen zandopstuivende APC's Armoured Personnel Carrier.

Me with an M60.

  We rennen tussen de beschietingen door van duin naar duin en richten ons vuur op de vijand. Het strand staat in lichterlaaie, alle huisjes, gebouwd van riet, bamboe en palmbladeren geven een geel-oranje vuurgloed, dat alles nog aangewakkerd door extra brandstof en explosieven. De dorpelingen rennen en vliegen rond om nog iets van hun hebben en houden te kunnen redden. Een paar kippen, een geit en andere belangrijke zaken worden opgepakt en meegenomen

.Daar wordt je moe van

Al deze mensen zagen ook echt  hun boeltje in vlammen opgaan, het bleek goedkoper het hele dorp uit te kopen dan een set na te bouwen die er net zo realistisch en gedetailleerd uitzag. Het scheelde zeker veel tijd en behalve een royale schadevergoeding kregen de meesten ook de kans als figurant mee te spelen en nog wat extra's op te strijken.. Zo'n kerstcadeautje zal best van pas gekomen zijn. 

  Het lopen, eigenlijk meer snelwandelen door het mulle zand met een M-60 machinegun op m'n schouder, valt de eerste keer best mee. De tanks knarsen tussen hun rupsbanden, het is stoffig en lawaaierig, en best wel link als je te dicht in de buurt loopt. Als die dingen zich wenden gat dat schoksgewijs en huppelt het gevaarte met een sprongetje de gestuurde kant op. Daar wilde je niet onderkomen... Maar hetis niet gauw goed. Heer Olivier wilde beter en riep geregeld 'cut, back to # one'.. wat inhield dat we terugmoesten naar ons beginpunt en de scene opnieuw gefilmd werd. Dan is zo'n stukje ganzenpas van een paar minuten ineens een flinke afstand geworden dat je moet terugkuieren..! En niet één keer, nee, wel vier keer opnieuw..Zo'n M-60 wordt dan looiig en moet tijdens het rennen van de ene schouder naar de andere gegooid worden. Daar deed Oliver het ook voor, de vermoeidheid straalde van ons af, de jongens bovenop de tanks waren beter af en zaten te grijnzen.. die soldatenkisten voelden steeds zwaarder aan en m'n schouders waren beurs, soms werd het rennen een beetje struikelen en strompelen en dat zal er best een stuk echter hebben uitgezien...

  De bekkentrekkende Willem Dafoe was populair op de set, dit in tegenstelling tot zijn collega Tom Cruise die zich eerder afzonderde en bij zijn eigen clubje bleef. Ik heb me kostelijk vermaakt tijdens de opnamen waarbij Dafoe obsceen zij draaiende tong liet filmen. De on-gein en hilariteit vóór de opnames waren eigenlijk leuker dan de scenen zelf. Op dezelfde locatie werd trouwens ook het revalidatiecentrum met de rolstoelen gefilmd.

  De grote internationale producties brengen meestal zelf hun eigen stuntmensen en dubbels mee, ik was dan ook aangenaam verrast toen de casting-director mij vroeg stand-in te zijn voor Willem Dafoe. Dat klinkt interessanter dan het is. Stand-ins worden gebruikt voor het 'blocken' voor de camera, de belichting en camera-instellingen worden zo ingesteld en er wordt een rehearsel gedraaid. Als alles dan klopt en er gefilmd kan worden komen de grote jongen zelf opdraven.. Een ander verhaal is het als je als body-double de plaats inneemt van de acteur wanneer er een stunt moet worden verricht of indien er een andere gevaarlijke situatie is. Zelfs Chuck Norris had dubbels rondlopen voor als het te gevaarlijk voor hem werd, en dan moet je niet denken aan een vechtscène maar bijvoorbeeld een risicovolle sprong vanuit een vliegtuig, de productie mag geen gevaar lopen en vaak dekt de verzekering het risico niet.. 

English:

http://bert-firebert.blogspot.nl/2009/10/born-on-4th-of-july-shooting-in-1989.html

Full Movie click here..

A little more NBI and so. ..

I had just finished my meeting with the NBI and was heading for Puerto Galera, several hours south of Manila. It was so peaceful and quiet after all the madness in Manila, this relaxing trip by boat had cleaned up the smelly exhaust fumes from my hair and clothes, and a thin salty layer covered my skin that started to tan by the sun that seemed to shine from all sides and reflected a million times from the breaking water surface. The sea breeze speeded up the tanning process and I started to look like a tourist.

I had a beautiful three days on the beach, swimming, diving and eating good meals as I was visiting all the entertaining pubs or restaurants on the spot. And I enjoyed all of it. It nearly made me forget I had some business to attend to in MM.

I really disliked packing my suitcase to return to reality.

The first training

Quite some people showed up the first time and they were diverse, a couple of fatass chair sitters and some younger guys but no women. I didn't expect Charlies angels but no police woman showed up at all. I started an intro-talk for about ten minutes and then told them to follow me in the warming up. Well I have to admit I started a routine , but it was my first time in the tropics and I didn't realize that those people weren't waiting to get warmer as they were already, I mean the temperature in the building at that moment must have been at least over a hundred or around a 38 C. I visualized them sitting with their feet on their desk and the fan switched at 4. Let's say they were not too amused, but I got them moving in a lower gear. I came up with some disarming-techniques but that didn't cheer them up, they thought it quite interesting but of no use, when they encounter armed resistance they just shoot to kill, no sweat...What the fuck was I doing there.!

It was really hot in there so I called it a wrap after some hour and a half. And I could be wrong but I believe there was a 'fragrant' smell of sweat over there, for the first time since long...I was soaking wet and gasped for a San Miguel. I told them: next week, and fled the intestine of a rotten institute. I went there for a couple of months and apologized to them. I had to leave and teach at some other places. They were relieved I tell you, and so was I. There was no fun in it whatsoever. I never regretted the quit.

There's one more thing I never forget about this building.

It's the hottest place ever I smoked a joint at......

There were hardly any showers but believe it or not, there was a sauna at the place. So one night when I just wrapped a movie set and was really feeling filthy, I decided to take a shower at the NBI's. My friend Federico the caretaker-and Judo instructor was there as well but about to leave. So he asked me to close down the place after I was done cos he was in a hurry. Now then I got this ingenious idea to sweat it out in the sauna while smoking a doobie. I asked the man to start up the sauna which he did. I carefully checked if no one was around and lighted up my pipe and had a magnificent high. Next to carrying a bag of weed from Sagada by bus, this was one of my most risky stunts ever..

I had become friends with José Almirol, the secretary of the Philippine Amateur Judo Association and he invited me do a gast-training in the Rizal Memorial in Vito Cruz..

This was really a nice guy, so were the Judoka that joined the class. OK. !!! These people came to practice their sport and were well trained and not lazy, such a difference. I loved to show up there and have fun with José. I did so for several years, even had a selected team to join the ASEAN-games, no one made it to the top but a 4^th place. As the national championships came by I ended up 1st referee and organizer.

Everything I was taught by my old sensei Johan van der Bruggen came to hand now.

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It wasn't in vain that I sacrificed my weekends for so many years to attend to his lessons in de Zoutmanstraat in The Hague. It wasn't really a sport centre but some transformed living rooms, it was

small but on the other hand classes were small either, the place looked like an eastern ninja-set having a dusty ninja outfit in it's showroom and it smelled like long flown times. As to his qualities, I think sensei v.d. Bruggen deserved a better location to his performance.

When Dan-grade exams were due, the place was impregnated with an Asian mystic and he knew how to use that just by looking at you with this particular glance of his, add his hoarse voice and his almost physical authority and all ingredients were there to feel bloody nervous. On the other hand if classes were given in a sports complex, he would use every inch of the facilities and had us run dozens of laps to practice intermission training and to control our breathing techniques. By the time we were to start martial arts or theory lessons often more than 90 minutes were invested in 'warming-up'. The usual menu after that was an intensive Judo, Ju-jitsu and Kendo exercise. The Kata were trained to the limit to get it synchronized to a perfect element.

Broken and wet to the bones it always gave a satisfaction and it was all worth exertion.

In the meantime John Mullin had come to visit me in my apartments, I had no more jet-lag and we went sight seeing Manila. Emil Ong had returned from Samar and had experienced my healing hands as he suffered a painful back. After a couple of weeks I was invited by Emil to stay in his house in Quezon City. Well, that wasn't too bad, no more expenses in the Mabini region and a nice place to stay for the next couple of month. Emil had his office downtown Binondo, but he had more activities besides the hardware store. Politics came first to him. At that time he was an active assemblyman, did his thing at the National Food Authority and was running for some position in Northern Samar. I had the pleasure to join him on a trip to the Visayas and spent some time over there.. For the locals I was some kind of a 'worth seeing', little kids followed us calling: “Mica,Mica”, an abbreviation of “American”. I learned a lot during those trips and came to meet quite some interesting people. I became friends to mayors, met with lawyers, judges, governors and military high placed personnel.

Just to stay in a good condition I was eager to visit the Rizal Memorial at least once a week, the guys over there loved it when I showed up to teach them some new stuff. But by that time I decided to move away from the NCR and find myself a nice place in Laguna. I fell in love with this province,well that's not hard to do, it is so diverse and beautiful, the air was much cleaner than Manila's and it wasn't that crowded. I had been to Sta Cruz and Los Baños before and 'did' the world famous rapids of Pagsanjan, about two hours drive from Manila.

This was the place where parts of “The Apocalypse now” were shot, starring Marlon Brando 

Juramentado...

--

….It was a couple a days or maybe a week after the typhoon when I came to visit my old favorite corner at Sta Monica in Ermita. The weather was great and I just ordered a San Miguel when somebody touched my shoulder. As I turned around I saw this smiling bastard of a Paul Vance behind me, I felt relieved, cos I thought him dead by that time. We hugged and celebrated the reunion with another beer..

Only then I learned the latest news about what happened after..

Before the storm had reached its max he had collected our belongings from the cabins already and he had retreated to find exile in a nearby barrio at higher grounds. He was told I had left the scene with some friends, so he didn't worry. He had stayed there for a couple of days to gather and rescue some of the props scattered all over the place and decided to wait the chaos to diminish.

He had to do some 'loops' as he told me and asked me to come along. I had no idea what he was talking about and he had to explain to me that he was 'dubbing sounds and voices to film loops'.

I joined him to the studios and learned how they synchronized to dubbings on the loops. I enjoyed seeing him doing background noise and voices. I remember one scene where a tv-screen on the background needed some adding. He watched the loop once or twice, said “Yes” and made-up a dialog between a guy opening a fridge and an imaginair person off frame. It was óne take only and applause...But I noticed he needed a lot of Marlboro's to get to his inspirations.

jungle in Laguna

It's a nice trip by bus to Laguna. As soon as your outside the NCR traffics-madness gets a little easier and nature opens your eyes. Oh ya, this view is such a magnificence it gives a holiday's feelin'.

It's a spilth to miss the beauty of the mountains with its variety of fauna and flora living on this fertile volcanic soil.

A nice view on Laguna lake and Taal lake

Los Baños (the baths) is worldwide known for its hot water springs and bathing accommodations in pretty much all the hotels over there. I've been there quite some times with several movie-sets, The Firebird to begin with.

I think the area southwest of Laguna the Bay and in between Lake Taal is the summum. The most beautiful place I've ever seen is Hidden Valley. I came to this place in '85 during the shootings of “Hellcamp”.

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There are 20+ rivers debouching in this 900 km2 lake. It's Manila's source of fresh water. The growing population and intensifying industry around the lake using no water clearing or sewerage systems create a serious problem to this source. Now there's another problem when it rains, I mean Rain. The water in this Laguna-bathtub can flow to one outlet only: the river Pasig. This river meanders thru Metro Manila and divides it in two parts, flooding the lower districts during the monsoons.

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--It was a big house I rented, There was it's ground floor, having lots of stuff piled up belonging to the house owner.A caretaker had his room somewhere there. He had his own entrance. My floor was huge, having a wide living, an open kitchen and two large bedrooms and a luxurious bathroom, marble pavement all over.

It had a nice view but the garden needed some attention.

My Belgium friend was impressed saying: “not bad at all”. Better believe that, compared with his former lodgings in central Manila.

Paul seemed to be relaxed at the place and even smoked less without the movie-stress. He came up with a proposition to rent one of the rooms to share in the costs. I was glad too, cos my rent was a monthly 2,500 pesos !! So I passed him my spare key and told him: “You're living here now man.” I couldn't have dreamed of the sudden reward he came with. He asked me what I was up to the next month, and if I was interested to do a bit part or stunts in a local movie.

I had ears to that.

That's how my second movie “The Firebird Conspiracy” came to me.

read more

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A marvelous tribute to Michael Jackson

I started to watch with some reserve but all of a sudden tears were running down my cheeks , there are elements of all kind of emotions in it and they got to me. Thank you my Pinoy inmate 'friends' for this unforgettable event. Hope you are all free soon, cause there are more criminals, idiots and fools 'outmate' than inmate !!!!

Heart-attack or cardiac arrest ?

A cardiac arrest, also known as cardiopulmonary arrest or circulatory arrest, is the abrupt cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively during systole.^[1]
A cardiac arrest is different from (but may be caused by) a heart attack or myocardial infarction, where blood flow to the still-beating heart is interrupted (as in cardiogenic shock).
"Arrested" blood circulation prevents delivery of oxygen to all parts of the body. Cerebral hypoxia, or lack of oxygen supply to the brain, causes victims to lose consciousness and to stop normal breathing, although agonal breathing may still occur. Brain injury is likely if cardiac arrest is untreated for more than five minutes,^[2] although new treatments such as induced hypothermia have begun to extend this time.^[3][4] To improve survival and neurological recovery immediate response is paramount.^[5]
Cardiac arrest is a medical emergency that, in certain groups of patients, is potentially reversible if treated early enough (See "reversible causes" below). When unexpected cardiac arrest leads to death this is called sudden cardiac death (SCD).^[1] The primary first-aid treatment for cardiac arrest is cardiopulmonary resuscitation (commonly known as CPR) which provides circulatory support until availability of definitive medical treatment, which will vary dependent on the rhythm the heart is exhibiting, but often requires defibrillation.

The chances you get hit by an attack increase when you: smoke, drink alcohol, have overweight, have a wrong diet, (at that moment diabetes sees an opportunity to join the party). Of course there are many more factors that cause you to get a bad health. Air pollution, bad mood, stress, private circumstances, work etc.

Be aware it's not just the heart that will be affected. Liver, pancreas, lungs, intestines, kidneys and all the other organs and glands will receive their share.....

A smile, a laughter, love, peace, sports and correct food just might get you on the right side of the line and prevent you to get ill.
It's great to see someone smile, it's even better to hear them laught. What's wrong with loving eachother instead of hating.... Then peace will be the result. Sports will keep you moving and I tell you: it's no punishment to eat the right fruits and foods.
Cayenne peppers have proven to be very effective, and there are more remedies to benefite your heart. 
 Check on the next link to health problems.
water-hot-water-and-heart-attack

Often diabetes patients believe they suffered a heartattack but were the symptoms caused by a Hypo.

Hypoglecemia causes symptoms similar to those of an anxiety attack:
sweating, nervousness, shaking, faintness, palpitations, and hunger. More severe hypoglycemia reduces the sugar supply to the brain, causing dizziness, fatigue, weakness, headaches, inability to concentrate, confusion, inappropriate behavior that can be mistaken for drunkenness, slurred speech, blurred vision, seizures, and coma. Severe and prolonged hypoglycemia may permanently damage the brain.

Symptoms can begin slowly or suddenly, progressing from mild discomfort to severe confusion or panic within minutes. Sometimes, people who have had diabetes for many years (especially if tightly controlled) are no longer able to sense the early symptoms of hypoglycemia, and faintness or even coma may develop without any other warning.