Oliver Stone's take on Hitler and Stalin by: Nikky Raney

The 63-year-old director, Oliver Stone, told the London Sunday Times that "Jewish domination of the media...Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years."

Stone is creating a 10 hour TV special called "Oliver Stone's Secret History of America."

As if the Jewish remark wasn't enough to make Stone look bad he continues to say:

"Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply."

Stone believes that what Hitler did to the Russians was far worse than what he did to the Jewish people.

Stone didn't stop there; he remarks on Josef Stalin:

"Stalin has a complete other story. Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any person."

However, Stone understands that what he said was offensive and has since apologized.

"In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret."

Time will tell how this all plays out once his TV special airs.

(Photo courtesy of Parade.com)

On UK Film Council campaign, Hatchet 2 horror movie, Tron trailer

Save the UK Film Council. Just on the heels of Comic Con and my Friday with the Hatchet 2 cast and crew, comes the news that Britain is considering cutting the UK Film Council. It's one of many ideas that's part of Britain's wrong-headed austerity policy. History teaches us it's better to deficit spend, but people don't learn so well. Instead, Britain takes aim at movies and The UK Film Council.

Britain should keep the UK Film Council as it's key part of the UK's presence in the healthy entertainment industry. The decision by the Department of Media, Culture And Sport is wrong. Moreover, it should see how the movie industry is one of the best systems for the expression of creativity that then realizes a business component. Just see the interviews with Adam Green and the cast and crew of Hatchet 2, made during Comic Con in San Diego in a trip by this blogger and sponsored by The Kings Inn Hotel.





And of course, who can forget the debut of the Tron Legacy cast and the new movie trailer:



Just because all of this seems like fun doesn't mean it's not business, or that it doesn't have an economic impact. The job multiplier for the movie industry is around 4, which means that for every one job in the movie, there are four more created, considering distributors and retailers, lawyers, publicists, and artists. While one may point to the Internet as a threat, it's actually not. It's just another way of doing some of the same distribution jobs; it doesn't happen by accident.

By cutting The UK Film Council, Britain runs the risk of choking off the growth of reborn film companies like Hammer Films, which made its debut at Comic Con San Diego. Hammer is a UK product with a long history and needs the UK Film Council's involvement to grow in the 21st Century.

Save the UK Film Council. Cutting it is a mistake.

Adam Green on Hatchet 2 - how the horror movie came to be

Adam Green is a determined genius. The creator of Dark Sky Films Hatchet and the upcoming Hatchet 2, said (in a limo on the way to Comic Con and part of this blogger's trip sponsored by The Kings Inn Hotel, San Diego) that the horror movies series, which features the murderous exploits of Victor Crowley, was in his head from childhood days, and wanted to get it into the big screen, but a series of rejections forced him to the point of writing the script from scratch in just three days.

Now, with Hatchet 2, Adam Green has a second shot at building on a cult classic released in 2006. The best way to describe the Hatchet series is "old school American 80s horror" where teeth and gums are pulled out, body parts are thrown, and general bloody chaos is the order of the day.

In our limo ride to the San Diego Convention Center where Comic Con was held, Adam talked about how Hatchet 2 was created, but what, or who, took over the conversation was his general family of Danielle Harris, who plays MaryBeth, screen legends R.A. Mihailoff, and Kane Hodder (Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, and Jason from Friday The 13th, who play Trent and Victor Crowley respectively (and Victor Crowley's father, too, in the case of Kane), A.J. Bowen, Tom Holland, and Jennifer Blanc-Biehl, who, while not in Hatchet 2, is set to start filming The Victim with her good friend Danielle Harris, next week.

Together, and you see this in the video above, these guys are a total riot. Their chemistry is why I think Hatchet 2's going to be a hit. That glue, the bond they have is evident on screen. Hey, if it was all an act for the camera, it was a good one. But I know for a fact that was not the case; they're really good, down to earth people.

This is the second video in a series. The first one I just had to get out first, because it's the funniest and most provocative of the series. Eventually, we'll get to the more serious videos, but these "Hatchet 2 limo ride videos" you'll see only here.  

On John Bolz, John Carroll, Perez Hilton, blogging, and making money

John Bolz is the number on Google Trend as this blog post is written. The problem is no one knows why. But one has to use John Bolz and "grover cleveland alexander" to generate traffic, views, and ad revenue for their blogs.

When San Francisco Chronicle Columnist and all-around good man John Carroll wrote about bloggers and wondered how they make money (in "the blog dilemma" which should have been designed to be found in a search), he looked at it, it seemed unknowingly, from the perspective of one who's used to working for someone else.

Perez Hilton shows the way

Perez makes a business of hounding Miley

The most successful bloggers own their own blogs: Perez Hilton comes to mind. Now, if you're going to tell me what you think of Perez' content, you're not going to learn anything, so you're not the person I'm trying to reach.

Perez Hilton owns his own blog, and yet he's "multi-platform:" he has millions of Twitter followers. His videos can be found on his own YouTube channel, where, like me, Perez is a YouTube Partner. That means he earns revenue from his video views. He's got over 62,000 YouTube subscribers as of this writing. Me? I'm just over 5,000 YouTube subscribers, but hey, I love every one of them.

But my point is Perez has his own channel and his own "brand" that's not all in one place.  Regardless of what you think about Perez Hilton, you know what you're going to get when you visit his blog. That "brand" has led to offers of up to $20 million for his blog.

What John Carroll missed is a look at the blogger who's an entrepreneur. Before the days of journalists looking for work as bloggers, there were journalists who did blogging, specifically Justin Hall.

Hall's called a pioneer blogger, but the point here is that Justin did his own thing as a blogger and gained fame doing it.

I encourage people who blog at Zennie62.com, or any of the blogs in the Zennie62 network, to maintain or start their own blogs and cross post their work to mine. I want each person to grow their own online value. That's what John Carroll, ever the good man, misses. But it's also my fault for not following up with Carroll on my desire to video interview him

See, John Carroll is a star. Like many long-time journalists and columnists he has a following, but he's not "branded" in the way Perez Hilton is. He's not on video or mobile devices. He doesn't have his own widget.  He should have all of this, and more.

In short, John Carroll doesn't have that set of platforms that, added together with respect to traffic, he can sell for money, or make money from. It's a welcome direction given the shrinking print media industry.

The problem is the death of print media is forcing people online, where they're quite literally lost in Internet space. Many people: journalists, publicists, and public relations specialists, are totally lost.

And they're not helped by those who are in the same professions who take money from them with these seminars and panel discussions, claiming that they know the Internet way, when in point of fact, those same persons don't even have a clear Internet presence and brand. So, it becomes the blind leading the blind, and both eventually get frustrated either because they aren't making real money or the people have realized they don't know and have stopped paying them.

If you are asked to pay over $100 to attend a social media "how-to" function, run, don't walk, to the nearest exit. Don't do it.

Just do what Former San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Glenn Dickey did, and at my pushing, about five years ago: he started his own website called Glenn Dickey.com. Plus, he's at Examiner.com And while I think he could improve on his Internet presence and website monetization by a ton, he's at least created an online home that has some value (the paywall's a bad idea). The Examiner gives him another platform that helps drive awareness of the "Glenn Dickey" brand and thus, get more traffic.

So, John Carroll, you can make money blogging, but you've got to have your own blog and brand. In short, you have to think not in terms of working for someone else, but in terms building your own media business.

Jack Tatum, 61, Oakland Raiders Legend dies: I saw Darryl Stingley hit

Tatum crushes Stingley (NY Times)

Jack Tatum, the Oakland Raiders Legend dies at the young age of 61, and this blogger is shocked: Jack Tatum is one of those people who, as an Oaklander, is like part of your mental furniture; you just expected him to be there, forever.

That's especially true because I saw Darryl Stingley as he was hit by Jack Tatum at the 1978 preseason game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots. I was at Skyline High School at the time (in fact, unbelievably, our 30th reunion is this weekend) and went to the game with my good friend Bill Boyd (who you may remember from my Star Trek video, if you follow this space).

Bill and I were nerds before the term was created. In Bill Boyd's case, he was given to a Monty Python-style of humor: he could sing the "LumberJack Song" on cue. (Well, OK, all of us - me, Bill, Lars Frykman, and Craig Prior on a good day - could.)

Anyway, it was Bill's first pro football game at the Oakland Coliseum - I got the tickets from my Mom, who was friends with Raiders Defensive Tackle Otis Sistrunk and Marvin Upshaw, brother of Oakland Raiders Legend and later NFL Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw at the time - and he was in rare form. When the Oakland Raiderettes Cheerleaders were introduced, Bill stood up in his seat and yelled "SEX! SEX! SEX!" When the Oakland Raiders players came out, he got up and yelled "VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE!" Well, he was right.

The New England Patriots and Darryl Stingley in particular, were having a field day on offense against the Raiders. I got used to seeing Stingley run after the catch with abandon; Tatum put a stop to that.

As I recall, Stingley caught a slant pass and headed up field; I saw a number 32 cross my binoculars, and then a resounding crack. That was it.

The Oakland Coliseum was the quietest it's ever been. Darryl Stingley was down and Bill and I thought he died. That's a wild something to experience, especially when you're a teenager.

Then, after what seemed to be an eternity, they brought out a stretcher, gently lifted Stingley, and took him to an ambulance.

As you know by now, Darryl Stingley was paralyzed.

That event forever changed Jack Tatum and NFL Football. He played with less abandon after that, and it closed a chapter in Oakland Raiders history where the team was considered to have "criminal elements" on it. The charge came from then-Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Chuck Knoll, who's own players had some of the same claims aimed at them...by the Raiders.

Shortly after that event, and entering the 80s, the NFL liberalized defensive contact rules, allowing receivers to run through defenses without being "chucked" beyond five yards, whereas a defender could hit a receiver and knock the person off course before.

That change paved the way for the wide-open NFL of today.

That ended the Jack Tatum era.

Jack Tatum, whom I met once, was from what I recall a quiet and nice person; not at all like his football persona.

He died too young, but his sprit lives on. Perhaps the modern Oakland Raiders will channel his energy into an NFL Championship.

Stay tuned. What a sad day for Oakland sports. Jack Tatum, RIP.

Charles E. Johnson, San Mateo's Tano Capital, invest in India, China

What's interesting to learn about Bay Area venture capital firms, and on the heels of Thursday's TechCrunch Summer Party hosted by August Capital, is that not every one focuses on the United States.

In the case of Tano Capital, the San Mateo, California investment firm founded by Charles E. Johnson, the former President of Franklin Templeton investments, who's its managing director, has its investment interests primarily in India and China.

The firm, established in 2007, started with a few small investments, but then ramped up its activity considerably in 2009. It started with an investment in AltoBeam Technology, a China-based designer of digital TV chipsets. Then Tano placed $2.2 million in TongXue.com, a Chinese-based social network, that's become one of the 50,000 largest websites in the World (and with a really cool animated activity map).

In 2010, Tano Capital's activity increased, to the point that it has now as many deals in play as it did in all of 2009. And Tano's not totally out of the United States in terms of investment deals: it started the Tano Global Hard Assets Fund, which invests in U.S. hard assets.

Tano does all of this from it's offices in San Mateo, Mumbai, Mauritius, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Tianjin.

Terrell Owens is more than just a Reality TV star by: Nikky Raney

Terrell Owens was a well-known football player (former All-Pro receiver) before landing a reality TV show on VH1 (The T.O. Show).

Although some have reported that T.O's career is on the decline he still has hope for the upcoming football season.

The New York Jets are set to possibly be the next to sign Owens, but the Cincinnati Bengals also have their prospects on the star.

Only time will tell which team the star will join, but the fans will definitely be glad to see him back on the field.

(Photo courtesy of Mouth Piece Sports)