By Ed Briggs, on March 8th, 2010
Leaving Barstow is about people feeling and being trapped in their life situations but still trying to rise above them. Mostly it is about 18-year old Andrew, played by Kevin Sheridan who also wrote the the screenplay. Andrew is smart and promising but seems tied to his mother’s problems and doomed to live the life of an underachiever in Barstow, California. His teacher is trying to change that but literally dies while trying. 
Andrew is shy, a virgin, and mostly a loner except for his best friend, Carlos. Andrew’s mother, a widow, likes younger men and brings them home for the night on a regular basis. Andrew’s night time refuge is to turn up the radio and listen to a late night radio talk show. His glimmer of hope is an unanticipated romance, his first, with a local waitress from the restaurant where his mother also works. Andrew’s final dilemma is that he cannot stay in Barstow with his mother and first love and still fulfill the dreams his teacher inspired.
The moving speech in which his teacher/mentor described in great detail his risk of settling for a life of mediocrity in Barstow must have weighed heavily upon Andrew. To the end you keep wondering if he will or if he won’t leave Barstow.
As storytelling, this film is both moving and insightful. The acting is believable and quite adequate to carry the quite ingenious plot. Although the ending is a little sudden and forced (a common fault), it is easily forgiven. Leaving Barstow is well worth the 89 minute investment.
Watch the trailer for Leaving Barstow.
By Ed Briggs, on February 22nd, 2010
To frame my thoughts about A Song for Martin, I painfully recall taking my 90-year-old college professor father to buy a pair of pants. Dad did not believe he needed the pants, but he went along at my insistence. He took the selection into the dressing room. I stood at the door, waiting. Dad emerged with pants in hand and took me to be a salesman. He began to inform me that the store should be ashamed to charge so much for pants like these, and he was not about to buy them. I remember his confusion, something like fright, when I said that I was his son, Edward, and not a salesman. The pain and embarrassment of that moment was shared by us both. More of “Good Movies: A Song for Martin” »
By Ed Briggs, on February 14th, 2010
I’ve used GPS since the early days when they degraded the signals to keep non-military uses from being as accurate. I’ve had several automobile units and my present unit is a Garmin Nuvi. What I’d like to do in this article is provide non-users with a good idea of what this technology provides, and to give some useful tips to others based on my practical experience. More of “GPS In Your Car – Find Your Way Anywhere” »
By Ed Briggs, on February 13th, 2010
Anyone who loves war and hates anti-war movies should avoid Joyeux Noel. Although it is not anti-war overtly, but it undermines the “us good people against them bad people” premise of wars. It tells the story of events that occurred in 1914 as German and Allied troups faced each other across their trenches on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. These are sometimes called “The Christmas Truce of 1914.” More of “Good Movies: Joyeux Noel” »
By Ed Briggs, on February 10th, 2010
This is not a cry for help, but we are having a lot of winter this winter in the Washington D.C. and Mid-Atlantic region. Up to 250,000 homes have been without power, including my home and neighborhood. A man who works with me has been out of power for nearly a week. We are breaking the all-time snowfall record of 54 inches for one winter. The air is white with it just now and blizzard-force winds are blowing it sideways. We have the heat turned up and the candles and flashlights laid out and ready. There have been discussions about portable generators and other preparations. More of “Take Care of Your Snow Plow Driver and He Will Take Care of You” »
By Ed Briggs, on February 4th, 2010
I went out running through the neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon. I heard the sound of helicopters overhead and discovered they were spraying. I had heard about the spraying on the radio. It was to kill something they wanted to kill. More of “Advice Not Taken” »
By Ed Briggs, on February 1st, 2010
Lance Armstrong bristled. He bristled when someone implied that it’s easy for him climb steep mountains on a bicycle. And not just climbing, but climbing fast. Did they believe him when he told about his legs burning and his lungs bursting? He said what about it? It doesn’t get any easier, it just gets faster. More of “When More Seems Like Less” »
By Ed Briggs, on January 31st, 2010
Gerry and I were married for 22 years. The following is from her Memorial Service in our hometown of Maryville, Tennessee. More of “Happy Memories of Gerry Briggs: 1936-2006” »
By Ed Briggs, on January 30th, 2010
I was five years old at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. I was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom would later enlist in the army and be killed fighting in France. More of “A Small Southern Town in World War II” »
The Wariness of Crows
We feed the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and other visiting animals such as foxes and possums and raccoons on occasion. We try to provide special nourishment during snows and blizzards, such as we have been having lately. Our usual birds are the doves, blue jays, various woodpeckers, cardinals, sparrows, finches, grackles, and others. But for the last few days we have had gangs of crows, sometimes numbering in the dozens. They sit in the distant trees and swoop in when the coast is clear. They are beautifully black against the white snow. When Dylan Thomas described night time in his mythical town of Milkwood as “crow-black,” he was using an apt image. More of “The Wariness of Crows” »