Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Max Dugan Returns

Celina and I are moving to Washington in just 17 short days, so we decided to have a garage sale. Her grandmother offered up her garage for said sale. While customers rummaged through some crap and ignored other crap, I noticed a VHS tape with three movies recorded on to it. One of which being, 'Max Dugan Returns'. I myself had never heard of this movie before. I consider myself a movie buff and there are a lot of random ass movies that I like that no one has ever heard of. Like Bill Murray's underrated crime caper, 'Quick Change'. Celina's grandma went on to rave about 'Max Dugan Returns', calling it one of her favorite movies. I brushed it off and really had no desire to seek out this movie.

Skip ahead two days and I am browsing Netflix in the morning before having to go to work. Wouldn't ya know it, Max Dugan pops up in the comedies genre. It was random as hell to say the least. I had no choice but to watch it. In short, 'Max Dugan Returns' is a simple 80s movie starring Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland, and a pre-Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick. The movie is about an elderly ex-con and absentee Father that comes back into his daughter's life in order to both make amends with her and be a part of his grandson's life. Max Dugan also brings with him a briefcase full of money that may or may not have been legally acquired. The movie didn't WOW me, really. It was good, not great. I did appreciate the screenplay, and I think that's mostly due to it being a Neil Simon script. 

What's strangest about this situation is the fact that 'Max Dugan Returns' has been on Netflix since October. So why is Netflix bringing it to my attention 7 months later? If I had googled the movie beforehand, I wouldn't find this happenstance particularly eventful. But the fact of the matter is, I never mentioned the film to anyone. The conspiracy theorist in me immediately assumed that Netflix hacked my phone and recorded my conversation through the microphone. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. I sometimes forget that synchronicity itself is crazy, crazy stuff. 



-Dom

Saturday, October 24, 2015

9 Tater Tots

So the other day, Celina and I are eating tater tots and watching America's Funniest Home Videos like the true patriots that we are. We both put some tots on our plates. I left some on the baking sheet for later. About 5 minutes later, I overhear a clip from the show of a dog spitting out 9 tater tots. This prompts me to look at the baking sheet again. There were exactly 9 tater tots left over.


Extra tidbit:
Ore-Ida created tater tots. They also sell this product. Don't food products usually come in even numbers?



-Dom

Sunday, July 19, 2015

My Catholic Epiphanic Vision Quest in Copperopolis

First off, I'm not sure if it took place in Copperopolis, CA but I'm pretty sure it was in that region. 


When I was 14 years old, my Mother was persistent as ever to get me to become more involved in our parish. St. Anthony's to be exact. She somehow convinced me to go on a teen retreat into the mountains in order to solidify my mushy, unreliable faith. Normally I'd flat out refuse and lock myself in a closet and swallow the key, but since my cousin of the same age was going, I thought, "Fine. Let's get it over with." 


On a Friday morning in the summer (I think), the kids signed up for the teen retreat gather with their families in the parking lot of the church. Our bags are packed and we're ready to roll. I remember participating in a group prayer before we hit the road. 

Once we get to the campground, my memories get hazy. I remember sleeping on the top bunk, eating eggs for Saturday morning's breakfast, and being discouraged when the girl I decided was the prettiest and most attainable decided to cling to the handsome, athletic Hispanic guy with the infatuation with FUBU and golf visors. 


One night at the retreat, we were brought into a dimly lit room where noise was permitted. One by one, we participated in a mass hypnotism of some sort. i remember it being my turn and being surrounded by three women. One behind me, one in front and one on the side. The lady in front recited a prayer (chant) while the palm of her hand pressed against my forehead. Eventually, she would gently press my head back and the two other women would safely guide me to the ground. Now normally when this kind of thing happens, the victims involved are so overwhelmed with emotion and God knows what else, that they really do pass out for a few seconds. I, however did not pass out and decided to act like I did (years later I did the same exact thing when participating in a hypnotism show at the County Fair). 


The next day at camp we were split into groups of 5 or 6 and had a conversation with one of the counselors. One of the objectives was to get every teen to admit something they feel bad about at the moment. It was basically a communal confession. When it got to me, I reached for something bad. Honestly, I wasn't that bad of a kid at the time. I didn't do anything too crazy. I mean, I had tried pot and alcohol but that was something I wasn't willing to share with a bunch of goody goodies. I ended up discussing a girl named Missy I briefly dated for three days but ended up deciding to just be friends with. I felt bad about the way I treated her and the situation but chalked it up to, "This is what a high school relationship is." 

Fast forward to Sunday when we returned to St. Anthony's, just in time for evening mass. It's a bit embarrassing to admit but I was "awakened". Whatever it was that those spellcasters did to me, it worked (albeit briefly). I embraced my Mother and cried into her shoulder. I had seen the light. Finally, my Mother got the good ol' religious boy she always dreamed of.


After church, my Mother and I, along with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins went out to eat at Foster Freeze (A restaurant we never go to). Sure enough, who do I see at the joint? Missy. I remember being very disoriented when this happened. How could it be possible that the one person I mention on a religious retreat is now standing in front of me. Also, making it more than a coincidence was the fact that she and I both lived in the town over from where we were eating. I took this as a definitive sign from God that not only was he real, he was watching over me. I took this unprecedented moment as an opportunity to apologize to Missy for being such a bonehead. My conscious was clear and I felt lighter than I ever had before.


How amazing, right? I naively mistook synchronicity for God. But maybe there's more of a connection between the two than previously thought. Synchronicity is a reminder from the ethereal realm that there is something at work that is greater than you, I, and everyone else combined. It was truly a momentous occasion.

Anyways, Catholicism did not stick and I eventually went back to my normal ways of thinking. I have my older brothers to thank for that. They wasted no time in explaining to me logically how the religion doesn't quite work for certain minds.

Either way, what a gas!

-Dom

Saturday, June 27, 2015

This Week in the Weird World of Sync...

This past week will go down in the annals of time as a huge milestone in modern society. On June 26, 2015, same-sex-marriage was legalized in every single state in America. This fight for basic human equality has been raging for years now. It's only been a day since the decision and it already feels strange to look back and wonder why this was ever a debate in the first place. In my mind there is no legitimate, logical reason to be against gay marriage. When you oppose the rights of others to marry, you oppose human rights in general. Who the hell is anyone to say that someone of a specific sect should not be allowed to do something that you ARE allowed to do. It is by far one of the most evil, arrogant ways to look at someone who is "unlike" you. It's even more perplexing that people are against something that literally has no effect on you.



So on to the first sync I experienced this week. It started with an observation that is only relevant to myself and the people in my Anthropology course. I find it very fitting that the week I'm studying 'Marriage Customs' is the same week that gay marriage is legalized.


Last week, another shooting occurred in the U.S. Just when you think they are a thing of the past, Dylann Roof shatters your expectations. Roof open fires on a predominantly black church in South Carolina. When Roof's pictures on the internet come to light, it is revealed that he has a deep affinity for the confederate flag (no shock there). 

So now there is a focus on this flag that is known for being synonymous with hate. Rational minds want the flag taken down, while bigots and homophobes defend its historical significance. 


Within the time span of just a few days, our attention is pulled from one end of the spectrum to the other. The flag of hate is symbolically "taken down" and replaced with the rainbow flag, which is obviously synonymous with love. When same sex marriage is legalized, your internet feed is instantly changed. Instead of the confederate flag plastering your point of view, it is arguably, systematically replaced by the rainbow flag. Positive replaces the negative swiftly.


Besides the flag of love waving high and proud, a hashtag floods the internet. #LoveWins. Almost a direct message saying: 'We Fought Hate and Won!" It reminds me of the Martin Luther King quote, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."



Now, it is no coincidence to me that on the same day same sex marriage is legalized, celebrity, Courtney Love tweets about being stuck in the middle of the Paris Uber Strike.


This entire sequence of events reminded me that synchronicity never takes a day off. One last thing I want to mention is some choice words I chose to use throughout this post. Words such as synchronicity (duh), synonymous, symbolically, systematically


We are witnessing firsthand, unity. It is a slow and uphill battle but you can't deny that we as a people are evolving a little more every single day. It's always a great thing to wake up to great news and it feels like it never seems to happen anymore. We can only hope that this is a sign of great things to come. 

Onward & Upward!

-Dom


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Brotherly Love

My brother Mario sent me this video earlier today. The combination of the names Mario and Dominic seems pretty unlikely so I took this as a synchronistic event. 

My older brother has always been a protector. I've always looked up to him and always will. Throughout my childhood, he would tell me, "If anyone fucks with you, PLEASE let me know."




-Dom

Monday, May 19, 2014

Lunatic for Love

Here are the facts.

I moved to New Mexico last year.

To a town called Los Lunas (Moon)

I then met a girl who lived on Moon Street.

Here name is Celina (Greek for Moon)

And then I fell in love with her.

Yes, that's a moon on my t-shirt


Good play, Universe.



-Dom

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Dos Amigos

Back in early 2003, I wasn’t intently aware of synchronicity. To me, things may just turn out to be a “coincidence”. Now I feel coincidences do not exist. The deeper I dive into the subject, the more I discover about myself and the world around me.
It was the beginning of 2003 when I met my best friend, John. On a day like any other, the two of us were hanging out with our mutual friends, the Shockeys. I wanted pizza. John also wanted pizza. No one else did. That was the first time John and I ever spent time together, one on one. We walked down the street to Ripon’s number one parlor, Pizza Plus. We got our slices and began to learn about one another. I explain to him how before meeting the Shockeys, I had two friends that weren’t the nicest of people. Two kids from the “rich” part of town. I myself being from the “not so rich” part of town. John went on to tell me that he came from a very similar position. His two old friends were from that same privileged part of Ripon. It was about this time when out of the blue, the ex-friends that I was just discussing, walked right up to our booth.
This occurred at a time when synchronicities just came and went throughout my life. I never entertained the thought of these unusual happenstances for very long. Over the years, John became the best friend I’ve ever had the pleasure of having.  And over time, I began to realize that more synchronicities existed between us. Such as…

-We both have older brothers who were in the same graduating class. (In fact, they performed music together before John and I ever met.
-Both our parents got divorced around the same time. Our Dads also got remarried/started having more kids at the same period.
-Two interests that complement each other are prevalent in our lives. Film (Me) and Music (John). I was the filmmaker in high school while John was the musician.
-We both love pizza (but who doesn’t, am I right?)

At this juncture in my life, I’m convinced that if souls are indeed eternal, then John and I’s have
been friends long before this current incarnation that we are experiencing. Friends are an important aspect of this life. Generally, people feel the inherent need to get along with their blood relatives. To find someone from a different walk of life that you choose to associate with, is a tremendous feeling. And I already knew a long time ago that I will continue to be friends with John until the end of this life and the end of the ones proceeding it.





-Dom

Monday, January 13, 2014

QT's Western

Saturday, January 11, 2014 3:41 pm

My friend John sends a group text to his brother Joseph and I about his recent 'Best Films of 2013' e-mail.  We all get in to a conversation about the films on the list, plus other movies.

4:20 pm

Joseph mentions how he likes to write things on paper instead of on a computer.
I mention how Quentin Tarantino does the same thing.
John points out that QT's next film is going to be a western.
A conversation about Tarantino ensues.



5:16 pm

After checking a frequently visited site, Slashfilm.com, I notice an article about said western.
The story appeared on the site around 4:20 pm.




SYNCHROTASTIC!

-Dom

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Is Hollywood Spying on Me? PART II

Take this as you will...

This is 'Yesteryear':

YESTERYEAR FULL MOVIE

A film I wrote and filmed in June of 2012.

And this is a trailer for 'Welcome to Yesterday':


Which began filming in June of 2013.

I do believe that some ideas simply exist in the ether. And sometimes, two different people or sets of people can tap into them. Either way, this is pretty weird.

-Dom


Thursday, December 26, 2013

Old Zealand

Wow, it's been a few months since I've written anything. I've had my fair share of synchronicities and weird happenstances since my last post, but nothing so mind boggling that I felt the urge to run to the computer and blog to my heart's content. Until two days ago.

12/23/13: I'm sitting in my girlfriend's apartment, waiting for her to be off of work. I decide to pass the time with netflix. I'm a fan of Joe Pesci but I have only seen a small chunk of his filmography. One movie that completely passed me by was 1994's 'Jimmy Hollywood' starring Pesci and Christian Slater. Since it was available online, I gave it a shot, what the hell. The movie was okay. Nothing too funny or exciting. I only got about 30 minutes in when I got distracted by other things. 


12/24/13: While at my girlfriend's parent's house for Christmas, I decide to text my fellow movie-loving brother, Nick about 'Jimmy Hollywood'. I was curious if he had ever seen it.  He responds with,

"Yea. Best line: "Is there an Old Zealand?""

This line must have occurred in the movie after the 30 minute mark, because I didn't hear it until Nick said something.

Two hours later...

Nick texts me again. This time he tells me that his girlfriend just asked him, out of the blue, "Is there an Old Zealand?"

Mind = Blown. 
 And by the way, there is an Old Zealand. It's just called Zeeland and it's a province in the Netherlands. You really do learn something new everyday.



This will be my final post of the year of the snake (Unless of course something truly amazing occurs within the next week). 2013 started off a little rocky for me but ended up extremely euphoric. I can not wait to see what the year of the horse has in store. YEEEEE-HAAAWWW!

JUST FOR GOOD MEASURE:
'Jimmy Hollywood' was released in theaters on 3-30-94


-Dom

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A Matter of Minutes

Sunday evening. September 29th, 2013.

I rented Twilight Zone The Movie earlier that day and when I came home from work, I wanted to watch a random episode from the 80s version of the show.

I searched YouTube for "Twilight Zone 80s". One of the top videos in the results was an episode called 'A Matter of Minutes'. To be honest, the main reason I chose to watch this one was because it was on the shorter side.

It turned out to be a pretty intriguing episode. In a nutshell, each minute is it's own place and a married couple get trapped in 11:37. You can watch the episode here: 'A MATTER OF MINUTES'.

While watching it, I was planning on posting it to this blog, but it was when a 33 popped up that confirmed it all.



Fun Fact: 
a 2013 also shows up on the screenshot

And then a second confirmation came up when I opened a new window on YouTube, only to see this:



On top of all this, it turned 9:33pm while it all went down.

Another Fun Fact:
The episode premiered on my Dad's birthday; 3 weeks after I was born. He turned 33.

-Dom

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Lego

I was listening to a recent episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' last night while driving. The guest was Duncan Trussell. Brian Redban was also on. They all got in to a conversation about super gonorrhea and other things capable of killing humans. They went on to say that pretty much anything will kill at least one person.

Joe: Aspirin kills people-

Duncan: Pencils-

Joe: Peanut butter.



It was at this point that I thought in my head: 
It'd be funny if they kept going with this and either Redban or Duncan said: Legos.

Just as a joke of course.

Well it was about 30 seconds later when Duncan says the following:
"Guaranteed someone's died from Legos..."

Pretty weird.

Listen to the full episode here.



-Dom

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Holy Fucking Shit!

My Mother is a saint. I love her dearly.
But truth be told, she's usually in bed by 7 on any given night.
So to get a text from her at 9:42 her time, 10:42 mine, is strange enough.

So I'm sitting on my bed in New Mexico while she's in Lake Tahoe.

I'm listening to a song my friend John turned me on to called Clean Elvis by Dan Reeder.



I'm at the part where he sings the words..."I will always love you"

It's at this PRECISE moment in time that my Mom decides to text me out of the blue to say, verbatim: 
"I will always love you!"



WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?!?

-Dom

P.S. I love you too Mom!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Candy & the Green Chile Aroma

Long time no post, but have no fear, for this week was full of intrigue and esoteric goodies.

I recently got into Scott Onstott's work. A very enlightening individual.

I had the pleasure of downloading his interview on Red Ice Radio.

Something he mentioned that really piqued my interest was the connection between the speed of light and the location of the Great Pyramids.



It seems that no matter how hard you might try to ignore it, there will always be patterns, nearly everywhere.

So this morning, my Father and I are discussing a recent Area 51 disclosure. If you can even call it that. I mentioned how the really interesting aspects of all this "Hidden Information" is the stuff that people know but are sworn to secrecy. Either literally or just by their own fear or confusion.  I was thinking how the REALLY juicy forbidden fruit is truly unknowable. 

Fast forward a few hours. I'm at work, carrying some boxes to a woman's car.  Her name is Candy.

The grocery store next to my work is roasting green chile (A New Mexican tradition).  Candy, perhaps just making small talk, says: "You're probably too young to know this, but that's how San Francisco smelled in the 60s"  Now I assumed Frisco in the 60s smelled more like pot and jizz, but that's just me.  She goes on to say how she worked for the army in the presidio and attended UC Berkeley and briefly touched on how she knew about some military knowledge. Namely advanced technology. She told me how she would hear about government funded technology and then a year later see a film, featuring said technology.  The one movie she mentioned was "Meteor" starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood.  A movie I will be watching later tonight.  Candy goes on to talking about the original Star Trek series. Mentioning how they had doors that opened when you walked up to them, and now every business has the same thing. Candy: "Sometimes, someone has an idea for something but doesn't know how to physically create it. They put this idea out there and someone else is able to create it."  Back to her stint at UC Berkeley, of course she was an Egyptology major.  So this is when I ask her about the speed of light correlation. She had heard of it before and said, "There are a lot of strange things in the world. My husband and I used to own a ranch next to the desert where the "UFO" apparently crashed in Roswell. Sometimes you can't avoid it."


Yes, I had to use the poster that featured the WTC
It's always refreshing, being able to talk to someone about these subjects. My co-workers had little to no interest in my conversation with her and simply responded with a "Well, there's a lot of crazy people in this town."

The problem is, eccentricity is not necessarily insanity. I believed what she said. There was such a confidence to her voice and she didn't seem the least bit nutty. 



-Dom


Thursday, May 23, 2013

A bit further down the rabbit hole I go

I'll start this one off just assuming that no one has read my maiden post or the ones following it. Here's a brief rundown of my experience with the numbers 33 and 333

It began in the mid-later part of 2002. I was a 16 year old sophomore in a small town in the valley of California. I did have access to the internet but this was a time when the internet we know was in diapers. You couldn't just look up anything like you can now. I can't say the exact moment it happened, but at some point in this time of my life, I began seeing the numbers 33 and 333 everywhere. It would always show up on receipts, the back of sports jerseys, randomly spray painted on a baseball dugout at my Mother's old elementary school in Belmont, CA.  There was a point where I realized, okay, I'm seeing this much more often than I should. I told my family and friends about it but no one seemed to have much interest in it. Some thought I was exaggerating. Others believed I was purposely looking for them. My classmates at the time scared me into thinking that March 3, 2003 (3-3-03) would be the day of my death. That date came along and nothing happened. After that, the numbers seemed to go away. Possibly because I was trying to ignore it or just going through a transitional period of my life when the real world was about to approach. It wasn't until about 5 years later that the numbers returned in full force. And now, in 2013, I still see them daily. Now that the internet is a functionable resource tool, I felt it was time to finally get to the bottom of this weirdness.  To my surprise, it turned out that this phenomenon is not totally uncommon. People have reported for a while that they too see patterns in numbers. 333 is a spiritual or angel number if you will. The following are some common interpretations:

Seeing any repeating number is a sign that there is a current issue in your life and the numbers are a sign to get you to pay attention. It is a persons subconscious trying to make them aware of something consciously.

Number 333 resonates with the vibrations and energies of number 3, appearing three times, tripling its influences. 

"This sign indicates that your Spirit Guides agree with your thoughts and feelings and could be interpreted as a Cosmic 'Yes!' to questions you have asked or ideas you may have."

So let's get in to the "3" aspect of all of this. Here's where it gets a little weird.
I am the 3rd son to my Mother.
She is the 3rd child of her Mother.
I was raised on 3rd street.
I was born on January 3rd.
These are all objective facts. Whether or not they mean anything beyond a simple coincidence, I may never well know.

But it doesn't stop there.
This is a card my Mother had to fill out on the day I entered this material realm. 


 Notice the room number is 330A. It was scratched out and replaced with a 321B. I asked my Mom why this was. She doesn't remember why she wrote anything the way she did. Maybe I was born in the 33 room and placed in 32 with the other newborns? I can't say. The fact of the matter is, a 33 was written down on the day of my birth. 

After I found this card while looking through a box of old memories, I found the certificate for my baptism.


The envelope having a 33 in the zip code for where my family lived in 1986.


And the baptism itself occurring on March 30 (3-30).

But it doesn't stop there.


 That's a 333 on the back of my social security card. Ya know, that vital piece of documentation given to you when you become an official resident of this reality?

I feel like these are all big, cosmic signs that at this point, are just beating me over the head, screaming, "PAY ATTENTION!" But to what?

I suppose it's anyones guess at this point. A part of me feels like the answers are all inside me and it's only a matter of knowing where and how to look. 

In a few days, I will be moving back to New Mexico for a 3rd time. Hoping that it will be a charm. To a house with an address reading 1133
I hit a very low point in my life last month, and things got scary. Thoughts of suicide had entered into my head for the first time in my life. It was a shock to my system and really jolted me awake. I can safely say now that those thoughts are so ridiculously frightening that I will do whatever I can to make sure I never have them again. The one thing that made me not go through with a very devastating and fatal decision was the note I would leave behind. I realized while thinking about writing it, that it would be too long. There are so many people in my life that I appreciate more than words could ever express. There are so many thoughts and feelings I want to share, but haven't yet. It made me realize that if that's the case, then how depressed can I really be? I also came to the conclusion that maybe sometimes, you have to hit your lowest point before you can begin climbing back to the top. The morning after I had these morbid feelings infect my consciousness, I found this on the windshield of my car...


Inside the paper was a 10$ gift card to Safeway. I guess it's important to note too that I've never received anything like this before. For whatever reason, the person who decided to place this on my car felt like mine was more worthy than the 12 others cars on my street? 

It is undeniable to me, that there is something going on in this world far beyond any of our comprehension. Perhaps these subtle signs are just glimpses into the true reality. 
What that reality is...is anyone's guess.

-Dom