The Oscars and the Hollywood Delusion. A New Hope for the Future.

This article is not just about the Oscars, it’s about the unethical practices, immorality, and injustice that is prevalent in all areas of society, which includes the highly influential film and music industry in Hollywood. The movie industry has become very corrupted, with much confusion as to what values should be reflected in motion pictures that would inspire progress in the evolution of human civilization. In an embarrassing moment, that confusion surfaced during the Oscars ceremony when the movie announced as the Best Motion Picture of the Year was not the one that had actually been selected! I don’t think the best film of the year should have been Moonlight, nor should it have been La La Land, nor Manchester By The Sea, nor Hell Or High Water. And though there were other movies nominated for an Oscar that I consider well-done and with valuable messages—Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hidden Figures, Lion, and Arrival to name some—I think the best-picture-of-the-year award should have gone to Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese. Here’s a review I wrote of it:

From the Best Picture, to the Best Actor, to the Best Actress, and down the line, there are very few who win the Oscar (for the various categories) because they are really the “best” in that category. But blah blah blah, people have been contesting these Oscar atrocities for years.

However, I have a few suggestions. For Best Picture there shouldn’t be any Best Picture. There are too many good ones for different reasons. But if you take all of the categories and put them in the choice of “the” best picture, then I think Silence would have won it hands down, including of course Best Director.

Viewing a story on stage and viewing it as a motion picture are two very different experiences, and I think that there should always be that delineation. Though I liked the story of Fences, I thought it was more like a stage play on film and would have liked to have seen the play expanded into being more like an actual motion picture. Being a native of Pittsburgh who grew up in the Uptown area (that has a few hundred years of history), I think the movie should have shown scenes of the more expansive neighborhood rather than just a few settings of inside one home, one yard, and a street scene. I don’t think that is what a motion picture is supposed to be. Yes, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis did a magnificent job of acting, but when people go to see a movie, they want a broad range of visual, cinematography, and not a play that has a limited stage setting.

In my opinion, Moonlight, the film that won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture, had a poorly written script that lacked sufficient dialogue, and in a motion picture, wordless expressions go only so far. I thought that there was also a lack of depth of character development, which makes it difficult to identify with the characters and understand at a deeper level the issues presented in the story.

Although Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone displayed good acting, dancing and musical talent in La La Land, and the film had good choreography, in comparing its theme with the one in Silence, La La Land should be named “La-De-Da” Land (as Diane Keaton’s character said in a Woody Allen movie to state how ridiculous something may be).

I really like Casey Affleck, particularly when he plays what he’s natural in, the tough guy from the street. But in Manchester By The Sea he acted like he didn’t know if he was coming or going. The theme was very sad, and I’m sure it touched the hearts of a lot of people, but it definitely was not an Oscar winner. When comparing the acting of Denzel Washington and the acting of Casey Affleck, Casey has about 30 years to go before he reaches the level of Denzel Washington. Casey even looked embarrassed when he went up to give his Oscar’s acceptance speech and tried to say something honorable for the sake of Denzel’s obvious “What the F?” look on his face, and you can’t blame Denzel for that. As I stated before, I don’t think Fences should have been nominated for Best Picture in the first place, but Denzel most definitely deserved being nominated for best actor.

Hacksaw Ridge was wonderful. It had a lot of things going for it—the messages of spiritual, moral, and physical courage and loyalty to one’s fellows in the face of difficulty; the realism that Director Mel Gibson brought to the film; and the simplicity and purity portrayed by the actor who played the character of the real-person Marine who risked his life to save many others. This film was especially meaningful for me because my own father had fought on Okinawa as a Marine and had even talked of his experiences on Hacksaw Ridge when I was a young boy. Now I know what he went through. Thank you Mel for making this film.

I confess, I really liked Hell Or High Water. I enjoyed the story and the acting, and I loved the interplay of the actors between each other. Hey, in the right setting, tough guys make for good entertainment, especially in a good western. I’ve always liked Jeff Bridges and have enjoyed watching his growth as an actor. So that film would be up there in my book for Best Picture for sure, but not compared to Silence.

Though Hidden Figures has a great message and the acting is good, it is not at the Academy Award level.

Lion was good, but not great, though the story (based on actual events) was wonderful and emotional. As often trailers do, the one for this film makes it out to be much more adventurous than it really is, and so I was set up to view a story about someone going through many adventurous struggles to return to India to find his mother. However, the movie drags out for too long without any real excitement except for a plane trip and thus lost my interest in the middle of the film.

Another movie that is good but not great is Arrival. I think the writers lacked imagination in their design of the extra-terrestrial components. As a long-time reader of The URANTIA Book—which clarifies that though not all mortals from other planets are human, all mortals are upright bipeds with two arms and two legs—I was disappointed in the extra-terrestrials, who looked more like giant squids than mortals of higher intelligence and sensitivity from another world. And I wasn’t too impressed with the spaceships that looked like coneheads on the outside and large empty space on the inside.

Tragically, there are thousands of hopeful actors and actresses who will never have a chance of being considered for an Oscar. They travel to Los Angeles from all over the U.S. and other countries to pursue their dreams of getting into the Hollywood film and music industry. Most never get an opportunity to show their talent in the right setting, and many are taken advantage of by unscrupulous so-called “talent agencies” that are not really talent agencies at all but money grabbers who prey upon the desires of these individuals.

Speaking of music, I think Sting is a good singer and songwriter, but there are probably hundreds of musicians of Sting’s caliber who deserve an opportunity to perform live at the Oscars and sing one of those Best Songs Of The Year. John Legend is no legend in music to me. As a matter of fact, I think he’s pretty mediocre in comparison to other accomplished musicians. I’ve seen better piano players and singers on the streets in Pittsburgh (where I come from). Many very good musicians will never become known to the world because of circumstances in life that block their attempts of being recognized for their talents.

I myself went to Hollywood several times to try to produce my music and get into acting, but I was spun out of Hollywood by the greed that I encountered there and the non-caring of many executives and even some fellow performers in the business, who had no sensitivity and compassion for anyone else but themselves. That is not everybody, but it is most of them.

There needs to be a lot of changes in the film and music industry. Talented actors and musicians from Smalltown, USA should no longer have to go to Hollywood (or New York) and beat the streets to try to be seen and recognized by the right people. This isn’t the 1920s, or ’30s, or ’40s, or even ’50s when that was necessary. Now you can be seen by making a video and sending pictures. There is a thing I believe called “the look,” and any agent, producer, or director with an intuitive insight should be able to pick up that look in someone else in a photo and particularly in a video and then arrange for a face-to-face meeting.

Now the Hollywood delusion is saying that aspiring young actors need to make a short film. Well, shorts cost at least $10,000 to $15,000, and that’s a lot of money for young people to get, particularly if they’re trying to keep a roof over their head. Many don’t have the resources to attain that money to make a short.

So I have decided to start another performing arts organization, called Actors-and-Actresses-That-Need-To-Be-Seen Network. We are currently working on a website. See below regarding Global Change Films.

In the music business now you need to make at least a great song. I won’t even call it a demo, because now they want you to record in a state-of-the-art studio. Recording one song would cost $5,000, two songs $10,000, and you can add up the rest. A ten-song album, no less than $50,000. And if you tell them it was made in your home or garage, or even your own city, they probably won’t even listen to it. You’re lucky if they listen to the one made in the state-of-the-art studio.

Young women who want to get into the music business are expected to be half naked and adopt a cat-like attitude, because sex sells. Pretty sick. Young actresses who go to Hollywood are preyed upon by phony producers, phony filmmakers, and phony directors, and many of the women are sexually abused. By the time they go through a few of those godless individuals, they have lost their beautiful innocence. Unfortunately, there is no group or organization trying to protect them.

Even though there may be 15 million people in Los Angeles, while living there, I was the loneliest I have ever been in my life—basically because very few care and those few who do are usually not in the music or film business. It is easy to become discouraged very quickly in that kind of environment and energy.

After feeling like I was beating my head against a brick wall from a teenager to my late forties in pursuing my music career, I came to the conclusion that I would have to do it all myself. It took me many years to be able to build a state-of-the-art recording studio. And I started an organization called The Musicians-That-Need-To-Be-Heard Network. But I can only do so much for individuals. I can’t make them “stars” and get them on television or the radio, because it’s all controlled by the greedy people in the business, by corporate media, by the elite. But I keep trying.

I’m 70 years old now, and I’ve been a singer and songwriter most of my life. My 11-piece band was put together with the guidance and hand of our Universal Father, and I have done many concerts bringing the message of a loving God that sees us through the trials of life and gives us hope and a sense of destiny. Now I intend on continuing, at my age, to do Spiritualution concerts, to try to bring together people of all faiths and pray for the return of the Promised One. (Read The Be Aware Proclamation.) You can sign up to get on our mailing list, and we will let you know where those concerts will be.

I can’t begin to explain every detail of the business of music, but I think it has to be—in the future, in the Divine New Order coming—a business whose leaders are godly men and women, who are really concerned for young musicians. Aspiring performers should be in a caring and supportive community that protects them from exploitation and nourishes their talents and potential, which an organization I founded, Global Change Music, does.

Global Change Music, which includes a nonprofit record label, supplies needed musical equipment—such as good microphones, amplifiers for the instruments, the instruments themselves, and much more—besides booking the artists and providing management. This is all very expensive, and we receive donations or the instruments themselves. You can help by contacting the number below.

Through my Global Change Films, I also want to start a motion picture production company and build an actual motion picture studio at Avalon Gardens & EcoVillage in Rio Rico, Arizona, where we have plenty of land to do so, and film-making is included in the zoning. This land and other land in the area were working ranches and dude ranches that hosted many movie stars in the 1940s and ‘50s—including John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Stewart Granger, Randolph Scott, and Robert Mitchum, to name a few—who came to make movies here as well as party. Our property was one of their main locations, so it has the vibes.

Some of the performing arts and other media divisions that we have are: Global Change Theater Company, The Sea Of Glass — Center For The Arts in Tucson, KVAN Radio 91.7, video production, Future Studios (state-of-the-art recording studio) and these bands: Van of Urantia & The Bright & Morning Star Band (a 12-piece band), Van's Guard (a 9-piece band), Starseed Acoustic Ensemble, and Ellanora DellErba & Israfel Awakened, plus several other up and coming musical artists. Many of these acts you can see performing at the Earth Harmony Festival in early October.

Any individual who is interested in getting involved—through financial donations and as investors, or as young actors or musicians or sound engineers or filmmakers or disc jockeys or radio/video scriptwriters—please call Global Change Media at (520) 398-2542 and ask for Amadon DellErba, including if you want to live off campus.

At this time, we are encouraging all musicians, actors and actresses, and young people interested in pursuing their dreams to live on campus at Avalon Gardens & EcoVillage http://avalongardens.org/ and also attend The University of Ascension Science and The Physics of Rebellion, because this will help build the strength and character in you to follow your unique destiny that God has designed for you. But this is not absolutely necessary. For more information, contact Admissions at (520) 603-9932.

We are not saying we have all the answers. We don’t know it all, but we want to join forces with others who have visionary ideas. As a matter of fact, that’s how Hollywood actually started, with people with a vision. It wasn’t about greed back then; it was about people using their talents for the common good of making a great film. And that was even before talking pictures. Individuals came from all over the world to get into the silent film industry in Hollywood, not to make money but to be part of an artistic visionary dream.

We are looking for higher-minded visionaries with ideals that are not based on materialism and selfishness. This is not to be found today in Hollywood, New York, or Nashville; those days are gone. Another influential culture of the arts needs to be created, one based on the divine pattern of love and a sense of community with all of the earth and its plant, animal, and human inhabitants.

Many people think that we are near the end of the world as we know it. The earth’s natural ecosystems, social systems, and individual humans are in much chaos and confusion, which seems to be increasing daily. Those who believe in a Universal Father, a loving Father God of us all (as we of Avalon Gardens & EcoVillage do), anticipate a reformed and renewed world emerging. Many cultures and groups have different names for this new world—Christians may call it “the New Millennium” and the Hopi “the Fifth World.” We do not see this present world as ending but the real one, which is destined to be in divine pattern, as beginning.

We here in Divine Administration (at Avalon Gardens & EcoVillage) consist of 120 men, women, and children from all over the world who came here with a dream and try to have as much in common as we can. So make this a matter of prayer in your life and call us to become a part of the Spiritualution for our planet.

Spiritualution Concerts

The Spiritualution Concerts started back in the 1990s with the idea of trying to promote spiritual activism with the hopes that prayer should take some form of action on the streets. We had concerts at sacred outdoor venues in Mt. Shasta, California, as well as Durango, Colorado, and several cities in Arizona, which included Reid Park (Tucson, Arizona), Wheeler Park (Flagstaff, Arizona), and Watson Lake (Prescott, Arizona).

We began to have individuals of all faiths come and listen to the CosmoPop® music and enjoy the different varieties—like CosmoRock, CosmoJazz, CosmoCeltic, and even CosmoCountry—while we talked about social issues that individuals could take action on.

The Spiritualution banner has been carried in Occupy marches around the country, starting at Zuccotti Park in New York City, Washington D.C., Long Beach, California, Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, Chicago, Illinois, and many other cities.

Now the Spiritualution Concerts have an even bigger purpose. And that purpose is for people of all faiths to come together and pray for the coming of The Promised One, known in all the religions by different names, such as:

• Hadhrat Isa (the Arab name for Jesus) — Islam
• Kalki Avatar — Hindu
• Jesus Christ — Christian
• Maitreya (The World Teacher) — Hindu/Buddhist sects
• Jampa — Tibetan
• The Messiah — Jewish
• Krishna — Hindu
• Imam Mahdi — Muslim

Many spiritual leaders around the world have come to the conclusion that the problems on this planet are so massive that it will have to take divine intervention in order to change this most troubled world and that the coming Promised One has to come to implement this planetary Divine Administration.

This is what we hope to accomplish by drawing tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people to come and pray together and to dance in the spirit to CosmoPop music.

One of the meanings of CosmoPop is “interuniversally popular.” The music goes beyond the confines of this planet and actually originated in the Pleiades, where I believe many souls, who are called starseed, originated.

The Spiritualution Concerts are also gathering concerts of the Star Tribes from four universes: the Pleiades, Ursa Major, the Centaurian worlds, and our own universe, called Nebadon, as mentioned in The Cosmic Family, Volume 1.

CosmoPop music is common in its message to all the peoples of the earth, and its melodies a culmination of all of the forms of music on the planet. All the children of the earth are children of the Universal Father of all. And our theme is “One God, One Planetary Family.”

Spiritualution Concerts encourage people to leave the fallen system and to trust the Creator to survive by: purchasing land together, and growing your own food (free from pesticides and toxins and GMOs), and starting your own cottage industries to earn income (as long as income is needed). But when The Promised One returns, there will be no money on this world. So we have to learn now to relate to each other differently. For further information please read Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? — A Handbook On How To Defeat The 1% .

Spiritualution Concerts call out to the people of the world to come and pray together under the Creator, and advocate spiritual growth for all people with another theme and slogan, which is: Spiritualution—Justice To The People.

Please look at CosmoPop.org for information of a CosmoPop concert you can come to, to become part of an international movement.