The Venetian Judgment by David Stone

The Venetian Judgment by David Stone

From the outside looking in, John Bielinski had it all--combat action as a United States Marine, professional success, a terrific family. He ran marathons, completed an Ironman, won countless martial arts battles.

And yet, haunted by the demons of anger, ego, and alcohol, he came to a devastating reckoning that began in a jail cell, threatened his fragile marriage, and jeopardized his career as a respected physician assistant and national medical lecturer.

Compelling and relatable, Before the Calm traces Bielinski's journey downward to that fateful night and through the anguishing months and years that followed, until he emerged with genuine faith and sense of purpose. With the wry, self-aware humility that has made him one of the most popular lecturers in his field, Bielinski shows how our lowest points can become a trapdoor to success. Today, Bielinski is an accomplished international lecturer and founder-owner of one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States.

By turns moving and maddening, Bielinski's story reveals the power of love, forgiveness, and faith as he struggles to rebuild his life while launching a new business. Before the Calm invites us into his darkest moments where he wanted to blame anyone but himself, and shows us how honesty and vulnerability can help transform our lives.

For anyone wrestling with personal demons, Before the Calm shows a way forward to clarity, purpose, and hope.

David E. Stone is a sound editor, a veteran of roughly one hundred Hollywood feature films such as Gremlins, Top Gun, Die Hard, Speed, and Ocean's 11. He was a supervising sound editor for projects as varied as Predator, Edward Scissorhands, Beauty and the Beast, Batman Returns, City Slickers 2, and Dolores Claiborne. He has collected Golden Reel awards for Best Sound Editing five times, and won the 1992 Academy Award^(R) for best Sound Effects Editing, for his supervising work on Bram Stoker's Dracula. In 2015, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Luis Obispo Jewish Film Festival in California. Stone is a now a professor and former Chair of Sound Design at Savannah College of Art and Design. Between 1989 and 1994, he was the editor of Moviesound Newsletter, which was published by Vanessa Ament.

Dr. Vanessa Theme Ament is the author of The Foley Grail and a contributor to Sound: Dialogue, Music, and Effects (the Silver Screen Series). She is on the steering committee for Cinesonika, an international film festival and conference that celebrates sound and music in film and video. A veteran Foley artist, sound editor, and voice actor from Los Angeles, she also writes and sings jazz, and is a member of several industry unions, including American Federation of Musicians, SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity, and the Editors Guild. Some of the films Dr. Ament has worked on include Die Hard, sex, lies, and videotape, Platoon, Predator, Edward Scissorhands, Beauty and the Beast, Noises Off, and A Goofy Movie. Dr. Ament received her Ph.D. in Communication, in the area of Moving Image Studies, from Georgia State University in Atlanta, and is presently the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Endowed Chair Professor of Telecommunications, at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.