Cliff Diving

There is a good chance, I think about 159% that the government is going to go off the so called "fiscal cliff."

This is a combination of taxes going up from things like the Bush tax cuts expiring, the payroll tax holiday expiring, etc.

Then there's automatic spending cuts. Cuts so draconian and across the board  that we figured the government would do all that was necessary to stop this from happening.

Nope. The congress, republicans mostly (let's call a spade a spade. They are the party of "Hell, fucking, no way, fucking shit NO!) and democrats can't get their shit together.

So fuck them, they fucked all of us by being so entrenched in their ideologies that they can't do what is right for the country. Though most of the blame is on the Republicans and their batshit crazy inbred offspring, the Tea party. They don't know how to say yes to a President they hate. Hate for being black and hate for being Democrat.

I'm glad the Bush tax cuts end. Bush was an idiot for cutting taxes while starting 2 wars. No president of any party was ever that fucking stupid before. They needed to end 2 years ago. This time they will end to some degree. People who can afford to pay taxes will pay a little over 3% more. Though the really smart rich have already gamed the system and worked out how to pay low taxes. If they haven't they need to fire their tax people.  Just saying...

The stock markets are going to flip out January 2nd.

I'm worried about the farm bill expiring and milk going up to $6-8 a gallon.

Congress. Do your fucking job. You were sent to govern, not sit on your asses and get great healthcare and a pension for the rest of your life. Oh wait, that's why you wanted the job in the first place. You want to serve yourself, not the country. How foolish of me...

The Care and Feeding of the Automobile.

As I was driving to Phoenix for Christmas with the folks I had car trouble on the hill going east on the I-10 east of Palm Springs. My car started to run bad. Really bad. I lost power, the RPMs went up like crazy, and my speed was dropping fast. I pulled over next to one of the call boxes that line the 10 and turned off the car. Was it bad gas? I filled up with gas from a station I never get gas from.

I sat in the car and weighed the options. Call AAA and I get 7 miles of a tow for free. How far am I from Phoenix? Over 200 miles at least. Get taken back to Palm Springs? How do I get to Phoenix?

I checked email with my nifty new iPhone. I thought of calling my dad, but it seemed like bad gas. I'd had this happen before. Thinking it was bad gas I started the car and it haltingly got up to freeway speeds. I had the stereo off so I could listen to the engine carefully. It sounded okay. 

When I stopped for gas at Tom Wells road just inside Arizona I noticed the car didn't like lower speeds. I filled up the tank and threw in a gas treatment thinking that might help the performance. I got back up to freeway speeds and worried about the hills I had to climb east of the Arizona border. If your car is fucked up it may not like them.

I had warned my dad when getting gas that the car was acting weird and I should be there in 2 hours or so. I made it home okay. When Saturday rolled around I took My car to Pep Boys as it was one of the few repair shops open on Saturday. They did some stuff and let the car run. Then it got worse. They checked the compression of the cylinders, and one was at 40. 40 is terrible and an indicator of burned out valves or rings.

They couldn't do anything. I wasn't charged for they didn't fix the problem. I paid for the mechanics time basically. My dad's mechanic wouldn't be in until the day after Christmas. I had to get back to LA after Christmas for work.

So my car got dropped off at his mechanic first thing the 26th, and I drove his Lincoln town car to LA. After my car is fixed (most likely a valve job) he will drive it to Blythe and we will switch cars. Thing is, my Dad is gonna hate driving my car. Really hate it...

Camelback 2012

So the Christmas tradition continues. Me and Terry went up Camelback Mountain on Christmas Eve.

As I was reminded when struggling up the path that this was my idea. Which is true. I use this as a test of endurance and fitness. I'm trying to see what I can do and this is a difficult hike. For me at least. Terry who has a resting heart rate of 44 beats per minute was not breathing hard. But he is a mountain/ road biker. His idea of fun is a 100 mile 10,000 foot road race. In the 100 miles there is 10,000 feet of climbing hills. Seems kind of fucked up to me.

Nonetheless, I made it to the top again. The time going up was 49:44 minutes and the trip down was 29:53. I was trying to make up time on the trip down because I added 2 minutes to the time going up and I wanted to get that back.  I cut 10 minutes of last years decent time. Yay, me!

As I ascended the trail I would stop (to rest) and check my heart rate on a heart rate monitor. In normal working out I might have a heart rate of 150 for strenuous work. Going up the mountain I had a heart rate once of 176 bpm (96% of my supposed maximum) and at another time it was 185 bpm. The percentage side of the heart rate monitor said ---% because this workout was beyond the maximum for me.

So there you go. I will try it again next year. I wonder what injuries I will use as an excuse for my slow going?

Teachers

I had the opportunity to watch teachers this week while working. I was working and so were they. I was working a gig where we were filming elementary school teachers in Arizona as they taught their classes. Language Arts (formerly known as English class), Math (still known as math) and science class (also still science).

Since I haven't been in elementary school since I was in elementary school, I really don't remember how we were taught. However we were taught, it was not like this. But the program or style of teaching is kind of new and innovative. It's called TAP. I don't really know what it stands for. TAP is a program to help teachers teach better and gives them incentives for results.

It was kind of fascinating to watch the teachers teach. It was much more interactive and personal and one on one in many cases. The students were asked to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. They weren't told they were WRONG. They were asked to look at their answer and try again, this time figuring out where they went wrong on what step of the problem or question.

I was asking questions of the TAP representatives to better understand the style and system and reasoning behind the way the teachers taught. It was cool to see teachers energized and happy to be there.

Also I found the way the teachers interacted with the class interesting. The audience participation was fun and kept their attention.

At one school I was told by one of the teachers that the principal who I'd been talking with about theatre and acting and whatnot for 20 minutes had taken in 4 kids from his school. Their parents were in jail. Who knows what would have happened to them. Child protective service? Foster care? The principal took the kids into his own home even though he has 4 kids of his own. He's even going to court to take care of them. That was kind of inspiring. You don't find that kind of altruism in today's world.

It was a good week. Long days but gives me hope that students have good teachers. And in light of the recent killings at a school in Connecticut I know that any one of those teachers I met would give their life to save their kids.

An Actor Despairs in Hollywood.

Duh.

I read this in the LA Times today with some snarky thoughts running thru my head.
Is this really news? Really a front page, column one worthy story?

It tells of this actors plight as he's been here in Hollywood 3 WHOLE YEARS. Are you fucking kidding me? 3 years? I know people who have been here much much longer. I've been here much longer. He seems defeated and downtrodden and frustrated by his lack of success.

Could it be he radiates desperation when he walks into an audition room? The people he's reading for can tell that he's anxious and needy and unhappy? Do you think they want to cast someone who is probably a drag to be around? Who wears his slumped shouldered unhappiness like a coat?

Hollywood is a crucible. It burns away those who cannot cope or put up with the disappointment. In Hollywood, you rarely ever hear the word "No." Because, honestly, when you don't get a part, you just never hear.

If you come off the boat, train, bus from Pokipsie and expect to make it in 3 years, you have got a rude awakening coming. This business is tough, and the thing they don't teach in college is the Business of Show Business. That takes time to learn and many failures to figure out. For all the singing and dancing and acting, it's a business. 90% business, 10% performing.

In the end, some people make it and have long careers. Some people work steady but never become household names. Some people work sporadically, getting the occasional part. Some fail and struggle year after year until they give up and move back to Pokipsie. Or they are your 60 year old waiter at an all night diner.

Reading this article made me think this guy should give up. He's already been defeated. Go home. Regroup. Figure out something else to do that will make you happy.

Ode To A Douchebag

Walking to the ATM with muted purpose I notice a guy dressed for a jog on his cell phone leisurely crossing the street. Is he going to the ATM at my corner bank too?

Yes.

By mere milliseconds he gets to the ATM first. I stop to the side about 5 feet away. He immediately takes offense. "What's your problem?" he says barely stopping his cell phone conversation.

"I'm waiting for the ATM." I say

"You're standing to close." He replies.

"I'm 5 feet away." I say.

"You need to step away. You're being rude."

"I'm not going to stab you in the heart and take your card," I reply in a laconic non-threatening tone. "There's witnesses." I lightly point to the 4 dozen people in line at the Honey Baked Ham Store next to my bank. It's the day before Thanksgiving so there is a line down the block.

"You go first." He proceeds to back up to the curb and talk loudly on his cell phone about the rude guy at the bank. He says I need to learn manners. Ignoring him I quickly do what I need to do at the ATM and leave.

As I am walking away he says loudly, "You need some manners." 

I continued walking away thinking on his manners. He was more rude than me to the world in general talking on his cell phone like he was in his own house. I'm sure the people in line thought he was more of a rude person than me, though they didn't hear the "stab in the heart" comment I flippantly tossed out.

It's the holiday season and the douchebags are in full bloom.

Death To Twinkie

I never have eaten a Twinkie.

I am a particular eater, and some things I never have eaten. Brussel Sprouts, for one, and Twinkies, for another.

I always liked Ding Dongs, and Cupcakes. I also liked Zingers which were Dolly Madison before they were bought out by Hostess. But Hostess went out of business this week because of a bunch of bad business decisions. Honestly, I think they got "Bained." Seems to me like they got the same kind of treatment for their money problems that Bain Capitol (I'm blaming you Mitt) did with a bunch of other businesses.

I went around to 15 stores after work yesterday to find some of the treats I liked, but people had already gotten there and snatched them all up. This was kind of sad. I found a box of cupcakes and 2 boxes of Chocolate Zingers, and a 2 pack of Ding Dongs.

I ate them as a kid, but not so much in the past 20 years. I'd get a box of something every once in a while as a guilty pleasure but not often. They are tasty, but supposedly bad for you.

With luck some company will come along to resurrect Hostess and their signature treats. Bimbo foods owns Sara Lee, Thomas English Muffins, and Enteman's. They seem to be the perfect choice. If they are watching the news, they are noticing a frenzy of people buying up hordes of Twinkies and Ding Dongs.

Ebay has become a haven for Twinkie profiteers. I saw a 24 box got for $30. It's crazy.

And sad for all the people out of work because Hostess went hardline on labor negotiations.

They need to eat a Ding Dong and fuckin' relax.

Republicans Anonymous

I was working a job this week. There was a symposium at the house of a wealthy man in Beverly Hills. We were there to hook up the sound so that the 60 or so people who came could hear. The room was small, but the institute sponsoring the talk wanted to record it. The moderator was a face I recognized from TV, but don't remember his name.  Matt something I think. There was a Republican and a Democrat as well.

This was not a contentious argumentative talk. It was a discussion about the election and the two political parties. As someone who watched the election and political stuff closely, I was paying attention. The thing I found odd was the general beaten down attitude of the audience. This was illustrated during the Q&A portion after the talk. The people in the room were all well heeled and Republicans. Not surprising, but what was surprising was the questions. They were saying that the Republican party had left them behind. It had been taken over by radicals and driven off a cliff. One went so far as to blame Reagan and his embracing of the religious right back in the early 80's.

What it sounded like when someone got the Q&A mic was the start of an AA meeting. "My name is Bob and I'm a Republican." "
"Hi Bob"
"My party left me behind..."

The moderator asked the room, "If there was a party that was fiscally conservative and socially liberal, would you vote for them?" EVERY hand went up. Every one. He asked if anyone wouldn't vote for them. No hands went up. It was shocking. The people in the room were fiscally conservative (i.e. Rich) but socially don't give a shit about gay marriage and the sexy bits that got the Republican party into trouble with, well, 51% of the electorate.

The panelists agreed that the Republican party would probably never win a presidential election if they didn't figure out how to get rid of the crazies and not have candidates kowtowing to the far right crazy agenda.But they need to stop watching FOX television and listening to Rush. Doubt that will happen.

Then, of course, Romney was tape recorded on a conference call with BIG money donors this week saying that people were voting for Obama because they were given gifts. No, Mr. Romney, they voted for someone who is not a puritanical dickhead who wants a smaller government in their bedrooms watching them fuck.

Ah, politics...

Yay!

Barack Obama Won!

Voting

The election is in 2 days and I'm still glued to television political shows. MSNBC is on in the background as I go thru my day. The chatter of the pundits I agree with comforts me and quells my rage at the political system and it's disfunction. Or maybe it stokes me. I don't know.

In one of the segments they showed clips from the Kennedy - Nixon election of 1960 and another clip of the Nixon - Humphrey contest 8 years later in 1968. What I noticed was the tally boards. The 1960 one was a chalk board that they would erase the numbers and write in a new total with chalk. In 1968 it was more like a baseball score board with removable numbers. But both boards held a revelation for me. In 1960 the tally they showed in the clip was about 19 million on each side. In 1968 the tally was 29 million on each side. So the electorate was about 40-60 million voters. The current 2011 census has the population of the USA at 314,165,191. Back in 1960 the population was about 181 million.

So 40-50 years ago to have 40 - 60 million people vote on one day made sense. But now when there are 314 million people in the country it makes no sense to have a single day be the only one for voting. There was an idea put out by a senator that election day should be a holiday so no one has to lose work or money while waiting in long lines. The simpler idea to stop long lines is to have the 2 weeks before the election, weekends included, be open for voting in all states, counties and cities. Early voting would then end on election day. It would give the voters time to get to the polls when they can and not worry about getting fired or being late to work.

There are long lines in Ohio and Florida right now where they are having early voting. There are lines that are 2 to 4 to 6 hours long while people are waiting to vote. They may give up and not vote. Which is a shame. Because in Ohio and Florida voting became harder. This was done by Republican state office holders and taken to the courts to block early voting, purge the voter rolls, and make voting in Democratic strongholds less than in Republican areas. If people get discouraged by how difficult it is to vote, Republicans may win.

What a shitty way for a political party to be. But it only reflects the way they have obstructed the current President. To get him out of office they did nothing to help the country. They think the office of the President is only theirs. Rich white guys. They don't realize that the angry white guys are now outnumbered by people of other colors.

Go vote. Don't let them discourage you from doing your civic duty.

Facebook and Elections

On Facebook there are political diatribes happening daily.

In my friend list there is someone I know who says he is an independent. This is a lie. He is one of the most staunchly right wing people you would ever meet. He just calls himself an independent. I guess it would sound better than right wing tea party nut job. These views are why I would never engage him on the topic of politics. But right now it's the Presidential election season and with 9 days left before we find out who wins, there are more and more posts about politics.

This one person is having a feud with someone he has known for years and they were incredibly great friends, but the politics they have are destroying or maybe have destroyed their friendship forever. The one is a right winger, and the other is a liberal. So there will be a post by one of the parties and then the other one will post refuting that post, which leads to another rebuttal and refutation and name calling. The liberal is more civil than the right winger. The right winger also has links to right wing sources that hold up his world view. Of course, you only read the things that you agree with and strengthen your view points.

The right winger says he likes to debate people. It's not really a debate if you steam roll someone with 5 postings to their one. But then the conservative wing has always steamrolled it's opponents. (OMG, there's my political views showing. But, fuck it, it's my blog.)

The liberal is weary of this interchange of crap and tells the right winger that he wishes him well in all his future endeavors. The thing about that phrase... it's a "fuck you" and then you never talk to them again. So the wise thing at this point would be to UNFRIEND them. They are never going to salvage the freindship. It's over. The animosity and vitriol cannot be taken back. So unfriend them and never talk to them again. Pretty fucking simple.

It's also an example of the larger problem with politics. You used to be able to be on opposing sides without hating your opponent. You could disagree with everything they stood for, but if something was good for the country they would work together. There is no cooperation anymore. Only hardline obstinance.

So please, J. & J. unfriend each other and be done with it.

Political Thoughts

The election for President is less than 2 weeks away and I have some thoughts about the process.

There are a lot of differences between Republicans and Democrats. But one I find amazing is the drive by Republicans to fix the electoral process to their advantage. When they lost the Presidency to Obama they made it a mission to suppress votes and purge the voting rolls of people who's only offense was voting for Obama. But they couched it as "fighting voter fraud." There has been virtually no voter fraud in the past 10-15 years. This was found to be the case when investigated by the George W. Bush administration. Don't like the way people vote? Maybe change your puritanical platforms to something that isn't the 1950's model.

Liberals would never monkey with voting because we see the world with a live and let live attitude. Being liberal is about seeing more ways to think than just your own.

The electoral college should be abolished. When the creators of the government came up with voting 240 years ago, they put in place a way to insure the elections did not go horribly wrong. In their view they had people voting who were, in many cases, illiterate voting, and they thought the way to control the outcome was to create an electoral college. Ok. That was 240 years ago. Thing is we then get situations like Bush v. Gore in 2000 when Gore won the popular vote and Bush was handed the electoral vote by the Supreme Court. It's an old method and should be abolished. The Electoral College makes some states hugely important, and others are ignored. So presidential candidates inundate Ohio and Florida but never go to Montana. Be thankful you don't live in a battleground state.

I don't understand the conservative drive to make their morals the morals of the country. And what I find very funny is the hypocrisy in the conservative party. There is a family values congressman from Tennessee who is anti abortion. He was taped in a phone conversation with his mistress talking about her getting an abortion and why she hadn't done it yet. What an asshole. His false hypocritical piety should make people vote against him. Though when most sex scandals happen in the conservative party, it involves men and other men or boys, not women. Why the urge to repress everyone with legislation when they cannot contain their own urges?

Rape. Rape. Rape. Lately the conservatives have been getting into trouble with rape and foot in mouth disease. They say things like a woman can't get pregnant from rape. You really haven't had any education about biology it seems. You have to be a fucking idiot to think rape can't fertilize an egg. And then this leads to stupid comments from them about abortion. Abortion shouldn't be allowed in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother. Um, fuck you. Abortion is legal. It doesn't matter what your view of it is, it's legal. Does it make any sense to you , if the mother dies, doesn't the fetus go down with the ship, as it were? Idiots.

As far as rape goes, those who say the woman should be forced to carry it to term, what would they say if it were their daughter or wife who was raped by someone they don't share a skin tone with? Is that make a lemons out of lemonade situation for them? Or would they be at a clinic to get that fetus removed? "Sorry, dear, sorry you were raped and brutalized, but God wanted you to have this child." Bullshit. Hypocrites!

Until men can have babies they should have no say in what happens to a woman's body. If men could get pregnant there would probably be a abortion clinic on every corner like a Starbucks.

There is a certain NYC real estate mogul who is a clown. He's a huckster with an irrational hatred of a black president. He has been on a witch hunt for birth certificates  and college transcripts and other documentation. Why? Obama's black. This racist mogul can't deal, like so many others in the conservative world, with a black president. That office belongs to rich white men only. His big announcement yesterday was an extortion plot. "I'll give $5 million to a charity of the President's choice if he releases his college transcripts. Fuck, G.W. Bush should have given those up. He didn't earn his way into Yale, he was a legacy.

Can we vote now?

I'll rant more later.

Lightning Fast

I was working a Maroon 5 concert last night. While waiting outside for the show to finish and us to go inside the venue, there was an altercation. One of the road crew came out yelling at a guy. The music from the concert served as background for the scene. The roadie was yelling at the guy telling him he wasn't allowed backstage and his pass was a fake.

The guy plead ignorance and was still trying to get backstage. The roadie pulled the credential off the guy's lanyard, pushed the guy away, and shut the door to the stage. The guy looked at the burly security guy there and said, "he took my pass."

Now I don't know if the guy was ignorant, but his pass was a fake. It looked like the pass that said "ARTIST" but there were some things wrong with it. It was the wrong shape. It was printed on plastic not laminated. It had a hole at the top for the lanyard that was made with a hole punch. But most important, there was nothing on the back. The real pass had the credential on both sides of the pass.

As we stood there waiting for the show to end there were more people with this fake pass trying to get backstage. Security was rounded up and shown the fake passes and told not to let anyone with them in. The angry roadie had people with the fake passes escorted off the property. It was pretty funny to watch 10 people with the passes try to get in. "Tony gave it to me." one guy said. "Fuck you. There is no one named Tony on the crew." was the answer.

So how did  the fakes happen? Someone took a picture of someone with a pass and thru digital magic, made their own version. But like the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark who re-created the head piece to the Staff of Ra, they only had one side to go from from the burned imprint of Toht's hand, and didn't know there were 2 sides to the pass. And since the shape was close, they didn't care...

As we waited a woman asked me to take her picture with her camera. She had the set list for the show and 4 drumsticks in her hands. I looked at her and said, "Your pass is a fake." "What?" she replied. I explained her pass was a fake and I could tell from 6 feet away. She didn't really care because she had already been inside and scored some booty.

If I were to make fake passes I would do it for the Rolling Stones or U2 or The Who. But Maroon 5?

Maybe it's easier to do with smaller shows where they may not be paying attention...

Harness Envy

I wear a harness when I work as a rigger to save my life. It keeps me from falling to my death from anywhere from 50 to 100 feet. Now I've had my harness for a long time. It's a rock climbing harness I got from REI for $22 years ago.

Now when it comes to rigging, or most anything that requires a harness and fall arrest equipment of some kind, a full body harness is required. The hang point is on the back in what is called the dorsal position. The thing I find stupid about this is that if you fall, you cannot save yourself. You are dangling below what you fell off of and you are facing the ground. If the fall arrest worked, you are now 12 feet below what you fell from. So if the fall arrest was 6 feet before it deployed, you are now 12 feet from the thing you fell off of because the arrestor added 6 feet to soften the fall. The system is supposed to make the shock of a fall less hard on the body. Kind of like a limited bungy. It only goes out, it doesn't snap back.

In a rock climbing harness if I fell, I would be 3 feet from what I fell off of and facing a way to pull myself back up. But OSHA doesn't like them. Bunch of fucking pansies. But my climbing harness is not full body so some would argue that I would snap backwards and hurt myself.  Who is right?

Now the reason I bring this whole thing up is that for a very long time I've been using equipment that would not be approved of for my work. How did I get away with it for so long? Luck. And I had ways of concealing the fact that it was only a seat harness. I would put on the harness and tie my rope, which was wrapped in a certain way, around me so it was a backpack. This would keep people from seeing that I only had a seat harness until I was out of the way and in the roof. Once I'm there, I'm working and being good at the job, "aw... fuck it..." might be the attitude. Or other times I would suit up in the roof. None of the other riggers commented on my incorrect safety gear. If I was bad at my job, that might have been an issue they would use to get me out of the roof.

But when I was working at one venue yesterday, I finally got called out for the harness. Johnny asked if I had a full body harness. If I didn't I'd have to go down and work on the ground. In case that ever happened I always carry a rudimentary full body harness with a dorsal hang point. So I put that one on over the seat harness and that satisfied Johnny. I didn't use the full body harness, I was still using the climbing harness, but if something had happened it would look right. Right?

The thing about my job, in my opinion, is the best harness in the world will not keep someone who is incompetent from fucking up. They might not fall to their death, but they could kill someone below if they dropped something. Conversely, a competent experienced rigger would be safe with a climbing harness. Like I was. It keeps people from dying when on a mountain, how is that different from a work situation? A mountain is far more sketchy than any place I work. I'm walking on something level 95% of the time. I have hand holds and places to sit down. Mountains are much different.

So today after years of flaunting the authority of OSHA, I went looking for a harness. There are 2 places in Burbank which are known nationwide for rigging equipment. I looked and priced things at both. One was markedly higher than the other, but I liked one harness there a lot. I didn't buy there, but I went home and looked on line and found the harness I liked for $70 less and no taxes. So I ordered it. It will arrive in 3-5 days.

So now I'm like all the other kids and my shame and harness envy will be gone.

Now I just need to get a new rope...

Coffee

I had a sip of coffee the other day.

Not really a big deal for most every other person in Los Angeles. But for me a big deal.

I'll explain. I haven't had a sip of coffee since I was 7. I tried a sip when I was 7, and thoroughly disgusted with the flavor did a spit take and I never had another go. Until Thursday.

I was at work and I had a cup of tea with a lid. Lipton tea is the preferred brand. No fancy peppermint chamomile earl sassparilla tea. Lipton. Simple. Bitter. Now on the stage were other cups identical to mine. I had set mine down and came back to it. Or so I thought. I picked up a cup, pulled off the top and took a drink.

The taste in my mouth was certainly not tea. It was bitter, true, but murky and cold, and pretty fucking awful. I made a twisted face and spit the coffee back into the cup after looking in it to confirm that it was not my tea. I then capped the cup and set it back on the stage. Someone had abandoned the coffee so there a long time ago so there probably was no chance this person would come back ad drink my backwash. I could have done a spit take but that would create a mess.

My mind wonders why people drink it. Why people love it. Why Starbucks makes so much money selling it.

I just don't understand.

THE OFFENSIVE MACHINE

I propose that certain parts of the world change the name of the INTERNET to that of THE OFFENSIVE MACHINE.

Because they seem to be willing to burn and kill because they are outraged and offended by things they see on the internet.

The attacks on embassies in the middle east come to mind. The attack on the one in Libya is now thought to be a coordinated terrorist attack. It was well armed and well executed. More than your "angry mob" would be if they were merely offended. So someone used this bad trailer (posted to youtube on July 2nd) for a movie that will never be made to rally a mob to be used as cover for this attack. Funny how the timing was 9/11. So I find their offense scurrilous and opportunistic.

The mobs are not educated or very worldly and some could be illiterate. And add to that high unemployment and a bleak outlook on life. So when you don't have anything and little hope that your life will get better, it's easy for you to be manipulated and turned into an angry crowd.

So these countries which are exploding in outrage need to change the name of the internet to THE OFFENSIVE MACHINE.

Do an experiment. Go to Google and type in the most vile offensive thing you can think of.  900,000 options for you to see will appear within .53 seconds.

It's easy to be offended if you only read one book. It's easy to be offended if you don't think for yourself and believe what someone in authority (that you put in authority over you) tells you without question.

So, now I must post this to THE OFFENSIVE MACHINE. I have the right to free speech. freedom-of-speech It's in the Constitution of the United States. You may not agree with what I write. It may offend you. As far as I'm concerned you have the right to post any comment you like. I may get offended. (Probably not)

But to burn things and kill people because you are offended. That's just offensive.

More Paper From A Wall

I was back a the Orpheum Theatre, up in the grid and pulled some more of the newspaper that was put in the mold when the concrete of the structure was poured. I tucked them away and carefully peeled the 86 year old paper apart at home and looked at my discovery.

There was a bit of a picture. A premiere night for The Phantom of the Opera. You know, Lon Chaney's classic silent film. The picture was of Norman Kerry (1894-1956) and Mary Philbin (1902-1993). They were two of the actors in the movie as well.

There was amention of Agnes O'Malley. She was a publicist for the Mack Sennett Studios between 1924-1927.

Photoplay magazine was mentioned. A publication the was around from 1911-1980. Pretty impressive considering the magazine business.

Col. Hugh L. Cooper was mentioned. He was a civil engineer who worked on large water projects all over the US.

Kenneth A. Lewis, 12, a paper boy for the Illustrated Daily News was hit by a car. He was recovering. I couldn't find out anything else online about him.

Cecil Jensen was a editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. Part of one of his cartoons was in the paper I pulled out. It was about President Coolidge but I couldn't see the rest.

Pete Sarmiento was a Filipino boxer of the time. There was a fight the paper was talking about.

California governor Friend Richardson was mentioned. (1865-1943) He served only one term I think.

There was  a mention of Fanchon and Marco. They were a brother and sister producing team who put on lavish productions. They owned several of the theatres downtown. The name became synonymous with large over the top productions and became a part of the language of the day in Los Angeles.

All this I learned from just a few scraps of old newspaper and the internet to look it up on.

Also there was one part of a horoscope. Don't know what star sign but here it is:

Do not sign any contracts or enter into any agreements on this day. Relax as much as possible and be very careful in your diet. After 3:30 the vibrations change for the better. 
Children born on this day will be marvelously intuitive. What they don't get by study and concentration they will get by intuition. They will become successful at any occupation where sharp wits and perceptive powers are necessary.

Kind of fun to see what the wall revealed. to me. I pulled as much out as I could. This will be the last of it. But the paper was from September of 1925. Didn't get the exact date off of any particular bit. 

Forced Retirement

Or should I say, "Forced to retire."

One of the people I have worked for for the past 10 years or more is being forced to retire because of a medical condition. He had a really killer headache. So bad that he went to emergency room. They ran some tests and discovered a blood clot in a vein in his head. Normally in this situation you give the patient blood thinners or anti coagulants and the blood clot dissolves. Simple.

Not this time. On the other side of his head he has a small hemorrhage. It's not a geyser of blood, maybe a small trickle that stopped on it's own without causing a stroke. So because he has this bleeding on the other side they can't give him anti coagulants for the clot. It would cause the other side to bleed and maybe cause a stroke.

I talked with him on the phone. He sounded mostly normal. A bit slower and maybe a bit slurred. He told me what was going happen with his business, that I would still be in the same hotels I've worked for a decade or more. I wasn't really that concerned. I was more concerned that he was alright. But I seemed to detect in his voice a certain something. He was not normal. And normal for him is full of energy and always with a story or a joke. He's a big personality and a force of nature. This situation diminishes him.

So what can be done about the clot? Nothing. They are going to wait and see what happens. For someone like him, inaction is the worst thing to be the only action you can take.

I hope my call with him today was not the last time we talk.  2 minutes and 49 seconds of talking would be a sad way for over 10 years of friendship to end.

Expiration Dates

I've been going thru my pantry and medicine cabinet looking at the things to see if they are expired.

Things I didn't expect to have expiration dates do have them. Things like rubbing alcohol. How can rubbing alcohol go bad? It's 70% alcohol. It kills and disinfects things. Does the % go up or down when it expires?

I had a bottle of mouth wash that expired 7/2004. I never used it much because I brush with very pepperminty tooth paste. The contents of the bottle more likely evaporated from inside the bottle than me opening it. I found blue crystals around the cap, evidence that it escaped without me watching.

In the pantry I had some canned goods, soup and whatnot that were from 2007. And some crackers from 2010.

So how does this happen? Some of these things are there so long they become part of the wallpaper. I see them without really seeing them. The medicine cabinet in the bathroom doesn't get opened much. The things I use every day are sitting conveniently around the bathroom sink on the counter. Does this mean I'm lazy and don't want to put things away, or I just can't be bothered?  Maybe both. So that's how the medicine cabinet languished so long with unused things.

But it also has to do with time just rushing by so damn quickly. I can't believe it's August already. And 2012. I feel like I lost a few years between 2006-2009. They were rather unspectacular in their unspectacularness. Other than international travel, I'd have a hard time placing certain things on the calendar.

As far as the fridge goes, well, replacing it last winter (escape-of-refrigetron) helped cull the expired things from it's innards. I did save one thing. When coming back from Sweden I had made 3-4 sandwiches so I had food in the airport and whatnot. I still have one sandwich left in the freezer which never got eaten.  And I think it will stay there until I travel internationally again.

Just because.

Again!?! Fucking Again?

There's been another shooting bursting into the news.

This fucker maybe a sociopath. But he's guilty. Our justice system is innocent until proven guilty. Well, if you are caught with literal smoking guns and body armor, you are fucking guilty. It would be interesting if he pleaded guilty. Not do the whole bullshit dance of "Not guilty by reason of insanity."

He had full body armor and booby trapped his apartment. He was not planning to come back. Maybe at some point the thought of "suicide by cop" left him, but he did it.

When I hear of situations like this, I think "what would I do in this situation?" It may sound nuts, but I would try to do something to stop this fucker. I don't carry a gun, but I know weapons from shooting and handling them. I would get on the ground and wait until he had to reload. Then I would rush the fucker. It would be the last thing he would expect. And seriously if you think you are going to die, go out fighting! Fuck him. Pull  his gas mask off and shove your elbow thru his face. Put your knee thru his groin to his coccyx bone. Gouge his eyes out! This will stop him. Then take his gun and shoot him in the fucking head. Body armor my help with bullets, but blunt force trauma from close up in-fight will still hurt and disable.

Fuck.

Now the news will dismantle everything about the gunman. His possible motives, his life, his family. ABC news reported that the mother of the gunman heard about the shooting and thought it might be him without ever hearing his name mentioned. EXCUSE ME?!?!?! You have a family member that you suspect might be a sociopath and you don't try to do something about it? How many crazy people have to go on murdering sprees before a family does something right?

Fuck!

Comic Con, Day 4

Now for me the con was pretty much over. I didn't have anywhere in particular to be nor was there anything I was dying to see.

I went by Comic Con Film School to say thanks to Sean and bye to the panelists. They are an awesome bunch. I hope we get to do it again next year.

I caught up with Zack in the dealers hall. It was even more crowded than the previous day. All the people who were not able to get tickets for any other day came on Sunday. We decided to leave and go across the street to see what the SEGA gaming people had at their booth. They have a new game, Colonial Marines from Aliens vs. Aliens in a first person shooter mutli-player game. But it also looked like you could be an Alien! That was pretty cool. They had a life sized model of the Alien Queen from the movie. There was a sign that said it was an actual movie prop, but I believe that to be a lie. In the movie the queen was an articulated puppet since it was 1986 and before CGI, which can do anything.

We went to the Hard Rock Hotel looking for the video game Hawken. Zack is writing the novelization for the game. We missed it by a day but while looking around we did find another video game he did write. The creator of the game did the script and Zack did a pass to punch it up. We got VIP treatment when they showed the demo. It looks really cool, but also very hard. Zack said it was hard to write because the player has to make every decision for the characters. They turn to the screen and ask, "What do you want to do, Commander?" I gave one of the developers a business card. I do VO after all and video games require lots of voices. Maybe they will call me for an audition. (That would be awesome...)

It was around 2 pm. I needed to get on the road back to LA. I said good-bye to Zack and Joanna and went across the street to see one last thing. In front of the Hilton were all the Batmobiles from 1966 thru 2012. Too cool to let that opportunity to go by even though I was starving.

I took the trolley to get to my car. $2.50 was a good price to save me another couple miles. Comic Con is a lot of walking. A lot. I got on the road to LA. I took the 15 north because I know the 5 would be packed with people leaving. There was only one accident that caused me delays on the 15. There were 3 or 4 on the 5.

I got home and unpacked. It was only 3 nights and 4 days, but it was tiring. As it should be...

Comic Con, Day 3. My Panel

I'm lucky enough to be a part of Comic Con Film School which is run by Sean Rourke. He brings a bunch of filmmakers and actors down every year and we tell people how to make low to no budget movies. He has a video roll before we come to the stage of  clips of our work on small films. This year I was able to change the clip from the one he had been using since he started the film school. It was my 3 deaths from Pizza and Bullets. I had never seen the clip before so having it on the big screen was nerve wracking.

After the video roll we went onstage and took our seats. Sean started the class in his normal fashion and we would chime in with comments or he would ask us questions. It went well like it has in the past and we had a good time with each other. My favorite part of the class is when he asks us for a horror story from one of the low budget things we worked on. Because shooting low budget stuff sometimes has crazy things going on. Susan almost got shot in the foot while a cast member practiced a quick draw from a holster with a loaded gun! Firstly, middle, and lastly, the gun should not have been loaded. They needed someone who knew how to handle a freaking weapon! Most of the other horror stories I had heard before. Mine was a succinct redo of one I have used for years on this panel.

After the panel we hung out and chatted for 30-40 minutes answering questions.

Now the other thing I had on my plate for the day was to see a panel someone I was friends with almost 3 years ago was speaking on. Something had happened and we drifted apart. She took over as the hardest working person in show business after James Brown died. The panel was for Disney Cartoons which she voices a character in. I was nervous. What happened and what would her reaction be seeing me?

After the panel I approached the stage to say hello. A friend of hers got there just before me and she was focused on her. The friend noticed me silently waiting. When I was noticed she smiled and gave me a hug. We chatted for a bit. I told her how my panel went. But in my head, I was wondering what happened. I thought she hated me. She hadn't answered an email, text, or call in over 2 years. I went with hates me.

She got hustled away to go sign autographs. I walked along side her for a few moment and we chatted some more. Sometime in the next 4 months we'll do lunch. Fantastic.

I caught up with Zack and Joanna again. This time a friend of ours was there too. We walked around the hall  looking at stuff. At a booth we met a sexy Asian woman dressed in basically a fur bikini and leggings. She was Hobacca. It was a funny parody. She had a blinged out Gucci bag bandolier and small bowcaster. She was very funny and bright, and an over achieving Asian. (teaching herself the violin!)

We left Hobacca and went looking for food after the hall closed. A huge cargo train was going down the tracks directly across from the convention center which means the thousands of attendees were trapped. San Diego should really make 2 bridges which go over the street and train and trolly tracks. Waiting for stop lights is crazy when it's thousands of people waiting.

Food was at Old Town. Some Mexican place Zack loves. By this time it was after 8 pm. I'm starving the demons are grumpy which makes me an unpleasant dickhead. The hostess said the wait was an hour. Fuck! We were given a beeper and went shopping. It only turned out to be 40 minutes, but I only had a Mrs. Fields cookie in the past 8 hours.

Food came, we ate. I didn't really care if it was good, I just needed it to be food. We finished dinner after 10 :30 pm and the night needed to be called. I got dropped back at my hotel. I chatted with the people in the room and went to bed.

Comic Con, Day 2

I woke before everyone else. I quickly showered and shaved and went down to the breakfast buffet the hotel has. It was basic breakfast fare, but a lot of it. In 3 days I think I ate a pound of bacon. I went back to the room and changed into my costume for the day. I created a Steampunk Spiderman to wear at the con. I've never seen one before and it looked cool. I walked from the hotel to the convention center. People I  passed said, "Steampunk Spiderman," or "cool costume."

This thrilled me because I was afraid no one would get who I was or think it was a stupid idea. It's a derivation on the theme of Spiderman. One that most would not think of. I tried to keep the costume simple and practical and thought about "how would you fight in it?" If it was covered with a crazy amount of metal and brass and tubes, you're going to get hurt in a fight. I think it's called Steampunk because your goggles steam up and lessen your vision.

I walked around a bit before going to the  Film School room. My friend Jack knew about the costume so when I walked in and sat in the back he nudged 2 others I know and pointed me out. I chatted with them after the panel was over for 30 minutes and then ventured back out into the crowds.

Back in the late 90's I went with my friend Terry to Dragon Con in Atlanta. While we were in costumes there we  became Paparazzi Whores. That's  when you have your picture taken constantly. It's kind of cool getting that attention in costume, because it's like being a celebrity but when the costume comes off you can go places without people knowing you were such and such costume. The paths I walked in this costume took me past the largest number of people I could find because I wanted to be a paparazzi whore. It worked and it was fun. Whoredom was achieved.

After 5-6 hours in costume I went back to my hotel to change and have lunch. Then I went back to the convention to catch up with Zack and his wife Joanna. He had been in meetings all day and was looking to walk around the dealers room. We closed out the dealers hall at 7 pm then went for Chinese food. After dinner we went for Ghiradelli ice cream in old town.

It was late so I went back to my hotel and crashed. My panel was the next morning and I wanted to get some sleep.

Comic Con: Sidebar: Religion

A few years back the Westboro Baptist church showed up and tried to convert the heathen idol worshipping fans. It didn't work. The fans made their own signs and went across the street to harass them. The SD police had to protect them. They left after a day. I'm thinking they went to Sea World.

This year there was 5-7 people quietly holding signs with the usual REPENT type of message. They were not confrontational so the crowd didn't gang up on them. They just turned the 2 sided signs around and stayed out of the way of the 150,000 people passing.

My friend observed a guy on a bike ask 2 of the sign holders a question. It went something like this.

Bike guy: Your unshakeable belief in the bible makes god real?
Sign guy: Yes.
Bike guy: I unshakably believe I am a god. So that makes me a god.
Sign guy: It doesn't work like that.
Bike guy: You just said it did.
Bike guy rides away.

I stopped and asked one of them if the bible was the WORD OF GOD  to be followed without question.
Sign guy: Yes. It's the word of god.
Me: The old testament says I can have slaves, sell my daughter into slavery, stone my children to death for disobeying me, and kill him for wearing a t-shirt made of 2 fibers.(cotton and polyester blends will kill you).
Sign guy: That's not the way it works.
Me: But you said it was the Word of God which should be followed.
I walked away.

I don't understand why they would think they could change the views of fans. The fans probably have a belief system of some kind and it gets them thru the universe. Not once did someone drop to their knees and convert.

Comic Con, Day 1

The drive down to San Diego was a drive. The parking at the hotel was ridiculous. They wanted $30 a night for parking on a room that was 300% of what it goes for on an average summer weekday that is not Comic con. But because it's a huge convention it's okay to gouge your patrons. So I did the almost impossible. I found free street parking with no restrictions for all 4 days 2 blocks from my hotel. Fight power and hooray for my parking karma.

I got to the convention center and got my badge. The room wouldn't be ready until 4 pm so I wandered around the dealers hall a bit. I went and found my friend Larry at the Artists Alley and said hello. We chatted a bit and then I struck out again into the throngs of people to see what was around to look at and purchase. I had a mission. 2 people who couldn't make it wanted something from a couple booths. Exclusives for the con. Now I wasn't sure anything would be left. The "preview night" on Wednesday is not much of a preview if 10,000 people are running thru the dealers room looking for the exclusive things to buy so they can then turn around ans ell them on eBay. I found the booths easily. They were seriously right next to each other. That was convenient. But I had a question for each person. I tried to check my email for clarification. Nothing would go thru. The dealers room is a big concrete and steel box. That leads to lousy reception not to mention the fact that thousands of people are all trying to use the same bandwidth at the same time. I had to leave the hall and go outside to get any service. Then when someone called me back the call went straight to voice mail; without a caller id # I had to call someone else and they messaged the person I was trying to reach on FB. Annoying but it worked. I got the 2 items and went back to my car to put them in the trunk.

I was able to check into the room early so I dragged my bags and costumes to the hotel then trekked back about a mile to the convention center. If you ever go to Comic con be sensible and were comfortable shoes. Your feet will thank you later. I called my friend Zack and we hung out for a bit. He's comic book writer and was taking a bunch of meetings everyday to pitch ideas for work.  Like an actor, he'll do practically any gig that comes along.

I had a mixer for Comic Con Film School in the evening. I went to the Marriott and hung out there with the gentleman who puts me on the panel every year and some of the other panelists. I hung out and gorged myself on small food. that took the edge off the demons which had awoken in my stomach. I bid adieu to the people at the mixer and went to catch up with Zack at some eating establishment which for the life of me I can't remember. Wait! it was a mexican place. Baja something. I ate a little bit of chips and salsa and nachos but wasn't really hungry.

After dinner we walked to Petco park. Rob Zombie was having a party or something there which was free. We walked in and there was a DJ on a stage playing heavy metal. A huge video wall behind him was playing weird and kind of disturbing images and videos which had nothing to do with the music. It was like a goth club, but no one was dancing. they were just sitting on the grass.So like a goth club for fat listless goths. Off in the distance we saw a car on a stage. What was it? It was the car the Munsters drove in the TV series and Rob Zombie used in video or something. Next to the stage was a group of people behind a barricade in front of a large fenced off area. We watched them for a moment and tried to discern why they were there. I asked someone what was going on. "Zombie run," was the reply. So basically these people paid money to do a run, like a mini marathon, thru the tunnels and walkways of Petco park. And be chased by zombies while doing it. I looked where the zombies were on the side of this large fence. I couldn't really see them because of the covering on the fence, but there were a bunch in a cage with their arms raised, moaning and shambling about. A siren went off, the gates swung back and the runners went passed thru the gate. It closed again and then the zombies were let out of the cage. I heard moaning and screaming, and I never saw the runners emerge from any other part of the structure nor did I see them ever again. I guess the zombies won.

After that it was late. I walked back to my hotel and crashed.

Street Preacher vs. Atheist

I was walking around Burbank near some movie theatres and saw a street preacher standing on a bench. He had a small sound system set up and he had free Bibles to give away. There was a skinny 20 something guy on a bike talking into the mic. They were debating. I stopped to listen.

The guy on the bike was an admitted atheist. The street preacher was trying to convince the guy that he would be going to Hell unless he started believing in the bible and stuff like that there. And the preacher wouldn't wish going to Hell on anyone. The atheist demanded proof that God exists. (If you don't believe in God, you don't, therefore, believe in Hell.) The street preacher would reply with chapter and verse. This, of course, is his proof. The atheist wasn't buying it. "When I ask for proof you say, "in the Bible..." was the atheist's reply. It was really the preacher's only answer.

The street preacher didn't really see the flaw in his proof or couldn't argue something other than one way. He did ask the atheist if he believed in the Big Bang. "Yes." was his reply. "Prove it." was the street preacher's retort. "Well, science has proven there is background radiation left over fromt he Big Bang from 15 billion years ago." Atheist replied. "Prove that." Street preacher said. "It's science. It's been observed and tested." "But is can't be repeated," was the preacher's thrust. "Something doesn't need to be proven twice in a lab experiment to be true." Was the atheist's reposte.

The street preacher contested this as only theory and derided science. It was at this time I got bored. Neither person was going to win.One cannot change the opinion of a rock. The atheist would need to get bored because you can't really argue with people set on denying science. Now some would say that atheists are treating their belief in science as blindly as a religion. That's bollocks. Science changes it's view when shown other evidence. Religion ignores all science to hold onto a belief.

And the whirlygig of time spins on...

Janus

In Greek Mythology Janus is a god with two faces. It's a duality thing. It doesn't necessarily mean what being two faced does now days.

Now, I noticed something recently. Something I've probably been doing for many years. When I look at myself in the mirror, I normally look in my left eye.  I don't know if other people look more at one side of their face than the other, but I seem to prefer the left side. And women probably look at the whole face since they have make up to apply. It might just be a guy thing or a me thing.

I have a theory or 3 why I might look more at one side than the other.
1. The light from the bathroom window adds to the bathroom light on that side of my face. The right side is darker to look at. The eye automatically goes to something that is in more light. 
2. My face, like most people, is not symetrical. (People with symetrical faces seem better looking in a preternatural way.) My left eye is slightly more open than my right eye giving me a more friendly look.
3. Uh, I guess I had only 2...

When actors get headshots eventually some photog will say one side is your "good side." I don't remember which one is my good side, but I think it's the left side of my face. I generally have favored it in prior headshot sessions.

So, do you favor one side of your face more than the other? And would you have ever noticed it?

I probably just messed up how you look at your face...

Really?

One of my jobs is dangerous. People that are stupid, incompetent, physically unable to do it or are afraid of heights should not do this job. It's rigging. I walk on I-beams 100 feet in the air and pull up chain motors for rock concerts and events. It takes skill and a bit of fearlessness. Or rather it takes an awareness of fear and the danger and the ability to still do the job without freaking out. It takes common sense, strength and the awareness that if I fuck up and drop even the smallest thing like a shackle pin, it can kill someone.

One of the places I work is the Anaheim Convention Center in the Arena. Or used to. There's going to be a lot less work for riggers now. OSHA came in and said it was not safe. Hmmmm.... Not safe for whom? Your average person who doesn't even know what I do for work?  Not safe for some incompetent fuckhead who can barely walk on the ground without getting hurt? It's safe for riggers. Every building is unique in it's challenges. The arena was built back in the 1960's with a Jetson like aesthetic. Weird angles, false tile ceiling covering the beams of the building.

Since the building was built there was never a death nor serious injury. The roof was safe because of the people rigging in it. OSHA came in an saw the way things were done and levied a fine and said everything must change. So a massive reworking of the building was done. It's safer? I don't know. But I do know that a ton of work has now gone away for riggers because of this retro fit. Everything is now done from 100 foot boom lifts. It's slow and ponderous and load ins will now take a day or more for the rigging before anything else loads in. The floor cannot have anything in the way of the huge lifts; you can't drive over a truss.

If you had a large show you would have 12-16 riggers. 3 man teams in the air and a ground rigger. The rig could be done in a day. The motors could hang virtually anywhere they needed to. Now the arena has fixed places to hang the motors, so you are screwed if you need variations it can't do. How long would it take 2 lifts to rig 100 points? Who knows. But it's safe.

So basically OSHA makes the world safe for the lowest common idiot to do any job. Well, some jobs are not safe. How does OSHA make fire fighters safe? They run into burning buildings. Would OSHA just say let the building burn? It's not safe? Many places are not safe. Coal mines, diamond mines, outer-fucking space. Being an astronaut would be cool, but probably one of  the most dangerous occupations. You are sitting on top of a controlled directed explosion. How do you make that safe?

Life is not safe. You're going to die. The idiots die, the smart people die, the careful people die.

I do wonder what a n OSHA inspector's house looks like. All smooth round corners? Bubble wrap clothes? Dull knives and cold food?

They put a lot of skilled labor out of work. The key word: Skilled. Skilled. Skilled. Just saying...

SCOTUS AZ Decision

In light of the decision by the Supreme court to uphold the "papers please" part of  AZ 1080, I have one question.

If I were arrested without ID and didn't say a word, would the AZ police try to determine if I was Swedish?

JUSTICE

Back 7 months ago I was OUTRAGED by Jerry Sandusky, the now convicted child rapist. (Really, was there any question of guilt?)

He was convicted of 45 out of 48 charges against him. The minimum time he will do is 60 years. The maximum is 442 years. The penalty I suggested was repeatedly feeding this monster to sharks, healing him and doing it again.And again. And again.

He will be sentenced in 90 days. Currently he's in solitary because it's not safe to put the child rapist in the general population. He would be beaten to death. And I'm really okay with that. He needs to actually pay for his crimes. Putting him in an 8 X 10  jail cell for 23  hours a day is not enough. He needs to be put in there with rabid weasels. Hungry tigers. A bigger more violent killer with children that he loves.

I want him to realize he is a MONSTER. The things that hide under the bed in a child's imagination are nothing compared to him. Cthulhu is nothing compared to him. 

I didn't find it unusual his wife got up on the stand and lied about knowing nothing about him being a child rapist. She had to have known. He even molested his adopted son. When the prosecution had the chance to cross examine Dottie Sandusky they declined. Because they knew she was perjuring herself on the stand. How could she admit she knew he was a monster and turned a blind eye to all the horrible things that happened under her roof?

The attorneys will try to appeal. I want the judge to say, "No! Are you fucking kidding?"

When he was taken away after the verdicts, reporters were saying he will die in prison. Now? Please? Can a bunch of convicts beat him to death with  broomsticks right fucking now? Why wait? Kill the MONSTER.

Cursive

On talk radio today I heard the people talking about cursive writing. Apparently it is becoming more and more disused. Why? Kids with keyboards, computers, emails, texts. No on writes letters anymore. I'm guilty of it too. When I hand write anything I use block lettering. But not totally block lettering. Because I write fast there are letters which are connected, like in cursive, but it's not a style of writing, it's a shortcut I created while block writing.

I remember learning to write. They taught block letters first then in 2nd or 3rd grade changed everything. We could only write our assignments in cursive. I was duped!! They played us for a bunch of suckers. Here's the tools for writing, learn them, get used to them. They don't mention that they expect us to totally change everything we just learned. Bastards. 

I have bad handwriting. At least I think it's bad but compared to some I have seen, it's legible. So as an experiment I just tried to write in cursive. It was weird after spending since 5th or 6th grade not writing in cursive. I remember roughly when I stopped. I didn't get in trouble at school, I just decided it was easier not to write cursive, and my teachers could actually read what I wrote. But I remember being in the school library, a kid across the table from me looked at something I was writing and nudged his friend. "He doesn't use cursive." Like it was some sort of schoolyard crime. Like he was better than me because he wrote in a way "grown ups" wrote. "So?" I think was my reply. I don't know what he said to that. It's only the initial admonition I remember. 

Yep, I was a rebel even in 5th grade.

The talk show this morning said that learning cursive makes different parts of your brain work which don't get used when typing on a keyboard or phone pad. They also mentioned a story about a couple girls who were cleaning out their dead grandmother's house and found letters to their grandfather written in cursive. They couldn't read them because they didn't learn cursive. Now I don't know if that was true, but I can see how it might happen. I think if the girls looked closely they could have figured it out. It wasn't Latin, just a strange way of writing English.

It does make me wonder if there is a "grown up" way in foreign languages to write like we have for English. Is there a French, Spanish, Czech way of writing as an adult?

But like Algebra, my need for cursive has long since disappeared.

Paper From A Wall

 Flappers? 

Thomas Meighan? 1879-1936


While rigging in the roof of the Orpheum Theatre on Broadway in downtown LA I noticed paper poking out of the poured concrete of the building. It looked like newspaper. So I pulled on the paper and tore some bits of it out of the building. The chunks were not huge, some 8" long, brittle, tattered, yellow. I was looking for a date on the paper to tell me when it was from and maybe what paper. 


The pieces were several layers thick and I tried to figure out the mystery there in the ceiling but they were ripping so I stopped and put them in my pocket for later, when I had my glasses and could carefully look. 


There was no date on the paper but there was an article that said the word "Flapper" which was the 1920s, and I knew the Orpheum was built sometime in the 1920s. It opened in February of 1926. Also the writing was interesting. It seemed a lot more personal than you would see in the papers of today. There was personality to it. I did find the name of one reporter. Ira C. Tichenor. I looked him up on Google. I didn't find much about him. He was married in 1882 and had a daughter in 1901 who became an actress in the silent movies. 


Thomas Meighan was an actor on stage and silent movies. The film mentioned in the bit of paper above is The Man Who Found Himself.   A 1925 movie. So this narrows down when the paper was put into the cement. The movie came out August 25, 1925.  So the paper would be maybe a September edition of either the LA Times or the LA Examiner. 


The ad in the top bit of paper was pretty funny to me. They were worried about being too thin. TANLAC made them more robust. Tanlac was a medicinal "with alcohol, gentian, buckthorn, rhubarb, licorice, glycerin, wild cherry." But since it was the 1920s and Prohibition was in effect, the 15% alcohol content made Tanlac a popular "medicine." So you might have "puny children" but give them Tanlac and they will grow strong. Or they will just be drunk and not give a shit. 


There was also a reference to Sid Grauman of the famous Chinese Theatre in one of the bits of paper. His Chinese Theatre opened in 1926. It was not mentioned in the scrap I had, but said something about a party he was at. 


It would have been cool to see more of the paper that was buried in the wall, but it was trapped in poured concrete. I wondered how it got there. Was a worker on the grid, 70 feet in the air, reading the paper at lunch and when he was done instead of taking the paper back down or throwing it 70 feet to the ground, he put it inside the form where the concrete was going to be poured. The building is old and parts have crumbled away to reveal this time capsule to me. The worker was discarding a paper. I found part of it 86 years later and searched the internet for answers to my questions. 


Here's the Flapper story from the top scrap:


                                                        THE ESCAPES
                                                      (Confession Story)

Nifty flapper, lugging satchel, gets off car late at night. So did we. Couldn't help it. It was our stop. Flapper gave us one furtive glance, and began ankling away from there like a frightened doe. We tried to be as non-burglarious as possible, business of carrying newspapers in hand, etc. Whistled to appear innocent. Found we were doing "Hotsy Totsy." Hardly fitting. Made quick switch to "Nearer My God To Thee." Stumped at the end of two bars. Flapper in fright, had made a feint to go in a direction in that to which we were proceeding...  

That's the only bit of the story I pulled from the wall. I wonder what happened next.


Thanks to that long lost construction worker for unknowingly leaving me an intellectual mystery to solve.

What Day Is It?

I find myself asking this question sometimes. It's not necessarily that I don't know, but sometimes I lose track. That happens when I'm super busy, or have absolutely nothing to do. 


This month I've been super busy. I was working for about 3 weeks without many days off. I'd know what time I needed to be at work, but I didn't really know what day it was. Because after a while I would lose track. Especially with the conference I worked in Las Vegas. It was 7 days of work, 6 in Vegas. And the timeless nature of Vegas added to my confusion. 


I also add days to my week sometimes when I work in the morning and then have a late night call time all in the same day. The work in the morning is normal. I'll try to sleep in the daytime because I know I'm going to work at midnight until 4 in the morning. So by taking that determined nap of several hours my body thinks that it has been a night sleep. A short night, but a night. And a day is added to my week to create confusion. 


It's a weird life I lead. As a kid in school you go to class 5 days a week and have weekends free. In a normal desk job type of work situation you work 5 days a week and have weekends free. I haven't had a normal job in a decade or more and my work schedule is always fluctuating. So I lose track of days. 


But I'm rarely bored. 

Motivational Irony

I was working a gig last week where I helped bring speakers at a conference out on stage in a timely manner. One of the speakers was a motivational speaker in a wheel chair. He was a dwarf, 3 feet tall. He been born with brittle bone disease as a child and endured tons of pain throughout his life. But instead of being bitter he was a very upbeat guy, very friendly. We treated him like any other speaker, with courtesy and respect.

We brought him up to the stage beforehand. He wanted to look at the stage to see the space. The stage was set up for people not in a wheel chair. He rolled out on the stage and asked us to pull the 2 big black leather armchairs and small table back so he had room to pace. He also commented that when he's on the big screen in front of big chairs like that with his wheel chair they dwarf him. In my head I had the thought, "But you are a dwarf."

I'd never say it out loud to him, but it was in my head. I don't know if he was being ironic, but that statement hit the irony button in my head. He was stating a fact. And when I saw the video feed of his talk, when he stopped in front of the chairs it looked like he was sitting in them.

I saw him around the conference for the next couple days. People came up to him saying they loved his speech.

Fear of ....

On 2 news shows this Sunday morning, Easter morning, 2 evangelical preachers were talking about politics and religion. There was one phrase they both used that struck me as odd. It has always struck me as odd.

Fear of God.

Somewhere in the Old Testament you are told to fear God. God also says he is a jealous God when he pops out the 10 commandments for Moses. (Exodus 20:5)

So the question I have always had is, Why would you want to worship someone you fear? Wouldn't that be like worshiping Darth Vader? Freddy Krueger? A person that has a gun to you head?

Did the people who wrote the Bible think that having God say "Love me" just seemed too needy?

But if you look at when the book was written, that was a rough time to live in and a tough life to have. You had a hard time eating, you were at the mercy of the elements, the weather. The rain or lack of could cause famine in the next year. Children died of diseases that we conquered years ago.

So life was basically shit. And if God loved you then why would he let bad things happen to you? If you were told to fear God then you get what you deserve. The old saying, "God only gives you what you can handle" is ridiculous. So the people who can handle bad things happening to them get it, and the people who can't are rich and pampered because they are just a big bunch of pussies who can't handle the real world?

I don't know who is "right" when it comes to religion. But wouldn't it be just the biggest cosmic joke and incredibly myopic of God to say, "Just the Jews. They are my chosen people." Or just the Baptists or just the Muslims. Why give someone freedom of choice and then punish them for it?

I tend to lean toward what physicist Richard Feynman said, "Not knowing is a lot more interesting than believing something that might be wrong."

Social Media and Employers

I've heard it in the news lately that a growing number of employers are asking job applicants for their Facebook and Twitter passwords if they can't view their profiles.

It's highly unlikely that anyone I would ever work for would ask for such a thing, but my answer would be simple.

Give me your house keys.

Asking for FB passwords is a huge, egregious invasion of privacy. Employers are not allowed to ask for sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs. By poking around on FB they can find out everything and more. How many people have pictures on their pages where they have a drink in their hands? They may not have put them there, but someone did. How many people have posted that they don't want to go to work? Does that make them a bad employee? No. It makes them human. Sometimes people don't want to go to work for whatever reason. Many people go to work when they are sick because they are afraid to lose their jobs. And they post it on FB or Twitter.

FB profiles are not really an accurate reflection of a person. It is either someone they want to be, or someplace they can be more than they are. How many people portray their lives as something awesome when it's just ordinary? Most posts I see are completely inconsequential. "I had a cheese sandwich for lunch. Mmmm I like cheese." Is this kind of trivial stuff of any interest to an employer? I really can't imagine.

I would ask for the house keys of the HR person, the CEO, the company president, and others. I would tell them that I want to see if I would like the morals of the people I'm working for. I want to check under the bed in that shoe box. I want to see what is in box in the upper right hand corner of the top shelf of the closet. I'm figuring I will find sex toys and tranny porn. And probably some guns.

Would they say I have no right to that kind of a search of their privacy? Well, then, they have no right to see my social media. When they refused to give me their house keys I would get up and thank them for their time and leave.

I don't want to work for anyone that pries into their employee's lives in such a manner. It's work.

Immortality

I remember this group from when I was a kid. I found this newspaper ad in some papers last night. I clipped it out because I had personal dealings with this group. I was a bus boy at a restaurant in a resort in Scottsdale. This group was a cult like any other. But this one had a twist. They promised immortality, in the body you had right now. Physical immortality.

All you had to do was give the guy running the cult all your money.

They would come into the restaurant to eat, but had no money to pay. So the hostess would just add the charges to the room of the leader of the cult. It was crazy. They seriously thought they would live forever. I'd never seen cult like belief before. But I've run into it since.

It's amazing what people will believe either because they are afraid of dying, or bamboozled by a charismatic huckster.

They would lock the doors to the ballroom when they had their meetings. I wrote a short story based on it. It had a Twilight Zone bent to it. Basically, the cult leader was a demon and dragged all their souls to Hell after taking all their money...

Rock Icon

I want to be a Rock Icon.

That would be a cool gig. Can you imagine? I can see it now. Me, silhouetted by intensely colored lights, standing on the front to the stage. Maybe my foot on the monitor in front of me. Hanging on the mic stand, Bono-esque.

I would already be an established Rock Icon. Not on e of the thousands of wanna-bes. All the struggling days would be behind me. It would be cool to be able to turn out anything on a CD and have the fans buy it. There would be some number of songs they would like. Fuck the critics, they're just frustrated. Albums justify the tours. That is the fun part. That's the drug.

The arenas would hold at least 22,000. The screams when I take the stage are deafening, the energy pouring on to the stage is intoxicating. That's the drug. The energy.

I'd start singing something low and sexy, "Here' comes the woman with the look in her eyes* Raised on leather with flesh on her mind* Words are weapons sharper than knives, makes you wonder how the other half dies." INXS. Got to love them. Hutch died in a Rock Icon way. Kind of weird, kind of tortured artist, or in a sex experience that went wrong. He had great rock and roll hair. Not heavy metal hair, all teased up, and if you touched it it would shatter. But great floppy, in your face hair. The kind women love to run their fingers thru, and looks incredibly cool when you casually brush it out of your face.

Have you noticed that very few of the cool singers have spines. Maybe it started with Jim Morrison of the Doors. And the tradition was kept up by Bono of U2, and Michael Hutchence of INXS. They hang on to the mic stand like it's the only thing holding them up. Take it away and they'd crumple to the ground.

They move in a way that insinuates sex. . Very loose movement, very fluid. It's not blunt or rude like rap or heavy metal. It's slithering, gliding like a reptile. It's an attitude, a presence of sex. The ability to seduce every woman in the crowd without ever meeting them in person. A sex fantasy larger than life. It would be daunting though; so much would be expected from you. But with all the practice, you would probably be good in bed.

The concert is the thing. Putting out an album gets you the chance to tour. The energy coming off the audience is amazing. Then afterward, ears ringing from the decibels, you go to the next city to do it again. Living for the time onstage.

I do understand it a bit...

Lottery Fever

I didn't win the $640,000,000 million Mega Millions lottery yesterday. That's okay. I had 5 quick picks and didn't feel the need to buy more than that.

The odds are long. 1 in 176,000,000 if the news stories are to be believed. When the lottery is $640 million there is a sure fire way to win. Buy up 176,000,000 lottery tickets. That would cover every possible number combination. It could only really be done by a billionaire with a lot of time on his hands or some hedge fund as a way for a sure fire return on money spent. You would win.

But there's also a chance that someone else would also have the numbers. The profit would be less and you might not cover the expense of buying every possible combination.

Though I didn't win, it was fun to think about what I would do with that kind of cash. And for $5, that's not bad. Like they say, you can't win if you don't play.

Mix Tapes

I used to make mix tapes to play in my car when driving. Tapes. Not CDs, tapes. Did it for years and years. Then I switched to CDs.

Sometimes I would pick a theme and do a bunch of songs in a certain genre. Like "80's Hair" which was a bunch of late 80's hair bands. Or "21 the Hard Way" which was all heavy metal. Or "Speed" which were great songs to speed down the freeway at 90 mph.

Since I got a CD player in the car years ago I rarely pulled out the tapes. I had a deck of 10 discs at my disposal so the tape deck in the car fell to disuse. But recently I pulled out some old tapes and was playing them as I drove. They were somewhat remembered and a bit of a surprise because I didn't remember what I had on the tapes or what order.

I was hearing songs I haven't heard in over a decade and it took me back to the roads I travelled when they were new in my tape deck. I can't say for sure who some of the artists are. I had to have a tape or a record that the song was recorded from, but I have no idea who these bands or singers are. I remember the lyrics to many of them. Or a guitar riff. But I don't know who did it.

It's kind of cool to go back and listen to the tapes. They provide a window to who I was at the time I made them. Some songs I still love. Others were merely a memory, a phase, a brief obsession.

It may take the rest of the year to listen to them all.

Backstage

I worked recently at the happiest place in Anaheim. It was a commercial for an iconic park. It was a lot of fun. We were there after the park closed. Any other time I had been there it was crowded. So to have the space to ourselves, just the cast and crew was glorious.

Getting backstage was interesting. The place probably has better security than the TSA. We rode in a shuttle van to an innocuous gate that took us backstage. It looked a lot like many other backlots for studios. Large non-descript blocky warehouses. We passed by the metal skeleton of some float recently retired. The fiberglass shape of it in pieces laying on the ground next to it. Someone recognized it as a certain float, but we passed it so quickly I couldn't figure out what it had once been.

Base camp was a stage near Big Thunder Mountain. We hung out until later when the park had almost closed. Rides were winding down and patrons were headed to the exit. A large illuminated helium balloon lit up the area in a diffused white light. We went to work. They had us, the "atmosphere", do crosses and walk away from the camera. When they got what they wanted we walked back to base camp and got our stuff together to move locations.

I learned from talking to the cast members which were assigned to hang out with us that they were there to keep us from taking pictures of the backstage stuff. Pictures of things that could end up on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, or in a blog like this one. I asked could I take a picture of this? and I pointed to something. Yes, you can take a picture of the castle, but not the balloon. It would ruin the magic of the place.

The van took us along a road backstage that your regular park visitor never sees. Then there was a traffic jam. On a private road. How could that happen? The large balloon from earlier had been tied down, still inflated, to the back of a pick up which would take it to the other location. The truck with the 12' diameter balloon got stuck between the wall of the road and the pillar holding up the monorail. Oops. 3 guys were pushing on the balloon to try and get it thru the narrow space. When the driver figured out this wasn't going to happen anytime soon, we crossed into the oncoming traffic lane and continued on. The balloon eventually made it but had been partially deflated.

We went to the next location in the other park. There is a show which started a year or 2 ago I've only seen once from the side. It takes 30 minutes. I'd seen it before, but didn't get the full effect. I never had waited in line to get a prime spot in front to see the World of Color from the front. But now we got to see about 5 minutes of it repeatedly from the front. 10 of us extras placed in specific spots so the show could be seen beyond us. This is not how it works in the real world. Where we were 10, there are hundreds who see the show in the evenings. It was cool, but I missed the pyro.

So the question is, will the people who work for this company, whose job it is to scour the internet looking for things and taking them down because they ruin the magic, find this and take it down? Hmmm...