People Vex Me

I'll admit first up that I'm a dick.

I was working a gig with a bunch of technicians in my day job. We were setting up for an event. There was one guy I was working with who didn't impress me much. For a lot of reasons. And as I worked with him my dislike for him grew.

When working with people who swear every other word I start paying attention to the words I am using. FUCK is a very versatile word. Noun, verb, adverb, adjective, pronoun, dangling participle. This guy was using so many F bombs it made me wonder if he swears like that around his 4 kids. It made him sound uneducated. And I endeavored to curtail my cussing while there.

We were doing something and I said the word "evolution." This guy piped up and said, "that's a theory which hasn't been proven." I looked at him. He continued, "Like, fucking monkeys are still evolving?" I refrained from challenging him on this. I had already corrected him on something earlier and I think I made him feel stupid. It wasn't intentional on my part. He had said, "The Atlantic ocean is fuckin' 7000 miles across." Without thinking I said "3000."  "No, it's 7000." "No. It's 3000." Another guy I was working with agreed that it was 3000. We lamely threw him a bone and said the Pacific is about 7000.

So when he said that thing about monkeys still evolving I turned away and went to work on another part of the project. Monkeys may still be evolving. They probably are. But to expect a quantum leap in evolution by next Tuesday makes me think you don't have a grasp on how evolution works. It takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years. I bet he was raised religious. So I didn't want to fuck with his world view which is filtered thru his religion. If he believes the earth is 6-10,000 years old because the bible tells him so, then me coming at him with facts won't change his view.

I think I get offended by people's proud ignorance. To feel superior because they are reveling in their own stupidity galls me. And his views were not just ignorant, but paranoid. He turned down the school district's offer to identify his kids. Take pictures and finger prints and DNA samples in case they are abducted. He thought they were going to use it for some nefarious purpose. We asked what if his kids get abducted. His reply was, "they aren't going to get anything from me because we have no money." What about the guy who had 3 girls in his basement for 10 years in Ohio? Was he out for money? No. He was raping them constantly because he was a monster. People don't abduct children for money. They are going to rape and kill them. I plan to have my children chipped like a dog.

He also turned down free dental care offered by the school. "They are just going to try to sell me something." It was inconceivable to him that a government agency might do something for the good of a child like free dental so the kid's teeth aren't shitty.

I avoided working with him when I could.

Like I said, I'm a dick.

Odd Jobs

I was working 6 days for a birthday party. For young kids. It was a lot of time and money spent for kids who won't remember it but will have videos and photos.

The parents are very wealthy. I mentioned the party to some people and described it. There were some comments about rich people and the extravagant things they did with the money which most people can't conceive of. In my mind the parents did nothing wrong.

What did they do?
Put hundreds of people to work. Florists, craftsmen, performers, lighting people, set people.
Pumped millions into the economy because they want to throw a great party for their kids.
Made it so I didn't have to fret about how rent for February gets paid.

In my mind, awesome.

I work for some very rich people during the year. Do they know me by name? Probably not. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm trying to survive, and they are paying me as a skilled laborer.

Sometimes you have to work for the rich guy. I'm okay with that.

Snubs

Every award season the media talk about who got snubbed by some award nominating committee. Social media gets all upset that someone does their best work ever but didn't get the nod.

As an actor I don't feel bad for the 4 time nominated actor who has won twice, but didn't get the nomination this time. Does the world think that the only actors out here are in the movies or TV? There are a lot of actors who can do almost ever single role you see on any screen. Talent is not rare. Getting noticed, getting a team to represent you, getting the opportunity is rare.

I did an audition one time at ILM for a small film. The audition was in one of the studios with the camera and sound guys who worked at ILM. The director had called in favors to get some help. I did my audition, it was an emotional piece. The sound guy laying on the floor at my feet with a boom mic commented to me when there was a moment. He told me of an A list actor who did some scenes for a mega hit that were emotional. The star had to have the room cleared of everyone so he could concentrate and nail the scene. He thought I was as good as the movie star. This was surprising to me. I have done a great deal of live theatre. You can't clear the audience so you can nail a scene. They are the ones you are performing for.

There's a lot of talent out there. Actors putting in the time and the work for the love of it. The awards might be nice for the .005% of the actors who are nominated, but I'll still like a live audience for validation.

So don't feel sad for an actor in a mansion who didn't get a nomination. They will get the opportunity to act in a big movie again real soon.

Random Thoughts

1. I read in the news online that brain death may not happen when the heart stops. So that's awesome. The mind will continue to scream WHAT THE FUCK!?!  after the heart stops pumping blood. I saw a Twilight Zone type show that had the same premise. A guy created a drug that kept the conciousness alive after the body died. The tag to the show was the lights passing overhead as his body with the screaming living mind was taken to autopsy. Or something like that.

Maybe when the body dies a bullet should be put into the brain to kill the mind.

But who does the research to figure this shit out? That's so fucked up and not the least bit comforting.

2. I was reading Methuselah's Children by Robert Heinlein this week and one sentence struck me.

"Whenever the citizens fix their attention on one issue to the exclusion of other, the situation is ripe for scalawags, demagogues, ambitious men on horseback."
 
That pretty much covers so many politicians this past year. They fed upon the tea party's hatred of all things democratic. And who were the scalawags on horseback? Ted Cruz. Rand Paul. Darrell Issa. etc. They demagogued Benghazi, the ACA. Created scandals where there were none.

I long for the day when they get voted out of congress. Or are found in congress with a boy sheep.

3. My dad could have died recently from a whole pile of stupidity. I'll list the things that could have led to this.
 A. When going to the desert leave directions on where you are going.
 B. Take water. More than a pint bottle. Duh.
 C. Have a fully charged cell phone. Or a charger in the car. Even if there is no signal then you can walk to find one. A cell phone with a dead battery is a fucking paperweight.
 D. Don't be concerned about the cost of a tow  truck to pull your mechanically disabled truck out of the mud. Death or being cheap... Hmmmm....
E. When you are found by  guys on dirt bikes ask to be taken to civilization.

My dad went with a friend to look at some land she had in the desert around Lake Pleasant in AZ. Her cell phone is old and the battery lasts mere hours. They had the linkage in the truck break and the tire got stuck in mud. They were going to walk out some dirt road. When the guys on dirt bikes (motorcycles) found them they were out of water. They gave them some. They walked back to the truck. The dirt bikers came and checked on them. One had mechanical knowledge and was able to do something so the truck would start and go forward. But only forward. They also had small shovels and cleared the tire from the mud. Once free they got back to civilization, picked up my Dad's car, and then they went to drop the truck at my Dad's mechanic.

This trip which should have been 3 hours was 12. Yeah, it's not like it was Colorado in December, but had the guys on dirt  bikes not come along, this would be a different ending to the story.

The woman will now forever be known as the person who almost got my Dad killed.

Camelback 2013

While in Phoenix I did the yearly jaunt up Camelback Mountain with Terry. It's a yearly test, basically, just to see how fucked up my body is.

The time up the mountain this year was 48:31, and the down time was 37:10. Though Terry had a different down time on his watch even though we were walking down together. He had 27 minutes. I think he read it wrong and before he could look at it again he deleted the time from his watch.

I didn't stop as we climbed the trail like i did last year, but kept a steady pace. I beat my time up last year but I was faster paced last year because I had stopped more than once to catch my breath. Slower pace, quicker time. Don't really know how that works out. The difference this year, according to Terry: Less cussing.

I was just trudging along I guess.

I do wonder how fast he could do it on his own.

Ghosts of Friends Past

I was looking at my old address book tonight. I was trying to figure out who I would send Christmas cards to. As I was looking page by page I was wondering what happened to these people who were important enough to write their names in the address book.

People I met while pursuing an acting career. People I trained with in London and San Francisco, some I met while doing theatre in San Diego at the Globe and the Rep. The faces and voices which accompany the names were easy to remember for most everyone. There were a few names I couldn't place. A number of people had died. Some years ago, some more recent. There were a lot of old defunct addresses. And some people had moved a multitude of times.

2 people had their own pages in the address book. Both front and back because they moved so often. One was in the Army and subject to the whim of his employment, and the other was a vagabond until he married and moved to Culver City.

I went on the internet and took a list of  20 or so names to delve into. These were people I was closer to or we had trained together.Which for actors means long hours, parties, and drinking and shenanigans. Some were girls I liked but never connected with.

What did I find out? A lot of the actors trained in acting then did something else entirely. There were a few who continued to work in some capacity. The searches were intersting because as actors we tend to have a bigger footprint on the internet then your average person. We do plays and shows and there's IMDb. There are pictures, headshots, and reviews of our work. Some people I didn't need to look up. They are Tony award winners. One teacher in London has an Oscar for the music to Shakespeare in Love. Another teacher (director) was Oscar nominated for Billy Elliot. One director from San Diego has been directing on Broadway for the past decade and has won Tonys. The famous are easily found.

Some names didn't register a hit at all. Like the person disappeared or was a figment of a fever dream. Some people segued into jobs in the same area, but as teachers in colleges. Some people were in pictures, but not on websites. One person was gay. Which now makes more sense when I think back on it. Maybe he didn't know it then or didn't admit it.

It was an interesting exercise in the passage of time and the evolution of people, friends, acquaintances, fellow students, co-workers.

Random Meeting at a Bus Stop

I dropped my car of at a mechanic this morning and had to take the bus to get home. I'll get the car back tomorrow afternoon. At the bus stop was an old man. I saw him walk by the mechanics shop. He had on khaki pants, a button up shirt with a tie under a Christmasy sweater. Over that was a green suit jacket. It was threadbare in a few spots. He had a couple pins on the jacket. VFW was the one that caught my eye. He was a veteran. From his age I guessed he was in WWII. In 30 minutes I waited for the bus, he told me a lot of his life story. 

 He was a WWII vet, fought on D-Day, but I didn't learn what his job was. When he was in Normandy during D-Day, he was talking to a wounded soldier. The guy said he was 15 years old. He was a big guy so he didn't look his age. The man, Larry, turned him into the CO because he was 15. The guy was pissed at getting sent home, but he was too young to fight. He wanted to go back and fight. Admirable thinking, but he's only 15. Larry may have saved his life. It makes me think of an early M*A*S*H episode "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet," when Hawkeye turns in Ronny Howard for being to young to be in the war. Ron Howard says "I'm never gonna forgive you for this! Not for the rest of my life!" To which Hawkeye replies, "Let's hope it's a long and healthy hate."

He also had a friend who survived the Indianapolis sinking. Look it up. It's a very famous military tragedy at sea. Robert Shaw talks about it in Jaws. 

Larry also hung out with Jimmy Durante and Ella Fitzgerald and other Hollywood types. He knew Tom Hanks when he was doing Bosom Buddies. I don't know if he worked in the studios, but he seemed to be in the business somehow. Behind the scenes I think.

He has lived in the same apartment in Burbank for 60 years. First with his mom and family, then on his own. the rent back then was $125!!! Now his rent is $1145. He now has a nephew living with him, but he doesn't do anything or contribute to the household funds. But "he's family and you put up with that shit, right?"

He had strong political views and he cussed a lot. Considering the circles I work in, cussing is not shocking to me. Most of his political views I would disagree with. But I wasn't there to argue with him. I was waiting for a bus. He seemed like he wanted to talk. So I listened. It was his monologue so I let him talk. It was interesting.  Who am I to interrupt? 

Thanks for the morning chat, Larry.