Sunday, January 11, 2009
resolutions
The two things I let off the list are
no more internet porn. Come on. This is the year!
and to play guitar like Jim Hall. he's #1
deep creek hot springs
in my ongoing attempt to get video on this blog I had to post this video to my photobucket account and then embed it here. Why? I don't know why blogspot is preventing video upload. Makes no difference. Fuck them. Fuck blogspot! long live deep creek hot springs. these are at around 4500 ft in the san bernardino mtns. long drive. then a long hike and then crossing a river that is fed from snow higher up. the water couldn't have been colder and remained fluid. In the summer the river is no big deal, swim in it, relax. in the winter it was so cold that Luis and I worked hard to find another route back across and finally did some leap frogging across boulders and then some rock climbing to find the trail. I would have perished rather than get in that water again.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Constance Collier
Standing in line at the Pantages theater waiting for tickets to see Wicked I was in between the hollywood blvd stars of Constance Collier, Karl Malden and Jackie Gleason.
Malden, I had to call my buddy George who reminded me that he was opposite Mike douglas in Streets of San Francisco. He also played The Gentleman Caller in A streetcar named desire. Right? The guy who said, "I knew you were old, but I didn't know you were this old." after he pushes Blanche under the torn paper mache light shade. Wait, the gentleman caller was in another Tennessee Williams play, the glass menagerie. It's all too confusing!
Gleason, of course, is everyman, Ralph Kramden, in the Honeymoners *(which was actually started as a sketch in the Jackie Gleason show and then later expanded to its own series.) and also a great pool player in The Hustler.. But Constance Collier
is a different story. we'd never heard of her. which is no surprise considering she mainly acted on the stage, during the silent film era. So you either heard her in person or you didn't hear her at all.
There were no tickets available to Wicked so the trip to the Wood was only a trip into Nostalgia zone. A bit of trivia though, Hollywood got its name when the a couple of pioneers in 1890, owners of a ranch located at the foot of the mountains, split the ranch in half. there were two dirt roads on the ranch. The one going east west they called Hollywood Blvd. The one going north south they called Vine. That's where the Pantages is. and that's where Constance Collier's star sits.
The picture above was taken just weeks before the crack cocaine epidemic of 1888. If you look closely you can see the hookers and pimps and tattoo shops hiding in the trees, waiting for their chance to turn hollywood into this:
Malden, I had to call my buddy George who reminded me that he was opposite Mike douglas in Streets of San Francisco. He also played The Gentleman Caller in A streetcar named desire. Right? The guy who said, "I knew you were old, but I didn't know you were this old." after he pushes Blanche under the torn paper mache light shade. Wait, the gentleman caller was in another Tennessee Williams play, the glass menagerie. It's all too confusing!
Gleason, of course, is everyman, Ralph Kramden, in the Honeymoners *(which was actually started as a sketch in the Jackie Gleason show and then later expanded to its own series.) and also a great pool player in The Hustler.. But Constance Collier
is a different story. we'd never heard of her. which is no surprise considering she mainly acted on the stage, during the silent film era. So you either heard her in person or you didn't hear her at all.
There were no tickets available to Wicked so the trip to the Wood was only a trip into Nostalgia zone. A bit of trivia though, Hollywood got its name when the a couple of pioneers in 1890, owners of a ranch located at the foot of the mountains, split the ranch in half. there were two dirt roads on the ranch. The one going east west they called Hollywood Blvd. The one going north south they called Vine. That's where the Pantages is. and that's where Constance Collier's star sits.
The picture above was taken just weeks before the crack cocaine epidemic of 1888. If you look closely you can see the hookers and pimps and tattoo shops hiding in the trees, waiting for their chance to turn hollywood into this:
Saturday, January 3, 2009
QO-1922449-aa
That's the Ford part number for a hood latch on an Explorer.
I learned that today as part of my ongoing project to chase my dream. Yes, the very day I quit my job assembling bikes my temp agency, the temp agency I haven't heard from in 3 months, calls and asks me if I want to work today.
I figure this is just Karma telling me that I was born to be pharaoh's slave and I should just adjust.
The best thing about Temp agency jobs is that as soon as I walk out the door at the end of the day I mutter to myself "I quit this shit eating job. I wouldn't come back here for a million dollars."
No one can hear me, and in fact my assignment has already ended (and deeply regretted by all parties) but still it is satisfying.
The pharaoh's slave didn't have that option. to quit. to say fuck this to the Pharaoh. But the man in the van does have this option and he will exercise it often. Get another monkey to count your door handles and gaskets and 75W150 gear oil containers. No me. Not this man.
Of course I didn't know that was where I was going when I accepted the job. I just took it on spec because that's the kind of guy I am. Maybe I'll count beans and maybe I'll move boxes. A beggar can't choose, but he can quit.
So it turned out to be Carma...not Karma that brought me back to work for one day at the Santa Monica Ford Dealership.
NOW I'm ready to start chasing the dream.* This time I'm serious.
The video upload function has had some issues and I've got a good video review of The day The Earth Stood Still in my archives. I'm not sure it will ever make it live. Maybe I've reached the limit of videos or maybe this internet connection is so tainted by porn that it is useless. Who knows? Don't see that movie unless you like pandering over budget bullshit with "lessons" stuck in the middle of a perfectly average movie. awful!
*The dream looks something like this
I learned that today as part of my ongoing project to chase my dream. Yes, the very day I quit my job assembling bikes my temp agency, the temp agency I haven't heard from in 3 months, calls and asks me if I want to work today.
I figure this is just Karma telling me that I was born to be pharaoh's slave and I should just adjust.
The best thing about Temp agency jobs is that as soon as I walk out the door at the end of the day I mutter to myself "I quit this shit eating job. I wouldn't come back here for a million dollars."
No one can hear me, and in fact my assignment has already ended (and deeply regretted by all parties) but still it is satisfying.
The pharaoh's slave didn't have that option. to quit. to say fuck this to the Pharaoh. But the man in the van does have this option and he will exercise it often. Get another monkey to count your door handles and gaskets and 75W150 gear oil containers. No me. Not this man.
Of course I didn't know that was where I was going when I accepted the job. I just took it on spec because that's the kind of guy I am. Maybe I'll count beans and maybe I'll move boxes. A beggar can't choose, but he can quit.
So it turned out to be Carma...not Karma that brought me back to work for one day at the Santa Monica Ford Dealership.
NOW I'm ready to start chasing the dream.* This time I'm serious.
The video upload function has had some issues and I've got a good video review of The day The Earth Stood Still in my archives. I'm not sure it will ever make it live. Maybe I've reached the limit of videos or maybe this internet connection is so tainted by porn that it is useless. Who knows? Don't see that movie unless you like pandering over budget bullshit with "lessons" stuck in the middle of a perfectly average movie. awful!
*The dream looks something like this
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