Monday, July 20, 2009

FLASH-Zombie Update!

Received an e-mail, Zombie High will be having it's premier around Halloween. Mike, I'll be burning you a copy and sending it as soon as I get mine! Consider it a late birthday/early Christmas present! Or if my acting sucks, consider it a early April Fools gift!
In other acting news, I received an invitation to audition for a full-length western to be filmed just above my beloved Columbia Ca. Audition is this Saturday.
Wish me luck!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Getting up on a soapbox

This post is a far cry from my usual type of posts, so if it offends you..... I dunno.

While watching the Oakland A's game tonight (BTW they won for a change!) a commercial came on between innings. Nothing unusual about that, but this commercial made me think. Here is the commercial from youtube. I think you may need to copy and past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS0GVOQPs0

Now I have many problems with this ad. I understand "gay" means a homosexual person in today's "slang", but Websters dictionary defines "gay" as:
"1 a: happily excited : merry b: keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits
2 a: bright, lively b: brilliant in color
3: given to social pleasures ; also : licentious
4 a: homosexual b: of, relating to, or used by homosexuals
"

By no means do I approve of bashing someone because of their beliefs or preferences and I defend your right to your opinion...but I am allowed mine too!
In this ad, and others by the same group producing them, the person "scolding" the kids saying "gay" is butting into a conversation that had nothing to do with them. How does that person know just what text the word "gay" is being used? Is it any of their business to start with? And why is it that they can't say "it's gay" but it's ok for the outside person to insult the ones who said gay? Isn't that the same thing that the outside person is trying to stop in the first place, offending someone? I know, their using it as an example but that makes it right?

I have a son that says "Oh Snap!" a lot! I do not hear any complaints from the buttons of the world! In the 80's, Michael Jackson had a huge hit called "Bad". If your "bad" your cool, awesome, good, not naughty! When Jeff Foxworthy makes fun of "rednecks" the world laughs! You may say he's a comedian or it's just jokes or teasing. It's still singling out a group of people and ridiculing them. And what about the Flintstones? They never complained about having "a gay ol time" in Bedrock...because of the way they use the word gay! See my point???

The biggest problem I have with this commercial is at the end when, in a very stern voice on the verge of yelling, I'm told to "Knock It Off!" Well excuse me, but WTF!!! Just where do these people get off telling me what I can and can not say in a private conversation? In this particular ad, the "celeb" is Wanda Sykes who I think is pretty funny in her stand up routines, but has been know...to bash a certain color of skin people. Maybe she should take her own advise?

I know this is not the kind of post I ever make, and I'm not sure I did a very go job expressing my opinions on it but I guess it all comes down to this.
I DO NOT care if you like men, women, or both! I DO NOT care if your skin is considered white, black, brown, yellow, red or any other colour I forgot. I DO NOT care what you say in your own private conversations because you are ENTITLED to your opinion. I DO care if you decide to express that opinion in a threatening verbal or physical way against an innocent person and I WILL, and HAVE stepped in to to defend that person. I DO NOT believe that saying an inanimate object, which what is being done in these ads, is "gay" should be insulting to a group of people. As stated, gay has many different meanings.

PLEASE, feel free to leave your comment about this post and I'll step down from my soapbox and close with a quote from Sir Elton John.

"I think people should be free to engage in any sexual practices they choose; they should draw the line at goats though."

Monday, July 13, 2009

My Pal Has a Birthday!

My bestest life-long buddy has a birthday this month! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my pal Mike!!
When we were kids, we had wagon races. We all had the little red wagons (the ones that NO kids have now!), not the ones with the wood sides or the big wheels!

Ours were all metal! We...at least I was...into the races at Clovis Speedway because a guy by the name of Bob Cetti lived behind me and had a race car. So the gang in the neighborhood all became racers too. We had drivers and pushers (the unlucky kids that got to push the wagons with the drivers in them) and one kid who rode a scooter. It all progressed into converting big wheels into race vehicles, then bikes, then eventually into real cars...but this story is about the wagons and a hot July day.


(Mike, if I forget or leave out something PLEASE feel free to add it! Ye Ol Gopper's memory aint what it used to be!)


It was the early 70's, a time of endless hot summer days for the gang in our hood! We lived on plumbs from the tree in my backyard, bing cherries from the tree next door, and kool-aid from everybodys house! The world revolved around us as we would wake up in the morning and not return home until it was dark, unless we got hungry. Our mothers didn't worry because we lived in a safe world back then. If a parent wanted their kid, all they had to do was go outside and yell his name. It would start a chain reaction of someone else yelling that name until that kid was told by another kid (because the first kid never heard his own parent calling) that mom or dad was calling. We would swim in our pool, play frisbee, or "the game your dad taught you". But for a few early summers, we would race. Race our wagons. We had all painted our wagons with our favorite drivers numbers on them. Mine was 74, Mikes was 37, I don't remember what Yez had but I do remember the fun we had.


So this summer day, Yez, John Webber and his sister Lisa, Randy Hanna and a couple of other kids decided we would give Mike a surprise birthday. Lisa made a cake and we set up for the great race celebrating Mikes birthday, on Yez's driveway. Now Yez had a bigger than average driveway because of the garage being converted into a bed room. Where the garage door should have been was a brick wall about three feet high then a window. So his driveway/race track was more like a road course instead of the round track. So as time came to start the race, Mike had no clue that it was "fixed". Up to this point, he had never won a race I believe. Lisa was the flag girl (multi-talented! I wonder what ever happened to her?) and she dropped the checker flag(because that was the only flag we had, it served as the start flag, caution flag, red flag, white flag...you get the idea!) and the great race was on!


I lead the race for a while, driving my usual safe way while cutting off Mike every chance I got! When we got to the point of the "fix" Mike zoomed past me into the lead! Now it was a battle for 2nd between Yez and I. Well...remember that brick wall? Yez got to know it reeeeeeeeaaaaaaal good!! And more than once! (Amazing he and I are STILL friends, after all the crappy things I did to him growing up!) Mike stretched his lead and as he came around turn four(ish), Lisa dropped the white flag! I could see the beads of sweat on his forehead! I floored it (which is very hard to do with no gas peddle!)! Mike entered turn one with Ol Gop-Man closing in! DOWN the back straight we came! Closer...CLOSER!! Mike could hear my engine straining...squeezing out every ounce of horse power it had! (ok, Randy was pushing me and he was pooping out) We entered the last turn, Mike tried to block, but I countered and shot to the outside, we were neck and neck heading to the finish! Mike could see Lisa, poised with the finish flag in the air, sunlight framing it like golden statue! His wagon bumped and rubbed mine as we shot towards the finish of this historic race! Wheels turning faster than they had ever turned before as the wind whipped thru our closely cropped hair (our dad's told us it us cooler this way), eyes wider than they had ever been, knuckles were white from gripping the steering so very tight! The flag dropped as we passed the finish line and as we stopped Mike quickly turned to look back at Lisa and heard the immortal and historic words from her virgin lips........"MIKE IS THE WINNER!!"

It all went into slow motion and Mike leaped into the air with joy! He had won! He had fought long and hard and come away with a victory! Nothing else mattered at this moment, for him or for us. For this second in time, the world was a perfect place.


Now, being as good as we were, we were worried that Mike, in all his joy, would suffer some sort of heat stroke or heart attack, so we told him he needed to cool down. The best way WE knew to do that wasn't pouring water on him, or taking him inside to the nice air-conditioned house! No Sir! He needed to put on a blindfold, to cool his eyes then the rest of him would be just fine! 10 year olds logic! He believed it! So the blindfold went on, and Lisa ran home to get the cake and candles and matches! Now we had a new problem! NONE of us were allowed to play with matches so NONE of us knew how to light one! We figured it out and burned a few fingers along the way. When Mike asked why we were saying "ow!" we told him we were burning our feet or something. At last the candles were lit, and we told Mike he had cooled down enough to remove the blindfold. It probable looked like a scene from a Charlie Brown show, with a lopsided cake made by a 10 year old in her EZ bake oven and a bunch of kids yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" then singing, but for us, at least me, it will go down as one of the best memories I have.


So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to mister Mike Young! My childhood friend, my adult friend, my blood brother, my pal! I am so happy we have been and will always be, best friends!


Saturday, July 4, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA


"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."


I often wonder if the people now running the country ever really read these words? Could it be, these words have different meaning to different people?

Never the less, with all it's faults, I live in the greatest country the world has ever known and I thank God for that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

Friday, July 3, 2009

June was a bad month if your a CELEBRITY!

WOW! Did anyone else notice how many celebs died in June 2009?

Of course we lost Farrah, Michael, and Ed, and remember David Carradine (that seems like months ago) started it all on June 3rd.
Here is a list of ones I know about, some you'll know the names others the face and if you don't know either...well I can't work miracles ya know!


Gale Storm: 04/05/1922 -06/27/2009

I remember her because I enjoy old time radio

on XM. She was on My Little Margie on both

TV and radio and later the Gale Storm Show


on TV. She was 87






Fred Travalena: 10/06/1942 - 6/28/2009

I remember seeing Fred on the Donny and Marie

Show in the mid 70"s (yes I was in love with

Marie, I admit it!) Fred was an impressionist

and comedian, and VERY funny!

Known as the "Man of a Thousand Faces" He was 66.



Billy Mays: 07/20/1958 - 06/28/2009
Billy sold TONS of stuff from OxiClean to

Mighty Putty! (yes I bought the mighty putty)

He had a way of doing it that if you were channel

surfing and came across him, you would stick

(no pun intended) with him at least half of the

infomercial! BUT WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!


He was only 50.




Harve Presnell: 09/14/1933 - 06/30/2009

Ol Harve and I shared the same birthday
(as did we with Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger)
altho 28 years apart. Harve had a long career but I
remember him from his role in "Paint Your Wagon" and later
appeared in the movie "Fargo" and the series "Dawson's Creek" He was 75



And although he made it through the "Celebrity Death Month" by one day, who could forget the wonderful, Karl Malden?
Karl had a spectacular career and won many Hollywood Awards. Some of his films included "On the Waterfront", "A Streetcar Named Desire" and one of my favorites "Fear Strikes Out". He also starred in the 70's on TV in "The Streets of San Francisco". And everybody knows, he NEVER left home without his American Express Travelers Cheques! A classic phrase still heard today!
Karl was born March 22 1912 and died peacefully on July 1st 2009. Mr Malden was 97 years old.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Slingers

In April, my family and the Proberts attended a civil war re-enactment. Both families had other plans for the first day of the event, and both families had those plans change at the last moment. We attended and had a blast! Civil war events are fun to attend, but way more fun to participate in. Well, the San Joaquin Gunslingers had a parade scheduled for the first day of the civil war event and like I said, my family had plans with our girls softball so we told the group we would not be in the parade weeks before. Well, our softball game and picture day were rescheduled so off we went to the civil war event! The king of the gunslinger group didn't like that we went there instead of the parade and, after being charter members, told my family we were not welcome in the group anymore. What a guy! So I said "fine, maybe I'll just start my own group and give you a run for your money!" The response was "Bring it on.....best of luck to you" I think he figured we would only fail. To be honest, I really didn't have a big interest in continuing anyway. I was getting kind of tired of the lack of commitment from that group and was looking forward to having weekends off in December for the first time in like five years!



Well, I went ahead and made a website, http://goldrushgunslingers.com , and a myspace page http://www.myspace.com/goldrushgunslingers , with the new group consisting of my family, the Proberts (who got a pink slip too) and Wayne Brown. Sadly, the move depleted most of the old group as these people chose to go with my group. We named the group, the Goldrush Gunslingers.



None of us really gave much thought in what the slingers would do, if anything! We did do a birthday party for a 5 year old, and received a bit of teasing for it. But what the heck, we had fun, the people at the party had fun and the mom gave us a very large donation! Win-win-win situation!



Then one day, I received a e-mail on our web-site from the Fresno Philharmonic out of the blue! It said they were interested in talking to us about opening for them and the Sons of the San Joaquin in front of four thousand people! Ummm, sure! And we
were off to the races!



We did GREAT for the Fresno Phill, impressed the Sons and local radio man Ray Appleton and made connections! From that event has come more bookings, some I won't mention just yet until we cross all the "t's" and dot the "i's" but one is working with the Selma Pioneer Village and another is a large corporation asking us to preform for their event in September and soon you (if you live around here) may be seeing the Slingers on a T.V. near you!



I try not to think with the "how do you like this" attitude towards the old group, but he did issue the challenge by changing his group's name to "The One and Only...", posting what a great group he has now on his myspace page and lying about finishes in parades they entered. (Sorry, I have the proof.) As far as I'm concerned, he has his and we have ours and ours is getting more and more popular as a direct result of the hard work, and fun, we put into every show! It shows!



So here's to the Goldrush Gunslingers!



Miss Rose E. Beautoks



Miss Pepper Box



Miss Tess



Miss Izzy Single



Captian Call



Newt



Johny Reb



7XL kid



Blackjack Ried



J.C. Cuffnstuff



Dusty Stranger



and me,



Slone Stranger