Worst televised Oscars ever!
Ellen DeGeneris SUCKED. I don't think I laughed once at her. However, the entire time Jerry Seinfeld was on I couldn't stop laughing. What happened to John Stewart? He is quite possibly the best Oscars host since Carson.
I was so bored all through this entire show. And what was with these long walkouts where they followed some of the presenters from halfway backstange through these long drawn out enterances.
YAWN!
The shadow playing dance troupe.
YAWN!
The flashy graphics during the lists of nominees.
YAWN!
Michael Mann's montage of American history through film images.
YAWN!
Ellen Degeneris.
YAWN! YAWN! YAWN! YAWN! YAWN!
Hooray for Jennifer Hudson (Bite THAT Simon Cowell!) and Forrest Whitaker.
I'm glad Marty Scorsese got his Oscar, and it was perfect being presented to him by his friends, but the film itself was nowhere as good as "Little Miss Sunshine".
I skipped watching Galactica for THIS?!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
I finally called George Takei's manager out in Hollywood about breaking into the business and possibly representing me. Brad was very kind, honest and did offer to forward my name to George's agent. He didn't sound all to hopeful, but it was, at least, the first door I knocked on "in the business".
As usual, with anything in my life, it did have that one moment which defines it as being part of my life. First, you have to remember that Brad is not only George's manager but he is also his partner.
So....as we're talking Brad mentions that George is coming to Florida to attend a graduation at The Dave School. This was the school for which I did my first paid voice acting "gig". I told Brad how George didn't know about my gastric bypass surgery and that the last time he had sen me he was berating me about my massive weight.
Well, that's not exactly how I said it. What I said to Brad was that "the last time I saw George he was all over my ass about my weight!"
Another stellar moment in Towaway history!
As usual, with anything in my life, it did have that one moment which defines it as being part of my life. First, you have to remember that Brad is not only George's manager but he is also his partner.
So....as we're talking Brad mentions that George is coming to Florida to attend a graduation at The Dave School. This was the school for which I did my first paid voice acting "gig". I told Brad how George didn't know about my gastric bypass surgery and that the last time he had sen me he was berating me about my massive weight.
Well, that's not exactly how I said it. What I said to Brad was that "the last time I saw George he was all over my ass about my weight!"
Another stellar moment in Towaway history!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Used to be a time when someone's leaving my company was a sad thing. Our department head would call everyone together and announce that so-and-so had found something better for themselves and had decided to leave the company. There would be cake, gifts, hugs and tears.
Now it's a matter of looking around the office and wondering where so-and-so has been and not knowing if the person still worked for the company or not. For the most part a person either simply leaves or is escorted out by security with not so much as a goodbye handshake. In those rare instances when a person's departure is know ahead of time the only acknowledgment from management is that the paperwork has been processed.
My department manager just gave her 2 weeks notice. She and I have known each other almost since the day she started. Our working relationship and friendship has been through some ups and down over the years but has ended in such a good place that I was the first person she told; even before turning in her letter of resignation. I shared laughs, tears and a Thanksgiving day meal with her family. She is good people and the job was turning her away from who she really is. Luckily, she saw it in time and is moving on to something better for herself.
She will be missed; and not just by me. One of my coworkers came up to me and said, "What are we going to do after she's gone? She was, like, our buffer to the rest of them."
I will miss her. We have grown to be able to read each others thoughts. We can communicate with just a look. At times one or the other will stop the other from saying something a little outside the realm of appropriate. OK...so maybe she stops me more than I stop her....but you get the point.
There was a time when our friendship was on the rocks. It was entwined with a whole debacle of a mess at work. As part of a bunch of trumped up charges against me was the allegation that I said some very derogatory things about her in the open on the sales floor. As soon as those angry words were thrown at me all other parts of the charges against me fell to the wayside. I could take being raked over the coals about job performance and breaking the rules but for it to be said that I talked about my friend in such a demeaning way; and even worse, that she believed it, tore at me deeply. I could stand being a bad employee but to think that a friend thought I would betray her tore my heart out. I didn't give a damn about the rest of the charges. I looked at her straight in the eye and screamed at her in a tear choked voice, "Tell me you really believe I would say that about you!" She didn't say anything. And for almost two years we didn't talk.
Somehow, through my unstoppable belief in the basic goodness of people and lots of time we slowly started talking again. We open up to each other again. We laughed again. We were friends again. At one point, a few months ago, we did say out loud to each other that the hatchet was buried between us over that ugliness of the past. I had a thought in my mind of asking her how it went down for real behind the scenes. That was before she announced that she's leaving. The reality of it is setting in and I no longer care about the past.
My friend is leaving and all that other crap is meaningless. If you've read this blog with regularity, you know how I am with this kind of change. Yes, she is one of the ones I'm going to try to hang onto.
She's worth it.
Now it's a matter of looking around the office and wondering where so-and-so has been and not knowing if the person still worked for the company or not. For the most part a person either simply leaves or is escorted out by security with not so much as a goodbye handshake. In those rare instances when a person's departure is know ahead of time the only acknowledgment from management is that the paperwork has been processed.
My department manager just gave her 2 weeks notice. She and I have known each other almost since the day she started. Our working relationship and friendship has been through some ups and down over the years but has ended in such a good place that I was the first person she told; even before turning in her letter of resignation. I shared laughs, tears and a Thanksgiving day meal with her family. She is good people and the job was turning her away from who she really is. Luckily, she saw it in time and is moving on to something better for herself.
She will be missed; and not just by me. One of my coworkers came up to me and said, "What are we going to do after she's gone? She was, like, our buffer to the rest of them."
I will miss her. We have grown to be able to read each others thoughts. We can communicate with just a look. At times one or the other will stop the other from saying something a little outside the realm of appropriate. OK...so maybe she stops me more than I stop her....but you get the point.
There was a time when our friendship was on the rocks. It was entwined with a whole debacle of a mess at work. As part of a bunch of trumped up charges against me was the allegation that I said some very derogatory things about her in the open on the sales floor. As soon as those angry words were thrown at me all other parts of the charges against me fell to the wayside. I could take being raked over the coals about job performance and breaking the rules but for it to be said that I talked about my friend in such a demeaning way; and even worse, that she believed it, tore at me deeply. I could stand being a bad employee but to think that a friend thought I would betray her tore my heart out. I didn't give a damn about the rest of the charges. I looked at her straight in the eye and screamed at her in a tear choked voice, "Tell me you really believe I would say that about you!" She didn't say anything. And for almost two years we didn't talk.
Somehow, through my unstoppable belief in the basic goodness of people and lots of time we slowly started talking again. We open up to each other again. We laughed again. We were friends again. At one point, a few months ago, we did say out loud to each other that the hatchet was buried between us over that ugliness of the past. I had a thought in my mind of asking her how it went down for real behind the scenes. That was before she announced that she's leaving. The reality of it is setting in and I no longer care about the past.
My friend is leaving and all that other crap is meaningless. If you've read this blog with regularity, you know how I am with this kind of change. Yes, she is one of the ones I'm going to try to hang onto.
She's worth it.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I have been tasked by my good friend, Jim, to finally write again. At times there has been nothing happening and at other times there has been to much to have the time to post. Since it was Jim who pushed me to write then let me write about his son, Noah.
Noah just turned nine over the weekend. He was born with Spina Bifida and autism. He was not supposed to live out of infancy. His parents were told he wouldn't develop much. Those doctors were idiots. While Noah does live in the enclosed world of autism he is anything but under developed. While he has never talked like a "normal" child he communicates. He understands every word said to him and speaks to us that know him leaving no questions what he is saying. He has a personality and loves to laugh. Every time I see him there is something new that he does which amazes me and puts me on the verge of crying.
When we were at Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago we were together for breakfast when his mother asked him to point out people in the room.
"Where is Daddy?" Noah pointed directly at his father.
"Where is Cheryl?" He pointed at Cheryl and made a sound which came close to mimicking the name.
"Where is Jack?"
Noah slapped his hand on my arm and said loudly, "Jack!"
I flashed back to the first moment my own son looked up at me and said, "Daddy". Noah, even though looking away at the other side of the room as if he were completely disinterested in everyone at the table clearly identified me and knew me by name.
I have told his parents many times that as his speech skills improve we have to teach him to say "Bite Me!" Once he has that mastered we will take him back to the doctors who said he wouldn't live so he can say those two words to those most deserving of them.
This past weekend we were at a cookout. Just before leaving Noah had planted himself in front of my car and was studying my House of Blues license plate. I leaned down and pointed out to him Jake and Elwood. I did this only once but he repeated back each name and pointed at them correctly.
"Noah, which one is Elwood?" I asked him in reverse order to hos I had taught him. He picked correctly.
"Where is Jake?" Again; dead on.
I thought about teaching him those two magic words but thought better of it. There's time for that later.
As a final testament of how much a normal kid he really is; the little stinker beat me by 8 pins at bowling. Yes, I was beat in bowling by a 9 year old child with autism. At least he didn't come over after the game with a score sheet to rub it in. Getting beat by a 9 year old autistic child is bad enough; having him trash talk you afterwards would just not be right.
We have to save that for the doctors.
Noah just turned nine over the weekend. He was born with Spina Bifida and autism. He was not supposed to live out of infancy. His parents were told he wouldn't develop much. Those doctors were idiots. While Noah does live in the enclosed world of autism he is anything but under developed. While he has never talked like a "normal" child he communicates. He understands every word said to him and speaks to us that know him leaving no questions what he is saying. He has a personality and loves to laugh. Every time I see him there is something new that he does which amazes me and puts me on the verge of crying.
When we were at Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago we were together for breakfast when his mother asked him to point out people in the room.
"Where is Daddy?" Noah pointed directly at his father.
"Where is Cheryl?" He pointed at Cheryl and made a sound which came close to mimicking the name.
"Where is Jack?"
Noah slapped his hand on my arm and said loudly, "Jack!"
I flashed back to the first moment my own son looked up at me and said, "Daddy". Noah, even though looking away at the other side of the room as if he were completely disinterested in everyone at the table clearly identified me and knew me by name.
I have told his parents many times that as his speech skills improve we have to teach him to say "Bite Me!" Once he has that mastered we will take him back to the doctors who said he wouldn't live so he can say those two words to those most deserving of them.
This past weekend we were at a cookout. Just before leaving Noah had planted himself in front of my car and was studying my House of Blues license plate. I leaned down and pointed out to him Jake and Elwood. I did this only once but he repeated back each name and pointed at them correctly.
"Noah, which one is Elwood?" I asked him in reverse order to hos I had taught him. He picked correctly.
"Where is Jake?" Again; dead on.
I thought about teaching him those two magic words but thought better of it. There's time for that later.
As a final testament of how much a normal kid he really is; the little stinker beat me by 8 pins at bowling. Yes, I was beat in bowling by a 9 year old child with autism. At least he didn't come over after the game with a score sheet to rub it in. Getting beat by a 9 year old autistic child is bad enough; having him trash talk you afterwards would just not be right.
We have to save that for the doctors.
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