Friday 11/22/63

My family moved to Dallas in August of 1963. Three months later JFK was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963 in downtown Dallas. The city would never be the same, me neither. I was just old enough to be affected by the events. The Dallas news covered the assassination as a local news. For the first few hours stories coming out of Dallas were different than the version the Warren commission would later deify.

Dealey Plaza is only a block from WFAA, the Dallas ABC Television station. People were literally pulled from the street and put in front of a camera and their immediate eye witness testimony recorded, minutes after they witnessed the murder. It was as raw and instantaneous as an interview can be. There was no time to think of the story or remember incorrectly. Every person interviewed at the time stated that the shots came from the Grassy Knoll or the Triple over pass, in front of the Presidents car. They also testified to four shots not three, two happening so close together they almost sounded like a single shot. That factor alone would prove a conspiracy.

But what got me was the speed at which the Dallas police were able to solve the crime of the century. In less than two hours after the shots were fired, Lee Harvey Oswald was in custody. Fourteen minutes after the shots were fired the Dallas police broadcast Oswald's description as the killer. Martin Luther King's was murdered in much the same way by a "lone assassin" using a rifle fired from a building and it took the FBI more than two months to catch James Earl Ray. I would love to think the Dallas police were that good at their jobs back then, but it reeked of set up and conspiracy to me even then.

The Dallas police caught Oswald at the Texas Theatre. The ticket seller called the police because a man entered the theatre without paying. Although the President had just been shot and the crime scene was several miles away, 30 police officers were sent to apprehend the movie goer. At the theatre they accused Oswald of being the assassin. There was at that time nothing to connect the movie going vagrant as the presidential killer.

Oswald was only in custody for 48 hours before he was shot to death at the police building. He was denied his right to have a lawyer, even though he asked for one from the moment he got to the station. Although the police were telling the reporters he was the assassin, they did not have enough evidence to officially charge him with that crime.

That is probably why I got so hung up on seeking the truth of what happened. I'm still looking. I think I have read every major book on the Assassination and a few goofy ones. There are those who still believe in the single bullet theory and the lone assassin. I never know what to say to such a belief. There is more compelling evidence for the existence of Big Foot than there is to support either of those Warren Commission assertions. Even the House on Assassinations Committee, who did their own investigation into the Kennedy assassination in 1975, came to the conclusion that the Kennedy assassination was "probably" a conspiracy. But no one ever tried to find out more than that.

I didn't need the Nixon years to conveince me that the government was crooked. I knew it even then. By the way, the files that might actually shed some light on the whole event. They were sealed up for 75 years by Lyndon Johnson. That's thirty years from now. I doubt anyone will care by then, and Big Foot will probably be head of homeland security.

(The picture above of me holding the newspaper is a couple of decades old taken at Laughs Unlimited Comedy Club in Sacramento, CA. Even then I was obsessed.)
As you were,
Jay

Writing as Performance Art

Sandi likes a particular brand of instant "designer coffee" but if there is none available she will accept regular brew. This morning, however, there was no coffee of any kind in the house, so I volunteered to run up to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to purchase us both a cup.

It has been a while since I was there in the morning. It is a different place in the morning, kind of scary. Very busy, frantic I would say, with most orders made to go as fuel for a commute somewhere in the city. Then there were the "regulars" who come to the Coffee Bean to be seen writing. Like the commuters, the morning cast of "look at me writers" is more intense. One of my favorites was there this morning. I have seen her before; one can't help but notice her. In fact, I question whether she is even writing; she is performing for the early crowd pretending to be unaware that she is attempting to be the center of attention.

She is in her mid 50's and sits at the bar wearing reading glasses and an Ivy League Cap turned backwards on her head. Her station is near the door and across from the register. She perches high on a stool in the eye line of every customer who orders and works feverishly over a black Dell lap top and today a stack of printed papers.

When I say feverishly I mean her pace is that of an editor who is late with the Sunday edition of the New York Times. She is amped on espresso looking, typing, turning, sipping and most grandly mouthing every word of her work as she reads. I was always told not to move my lips when I read silently and have turned that into a career. She, however, looks like a silent movie played at 78 RPM acting out each word with over the top facial expressions.

Occasionally she makes a quick look around the shop to see how many people are looking at her, not out of embarrassment but enjoyment. If she is not being looked at enough she gets more animated with her "reading". When she is being observed by enough people she will tap something out on the computer, still mouthing the words as she does. It is an odd site to say the least. I am drawn to it like a moth to the flame or tiger to the prey... trying to figure it out is fascinating to me.

Writing is not performance art. It is something you do in preparation of Art. Writing is like building a stage set and focusing the lights for the show. Writing is not the show itself. Libraries not coffee houses are perhaps the best place for this activity. I know that some of us don't have nice offices to write in, or our environment at home is not conducive to the calm needed to write, but to seek out an environment which is as hectic as an early morning coffee stop doesn't seem like good use of time.

I could be all wrong about the "backwards hat lady", but it seems to me that unless you are the catcher for a baseball team, wearing a cap backwards is a sure sign of demanding attention. Reading silently like you had turrets syndrome is another sign of attention demanding.

Heisenberg, the physicist, said that an experiment is changed to the degree that it is observed by an independent source. If what he says it true, this project the "backward hat lady" is writing is being changed beyond recognition by placing it in observational mode at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

As you were,
Jay

Two Farmers Meet in Town

"Times are tough" says one.
"That's the truth", says the other, "I am trying lots of new things to keep the farm from going under."
"Yeah? What are you doing?"
"I'm breeding three-legged chickens."
"Three legged chickens? What's that all about?"
"Well you know how everyone likes the drum stick."
"Yeah".
"Well, I get 50% more drumsticks out of my flock than regular chickens."
"Then you must be making a fortune now a days?"
"The problem is that extra leg makes the chickens faster."
"Why is that a problem?"
"We haven't been able catch the little suckers yet."

As you were,
Jay

Before you go....

I realize that this blog has turned into a series of obituary articles of late. Memories of John Keneley, David Lloyd, Carl Ballantine, Charles R. Meeker, Jr. and Richard Paul have occupied some of my space and time in the last few months. Each in their own way had some affect on me, so it is only right to try and analyze the loss. But I want to dwell on "what I have" rather than "what I've lost".

It would take several posts a day for months to come talking about those people who influence me that are still around. In the episode of "Chuckles Bites the Dust" Georgette says a profoundly funny truth. "It's so sad. Funerals always come to late. While people are around us we don't pay much attention and take them for granted. Then when they're gone we dress in black and cry our eyes out. Why don't we think to do that when they're alive? "

It was to such an end that several years before his death, the Magic Castle held a wake for the still living Billy McComb. Billy was a Irish rogue of a magician and like Ballantine had a profound affect on a lot of comic magicians. His material became public domain in some cases. Magicians and comics did not know they were stealing from Billy because his material was repeated so often and never sourced.

Typical Billy McComb: Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Before I go I would like to ask you a question. You see, when I go home tonight, my little son Brendon will wake up as I enter the house. He will say, "Did you perform tonight, Daddy?" I will tell him what a wonderful crowd you were. He will say, "Did they like your magic, Daddy?" I will tell him you liked it very much and clapped very hard. He will look at me with those beautiful blue eyes and that wonderful smile with the missing tooth in the front and he will say, "Did the nice audience give you your usual standing ovation, Daddy." I ask you, what am I going to do... Lie to the boy?

This never failed to get the audience off its feet for a rousing standing ovation as he left the stage.

During his wake, Billy was on stage in an easy chair. All of his friends came together to give their eulogy/roast in the most irreverent way possible. I have rarely laughed harder than that evening. There were times we thought Billy would die laughing at his own mock funeral. That was not sufficient cause for people to soft pedal the rhetoric, but rather to amp it up. To be present at the moment the affable Billy McComb died laughing, particularly if it was your joke that did him in, would have been a beautiful thing.

For the remaining years of Billy's life, every time I saw him he never failed to laugh and mention the "Death Song" I did about him with my vulture puppet Nethernore. In some strange way, performing at his funeral brought us even closer together.

Georgette, what a great idea.

As you were,
Jay

"Who's been F****in' with the props?"

Carl Ballantine billed himself as the "World's Greatest Magician". Most knew him as a regular on the ABC-TV series McHale’s Navy from 1962 to 1966 as Torpedoman Lester Gruber, or some of the other comic acting parts he did. But what I remember most is his incredibly funny Magic act. Since I am a member of the Magic Castle I got to see him perform it several times over the years. I tried to see it every time he did it. It wasn't funny because of the jokes, it was his character and attitude, it was his incredible comedy acting ability that drove the act.

It is the funniest magic act I have ever seen. (with the exception of my friend Harry Anderson who idolized the Great Ballantine) It was a comedy tour de force that portrayed a magician trying to get through an act that seemed to be working against him. He would cut a rope in two and try to restore it to one piece. It wouldn't work but he kept trying and it became a running gag checking to see if it had healed itself throughout the act. Toward the end he would reach into his magic hat pull out the rope and it was back together except for a two inch gap in the middle. "Close enough" he would yell triumphantly.

"And now a rabbit out of the hat." He would proclaim. He reaches into the hat... no rabbit. "And now a rabbit out of the hat" he would again reach into the hat, but again no rabbit. Finally he puts his hand into the hat and reaches his entire arm through what is obviously a hole into the storage of the magic table below. No rabbit. Ballantine would turn to the boys back stage and with disgusted dismay say, "Who has been f****in' with the props?" It was his frustrated attitude that not only were the tricks against him but now there may be a backstage conspiracy as well.

I used to go on casting calls with his daughter Saratoga, Sarah. She told me she was named after the Saratoga race track where her Dad loved to hang out. Carl came to see my show at the Brentwood Theatre before we went to Broadway. He was very nice in his praise for the piece. Carl Ballantine inspired generations of magicians who could also do comedy.

Carl Ballantine died last Tuesday at 92. He will be missed by anyone who ever wanted to get a laugh on stage.

As you were,
Jay

Dejay Vu
Click here
"Jay Johnson: The Two and Only"
opens for 10 performances only Dec. 3rd
Colony Theatre Burbank, Ca.

"Jay Johnson: The Two and Only"
opens for 10 performances only Dec. 3rd
Colony Theatre Burbank, Ca.

Remembering a Writer

David Lloyd has passed away. A friend of David's and colleague Ken Levine has written a wonderful memory of him in his blog. My friend Sinkler sent Ken's blog address to me. It is fitting that it get sent around and read. It is funny and touching. You can read it by clicking on Ken's name above.

I was a huge fan of David Lloyds work which included most of the great sitcoms of this generation. David Lloyd wrote The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, Cheers, Frasier and Wings. And he is the father of screenwriter Christopher Lloyd.

There is no doubt that he will be remembered for writing one of the top ten funniest moments on television by anybody's list. The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode of "Chuckles Bites the Dust". It is perfectly written and perfectly acted. I found the final scene of that story on YouTube.

Just to set it up if you do not know or do not remember, Chuckles the Clown, the kids show entertainer on WJM, has died accidentally. He was leading a parade dressed in his Peter Peanut costume and a rogue elephant, as Murray puts it, " tried to shell him". For days leading up to the funeral everyone is laughing and making gallows jokes about the peanut clown being killed by the elephant. Mary is horrified that they would make fun of a man's death and tries to get them to stop. This scene is the memorial service for Chuckles. It is perhaps the most fitting funeral remembrance for the man who wrote it.

David Lloyd died last Tuesday at the age of 75.

As you were,
Jay

A Luncheon

Yesterday I attended a lunch meeting of about 40 guys representing all aspects of show biz. The group consisted of writers, actors, producers and musicians as well as some of the top show biz lawyers in town. We met at Cá Del Sole which is right next to Universal Studios. The location was picked not because of its proximity to the studio, but because it's relatively close to the Burbank Airport. Four of the guys we were meeting with flew in from San Francisco that morning and did not want to drive all the way over to the West side just to be sheik.

We were discussing participation in several shows through out the coming year. I am vague about the circumstance and the venue because it is difficult to explain. For the purposes of this blog it is enough to know that everyone is donating their services, so egos and big money deals do not cloud the fun. I have known most of these guys for several years and it is always a great time when we can get together. It doesn't happen more than a couple times a year because of every one's schedule. It's a very fast track at these meetings and the guy with the best and/or quickest line wins. No hostages, no kings X, every man for himself.

I don't know who won the adlib contest yesterday. I'm not sure if anyone is keeping score. The judgment can be hampered by wine flowing at celebratory levels but I know I hold a top five spot at least until the next meeting. The important thing when you are adlib hunting is stalking the moment. That's still an aspect of timing, but the moment is almost as important as the internal speed of the joke.

For me the moment came in a relatively formal period of the afternoon. One of the San Francisco inmates was talking about the schedule. Several of us needed to know show dates and times for our calendars. We were finding out that some of the productions had a firm date and creative team assigned, but some did not. The phase was, "When we get into March and April of 2010 the dates get a little 'squishy' ". Someone blurted out, "Squishy, is that a legal term?" Another person said, "Yeah, What's a squishy date?" I got there first and shouted, "Fifty bucks, same as downtown." Big laugh, slam dunk, high fives from the comic actors, victory lap around the restaurant.

So I will be allowed to attend the next meeting in hopes I can shake out some more comedy prey. But it won't be easy, the next time, like always, everyone will be hunting.
As you were,
Jay

Putting It Out There

The C&B Continuum is preparing a reading of the first act of the new musical we have been working on for some months. I have mentioned this group before, but we now have a name. We are imposing on friends for a writer's reading to see if the voices track. However, as I prepare myself to have others hear words I have written, my stomach tightens a little. In my mind I flash back to a time when I was captive audience to a writer's work on an airplane. I am hoping it goes better for the friends involved in our up and coming reading.

As I wrote in my journal the guy sitting next to me on the plane says, "You must be a writer." I mumbled some phrase that was intended to say.... "The reason I am writing in my journal is to avoid talking to inquisitive seat mates." He didn't get it. He is a writer. Told me he is working on the "History of WWII." I said, "Very comprehensive subject... I wouldn't know where to start on a project like that." (read... leave me alone I am trying to write my own history, thank you.) He said, "Well this is how I started." And with those six words, I am sentenced to airplane hell.

He has a lap top computer with the entire text of his book, letters from soldiers, declassified reports of battles, navigational charts and SIX HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE scanned black and white photographs from WWII. From Detroit to Los Angeles I was captive audience to a guy with a lap top vacation slide show.

"And here is a shot of the island of Koregeidor and the USS Nicholas engaged in the first battle of the start of the south sea push." "Here is that same ship from the bridge....click.... from the stern.... click... from the ship next to the ship looking back...click... a shot of the Executive Officer during battle...click.. oh and a very rare photo of the Nicholas taken from the Japanese ship in the battle just as they were struck by a torpedo...click.... Japanese sailors being rescued from the water......"
Click...Click....Click...Some General once said,"War is hell" he should have added, "Even when retold". I am hoping the war will end soon.

The food comes. It doesn't matter he is able to continue the show and balance his tray at the same time. One of the bitter sweet joys of the larger fist class seat. At about slide Six hundred and twelve... a dialogue box appears on the computer screen that says "Low battery power... shut down immediately or plug in charger." If he had gone for the charger... I would have gone for my fork and poked out my own eyes. Thank goodness for limited battery life... it saved mine.

As you were,
Jay

Sleepless in Encino

If you don't know the TED talks, search them out on the web. These are 17 minute lectures given to an elite network of people who get together and celebrate creativity. It is an acronym for "Technology, Entertainment and Design". I also think it is the first name of the guy that started the organization, but not sure about that. Al Gore's lecture on global warming started as a 17 minute TED talk. They are free on line and you will get hooked. There is eventually some lecture for anyone's imagination.

One of the lectures that I have only heard on tape and not seen a video of is about "4 o'clock in the morning". A writer has researched the idea that in literature and popular culture, nothing good happens at 4 o'clock n the morning. If a writer is going to specify a time when bad things happen... it is 4 o'clock in the morning. Historically bad things happen at .... 4 o'clock in the morning. His lecture explores the reason for this in a very humorous way. Is it a bad time because it is just bad, or have we used it that way in literature until it has become the devils own time?

All I know is that I keep waking up a 4 0'clock in the morning like I had an alarm clock set. It has been happening for a few weeks, but goes back decades. For most of my life, if I wake up at night it is 4 to 4:30 in the morning. I have always believed that because I was born at 4:30 am my internal clock wants to reset at that time. It is not a very scientific belief, because 4:30 am California time would be 2:30 Texas time since that is the time zone of my birth. It also happens when I am traveling in other time zones, I don't wake up at my birth time but 4:30 local time.

That's too early to just get up and start the day, and since nothing good happens at 4 o'clock in the morning who wants to get up then anyway? I usually listen to my ipod so it will lull me back to sleep with music or some less than stimulating podcast. I am always amazed at how bright and obnoxious the screen of an ipod nano is in the pitch blackness of 4 o'clock in the morning. If I lived on a farm Roosters would crow thinking the screen was the morning sun.

The few things that I have written or drawn at that hour, once I am awaken, prove to me it is not a productive hour. It is 4:30 pm now, that means I have 12 hours till my eyes pop open. I think I better go to bed now.

As you were,

Jay

Shameless Promotion

Twenty-five Days before we open at the Colony Theatre. It is such a treat to be doing the show in town. I love that theatre and the fact that I can sleep in my own bed is s huge bonus. According to the stats most of the readers of this blog are not close enough to LA or Burbank to come to the show... but it is a small world. Tell your friends.

I am also taking the space in the attached Art Gallery at the Colony Theatre to display some of my paintings. That was a big hit last time we played that Theatre. Different stuff this time. One lady from the last exhibit looked at my stuff and said, "Obviously this is an artist who deals with depression." I don't know who can be more brutal, theatre critics or art critics.



As you were,
Jay

Fungiphobia is the fear of eating poisonous mushrooms. Five out of one hundred people suffer from this phobia and many need
counseling or hospitalization to deal with the fear.


Out of the 263 kinds of poisonous mushrooms, one variety is only poisonous to the cells in the brain that control fear and phobia's. Therefore if ingested this mushroom will cure the paranoia and the phobia. Unfortunately the cure is rarely used since the Fungiphobic are too afraid to try.
Believe it? Why Not?

Over and Done

This country is fighting two wars, unemployment is at 10% the economy is in the toilet, and soldiers don't seem to be safe at home on their own Army base. And to top it off the Fort Hood shooter in yesterday's killings was a mental health doctor named Malik Nadal Hassan.

According to his cousin Maj. Hassan is a native born Muslim American, who enlisted in the Army because he loved the army and wanted to make a difference. However, after 9/11 he became the target of slander, bullying and hurtful remarks because of his Arabic name. He was born in America but was treated like an outsider and mistrusted, because of his name and religion.

Now I'm not sure if the ethnic bullying and slander is what drove him to commit a horrific act of multiple murder, maybe it was the fluoride in the water or perhaps Texas just drove him crazy. One thing for sure by the evening "news spin", Fox News was declaring his act a terrorist attack because, after all, he is a Muslim and you know how they are.

The Los Angeles Police has put around the clock patrols on the Islamic Center here in Southern California to protect Muslims from the death threats that have resulted from the Fort Hood tragedy.

So...in light of yesterday's tragedy and today's aftermath, what is wrong in exploiting a dead terrorist puppet with a Muslim name who's catch phrase is "I Kill you".... It's funny, right? According to the character's creator, "Muslims don't have a problem with that puppet". Well, there you go, it was probably Major Malik Nadal Hassan favorite character.

Selma Diamond once said in reference to an ethnic joke on the set of "Night Court", "Just because you can get a laugh with that joke... doesn't mean you should."
Over and Out,
Jay

Sleepy and Grumpy
(Snow's Favorites)

Well it seems all you need to do to start a fight is mention the "ventriloquist" in yesterday's blog and I don't mean Edgar Bergen. People have some really strong feelings about him on both sides. It seems his popularity gets defended more than his talent but intensely none the less. So... I will refrain from broaching the subject or the person in this forum.

I couldn't sleep again last night. It wasn't the clowns this time. I don't know what it is. I'm not particularly concerned about it, just tired. However, long about 4:00 in the morning you can find some unusual television. I guess the world is full of night creatures that only come out after dark, why should television be any different.

Mostly it is "paid advertisement shows" at that hour. They are designed to look like talk shows or news shows with desks and couches, covering a single "story" with great detail. 90% of them involve health in some way. There are diets, hair restorers, things to make you bigger, pills to make you longer, younger, blonder... Apparently no one likes who they are at 4:00 in the morning and are looking for ways to change.

I got bored with all of that, CNN was on it's second repeat of Anderson Cooper so that was out.
Then I found Jerry Springer. Good old Jerry. Thanks to Jerry and his skills as an investigative journalist, I realized not only do people not like who they are at that time of morning, according to the Springer world, they hate everyone else as well. Who are these people that would come on television and admit to having an affair with a zoo animals? Is there enough money in the world for Jerry Springer to wake up in the morning and say to himself, "Today I am going to the studio again and talk to a man who has sex with his twin sisters in the back of a bass boat while his 700 pound wife catches the fish with her teeth."

Why in my day... television used to be more than just an exposé of trailer trash infidelities and patent medicine treatments. Not that long ago television just quit broadcasting after Johnny Carson was over. Early television execs knew that nothing good can be programed at 4:00 in the morning. Not now... video muzak... the never blinking eye...over dose on info. So my suggestion is, if you have insomnia the television won't help, even though every third commercial is for sleeping pills.
As you were,
Jay

The Plot Thickens

This is an up date on a story I was talking about some blogs ago. It concerned a friend of a friend who was caught up in the real life plot of "Double Indemnity". His ex-wife and a brother-in-law were trying to have him declared incapacitated so they could take his money. In league with a brain surgeon they told him he had only months to live because of a brain "tumor-like" disease. They almost had him locked away in a care facility in charge of his money when a real friend took him to get a second opinion. The second MRI revealed that the original diagnosis was a fraud.

Now, the only funny thing to come out of this scam was what the guy said when he discovered the foiled plot. After the positive results of the second opinion he phoned a friend very excited at the news. His words were.... "They did another scan of my brain and found nothing."


There is only four weeks until "Jay Johnson: The Two and Only" opens at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. Dates are December 3 through Dec 13th. If you live close enough to come, please do. This is a very special theatre, perfect to see my show. I don't know when we will perform it in the LA area again. We seem to be walking backwards getting the DVD of the show done... so seeing it live may be the only way for some time to come.

Here is the link to the Colony Theatre Site. It has all the information that you will need to find the theatre and book some tickets. They have a large subscription base and we sold out the last time we were here. I know we are getting close to selling out again. There are some great tickets left but you have to act soon.

I am always being scolded for not letting people know when and where I am performing. I am so glad to be back at this the Colony, performing close to home, I am really trying to spread the word. Please tell anyone one you know about it and send them to the Colony. It makes a really great Christmas gift.

As you were,
Jay

Goodbye to a Friend

I was very sad to hear the news that my friend John Kenley died on Oct. 23. You can click here for the official obit and here for the Akron, Ohio obit. However, there really aren't enough words in the English language to talk about John. I would say that living an active, healthy life until you are 103 is accomplishment enough, but he was much more complicated than that.

On his birthday this year I wrote about him (I have reprinted the piece below), and recently his name came up when I published the pictures of Whoopee. I describe my feelings as sadness because I don't really know how else to quantify them. He had a full life and accomplished much so, sad may not be the best word. I guess I am feeling a little sorry for myself. Although I had not seen him or talked to him in some time, just knowing he was still around was a good feeling. The sadness is the realization that this source of show business history no longer exists with his departure. No one spanned the generations of theatre and knew as many different people as John. He was a personal witness to so many changes in the way Theatre is crafted, now we just have to read about it in books. I know there are others who will make an impact in their own field as great as John did in Show Business. I suspect they are an endangered species.

Thanks again, and again, John.
Jay

The Real Two and Only......
John Kenley

John Kenley turned 103 years old on Feb 20th. If you don't know that name you don't know one of the most interesting people in the history of musical theatre. There are millions of stories and rumors about John Kenley, most are true and most were started by John himself.

Since John has by now out lived anyone who can separate veracity from rumor, all stories about him must now exist as the truth. It is hard to know how to start talking about John Kenley, but here is what I know. I have gathered it from rumor, recollection and personal experience.

From roughly the late sixties through the mid-eighties John Kenley produced summer musical theatre in the Ohio area. The shows toured Akron, Flint, Daton and Columbus in what was called the Kenely Circuit. It was very successful and attracted big name celebrities at big time salaries. The season provided work for hundreds of repertory cast members during the summer. A lot of young performers got their Equity card working a Kenley show.

John has worked in theater all his life. On stage as a young chorus boy in the Ziegfeld Follies, he danced his way up the show business ladder, eventually working with and ultimately out living many of the biggest names in show business. His memory of events and actors is sharp, precise and wickedly retold with the skill of a master thespian.

However, his career was always overshadowed by the fact that he is a registered hermaphrodite. He is one of the few people in the United States registered with legal identification as both a male and a female. Rumor has it that he lived the summer in Ohio producing shows as John, and spent the winters in Florida living as a woman named Joan. The two identities rarely intersected with mutual friends.

A director I know claims John recounted in detail a conversation between the director and a lady sitting next to him at a bar in Las Vegas the winter before. He did not realize at the time that the lady he had briefly befriended was the female identity of John Kenley. The director remembered the encounter well because the lady seemed to be very knowledgeable about the theatre .

I don't know anything about Joan, but I did work a couple of summers for John. My first Kenley show was one the afore mentioned David Sinkler co-wrote. It was the early 1980's when Kenley was a mere 78 years old. The picture above with his dog is probably him eight years earlier. Although, for some reason he always looked the same no matter what his age.

I took an immediate liking to John Kenley. I thought he was charming, funny, smart, gentlemanly and elegantly flamboyant. He was royalty but certainly not a queen. John Kenley is just one of those rare people you can never forget. I love great story tellers and he is one of the best, with a century of personal material to draw on. I was always trying to coax another story out of him.

The first time I met John was in the rehearsal hall at the theatre in Akron. On the first day of rehearsal I was the only one who had not worked with John Kenley before. The director said we were to start with our table reading and John would join us shortly. I believe we were several scenes into the show when the double rehearsal doors flew open. In walked a frail man in a cranberry vest, white shirt and black pants. A navy blue tie was folded around his neck like an ascot rather than tied in a traditional knot. He was not young but it was difficult to guess his age. His skin was almost iridescently pale without a trace of a wrinkle like the face of a porcelain doll, smooth and almost translucent. He wore makeup, but he was not "over done". His thinning hair slicked back on his head with the color of silver fading through the reddish-orange tint. He certainly was not macho in his ways, but comfortable and confident with his own sexuality, whatever direction it went.

The rehearsal stopped as every eye was on John Kenley. Silently he walked the long side of the table opposite where I was sitting. As he rounded the far end I stood up to shake his hand since it seemed he was coming around the table to greet me. He did not look at me nor even stop. He glided passed my outstretched hand without saying a word, then exited the double doors.

In a dramatic move he grabbed the frame with his hands pulling himself backwards through the doorway. Posing in an Erte´-esque back bend with his head arched toward the table he said,

" Once I was meeting a man in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. On the phone before the meeting he said, 'I don't know what you look like, how will I know it's you...' " John paused then quickly added, "I said to him.. you must be kidding ", and with that he disappeared through the door.

That was my official introduction to Mr. Kenley. From that moment on we were friends. He made everyone laugh and would without provocation occasionally kick his leg high above his head with balletic precision.

Being around when John would tell stories about his career was the best treat. We all told him 25 years ago to write it down in a book. He said he would think about it, but he would want to tell the "really juicy" stories if he wrote a book. We thought the ones he casually recounted were fantastic.

I haven't seen or talked to John in a long time. I can't believe he is 103. In the article about his birthday he credited his longevity to a couple of stiff Vodkas every night. I don't know how to get in touch with John to tell him happy belated birthday. If the Internet works like it should, somehow this will get to him.. but here is what I would tell him if I could.

Thanks for being my friend, John. And thanks for all the stories. I am still waiting for the call to do another season. It was always fun, which is what the theatre should be.

As you were,

Jay

Halloween Week

I host the countless memories of haunted houses, Halloween parties, Bubonic Players Theatrics and all that goes with Halloween. I remember the first show I ever did in Richardson, Texas after we moved from Abernathy was a Halloween party at the Canyon Creek Country Club. I was 14 or 15 years old. That part of the memory is not clear. What is clear is that Halloween evokes some very strong emotions in me.

So last night I couldn't sleep. Excitement of the season or traumatic insomnia, who knows. But it is almost Halloween so even dark moods should be celebrated. I dressed in black. Turned the lights down and decided to draw. I was hoping that the muse would deliver a really Gothic pen and ink Edgar Allan Poe would covet.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Jack O' Lantern. Not as scary or grotesque as I wanted. Perhaps a little to Hallmark for my darkness, but there it is. This morning it dawned on me. Why was I drawing a Jack O' Lantern when I could actually carve one. Three pumpkins were currently sitting on the porch. Sandi does not like to carve them too early since they wither. She likes to have them around for Thanksgiving. But I decided to make my move and carve early.

Several years ago Andrew, my adopted child from Bulgavia, gave me an electric pumpkin carving device. Actually it is a battery drive drimmel cased with orange plastic. Although I have used it for other projects when a rotary tool would work, I had never actually attempted to "create" a Jack O' Lantern with it.

I'm sorry to report to Andrew that the tool was a high tech hoax probably the Trick of the season. I had to rely on my well worn and over used pumpkin knife that has served me for seasons. It is just a very dull serrated knife. It seems to cut pumpkin very well but nothing else like your finger.

Unfortunately the actual Jack O' Lantern turned out no more grotesque, and nothing like my sketch.

As you were,
Jay

Gettysburg Victory

I am coming back on a high from the Gettysburg Majestic Theatre. Beautiful theatre, great audience and the historic town of Gettysburg is vibrant. Wish I could have stayed a lot longer and entertained more audiences, they were smart and responsive. Thank you Jeffery Gable for the chance to come and experience your theatre.

The stress of doing a hit and run "one nighter" is well... stressful. You get there, set up, focus lights, work the sound, rehearse it a couple of times, take a break, do the show, and then break it all down and pack it up. I even found myself sewing some clips onto a microphone cord so I could hide it in my hair. The capsule and cord I had with me that I usually use was not a match for the Majestic system. I didn't even have time to share a drink with my fellow vent Tom who came to the show. (Again, thanks for coming Tom, it was great to touch base with you for even a brief moment.) I guess that is the deal when you are a "one man show".

I think the show was sold out. If I'm not working the door, I usually don't look at the count. It wasn't a Jeff Dunham arena show, but I am happy to draw the kind of audience that seems to come to see me.

I guess there are ways to attract huge crowds at the sacrifice of your own internal artistic compass. That has never been a very satisfying compromise for my personal esteem. The lowest common denominator has never been appealing. I want to try and raise the level of this oft misunderstood art form, not suppress it even more. So I guess I will continue to feed my own artistic soul and hope that a select few come to the feast as well. Bon Appetit
As you were,
Jay

The original Cray computer at NASA which calculated the Apollo Astronauts trip to the moon had a computing capacity of 80 megs. At the time it was the fastest, largest and most expensive computer made. Today an 8 gig flash drive about the size of a half stick of gum contains 8000 megs or one hundred times larger than the Cray and costs about $30 dollars.
Believe it? Why not?

On the Road

Thumb typing a quick blog this morning. It is a beautiful day in LA and I am off to Gettysburg. What fun to get to go to the airport to hang with my friends from the TSA. Speaking of Gettysburg, a shout out to "the other one". When I mentioned I was playing the Majestic in Gettysburg, I got the comment, "what's the address?". I didn't get it until several days later. Very funny.

As you were,
Jay
www.monkeyjoke.com

Chuck and Bob

Susan Harris wrote Chuck and Bob into the bible of SOAP in 1977 after reading William Goldman's novel on ventriloquism called, Magic. Originally the producers thought they would just get an actor to play Chuck and dub in Bob's voice. It would only be for 7 episodes and the character would be written out. Jay Sandrich (who will correct my facts if I am wrong) said Chuck needed to be a real ventriloquist for the role to work. The actors, he said, had to react in real time to a real character. I happened to be at the right place, the right time, the right age and happen to actually be a ventriloquist who had done some acting. They hired me, Chuck and Bob weren't written out after seven but stayed for the entire run of the show.

I have often wondered what would have happened if a non-ventriloquist actor had done the part instead of me. I wonder how that would have worked. Well, now I know... and Mr. Sandrich, you sir were absolutely right on that call.

For three days this week I have been working as a consultant/coach on a new cable sitcom. I was asked to do this because one of the characters on this show is a ventriloquist. At least he is playing a ventriloquist in the script, but they are looping the "puppet" voice. I'm not going to say the name of the show or the cable network. It won't air until March and it doesn't matter anyway. Besides I don't want to write gossip just observations, observations on how, but for a decision of casting, my life and the characters of Chuck and Bob would have been radically different. I am getting to see what it is like for an actor to play a sit com ventriloquist.

First of all, the kid that I am working with is a good actor, from New York. He has some really good chops, acting wise. But he has never even held a puppet can't even spell ventriloquism and doesn't have a clue. Yet, he is a regular character and they have written Chuck and Bob scenes for him and the puppet. The producer who brought me in to "help" said, "I guess we didn't realize how difficult ventriloquism was..." Duh... I feel like an acrobat from Cirque du Sole being brought in to help someone do a triple flip on the trapeze when they can't even do a cartwheel.

The puppet looks okay but is mechanically dreadful. It was made by a prop man who adapted a doll. When the kid showed me the puppet, I tried to operate it and it was like trying to play piano with mittens on. He told me it was better than the first on they gave him to work on the pilot. I got a look at the original which had a mouth that was perpetually open and the control closed it. I have never heard of a vent puppet being constructed in that manner. That is the equivalent to playing a piano with mittens on hanging upside down. The puppet needs to be replaced.

As we go to the office of the executive producer to plead our case for a new puppet, it turns out that the Executive Producer is a huge fan of mine. He is so excited I would agree to help them out. He knows every episode of SOAP by heart. It was life support to my ego at that point. But the kid is 18 and really has no idea who I am, or what SOAP is. To him, I'm just a puppeteer hired to coach. As we leave the office the executive producer said, "You haven't aged a bit since Soap." My standard line at such a complement is, "Well, I am hiding Bob in the attic and he is aging quickly." To a room full of writers the Dorian Gray reference got a big laugh.

As I worked with the kid I couldn't even get him to hold the puppet up straight when he was working him. The puppet was lifelessly limp in his hands. I kept giving the note but he just didn't get it. Finally I got an idea. We found a computer and I "YouTubed" some old Chuck and Bob scenes. I said, "See hold your puppet like that...". He replied, "But you are sitting down in those scenes, I have to stand up in three of the scenes in my script. How do you hold him when you are standing up?"

Well, on YouTube I found a Today show shot of me and Bob promoting "The Two and Only" in New York. It happens that the interview took place outside in Rockefeller Center and I am standing with Matt, Meredith, Al and the bunch holding Bob. This I thought would give him an example of how to at least hold the puppet. I played him that scene and he said, "You know... that puppet Bob hasn't aged all that much...."

I have to go to Gettysburg to do my show and won't be there for the actual taping, but I have seen enough. I have given all the notes I can, suggested business to keep the puppet alive, told secrets I never thought I would reveal and none of it seems to happen when the director yells action. Basically the actor is limp when the puppet is supposed to talk and the puppet is limp when the actor is talking, this puppet is dead as the furniture. But like all sit coms the writers on the floor laugh at every muffed line like they just swallowed a laugh track, so everyone thinks the character is a hit.

I don't think this will put the nail in the coffin for "sit coms ventriloquist characters" because this show will air and never be seen. But it is frustrating to see such a wasted opportunity.

Did I just hear a voice in my head say, "Why these young kids today they don't know jack about......" Maybe I better go up in the attic with Bob and talk about the "good ole" days.
As you were,
Jay

Fact Check Revisited

So, on Monday I was writing about checking facts. It was an experiment to see if anyone truly does question things they are told, even when they are easy to check. Not every fact is important enough to check, but you would think that some one reading this blog would have been curious enough, or movie-phile enough to challenge the only "fact" in the piece. To date only two people, my "photographic memory" friend David Sinkler and my most favorite director, Jay Sandrich caught the error and responded with the correction. This means one of two things. They are the only fact checkers left in the world... or perhaps the only two people reading this blog.

Nonetheless, this is how things become mis-informed. The first publication of a fact is not checked and it sits in "etherland" for a while. The next global search for that subject calls up the error. That error is used as the fact check for the current mis-statement and suddenly there is research to support something that is absolutely wrong.

In the CIA they refer to it as the "assimilation of mis-information." They take one fact that is true and combine it with another fact that is absolutely false. Instead of assuming the entire missive is wrong, people usually think the entire missive is truthful.

Example: "Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. Cleveland was born in New Jersey with a small deformed extra finger on the back side of his left hand. This is seldom mentioned in his biography. He was teased about about his six fingered hand as a child, and always tried to hide it. In his official Presidential portrait he is posed with his left hand closed so as not to accidentally expose the deformity. "

So all of that is true, except the finger. But because the rest can be verified and it is mentioned that the "finger fact" is lessor known, unless challenged, the entire statement seems true. Some day a researcher will search every reference to Stephen Grover Cleveland that was ever published on the Internet and come across the statement above. Unless they publish more than just that paragraph, the fact that Cleveland had six fingers would be a referenced fact of research.

So Howard Hawks was a famous noir director and he did direct Bogart but he did not direct him in Casablanca. That credit belongs to Michael Curtiz. Even the poster included in Monday's blog credits Michael Curtiz not Howard Hawks. The research to correct the error was contained on the same page.

Okay, now that I know that the truth will never stand in my way of telling a good story..... this blog may improve greatly. But don't go thinking you can ever pull one over on Jay Sandrich or David Sinkler.
As you were,
Jay...the other

Memory Lane

My friend Mike Sartor, who was also in this production of "Whoopee" twenty some odd years ago, sent me these photo's recently. I am the Indian with the eye glasses on the far right.

This was a Kenley Players Production in Akron, Ohio. (I wrote about John Kenely in a blog some time ago Go to Kenley Blog.) After the run in Akron we took it to Flint, Mi and Dayton, Ohio, which was at the time the Kenley circut.

"Whoopee" was an old Eddie Cantor vehicle in the 1920's and was revived on Broadway in the early 80's. It was the mid 80's by the time Kenley got the rights.

The show is about a hypochondriac named Henry Williams who goes to a Dude Ranch for his health. He takes his nurse Mary along who is secretly in love with him, and hopes they will end up alone in some romantic situation. Mean while back at the ranch, Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, the half-naked Indian in the middle, whose race is an obstacle. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she leaves a note behind saying they've eloped! Chasing them are jilted Bob, Henry's nurse Mary (who's is trying to get her man back) and others. Of course, humor ensues. The big numbers are "Makin' Whoopee" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which I got to sing. The show was conducted by a very young, 19 years old to be exact, Phil Reno who is now the conductor of choice for the legitimate stage musical . I'm not sure why John thought of me for the role back then, but I will be forever in his debt for giving me a chance to be an actor on stage and not just the guy with a puppet. It is so easy to get "pigeon holed" in show business. Ventriloquists seem to have a permanent hole in the pigeon roost. John saw me as an actor who was also a ventriloquist.

The picture above is me as Henry trying to fit in with the Indians while hiding from the Sheriff.

Standing to my left during the bows is Karen Morrow who played Mary the nurse. She was even then a seasoned Broadway veteran who is not only one of the most talented performers I have ever known, but also the sweetest. We had such fun. We tried not to let the show get in the way of a really good time every night. I think the audience felt the energy. I remember the reactions were almost electric. It was my first Equity show and you never forget your first time.

I did a curtain speech every night. Since I was known, at the time, for always being with Bob on SOAP, I made a "ventriloqual" phone call to him to see where he was. We did a quick routine and Bob ended the conversation by asking,
"Did you and Karen get your usual standing ovation tonight?" Flustered a little by the question I said, "Sure... just like always." It never failed to cause the audience to jump to their feet cheering as the curtain went down the final time.

Occasionally you can look back and see where you have been, but you really never know where you're going. Of all the people on the stage at that time, the least likely one to ever win a Tony was me. The secret is to enjoy every second of the ride right now, knowing you are on your way to something wonderful.
As you were,
Jay

Fact Check

Not long ago in a social situation I and several of my friends were trying to remember the name of a director. We all knew his work, we could describe him and even knew some of the actors he had worked with, but no one could not think of his name. Some say this is a sign of old age. I say "horse apples". At some point in your life your brain learns that a lot of "facts" you have collected over the years are of absolutely no value. Like the name of a director, I mean it is not the name of one of your children. Einstein said, "Why remember what you can look up". He was smart and old, so there.

Instantly three blackberry's and two Iphones are drawn like six shooters in a bad western and the contest begins. Who can answer the query of the director in question quickest? There are many directions to go which will lead to the correct answer. Some people Google, some IMDB, some Wikipedia while others try to find credit lists for the movies the director has done. Soon the director's name is not important anymore. The only reward for this game is who can come up with it first. Later we realized that everyone was working at the same G3 speed, on different devices and models of communication units. It was really a matter of technique as to who got the name first. Someone, not me, finally found the directors name and there was a general "Oh Yeah, of course. Who could forget?" reaction. The entire process probably took no more than two minutes to go from ignorance to intelligence on this matter. We realized there was no need to remember his name at all since in less than two minutes we could, as Einstein said, "look it up".

So here's the point. In the old days checking facts used to take days. It involved libraries and the dreaded use of "card catalogues" and the Dewey decimal system. It was the realm of nerds and book worms. It would sometimes delay the reporter's news story for days searching for the relevant facts before it was published. Generations ago we assumed information from the learned was true. It was so difficult to check a fact we generally took their word for it. No more, most of us carry the library of congress in our pockets all day long with a G3 response time. So why is there so much crap and misinformation still out there.

So called "news stories" are claiming facts that can be so quickly challenged they don't stand up even as editorial license. Yet most of the country is still accepting these "truths" like the Dewey decimal system was still standing in their way of checking. The Daily Show derives a lot of humor from simply taking politicians remarks and "fact checking" them. Some times the politicians are impeached by their own earlier recorded contradictory statements.

The "fact" is, just because it is so easy to check a fact, we should never assume that a writer/newscaster/pundit/Limbaugh or Beck has done it. We no longer have to take anyone's word for it... we can find out for ourselves and should.

So... the director of Humphrey Bogart's classic movie "Casablanca" was the legendary film noir director Howard Hawks.

As you were,
Jay

Titanic Thompson, a noted proposition gambler, once bet he could hit a golf ball more than 700 yards in a single drive. The only stipulation was he got to determine the time and place. Eventually a group of guys got enough money up to challenge his claim.
The bet was on. Thompson chose the dead of winter on a frozen lake. He hit the drive onto the frozen lake and the ball didn't come to rest for over 1000 yards.
Believe it? Why Not?

Balloon Boy

I did not follow the story as it was breaking, but eventually there was no story on the news but the helium balloon. Eventually the family, including the missing boy, was interviewed on CNN by Wolf Blitzer. Now I used to think he was a fairly good reporter when he was a Whitehouse correspondent, but he really has lost a lot of credibility with me in the last few years. I think he is a lousy interviewer.

That being said, the Father was trying to explain how the helium balloon came to be and how it slipped its tether. He said he was trying to invent a vehicle that would hover over the streets and use less gas. In his own words, "I thought Falcon (the son) was beside me as I went over to turn on the electricity. The million volts charge the vehicle to help guide it."

Now, family projects are a good thing. And helping transportation become more green is also good. But a million volts of electricity in the back yard with kids running around, sounds a little stupid. Sounds like this was an accident of some kind waiting to happen.

Eventually Wolf runs out of any questions to ask except the obvious, "Are you out of your F---in' mind?" Wolf then plays the tape of the moment he announced the boy had been found safe, hidden in the garage and not trapped in the run away balloon. You know you have abandoned an interview when you cut away from the actual news makers to play a tape of yourself reporting on the event.

Nothing better than to use millions of dollars in broadcast time to follow a helium balloon around Colorado. For a lot fewer dollars they could have looked in the garage to help find the kid. It would seem we have too many new stations, too few actual reporters and no one around to check the facts. Here is the topper. When the boy was asked the reason he hid for so long in the garage he replied. "I did it for the television camera." I question whether there is anything that really is news anymore.
As you were,
Jay

Storm Watch

It is something I have gotten used to over the years, but it still seems funny when I think about it. Probably the most attractive thing about Southern California is the weather. It is hot in the summer with no humidity, and mild in the winter with no snow, unless you want to seek it out in the mountains. So you might think that the weather is not so much news driven here in town. Not so. It seems if we have a little rain the local stations go on "Storm Watch". We have been on Storm Watch here in Los Angeles for the last two days.

Reporters actually seek out street interviews with people who are in the rain. "How is the rain affecting your day?" Was one of the probing questions the reporter asked someone in Studio City. "Well, I had to bring an umbrella to work today, and it is a little wet out here." Her wrap up to this breaking story went something like this, "As you can see some of the drains are a little slow- causing the water to back up at the curb. This means you may get your shoes wet when you cross the street here at Ventura and Woodman. That's it for now. I'm Cynthia Infobabe reporting on Storm Watch 09... back to you Stud Groin."

Now this is just practice for the real story we all know is coming if the rain continues to fall. Mud Slides. The fires we have, almost yearly, destroy the vegetation that holds the ground, which keeps it from flowing down the hills in the rain and into some one's expensive mountain view home. It really is just a matter of time after covering Fire Watch in an area of town, when the news crew will be back at the same area covering the devastation of Storm Watch. A news organization could just leave the broadcast truck on the same street for a few weeks. It is almost certain they will be back. By then Cynthia will have enough practice asking, "How is the rain affecting your day?" that she can stick a microphone in the face of someone who has just had their house buried in four feet of mud, and ask it with no emotion whatsoever.

It is very foggy today... I wonder if they will be covering "Fog Watch" on the 9am local news.
As you were,
Jay

The Family Tree!

David "NO.You heard me" Sinker finds that my ancestry of ventriloquism is not restricted to the male sex. In fact there seems to be very little sex at all in my ventriloqual family tree. There is a family rumor that Vicky is actually Uncle Doddy who began doing his show in drag after he was out of work doing his specimen drinking act with "Teeter the water log Sailor. "
The execution performance became the highlight of her/his career as a ventriloquist. He/she was known to say from that moment on that his act "killed" in Russia, a fact that no one who was present at the execution could dispute.
As you were,
Jay

Arrested Decay

That is what they call the condition of the town of Bodie, California. Bodie is an honest to goodness Ghost town up in the Sierra Mountains, a couple of hours out of Tahoe, near Yosemite. Ghosts have played a big part in my experience lately and since it is coming up on Halloween it seems appropriate to talk about Bodie.

Bodie is a very interesting place. The building you see in the picture is an old store having its "decay arrested" by the make shift flying buttress support on the left. When it was a gold rush town in the mid 19th century there were ten thousand people living here. That included about 40 brothels, 65 saloons and a Chinatown with several opium dens. The town was so rough they averaged a killing a day. Only about one fifth of the buildings remain in this time warp. Just as the gold was running out a fire destroyed most of the town. People just walked away and left what was here.

It is very interesting to look into some of the houses and see what was left behind. It would have been difficult to carry much away. Even with an automobile it is quite a trek to get up the into the Sierras to find Bodie. Gold was the only lure for these people. There was a twenty-five year old man named James Cain who leased a small plot of land on the hill and started the Midnight Mining Company. In 90 days his mine recovered $90k in gold. The land owner wouldn't renew his lease. James Cain leveraged his fortune and became one of the richest men in Bodie. The summers get very hot and there are no trees for shade. The winters can get to 32 below zero. One of the other rich residents of Bodie was the man who ran the saw mill. The houses were so poorly constructed it required the consumption of lots of wood for heating. Small wonder that there was as much violence and killing.

Sandi and I toured Bodie with some friends we drove with to Tahoe. In one of the pictures I told my companions to strike a pose like ghosts since they were in the middle of a ghost town. I snapped the shot but it did not achieve the result I had hoped for. It was way too "show biz". It looked like a pose for the ghost of Bob Fossee. What did I expect... not sure.
As you were,
Jay

Heavenly Art

A picture is only a millisecond record of the light waves spewing off an event. You can appreciate the color and structure, but it is never going to be like the real moment. Here is a case in point.

In the crystal clear water of Taylor Creek which flows into Lake Tahoe, salmon are spending the last few days of their life. This drama of color and hormones only happens once a year for two weeks in October. The salmon return to their birth place to spawn and start the cycle all over again before dying in these same waters.

What can't be shown in just a photograph is the frenzy of activity. There are thousands of salmon swimming fighting, and leaping out of the creek. Of course this attracts the attention of bear, birds and mountain lions who would like to feast on the confusion. It becomes a three act play written by Mother Nature and one that attracts an equal number of curious humans.

The comic "B" plot to this drama of natural selection is the fact that 15 minutes away is the frenzy of South Shore Tahoe. Here there is also swimming, fighting and leaping to get the attention of the opposite sex pushed onward by the green flow of casino money. It attracts the attention of predators as well called Pit bosses, bartenders and dealers. It is hard to conceive of these events happening so close together geographically. In my opinion they should be inter dimensional parallels to each other, certainly not happening in the same world, or same dimension at the same time.

It has been a long time since I was at Lake Tahoe. Usually I'm working and all I get to see is the casino side of the wilderness. This time was different. This time I was there not on business but for a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, in a beautiful setting. Why one goes to Tahoe can make a huge difference in perception.

They call the ski run that practically ends down town Tahoe, Heavenly and that is certainly an accurate description. They tell me that it is really a small town and once the tourists and the gamblers leave it is a very different place. It won't be a small town for very long. The summer season is gone and their biggest season is just beginning. Come the first big snow the crowds will soar. Here come the human salmon trying to accomplish in a weekend what takes the fish a couple of weeks.

As you were,
Jay

HOT DOG
NO BLOG TODAY

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Aquarius – Things are happening fast and you need to stay on top of them. Perhaps you need to a break from your pod so you can swim with others on your journey. If you only know the ones around you, how can you help them become enlightened. Expand your family.

Pisces – Stop trying to beat the legal system. You must find the balance within yourself, because established systems will always let you down. Just pay the fine and get on with your life. Keep a clear head.

Aries- – Give out of your abundance and not out of your lack. Do not see it as the depletion of a limited amount but the flow of an infinite source. You are just the gate through which eternity flows. Share with not thought of running out and no thought of getting it back. It will always be there.

Taurus – Don’t give up so easily. Nothing worth while can be taken for granted. The long trip is part of the destination. Work at it and become what you seek. True value is earned and delivered. Never be afraid that it is not coming so quickly.

Gemini – - Things are happening fast and you need to stay on top of them. Perhaps you need to a break from your pod so you can swim with others on your journey. If you only know the ones around you, how can you help them become enlightened. Expand your family.

Cancer – Your worry is that you are simply running around in circles. You think you are just chasing your tail but perhaps you are catching up to your own goals. Action is good and motion creates more motion. Keep going don’t slow down. Even if you have been down this road before you can always notice something different in your mindset journey. Pick a tool that can be both.

Leo – The see-saw was always your favorite playground toy. When you were up you could see forever and when you were down you knew you would be up again soon. Your life is like that a series of ups and downs. Remember that and know that it may take two for a great see saw ride.

Virgo – Try to be yourself and not what you think others want you to be. It may be that you have to be more truthful to yourself and admit that you are no angel. It is okay, no one is perfect and if you think others see you that way you are probably wrong. Let go.

Libra – Some things that make you mad are but sheets in the wind. They billow, snap and wave for your attention, but they are not taunting you. It is but movement trying to make you charge.

Scorpio - Since there is not end to your service to others, you need to find time for yourself. You do not need to make sure the entire world is happy before you smile. It is the reverse, smile and the world is more likely to become happy. You need to be of service to yourself as well in these times.

Sagittarius – Be proud and stand tall but do not give in to stubbornness. You can lower your head and try to break through an obstacle, but you are guaranteed to get a headache. Think of the horn of a ram, it curves and bends and makes a point in a round about way. Use your head in a different way than as just a battering ram.

Capricorn – Don’t give up so easily. Nothing worth while can be taken for granted. The long trip is part of the destination. Work at it and become what you seek. True value is earned and delivered. Never be afraid that it is not coming so quickly