Brother Blue

Saturday night we did a Middle/High school event. As part of the programming I did my straight jacket/learning disability/social anxiety piece. After the show people we coming up to chat with Brad and I. A sixth grade girl (who couldn’t have weighed more than 50lbs) walked up to me. I went right in to my shtick, trying to give her cat whiskers or sideburns like mine with the Sharpie marker I had in hand.
She then said forcefully. “I want to talk to you.” So I lowered myself to be at eye level with her. She said, “My brother has ADD and I am afraid the kids are going to make fun of him.” And then the water works began.
I did the best I could to console her. It was amazing to see his little thing with such a big heart. She wanted nothing but the very best for her little brother. How lucky is he to have a big sister like that?

I was doing some very important research this morning on the Scooby’s All-Start Laff-a-Lympics*, a wonderful Hanna-Barbara cartoon from my childhood, when I came found this.
Anyone who is a IMDb.com or HB cartoons needs too see this:
The Internet Hanna-Barbera Fashion Database: Your online source for jokes about gorillas in derby hats!
*link includes full cast list and links to pictures of all characters

The first section of my book How to Save the World and Retire: Your Guild to Living a Life of Passion Without Going Broke is now available free on-line.
Download here!

Short Review: Wait until it is on DVD.
Long Review: The good and bad of documentary is the fact is it is not actors. Good, because we get true story of daily life, not contrived. Bad, because the director is not working with people who are trained to be in front of the camera. Werner Herzog, the director, is know to re-shoot interviews to better telling of the story. Sometimes this works because the subject, a non natural storyteller, does a better job. Sometimes it seems poorly acted. A number of the interviews in this movie seem to be doing bad, overacted addition tapes. One guy, an actor, keeps looking wistfully into the ocean each time he makes a (overly) dramatic pause.
The footage of Tredwell in the bush is compelling. It is amazing to see the way the bears save him (not his contention that he is saving the bears). It is a man, alone, fighting the demons in his mind, out loud. When the movie concentrates on Tredwell it is wonderful.
When it is filling in the back story, half the time it simply feels like filler.

Reason 623 that reality tv has jumped the shark: I have 4 friends who are reality tv “stars”. Two of which are from the stalwarts The Real World and Survivor.

I am currently listening to Nothing’s Sacred by Lewis Black on tape. I am enjoying it a lot. It is relections on his life and the world. Very funny. I heard something on the way to the laundromat at 6am this morning which I really liked. While taking about his now deceased brother he said:
“My brother thought life was something to be enjoyed, I thought it was to be understood. My brother was right. He was always right.”
[info @ Nothing's Sacred by Lewis Black]

This is from something I was writing yesterday…
I wanted to take on the new challenge because I was hoping it would stretch and challenge me in new ways. Be careful for what you ask for. Ask and you shall receive. Knock and it shall be open. In spades.
I received challenges I never would have dreamed. I was stretched in ways that I thought I was going to burst at the seems. In the end, I realized what I was looking for was not to be stretched and challenged, but instead to receive the wisdom and insight of life’s experiences. I seem to have forgotten the high price we have to pay in order to receive the wisdom of living life.
Only good comes from being humbled. We end up with a clearer picture of who we are and how the world works. Making it so we have make better choices in the future. All of that is only good.
Except for the feeling of being humbled.

Total forgiveness: Not wanting a different or better past.
[via interview with Martin Moran, though he did not know who he heard if from]

My head is now 13 inches lighter (leaving about 1/2 inch behind), with the hair being shipped to Lock of Love tomorrow.
Still looking for the Beards of Love contact information. I know I would have loved that sort of assitances as a young man (as well as when I was 28).
I had forgotten what I looked like. I keep catching my reflection in windows and am a bit shocked.

..gigity jog
I was going to write about all the problems that I had getting home yesterday, but the fact that I was able to get over 10,000 miles on a subway, a train, 3 planes, 3 sets of customs, a 1 1/2 mile sprint, and one car in 21 hours is really a small miracle.
Regardless of the all the problems I had.
Now all I need to do is go back through two weeks of blog entries written on spell-check free Spanish computers and translate them from Gene to English so they are actually readable.