Been in New Orleans nearly two months now. Shows winding down.   Home stretch.   It’s been a pretty cool ride with Sylvester Stallone and Walter Hill.  Come on!  Rocky! And the Warriors!  Pinch me!  Renewed and forever solidified my idea of what is right and wrong when it comes to work ethic.  Regardless of age and one’s station in life, hard work is black and white.  Either you work hard…or you’re a lazy, short cutting mofo and results fall accordingly.  These two men, and I use the word “Men” with the up most admiration.  For Hill and Stallone have taught me a lot of what being a Man is about.  One has become a wonderful father figure… the other that cool uncle you always want to hang out with. They simply, are a First Class cut of men that is rare today- High-class gentlemen with a blue-collar roar to life.  Read more...

As life has it, we experience more, meet more people, see more things.  Life seems very black and white. The black side sometimes peeks it’s head out a little more often than we want.  We all had experiences that makes one think we shouldn’t give the benefit of the doubt.  Better to be guarded than hurt.  Right?  Better to be a asshole that a sucker.  Right?  Don’t get me wrong my life is pretty awesome! I believe that there are no real victims in life.  Confucious says, “The fish can’t get caught if the fish isn’t hungry for the bait.”   When I was younger, maybe I was more idealistic, maybe I was just plain dumb.  Been thinking what’s the point…What’s the point of being a good guy?  No crazy thinking…just feel like I’m becoming more guarded, and I don’t like this change.  I was taught being guarded doesn’t make me a better actor.  Read more...

A shitty day turned into a magical one after I saw this.

I spent the first part of my stay in Atlanta with my aunt.  It is a different Atlanta.  I want to live in that Atlanta.  Hotel/Downtown Atlanta, I do not want to live in.  When I was younger the whole ‘energy’ thing didn’t make sense to me.  Probably because I didn’t have the life experience to read my surroundings.  I was much more inward, it was all about me.  These days the people and surroundings affect me much more than I would like sometimes.  With that said I don’t like living in downtown Atlanta.  I’ve been trying to figure out why.  I’ve come to the conclusion it’s because of a man named Joe.  He calls himself Homeless Joe.  Anytime I step out of my hotel it’s just a matter of minutes before Joe appears and rushes toward me.  Joe has a distinguished face.  You can tell he was a good athlete.  He’s articulate and charming.  He knows asking for a  handshake is crossing the personal space boundary so he raises his fist for a bump.  I can do a bump.  But no hand shake.  He goes into his routine ” I’m Homeless Joe, just call ne Homeless Joe.  This is my city, welcome to my city. Where you from? Are you leaving tomorrow? You know what the greatest nation is?   DONATION.”  How about a couple of bucks?  Read more...

TV networks are introducing falls  lineup in full force.   Everywhere you look you see an ad for this show and that show.  I’ve never had the time to watch much television in the past, but this year I’m especially excited.  Why?  Because of a colleague of mine Daniel Dae Kim and his new show Hawaii Five-O!    I met Daniel in the mid nineties when I use to wait tables,  he and his wife would  frequent the restaurant I worked at.  We would chat about this and that, he was always very cool and always very grounded.  Daniel had just moved to LA from New York and was well on his way to becoming a working actor.  The thing people knew him from was a hilarious Cheese commercial where he played a state trooper, it aired every other minute  on every channel back then.  It was really cool to see an Asian guy in a funny non-stereotypical spot.   I saw him as an actor that had made it!  Funny I thought that back then.  ’Making it’  to me was just being on TV back then.  Read more...

I realized being away from home what I miss and NOW appreciate the most.  It’s the food!  Not LA food, food that is cooked for you.  I’ve been all about eating out. Love it!  Loved not worrying about cleaning up just eat the stuff  wrapped up by some stranger and dig in.  My perspective has changed, when your on the road one has a lot of time to think. To think about what’s important, what has meaning.  Once I began to wrap my head around the concept of someone cooking for me it began to be pretty complicated.  If you think about it, cooking for someone is a pretty big deal, you have to really care about someone to shop, prep and then put one’s magic mojo into a meal.  Very complicated but easily taken for granted.  If you look at food this way, the people that cook for you take on a different meaning as well.  I guess it’s where that phrase comes from…”“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”
Fanny Fern (1811-1872)…I know we talk and talk about Better Luck Tomorrow, but it was a special time for us involved.  One of the things that  I remember that added to the positive mojo of the film was the food.  Ernesto’s(co-writer-co-producer) parents knowing we had no $money for dinner, would cook meals for us.  It was the best!  Now I know why.  Read more...

I use to think that about what people around me could help me…100% of the time the results never served me,  as a person, in business, in life.  Disappointment always lead to anger and closed off eyes to the new.  Once I made the mental shift to how I may contribute to the lives of the people around me the surprising result was the people around me appeared to be a wealth of knowledge that contributed to growth personally, business, and an overall healthier way of life.  Read more...

1:45 am:

Can’t sleep, went for an easy 7 maybe longer didn’t have any gps gear.  The humidity is keeping me up at night.  I decided to put on my shoes and just go til I had to come back. Running has become my place of rest now.  My mind is  quiet when I run.  Thoughts calm to a thick and slow tempo. I got lost around mile 6- maybe. A couple of stray dogs chased me for half a block.  I’m faster than any homeless dog.  Fear also ads an urgency to ones step.  Read more...