Invisible Barriers

 I once saw the best example of an invisible barrier. 

I was working for a Nashville audio company and we were setting up for the band Cake at the Vanderbilt University Rites of Spring event.

The field the audience would be on that night had vendors in tents on either side of it. Some of the vendors had brought their children. Since the touring crew was from Nashville some of their families were in attendance also. 

The kids were all playing in the field and it was like watching a flock of birds. Running here and there. All laughing and having fun as children will do when they are given the chance.

In front of the stage was a bike rack crowd barrier. One of the 6-foot pieces had been removed so we could run cables and the Front of House crew could go backstage,

The kids, I would say about 40 started to run to the stage. When they hit the barrier the 6 - 10 roadie kids ran through to the backstage area. The other kids stopped. Like dead in their tracks. It was like they had hit a wall. Except there was literally nothing there. They were looking back at, I guess, at their parents wondering if it was alright. Like I said the roadie kids never stopped but soon they came back to again play with their new friends.

An invisible wall.

A wall the roadie kids never saw. 

I have always wondered about that wall. Do I have them? Do others? Are we stopping at absolutely nothing? How would I know if a barrier was there or not? 

I volunteer occasionally for a group called Musically Fed. We pick up catering and deliver it to charities. I was allowed on Saturday to go backstage and drive underground at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles for the Metallica Concert. It occurred to me that there are 10.5 million people in LA and I was the only one driving around that huge venue. I don't think I see many barriers. Have you ever seen them?

My dad's side.

 My Dad's Mom, my Grandmother, was a accountant for 20th Century Fox. His Father, my Grandpa was a scenic painter on Black and White movies. My Grandmothers sister, My Aunt Mary was the first female Editor for the LA Times Entertainment Section. 

I guess my Grandparent didn't want my Father to grow up in LA so they moved to St Louis, Mo. I remember going to her office when I was 5 or 6. We were going to watch a Thanksgiving Parade from her office window. We where on the 5 or 6th floor. Way above the Parade.

I remember her telling me she wanted to show me something. She reached into her basket on her desk and pulled out a check written to John Wayne. Of course I knew who he was. It was for a million dollars. $1,000,000.00. I really got to hold a check for a million dollars. I remember her saying that it wasn't for work. In fact, it was to hold him from doing any other work. 

Right then and there I knew that when I got as old as that John Wayne dude, I was going to be an Actor.

And since I am as old as that John Wayne dude. Guess what I am?

Yep. 

Can't wait t get my check for $1,000,000.00.

I had a birthday, once.

 Funny thing this life. I turn 65 in a couple of days. Everyone will wish me a happy birthday, but it won't really be.

You see my birthday is in the summer. When I was a child I should spend one summer on the East Coast with my mother's relatives and the next on the West Coast with my Father's relatives. Never with my own family and since I when to a school that was primarily a boarding school I never had any friends to celebrate with. 

Every year was with strangers. There was a cake I guess and some presents, but I only saw these people every other year and sometimes never before or again.

Then I got to music and I was on the road every summer. I knew the band but it was always more party than birthday.

When I was turning 40 I gave my wife at the time about 30 grand and described what I wanted to have for my first big party.

Two weeks before the event she asked me into her office and told me she had spent the money on a divorce. She also had claimed I was violent and had gotten a restraining order and the police were on their way.

Ten years later I threw my own party. IT WAS EPIC!!!

I was living in Nashville and had Southwest Airlines offer $50.00 one-way flights from anywhere they flew directly to Nashville. I had the Opryland Hotel offer $50.00 a night rooms. Sedan on Demand had 50.00 Limousine service. I booked the Nashville Palace and we drank every bit of whiskey, tequila, and miller lite they had in the bar. There was an open food buffet with a soup bar. Hey, I love soup. Ken Anderson designed the card and poster and we had a signing table. We had 3 bands and I think a few of the celebrities who showed up sang. I don't remember But I do know I danced and danced, and danced.

That was 15 years ago and people still talk about it.

I told them then my next big party would be at 75. So I guess I will start planning that one soon. I am going to make that one EPIC also!!!

I have to remember who I am.

 Here is the back story. 

In March I went back to Nashville and shot a pilot for a game show I had the idea for in October. It was a one thing led to another thing that ended up being finished.

I came back to Los Angeles and gave it to a friend that does editing and he did an excellent job on it. 

I was going to start pitching it at the beginning of Q2. 

The first week was Easter. I had told the church I attend that I would help with the Good Friday and the Easter services. So there went the first week in the quarter.

My son had started to do Drum and Bass shows (EDM) in San Diego and NAMM was having their yearly event the second week so there went that week. So much fun though.

The next week I was able to pitch another show. Thinking I would be all creative I created an awesome page-turning pitch deck with deeply moving music and made a youtube video out of it. Not only did they pass in 30 seconds but later that day I mysteriously received the new Guidelines and Standards for Pitch Decks. I decided to take the rest of the week and book a room in Thousand Oaks and work on making 20-page decks out of the 180-page guidelines. Goodbye, week 3.

 Week 4? The WGA decided to strike. So now I am out on a picket line every day. Meeting some of the most awesome writers of my favorite shows. It is really a blessing I believe.

It reminds me of when I first moved to Nashville and was able to use my superpower of Volunteering to help the 2MNC conference and over a weekend met just about every Lable Head, Producer, Attorney, and person involved in the Music Industry in Nashville,

So now to today. There is a person I see often at the library in Burbank. He is never working and his car has expired tags from Florida. I asked him what he does and he said he was a producer. I told him I believe I will have to become a producer if I am ever going to get my movies made. I asked him how he learned and he said he was;t the guy to ask.

My mentor Darren Hardy has a 5-3-1-30-30 plan to learn anything new. When he said it I realized that I did about the same thing for everything I have ever learned. Here it is.

Get 5 books on the subject.

Get 3 Podcasts or books on a recording.

 Schedule 1 conference or training.

Spend 30 minutes a day reading

Spend 30 days practicing.

You will be able to learn any new skill in just 13 weeks. One quarter.

I realized this is what I have done my whole life. I learned to be a musician and have had five record deals. I have played music on every content except Antarctica. 

I have become an Actor and have been in over 100 Movies and TV shows. 

I have been a writer and had two shows in acquisition and three in production. Including one in production right now, three in development, three I am actively pitching and one I am writing.

I learned to be a manager and help so many people achieve their dreams.

Now I have decided to become a Producer and produce my movies. 

Wish me luck, pray for me, watch me, or get out of my way. I will do this. 

When Crazy Shows Up

My partner and I live in Nashville and work in Los Angeles. Both cities have their share of interesting people. 

Once in Nashville, we went to the movies. It was to see Speilbergs version of West Side Story.

Most of the seats were empty. But we had reserved seating. A gentleman in his late thirties walked in and sat beside my partner. He had a big tub of popcorn. I thanked him for bringing food. 

He stood up and screamed at her that he had PTSD and some other mental problem that stemmed from a food incident when he was a child. Then he stormed out.

5  minutes later he came back in. Then every 5 minutes he would leave and come back in 5-minute intervals.

Ruined the movie for us.

We couldn't believe it. We just sat there and watched it happen.

Now in LA, we have a saying. We are now and in the future going to do it in Nashville also, When crazy shows up we leave.

No questions, no explanations, no heroism. Just exit as quickly as we can. Get the heck out.

I cannot tell you how many times I have left an event because crazy has shown up.

Watch the hand

 My partner was telling me a story about the difficulties she was having talking to members of the Gen Z generation. She asked why I thought they were the way they are.

I said look at moms now days. They push strollers, and carts. Go to parks and swing the kids on swings. All the things that were done for us. But now, all the time, moms are looking at a devise in their hands.

They are not communicating with their kids. Missing the laughter and joy of their children. They are not paying any attention to their kids so their kids have no frame of reference to communicate with others. They have to scream and yell to get any attention at all. I don't know if it is sad. I guess only time will tell?

Rememer we all learn primarily with mirror neurons in our brains. Kids may not always listen to you but they are always watching. You are their cues on how to deal with the world.

I do know that people today. all people today are just looking for anyone to give them recognition. Respect. Acknowledgment. Just the simple I see you and I understand your need for respect is enough to stop most disagreements.

Now in age that people a shooting their neighbors for having a ball in their yard or tuning around in their drive way I think letting people know you value them is as important to your life as it is to theirs.

All Things Are New Again.

It's amusing to think that my life began as a songwriter. I remember once asking my brother why he had never read any of my screenplays, to which he replied that his earliest memory was of me playing him a "stupid" (his words) song I had written when he was around five years old.

This means that I've been writing for more than fifty-six years now. It's quite a long time!

I often share the story of how I met my partner, and we went to the Post Office to collect royalty checks for my earlier songs. When she found out, she suggested that instead of writing short rhyming songs, I should write longer stories without the need to rhyme and cast her in them. This led me to become a screenwriter.

Although I now write short stories again, I no longer feel the need to make them rhyme. Thanks to the internet, I can easily share my stories with the world.