Hurrican Irene, 2011 Police and Fire Games and The Show Must Go On!

There are a lot of ups and downs in life and there's every possibility that I'm Bi-Polar, so this spot could just as well be a chronicle of me losing my mind as it is anything else, but I'm feeling completely crushed this morning, in heart and spirit. As a result I don't have much to say, but feel compelled to do so anyway. I just don't feel right unless I'm sharing something with you good people now, and I've never had been able to stomach the idea of letting people down. So as they say....

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Can you imagine if they cancelled the Olympics, how devasting a blow it would be to the competitors in the events after all of their hard work and training? Hurricane Irene is threatening to do just that to the 2011 World Police and Fire games, with some of the events already taken off the shelf. Cops and firemen come from all over the world to compete, so it's a pretty big deal.

In case I hadn't mentioned it before, I have a little something to do with the Bodybuilding portion of the competition which is being held this Saturday at the Jacob Javits Center. Well.... these guys didn't work this hard for the event for nothing, and we're pushing through to give them their chance before the storm hits. SCREW YOU IRENE!

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Did you watch the video? Are you seeing Freddy Mercury in that pink sweater and wig? I don't know, but this may give me nightmares. Then again, I had another weird dream last night as it is, and it's not like I'm going to keep myself from falling asleep like I'm trying to avoid that other Freddy. In case you can't see the video though, I'm not suffering through that mess alone. Have a look.

That mustache reminds me of a girl I used to be involved with.

Alright, so I just don't have it today. I've been pretty much leveled like they're expecting the landscape to be after this coming storm and at the moment I don't see where to go to pick myself up anymore. It's come to the point where it all seems so hopeless. How many of you have ever felt that way before? How many of us have been overwhelmed by the sense that there's nothing left for you in this world and you've already tried everything, and now there's nothing left that you can do about it?

The greatest gift my father ever gave me were these words... "Tomorrow's another day." However terrible it all may seem, tomorrow is another day, and it can all turn around in a flash. We're staring down natural disasters, economic disasters, the death of morals and standards and it seems that while we can all see the problems no one has come up with any solutions. For many of us, it's all beginning to look bleak and desperate. But what, are we just going to pack it in, give up?

I've spent my entire life down, but not out... close, but not out. And even when I can't get myself out of bed anymore, the idea of failing, losing, quitting, makes me so sick to my stomach that the fires begin to burn....

"Our greatness as men lies not in never falling, but in rising each time we fall."

Tomorrow's another day... but I've still got the rest of this one... and besides, as long as you wake up in the morning, and there's an audience to play for, to laugh for, to fight for, to live for... as long as you're still in the game....

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Later people.

WHY WE TREAT EACH OTHER LIKE CRAP: your situation and your past matter

I have to admit to being distracted this morning; two nights in the past three I dreamt of two women who are no longer in my life, one who was my muse, my inspiration, and the other the ex girlfriend that had done so much damage to me when she left me. They were so vivid and lifelike that I was there, and I've learned enough about the subconscious mind and how the universe is all connected over the past few years to know that something is going on just outside of my understanding.

I am a scientist. It's funny to think sometimes, especially for those of you who know me, but all the same, I am a scientist. While I say some things that many find outrageous and often fight me over, hate me over, nonetheless those things I say as fact as based on years of both research and observation. There are two facts that can not be avoided or discredited no matter who you are. One is that every person everywhere, even scientists, sees the world based on preconceived notions based on their previous knowledge and experience. Basically, the things you think you know and the experiences that you've had before focus what you see in the world around you in every situation moving into the future.

Take a look at this picture and tell me what you see. It's just a blob of spots, right? Be honest.

Now take a look at the picture again and tell me if you see the Dalmatian sniffing the ground in the middle of the picture. OH MAN, something that you didn't notice before magically appears before your eyes now, doesn't it. It's almost impossible NOT to see the dog now that you already know it's there, huh?

Many times people have tried to fight with me over issues of the past, stating that the past doesn't matter. However, with the way that our brains learn, there is simply no separation between your past experiences and every action you take, or how those past experiences shape your future. In fact, until you know exactly how your past affects you in the now there is no other single factor which affects who you, how you perceive things, and how you act accordingly, more.

What do you see here?

Beautiful young Lady or decrepit old woman?

The other truth that you absolutely can not deny is that your situation in life, where you find yourself, really does matter every time. Those of us that are living the life that we want to live and are happy with our current situations will always see the positive, while those who are not, those who are struggling or oppressed, will invariably pick up on the things that are wrong and appear negative until that life situation changes.

As people we love to think of ourselves as being above the animals, however, when you keenly observe the animals in the world its plainley obvious how we act the same way. Take for instance the next few pictures that I took from the Central Park Zoo.

No, I didn't photoshop the look on his face, he's relaxing, taking in some sun

Look at how happy he is, he's got the whole place to himself, no worries

I think I'll got for a dip in the pool.

Now take a look at these three. They're well aware that people are looking at them, trying their best to hide away. There's a big turd sitting right in the middle of the shot, the guy on the right has to turn his head in embarrassment.

This big guy isn't turning his head though, he's living in the lap of luxury

He's got everything just the way he wants it, nothing to worry about

On the other hand, look at this here. I don't know if there can me a more classic picture of New York. He has to eat his food off the floor surrounded by filth and garbage. Pigeons run around stealing from him. The hard concrete and the heat pouring off of it can't feel good on his feet, and while all he wants to do is graze in a nice field, here he is strapped to a heavy cart having to break his back hauling people around.

You should take a walk around Central Park if you can and just try to catch a glimpse of these horses. I have never in my life seen animals so miserable as these poor guys. It's enough to make you never even consider taking a ride.

Here's a guy lying on a park bench, he's reading, relaxing, enjoying his day. This might be someone you would talk to, find out what he's reading if the mood strikes you, right?



Here's another guy lying on a park bench. Does he look as happy? Would you be so eager to find out what he's up to?

No matter who you are or where your situation in life means all the difference. And socially, the way that you're looked upon and treated by others, it matters even more. When someone is the life of the party everyone wants to be around them, they all want a piece, because that improves their situation too. "Hey, this guy is GREAT!"

Yet when they're down on their luck and things aren't going well it's too much effort to be around them because that would be work, that would make others lives harder to lift them up. "Eh, they're a pain in the ass, no fun at all, why would I want to bother with them.

But here's the separation that leads to nearly every social problem we have, and brings us full circle; that past which shapes our lives, how we see the world, and our actions as a result, only matter to us, because others can't see things through our eyes, only their own, and only a select few care to even try.

As my favorite writer Kurt Vonnegut once said "Hooray for Firemen, Sons of bitches that they are in their daily lives, they run into a fire and they're a hero."

It doesn't matter that the guy throwing that rooftop party come from a rich family that bought his expensive rooftop apartment for him. It doesn't matter if he's ever had to suffer the weight of the world on his shoulders. What he stands for, how in acts in times of need, whether or not he looks his nose down on those less fortunate, or if he'll fight for you when the chips are down makes no difference. He throws a great party, he's always a good time, he has all the connections I need to get me where I want to go... he's awesome! (even if he pisses off that roof onto the people going to work every morning, hey, he's not pissing on me)

It doesn't matter that he dropped out of school at 16 to help his mother raise and support the rest of the huge, poor family he had come from after his Dad left her. He's too serious all the time, not enough fun, has no connections and has nothing I want. That guy's no good, why would I want to bother with him?

Yet the past does matter. We take everything that's happened to us before and use that to shape what we do tomorrow. The guy with the rooftop who's had everything come easily will always expect everything to come easily, and it usually does. The guy who's had to give everything up and scratch and claw for everything he has will always see the struggle involved just to keep going through each day, and they usually struggle.

"For every thousand men hacking at the leaves of evil there is but one striking at the root" Henry David Thoreau said. We all do the best we can, make what we believe are the best decisions based on what we know, to try to live a good life. But many, many people simply don't know or can't see how to actually get there. Not unless someone shows them how.

But most people are busy looking for the life of the party. We're all looking for the people who can make our lives better, even when the people they are at heart aren't worth the time of day. Many times we fail to see how we can make other's lives better, even when they're such good people, and only lack the light to show them the way. And then we justify our actions, our own failure in seeing the right things in people by saying "The past doesn't matter" or "it makes no difference what situation you're in".

It's a Social Psychological truth and scientific fact, yes they DO matter.

Our lives are enriched by the REAL people in them. How are you going to make the world a better place? The real difference you can make is in how you treat the people who are in your life every day, not the ones already at the top of the mountain.

Later People!

Earthquakes, Hurricane Irene, 2012 and the end of the World!

First it was the non-stop daily thunderstorms that were beginning to make it look like the biblical floods, then an earthquake that shook the entire east coast, and now we're bracing ourselves for Hurricane Irene which will be barreling through shortly. All of this has seemed to make us forget the long, long winter that dumped snow storm after snow storm on top of us, covering everything in pearly white (or black and yellow here in the city), not to mention that tornados have touched down in the city, and the tsunamis and earthquakes that are killing people in record numbers across the planet. So here it is folks, 2012, end of the world baby.

The real question now is how do you think we're going to go out?

Do you think it's going to be like the John Cusack 2012 flik where the planet goes apeshit all at the same time, ripping the earth apart? That scene with tornados destroying L.A. was really cool, but the rest of the movie pretty much sucked.

Or do you think it's going to be like The Day After Tomorrow and everything north of the Mason Dixon line is going to freeze in a matter of days, wiping us all out? That's probably a better movie than I originally gave it credit, but my only real knock against it was, for a disaster movie, they didn't show enough people dying. And it had one of those messages about the planet. Look, there are more people in earth than any other time in history, probably more than are supposed to be here. People exhale carbon dioxide. If what they say about global warming is true and carbon emissions are to blame, the very act of 7 Billion people breathing will do just as much damage as anything else.

On a side note, one of the co-stars of that movie, the very hot, very sexy Emmy Rossum, gets naked and gets nailed on nearly every episode of Showtimes Shameless. If you haven't seen that show you have no idea what you're missing; it's probably the best show in TV.

But how can we forget about asteroids? Are we in for an Armageddon, destined to go out just like the dinosaurs? You'll hear me say this over and over again, but that movie is the EXACT reason why everything completely sucks these days; a sheer lack of standards. Bruce Willis and his band of outlaw drillers go into space to save the planet from total annihilation. Yeah, right; how far into lift off do you think the fat guy gets before his heart explodes in his chest? Get the hell out of here. And people were saying at the time it was the greatest movie they had ever seen, which tells you all you need to know about what the people have to say.

And it also tells you all you need to know about why Jerry Bruckheimer sucks! If I see one more slow motion walk I'm going to puke. If you didn't know, Team America World Police was made to rip that clown apart. Deep Impact, starring Morgan Freeman and Frodo was a much better, much more realistic movie dealing with the same issue and got completely swept aside by morons.

As much as Bruckheimer sucks ass, I think Tony Scott has to be my favorite director outside of Cameron Crowe. Last night I caught "Unstoppable" on HBO and I was caught on the edge on my seat for the entire ride; not easy to do with a chain chasing a train. Everytime he and Denzel Washington hook up on a project it's always something entertaining. Just look at the list of fliks Scott has directed, Unstoppable, Taking of Pelham 123, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, Spy Game, Enemy of the State, The Fan, Crimson Tide, True Romance, The Last Boyscout, Days of Thunder and Top Gun.

Tony Scott should do an end of the world movie! Denzel can save us all!

Regardless of the situation I think it's about time each of us came up with a plan for what we'd do if it all went bad. It's something we used to discuss on a regular basis in my good ole garage days in Vegas, but it's something we should probably keep in mind all the time. What do you do? Where do you go? Who do you try to save? And finally... one of my favorite thoughts that I like to plan for more than I do for when it all goes bad... how do we re-populate the species!

I know I have my list of who I'm going to save.... they're all on that re-populate list... you know, because you should always try to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.... Emmy Rossum is definitely on it...

AMERICA! F... well, I'll let you finish the rest.

Later People!

It's all in how you carry yourself

An usual night of dreams that felt like reality and reality that felt like a dream led to waking to what so far has appeared to be a perfect morning, the sort that fills you with a calm, peaceful feeling, which is exactly what I needed to start me off the right way and get into what I wanted to talk about today.

One of the things that has always calmed me down, and if you know me well then you know how very important that is, is taking pictures. Normally I stay away from taking pictures of people and stick to shots of sunsets and nature, shots like this one here that I took with my point and shoot

But the shots that I always wanted to get kept eluding me because I just wasn't equipped with the proper tools, which meant that I was going to have to actually get a professional grade camera to shoot things like this

I took this shot this past Saturday while wondering around testing the new camera, and MAN did I need to do so with the way things were going. I needed to be calmed more than ever. But in my travels the random events of life seemed to open up to show me some things that maybe I needed to see.

I have no idea who these people are, but he had just proposed to her as I happened to walk by, and they asked me to take a picture for them so that they could remember it. It was nice to be a part of their special moment, even in a very small way, so I took one of my own.

For whatever reason, I've always been a guy that people have done that with. I get asked to take pictures for people all the time. There constantly seems to be someone coming to me for directions, even when I'm in a city that I've never been to before. We don't approach just anyone for this sort of thing, you know that as well as I do. Every one of us has been in a similar situation before, and you have to have a certain comfort level with the stranger you're asking just from how they appear to be.

Well, 93% of all communication is in our body language. We literally say way more to the people surrounding us by the way we're standing around and the look on our faces than with any of the garbage that flies from our mouths. That aura, that energy that emanates, speaks to everyone in proximity.

When I saw this woman in the picture above me she was working with small children, helping to make their day at the park a fun and memorable one. I happened to pass three times while snapping my photos, and with each pass I couldn't help but notice the calm and easy demeanor she displayed and the softness about her. This picture does nothing to do her justice, but even here you can see that in her face. There was a grace, an elegance about her that just melted my heart, and though I doubt very much I'll ever see her again, instantly I thought I saw someone special and it stirred a change in me.

Our chance encounters with the people that walk in and out of our lives are often not a thing to latch on to and hold, but an opportunity to change the way we look at things, what Marianne Williamson calls miracles in her great book A Return to Love.

I'm always talking about the lack of a certain something in our starlets these days, which of course filters down to all the women in our society, that ladies like Olivia De Havilland (up top) had so much of that it poured from them on the screen and moved you.

Where are the Princess Grace Kelly's of the world, the kind of woman that even 30 years after her death the very mention of her name still echoes the embodiment of the word her parents chose to call her by.... Grace.

Or Ingrid Bergman, who you really could believe great men, the Victor Lazlo's of our lifetime, would endure almost anything to get back to, to live for, to inspire them to fight for a better world, or give it all up for.

And of course my all time favorite, Audrey Hepburn. They just don't make women like this anymore.....

Except they do. A chance encounter with a random girl just being herself opened my eyes to something that I either didn't believe that could ever exist again, or perhaps that I had been looking in the wrong places, at the wrong people, for all along. And I began to think about myself, casting the same light on who I am and the way that I act that I had been burning the ladies of the world with.

I've stated in the past how John Wayne was once the embodiment of what is was to be the American man and how as a kid growing up this is what I too was supposed to be, why I often act the way that I do, rough and tumble, out there for everyone to see, A MAN BABY, YEAH! But the truth of the matter is that I'm really probably more like Ash from Army of Darkness in all the wrong ways

"Are all men from the future loud mouth braggards like yourself?"
"No, just me baby.... just me"

Dr. Wayne Dyer always says that you do not attract what you want into your life, you attract what you are, something I firmly believe. When you carry that into the people in your life, if you act like an animal, you'll attract other animals. Act like ghetto trash, you'll attract ghetto trash. Act like Ash... you get deadites

So it's really no wonder that this is the type of woman that I've been finding when I look.

But the woman at the park had me inspired to be more than what I've become, to find all the best parts of myself and have that be the face that I show to the world. In NLP we have a technique that we call modeling, and by that we mean to find someone that displays the characteristics that you want to have yourself and model the way that you behave after the way that they do it. And if you want classy, elegant women in your life, then you have to be more like a man that would be in the same circles of that sort of person. You have to be Cary Grant.

Well, I'm not nearly that good looking, nor am I suave or sophisticated. I may be too much of a Shanty Queens slob sitting on the curb, rough around the edges to hope to pull that off naturally without coming off as try hard. But that doesn't mean I have to be loud and obnoxious either, and I find that when I'm at my best, it's when I'm being the strong, quiet type that takes care of his responsibilities and doesn't worry about the rest. So I may be better off as the Ed Burns type

Well... maybe I don't have his looks either, but if you want to attract a better quality of person in your life, then you have to be a better person. And it's all in the way that you carry yourself. So rather than worrying about who's out there and how good they are, instead concentrate on who you are and how good you can be.

Then the truly beautiful ones will find you.
So who do you want to be?

Later people

With a little help from my friends.....

If you can, click play on the video, it's another soundtrack for the day.

It appears that we've started a revolution! My buddy Mike has started a spot of his own which you should definitely check out; Ramblings of a Fat Necked Zilch.

I met Mike twenty years ago now way back in our high school Creative writing class. That class was the most fun that I've ever had doing anything in my life and Mike was an integral part of our sketch comedy team, so I have absolutely no doubt that he'll be terrific and that you'll enjoy hearing what he has to say.

Back then all I wanted to do with myself was write for Saturday Night Live, and if you look at the cast picture from above you can pick out the heavyweights that were on the show at the time and why it may have been so inspirational to a creative mind. I don't see Mike Myers in there, but he was a huge part also, who can forget Wayne's World? Party on! Of course, that was just before the show completely sucked like it has for the past 15 years now.

I knew that I had something as a writer when I wasn't allowed to work with certain members of the class because we were too good to work together, and as I'm told, the teacher (head of the English department) used my work for years afterwards to show other students how its done.

What I'm amazed at is how many friends that I still have and kept in touch with from my days at Francis Lewis High School and what incredible people that each and every one of them turned out to be. While that may not be such a big thing for many of you reading here, New York City is so sprawling that very few people spend their entire lives surrounded by the same kids they grew up with. When you throw in the twists and turns where life takes you it all adds up to very different, divergent paths for everyone involved. Yet, when I think about the people I talk to and spend my time with the most.... the majority of them went to Lewis.

Speaking of friends, I was having a rough one last Thursday, feeling really down on myself for some unknown reason. So my buddy Kris asked me to come out to Kodiak's on RT 110 in Farmingdale. I had no idea what I was walking into. Apparently it was Karaoke night, but they do it like no other place that I've ever heard of. If you want to sing you have to get up on the stage, with a live band playing behind you, and throw yourself at the mercy of the crowd. They have a gong that gets slammed when you suck, and you get yanked off the stage to the sound of cheering patrons if you're not up to snuff. But they aren't only cheering for silencing those voices that sound like someone's skinning cats in back alleys... NO... when someone gets gonged the bartenders (our bartender was incredible, hot, smart, blew me away) get up on the bar and pour free shots down your throat. That's right, free shots for everyone! It was INSANE!

The place is so good even Rod Stewart showed. He didn't sing; didn't want us to hear the cancer in his throat.

Of course, you're only as good as the company you keep, and usually that amounts to bad things and you becoming the lowest common denominator, but the crew I was with that night made it a total blast and pulled me out of my funk completely. I had such a good time that by 2 AM I found myself drinking with a girl that was the spitting image of Lady Jaye from GI Joe.

I'm not sure what I'm more disturbed about, that when I google Lady Jaye for a pic that I can't get one because all that comes up are images of Spiderman's Mary Jane Watson, or the images that do come up when I see them

I think I'm dating myself here. Scarlet is the only GI Joe female that anyone seems to know anything about, some information age we live in. It's funny, all the different tangents I go off in while I write these things, I can't control them, I just go with it, but now I think I have to go and find this statue

No wonder why everyone loves Spiderman!

So back to my point about friends. In life many of us get down on ourselves, especially when things aren't going they way we want them to or we aren't living the life we meant to live. But you never really know the impact that you have on other people.

After drinking all night Thursday I was completely hung over Friday, in what I should have known was the beginning of a disastrous weekend. For most the of the day I was throwing up at work and couldn't keep anything down, which is why we had no Friday edition of this spot, but I'm a trooper and dealt with it. I left work early to get to a playoff softball game, only to have my tire blow out with no way to loosen a stripped nut to change the tire. I was stuck on the side of the highway in a dangerous spot for 5 hours in the middle of yet another thunderstorm with 1 bar left on my phone. Not exactly the greatest Friday night, right?

Except that the entire night countless numbers of friends continued to check up on me from wherever they were just to make sure that I was alright and to see what they could do to get me out of that mess.

We often lose sight of the things we really do have in our lives, especially when the chips are down and our backs are against the wall. We sometimes lash out, or whine and cry, hoping that someone will see the pain we're in and do something to pull us out of it, only to feel crushed when no one seems to notice. But how often do we ever really ask for help? Most of the time our pride keeps us from doing it.

It never ceases to amaze me though, when we come right out and say it, "I'm in a real bad spot right now, and this is what's wrong" how many people are willing to do so much to get you going again. And in those moments you really get to see what it is, and who it is, that you really have.

Winning in life doesn't mean having the most stuff, the biggest house, the best vacations. The people that stuff attracts disappear when it counts. Winning in life means having people behind you that care enough to always put that smile back on your face.

Party on People!