A WELL THOUGHT OUT SCREAM
Maddancer #7 : Selling Wolf Tickets in Vegas & at the County Jail
This is another story from the time I went to the Banquet of the Golden Plate with Oliver Stone in Las Vegas. It was a week-long event where the high school students who scored the highest on the SAT came to Vegas to hear lectures from the most successful people in all walks of life. This included Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, Bill Gates, Robert Gates, Richard Sessions, Kevin Costner, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Edwin Teller and several prominent businessmen, architects, and doctors. On this particular afternoon Oliver and I had just heard Barbra Streisand talk about knowing when to take advice and knowing when to”stick to your guns”. She mentioned how, in the early days of her career, everyone told her to “fix her nose, change her name and stop singing those dippy love songs.” She did not take their advice and became a huge success.
It Ain’t Easy Being Bob : A Retrospective on Dylan on His 70th Birthday
(A form of this article was originally published in the Weekend Edition of the Kankakee Daily Journal) On May 24th, Bob Dylan turned 70 years old. Just living that long is an amazing achievement considering he came through the wild 1960s as a rock star with millions of dollars and worldwide fame. Many others did not fare as well. And it can’t have been easy being Bob. How about trying to live up to the title “Voice of a Generation,” particularly when it was that generation – the baby boomers of the ’60s who turned pop culture into high art and looked closely at both the sincerity and inner meaning of everything? When I was in college nearly everyone who had a stereo had a part time hobby of trying to decipher Dylan lyrics like the following: You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried
IN OVER MY HEAD : Visiting the Son of Sam & Swimming at Streisand’s
I was producing Kankakee Valley Prime Time, my cable access show with Jaymie Simmon, in Kankakee back in 2000 and my wife came out to the staff meeting to give me a letter from David Berkowitz. The production team all laughed and joked about how it would be funny if I got a letter from the Son of Sam. Only it was the Son of Sam. My good friend and great writer Bill Myers had directed a documentary on him for Christian Television. During the process Bill decided that Berkowitz was the real deal – Satanist turned genuine Christian. After all, David wasn’t trying to get paroled early or use his newfound faith for anything except trying to live a good life now (granted, it’s easier behind bars) and was putting all his chips on a new chance in heaven. Bill had told Berkowitz about the kind of writer I
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