After graduating with a Bachelors in English, he pursued the serious study of his craft, at first with the Yale Drama school, and then, with the Actors’ Theatre, in New York. As such, he was perhaps the most dedicated actor of his day.

The characters which he brought to life, and made an inspiration, would seem poorly portrayed, and even ridiculous, in the hands of almost anyone else.

His modesty and selfless loyalty to charitable causes, as well as to peace and the environment, should be an inspiration, especially to those in the entertainment industry.

Paul Newman was a hero of mine, from childhood on, a positive, personal example, in several ways, and I, and many others will rightfully miss him. Regards are sent to his family, and perhaps, a way to honor Paul Newman is to make a donation to help the fight against cancer.

Comments(0)

For selfish reasons, I refuse to make this into a politically ideological site, despite the fact that I have strong opinions concerning what has transpired in the United States. I have not missed a prediction, however, in the last fifteen years plus, and it is always highly entertaining to see if they become correct. So, I will formulate them, as well as the reasons for making them, insofar as social observations go.

Americans are a long-suffering people, but push them too far, and they will tear your head off. And, their patience has been tested to the maximum. Regardless of who you blame, the economy has sunk into a Depression, triggered by the favoring of ruthless, abusive corporations, who have frauded investors and homeowners with lies about the solidity and workability of the transactions which are at issue, causing major bankruptcies, home losses, and staggering unemployment. The situation has been gravely worsened by the favoritism these mega-conglomerates have been spoiled with, in terms of being allowed to continue paying pennies on the dollar to creditors, after they declare insolvency, while middle class individuals have had their right to get out from under, through declaration of bankruptcy, revoked.

Then, we have the development of the worst Trade Deficit in the history of the world, and the erosion of more domestic jobs, in favor of a globalism nightmare which is beyond description. The loss of foreign-based business taxes, as more of these companies have dropped American labor, for foreign shores, has been staggering. The depletion of tax revenue from the elimination of the estate tax, as well as from the suspension of a stepwise-increasing, corporate tax system, has been enormous. The two billion dollars every week, which is spent in Iraq, has decimated the economy, if only in taking money away from educational and vocational programs and job and small-business, stimulus packages. Then, thanks to de-regulation of financial institutions, their greed and misbehavior, leading to their near-demise, the economy has been further toileted by gargantuan, taxpayer bailouts. The staggering price of gasoline has triggered an enormous, compensatory hike in the Consumer Price Index, as business owners feel compelled to make up for their larger overhead, by raising prices.

The war in Iraq has also threatened our national security, by putting us in a dangerously, military resource-drained position, leading Al-Qaeda to re-surge in Afghanistan, and Russia to invade our Georgian ally, unrestrained.

So, the American people have been pushed so far, that the color of Obama’s skin will not prevent many of the bigoted members of our society, even, from voting for him. So.. Obama is your next president…. mark my words. And, again, I have not missed a political prediction in over fifteeen years.

Comments(0)

Right- click Here/(Open a New Tab, if Firefox)To Listen to Hello-Goodbye While You Read

As unfortunate as today’s, narcissistic preoccupation among humans is, this site, after all, must necessarily be about the one and only: MOI, Ani, Je, Yo, Ich, or, in whatever language you wish to understand, ME. This is indeed a convenient, jumping-off point for my philosophy of multi-culturalism. I appreciate your ethnic background, and your struggles are really poignant, but if you want to have a happier life, at the end of the day, you’re going to have to appreciate and appropriate MY ethnicity, insofar as the use of ENGLISH.

That being said, I was born in the 1950’s, in Philadelphia, at a time where people appreciated the value of an education, especially since it kept them out of an atrocious Vietnam War. Despite my drifting off and being lackadaisical, to the point where I hardly opened a book, a remarkable thing happened: I was in the top 15% of my classes, and even better, when I specialized in psychology, achieving a Masters in that discipline, in 1979.

In the 1960’s, growing up was full of true, racial harmony between Blacks and Whites, like myself. Whites provided the Blacks with many vocational opportunites, including in management, as well as support for their civil rights concerns. On a campaign stop, in December, 1960, I saw John F. Kennedy, the greatest President of my lifetime; Kennedy revolutionized the civil rights movement, and pulled the country out of the all-too-typical economic stagnation of the prior, Republican administration of Dwight David Eisenhower. He also contained the Vietnam War, and increased benefits for many underclassed people- seniors, employees, college students and people needing low-cost, medical treatment.

Another thing transpired in the 1960’s, from the ripe, old age of ten, and it was the discovery that I could WRITE, after having discovered that I could ACT. The first foreshadowed my abilities and involvement in ADVERTISING COPY WRITING and EDITING. I first tried my hand at a children’s book, about a Catholic orphanage, a strange preoccupation for a Jewish child, but perhaps not for one who was always fascinated by comparative religion. The small novel got favorable review from Simon and Schuster, who, despite the fact that they had no market for a book, like that, encouraged me to keep writing. I took that to heart.

Music of the day was comprised of a lot of Black R&B, from James Brown’s early stuff, to Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, the Platters, The Penguins, the Flamingos, The Earls, etc. Then came the Beatles and Classic Rock, in the late 60’s, with Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joplin, Hendrix, and a cast of thousands. My movie heroes, throughout, were people like Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn, and they continued with Robert DeNiro, AL Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many, many others. Then, I envision the timeless entertainers. Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, the moving, black-comedic mastery of Jack Lemmon, and within the realm of comedy, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Gleason and the world’s most gifted comic, Lucille Ball, rank as my favorites, along with Charley Chaplin and Peter Sellers. Then came Paul Lynde, Jonathan Winters, Carol Burnett, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Zero Mostel, and many more. I think the funniest comic today, other than Conan O’Brien, is Jack Black.

I left Philadelphia in 1982, to live for a year in Atlanta, and then, for the last time, in 1995, for a five-year stint in Charlotte, NC, before taking up my residence, or should I say, defending it, in the rigorous area of Los Angeles. This is not a place that will win any awards for selflessness, and in an lot of human cases, not one that could rightfully bestow a Nobel Peace Prize for any undertaking which involved intelligence, but it does have its unparalleled opportunity. I mean, for something other than sheer, oppressive, insufferable frustration. Not that I wasn’t forced to leave Philly, out of disgust with the egomaniacal stupidity of its medical doctors; their brutal, psychiatric-fanatical misinterpretation of a series of conditions I had, would make leprosy seem desirable.

But, the protocol in L.A., as senseless as it usually is , can wear on one- sort of like driving through the human-driven, vehicular obstacle course which we call: Korea Town. As a matter of fact, this is what I looked like BEFORE coming to L.A.:

No, as incredible as this seems, that wasn’t what I looked like. However, to conclude this little journey into the realms of the past, I did have a very supportive group of acquaintances in Philadelphia, in the form of The Playwright’s Workshop, at least before the founder of it, Albert Benzwei, died. Albert was a great, loyal source of counsel for me, and he was a magnetic and unsurpassed, performing arts innovator and dedicated director, actor and dramaturg. He inspired me to enter the performing arts, to learn and develop playwriting, and he helped hone my acting skills, through the weekly, cold readings and his personal teaching. He instilled a respect for judging plays according to their technical merits, without lapsing into the cheap tendency to evaluate them on their political leanings. I wrote several pieces, in the 1990’s, in Philly, and two more in Charlotte, where I appeared in several, additional, stage plays, in lead roles. In Charlotte, I enrolled in an acting course, with my wonderfully generous, fun-loving and humanistic teacher, Ed Gilweit. I took this class to loosen myself up, emotionally and with regard to the kind of sexuality that today’s film actors are required, sometimes, to embody. I must say, along those lines, it didn’t hurt to have a “Character Exercise” where a few of the girls in the class acted out the process of losing a game of strip poker, which they thought their characters would become involved in, or so they said. There were also dressing exercises, although tragically, Ed died of the same, horrible disease that Albert Benzwie did, before I got a chance to perform mine. I still have great friends in Charlotte, and they are all owed many calls. I moved here, because Charlotte just hadn’t the opportunity for me, as a film actor and screenwriter.

Throughout my life, I have written many poems and short stories, but since the mid-1990’s, freelance writing, especially ad copy writing for small businesses, has been one of my chief occupations.

Comments(0)