A little story, part 1

Once upon a time there was a boy…

This boy was very different from other boys. He never made any friends because he moved schools so often. By the time this boy got to High School it was his 12^th school…

Being that way made it very hard for the boy to make any lasting friendships. The only friend he had through all those years was a Big Brother. Now, Big Brother wasn’t counting or anything, but he made sure that he reminded this boy that he was in fact one year, two weeks, two days, and one hour older than the boy.

It was safe to say that the boy loved his Big Brother more than anything else. He even loved him more than playing outside! There was seldom a day when you could find one without the other. They were connected at the hip wherever they went. And if you ever looked for them, all you needed to find them was to follow the sound of little boys laughing.

One day, when the boy way 12, his Big Brother had a birthday. When Big Brother ripped open his presents, there was one that captured his attention more than all the others. It was given to him by the Loving Parents, and they were so happy when the look on his face gave away his excitement over the gift.

A Baseball Card Collecting set.

That day a dark cloud came into the sky for the little boy. For that was the day that his Big Brother stopped playing with him. His Big Brother wanted no more games of fantasy and make-believe. He only wanted the real game of Baseball. But the boy was never invited to join in this game. This game belonged only to Big Brother.

Shortly there after Big Brother took all of his toys and treasures of his childhood and he gave them to the boy, thinking it would be nice for them not to go to waste. But the boy hardly played with them anymore, all the heart seemed to go out of him because he no longer had his only friend. The Loving Parents tried to console him, but he just became sad and resentful.

This is when the little boy learned what hate was. Baseball had stolen the only friend the boy had ever known, and the boy swore that he would hate Baseball forever.

Across the Universe

Saturday afternoon I went to see a movie I have been waiting for since I first heard about it. The movie is called "Across the Universe" and it is a musical. There are people who by just throwing that word out there will automatically dismiss this movie. And I say... fine. Let them and their closed minds miss it... I will enjoy it regardless!!! HA!! Sorry, that was my snooty moment.



This movie is not a traditional musical in the way that Moulin Rouge was not a typical musical. That is to say that in traditional musicals when a song starts the story/action stops. In this movie the music is telling the story and the actors are singers (in the movie) and so when they sing it makes sense. The music is all written by the same band, and in case you didn't catch it from the title, that band is The Beatles. There are only 35 minutes of dialogue and over thirty Beatles songs that have been pieced together to help tell this story. A love story set in the sixties with sexual exploration, revolution, drug trips and Vietnam. Not a completely original story, but you have never seen it told quite like this before.



The movie stars a bunch of fresh faces and amazing singers. For a few of them, this is their first movie. For the more experienced ones, this is their first American movie. Littered with cameo's of household names like Bono, Joe Cocker, Selma Hayek and Eddie Izzard (Oh I wish he was a household name. He is my second favorite comedian after Ellen, trust me and rent his stand up, you wont regret it.) this movie still belongs solely to the unknowns.

The one that I haven't been able to get out of my head is the scene where T.V. Carpio sings my favorite Beatles song "I wanna hold your hand". She has a magnificent voice, but it is the twist that gets me the most. She is sitting on the bleachers of her high school in her cheerleading uniform singing this song not to the captain of the football team, but to his girlfriend one of the cheerleaders. It is an amazing scene, she walks out of the practice on her way to meet her destiny. And while she is walking and singing, she walks right through the football team while they are tackling each other and playing football.



The only one of the main characters that I know is Evan Rachel Wood, she plays Lucy. You would have seen her in "Running with scissors" or "The upside of anger". But what I know her best from is a small indie movie called "Thirteen". After seeing her in that, I knew she could act, but I had no idea she could sing. And boy, these people they cast can sing. I would have loved to see the casting process. The other main character Jude, is played by a brittish guy named Jim Sturgess and at this point I don't know whether to tell you to watch for him on the big screen or in record stores. He was awesome, and if he came out with an album, I would buy it.



I wont tell you much of the story except to tell you that I did cry once and laughed a whole lot, and at least two or three times I felt what an acid flashback must be like. If I had to give you something to compare this movie to I would say Forest Gump (story, and epic) + Moulin Rouge (music and dance) + Natural Born Killers (surrealism) + Brazil (funky twisted pchyhadelia). It is just something you should experience and I hate to say it, but you really should experience it in the theater. I am not someone who wont wait for video... in fact I usually wait for things to come to video. But there are some things that should be seen in the theater because of the immensity and scope and there is something to be said about being so immersed in a movie that you forget about the here and now.


Across the Universe is a brilliant movie. Go see it. Take a toke, sit back and be entertained.

So long old friend...

for a short while I loved you like you were mine
I knew you didn't feel it, there were certainly signs
I lied to myself for that small moment of lust
thought I could be your fall back if I could just...

then you were gone and my heart was destroyed
or thats what I told myself, could all just be a ploy
I wanted so desperately to know I could feel
lifetimes had past since I'd felt anything real

my most common emotion soon after you'd left
was bitter and stubborn and so often bereft
I stayed that way too long at the cost of good friends
it's clear now I was the cause for so many ends

years later I took notice of who I'd become
I was angry and hurtful and worst of all numb
I felt alone and ugly and altogether unwanted
you answered my call for support undaunted

years now we've been here in this same emotion
verging together in our humdrum harmonic motion
we have both become routine and I'm getting deja vu
so now when I see you, I don't want to see you

I'm just angry at you for so many reasons
when I voice this out loud it feels much like treason
I feel pain when I hear you seeping through the wall
it is the sound of us taking our final curtain call

you throw me excuses and all your vindications
all the while ignoring my obvious frustrations
I need you too, sometimes more than even you do
yet every time I say this the message goes askew

you always hold my heart, my love and my brother
you keep throwing it aside to go cruising for another
don't misunderstand, I'm not asking for you to love me
but when I need my best friend I'm not looking for three

here is the crux of all these words I've been spewing
I know I cant ask you to stop doing what your doing
but remember now, we all pay for what we do
you have found a new love now see what it cost you...


-me

Babysitting with Wayne

Wayne. Such a complete and total hippie. And one seriously weird night.

My parents, also total hippies, never really put that much stock in babysitters. My parents always left my brother and I alone for periods of time. We were latchkey kids. We were alone when we got home from school and managed not to kill ourselves. So Mom and Chuck figured that as long as one of us was looking out for the other we would be alright. And we were... mostly.


Needless to say, we were boys of an impressionable age. We were not the sit in front of the tv and kill time type of kids. Well, I was... but Josh always dragged me along on his adventures. And let me tell you, we have quite a few that would turn mom's hair white. But I am not here to talk about all those times. I wanted to get this specific night down.

I have no idea where my parents went that night... I don't know if they were going on a date or going to a concert. All I remember is that they got us a babysitter that night. We had to be about nine and ten years old. No ordinary babysitter either... my parents gave run of the house over to one of my dad's band-mates. The guitarist, Wayne. Now I have already told you that my dad is the king of corny. Well if you can imagine it Wayne was ten times weirder than Chuck. When it came to my dad, he had two boys to pull all his wackiness on. Wayne had no kids and used that night to vent some seriously wacky steam.

After my parents left it was kinda boring. Josh Wayne and I sat in the living room for a while watching tv. Nothing too exciting right? Well, round about 10:00 pm Wayne turns the tv off and tells us that it is time for bed. Josh and I go to our rooms to get into our pj's. We went back into the living room to beg Wayne to let us stay up a little bit longer. I think that may have been what pushed him over the edge. There were three exterior doors to the house we lived in then and a good thing there was, because as soon as we had finished our pleas this lopsided grin washed over Wayne's face and he reached for the light switch next to him.

Immediately the room was plunged into darkness and Wayne moved with a quickness that belied his 40 years of age. He got Josh immediately and had him down on the floor in a tickle attack. I let out a girlish scream and ran for it. I ran downstairs into my parents room and ran right into their closet. My mom had this really cool black cloak that I loved to wear all the time. So while in the closet I slipped it on thinking it would make it harder for Wayne to find me if I was dressed up in a black flowing cape... Shuttup I was nine years old!!!!

Well, no sooner had I slipped in on and gotten ready to leave the closet when the lights in my parents bedroom went out. I froze. Waiting to hear what would happen next I cowered down in the back corner of the closet where mom kept her pile of laundry. I piled it up over me and just stopped moving when the closet doors were yanked open. I held my breath. Wayne was standing there, doing this weird growling thing, and the only thought going through my head was "where is Josh, if I can get to Josh I will be safe". Wayne didn't see me. So when he turned back into the bedroom and started making his way over to my bedroom door I quietly started to inch my way out of the closet.

I tried to stay in the closet and out of his line of view for as long as I could. Finally he opened my bedroom door and stuck his head inside, while calling my name in a menacing tone. It was now or never, so I grab the cape around me so he wouldn't be able to grab it, and I made my run for it. I was around the bed before he realized I was behind him. The stairwell upstairs was behind the headboard of the bed and my bedroom door was on the wall opposite. There was one moment as I crossed the foot of the bed when I was a mere two feet from Wayne. Had he but turned a bit earlier he would have had me. But as my luck had it I got around the bed and halfway to the stairwell before he saw me.

Then it was on... He turned and growled my name and I ran. Up the stairs screaming, through the music room still screaming, into the living room and THUD!!!! Right into Josh. He had been hiding upstairs and had come running when I started to scream. "He's right behind me"!!!! I screamed as we both scrambled to our feet and made a beeline toward the front door. Out the front door just as Wayne came bounding into the living room growling and now both Josh and I were running and screaming like girls. We ran out into the yard and hid.

Now remember this is in the Colorado Rockies and there were trees everywhere to hide behind, not to mention the outhouse in the side yard. So Josh and I hid out in the yard and we covered up with the cape. See Josh thought the cape was a good idea too!!! There we stood for what seemed like hours. We kept moving from tree to tree trying to see what Wayne was doing inside the house. He was going through turning every light off. We were totally scared but having so much fun. After a while we couldn't find Wayne at all. All the lights had gone dark, and there wasn't a sound issuing from inside.


For a little while he would taunt us by flicking his lighter, or turning on a light really quick to try and throw us off. We circled the house many times that night. Until after a while everything was completely still. Josh and I were still trying to find where Wayne was in the house, but little did I know Josh had started coming up with a plan. And as his plans usually did... this plan called for me to be the bait. After a feeble attempt on my part to try and make him go in my stead I finally gave in and went along with his plan. Josh said that I could go in the front door, that Wayne wasn't in the living room. Josh said that he needed to know where in the house Wayne was and the only way to get Wayne to move was if he came after one of us.

I opened the front door fully expecting to be pounced upon. Josh was around the corner of the house watching through the window. I slowly crept inside and slipped the door shut. I stood there frozen long enough to make Josh tap the window and point toward the music room. I slowly started inching my way through the living room toward the doorway to the music room. I took one last look behind me toward Josh. He nodded vigorously for me to go in. I looked across the living room toward the door to the kitchen. If Wayne was hiding in there than two of my exits were already blocked. I would have to make it downstairs to the outside door in my parents room to get away from him. I was pretty sure the closet trick would only work once.

So, I took a big gulp and peeked around the corner into the music room. Wayne knew what he had been doing when he turned the lights off. This room was very dark with only a little light coming in through the porch windows. I blinked a couple times trying to force my eyes to adjust to the dark. After a couple more taps from Josh I finally took the first step into the music room. The piano was on the left and straight ahead were the shelves that blocked the stairwell down to my parents room. I paused to listen for anyone coming for me from the kitchen. No sounds came. My brothers bedroom door and the bathroom were on the right wall of the music room and I cautiously tip toed close to them to see if I could hear anything beyond the closed doors.

I got to where my brothers door was and leaned in. All the while I was looking around me to catch a glimpse of any movement. As I slipped past Josh's door and made my way toward the stairs that led downstairs I heard a sound and froze. I was breathing heavily through my mouth and my senses were in overdrive. I cautiously glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Wayne wasn't coming through any of the doors behind me. I didn't hear any more noise and I'm not sure if that made me more or less worried. After about a minute of holding my breath and waiting I finally decided to move again. I would continue on my mission downstairs and out that door. So I turned back to the stairwell. There on the floor, behind the bookshelf that hid the stairs down, was a human head.

As soon as I saw it my forward movement stopped. The eyes opened and locked on me. Then the head smiled, and I screamed. Then we were off. Wayne lept up from his place on the stairs and I turned tail and booked. Cape billowing behind me as I ran screaming at the top of my lungs. Into the living room Wanye mere feet behind me growling, screaming for Josh. Saying he was here... he was right behind me. I ran... as fast as my little nine year old legs would take me... up and over the couch as fast as I could to the door. I could hear Wayne coming around the couch. It would slow him down, but only by mere seconds. But hopefully it would be enough. I had reached the door. I grabbed the handle and gave it a hard yank. Nothing, it wouldn't budge.

I was still screaming. The door wouldn't open and Wayne was just a couple feet behind me. I expected his big hands to come down on my shoulder at any moment. I was still screaming and struggling with the door. I had a flash of the lock and I fumbled for where I thought it was on the door. It had been turned. Josh had locked me in! I was still screaming as I clicked the lock into the open position and threw the door open. When the little bit of light came in through the open door I risked a glance back and saw Wayne's hand inches from my shoulder. I ran, screaming through the front door. I didn't stop screaming until I got to the street and looked back to see no one behind me.

I stood there in the middle of the road catching my breath when Josh came into view. He had taken the other way around the house. He had been watching through the windows on the kitchen side of the living room and when he saw that I had made it out he sneaked around the house past the kitchen and came down to meet me. I was still in the road panting. Adrenaline was still pouring into my veins and I was mad!

"Why did you lock the door... you jerk, he almost had me!!"

"What are you talking about, I didn't lock the door. But watching you run screaming like that, man, I almost pissed my pants I was laughing so hard."

"Yeah, real funny... I know you locked the door so that I couldn't get out. I thought I was going to piss my pants I was so scared."

"Did you see where he was hiding?"

"See where he was hiding??? He just chased me through the entire house!!! Yeah I saw where he was hiding!!!"

Josh had started to think up ways that we could sneak up and attack Wayne. The leading option was to shimmy along the side of the wall about 10 feet up from the ground to the window that was over the stairs and putting the hose through the window and soaking him. We spent another half an hour trying to think of ways to retaliate. Finally the lights in the house started coming back on. Josh and I looked at each other. Was this another one of Wayne's tricks? But as if in answer to the unspoken question the front door swung open and Wayne came out onto the front porch.

"Josh, Shane... time to come inside. Your parents just called and they are on their way home. Should be here in less than 20 minutes. Come on, lets get this place cleaned up and get you two to bed before they get home. You were supposed to be in bed a few hours ago after all." We went inside and all three of us had a serious case of the giggles while we sped though a quick clean up. When the sprint cleaning was done the three of us collapsed on the couch still giggling.

"Man, Shane, you almost broke my nose when you threw the front door open like that. It brushed the tip of my nose. I barely stopped in time, I would have..." That was when Josh held his hand up. We all fell quiet. Then suddenly I could hear it to. Chucks car. It was at the end of the block. Josh and I had spent years memorizing the sound of our parents cars. After all, we were bad boys, misfits. With many many childhood adventures behind us. The three of us lept to our feet and before anyone said a word, Josh and I had sprinted from the room toward our bedrooms. Wayne sat back down and Josh and I had just gotten into bed when we heard the front door open.

Safe. Wayne covered for us, said we had been asleep for hours.

Beautiful Boys #03

The Beautiful David