It's late and I'm pooped (not my pants, not this time) but hopefully my defenses and hype mode batteries are worn down to the point where I can be honest about what's going on.
What's going on is that nothing is going on with my career, at least in terms of payment, and nothing has been going on for far too long.
I've shown great promise as a comedian (I was part of the Mime Scare of the Seventies, producing my own comedy shows in 500-seat theaters at 19), filmmaker (I got my BA and MFA from UCLA film school), screenwriter (I won the Jack Nicholson Award for Screenwriting and was last produced by HBO), magazine writer (working with Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly on dozens of projects for over a decade), newspaper op-ed writer (for The Christian Science Monitor in my twenties), photographer (I won prestigious photo contests), etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
All that and 50 dimes will get me a cup of latte.
I took my retirement to be my daughter Sarah's primary caregiver and now I'm desperately trying to unretire (with, not surprisingly, a new wife - maybe I shouldn't have constantly referred to my first wife as "my first wife" in public).
Since I was about 19 I've tried to almost do what I feel I should be doing, but now I'm trying to get back the courage, chutzpah and hair I had when I was 19 and do exactly what I feel my calling is.
And thus I've written the book and launched this blog and podcasts and documentary and one year, 11 province, 50 state, 300 talk and 10,000 miles of biking tour, all with this same humble, modest title, "The Truth About Everything."
The Tour is starting January 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2008 or quite possibly later. If we get enough sponsorship money we'll just do the tour over again beginning February 2, 2009.
Bill Murray relived the same day over and over in that classic movie "Groundhog Day." We'll be living the same year over and over until we get it right.
Please follow our progress, or lack thereof, on this blog and on our website and podcasts, which are being created right now. In fact we recorded our first podcast at the home of physicist (a professor emeritus from the University of Colorado), neuralscientist (officially an amateur, he's mapped his own brain to discover the reasons for and treatment of his Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases) and generalist genius Brian Ridley, pictured above (below?).
My wife Patti will join me on the trip, and hopefully her son (my stepson) Isaac and my daughter Sarah will join us.
Also joining us will be my collaborator in every medium, Eric Barendsen. Together we're all like the "before" dinner in "Little Miss Sunshine" and hope to end up dancing to "Superfreak" at a child's beauty pageant before we're done.
I'm sorry this is so long and rambling. I'll trying to be longer and more rambling next time. Thanks for reading this, and I'd love to hear from you.
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3 comments:
Actually you can get a cup of latte for only 25 dimes at many good caffeinating stations.
This is fabulous!! You are so clever and witty and handsome and intelligent. Good luck with your new Blog/Podcast!
Your completely objective sister
Wait a minute! My sister and brother-in-law are beating me like a rented mule at being funny! okay, I wish their beatings were more metaphoric and less literal.
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