one man two years one country five journeys eighteen states hundreds of places thousands of subjects millions of curious people
I got to Syndicate blip.tv and you can, too ! Made in India is now available for anyone to Share under licensingfrom Creative Commons
click to enlarge Yes, you too can get Made in India displayed right on your own Web site. It's free, easy and requires about as much brain power as I have left at my age....not much ! Just configure a Show Player and then grab the copy & paste code at the bottom of this page and toss it into your ownsite. Voila !
Just remember to give full credit where credit is due for this act of 'Net generosity.......
Once this was virtually impossible....it couldn't be snowing in San Pedro, California while the sun was shining on me, wearing short sleeves and a Santa hat. But now.....if you can dream, anything is virtually possible.
Sounds motivational and inspiring ? Great !
An inspired and delightful time to all my Virtual Poona friends !
' You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, Some that you recognize, some that you've hardly even heard of. People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame, Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.' The KINKS - Celluloïd heroes (1972)Uploaded by Petite-Rigolote
What makes us so fond of the whole Hollywood scene ? When I visited the Hollywood Walk of Fame recentlyI knew I was doing it somewhat halfheartedly, since myown passion had long cooled with the passing of years.And the passion was not easily re-ignited when we got outon Hollywood Boulevard into the intermittent drizzle and damp of a rare Weather day in L.A. As the old '70s song goes,'It Never Rains in Southern California' but it certainly didwhen I was there....three out of five days !
As I walked along the 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' forreal, I soaked in the sights even as I got soaked....frequently. But Hollywood by day seemed a lot different, not as crazyand jumping as say, the Vegas Strip at dusk or Bourbon Streeton a pre-Katrina night. There were a lot of tourists waiting in line for tours of the Stars' homes, Cemeteries and hideouts, but luckily for me even the drastic discounts offered by desperate Limo Drivers could not entice me to be a Tourist here. Instead, I walked all over the glitzy stars on the Boulevard, and true to Ray Davies' lyrics, there really were'some that you've never even heard of'. That's when it struck me that with the current economic crisis this Blvd. might be dying as a major destination spot for many Tourists. I mean, how many of us can name a film that Silver Screen legend Betty Grable starred in ? Although The Walk does keep up enough to sustain itself with names like Paula Abdul, Antonio Banderas, and the one embedded star with the most gawkers, Arnold Schwarzenegger a.k.a. nowadays as The Governator.....
My nephew wanted me to visit every single attraction but all I wanted was to take some memorable pics of this long-running Tourist Attraction to share with the folks back home. Talk about bad luck, I was getting my fill as I discovered that between my nephew, his mom and myself we had three digital cameras with batteries as dead as Groucho Marx, rest his soul. Yours truly unflappable and unfazed just went into the Grauman's Theatre store and bought new batteries. Tossed out the old ones and then rushed to the huge urn/garbage receptacle to recover the old ones which were the expensive rechargeable kind. But the new ones I bought weren't, so we resorted to the new backup, camera phones ! And so I did salvage a few moments from the whole trip and actually made a go of it after meeting up with some of the strangest performers I've come across in America. I posed with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator with a fur-collared jacket on, covering that famous dress with the low-cut neckline, above a grate that blew the wind up her dress to make it billow just as in the classic pinup pose, while wondering how she could be out on the street in the chilly, damp weather.
I met Christopher Dennis, an unusual Superman impersonator who believes like the rest of the 'actors' there that something will eventually turn up, and his fate will improve. Except it's something that he and the Captain America, Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Marilyn (Melissa J Weiss) and Jack Sparrow characters have been doing for years. Many years.
Even while their fortitude is tested on a daily basis in all kinds of weather, these denizens of Hollywood and Vine are not just earning their living by posing for a Dollar. 'Marilyn' claimed she was a Scriptwriter and Director, as did 'Superman', which I swallowed in a kindly gesture even as I mentally pitied their fantasy world.
Well, I was more than a bit wrong....later that evening my nephew asked me to watch a film that he streamed via Netflix called 'Confessions of a Superhero'. Surprise, surprise....all that these Superhero characters claimed seemed to be true. Someone else was intrigued by their lives, too. Matt Ogens made a Documentary that opened at the SXSW Film Festival and it was a hit there as well as a hit in my book.
I like rooting for the underdog and the creative souls who try to rise above their surroundings. These struggling 'Heroes' are in no way as unfortunate as the people starving in real conditions in India, the Dominican Republic and Darfur, to name a few of the poverty-ridden countries that are often glossed over in our comfortable little existences. And yet, in America where folks own large homes but have no Health Insurance and face growing Unemployment, these 'Heroes' still display a Superhuman resolve, giving their all as they pose for that one lousy Dollar tip which they mustearn, since Panhandling is against the law. The Photos are from my Flickr set 'Confessions of a Superhero' Official Site AFI Fest Photos from Life.com
I tried to post this to your Blog...did it go through?
I wasn't sure so I thought i would send it as a message as well... :)
Very interesting blog my friend. Your insight regarding the slow decay of ‘the Hollywood experience’ is likely correct. The icons and Hollywood mystic has been eroded, replaced by the phenomenon of ‘reality stars’… everyday folks like you and me??...I don’t think so…but J.Q. Public does.
Perhaps it was apropos that it rained and the images of those struggling actors looked so bleak…these are in any case bleak times. ~ from Lyn on Facebook
UPDATED Dec. 01, 2009 with video and link following the one below:
A Happy Thanksgiving at least for some folks, thanks to The First Baptist Church ofCharlotte, North Carolina. They came up with enough food to feed 5,000 people, just like in the Bible story.
Video and story from FOX News Related video and link to Thanks and Giving in Humble, Texas where the Parishioners received money in envelopes to share with anyone they found needy, including Link courtesy of my nephew Shaheed of Grace Church in Humble.
Creative Commons
