Finally was able to screen DA 5 BLOODS. Not all of it was the Vietnam I remember but much of it truly WAS. BLOODS has immediately been placed within my top five of PLATOON, APOCOLYPSE, DEER HUNTER and 84 CHARLEY MOPIC. It is a Spike Lee Joint and of course gets political. At times, organically;… Continue reading BLOODS
The One
GEGNER’S BARBER SHOP
This arrived today in my mailbox and really struck me as synchronous. I’m not an alumni of Antioch College, I graduated from U of Md…but as a freshman I attended Antioch in the summer of ’61. I’d recently turned 17, they’d offered me a Naval Engineering scholarship for their $3000 tuition and I went for… Continue reading GEGNER’S BARBER SHOP
EVIL
If this were a film plot, I’d immediately dismiss it for being beyond my willingness to suspend my disbelief. “Three HUNDRED religious figures…”and from ONE state? Come on, man! I know the Catholic church has a long dark history of pederasty, over centuries from the Vatican down to the smallest parish. But even so, come… Continue reading EVIL
STELLA
I just wrote my heart out for 20 fucking minutes!!! And the writing disappeared! I hate when that happens…but I am willful, people! So… J I’m watching THE IRISHMAN tonite. Yeah, I know, all y’all saw it months ago…but see, I had a beef with SAG about dues in December and they didn’t send me… Continue reading STELLA
A BIO FOR OLGA
(An author named Olga first wanted to include a chapter in her next book about me. The more she learned about me. the more determined she became to devote the entire book to describe my life’s arc. Weeks passed with frequent exchanges by email; then I left for India to shoot a film. When I… Continue reading A BIO FOR OLGA
A KENNEDY MEMORY
I’m in the throes of departure and discovery as I approach Christmas 2004. In two weeks, I will return to Vietnam for the first time in 35 years. I have much on my emotional plate, can you dig it? Tonight I received a phone call from a gathering of old friends in Washington, DC; celebrating… Continue reading A KENNEDY MEMORY
WOMEN IN CAMMIES
What is this latest fashion look about, women in camouflage? Is it somehow related to our being at war And is it connected to so many women, bearing arms in combat zones these days? I can remember a time in the 70’s that it first occurred. I can remember seeing a hot redhead in tailored… Continue reading WOMEN IN CAMMIES
RECOGNITION
I’m smiling as I think about and remember my counterpart, T.U. Dai. Nguyen Van Dai… Americans will intuitively pronounce it correctly. Those literate in Vietnamese will miss a diacritical mark that makes this a hard D…rather than a soft Yieee. I’m about to purchase a t-shirt from a company that creates and sells to sentimental… Continue reading RECOGNITION
HARD LABOR
I’m a union man, have been since 1971. I pay dues to three separate unions that govern the conditions under which I work as an actor; SAG, AFTRA and AEA. I believe in the value of collective bargaining and organized labor. But I feel that the pendulum has swung too far to the left and… Continue reading HARD LABOR
SCARY MOVIES
Boy, did I see a classic Holloween movie this evening! I am fond of fright classics, like the original Nosferatu, by Murnau and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula series, the colorful Hammer Studio films with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, for example. And you’ve gotta toss in Aliens, and Night of the Living Dead, and maybe even… Continue reading SCARY MOVIES