The Daily News

1   So, okay, my tests came back and I have been diagnosed officially as "pre-diabetic", whatever that means. I'm told that I'm at risk for heart disease and some other awful stuff if I don't change some lifestyle things.

2  Hey, the REASON I'm a little heavy is that I have been doing flaxseed oil and this healing balm I have for arthritis, yo.

3  Saturday, Jenny, Jose, CB, and myself took the liberty of painting the set and cleaning up a whole bunch of the Theatre. Great fun; we really changed it up, and it's ready for the upcoming one-acts.

4  And yesterday, I accompanied the Anti-Tobacco/Friday Night Live group downtown to the San Jose Holiday Parade, where we escorted this enormous dog named Sparky along the parade route.

5  Amazing.

6  Cal was snubbed. 'Tis the season to be snubbed.

7  Did I mention that the balloon we accompanied was named Sparky? I took a few pictures of the REAL Sparky with our parade balloon. There's precious little difference.

8  Well, a lot has happened over on this end in the past two days. Coincidental, symbolic,and life-altering. VERY weird stuff. Like walking through a thrift store, and my eyes instantly shooting to a VHS of Heidi. Like lecturing about the play Cabaret on Friday, then hearing the song sung next to our float, followed by a trip to Capitola, where at the haunted Capitola Theatre, guess what was playing?  And Sunshine writing the names of special friends in the sand on the beach, and the SECOND he was done, an extraneous wave drifting over the names, moving away, leaving just the sand...

9  Coincidental, because of the Heidi, and the Cabaret stuff.

10 Symbolic. Sad, because it was clearly an ethereal statement, especially when he wrote the last name. It was a significant name; I was filming it, and the camera shut off before all the letters had been written. I thought I had turned it back on, panned all the names, and as soon as the camera hit the last one, the wave drifted in. I kept the camera filming, moved back to the water, and up to the sun on the horizon. Then I stopped the film. What a strange, strange thing...

11  Life-altering, because it told me exactly what I need to do, and it isn't necessarily a fun choice, but it is a healthy one.

12  Interesting that on Saturday, Pink Floyd's The Wall was playing almost louder and more clearly than a lot of other tunes in the Theatre. All in all...

13  I believe now that I have taken one too many hits at that school. The latest is just the last in a series that began last year, and every time a student gets lost, or hurt. I have fought long and hard for the students at YB, putting myself out on the front lines for over twenty years. I have outlasted six principals, four APA's, three supers, rebellious kids, disrespect, finger-pointing, and a ton of other things, remaining smiling, loving, helping, sacrificing, ALWAYS for the students first, the whole way.

14  I NEVER understood teachers who came in at 8 and left at 3. I never understood teachers who would harden themselves into a Wall. I always wanted to keep my doors open, and,  no matter what, ALWAYS to put the students first, even if I had to admit I was wrong, which was certainly more than once.

15  I've had MANY more rewarding and wonderful times as a result, and I'm proud to say that in my many years of having done this, very few students have left and not kept a warm, wonderful bond, and lots of memories to share at places like Joe's. I consider all my students lifelong friends, and I absolutely LOVE the alumni. They know it, and it's always special.

16  At some point, however, one gets told that it's time to move on. At some point, the little hits begin to form something. At some point, each small hit becomes a brick, the other way. And at some point, it was going to catch up, and begin forming, and solidifying. Each time a kid would look at me with hurtful eyes, I would take it to heart. But I would need a brick in order to keep going, to keep moving in a positive manner, because the majority would always rally for me. I would put the brick up, and then I would move on.

17  I knew that this was my year for finally stepping away from things; I have been ready since the first day of school. I had been building myself up knowing I was saying good-bye to both the Drama Workshop AND to my very wonderful Class of 2005. I would sigh, but I had the foundation ready to smile as I said a loving good-bye.

18  I was looking through the last, small window, knowing that if I saw that light coming through, that it would all live on. I was looking forward to a sweet sorrow, a good-bye with a rose, a poem, and a memory...and then...

19  Out of nowhere, another brick, the final brick, seemed to come out of the sky, like the brick that killed Cyrano, and smashed me on the head. I dizzily picked it up, looked it over, got up like I always do, and for the first time, my knees buckled. I stood once, because I could, strongly, ready to attack, only this time, it didn't hold. I battled a second time, and still, it didn't hold. The only thing left to do was to put it into the concrete puzzle, which was now complete.

20  All in all it's just the final brick in the Wall.

21  Peace.

The Daily News

1   These days of us hustling and bustling, stressing over trivialities and taking each other for granted, you might take a second and think of people who are going through a rough go this season.

2  Last night, we were visited by a dear friend who has a nine-year old boy with a very severe form of brain cancer called medullablastoma. It came on suddenly in April, and the family has bonded, and he is confined to a wheel chair. His name is Spencer, and he's a heckuva kid. He's a soldier in the army that fights this stuff.

3  The family has lots of support, and Spencer is lucid and bright, but confined to a wheel chair.

4  I am not soliciting anything for this brave young man, but it might help if, during this busy season, you drop a few coins to Make-a-Wish Foundation, or any other of the great charitable organizations helping people like little Spencer.

5  I went to an A's game last year, and Spencer got a chance to run the bases after the game. When we got home, we played a little catch, and batted a few grounders, talked some baseball, and had a great time. He didn't care that I was a Giants' fan, and frankly, I got along pretty well with this confirmed A's fan.

6  Great kid.

7  He was in pretty bad shape a few months ago, but I have been told that a lot of prayers by a lot of people have helped this kid come back, and his mom, whose name is Heidi, says that somehow, some way, the prayers have helped tremendously.

8  It's funny; we go through our lives each day, taking everything and everyone for granted, so involved in all the trivialities and details that seem to fritter away our lives, and sometimes we forget that we really should appreciate and love everyone in our lives. This sort of thing puts everything in perspective, and it's time you let people who are meaningful in your lives know that they are meaningful.

9  I think and remember everyone who has meant anything to me, and to my life, and I would like to send out a ton of love to everyone out there.

10  We have a tech for the one-acts tomorrow at noon; come on out if you have the time.

11  But before you do, you might pause somewhere, and give the people near you a hug. You might let them know that you love and appreciate them.

12  Or you might take someone like Sparky home. He insists that we stop each time now, and get out of the truck, and enjoy an occasional rose or two.

13  Go shopping; feel the frost, get into the season, and most of all, remember those you love.

14  Peace.

The Daily News

1  So the Giants get a closer, and Jason Giambi has just made sure that Barry Balco will get his day in court. Say it ain't so...

2  Anniversaries:  I had to love the picture on page 2A in yesterday's Merc News. It was a picture of Godzilla, holding a plaque on Hollywood Boulevard. He finally received a star on the Walk of Fame, and the picture is just priceless. Stupid, but priceless, especially on a slow news day.

3  Hollywood Access, or one of those dumb shows I sleep through, had another anniversary party: the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney's very awesome Mary Poppins. Both Julie Anrews, the actress who played Mary Poppins, and Dick Van Dyke, who played Burt, were there.

4  Now when I was but a wee lad, I thought Mary Poppins was the greatest children's movie ever made. It was totally theatrical, and one of my earliest set designs had me, at age 9, attempting to figure out how to do the "I Love to Laugh" scene. I recall having had some weird idea of nailing the furniture to the ceiling or something; it made sense to the mind of a nine-year old.

5  I always wanted Mary Poppins to hit Broadway and become a stage show, because I loved the music, the carnival atmosphere intermingled with the whole London mist. I wanted to see it staged.

6  Well, somewhere "back in the day", I remember Great America had this revue of shows, and since I'm not a big rollercoaster guy, I wandered in, and was dazzled by the set, which had rooftops of London, complete with smoke coming up from chimneys. They pulled off the immortal Step in Time number, and I finally had at least a part of my dream! Just awesome!

7  In my very early days of teaching, I recall with a great deal of fondness standing on our stage with two students, and singing Chim Chim Cheree at one of our early Winter Concerts. I recall my wrist hurting, because the song was all barre chords. My good ol' Yamaha, the same one that is backstage right now, accompanied, and it worked beautifully as a Christmas song, simply magical.

8  And I remember two years ago, again on our very stage, Chloe singing Feed the Birds in a show we did called Songs We've Heard.  I chose the song immediately because I thought it was one of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard. We later found that it was Walt Disney's favorite song, and once a year on his birthday, it would be sung to him by Richard Sherman, who wrote the tune with his brother, Robert. After Disney passed away, Sherman would still sing the song from his piano on "Uncle Walt's" birthday each year, and each year, he would choke back a tear as he sang. 

9  Good times, good times. That's what my daughter, Caitlin always says. Incidentally, while we were in rehearsal for Songs, Caitlin pulled out her flute at home and learned Feed the Birds, so we had fun working on that song, just for no other reason than simply to bond.

10  Caitlin also helped Thuy learn flute on that show, and those are the moments I just savor. When Thuy finally nailed the flute solo on All Good Gifts, from Godspell, my heart just took off.

11  Once upon a time...

12  I just never quite know where this thing is going to go, but boy, get me thinking about things like Mary Poppins, and I turn into a total nance, and I don't mean that in a bad way...

13  Sorry. Little Thugs joke.

14  This year...I swear...just so little time...

15  Gottago.

16  Peace.

The Daily News

1  Every time I think I've seen it all, a NEW reality show rears its ugly head. Last night, I SCREAMED at the television when I saw this show called The Biggest Loser, which pits overweight people against overweight people in a weight-loss contest. They MADE these people wear spandex, for God's sake, and hop on scales, on NATIONAL television! Sadly, one guy who lost like ten pounds took off his shirt, and jiggled and DANCED, and...oh, LORDY! He was like around 80 pounds short of what was needed. Dude...

2  Now, as a person who carries around a few too many El Bees, I gotta tellya, that show is a heartbreaker. Oh, I have all the excuses: I have exercised and exercised, and nothing seems to happen; I have dieted like a madman, only to find that I experienced internal bleeding, and blah, blah, blah. Buncha hooey. I know damned well that if I got off my ass, I could do it.

3  Truth is, I simply haven't convinced myself to do a total lifestyle change, and it is REALLY depressing watching some young hardbody dude coaxing a poor guy who is over 300 <not THIS guy, not YET! yeesh!!!> to keep going, that YOU CAN DO IT, and trust me, when you are up there, you are self-conscious 24/7, and that's what you are right now,  you know damned well that a) you probably AREN'T going to do it sometime soon, and b) you are going to get NO sympathy from anyone.

4  I saw this poor 400-pound guy named "Moe" get so disillusioned and down, it really made me feel for the poor guy. Yeah, he's on National Television, but still. The way I see it, anyone even five pounds over their "perfect" weight is depressed these days. And they feel that EVERYONE is thinking, "Eww! How disgusting that person looks!" Actually most people are pretty much all about THEMSELVES, yo.

5  That poor guy was just tortured. Here was Captain Hardbody Young Tattoo Dude, who has probably NEVER had a weight problem, cajoling, and pushing, and the poor overweight guy almost broke down crying.  Actually, so did the trainer.

6  I'm sorry, but unless YOU have come down from a weight that for whatever reason suddenly got out of control, you have no idea of the pain and shame overweight people go through. YEAH, weight IS something you have control over, and YEAH, you can just work out, diet, run on $600 machines, and go measure the one pound you might have lost all week, but just getting going is frustrating, and you need either a trainer, or a VERY strong-will.

7  What a thing to show a guy right after Thanksgiving. Yeesh.

8  Okay, that being said, I guess I'll get going again on the search for the perfect diet. I had done Atkins for around three months, and had lost like twenty-five pounds, but my body couldn't do it; it bled inside, and I had some problems with digestion. And blah, blah, blah...

9  So I am now on the Fatkins, which consists of buying all my clothes one size larger, and consuming massive quantities of Twinkies and Ho-Ho's, chased by icy cold milk, and a latte. Starbucks whoops up an exquisite egg-nog latte this time of the year.

10  Oh, and of course, Altoids.

11  So far, it's been smooth sailing...

12  I have yet to join the health spa, however. Too self-conscious of my hair, which becomes more scarce each day. I'm a swimmer, so maybe if I just shave my head...dude, I'd be RUGGED!

13  That, however,  requires getting wet and putting myself on display in a pool...There is Good News: for receding hair,  I just have this plethora of hats that have hair glued to the sides. I put it on, and voila! So I don't have to trip off that one. Besides, my TRUE strength lies in the reality that most people are all about themselves, as I've already stated.

14  Maybe if I squeeze into one of those tawdry girdles from the thirties, I could look like a muscle-laden shiek, given the right clothes and perfumes...

15  Or, as I have frequently stated about trying to teach those who wish not to learn, I COULD simply try to rid the shores of sand....

16  Positively.

17  Meanwhile, I think it's time for the pork roast and the Sunny Select. I can SLAM those bad boys right now.

18  Word to yer mom.

19  Out.