Richard Cox's Blog

Looking Back At Myself

2012-02-04T00:57:00.000-08:00

I like my lines. Those etchings in my visage. Those ephemeral furrows of a life lived. Of laughs had. Of laughs made. I'm proud of those little reminders of years ticked off. Of experiences had. Of battles won. The older I am, the more I've survived. Battle scars of wind and time.

I don't feel old. Don't think old. I feel as young as I ever did. Just grumpier. Just more placid. More satisfied. More unsatisfied with waiting for life to happen. Go and live it. The secrets of life seem less secretive now. What is important so much more tangible. Friends get divorced now. Friends die now.

Each new stage of life comes more quickly now. Races up to you and is gone again. Before you saw it. Before you knew it How did we get here? How long ago? Familiar refrains now. Black and white long gone. Absolutes vaporized into reality. Seeing the depth beneath the water. Like a graph turned 3-D.

Seeing the world more simply. Beyond the politicking. Beyond the superficiality of man made desire. The rational reality of fact. Simplicity at a higher level. A Universe immune to us. A world that outlives us. Every one of us. Being born to die. The understanding of which lets us live more fully.

Gaze into that glass. Revel in the evidence of time. Immemorial. In memoriam. Age is a gift denied so many. Too many. Live your life vicariously through yourself. Be a living monument to the passed. To the past. But most of all -- relax.

Pen

2012-01-19T01:04:00.000-08:00

The tease of inspiration,
Of art held at pen's edge,
Struggling to stay distant,
Begging to be intimate
With the paper.
The pen drifts across the sheet
Lazy.
Willfully aware of its limitations,
Fearful of muddying the waters of inspiration
With so dull an instrument
As its own hand.
Guiding but not grasping
The depth of its own desperate genius.
Letting it happen of its own accord
As all art must for those without the gift
Of conscious talent.
Drifting, dancing,
Reckless but free.
Flitting and teasing
Gently and awkwardly caressing
Like a hand in the dark reaching for a body
Waiting for the electricity
To strike
To heave up and explode
Like the birth of a
Universe.

Water

2012-01-19T00:50:00.000-08:00

Tripping light across the water
Bubbles burbling, gurgling,
Living and dying on the surface -
Scratching at the air
Before retreating to the depths of their own ego.
Existence passing below them as they
Transition willfully
Futile in their hope to move beyond the water's scope
The world they'd know if they could only
Know consciousness.
But alas . . .
Impossible for something that fails to exist
Longer than it does not.

This Temporary Life

2011-12-14T00:49:00.000-08:00

Your life, and mine, and all lives in fact are, by their nature, anomalous. When you think about the sheer amount of circumstances needed to fall into place for you to exist . . . well let's just say that's it's a lot more likely that a particular human being won't exist than will.
Not a single one of your ancestors failed to breed. Each one of them survived infancy and childhood. Every one one of them lived to adulthood. Don't get me started on the math required to demonstrate that you exist solely because each one of your ancestors mated with your specific other ancestor (out of a smorgasbord of other potential mates) at that exact moment back to the beginning of time.

You are the product of countless generations. You are at the sword's point of evolution. You are an anomaly. We all are.

So when you consider the actual living miracle it is that you're here, don't forget that every other one of your planet-mates is in the same boat. From your family members, to your neighbors sure, but also to those starving children in some far away land that you've seen pictures of but would rather click past than be troubled by. It's not just you. None of us likes to be sad, and thoughts like that make us sad.

We occupy our little place on Earth for a time so quick, it's practically over the moment we realize it is. When you're a kid, a hundred years is a thousand lifetimes away, when you get a bit older you realize it's just one. At a certain point, your vitality is behind you. Your youth and energy are trapped in photographs yellowing in an album somewhere.

If you're of the fortunate ones, you get to see your skin sag and hair whiten, you're blessed with memories that may need a jump-start every once in a while but are long and rich. My Dad has always said "Age is a gift denied to so many". Ain't that the truth. As much as we shake our heads and feel sympathy for our elderly brethren, they are the fortunate ones.

This life is temporary no matter how long we shuffle this mortal coil. Just being here is a miracle left unfulfilled by literally trillions of other potential people - who knows how many geniuses we're never to hear of. Every decision you make in your life should honor that evolutionary miracle that puts you behind a computer reading this. Every choice you make for your own life should also take into consideration the fact that every other being on this Earth is as much of a miracle as you and should be treated as such.

Your whole life is spent in transit - from the moment you slip into the world to the moment you slip out. It's easy in this make-believe world of ours to put so much importance on details that we forget the big picture. We spend so much time living our lives that we forget to be alive.

In this temporary life of yours remember to live. Stopping to smell the roses was a cliche to me until I moved into a house with rose bushes.

Rain

2011-11-27T01:58:00.000-08:00

Rain falls from the heavens
Misting sheets like curtains
Wash the roads
The cars
The people's crowns.
It clouds his life
Depresses him
Uncleansing drizzle
Tripples, freezes his hands
A cigarette comforts him
Smoke wafting past his face
People hurry past hunched
Stooped in an effort to avoid
The downward plummet
Liquid clouds falling to Earth.
Buildings rush skyward
To meet the droplets.
Millions, like an invading force
Invading his world, his thoughts.
Consumed with Rain.

Stand Alone On A Stage

2011-11-22T01:13:00.000-08:00

Stand alone on a stage and be. Be that person deep inside that yearns to break free, to exist, to breathe. That person that yearns to surface. To lurch from the yoke of the water's grasp and gulp down lungfuls of acrid air - heavy in the incense of a ritual to be observed yet not obeyed.

Stand in the light and be seen. Seen for the most vulnerable face of you, made raw in the spot's light. The honey glow of truth and redemption and fear. Numbing fear of failure to be ignored and trampled on, trounced, made ready for the purchase of a new grasp. A new grip. A handhold on the granite face of that thing you call life.

Stand with nothing. Nothing but your honesty. Your honesty that in that moment alone you are true and real and strong and nimble. Feel that mutinous heart beat from deep within that cavernous chest and answer back with a quiet calm and resolve born of redirected fear.

Stand and see. Not the audience or the curtains or the stage, but your own hands and feet. See what you inhabit and own. What you control. What husk you are and will leave. But for now, here you are. In this moment. On this stage. See with the eyes of ten thousand men and women what space you occupy and in whose body you live. See the mirror in your own mind and adore that shell of yours for the vessel it is to guide you through this pain and love and peace.

Stand in that pool and feel. Feel that charge, that electricity, that inspiration, that perversion of a talent that you have at your disposal and stand in awe of what you will spend a lifetime seeking and chasing and yearning and loving and being in deep addiction to. That resonance that feels so good and seems so hardly out of reach. Be lifted to your toes by your own inspiration. It bubbles to the surface. You part your lips. You open your mouth. And you . . .

Stand alone on a stage.

What The Hell Is Wrong With People?

2011-11-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

A bill was passed in Michigan today that started life as a piece of anti-bullying legislation despite the fact that it ended up being opposed by all of Michigan's State Democrats and the father of the boy who inspired the bill. Why the opposition to the bill after wanting it to help the young people being bullied across Michigan?

Because of a last minute addition to the bill:

"A last-minute addition to “Matt’s Safe School Law” protects “sincerely held” religious beliefs or moral convictions from being considered bullying. Critics feel the language will give anti-gay bullies a “license to bully” by providing an exception. ”This is just unconscionable,” said Matt’s father, Kevin Epling of East Lansing. “This is government-sanctioned bigotry.”"

In other words, if your religion tells you to hate people for being different, then it's a-okay to bully them.

This of course prompts me to ask:

WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?????

Not that I don't like a choice bit of hatred . . . no, wait, scratch that - it's the opposite, right? I really can't stand this level of government and church sponsored hatred.

There is something broken in our society these days, and it's not the other guys. It's us. You know why?

Because we as a society have no balls.

I really don't believe that the majority of folks are a**h***s - I truly think they are the minority - it's just that the majority seems to have absolutely no balls when it comes to standing up against them.

It's time for the rest of us - you know, the good ones - to stand up to these morons, these dunces, these sacks of human effluence, and tell them to shut up, sit down and let the smart ones drive for a while.

I'm Not An Artist Anymore

2011-10-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: I'm not an artist anymore.

I've always been an actor. I've always needed to perform. For all intents and purposes, I've been doing it as long as I can remember.

I remember the moment my mother looked at my father after I had finished performing yet another little "skits' and said to him, "we should get him into theatre". I remember my first class, my first presentation, and my first show. I remember the audience. The applause. It appeared as though this was what I was and had ever been.

I was 9 years old.

I continued down the path, gaining experience and praise until at 14, I was invited to join a local agency. The first parts came, and then the first series: "The Adventures of the Black Stallion". Three years we shot - in Canada, France, and New Zealand. Some amazing times and memories were made. I loved working. I loved earning money. The show ended after 78 episodes, and I chose to stay in Vancouver rather than head south to LA, to sun, and to bigger and better. I picked home over away because I had spent so much time away, that I wanted to make a home. I thought I would grow here. Other series came and I worked a lot, but plateaus were reached. A friend of mine has said that Vancouver is less a springboard and more a diving board. And although many exceptions have proven the rule, in my case it seems that the rule proved the rule.

I'm happy with and proud of what I've accomplished, but the artistic element in me has remained unfulfilled. To be fair, I have brought it on myself. I've long regarded what I do to be the business that it is. I'm not in the scene anymore. I checked out years ago. I'm not a very "actor-y" actor and am a solitary one at that, and with a family my priorities have changed. But I do feel that I may have done myself a disservice. I don't feel connected to what I do anymore by doing it. It is - in my opinion - supremely difficult to be artistically fulfilled as an actor in the film industry without having long term projects - at least the fulfillment that I want.

My artistic connection to acting is maintained by the teaching of it. I've been instructing people in the ways of screen-acting for some 19-ish years. I've been accused of being a good teacher, but I would argue that I'm not such a good teacher as I am a good director. I can read people, notice their foibles, tell when they're lying. I love the psychology of acting and bringing students to new breakthroughs. I love showing people how deep and difficult acting is when done right and how brilliant and rewarding it is when submerged in it.

I'm approaching forty now. Sure I'm aging gracefully, and while my children make me old before my time, my wife keeps me young with her own youth. Age tends to sharpen one's focus though, and I've realized I don't want to be just a businessman actor, I want to be an artist again. I need to stretch, to shake off the rust. I need to go back to my roots - I need to go back to the theatre. But I also need to go my way. Honestly.

I love acting. Always will. I also love directing. This is why I've decided to start a small - some might say tiny - theatre company in the new year. Original material. Brilliant young actors. A long journey. I have no idea of the details (yet) - only that it needs to breathe. Bigger and better. Always bigger. Always better.

Dear Mark Zuckerberg

2011-09-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

I think you're great. For real - you were amazing in Zombieland! But if I may be so bold as to suggest that your recent changes to Facebook, while brilliant for ADD afflicted chihuahuas, doesn't really jive too well with your more seasoned users - you know, those of us with a firm and troublesome grasp of linear time and in possession of one set of eyeballs.

Now, while I understand that Justin Timberlake convincingly argued the benefits of expansion in that wicked restaurant scene, I would also like to point out that that character was also later arrested for possessing drugs that may or may not lend themselves to wanting 150 different things to look at in one's newsfeed while meticulously cleaning one's home at three in the morning because one's waiting for a cake to bake because one suddenly became hungry in the wee hours after an all night pool party. Just saying . . .

I'd also like to point out that while you displayed razor sharp intuition picking apart the Winklevoss twins' lawyer in that boardroom scene, that doesn't mean you have a profound grasp on what I'd like to see in my newsfeed within a newsfeed (hint: It's not what friends are "liking" on other friends' statii). Algorithms are sexy and stuff, but they can't be used to read my mind. Only my wife can do that - and even then it's mainly only concerning whether or not I had that last cookie, or whether or not that girl that just walked past was cute or not.

Don't get me wrong Mark, I like your Facebook thing. It's free, it's a good networking tool, and it lets us all creep our exes' profiles to see if they wound up better or worse off after dumping us. The thing is most people like our social networking the way we like our relationships - initially exciting, eventually dependable, and with no huge sweeping changes that leave us confused and scared and trying desperately to figure out why it keeps bringing up stuff from last week in the middle of a conversation about Farmville.

Thanks for your time,
Richard

P.S. I hope they make Adventureland 2

Stop Stupiding Up the Planet

2011-09-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing - everybody's good at something.

Some of us are good at studying.

Some of us are good at sports - like gymnastics . . .

Others of us are good at eating bananas . . .

. . . okay, maybe that's a little much.

But the point is, we all have different strengths and talents.
Some people - scientists like Mr. Darwin for example -

- are good at being smart.

While people like Mr. Limbaugh -

- are really good at being pig-headed, ass-faced drug addicts who cater to the lowest common denominator and pander to the extremists by playing their own fears against them.

See? Everyone's good at something.

Every time I read the comment sections on news articles about Evolution online, I get the sense that the people who are really good at eating bananas are fancying themselves as being on the same level as Mr. Darwin.

Well, they're not.

These people get scared because science seems to be contradicting certain deep-seeded beliefs. They say that humans and apes are not descended from the same ancestor.

Although I wouldn't mind sharing an ancestor with the fetching Janet here - I'm sure you'll agree.

As a species, we have a lot of beliefs about nature and the Earth - some of them substantiated by science, some of them refuted.

The thing is however, that I can assure you that believing in something or not, doesn't change or make true or false something that exists or doesn't exist of its own accord.

My humble request would be that we let the people who are good at being smart take care of the smart stuff and led the banana eaters take care of the bananas.

Haters Gonna Hate . . . Because They're Assholes

2011-09-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of great fans. Fans Tony the Tiger would be proud of.

They visit me on my fan page, they visit my website, they visit this blog, they write their government representatives to tell them how great I am, and some of the more female and attractive fans even send in bikini shots of themselves posing with cakes because they know how much I like cakes.

But then there are the anti-fans. Not Auntie Fan - she's lovely.

No, I'm talking about the haters. You know the ones - the total douche-bags that live on the internet and smack talk everything that comes their way.

They are also known as trolls - as in the things that live under bridges and eat childrens' bones, only in this case the bridge is their mother's basement and the childrens' bones are Hot Pockets and Tang.

I've come across a few of these guys and gals over my years as an F-List celebrity (that's right baby, F-List - I've had it confirmed by NASA. They apparently have a lot of down time these days).

They're generally on YouTube and love to slam me and call me a jerk, and weird looking, and small. Now to be fair, all of these things are true, but they wouldn't know that because they've never met me.

Although I may have met them. I wouldn't know. You know why? Because although literally billions of people hate on me on the interweb, figuratively zero people have ever said anything to my face. You know why?

Simple. Haters are pussies.

These people hate on everything and everyone. From that 14 year old girl Rebecca Black, to that 17 year old girl Justine Bieber, trolls attack anything that reminds them that they're angry at the world because their mom doesn't serve the Tang cold enough to their gaming liar.

So I say screw 'em . . . not literally of course!

I'm pretty sure they all have some kind of immaculately spread venereal disease that makes everything itch and 8-bit characters sexually appealing.

Taking the Fun Out of Fundamental

2011-09-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

It has occurred to me that the most fundamentally, intractably, and aggressively religious among us don't understand life.

You know the ones.

They want to run your life. They want to tell you how to live. They want to tell you how evil you are and why you're going to go to hell. They don't believe in a separation of church and state unless it's someone else's church from their state.

Some of them want to hurt you.

They are distrustful of intellect, let alone intellectuals. They flat out hate science right up until they need it to save their lives.

They will tell you it's us against them. Of course the ones you're talking to are always the "us" in the equation no matter where on Earth you're standing.

I have realized these people don't understand life because they think they are going to live in one capacity or another forever.

It's awfully easy to be glib with someone else's life if you don't believe in death.

No matter your belief, try a little experiment - spend one day as though there is no heaven. Spend that day savoring the light in the present that only exists in that moment.

Try to have a little fun. Pass on the fundamentalism.

How To Raise Children - Pt.1

2011-08-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

My wife and I have three children. They are perfect in every way and never do anything wrong except when they just won't shush when Daddy's watching his racing.

If and when any of you out there become pregnant, or your wives become pregnant, or you're adopting, kidnapping, or you're picking up a little one at one of Angelina Jolie's garage sales, people won't be able to resist offering you advice on your new progeny.

Most of this advice will be terrible, misguided, and in at least three States - illegal.

I will now do you a huge favor and cut through all the bullshit by boiling it down to one simple rule.

Your job as a parent is to not raise an asshole.

There. Simple. To the point. Don't you wish more people had followed that advice when you were a kid? Then there'd be fewer assholes to deal with. Everything you do with your kids should be informed by that simple litmus test.

"If I let my kids whine and I give into their demands, will this make them grow into an asshole?"

Yes. Don't let them whine excessively and make them eat their damn vegetables.

"If I don't get after them for hitting other kids will that make them grow into an asshole?"

Yes. If you don't make them stop hitting my kids, I will.

"If I don't love them enough or give them affection, emotionally alienating them, will that make them an asshole?"

Remember that douchebag/baguette you used to date that cheated on you? Yeah. 'Nuff said.

There you have it, the one simple rule to raising kids - pretty intuitive huh?

Joking aside, raising kids is more simple than it can sometimes look. Love the hell out of your kids, understand that they're the most important things in your life now, and bring them up to be the best versions of yourself and throw in a pinch of confidence to help them be the things that you wish you'd had the guts to be.

And don't let them be assholes.

Smart Ain't Stupid

2011-08-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

I remember, albeit perhaps through rose colored glasses, when being an intellectual wasn't a liability for a politician. Shoot, I remember when having an intellect wasn't a liability.

We live in this incredibly dumbed down era, a time when even the basest of us have been elevated to the status of genius by "opinion polls" that ask people what they "believe" in, as though it has some bearing on whether or not it exists.

My favorite such poll was one on CNN.com that queried visitors as to whether or not they "believed" in evolution. Sadly, shockingly, and stupidly it was a split vote.

I'm going to lay some truth on the internet here:

Evolution is real
Climate change is real
Natural disasters don't occur because anyone is mad at you
It's none of your business if two people who aren't you get it on
We really need to stop wasting time on these subjects

I don't think it's okay to not teach our kids things out of the fear that someone might be offended by the incontrovertible truth of scientific reality.

I don't think it's okay that a large and vocal group ridicules and beats down science with one voice and then demands science saves their lives when sickness comes calling.

I don't think it's okay that news outlets offer anything other than the facts and as near an objective story as humanly possible.

I don't think it's okay to hate one's neighbor while demanding love and kindness for oneself.

A well known and well respected politician died recently here in Canada. His passing unified people in sadness, regret, and sympathy. Whether people agreed with his politics or not, citizens everywhere respected the man. He left a letter to Canadians that was both heart-felt and inspiring. His last words in his letter were:

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton

Wise words from a wise man. Jack Layton wasn't my politician, and the NDP isn't my party, but I am certainly proud to have had my politics impacted by a man (and other men and women) who aren't afraid to be wise.

The Following Things Are Not Real . . .

2011-08-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ghosts
Paranormal Activities
Reincarnation
Astrology
Gemology
Crystology
Cosmology
Any Word That Ends In "Ology" (This includes Geology)
Intelligent Design
Transmogrification
Psychics
Head Cheese
A Cool Politician
Klingons
Zombies
Vampires
Werewolves
That Hair Appointment That Girl You Like Keeps Claiming To Have Every Time You Ask Her Out
Gremlins (Even The Cars)
Most of Holland
Wrestling (With the exception of the mud variety - that's as real as it gets)
Attractive Uggs
Hipsters
An Un-Delicious Animal
A Highly Educated Religious Zealot
A "Reasonable" Amount of Botox
Michele Bachmann's Penis

Pitchin' and Bitchin'

2011-01-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

As the New Year cracks open like a ripe cantaloupe, I am committing to my new ethos - pitch, pitch, pitch. As a professional and largely employed actor for 23 years, what I really want to do is be a cliché. I love directing and producing and have long felt that is the place for me as I move forth into the next couple of decades.
So, that means pitching like crazy this year. The end goal before the 12th month of 2011 is to have sold a concept, show, or script. It’s interesting trying to make what is essentially a lateral move. Twenty three years of experience in a given industry is more often than not a big plus when trying to move through it, but it’s not always easy to convince those that need convincing of that.
Hopefully this year will be rife with meetings and schmoozing, wheeling and dealing.

Gaining A Year

2010-10-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday this past Sunday, and I have obviously since gained another year. As per usual, this annual festivus is cause for some introspection, some reflection, and some cake. Having consumed the cake, humor me as I dispense with some conclusion born of said introspection and reflection.

Approaching the big day, a very good friend did as all good friends should do and gave me a hard time in regards to my impending aging (apparently it all happens at once). He asked when I would start lying about my age? I thought for the briefest of seconds (I find that's how I do my best work) and remarked that I never lie about my age, nor would I ever. You see, when I was 15, I was diagnosed with a very serious medical condition called autoimmune hepatitis. Which is, as anyone with a medical degree could easily discern from the title alone, a disease in which my immune system attacks my own body (autoimmunity), in this case my liver (hepat) and causes it to inflame (itis). After being ill for four and a half months, and receiving a diagnosis after a fair amount of jaundice and blood-letting at the very chilly hands of various phlebotomists, I was put on medication that suppressed my immune system and saved my life - medication that I am still on to this day. Rest assured, my intention isn't to get all droopy here, or depressive, or melodramatic, or even a hybrid combination of the three . . . droopresslodramatic. It's too point out a simple and long held belief of mine: age is a privilege denied to so many.

I will never lie about my age for the simple fact that if it weren't for my medication and the advances of science, I wouldn't be here right now. I'm proud of how old I am. I'm proud of the life I've lived. I'm proud of how much living I've been blessed to be able to cram into these 37 years. Furthermore, I resolve to pack as much living (or more) into my next 37. After all, life is for the living isn't it? It's this saying I think of when I read the more . . . shall we say dramatic . . . statuses on Facebook (or is that stati?). It's a common theme for me, I realize, but when it comes down to it I think people should focus on the good fortune that surrounds them when they tearfully lament the burning of toast, or the dropping of glass, or the whatever of whatever that makes them scrawl FML. Honestly? To say f--- one's life over something so trivial? I get it - it's hyperbole, but still - I think perspective is in short supply these days.

People will often ask online how I stay upbeat. Well, I'll tell you - it's this. It's everything I just wrote. I stay upbeat because I remember how lucky I am. Not just with family or career, in which I am incredible fortunate to be sure, but because I am here. Because I am here to spend time with my family, because I am here to have a career. My favorite thing to say when anyone seems frazzled, angry, overwhelmed, over-dramatic, or overtaxed is: "You are not in the Darfur, and you are not currently on fire. Almost everything else we can deal with". I realize it's an oversimplification, but the point is there. I wrote in an earlier post that most of what we get so wrapped up in is make believe anyway, so try not to lose yourself in it. This isn't to say I'm not guilty of getting wrapped up in the pseudo-importance of a moment either, but I try to regain focus by thinking about how lucky I really am. There are people in this world who are literally eating dirt. My life is just fine. Help the people with the dirt.

As I've also written on here before, because of my medical condition, I have come to value and prize life over everything. Not just the life itself mind you, but also the quality of that life. No matter what you believe spiritually, we can all agree on this - you get one life. One tangible, seeable, proveable life (not all of those words are real). On that count we are all of us alike. Having said that to take someone's life, or quality of life over a belief is about the the worst thing one can do. Right now there are a lot of young men and women taking their own lives over other people's beliefs and the bullying that comes along with it. Telling someone that they aren't natural or right because they don't live up to your idea of what is "right" or other is more than offensive, it's tantamount to bigotry. Unfortunately it is also becoming State sanctioned bigotry when the lawmakers hide behind the veil of Propositions and ballots. A government's job is to administer the workings of the country and serve and protect its citizens - apparently sometimes from other citizens. I met a young man in Tampa this year who approached me for an autograph. He wore a shirt that read, "Not Gay, But Supportive". He couldn't have been more that 12. I marveled at this young man and then wrote in his program, "The World needs more kids like you" before signing it. Indeed we do.

Well, that's it. Another terribly earnest blog post. It started with birthday cake and sunshine and became political. I am beginning to think that I can't actually write anything mirthful! In the end it boils down to this: live your life to the fullest and let others do the same - heck, try to help others live theirs if you get the chance! I certainly appreciated all of the birthday wishes from all my friends - Facebook and IRL! So next time you get down about gaining another year on Father Time, remember what I wrote here and look at how lucky you really are.

The Show on richardiancox.com and the Changes To Come . . . Maybe.

2010-09-24T00:07:00.000-07:00

Honest to goodness! I keep promising to keep up with this blog and well . . . I don't. Don't get me wrong, I love this blog. It's my voice to the outside. In many ways, it's my real voice. It's that guy beyond the humor and the (alleged) witty (or is that witless) status updates on Facebook and Twitter. It's the guy who's up for a fight to defend what he thinks is important and criticize what he thinks isn't.

On Facebook it's a funny old thing - you want the people who follow, or rather friend, you to like you. Perhaps more accurately you want them to like the product that is you. Let's be honest - I don't really have 1225 friends - I have 1225 "friends". I like them, hopefully they like me, but I don't know them, and they don't know me. I have long been contemplating setting up a "Like" page and asking people to gravitate in that direction so that I can somewhat reclaim my Facebook page as my personal space, but I worry that such a request will smack of ego. The truth is that there isn't much that's personal about my current page. The people I talk to on a daily or weekly or monthly basis - you know, the friends I actually know - don't post on my wall or comment because they'll wind up with 50 emails (to be fair 49 of them are mine)! Again, don't take this the wrong way - I love that people out there care enough about me without having met me to want to take a personal interest in my life, but it is a surreal thing to have folks posting on my wall and then chatting amongst themselves as though it's a public page. Of course, I did bring this on myself - I did open myself up, and many people frankly don't know that this is a personal page. The tricky bit is that I do want to share personal elements on my page with friends and family, but I don't want to open up any more to folks I don't really know - you know? :)

This blog lets me say what I really think about the world without a flame war ensuing, because somehow commenting on this seems to take more time and the format somehow asks for an opinion rather than a snippy remark quickly jotted down. A blog is something to seek out and not just an item in a never ending news-feed to "Like" or ignore. As a result, I have been yearning to use my voice more (my inside voice rather than my literal one). I do post the occasional link to things I believe in or can't believe. I suppose I do this because I think people should see what's outside their window and also because I like healthy debate. Of course, there isn't really much that's healthy about debate on Facebook is there? I honestly couldn't tell you why. Perhaps because it seems so quick. As we scroll down the news-feed, it all flies by and maybe we forget the verbal middle finger we just extended as quickly as we forget it in the car from which we flip birds of varying degrees.

I'm a feisty, scrappy little guy, and I like to tell it how I think it is. Frankly I think it's been driving me crazy to suppress my opinions for the sake of being palatable to all. I certainly don't think I am the alpha and the omega of opinions, and am fully aware that mine is no more valid than those on either side of me (unless they're wrong). Yet sometimes I need to stand on that soapbox and point out what I think is hypocrisy, yadda yadda yadda . . .

So all this drivel brings me to The Show on richardiancox.com - that brilliant sophomoric podcast brought to you semi-weekly, monthly, or is that annually by the brain trust that is myself and Sharon Alexander. I feel that The Show should have a little more spice in the veins of Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Kermit the Frog. I don't always want to play nice. I mean I am nice, but I want to stir things up a bit. Besides, good comedy so rarely comes from "nice" don't you think? I don't want to alienate anyone, and I hope that everyone comes along for the ride, even if just to risk opening your eyes to another world without actually going over.

I don't know when or if these changes will take place, just taking that first step of putting it out there. I think that generally the loudest among us get the most attention. I don't want to be loud, but sometimes I want to push back at those who are getting too loud. There seems to be more and more hate out there these days. It's on our news channels, on our social networks, it's out of the mouths of the ignorant. I would like to do more to point out that ugliness and invite people to hold a mirror to it. Maybe The Show can be my little way to disarm this nastiness by making fun of it. If you feel like it, have a listen and laugh along.

The More Separate We Are

2010-03-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

Well, this is certainly the longest break I've taken yet between posts. I really do want to be more up to date with these things, and I certainly want to be less "heavy" with everything I write . . . but maybe not this time. To be fair, I don't think this is going to be quite as serious as the last entry - at least I'm not going to threaten any unseen force in this post.

I was musing earlier today about the state of my industry and more specifically the state of my career within that industry. The economy has obviously been a bit flat in the last year and a bit, and my industry has been no different. Looking forward, one can't help but look back. And so it was to the early days of my career toward which I cast my gaze, the heady days of being a very minor television celebrity back when cable meant a handful of people were watching, not the millions who watch their thousands of designer channels today. I often think about a very vivid memory that I have of one particular and rare day on set when I didn't have much to do and was therefore blessed with a day spent mostly watching others work. We were filming at a thoroughbred farm outside of Vancouver. It was beautiful warm day late in the summer and I was leaning against a fence watching the crew setting up a shot on the other side of the training track. From that vantage point I was struck by the notion that we were all a bunch of grown-ups being paid to play make-believe. Grown men and women (and me) rushed about lugging equipment here and there, setting up in arbitrary places to shoot random people saying made-up words so that other people could watch our enactment of a pretend situation written by someone else they didn't know. Millions and millions of dollars are spent on this form of entertainment when really folks could just get together and make-up stuff for themselves. It's cheaper and it gets you out of the house.

I think a lot about that tiny little revelation. Someone paid us to play make-believe. There's no real rhyme or reason to it outside of the focus groups and the pitches. Once you're on set, the director points to where he or she wants people to play make-believe, and then the director of photography points lights at the place, and then they film us pretending. No hard and fast rules (well there are, but I won't get into that). Funny old thing. I know I'm not the first one to have this thought - heck, that's why everyone thinks it's so easy to do (it's not, but I won't get into that either). I would, however, caution everyone to not get too smug about my revelation - you know, about actors being just a bunch of people who get paid to make believe . . . The reality is, that we're all paid to make believe when we get right down to it.

You see in the old days, we as humans spent pretty much all of our time just focusing on staying alive. I'm not just talking about caveman days either. During our hunter/gatherer days, we spent an awful lot of time hunting, and . . . gathering. Then once we developed into an agrarian society, we still spent most of our time tending our animals, tending our crops, you know - agrarying (not a real word). We didn't have time for much else. As time crept forward however, we realized that we could divide our labor, and the first specialists arrived, followed closely by the first referrals. With this division of labor, we could focus more on one job and make more time for our families and golf. With this division also came the barter system. If you give me some of your grain, I'll give you one of my cows . . . this one here, low miles, only tipped by a little old granny on Sundays. Eventually of course, the barter system developed some snags - what if the guy you're trying to buy that car from doesn't want a cow, low miles or not? Welcome the currency based system! I'll give you X amount of this unit of currency with an agreed upon amount guaranteed non-negotiable by the ruling government, and you throw in the floor mats. Brilliant right?

Of course, now that we had all this free time because someone else was going to provide you with your food at a cost, and that other person was going to build your shelter at a cost, you'd better fill it - probably by doing something to generate currency so you could have these things. But what should you do? You have nothing that these other guys want. They already have the means to provide food and build shelter. What could you possibly offer them? I know! Ringtones! And so it was that ringtones were invented.

Outside of the truly important things like food, and shelter, and health services, all else is really secondary - but you try telling that to my accountant. As time has progressed, so has our need to not only earn money, but to fill our time. If we no longer spend all of this time finding food and making shelter, and protecting ourselves from things with really big teeth, we discover that life is really long (if we're lucky) and that we have to fill it. All the better if those things make us feel important. Most of it though is arbitrary stuff. We speak languages that have evolved over time from grunts to grunts that represent a verbalization indicating a thing, to specific words to denote variations of things to poetic words that bring us to tears. We've developed letters and a written language to record our history. We've developed mathematics, and cultures, and industry, and huge scale economies, but nothing can really separate us from the fact that the basics remain the most important - food, shelter, health. All of these great advances could have evolved differently or not existed at all and we would still be here as long as we had food, shelter, and health.

We all spend a lot of time convincing ourselves that what we do everyday is so important and integral to the survival of the human race - if the Henderson report doesn't get filed, the world is going to END! We also convince ourselves that the way we live is so important that we go to war over it. So when my accountant is adding arbitrary notational symbols to determine how much of a certain value of a currency I need to pay to an arbitrary governmental system occupying a random geographical region I will try to see her in the same light as I saw that crew years ago - as a grown-up playing make believe, albeit a very real make believe that stresses me out every April.

We as humans have very much created ourselves as a species in so many ways and have created the confines we live in when all we're really doing is occupying ourselves as we take this journey. In creating ourselves we have also separated ourselves not only from our former ancient selves, but also from each other. We are so specialized, so separate from each other that we have lost the ability to really provide for ourselves at a base level. I remember having another revelation (I'm full of them) as a young man. At 2 in the morning, I distinctly remember sitting in my bedroom in my parent's house and realizing that I didn't know how a single thing in that room worked - I mean I knew the concept behind everything, but if I suddenly found myself in the past I wouldn't be making a fortune by "inventing" it. It got to the point where I understood that there was a graphite shaft surrounded by wood making up my pencil, but I was damned if I could tell you how they put it there.

Max Weber talked about the idea of the iron cage - the idea that our divisions of labor forced us into these cages separate from those around us despite giving us the impression we were free. The current economic crunch has illustrated this perfectly. People becoming homeless, physically losing their shelter because that very specific task that they perform has been reduced. That very specific task that fed their family, put a roof over their head, and provided health, was and is for most of us an arbitrary task of our own creation that is in effect make believe despite our need for it. I think this point is apropos in light of the health care debate in the States right now. Does one really want to hinge a health care plan on the arbitrary task that we carry out to generate income if the past has proven to us how untenable that task might be?

We're only ever as strong as that weakest link, and in a society of specialists, that link might be our separation from each other and our needs, not our wants. The truth is, we're all (well most of us) playing make believe, and that's okay. It's only when we let the make believe become our only reality that we find ourselves on shaky ground. The idea that our make believe is the only make believe can do very bad things to good people. We must also remember that but for a slightly different evolution in our cultures we may be totally different people who are pretty much the exact same people we are anyway - you know what I mean?

Why Gay Rights Matter To You

2009-06-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are again - it's been another three months and I'm finally sitting down to write another blog entry. Every time, I promise myself that I'm not going to leave such a big gap between posts but then life gets in the way, and . . . voila, there I am - not writing! I can't imagine anybody is racing to their computer each day to see if I've posted something scintillating, but I do enjoy hearing from the few people who pass by and take the time to leave comments. So once again, three months on and I promise to endeavour to write more routinely. Perhaps after this post I won't have the thoughts and passions that thinking about writing this essay has weighed on me the past months, and I'll be more apt to write trivial, less thought provoking and more fun topics.

As I said, I have been thinking about writing this post for a long while now, but have found myself too angry to write in my clear head about it. In fact, I can tell you right now that this will certainly not be my most eloquent entry, but I feel the need to post nonetheless. The reason for my anger is the vitriol and invective spewed as of late, in the States in particular, on the subject of Gay Rights. I am by no means an expert on this subject, but it means so much to me because I have many gay friends, as well as a few people I am honored to call friends within the transgendered community. A woman who was very influential in my young life as an actor and whom I often refer to as my second mother is in a very long term same-sex relationship. So to are many of the wonderful people who shaped what kind of actor, and by extension, what kind of person I am, growing up in the theatre. These people are very important to me and I love them all, and let me be very clear to anyone who would do them harm for the way they live their lives: you hurt the people I love, and I will hurt you!

I am straight, not that that matters, but I mention it for one reason: as a counterpoint to the idiotic voices who bleat on that gay people teaching our children or raising their own will somehow turn them gay. I started acting when I was nine years old, which means I have been taught by people who live their lives as gay men and women since I was nine. I'm now 35. This means that after 24 years of close relationships with these wonderful folks I'm still the same person I was born to be. I am married and have two children. My wife and I would like more. My children have been around my gay friends and my wife's gay friends since they were born, the same way they're around our straight friends, and you know what? They question of everyone's sexuality hasn't come up! Because it doesn't, does it? In your day to day life, unless you're ridiculously crass, your sexual life doesn't enter into how you do your job, it doesn't affect how you order coffee, it doesn't make a difference to how you breathe. You are a human being. We all are.

I truly, TRULY, believe that love is such a hard enough commodity to come by in this world that no-one should have the right to tell you who to love. Gay or straight, two grown, consenting people should be able to love whomever their heart and soul tells them to love. People who have committed to spending their lives together - their one life on this Earth - should be able to hold one another's hand when they pass. They should be able to decide who their benefits go to, who their common children are raised by. Two grown, consenting people should be treated like Adults. The irrational fear of so many is so childish that it honestly boggles my mind. I just don't get it. Pure and simple. I mean, I simply don't see how it affects anyone outside of the relationship. I understand that there is a religious component to this hateful stance, but I've got to tell you - I grew up going to church. I don't buy this argument. I've said it before and I will say it again: homosexuality is mentioned only twice in this allegorical tome. Thou shalt not kill / steal / lie / covet etc. are COMMANDMENTS and no-one is protesting lying, or mounting propositions in California to ban coveting!

Okay, so I promised to tell you why Gay Rights matter to you, and I'll tell you. These rights should matter to you simply because they are rights, human rights. Why should anyone have to march to ask people to stop hurting them? Why should people have to fight governments to be allowed to file a common tax return? Why should people have to fight for respect and freedom in this day and age, and in a country as great as the US? I will say right now that the USA is better than hate, it's better than narrow-mindedness, and it's better than Proposition 8. I cannot imagine being barred from having my wife at my side when I slip into the great beyond, or Heaven forbid - vice-versa. My wife is my life, and one of the best days of my life was becoming her husband. Why anyone would want to stand in the way of that happiness for others in a marriage that has literally zero impact on their lives escapes me. In a society where marriage numbers are dropping, I find it beautiful and reassuring that so many are willing to fight so hard to enter into the bonds of something that gives me so much strength. Far from undermining traditional marriage, I think gay marriage strengthens a time honored institution because it speaks to humans' quest for meaning and love in a world that feels so devoid of it.

As to the human rights component I ask: perhaps it's gay marriage and gay rights today, but what if it's something that affects you tomorrow? What if the pendulum continues to swing and States start introducing Propositions banning cigarettes? Probably a good thing, they cause irreparable harm and cost the tax payer millions. What about banning alcohol? Fine, I don't drink so it doesn't affect me. How about a Proposition requiring people to submit to DNA sampling? Curfews? Modest dress? It is about your rights as a human being living out your one life in a country overflowing with wealth and freedom. I go on a lot about the idea of only having one life to live and the fear of wasting it because of my own experiences, but the concept is a solid one: you have one opportunity to live to the fullest, and any missed chances stay that way, missed. There is a great line in an Anglican creed that reads: "I confess that I have sinned by what I have done, and by what I have left undone." We all deserve the chance to not miss any chances. By that same token, to stand by and do nothing as others suffer is as great a sin as inflicting the suffering itself. I see my friends suffer. Not just because they are being denied something as basic as marriage, or because of the efforts expended fighting injustice, but because they are being told daily that they aren't equal to the man or woman standing beside them. They have been told this all their lives, and not only by random, hateful people holding up signs, but sometimes by their own families and former friends. It is embarrassing as a society to see this in the mirror we hold up to it.

I don't live my life as a gay man, but I can't imagine that's it's any different that the one I live with my wife, but as such I can't speak to the intricacies with any authority. I can only write this as an interested and concerned outsider. However I can certainly hold forth on the issues of rights, and I have. I feel that you're born the way you're meant to be born. What gets you going in the bedroom doesn't define you outside of it. I'm happy to see that the people who have been fighting for so long have so much more support today, and I believe that hate and narrow-mindedness are dying out with each successive generation. Eventually we'll get to a place where we look back and are shocked by how long it took for equality to be truly bestowed on this group of people, the same way we are to look back on the Suffragette movement and the Civil Rights movement.

As I said, I have two young children and am hoping for more. I can tell you that if any of my babies tell me some day that they are gay, I will take them in my arms, hug them as tightly as I can, and tell them how proud of them I am that they want to live their life as the are made. And if anyone hurts my little ones for that, I will hurt those people back.

Let's Talk Religion!

2009-02-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

I believe last time I posted I made some comment about trying not to leave it so long between posts. Well, here it is folks, only three months later. I really do intend on writing more frequently, it's just that family and life happily get in the way! I also have the feeling that if I'm going to leave it for so long, the anticipation among my dozens of regular accidental readers must be so overwhelming that I want to give them something worth waiting for. I can't promise that this will have been worth the wait, only that there was indeed a wait.

As you can see by the title of this entry, I've decided to take on a less than frequently discussed and rarely debated topic: Religion. It's a subject I enjoy learning about, and one I love to debate. I'm not going to discuss my own beliefs too much, but rather the concept of religion and what it has come to mean in our Western world, as well as its presently politicized nature.

Let me begin by saying that I was raised going to church nearly every weekend, where my parents attended services while my sister and I went to Sunday school. My mother was fairly active in the church and a good deal of their social life revolved around friends they met in church. We attended the United Church of Canada, although this was a church my parents settled on after emigrating with a baby version of me from the UK. Back in Britain my mother was raised as a Methodist (as most Welsh are) and my father attended the C of E (Anglican) services through his school. I think the main reason my parents decided on the United Church when they came to Canada was because of what was widely viewed as its relaxed and casual nature. Growing up, I didn't learn the fire and brimstone stories of the Bible, but rather a theology more based on the peace, love, and happiness angle which certainly suited me fine. Eventually my parents stopped going to church after becoming disillusioned with the internal politics of the church they were attending at the time. By then my sister and I were pretty much grown and we factored less in their decision making process than when we were young and they saw the church and its moral component as a good foundation to complement the standards they were imbuing us with. Not getting up early on Sundays appealed to me then and I no longer continued the weekly pilgrimage either. As I got older however, I found myself drawn to the church of my father's youth and started attending Anglican services sporadically and found a place that was a natural fit - a mix between the Masses I went to in Catholic school, and the Protestantism I grew up with. I give you this brief background of my own religious experience to allow you to better understand the position I am about to expound on, as obvious or obtuse as they may seem.

I think the biggest thing that annoys me today about religion and what it has come to be and stand for in our world is the smugness with which people hold their views and beliefs. I dislike smugness from every side of the religious spectrum, and for that matter any social debate. In the popular media of North America today, and particularly among my own friends, the two main sides of the religious argument seem to be coming from Evangelicals and Atheists. Both groups offer their own ideas of what life should be based on their moral conviction and belief systems, or lack thereof. Both groups are populated with nice normal people, good people, honest people who love their kids and all things good and pure. Unfortunately either group seems to have vitriolic and self appointed mouthpieces speaking for the larger whole. More often than not, these "true believers" seem to be more interested in telling others how stupid everyone else is for not believing what they believe instead of quietly focusing on their own spiritual soul. It's this smugness, this "I've got this all figured out" attitude that bugs me so much. I'm not saying that you can't have a confidence in what you believe, but please, please don't position yourself as moral arbiter of the Universe because you heard a really great quote from your celebrity of choice that leads you to believe you have a fool proof argument for your stance.

On the pro religion side of things, the smugness most apparent to me comes from those people who lead by word and not deed. Those people who are quick to tell you what God wants, or better yet, what God means by the words in the Good Book. People who purport to follow the absolute word of God and are adamant about not "picking and choosing" what to believe but are completely unconcerned about the things they themselves pick and choose to follow and believe. The favorite target of many of the faithful today is homosexuality. They claim that it is written that it is evil and abhorrent. There are only two passages in the Bible that concern homosexuality, and yet "thou shalt not bear false witness" is a freaking commandment. How honestly can you say that you never lie? By the way, the Bible also says you can't cut the hair at the sides of your head or eat shellfish. Talk about smorgasbord! Another favorite commandment of mine is "thou shalt not kill". Of course it's hard to wage war with that one looming over your head, so in years past it has been reviewed and reinterpreted as "thou shalt not murder". A more justifiably loose interpretation is made available when you change one little word. While we're on the subject of interpretation, I'd like to address another pet peeve of mine, and that is the creation of the Bible and translation of same said oeuvre. The Bible itself is comprised of many books written in three languages that span millenia. It was painstakingly compiled, which is to say some works were included just as others were excluded. Numerous translations have been offered up, and each of these translations is interpreted every day by clergy and lay persons alike. Millions of people view the Bible as the word of God. The word of God transcribed by man, fallible, mortal man. Personally I don't think this takes away from the overall message of this epic collection of books and letters: God is love, interpret that as you will (ergo Love may well be God). The problem for me however is that in many circles, this kind of talk is seen as sacrilege, in fact I'm sure that more than a few people reading this will find these words difficult to accept at best, and downright heretical at worse. It's just that for me, to believe is to question. Unless you read ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, you've never read the original words, only a translation that you have to take on great faith is a perfect representation of one language in another. As a man who speaks both English and French fluently, I can tell you it is next to impossible not to lose something in the translation. On top of that you have to take it on faith that the mortal man who wrote down the original words was an infallible vessel of the Almighty. The Torah is seen by most in the Talmudic tradition as being allegorical and open to endless interpretation. In fact there is an old joke that says, "Ten Rabbis, eleven opinions." Given that the Torah is bedrock on which the Christian Bible is based, and the book that Jesus would have studied, I would argue that this point is worthy of note. Finally, at the end of the day, most people go to church on Sunday and listen to the Pastor, Minister, or Priest hold forth on the word of God without ever cracking their own book of scripture. Their entire faith is then based on someone else telling them what and how to believe. And then from this place they judge others. They say that man reinvents God in his own image. If so, then I must be a pretty happy guy, because the God I know loves me, loves my gay friends, and has a sense of humor and isn't frightened by the questions I challenge Him with.

On the other side of the smugness scale sit the Atheists. I have many friends who count themselves as Atheists and I love them, and have no interest in trying to make them believe anything else - particularly since my beliefs are uniquely my own, I'd have no place to take them. The favorite argument against religion among Atheists without question is the old "Religion has caused nothing but war and oppression." This to me has always been a stupid statement. Religion is a concept, a belief system, nothing more. It can be used as an instrument to be certain, and how people wield it determines what will be wrought. However as a concept alone it can do nothing. I suppose what I'm saying is religion doesn't kill people, people kill people. Certainly many terrible things have been done in the name of religion, but it was the Machiavellian machinations of the individuals behind it that caused the misery. Blaming religion merely takes the onus off the abusers and puts it on the abstract that is neither evil nor pure. It is also quite chic these days to sluff off religion in favor of the church of science. I am a big believer in science. Science has kept me alive every day of my life for the past twenty years through my medications. Without science I'd be an ethereal spirit typing this from the great beyond, where admittedly I'd likely have more insight, but far less mass and I like my mass. For all of science's pluses however, I remember my fifth grade science teacher telling us that science doesn't actually prove anything, it just disproves everything else until only one apparent possibility remains. Is it possible that in a world where technology advances everyday, where cellphones keep getting smaller and more powerful, where new diseases are constantly being discovered, and where the vast majority of the Earth's oceans are yet to be explored and her lifeforms discovered, that we may not know everything about all things physical and metaphysical? I find it so very annoying to be forever faced with know-it-alls (on both sides of this equation) telling me what there is and isn't in other potential Earthly and unearthly dimensions. The simple fact is this: you know what is in front of your face and in your hands and nothing more, all else is taken on faith whether it involves a belief in something or nothing. To this end I am at a loss to understand people like Richard Dawkins and their quests to destroy people's faith. How can it possibly impact you what others believe or don't believe? I think in their misguided way what they are trying to change are the potential negative tenets and behaviors that can be associated with people of militant faith, and to that end I commend them, but they will never achieve a dialogue with those they want to affect by talking down to them.

Militancy is never a positive thing, and never has a good resolution. It's very difficult for opposing viewpoints to hear each other when no-one wants to listen. In taking these disparate positions, groups alienate people who want a faith tempered by common sense and an acceptance of the modern world in which they live. To me it is very important to allow one's faith to be private and introspective not something that you undermine by politicizing it. It is not only antithetical to legislate belief, and what are now called "faith based initiatives", but I feel it debases religion in general by dragging it into the realm of political jerry-mandering. Religion is meant to stand apart from government and the state precisely because it exists in the realm of the soul and should ideally be untouched by the passages of time and party administrations. As church and State should remain separate to protect the state, so too should individuals of faith remember that they should remain separate to also protect the religion itself.

In summary, I suppose I'm saying is I don't want anyone to ram anything down my throat. I don't talk publicly about what I believe not because I'm embarrassed by it, but because I want to keep it safe in my heart. Nothing you say will change what I hold dear and I have no interest in selling you anything so why pull my faith out in public? It's enough that I'm a good person and do good things. It enough that I love my neighbor and want to protect their right to love whom they want to love. It's enough that I believe that I believe what I do. Don't talk down to me either, no matter what you believe, there's a good chance that I'm just as smart as you! In short, live and let live, and understand that no matter how old you are, you're still too young to know everything!

It's Been a While . . .

2008-11-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

Wow, so as the title reads, it's been a while since the last post here, and I fear it's getting to be a bit of a habit. Although in my defense, my wife has recently just given birth to our second daughter, and I am exhausted! Just give me a second to dodge the incoming projectiles from mothers who rightfully didn't find that funny . . . whoa . . . oops . . . ah! Ow! Okay, that one got me!

Yes, on November 11, Becky gave birth via c-section after 27 hours of labor to a beautiful and very healthy girl who weighed in at an impressive 9lb 15oz! I've since been told that I'm going to need to stop describing any woman's weight as "impressive", even if they are only 2 and a half weeks old. Our gorgeous new little one is doing very well, as is her older sister, who is loving the heck out of having a baby sister. We were concerned as to her reception of the newest member of the household given that she doesn't speak yet and we felt limited in our ability to explain the impending situation to her. Of course it turns out, that our nervousness was all for naught and things are hunky do in the land of sibling love. There has however emerged a slight glitch in the program these past four days: glitch thy name be colic!

Colic, for those who don't know, is a fun little trick pulled on parents of newborns that results in said miniature person crying for no good reason for hours on end - usually when they should be sleeping. It's a temporary thing that typically resolves itself within three months for most and by six months for the rest! So no time at all really - just long enough to get you to right before you're about to have yourself committed! The frustrating thing is that no one actually knows why these little ones bawl, not even the little ones. There's nothing much wrong with them; maybe a little gas, maybe they just want to be held, maybe they're mad that they missed the finale of "Dancing With the Stars". Our first wasn't colicky at all. I mean sure, she had her moments of crying, but it wasn't a clockwork like thing. I have had Swiss horlogiers at my house setting their timepieces to my darling daughter's episodes. Ah well, what can you do? I've decided it's a character building thing - time to put a few more hairs on the old chest. Happily they're all sleeping now, giving me a moment or two to write this addled diatribe.

I've thought long and hard about what to write in the last while, and frankly the longer the pause, the more important the blog topic has seemed. After all, the longer my "regular" readers have to wait, the more pertinent and Earth-shaking this next entry should be, right? So much has happened on the world stage since I last wrote on this hallowed site. Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States of America in a ground breaking (and I must say prescient on my part) election result. Proposition 8 passed disappointingly in California to the detriment of many of my friends. My second daughter was born. The markets have crashed and rebounded countless times, leaving us on the brink of another unknown fiscal catastrophy. Yesterday in India, terrorists attacked many areas around Mumbai and killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 300 so far. These are all great fodder for a meaningful and influential blog entry. Do I write about the historic election that has brought America her first African-American President after 200 years? Do I write about how gay rights are important not just to the gay community, but to all of us because they involve basic human rights issues? Do I write about how cute my baby girl is - super cute by the way! Do I write about the importance of working our way out from under the economic pall we find ourselves enveloped by? Or do I write about the terrible scourge of terrorism hitting every culture around the world, and how and why addressing it is priority one?

The answer is YES! Just not right now. On the next few weeks, these are the topics I intend to blog about . . . and I promise they will be funny - sort of. There is a lot to talk about here folks, and to run them all together would do them a disservice. Drop me a line in the comment box if there is anything you want me to address in these upcoming blogs. I love discourse and I promise you I won't ignore dissenting opinions. Opposing view points are what make for strong societies as long as people discuss and debate them rationally and respectfully. As we move into the holiday season it would be great if we as citizens of this great planet could work harder to remember that, and treat not only others as you would like to be treated, but also the ideas of others as you would like yours treated.

Once a Month is Still Regular . . . Right?

2008-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

So here we are. It's been nearly a month since my last post and I feel just awful knowing that I've let so many regular readers down by not pouring my own special concoction of drivel into their clamoring ears (I didn't think ears could clamor either, but you try telling that to the good folks at www.earsaclamoring.org). In that time we've witnessed the shocking declines of the Dow, the Nasdaq, the TSX, Nikkei, Heng Seng, and countless other made up sounding exchanges. We Canadians went to the polls and elected ourselves basically the same folks who were just there, and then some. Finally, our American cousins are continuing their 342 month trudge toward the 2008 election.

The end is in sight for them now, the last debate was held tonight resulting in the trouncing of the other guy by our guy if you listen to the clinical morons opining before whatever biased networks cameras they pretend not to work for. Given today's CNN webpoll, I'm beginning to suspect that the whole debate process is an excercise in space age futility. Today's webpoll (don't you love how you can make anything "current" and "accessible" by tacking "web" on the front of it?) revealed that debates have the potential to change the minds of a whopping 9% of the respondants! Well heckfire, I say we add five or eleven more mind numbing debates with as many "free thoughts" and "unrehearsed" answers that sound about as natural as twelve year olds reading Roman Catholic catechisms.

I've got to say that is probably the most infuriating part of politics for me these days. I love the game of politics, the sport of it all, but I can't believe that these highly educated men and women don't seem to be able to find a way to meld the all important feedback from the focus groups into who they are and what they're selling as opposed to "becoming" the feedback. These people, and say what you will about them, but I believe they get into a highly public and thankless life out of desire to affect change, have dreams and visions but always allow themselves to be twisted out of their comfort zone and into the realm of the "politico". The only guy I can think of who was adept at appealing to the "common man" while flaunting his personality, and remaining an intellectual who didn't frighten people was Bill Clinton. That guy could work the whole package. As interesting and ground-breaking as Obama is, he still isn't as fluid and comfortable out there as WJC. I would even hazard the somewhat sacreligious opinion that if he weren't breaking ground here, he would be a little less remarkable. He does well with many voters because he is certainly a change from the past, and a clear shift from the status quo embodied by McCain, but he doesn't have Clinton's excitement and joie de vivre. He's not eating Big Macs on the DL from his wife one minute, and playing awkward sax (but somehow working it all the same) the next. Like Obama, Clinton is an intellectual. He was a Rhodes scholar and an Oxford alum. He did have more political experience as two time Governor of Arkansas, but certainly this election isn't going to be about experience. It will be what it's always about - how do the candidates make the electorate feel?

That's what it always comes down to: feeling. When Clinton famously said "it's about the economy stupid" he wasn't just stating the voter's main concern that election year, he was saying that he understood that that's what they were concerned about. It's another Clinton quote that is more often parodied than any other: "I feel your pain". There it is. That was it folks. He got it, and voters saw that he got it. That's the real reason that up here in Canada yesterday Prime Minister Harper didn't pull off the majority government they were aiming for: people didn't feel he understood what concerned them. Oh they trust him to govern and see him as more of a leader than anyone else running, but in this economic crisis he didn't connect with his potential supporters. That's the real reason he didn't make any gains in Quebec; it wasn't the funding cuts, it was what they represented: a lack of understanding of the Quebec perspective.

So much has been made this year in the States of everyone apparently coming from small towns, poor small towns, tiny, dirt-poor miniscule towns. Everyone wants to be an "everyman". Heck, that's how Bush got into power - he's just like you: he puts his pants on one leg at a time, he walks the dog, clears the brush on his Texas ranch, that resonated with voters. Somehow the whole he was born in Connecticut, went to Yale, and grew up the son of a millionaire didn't so much find a voice. The thing is, all these politicians who have never held a blue collar job and have degrees in being politicians want you to believe that they're from small towns just like you because it makes you feel connected, it makes you feel good. That's also why a two party system can be so tricky. Eighty percent of the electorate is already decided, hell people register as one or another. So it's down to the swing voters, you know, the 9% who can be swayed by a debate?

These campaigns are so tightly managed, so focus grouped that these men and women have no chance of being anything close to themselves. Obama actually gets knocked for being too intellectual, too smart. How does that make any sense when you are vying for the most important office on the planet currently? The truth is you don't want an everyman, you want a betterman, screw it, run down to the wedding down the street and grab the best man! You long for these guys to grow a pair of balls and throw off the shackles of opression that are campaign runners and be themselves! McCain used to be a man, he used to be a war hero, a real maverick. Then he knelt down before Falwell and his cronies and became this wraith of a man running for the Republican Party. I must say I have many Republican friends as I have many friends who count themselves Democrats and I love them all - they are all good people believing what they do from good places. What bothers me most about politics as usual in this form is that it lessens the integrity of all involved by distilling everything down to talking points, and always the same ones. Elections in this day and age in this modern a country should not be decided on the backs of ridiculous "wedge" issues like stem-cell research, gay marriage, or Creationism. They should be decided by issues of import like the economy, healthcare (even if not for yourself at least for your children), environmental issues, and positions of Domestic and International policy.

Obama needs to stand up a little taller, and speak from the heart and a little off the cuff. Take a break from the stock answers and gravitas. I know that it's late in the campaign and he's ahead on numbers, but maybe just a little for me. Being real will make people feel good, and whoever he loses by being too real, I'll guarantee he'll pick up others to replace them by making them feel as though a real human being will be out there fighting for them, and not some corporate and lobbiest automaton. Mr. Obama is breaking barriers here, so let's do it with a little style. It's not always enough to just be the first, I think we should all aspire to be the best.

Last Lapse

2008-09-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well wow, this has been a bit of a lapse! I apologize to all of the non-existent people who regularly read this blog, to my clergy members and their families, but mostly to myself - sorry me. It's a very busy time that has kept me away from my passion of writing rambling non-sequitur laced drivel on the small bathroom stall wall that is my corner of the webbynet (copyright pending). Well that and Facebook. Damn! Yes it's true, merely days after savaging Facebook on this very influential blog, I buckled and signed on to the beastly "social networking" site. I told myself it was an ingenious way to get people to accidentally read my blog, but really I think it was to see what all the fuss was about. I've got to say part of it is pretty neat: seeing old friends' photos, catching up on what's going on in their lives. Then there's the other part, the annoying and silly part: having people accept your friend request, then watching their picture sit in your friends list with absolutely no further contact whatsoever, catching up with people and then experiencing the cyber equivalent of the awkward slow breath exhale accompanied by a "Yep . . ." that you would do on the street having caught up on all there is to catch up on with that same person, then there are the sheer volumes of friends in some of these peoples lists! how can you possibly be friends with 1300 people as one friend is? I have to say, this friend is a particularly pleasant and friendly guy, but 1300?! My wife has over 100, which I'm finding out is a relatively average number, if not on the low end, but I can't say I've even met 100 people - and I've lived in 8 cities in 4 countries! I think there's some serious padding going on here, I frankly don't think you should be allowed to include your entire grade 3 class in your friends list unless your parents are religious zealots and home-schooled you and your 12 siblings. I also now find myself checking updates on my page and am feeling the pressure to join interesting groups and add interesting things and write interesting status updates or risk not looking terribly interesting to the long lost friends now silently occupying my friends list, judging me cyberly (copyright pending). I have to go now, too many things to think about. I can't promise when I'll post next - perhaps when Facebook lets me run away to try to impress people here rather than there . . .

101 Ways to be an A$$h@(e

2008-09-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since my last post, and I can't promise that this one will be terribly long, but I felt that I had to write something after a fluke visit to a Yaletown baby accessory store on Tuesday - and accessory seemed to be the operative word. For those who don't live in the lap of the Lower Mainland of BC, Yaletown is a toney district in downtown Vancouver. It used to be an industrial area many years ago where a lot of manufacturing used to take place. When the factories left, the buildings stayed and were soon converted into lofts and "hip" shops. Mix in Vancouver's urban densification boom and sprinkle on some real estate super-inflation and you've got a perfect mix of $7 latte sipping twits and oversized sunglass wearing knobs trying desperately for people to notice how cool they think they are. My wife had gone to an appointment in the area and so I took our daughter for a stroll down the too narrow sidewalks past some wannabe trendy for the sake of trendy boutiques until I happened across one that purported to be a baby store. Thinking it couldn't hurt to see what new might be out there, or whether some as yet undiscovered by me toy may inhabit the innermost depths of said shop, I ventured in. Once inside I had yet another experience that has been played out between my wife and I over the past year and a half of being parents: I got really pissed off by the cost of the crap that no kid could ever freaking care about in this stupid store. Now let me be clear as I say that I have no problem spending the money for quality items as long as there is a value in that item. But a $295 Paul Frank "rocking thing" is a joke! Come on! It was a sheet of freaking fibreboard machine pressed into a taco and a laminate veneer of monkey heads on the underside! This is ridiculous - I know you pay a premium for a name brand, but last time I checked, drawing a cartoon monkey head doesn't give you license to charge the general public hundreds of dollars for a piece of bent laminated wood. The next overpriced toy I saw was a wooden jobbie that was very nicely made and featured some rolling cars, it also featured a lick of paint that informed buyers that it was a french company in existence "depuis 1911." For those not acquainted with the french tongue, that means "since 1911." The toy was valued near the $100 mark - all I could think was how much had they charged in 1911?

This is not an old complaint. We've all seen the proud as peacock mothers and fathers out there gathering at coffee shops everywhere practically revving the engines on their $1000 and $1500 strollers - push-chairs with the seats so high up they look like they're walking their babies around on barstools. My wife and I didn't scrimp on our stroller, we bought a new one with a new infant seat in a reasonably cool color - we thought it looked reasonably cool. When you are spending $1200 on a stroller however, it has nothing to do with your child and everything to do with you! Many years ago, one would walk down Robson Street in Vancouver on a Friday or Saturday night, and at the kitty corner Starbucks at Thurlow Street, one could gaze upon the the long row of gleaming chrome glinting off the dozen and a half Harleys lining the street outside the coffee shop as packs of middle aged wankers relived their youth while sipping a foamy cup of, what was at its core, joe. Today the bikes have been traded in and their wives are now crowding the streets with their newest accessories: their babies' accessories!

Not long after the birth of our first child, my wife and I were walking through Holt Renfrew trying as it might in its new digs to be Harvey Nicks. We walked past the mannequins and the middle aged botoxed women who bore an uncanny resemblance to mannequins and into the Burberry section. My wife pointed out a Burberry pram, and suggested I might like to buy it, knowing my aversion to spending frivolously. I answered that it certainly would save me time having to tell people I was an a$$h@le. It certainly would have saved me time telling anyone in the store in Yaletown that I was - of course the too cool saleswoman would have actually had to look up from her lunch of water to see that I was one of them.

If This is Political it Must be Saturday

2008-09-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are - it's the weekend again and I feel the need to post something of a political nature.

It has been an interesting week on the political landscape. Up here north of the four nine the party ads are airing fast and furiously - well the Conservative ones are. I'm reasonably sure the other parties know there's going to be an election but you wouldn't guess that from the tundra-like lack of anything from them. This void of opposition is why I will continue to reserve comment on the goings on in Ottawa for the time being, but I will certainly hold forth on another chapter of "What the Hell is Going on Down There?"

The Republican Convention is over for another election run-up and think the general consensus after the fact is: "What?!" as in "the hell was that?" I didn't think it was possible but a senior citizen with a speaking style only slightly more animated than Ben Stein's managed to steal the spotlight and thunder and all the accoutrements from Senator Obama. What did Mr. McCain have to do to accomplish this next to impossible feat? Confound everyone by finding the hottest Governor that no-one has ever heard of in the Union to be his running mate, get the whole country debating the merits of said Governor's fitness to be the Vice President, and then dazzle the Party faithful with an acceptance speech that everyone had to admit was pretty darn good whether you agreed or not. Easy.

Going into Wednesday evening I still wasn't sure what to make of this woman. Her politics were uncomfortably right wing, her experience level was slim, and Republicans were busy legitimizing her new position by arguing that she had foreign policy experience by virtue of the fact that she lived pretty close to Russia's Easternmost frontier. I did have "a feeling" about this woman however - and it wasn't because she looks like a mix of Tina Fey and the Karen Walker character from "Will & Grace". I certainly don't share her politics, or McCain's for that matter, but I also don't think that McCain's people are idiots either. These are essentially the same folks who engineered the last two Bush ascentions. As I said in my last politics post, I don't think this is a political master-stroke and I'm still calling this for Obama-Biden. However there was something about calling on Ms. Palin that I think gives Republicans, particularly young Republicans, the sense that they are also being given a chance to make history that they certainly wouldn't be making with McCain alone. Now I'm not suggesting that there is the same significance in breaking a barrier running for Vice President that there is in running for the top job, or even that there are direct parallels between the personages of Mr. Obama and Ms. Palin. But there is no doubt that Sarah Palin represents a clear and visible shift from the business as usual politics of the right. At least on the outside, of course. On the inside conservatism is alive and well in the person of Palin. This is where the Republicans may in fact lose a portion of the demographic that they must covet or die - the young voter.

Young Republicans today are far more likely to be more put off by the views of the radical right and the black and white clear cut platforms of old. Even young Evangelical voters are more likely to be moderate and unwilling to touch Roe v. Wade despite the fact that they see themselves as Christians in good standing. Palin's staunch stance against pro-choice arguments in all cases as well as her lack of any kind of positive record on environmental issues may be off-putting and marginalizing to the young voter. Whether the Grand Old Party likes it or not, it is going to have to move beyond the old or it won't be so grand anymore - so to speak. In one sense Governor Palin does reflect change for the party in that she is a woman, she is young, she is clearly strong an unafraid to ruffle some feathers, and she is new - so new that most people obviously had no idea who she was. That's all good and certainly part of why the McCain campaign went with her. It's also most likely the reason they didn't go with other women within the party who are more qualified and definitely just as strong: they are not new and McCain's camp probably felt they still represented too much of the "old" in the party. The problem of course is that Palin's record doesn't really reflect any new thinking, which ironically was also most likely the other part of her draw. She is a staunch right wing conservative which may well lose them some of the younger vote. The truth is however that all this punditry lives on paper alone, and most people vote with their heart whether we like it or not. This is the big variable and will become the X factor in all of this.

How this plays out come November is going to be most affected by how these two tickets make people feel. This is where I think McCain's camp is laying their chips. I think that they believe that Palin is going to make conservative voters feel good because she's likable, she's funny, and she'll appeal to that conservative base - even the ones who are unsure of the level of zealotry. As long as this race stays close, people will vote out of fear in those booths. Not fear of terrorism, or imminent threats, but of "the other guys" getting in. Obama has some serious mojo on his side and he has had it for some time. That mojo is fueled by the feeling of impending history, of change, of excitement. He makes a lot of people feel good, he makes them feel good about the country, about the economy, and about their place in the world. If Palin can make those swing voters who were swinging for Obama but are normally conservative start to feel good about the right, then the Republican Party may have a chance to stay in this thing and keep it close right up to the curtain closing behind voters alone in a booth with a ballot and their feelings.

The Slippery Slope

2008-09-03T22:35:00.001-07:00

So it begins . . . three days since my last post. Is this the slippery slope upon which I tread that leads to my turning to a career in competitive tiddly-winks rather than updating my soon to be influential amateur blog? Possibly, but my legions of imagined fans will be relieved to know that I have not yet purchased a set of professional tiddly-winks. I have, conversely, been watching a lot of television and reading news feeds online which inform my ravings on popular culture and the political state of innumerable unions - real and imagined. I will not however be blogging on anything political tonight as I still need more events and times to ferment. Maybe I will make a weekly posting on all things political to give my non-existent fans something to look forward to, assuming they are politically interested - otherwise it will be a weekly posting to be avoided!

Things are exciting here as always - well not circus exciting, but exciting to us nonetheless. We have new windows coming soon to the house which we are anticipating eagerly, even more so when they are installed. My wife and I are tidying up and readying ourselves for an imminent new arrival as we add another beautiful we'en to our family - our second. Before long I will be a father to two little ones under two and I couldn't be more over the moon. If you find yourself considering parenthood in any way shape or form and are over the legal age of majority and in a happy committed relationship, I strongly advise you to go for it! Jump on in with both feet! Being a parent is the greatest thing I have ever done or ever will do by such a huge margin as to make all other margins laughable (even margarines)! That would certainly be a fun thing to blog about, parenthood and kids, maybe I should use the other page for that - it would certainly be apropro considering it's titled "Musings from Suburbia."

In other news I'm starting another movie next week, another conservative budget, but it looks like it will be fun. It's about stuff, and some other stuff, then this new stuff happens, and then at the end there's a big stuff twist. I wonder how far out of town I'll be travelling for this show? Ah well, I'm sure it'll all be worth it. So I'll do a few days on this show and have some fun. Well I think I'll bring today's lecture to a close with this philosophical question: If a tree falls in the forest, does it improve someone's view? Ruminate my friends, ruminate.

May You Live in Interesting Times

2008-08-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, here it is: my first political blog! I'm well aware that this event is far more exciting for me than anyone possibly reading this. As my page subtitle reads, I'm yet another voice in the echoing chasm of the internet. Is there seriously anyone out there without a strident and ringing opinion? Of course not, the only people who keep blogs are opinionated and obtuse people - me included obviously. Well for what it's worth I look forward to posting my crackpot views here beginning today and continuing into infinity, or until something more interesting comes along, or an actual living person asks my views on something.

There is a very well known Chinese curse that goes, "May you live in interesting times." I realize that the "interesting" is euphemistic, but I can't think of anything more inspiring than doing just that, and this election season both North and South of the border are shaping up to be just that - very interesting. I'll leave my thoughts on the Canadian election for another day, and instead hold forth on the goings on below the 49th this evening. As of today the Democrats have just wrapped up their convention in Denver with Barack Obama having announced Joe Biden as his running mate and accepted his party's nomination as Presidential nominee. On the other side, the Republicans are about to kick start their Convention in St. Paul with the news that their front runner John McCain has just announced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate. Phew! Interesting times indeed!

Let me just say before I continue any further that I am a bit of a political junkie, but as such I'm more of a watcher, less of a vocal supporter of one side over another. I really love the sport of it, the game, how one move affects another. If I were to describe my personal political stance it would be that of someone who is socially liberal, and fiscally conservative. I don't believe the Government has any business in a nation's bedrooms or their hearts, I think that love is a hard enough commodity to come by in this world of ours without having someone tell you who you can or cannot share your life with as a married person. I believe that Government doesn't have any business in a nation's churches, of course I also feel the opposite is true and feel that religious entities should stop trying to effect influence in the halls of governance. I don't think that gender should play any role in determining your pay grade, nor should your ethnicity stop you from reaching your social goals. On my more conservative side I think that I pay enough taxes and that more of my money in the public coffers won't achieve the fiscal needs of the country as much as the reorganization of the existing funds and their methods of collection. I don't think that taxing my estate comprised of my net worth upon my death is fair - or legal. I also think that time sentenced should be time served, if you do bad things you should go to jail, if you do really bad things you should go to jail for a really long time. I see myself as a pragmatist, as I'm sure most do. I think with my gut as much as anything else, but at least it's my gut. Things are right and wrong and all shades of in between. I think that most people have pretty good moral compasses and are able to determine these subtleties. I know that people are going to have differences of opinion and that's normal. Where I start to get a little less than generous is when we start getting into the extremes, where bile and vitriol are part of the "discussion". Neither sides' extremes do either's middle any favors. When I state that I'm a watcher, this is what I mean, I see both sides points and actions, process them through my moral and intellectual filter and voila!

So there's the preamble and here is the guts of it - what to make of the race so far. Let's start on the Democratic side. First off, this guy is a real breath of fresh air. He's smart, charismatic, and smacks of change, and not just any change, historic change - real and figurative. Between he and Clinton and the potential historic firsts for both of them, it was Obama that felt different, that felt as though he wasn't already part of the White House frequent flier club (probably because one of them still had their old drapes from last time). I like Obama a lot, and I would be very interested to see what he would do as the 44th President of the United States should that become his much vaunted job. The pragmatist in me does see that he hasn't got a lot of experience, but perhaps that's a blessing. I would like people to remember that he is a man at the end of the day and not the second coming, but I suspect he would often like to remind people of the same. I think he's a great speaker and a dreamer - I just hope he has a plan to make those dreams come true. As far as his choice of VP goes, he made a smart choice with Biden, choosing someone who will fill in those gaps in his resume without overshadowing the nominee.

On the Republican side of the see-saw we have a man, who eight years ago was a formidable nominee, a maverick and free speaker who wanted to bring change and a new direction to the GOP. Unfortunately that was nearly a decade ago and since then he has smoothed much of the rough edges and pandered considerably to groups of individuals who eight years ago he had railed against and others whom he had labeled "dangerous". All this led to a man who may have his party's nomination, not having the hearts of a large population of his assumed voters. I do admit that I still respect this man, predominantly as a war veteran and hero, but I am disappointed to see a person who eight years ago I thought may level off his party seem so adrift politically, so dependent on focus groups. Frankly the guy needs to grow a pair back and shoot from the hip again, not tell people what other people have told him they want to hear. His choice of VP is the real reason I wanted to make my first political blog this weekend. Now I realize that today's posting has approached the size of something a deceased Russian man may have written, but I do want to finish with a quick opining on Gov. Palin.

This was the biggest surprise of the election by far, and I mean by far - even more than discovering how hot Dennis Kucinich's wife was! No-one saw this coming. Obama's camp certainly didn't know how to react. Outwardly the trend seems to be dismissal, but I have to question to extent some Democrats have gone in dismissing someone so apparently dismissible. Paul Begala went off on both Palin and McCain on CNN.com. He wrote that in announcing Palin as his running mate McCain had only further proven his lack of fitness for the highest office in the country. He railed on about it. I couldn't help but feeling that if Ms. Palin was so utterly unfit for the job, Mr. Begala should have been ecstatic about her appointment - let them crash and burn! His argument as a liberal to what one could assume was a liberal audience given that it was a liberal opinion piece seemed almost too vehement. Now I'm not saying that I think this was a conservative master stroke, because frankly I don't even know what I think just yet, I'm simply putting forth that she does tick a few boxes for McCain. She doesn't have much experience, but neither does Obama, and while he certainly has more than she, Palin is a Governor which has traditionally been a plus for voters electing Presidents (admittedly not Vice Presidents). She is a woman like Clinton. No, she does not have Hillary's record or experience, and she'll lose female voters over her opposition to abortion, but people forget that conservative voters are also made up of conservative women as much as men. There were plenty of female voters in the middle states who voiced a displeasure about Mrs. Clinton many years ago when Bill was running for the nomination due to her lack of conservatism. Finally she has a very conservative record and may heal some wounds of the neocons. I really have no idea what will happen in the next two months and certainly not on election day. At this point, I have to call it for Obama as he currently has the stronger ticket in my opinion. He has the hearts of so many, the beliefs of so many. He also has that very enticing hope. As they say, "May you live in interesting times." I can't think of anything more interesting than these times.

I'm a Somebody!

2008-08-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

My blog finally showed up on a Google search today! I know that pretty much everything in every possible permutation shows up in a Google search, but neither of my blogs had in three days - hence my concern. Imagine not showing up in a Google search that is supposed to locate any tiny thing that exists on the web - it's like not actually existing! For three days I lived in a sort of ether purgatory, able to see myself but being told I didn't exist. The funny thing is that if I search my specific and full name on Google I get some 38,000 hits, the vast majority of them actually me. That didn't mean a thing to me these last few days, all I cared about was finding my blogs online using Google, because I figured if I could find them then so could others and that meant someone might actually read this thing. Well there I am. To quote Steve Martin upon finding his name in the phonebook in "The Jerk": "I'm a somebody!"

Today was a pretty good day. My wife is pregnant again so we all went to her Doctor's appointment and learned that everything is doing well and is on track - yay! I had an audition, then we came home and ordered pizza (cheat day). When I went to pick up said pizza, I found myself in a verbal altercation with a real poseur on a motorbike. This suburban "motorcycle enthusiast" jawed off at me and we each exchanged some choice words with the other from the comfort of our respective vehicles. It ended with each of us driving off and me yelling back with an expletive infused parting shot. I gotta tell you, I felt good that I stood my ground, but the language just sounded so ugly and harsh to me as I looked back and saw my daughter's empty car seat. I felt guilty for projecting those curses across the parking lot despite its near empty state. I realized that while I feel poorly for having engaged the dimwit at the lowest level, I'm glad that it happened for the pause it gave me. Cursing is not an easy thing for me to stop doing as it flows from me so naturally and eloquently, but today I resolved to stop for my children's sake. I won't be as interesting or as much fun at dinner parties any more but the swearing has to stop or before long I'll find myself answering to a very displeased Kindergarten teacher.

This is Becoming a Habit

2008-08-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

This is the third day in a row that I've sat down to chisel words into my little spot on the web. Can't really say that this will be a particularly deep or long post given the late hour and my tired state of being. I was up at 5:30 in the morning today so as to be on set on time. After 4 1/2 hours of sleep I dragged myself from bed and into the shower after a hearty, bleary-eyed bowl of granola. Whilst there I took the opportunity to wash myself and shave. Always a good idea to run a razor blade over one's face while in a state of semi-consciousness - and starkers. There's also something adventurous about trying to dress yourself in the dark, especially as you try to be totally silent so your wife and daughter can keep sleeping - mocking you in their cozy slumbers. I half expected to leave the house looking like I had been clothed by a drunken, blind, and surly chimp. Thankfully however I was soon on my way to work wearing a natty ensemble comprised mostly of denim and attitude (but mostly denim).

I arrived at work on time, and before long was through hair and makeup and whisked up to set sporting a tight little suit and a pair of black eyes courtesy of the makeup department - do not piss those people off. We were shooting the last day of a disaster-themed movie whose plot I am not at liberty to divulge, suffice it to say that stuff happens, then other stuff, and eventually the last stuff happens too. I was working on this show with a fabulous director whom I've known for years and am fortunate enough to work with fairly regularly, so the shoots are always fun and loose no matter what is happening around us. Today I was to be dressed in a haz-mat suit consisting of a set of paper coveralls and an antique looking gas-mask. The suit I didn't mind so much but the mask . . . well that was something else entirely! To describe it is to say it looked like something you'd see in a German fetish film - if you happen to watch those things unlike me who has only had their plots and thematic elements vividly described to him as well as the props inherent. So as I was made to understand, this rubber mask with tiny eyeholes that smelled of fear for the most part was exactly like something you'd see somewhere in the most caustic and naughty corners of the internet. It was extremely claustrophobic in that disturbing "rebreather", so I was very relieved that I didn't have to spend more time in it. Of course that relief quickly subsided, because after completing that scene, the movie ended for me as today was the last shoot day. It's always sad when a show comes to an end, not just because a job is finished but because you know you'll have to wait a while to work with those same people again.

On a completely separate note (yes I can shift themes like this, after all no-one's reading this yet) I was thinking today about perhaps setting up a Facebook page. Yes me, the most Facebook hating guy out there - actually I can't back that up, I'm sure there is a Government Official somewhere in Beijing that may hate Facebook more. I was just thinking that if I set it up with no actual information or photos it would be an incredibly boring page, but at least I could network with work people, and on the bright side my stark page may appeal to the Amish. I'm feeling more tech communicative the past few days since I set up this blog, today I even set up Messenger on my Blackberry - cracker jack! I'm absolutely positive this enthusiastic embrace of the electronic world will fade as surely as my enthusiasm for cleaning the litter box, but until then I drivel on!

Two Blogs in Two Days

2008-08-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, I went from no blogs to two blogs in two days! The truth is that this blog exists because I started thinking that the URL for my other blog, "thecoxblogmusingsofasuburbanite" was far too long, which of course it is! So I created this blog, with the intention of copying over the posts from the other site and starting over with the more straight forward and self explanatory "richardcoxsblog". However, now that I look at them, I think maybe I'll keep them both and find different uses for each of them - besides, Google can't find this one either which was the other reason for starting another blog. Maybe this one could be the main blog, full of my day to day thoughts, and the musing blog could be where I try to be funny, but it just ends up looking like I'm trying too hard and then it gets awkward for everyone because the readers start to feel sorry for me, but I can sense their pity and then I start to get angry because I'm like "Who do they think they are to pity me, I should pity them!" Well, I think we can all see where that's going . . .

The real problem is that I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to fill a blog as my life's not that exciting (at least not the parts that I'm willing to share with voyeuristic total strangers gawking at my intimate posts in various states of undress) but how am I going to keep up with two blogs? I'd say the quality will be the first thing to go. Then the passion for what I'm doing will dry up relative to the inevitable awesomeness of the new fall lineup. Hmm, I've got to say that I'm surprised that Blogger's spell check didn't flag "awesomeness". It just doesn't feel like a real-life genuine word, in fact that's the whole reason that I used it. Of course just because a computer says a word is real or not real doesn't make it so - Microsoft Word will be the death of the proper British (and Canadian) spellings of words.

I will just have to soldier on with these two similar and yet totally different blogs (one's a little bit Country, the other's a little bit less Country, I mean it will listen to it but it won't go out of its way for it, not like the first one). I would like both to be humorous, insightful, and of course massive internet smash successes. I would also like at least one person to read them and pretend to like them. I would also like a pony.