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June 30, 2007 01:54PM
Oh WOW! I'm so excited! I wanted to post this before but these public terminals I was using were down for the day and I couldn't share it.
During my days off, there was word that Paul McCartney was goin g to give a FREE concert at Amoeba Records in Hollywood! The moment I found that out, I rushed out there as soon as I could. Well, when I arrived, I was told that the first 300 people had just gotten numbered for their tickets and sent home... I was going to be #9 (#9... #9... #9... lol) within the line of "backup" people in case there were any no-shows... I had only a 50% chance and had to stay in line all those two days and sleep overnight there on the sidewalk (I had simply showed up and wasn't prepared as I hadn't had the time).
BUT I GOT IN!
After an entire lifetime, I finally got to see Paul live! Every time previously something had always gone wrong. And he was FANTASTIC!
Oh, and all these channels kept personally interviewing me and all the others within the top ten waiters in that backup line, including NMB, ABC, CBS, and The L.A. Times. Not sure what footage if any was used though, lol. But they all each asked me for my name and such so they could put my name on screen. I haven't been able to watch the news to find out though since of course I was out there and not at home. ;)
It was the first time I've ever done anything like that, and I'm so thrilled. Thank you, Paul!
I'll post more details when I can. Part of the reason why I haven't been able to edit my entries lately is because I seem to keep getting booted off after a couple of minutes before I can finish sharing and these public terminals won't let me buffer what I'm saying to try again. Can anyone please tell me if/how I can extend the time I'm logged on so I can tell you guys more all about it? Thanks if you can! :)
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June 16, 2007 09:13PM
While I'm not at liberty to openly discuss its details at the moment, here's the general thing I'm posting about today: I've finally done it. I've arrived.
I had made it a goal for myself to finally succeed once and for all in getting that "whole new life" I've been dreaming about ever since way before 20 years ago.
It took me 20 years of struggling and battling the most ridiculous situations you can imagine (none of which were my fault; rather, they were brought upon me by my horrendous immediate family's situation. It's a long story), and doing everything I could to escape the quicksand of nonsense and stupid disasters happening to me despite my best efforts. I had tried and tried and tried to the point of physical and emotional exhaustion.
And now... I've finally succeeded. I'm free.
From here on out, I'm finally able to go about my business and to go about my original plans for my own life as I personally see fit. I'm finally living precisely where I've been wanting to live in the first place in all this time, I now finally have the career I've always wanted to get, and I am now finally free of certain harassers who had been chasing me around for 20 years as a result of my being an accomplished artist they were obssessed with.
Feels good to be free.
It's emotionally overwhelming, though. After all these years of repression, suddenly I have total control again.
Now I'm thinking, "Ok... uh, what do I do now?"
After all, this is the first time in 20 years in which I can honestly plan freely on a blank slate as opposed to always thinking, "As soon as I get everything straightened out, then I can..."
Feels weird.
After being forced for two decades to have to get used to the idea of "first I need to get all this nonsense out of the way, and then I can continue", I now have to get used to the idea of not having to deal with that part anymore.
But it sure feels good.
I'll share more when I'm able to, and then I'll be able to properly explain. ;)
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May 07, 2007 08:21PM
WOW!
Here's footage I thought I'd never see again! It's on Youtube.
This was my very first exposure to the legenday rock group Kiss! And from what I've read, it was also apparently the very first exposure of a lot of the rest of the world and future members of the Kiss Army to the band as well.
I remember it all as though it were yesterday...
It was like this. I had just celebrated my 8th birthday. I was still just in grade school. That night I was going to my local school (Joe Mitchell School in Livermore, California) to take part in a combo Halloween play/gathering. The play came first, and while my class and others well all waiting for our cues we were in this big library room in the back of the school which was made up of steps that went progressively upward from the door on forward. A teacher was keeping us all entertained by reading a book I had never read before, "One Monster After Another" by Mercer Mayer. Being a visual artist, I was far more thoroughly spooked by that book's visuals than everyone else, and the book frightened me VERY badly. Oh, I was okay once I got to be in the play, which was a lot of fun, and the whole gathering afterward, but when I went home I was so scared of that book that I didn't want to go to sleep AT ALL.
It was Friday night, and my family was trying to find something to watch on television. I didn't want to lay down and go to sleep in my room, I was too scared, so I got up and told mom my predicament, and she told me, "Well don't worry Craig, it's Friday night and you know it's okay for you to stay up late on Fridays and Saturdays. You can stay up with us, we're watching TV."
I was hoping something was about to comon on that would make me forget that book, so I asked hopefully, "Maybe there's a Halloween special coming on?"
They were checking the TV guide, and saw that in two minutes there was going to be one called "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special", so we sat down to watch it while I was going, "Cool, I like Paul Lynde!" By that time I had seen a lot of 70s variety shows and TV shows with him in it, including The Donnie and Marie Show, so I was hoping this would be just as good.
In the opening it was announcing who the guests were, and I saw to my delight that we'd also see Witchiepoo from "H.R. Pufnstuf", the Witch herself from "The Wizard of Oz", and then it simply said "Kiss". We were all going, "Kiss? Who's Kiss?" In the back of my mind, I kept wondering if that was the stage name of some new lady singer or something.
So there I was really enjoying the special, and then Paul Lynde, who's acting all scared of being trapped in this huge castle with the two famous witches, is being told that the entertainment will be performing. When Lynde asks where they are, he's told by the two cackling witches, "They're such wild things!! We've kept them locked up in their cage until performing time!" and they just cackle fiendishly.
And then we see the following!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx6W_A5VEPw&;
I just sat there with my mouth open, and I was going, "WOW!!!!!" 
I had already been exposed to quite a lot of rock music and music of all types, but never before had I ever seen anything like this! And that's of course because they were still very much an all-new act at the time. I was just soaking this up...
...while my mom and dad were in a state of shock. 
They were quietly remarking to each other how stunned and startled they were, and going, "WHO are THEY? WHAT are they??" and I was deliberately trying to not pay too much attention to their remarks--which were basically trying to decide whether this was what this band always did or was this just for the show itself-- because I wanted to enjoy the performance, but at one point my mother was remarking to my dad, "The one thing this is good for is Halloween. That's the only thing it's good for."
Later on, afer more shenanigans (not to mention the shenanigans of the rest of my family attempting to compose themselves after getting KISSed for the first time in their lives, lol 
) when then hear the witches proclaim that Kiss are about to perform another song, mentioning that it was "off their brand new album. It's called 'Beth'." And then we see this part.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsX8toYQA78
And it was at this point in which I decided right off the bat that of the four of them, this one was my favourite (I would learn much later on that his name is Peter Criss). And he was my favourite and in my opinion the coolest because he was a CAT! I love animals, and I love cats. I immediately thought about how much I wanted to try that cat makeup on, I thought it was so cool.
After that clip finished, we then saw this part, which cracked me up.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6-QLJXHCyk
And finally, near the end of the show when given his final wish, Paul Lynde says he has one more: "I wish that Kiss would sing one more song for us."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Popl30JcRfM&;
Now I just lapped all this stuff up like a cat with milk, pun intended even if it is a bad and overly cutesy one. 
But anyway, I'll tell you right now, I had forgotten all about that scary book! Now my mind was on this FANTASTICALLY COOL new act called Kiss and I wanted so much to share it somehow. I had a hard time getting to sleep that night, but for an altogether different reason--I was too psyched up about this whole Kiss thing!
Now the following is something which I've never told anyone because it had really stung at the time and the mere memory of it still makes me wince, so you guys are the very first to hear about this. The following morning I was attempting to figure out how to make my face look like Kiss makeup (I'm sure I don't have to tell you which makeup job I was trying to mimic, lol). It was at the same time while I was watching "Jabberjaw" on the Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and when my mother had woken up and come into the room without my knowing it, she had immediately snarled in the sharpest way you can imagine, "I DON'T WANT YOU ACTING LIKE THOSE GUYS." I mean, she was terrible the way she did it, I can't begin to describe how ferocious she was about it. I had to take the stuff off and was informed that no Kiss, nothing, no music, nothing, was ever allowed in the house.
After that Halloween special, it was like the world and my hometown were never the same. All the kids and teens were bonkers over Kiss, and the group began to come out with books, dolls, shirts, posters, you name it. But I was never able to get any of them.
So I never got the chance to go to any of their shows, or to buy any of their stuff or anything. Even when they reunited with the orginal lineup in 1996 I wasn't able to go, but that was due to being in debt and an overall lack of money, so at least it wasn't that.
But these days, I'm attempting to make up for loss time. I now have all their albums. I'm still pretty broke, but I'm also about to hopefully soon purchase my VERY FIRST piece of Kiss merchandise: their brand new "Kiss 4K" comic book which is supposed to be coming out this month. And there's a Peter Criss T-shit on amazon.com I want to buy too. And after wearing all sorts of different masks/ideas for Halloween for the past few years, I'm seriously considering for the very first time doing my face up in Kiss-style cat makeup this year. A childhood act I never got to engage in. ;)
As for the Halloween special... well, maybe soon I can find out if/where the whole thing has ever been released on home video and then I can buy it (no piracy for me, lol, I want the real thing! I support my face artists to the hilt).
Anyway, here's hoping that my reminescing on this moment in my own personal KISStory brightens someone's day and maybe even gives a few others who weren't around yet a feel of what it was like back then. Until next time!
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