Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar

Ahhhh, looking on FaceBook this morning, one of my friends posted an image of a cougar. My mind immediately went back to my childhood and Disney to the movie, Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar. I have fond memories of that film, especially it's narrator Rex Allen. (Tangent: His son, Rex Allen, Jr., did the narration for the Jim Carrey film Me, Myself, and Irene - a fun, goofy film that sort of came and went.)

After doing a google search for Charlie, I discovered the poster for the film. I can't decide which I like better; the smile they put on the cougar, or their tagline for it "The fabulous tale of a teen-age mountain lion who thought he was just a four-footed human!" They're both great. Anyway, get the film for your kids, they should be entertained for about 3 minutes.

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(SPOILER ALERT: Click the link below ONLY AFTER you listen to the song above, there's a great and horrible twist at the end that you'll never forget.)
As an added bonus to this entry you get to hear Rex Allen's 1962 smash hit, "Don't Go Near The Indians". Give it about 5 seconds to start and PLEASE listen to it all the way through.

30 Most Influencial Albums

Where does everyone find the time for these lists? But who am I to talk, check out all those links!

Music was never played in my house. When I was a pre-teen, I used to listen to an oldies radio station with this bread loaf-sized AM radio in my bed at night, keeping the volume really low, holding it to my ear so as not to disturb my parents. It had the most satisfying "click" when turning it on and off. The radio and my best friend in junior high are the two main things that shaped my musical tastes.

Here they are as I could think of them and not in any particular order:

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road
Those of you who read my 25 Things know I got this from my Grandfather's record collection after he died. Amazing! I consider side 2 to be a representation of a perfect album side. Remember albums? They had sides?

2. John Williams - Star Wars Soundtrack
Mom got it at the mall for my brother and me after our first viewing. I'm still watching it. Still listening to it.

3. Various Artists - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
A gift from my grandmother for Christmas, not sure why, but she seemed to feel I would like it. The thing I remember the most about it was the little pink bull logo for RSO records.

4. Journey - Escape
First album I ever bought with my own money. I still remember all the words.

5. Van Halen - Diver Down
Second album I bought.

6. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Introduced to be by my best friend, it opened the door to the world of Prog Rock!

7. Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything
I look back on my college years, which took place in the late 80's, and wonder why I was obsessed with 70's music. This double album is probably his best.

8-9. XTC - English Settlement & Skylarking
I don't even know what to say about these two, just great power pop.

10. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Matching Tie And Handkerchief I had and listen to this album for about 2 years before I discovered a hidden track between the grooves. Every time I dropped the needle on side two it landed on the same track. One day it dropped into the groove next to the one I knew. It was like I found the Holy Grail (get it?).

11-12. Tom Waits - The Heart Of Saturday Night & Frank's Wild Years
He has a way of making a down on your luck, broken-hearted, rusted alcoholic seem appealing.

13. Steely Dan - Gold
Some love the Dan, others can't stand the Dan. I'm in the "Love" camp.

14. Squeeze - Argy Bargy
This just brings back all those summer days when I used Sun-In on my hair and it turned orange. Good times.

15. The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
Memorized every sound on this album. I'm the best air-drummer ever because of it.

16. Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
I can't explain it, but there's something about the way this album sounds. Although it was made in mid-80's it sound timeless.

17. Jellyfish - Bellybutton
This defined what Power Pop should be for me.

18. The Posies - Dear 23
A continuation of the definition of Power Pop, but hit me at the right time in my late 20's. I totally identified with the album in some sense.

19. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
Made an awkward, weird artsy college student feel right at home.

20. Godley & Creme – Freeze Frame
This was another continuation of making the weirdo artsy student in me feel at home and creative. I should put this on now, too bad I no longer have a record player.

21. 10cc - Original Soundtrack
I always wanted to make a movie about "Une Nuit A Paris", it's very rock opera.

22. Klark Kent - Klark Kent
This album was the perfect "snotty-nose, screw-you-I'm-doin'-it-my-way" album that really helped me become ostracized from my peers by being weird. But that behavior helped me meet friends I would keep for the rest of my life.

23. Stewart Copeland - The Rhythmatist
A strange, but interesting exploration of music that introduced me to African rhythms and instruments I'd never heard before.

24. Sloan - One Chord To Another
In my opinion, one of the best collection of Power Pop songs ever.

25. Crowded House - Crowded House
This is the group that gave way to my love of Neil Finn (lead singer). Without him, I don't think I would know how to feel emotions. (Now that's just corny.)

26. Elvis Costello - The Very Best Of Elvis Costello

What can I say about Elvis Costello except that he's one of the few artists that I will buy anything they put out.

27. ELO - Greatest Hits
ELO is far too often overlooked as being a musical influence. I had a poster of theirs of their giant jukebox space ship. Looked like they put on an amazing show.

28. The dBs - Like This
Just great, simple, heart-felt garage rock of the early 80's.

29. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
I discovered The Pixies quite late in life, but am loving everything I hear. Frank Black is the best screamer I've ever heard.

30. Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
Yeah, what the hell is she doing here? Well, she definitely influenced me. I first got this album for the cover, then later, upon listening, I thought, "yeah, this is pretty cool." And thus was born a wuss (no offense to you Suzanne).

Keep Writing

Things have really slowed down audition-wise recently. That's good and bad. Bad because daddy needs work and good because it's given me time to write. Not the blog, but screenplays.

I recently went back to a screenplay for a short film I'd been working on years ago but had abandoned for many different reasons. It's not an earth-shattering script and my wife even said, "It was never an earth-shattering idea." And she's right, it's not. I guess my point is, keep writing. Finishing the script, even if it's not the awesome piece of comedy I want it to be is more important right now. I fell off the creative wagon some time ago and I have to say, it's good to be back, even for a little while, even with a less than perfect wagon.

20 - 25 of 25 - F'n Finally!

20. Once, I literally almost ran into Elvis Costello. I was late for a call back and was running across a crowded street, not really looking at who was coming at me. I looked up just in time to stop myself from crashing into a startled Mr. Costello. He was crossing with a woman friend, sort of protecting her from my hurling body and looking back on it, I'm betting it was (his now wife) Diana Krall. I'm a huge fan of his and only had the chance to yell out "sorry!" to him. I didn't get the job, which was, ironically to be a VH1 host.

21. My first professional commercial was for Quincy's steak house. My "date" and I went through about 7 or 8 steaks that we spit out between takes. Turns out she was a vegetarian. I had the taste of steak in my mouth for a good 5 days after that.

22. I still ride a bicycle and have since I was about 6 (now it's mainly part of my commute). I used to live in a very rural area of NC (now it's all urban sprawl) and people would dump their unwanted junk in ditches or back in the woods throughout my neighborhood. My brother and I would ride our bikes around and find all sorts of cool stuff like old busted amplifiers or model airplanes, toy Millennium Falcons. We'd fix them and play with them. Disgusting but true.

23. Unfortunately, I'm a primper. I spend loads of time in the bathroom primping. Don't know why, but I do, and my wife hates it. But once I'm done, that's it, no more until the next morning.

24. Although I call myself an actor, I really dislike seeing plays, especially musicals. I love doing them, but not watching them. I feel the same way about sports and comedy. MOVIES however, are a completely different story.

25. And finally, hold on to your hats... I farted during a show that was performed in a "theater in the round" setting. I was there to see a one-act that a friend had directed. Unfortunately I was there with my best friend and his girlfriend, two of the funniest people on the planet (to me at least). My friend's play finished up and it was on to the next one. This one, however decided to be an experimental production done in Kabuki makeup and broad gestures. I can't remember what the play was about, maybe something about a group of friends looking for an apartment in NYC or something. It starts out with this very large gentleman walking onstage in black tights and Kabuki makeup. He walks across the stage and sits on what has to be the smallest stool-seat to ass ratio known to man and begins to play a tiny wooden xylophone. My best friend leans over and whispers in an announcery voice, "it's Paul Shaffer!" That started contained giggles, but those quickly became more difficult to control due to the other actors' broad gestures. It was at this point I lost all control. [mwearnt] ...and the rest of our section launches into chuckles at my gas. For the next 20 minutes the actors onstage directed all their monologues at me and my friends. As soon as the blackout happened we all bolted for the exit but one of my friends wasn't fast enough. He got snagged by the actors and they blamed him for all the noise. I feel really bad about screwing up their show, but man, what a fun time - worth the price of admission.