Doh!

WHO DO I THINK I AM?????

2007-02-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

I didn't sleep at all the night after the article.. Up and down ...up and down...I am not sure if it was anxiety over the article about me and the play in the paper yesterday and the reality of "damn, you better deliver boy!" or just general crap on my mind...I did , after all, have a talk with my parents right before going to sleep and the assorted thoughts and feelings that are attached to that action are usually enough to disturb my already somewhat fractured thought process...my mother and her wandering mind and attention span and her ever increasing senility and my ex marine father's barely maintained sense of control and the subsequent feelings of frustration and aching hints of need in his voice left me jolted...I had to delay a trip home and I could tell it hurt him....so maybe ???....AND I did eat a hell of a lot of baked chicken and potatoes before hitting the hay.....so hell maybe it was just gas...yeah there's an all purpose reason for everything if I ever did hear one.....

You might think I am full of shit but I actually think my discomfort is a combination of all of the above...(I do not feel at all rested today and even the hot shower has done nothing to alleviate my sense of physical and emotional tension and distress....my fall on the ice a week and a half ago or so and the subsequent fall down my ex's staircase a few days later have left me with a very sore shoulder and left arm and now the mind is racing in what seems like an unending circle or rut......) and/or my usual sense of feeling like I was being something other than myself in sharing the article with you guys and the actual act of even letting that article exist....here is what i mean...

My dad said to me, as I was about to board a plane leaving Wisconsin for California when I was moving away from home at age 19, "Danny, don't ever change" Now you could look at that phrase as a loving thought of advice ..something to carry with me....BUT that is not what he meant...ya see my dad was a very popular guy in my hometown..a man's man and very respected as a person, an athlete, a dedicated ,a fireman and every body's buddy and regular kind of guy. He was pretty amazing...After being on the US Marine Corps's all American basketball team and baseball teams and being on Allstate teams for baseball and football in high school he married my mom and quit college right after he entered it......he had wanted to become a football coach and instead he joined my grandfather on the Milwaukee Road working for the railroad......He then became a fireman when I was born....he always played sports and he even still played handball with my buddies when he was in his 60's...anyway the point is that he was offered the job of Lieutenant and even capt. in the fire dept but he said no...because he said that would make him stand out and he wanted to stay one of the guys..even tho the other officers were his best buds....he did the same with every facet and area of his life..he took the same attitude...he worked moonlighting as a house painter and a landscaper for the rich folks(as he called them..these "rich folks" loved him and would even ask him to play golf or handball with them...lawyers and judges and businessmen...he always said no...and he never allowed himself to be too friendly with them when we met them in public and it got even more difficult for him as I started getting known in my hometown as a singer and popular high school guy and politically involved...I was head of young democrats and appointed to a state Bicentennial committee to represent the youth of the state....he was proud but uncomfortable that I dated he daughters of 2 families he worked for......it was weird....I was a nice guy and like him well liked but....he was not happy...money changes people he would say and though he was proud of my academic and artistic small feats of success...he would watch me almost like a hawk for any signs of pretending to be something I was not....in his eyes I came from blue collar...shop at Kmart,Wards,Sears,JC Penny's and for fancy stuff like a prom or wedding he might go to the local ly owned dept store...our family would never dream of shopping at a thrift store...(beneath us..poor people shopped there) and he would never ever dream of going to some place fancier...same with restaurants...he would say of friends...who went to the fancy places..."who do they think they are"...like many post world war Two families..he knew where he belonged in the order of things and would not dream of leaving the safety of what he knew ..of who he was....a regular guy ...hard working but not a supervisor or a boss....we were meant to stay in our class of people and not make waves...not stand out and not ( why did I like Mozart....you are taking BALLET!!!!! in school!!(trust me it was frickin' requiered..now I like watching it..then I sucked doing it)..you can not bring the mayor home for lunch he would hsay...EVEN THOUGH HE(the mayor) WAS AN OLD LUSH from our neighborhood....I was his reelection treasurer...but we lived on the wrong side of the tracks..)aspire to anything fancy....my involvement with singing and politics left me as an alien in the family and even though he meant well and was a decent guy..a wonderful man...and I love him....BUT every time I think of any kind of success..I hear myself say "who do you think you are" and freak a little...it's not like working on my great uncle's farm every summer and being proud of a good crop of tobacco or finishing the barn roof..it's not a task that has a desired outcome that is useful in a needed...really needed way...my job will not feed people...ahh shit , I am rambling.....nope, it's a frickin' play...who cares...I mean IAM a working class guy..no one can take that away from me..I feel much more at home on a daily basis surrounded by blue collar working stiffs...I am at home as hell in a local, neighborhood bar and love to be one of the guys...hell I AM one of the guys but there is that frickin' artsy side of me that needs to be involved in the arts..high and low brow....but when it comes to success in the arts...I always feel like a fraud and how dare I think this or that way...now I shop at thrift stores nonstop and have always done so..and shopped fancy and middle ground.....but still that "stay as you are" thing controls a lot of who I am. But trust me, if there was a way to have a farm or ranch I could live on and work on AND write and act at the same tim???I would be in Heaven...

Well now I am rambling again..i do not have time to edit this but..hope it makes sense..i will finish it later...gotta go to a meeting....I am getting better as I get older to accept them (my folks ) and my ignorance and mistakes and accept who we all are...hard to do sometimes...

Heeeeeeeeeeeeee's Back..sorry I have been gone folks!

2007-02-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I got some press Sunday and it is just the start....
Not sure what I think of this...I am a bit taken back...a photo of me and this...but I had better get used to it....I have more interviews with East Coast papers and a few magazines now...weird... sort of makes me sound like Mother Theresa!!...the writer has known my work as an actor in New England for years and me casually....he(the writer) was very sweet...a few boo boo's like "... learned to be a decent guy to the homeless because of reading Longfellow" but the writer was a very nice person...and I talk fast...duh...understatement and in tangents when I am on a roll....he spent 2 hours with me ......just thought I would share this with you guys...the photo that went with it is not on the web yet....but damn...it is a decent shot!.....I will post it when it is available...I am excited about the publicity for my play but a bit embarrassed about this...oh well....any press is good press they say..it was very ,very nice of this guy...well read below.....be nice you guys

Longfellow inspires a play -- and a lifestyle By BOB KEYES, Staff Writer © Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.Sunday, February 18, 2007
[elements] HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Visit our special section to: E-mail this page E-mail a letter to the writerE-mail a letter to the editorPrinter-friendly versionReader Commenlow)ts (be
Listen to Longfellow poetry. Readings by: Angus King, Tess Gerritsen and Tom Allen. Tour through the Wadsworth-Longfellow House Read staff features
Three times in his life, Daniel Noel has cried tears of joy.First, when he debuted on Broadway. Second, when his daughter was born. And third, just two years ago when he won a commission from Portland Stage Company to craft a play about the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.Noel, a Portland actor and playwright, reveres Longfellow, and views the opportunity to write a play about the Portland native as an honor. He also feels humbled, given the respect he holds for Longfellow's core goodness and the way the literary titan treated other people."It's his humanity that draws me to him," Noel said. "I try real hard to be a decent person, and it's always not so easy. But he did, and he was. He has made me genuinely look at my life and what my priorities are."Noel is in the final stages of drafting his play, called "Longfellow: A Life In Words."An early version of the play debuted last spring at Portland Stage's annual Little Festival of the Unexpected, which serves as an incubator for new work. The final version likely will appear at Portland Stage later this year or early next.Noel has devoted much of his recent life to Longfellow.He relates to the writer's dedication to the arts and the artistic lifestyle, as well as his compassion for others, especially those in less fortunate circumstances.In his life, Noel tries to not judge people and to be kind to those he associates with. He's made a special effort to treat Portland's homeless and underprivileged people with dignity -- an act of kindness he said he learned from reading about Longfellow."He didn't judge people at all. If you were a good human being, he liked you. I am trying to adopt that as my credo, too," Noel said.He also appreciates the way Longfellow rose above personal tragedy. Noel often uses Longfellow as a model for overcoming personal setbacks."He has affected my acting and affected me as a person," said Noel. "I relate to his tragedy, but I relate to his kindness most of all."Noel sets his play with dialogue taken directly from Longfellow's letters, journals and other writings. "A Life in Words" is a series of conversations and correspondences among the writer and his friends, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens and others.In all, there are about a dozen voices in the play. Noel wrote it for a cast of three to five actors, who will play multiple roles. He is in the final editing stages.Noel knew a little about Longfellow before he began his play. He co-created the Longfellow Shorts reading program at Portland Stage and has long admired Longfellow's published poems.His appreciation for Longfellow as a person grew as he delved into the writer's life. His research led him to ask questions about the intersection of art and life. That theme constitutes the core of the play.Longfellow's refusal, especially as a young man, to compromise his writing impressed Noel. As an artist who sometimes struggles to sustain his life in the arts, Noel admires the way Longfellow held fast to his faith in himself.Equally, Longfellow never allowed his eventual fame and fortune -- he was internationally famous and enjoyed enormous wealth -- to alter the core values that he learned growing up in Portland."He appears to have been a very nice guy," Noel said. "In my heart, I believe there was something in Longfellow that reflected the Everyman."

More like me!

2006-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

This guy I have more in common with...well, I am still a bit bigger! OK, a lot bigger!!! Soon!

I am trying to rest up!

2006-05-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

This guy in the photo and I have alot in common...we both have kneecaps...the resemblance ends right there!! But soon..I am losing weight and working out...as if this play will not make me shed pounds from sweating!!!Thanks folks for worring about me...but I will be ok...I just need to think healthy and get my self in good condition....heck, somebody might even find me attractive again someday!! But it is for health reasons more than self esteem that I need to get in shape for............... today is a day off...nope! I just got called in to start on props for a shoot. The good thing is that my friend Gerri payed my phone bill for me last night and I can pay her back on Friday! she is so cool and I have been having a riot(a tired one) helping her move and set her Gallery up in the same two weeks! Friends are so amazing and I feel blessed wiith them. I just hate asking for any kind of help. I was raised to " do it on your own" and never show weakness....boy, is that a fucked up way to look at things...pride sucks sometimes...asking for help does not mean weakness....but old habits are hard to break. I did not ask her to lend me money..she just offered when she heard my phone would be shut down...and then, she said...Just ask...god,it is no big deal!...And it isn't....I have always paid back any money borrowed...I will grow up one of these days and learn to be more open to assistance....so, I am now about to head out...I am at Kristi's(my ex) house right now....my daughter is getting ready to go to the gym and Kristi is finishing up some details for the layouts.....so,I took this chance to jump on the computer. Later........I am one blessed old fart.Life IS good!

To late to BE a cowboy ...BUT.... I do love them!

2006-05-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Notice I spelled "but" with one "t".....I am still tired as hell and about to take it a bit easier. I need the rest. I am going to focus on rehearsal and going to the gym and editing my play for NPR. No more moving friends and setting up galleries and lugging dry wall for this guy! Unless, of course another friend needs to move or needs help and then...yupo, I am a glutten for punishment. Rehearsal is exhausting....you may say," what? Being in some dumb little play is NOT work...digging ditches and construction and car repair is work"...well, I grant you that usually acting IS a hell of alot easier than actual physical labor/ or a real job... BUT, it is challenging and when you have to use fricking muscles that have never been or hardly ever been used.....the director has me acting from the tips of my toes to the top of my grey hairs! Lewder and bigger and louder...he is yelling nonstop...I play a crusty,bombastic,funny,loud drunken sot...Toby Belch...who is always moving always on the edge and damn!!! it is not easy...no airconditioning and hot as hell...and I have to memorize this huge role!!....ok, by the end of rehearsal I am dead tired and sweating like a pig!!.....I would be much better off lifting and doing some job where the SAME muscles are getting used over and over again, for sure and trtust me, I have worked "real" jobs and unloaded trucks and worked construction and assembly lines and etc....I am not complaining!! Really, this is a great way to make a living and it IS NOT REAL WORK but it IS exhausting..But it is sooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!...I have only had access to a computer for a few minutes(like 5 a day on average and on most days ..no access at all!!) so I am way behind on email...my phone gets turned off today at 7 PM if I do not have the cash to pay the bill...so weird to be poor and busy at the same time...in a week(3 days) I have alot of cash coming in BUT right now none.So I will have to pay a fine on top of the regular pay while people with credit cards keep on charging away and getting in debt they can pay off in time while I get poorer and poorer and get fined for NOT having a way to pay...seems weird that those who pay things in cash always have to pay more in the end!!........BUT...LIFE IS GOOD!!!! I have to head to the house of my friends one last time and help her clean it....she can not lift due to back problems....nice day off huh? But we will laugh our butts off because she is amazing!!!and I actually DO like to work!!Later.......xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooo

Exhausted But Happy.....

2006-05-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not being here. I have been helping a good friend move (just the two of us) and clean her old and new place (60 miles away) while setting up an Art Gallery for the same gal in a beach city nearby (30 miles away)and rehearsing for a new play (every night but Sat. in my free time...ya right!)and spending as much time with my daughter as possible before she leaves for the summer to work and then move to NYC right after that job. Gee, was that a run on sentence or what? Had a colonoscopy day before last and am still tired from it. Everything was fine...was sort of nice knowing a professional was going where no man has gone before ...and if you believe that...I have property to sell in Alaska! They removed two polops(sp) and I get the results this week...I am sure all is ok. just tired....I have to get back on the play this week after taking a week to relax!!! Some relax time!! I am running around like a chicken wuth it'g head cut off but I really am happy.....just really burnt out.....

FUNNY STUFF!!

2006-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

These are images from a book done by a London photograher! She uses body doubles/lookalikes to create some very good stuff!! The Queen on the throne gets me!!

Memories of MOM"S!!!

2006-05-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

My mother and I have joked about and loved the commedian Moms Mabley for most of my life...she was a wonderful performer and never failed to warm my heart and make me laugh! I used to say she reminded me of my mother ....and she did and still does...my mom is not doing so well right now but we all get older and have to deal with what time does to us.....the other day I called her and said "Happy Mom's Day" and she said nothing...I got alittle freaked because her memory is going and she is in major ill health....I thought she did not recognize my voice and I had just talked with her last week!!!...But no, she paused and said "well?" in a very expectant, eager voice and then I got it....I said..."There's nothing like a mom!" in my very bad Mabley impersonation and she started laughing up a storm!!....I have used that line every mothers day since the mid 60's and hearing her laugh like that made me feel 10 again....somethings never change...I will love my MOMS for as long as I live....thank god for a liitle old funny lady from tv..she has enriched my life more than I can say! Read more about my favorite Mom other than my own below.

When Jackie Mabley was growing up one child of many in a poor Southern family, her mother told her she would have to leave North Carolina in order to make something of herself. Mabley took her mother's advice to heart, overcoming great odds to become not only a widely recognized and successful stand-up comic, but also the unforgettable "Moms," an African-American archetype with too much common sense and sensuality to take herself too seriously. Dressed in her flamboyant signature outfit of Hawaiian shirt over a housedress with bright socks, floppy slippers, and a hat she crocheted herself, Moms Mabley called her audience her "children." She entertained them with raunchy jokes and devilish playfulness, punctuating her act with bulging eyes and a toothless leer. In an entertainment industry where African-American women continue to receive little recognition, Moms Mabley's 60-year career stands as a role model.

Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, North Carolina, the details of Mabley's youth are vague, but it seems clear she was born into a large, poor family. Early in her life she sought a way out; her father was killed when she was a child and Mabley herself had been raped twice before she left home at the age of thirteen to join the traveling performers of a minstrel show. She spent her teenage years singing, dancing, and doing sketch comedy along the "chitlin' circuit," the black-owned clubs and performance halls that offered work to black entertainers. Though a product of segregation, the black clubs were for the most part safe and comfortable places for both black audiences and performers. While traveling with the show, Loretta became involved with fellow performer Jack Mabley. Though they never married, she began to use the name Jackie Mabley, saying, "He took a lot off me, the least I could do was take his name."

With the arrival of the 1920s and the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, Mabley found her way to New York where she performed her act in such famous venues as the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom, sharing the bill with the likes of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. Later she would incorporate her friendships with these famous performers into her act, hinting broadly at her affairs.

By the 1930s, the Depression slowed the entertainment business, and Mabley made ends meet by working at church socials and movie houses. In 1931 she collaborated with renowned Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, writing and performing a Broadway play called, Fast and Furious: A Colored Revue in Thirty-Seven Scenes. By 1939 Mabley began to appear regularly at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where over the next 35 years she would perform more than any other entertainer. Here she continued to develop her comic act—the salty old lady with the mobile face and gravelly voice. It was at the Apollo that she acquired the nickname "Moms" from her fellow performers who appreciated her nurturing sympathy. During her years of performing at the Apollo, Mabley often saw famous white comics in the audience and accused them of stealing her material.

Though Mabley's act may seem stereotypical to some, it was really quite a clever show business ploy. While attractive young women, particularly black women, could show little in the way of intelligence or sexuality without condemnation, "Moms" was safe—a laughable figure of fun. From behind the shabby clothes and mobile toothless grin, Mabley could offer sharp-witted insights and social commentary that would have been unacceptable from a more serious source. Beloved by African-American audiences, Mabley's whole persona was an "in" joke among blacks, and she did not hesitate to focus her scathing humor on whites and their ill treatment of other races. She also demonstrated glimmers of an early feminism with her jokes about old men and their illusions of authority. One of her trademark jokes was, "Ain't nothing an old man can do for me, but bring me a message from a young man."

It was this sly satirical edge along with the emergence of the Civil Rights movement that brought Mabley her second surge of fame in the rebellious 1960's. On The Ed Sullivan Show and the controversial Smothers Brothers Show, Moms Mabley brought her bawdy humor to white audiences for the first time. Over the course of her lengthy career, she also appeared in several movies, from small parts in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, to a starring role in Amazing Grace. The prolific Mabley also made over 25 popular comedy albums and was invited to the White House by President John F. Kennedy. Perhaps one of Mabley's most touching performances is her hoarsely emotional recording of the song "Abraham, Martin, and John" about the deaths of the great Civil Rights leaders.

Though she had four children and five grandchildren, Mabley never married and she lived most of her life as a lesbian. Although she was not "out" in the modern sense, certainly Moms Mabley did break taboos and challenge assumptions throughout her career with her character of an old woman, who was sexual, savvy, and irrepressible. The girl who survived childhood rape to carve out a successful career in the inhospitable world of show business grew up to be Moms, who described her television appearances by saying, "I looked at the world as my children."

Moms Mabley

Modern black comediennes pay tribute to Mabley as a foremother. In 1986 playwright Alice Childress wrote Moms: A Praise for a Black Comedienne, which was produced on Broadway in 1987. Respected comic and actress Whoopi Goldberg "does" Mabley as one of her comic characters, and the documentary I Be Done Been Was Is names Moms Mabley as an inspiration for the black female comics who followed her.

Further Reading:

My Daughter and I LOVE BUFFY..

2006-05-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

we are big Buff and Angel fans here!

Great Moment..

2006-05-17T09:44:00.000-07:00

Our poor hero is in love and lust with a sexy bombshell...but the gay nephew of Dracula trys to put the moves on him with poem and love instructions...our hero gives him a mouthfull of old book instead of blood!

Fearless Vamp Agaain

2006-05-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

You Have To See IT!!!

Bite Me PLease!!

2006-05-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yep...he is hot in this flick! And great sound track!!

I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!

2006-05-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Enough said....the whole family is cool in this and the bad guys!! Diane Wiest is amazing as the mom dating a Vampire ....and grandpa rocks and the kids...nice skull biting moment and flying!

Great Film!!!

2006-05-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to Vampire Films....I have tried to quit but, Lost Boys,Andy Warhol's Dracula, Dracula anything!!

Thanks Guys,,,I Feel Better Today!! I will try to not just show "pretty boys" on this site!

2006-05-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

I actually prefer the "rougher side of Sears" to be honest. Working class men and men with a rough edge are more my type...never been attracted to pretty boys .

MY FAVORITE MOVIE PERIOD!!!

2006-05-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is the poster for the stage version of Auntie Mame. The film is a gem!!! Going to go get comfort food!! Steak,mashed potatoes,carrot and ice cream and watch movies for the rest of the day....my line up: Auntie Mame, Lord Of The Rings: Maybe ALL 3 in Extended or Time Machine(The original) and Fearless Vampire Killers!! or Dawn of The Dead (The remake) you know something cheerfullllllllllllll!!!!!

OK...THIS FRENCH RUGBY TEAM CALENDAR IS FROM HEAVEN!!!

2006-05-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Naked Rugby Stars.......I am speechless!

Michael Owen..British Soccer God!!

2006-05-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Words Fail ME!!!!

WORLD CUP AND DAN"S PLAY!!!

2006-05-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yep the folks are going all out for World Cup Soccer AND my play about Longfellow which premieres tonight!! Wish me luck....the guy second from the right is playing Longfellow!!!! I wish!! My daughter and I are big Soccer fans!

Arkansas Razorback's Image ON TV!

2006-05-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

Funny stuff! The commentators just paused and said nothing when this image was broadcast...I mean, what else could one do!

Oh.Ya!!!

2006-05-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Both...priceless...and a couple!! I had lunch with Cary and Ann Sothern at a little Bitish Place in Santa Monica in about 1975...I was speechless for almost 2 hrs. ...... a record for me!! And Randy(as Jackie calls him) is a god!!!!

And Again

2006-05-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

He was fun,,,,

Protesting The Right Way!!

2006-04-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

You know I always did like firemen....why can't protests in America be like this!!