Remembering Hot Rod

Quick Note: I wrote this original blog back on 8/7/15, a few days after the death of "Rowdy Roddy Piper".  Anyone who knows me that well will know that I was a huge fan of his growing up.  There were a few edits to it, including this note about when the blog was originally written but little else changed about it.  I scheduled this blog to be published on what would have been Roddy Piper's 67th birthday with a bit was added to add the end.

Remembering Hot Rod 

The story goes that when asked about good advice she’d received, actress Stana Katic replied, “Never marry your muse, it ruins the illusion. Some similar advice, though I do not know the source, goes something similar to “Be wary of meeting your heroes as you way wind up very disappointed and they will no longer be your heroes.” I suspect there is a bit of truth to both ideas. I will never know for sure.

Last Friday, one week ago from when I am writing this, I came home from running some errands and got on Twitter to find something shocking. That news was Rowdy Roddy Piper had died. I wanted to believe that it was one of those infamous death hoaxes that are prone to circulate via social media. However, the news was in fact true. The “Rowdy One” or “Hot Rod” or however you knew him had died.

Many fans, myself included, knew Piper has both a wrestler and an actor. During the course of his career, he did both and did so in a way that showed that he loved doing both. He was arguably one of the best villains ever in pro-wrestling and he was a legend as the heroic Nada in the sci-fi classic. "They Live”. Over the past year, he had a foray into podcasting which was short lived. In short, he was a storyteller regardless of what medium he was using at the moment to tell a story. He was also a father, a husband, and a cancer survivor.

Oh yeah… and he was one of my childhood heroes.

As a pro-wrestling fan, I frequently have found myself cheering for the heels. This is largely for two reasons. The first being that without good villains, the heroes are pretty much meaningless. (This applies to not just wrestling but to any form of storytelling. I mean what is Superman without Lex Luthor, for example.) The second reason, one that developed much later, is that playing the villain rather in pro-wrestling or a movie is so much more fun usually. I guess you could say that there is the third reason that I never got on board the Hulkamania train when I started watching wrestling but that is an afterthought to me in the long run.) The first time I watched any WWE (at the time WWF) content, Piper was one of the top heels in the company. Of course, my watching during that time was short lived. I honestly remember the old “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” cartoon on Saturday mornings more than watching the actual matches back then. I remember Piper on that cartoon though and I remember being curious about who the characters were then. Years later, when I was more formally introduced to pro-wrestling, I managed to get a hold of tapes that included a dog collar match between Piper and Greg Valentine in the NWA just as easily as any of Piper’s WWE stuff. And by that time, Piper had just turned face going into Wrestlemania III. (I remember the Piper vs. Adrian Adonis match being one of my favorite matches at Wrestlemania III mostly because of the ending.) A few years later, I remember Piper returning to the WWE from his “retirement match at Wrestlemania III” and feuding with Rick Rude, Bad New Brown, Ted Dibease and more but as a face. In the midst of all that though Piper had begun his excursion into acting.

And to be honest, I am just as much familiar with Piper’s film work as I am his wrestling work. The first film I remember seeing Piper in was not “They Live” but a movie called “Body Slam” which was a movie where he played a pro-wrestler managed by a music promoter played by Dirk Benedict (of A-Team and Battlestar Galatica fame). It wasn’t a major release as I recall and I picked it up at the local video store on a whim. I grabbed “They Live” and “Hell Comes to Frogtown” as soon as I found them on video. I know most people know Piper’s work in “They Live” and if you don’t then go find a way to see the movie. Even today, the move holds some relevance and perhaps more so today than it did back then. Of course, Roddy also made various TV guest appearances including “Walker, Texas Ranger” (one of the few episodes of the series I genuinely liked), The Outer Limits (not one of the best episodes of the series remake but not bad) and the Robocop series. He stuck to the sci-fi and action / cop show genres mostly with some forays into other genres but he did well with what he was given. I’m not going to say that Hot Rod was a great actor but I will say that he did deliver some good performances and, more importantly, entertaining performances. I will say that a lot of times there were stuff that I saw Piper in that enjoyed solely because he was in it. He made some otherwise bland or just plain bad projects watchable and even entertaining. Sometimes, that is all that matters.

As I mentioned, I considered Piper one of my heroes as a kid. In short, I liked his style of work in the ring and found him to be fun to listen to on the mic. He came across as someone who was tough and had an unpredictable quality to him. I guess you could say he came across like a loose cannon or a wildcard. His quote “Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.” summed up both what I liked about him and why. In eighth grade, I had decided I might want to try out for the high school wrestling team after we were given a three-day introduction to the sport. I did the three day clinic and the tournament. In the tournament, I wore my “Hot Rod” shirt because I was a fan. I regret nothing (excepting losing that second match by one point because I was too cautious).  I even tried to replace that "Hot Rod" shirt a few years ago but the XL shirt didn't fit right.  I still have the shirt at the moment but cannot wear it.  (And it was a Christmas gift so I can't return it.)

Regarding his place in pro-wrestling, I don’t think there will ever be another guy quite like him. Though, I would never fault a young guy getting into pro-wrestling wanting to be as good on the mic or as good in the ring as Piper. And mind you, while he was not the “a technical guy ala a Bret Hart or a Daniel Bryan”, he was still one of the best workers out there (especially for his day) when it came to ring psychology, working a crowd, or cutting a promo on the mic. And his acting? I don’t think we’ve seen his best work yet though. Before his death, he completed two movies that are due out later this year and the beginning of next year. The first film is called “The Rectifier” and it is being called a performance that really shows what he could do as an actor. The second film is called “The Masked Saint” and is a Christian-minded film in which he plays a supporting role. (He had a few other projects in various stages of production at the time of his death as well.)

I never got to meet Roddy Piper. I would have loved to and I would have been a bit afraid to at the same time. As I alluded to at the beginning, I guess I've always been afraid of meeting any the real "heroes" that I had as a kid because I'm afraid of being disappointed.  And honestly, some of that comes from seeing people, and in some cases meeting them, that I use to admire professional when I was younger turn out to be complete disappointments for one reason or another as I have gotten older.  Though, I am told that Piper was even cooler for real that I thought he might have been as a kid.

I do think I would have loved to have worked on a film with the man back when I was still working in film and television production.  I think it would have been a blast.  But most importantly: I would have loved to have simply told him “Thanks for everything.”

Publishing this blog on what would have been Roddy Piper's 67th birthday.  It just registered to me that he was about a little over a year older than my parents.   Actually, he was two years older than my dad, go figure.  And while I don't expect any sort of response to this... I will be posting a link to this blog on Twitter and tagging Roddy's Twitter account, which his family still seems to maintain. Why? because why not.   

At some point... I plan to upload a video to YouTube with commentary of me playing through the section of Saints Row IV where Roddy Piper makes an appearance.  (Spoiler: it is in relation to his role in They Live.)  My aim is to release that video later this year.

Cheers.

25 - odd years or so later

Sorta random fact.  I've been writing in various mediums for close to 30 years.  The argument could be made that it has been a bit longer.  However, it was a little over twenty-five years ago (closer to the twenty-eight mark) that I began to take myself seriously as a writer and to some extent as an artist though there are specifics to that which go back a bit further.

It was circa 1993 or 1994 that I first submitted my work any sort of competition.  I won second place and had my work analyzed by a writing professor who at the college where the competition was held.  (My friend Morgan, who I've forgotten the married name of, not to mention have not spoke with in years, won first place if I recall correctly.  Morgan was extremely talented, kinda enigmatic at times, and reminded me of a young Natalie Merchant with red hair.  She works in the airline industry now as I recall.)  The analysis inspired me to write a follow up piece to the work.  The poem that won second place was called "Tarts" and the follow-up was called "Tangy".  The two pieces were about addiction, madness, and Alice in Wonderland depending on your perspective.  I wrote a third piece called Asylum that kind of existed in that same stream of thought though I had other thoughts on my mind when writing it as well.

It was also 1993 that I wrote several other pieces during the "Blizzard of '93" that began collections that I've always known were not quite complete but never really was sure how to complete them.  I will get back to that in a bit.  It was during that storm that I realized that I was most comfortable writing and that I wanted to pursue a career in the arts and entertainment field.  This has been on my mind a lot lately.  It is one of the driving things that has fueled me a bit since the lung disease diagnosis and other health stuff start getting worse.

Before that, writing was a release for me as it was for many teens.  I started writing to deal with people around me.  Writing gave me an outlet to say some certain things that could not be 'politely' said aloud.  In some cases, some things that might couldn't legally be said to some people.  I mean my pre-teen and teenage years were not exactly "wine and roses" for various reasons not just for me but for some of the folk who I called friends back then.  As my best friend Daniel pointed out to me, "I'm surprised you didn't snap after [this at one point].  I'm surprised you're still alive after [this other point]."  And here I am, by hook or by crook if you wish, still full of surprises.  Stranger things have happened.
Side note: I mean the great thing about fiction is that you can say a lot things that you couldn't say at the time to some of the people around you.  Anyone who says they have never based a character on someone is probably either lying or writing non-fiction.   And the great thing about poetry, lyrics, and spoken word is that you can be even more vague about who and what you are talking about if you wish.

And yes, despite the amount of stuff that I've written, my history of being published is scarce by comparison.  I've had a few of my poems published.  I've done some journalism work.  I've had some academic work published.  Oh, and the University of West Georgia adapted a piece of mine into a part of their 1998 "Episodes in Sexuality" production.  That was all ages ago though by comparison.  More recently, I've done some blogging on the Zombie Cat Productions website.  I've looked into blogging for a few other outlets over the years.  Oh, and the scriptwriting thing.  I've been working on a few of those. (I have a draft of one that I co-wrote registered with the Writers Guild of America but whatever.)

Before anyone says anything, I know I should have more stuff published. 
I've always said my worst area professionally is 'marketing myself' and, to a lesser extent, marketing my work.  Which is odd because I am not completely clueless about marketing.  I guess it is because it is my own work and I'm by far a harsher critic of myself than anyone has ever been of me.  That might be hard for a few people to believe because I have had a few very harsh (or maybe just deranged) critics.  Even if it was not the intended result, I was essentially raised to have low self-confidence about a lot of things and arguably low self-esteem or some sort of inferiority complex.  This was largely due to various teachers during my elementary and middle school years.  (And I can't say that certain family members helped the matter any.) 

Before anyone thinks that I am getting off on some sort of 'sob story', I'm not but the facts are the facts. 
And the fact is that the one thing that I've always had confidence about is my writing.  (My typing skills maybe not so much but I've always had confidence in my writing.) And I am horrid, or at the very least inept, at the concept of "marketing myself".

That said, the incompleteness of the collection of writing stuff has been on my mind for a while now.  I even started a third collection of pieces in 2013 that has also been largely incomplete (though for different reasons). The extent of it being on my mind has involved an idea for a 'fourth collection" that was somewhat of an idea for something else entirely initially.  

Contemplating how much of that stuff I can fit into the "fourth collection" of stuff.  (Dare I say that it would be called "Harbortown Tales" or something like that.)  And well, if we are being honest, if I did what I was thinking about doing, it is not something that I could complete by myself.  That is getting ahead of myself though.   Again, as I like to say, stranger things have happened.

key lime and knowing product

I have six blogs planned out, partially written, and ready to be published after some minor editing. This one is include among those six.  Just now realized that none of them edited and set to be published when I meant for them for them to be and I have been occupied working on another writing project for my friend's YouTube project for the past few weeks when I have not been playing Marvel's Avengers (which is something for another blog all together).  

This is an edit and update of a blog that was written several years ago.  There's not much to be edited and updated on this one though a few things have been added and clarified.  The original draft was written in 2013 not long after I wrote the original draft of the Sunday Morning Playlist blog.  There was a bit of venting about things that happened that weekend that can be left by the way side.  There was also a few notes to myself about trying to implement some video blog content into this blog at some point.  I still intend to do that, just not today.

Anyways... spring time is officially here. 
We're getting into that season where I will enjoy some ice cream and frozen yogurt when possible.  And while I don't eat a lot of it (in part for reasons I will elaborate on in a bit), I still manage to enjoy some about once a week (or will go throw a pin during the course of a weekend depending on the circumstances.)  Except one problem: I didn't realize how rare "Key Lime Pie" frozen yogurt apparently is.  And I would love to say that maybe it is just the area where I am living but I've not been able to find Key Lime Ice Cream or Yogurt much of anywhere.  However, this still seems to be case after moving from the area where my dad use to live back to the area where my mom and step-dad live due to the health issues getting worse.

It is bad enough that the grocery stores don't carry it.  The closest I've found is a Key Lime Pie 'premium gelato' that was twice the price of the same size of container of ice cream, frozen yogurt and even sorbet.  And for a while, there were a lot of "self-serve frozen yogurt" places popping up and I had hopes that they would have 'Key Lime Frozen Yogurt' in their rotation of flavors.  The employees at the places I went to either didn't know or said they were pretty sure they didn't have it. 

Spoiler Alert: Key Lime Pie is my favorite flavor of Frozen Yogurt and one of my favorite ice cream flavors.  Especially if I can put graham cracker crumbs on top of the frozen yogurt.  It has been one of my favorites since back in the days when I was working at a Frozen Yogurt and Ice Cream place.  I also loved the Sugar Free Irish Cream yogurt, the Coffee Yogurt, and of course the Lemon Yogurt and Lemon sorbet.

But my point here is not simply about my love of Key Lime Pie frozen yogurt, it is about the employees at those shops not knowing if they carry a product or even it in rotation.  Though it is not simply that, it is about knowing your product in general.  And even to some extent, knowing your audience.

As I mentioned, I use to work at a yogurt and ice cream shop.  I worked periodically there for eleven years and I knew every flavor we had in rotation.  In short, I knew the product I was selling.  To me, knowing the product you are selling is basic 'week one or two' of any job.  I might be being a bit harsh there but the general idea is there.  You learn what products your business sells and if it is seasonal then when it will be available to customers.

In our case, Key Lime was a seasonal flavor.  The employees there knew this and could tell customers this if we were asked.  Some of us at the store (not including the owner/manager) were even able to state that we get it in from May to September and usually had it available till the the first week of October just due to the rotation schedule of flavors. (From the beginning of September to around the end of January, we had Pumpkin Pie in rotation if anyone is curious.)   If we wound up with Key Lime outside of that then it was because had left over or we got the occasional early batch in stock.  (Usually the latter but sometimes the former.)  And even if you are not selling ice cream and yogurt, if you work in a place that has seasonal stuff, it is important to know.  Most restaurants will even do employee meetings to highlight seasonal menu items and special promotions items.  And employees should at least make an effort to be familiar with the menu.

For example, there were a lot of Hispanic families who came in on Sunday afternoons at that yogurt shop that I worked at years ago.   Most of them got one of three items: a Yogurt Parfait (with strawberries and peaches usually), a banana split, or a waffle ice cream cone with either strawberry or butter pecan ice cream or yogurt.   We also made a bunch of smoothies but those were scattered amongst all the customers.  It was noted though that we sold a LOT of those three items to that group of customers and so we had it ready for them on Sundays.

And while that yogurt and ice cream shop that I worked at is no longer there, and I've long since moved on from working there too, many of the general lessons that I learned there still apply.  Especially in food service and retail but in other areas too.  (Side note: that whole section of the mall is no longer there actually.  They tore down that whole section of the mall where the theater, food court, arcade and other shops were located and replaced it with a sporting goods store.)  If you learn about the business you are working for and then become familiar with the market, you will be able to increase your chance of success with just about any field.  Generally, you will at least find some degree of success at the very least.  In terms of food service, you will be able to recommend menu items when the customer is either not sure or doesn't see what they are looking for at the moment.   If by some chance you are out of the product they would usually want then you can suggest an alternative.  You've a 50/50, maybe even a 60/40 of getting the sale.  The use in retail is a bit different but the same basic rules apply.  While it is harder to know your customers, unless you have a small business or some sort of mom and pop store, it is entirely possible to let regular customers know about new products and other things of that nature.

And furthermore, I will dare say that knowing the market can also help you with knowing your audience in terms of "content creation".  It is a bit harder perhaps to get a handle on in a lot of cases but not impossible.  And while it is a bit different when dealing with "content creation" than working in a restaurant, some basics still apply.  Though this is something to delve into another time.

All this talk about ice cream and frozen yogurt, plus it being almost 80 degrees out... 
I am now wanting some ice cream or frozen yogurt.  

Cheers.