The WWOOF program sounds great Bambu, I would love to go live on a vineyard in Italy and learn how to grow grapes and make wine.
And during the Great Depression my ancestors were grateful to be able to pick fruit. They were all starving, and any honest job was a blessing. Plus, they were Christians and believed that if you did not work then you did not eat, none of them ever accepted Welfare nor money for nothing. And even in my own life, as a boy without a father, I had to wash dogs in order to eat, my Grandmother told me "If you want to eat then you need to work." I did not have a choice, if I wanted to eat then I had to work.
So, I was raised with this wonderful work ethic, I was always a hard worker, I worked managing a dog kennel for 6 years without missing a single say of work and without ever being late, I got there early and I left late, and I took pride in every job that I had, so it was hard on me after I went to community college and to acting school to not be able to get a job in the entertainment industry. I did really well in school, and got almost all A's. And the AADA is actually very hard to get accepted into, it is a great school, and it is the oldest professional acting school in the USA. But, I could not even get auditions. They wanted me to pay money to meet the people in the entertainment industry at work shops at Take One Studios in Beverly Hills, but I do not feel that I should have to pay to audition nor to meet people, and my time is just as valuable as their time. I paid to meet a few people, but I felt dirty doing it, it just did not sit well with me. Actors get taken advantage of a lot, and making actors pay to meet people is just one more way to squeeze money out of actors.
Eventually I wrote my own movie script with the help of a college professor in Texas, and Hugh Hefner liked it, but we wanted Oliver Stone to direct it based on his work on "The Doors" with Val Kilmer, and when Oliver turned me down then Hugh Hefner backed out and I lost my financing. And no one else has even read my script, it is hard to get people to read your script without an agent, and the agents have their hands full with people who are already successful. It is hard to get an agent. It was a miracle that I got Hef to read my script. Hef was a good guy.
And I wrote a poetry book many years ago, but I could never get anyone to even read it. You need an agent for that too.
I worked for Suzanne Pleshette at her condominium high rise, as a valet / doorman and I met a lot of good people in the industry there. One guy who I met was Hal Needham, he directed "Smokey and the Bandit" and other films, and he said that he would help me to make my movie if I was able to get the money to make it, but I never got the money, and Hal died years ago. All of my connections who I met there died, Suzanne is gone, they are all gone now. I still have a wealthy friend from the Phiippines who was friends with Suzanne Pleshette, but she is very old now and I never see her, I tried to get her to help me to make my movie, but we could not get together to make it happen, plus she is a good Christian and my script is not a Christian script, it is a hard "R" with sex, drugs, rock and roll, and suicide, my script was not her style as a conservative Christian.
Right now I want to try to get my movie script into the hands of Ariana Grande, and if she likes it then she can help to get it made. She is rich, with lots of connections.
Then, once I get my movie made, if I have Ariana Grande then my film will be a huge hit, and I will be rich. Then I can publish my own books, and I can produce more movies, and I have a few ideas for some television shows. And I can buy a vineyard and winery in Italy, etc. Once I get going it will all take off.
And when people see me out there helping the homeless, and helping the orphans, and doing good deeds all around the world, then people are going to love me.
I will find a wife eventually, and I want a good, smart, beautiful wife, who the whole world loves, and who will make a good team-mate. And she could have her own brand of French perfume, and whatever she wants. I can publish my wife's books if she wants to write, and whatever else she wants. And my wife and I can travel around the world helping orphans and dong good deeds.
Time sure flies by fast. I had so many plans and now it feels like I am running out of time. In the land of opportunity I am sitting here as time just flies by.
And somehow I cannot be content with a government check and government assisted housing. I have been living in this apartment for 15 years, and while I am so grateful to have an apartment, this was never my goal. And instead of just wasting time I would love to go to Italy and learn how to grow grapes and how to make wine, I could have been learning the wine business for the last 15 years instead of just sitting here getting rejected and ignored by the entertainment industry.
The WWOOF program would be a great idea for the growers in Italy, and I would love to go to Italy and learn. It would be great to live at a vineyard in Tuscany and work under the warm Tuscan sun. The food is great in Italy too. And the Italian women are beautiful. Italy is great.
Meanwhile, instead of being ungrateful to have the blessings that I do have, I try to be grateful for food, and shelter, and for freedom. I just wish that I was able to work and make money, so that I could have a life outside of this apartment.
On the issue of something new, the new apartment complex that Annette Bening is helping to do with homeless actors, I would love to go live there. I feel so alone in the world, it would be great to live in a complex full of people who are dreamers like me. Like the building where Suzanne Pleshette lived, her whole building was full of stars, you could make movies with your neighbors.
Salute,
Tony V.
Poll
