The Best Damn Dessert...

I'm not one to pass out recipes. To be honest I don't really cook either. However, after discovering this recipe this past weekend I felt compelled to share it. It was seriously the best dessert I've ever had (and I've eaten a lot of desserts). Everyone who was eating it couldn't believe how great it was. If you like apple crisp, apple pie, anything in that ballpark you will LOVE this. Don't be thrown off by the whole mountain dew thing- it adds to the whole flavor. If you live alone or don't want to make so much simply cut the recipe in half.

If I could ask the fine folks of this country to do anything. It would be to try this dessert. It's that good.

Enjoy!

APPLE DUMPLINGS

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (any crescent rolls will do)
2 apples, peeled and sliced into 8 pieces each
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (12 oz) can Mountain Dew
1 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbs. cinnamon/sugar mixture(mix 1 cup sugar and 1 tbs. cinnamon and reserve remainder for other use)

Preheat oven to 350 Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on apple slices. Roll each slice in a crescent roll. Line the dumplings in a 13 x 9 inch pan.In a medium size sauce pan, heat butter and sugar together until thesugar is melted and mixture is bubbly; remove from heat and addMountain Dew and the vanilla. Pour over crescent rolls and thensprinkle with remaining 2 tbs. cinnamon/sugar mixture. Sprinkle nutsover the top and then bake uncovered approximately 45 min. Best served warm with ice cream on top.

Broom Handle Repairs....

Indeed, these are the days my friends. After calling the air conditioner guy he informed me it would cost $1,500 to fix my ac. Great. Sounds good. Too bad I don't actually have $1,500 to fix the damn thing. After enduring another scorching Southern California day with temps reaching 101 and my abode reaching 95 I had to do something. So, I called my sister and we headed over to Home Depot and bought one of the ac wall units for $200.

To see my sister and I do home improvements is akin to watching Lucy and Ethel engaging in zany antics. As professional as we think we are, Bob Villa we are not. Take for instance my bathroom. I have a small area in the bathroom that feels like the floor has started sinking in. When you walk across it you actually can feel yourself going down. Do I call a plumber, a carpenter, someone with any real expertise on the matter? Nope. Instead my sister comes over and surprises me with something she made herself. What is it? She somehow screwed together pieces of plywood and covered them in a soft material- making it look like a rug. She then took said rug and placed it over the sunken area. What does the rug do you ask? Good question. It doesn't take care of the area with the problem. However, it does provide a sturdy rug for me and anyone else who walks over it. Sure the area still is sinking but when you walk across it certainly doesn't feel like it....

It reminds of growing up with a single mother. My mother could fix a lot of things, I just don't think they were the proper way to fix things. But as my mother always said, "as long as it gets the job done who cares." My mother used a broom handle for everything. When the sink got clogged up- use the broom handle. When the garbage disposal broke- use the broom handle. When the fridge was making a loud noise- hit it with the broom handle.

Now cut back to today. My sister and are I attempting to lift the wall unit into its space, which coincidently happens to be almost 6 feet high. We were so hot and sweaty and here we were trying to lift the darn thing over our heads (they are quite heavy) and we almost dropped it because we were laughing so hard. We finally get the thing in (note my sister didn't think it was too important to asemble certain pieces of the unit, until AFTER we had placed it in the wall- BAD IDEA). We get the work done and now we have a big gap in the wall because the unit was small for the space. What great Martha Stewart idea do we devise to cover these gaps? Just what you would expect from the two of us- packing tape and cardboard.

Okay, so at first glance it might not look like much but I am quite proud of our handywork. Sure it won't garner any awards from HGTV and it would have been much easier to call the ac guy and pay him to fix it but like my mother said- as long as it works.

I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...

Dream A Little Dream.....

In the entertainment field there is a great deal of struggle. You struggle to be heard, to be taken seriously, to be real and to maintain your child like naiveté. This can be particularly difficult when you see the ugly sides of people and the manners some will employ to get their way. I've seen and been part of this for last five years or so, and I want nothing to do with that.

I have maintained a friendship with someone I met while working together as Dressers back in 2002. We were both really passionate and determined to succeed in our desired fields. A few weeks back I sent her the latest version of my screenplay. After she read it she asked for permission to contact her Aunt. Her aunt is close friends with a Producer out in Hollywood (she lives in Pennsylvania). I couldn't believe she would even ask! Of course, I would love to meet with this guy. At the most I would be able to meet this person who could give me an honest opinion about my script/story, etc. (not that negative comments would in any way deter me from getting my film made). Even though I work for a producer, she is fairly new to the film arena so she is interested in her own future and her own projects.

Now let’s cut to this morning. Said friend informed me her aunt spoke with her producer friend and he liked the idea and said he would be interested in meeting me for lunch. He proceeded to tell her that IF he liked the script he would pitch it Mandalay Pictures!!!! After those words came out of her mouth I honestly think my heart stopped for a fleeting moment. This man doesn't even know me and he would like to meet ME. Even if nothing were to transpire from our meeting, the very fact he would take time out and talk with me- that means everything. In this business it is so hard to find people in your desired field to talk with and glean insight from.

Who knows what will come of all this. But I am positive that it is yet another link in the chain to my accomplishing my dreams. It's been a long time in coming but I feel things are really changing. And with the recent passing of my mother everything is intensified. The feelings, the desires, the laughter, the sadness- life. It's all so much more real and so powerful. Everything has been leading up to this very place I'm at. To this person I am today. I know this. I feel this....

In the Heat of Day....

My AC is currently on the fritz and I am ready to pass out from heat exhaustion. It is so hot in here. The thermostat currently reads 94 and its only 2PM. I pray it doesn't get any hotter but with tempatures expected to reach 101 today I don't think that will be the case.

Oh, to be back in Boston and imagining the days of lovely 50 degree weather.

Welcome to Hollywood.. What's Your Dream...

Oh, how I often recall the infamous words said at the end of Pretty Woman. That is what I think of Hollyweird every time I drive down its streets. So many sad, lonely faces. I hate LA. Everyone wants to be in the entertainment industry. The cashier at the grocery store has his headshots available for display and the dentists really want to be studio executives. It's a town built on illusions. A place where you can rise just as hard as you fall....

When people ask me what I want to do I usually reply "accountant or teacher." I don't want to tell them the truth. Why would it matter? It's the same as so many thousands of others in this town. And in this business everyone lies.

I don't have to be these people to succeed. I don't care if I have to fund every film I make for the rest of my life- I will. Look at the great artists like John Cassavetes and John Sayles. They refuse(d) to sell out and compromise their ideals. They made the decision to make the movies they wanted to and they did it their way. It doesn't matter if people don't recognize their names like they do the Spielberg's or Cameron's. Their work is equally important and above all they've told incredible, real, human stories.

I don't want to produce movies so I can have lunch at the Ivy, drive around in a BMW, own a mansion in Beverly Hills and play this phony Hollywood game. I want to create films because I want to have people- real people like myself and my friends- have a world they can escape to for two hours. A place where they can forget about the impending bills, their children fighting in wars, their sadness- all forgotten...Even if it's only briefly. They'll exist in a place where they can laugh, cry, scream loudly at the theater- whatever.

I can see why this town could really get you down. So many rejections and so few opportunities. But it reminds me of what I learned when I first moved to New York City to attend college. In this business people are always throwing statistics at you. "Oh , well you should have a back up. Only .01% of people actually make it." Just typical crap like that. And I always thought- what is it that determines who those supposed ".01%" were? What made them so special?

And on my first day of classes we had to go around and do the 'what's your name, what do you want to do' speil. And then I found out. When people would say "I want to be an actor...but it's so competitive so if that doesn't work I'll be a banker." Or "I want to writer but if that doesn't work I'll be a chef."

I knew right then and there why I would make it and they would not. It wasn't because I was more talented it was because when they had long packed up and gone home and started their so called "back-up" careers- I was still trudging ahead. In my rodent filled apartments eating top Raman for the sixth week in a row- I refused to give up. And I have been doing just that for what seems like an eternity. And I will continue to do so. Whatever this is that makes me want to do this. It's bigger than me. It's my destiny.

Children For The Soul....

This picture is of one of my best friends little girl, Annabella (Bella). With all the crazy and often overwhelming things that are going on in this world. To see such a happy and pure face can certainly reinvigorate your spirit.