Author: GreggPSullivan
My mother was a lovely woman, loved children and creating magnificent memories for all of us to carry with us forever No one did Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween better than she did. She was one of the first “Super Moms” being a “Rosie the Riveter” during WW II, a truly masterful housewife and home maker and business woman as well. Here is a one of my favorite pictures of her from her glamour years, a picture of the man she married, my father, her parents and a picture of her and I in a limo when I flew her out to LA to show her my studios and introduce her to the film industry. The picture of us in the limo has a special meaning to me because she really didn’t know what I was doing out in LA. I remember how proud of me she was and how happy it made her to see my name in the credits on 60 Minutes when I worked at CBS in New York but my carreer move out to Hollywood was a mystery to her so I flew her out and gave her the grand tour.
As God is my witness, here is a story that’s too good to be true, but it is. Her flight out to LA got her into LAX pretty late. I had a limo at my disposal all the time out in L.A so who knew it would be such a treat for her when I carried her luggage to the stretch that would take us to the Burbank Hilton. She just giggled with delight when she realized that the long black limosine waiting at the curb outside of baggage at the airport ternminal was waiting for her and loved the ride and being welcomed to Hollywood in such a fashion, but what happened next was too surreal to imagine. While driving from LAX to the hotel she asked me if she was going to see any movie stars. “Yes Mother, you’re going to see a lot of movie stars and witness a lot of “Lights, Camera, Action” I answered
Well, God, or as I like to call her, “The Divine Imagination Itself” was front and center and with us in that limo writing a script for my mother that even I could not have come up with. When we got to the Burbank Hilton it must have been 1 A.M in the morning. The Hotel has an entrance door to the lobby that is very set back from the driveway and curb where guests are let off and there’s a very long awning that extends from the door to the curb. At the end of the awning right where it ends at the curb is one spotlight that points straight down to the sidewalk. When we drove up to the hotel everything looked pretty dark and shut down for the night except for one solitary person who was standing all alone at the end of that awning right under that spotlight. When we pulled up and the limo driver opened the door, my mother got out of the limo and came face to face with the lone woman who was standing directly under that single spotlight at the end of the awning. That woman was Debbie Reynolds It was so surreal you couldn’t believe your eyes, but there was Debbie Reynolds standing all by herself, not another person in sight, to be the first person my mother would meet on her trip out to see her son in Hollywood.
I think my mother froze in disbelief, as I think I also did, at the sight of this cute little mega star from my mothers era. “Hello” Debbie said to my mother as we both stood jaws to the floor. We exchanged some polite conversation and seeing Ms, Reynolds just standing there I offered her my limo to drive her wherever she needed. Debbie declined saying her car was about to arrive. We all said goodnight and my mother and I proceeded to the check in counter and up to her room to settle her in. I could not have scripted that scene if I had tried, and all my mother could say in disbelief through her joyful laughter was, “That was Debbie Reynolds !!!”
As promised, I introduced my mother to a lot of movie stars during her stay but her hands down favorite by far was meeting Johnny Depp who I had on my backlot when we were shooting Hunter Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. There’s a lot more to that and to the story of bringing my mother out to see what her son was up to out in Hollywood but I’ll leave that for my novel at http://thebaysideexperiment.com/
I’ll just end this Mother’s Day remembrance by saying, I loved her very much, loved making her happy more than anything in the whole world, think of her all the time and have a life that’s been very blessed to have had her as my mother Love you Mother. Forever and Always — at BaysideLiveTV.com Headquarters.
My first job at CBS was audio assist for Billy on the Cronkite News. I’d plug the mic in and test it during set up and then clip it on Walters tie after he sat down at the beginning of the show. Joe Schwartz and Dave Dorsett were the cameramen and during one of the commercial breaks Dave would have a move from one position to another and my job was to pick up Dave’s camera cable and move it along with Dave as he moved the camera. Then I’d break down the mic after the show. That was it. After about three weeks on the show when I went to put the mic on Walter who seemed like he was in a bad mood he spoke up really harshly to Arty Bloom who was directing and said, “Can the Director or Anyone in the control room hear me?” and Arty got on talk back and said “Yes, what do you need Walter?’ and Walter laid into him something fierce and said , “Isn’t anyone going to be polite enough to introduce me to this nice young man who’s been helping me with my mic for weeks now ?” and boy did everyone from Arty in the control room to Joe Schwarz and Lock Wallace the stage manager hop to and started apologizing to Walter who said ‘ don’t apologize to me, it’s this nice young man you need to apologize to ” after which Walter asked me my name and shook my hand and welcomed me to the show. Obviously a memory and moment in my career i will never forget.
Mickey ,
Categories
My Contract with Technology and Industry
We’re on the cusp of a social and spiritual evolution revolution and everyone I know in Hollywood, expecially the writers are all marking out their territories and preparing to stake their claim in some pretty exciting stuff that’s headed our way culturally and that you’re just starting to see creep into our movies and cultural consciousness.
A lot of what we are and are becoming is and has been and will continue to be dependant upon technology. But what of these new social media technologies and of their ever changing formats, status and independence from their creators (us) and what of their questionable permanance?
I don’t want to give away all my stuff here but Facebook could be a house of cards, just like the behemoths that came before that we thought would live forever and we thought were made of granite like Compuserve and AOL, it seems inevitable that it will fall to “The Next Big Thing”. It’s what the next big thing is there to do. So, we use facebook now to showcase ourselves, enhance our public personnas and internally construct and fuel our own self creating. But make no mistake about it, by the very nature of our constructions and hunger for change and insatiable appetite for stimulation, facebook will be left behind like an old style of clothes (unless it adopts one fundamental principle that I am not giving away here) and being your own aggregate of content is where it’s at for all of us.
Beside’s why would you ever place yourself in the hands of someone else who can pull the plug.
So, this is my “Contract with Technology. It speaks to my greatest concerns.
It is said that what separates us from the apes, and all other life forms, is Technology.
Technology is a tool, an external, artificial creation of mankind, that we develop to aid us in our abilities for provide, produce and survive.
Technology did not create mankind, though to the alien observer, one might wonder who’s leading who and who’s more dependent upon the other for the continuance of their existence.
The Internet, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the part Social Media technology is now playing in the evolution of our species needs to be taken into serious consideration, and redefined for the role we choose to let it take and as being at our command at all times, because technology becomes obsolete faster than we do and to get too attached and dependant upon any one techology is to be rendered obsolete and taken down with it .
We are “The Content” and Content is King and let us never let anyone involved with the technologies of the delivery systems delude themselves into thinking otherwise.
So, here is my “Contract with Technology’
With every software I’ve ever used there has been an agreement with “Terms and Conditions” that I’ve had to agree to in order to use that software.
I will admit that I have clicked on the “Agreed” button to the Terms and Conditions agreement many times without reading those terms and conditions completely.
I will also point out that I have witnessed the terms and conditions I’ve agreed to become amended, changed and revised without my agreeing to what those changes may be.
If I haven’t agreed to any changes in terms, than I am still holding my original agreement applicable and in force.
I have also watched new language slip into the terms and conditions giving the technology supplying companies the right to change the terms and conditions, without notice, and for whatever reason. And I have noticed this language being included into the terms and conditions, though I have never, and will never agree to any contract that would provide for such complete release from responsibility to live up to it’s terms with me.
Why does it feel like an invasion of my privacy when, in order to sign onto facebook on my cell phone I am forced to allow them (Facebook) to touch and go through and even maipulate my address book to turn it into theirs to the point that their disclaimer even says that they will ” Download your Facebook friends to your Contacts app and keep their information up to date.” I didn’t ask them to do that and don’t need them poking around in my address book. Everybody knows how valuable someones address book or rolodex is, so who are they to force their way in to take mine. I have a problem with this as well as with their doing the exact same thing with my calendar. All I want is to have the ability to upload photos and posts onto my facebook page.
Therefore, — More to come
And then there’s this : “The Berne Convention Disclaimer”. On July 14, 2013, at 11:38p.m. ET, by making full use of my mental faculties and my ownership of this account in Facebook, I declare, to whom it may concern, and in particular to the administrator of the company Facebook, my author rights which are related to all my personal information, comments, texts, articles, illustrations, comics, paintings, photos, professional videos and other publications in electronic format that I spread on this site under my signature. The above on the basis of the principle enshrined in the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works, as well as with regard to the respective national copyright law. For commercial use of the aforementioned items, always must be by my written consent. By this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. These prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents or members of any team, under the direction or control of Facebook. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308 – 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute).
Note: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates.
Categories
My Contract With Humanity
My Contract with Humanity.
I’m starting to think that someday I might snap out of this
and see the world the way everybody else does.
The very thought frightens me :-} ___ . . .
I can’t say I have anything to complain about. I have everything a man could need or want. Well, almost.
Came from a great home and large loving family. Had an era in New York at the top of network television. Spent a decade out in Hollywood embedded in the movie industry and certainly have experienced a very rich life having had my share of successes with a CV to show for it that anyone would be proud of and a number of professional accomplishments that I am very grateful to have played a part in.
Anyone have any questions about what the American Dream is?
I live the American Dream life in that I have the freedom to go anywhere I want, associate with anybody I choose to associate and I seem to have the ability to place myself in any environment or geography or social strata and make my way, and I recognize and appreciate that, as an American, I live in a land of abundant opportunity and share in an open and level playing field within which I can make of myself what I will. I also have and exercise my complete and unbridled freedom of self expression.
If that’s not what our forefathers fought for and wanted us to attain and experience as Americans I don’t know what is.
I am truly a product of America, of the American way of life, and experience a life and lifestyle our country offers to all humanity and promises that anyone can lead. I am the life that people migrate here for.
Yet, I am still uneasy, edgy and anxious to experience something else, something even larger, even grander and I hunger to do more. To be open and honest, I also can’t say that I am all that happy with my America or with the rest of the world for that matter or even with the way the world works. With all there is to celebrate just from looking at where we’ve come and the life available for you and I to lead here in the United States, there seems to be just as much to be dissatisfied with and concerned about and that needs an overhaul or whose time for an upgrade hasn’t come.
I’m alarmed about so many things I see. I see the tools we created to serve us running off by themselves and taking on more importance than the humanity they were designed to serve. Our industries and financial institutions are doing whatever they please just to serve themselves. Our technologies are all over the map and multiplying exponentially and they’ve got us chasing them to the point that we are becoming like lemmings and now subservient to our technology, which is not what was originally intended.
I also see human behaviors and practices that I was taught to rise above and never to do being openly accepted and taken for granted as the norm.
Is there anyplace we can trust anymore? I don’t trust anything I hear in the news anymore. I don’t trust anything any government or government official or agency says no matter what country they’re from. I don’t believe Wall Street has been on the level since deregulation and probably wasn’t before then, and I’m still in disbelief that the people who caused so much financial damage to our country from the AIG’s to the Fanny Maes and the Freddie Macs, to the Goldwin Sacks and back, have not only NOT been brought to justice, but scattered with huge Christmas bonuses paid on our dimes supposedly to keep them from leaving the companies that they have now disappeared from. What kind of an America is this? What was that?
It does seem like these monstrously huge crimes against our culture and economy have been committed and that no one is caring or putting a good stop to them or keeping corporate crime in check and that anyone who has had access to anything, be it money or influence has been binging on it for too long.
But what concerns me the most these days is that just like we recognize there’s something wrong when we’re constantly hearing of these computer game mimicking school shootings like Columbine to New Town, and that there’s an epidemic of bullying still growing in our schools and amongst our children, there’s an epidemic of lying taking place everywhere you turn. From the highest offices to the largest corporations, even within the very granite structures and marbled corridors of the very institutions we put in place to monitor and maintain ethical practices and honest standards for us. Who is actually minding the store and who do we trust anymore?
What makes it even worse is the reality that we all feel powerless to do anything about it. As if some other, foreign culture with huge force has come into our world and taken us over and now we’re living under the control of other influences that are exploiting us. So, wait, what happened to the free, democratic America that just moments ago I was being so grateful to and thankful for ?
On this past July 4th, 2013 a very talented friend of mine Filomena (https://www.facebook.com/filomena.rosati ) posted that great quote I placed at the top of this post from one of our world’s greatest leaders and one of my top five favorite American presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower “Freedom must be earned daily and refreshed, else like a flower cut from it’s life giving roots, it will wither and die.”
How do you do that? How do you keep it refreshed and how do you earn it?
I’m going to try to think that through to come to the greatest answer, but in the meantime, rather than take my country for granted and to play my part in watching over it and giving back to the society and to the America I owe so much, and rather than just complain about the things I see that concern me and that I see as going wrong with it, I’m going to act on it and pay attention to it and devote the rest of my life to the service of our society and to You, and to anyone and everyone I come in contact with, and to see where I can at least try to make a difference and a contribution.
Starting locally, and demonstrated openly, hopefully together we can set an example universally for where things can go right and can be trusted and that’s how I’m going to try to help refresh freedom as well as truth in our society. That’s my deal “In A Nut Shell”. 😉
Some people I am told make deals with the devil to get what they want. I am going to make a deal with You, with everyone, with humanity itself to see if I can give what I’d like to see.
Here is a contract I have for you to consider and witness. Here’s my deal. I’m calling it “My Contract With Humanity”.
I’m very dedicated to my community of Bayside Queens New York these days and want to make a contribution to it, and I’m very serious about wanting to make the world a better place and to making a contribution to it and to having a positive impact on the life we all experience around us.
If the world, if my country , if my community, if even just one individual out there will help me do these things I desire this is what I’m prepared to do in return.
I will dedicate the rest of my life, in practical application each and every day to serving my community by launching a micro-market TV channel along with an accompanying smart phone app that will create jobs and serve the local area in a thousand wonderful ways that I will talk about later in a category all its own inside this blog, and I will also publish a book that will set a tone for truth telling and hopefully open a door for a new honesty and clarity to emerge, at least with all those who read it, and that will break new ground and launch a brand new genre in literature,
“The Living Novel”, which I am in the process of trade marking even as we speak :-). All I ask for here is that you remember where you heard of it first. 😎 “The Living Novel” <3 (set free to fly July 4th, 2013).
I will take every dime that comes in from these two enterprises and put it right back into them, pulling out only the minimum it will take to keep them running and cover their expenses, and nothing for myself except to cover the most minimal of costs which I will publically post in a working budget for everyone to see. I will not only disclose what I’m doing and how I’m doing it for others to learn from and hopefully profit by, I will also offer myself up as an experiment in “Transparent Living” and see if telling the truth really does set us free by being full disclosure in my transactions and by behaving as a publicly traded corporation is required.
Just as corporations are lobbying to be treated and considered as individuals, I as an individual would like to be looked at as a corporation, a walking one man IPO, and if my work is as successful as I believe it is adaptable , scalable , profitable and sustainable, that it hopefully be seen as a good investment for anyone who’d like to see these enterprises grow.
More to come –> Terms and Conditions.