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Fake People Versus Real People; to the Pain!

I was talking to a friend the other day and he happened to mention a man he knows who has recently returned to Denver from the Los Angeles area. Apparently the guy really hated Century City in particular and California in general and I — being a California man — couldn’t resist hearing exactly why he felt the way he did. The answer was pretty shocking to me:

“There are too many fake people there.

“Now — I don’t want to slam a guy I don’t even know, and — dog knows he is entitled to his own opinion, but I’d be lying if I neglected to mention that I completely agree with him on principal: California actually does harbor a lot of fake people. The difference is this… I like them better that way. In fact everyone I grew up with was pretty fake and they still are. Donnie wanted to be the next “Steve Harris“; legendary bass guitar player from the seminal English NWOHM band “Iron Maiden”. My best friend David thought he was Asian, in spite of his snow white tan and long blonde hair. I knew a guy named Kenny who could draw complete comic book pages in fine point permanent black ink without penciling, and his stuff looked better than most professional comic book artists at the time. He could do a full page, including story and art — in about 5 minutes — and he could do it on demand. Adrianne was an actress, and had been playing leading roles since she was a small child. What most people didn’t know was that she had a talent for writing and was working on her 1st screenplay at the tender age of 19.

Skot was a painter, and a record collector who just happened to be one of the best rock and punk guitarist in the OC scene. Nobody ever heard of Rich kid “Tyler” until he scored a gig with Alanis Morissette as her touring drummer. Later — I met Robert who was a working class guy from a family of hard workers, and nurtured a secret painting ‘jones’ that blew my mind, and still does. Tim was a real gangster and not to be messed with. He is also a family man and father and one of the kindest souls I have ever known.

But this guy had recently returned from the “Golden State” and had nothing good to say about it. He had been a lighting tech trying to break into the film business, and was dismayed that every other person he met was an actor, and the rest were busy polishing their latest screenplay. Even the gas station clerks had an angle; some played in bands, and others had pretensions of owning their own chain of ultra convenience stores. To hear the story told in this way it almost sounds crazy. Just who the hell do these FN people think they are?

And that is precisely my point.

Not content to walk around for the rest of their lives in the skin they were born with, they reach and strive beyond their “natural abilities” and get their GED at 24 so they can return to school and study Film Making. They surf every morning while the rest of us sleep and parlay their love for the sport into a fairly lucrative merchandising contract and later open their own restaurant to great success off Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking the endless blue of the Pacific Ocean.

To be sure, there is nothing inherently noble about entrepreneurship or “breaking into show business.” But it sure is nice to know real people who never give up no matter what and are never content to stop growing, learning, living and making big mistakes along the way — because they know that doing so is the only reliable way to get where they really want to go.

If you are out there Mr. “back from California” I hope you will understand that while I wish you well and I hope your return to a slightly saner world works out for you — I’ll take a big dream and a grand adventure any day of the week over a comfortable life in front of the TV watching other people live their dreams for me.

Full of shit or food for thought?

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