Celebrating the Holidays

We had our office staff, teachers and engineers Christmas, Hannukah, and all purpose seasonal holiday party this Sunday last, December 11, at Firenze Osteria; Lisa Long’s establishment on Lankershim Blvd. In what Lisa calls Toluca Lake.

One very large table in our own separate banquet room, was set up for us with all the frills one might need for the most warm and friendliest crowd to be found anywhere in Los Angeles on this special afternoon / evening event. Counting Cathy and da harv we had twenty-four there to eat and be merry. Only three of our Kalmenson & Kalmenson team was unable to attend.

Our team attendance included:

Cathy Kalmenson, Harvey Kalmenson, Donna Dubain, Michele Jastremski, Debbie Caruso, Lisa McCullough Roark, Leah Swetsky, Scott Holst, Steve Staley, Denise Krueger,

Lynnanne Zager, Kathy Grable, Samantha Robson, Melique Berger, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jill Remez, Doug Gochman, Jacob Cipes, Andrew Racho, Sara Cravens, Ashley Nguyen, Mitch Urban, Ben Lepley, Marie Bagnell.

Our evening's menu:

Each year we have a theme for our celebration. This year it was “A Toast To Our Future Together”, in twenty-five words or less. Surprisingly each and every one in attendance were able to write an appropriate toast staying within the twenty-five-word guideline. All guests showed up on time, prepared, and ready to go. We asked that the clinking of glasses, and the sipping of wine not be done until the end of the final toast. This ended up being a suggestion not adhered to by each of our colleagues. Some managed to actually consume twenty-four sips.

As usual we began with Cathy Kalmenson as our opening presenter (act). She was introduced by Mitch Urban who took on the presence of the “Sergeant At Arms” at a joint session of congress, as he called everyone to attention and saying, “Mr. Chairman, it is my great pleasure, and distinct honor, to introduce the beautiful president of Kalmenson & Kalmenson Cathy Kalmenson.” Cathy with great pleasure accepted the applause graciously, and began her presentment by humorously recapping the past year; highlighting in a most descriptive fashion the joys of our business, and the pleasurable accomplishments of our Kalmenson & Kalmenson teammates.

And once again as is our usual custom I brought up the rear. My comments almost always are spurred on by how taken I am with our team. Our people have a great deal in common with the men and women who are members of our armed services; every one of them is a volunteer. Every one of them takes pride in their professional choice of occupation. Every one of them must be accepted by a leader and then accepted by the people they themselves are paid to lead professionally.

Maybe I should modify my statement about being a volunteer. A person who desires to enter our military; they are the ones who truthfully should be called volunteers. They fill out an application for employment with the service branch of their choice, fill out the forms, take a series of physical, psychological, and aptitude tests, and if they come up to an acceptable standard, they are then officially inducted into that particular branch of the service.

Our requirements at Kalmenson & Kalmenson are a little different than the military, although some would say the Kalmenson’s are tougher to become a part of. Usually we are the ones who offer a prospective teacher or engineer the opportunity to become part of our team, only after we have known them for a considerable length of time. Most of the people, who join us, do so, after one or two things having taken place, either they have been in on numerous occasions as an actor for an audition directed by me, or they are current or past students, studying with us. In any case nothing is done quickly. Each of them has been personally participating in a testing program, long before they are made aware of it. When the right time becomes apparent, they will be asked if they would like to enter into a Kalmenson & Kalmenson training program. It should be pointed out, without variance there is never any salary or payments involved during the training period. These are all hand picked folks with far more natural desire to succeed than the average person out there. All are working actors, who bring with them the desired credentials for success. By accepting our conditions for entering into our demanding training regimen, they are in essence volunteering for a service unlike any other out there.

Many who read this will judge my next statement. Those who interpret, without the benefit of having their own personal years of experiences to forage through, will never have the capabilities, of understanding the true meaning of excellence.

I had before me a homogeneous group of individual intellects, banded by desire; culturally speaking a language driven by integrity and pride of accomplishment. These are the people who agreed to volunteer when they were asked to do so. In that room on our special Christmas and holiday night, Cathy and I were able to beam without the benefit of any artificial light. Our team provided us with the best toast imaginable. They represent our name as if it were their own.

“If they don’t learn, you aren’t teaching.”

John Wooden

Kalmenson & Alone

A Throng of one

Without balance or justification
A stand-alone throng of one
Reviewed daily by way of mirror
As often as one might appear
Look what joy I see in me
No questions allowed
More speed when space need not be shared
Lacking despair, for none was ever there
What was has always been
A one sided building leaning
Towards Kalmenson
At one with being alone.


The Decision Making Process


For sure all family’s are different with regard to the decision making process. What is or isn’t important may have enormous variances from home to home around the country, your own neighborhood, or even the world. The case of vanilla or chocolate sounds so simple, but is it?

Three guys bring home some ice cream to surprise their families at the end of a workday. The scenario will vary.

In house number one the kids are eagerly awaiting Dads entrance; they’re all over him from the moment he comes into the picture. They over-react with yelling and screaming about what Dad has brought home with him. Their display shows how they couldn’t care less about the package he has with him. Believe it or not; the kids are hyped up about seeing their Dad; what a concept!
House number two; Dad shouts out, “I’m home”. No answer; the kids are busy watching Sponge Bob.



Lillian

I would be destined to remember this one morning in November; not that it was morning, or even the month or the year, which gave it an extra specialness, not as an earth-shattering event. Logic provides remembrance of ones own birth as just about an impossibility to forget. And lest I forget, the woman who carried me through to a full time pregnancy, found it her natural duty in life, to remind me whenever it was at all possible, that mine was indeed the most difficult pregnancy ever recorded as such. In her very own words, “You were a painful little infant to carry around for so many months, and an even more painful child to deliver.” She also had an unbelievable story about the number of hours she was in labor. I know my first two words on earth must have been, “I’m sorry.” And of course her response,” You should be!!!” Auspicious, wouldn’t you say?

A day or single moment added to many, through my early years which laid wide open what was mine, always and forever; they say seventy five percent of who we are, and most likely what we will turn out to be, coincides rampantly with what became ours by way of environment. In other more simple terms: It’s mostly about bloodline, baby. When do we allow for the acknowledgment of what is ours alone, and what was given to us unknowingly by a parent, or perhaps both mother and father?

Like so many boys who became men before me, I grew up with a heavy dose of hero worship for my dad. The thought of being anything at all like my mother was beyond my comprehension. In my mind mothers were there to take care of the house, prepare the food, and in general be a family caterer. She couldn’t possibly help me with the important things like playing baseball, or attending baseball games, or listening to baseball games on the radio.

(Yes, I did say radio. When I was a young boy, television had not yet made an appearance. My father and I spent many hours together sitting in front of the family radio listening to a sporting event, or to one or more of the popular radio shows.)


What could I possibly say about Lillian, to capture her nature, as one of the most benevolent people I’d ever meet during my lifetime? Many that met Lillian did not share my feelings and felt the opposite to be true. She was a wildly swinging patriot of the United States. She took this country personally, as if God had given it to her. Her character traits were by no means cultivated. Love, laughter or anger, she shot from the hip. So it came as no surprise that Lilly treated a person’s uncertainty as a gesture of deceit. Extremely quiet people occurred to her as having something up their sleeve. These were the folks she might never trust. The woman didn’t enter a room, she penetrated; without a word she became a focal point. Her words could be sweet or sour, matching a temperament capable of instant change, often times in mid sentence. And At Lillian’s Court, without reverence or resemblances of sweet talk,
The walk she walked was hers.

Lillie’s Convictions

Solar Power

• It never rose and it never flew; there for it was bullshit they blew.
• Politicians
• To every answer you can find a new question. For every question those who understood neither would elect another question, and then you proudly take office without a prayer to succeed, or promises can you fulfill?

Neighbors

• If each one sweeps before his, or her, own private door, the whole street is clean. But what may remain within each mans home, may never be seen.

Marriage

• Don’t change for me, but do allow yourself the ultimate pain and gratification of some degree of alteration. And if not alteration, perhaps making a marriage license cost prohibitive as the solution for half of the pending divorces. If most people couldn’t afford to get married, we would have far fewer divorces.

Divorce

• If the married couple doesn’t have children the divorce would be free of charge. A simple goodbye would do the trick. People who have brought children on to this earth would not be eligible for divorce until the youngest of the children reached age eighteen. Disrespectful children would not be allowed to reach the age of eighteen.

Understanding Love

As in things from childhood, never understood
When a parent gives voice to them
Some children never will or would
They must take what is given
And know all told must be true
When a child listens early on to a parent
Without living experiences
Never understanding
Never understood.

Positive Thinking

There are times when I wonder why I write a blog. Many years ago when I first picked up a pen for profit I was told in no uncertain terms to prepare for criticism. At least then I was being paid, and somehow indecision regarding the validity of my work didn’t seem to get to me quite as much as it does today. There were times when I was working for a newspaper that I wondered if anyone was actually reading what I had to say. It was like I was writing an obituary column for those readers who had already died. No wonder they didn’t make comments.

I can remember early on, about thirty years ago, when I was a guest on a radio talk show, and found myself wondering whether there was anyone listening in to what I was saying. The host smiled and said with a sly wink, “Wait until we open up the phone lines for questions and comments”. It was then I found out the real importance of them having a producer who also functioned as a screener: Some of the callers were really screw loose with what they had to say. One of the kids at the radio station called it pounce time. I found out quickly what he was getting at. There are people out there who devote their energies towards indiscriminate attacks on whomever they can find who isn’t in a position to retaliate. These are the unpaid critics, the "wannabes" that don’t begin to have the talent or the fortitude to make it on their own. (There was a time delay, so luckily most of these nut jobs couldn’t get through.)

Today there exists a new and equally parasitic clutter the creative world must deal with. They are still categorized as critics, and their psychological thrusts are the same as most those other bygone eras produced. But today’s rock-throwers have far greater capabilities than ever before in the history of communications. All a person needs is a computer, a phone, a screen, and an acidic condition in order to render their dissertation to a world in waiting. About one year ago I was cajoled to venture fourth into the wide world of “blogdom”. In doing so I promised myself I would not take to heart any really mean spirited critiques any of my readers might offer. Admittedly, my promise to myself at times is hard to live with.

***

One Hundred Blogs Later

Writings, scribbling(s), statements of what have become lived in facts...receiving things from people, often the reality of tainted distortions of the real truth, or the truth as they perceive it. I try not to let another human beings misgivings about life, as they have lived it, get in the way of my attempts at remaining positive.

The majority of people offering their personal sentiments regarding my opinions, as I continue to scribe, have been positive in nature. Many have thanked me for reminding them of what they themselves know to be true. Most are reflections of little tidbits from my own past, which helped me during my own down times.

I doubt if we can uncover very many folks in the entertainment business that have reached a noteworthy degree of success without experiencing first hand a pitfall or two, or three, or four, or more. My own are numerous.

If I were to ask a person what gave them the right to vote for someone other than who I voted for, I believe I would instantly earn the title of one of the world's most boorish men. But what about an obviously bitter old person, who was never at any point of creative acceptance in their life, questioning why I have the nerve to write a blog, and further going on in asking if I’m seeking out a new career. To this person, I felt duty bound to offer my thank you. I will forever feel indebted to you for offering your boorish direction. You have given me the fortitude to go on with an even greater display of positiveness than ever before. Bless you for taking the time to let some of the vindictiveness seep from the core of uselessness that has centupled as you continue your creative condemnation during the remainder of your senior years.