My Mount Rushmore
Oct. 12th, 2018 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reidharriscooperWe all have pantheons. People we place on a higher pedestal. Icons, influences, luminaries, the individuals who prestige have been a greater part of our make up. Some of us have more than others. Some can name one person who meant everything to them, a single shining monument. Such as the ones surrounding the area of the Smithsonian to presidents Washington and Lincoln or the small dedications throughout Central Park to authors Hans Christian Andersen and Louis Carroll. Then there's the large rocks sculpted in South Dakota depicting Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt. Titled Mount Rushmore as that was the name of the actual mountain where Gutzon Borglum and his team created the now famous landmark.
If made today by a different set of artists but with the same parameters one might wonder which presidents would be chosen. I have quite a strong background in history and while Washington would definitely make the cut as being the first president, and Lincoln for during the Civil War, I would have to say FDR despite his failings would replace Theodore or Jefferson.
Yet if the project was solely mine alone to represent not American political history but myself things become much harder. I am made up of art, music, dance, comedy, drama, writing, reading (and even some arithmetic, but actually just business math). To create a single “Mount Rushmore” would be nigh impossible. I could surely choose one individual from four fields that influenced me, but it would feel like I was being remiss of someone. Therefore more mountains would have to be found and more structures made. If kept to just the four I admit I could break it down to Jason Robards*, Billy Joel*, Theodore Geisel*, and the Iceman King Parsons*. That would respect my acting, singing, writing, and professional wrestling interests. Fields I truly reflect in. They would be such an incomplete picture though. I would truly need to make 100s of "rushmores" to really encapsulate all the influences that made me into me, the esoteric enigma locked in a maze hidden in a labyrinth that is a puzzle of my own making yet can't remember how it begins or ends.
So before that final sculpture I shall begin with one depicting four men of comedy. Four men who when I am in a deep enough state of REM yet tangibleness have found myself taking a riverboat to a cabin to play poker and discuss the intricacies of performing, creating and being in front of audience with. While all four of them were amazingly funny, they were also just true craftsman and great at everything including singing which they still brought that polish of funny with every time.
Andy Kaufman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kpBzUQHYtM
Sam Kinison:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiSIfgGvh0k
John Belushi:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSk6o5x5HlM
Rodney Dangerfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_y3Vlrs-j4 (cameo by Kaufman)
As a young lad the first books I truly recall reading were by Roald Dahl. Shockingly and surprising to many, by 8 I was reading Douglas Adams (followed by Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Norman Spinrad, Phillip K. Dick, etc.), as I got older my horizons broadened. Carl Hiassen, Andrew Vacchs, Michael Crichton, John Updike, and John Irving joined my library. Then later folks like Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, Michael Chabon, and Chuck Palahniuk.
List of top books by the four authors that influenced me as person, as a reader and as a writer.
Roald Dahl: BOY, James and The Giant Peach, The Twits, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda
Douglas Adams: So Long and Thanks for All The Fish, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
John Irving: The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The 158 Pound Marriage
Chuck Palahniuk: Lullaby, Survivor, Stranger Than Fiction
A music Rushmore became so much harder. Constantly changing. Adding bands, woman, rapper, stars, but for the capture of time I chose four whose voices will stand by me forever. Whose lives, souls, choices, good and bad became part of who I was, who I am and who I shall be. Without folks like Freddie Mecury, Michael Hutchence, David Bowie and George Michael I wouldn't truly understand sexuality, freedom, the stars, demons, angels, the inside, the outside, the rhapsody, the pressure, the joy, the sadness. To hear them sing is to know them, to know them is to feel them, to know them is to realize you do not know them at all and the pursuit of understanding them and therefore maybe yourself.
Slightly Mad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6hY_50Dh0
Devil Inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv_zJrO_ptk
Space Oddity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo
Freedom 90: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A
*Jason Robards: One of the most underappreciated actors of multiple generations. A career going back to 50's television as well as a true stage actor he wouldn't land his major roles at 40 till Sidney Lumet began adapting Eugene O'Neil's work for the screen. Star turns followed, many taking advantage of his theater background but notably was Sergio Leone's classic “Once Upon a Time in the West”. The 70s gave him truly dark roles such as A Boy and His Dog and his Oscar award winning role in All The Presidents Men. Many major roles followed in the 80s, as well into the 90s (including my favorite film of all time Dream A little Dream) and he worked until his passing including in the modern classic Magnolia.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001673/
*Billy Joel: A patronizing figure if there ever was one, but as a musician and singer/songwriter, he'll always be tops to me. Piano Man, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Uptown Girl, The Ballad of Billy The Kid, The Downeaster Alexa, and little ditty that I use sing when I was 10 years old in a nightclub downtown that would help start my young career:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eAQa4MOGkE
*Theodore Geisel: If I truly need to explain Dr. Seuss to you, then well just get out of my caboose. Still if you've never seen The 5000 Fingers of Dr.T, then get your eyes off to a “TV”.
“Ice Man” King Parsons: Before there was Rock, a Stone Cold, a John Cena, or even a Hulk Hogan, there the Ice Man. A product of his time, a man of his generation, a jive talker, an ass kicker, a fashion icon, and a man all men who truly knew wrestling will say they studied if probed hard enough. Here's some Classic Parsons with him doing his thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35rbjbOFZXc
To know them is to know me, but it is also to not know me. For in this week of Coming Out Day, we must learn to accept who are are, who every one is and love them for who they identify as, even wen they don't know how they identify. I mean I identify as Ice Man King Parsons, but if he was a woman... whatever you want that to mean, cause I sure as hell don't and that's me in a nutshell (now get me out of this damn nutshell, it's scary in here).
written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
therealljidol LJ Idol presents Literary Prize Fight Week 2
If made today by a different set of artists but with the same parameters one might wonder which presidents would be chosen. I have quite a strong background in history and while Washington would definitely make the cut as being the first president, and Lincoln for during the Civil War, I would have to say FDR despite his failings would replace Theodore or Jefferson.
Yet if the project was solely mine alone to represent not American political history but myself things become much harder. I am made up of art, music, dance, comedy, drama, writing, reading (and even some arithmetic, but actually just business math). To create a single “Mount Rushmore” would be nigh impossible. I could surely choose one individual from four fields that influenced me, but it would feel like I was being remiss of someone. Therefore more mountains would have to be found and more structures made. If kept to just the four I admit I could break it down to Jason Robards*, Billy Joel*, Theodore Geisel*, and the Iceman King Parsons*. That would respect my acting, singing, writing, and professional wrestling interests. Fields I truly reflect in. They would be such an incomplete picture though. I would truly need to make 100s of "rushmores" to really encapsulate all the influences that made me into me, the esoteric enigma locked in a maze hidden in a labyrinth that is a puzzle of my own making yet can't remember how it begins or ends.
So before that final sculpture I shall begin with one depicting four men of comedy. Four men who when I am in a deep enough state of REM yet tangibleness have found myself taking a riverboat to a cabin to play poker and discuss the intricacies of performing, creating and being in front of audience with. While all four of them were amazingly funny, they were also just true craftsman and great at everything including singing which they still brought that polish of funny with every time.
Andy Kaufman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kpBzUQHYtM
Sam Kinison:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiSIfgGvh0k
John Belushi:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSk6o5x5HlM
Rodney Dangerfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_y3Vlrs-j4 (cameo by Kaufman)
As a young lad the first books I truly recall reading were by Roald Dahl. Shockingly and surprising to many, by 8 I was reading Douglas Adams (followed by Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Norman Spinrad, Phillip K. Dick, etc.), as I got older my horizons broadened. Carl Hiassen, Andrew Vacchs, Michael Crichton, John Updike, and John Irving joined my library. Then later folks like Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, Michael Chabon, and Chuck Palahniuk.
List of top books by the four authors that influenced me as person, as a reader and as a writer.
Roald Dahl: BOY, James and The Giant Peach, The Twits, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda
Douglas Adams: So Long and Thanks for All The Fish, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
John Irving: The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The 158 Pound Marriage
Chuck Palahniuk: Lullaby, Survivor, Stranger Than Fiction
A music Rushmore became so much harder. Constantly changing. Adding bands, woman, rapper, stars, but for the capture of time I chose four whose voices will stand by me forever. Whose lives, souls, choices, good and bad became part of who I was, who I am and who I shall be. Without folks like Freddie Mecury, Michael Hutchence, David Bowie and George Michael I wouldn't truly understand sexuality, freedom, the stars, demons, angels, the inside, the outside, the rhapsody, the pressure, the joy, the sadness. To hear them sing is to know them, to know them is to feel them, to know them is to realize you do not know them at all and the pursuit of understanding them and therefore maybe yourself.
Slightly Mad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6hY_50Dh0
Devil Inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv_zJrO_ptk
Space Oddity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo
Freedom 90: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A
*Jason Robards: One of the most underappreciated actors of multiple generations. A career going back to 50's television as well as a true stage actor he wouldn't land his major roles at 40 till Sidney Lumet began adapting Eugene O'Neil's work for the screen. Star turns followed, many taking advantage of his theater background but notably was Sergio Leone's classic “Once Upon a Time in the West”. The 70s gave him truly dark roles such as A Boy and His Dog and his Oscar award winning role in All The Presidents Men. Many major roles followed in the 80s, as well into the 90s (including my favorite film of all time Dream A little Dream) and he worked until his passing including in the modern classic Magnolia.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001673/
*Billy Joel: A patronizing figure if there ever was one, but as a musician and singer/songwriter, he'll always be tops to me. Piano Man, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Uptown Girl, The Ballad of Billy The Kid, The Downeaster Alexa, and little ditty that I use sing when I was 10 years old in a nightclub downtown that would help start my young career:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eAQa4MOGkE
*Theodore Geisel: If I truly need to explain Dr. Seuss to you, then well just get out of my caboose. Still if you've never seen The 5000 Fingers of Dr.T, then get your eyes off to a “TV”.
“Ice Man” King Parsons: Before there was Rock, a Stone Cold, a John Cena, or even a Hulk Hogan, there the Ice Man. A product of his time, a man of his generation, a jive talker, an ass kicker, a fashion icon, and a man all men who truly knew wrestling will say they studied if probed hard enough. Here's some Classic Parsons with him doing his thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35rbjbOFZXc
To know them is to know me, but it is also to not know me. For in this week of Coming Out Day, we must learn to accept who are are, who every one is and love them for who they identify as, even wen they don't know how they identify. I mean I identify as Ice Man King Parsons, but if he was a woman... whatever you want that to mean, cause I sure as hell don't and that's me in a nutshell (now get me out of this damn nutshell, it's scary in here).
written for
therealljidol LJ Idol presents Literary Prize Fight Week 2 
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2018-10-12 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-13 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-12 10:52 pm (UTC)Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave.
Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux
Et le mômerade horsgrave.)
(German: Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
Und aller-mümsige Burggoven
Die mohmen Räth' ausgraben.)
Someone should attempt Dr. Suess. (so far "En fisk, to fisk, rød fisk, blå fisk" just doesn't cut it. (Norwegian) BTW check for spelling and story of Gutzon Borglum:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutzon_Borglum,
no subject
Date: 2018-10-13 06:53 am (UTC)Rather have typos then nothing for you to read. Thanks for reading, appreciating and also for catching that one, so I can definitely fix it.
Dr. Seuss has been translated into many languages btw.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/91114/how-are-dr-seusss-books-translated
no subject
Date: 2018-10-13 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-14 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 07:21 am (UTC)My collections for both are obscenely large.
Glad you enjoyed and are a fellow appreciator of both men's works.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-14 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 07:22 am (UTC)Deciding who was seriously hard.
The names that didn't make. The folks who basically Colorado would be no more once i was done.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 03:46 pm (UTC)✌😊 ~~~D
no subject
Date: 2018-10-15 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 07:34 am (UTC)Iceman did indeed make one his early starts in Boesch's NWA territory of Houston. He also worked in UWF, USWA, WCCW, AWA.
If you truly look at 80s wrestling history, he was there and there is tons of footage of it. He was not just a major influence on me... he influenced everyone.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-15 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-16 11:59 pm (UTC)Bravo!
no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-17 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-18 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:20 pm (UTC)Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-18 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-18 04:47 pm (UTC)I really enjoyed this and the trip into nostalgia. ✌😊 ~~~d
no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:21 pm (UTC)Thanks and you're welcome.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-19 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-19 03:12 pm (UTC)I love your take on the prompt and the pictures add to it.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-19 09:57 pm (UTC)I think out of all of the various themes and approaches here, the one most surprising would seem to be Theodore Geissel-- though I think he's pretty awesome. But then if you remember this quote,
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
it actually sums up the entire point of this piece!
no subject
Date: 2018-10-23 10:23 pm (UTC)