Back up the Mountain

On set with Tank and Red at Cartoon Network’s/Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite Shoot.

It’s beautiful almost-beyond-belief here in Big Bear today. Crystal blue skies, bright sun, pine-scented breeze. Quiet and peaceful. So quite in fact, that I’ve neither seen nor heard a single soul today (other than the many dozens I’ve spoken with on the phone of course).

After the (mostly self-imposed) hell my life was the past five years, I am now that cliché. The one that goes something like… “live each day like it’s your last,” “appreciate every moment” and other such bullshit-sounding euphemisms. The past 5 years notwithstanding, sure, I’ve been on rolls before. (Read “Been There, Done That” and you’ll see exactly what I’m referring to). BUT…and this is a big one for me… I rarely stopped to smell the proverbial roses. From time to time, I consciously had what I call “How cool is this?” moments, where I would in fact appreciate –massively appreciate—what was going on. But alas, they were fleeting, and I’d get right back into that manic/frantic pace, where life just whizzed by, heart pounding like it would explode at any moment.

I’m loving and appreciating life now. And I hope it lasts.
• On one hand, I want to say, “I think I finally get it!” Which in this case would be slowing down, breathing deeply, just being appreciative.
• And on the other, we all know those people that say “5 years ago (or one year ago, or whenever…), I didn’t know anything, but now I know it all!” I find this incredibly annoying, disengenous and delusional. I’ve always just wanted to slap these brilliant-in-the-moment-know it-alls upside the head, but I find myself caring less and less about that. I don’t want to waste the energy explaining to them, or even thinking about, how they don’t know shit. And wouldn’t it be amazing if just once, “they” would say “Hey! I don’t know shit!” (or at the very least admit that, for every two steps forward, we take one back, and that we’re always learning).

I really don’t know how much I know, or how much I “get.” The possibility of incurring a brain injury notwithstanding, I know I’m a lot dumber now than I will be two years from now. And I also know that now, I like life, and appreciate it, more than ever.

On this quiet, pristine Thursday, I sit behind my “desk,” overlooking nothing but mountain, ravine and nature on three sides, with Ramone and GoGo snoozing and snoring on the floor to my left, on the white bearskin rug, just before the fireplace. I haven’t put on a pair of shoes all day, but closed a deal for Guns N’ Roses to play 3 dates in India in December. No shower, no shave, but putting the finishing touches on our new Pro Wrestling Mission website and marketing effort (Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, here we come!) And these are just two of many, many promising –and fun—things I’m working on this week. No stress, no anxiety. Just doing…

I love it here. I love it “on the road.” And a realization sets in…there is a lot to love about life. I’ve rarely “realized” this in the past, and my mission now is to make this feeling, this experience, the fiber of my being. When I was in Orlando in the early 90’s, producing television, partying with Michael Jackson, Don Johnson, Burt Reynolds, as a big-time exec for The Walt Disney Company, I was so fucking crazed that I know I never stopped to take it all in.

I was in Florida this past week. In Orlando first, visiting a very special friend. While there, I cruised around Disney property, taking it all in. “Seeing” for the first time just how incredible it is. And in the visit itself, appreciating the depth of feeling a real friendship can bring. Just feeling. And on to Miami, where I moved forward on a venture that involves what are amongst my very favorite things –beautiful women, rock music, the ocean and tropical cocktails. I’m going at this venture both like it doesn’t matter, and as if it is already happening. Both new states-of-mind for me. It might sound like I’m bragging and that a reader might say “enough already, I hope you fucking crash and burn.” I hope not. I’ve crashed and burned, about as badly as a man can, so instead, I hope you’ll wish me luck. If it comes through…when it comes through…it will make for some good material.

Coming back from Miami, I picked up my pups at Claudia’s and made a quick visit to The Cartoon Network set, where some of my friends/”clients” were working. I put clients in quotations, because I don’t formally represent anyone these days. No contracts, no exclusives. In exchange, I find that no one has any expectations of me, but conversely, are happy to hear from me when I have a gig for them. The best of all worlds. And strangely, more engagements are coming in than ever before.

On set, I got to say hello to old pals Tank Abbott, and Red “Sabre” Williams of “American Gladiator” fame. In addition to Tank and Red, my crew for this shoot (aka unapologetic name-dropping) is Roddy Piper, Evan “Joe Millionaire” Marriott, American Gladiator Deron “Malibu” McBee, Chavo Guererro, Daniel Puder, Chris Masters, UFC legend Kimo and John Morrison. Good stuff.

And then back up the mountain. Home. Just in time for this beautiful sunset.

Out back at B’s Barbeque. (Out of frame: Ramone and GoGo frolicking in the lake; me enjoying a sunset vodka and Redbull. It’s all good)