Milk and Sandwiches

In the 1970s our very own Peter Girard and his younger siblings were attending a dinner for the Broadway show, The Great White Hope, featuring James Earl Jones.

As the it turned out Pete and his brothers were seated with James Earl Jones and the resident motel clerk, Anthony Perkins, Norman Bates himself!!!

Perkins introduced himself as Tony to the family and they proceded to break bread under tense circumstances for it was Pete's older brother who had showed the younger siblings Psycho one night while their parents had slept.

Peter told me this story a while back and I was trying to remember the finer details of the story and when he sent a text earlier, to check in, I asked him to e-mail over the finer points and I'd share them here.

In a day when you get to meet everyone if the price is right this story comes from a time when that seemed so far out of reach. Normally, since Norman Bates / Anthony Perkins' work on Psycho 1,2,3, and 4 and seem to show a progression in his art and career. I'll stick to Peter for a little more time because he is the one who met "Tony" in the wild and shared a meal with him and the voice of Darth Vader, a Korean War veteran, and star of your personal favorite film, The River Niger, with Lou Gossett Jr.

For my galleons, sickles, and knuts though Pete doesn't remind me of this. He reminds me of a real life Al Pacino. Outside of Mick B. Sawyer's personal pains and struggles at the time being manifested on screen and in his related performance in King James. Another star of the show who really embodies his character work was Peter.

He played Matthew McQueen (a combination of the first Gospel account of Jesus Christ before it was added to the collection of books, letters, reports, songs, and Jewish literature known as the Bible and Steve McQueen)

He was a member of James King's Canon. In the film he gives a few Pacino-esque moments for the viewers to enjoy. The scene when he and Mark Voorhees attack a character and flee, when we filmed it, felt real, and reminded me of the line in Fight Club regarding running until it felt like battery acid was in your muscles.

Also before the next few lines; Alex Spaudwhen is badass in the movie but what he has to say isn't as weighted and measured as Ricky Roma aka Alpa Chino.

In my mind when I watch Glengarry GlenRoss my minds-eye, which is more imaginative that any AI generator, adds in Pete to this roll for these lines;

• Ricky Roma: All train compartments smell vaguely of shit. It gets so you don't mind it. That's the worst thing that I can confess. You know how long it took me to get there? A long time. When you die you're going to regret the things you don't do. You think you're queer? I'm going to tell you something: we're all queer. You think you're a thief? So what? You get befuddled by a middle-class morality? Get shut of it. Shut it out. You cheat on your wife? You did it, live with it. You fuck little girls, so be it. There's an absolute morality? Maybe. And then what? If you think there is, go ahead, be that thing. Bad people go to hell? I don't think so. If you think that, act that way. A hell exists on earth? Yes. I won't live in it. That's me.

• [pause]

• Ricky Roma: You ever take a dump made you feel like you'd just slept for twelve hours?

• Ricky Roma: [to Williamson] You stupid fucking cunt. You, Williamson, I'm talking to you, shithead. You just cost me $6,000. Six thousand dollars, and one Cadillac. That's right. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it, asshole? You're fucking shit. Where did you learn your trade, you stupid fucking cunt, you idiot? Who ever told you that you could work with men?

• Detective: Could I, uh...

• Ricky Roma: [before the detective could say anything else, Roma continues talking to Williamson] Oh, I'm gonna have your job, shithead. I'm going downtown to talk to Mitch and Murray, I'm going to Lemkin. I don't care whose nephew you are, who you know, whose dick you're sucking on, you're going out. I swear to you, you're going...

• Detective: Hey, fella, let's get this done.

• Ricky Roma: Anyone in this office lives on his wits.

• Ricky Roma: [to the detective] I'm going to be with you in a second.

• Ricky Roma: [back to Williamson] what you're hired for is to help us. Does that seem clear to you? To help us, not fuck us up. To help men who are going out there to try to earn a living, you fairy. You company man. I'll tell you something else, I hope you ripped the joint off, I can tell your friend here a little something might help him to catch you. You want to learn the first rule? You'd know if you spent a day in your life. Don't ever open your mouth 'till you know what the shot is. You're a fucking child.

• Shelley Levene: [after Roma leaves the room] You are a shithead, Williamson. If you can't think on your feet, you should keep your mouth closed.

KEY WORDS TO LIVE BY ONCE YOU HAVE BECOME A MAN

It isn't about fighting, slipping up using the first rule of Fight Club, because being a man isn't about the fist fights and masculinity you first think of when you think of being a man. The cock and balls are a given, literally by Nature, and by LIFE does wisdom comes from The Lord. Because just like what the cock and balls are built for a man does what a man does.

"You want to learn the first rule?....Don't ever open your mouth 'till you know what the shot is (or) You're a fucking child!"

That lines up Fight Club's first rule without the "oh, you said it" quiet game rules that kids play. Like in Cable Guy (1996) when Charles Napier (RIP) says, "Don't speak until spoken to!!!" when Steven is arrested for receiving stolen goods at work.

This applies on set too and in life. The brothers all sat back while Norman Bates and the son of Langston Hughes hold court.

This also applies to tardiness in the workplace and learning to be punctual. Learn to drop the nervous laughter when you fuck up and work on being on time or realize that getting up for school didn't teach you shit for work ethic and you couldn't run the Bates Motel or star in anything worth noting because the director would have to be the one doing the heavy lifting because you can't follow instructions or set yourself up.

Because timing becomes everything.

If you cannot get to work on time then what makes you think you can work with men?

I've thought about the excuses that have been pedaled my way as well, "Maybe they have to get someone ready for school or their mom is sick and they are late because of that."

Well, what if I need to hit the road at the agreed upon shift change because I too need to get someone ready for school or my mom is sick and I can't be running late. Do you think the person waiting gives a shit when I say that I'm late because you are late, and what if you are gaslighting me with your excuse, now I am spreading your heroism and sob story while looking bad to my next appointment because I could have been on time if not for you.

Not getting up earlier and hoping someone else with eat your tardiness is a soft tactic and it is rude. You aren't in a movie, nobody thinks it is cute, and it is the reason why you are being replaced. Your work ethic sucks.

It isn't about patience, it isn't about grace, it isn't about turning the other cheek. It is about working with adults. To trot out a, "we should be able to be late and not worrying about a few minutes here and there" is met with the same "live by the sword" response, "You should be more adult to get here a minute earlier and start on time."

When you drag your feet at the beach on a day off...no problem. There is no business. When I need to leave in order to get to my next client and you drag your feet then the circumstances have changed. Same as waking up on your day off versus on a work day. Different level of urgency and purpose.

This is a heart of mankind issue. This ranks up there with every job requires an earbud in one ear, a phone in one hand, and then their divided attention and shoddy work. Simpson's Do What You Feel Festival has come to life and everyone standing around asking if I've seen Idiocracy is as worthless as the guy holding a phone instead of helping you out.

We get it, you saw a movie that relates, there are millions, you trotting it out of the proverb barn like a Zombie horse, makes you feel clever, but clever isn't the wisdom that wrote the movie, and clever isn't the home-grown wisdom strain you just fired up from your brain, you are using synthetic material like and ruining your mind.

There is a different between clever and wise. Proverbs 17:28