7 Years in Hollywood

MEXICO TO MARS

2012-01-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of a human being? Jose Saramago

By Ken Sheetz

Like the trip to Italy that began DreamShield in May of 2010, I was bartering a spiritual workshop, this one in Mexico, for social media services. And like Italy, with that barter there were still expenses for travel. Earning money for a spur of the moment trip during the holidays was tough, especially in a disintegrating economy. But through sheer will power to attend this once in a lifetime class on the one year countdown to the end of the Mayan calendar I got the dough together and was on my way to the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan Mexico.

Photo by Stephen Collector

Soon I was learning Toltec wisdom from a world-renowned master. It was pure joy. My consciousness rapidly expanding. Old patterns being discovered in the ruins of Teo and erased.The goal of the 4 day workshop was to set our group dreaming of a better 2012 was a perfect fit to my DreamShield mission. I felt divine guidance to be in Teo for the one year countdown to the end of the Mayan age.

But, I must admit, I also felt out of my league to be attending such a gathering of eagles as the teacher called us one day in Teotihuacan Mexico when we were atop the Pyramid of the sun. Even though a natural eagle pattern has emerged in my hair as it's whitened since seeing angels in Italy the first time. Yeah, an eagle in my hair and I still have doubts.

It's an odd stage for me. I am no longer a newbie to spirit work and but there's still a lot I do not have a clue about. I feel like a spiritual teenager. Well, a good thing to feel as I turn 60 in the fall of this amazing year of 2012!In any case, I certainly felt honored to be in Teo.

Fellow advanced students, I've learned at these gatherings, are as much a part of the learning as from the master. One classmate, a charming man from Turkey, shared meditation technique for quieting the mind at the pool I had not heard about.

Later, I walked deep into the big garden behind the hotel, which sits itself upon ruins of Teo, that have never been excavated, and gave his technique a whirl. It involves dividing your attention in two, giving half your awareness to a sound and the other to something visual.I

lay on my back on the manicured resort lawn and focused on the clouds and the feel of the grass in my hands. Soon I went deeper than I ever have in meditation. I saw dazzling energy erupt from all the Teotihuacan pyramids at once and was visited by the three angels from Italy that built the DreamShield in May of 2010.

MISSION TO MARS, 12.20.11

I looked up at the three 7 foot tall angels I had first met in Italy. The spiked feathers of their blue wings glittered in the late Mexican afternoon sun.

"The solstice is not until tomorrow. You're a day early." I said as my higher Ohom ET angel self, annoyed my vacation was getting interrupted.

Archangel Michael said, "Element of surprise."

"Yes," I sighed, already far wiser than my Ken-self when I become Ohom.

Michael pulled me to my feet. I looked down from my 7 foot height saw my human Ken-body resting on the lawn in warm Teo sun."Well, at least my human self is having a rest," I said.

"Let's go!" said Gabrielle, a beautiful female blue angel.

A year ago, I didn't know the names of these angels, let alone that I was part of their clan of galactic enforcers from the Orion star system. Now 18 months later we had been on many missions together, closed the Bermuda Triangle, a failed Martian artificial merkaba experiment that had destroyed Atlantis and the remnants of which cause our wars and divorces, healed the San Andreas fault, melted a portal in space time for the earth to travel to the 5th dimension, unscrambled time with the MERLIN code, cut the tap to Gaia's energy for the world's banks and the Fed and much more recorded in the DreamShield blog.

We rocketed into the sky from the gardens of the hotel. I could see the vast Teotihuacan pyramid complex shrinking beneath us as we broke though the clouds.As we reached the edge of space, without asking, I knew our angelic mission. Rescue the heart of Gia. A heart I knew was no longer on the earth that was quickly shrinking beneath me.

Gaia's heart was being held by hostile Martians on a fortified canyon called Valles Marineris on Mars.The rescue of Gaia's heart would be dangerous, even for us with our Galactic enforcer powers, as this Martian canyon was filled with traps and weapons bent on our destruction. A tough search as the canyon is many times deeper than earth's Grand Canyon and long as the entire US continent.

To be continued...
Please click here to donate, as we are being called to meditate in scared sites across the world for a gentle 2012 at DreamShield.org.

Thanksgiving Vision

2011-11-26T22:07:00.001-08:00

"I may see angels but I am far from being one." - Ken Sheetz

Two weeks ago, on the magical binary date of 11.11.11, I co-hosted a beautiful event about the ascension with a star-studded evening of speculation about ETs role in the Shift I'd been guided to create by a God-like voice 18 months ago in Italy. The masterful ceremonies and workshops had been created to perfection by the amazing multi-talented co-host Laura De León of MyMysticMuse. You see, sadly I was not very "present", to put it mildly, for my own event.

I've been pondering for the entire time since, wishing I could have enjoyed something so beautiful that I'd help create, all stemming from an angelic vision I had in Italy for a gentle 2012. The 11.11.11 event is possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever been a part of bringing into this world. So why had I been so hard on myself and hard for Laura and others on the team to be around me that day and the weeks leading up to the big day? Why was Laura's singing her amazing Babaji song with Philippo Franchini one of the few moments I truly enjoyed on 11.11.11? Exhaustion? No. This was more than simple exhaustion. The excuse I tried to hide behind post 11.11.11.

I took a break from pondering my failure to enjoy 11.11.11 to ponder the parallels of family dynamics in why I'd not enjoyed Thanksgiving this year. I was traveling from my Vegas Thanksgiving, back home the way I'd been doing in these tough times for two years now, by a Greyhound Bus. The Friday 10 AM bus back to LA was 5 minutes late without any Greyhound announcements so I calmly asked one of the bus terminal attendants, "What's the delay?"

The Greyhound attendant smirked at me and said in a thick Asian accent, "Buddy, you better learn something. This is Greyhound! Bus gets here when bus gets here!"

The people in line laughed at my expecting decent service for what is not that much less than a Southwest Airline fare.A sweet little Black lady, with a white fur hat that made her look like a stylized rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland, turned to me from ahead in line and said, "Public transportation, mister. Gotta expect this kinda thing."

I reminded her, like it was my duty as a remnant from a long gone, more caring America, "Greyhound's not public except for treating customers like a public toilet."Rather than laughter as I expected, people in line reacted in silence as though I was rocking the boat. "What boat? It's a bus, you bunch of sheep!" I raged inwardly as I dug into my knapsack, grabbed the Thanksgiving leftovers Mom had made for the bus ride back to LA, the land of dreams, and thought back on my Vegas 2011 Thanksgiving, having a picnic in the terminal.

The trip got off to a rocky start in this very bus station on the way in to Vegas on Wednesday. My stepfather Nick, a fiery tempered Sicilian who holds grudges like a character who stepped right out of Mario Puzo novel (first suspect, please, if I am ever murdered) kept me waiting at the Greyhound terminal for half an hour.A half an hour where I'd learn the Greyhound terminal front door is a den of prostitution. Unable to see through the dark tinted terminal front doors I was forced to stand with my backpack full of Mac gear, stranded, like a Thanksgiving turkey ready to be plucked by pimps and thugs who kept giving me the hairy eyeball.

Finally, after what seemed hours, Nick and my Mom's car arrived. I quickly tossed my bags and myself into the backseat. No apologies for running late from Nick, of course. The crabby 83 year-old-man sat stoic and uncaring at the wheel. -- Not unexpected. Nick's not spoken to me much in three years since I read him the riot act over his outlandish claim I was trying to kill my mother by adjusting the condo temp by one degree downwards.Most I'd hear from Nick on the entire visit was his yelling at my 82-year-old mother to "Shut the hell up!" when she screamed after he almost rear-ended a car. A retired as a prison guard, Nick's belligerent treatment of my Mom like a prisoner he was keeping in check gave me heartburn and I had a coughing fit.

Mom asked if I was sick and I told her, "Nick yelling at you is the only thing making me sick. Well, that and being let stranded for half an hour as I watched other arriving passengers all picked up within the first five minutes." Getting pissed at me snapped Nick out of his tirade at Mom and back to silence. Old training as kid from how I'd take the heat for Mom to save her from my real dad, who passed early this year.Now, I managed a tense front seat to backseat chat where I filled Mom in on a few things in my life. We've never talked about the angels and ETs working for the cause of the Shift I see in meditations. And didn't now. I guess I'd think she'd feel I've gone off my rocker. Why worry her? She has no concept of what a blog is or how to work a computer and has seen nothing of my writing.

Soon we arrived at the small one bedroom condo Mom has carved into a pretty home. She said to me timidly, not her style, "Hungry, Ken? We already ate, not knowing when you'd really get here on the bus."

I played along, even though it was only 5:30 PM, and ate alone at the kitchen counter while Mom filled in my brother Fred, who had manned the condo during my pickup from Greyhound. Which was odd. Fred usually came to greet me. "Ken's goin' to Mexico for a film shoot next month, Fred," Mom chirped.

Fred puffed on cigarette and grunted, "Beats gardening I bet, eh, Ken?"Fred knew from our weekly phone talks we both enjoy that I'd made a deal for social media barter where I was living at a gorgeous resort called BushWillows north of LA. But the wonderful owners instead wanted gardening help which they needed more. Now here was my brother, making fun of my doing manual labor to keep a roof over my head in the worst recession ever.

How it stung me to the soul. What happened to my sweet "over the phone" brother I wondered looking at the grouchy Fred? Had four days with Nick poisoned his aura I wondered?

Mom sensed the tension with Fred and chimed in, "I bet you're learning lotsa gardening stuff. Right, Ken?""Yep." I answered meaning it, biting into Mom's steak that was like rubber."After Mexico Ken's filming in Hawaii first two months of the year, Fred."

I could see Fred was puzzled so much good fortune had popped up since we spoke only a few days earlier. Now that the 11.11.11 event of 15 hours days of work for 3 solid months without pay was over and I could refocus my energy. I was beginning to feel some of the old fire that had made me a millionaire in the past. Fred didn't like me much when I was millionaire who's most famous project was building Oprah's Harpo Studios. He seemed shocked I might not be doing gardening much longer to pay a room while I co-created 11.11.11.

"Lousy economy might finally be lifting." I muttered into my meal.Soon as I finished my solo dinner and complimented Mom, despite how god awful the steak was, Nick put on his coat. Mom and Fred quickly followed his lead. "I just got here. Where's everyone going?" I groused.

"Casino, " Fred grinned as I steamed, "Relax. Mom and Nick did the same thing to me when I got here: Quick meal then off to the slots!"

So without even a chance to rest or a catch-up on life, besides the brief car talk with Mom from the backseat, I was soon in Nick's car again and heading for the Orleans, a locals casino my mother and Nick frequent often for the loose Keno slots. Nick complained to my Mom as he cruised the Orleans multi-leveled lot for a parking spot, "Handicapped spots all gone getting here so late."

I let the dig pass, as I let so much pass with Nick. For a comedy writer when I am not helping angels manifest a gentle 2012, this man is a gold mine for material. We parked not very far from the door despite my "late" arrival. I climbed from the backseat of the car, dreading the casino, already sorry I'd come. I limped for the casino, having slightly pulled both hamstrings hauling wheelbarrows full of compost early in the week at the gardens.

Sure enough, soon I found myself in the smokey noisy as hell confines of the Orleans casino, surrounded by drunken gamblers and haggard locals.Fred plopped himself on a Keno machine beside Mom and lit up. Mom's 82 but going strong and she was ready for action, silent Nick her bodyguard. It was almost as though I ceased to exist. I tried to make conversation, but the casino noise that keeps people hypnotized with noisy beeps and bloops and smoke won.

So I excused myself and limped my way to my old Vegas escape pod, the movies.We all agreed, Nick in silence of course, to meet back at the Keno spot midnight when the gambling ordeal had hopefully reached an end. I say "hopefully" because there have been nights when Mom or Fred or Nick get on a winning streak where they all stay out to 3 or 4 AM and I'd end up taking a taxi back to condo myselfI saw two movies back to back to kill time and lose myself.

ARTHUR'S CHRISTMAS, an instant classic 4 stars out of 5 and HAPPY FEET TWO, a doh doh bird of a penguin flick, 1 star. But I fell asleep so don't take my word on the penguins if you enjoy hearing Robin Williams do a bad Spanish accent.

Midnight, when I got back to the Keno machines Mom and Fred were fighting about, of all things, meatballs sandwiches. I was relieved. The meatball fight meant they'd lost at Keno and so we'd be going home at a decent hour. Fred was craving a Subway meatball treat and would not be swayed. Mom who had won a little that week offered him $5 from her pot.Fred sniped, "I have a paying job," he said looking at me who has not had a paying job since college but who usually does very well despite that fact in normal economy, "I pay for my own meatballs. And when I win I buy for everybody."

On the way to the car, while Fred got his beloved meatball sandwich, Mom worried to me, "Fred's been in a bad mood all week." I took a look a Nick and thought, "Who wouldn't be with that sourpuss around?" feeling compassion for my beloved brother and more for Mom who was living with this grumpy diabetic every day.

But then, surprisingly, my heart began to open for my fellow grouch Nick. At Souldrama in Italy I learned it's what bothers you most in others that you are bothered most about in yourself. I saw the grouch I was around the loving dream team that had come together from 11.11.11. And here was Nick, in the bosom of a family that loved him, driving wedges between us all and himself. I saw the little boy Nick was who lived as an orphan on the streets of Milwaukee. No one to love him. And then I saw myself as an abused child who never knew what a happy family life was, wrecking the happiness all around me because I did not know how to handle joy on 11.11.11. And I finally forgave Nick for his junk and me for mine.

I was so deep in thought about my brother grouch Nick that barely remember getting back to Nick and Mom's condo after the casino. Fred ate his meatballs making a big deal of it to tease Mom, Nick pulled out the sleeper sofa. Mom and I made up my bed which I quickly collapsed into.Despite the rough first day in Vegas I was still looking forward to tomorrow. I'd come to Vegas almost every year for 25 years for mom's Thanksgiving cooking. She makes a great bird. Mom announced to Fred and me as the lights went out, "Night, boys. I'll getting up to start the turkey cooking at 8AM."

The night passed with fits of sleep as Fred snored loud enough to wake me. As I tried about 3 Am to get back to sleep I had a vision that was fresh and pure as I saw all the many sacred sites I'd mediated at since 10/10/10 ignite with bright white sparks across the globe, Vegas included where I saw the Luxor casino erupt, spewing energy to the DreamShield surrounding the planet. I saw it matched by energy flares from the real pyramids.The dazzling clean and pure vision surprised me to full consciousness. "Why was a grump like me allowed to see such angelic glory?" I thought weeping into my pillow.

I'd thought, or perhaps even hoped, that since DreamShield's missions were on prime binary dates, that somehow after 11.11.11 my vision powers might end and life could return to normal. Whatever normal is in these crazy times with innocent people getting beaten down in the Occupy movements. I'd not talk about the visions with anyone next morning on Thanksgiving.

At 8AM as promised, Mom emerged from her bedroom, trusty flashlight in hand because the drapes were all closed. I peeked open an eye to watch her tip toe past as she swung the bright LED flashlight when suddenly she tumbled to the floor!I bolted from the sleeper sofa and helped her up. Mom pointed the flashlight down at a cushion. "Twisted my back. How the hell did that get down there in my way?"We both looked over at snoring Fred, who must have peed ten times during the night and knocked over the cushion at some point.Mom softly giggled and squeezed my hand saying, "Go back to sleep, Ken. I'm OK, "and she, putting the cushion out the way, went about starting the bird cooking.

Thanksgiving was here at last. The trusty old folding card table of 25 years of Vegas Thanksgivings came out as the Packer's trounced Detroit on the old tube style TV. Soon the moment I'd suffered an 8 hour Greyhound trip and put up with the casino was here. The bird was perfection. Mom's stuffing was great. All was heaven at last except for one thing that was missing: Mom. She was still in the kitchen cleaning up and missing the whole meal.

Then Fred did something that rattled my ego. As Nick came to the table Fred slid the chair for him. He even adjusted Nick's gravy bowl to give more table space for Nick. And all my spirituality from the night before vanished. I was angry at Fred's deference to this guy who made my visits to my mother such a hell.Then Nick and Fred just dug in and started chowing down without waiting for Mom.

"Mom, I came all the way here to see you and have turkey," I shouted to mom cleaning up the kitchen like a mad woman."Yeah, come and eat, Mom, " Fred chimed in, mouth full of turkey.One possible answer to this mystery would come this morning as Deb, the BushWillows owner where I am staying observed about Mom's odd behavior in her crisp South African accent as I dumped off a fresh load of compost, "Might be your Mum was cleaning up so could get out of the house right after the turkey and resume gambling."

Had my mother's passion for gambling, some would say addiction, now eclipsed her time for dinner? Who knows? When she finally sat down when were all nearly done with her feast I tried to grab a picture of her only to be shouted at, "Don't take my picture with my mouth full!"

My brother chimed in, "He did the same shit to me."

I spun to Fred, camera in hand, "Shit? You call me taking your picture shit?!"

Mom sighed, "Boys, it's Thanksgiving. No fighting."

But I was furious and had to leave the table. I'd wanted to share my adventures surviving in Hollywood over the past year, my adventures in social media, my spirit project. And here I was fighting at the dinner table with my 58-year-old brother like we were kids as Nick shot my Mother a, "See?" look of satisfaction.

Later, I apologized to Fred and hugged him about the shoulders. He shared he'd been not having a good time this trip. Mom and he had been fighting the whole time for reasons he really could not put into words.

Soon as the second NFL game ended it was off to the Orleans casino again and the family disconnect. I saw two more movies, HUGO, one star for having a boring plot and bad child acting, and THE MUPPETS, of which I give zero stars and could barely keep my turkey down through.

Friday morning the alarm had been set for 8AM to get me to the station by 10AM but once Nick started to dress he could not slow down and I found myself on the way to the horrible station far too early. Mom tired to sit in the back seat with me but Nick would have none of that. He barked at my mother like she was a convict to be disciplined, "Get in front with me so you don't have to jump out at the bus station!"

I patted Mom on the shoulder from the backseat as Nick sped for the station and she held my hand. Arriving 15 feet from the curb Nick parked in the middle of traffic. I came to the window and kissed Mom good-bye. She grabbed my hand as Nick raced the car off, until Mom's soft fingers pulled away from mine.

As I finally shuffled my way onto the hour late bus I was an hour early for the Asian Greyhound attendant kidded to the ticket taker. "Don't let this guy. Troublemaker. Probably drunk."

I agreed, drunk on family rage and rage with myself for not ascending as Laura De Leon had so brilliantly realized was the mission of 11.11.11. No ascension for me, I was still in my ego and not in my heart.But as I have written to Laura, when she sang like an angel in 11.11.11, something did shift in me. A small spark deep in my heart. The fact I can even write so clearly of my painful thanksgiving and feel compassion for Mom, for Fred, for me, even for Nick and his little inner boy from the Great Depression, gives me hope Laura's spark is growing and that I am ascending and so is the world.

Long as the visions keep coming I promise do my humble best continue to report the angels work to you. If you like my reporting please visit here to donate to my Spirit Reporter project to help me help with the work of manifesting a gentle 2012. Thanks, Ken Sheetz.

Social Media as a Social Experiment

2011-09-06T11:45:00.001-07:00

Ken Sheetz

I am a Hollywood filmmaker on social media hiatus. When the recession hit and film money went scarce I started BuzzBroz - The Art of Social Media services. So named as I thought my real-life brother Fred would come to work with me in LA and leave his factory job in Wisconsin. Fred was not up for transplanting himself, but the name stuck.

Unlike my past incarnations in business as an interior corporate architect turned real estate developer, this time around I did not want to focus on large corporate work. I'd done that gig, as a driven man doing a billion in biz, creating the headquarters for Target Stores, Allied Mills, Chase Bank Chicago (Then Manny Hanny), huge law firms like Bell Boyd & LLoyd and the topper, Oprah's Harpo Studios.

Working at a smaller relaxed more human scale however proved challenging. Convincing people of the value of social media's power wasn't the only hard part. People are flat out tight on cash with the banks sitting on all we taxpayers gave them to horde. Don't get me started on politics! I love poking fun at politicians on my hit Kids Talk Politics channel, cruising for 2 million views by year end.

But I prevailed in the "jobless recovery" (talk about political BS) by cutting my lifestyle to Spartan. I traded in my luxury wheels for a bike, and lost 30 pounds in the bargain. I gave up my apartment, after finding a home for my little chihuahua, and began bartering for rooms in return for social media. And the social experiment of barter for social media was born.

The barter experiment has proven a huge challenge at times. Not everyone gets the value of clicks for a room. At times I've worked so hard earning the roof over my head I don't create the time to earn money for basics like food and medicine.

That's my fault not the barter system. I love happy clients, but I need to worry about a happy Ken going forward. I've started a new YouTube channel today called The Zen of Ken. I hope you'll check it out. I can vlog there more freely than on my Imagitv, DiscoverMe, BuzzBroz, KidsTalk Politics, and DreamShield2012 channels with over 3 million views in combination.

Happily, I've settled into my best barter for living space yet at BushWillows. It's an amazing place I have here with a private balcony overlooking the Shadow Hills, north of LA. Here's a video where I met the owners last year.

Deluxe! Yes, the experiment is working. After 11.11.11 I will begin traveling to other countries in this fashion staying at resorts, joined by my DreamShield partner, a master of scared ceremony, Laura De Leon.

To give you an overview of how this social media work all took an amazing turn for the spiritual I'd not foreseen, my first featured video on The Zen of Ken is from a speech I gave last year. The 10.10.10 DreamShield event that grew out of a vision while on social media assignment I had in Italy of angels, very special ET angels, who set me on a mission of fostering social media to help reduce 2012 fears spawned by mainstream media.

I don't know where this life changing vision came from or the dozens of others visiosn I've had since and which I blog about at DreamShield on WordPress. Could it be angels or my Overactive imagination (name of my film company), UFOs, cell phones scrambling our brains or simply too much coffee causing the visions?

Who cares? I've learned over the last year it doesn't really matter. People are comforted by the vision I had in Italy of a gentle 2012 and want to play with us, meditate with us on a better tomorrow. This world needs to change, and social media, and how it connects us as a world, is, more than ever, a part of that change.

Namaste

New Sheetz Documentary Announced

2011-06-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

Morgan Spurlock led the way as the subject of his own documentary on the fast food world with SUPER SIZE me. Now, as one of the leaders of 2012 experience called DreamShield, I am about to travel to Chicago to raise money for a doc.

What makes this doc, working title GATEWAY TO 2012, for the planetary meditations we doing leading to 2012, not the end of the world according to the angelic voices whispering in my ear, is I will be sharing amazing visions I am having in these powerful meditations and exporing where they might be coming from and what the heck they might mean to me personally, those I love and the world.

Enough talk. Take a look at this video.

MJ and KW

2011-06-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

Am I the Michael Jordan of real estate? I ruled the city of Chicago with over 1 billion worth of real estate deals back in the early 90's.

After a bad recession I got fed up and tried my hand at my high school dream career, filmmaking.

But like Jordan, without much in the way of funding to compete with the bigs I'm only an OK player in film, like MJ was an OK baseball player. Jordan would return to basketball and former greatness with another championship. Perhaps after 2012 I'll do the same and try my hand at real estate again.

BTW, sure glad I missed this past real estate cycle.

Hollywood Can Wait

2011-02-04T19:01:00.000-08:00

Dear 7Yrs Reader:

Next month it will be eight years that I've been in Hollywood.

But Hollywood's on the back burner while I devote time to DreamShield which I began blogging about here but that's grown into a global phenomenon with a website and blog of its own.

Where all this growing to according to the messages I am getting from my "higher self" is to help the many light workers, busy over all the planet, do the work of raising human consciousness to be able to do the job of nurturing and protecting our world.

The mission: by 12/12/12 is to have 1 billion people meditating together for 10 seconds.

Follow what I am up to on the new blog DreamShieldorg.wordpress.com.

The Real Thing

2010-09-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

7 Years ago when I first came to Hollywood, stars a twinkle in my blue eyes, I brought my hot off the press screenplay with me, THE REAL THING. An action-packed dark comedy about a Coca-Cola addict.

Hero of the tale is Reverend Fear. He's the smarmy head a drug rehab clinic. He looks down on the junkies he treats. One day Coca-Cola is discontinued and Reverend Fear then learns what it feels like not to be able to get his fix. There's a fizzy mix up as the preacher tries to buy Coca-Cola on the black market... but ends up instead with a huge shipment of, you guessed it, coke.

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Surprise! No Hollywood studio bit. One lower level exec worried Coke would sue. Doh! Someone can be addicted to this blog if it's good enough.

What's your take? Could Coke sue for making a fictional tale involving their product, which is perhaps in fact addictive for the sugar/corn syrup and caffeine? Any experts out there with some free legal advice for a free can of Coke? And if Coke did sue, wouldn't that be awesome publicity?

That's why when I saw this video that lambastes every corp in America I really got a thrill. These are the kind of ballsy in-your-face producers I need to get the script for THE REAL THING to. Oh, and yeah, this short won the Oscar and opened Sundance.

Sip on that Coca-Cola.

Childhood Revisited for Charity

2010-09-07T11:43:00.001-07:00

I had a father and mother who loved me, but who were both so caught up dealing with my dad's drinking issues that it left me feeling like an orphan.

So here's the very personal story of my family's troubles, told from the POV of the soul of my first house, thanks to what I learned from Connie Miller's amazing Souldrama workshops.

Please give to The Cool Change Foundation to help prevent families, like mine, from suffering needlessly.

Soul Surfing at Souldrama LBI

2010-08-16T17:22:00.001-07:00

By Ken Sheetz

I began covering Souldrama events around the world just a few short months ago thanks to my BuzzBroz.com client and pal Bradley Quick introducing me to guide to the soul Souldrama founder Connie Miller.

This journey was cross country to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The group was 90% American, people from coast to coast but mainly from New Jersey, with one student from Greece.

What made this event extra special for me as a Hollywood filmmaker was that Barnet Bain, producer of WHAT DREAMS MAY COME was in attendance and shared a viewing and discussion of the film deep metaphysical premise. Barnet is one of the true Hollywood visionaries and it was an honor to have him present and acting out key roles in all our dramas. His facilitation of Souldrama LBI was a triumph of the soul for him and for the brilliant Connie Miller for letting it evolve soulfully.

What was cool for me was to see how we all carry on the dramas of our life like some internal never ending show. It was, dare I say, far more exciting than going to the the typical commercialized, un-Barnet Bain-like, Hollywood movies to look, unflitered, deep, deep into the hearts of people who were mostly strangers until the group formed, but who felt like family as the 8 days drew to a close.

I got Barnet interested in Souldrama after hearing him speak on a radio talk show which I cover. And I was thrilled he got and gave so much from the event on LBI, an affluent island near Atlantic City that has 18 miles of beautiful beaches to enjoy.

In fact, I had such a wonderful time that I rescheduled an assignment in Malibu to enjoy the entire 8 days workshop and honored myself and the group by taking the time to properly finish this chapter of my work on myself, exemplified by this drawing of a safe house for my inner child that Barnet Bain and I created together.

Formation of the DreamShield 10/10/10: A Talk WIth Barnet Bain

2010-07-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

I am an artist, an interior architect, builder and filmmaker and very used to visualizing things and willing them into physical reality. But the visions unleashed in Italy have a life of their own. So as I lightly doze on the flight back to LA from a social media assignment in Italy, I worry more visions might me make talk in my sleep about Galactic invasion and make a fool of myself. I start to question my sanity.

I decide on the long flight back from Puglia not to blog or talk about the experience until I speak to a man in Hollywood I had the honor to film and get to know via BuzzBroz social media job, mega-producer Barnet Bain.

Barnet possesses a brilliant mind and is totally versed in vision work, having produced such great films as THE CELESTINE PROPHECY and, right up my alley, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME.

Here is an interview I filmed where I met Barnet. You can almost see Barnet's amazing mind work in his talk with my BuzzBroz client Filippo Voltaggio.

MAY 2010 MEETING IN MALIBU

My pal Ramon Govea, writing partner for a new sci-fi screenplay about wormholes and actor in my short film SCARICTY, and writer for Ancient Tomorrow, came along for the meeting with Barnet in Malibu. I still had not told Ramon what the meeting was about but he was excited to be meeting the great producer.

We meet Barnet at the Coffee Bean in Malibu. He's dressed in his typical elegant casual style I've come to admire about LA's laid back yet business style of dress. One I've yet to master.

Barnet is warm and curious and takes instantly to Ramon. As we grab our coffees the shop almost seems to tilt, ala INCEPTION. Yep, I'm still shook by the vision.

I share the entire Italy vision story with Barnet and he listens with rapt attention. I tell him of the vision of the energy bands assuring a gentle 2012 (read all about in the prior post). I also share with Barnet and Ramon an after vision I'd had, post Italy:

AFTER VISIONS IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD

One night, as I lay awake in bed, mind racing like nothing I have ever felt before, I see the energy bands that extend from the hall in Santa Maria Del Sole, begin with a mighty groan like a trumpet, to slowly rotate. The vibrations and noise from the energy bands pierce me to my core. I'd hoped to be spared further visions and this one is even more spectacular than the one in Italy.

I continue to explain how the white energy bands, that run north and south and east and west from Santa Maria's yoga hall and Gulia's group healing, spin at incredible speed, punctuated by brilliant flashes of power like silent lightning. The bands at last blur to form a white/blue energy shield around our entire planet.

But the DreamShield 10/10/10, as I recently came to name it, is no ordinary shield I explain to Barnet and Ramon. I next saw Earth vanish... invisible in the empty void of space to the meddling ETs Sheldan Nidle talks about in his vision, safe from DNA transformation by a superior Galactic civilization.

I could not have imagined what the energy bands, which I originally mistook as a simple metaphor for the web while in Italy, are doing to protect us. Yes, the energy bands became a cloaking device big enough to hide our planet from the DNA reprogramming and drastic terra-forming and tectonic devastation of the Earth, that Nidle predicts in the 1 hour video series above, to start in November of this year. I tell Barnet that the vision finally ends and I bolt up in bed gasping for air.

"I'm a regular Joe from a family of Wisconsin welders. Am I losing my marbles?" I ask Barnet.

The great producer and human being reaches over to touch my arm while he looks deep into my eyes. Barnet speaks with incredible calm, "Ken, visions can be both real and unreal at the same time. A vision's power and origins are simply a mystery we need not have a rational explanation for. And who's to say what this can all mean? Relish in the mystery. And thank you for sharing this with me."

"Me too, " Ramon adds in wonder.

Barnet then shares his own past, how as a child he would see things, as I had and Ramon had, things that were not there. The experience he had as a young person of leaving his physical body. Like me. And how our families thought hi, both strange and wanted the visions to stop. Ditto.

"I am planning a trip home in July, Barnet," I interrupt, the matter so pressing on my mind. "I come from simple Midwestern stock. I am afraid all this has changed me so much that my friends and family will think I am nuts and have me committed. Maybe I should bury all this vision stuff and just get on with my life."

"Be open and honest with your family and friends back home. You'll be a beacon." Barnet says.

And so, feeling more sane than I had in weeks, I open up to Barnet about another disturbing vision, "I was told in a dream by what could only be described as an alien that on 10/10/10 at 10:10:10 AM and PM that the Dream Shield needs to be strengthened somehow."

"Binary code!" Barnet exclaimed. "10/10/10 - 10:10:10! The date and time is all ones and zeroes!"

"Binary code... I should have noticed that myself." I groused, always too tough on myself for not being as smart as someone like Barnet.

Our talk went on for another half hour with Ramon giving amazing insights of his own on 2012 based his findings writing ANCIENT TOMORROW. Ramon filmed the whole event for us, but sadly I had some tech problems that destroyed the precious footage. But I feel confident I've done a good job of reconstructing Barnet's amazing talk for you because this talk is indelible in my mind.

Take heart. I plan to film another talk with Barnet on this topic well before 10/10/10. Stay tuned.

The meeting ended with all three of us feeling like brothers. I gave Barnet a Wisconsin style bear hug for all this wisdom. I was feeling better about all this vision stuff that was so new to me. Ready to embrace my Italy and subsequent vision.

Barent loved the peaceful nature of the gentle 2012 vision as a counter to all the negative images conjured up by the Mayans from so many thousands of years ago and the new interpretations of people today. Why not have a 2012 that just kicks off a new era of peace and prosperity?

On the way home to NoHo Ramon and I made a pact to break me out of the nuthouse if my family had me locked up on my visit to Wisconsin. I was still shaky but feeling better by the minute.

But that night after the talk with Barnet another vision came to me. Again more fantastic than the last and again I would be rattled to my core...

The Vision in Italy of a Gentle 2012

2010-07-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Connie Miller had a surprise for us to wrap up SoulDrama in Puglia Italy. A group healing with the great healer Guilia of the Yoga/Spiritual Retreat of Santa Maria Del Sole.

I picked a mat near the end of the yoga hall, once a stable. There were a few empty mats from the group members who were almost always late.

Guilia, who speaks little English, asked though her assistant interpreter, that we lay on our backs and relax. The week of working long days both in the group sessions and doing interviews with the workshop members had left me exhausted. Guilia began to chant in Italian and I gladly shut my eyes.

I’ve done meditation and EMDR therapy and had healing visualizations before but never as part of a group. Something new was happening in my head. The images were so clear.

I felt the resentment of the group incomplete state on the yoga mats vanish as celestial beings materialized and lay in the empty spots. One was right beside me. I could hear their thoughts as they communicated with me telepathically.

I thanked them for filling in the grid of students and I felt the circuitry of the group amplify. Blue/white energy crisscrossed between the group. We were a living satellite dish.

As Guila passionately chanted over us several students fell into such deep sleeps that they began to snore. Dream power now coursed through the group. Subconscious energy of enormous proportions.

I felt Connie Miller transform beside me into a white angel with a sword held to her chest. The vaulted brick ceiling became lustrous gold bars. The floor we lay on changed from oak to glass and the room became cylindrical as our groups power magnified.

I was aware how uncomfortable it was to lay oin the yoga mat on the hard floor when the ends of the long yoga hall began to extend to infinity. I am seeing all this from outer space now, A band of white energy racing north and south until the ends join.

Now bands of white energy shoot out east and west and complete another belt if energy. I am pleased by this as I imagine the reason for the bands is to get out the message of Souldrama and Santa Maria Del Sole via the web, symbolized by the conduits of energy.

The vision ends and Guilia’s assistant announce the end of the session. I excitedly ask others in the group if they felt or experienced what I did but most say they just relaxed or slept. No one seems to take what I saw, my vision of a message via the web as much. Visions in meditation are normal in the semi conscious state you enter.

A few nights later after Souldrama ended and I was getting ready to return to LA I was woken from a deep sleep by a dream in which I was given a message that the bands were more that a symbol for the web. And that on 10-10-10 at 10:10:10 AM Puglia time the bands needed to be strengthened to make 2012 a gentler shift. I wept. Why were these messages coming to me? I felt lost. Crazy.

Next day I went back to Santa Maria Del Sole and filmed this interview with Julia. As you’ll see my vision was what she was hoping for. A gentle 2012.

Guilia asked me to share any more visions I might have. I was frightened. More visions. This one was huge enough!

But sure enough a few after I returned to LA more visions came. Even more amazing ones that would nearly drive me over edge of sanity…

Facing My Shadow Self

2010-07-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

The Souldrama Italy week flew by. We moved through Connie Miller doors of transformation. I was growing faster than I ever dreamed possible.

I dreaded the day when we were to face our shadow self. Fearing the rage darkness I have hid inside myself since I was a child.

But Connie gives you tools to cope with the stuff coming up from your dark shadow self. And one of those is understanding how we can be loved just being who we are. She calls it "Your Moment of Love" where you reenact that first moment in life you knew you were loved unconditionally. For me and many in the group it was with our grandmothers. Lucky grandma's don't have the burden of raising us an can love us just who for who we are.

And I recalled Grandma Gooder making me apple pie in the kitchen in Milwaukee near Lake Michigan and hugging me to her bosom. She patted the top of my head and said "Why, Kenny, You're as tall as my heart." Love... Yes, I was doing nothing but being me. No great feats of over compensation. I was just a kid in the kitchen feeling the love of another human being, my Grandma.

Connie taught us that day how our shadow is an important part of us not be ashamed of. My rage is my champion not a villain.

Where's Superman?

2010-06-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Connie Miller's Souldrama got through to me so quickly. I'd done a lot of work on my issues in therapy over the years. EMDR, anger management, psychoanalysis, self-help books; I had tried them all. But eventually I felt I running in place and stopped working on myself and started working on films.

My screenplay STEPS was about the pain of divorce, the project that brought me to Hollywood 7 long years ago. The project got dreailed because I was not strong enough financially and spiritually to stand up to the strains of Hollywood and the cavilcade of hanger-ons who siphoned my cash away while messing up the story to the point where I hated it and myself. Thus ended my first foray into Hollywood.

I withdrew into learning how to make movies myself, without the need for all the bums I usually stumble across out here like some kind of asshole magnet. Perhaps it is me who has been the asshole.

But out of that learning to be low cost and independent, along would come YouTube and social media marketing where all my new hard won film skills and business skills would converge in a venture I call BuzzBroz. So named as I wanted so badly for my brother Fred to leave his factory welding life behind and come out here to build a social media company with me. Fred never came, not wanting to give up the comforts and security of life, what little there is in this mess of an economy, in Wisconsin.

Now, less than six months into the BuzzBroz venture I was hanging out in Italy with a really cool bunch of people. Therapists from all over the world and a rock star who owned the resort. And I had earned more in the first sic months of BuzzBroz than all my seven years in Hollywood put together, Now, this was not much. But all the film biz had been money out not in. It felt good to be getting paid for my film work, even if it was only for Youtube. And you realy can't say only about YouTube. It is a miracle of a site if you can generate Google ads for videos and I can when clients have good content and let me do the promotion right.

So when Connie had us talk about our childhood heroes and how their energies were going to help us in this week of group I was shocked when it came my turn to play Superman, my kid hero -- because nothing could hurt him, a skill I longed for whenever dad got out the belt -- and Superman said he was prepared to do nothing for Ken, me, all week. Connie askes why and Superman explained he had given up on me a long time ago. How he had tried. Supes was fed up!

Settling Into Santa Maria Del Sole

2010-06-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

The gates of Santa Maria Del Sole in Puglia Italy swung open. Marco, the resort driver who had picked up at the train station, explained how this place was a farm before Salvatore, the owner, an Italian music celeb turned resort owner, bought it. And that 100 years prior it was run by Monks as a healing place for almost 200 years.

Marco pointed out the small out building that was the chapel and how Salvatore had bought the property not knowing that gorgeous frescoes were buried under the stucco.

My room was under a Trulo and just the right size for a solo traveler. Far more luxurious than my room in Rome, I wondered why I did not come here sooner as Salvitore, had offered me 70 Euro per night rate. Which was half what I paid in Rome for a tiny room not much bigger than a walk-in closet.

But I shook off second guessing myself and took a nap on the beautiful bed, knowing my work with Souldrama was going to start in about an hour and that I had a strenuous 6 hour train ride from Rome to sleep off.

As I lay in bed starring up at the dome of the Trulo over my head I began to worry. Client Connie Miller had insisted I do more than film the event for YouTube, she wanted me to participate in Souldrama, as a group member. I have never done group therapy and I was worried I'd make a fool out of myself.

And an hour later I would find myself expressing this to the amazing international group that Connie has assembeled from Greece, Holland, Brazil, Italy and America. Most them were therapists themselves looking to hone their skills.

Connie explained who I was and that I would be filming interviews with anyone who wanted to participate for Connie as my cleint. I assured the group there would be no filming of private moments in the group itself.

Here's one of my favorite interviews from the group, a group would come to know like a second family over the next exciting week.

Arrival at The White City, Ostuni

2010-06-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

But despite the glimpse of Monopoli I am excited to hear some passengers speak of Ostuni. A few stops later, we pull into the rather non-descript train station of Ostuni, well, non-descript compared to Monopoli.

An Italian with a gentle smile spots me stagger from the train. I think it is Salvatore, owner of the resort who said he'd be greeting me. But it is a handsome young man, about 30, who introduces himself to me simply as Marco. No last names here.

Marco gives off a welcome air of calm charm as he begins a tour of the Puglia countryside as we wind our way up the narrow country roads that are lined with stone fences.

Marco explains the stone the walls comes from the rocky soil of the region when ancient farmers tilled the soil. The homes I notice have strange roofs, pointy domes with a little ball on top. Marco tells me these are called trulos and that the homes of the region are made of the same stone as the fences and have no mortar.

The reason for the lack of mortar is that the farmers would take their homes apart whenever the tax collector was visiting from Rome to avoid taxes. This was done in America I recall to myself for the same reason in the original colonies, not wanting to interrupt Marco's fine tour of the gorgeous Puglia countryside.

We pass through a fairy tale castle of city called Ostuni, the white City. I want to ask Marco to stop so I can take some photos with my trusty Flip camera but I'm too tired and he says we'll be back here duing the week for the tourist thing. I'll end up working 12 hours days without a day off covering Souldrama and never making it back. One of my few regrets about the trip.

Here's a pic I found on the web of the amazing White City, like something out of a Tolkein novel. Yeah, it really is this beautiful. And if I make back to Puglia for Souldrama 2011 I will spend a day here.

Still, the interview I posted to YouTube just before leaving for Italy featuring Sheldan Nidle's prediction for a 2010 SHIFT of monumental proportions, toppling mountains, causing tsunamis, aliens, yes aliens, changing our very DNA, nags at the back of my brain.

Ostuni, I think to myself has existed peacefully for centuries. Surely a galactic civilization that Nidle so calmly describes wreaking havoc on our world that it chilled me to my core, that you can watch here, would appreciate Ostuni's perfection, compared to our pollution and crime choked cities back in America? Perhaps a city like Ostuni is mankind's best hope if Sheldan's wild predictions are true.

Not to say I believe even a fraction of what Sheldan says has a chance of coming true. I just feel guilt. Guilt that I had a small part in putting on the 55 minute of interview videos, filmed by Filippo's friend, and mine, Dorothy Donahue, onto the web and using my BuzzBroz.com skills to get them seen by 10s of thousands of people already.

Social media is so new and open. I've filmed Filippo, who has become one of my most fascinating friends, interviewing channelers, palm readers and various New Age gurus, who all seem to speak of the SHIFT centering around this era of 2012. Some take the SHIFT literally like Sheldan, while others like the great Barnet Bain, producer of WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, take a metaphorical look at the SHIFT.

But as I wondered who might be watching the Sheldan Nidle interviews, I worry that for someone with less of a Midwestern skepticism like my own, that the predictions of Galactic first contact will be scary.

This is what I am worrying about as we careen through the Italian countryside, Marco at the wheel, as I have been the whole trip from LA. I gaze over the peaceful White City. Happy to be so blissfully far from the eccentricities of LA.

Fortunately, Marco wakes me from my waking dream/ guilt trip with a hearty invitation to a special treat!

Take a trip back to Italy with me. The 5 star treatment of Santa Maria Del Sole began before we even reached the exclusive resort!

PRESS RELEASE ABOUT OPTION OF JUNKIE TO TALK SHOW HOST STORY

2010-06-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

We interrupt this talk about my trip to Souldrama in Italy for an important announcement!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SHEETZ OPTIONS EPIC TALE OF RISE FROM JUNKIE TO TALK SHOW HOST

June 1, 2010

Hollywood, California

Filmmaker and social media guru Ken Sheetz (see IMDB), CEO of Overactive Imagination Pictures and its distribution arm and SMM provider BuzzBroz.com, announced today that he has optioned the life story of talk show host, author and speaker Bradley Quick from the popular novel "The Quick Fix" about his rise from a Skid Row junkie to a Hollywood talk show host, author and motivational speaker into a feature screenplay.

Says Sheetz:

"Bradley's true life story is one of the most inspiring and compelling I've ever heard. His tireless and selfless work for his charity, The Cool Change Foundation, helps others battle substance abuse by backing his talk show "The Quick Fix with Bradley Quick", where over 700 hours of shows can be heard at http://bradleyquick.com. ; Bradley's show features health tips, advice on matters of the recovery and inspirational guests like Wayne Dyer, John Bradshaw and Don Miguel Ruiz, famed author of "The Four Agreements".

It is my sincere hope that once I finish the adaptation of his rise from Skid Row junkie to talk show host that Bradley's tireless fight to overcome substance abuse both in his life and the lives of others finds life on the big screen.

Bradley just celebrated being clean and sober now for 23 years. I am honored to have created his popular new YouTube channel that has about a 250,000 views in just over 60 days and to be adapting his dazzling true life story into a screenplay."

Sheetz has produced a popular election TV series since 1996 called Kids Talk Politics, which has aired as the lead into the 2000 Presidential debates on PBS in prime time and that has a popular YouTube channel with over 500,000 views. The KTP DVD about the exciting 2008 Presidential election, "Kids Talk Politics: A New Puppy in the White House" has been number one in its topic on Amazon for 14 months and counting.

In his 7 years in Hollywood, Sheetz has also produced several pilots, over 100 short films and written 12 screenplays that are in various stages of development.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker Sheetz was a successful real estate broker and developer in Chicago, where he brokered well over a billion dollars worth of business, built a $162 million skyscraper and Oprah's Harpo Studios.

On July 1 Sheetz is traveling home to the Midwest for an extended family visit and to raise capital for the screenplay about Bradley Quick's inspirational rise from junkie to talk show host as well as his other film ventures.

For further information email Ken Sheetz at: imagitv@aol.com.

Monopoli

2010-05-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

I hop off the bus, throw open the hatch, dig out my backpack and... Phew. My trusty Flip cam in there. We hop another train and it's onto Ostuni. The train is smaller and traveling south along the coast. There no conductor and as we reach the time when I was suppposed to arrive in Ostuni, 5 hours from Rome, I am worried I missed my stop.

A few weeks earlier to conserve money for this trip I switched to Boost Mobile's basic $50 per month service. I find myself kicking myself for not sticking with my Blackberry Verizon phone as I have no way to know where I am and can't call the resort to know if the delay with crazy bus detour is going to mean I am going to be stranded if I am in fact on the way to Ostuni. Finally I tell myself to shut the hell up and that it will all work out somehow. Enjoy the Italian countryside, bitch.

Amazing little cities pass by the train window and we are now 45 minutes late. I figure if we keep going south the end of the line I can always backtrack and make my way to Ostuni again if I missed it. We pass an amazing town I want to visit on another trip. Beautiful architecture that looks like giant layered tiramasu in a town called Monopoli.

It looks like a paradise. A paradise I've never heard of before where life goes on every day without ever a thought about we people working like slaves to a dream that died a while ago.

Then Monopoli is gone and I wonder why I was ever worrying about making it to Ostuni.

Working my Way to Puglia Italy

2010-05-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been away. Far away in both body and spirit. For years I've read, written and watched science fiction voraciously. Today I am living science fiction.

I've been filming social media for YouTube for Bradley Quick, which led to my meeting an amazing new client for my fledgling business BuzzBroz. The cleint is Connie Miller, founder of an group therapy workshop she holds all over the world called Souldrama. Souldrama teaches you how to lead a more soulful existence.

Now, I am a regular Joe from the Midwest, always will be, Hollywood can't take that out of me. So when Connie insisted that in addtion to making her YouTube videos that I take the class in Puglia Italy at the amazing private resort she booked to our exclusive use for Souldrama, well, I almost didn't go. I kept making excuses not to go, not enough money, it was a barter deal after all and I did not want to do group therapy. I'd not done any therapy on myself for a good 8 years.

But Connie and Bradley would not give up on me. So eventually I was set on going to Italy. The last time I went to Italy, 20 years ago, I was a mega real estate developer building Oprah's TV studios and 38 story $162 million skyscrapper. Now, post divorce and post financial disaster I was a struggling artist, signing for his supper making YouTube videos.

20 years ago I was rich in money but poor in spirit and now I was poor in both departments. I lost my faith on the way to Italy reading THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES by the great Joseph Campbell, who opened my eyes to the fact all religions share common mythologies.

Now, in 2010, Italy was calling me back for a new kind of spirituality, one that infused my belief in a great universe we all share as spiritual beings having a human existance, to borrow from Wayne Dyer.

As the time to go to Italy approached I worked intensely to make the trip. No $162 million dollar project to pick our marbles for the lobby to back me up this time, I had to make many little YouTube videos, do Twitter work and Facebook assignements to earn my way; the fees in the hundreds of dollars this time instead of the hundreds of thousands like back in 1990.

I did social media for an amazing client I met through Bradley named Filippo Voltaggio. A larger than life American Italian, Filippo hosts a New Age show called Life Changes. And after doing a lot of work on spec for a percentage of YouTube ads I was forced to start charging him as Google ads I've learned, unless you have videos consistently getting millions of views, are not going to make you much money.

But I love the subject matter Filippo covers along with his producer and Reiki teacher Dorothy Donahue, an amazing woman in her 60's. A motherly figure who watches carefully over her New Age flock.

One day Filippo called me that he had filmed an interview with famed ET expert Sheldan Nidle about his views on the coming "Shift", all centering around 2012. Filippo needed the video edited and posted to YouTube. I agreed because I wanted to learn more about "The Shift". As you'll see in this video from the 6 part series on YouTube, I learned more than I bargained for.

Please watch the video before reading further.

See what I meant earlier in this post about living science fiction?

Sheldan's calm description of the collapse of banks, nations, mountains falling and rising, tectonic plate shifts, aliens reprogramming our DNA left me shaken. His great certainty about it all was unnerving. But I worked some long hours and got the videos loaded but they were hard for me to watch even though I'd help make them.

The last few days before Italy were spent in Las Vegas covering social media for Bradley Quick and his Quick Fix talk show. Bradley is the single worst driver I have ever met. And as we left Hollywood for the 5 hour drive to Vegas I wondered if my trip to Italy would be cut short as Bradley zig zagged through traffic with our assitant for the trip screaming at him to slow down and drive with his hands on the wheel. Bradley is a notorious text and drive guy.

But somehow we made it into town and despite trouble with the assistant, an Italian/Iranian woman with attitude like I've never witnessed -- who we had to let go, and who's parting crack was that I was Bradley's wife -- we managed to make a beautiful collection of videos and I had money for Italy just in the nick of time.

The flight seemed easier compared to 20 years ago. Perhaps because I was imagining travel to be tougher post 9/11. But it was a breeze. My passport sailed me along.

I staggered onto a train to Rome from the Rome airport and the first thing that struck me was the amount of graffiti lining the train's path. The city was not the same. The pristine Rome of 20 years ago was not to be found. Of course I was in a far richer hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps in 1990. Now the Lira was no more, replaced by the Euro and the exchange rate was terrible. I had to Western Union home to friends and my brother to be able to afford my way to Puglia.

I had little money to spend during my 2 days in Rome. So I tried to get some social media gigs, but the language barrier prevented any of that from happening. I made the best of my meager budget and saw some of the sites and even managed to buy a lightweight tripod for my trusty flip camera.

It was to be a relaxing 5 hour train ride from Rome to Ostuni, on the heel of the boot of Italy, where the Santa Maria Del Sole staff would pick me up. But the train ride proved confusing as hell. Half way to Ostuni the train stopped and emptied out.

I was still drowsy from the flight and grabbed my bags and followed the passengers to a cluster of buses. The bus driver could not speak English, or I should say I could not speak his Italian. But he checked my ticket, and told me to get on board. There was one seat left and I squirmed in.

As the bus pulled onto the highway I felt my pockets for my trusty Flip camera and it was missing. I thought about the beautiful train shots and kicked myself now for taking out the camera.

How was I going to cover Souldrama without a camera?!

TO BE CONTINUED...

7 Years in Hollywood

2010-04-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

I made it. 7 years I've survived in Hollywood making scripts, movies, commercials and YouTube videos. Survived is the word. I certainly have not thrived. But one day when I'm on that death bed ready to move onto the next life I won't be saying, "Wish I'd have tried making it in Hollywood."

My only mistake was doing it too late in life to make it big. But then I'd have missed out on my life back in Chicago as the guy who leased 3 skyscrapers, built Oprah's studios and had two amazing kids.

So I have no regrets Hollywood has not paid off like I wish it had. And I wouldn't trade the Hollywood I've experienced for the glamor one of say a Kevin Spacey's, a guy about my age who I admire.

I'm enjoying covering Hollywood as a social media guru. You can see that I really am having fun in this new BuzzBroz video.

Cats...

2010-04-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ya either love 'e, or hate 'em. That's the old saying but for me it's somewhere in between. Especially when I get up in the middle of the night and the bathroom I share with cats at the amazing Mr. Quick's studio are hogging their turf and that turf happens to be the sink and toilet.

SCARCITY

2010-03-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

Real-life Scarcity Inspires SCARCITY the Short Film

As my followers know, it's been a rough past year for me. I was evicted last fall from an apartment I loved nestled in Agoura Hills. I led an ideal creative life in Agoura writing a dozen screenplays, making three feature length docs and over 100 short films. So losing all that was rough on me.

But I've slowly been rebuilding my life via a new SMM venture called BuzzBroz, with a lot of help from some amazing pepople talked about in this blog at great length. As part of that SMM work I started a group of projects I call "Let's Watch Radio." that you can read about on my BuzzBroz blog.

But since last fall I've been so busy with cleaning up the mess in my life that I've not done any fictional work in over a year. So it is with great pleasure I present to you my newest political satire SCARCITY.

SCARCITY is set in a dark near term future where China has called in America's loans, decimating our economy and the very fabric of our society. The scary thing is SCARCITY is not a huge stretch of the imagiantion. It stars two amazing young actors Ramon Govea Gomez and Brett Collier. And also an amazing old actor Tom Katsis.

The idea for SCARCITY is somethig I've been working out since today's crazy jobless recovery cost me a home I loved and my beautiful little dog Sophia, who I found a wonderful home for.

When I moved to North Hollywood, renting a small studio / bedroom to cut down costs, after being used to a mansion of an apartment, I began wandering the area and came across an amazing find. A grocery store going under in the bad economy. It closes this week and looks like something out of the Great Depression.

A ready made set! After challenging a bunch of writers to give me a story about SCARCITY and coming up dry I began to wrack my brains for a story I'd write myself. One day at the store I learned there was only 10 days left until the amazing Great Depression set would be gone. As I shopped the sad store I came across a lone can of olives perched on a entirely empty shelf and the script idea for two competing shoppers came to me.

SCARCITY was born. As I'm fighting to scratch out a living, as is everyone in my cast, we worked fast and cheap. I shot with my trusty Flip, did the ADR in Tom's Saab in the parking lot and edited the whole film together in less than 24 hours.

I hope you enjoy SCRACITY.

Reiki Ricadrdo

2010-03-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

Through Bradley Quick I've been meeting some very cool people. Musician producer David Longoria, radio star and producer Robert Eibach, the author of THE FOUR AGREEMENTS; Don Miguel Ruiz and his beautiful kids and niece Karla (pictured below), famous hypnotherapist Tom Silver and radio star, singer Filippo Voltaggio.

Fillippo's the guy with great hair in the photo above. Heck, at this stage of baldness I'd settle for bad hair, hence the hat.

Life is full again. I'm making great videos, like this meditation series I just did for Bradley's channel. And I think his ELIMINATE FEAR AND ANXIETY message in this video is working.

I've let go of worrying about money and I am healing from a lot of wounds. I've even gotten so over fear that I've started roller blading again after stopping 10 years ago after breaking a wrist.

A big person responsible for the Quick Fix of Mr. Sheetz is Dorothy Donahue. Dorothy Gale as I nicknamed her for the girl who flew over the rainbow is a Reiki master, renonwed and sought after by people all over the planet.

I'm bartering with her, doing some BuzzBroz SMM work in return for Reiki therapy and training. Stay tuned for future blogs where we'll go behind the scenes to an actual Reiki class. Meantime enjoy a bit of unconditional PURE LOVE from Dorothy Donahue.

The Quick Fix for Ken Sheetz

2010-03-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

For the past month, since my abrupt departure from Kim and Gilley's lives, -- a departure I hope is only temporary as I love them both for their parts on my 7 Years in Hollywood journey -- I've been doing social media marketing via my new baby BuzzBroz as part of my rent with Bradley Quick (pictured left) who runs a foundation called The Cool Change Foundation that helps families devastated by drug and alcohol abuse.

Bradley's a great man and I have enjoyed these past 30 days, filming his life and getting the word out for him into the world via BuzzBroz.

Bradley had a horrific childhood that led to early substance abuse. He ended up a skid row junkie before a family intervention turned his life around. 23 sober and clean years later Bradley is a famed author for The Quick Fix and the radio by the same name which he hosts. He's also an awesome motivational speaker as you can see in this video I made for him that's already buzzed up 10,000 views!

DAILY KARAOKE WITH BRADLEY QUICK

Try being depressed with a motivational speaker to inspire you every day! Impossible for me with Bradley around. Bradley's office is up the hall from mine and he bursts into boisterous song at random moments all day long. Here's his favorite of course because it inspired the name of his Cool Change Foundation.

I enjoy Bradely's "karaoke without the machine" style so much that I built him a Blip FM radio station. Check it out. You can hear some of the tunes that he sings in his rough booming radio voice that are guaranteed to brighten your day!

BRADLEY'S AA MEETINGS INSPIRE ME

An amazing experience for me in filming Bradley's amazing life is attending some of his AA meetings, as a filmmaker without his camera. These sessions are private affairs. Sitting in a auditorium filled with guys who keep each other on the wagon is nearly overwhelming for me.

An AA man somberly shares his story about how all his friends who used to drink with him are all dead now. Reality is far more powerful than my daydreams.
As I sit there beside Bradley, feeling way out of place as a sober man except for some rare party moments, I'm touched by how thsi very macho bunch "Share" tender stories of the way booze and drugs have ravaged their lives and how AA saves them each day. And I begin to sadly feel at home.

Why? Because in all their stories I hear echoes of how my being a workaholoic has stolen so much life from me. I think about missing most of the 20s of my two great kids, and not hangin' with my brother Fred, a heavy smoker and who I worry I'll lose to cancer one day. All missed while I've been out here in heartless Hollywood working my ass off for 7 hard years, chasing a what seems an impossible, and sometimes meaningless, dream of being a Hollywood director.

I think about how I use work to hide from feelings, my family... myself.

The leader of the AA meeting snaps me out of my self-reflection when he announced the chapter is running dangerously low on funds. So, despite not having much money, with 3 BuzzBroz clients behind on paying me and not likely to soon while the bailed out bank keep our capital frozen here in the Great Depression 2, I dig deep and toss $20 into the donation basket.

STEPS & THE 12 STEPS

Twenty bucks is small price for inspiration from all the stories these men shared. 7 years ago a screenplay I wanted to bring the silver screen called STEPS had brought me here. It's a multi-protagonist tale about three divorce ravaged families, told like CRASH, with the various plots all meeting at the end.

At Bradley's AA meeting I learned what one of the stories in STEPS should really be about: How the 12 Steps can save lives and families. STEPS has always been about how divorce tears families apart and what tears more families apart than booze and drugs?

The 2002 STEPS trailer you can watch here, shot in glorious 35MM, stars Jennifer Estilin, a great Chicago SAG pro and non-professional actor, and Dave Curry. Dave's my friend and BuzzBroz client for his amazing re-invention of the shoe for PodiWear.

These casting choices were made before I learned the hard way that you must use known stars to get distribution or have a completed film that becomes a festival hit. But I think Dave turns in a solid performance for a first-timer and Jenifier is flat out amazing.

BRADLEY INTERVIEWS DON MIGUEL RUIZ

Two weeks ago, following Bradley around as his videographer, I was so proud to film Bradley's masterful interview with famed author Don Miguel Ruiz whose best-seller THE FOUR AGREEMENTS sold over 4.4 million copies that has been translated into 36 languages.

Don Miguel's new book THE FIFTH AGREEMENT, authored with his son Don Jose, is already in the top ten on the New York Times best-seller list!

What was cool was Don Miguel beautiful niece, Karla Ruiz, also had a Flip camera. So I devised a strategy to film a two Flip camera interview.

I was the only camera operator, however, so it was a bear in post. But the final result, a 45 minute playlist you can watch here. It already has buzzed up over 7,000 views and YouTube.

BRADLEY IS INTERVIEWED ON "LIFE CHANGES WITH FILIPPO"

In filming Bradley's getting interviewed for a switch on a cool radio show about modern spirituality called LIFE CHANGES WITH FILIPPO I met the host Filippo and his co-producer Dorothy Lee Donahue.

Here's the playlist for that radio interview, which I also had the honor to film. It gives you a complete overview of the man, the legend, Bradley Quick.

COMING BLOG ATTRACTIONS & TRANSFORMATIONS

You'll be learning more of my adventures in meeting the amazing Filippo and Dorothy, a Reiki Master, who became BuzzBroz clients and great new friends thanks to the glowing recommendations of Bradley.

And so another amazing chapter in my spiritual journey 7 Years in Hollywood opens. Perhaps the real reason I am here.

My First Roomate Experience - An Apology

2010-02-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

You always remember your first car, first kiss and I'll always remember my first roomates, Gilley Grey and Kim Griego, and the great kindness they showed me. Even if they now hate me, I'll always love them for how they helped me.

How did a relationship I count as one of the best of my life end in such a mess?

Let's start with the short notice from my first roomies. One week. Which I brought on myself by saying I only needed a week, which is exactly what I got. I was overconfident about finding a place and it left me scrambling. And not knowing where or how big my new place would be left me in a panic. When I asked Gilley for some more time he refused. A week and I was out. After all the months of sharing life I never saw this inflexible side of the man. It seemed my wanting to leave had severed our brotherly bond and I was SOL.

And I didn't know where to go because my check from a new client was 2 months past due. Now in normal times a 60 day past due invoice is not big deal. You borrow from your bank to cover stuff like that. But my bank is heartless giant Bank of America and a self-employed man like me who was just evicted in 2009 is not good credit material.

So all I could do was plan an interim move on a couch and stick everything in storage. But there was just one problem with that. My storage space was 2 weeks late on rent. It would have been worse except Kim paid me up as a loan.

All this uncertainty left me wound tight as a drum and when Gilley would not let me borrow Kim's car for an extra few hours to get the job of moving done. I flew into a rage on the phone! I must have called that poor guy every name in the book.

No matter what my friends and family tell me, I had no right to speak to Gilley so crudely. No matter how unreasonable he seemed to my fear fevered brain at the time. I've apologized for my potty mouth and the rotten stuff I said in rage, but with some people, like my stepfather, they never forgive. So who knows? Are you reading Kim and Gilley? If so consider this blog post another apology.

I did not grow horns and a tail. And neither did Kim and Gilley. We're all just people coping with an economy that is not showing signs of life. The pressures are enormous and we crack. I'm grateful I'm not doing crack at this point. I need a long rest and there's no rest when you are working to just keep one room over your head.

In my house growing up in rough Italian neighborhood in Milwaukee the F was used in about every word in every other sentence. But to hurl that at a guy like Gilley, who's been nothing but kind, makes me see I have a lot of work to do on myself if I am to be the enlightened being I want to be.

In the end the miracle of the one week move did happen despite losing my mind. I don't exaggerate. I lost it. At one point shuffling stuff in an out of the apartment, my storage in Agoura and the new place in North Hollywood and tossing excess stuff in the dumpster at Gilley's I accidentally began keeping the trash and trashing the things I wanted to keep!

So I had to climb into the dumpster to salvage important lost papers. I was moving out without Gilley's help and I dropped a nighstand and it punched a hole in a the door to room I "rented" from Gilley.

This roommate thing was a whole new experience for me. I've always had my own place, either owned or rented. And in whole I did OK until the end. In December when cash ran low I'd exchange services for the missed rent or food and that all seemed clear and to be working. Seemed is the operable word.

It's all a mess at this point with me doing a ton of barter work and their doing a ton of favors and small loans that are intertwined into a Gordian knot of hurt feelings, angst, broken dreams and frustration we may never untangle.

I don't know if the big hearted Gilley and sweet Kim did not believe I really have a home back in Wisconsin to go home to or not, and I prefer not to as my father is old and sick a lot these days and we never got along well. So on the hopes of some big social media work that would have saved the day, but that never materialized through no fault of mine, Kim and Gilley kept me afloat when they should have sent me packing for home back in December.

In my new situation in North Hollywood I keep the boundaries totally clear. I take no favors and have clear understanding of doing one hour of BuzzBroz work per day for Bradley Quick, my new landlord. Brad is super just to be around for his positive energy and he has a huge three bedroom home here in LA. I now have beautiful studio with a ginormous work station, big enough that I've been editing videos for him on three computers and once.

And it at least says something about me I ended up in such a great spot working for such a great guy to help pay my rent.

Bradley is just what the doctor ordered for this weary filmmaker/social media guru. I'm filming him giving motivational speeches, doing his weekly radio show and being a guest himself on talk shows. I already have 3 amazing hours of material and have built him twitter, youtube and facebook fan pages to get the word out.

Here's hoping I learned from the wonderful Kim and Gilley how to be a better roommate this time around with the amazing Mr. Quick.

But most of all here's hoping that when tempers cool and times are better, debts settled, that Gilley and Kim will forgive me as I've forgiven them.

Life is a Super Bowl

2010-02-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

I'm here at my favorite Starbucks in Sherman Oaks on Ventura the last time before moving out of Gilley and his fiancee Kim's LA place.

I was watching DVDs from Gilley's library as the cable was canceled earlier in the week. I had never seen Travolta and Winger's URBAN COWBOY and just a few minutes into the great flick, the kind of humanistic, zero CG, flick we don't see enough today, I see Winger doing a sexy mechanical bull ride in a joint called Gilley's.

I'll be asking Gilley when I see him tomorrow -- when I give back the keys on the VW his fiancee, the lovely Kim, loaned me when she headed off to New Mexico -- was URBAN COWBOY, and the mega nigh club called Gilley's, the inspiration for his stage name?

Gilley Grey was born Gilbert Anderson. But since someone with that name already existed in the Screen Actors Guild, Gilbert became Gilley Grey.

Kim does not like the Gilley name but I find it fits Gilley's energetic generous personality. But Gilley Grey is mighty tired right now because he did stunt work and transpo on PASSION PLAY, the new film with Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray for 6 weeks solid, 16 hours a day.

Gilley hit it off well with Rourke and Murray in particular. Bill as Gilley tells me is much fun in real life as he is on film. And Rourke is the charming same charming rascal on and off the silver screen too. Gilley did not get to spend much time with Megan Fox, but Gilley did get to see her in her angel wings, as she plays an angel that Mickey's character must rescue.

Sounds like PASSION PLAY might be a great flick that would silence some of Megan's detractors.

Today Gilley hooks up a trailer and hauls it to LA to load his stuff up and split to New Mexico for about 5 months. I worry he's going to fall asleep at the wheel making a 34 hour round trip after a marathon film shoot. I'll volunteer to drive him back if he can book me a flight back to LA.

Gilley's been a unbelievable roomate and so has Kim. They feel the same about me. We had all hoped the great sitcom CARMEN'S PLACE, about a stripper fitness club, that we all worked so hard on creating, well, I did all the writing as a way to bater for rent, might be a quick sale and change our lives.

But it's been the usual huge struggle just to get it submitted and I had to call in some favors with my entertainment layers. It's slowed us down and we started the process too late in the pilot season but maybe this summer we can take run at it again. It is one of the funniest things I've written and I am proud of it. One of my pals at ABC who works on LOST loves it. So who knows? Ageism is alive and well in Hollywood and a guy in 50s like me is really up against it.

Now Gilley and Kim are leaving for New Mexico. At least I won't have time to miss them too much as I'm battling to launch BuzzBroz in the middle of an economy so tight it feel like the labors of Hercules. I find myself constantly making wrong guesses about work and cash flow. People I usually depend on for backing are nowhere, acting frightened and behaving erratically.

Take a billionaire pal who called be just before New Year's. The billionaire said, "I love this BuzzBroz thing to market one of my empty condo towers. Expect a call from my people tomorrow. Give them a good quote and the job will be yours." Kim and Gilley heard the call on speakers in the car and we were all high as kites as with the big job I'd be able to hire Kim and pay her a modest salary.

Now it's Super Bowl Sunday and still no word from the billionaire's people. When I finally chased him down yesterday he basically called me a pest for calling him for the final word, which was, "We'll call you soon as we know. Don't call us."

I could leave for year for World Trip and not miss a thing. I may just do that as I continue to pair down my possessions. I filled half a dumpter of stuff I tossed that I had tucked away in Gilley's place. Half a dumpster! And after my eviction last fall I'd never imagine I still have that much stuff.

Stuff! I rented a 10 foot by 10 foot storage spot in Agoura where stashed stuff I was when the eviction hit. I've pulled all that matter from there and that's half full of old furniture I'll now abandon. I held onto it hoping things would get better with the new BuzzBroz biz that has been a drizzle instead of the steady rain I need. Now I'm abandoning ship on the storage spot and losing all that furniture. Oh, well, most of it was 15 years old anyways. New stuff awaits this purged warrior of the Great Depression 2.0. when the storm is over. I' haven't had less stuff since college.

More soon on my ongoing search for a new roomie. One of my new clients is now 60 days behind on paying me and I'm flat broke. But thankfully, I found a couch to crash on with an amazing radio star and motivational guru, Bradley Quick. Brad stepped up from the filmmaker group called THE TABLE, how I also met Gilley. I needed some rescue with the short notice Gilley had to give me when we leased the apartment in only about 48 hours thanks in part to a BuzzBroz video I made of the nice place.

I like Brad and we may even do a 90 day lease once my check comes in next week as my struggling client has promised. But Brad's used to living solo so I'm going to keep looking. Harder to do now without a car but that's what the internet is for. I'd like to live near the ocean for a while.

Too bad that nice lady with a place in Venice Beach was worried I'd be good for the rent based on my honesty. I may be a deadbeat but I'm an honest deadbeat.

My lesson from all these hard times is we all more connected than we realize. The daisies in this daisy chain are wilted and brown. But spring is coming, even if it skips a year to 2011. Meantime, it's a great time to write, , film, blog, hike and bike.

Even in the worst of times... Life is a Super Bowl.

Roomie Hunting in the Great Depression 2.0

2010-02-04T13:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings from my favorite Starbucks in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Boulevard.

I'm blogging and making video here at Starbucks today, dear reader, because I am using the web to hunt for my new place. You see, the internet just got cut off at Gilley's place, whose sudden move to New Mexico, has me looking for new surroundings.

So pardon any typos but working with the cappuccino machine next to my head is distracting as hell.

Charlie Fleischer of ROGER RABBIT fame sits next to me, sipping on a iced coffee and doodling. Charlie's a regular here like me and a sweet guy. I'd love to interview him before I blow Sherman Oaks.

I did a rooms for rent search Monday for my new place for the next 90 days. My budget is tight and I thought my options would be limited but I found hundreds of options on Craig's List that fit my tight $500 to $700 per month budget.

That amount of people searching for roomies says a lot about how hard times are by itself, but I came across some sad stories that drives the point sadly further home.

One was a lovely, lonely woman living in the valley in an area that would best be described as a mugging waiting to happen. As I pulled up to the spiked metal fence surrounding the apartment building I knew this would never work for a guy who likes to walk in LA, a rarity I know, but it works as long as you're not dating and you work from home like me.

But I never break an appointment so I went in, even though I knew this war zone wonder was not for me. The lady was former actor who was now a beautician, and as we sat and talked I thought about the story of the pioneers who set of for California, only to stop along the journey to establish places like Denver and Salt Lake City. Short of the destination but happy with where they settled.

The actress turned beautician impressed me as happy but then next sublandlord was not so happy. Unemployed and likely to remain so in this rotten economy, the next lady needed a roomie to make the mortgage. As she tourd me past the broken washer in dryer sitting in her living room she explained,

"It gets chilly here at night because I had the gas turned off to save on money. But a space heater might keep you comfy."

Someone the other day told me that America was already a third world country and we're just to brainwashed to know it. I couldn't help feeling this might be true given the third world conditions that rivaled DISTRICT 9 that I was seeing today. Cable's down at Gilley's and I was watching the director's commentary and he in fact calls LA "Johanesburg Light" that the world is heading for a society where the elite live behind fences to keep out the poor.

So as I thought about D-9, I tried not to feel too guilty telling this desperate woman not to wait for my answer.

Justified though I was in running, not walking, out of that sad house perched among choked weeds on a sunny middle-class Burbank street, I still felt like a jerk. The poor thing needed a lot more help than my little monthly rent might provide. But God help me if one of my clients stiffed me and I failed to pay rent on time and she and her little Toto looking dog ended up on the street.

So, not wanting to be a roomie in in place that sounded like it was heading for foreclosure or worse, I headed over to Venice Beach in Kim's car that she's kindly letting me use to get resettled after she and Gilley decided to move to New Mexico with only one week's notice.

BTW, normally I'd be bugged about this short string move notice but Gilley's been awesome. Yep. I'd be a dick to complain. I love Kim and Gilley so I'm joyfully making this work, even if I end up throwing my stuff into storage and go on a camping trip for a week at Big Sur or crashing on a pal's couch. No bitching allowed. I'm seeing all this as an adventure
And though the Venice Beach place is a little above my price range, I hope this works out not just for the cool location, only a couple hundred yards from the beach, but for chance to get to know the nice woman who'd be my new roomie. But it's hot property and I have the disadvantage of being a guy when she'd prefer a fellow female roomie. So I'm keeping up the hunt!

Stay tuned for more of my adventures in Hollywood here in the Great Depression 2.0.

And the Oscar for Best Roomies Goes to...

2010-02-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

I may be away for a week or so while I get myself resituated in LA. Sadly for me, Gilley Grey, my awesome roomie and his girl Kim Griego are packing up for New Mexico.

The fact both Kim and Gilley have been away the better part of the time since December on the new Megan Fox film PASSION PLAY makes losing their companionship a little bit easier.

Who would have thought when I went through an eviction last October that it would lead to one of the happiest periods in my life? Gilley and Kim have been "above and beyond" kind; treats to restaurants, theater, Xmas in New Mexico and even a Dennis Quaid concert.

And this time with them was explosive time for my creativity.

I wrote a sitcom inspired by Kim's crazy job working for a fitness center that uses exotic dancing to get desperate housewives into shape that is off to several networks with Gilley's help and my fine entertainment lawyers Greenberg & Glusker.

I finished the Lincoln is Back web series with Tom Katsis.

I produced my first viral hit on YouTube that's starting to earn money.

I made many BuzzBroz viral spots, including one for Podi shoes with a sexy and funny idea by that was inspired by Kim. Kim and Gilley helped on making the spot for just a free pair of Podi shoes.

I built a new website for a new Social Media Marketing company BuzzBroz, that I started just before I met Kim and Gilley.

But most fun of all were some of the many improvised videos Gilley and I made just for fun. Like this one about the universe being flat. Gilley is a rocket scientist and the flat universe is a real theory! Turns out ancient man was not that far off saying the world was flat!

BTW, in his 40 some years Gilley has enjoyed the following real life roles:

State Senate Page
Rocket Scientist
Teamster Driver
Stuntman
Stunt Co-ordinator
Actor
Fire Fighter
Ambulance Company COO
Trick Roper

There's more. I just lose count with Gilley Grey, Renisance Man. BTW, that last career, trick roper. I suggested that should be the name of Gilley's new production company, which I hope will become a partner in many films with my Overactive Imagination Pictures production co.

Gilley is a born producer. He gets things done and done right and he's a ton of fun to work with. One of the flat out most likable people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. And Kim is his perfect compliment who keeps this rocket scientist turned filmmaker grounded.

My new buzz business has been slower getting rolling cash flow wise and Gilley has been very kind and patient.

Kim too. In fact, I was so grateful that I went to New Mexico and used my design background to help Kim redesign their home's interior. Gilley liked it all except the sun porch which he felt was too bold. My guess is once they put the furniture in Gilley will love it. Well, Kim loves it. That's good enough for me. You want bland I'm not your guy!

I even picked up a paint brush for the first time in 30 years and painted for 6 days straight 12 hours a day to get Gilley's New Mexico house, which prior renters had trashed, fixed up!

And to top that off I gave Gilley free real estate consulting on his Q2 Studios project using my experience having built Oprah's Harpo Studios. My opinion is the market officially became overbuilt with the December announcement of Santa Fe Studios breaking ground and giant Albuquerque Studios already in place.

So I suggested roping that project in for the time bieing with a press release, written free courtesy of BuzzBroz. Gilley's still deciding about my free advice on halting Q2. I'm mighty conservative after losing my shirt in 1991 building a skyscraper that went busto and me with it. If anyone could make a studio go in these times it's Gilley. And with his move out there who knows if he'll push on with Q2?

Still, even with all I did for Kim and Gilley, I still feel they did more for me. I was in rough emotional shape after losing my beloved Chihuahua Sophia in the move.

I found Sophia a great home BTW as you see here. Sophia was my constant companion for 2 years and she's more famous than me in Hollywood having starred in a film I made called ZACK'S MACHINE with the great Ed Asner that's been to 8 festivals.

Kim and Gilley truly cheered me up after the loss of my home and dog. They were an anchor in the storm. And though I'll miss them both, as I write with a sad smile on my face, I know I'll be OK and I am looking forward to discovering who my new roomies in Hollywood will be!

And here's why I'm staying in LA and ain't going back to Chicago. Not until summer anyways.

Apple Ipad Rad

2010-01-28T03:45:00.000-08:00

This makes me so glad I did get Amazon's Kindle.

Check out the newest toy from Apple.

The Ten Commandments

2010-01-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

It's another rainy day in LA today, but not in the typical LA way. It's more like the rainy weather back home in the Midwest. Rain with lighting. We don't get that much of that here. Mudslides and flooding abound. All we need is an earthquake, like my roomie Kim said today.

Before the rains came this week Kim Griego and I made a climb to the top of Griffith Park. She'd never been and I was her guide. Stories in this video about a toxic waste dump I climbed by mistake once, God, I'm bright, and my bad imitation of the Governator.

And on the way down from the mountain I got a bit Moses with the Ten Commandments of Hollywood, which have gotten me nowhere so far in Hollywood so please use with caution.

My Poor Rich Uncle

2010-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

I was surfing YouTube on this rainy day, where I can't seem to focus on work, when I was struck like a freight train by a Joni Mitchell song that reminds me of my obligations to my best backer, my Uncle Jim.

Sadly, my formerly rich Uncle is suffering economically for his backing me in Hollywood. He stretched his money too far based on the false confidence I enjoyed a few years back. I feel like a total shit for not realizing how hard Hollywood would be to crack for what it's done to Uncle Jim's life.

What's my floundering for 3 years longer in the Hollywood maze than I imagined it would take done to my retired uncle's life? Try no medical insurance, no personal life and no savings.

But in fairness to Jim's poor judgment and my false sense of confidence that took him down this rabbit hole with me to poverty, for my whole life Jim's watched me go from one huge success to another. I've built world headquarters for Target Stores and Oprah Winfrey (that's me far right next the queen of entertainment herself), negotiated over 1 billion worth of real estate and developed a 38 story skyscraper.

So how could he, or me for that matter, have known that Hollywood would be so fucking tough; that I'd struggle for 7 long hard years without a narrative feature film to my credit?

Sure Kids Talk Politics and Discover Me! have been great docs with lots of critical acclaim that I'm proud of. But they've not been the kind money makers needed to repay Jim and my other backers.

My Uncle Jim is only 12 years older than me so he's more of a big brother figure in my life. If karma means a thing I will succeed just so that Jim succeeds. Jim's a good man he deserves to be rich for what he's done to help me with the climb in Hollywood.

And unlike Joni's character in the song I won't leave Uncle Jim by the side of the road.

Oh, BTW, my brother Fred think our mutual Uncle Jim is not hurting as bad as he claims and is guilt tripping me. Seems like Jim is genuine to me but I'm too close to the situation and in some twisted way I like the pressure of life or death family drama. Spurs my horse onwards and upwards.

But time after time when Uncle Jim complains to me and wonders when he'll be repaid at long last, one of my buddy investors' words keep coming back to haunt me, "Never take money from family, Sheetz. It always ends in tears."

Sage advice.

I'd Rather be Lucky than Smart

2010-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

GILLEY AND KIM MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A KID AGAIN

It was winter 1960, I was 7 years old and my little brother Fred was starting kindergarten. Fred was kind of small. One night, over tears, Fred confessed to me that a group of bullies had been picking on him every day at school.

Next day on the St. Francis grade school playground I watched from the shadows behind a red brick wall as the biggest bully, Tommy, approached and casually punched Fred in the stomach.

"I told you no playing on our playground!"

"It's not your playground." I said nervously stepping from the shadows, snow crunching under my rubber boots.

Now when you're in 2nd grade your size advantage of kindergartners is dramatic, but Tommy was almost big as me and he had a gang of 6 nasty little kids to back him up. So Tommy blustered, "Who the heck are you?"

"I'm Fred's big brother. Leave him alone."

"Get 'em!" Tommy shouted as he dove on Fred.

Tommy's gang of six little thugs ran for me like a pack of obedient dogs. But winter gave me an unexpected advantage; I pushed over the lead kid and the slippery ice tripped them up and darned if they didn't all fall down like dominos!

Tommy gulped, held up in mid swing at my brother upon seeing me "knock" his whole gang over, and ran off in terror.

"Wowie! Thanks, big brother!" Fred cheered as I helped him to his feet. Then both of us could not stop laughing out of relief until the end of recess bell rang.

Great thing is those mean kids never bothered Fred again. In fact, no kid ever bothered us at that school, me or him again. There are few moments in my life I've felt prouder or luckier, until now...

... now that Gilley and Kim, are my new roomies in Hollywood. They are flat out the nicest pair of people I've ever met. One of my clients who shall go anonymous is 45 days late on paying their freaking bill. Yeah, if was still living in my Agoura Hills apartment I'd be out on my ass again as I'm now 45 days behind on the rent.

Instead I'm cared for, respected, covered by Gilley and Kim. I even offered to leave Hollywood to go home to wait out this recession, when my investors who usually back me get healthy again, but Kim and Gilley would hear nothing of it.

On top of all that Kim Griego is a total joy to work with on the BuzzBroz start-up, while Gilley is busy on the New Mexico working on the new Megan Fox/Mickey Rourke/Bill Murray film PASSION PLAY.

Yeah, I've never felt prouder or luckier than since I was 7 years-old today than I feel today in my 7th year in Hollywood. There's an old saying, "I'd rather be lucky than smart." So true. If I ever get an Oscar or Emmy these two are the first people I thank.

But meantime, I'll just be happy to get paid by my delinquent client so I can catch up on my share of the rent.

Elvis' 75th Birthday Salute

2010-01-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

Many times I've wondered since his death: How many more Elvis songs would we have today had he not died so young? Elvis would have been 75 today. That's 8 years younger than my father who is still going strong.

About a year before my 7 Hollywood Odyssey began I wrote a musical science fiction comedy, ELVIS AND ARMAGEDDON.

E & A would rise to top ten popularity for 6 weeks straight out of thousands of scripts on Kevin Spacey's new website Triggerstreet.com and go onto being selected as a script of the month on TS.

If you follow this link you can read again ELVIS AND ARMAGEDDON, reloaded for the King's 75th. I hope it makes it to the movie screen before I hit my 75th. That might be a reasonable goal given how slow things happen in Hollywood.

And be sure to tune into my 7yrsinHollywood Blip.fm DJ station for my musical tribute to Rock 'N' Roll's greatest star.

Thank you for the inspiration, Elvis. Thank you very much.

THE DRIVE

2010-01-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Leave it to the media to give you cheery stories to brighten your holiday. More on that later.

THE DRIVE

By Ken Sheetz

EXT. RV FRONT OF HOUSE - DAY

An older couple, JACK and MARY, wave from the steps of an RV as happy members of Jack and Mary's huge family clap and cheer.

MARY
I think I left the stove on!

JACK'S OLDEST DAUGHTER
Go on you two. We can turn off a stove.

JACK
I don't know about that, daughter.

Everyone laughs as Jack's Oldest swats him along into the RV.

INT. RV (MOVING) - DAY

Jack and Mary switch radio stations on each other as the RV motors up I-4o.

JACK

Alone at last and we fight over the radio?

MARY

When's the last time we were alone
enough to fight over the radio?

JACK
I think Elton John was in diapers.

MARY
Diapers. Won't miss those.

JACK
Hang on!

Jack swings the RV onto the shoulder of the road.

MARY

Jack! You'll get us killed! What are you doing?

Jack brakes the RV to a halt in the emergency lane.

JACK
This.

Jack kisses Mary deeply.

Passing cars honk.

EXT. RV, CAMPSITE - GRAND CANYON- SUNSET

Jack makes a toast of a champagne glass to Mary before the magnificent Grand Canyon.

JACK

To 25 years of mostly wedded bliss.

Mary toasts a champagne glass to Jack's.

MARY

Stinker.

JACK

What? "Mostly" bother you?

MARY

Nope. We've been married 32 years.

JACK

I seem to recall the first 7 years we lived in sin,

babe.

MARY

In California living in sin is married.

Jack raises his champagne glass again.

JACK

To 32 years of mostly wedded bliss.

MARY

And great sex.

JACK

And lots more to come. Thanks Viagra!

Jack and Mary laugh and kiss as they toast. But as they pull

away from the happy kiss Jack notices tears well in Mary's eyes.

JACK

What's the matter, Mary?

MARY

Nothing.

JACK

So why the tears?

MARY

Oh... just so happy we finally

have this time to ourselves.

JACK

Six kids and eighteen grandkids.

MARY

And how many dogs?

JACK

Lost count.

Jack and Mary share a laugh.

MARY

Remember, Rusty?

JACK

Best hunting dog a man ever had,
the pain in the ass.

MARY

Rusty'd cry every time you went off

to work.

JACK

And you didn't?

Mary chuckles.

MARY

Too busy with the kids

for tears.

Mary dabs tears from her eyes with a paper napkin.

MARY

No trouble crying now. So happy.

JACK

Bull. What's wrong, Mary?

Be straight with me.

Mary fights back the tears.

MARY

Cancer.

JACK

Jesus. They catch it soon enough?

MARY

God I wish I went to the doctor like you

told me sooner.

JACK

I hate being right all the time.

Mary smiles between sobs.

JACK

How long?

MARY

Weeks.

Mary can't bear to look at Jack, whose eyes fill with tears.

JACK

Weeks... You're sure?

Mary tires to speak but only manages a tearful nod.

JACK

Damnit!

MARY

I'm sorry!

JACK

For what?! Getting cancer?!

MARY

For telling you like this!

Jack takes Mary into his arms and rocks her as she weeps.

JACK

Just look at that sunset.

MARY

I can't.

JACK

For me?

Mary slowly raises her head off Jack's shoulder.

MARY

So beautiful.

JACK

It's shit compared to your smile.

MARY

Oh, Jack. Why now? Why when

we finally have a life of our own?

JACK

I never try to figure crap like that out.

I should've been dead ten times over

in Vietnam. But I do know one thing...

MARY

What?

JACK

Life ain't nothing without you.

MARY

Not true.

JACK

(savagely)

I'll be the damn judge of what's true for me!

MARY

You have at least another 40 years.

JACK

Hell, Mary, without you I won't last 40 days.

MARY

Jack Kerrgian, there's not single thing I do for you, outside

the bedroom, that a good maid couldn't do and with
the right maid maybe even --

Jack flips over the camping table and runs for the cliffs.

MARY

Jack! No!

EXT. CLIFFSIDE, GRAND CANYON - SUNSET

Mary clings to Jack's legs as he struggles for the edge.

MARY

No, Jack!

JACK

Let me go, damnit!

MARY

No! We can't end like this!

JACK

Watch me!

MARY

No! You're no quitter, Jack!

JACK

I am for this. I ain't gonna watch

you die!

MARY

Oh. And am I supposed to sit here

and watch you jump?

Jack sinks to the dirt on his knees.

MARY

Our six kids and eighteen grandkids

need you, Jack.

JACK

You're the one the kids love.

MARY

Wrong. They all worship you

and you know it.

Jack is silent for a long beat.

JACK

That's not the same as love.

Mary stands and holds out a hand for Jack.

MARY

Half us in their lives is better than

none.

Jack takes Mary's hand.

EXT. FRONT OF HOUSE - DAY

Mary's hand becomes the hand of his daughter's in Jack's hand as she helps him from the black funeral limo.

All the family, dressed in funeral black, comfort Jack and welcome him with love and tenderness as he shakily enters his home and his new life without Mary.

THE END

I hope you enjoyed THE DRIVE which will hopefully soon be a short film. Many times when I read sad news stories I'm inspired to write something that turns out better than real life.

Here's the story on SPHERE that created the drive to write THE DRIVE.

Jumbled into all this story are all the experiences of my past amazing and heart warming two weeks in New Mexico with Gilley Grey and Kim Griego, my roomies and their wonderful families.

A New Mexico Xmas

2009-12-23T13:11:00.000-08:00

Holiday Greetings from Albuquerque New Mexico!

I'm happy to have tagged along with my producer pal Gilley Grey and his lovely fiancee Kim Griego for a New Mexico Xmas.

Gilley has become such a great pal. One of the few highlights of 2009. We got to be pals via his interest in my real estate expertise from having been the development manager for Oprah's Harpo Studios.

I've enjoyed seeing Albuquerque and offering him my two cents on the fate of Q2 Studios. Look for an announcement about Q2 here soon.

I hope in some way I've repaid Gilley for his kindness in helping me keep my Hollywood dreams afloat since my eviction last fall with some of my real estate expertise and manual labor on his New Mexico residence.

And speaking of fun Gilley treated the whole family, me included, to a trip to the movies to see Avatar, which I give 6 out of 7 years on the 7 Years in Hollywood scale. It's a gas.

I even had a fun date with a casting director pal of Gilley's out here from Santa Fe. Yep, Gilley Grey and Kim are the bright spots in an otherwise depressing year I look forward to putting behind me.

Meet Gunny. Kim's family dog:)

KiLL BILL 2

2009-12-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

First time I heard the title KILL BILL I hated it. So imagine my surprise 6 years ago, half a year into my Hollywood adventures, that I ended up seeing the film 6 times and having it become my favorite film of all time.

I watched Tarantino's epic action flick with roomies Kim and Gilley tonight. It was Kim's first time seeing the film. She liked part 2 best.

Kim was hurting a bit as the fitness center she worked at today let her go because she's basically too sane. So KILL BILL was a welcome distraction. The KILL BILL DVDs are the first thing I have bought post eviction. It felt so good watching this great film with Kim and Gilley. Like coming home.

I run a little music channel on Blip and there's a KILL BILL music tribute there, one of the best scored films of all time. Nice work RZA and Rodriguez.

Go here to listen up blip.fm/7yrsinHollywood

Looking Forward to 2010

2009-12-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

I've always admired people who've picked one profession, mastered and savored it. I'm a restless spirit, learning one job until I master it them moving onto something else, in search of something more.

I began fresh from college as an interior architect from from Layton School of Art. I rose swiftly to the top of my profession and was designing world headquarters for corporate giants like Target, Allied Mills and Toro for a pair of straight guys in the Gay world of design, Burt Richmond and Peter Cohen. I had worked my way through college selling Rainbow vacs door to door. Burt and Peter put the polish on me.

And then I hopped into commercial real estate, landing a job from one of my clients, a genius named Wes Irvine. Wes was was a party man par excellence of the go-go 80's who liked to go-go to King Arthur's Restaurant on Adams for Bloody Marys and prime rib smothered in butter. Between drinks and steaks Wes would teach me the world of brokering world headquarters and I grew richer than I ever dreamed possible.

And then I would leave Wes' employ to start my own shop and quickly got into development with the easy credit of the 80's. How easy? Easy enough for a guy with no skyscraper building experience, but more importantly knowing how to fill an empty skyscraper, marketing 3, to get a loan for $162 million for my first project. My second development project? Oprah's Harpo Studios in Chicago.

But the 1991 real crash would melt this Icarus's wings and my divorce would crack my nest egg for starting projects to Humpty Dumpty bits.

So I started looking for something new. Something that would combine all my creative power with my business power. And that something, starting with part time film projects in 1995 was producing. Eventually writing, directing, editing. scoring and self distributing would follow. My backers? Former competitors from the Chicago real estate world.

And I was doing OK, high on creating and looking for the first big strike from Kids Talk Politics when PBS, who had aired my 2000 show as the lead into the presidential debates, took a pass. I'm the kind of personality who when rejected won't be denied. It's how I win. So I started self distributing the DVD on Amazon and mastered social networking. But I underestimated how bad this economy is, and overestimated how fast we'd recover under Obama and ended up broke again, worse than I was in 1991.

For 2010 I plan to do some real estate again along with my films and ad work. I will seek to fuse all I know into one force. I feel excited about 2010 like I never felt excited about any year in my life when I will begin my 8th year in Hollywood.

KILL BILL

2009-12-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

Wow. I almost forgot what it feels like to relax. Maybe it's a sign life is on the mend that I managed some relaxing this weekend after my sexy viral video shoot for Podi Shoes.

I went for a long walk for some cold meds a friend recommended to nip a cold in the bud. Zicam. Tasty stuff. I hope it works. I'm doing creative visualization the germs are Bill and The Bride's my ant-bodies. Go get 'em Uma.

Sexy Shoes

2009-12-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

I may be biased but I think we have a viral hit.

This was filmed on Ventura Boulevard in the heart of the city. If I told you what I made this spot for you might not believe me. All this with my editing FCP software limping along at half screwed up.

Thanks for the great repair job, Apple.

Noel Baker stars as the hottie with the black Porsche and Donny Mecham as a nerd with a fashion flare. Many thanks also to my pals Gilley Grey and Kim Griego who donated their time and talents for the shoot.

Enjoy.

And fun look behind the scenes.

A Good Day in Crazy Land

2009-12-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

It's days like today, calling for pitch meeting to studios, that I realize maybe I am getting better at all this. Even the no's were pleasant today and surprisingly quick and direct yet wildly encouraging.

Hmm. The better the idea the faster the no with a spin in the right direction?

Doesn't pay to overanalyze Hollywood.

Enjoy this video for laughs. Talented insanity.

Hollywood Harvest Moon?

2009-12-02T22:16:00.000-08:00

As the moon rose over the San Fernando valley today I was having buritos with my producer pal Gilley at Hugo's on Coldwater Canyon. I was struck by how fast time passes out here. How many full moons have passed on my struggles in this strange city.

7 years and I have little to actually show for it. But then again you accomplish more than you think. Hollywood sneaks up on you in ways both good and bad. Heck, half the stuff I've done is not even up on IMDB.

Tomorrow Gilley and I embark and trying to sell a pilot script. This is my third so I'm no longer very excited about the hunt. I know we'll hit the screens, get sent down hopeless dead ends. But this is a good script and maybe, for once, I've created something that has an actual chance of catching the eye of mainstream Hollywood.

Hope springs eternal. So I hope is that it was a Hollywood harvest moon we saw today. A sign of good things to come for my newest writing. Gilley provided a safety zone for the work and the inspiration for the story idea. There's good karma here.

Stay tuned.

"Unbelievable" Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wedding Scene from THE GODFATHER

Mom and Dad got divorced when I was but the tender age of 30. I had thought the way these two tried to kill each other so many times that I'd feel happy about their divorce. Instead I was stunned how deeply their official break-up bothered me, how strangely orphaned I felt.

Both of them quickly remarried and soon I ended up with two sets of parents.

1. Dad and a sweet stepmother named Jackie, from Oshkosh by gosh.

2. Mom and a tough but lovable Sicilian from Milwaukee named Nick.

This proved to be a nightmare for the holidays as both Mom and Dad and the new steps were spread hours apart. Plus there were my ex Gloria's father and his bride, the mother-in-law from hell, to visit.

The divorce, when I hit 40, simplified things a bit and I was down to two families for the holidays again. Nice and simple.

Simple that is until two Thanksgivings ago, 2007. That fateful year I, along with my brother Fred, visited Mom and Nick in Vegas where they retired to some 20 years ago. In fact Thanksgiving in Vegas had become a regular tradition for my 7 years in Hollywood, where Fred would visit with me a few days in LA and then we'd drive over to Vegas for a few days.

Mom's a great cook and her Thanksgiving feasts have been my favorites my whole life. So imagine how pissed I am that my stepfather has thrown a wet blanket on that day.

Back to Thanksgiving 2007 for how this holiday got whacked up. On his visit with me in LA Fred and I went to watch a football game at the Sportsman's Lounge bar in Studio City. The waitress suggested their spicy buffalo wings. Man, that waitress was not kidding; these wings were spicy as hell. Fred wouldn't touch 'em but that left more for me and I gobbled 'em down during the game.

By the time we hit the Sportsman's parking lot I was already feeling sick. And by the time we hit the apartment I was hitting the toilet, barfing my guts out. I'd say I was barfing my brains out but I lost those a long time ago beating my head against the Hollywood wall.

The drive to Vegas the next day was a nightmare of short hops between gas stations, since I now had a case of the "Sportsman's Lodge spicy buffalo wing shits" that makes my butt hurt just thinking about it. Oh my aching writer's hemorrhoids.

So when we arrived in Vegas I was not in the best of spirits. In fact, the entire first 3 days are a blur. Thanksgiving dinner is in there somewhere and I may have gotten down some mashed potatoes. I spent all my time alone in the condo while the family went out and partied. Nothing gets in the way of gambling for my family.

Thanksgiving 2007 was the truly worst vacation of my life and it was about to get worse.

After we saw Fred off to the airport and I started to pack, CNN reported a major fire was happening in Agoura Hills, Caly. Right where I lived. "Fuck me," I said as Nick had taught me in true Sicilian fashion.

Now, I'm allergic to the fire retardants that get in the air when there's a big fire. So I decided to stay over an extra night in Vegas at my folk's home. I was feeling a whole lot better and was ready to finally party.

But, as Mom and Nick gambled all their fun money away while I was busy shitting out the last Sportsman's buffalo wing in their toilet, all we did was sit in their little one bedroom condo and watch cable TV for hours on end.

Whoo hoo.

Nick and I battled for the remote. I wanted to watch the news to see if my home was going up in fucking smoke but he wanted to watch old Turner Classics. Nick and my mom were approaching 80 at the time and so they liked to keep the temp about their age, about the low end of a sweat lodge.

And after being stuck in that sweltering condo, a toilet my sole companion for 3 days, I needed to cool the sweat lodge down a tad. So I snuck over to the thermostat and lowered it by one degree, hoping the natives might not notice.

A few minutes later my mom shouts from the back hall, "It's freezing in here! Who lowered the thermostat?"

Nick groused, "Not me," and glared over at me.

I grinned and said, "I confess. I lowered the temp one degree."

"Unbelievable!" bellowed Nick, "You want to give your mother pneumonia?!"

Here's the part where I should have calmly said, "Of course not, Nick. I didn't think it was that big a deal." But instead I said,

"One degree? You're busting my balls about one fucking degree?!"

"We're old! You want to kill us?" Nick hollered as Mom ran into the room, realizing she had somehow set off World War 3.

"Fuck you, you crazy old bastard! " exploded from my mouth.

So much for all my anger management therapy. I angrily tossed all my stuff into the car and shouted up the stairs at Nick and my horrified mother,

"Next time your husband ends up in a hospital for a heart attack don't call me to help. Happy fucking Thanksgiving!"

A few days later I apologized to Mom and Nick for my making things worse than they already were with my outburst. I explained that being sick all those days and the pressures of Hollywood had gotten the best of me.

Momma Mia quickly forgave me but Nick, who had been as close as a second father to me up until I spewed, "Fuck you, you crazy old bastard! " all over his living room, was not moved to forgive and forget.

For the next two years every time I'd call on the phone Nick would act like the black plague was on the line and hand the phone to Mom.

A few months later my brother, without my knowing or consent, would intervene. Nick said an "I'm Sorry" card, which I'd sent a week after my mouth explosion, and phone call apology were not enough. Nick told Fred that he needed me to apologize to him face to face.

I always listen to my amazing brother Fred, and so Thanksgiving 2008 I made the trip again to Vegas. I stayed at the nearby New Orleans Hotel and Casino, hoping as Nick promised to Fred that my eating humble pie would end the "One Degree Feud."

At Mom's turkey dinner I gathered my nerve, swallowed my pride, what was left of it after Hollywood, and went up to Nick just before the bird came. I profusely apologized once again to Nick in front of Fred and Mom.

Nick's response? A grunt of disgust and silence all through the meal. I shot Fred an "I tired." look of despair. The meal tasted like Sportsman's buffalo wings.

So this year I was not in Vegas for Thanksgiving at all. Not that I could afford to be with the mess my life is in right now. Two full years have passed in "The One Degree Feud" and, when Fred and Mom broached the topic of my forgiveness this 2009 Thanksgiving in my absence, Fred told me today in disgust, that Nick claims he never remembers that I apologized at all.

Now that's "Unbelievable!"

On the bright side I had a pleasant family free Thanksgiving dinner this year at Marie Callender's with my unbelievable roommates Gilley and Kim pictured above. But I still missed seeing Fred and Mom.

Moral of the story: Never get on the bad side of a Sicilian... even if he is your stepfather.

Any who, some fans who've read my Italian stories ask me how the dialogue is so authentic. Now you know. Here's a taste of the sauce.

My Pal and Client on CLTV!

2009-11-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

My pal Dave Curry is a genius inventor. Back in the day when we worked leasing Chicago real estate who would've known he was this creative? I mean seriously, the most creative thing we did as real estate guys was match up the right space to the right client.

Dave has invented a whole new kind of shoe that changes. Watch the video to get the picture on why I'm not exaggerating about how cool Dave and his new shoes are.

This coming week I am making Dave a BuzzBroz viral YouTube spot to help him get the word out. If you drop by his website http:podiwear.com to buy some shoes tell him Ken Sheetz sent you and look for the special sale code bottom of the page for an unbelievable bargain.

Podi is running a huge sale for a limited time. $99 buys you the shoes 4 covers, a backpack, a T-shirt and free Shipping! That's $30 off the spring price you see in the video!

Visit http://podiwear.com and enter the code PACKPLUS1 on the order form to get the $99 super bargain price.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

From fellow JELLYBEANS producer Gilley Grey's Q2 Studios blog

It has been an incredible week. We are moving forward with our next feature - JELLYBEANS. We had a great meeting with our Casting Director, Sheryl Roberts who has done casting on Beverly Hills 90210, Face Off, and Rocky III and is as excited about this story as we are. Its a comedy about the importance of a good sexlife in a marriage. You can follow the production updates on Twitter or Facebook HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Zombies to Stuff

2009-11-21T21:02:00.001-08:00

My dissertation on stuff continues.

Today I sold more of my last post eviction stuff at a pal of Gilley's garage sale. The mission: Generate some walking around money.

Shit. I'm still kicking myself because this cash shortage is something I caused myself.

How? By accidentally screwing up the address for my new PO BOX, you see correctly in the video below HOLLYWOOD CUTBACKS.

But instead I goofed up the address and the check went instead to the Shoalin Temple of LA, as I bitch about in my last blog "You are a Total Duchebag Grasshopper."

Today I walked into the dimly lit storefront temple during meditation to gongs and the smell of incense.

In hushed whispers I learned that the Shoalins monks had received my check letter but that they returned it to the sender.

How Zen.

This return was instead of holding onto it for me as one monk agreed Thursday. Guess monks don't talk to each other just like the rest of us schmos.

Therefore, sadly for me, it could be another damn week until I get my next paycheck.

Total sales for stuff sales today: 1 HD TV, 1 DVD player, 1 Desk Lamp, 1 Herman Miller Aeron chair, 1 Masia Warrior Stick from my ex girlfriend = $110.

This scavenger cash allowed me to pay Gilley back for his loan from yesterday. That felt good. But until I get my blown payment from my new client I'm almost back in the hole after groceries and a little relaxing today.

It's stunning how much stuff costs versus how much stuff is worth in today's messed up world. I feel like I am living my favorite video game FALLOUT 3, battling for survival in the Capital Wasteland.

So I'm feeling tired from the sale, for which we got up at 6 AM to set up. The buyers were primarily Hispanic, or should I say the shoppers. Buyers were about 50% white and 50% Hispanic.

I'm left feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of me of rebuilding my life from the ash heap that is Hollywood.

You are a Total Duschebag, Grasshopper,...

2009-11-21T01:31:00.000-08:00

... said the Shoalin priest as I searched for my missing check in the mecca of Hollywood on Ventura Blvd.

I f'd up royally this week. I was expecting a check from Podi Shoes for BuzzBroz, my commercial division of my vast production empire. But since I'm mildly dyslexic, something which almost killed me through school life, I had transposed two numbers and instead of the check going to my new mailbox it ended up going to an, and I shit you not, amazing place called the Shaolin Temple of Los Angeles.

So instead of being able to pay rent, phones and hold my own, I'm broke as hell and leeching off Gilley. Shit, I devoured his pantry this week like a swarm of descending locusts.

My client is going to return the check to the right address when they get it again so I will repay Gilley soon. But at the moment this grasshopper feels like a total duchebag.

The only thing helping me keep my last shred self respect is that I did write an entire script for a sitcom pilot that Gilley and I dreamed up with Kim, inspired by her real life work at a stripper fitness shop.

Will write for food.

Last night a beautiful Brit producer took Gilley and me to see a BAFTA screening of NINE, starring the great Daniel Day Lewis. The Q & A was awesome as Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench and Kate Hudson kept us all laughing. Judi is a natural comedian.

I had the pleasure of almost meeting Penelope Cruz 6 years ago. It was just before word that she and Tom Cruise were over as a couple.

I had just made it to the top of Griffith Park's trail to the peak across from the Hollywood sign and she was crying. I showed some class for once and left her to her tears.

A week later I was able to piece together why she was crying. Penelope is far more beautiful in real life, if you can imagine that. Penelope steals the show in NINE. She's worth the ticket alone in this film I give 6 out of 7 Years in Hollywood.

Tonight I tagged along with Gilley and Kim and was treated to an amazing performance of Dennis Quaid. The man has great talent as a musician. It was a genuine blast.

After 4 beers I was calling Dennis Randy to anyone who would listen to me. I met a nice writer who I at first thought was a dentist but she was only correcting me for calling Dennis Randy.

Not my brightest week.

The Universe is Flat! - Brain and the Blonde

2009-11-17T23:31:00.000-08:00

Gilley Grey. Stuntman, producer... astronomer?! Yep, Gilley is an actual rocket scientist who worked at Sandia National Laboratories that led to his flying AWACs in Desert Storm.

Watch out when you give Gilley his green iced Starbucks tea. Yesterday we ended up making a Twilight Zone style video HOLLYWOOD CUTBACKS (see it on yesterday's blog post). Today it was THE UNIVERSE IS FLAT, the first of what we are aptly calling our THE BRAIN AND THE BLONDE series, featuring a new beautiful blonde whenever we can manage it! Noel's gonna be hard to top, she's a great talker.

But coolest of all was that we played Sagan's video before on my new Blackberry and that inspired all this. The kicker? The Gilley Grey/Noel video I filmed is linked on this page on YouTube. So Gilley Grey, Hawkings and Carl Sagan are together somewhere now on Google on the theory of a flat universe.

I'm blessed to have met the brilliant and talented producer Gilley Grey and now be a renter of a studio with a day bed in his and Kim's home. It feels like my 7 years in Hollywood has just begun. And, yes, I have found an actual rocket scientist to figure out this crazy mazey tinsel town.

Sill don't believe the universe is flat and that ancient man was actually ahead of his time thinking the Earth was flat?! Check out this Wikipedia story Gilley showed me.

I'll close with a video that cracked Gilley and Kim up tonight. Agent Smith's voice is replaced by Carl Sagan's theoretical lecture. Morpheus' expression is how Kim reacts to Gilley's lengthy flights of scientific fancy.

Hollywood Cutbacks

2009-11-16T22:20:00.002-08:00

Wow. Starbucks on Ventura rules. Gilley's girl Kim had off today so the three of us had a leisurely coffee. We started talking about how a lot of us in the biz work from home and use PO boxes for our business addresses.

As we talked about tough times in Hollywood over coffee the idea hit me to make a comedy short! And we did, right after coffee.

My address for Overactive Imagination Pictures is a cozy little mailbox at 13457 Ventura Boulevard, #240, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. Drop me a postcard, a donation $, or better yet, drop by and visit me...

Meet My New Girlfriend Riese

2009-11-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

OK, I still don't get YouTube. How does junk food like FRED get a million views in a week and hot quality new web series like RIESE only pull in 72,000 viewers?

Who cares? RIESE is great entertainment and the kind of show that gives me hope as a struggling filmmaker.

Distribution? We don't need no stinking distribution! The web is going to change Hollywood forever, if we don't let the fat cat millionaires in congress, owned by the corporations, screw it up for us.

Here's the first episode for RIESE. Solid production values and fine acting make this a web series worth watching.

And did I mention, it has a hot young female lead, Christine Chatelin, my new girlfriend? Well, on Facebook anyways.
Rating: 6 out of 7 Years in Hollywood.

End of the World?

2009-11-14T18:44:00.001-08:00

Got up early today after a dream about losing my wonderful dog Sophia in the eviction. So to forget my cares I did what I always do and went to the movies.

I guess the eviction blues caught up to me today. Or maybe it was the typical feeling I get after watching a great movie and realizing how far away I am from the goal I set for myself 7 years ago of producing a theatrical release.

As the 2012 credits rolled that little dickhead voice in my head chuckled, "You're a loser, Sheetz. Pitiful. You've only been able to produce about 500,000 Youtube views, 2 DVDs on Amazon and a pilot optioned to TV network that went bankrupt for all your stinking 7 years in Hollywood. You've sacrificed way too much of your life, missed seeing your kids, friends and family. Go the fuck home to Wisconsin and check into a nut house to cure you of your Hollywood addiction."

As usual I told the voice, "Shut the fuck up, I ain't quitting."

Before I came out here one of my real estate pals warned me, "Ken, Hollywood is not an investment, it's a sickness." Yep. I got it bad.

My pal Gilley went to a lecture by Mark Fergus this week, who with his partner wrote the awesome screenplay for IRON MAN. Mark described writers as people with big egos and low self esteem. Accurate. Guess I'm a writer after all.

Any who. I miss my dog and 2012's got my "This movie's so good it makes me want to fucking quit or jump off a cliff!" seal of approval, folks.

Titus & The Curse of Too Much Stuff

2009-11-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Coffee Break with Titus

Gilley Grey, founder of Q2 Studios, and I made a run to Starbucks today, and thanks to Gilley being his usual likable self, I met Christopher Titus. Chris worked with John Amodeo (my partner for the DISCOVER ME show) on TITUS, one my favorite sitcoms of all time.

I am a huge Christopher Titus fan. The guy always makes me laugh. By the way, you never want to sit in front of me in a theater when I really get laughing. My laughter is loud and explosive enough to knock off a toupee.

And I frequently explode with laughter watching Christopher Titus perform. His honesty about his family life is what does the trick.

And to get to meet him and share our respect for John Amodeo who's produced such great shows as ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and SAMANTHA WHO? and ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE was a genuine hoot.

I told Chris I shared a similar father figure and he said, "I feel for you, man."

Slaves to Stuff

And then on the way home we came across a Yard Sale that reminded me of my eviction all those many days ago. I'm on quest to find out why we care so much about stuff, so I asked the beautiful yard sale ladies about their thoughts on the topic of stuff.

Rachel Welch "1,000,000 BC"
My pal Gilley Grey has a cool theory about stuff. He believes humans became attached to stuff from the caveman times when the man with the biggest and best club got to breed with the hottest cave ladies.

I think he's onto something. This still exists to this day, you must always have the best weapons to survive. I thought about my new Blackberry Storm 2. My portable stuff. My high-tech weapon in the Hollywood wars.

This cool pic is the gigundo stuff Gilley Grey flew in Desert Storm when he became a war hero flying the AWACS into Iraq. It was one big assed plane for what purpose...?

Locate Saddam's stuff; the scuds, jets and tanks to blow that stuff up!
Photo courtesy of Gilley Grey

The pyramids were built for the Pharaohs' tombs to hold all the ridiculous amount of stuff they had so they could lug it along with them on huge barge across the river of death.

Imagine what the poor slaves must have been thinking as they were walled into the pyramids alive...

"What's with all this sand pouring in?! They said there was gonna be virgins! Why the fuck am I being buried with all this fucking stuff?"

Gilley and me just brainstormed something we should put on T-shirts, wet T-shirts worn by large breasted women...

"Doing stuff is more important than having stuff."

Are boobs stuff? Hell yes. In Hollywood -where most are bought and paid for with an Amex - they are silicone stuff!

Goodfella's Play While Kim's Away

2009-11-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

I'm from Chicago, birthplace of improv, so it blew me away what a great improv guy Gilley Grey is. How dare this guy from New Mexico be better than me!

And what led to all this improv fun? Gilley and me are carless as Kim's car is in the shop and she borrowed Gilley's. So I took Gilley out to enjoy the joys of walking in LA. A city no one walks in because of the drive-by shootings.

As you see Gilley bought a gigantic mirror to surprise Kim with. All the enhance the sripper/fitness lessons that will soon be coming to our apartment. Sigh...

Gilley Grey & His Magic Bag to the Resuce

2009-11-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Wow. Did you ever have one of those days? Well, if you ever do it'll be OK if Gilley Grey and his magic bag are around to save the day. Why? Because Gilley Grey, top Hollywood stutman/coordinator, producer and founder of Q2 Studios, has a gift, the gift to always have whatever you need in his magic bag.

I met Gilley this past summer when he sought me out for advice on his new Q2 Studios in New Mexico. Why me? Because I built Oprah Harpo Studios, so I know my way around a construction site.
John Lamb, Oprah, Jeff Jacobs, Ken Sheetz

I liked Gilley instantly and happily introduced Gilley to my pal Jim McShane, of McShane Construction, another can do spirit, and the two hit it off.

When I hit rock bottom in the bad economy two weeks ago and, yes, ended up evicted from my luxury apartments, Gilley pulled a guest bedroom with it's own private bath out of his magic bag for me to crash in. A recovery that's coming along nicely with my new BuzzBroz company doing video content creation and Social Networking to build buzz.

This morning I woke up only to find my Apple G5, usually super dependable, was frozen up and needed to go into the Apple shop. So I thought I was out of business for few days. But Gilley dug into his magic bag and pulled out a spare laptop computer.

As I sat in amazement while Gilley set up the laptop, grateful as hell, he started to tell me the story of his magic bag that always seems to have what people need, from checks that saved another pal's home to the button for a girl in an airport in this video GILLEY GREY'S MAGIC BAG.

I have to thank Oprah one day for the thread that brought Gilley into my life. We are going to make a lot of magical movies together.

Ok, Was I Evicted or Did I Die and Go to Heaven?

2009-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight we celebrated over sushi because Gilley's fiancee Kim has new job at a workout place that uses stripper poles for exercise!

The other morning I was doing my nerdy writing thing in my office/bedroom when I heard something heavy hit the floor. I rushed out into the living room only to see Kim and Gilley, ahem, erecting a stripper pole for Kim to practice on.

Sigh... women will be coming here to the apartment for stripper pole lessons. Stay tuned 7 Years in Hollywood Fans!

And I thought evictions were a bad thing. Well, at least not in Hollywood. I've had more fun in the last week since I got ejected from Agoura Hills than I had in the last 6 months.

Seeing the Light

2009-11-02T23:21:00.001-08:00

Gilley Grey as Blue Face in BUFFALO GIRLS

My spirits were good today for my second week post Agoura Hills.

I am enjoying being back in the city. My room at Gilley and Kim's is spacious and I have a bath all to myself.

I did my first laundry yesterday and I don't miss having the washer and dryer in the apartment. Reminds me of my place back in Chicago.

Kim cooked tacos New Mexico style for dinner. Mt first home cooked meal since Thanksgiving 2008 in Vegas at my mom's.

What really made the day, aside from a new BuzzBroz account with Podi Wear, coolest shoes on the planet, was this pic I got from Mandy showing Sophia's new bed. My baby dog looks happy with her new masters.

I was in a good enough mood to clean up the utilities mess I left behind in Agoura. Gas, electric and ATT all a wrap. As I walked back from the UPS store where I had returned my Internet server I stopped off in one of my favorite stores in LA, Illumination Lighting & Design on Ventura Blvd here in my new home with Gilley and Kim in Sherman Oaks.

I earned a scholarship back at Layton School of Art & Design with a lighting project and I have a real love for lamp stores. Illumination is a beauty. Hundreds of high end light fixtures glow in the handsome store from all over the world.

Layton School of Art is a sad story. In 1972, my Sophomore year, the administration fired the teachers when they joined a union. They then went onto hire a new staff of non-union teachers. But the fired teachers took Layton to court and by my senior year the school was stuck with contracts for the old and new teachers. The school teteered on closing for that year and finally bankrupted and I became part of the last graduating class for the 70 year old school.

I'll close with a pic of a new Twitter follower's pic. Likely this is not really what this spam bot looks like:)

Having Good Times in Bad Times

2009-11-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Having fun in bad times is like spitting in the eye of fate. Great Halloween Party at Gilley friend Joy Ellison's last night.

Joy is an A list dialect coach who has worked with the biggest stars in Hollywood. She and Gilley are best friends. I helped Gilley help Joy with the party.

Joy has a wonderful a serene energy and a wonderful circle of friends. It was an honor an a pleasure to be at her party. Her adopted son is a cool kid.

Kim had the best costume at the party. She was dead prom queen haunting her killer, Gilley. The makeup was first rate.

The other beautiful woman in the photo session is Tara. She makes a hot Elvira.

I got some nice compliments on my Satan. And then it was off to Santa Monica Blvd where we partied with 500,000 people in costume. I'll never forget the experience. It made me feel like zombies could be real.

Earlier this week Gilley and I dug out our golf clubs and hit the links at Whittset. Good cheap fun, only $9 for 9 holes! But the amazing thing was how fast Gilley learned from a little coaching I gave him. Makes perfect sense though. As a stuntman physical memory is a basic survival skill. Gilley calmly told me at lunch the other day he has set himself on fire over 250 times without an injury, in movies and just for fun.

Right. Setting yourself on fire is fun.

Enjoy some Cranberries with your Zombies.

Life With a Power Couple

2009-10-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

As for me I have made a perfect 10 landing from the parallel bars of the eviction Olympics. I could not be happier with the amazing couple I am living with in Sherman Oaks, a place I love for it's location and beauty. We're just 2 blocks north of Ventura Boulevard, at the heart of it all.

Gilley is building a new film studio in New Mexico Q2 Studios. In fact that's how we met. I built Oprah's Harpo studios back in the 90's and Gilley sought me out. I've been giving him some guidance in hooking him up with my builder pal Jim McShane of McShane Construction.

Gilley and Kim are a power couple. Perfectly suited to each other. They are a rare match of compassion and smarts. It's fun for me to help them while they help me. The synergy is unbelievable. I'm here with them to get back on my feet and be on my way in 90 days. Hopefully on my new round the world reality show. This time is very special for me and I am enjoying their company and sharing my connections and talents as they are in return.

I miss my little Sophia but what a great way to get over that loss. To be in the company of such a happy couple.

The Climb

2009-10-30T20:12:00.001-07:00

Sing it Miley!

Miley Cyrus | MTV MUSIC

So how do you get cash from friends when your bank accounts are frozen like Castro's after the Cuban missile crisis?

Happy Sad Landing

2009-10-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

I'm happy and sad at once today. Happy that I have found a wonderful home for Sophia, yet very sad to lose her.

The hip young couple who officially adopted Sophia today live in a high-rise loft in downtown LA. The husband works from home and so Sophia's little life will go on it is has with my work at home life plus the bonus of a mommy who works in a film distribution company during the day. Sigh, my baby is living in a two income family now.

Dumpster Explosion

2009-10-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

I was just "THIS" close from making the dump of some of my vital docs into the dumpster when the bag exploded, sending my papers everywhere. You gotta laugh if you don't want to cry.

Social Security

2009-10-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

He's baaaack.

Hey Fans, Friends and Family. I've landed in Sherman Oaks at the home of an amazing couple, Kim and Gilley. Gilley Grey is one of the top stunt people in Hollywood. Gilley's a Desert Storm war pilot who flew 707's in the first mission into Iraq. Kim is a beautiful woman and great person too. She's former Social Security worker who met Gilley in Albuquerque New Mexico.

The amazing pair met while Gilley was starting up his new film studio, Q2 Studios (click the link to see a YouTube page and logo video test I created for them as a thanks today), that he is building in New Mexico to house a part of the explosion of filmmaking that resulted from New Mexico's big film incentive program.

Sounds like a love story movie in itself. A story I am happy to be a minor character in. Kim and Gilley now spilt their time between LA and New Mexico. Kim's dream is to leave the security of government employment of Social Security behind forever and open a dance studio.

I'm not religious but I must admit that some force is watching over me to land in such a nice spot. A bedroom and a bath all to myself while I get back on my feet. Last night Gilley and Kim treated me to a movie to celebrate my first night on their futon. We saw PARANORMAL. And it's a scary as you've heard.

A black woman sitting a couple rows behind us got so scared at the end she could not keep herself quiet and shouted at the screen, "Oh no she diiid't! That's some fucked up shit!"

I turned to comment to Kim and she had her hands over her eyes. As we drove home talking about this blockbuster made for pennies, ala Blair Witch, Kim told us she had her hand over her eyes for the entire last 45 minutes of the film. Adorable.

As Gilley wheeled the rust colored SUV up Laurel Canyon I said I'd have nightmares tonight and we started talking about dreams. Gilley and Kim are both big dreamers like me. Gilley has the ability to conscious dream. A firefighter after Desert Storm, Gilley dreams in action dreams like his amazing stuntman career that has taken him around the world and given him the chance to work with the greats like Nick Cage, Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron.

Gilley told me a dream where he was flying a fire rescue mission and his chopper lost control, crashed and burned, killing his crew. Gilley rewound the dream and got everyone safely off the chopper.

Kim told a grisly dream she had about working in an office for a demonic character who stapled her throat shut so that she could not talk back. She tries to answer the demanding boss back by plucking out the staples from her bloody throat.

Gilley asked me if I had nightmares and I talked about one from last night. A little ghost of girl appeared from under a counter wearing a tiny bride's gown. I grabbed the train of her dress and tried to hold her as I shouted for help, "I've got her!" I shout in my sleep in addition to snoring. As I tell my dream I hope the door between out rooms can keep out the noise.

I've been plagued by horrible nightmares my whole life. I realize as we speed down Laurel into the lights of the San Fernando Valley that I may have found some soulmates in Gilley and Kim.

But lately who needs to sleep for nightmares? Like this video about losing my little Chihuahua Sophia.

One Last Cuddle With Sophia

2009-10-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

As the Super Duper Eviction sale draws to close -- and I should be packing -- I could not resist some last hugs with my baby dog Sophia who goes for an adoption "audition" today. It the couple watching her for a week like Sophia she's all set. They a fine young couple and live in high-rise condo in LA.

Fingers crossed Sophia could be living the life of luxury unfazed by my financial hiccups!

This video and the song from that I wrote for DESERT SILHOUETTES, but which never made into the film, will soon be on IMDB for its festival rounds. I'll always think of Sophia and cuddling her one last time as we made our last appearance together.

DESERT SILHOUETTES has been recommended by YouTube's Citizen Tube as art meets politics.

I play Zack but Sophia stole the show. An official selection in 8 festivals and co-stars Ed Asner of Pixar's hit UP.

I'll try to keep blogging but I'm evicted today so apologies in advance if I am away for a while.

Psst... Wanna Hear Something Rotten About My Landlord?

2009-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

So I'm in the free office center in the gorgeous club house at our apartments and Tony, the manager for Archstone, sees me making flyers to put my dog up for adoption.

She's painfully nice as she tells me without asking my intentions, "Please only post those on the community bulletin board. You're not allowed to post them around the complex like you did with you Eviction sale flyers."

"OK, " I say. But as she turns to go with a happy smile of accomplishments and I add. "But if I change my mind and do post these flyers about giving my dog away, what are you going to do besides tear them down?"

"You must obey the rules long as you live here."

"Huh. So if I break the rules does that mean you'd evict me faster than the 48 hours I have left?"

Tony's momentarily speechless. "You must obey the rules," and she blurts and huffs off.

I'm sure my plight embarrasses Archstone to no end. No good for community moral to see one of their longest residents, and I am after 3 years here, go busto.

A month ago this lady was evicted forcibly. I never could get the details. But they need six squad cars, a fire truck and a swat crew armed with rubber bullet guns to take her away.

While I was filming this poor woman scream in the ambulance I tried to get details from Tony but she wouldn't fill me in of course. I smiled at Tony and said, "When my eviction comes I could only top this by dowsing myself in gasoline and lighting myself on fire."

I sent the clip of this lady to a few networks but it never got picked up. I wonder why?

Here's a story about an angel of a landlord. Makes me wish I'd followed my gut and leased from a person and not a giant heartless corporation. I'm only 50 days behind on the rent and getting evicted after being a tenant to Archstone for 7 years solid, here in Agoura and back in Studio City.

Stuff is Stuff but Dogs are Family

2009-10-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'll let the videos do the talking today. Sing along with the amazing THOSE WERE THE DAYS, last video in this post!

"That's Why I Burried Mama in Our Backyard"

2009-10-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Warning. I am not a professional singer. Hell, I'm barely an amateur singer.

I do love to karaoke. Helps to have a telepromoter. I'm like Obama that way.

Read a sad story a few weeks back that to save money some people are burying loved ones in their backyards. Got me thinking. What happens when the bank repossesses your house and Mama's buried in your backyard?

Sounded like the ultimate country western song to me so I wrote one.

I invited my backer Lee Golub to have his great charity band perform and they could keep the proceeds. But Lee's avoiding me like the plague these days.

Sure miss that Lee. He was my best backer. With me the whole seven years until this spring when he gave up on me. And who can blame him? 7 years is long time for an investor to feed a filmmaker. Lee deserves an Academy Award for that!

Any who, here is the world premier of "That's Why I Burried Mama in Our Backyard".

The Megan Fox Conspiracy

2009-10-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

A lotta tire kickers. Should be a busy day tomorrow I'd say.

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT IN THE SUPER DUPER EVICTION SALE

I managed to squeeze out a new episode for LincolnisBack.com.

I say squeeze because I found it hard to concentrate today with the eviction getting so close.

This episode explores a the notion of corporate conspiracy behind the lack of movies about real humanity that have been choked out by the stranglehold "Junk Food Movies" have on the market.

Megan Fox is an awesome looking woman and maybe one day she'll learn to act.

But I'll take Meryl Streep over her any day as person I'd rather be stranded on a desert isle with.

Told you I was nuts.

Stuff Sales are Brisk

2009-10-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Sold a bunch of stuff at my SUPER DUPER EVICTION SALE today.

It's just stuff to me. Getting rid of the old stuff will allow me to get new stuff eventually.

I'm touched by how people are so emotional about my situation when to me it's just stuff. Stuff I can't afford to store and lug around. Stuff is only stuff.

STUFF AT AMAZING BARGAIN PRICES! DON'T MISS OUT ON KEN SHEETZ'S SUPER DUPER EVICTION SALE! MAGICAL STUFF!

Here's George Carlin's famous standup about STUFF!

Like most things in life if you face up to them they are as bad as you think. Wait... did I say that right?:)

The old adage that if you have your health you have everything is still the best, except when you live in the sewers under Las Vegas and it rains and all your stuff is washed away along with you. Sewer story here.

Let's close this brisk day of stuff sales with this video about someone having fun with their stuff.

Super Duper Eviction Sale!

2009-10-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

Wow. These really are shitty times. "The Jobless Recovery" I heard it dubbed on CNN yesterday. Two of my best real estate buddies in Chapter 11.

I don't mean to be flip with the above Flip video. But you've gotta have a sense of humor to survive until the good times return. And they will, bigger and better than ever for us all.

Perhaps I am rationalizing in thinking I have any control over my life anymore. Hell, maybe I'll be living in a damn tent soon. I truly believe I'll pull it out and if you've been following my blog you know have a great family to stay with back in Wisconsin worst case. My own dysfunctional WALTON'S. I can hear it now in my Dad's Wisconsin farm house...

"Night, John Boy!"

"Shut the hell up and go to sleep!"

Nope, despite how life's turned to shit, I am not giving up on my 7 yrs in Hollywood. I want to stay out here in America's bankrupt state. I fit right in.

I actually was set to go back home and then Dad had a Bell's Palsy stroke. It's kept me out here and that unexpected twist is how I ended up going into eviction. I'll make the best of it all. It's my home, but it is just an apartment. I'm fighting this best I can so I can hold onto my beloved Chihuahua Sophia.

A lady from the apartments today said my story is sadly common these days. No shame. No anger. Well, a little for the banks who have not circulated our taxpayer money back into the system. They are strangling us all.

And Obama will be a one term president unless he stops that bullshit and helps the people. It's why I created the story of Abe Lincoln returning from the dead he's so fed up with today's politicians, to haunt Reps and Dems alike. I am going to try to finish a few more webisodes until they kick me out of here. www.lincolnisback.com.

Long as I am clearing the air about Obama, back in January I sent he and his family a copy of my DVD I made about his election. Never heard a thanks. I mean, how many documentaries about his election from the POV of kids that's #1 on Amazon can there be? No thanks? Order it here is you want to help me recover from this disaster, www.kidstalkpolitics.com.

In the spring, rather than bitch about getting ignored, I know Obama has a country to save, when investor money started to run out, I sent a desperate letter asking for an interview with our kid reporter talking to Sasha and Malia. I did not ask for bailout. Just the big interview that might have sold us enough DVDs to reward me and my backers for all our good old American work.

That was June... I did not have high hopes for hearing from the man for hope and change.

Nope. Despite the fact that I actually had a high level intro from a backer this time, no one from the White House ever even thanked us for the DVD via a form letter. Ouch.

Ah, well.

I have a killer reality TV show pitch off to some big networks and a pack of movies to get made. Heck, Jim Carey was living in a car until he got his big break. Time to really lean it up!

I've been blessed with a lot of nice stuff. Too much stuff. So I am selling stuff to the walls to raise some cash. If you live in LA come on down for a bargain! 818-825-8498

The Hollywood Maze

2009-10-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill

Hollywood is a maze. A series of dead ends. For a long time you don't know you are really in a maze because Hollywood is like Japan where the people never say "no" to your ugly mug.

They will literally kill you with kindness out here as you starve to death with no work. It's a waiting game and they want you to fail and go home. So they tell you how great your stuff is, while the leeches and scam artists, with their endless, "Let us help you thourgh the Hollywood maze," BS, drain your pitiful bank account. Your cash flows down the Hollywood drain like the blood in Hitchcock's famous "Psycho" scene. And before you know it, you're dead as Janet Leigh's Marion from loss of cash.

Great spoof here if you hate Lucas' Jar Jar Binks much as me:

I have this pal who has done some pretty big securities deals on Wall Street and despite my warnings he's been lured to the rocks by the siren song of Hollywood. I told him 60 days ago it would take him far longer to raise money for film than anything he's ever done. But he has not listened. 60 days later he's still getting the fund together. Amazed by how tough it is. I am not amazed.

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko from WALL STREET

Anyways my Wall Street pal calls to cancel lunch Wednesday because he's buried under getting this mega fund launched. If he's going to wait to reschedule our lunch until his fund is together I plan on seeing him when the Mayan calendar runs out and we're all dead as Janet in "Psycho".

Today's classic example of the maze I live in out here: I call an exec I know at a major network to pitch a reality show based on my crazy as bat shit Hollywood life. I reach his assistant and ask to set a pitch meeting. He asks if I have a treatment the exec can review. I say, "I do!"

So the assistant says, "Cool. Attach the treatment to your email."

20 minutes later I get a terse email back from the network exec, likely sent in reality by the very same assistant, "It's a our legal policy never to accept treatments via email."

So I send an email back explaining I was directed to send the treatment along with my email by the exec's assistant. I hope I didn't get the assistant fired...

And did I hear back from the exec since this morning? Are you fucking joking asking a question like that, rube?! This will require a team of lawyers and a management consultant to straighten the fuck out. I'll be lucky to ever talk to that exec again.

Any who. My video take on the insanity that is Hollywood. I play the tourist idiot trying to find Paris Hilton. Great casting.

Will Work For Dog Food

2009-10-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. Long week. Really hit the corporate work hard. Mostly worked on getting my web marketing company BuzzBroz launched. It fed me this week, even fed my dog with a cute video we made for a pet store.

The owner is still on the fence so I asked him for some food for Sophia since she ran out today. So I officially worked for dog food this week.

Yesterday a new client was supposed to pay me. I must take cash payment these days because I'm overdrafted at the Bank of America by $500. So off we went to the ATM after I finished the job. Bing! The ATM informed us as both our faces dropped that his card was overdrafted.

I wasn't mad. He's sweet guy. It's just everything is so damn tight.

I have another friend of 6 years. Usually super dependable. She owes me $750. She keeps lying that the check is in the mail. I asked her in a voice mail why the lies? I'm not some asshole bank doing a collection. The truth is always best. Let's face it. There's no shame being broke in these times. But now she's not even returning calls. Thing is without the lies I'd easily forgive her.

Funny thing all I can think about through all this crap is Bank of America. What fucking hard asses. I had a little check of $9 that came in the mail a few days ago. I got excited. Holy cow I can buy some nice grany smith apples! But BOA refused to cash the $9 check because of the overdraft.

"You won't cash a $9 check? My tax dolllars at work, huh?" I said to the embarrassed looking Bank of America teller.

She suggested since it was drawn on Chase bank, this was an AT&T check mind you, that I go over to Chase.

I calmly explained, "Already did. They are still offically Wa Mu for 2 more weeks and can't take a Chase check yet."

"Sorry," she smiled waiting for someone to give me my homeless man walking papers it seemed.

"20 YEARS AS A CLIENT AND I GET THIS? BANKS!" rang in my head.

I flashed back to 1991.

1991. I'd just finished building a $162 million skyscrapper and Oprah's $28 million TV studios, Harpo, when the real estate markets crashed on my fucking watch.

Once upon a stressful day, this Barclays Bank asshole who shall go unnamed, a workout specialist, glared over the marble table in their fancy conference room at me. He looked at me like I was personally responsible for the international real estate crash from Bush the first's great handling of the economy.

Barcalys had been unable to syndicate the $162 million loan in the falling 1991 market and they were stuck with the whole loss of about $80 million. But the jerk bankers were only making things worse not approving the deals my talented leasing team brought them in the falling market.

The Barclays asshole said to me, with a straight face, "Sorry (bankers love that word). But, Mr. Sheetz, you are on the hook personally for 12% of the $162 million loan in default. And since you signed on the loan personally - I hate this part of my job..., " he said with a shit eating grin, "... We are going to come to your house in Lake Forest and photograph every single bit of clothes and furniture you own. We're forced to take your bank accounts, stocks bonds, the house and everything you own it, Mr. Sheetz."

I smiled calmly back at him, "Sorry back at you. My wife has everything and we are getting divorced. You can't touch a thing. And if you show up at our house she will call the police and have you arrested for trespassing. Sorry."

The Barclays asshole went beat red. And before he could say another stupid fucking thing, seeing I had him beat, I added. "I know you want to sell One North Franklin for fifty cents on the dollar to Sam Zell (a vulture fund real estate player, aptly dubbed by The Wall Street Journal back in the day as "The Grave Dancer"). I wish you and Sam well, even though I'll never understand long as I live ( and I still fucking don't) why you won't cut a sweet deal like that for us after we all worked our asses off to build this building and the problems in the economy have nothing to do with us."

Now in charge of the meeting, I leaned back calmly back in the posh leather Barclays' chair and added, "So not only are you not going to even come close to my house and photographing everything I own, but Barclays is going to release me from the $13 million you say I owe you and you are going to give me my $250,000 letter of credit back."

"Why the hell would Barclays do all that?" he demanded.

"So I can start my life over again."

"With all due respect, we don't care about your life, Mr. Sheetz."

" OK, so let me make this your business. You don't let me restart my life I'll put this building into bankruptcy for the next two years and you can forget about selling it to Sam Zell."

The Barclays asshole shouted, "This is all a fraudulent conveyance! Your divorce is bullshit!"

I packed up my briefcase and left with my lawyer at my side without another word. Meeting adjourned.

I had been well coached by attorneys, Bell Boyd & Lloyd, who had set up the family assets protection plan, a legit plan, but a plan that to work put every penny I had in the world in my first and only wife Gloria's name.

In the end my lawyers work all held up. Barclays eventually did everything I asked at the summit meeting. Plus every partner in the deal got the deal I got to start life over. Not that any of them have ever thanked me for standing up to the asshole from Barclays.

Odd note, one ex partner to this day blames me for taking the deal down by quitting the fight with Barclays. Yeah. I was going to fight a bank with billions in assets when I was flat broke and everything was in my wife's name. I love this guy but he drives me nuts with this fantasy battle shit of his. If anything I always fight for something too long. I'm Rocky on steroids.

In fact, that's what I worry about in Hollywood. 7 years is long time to live as a starving artist in Hollywood when you're used to the soft millionaire life. How the hell do you know when to quit when there's not some asshole from Barclays threatening to bankrupt you and steal your clothes?

So at 40 years old I became like a kid fresh out of college in 1992. I did however get all our family debts. Gloria's divorce attorneys did give me that much.

How well I remember my lawyer Tom Homburger advising me, "Now, Ken, this plan we are putting in place will protect your wife and kids from Barclays, but if she ever divorces you... Well,you're screwed."

Gloria and Me on our big day

"Gloria can have it all if that's what she wants to do. Better her than the bank gets my money."

One day, they are all a blur of choking dust and pain, in our Lake Forest kitchen over breakfast, I sweetly asked Gloria if now that the Barclays Bank mess was over and we won if she'd put everything back in both our names.

Gloria went white as a ghost and said in almost a whisper,"Sorry. I can't do that, (Gloria couldn't know how much I hated that "sorry" banker's word)Ken. It's best for you. Best for me and the kids too that we just keep everything we own in my name."

I suspected this was coming of course but it was still hard as hell to take now that it really had happened. I said nothing. I went into shock. I started to shake badly.

Gloria only made it worse blurting out, "And you need to stop taking all these crazy risks with our future and get a regular job with a paycheck!"

That did it! I literally busted a kitchen chair to fucking toohpicks. Gloria ran off in terror to lock herself in her bedroom.

I shouted at the top of my lungs after her, "I'm not a regular pay check guy and you fucking know it, you sneak bitch! "

So I packed my bags, took only a paperweight globe of the earth that I still keep, checked into a 5 star hotel and stewed. Gloria filed on me shortly thereafter. Like a dope I thought it was only a separation. But Gloria was dead serious about divorce and I was too poor to really fight and still exhausted from fighting One North Franklin to put up any real fight.

I was bitter for so many years about this shit. But after 17 years I'm over it. Well, mostly. You never really get over betrayal or what feels like betrayal. Gloria was really only doing what her lawyers and a mother-in-law ( who hated me from the day she met me) told her to do.

IMHO Gloria is the most incredibly strong weak person or weak strong person I've ever met.

Now here I am in the dregs of 2009. My investors, all real estate pals, are hurting so bad they've all left my ship out at sea. One shared he's going Chapter 11 on his biz. Most of my newly poor pals don't return calls or emails as of this writing in fact. So I am pushing on in Hollywood all by myself with my new BuzzBroz biz. Working for dog food.

But if I wouldn't let 1991 beat me, when I was hampered with two young kids and an ex to be to care for, I sure won't let this shitty times keep me down for long.

BuzzBroz is going to bring me back bigger and better than ever. I'm excited even if I do get evicted from my luxury apartments end of the month and land on someone's couch for a while. I will bounce back. I always do.

So I glare at the lady behind the bank teller at BOA, stew about the billions the taxpayers thanks to Bush and Obama gave BOA to survive, knowing I'll never see a penny of the loans I've been begging BOA for and say, "Put the $9 against my overdraft." The words feel like gravel in my throat.

The BOA teller does so.

As leave I turn to the BOA teller, who seemed to take a some small perverse pleasure in my misery, " You can read about all this in my blog, 7yrsinHollywood."

Are you reading this little Bank of America teller?

Damn Hollywood Middle Men!

2009-10-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

Behind the scene on filming of the epic web commercial "Le FiFi Couture World Tour" for BuzzBroz client www.lefificouture.com "Paris Fashion or your Pet Companion".

I built a poodle sized green screen set next to the poo poo can outside my apartment for Gabby of Doritos fame to wheel her cart past.

Turns out Gabby the poodle and I have a lot in common when it comes to our frustration with those damn Hollywood middle men!

And the finished web-mercial up on BuzzBroz YouTube channel where there are more LeFifi videos.

And another for their fall and winter collection. I could run BuzzBroz for another 100 years and not find a cuter brand to market.

DORIAN DOGS

2009-10-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

And now, just for fun before we get started with this blog, a pic of one of my discoveries to shamelessly plug my up and coming reality series DISCOVER ME! Click the link to see video of Jesselynn Desmond from the pilot. Jess is Lucy for the 21st Century: Beautiful yet funny as hell.

OK, on with the blog: Walking Sophia this morning on my way to mooch a free coffee at the Archstone leasing office, I ran into one of my real life neighbors, who we'll call Bob.

Bob is a fitness trainer. He's six foot two of lean muscle, capped off by shaved bald chrome dome.

Funny thing Bob's Chihuahua is grossly overweight and this embarrasses the hell out of Bob.

Bob always apologizs for his fat dog. Today Bob commented, "You'd think a fitness trainer would do a better job keeping his dog in shape. Poor little Courtney begs for food constantly. I can't resist feeding her."

Thinking Bob was worried I'd think less of him as a fitness guru because of his fat dog, I offered, "Yep. My Sophia's a huge beggar too. Any time I head for the fridge she's right behind me."

Sophia is 2 now and her metabolism is already changing. She was starting to put on some weight until I cut back on her snacks. Now she's almost perfect weight again.

I'm the one who's fat in this dog/human relationship.

So Bob looks down at fairly slim Sophia, back at his fat little Courtney and back over to Sophia and says somewhat appolegetically as he hurries off, "Well, have a great day."

As I walk up the trail I'm struck with an idea for a screenplay. As you're seeing this shit happens every day in my life. I'm busy today so I don't know how far I'll get into the story.

Many times, like this one, I don't actually know if the story would end up as a short or feature. I'm an organic writer who writes from a flow and the story forms as I write. I know structure but many times, fuck me, this style of writing leads to big dead ends.

And so I have written hundreds of story ideas I get like today's. To get them out my overactive brain I just toss them in a file. But let's have some fun together, dear reader, and see where my overactive imagination takes us.

The premise of the story and this blog (proof the idea's mine, you fucking idea thieves out there):

A fat man, a runs into a pair of shady Japanese gangsters, Yakuzas. The Yakuza are pedaling a "get rich quick" scam to make Americans thin again. The Yakuza's do this through what they have dubbed DORIAN DOGS, magical dogs that get fat while you can still eat all the fucking bad American food you want and get thin.

The theater lights in your mind dim. The opening creds for Overactive Imagination Pictures flicker to life on the silver screen in blazing 3-D.

(Cut and paster this link to listen to my new Blip.Fm/7yrsinHollywood DJ station on a fresh window if you want music for this blog.)

You quickly grab your 3-D glasses out of your popcorn box and... Action.

DORIAN DOGS

By Ken Sheetz

EXT. HOLLYWOOD BLVD., CHINESE THEATER- DAY

A pair of JAPANESE YAKUZA TOURISTS pose beside a SNOW WHITE CHARACTER ACTOR.

BOB, a 320 pound blob of a 25-year-old man, waves the Japanese gansters closer together.

BOB

Smile!

The pair of Yakuza flash big shark-like smiles.

Bob snaps the shot. At the moment Bob does however a SMARTASS leaps into frame in the background, flashing both "fuck you" fingers.

BOB

Shit. Some jerk flipped you off. Need a do-over.

YAKUZA #1

(speaks broken English)

What means do-over?

YAKUZA #2

(speaks perfect English)

Like it sounds, stupid. We do the shot over.

Yaku #1 goes for his gun.

YAKUZA#1

Shot?! Where?! Where?!

Yakuza #2 restrains Yakuza #1 before the gun is pulled.

YAKUZA #2

I should have left your stupid ass in Tokyo.

The picture. Fat boy! Take the pic again.

Deeply offended, Bob nods grimly.

SNOW WHITE

Fine, long as I get an extra tip.

Yakuza #1 shouts in Snow White's face.

Yakuza #1

What?! I no pay extra! No my fault, bitch!

Snow White shoves Yakuza #1 on his ass.

Yakuza #2

Easy, Snow White. My cheapskate pal doesn't

know what "bitch" means. Here, one hundred

American bucks to take the pic with us.

SNOW WHITE

Cool. For another hundo you get a BJ.

YAKUZA #1

Deal!

SNOW WHITE

Double for you, jerk.

YAKUZA #1

Still deal. Ha! Joke on you American

money not worth much no more!

SNOW

Joke's on you. It's gonna be a lousy

blow job.

Snow White glares at Bob.

SNOW WHITE

Can we get this the fuck over with?

Yakuza #2 slaps Snow White a wad of cash.

YAKUZA #1

Take picture good this time! Or

I put curse on you, fat boy!

YAKUZA #2

He's not kidding. Iso is what

you Yankees'd call a Warlock, fatso.

Bob goes red faced but manages to keep his cool.

BOB

Name's Bob. Move closer together.

I'm going in tight in case that dickhead

dives into your shot again.

Snow White and the Japanese duo huddle together.

Yakuza #1` cops a feel as Bob clicks the shot.

Snow White kicks Yakuza #1 in the balls in freeze frame.

EXT. JOHNNY ROCKETS - DAY

Bob sits alone on the counter stools. His fat ass hangs over the tiny stool as he wolfs into a double decker cheese burger. Bob washes it all down as he downs a vanilla milkshake in a single chug.

A camera flashes. It's Yakuza #1, ISO, taking the shot.

ISO

Ha! You so fat butt hang over stool!

BOB

Fuck me. Thought I lost you gents.

Yakuza #2, BENI, takes the stool beside Bob.

BENI

Bob, we felt bad calling you fat --

BOB

Coulda fooled me. Your pigedon English

pal just called me fat again.

ISO

Bob fattest man Iso ever meet!

BENI

Iso, just shut the fuck up and let

me make this up please.

ISO

OK. But Bob super fat.

BENI

How'd you like to be thin, Bob?

BOB

Thin?

ISO

What you got fat between fat ears?

BENI

Thin, Bob. Svelt. Trim. Fit.

BOB

I get it. I get it. -- Shit. I wish

to God I hadn't have emptied the

fridge last night and ended

up meeting you bastards.

BENI

In fact, getting Americans thin

is why Iso and I crossed the Pacific to be here.

ISO

So many fat Americans Iso get rich, rich rich!

Many blow jobs from American bitches.

ISO draws a dagger look from Bob.

BOB

I'm happy with my weight, thanks.

Iso and Beni burst out in raucous laughter.

ISO

Ha! Ha! You lie, fat, fatso American!

Bob hangs his head and burst into blubbering tears.

ISO

Ha! Ha! I make fat boy cry!

Bob hides his sobbing faces in his fat arms.

BENI

Come, with us, Bob. We can help, my

fat America friend. We can make you

thin.

BOB

Get lost. You jerks are just

making fun of me.

BENI

Get thin and the girls will love you.

ISO

Thin to win, bro! Many blow jobs!

Bob belches as he ponders.

END COLD OPEN FOR "DORIAN DOG"

Dana, Hollywood Fireball

2009-10-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

Over morning coffee today I read an article about a cell phone danger and this short screenplay just popped into my head fully blown.

Well, blown up as you'll read.

Dana, Hollywood Fireball is dedicated to one of my true heroes in Hollywood, Dana Brunetti of Triggerstreet and Triggerstreet.com fame.

Follow Dana on Facebook. Dana has without a doubt one of the most entertaining and nitty gritty pages if you are into Hollywood. Dana bitched recently on FB:

"I am done swimming with the fucking sharks for today. What a fantastic, yet shithole business that I am in."

Dana's amazingly honest comment on this nut job town we work in combined with the gas station story and how much frustration Dana often expresses over Iphones all came together in this short story.

A story that would cost millions to film. Blogging's fun. No budgets!

Bummer is no pay. Unless you sell out with Google ads on your page. What would Google sell here I wonder...

Note: The hero of this tale is a 100% fictional character, absolutely nothing like the real life Dana. Except, no ass kissing allowed on my blog, Dana really is burning up this sleepy town with his great films he creates with Kevin Spacey like their recent hit "21".

Nor do I imply that I wish for Dana's death...

... most of the time;)

Dana, Hollywood Fireball

By Ken Sheetz

EXT. HOLLYWOOD GAS STATION - DAY

A red Porsche rumbles up to the pumps.

Dana, 30, boyishly handsome, dapper in a hip Hollywood way, steps from the Porsche, Iphone knockoff to his ear.

DANA (Speaking to Cell Phone)

Tell that fuckhead's agent, "No fucking --

A tiny spark leaps from the Iphone to Danna's unshaven cheek.

DANA
Ouch! This fucking Iphone bug-zapped me!
Fucking made in China shit!

Dana crams the phoney Iphone between his ear and hunched shoulder to free his hands. He flips open the Porsche's gas tank cap.

DANA
Are you on fucking smack? Spears can't act for shit!

Dana selects Premium Grade and jams the pump into his shiny red Porsche.

Faint gas fumes shimmer in the air.

DANA
One day, I swear to Christ, this fucking shithole film biz is
gonna kill --

Close on the Iphone. ZAP! Gas fumes IGNITE.

Dana catches fire. Dana screams and staggers.

His flaming arm knocks the gas pump from the Porsche.

Premium gasoline gushes onto the gas station tarmac.

DANA
Help! I'm on fucking fire! Help me, you
fucking Hollywood duchebags!

CUSTOMERS run from Dana, Hollywood's new human inferno act. Some jerks hop into their BMWs and Priuses, burning rubber as they race off.

GAS STATION ATTENDANT, black, 310 pounds, dives on Dana.

GAS STATION ATTENDANT
Didn't yo mama teach your sorry ass
to drop and roll!

A flame hops from Dana for the spilled gas and IGNITES. Fire races for the pumps like a lit fuse.

Dana and Gas Attendant's eyes go wide...

BOOM!

EXT. GRIFFITH PARK OBSERVATORY - DAY

Bird chirps in a tree overlooking Hollywood.

A small ball of fire silently rises in the distance below.

Sound of the fire ball finally reaches the bird like faint rolling thunder.

Bird goes merrily on chirping as the fireball fades to smoke, rising for the sun.

THE END

Pictured above Teri Fruchiante from Discover Me!, Dana Brunetti (a real life Hollywood Fireball in the good way) and Ken Sheetz

Abe, Obama & Palin

2009-10-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Great day for Lincoln is Back. I felt like all the pain I put myself through take courses on how to properly set up a website for marketing really paid off today. Seeing Obama in all those funny photos below inspired these from me. It's greenscreen Photoshp but mighty cool.

Perhaps somewhere in deep space where aliens watch our lives in the web they'll think these are real.

Photoshop Masterpiece

2009-10-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

Wish I had skills like this! Amazingly funny wedding pics.

Best Wedding Slideshow Ever from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.