'Young' is a Word

For today, "young" will = teenager.

Describe yourself as a teenager.

What did you like?

What did you do?

What did you dream?

Don't get too serious.

Teenagers have lots of bad ideas and illogical dreams.

Still, write them down, as much as you can remember THAT WAS SIGNIFICANT TO YOU as a TEENAGER.

What is being young?

As an actor, you need to know. You'll age eventually, but let's not hurry the process. Doing drugs, drinking liquor and smoking cigarettes will shorten your career or get you more parts as a washed up burned out old man. So don't give up if you are self-destructive. Oddly, many people identify with self-destructive people or get some relief in knowing that a successful person can succeed while being pschologically damaged than they are... Like daytime soap operas. Every director should study a few of them periodically to realize what people hunger for and what to avoid in acting facial movements.

Act young? Act old?

What is young?

What is old?

What is a teenager?

What is a young mother?

What is a grandmother?

What is a convict?

What is a politician?

What is a policeman?

There are thousands of answers to the above, but you better have a few ready to go already, otherwise you haven't become aware of what anyone is, why they do what they do, and where they do things differently.

Many directors can argue with me, but that's the way I also perform my music. I act the instrumental personalities. During the first two American Zen albums I listed myself as:

The Hippy Coyote: songs, poetry, acoustic guitar and flute
Steve Hixon: drums
Tom Calder: bass and backing vocals
Rory G: electric guitars and ukulele

I was all the above musicians. To add some drama to it I sometimes recorded the different characters talking to me during my American Zen Buddhist Rock Podcasts at www.CoyoteRadio.NET from 2006 to 2008. Check out the song, "Daryoon" on the Christ Killer album. I actually recorded each character talking on the beginning of the song and have the record producer tell Rory G when to start playing the electric slide guitar solo. SONG: "Daryoon"

The downside of acting is you are only as talented as that person. Eventually by American Zen's third album, I gave up pretending (acting) to be the other band members. I had to embrace my independence and ability to perform the various instruments to the levels I expected of any other professional musicians. So now my variety in styles homogenized and grew together... Then I wrote the rock opera, KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, the first of four musical story albums of the Kung Fu Cowboy series of American Zen albums.

Now I had to act again. I had to be the three fellowcrafts who murder Hiram Abif and Hiram Abif and King Solomon, and King Tyre. Fortunately, as I began to record, I saw a theatrical version of the murder of Hiram Abif in Pasadena, California. Now I could visualize each character in my mind down to the colors of their clothing and height...

Then, I just performed the music and didn't really think about my acting. I recorded the album: LEVEL 4 = KUNG FU COWBOY PART 2: KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE by just feeling each character. My forethought allowed me to trust my self-directing.

Hee-hee. It would have been better with another Record Producer directing and pushing me. So, despite my being a one-man operation, I always prefer more direction and involvement with other characters and persons to enliven and bring my fantasy worlds into reality. I like to push people and I like to be pushed. As long as the goal is good, keep pushing.