Homeless in Hollywood

It seemed like any other day, taking Trevor past Disney studios, through pass avenue, over cahuenga blvd, passed Hollywood, Sunset and Santa Monica Blvd into Hollywood proper. Dropping him off at “The Groundlings” Theater went smoothly and Joelene and I began thinking about where to hang out for the two hours waiting for him to get out of class. Where else would we go? We ended up at McDonalds; it was a very nice looking McDonalds with newly constructed tan adobe like walls, it even came with a small patch of green grass, of which I had not seen much of on our trip as of yet. We began to walk into the entrance and immediately noticed the two homeless guys sitting guard of the entrance. They sat poised just as a pair of sphinx outside the pyramids, the short chubby one on the left was decked out in camo gear complete with a camo toboggan and sat crosslegged Indian style. The one on the right I called Jamaican MacD was draped in a heavy coat and adorned with long dred longs which looked quite dirty. When now began our adventure into the “Nice” McDonalds, of course we were quizzed for spare change by the camo the homeless. We ordered our food, sat down and began talking. Momentarily, a nice haired “woman” walked by, her purse handle clinging to the area on the other side of her elbow and her hand flipped out like an old style movie starlet. She wore nice tight pants and the humongous dark rayban like flight sunglasses. She sauntered rather briskly from the counter where she had asked the cashier to open the electronic bathroom and made way to the restroom area. I noticed she pulled on the men’s restroom door and became very flustered… it then hit me, this is no woman. Yes, he was a transvestite and he sauntered even more briskly back to the counter and in a much deeper voice this time, proclaimed “The Men’s room” Of course it created an conversation between Joelene and I that continued for about 3 minutes until Joelene saw another man trying to go to the restroom. As Joelene expressed how the 2nd guy was going to be in for a surprise, immediately “she or he” passed directly by Joelene.
The fun doesn’t stop. Do you remember camo the homeless sphinx outside; he now strolled into the dining area with his own glass and began walking toward the fountain station. Perhaps this is ok, but the glass was a Tupperware ranch dressing shaker…I then after waiting and making sure “she or he” was out of the restroom decided to take my chance and go myself. Upon entering the restroom I notice an African American man in the restroom with a tooth brush and toothpaste, he had also just finished giving himself a sponge bath. Not too uncommon but he had that old style sammy davis junior type hair slicked down, wore a very nice purplish dress shirt, dickie pants and purple stacy adams shoes. We decided to leave and as we passed the sphinxes outside we noticed they had grown and added a white young 20 something kid and seemed to be enjoying life. Many thoughts go through my head as I process how folks like that make it in the world. I did not stop to help or show interest in their life. I don’t Jesus would have passed them by. I justify it all by thinking they could get a job somewhere if they tried…

1st Baptist of Beverly Hills

This California thing has been the most amazing spiritual journey of my life. I grew up in a church with about 30-40 members on a dead end gravel road, all white people (I never spoke to a black person until my first grade teacher, Bea Isable) and lower middle class hard working folks with a moderate education. Many times on our way to church going down that long and winding dusty road, we would follow Mr. Gill. He drove a tractor on nice days; he was about 350 lbs, he wore bib overalls, his right jaw was always full of warren county twist tobacco (juice stains were evident on his overalls of course) and never did you see him without a smile. Those days watching him drive his tractor to church were very special. Rainy days were a different story, the pastor would pick him up on rainy days and give him a ride to church; my dad was the pastor...Mr. Gill would ride in our 1978 blue cadillac; he was not educated and would have defintely been in a special education classroom. Yet, he would bring me juicy fruit gum or peppermint each Sunday, along with a pick and a poke of my side which always resulted in a big grin or laugh. It seemed akward back then and yet now I am in tears because that was some of the events that helped shape my life. You see, Mr. Gill never took baths, he just stunk...no matter how much brut or old spice you gave him; he would never use it. I sometimes despised picking him up and thought it was crud and a big inconvenience. But because my parents regularly picked him up for church and encouraged him to come, he now is in heaven, wearing bib overalls, passing out juicy fruit gum and I bet sneaking some warren county twist tobacco when Jesus isn't watching. One Sunday, he left the back pew and walked to the altar and asked Christ in his heart..
I have gone to bigger churches and they have good and bad situations. Never in a million years did I think I would go to the 1st Baptist Church of Beverly Hills...and hear my son sing Chris Tomlins, "Indescribable". We spent last Sunday night in worship with a small church of less than 40 people inside Beverly Hills city limits and just about two blocks from the famous Beverly Hills sign. Worship was genuine and beautiful. We also had about 12 friends we have made come to support Trevor. Even Trevor's manager and mom came to worship. I believe they experienced worship. I thought Jesus only hung out in Bowling Green; you know Jesus is real and Jesus lives everywhere, including Beverly Hills

Allen the Improvenator

You are not going to believe it, but I took my first improv class in Hollywood last wednesday night. There were 8 students and we performed on a little stage a few blocks off of Sunset Blvd about a mile from Mann's Chinese Theater. I was terrified, I walked in late and I wondered what in the world am I doing. It started off weird; everyone was in a circle doing this clapping thing. I jumped in and did fine. We had to then do an alien hand shake and sound; all I could think of was Mork from ork and I did shazbot nanu nanu and the orken handshake. We then went to the stage and peformed in partners with different scenarios. It was all pretty cool until I was partnered with an asian girl and we had to be married...I became very uncomfortable then. My usual partner is Monte and we don't do married...I did miss Monte and realized the things we did together were actually right on track. The teacher said she was proud of me and could tell that I had been on stage and I was prised on multiple parts of my performance...