Thoughts of The Ultimate Rabbit

What’s Pablove Got To Do With It?

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Pablove 2018 first day

It’s that time of year again. Or, more correctly, it is a little past that time of year when I start training for the Los Angeles Marathon. The group I train with usually starts up in October, leaving us time to decide what to wear for our Halloween costume run, but instead, we began on November 5, 2017, and this is not the only thing which has changed. For the past seven years, I have trained with Team to End AIDS for the LA Marathon which benefits AIDS Project Los Angeles. APLA, however, decided to end their endurance training program as they are redirecting their fundraising focus, and Coach Kerry has since left the organization and is now working with another non-profit called The Pablove Foundation. Essentially, it is still the same group of people I am training with, but now we are fundraising for a different non-profit whose aims are as important as APLA’s.

The Pablove Foundatrion logo

So, what is The Pablove Foundation? Coach Kerry was very excited to tell us all about it, and his enthusiasm for this organization proved to be contagious. The Pablove Foundation was founded in 2009 by Jo Ann Thrailkill, Jeff Castelaz, and Grady Gallagher in honor of their son and brother Pablo Castelaz Thrailkill. In 2008, Pablo was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms Tumor, a very rare form of childhood cancer. His family was determined to help Pablo beat cancer or, as out late Coach Scott Boliver would say, “slay the dragon.” Pablo’s cancer went into remission, but he was denied the childhood anyone and everyone deserves as it came back with a bitter vengeance, and he died a mere six days after his sixth birthday. As I have heard time and time again, there is nothing worse than outliving your child, so I can only imagine the pain and infinite heartache Pablo’s family were forced to deal with in the wake of his passing.

But the memory of Pablo lives on through this organization which aims to invest in underfunded, cutting-edge pediatric cancer research, and to improving the lives of children with cancer through the arts. Coach Kerry even told us about the photography classes they teach to the kids, and this makes me look forward to the exhibit of their work which will take place soon. In short, Kerry made it sound like a fantastic non-profit everyone should donate to, and I am proud to be fundraising for it.

Cancer has robbed me of many people I am glad to have known in my life like Scott Boliver, Grant Martin, and Gino England and, like AIDS, it is an indiscriminate disease which lays waste to the human body in a most devastating way. Sooner or later, I knew I was going to support an organization created to fight cancer, and The Pablove Foundation is an excellent one to start with.

This year’s group is much smaller compared to the T2EA endurance programs of the past, but perhaps it will make things more intimate to where we can get increased instruction on our training. It was good to run into longtime friends like Glendale and Stephen, and we reveled in the fact that we survived another furiously hot summer which overstayed its welcome in Southern California all the way through October.

Our first run was 5.5 miles, and it was relegated to inside Griffith Park. The coaches instructed us to run to the sheriff’s station and then turn around, and it was very straightforward to where no maps needed to be handed out. Coach James, returning for another year to trains us crazy runners, advised us to run at a conversational pace. If we found ourselves huffing and puffing at any point, we were doing it wrong.

Pablove 2018 team picture

I’m proud to say I got a couple of 30 to 45 minute runs in before our first training run, and I like to think I was more prepared than usual. Even though it was still cold, I tossed my Nike jacket to the side as I figured things would warm up quickly. Things certainly did heat up as we made our way down Zoo Drive towards the Gene Autry Museum. I watched as my fellow runners ran at a confident and conversational pace, and I kept watching them as they faded from my sight.

Once again, I found myself running solo as everyone clearly took the time to do more cardio exercises than me. While training for the 2017 LA Marathon, I typically found myself finishing dead last on a regular basis to where I felt the need to apologize to the coaches even though it was never necessary.

I decided to run at a 3:1 pace, meaning I ran for three minutes, and then I walked for one. In retrospect, it would have been better if I ran at a 2:2 pace as it would have kept me from feeling winded during the last mile or so. By writing this down, I guess you could say I wasn’t running at a conversational pace. Of course, when everyone is getting further and further away, the only conversations I end up having are with myself, and they can be nuts!

I did catch myself crossing my arms in front of me instead of keeping them to the side, so I did my best to remain conscious of how easy it is to slip into bad habits. It doesn’t matter how many of these marathons I do because they are always filled with additional challenges I foolishly thought I had conquered in the past.

Each marathon training season starts off the same for me. No matter how many times I do this, it always feels like I am starting over from scratch. I now feel this is an inevitable feeling as it can be too easy to give up on running, let alone exercising, after I cross the finish line. Plus, running in triple digit temperatures is not altogether appealing.

Please believe me when I say I am super serious about training harder than I have in the last few years. Having been a LA Marathon veteran for some time now, my confidence in knowing I can cross the finish line has gotten to be too much. I come into training season wanting to improve my time or to lose weight, and I haven’t succeeded in either. Hopefully, this year will provide me with different and beneficial results.

I have changed up my eating habits a lot over the past few months to where I thrive on eating egg white cheese omelets with added vegies and imitation crab meat. The protein keeps me feeling full, and feels good to know I am really cutting down on calories. Of course, I had to give up breakfast cereal as Golden Grahams became far too addictive for my own good, but maybe someday I’ll allow myself to go haywire and munch on those again.

So, the first week of marathon training is complete. Next up, I will be running 2 to 3 runs during the week and getting in extra cardio training whenever I can. Trust me, the boxing game on Wii Sports is a serious calorie burner.

Ben Kenber finishing 23 miles in Feb 2017

WRITER/RUNNER NOTE: This marathon training season, I will be raising $1,500 for The Pablove Foundation. Please click here to learn how you can donate and, yes, it is tax deductible. Thanks again for your support.

Click here to visit The Pablove Foundation website.

Movies Mark Wahlberg Really Should Beg God’s Forgiveness for

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Mark Wahlberg photo

While in Chicago where he shared the stage at the UIC Pavillion with Cardinal Blase Cupich, actor Mark Wahlberg said he prayed to God for forgiveness over starring in “Boogie Nights.” The 1997 film, which marked writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s cinematic breakthrough, starred Wahlberg as Eddie Adams, a high school dropout who later gained fame as porn star Dirk Diggler. Furthermore, he even apologized to the Pope for the crude humor in “Ted.” Wahlberg was quoted as saying, “I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I’ve made some poor choices in my past.”

Sure Mark, you have made some poor choices, but most of them are relegated to your criminal youth. Your are a devout Roman Catholic and attend Mass on a regular basis, but I refuse to believe God would punish you for your work in a movie as brilliant as “Boogie Nights.” Besides, you succeeded in pulling off the ever so difficult transition from being a rap star (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch) to becoming a legitimate actor thanks to your astonishing performance opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Basketball Diaries.” Since then, you have brought those “good vibrations” to a variety of roles in “The Departed,” “Three Kings,” “We Own the Night,” “The Yards,” and “Lone Survivor.”

Still, while your resume is filled with great movies, it is also littered with bad ones, and I’m stunned you haven’t asked God to forgive you for the following stinkers.

Planet of the Apes Mark Wahlberg poster

Planet of the Apes

Okay, Tim Burton really should be apologizing for this one more than you. The “Beetlejuice” director is a wonderfully unique filmmaker, but I kept having to remind myself he directed this surprisingly bland and forgettable remake of the 1968 classic starring Charlton Heston. Mark, you played astronaut Leo Davidson, and even your boundless energy couldn’t save this one as very little of what I saw remains in my consciousness. It is the equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal in that, whether you enjoyed it or not, it leaves no lingering aftertaste. Even the movie’s twist ending is unremarkable, and I walked out of it wondering why Burton made something so average instead of wonderfully weird.

The Truth about Charlie poster

The Truth about Charlie

Hollywood may still be a remake-happy place with many classics being plundered for a new generation of filmgoers, but there are some this town needs to leave well enough alone. Among them is “Charade,” Stanley Donen’s classic 1963 film starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, but this didn’t stop the late Jonathan Demme from remaking it as “The Truth about Charlie.” Mark, you had as much luck playing the Cary Grant role here as Russell Crowe did in playing a romantic comedy lead in “A Good Year” which is to say, not at all. Please Mark, don’t try to be the next Cary Grant or even the next Robert De Niro. Just be yourself.

The Happening movie poster

The Happening

Oh lord, where do I start with this one? Following his box office flop “Lady in the Water,” M. Night Shyamalan continued his descent into cinematic oblivion with this thriller which failed in spectacular fashion. For you Mark, “The Happening” allowed you to play a schoolteacher, something different from what we usually see you as. Shyamalan, however, directs you to some of the worst acting of your career, and your performance became hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Heck, even you were quoted as saying, “It was a really bad movie…   Fuck it. It is what it is. Fucking trees, man. The plants. Fuck it. You can’t blame me for not wanting to try to play a science teacher. At least I wasn’t playing a cop or a crook.” God must have been scratching his head while and thinking there couldn’t be a more laughable environmental thriller than “The Day After Tomorrow” until this one came along.

Max Payne movie poster

Max Payne

Even by 2008, everyone had come to the conclusion adapting video games into movies was a bad idea and almost always doomed to failure. But this didn’t stop “A Good Day to Die Hard” director John Moore from turning one of Rockstar Games’ most popular titles into a neo-noir action thriller. Mark, you may have described the script for “Max Payne” as being awesome and the character as being one of the edgier roles you have ever played, but Jim Vejvoda was correct when he described your performance as “drab.” This came out the same year as “The Happening,” and you earned a Razzie nomination as Worst Actor for both. Couldn’t you see this adaptation would look like nothing more than a “Death Wish” knock-off?

Pain & Gain poster

Pain & Gain

You may still want to get God’s forgiveness for playing a porn star, but I’m surprised you won’t do the same for playing Daniel Lugo, a man convicted of extortion, kidnapping, torture, murder, and who is now serving a life sentence in prison. Just as with Dirk Diggler in “Boogie Nights,” you were just playing a character, but if you think God has a problem with porn actors, wouldn’t he have an even bigger problem with criminals like Lugo? Furthermore, this marked your first collaboration with the cinematic devil known as Michael Bay, someone who has laid waste to our innocent memories of Transformers toys. With “Pain & Gain,” Bay wanted to do something smaller, a character piece, but this director has never been good at doing things subtly. This black comedy was based on a true story, something Bay keeps reminding us of throughout, but things never gel here despite good performances from you, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie.

Transformers Mark Wahlberg Extinction poster

Transformers: Age of Extinction

After “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” we thought Michael Bay was forever done with this franchise to where we breathed an enormous sigh of relief. But noooooo! He just had to start a new “Transformers” trilogy and drag you along, kicking and screaming I hope. All of our hopes and prayers for a good Michael Bay “Transformers” movie were not answered as “Age of Extinction” proved to be almost as bad as “Revenge of the Fallen” to where it didn’t take long for audiences to get completely numbed to all the endless explosions Bay couldn’t stop setting off. Your line of “I think we just found a Transformer” is the only thing I can bother to remember from this misfire, and this isn’t saying much.

Ted 2 poster

Ted 2

I loved “Ted” as I always dreamed of having a living and breathing stuffed animal in my life. And Mark, seeing you and the teddy bear getting into a nasty fight remains one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in a motion picture. But with “Ted 2,” it really seemed like you and Seth MacFarlane were just phoning it in. The “Flash Gordon” jokes fall flat here, and this sequel is desperately missing Mila Kunis. As for you getting covered in sperm samples at a lab, you are so much better than that.

Transformers The Last Knight movie poster

Transformers: The Last Knight

Mark, you said this “Transformers” sequel will mark your last appearance in the franchise, and I pray to the heavens above that you keep this promise. No amount of energy you brought to the role of Cade Yeager is enough to divert us from the fact “The Last Knight” is astonishingly incomprehensible. Did the studio executives even question Michael Bay about this film? Even now, I laugh hysterically over how incoherent the storyline is. Thanks to its disappointing box office, this may mark Bay’s end with the franchise, an end which should have come after the first film.

Mark, you probably are not reading this article, but I do admire your work as an actor, and you have given terrific performances recently in “Deepwater Horizon” and “Patriots Day.” You shouldn’t have to apologize for your work in a truly great film. Instead, you should beg God’s forgiveness for all the bad ones you got stuck in. Even the one you pray to cannot understand the plot of “Transformers: The Last Knight,” so seek your penance for that one and all the others on this list. Thanks, and God be with you.

If I Had Hosted ‘Your Turn’ on 100.3 The Sound

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

1003 The Sound Banner

With 100.3 The Sound shutting down operations soon, it looks like I won’t get a chance to host an edition of “Your Turn.” This is a program where “Sound Listeners” like you and me can act as DJ for an hour and play ten of our favorite songs. This is one of the many things I love about this station as it shows just how much they truly respect those who listen in on a daily basis. Since first learning about this particular program, I was very eager to be a part of it as I have some experience in being a radio DJ in the past while I was a student at UC Irvine. But with the station going off the air, its likely they have little time to accommodate those who have sent in their song lists to the station.

Whatever the case, I’m going to do the next best thing and provide you, my fellow readers, with the episode I would have done. So here it goes.

Hello people! My name is Ben Kenber, a Sound Listener from Los Angeles, California and also the writer and CEO of the website The Ultimate Rabbit which focuses on my love for movies as well as the challenges I face in training for the Los Angeles Marathon, a marathon I have participated in for seven years. The songs I am going to play have affected me deeply throughout my childhood and as an adult, and I look at them as a journey through the crazy terrain life gives all of us.

  1. “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar

The first song on my list needs no introduction in my opinion. You have all heard this classic before, and the best way for me to describe it is that it’s the song I just LOVE listening to whenever I am in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on the 405 freeway. Here it is!

  1. “Shock the Monkey” by Peter Gabriel

This song cast a spell on me when I first heard it on the radio back in the 1980’s. Then I saw the music video for it, and it was the scariest video I ever saw. Keep in mind, I was 7 years old at the time, and this was the worst time to watch a music video like this one. All these years later, I have since become a huge Peter Gabriel fan and have no problem watching this song’s music video as it is one of the few from this decade which really holds up. While my favorite song of Gabriel’s is “In Your Eyes,” one which The Sound has played on a regular basis, this one still holds a lot of meaning for me and still sends a chill up my spine whenever I listen to it. Here is Peter Gabriel with “Shock the Monkey.”

  1. “Find Your Way Back” by Jefferson Starship

I remember when my dad bought the album “Modern Times” by Jefferson Starship back when we were living in Marietta, Georgia, and the first song off of it remains one of my all-time favorites. I even got my dad to let me take this album to my kindergarten class at Wesleyan Day School, and my classmates were eager to rock out to this track every time I put the needle to this vinyl record. It’s a good thing we never got around to playing “Modern Times” in its entirety as the last song, “Stairway to Cleveland,” had a four-letter word parents were eager for their children not to learn about until they turned ten years old. I also have to say that the woman on the album’s cover became a significant part of many nightmares I experience at such a young age. Anyway, here is Jefferson Starship with “Find Your Way Back.”

  1. “Bad Reputation” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

I have been a fan of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts ever since I first heard their cover of “Crimson and Clover” on the radio back when I lived in Marietta, Georgia. But I am choosing to play this song because I love its defiant attitude, and it’s the kind of attitude I wish I had during my high school years because I was way too concerned about what others thought of me. Plus, it was also the theme song to one of my favorite television shows, “Freaks & Geeks,” and like many brilliant TV shows, it only lasted one season. Anyway, here’s “Bad Reputation.”

  1. “Can I Sit Next to You Girl” by AC/DC

I have been a die-hard fan of AC/DC ever since I bought their album “Who Made Who,” and 100.3 The Sound has played their music non-stop. This makes selecting a song by them especially challenging as “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” “Back in Black,” “Big Balls,” and “Thunderstruck” are always being played on this station. This song from their album “High Voltage” has always been one of my favorites, and I would like to give it a spin here. With the late Bon Scott on vocals, here is “Can I Sit Next to You Girl.”

  1. “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin

I have to include a song by Led Zeppelin here. I became a devoted fan of their music after my dad bought their untitled album, commonly known as “Led Zeppelin IV,” on compact disc. This particular song by them kept playing in my head while I was on vacation with my family in Hawaii. While looking at the tall cliffs, I couldn’t help but think of this song, and I still can’t get sick of listening to it. Here’s Led Zeppelin with “Black Dog,” because this station has played “Kashmir” way too often.

  1. “State Trooper” by Bruce Springsteen

If you had asked me what my favorite Bruce Springsteen album was years ago, I would have said “Born in the U.S.A.” These days, I would pick “Nebraska” which seems simplistic in its production to his other albums, but is still a very powerful listen as its lyrics are intensely personal. As much as I wanted to select “Atlantic City,” I had to pick this song as it has haunted me ever since I first listened to it while on vacation with my parents in Maine. Here is “State Trooper.”

  1. “Shadows of the Night” by Pat Benatar

Up next is something by Pat Benatar, one of the great rock and roll singers from the 1980’s. She had great hits like “Invincible,” “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Love is a Battlefield” and “Promises in the Dark,” all of which showed she was not someone to mess with. I am selecting this song by her because I love the melody of the chorus and how it soars over the lyrics with grace. Here is “Shadows of the Night.”

  1. “Undercover of the Night” by The Rolling Stones

My parents introduced me to the music of The Rolling Stones when they kept playing their album “Tattoo You” on a regular basis. This one included their classic hit “Start Me Up,” but this song from their 1983 album “Undercover” remains a favorite of mine from childhood. Here is “Undercover of the Night.”

  1. “King Tut” by Steve Martin

Choosing my last song was a tough one as I would love to include one from The Beatles or the late Tom Petty, but again, I wanted to go back to my time in kindergarten as this was a song me and my fellow classmates boogied out to without ever understanding the lyrics. Years later, I came to see it as comedy classic from one of the most brilliant of comedic minds. Here is Steve Martin with “King Tut.”

I again want to thank 100.3 The Sound for all the great music they have played for the last ten years. They have given me a deeper appreciation for bands like Deep Purple, and they made me realize there is more to Lynyrd Skynyrd than just “Sweet Home Alabama” (I foolishly thought this band was a one-hit wonder for years). Happy trails.

Goodbye 100.3 FM The Sound, Dammit

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

1003 The Sound Banner

I honestly thought it was a joke when I first read the article on LAist.com, “100.3 The Sound to Be Replaced with Christian Music Station.” LOL. I mean, come on. Replacing the best classic rock radio station in Los Angeles with one which has one singer praising God and then another saying how much they love God and even another one speaking of how God got them through tough times? You know, a radio station with real variety. Aren’t there a couple of radio stations on the AM/FM radio dial with Christian music already? Do we really need another featuring songs indistinguishable from the others played before them?

Well, it turns out this is not a joke and, as I write this article, April Fool’s Day is not around the corner. In completing its merger with CBS Radio, the American broadcasting company Entercom has agreed to sell three of its radio stations, among which is 100.3 The Sound. The classic rock station is to be replaced by the Christian Contemporary station, K-LOVE and, according to Program Director, Dave Beasing, The Sound now has 30 days until their operations are shuttered. Now radio stations may come and go, but to learn this one is heading towards the annals of radio history has left me utterly infuriated and deeply depressed. Like many out there, I found The Sound and am not prepared to lose it.

Like everyone else, I grew up on FM radio with KISS-FM in Southern California (Rick Dees in the Morning!) and KFOG up in Northern California, but as the years went by, I grew continually restless with every single station I tuned in to as commercials and advertisements became more prevalent than actual music. I eventually gave up on radio for a time and became much more open to inserting a cassette into my car’s tape deck where I could get my music fix more easily and be spared from another advertisement for car insurance.

100.3 The Sound, however, was different. They would play a bunch of songs in a row, and they were the kind of songs which, even after listening to them hundreds of times, I could never get sick of. When the commercials came on, I never found myself eager to change the station as I eagerly anticipated which classic song Uncle Joe Benson, Rita Wilde, Cynthia Fox, Mary Price, Tony Scott, Tina Mica, Steve Hoffman, Mimi Chen, Andy Chanley or Gina Grad would end up spinning next. Did it matter which song they played? No, because I could always count on it being one which raise my spirits whenever I am stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on any given Los Angeles freeway. Furthermore, listening to this station on a daily basis keeps making me forget 95.5 KLOS still exists, and this is quite a feat.

Of course, it became an obligation to turn the volume down whenever that blasted Kars 4 Kids jingle was played. So simplistic and annoying in design and yet so catchy at the same time, it has long since proven to be equivalent of the Silver Shamrock jingle from “Halloween III.”

It didn’t matter if they were playing Led Zeppelin, Styx, The Eagles, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones because 100.3 The Sound made you realize why classic rock became classic rock; you never got sick of listening to it. Songs like “Stairway to Heaven” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” never get old for me, ever. “Hotel California” still has relevance in this new millennium. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” still has us holding out hope even when times seem darker than ever. And while I may not have “Too Much Time on My Hands” like Tommy Shaw does, I always look forward to hearing it as much as another Styx song, “Mr. Roboto.”

That’s the thing about classic rock, it never ever gets old. It has heart and soul which today’s music seriously lacks. The artists of the here and now seem way too focused on generating the next big #1 hit to where they employ an obscene number of writers and producers on a single song in an effort to create something commercially viable, demographically friendly and inoffensive to the most sensitive of ears. Musicians from years past were never as concerned about making hit records as they were in creating music which spoke to them as much as it did to us. Even today’s generation has a great love for these bands to where their music’s power is undeniable. Taylor Swift may be the hit maker of today, but can you see “Shake it Off” or “…Ready for It?” having the lasting power of “Bohemian Rhapsody?” I think not.

Whenever I am driving people all around Southern California, they remark how the music playing on 100.3 The Sound makes them feel like they are in high school again. I feel the same way, and I went to high school back in the 1990’s! Sure, there are some passengers who instead want to hear the latest in hip hop which is fine, but more often than not, they dig listening to what this great radio station plays had on its playlist.

I love it when Andy Chanley breaks down a song to where you hear only the lead singer’s vocals or a particular guitar riff. I love Rita Wilde’s album side at 11, and she made me realize Journey’s “Frontiers” album was actually not a part of my record collection and needed to be. I love Uncle Joe Benson’s “10 at 10” as he was great at taking you back in time to a year which remains fresh in our minds, and his show “Off the Record” had him indulging in down to earth conversations with artists I always want to know more about. This station even managed to lure Mark Thompson back into the realm of morning radio, albeit for far too brief a time. Still, he had his “Cool Stories in Music” podcast which I always enjoyed listening to on a Sunday night.

100.3 The Sound also plays host to “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” the guitarist and “Sopranos” actor’s radio show which showcases what he sees as the “coolest songs in the world.” Now this is what Vincent Vega would call “a bold statement,” but in Little Steven’s case, he is absolutely justified in making it. While he plays songs by The Rolling Stones and The Monkees, bands we know and love, he also includes the grooviest of tunes from Butch Walker, The Weeklings, Jeremy & The Harlequins, Fleshtones, and the Kurt Baker Combo. I have to say I don’t know these ones but feel like I should, but with his show, Little Steven has introduced them to a new generation of listeners. It is also further proof of how my rock and roll education is far from over as his song selections provide me with a gloriously rockin’ good time.

Plus, how many other radio stations have a show like “Your Turn?” This is where Sound listeners like you and me can spend an hour as a DJ (pre-recorded of course) and play our favorite tunes for devoted listeners to hear. Now this is a radio station which respects its fans like few others do. While many of them may not sound ready for prime time, it is always great fun to hear what songs they selected. I was hoping to get a chance to do it, and I do have experience as a radio DJ, but thanks to corporate greed, it is unlikely I will get the opportunity.

Well, all I can do now is enjoy the remaining days 100.3 The Sound is on the air as I feel uncertain there will be another radio station like it in the near future. I have no real desire to tune into a Christian music station. Granted, there are some great Christian singers out there (Vanessa Jourdan, you rock!), but being without The Sound on my FM radio dial will make it painful to even try to tune in to this channel.

A big thank you to everyone at 100.3 The Sound for all the great times and songs they have given me. You will be deeply missed.

WRITER’S NOTE: I am including the following song as it started playing in my head loudly after it set in that 100.3 The Sound is going away. It was released back in 1992, and I believe this makes it “classic rock.” After all, this station also plays the music of Pearl Jam.

See also:

If I Had Hosted ‘Your Turn’ on 100.3 The Sound

 

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

mlk-i-have-a-dream

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. You had a dream. A dream that, after all we have been through these last few years, I would still love to see realized. And that’s regardless of how much damage has been caused around the world, let alone in America. Paranoia is getting worse and worse, and ignorance continues to be utter bliss for those in power.

Where is the America you dreamed of? Why does it always seem so far, far away? Your vision is one which needs to be embraced, and yet the world seems to keep descending into an endless abyss which it looks unlikely to escape from. Yet we celebrate your life because you had a dream and none of us, however depressed and demoralized we get, are ever willing to let it die.

You were willing to live and die for what you believed in, and this is the kind of bravery we sure could use today. We have been scared to speak our minds of the truth we are trapped in, and when we do speak it we are not heard by those in charge. People are still judged by the color of their skin even when we try to convince ourselves this should never be the case. The powerful voices of truth keep getting muffled by the powers that be, and it usually takes some illegal activity to get to the facts, facts which are now more malleable and less permanent than ever before.

Where is your dream, Dr. King? I guess that’s what I want to write about. I want to believe it is still possible that we can all be free at last. I just don’t know. The world keeps getting scarier and scarier, and I keep hiding away from it all. It gets to be too much sometimes, but it never did scare you, did it? So, who am I to complain?

Whatever happens and whatever befalls us, you will never be forgotten. Thanks Dr. King, and not just for the day off from work (that’s a coincidence more than anything else). Thanks for being a brave voice in a scary world which you refused to be intimidated by. Thanks for your dream which will never die. Ever. Thanks for remembering the most important of things, that we need to work together even when life seems to be bringing us all down.

Happy Birthday Dr. King. May your dreams be realized.

Above image courtesy of Getty Images.

Seven Marathons For One Benjamin

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

day-one

It’s that time of year again! The time where I get up at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning, put on my running shoes, venture out to Griffith Park in Burbank and not get into any car accidents (none of which would ever be my fault) along the way, and arrive to join up with veteran and newbie runners for another season of training for the Los Angeles Marathon. And as always, I will be training with the great people of Team to End AIDS, a training program and fundraising group which benefits AIDS Project Los Angeles.

And in addition to putting on my running shoes, I will be wearing clothes as well.

For those new to my Los Angeles Marathon exploits, this marks the seventh year in a row of me training for it with T2EA. Yes, you read it right, SEVEN YEARS. After running the last one, I began to wonder if it was time to take a break as the last one was more of a struggle than ever before. Despite it being a tiny bit cooler than 2015 and with a nice breeze to aid us, the 2016 LA Marathon had me wondering why I allowed myself to listen to the coaches and not take any Tylenol during it. As I made my way up and down San Vicente Boulevard, I had to stop and get into a crouching position because my legs could not take much more abuse. As for my knees, they gave up arguing with me during year three.

Each year I have trained for the LA Marathon, I found myself doing it for different reasons be it emotional, physical or weight related. Among my goals for LA 2017 is to continue with my weight loss as I joined Weight Watchers a few months back, and I would like to be rid of my spare tire which is my belly once and for all. Also, I want to improve on my time from my last marathon which, in retrospect, was pitiful. I don’t want to say the 2016 LA Marathon was a disappointment, but it was in a sense because it felt like I dragged my ass to the finish line instead of crossing it triumphantly. I did finish the marathon, but I came out of it feeling like things could have gone much better.

But the main reason which finally got me to sign up for another season of marathon training is this is T2EA’s last marathon training season ever. With their fundraising focus now shifting to other areas, they have decided to discontinue this program following the 2017 LA Marathon. As a result, missing out on this particular season would be, as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, a “BIG MISTAKE.” Unsurprisingly, this first day of training proved to be bittersweet, but it will be quite the adventure all the same.

And once again, I will be raising $1,100 for APLA, and I encourage you, my fellow readers, to donate a few bucks to help me reach my fundraising goal. Please click here to find out how you can make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation.

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While JC is back and still hating pickles, he has stepped down as the marathon coach and has passed the baton to a new coach, James Hawthorn. He is a 17-time marathon runner, and he has finished the Boston Marathon in under three hours. Learning of this makes him seem rather intimidating, but he assured us he wasn’t expecting anyone to run LA as fast as he ran Boston.

Kerry, T2EA’s Director of Endurance Events, told us they were changing things up this season as he found everyone was getting a little lazy with training these past few years to where we developed bad habits like arriving at Griffith Park late. I myself got to Griffith Park this morning at a quarter to 7 a.m. which is when we start. Have I ever arrived late in the past? I don’t have to answer that.

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Coach James started us off with a crouching stretch which served to loosen everyone up, and he told us to make sure we lead with our butts and not our knees as we pretended to sit down in an imaginary chair. I did lead with my butt, by my knees wanted in as they wanted some kind of feeling for themselves. The way my knees see it, why should my butt have all the fun?

Today’s run gave us two options: we could run 5 miles or 3. When it comes to these choices, my gut usually tells me to run the longer distance. C’mon, I have run the Los Angeles Marathon six years in a row. I’ve got this training thing down. 5 miles is a piece of cake to me! So yes, I only ran 3.

The truth is I haven’t kept up with the running since the 2016 LA Marathon, so once again I feel like I’m starting over because, well, I am. As I ran from Griffith Park to the Gene Autry Museum, which is 1.5 miles, my legs felt like concrete bricks which I dragged over the asphalt. I used to run like I was light on my feet, but I haven’t been svelte in such a long time. But the good news is I did use Runkeeper to keep track of my time, and I finished the 3 miles in forty minutes.

In past years I have run in the 13-minute pace group, but today I ended up in the 15-minute group. It feels like I’ve been downgraded, but then again I haven’t run on a regular basis in some time. Still, as my fellow veteran marathoners pointed out, it gives me something to work for. As the training season progresses, I can always move up to a faster pace group if I put in the effort. This is only the beginning, and I have nowhere to go but up.

Coach James concluded our first day by conducting a stretching clinic. It involved stretches I am not altogether familiar with, so I hope I did them correctly. If I didn’t do them correctly, I still hope some part of my body got stretched out (and not just my knees).

Despite whatever problems arose, this training season has gotten off to a strong start. The weather was perfect in that it was not too hot and not too cold, and we have yet to feel the full force of the fall and winter seasons (assuming they will ever arrive in Southern California). And when all is said and done, Scott Boliver’s tree continues to grow beautifully in Griffith Park.

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HELP A BROTHER OUT: Like I said, I am doing this marathon to raise money for AIDS Project Los Angeles, a renowned non-profit group which has spent many years helping those who have been afflicted by this terrible disease we will one day conquer. I invite you all to make a tax-deductible donation to this group so that they can continue to help those who can no longer help themselves. Just click here to find out how you can help. By the way, check out the video below.

 

Two Days Before September 11, 2001…

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

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As much as I want to talk about what I was doing on September 10, 2001, I can’t remember the specifics of that particular day. Back then I was more consistent in keeping a diary of what I did from day to day, but September 10th was a day I never got to write about. So instead, allow me to go back two days before those planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11th…

Back in 2001, I was working at Disneyland in an attraction called Innoventions. It was in the spinning building located in Tomorrowland where America Sings and Carousel of Progress used to be. That particular attraction was about technology of the future, but others described it dismissively as a corporate playground, and I was an interactive host doing game shows and helping guests have the best day possible at “the happiest place on Earth.” (Writer’s note: Innoventions finally closed down on March 31, 2015.)

Anyway, this particular day stood out because, right after the park closed, cast members, Disney lingo for employees, were invited to catch the very last performances of the Country Bear Jamboree attraction, the famous audio-animatronic show with bears and the mounted heads of dead animals singing country music. This one was close to reaching its 30th anniversary, and while Walt Disney never got to see it come to fruition, he really loved the characters who were part of it.

Country Bear Jamboree was being closed down to make room for a new attraction which seemed sacrilegious to those who worked at the park, but change was in the air and we couldn’t stop it. Some said what would replace it would be one-part Circle-Vision, that 360-degree theater in Tomorrowland which had railings for guests to hold on to instead of seats as they were made to feel like they were moving along with the images shown onscreen. Others said the other part would be “Captain Eo,” the sci-fi 3D short film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Michael Jackson.

Now when I was working at Disneyland, “Captain Eo” had not been shown there for years, but guests were still constantly asking us where they could see it. We all figured all the guests would know the movie was no longer showing at the park, but no one is quick to look at the map to see what is and what isn’t there. Sadly, it would take Jackson’s death to bring it back to Tomorrowland in all its technologically dated glory.

While I was never a big fan of the Country Bear Jamboree, I felt obligated to attend its final performances. At the very least it gave me the unique privilege of allowing me to say I attended the last show, something millions of visitors would never get to lay claim to. It was like when the dorm I stayed in during college got a zero score on the first week of back to school contests. No else got a score as low as ours, and we wore this fact with pride as only we could lay claim to having accomplished that.

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After all these years, the bear I remembered most was Teddi Barra who descended from the ceiling on a swing decorated with roses and wearing a yellow raincoat. This soon made perfect sense as she began to sing “Singin’ in the Rain.” Many will want the starring role in a production, but it’s always the supporting players who command the most attention. Trust me, I speak from experience.

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Also, the mounted heads of animals on the wall left a vivid impression on me. These were animals shot for sport, and yet they still sang with a lot of heart and spirit despite the fact they were now forever nailed to a wall. And keep in mind, Walt Disney also made “Bambi,” and we know what happened to the title character’s mother. Why didn’t they have Bambi’s mother’s head up there? I’d like to think it would have made a difference for all the children forever traumatized by the movie.

Many in attendance were wearing “Save The Country Bears” t-shirts which, while well-intentioned, proved to be utterly pointless as the decision to close the attraction down was made a long time in advance. Still seeing this attraction being closed down felt very sad because a part of Walt Disney’s spirit which brought about this park’s creation seemed to be going away with it. But change keeps coming for better or worse, and Disneyland would never have survived without the corporate world backing it up.

When the final performance came to a close, the cast members operating the attraction asked if we wanted to see it one more time. Of course, we said yes as it was not lost on any of us how we were a part of something many others would never get to experience. Seeing it for a final time made us feel lucky and special, and when it was all over we gave the attraction a long lasting and an ear-splittingly loud standing ovation. I personally felt privileged to be a part of this because many other jobs never would have allowed for such an opportunity like this.

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There are those cast members who say Walt is spinning in his grave with all the changes being made to his land of imagination. We still wonder how much of him is left in the park, and I’m not just referring to those urban legends like the one which says he’s buried underneath it or cryogenically frozen. I had the great opportunity of working with cast members who truly want to preserve the magic Walt brought to the park as it seems the damage Michael Eisner left in his path feels irreparable.

In retrospect, the closing of the Country Bear Jamboree served as an accidental allegory for the change which forever changed us in the wake of September 11th. Back then, I felt so lucky to be catching the bears’ unfortunate end when so many others couldn’t, and at least we had to chance to say goodbye to something or somebody. How ironic it was that a couple of days later we said a horrific and unexpected goodbye to the twin towers and many innocent lives in a way we didn’t see coming. It proved to be a time where we wanted to change the course of events, but of course we could not. The world can be very cruel, and 15 years have now passed since we were greeted with the worst terrorist attack in American history. Here’s hoping we continue to learn from the events of September 11th to where we can finally keep history from repeating itself.

Writer’s note: The Country Bear Jamboree attraction was eventually turned into the Winnie the Pooh ride. Truth be told, I am a die-hard Eeyore fan, so I have to admit I was really excited at what it would look like. It proved to be fun, but there could have been a lot more of Eeyore featured in it, a lot more.