time

has passed.

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrcxIvHkImQ

i'm on the phone with them.

Charlie Capen
www.charliecapen.com

Googling or Oogling

Have you ever googled yourself? It's like a carnival of manure.

I rifled through like 30 pages of CHARLIE CAPEN and CHARLIECAPEN.COM and blah blah.

Where can I go to get control of this thing here? My name on websites, etc.?

Weird isn't.

It's like I'm VIRAL.

who the...

hell is that guy on the left with the crooked smirking palsy look?

quote of the lifetime

"without music life would be a mistake."
nietzche

year ago today

I've researched death some and thought you might be ought to read a few things I'd learned.



Let me start with a few quotes.

"Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage."
-Jean Anouilh, Beckett, 1959

"To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they know quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?"
-Socrates, from Plato's Apology

"Courage is fear holding on a minute longer."
-George S. Patton

So there you have a couple of opinions on death and courage.

But I've found something else out. Death and courage can mix like a noxious cocktail. They are the fodder of patriotism and the bane of terrorism. They are the opposing sides of war and the kissing cousins of peace, for without courage in the face of death or any other opposition, peace as a stasis woudn't be possible.

But death, like that of those you love, is looked to like a loss or to others a transference.

My father was itinerant and his death simply another move in a long series of moves. Some of those moves were calculated; some not so. But he kept a pace and anyone who knew him would tell you he had an internal rhythm that evoked his transcience.

And even still, despite his semipermance of location, he was the most solid thing for me in my art, my dreams, my passion and my imagination.

He will not budge from my conscience, my goals, my desires to succeed and ultimately what I could only call my "I'll show them" streak.

And when I die, I will have borne it the entire way for nothing is so permanent as a father and his son.

So I've noticed

Got a lot rolling on my mind and tongue these daze. I certainly do move fast.

Item One on the agenda Charlie Capen.com Is Up Now...

Item Two would be the fact that I've been nominated as an actor for my work: Press Release, Click Here

I'm pitted against these mugs:


Kurtwood Smith


David Deluise, of Deluise fame


Ryan Stiles, my hands-down/bar-none favorite improv comic & actor

And, no I'm not joking this time. These really are the guys I'm up against.

I'll know more by tomorrow night...

JC Penney

CLICK ABOVE...

Take a Moment

"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood."

-Kahlil Gibran, "The Visit of Wisdom"


Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

Tired of it

I'm tired of random websites containing my name: Charlie Capen. I mean, don't I legally own Charlie Capen? Aren't I entitled to my own name?

Yeah, you're right. There are plenty of other 'Charlie's' and 'Capen's' out there, and even "Charlie Capen"-people out there.

Actually, now that I mention it, one is a veterinarian and biochemist. Here's a picture of him:


Kinda freaky, right? I mean, knowing someone with my exact intials: Charles C. Capen or Charlie C. Capen or Charlie Capen.

My god! What if he tried to steal my identity? Or even my wife? Maybe he's a clone from the future? He could try to commit identity theft... hmmm... I have to send him a letter to cease and desist using the name Charlie Capen, ever again.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

This guy is also Charlie Capen:


What the helll!@!*#$IOU#Y#$@&#^T%*!P{{{

Well, at least he's a gynecologist. I guess that makes it better, right?

References:
Charlie Capen #1

Charlie Capen #2

Lesson Learned

I vacillate (meaning to waiver or move between two points, in my case 'of view') between being something of a tyrant and a forgiver. I've come to accept as true, true or not, that I'm a bit of mystery to some, a sort of storm on the horizon.

I can be tirelessly patient and completely unreasonable in a single breath. I can be tremendously understanding and minutely demanding with a look.

Why?

Does anyone else feel like this? Am I the only one who feels my life is an intriguing and weird experiment of opposites sometimes?

The only caveat I can say is that I am much more even-keeled than I was as a child. As a child, it was even wider spectrum for me emotionally. But that was very fun, in its own right. It had a way of keeping me attentive.

Ultimately, I think this has something to do with my core, the fire inside. There are things that ignite me, good and bad; there are things that rile my senses with superb volatility.

I guess that's what makes me human: to perceive, to pose, to solve, to effect and be effected. My guess is that towards the end of this span I'll know a bit more about all that.

Why the hell am I so existential today? Jeepers.

I leave you with this:

Trying my best

I'm really trying my best to write the best blog in the world. It's pretty much become my greatest feat to yet accomplish.

Now, this doesn't mean the speelling with be perfect or the, um, punctuation, will be at all, succinct or accurate. But I will do my best, until my best fails me and I am forced to do my worst; in which case I will probably end up resorting to simply posting photos or something, really weird ones, yeah.

Now, there are some really good photo blogs out there (i.e. Chromasia, et al) but in no way am I even going the hell down that blessed path.

I think I will just resort to an amalgam of weird hand signals, pictionary and puppetry of the.... Ninja Turtles.

And for that, you should be thankful.

Hugs & Kisses,

More Correlation

This weather is eerie as all hell. My wife likes to call it "Nader Weather" as in tornado weather as spoken in hick-alese dialect. I tend to agree something's afoot with the planet. The unrest with its people, the sheer torture the climate is becoming in some sectors, it all adds up to something fishy.

I won't implicate global warming quite yet, although I think a change in paradigm of thinking is a must as it is, I mean petroleum-based fuels? Come on. Are we really that deficient? I say "no." I say someone is profiting somewhere.

In related news, I have to say can't we all just get along... without celebrity tabloidism? I've had enough of it; have you?

I would love to NOT hear about anything concerning new babies, new relationships.

And on that note I leave you with The Earth Org

A few things...

Did I ever tell you how important it is to find something you're passionate about?

Here's one thing: www.youthforhumanrights.org

Check it... Did you know LA is the second largest port for human trafficking? Frightening.


Charlie

Firstest

Hello, please enjoy my blog. But on the off-chance you don't go somewheres else and fart off.

In any event, welcome.

Let the blogging begin.

Evening of Evenings

Walking thru the valley of the shadow

I start my bittersweet blog tonight with touches of something I cannot yet explain.

It started when I picked up some food at an Italian restaurant. I took my order from the place and as I exited, a timid Japanese couple approached the door. I smiled to them and made the way for them to enter the tiny place. They were gracious and thankful of my manners, but as I left I felt a bit off-kilter. I felt I had almost led them astray for having been nice. I wouldn't categorize Americans as totally nice or inviting. Did I lie by acting nice and breaking the mold? Was I betraying my fellow countrymen or worse yet was I setting up a perfectly reasonable and polite couple with child for total and utter annihilation of their views of Americans?

But when I looked up at those stars tonight and saw the sky lit with those familiar lights, I knew that they would be fine.

It's universal that people can be assh*les.

But it's superhuman to be honest and caring.

Season's Bleatings...

X-Mas Time is here?

So....

It's the season of living and giving. Well, isn't that special...?

It's the season of heartstrings and heatings and holiday stress and all the rest.

The season of Whoville and stockings and mistletoe and Grinches.

With a dash of self-reflection to boot.

There are those nights when you sit near or far from the fire and let the visions of days gone by dance in your head like those sugarplums.

Honestly, I don't really know what to say about the Holiday Season.

It contains within it the fantasy of absolute joy or ultimate disappointment, depending on who you talk to.

That's why I like talking to those with an imagination and a hearth glowing inside them.

Their universe is that much more fun.

Happy Holidays

L,
Charlie

where do i start, where do i begin

have you ever dreamed that you were dreaming about dreaming a little dream? have you ever thought about when you were thinking about thinking?

have you moved faster without twitching a muscle and made more sense by saying the most off-the-wall thing known to man?

somedays, dualities stick around and i say to the dichotomy, "oh, says you?"

where do i start, where do i begin..

New Beginnings

I know it's weird...

Every day, if you think about it, there are lives, relationships, thoughts, tinkerings that are beginning and ending, which as thoughts go is a pretty impressive concept.

But when those starts and stops come your way, the feeling after the day is done is almost indescribable.

To walk in an empty parking lot late at night without sound and look up into the sky. That familiar sky with dots of light glancing your way.

Does this mean anything: begins is spelled beings when one has begun.

Anyway, it's late. Maybe I'll make more sense when I've had more sleep.

Hallowed Evenings

Dressing up as a kid you kind of learned about the necessity for candy in a sort of supply and demand sense. We were addicted and everyone on every block was supplying.

But it was more than that - it became a monopoly game of trading the weaker candy for a greater candy or targeting the right houses and neighborhoods for ultimate conquest.

God, this sounds like the implanted teachings of a capitalist, kill-or-be-killed society. But who said it was particularly bad?

Out of it came costumes and experiences of haunted nights and shadows. Where would we be without those memories?

Let those right winger, family values brethren say "pagan". If I get a snickers out of it, they can kiss my ass.



Or, to be equitable, what if we combined the 31st with Christmas and everyone ran around giving each other presents in a sort of melee of presents and doorbells and bags filled with gifts.

Yeah, what he said...

Real is Real, dammit.

"Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."

-Edgar Allan Poe , A Dream Within A Dream

When a traveling sage dies...

Recent Events, Thoughts

There are people and musicians and storytellers and muses that elucidate the why and wherefore about life. These people, like rays of light through a windowpane, brighten and warm the area that they cover.

And somedays you hear of those citizens' of the world passing away, even taking their own lives.

I always wonder on that last thought what were the conditions that were so unbearable that ending off the cycle of life was necessary. Surely, we aren't at war (at least in our own country) and our liberty nor our personal freedoms aren't at stake. Torture and cruelty are left to corporations, of which these old souls are usually far from. And more importantly, we have the space to make whatever we like - the essence of the "American Dream". How real that dream is always of course at debate, but lest an act of violence or cruelty unimaginable exists, what is the deal with suicide? There are far more with far worse who still survive and persevere.

The first place I like to look at, when these people come on in the media and say another one has bitten the dust, is at the consorts and "comrades" and supports of these individuals. Who the hell is around this person such that life is continually unbearable, un-breathable.

Well, let's look at the latest development...

Mr. Smith stabbed himself with a knife to the chest. He was admitted to a hospital where, within the next several hours he passed away of a self-inflicted knife wound. Father and girl are of psychologist and psychiatrist variety, he sings on sad tales with beautiful melancholy and he lives in Los Angeles.

Now one of these items stands out like a sore thumb... Can you guess which one?

I am tired of saying goodbye to people that uplift, in their own way, the moral and culture identity of the country, the planet I live in.

I think it's high time for a riotous creativity, a deluge of prolific writers, artists, musicians, philosophers, humanitarians, sculptors, painters, animators, comics, actors, singers, songwriters, banjo players, japanese script writers, and all else who want to start the grassroots forest fire that is a Renaissance.

Operation: Renaissance Infinitum

Time To Play The Bloggenschpiel

That's right I said "Bloggenschpiel"

Do you ever wonder about the ties between passion and control in music?

Like Beethoven... The man played and wrote with such precision that he could put mega-bagiga-joules of passion within near careful control.

So the question exists: which is more important? Passion or control? And most especially in music?

If one has passion of the arts, perhaps one can learn control and be that much better at expressing themselves. But does the corollary exist that if one has control to start, can they seek passion and find it? Can passion lay itself in front of the controlled, laser-sharp artist?

Well, all I know is that the examples are too numerous to mention about passion being the forefather of a greater art, even from those who would yield reckless guile.

But for any art to be fine, there must be that balance: passionate craftsmenship of a finer standard.

And maybe someday, the higher fineness will acquiesce towards the direction of humanity.

Here's to someday.

~C

New Category

New Allegory

I've decided on a quotes section. I come across some interesting stuff, now and again.

Quote Numero Uno, Volume I, Issue I, Department 1, Section 1 of Particle 1:

Somedays are better than others.
By U2

Some days are dry, some days are leaky
Some days come clean, other days are sneaky
Some days take less, but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor

Some days you're quick, but most days you're speedy
Some days you use more force than is necessary
Some days just drop in on us
Some days are better than others

Some days it all adds up
And what you got is not enough
Some days are better than others

Some days are slippy, other days sloppy
Some days you can't stand the sight of a puppy
Your skin is white but you think you're a brother
Some days are better than others

Some days you wake up with her complaining
Some sunny days you wish it was raining
Some days are sulky, some days have a grin
And some days have bouncers and won't let you in

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

Some days are honest, some days are not
Some days you're thankful for what you've got
Some days you wake up in the army
And some days it's the enemy

Some days are work, most days you're lazy
Some days you feel like a bit of a baby
Lookin' for Jesus and His mother
Some days are better than others

Some days you feel ahead
You're making sense of what she said
Some days are better than others

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

New Habits

What the?

Okay, so my dog Lulu has now learned (with help from a dog-friend that we took care of) to boundlessly poo in the house.

Her kitty tray is my apartment.

Somehow I think this violates our master/pet, adult/puppy, male/female, father/daughter relationship.

Check this out though, maybe I should become a supplier: http://www.dogdoo.com/Default.asp

Acting Quote, Volume I

Brando... Need we say more?

Marlon Brando: Acting in general, is something most people think they're incapable of but they do it from morning to night. The subtlest acting I've ever seen is by ordinary people trying to show they feel something they don't or trying to hide something. It's something everyone learns at an early age. [Newsweek, 13 March 1972]

Deaf, Dumb & Blind Voters Wanted

Amidst a sea of confusion, one man rose to the top wielding a sword and a loincloth. His name: Governor.

In the immortal words of the little kid who spoke to Shoeless Joe.

"Say It Ain't So, Joe. Say It Ain't So."

No matter who we pick tonight, I will be disappointed.

Would Bush call that Unilateral Disappointation?

Bueller VS Emerson VS Shakespeare

ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP OF 3 POETS & THINKERS

Theorem:
======
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
~Ferris Bueller

+

"All life is an experiment."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

+

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts..."
~Shakespeare

=

Life is a fast moving experiment on a stage of players and lookers of many disguises.
~Charlie

Latenite Makenites

Starry eyed surprise



Do you ever have those up-late-at-night crazes?

You know the ones: borderline insomnia meets creative adrenals in motion?

Sometimes, I find myself awake at all hours doing anything I can just to feel like I've emptied some of the energy out of me for the day. It happens when I've had a slow day or a busy one, an emotive day or a dull one.

But it ultimately happens when I find myself needing to get everything and anything out of my head and into a song, a writing, a monologue, a something.

What usually ends up happening is I sit and write 5 songs, write 10 to 30 pages of a script, do all my bills, look on the internet for 30 minutes, play guitar for an hour, listen to music, do push ups, laugh, sigh, commit myself to flatulence, read all sorts of literature, ad infinitum.

Tonight I guess is one of those.

So, onward to aeternum.

~ C

I love the Smell of Poopies in the morning...

Did cavemen have it like this?

You know those days when you wake up, stumble out of your room and it's like an Israeli minefield of poops everywhere? I do.

I have that aforementioned white pomeranian and she, through the peer pressure of another dog that we were dogsitting, figured out that if she simply poo's all over the house then Mom and Dad will pick it up.

Brat or untamed wild animal?

You decide.

Commercial Nabbed, Riots Ensue

Actor living in Los Angeles goes flipmode...

Well, too bad for Safeway. Too good for me I suppose.

The commercial didn't work out but all is well, I had a few other auditions this week.

Whomever said there was scarcity of work in this town is full of crap.

Living the dream

My Pet History, Part One

A brief but torrid affair fueled by fur and animal kingdom...

My Pet History
By Charles C. Capen
===============

When I was five I had 2 fish and some turtles. Both fish lost their lives at the hand of a binge eating weekend at a kegger party. The turtles disappeared in an unsolved mining expedition and the holes they made eventually closed up.

I grew up a bit and decided that Sea Monkey's were boring. So I got a golden retriever for my 12th? birthday. Now, when you get a puppy for your birthday, for the love of God DO NOT have a raffle to pick out its name. Let me explain further...

A year later, I lost the dog and had to drive around with my mom. She ended up in the projects on Army Street.

And the name we picked out of the jar: Whitey.

It was then I learned expressions like, "Shut your cracker ass up" and "I know you're white, fool".

We later found her. She had been taken great care of down there in those projects.

I just wish the people living in them were taken that good care of by the city.

Dinner at the Mountaintop Japanland

Dinner with friends and the pleasures of life in the smog.

Life is very good when it is shared with friends at a Japanese restaurant with of view of the Los Angeles haze... at night. Besides the evening spiced with a vomiting restauranteur in front of us and the overly anxious waitress to the side of us, it was a quiet and socially raucous night.

Life is also good when the people sitting across from you make so much sense and easy to be with. A nice feeling, the latter, especially when you live where I live..."The Angels"....


Editor's Note: Looking back on this, we haven't had dinner with that couple. I honestly wonder if I said or did something wrong... I mean, I am obnoxious and totally buggered in social situations for the most part. I'll have my investigative team look into it.

Meet The... Pets

A Bird & A Dog.. A match made in Hell...



Pepe... Bird of a few colors and an attitude like of a sailor.


Lulu - international woman of mystery & pooper of poo's ad infinitum

World of Wonder

Snapshots of Life

This world is a wild place. Check these out:

Update

A day in the life of a Hollywood Actor

I am on avail for a national commercial. Cashola & fun await.

::Cue sound of Braveheart screaming "Freeeeeddoooooom"::

-Editor's Note: Charlie never actually booked that commercial, although he's done several since then, that one in particular, did not come to fruition. It will forever be known as "the one that got away" or "that piece of poop Doritos spot that didn't want my funnyness..."

-Editor's Note, part 2: "Funnyness" is not actually a word, but hell neither centrifusal, so there, I said it.

Introductions Aside...

Screw writing abstracts...

Today is Friday.
===============
Friday
\Fri"day\, n. From French - Frigu, the goddess of marriage; friqu (love) + d[ae]g (day); Icelandic: Frigg name of a goddess, the wife of Odin or Wodan. See Free , and Day .] The sixth day of the week, following Thursday and preceding Saturday.
============
For the love of Yahweh, Free & Day are the derivations for Friday and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, someone decided you work on Friday too.

But, the real question is: If Thursday were a Friday, then would Thursday be so special?

And because Thursday feels like that day before Friday, would Wednesday then become the feeling of Thursday, like the weeks almost over and you're about to be due for a weekend?

Your thoughts?

C

Come One, Come All

ORIGINALLY FROM OCTOBER 3, 2003

I am releasing my greatest hits album of blog entries from a former blog... here is Vol. 1
========================
Welcome Note

Wow... I'm actually blogging. I wonder what fortuitous event brought me to rant on about stuff that honestly no one will want to read.

In any event: fun for the whole family, I assure you.