Happy Indie Bday, U.S. of A.

I hope besides all the usual celebrations, like the fireworks and grilling and all that razmatazz jazz, which are genuinely good things, this time has you celebrating your freedom in a way where you will use it.  Use it to build and change for the better in fitting with your version of the American Dream (and we all know everybody seems to have their own clashing ideas of whatever that is.)  Use it, though, and remember those who aren't as free and always act where you believe there can be a better and necessary change, if you can.  It's not always so easy to do.  Build it together.
         Not to make America great again, but greater than it's ever been.

         Enough of this soap box, anyway.

         This blog's current status is just once in a blue moon now, as we're attempting to broadcast a short reality/variety/travel show called "Reality, Sort Of," 2 times a week, Tues. and Thurs.  We've made it for 11 episodes now, and the next one is tomorrow.  It's a spontaneous show of life that makes itself, seen through the eyes of my friends and I.
          Here is a link to one of the episodes (UPDATE 2019: this show is currently on hiatus):   
      

Update on the indie movie named the Fortune Cookie Teller~

Looks like several weeks have whizzed by again. This is once again turning out to be a blog that is a "weekly blog" perhaps in an alien civilization where one week is a much longer span of time.  Makes me think of Kurt Vonnegut's Tralfamadorian calendar. I just read his bio, "And So It Goes." It was a page-turner for me.

Anyhoo, I hired myself to put subtitles to a nearly 3 hour movie, so my fingers have been typing on a keyboard enough lately.  I'm reformatting English and Chinese text, learning new tricks and words along the way. OK, I didn't hire myself. I'm a slave driver to myself, only getting a return of intrinsic value.  For me, the whole process is, in my estimation, a 2 week full-time job- nothing, really.

So, concerning the Fortune Cookie Teller, here's the behind-the-scenes lowdown:

In its current state, the Director's original cut, it is a whopping 2 hr. 53 min.  It's been split into 2 parts, each approx 1 hr. 30 min. each.


Parts 1 and 2, Version 1, is done. That has English subtitles just whenever a non-English language is spoken.

Part 1 of Version 2 is now done. That has English and Chinese subtitles throughout the entire thing. Part 2 is now in the works.

For the cast and those involved, including various friends who would like to watch it and offer any comment, I am planning to have a worldwide private screening for the original cut as soon as the next part is done.  Stay tuned for a Vimeo screening somewhat soon. I should be able to hook you up with a password to a private link.

Also, I just released an album online, under my name: Brett Horton- Airs
along with other stuff going on, so, yes, I do get behind on the blog.
I'll leave the album and more for near future posts, when it reaches more of the
online stores and streaming sites.

You can type it in places like Spotify and Googleplay and soon at other places that I don't
ever use, honestly. I won't even post the direct link here,  I trust you can find it if you want. I don't need to hold your hand for you to find a way to rock;)

Enjoy Life, the Spring has arrived, Amigos and Pengyous,

BH

P.S. For all of you saying, wow, that's a longass movie, especially for an indie movie like this, you're right.  Ned Toro and the editors, though, are considering shaving off an hour or so and turning it into one flick, at least for any possible film fest submissions.

Another possibility that has been discussed (which is the easiest route) is simply releasing it online, perhaps even as a series of chapters.

Please visit and like the new page: www.facebook.com/thefortunecookieteller

The rest of the arrest:

This is an excerpt from a piece I just wrote.  Just fed up here with the general, all-around fucked upness surrounding us all... 

           from Walking In Small Towns In America

So if you are walking anywhere in Ponca City and have had a drink, beware of the police, or anywhere in Oklahoma and God knows where else, for that matter.  It is an Oklahoma statute that officers can arrest anyone with alcohol on their breath for a public intox charge at their discretion.  There is no field sobriety test that needs to be given, under the law, and also, an officer isn’t even required to have a probable cause to approach someone walking.  The statute has no standard BAC level in regards to public intox, so technically, a person with one or two drinks can be arrested.  No proof needs to be given.  A person can be arrested for public intox in a bar.  Officers don’t carry cameras.  If it’s contested in court, it’s just word against word, in most cases.

            This is yet another reason that stifles a walking culture in the cities of America and is encroaching on pedestrians’ freedom to walk.  Recently, a pedestrian walked from a bar to Walgreens, found it was closed and immediately walked back. This pedestrian was almost back to his destination, walking on the sidewalk, when two police cruisers who had been watching the place pulled to the side of the road and hollered to him.  No reason was given for why they approached him and there was not even a written citation given.  By other accounts, the pedestrian had not been stumbling, swaying or falling down.

              The fine was $160 and 6- 8 hours in a jail cell.  He was advised to pay the fine because 90 % of these cases are lost, according to the booking officer.  Even if he were to win, the court costs and time taken would’ve not been refunded.  The pedestrian’s friend stated that he was once arrested by a Ponca City policeman after having two drinks in a two-hour timeframe, walking through a parking lot, then went to court and won, but still wasn’t refunded the court fees which added up to nearly the ticket. If one is to be proven innocent, the state should refund the citizen all court costs, at the very least.  This is just one example.  Another story involves a senior citizen who was arrested on suspicion of a DUI.  It turned out that he was below the limit, but not until he’d already spent an uncomfortable night in jail, and in the end he was never refunded the impoundment fee for his vehicle. How much money has the legal system taken in this way?  Where is the complete justice in the so-called justice system?

              This pedestrian went to file a harrassment complaint to the captain of the police and finally learned that he was questioned because there was a call about a suspect that was violating a protective order who had left on foot from Timbers Apartments.  However, all the officer needed to do was check the pedestrian’s ID, quickly find out he wasn’t the suspect and just politely tell him to go on his way and be sure to take a cab home.  This overreaction by police officers has resulted in a society where the citizens don’t trust the law enforcement and there is no need to be criminalizing walkers in a place where people drive too much anyway. 

            It is this reviewer’s opinion that some state legislature should be reevaluated to allow for reimbursement of court fees regarding improper arrests and that there should be some sort of official stipulation concerning public intox arrests.

           

                                                                   ***

            There are many things that need to be changed in this country called America, and this issue concerning a minor incident involving alcohol is nothing in scope compared to the major crises that are now facing us (and have been for a long time!)  Still, it concerns basic civil liberties and is indicative of a fatal flaw in our system.  There is definitely something wrong in this country, going deeply wrong and everyone must work for change wherever they see they can make even the slightest difference.

            As far as this goes, I spoke to a lawyer who suggested it didn’t hurt to try to make it right.  He said this kind of racket has been going on for years, especially with the Native American population who commonly walk.  He said the only thing that could possibly be done is to change the law. I could visit city hall and find out how to put the issue regarding the statute on the ballot.   He was reluctant to involve himself with a complaint regarding the officer, due to paranoia about angering these small town police. 

            After I’d scheduled an appointment with the captain of the police, there was finally a written report from my two arresting officers.  The Captain said that Officer 2 stated he was never speaking up for me, that instead he was just commenting that I was walking and in the report claimed I was swaying.  This runs contrary to others’ reports, including a very sober friend of mine who has been around me many times while drinking and says she has never seen me like that.  I’m not saying I’ve never swayed before…  I’m not claiming to be perfect here.   A relative of the said officer who I happen to know stated that one time that officer punched a teenage girl in the face for no reason, back when he was a teenager. 

            Of course, I would’ve been stunned if I were returned my money.  In no way was I expecting it, but it was just the principle.  Actually, I used the paper as notes to talk with the captain in person and no form was ever filed.  After a discussion about the current laws, I saw, what I’d known all along, that it was futile in regards to that situation, but I had at least gotten the details.  To be fair, the captain gave me his card and offered to let me ride around in an officer’s car some night, if I wish.   I am not out to denounce all police officers, but I do believe there are a fair share who are overstepping their bounds and there needs to be changes in the system.

            This little story here is like a prequel to Ray Bradbury’s great short story, The Pedestrian.  I sent an article about this to the Op Ed section of the small town newspaper, of which I am a former employee in the circulation room, and around to various papers in the state, but I doubt if any will dare to publish an article criticizing bored police officers in small towns where not much serious crime is happening.  Instead, if you’re walking in a small town in America in the daylight for the purpose of a destination, you will be viewed as eccentric or poor rather than healthy and sound, and if you’re walking after dark, you will be a suspect.

Some night on Earth in time (February, actually)

My friend and I were talking.  "We're so damn goofy," he'd say.
Then I would counter, "But we're very serious."
A moment of contemplative silence, then buffoonish laughter.
This recurred at different points of the night.

I just felt like saying this now. No, not trying to expound this into
some greater point.  I'm not turning this blog in for a grade.  Though
if I did, I'd secretly hope for an "A" but I might more likely get
an, "eh?"

Seeing how this is going, concerning my "weekly" claim, it seems
to me that I would get a definite late mark.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I wasn't around for a bit because I was
suspended for tardiness and absences.  How does that work?  You get
in trouble for not being somewhere you don't want to be so the punishment
is not being there more? I'll take it.

Honesty is my favorite policy, though, so I must say I'm obviously kidding.

Today I went to the post office.

"Need to blog... Don't really need to blog at all."  There's no deadline here.  Almost 4 weeks of winter silence and here I say hello.  Put a big quotation around the description "Weekly Blog."
       There's a collection of stamps and postcards acquired from the past few years and so I thought I'd send some around and also a couple of packages.  I still use old school mail, tried and true, now and then.
       Blog can be a release, blog can be pressure.  Each minute that passes when you're not typing a worthy word can be another minute gone, and for what??  An open letter to the public about anything.  Yes, I do love to keep in touch and love this free, unlimited way of communication, but often I feel out of touch with the physical, breathing world when fiddling too long with a digital device.
       What can I say?  I don't follow anyone's blog- well, I did follow a couple of friends', but theirs are currently inactive, I believe.  I regularly read blogs, yes, when I type in a topic of interest and it takes me somewhere and I check out what's been written on the subject and get lost surfing.  I have a new album that I'm about to release any day now, and it takes up a lot of time and energy, so I am not always in the mood to regularly post.  Yet, I haven't gotten rid of it.  Sometimes I become post-happy because I truly delight in sharing with the world. 
       Doesn't it seem silly to constantly post everything about yourself, though? That is the norm now, too, I know.  It seems like people aren't around their true friends enough in the real world and are seeking a fix of validation in the digital world.  Yet, I'm not gonna bitch. It's fun, too.
       This is the "silly season" for my blog, I suppose.  Do you ever look up words you already know just to read the meaning of them?  How could that word possibly be explained?  So I came across:

                                  PHRASES

the silly season:  high summer, regarded as the season when newspapers often publish trivial material because of a lack of important news.

Seems like silly season is year-round these days... 
I am proud of the students of this country making a stand, though.

BH

Reincarnated Blog~

Back from the dead, sort of.  I was never intending to keep this blog down under for good.  It's back in some sort of weekly form again, yet never settled on a day.  It's a test of endurance, for one.  An experiment for my own personal amusement and some others, as well as other purposes, perhaps. 

Facebook, I've had it with it.  I love it as a way to stay in contact with people whose numbers I've lost, etc, and many post some good stuff, but I think the algorithm has me blacklisted, either because I criticized FB before and/or because I experimented with an ad before.  At any rate, my posts never show in feeds anymore.  It's definitely not a good way to get the word out about anything that's important to me or any type of creative work or play.  It's a huge advertising machine that is playing with people's narcissism and a popularity contest-for-profit.  Of course, there's so much potential there and I do love the good things about it, and I understand that things need money to survive, but I am ready for another platform that is more beneficial at least for musicians and the like.  Zuckerberg did state that FB was having problems and he was dedicating this year to fixing Facebook, and I hope he does. 
          So below is my eulogy that I posted on my page that not a single person saw.  I aim to be back to the blog next week.  Just squeezing this in as unexpected events keep transpiring to keep the blog down.  Tomorrow, if I can make it, I will be at a funeral in another state and then at the airport in the next state to pick up a visitor from another country then back to where I left, 6 hours on the road. 

3 days and still reeling about the news of Jarrod Chisum.
He was on the scene with me, and us, through so many pivotal
moments, not the least playing bass with us during my first ever
public performances as a band (though he’d been playing in bands
since he was like 10 years old!) and the first paying gig when I
was 15.  Extreme ups and downs, lots of tragic yet definitely lots
of comic, too- some of the funniest moments ever with him. 
So many stories- really, a legendary character.  I’ll say, we’ll
celebrate your spirit and remember the good times. RIP, Pal. 

RIP Blog

If this is to be considered a weekly blog, just barely getting this out in the nick of time before it turns over to a brand new week on Sunday, midnight tonight.  Yet here it is.  There's still just too many unpredictable interruptions and other deadlines and focuses going on in my world that this blog just gets pushed to the back burner.  I am in the midst of all this.  It seems I can only commit timewise to places where I am booked.  Fuck it. It was a good thing, but not the best run.  RIP Blog.

An Account of Unjustified Treatment by Small Town Police

documenting the bullshit on and off since '11

weekly blog published somewhere between Tues. and Thurs. it seems, if the weary, sleep deprived author isn't falling asleep before typing.

A simplified account:

 This past NYE, wanting to avoid any potential drama or trouble, I stayed in and just watched the tube.  Concerning some past trouble, the last incident occurring many years ago, I've always been very wary about going out anywhere in my home state, especially small town Oklahoma.  Or anywhere for that matter.  If I've had a few, always cabbing or riding with someone else or walking or riding a bike. 
       I was driving one night recently in OKC and as a matter of curiosity and extra caution (paranoia), I bought a breathalyzer at CVS along with double A batteries.  It cost $50.  After a couple of beers, I blew into it and it read 0.00.  It didn't work.  I caught a ride to my friends' house a few blocks away and stayed on their couch that night.
        Several days later, I contacted the manufacturer and they told me I could send it in to test the calibration or get a refund.  What a nuisance.  I hadn't had a drink in days, so I had a glass of red wine with dinner and blew.  It was still bunk.  Feeling stir-crazy, I called my friend and we went to the Fox to watch the OKC Thunder play the L.A. Lakers, joking that we were out for the 10th day of Xmas.  We joined a group at the wooden round table that were celebrating a birthday.  The Fox closed at 11 pm, which was earlier than usual, so we relocated to Lola's Bar, not too far away.
        I got the craving for cigarettes, but they didn't sell them there.  The adjoining hotel was barred off, which used to be open back in the day with a vending machine.  I asked the others if they wanted some and took a couple of orders, telling them I was going to Walgreens, which used to be 24 hours or at least stayed open pretty late.  It is approximately 377 feet away.  I crossed at the intersection, walked up to the door and saw for sure that they were closed, then immediately crossed back at the crosswalk on the other side of the intersection, not a car or pedestrian in sight.  After crossing to the other side, headlights pulled up across the intersection and a police SUV turned right.  As I was walking along the sidewalk, the officer rolled down his window and hollered at me, as he pulled over at the abandoned gas station.  Well, this is from the report I wrote a couple of days later:

                                          POLICE HARASSMENT COMPLAINT           

            On the night of Jan. 3rd, 2018, I went to Lola’s Bar with a birthday group.  The vending machine was closed, so I walked approximately 100 yards to the Walgreen’s.  I crossed 14^th street.  The street was either completely devoid of traffic or nearly so, as it was near midnight.  I saw that Walgreen’s was closed and immediately walked back to where I came from, crossing the street on the other side of the intersection, no cars in sight.  When I had made it to the other side, a police car pulled up to the stoplight and turned on to Bradley St., where I was walking on the sidewalk.  Officer 1 hollered at me from his window as he parked his car.  I was about 100 feet from my destination already. 

            “Where are you going?” he yelled.

            “I’m just walking back where I came from,” I replied.

            He yelled at me to come over to that side of the street.  “What are you doing?”

            I explained that I was just walking to Walgreen’s to get some supplies and was walking back.  He said he could smell alcohol on my breath.  Almost immediately, another police car had pulled up directly behind him and Officer 2 had gotten out of the car.  I agreed that I’d been drinking some but was taking a cab.   He said that he could take me in on a public intox just by the odor.  Officer 2 spoke up for me then and said, “But he is just walking.”  That is when Officer 1 barked out the order, “Book him!” 

            The whole ordeal was less than 5 minutes long.  I was not stumbling through the streets.  I’d even had a taxi cab pick me up earlier before I’d even had a single drink, and I was taking one back home.  There is no proof, no written record, no reason given for stopping me as I was not even jay-walking.  Is it possible the officer had a camera with him and that it can be viewed?  There was little reason to contest it in court because even if it were won, there would still be court costs involved, and the time spent would be a waste.  However, as there was not a single complaint toward me or anyone that I was with the entire night, I believe this is an instance of an officer making an improper arrest, and I can only guess as to his motives. 

            Therefore, I am requesting that I be recompensed for $500 to quietly settle this.  This will cover the $160 fine and my time and trouble.   If this is agreed upon, I thank you very much for listening to an earnest request. 

                                                          Sincerely,

                                                        Brett Horton

Yeah, that's the report.  After 6-8 hours I was turned loose, advised by more than one party just to pay the fine because even if won the fees would stiff me.  I smelled crookedness all around and vowed I would go at this from a different angle, i.e. writing, speaking to the chief of police, which I did.  I went to speak to the captain some days later, and he told me what I already knew by reading up on the Oklahoma statute.  The police can pretty much do what they want.  It's very easy to get arrested walking in a small town, but I wanted to know the reason I was messed with in the first place when just minding my own business and not even given a field sobriety test or issued a written citation stating any probable cause.  It's a free country- the police are free to arrest you.

 - So more on this next time as I need to prepare for an art show for the month of February at Picasso's Cafe in OKC, which is the reason I am even here still lingering in this area after the holidays have dwindled down- the good news is I am free now and plan to stay this way. It was a minor incident that is over in the scheme of all things, but I am studying up on the legislature and other issues and will continue to write the fight. 

         
 

First Notes for 2018.

Waking up in the blustery cold icy feet morning, tired, achy limbs, heavy sagging eyes to go fight the loud honking traffic and be somewhere you don't love when the holiday is gone, writing, Ugh, blog- Happy New Year 2018! There will be warm happy times and beds will be soft and cush and always more laughs.

Here, I am just checking in, getting back in the ring.  I'm not gonna rattle off a laundry list of resolutions.  I know the kinds of things I want to do and just will hope and try to end this year with more $moolah in the bank account than now.  The Workshop of Me's are cranking it out in overtime mode right now.  There's an art show I'm giving for the month of February at Picasso's Cafe in Oklahoma City, which I am now preparing.  I'll send invites out soon.

There's also a new album of songs almost made, a collection of short stories I have to put together and just self-publish for now in private.  I just want to print them on paper and get them off the digital format for now and it's actually cheaper to publish them in a professional paperback form than a typical computer ink cartridge.  I wrote about this once before, how a $20 cartridge was out of ink by the time it was about page 200, but I printed almost 400-pages that cost about a $10 paperback.  That's def one reason to self-publish.  Also, I watched my director's cut and am making a few quick cuts and making another long, raw version, then will make it into a part 1 and 2 with intermission then maybe shave off a good 30 minutes of fat- many versions because I'm just not sure.

So all these 4 personas are currently at work.  Sometime I might drop some of them and just be mainly one for a while.  There are other things that keep getting pushed on the back burner that I want to get cooking more soon.

This blog is just ramblings on the down low for whoever happens to stumble upon it. I don't push it too hard and not even sure how to do that without being a pest and that doesn't work anyway.  Certainly, social media doesn't help get the word out to anyone in regards to this stuff because it seems to float in stagnant water and it asks me for money to boost the post.  Out of curiosity, I checked out a Facebook ad, and I accidentally ran one.  I was charged $20 from Facebook and never even hit a "Run ad" button. Sheeit.  I noticed the blog had hundreds of more readers than normal, supposedly.

I'll post this and read it later.  I also noticed my book here is available on Barnes & Noble now.

Check back soon.

Bottom of the blog plug:

(alternate cover)