just me, my wine and my ER, thank you

a well played out era is over. ER's dynamic was often sought after, but never matched.

examined, emulated, expanded, yet never exalted.
it is difficult, if not impossible to match the happenings inside the minds of michael crichton and john wells, among the rest of the stellar crew - executive or otherwise.

last night delivered the end, and i've been there since the beginning. every season except part of 1999, i think. my job aside the pre-game ballet stage serving the finest of gentlemen every thursday, friday and saturday kept me away only when i would forget to record it. damned strippers! i'm pretty sure i have some copies on good ol' vhs, so i'll be okay until christmas when i get my seasons 1-15 ER dvd's! *kidding!* i'd want seriously cooler presents in the real world. santa knows me...he knows what i like.

i did miss this year's season opener that has dr. pratt dying, but that's ok...i was at a gig of tharen's, and youtube is my friend.

this record setting, ground breaking t.v. series was the shit! out of 122 emmy nominations, they snagged 22 trophies over its 15 season run that ran 10 of those seasons consecutively in the top ten. please inform me if anyone has done better than that, but i don't think so.

michael crichton, the show's creator, is also one helluva book author & he based ER's pilot episode on his own experiences as a fledgling medical professional. i'm sure that's what made it more believable, as the man has a gift for drawing you into his stories. take a click on the link i provided above to find out more about a man who lived a beautiful life and now rests in peace during the same year his greatest creative baby must lie down. mr. crichton's loves lost him to cancer. (click here to see how i feel about that subject.)

john wells is well...pardon the pun, mostly 'cause it wasn't funny. he was the show's co-creator, head writer and executive producer, and well deserved of all accolades. wells also produced and wrote for china beach, a show that ran on ABC for four seasons.

my dad got me hooked on that show back in nineteen eighty fucking nine. *throwin' horns over here!* he had been recording it, and one day i was looking for something to watch so i threw in one of those tapes. i spent the rest of the weekend watching all the shows, and caught it every time i could from there after. it pops up in syndication from time to time, so catch it if you can. it must be on some fancy shmansy yankee satellite channel, so surf away!

out of the parade of thespianage through chicago's county emergency room doors, i'm pretty sure maura tierney's character was my fave. who wouldn't want sally field as a mom? well, the real one...not the wacknut recurring character she played on the show as abby's mother. tierney wasn't an original cast member, but it was a nice surprise when she showed up at county general fresh off the L. the last time i had seen her was on newsradio, one of my favorite all time sitcoms.

abby and i were even pregnant together...how 'bout that? i had my second rugrat at the same time! *girly sqeal* *kidding!* one of the seemingly unimportant details that quite impressed me is how they kept true time. the right length of time passed accordingly, and up to the very last scene involving abby and luka's life, they had kept the child at exactly the same stage as little jared! trivial, i know, but that matters to some people. i can understand somewhat, because honestly i felt a little camaraderie with my buddy abby. if they had opened season 13 with her tyke joe magically being 7 instead of 1, i'm positive that would've been the beginning of the end for me. i hate that.
what other shows have done that?? some, i know, but i can't think of the names...

sometimes i wonder what happened to the fictional patients and their families. like one that i'll always remember is from a storyline with the extraordinary dr. green played by anthony edwards . whatever happened to the family of the labouring mother he was working on who died as he saved the baby? i was pregnant with my first mini stink butt jack and it caused me to question whether or not i should be watching this or any other medical programs! ooo, did i cry?

one my favorite snippets off the reel is from when that prick, dr. romano got smashed by the helicopter just a few short weeks after getting...well, check this out:



what? it could happen.

what the hell am i gonna do on thursday nights now? sleep? pfft. blog!

i say i do a 'song of the week' post.

que pensez-vous ? convenez ?

oop. must vacate the premises!

tharen, the boys and i all have an appointment with the chomper dr. in a while. i hope i don't get run over by an ambulance on my way across the street to grab a coffee! (all you die hards will get that...)

~

hopefully...

...some old codger, or perhaps simple sam, maybe even a basic betty - any with money to burn - will happen across my blog and feel inspired.

feel inspired to grant wishes, that is.

see, teague here wants to write.
about stuff.
for a living.
...or at least a comfortable, fulfilling existance.

maybe i shall score with the blog browsers and get straight to the source - a publishing house extraordinaire! (please, sweet jeezuz! i've gots lots of material, and loads to say!)

i wouldn't be able to endeaver this on my own for at least 5 years due to our crushing bill load every month. truck and loans are to be paid off by then, so i will have the funding to properly shop my brain wares.

publishing would be an egotistical dream-mare come true! one way or the other, it WILL happen. technically, it already happened when i was 21 or something in a poetry library. i entered a 'contest' and supposedly out of thousands of applicants, hundreds got chosen with me being a lucky one.

in reality, it was an actual book. my parents and i each have a copy and it's a great big thing. the publisher said my poem went along with their 'approved themes' because it was about god. what they didn't realize is that it was MY version of god; but it was published, and here it is:

We are innocent,
we are pure.
We pray to God
and he says, "Yeah, right. Sure!"

It comes to me in
the peak of the night
to play with my head and
leave me dreading the
inevitable fright.


I may be innocent.
I could be pure.
But if I ever prayed to God,
he'd say, "Yeah, right! Sure."

©cmsept'91 (me)

Wiki says: The archangel Gabriel serves as a messenger from God. he first appears in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. In some traditions he is regarded as one of the archangels, or as the angel of death. He is also known as Saint Gabriel to some Christian denominations.

Christians and Muslims believe him to have foretold the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Islam further believes he was the medium through whom God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad, and that he sent a message to most prophets, if not all, revealing their obligations. He is called the chief of the four favoured angels and the spirit of truth, and in some views Gabriel is the same as the Holy Spirit. Gabriel also finds mention in the writings of the Bahá'í Faith, most notably in Bahá'u'lláh's mystical work Seven Valleys.

yeah. so anyway, it turned out that the company gave out scholarships and stuff, but i'm sure it was only to people who spent their $cashola$ on the things they were trying to sell. for instance, i got a letter from them saying that the cadence of my piece was suitable for audio recordings, and would i be interested in having my poetry orally recorded? all i had to do was buy at least one copy and i could be on it! oh, joy. yeah. i've got somethin' you can do orally...

no, i didn't go for it.

then, there was the 'best of the decade' publication, or something like that. same deal. that was when i stopped opening their mail. i figured, if it was important enough, they had my phone #, right? they could call, i could screen it, and we'd all be happy! needless to say, they stopped sending mail, and i didn't get rich off my musings.

a big part of the reason i didn't want to do anything further with it is because it was from a poem that i half stole from my cousin when i was like, 16! I, um, extended on her one stanza work? hers was good and mine was better, but i always think of that. lesson learned! they are different pieces in their own right, and i suppose i could say hers inspired mine, but i'm not sure. honestly, i don't really remember the circumstance clearly, other than that i had really admired a few lines she had written down.

i need something of mine in print. something of mine from beginning to end, wonderfully bound, and with an enticing cover photo. if you ever see anything with the name teague rossdale, buy it, love it, and then tell all your friends about it, okay? thanks!

teague
= gaelic ~ poet
= welsh ~ fair, beautiful

ross
= americanized version of jewish 'rose'

dale
= middle english ~ valley
= irish ~ blind

i take it to mean:

'poet of the roses in the blind valley'

...or something like that.p.s. if i had any idea how to use photoshop, these pictures would have been somehow merged!...or this one:

~

a poem, if you will...

bear with me, friends...this is the first poem with nature as a stimulus that i have ever written, with a glimpse of the scene that inspired it....


Today is the Day I Awoke



Mossy trees
with ancient grace
towering up above me.
Chirpy birds
are feeding babes
ducking through clouds, they flee.

Dewey grass
perking right up
again greeting spring, I see.
Cool filtered sun
shyly peeking,
I have a commodity.

Crazy boys
on the other hand,
trash my reverie.
Bounding down
the puddled road,
abandoned sense of carefree.

Life awaits -
way far away,
saddled with calamity.
I awake -
now spring is here.
To nature I pay MY fees.

~teague2009march


(c) cb'09

i shall return.

♪♫ i went to the library & what did i see? ♪♫

holy crap my new library is crap!

it's been closed months and months getting this new haul over and was supposed to be beautiful. it's cold, uninviting and unorganized! i read in the local rag that they had their grand opening last week and i was so excited to have this library open again. the other one takes 20 minutes to drive to...blahblahblah. this cookie was not impressed. maybe i'll like it more when they get their signage up to point out the different sections. i only had 20 minutes to run in and grab my treasures, and i was honestly a bit put off! they were way over budget and way past schedule, so i think it's safe to say that the public was expecting a little more! a lot more! it is bigger, so they better fill it up with better books! i used to have to request books from the other branch often, but alas, here's my reading list for the next few weeks:

how to self publish and make money - crook and wise

self publishing 101 - debbie elicksen

building a website for dummies - david a. crowder

the everything blogging book - aliza sherman risdahl

career building through blogging - deirdre day-macleod

the huffington post complete guide to blogging - editors of the huffington post

&&&
the links i found for these books are cool. i'm totally gonna check more of this dude's site...

the life of hunter s. thompson, gonzo
- jann s. werner & corey seymour, with an introduction by johnny depp

kingdom of fear,
loathsome secrets of a star-crossed child in the final days of the american century
- hunter s. thompson

ha! first chapter is: "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"

bye...we're going camping.
in march.
in the west coast rain forest.
i'm so smart.

oh! and i have to watch ER now.

gitcha sum buuk lernin

i realized my last post was somewhat of a splurge on the vast array of reading material in my personal library here at home. i quite enjoy several slots on the literary integrity scale! i thought i might pay tribute to my FAVORITE book now. i love love love it, and will probably read it yet again when i come to the dreaded end of my new favorite storybook....19 of 28 chapters gone to the mind banks...eek!

one of my most treasured pieces is a 1970 first print from random house of
THIS PERFECT DAY, by ira levin. i thnk i've read it at least 10 times. 3 of which were before i realized that mr. levin also authored 'a kiss before dying', 'stepford wives' and 'rosemary's baby'!

to quote from the wikigods:

Levin attended Drake University. At Drake, he regularly played poker with other notables, such as Martin Erlichman and Eugene Schulman (both before and after Schulman married Helen Glazer in 1949). In addition to Drake, Levin graduated from the Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English.

After college, he wrote training films and scripts for television. The first of these was Leda’s Portrait, for Lights Out in 1951.

Levin's first produced play was No Time for Sergeants (adapted from Mac Hyman's novel), a comedy about a hillbilly drafted into the United States Air Force that launched the career of Andy Griffith. The play was turned into a movie in 1958, and co-starred Don Knotts, Griffith's long-time co-star and friend. No Time for Sergeants is generally considered the precursor to Gomer Pyle, USMC.^{[citation needed]}

Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. A Kiss Before Dying was turned into a movie twice, first in 1956, and again in 1991.

Levin's best-known play is Deathtrap, which holds the record as the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway and brought Levin his second Edgar Award. In 1982, it was made into a film starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.

Levin's best-known novel is Rosemary's Baby, a horror story of modern day Satanism and other occultisms, set in Manhattan's Upper West Side. In 1968, it was made into a film starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance. Roman Polanski, who wrote and directed the film, was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Other Levin novels were turned into movies, including The Boys from Brazil in 1978; The Stepford Wives in 1975 and again in 2004; and Sliver in 1993. Currently a new version of The Boys from Brazil is in development for 2009.

Stephen King has described Ira Levin as "the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels, he makes what the rest of us do look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores." Chuck Palahniuk, in Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, calls Levin's writing "a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used."