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    March 26, 1988: Grandpa’s Gold

    Today I went looking through my writing archives to find something written on or near this date in the past, and I found a poem written about 24 years and a week ago. It’s not particularly great nor too profound, but it does connect me with an important moment going even further back, to a golden day spent with my grandfather, Urban Lee Ridings. The day was sunny and warm, I remember, and I must have been somewhere around five or so. Grandpa instructed me to go and shake his money tree, and I could still walk you right to…

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    Randy Baker: On Location

    Along with my mentor and dear friend Randy Baker (above left, and that’s me on the right), I am very proud to announce the release of our book, “Randy Baker: On Location” by yours truly. It’s available now in Softcover, Hardcover and Digital editions with no markup: http://blur.by/1crueUG Thank you very much for taking a look and for any support and feedback. This book is a collaboration between television producer/director/videographer Randy Baker and publisher, press agent, writer and producer Roger Darnell. When you search the Internet Movie Database for Randy, you will find him listed as a director of photography,…

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    Nov. 21, 1998: Character

    In November of 1998, Beth and I were living in our Barrington Way townhome in Glendale, California, which hosted us and our cats nicely enough through a very exciting and challenging time. Going back to Arc of the Poet, that was our critical California move in the so-called “Fame and Fortune” era. While I was extremely thankful at that time to have landed on the staff of Crest National in Hollywood, my film industry dreams were still very personal, and I pressed on to the best of my abilities on every front. Externally, I continued to “swing for the fence”…

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    Fifty words

    My family members and many close friends are participating in a special project where words are essential. An early version appears here with more updates coming soon. This one is written by Lila Ridings-Darnell, Heather Turner, Bud Ridings, Tiffany Eakle, Cheri Wynn and yours truly and designed using https://www.wordle.net. And here is the final version, featuring additional input from Bob Bingham, Connie Bingham, Riley Darnell, Bernice Lurkins, Jim Darnell, Peggy Darnell, Mike LaHood, Joel Ridings, Nell Thacker, Ann Kiefert, Kristianna Bursa Myus, Sherry Ridings, Laura Darnell, Speed Jenner, Victoria Lynn Soden, Molly Gaffner-Jones, Richie Ridings, Linda Ridings, Bart Ridings, Mike…

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    April 21, 2013: Pipeline blues

    Friends, the public comment period on the Keystone XL Pipeline ends tomorrow on Monday, April 22. Will you please seize this moment to tell President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry to reject Keystone XL (even if you have done so already) by visiting this link and completing the form? I am extremely grateful to those of you who have given your attention to all efforts aimed at opposing the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Obviously, this is a contentious issue, and since there is BIG money at stake, the truths about environmental impacts are being buried. One of…

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    Let’s keep the world beautiful

    We are very proud to be joining 10,000 like-minded friends in Washington, D.C., next Sunday (“President’s Day” in America), to be part of a peaceful demonstration. Why? For me personally, I can say for sure that a key reason is the deep emotional connection that occurred in me when I watched the above ad, and another more famous one named “The Crying Indian,” as a young boy about 42 years ago. It requested of me that I help “Keep America beautiful,” and on some level, I have been trying to do that ever since. Now more than ever, we are…

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    Dec. 15, 2012: Talented

    Proud moment here: Amelia’s original poem has been published in the 2012 poetry collection “Talented” from the America Library of Poetry. She is letting me publish it here, too. Enjoy!