One Degree of Separation (warning – not funny)

One of the sad and bizarre stories from the just concluded Olympics was the murder of American Todd Bachman at the drum tower in Beijing. Todd, and his wife, Barbara, were stabbed by a deranged local who then proceeded to leap to his death. Barbara was just released from the hospital this week and reports are that she is recovering well.

Todd Bachman was the CEO of Bachmans Inc., a huge Minnesota florist and gift retailer where my Mother was in charge of advertising for the 20+ years preceding her own death. I had met Todd several times and liked him very much. While I didn’t know him well, I was stunned by the news and couldn’t help feeling some of what my Mom would have felt had she still been at her post…anger, shock, sadness, confusion, etc.

Bachman’s is a family owned business founded over 100 years ago by Henry Bachman and his descendants still run the place. In the time that my Mom worked for the company they treated her as if she was part of the family and when she was diagnosed with cancer they treated her in a way I would wish on anyone in that situation – feeling needed, valued, and loved by the company until her literal deathbed. I am grateful to Todd and the whole company for that.

Over the years, I wrote a few radio commercials for Bachman’s when my mom came to me saying she needed a funny spot for a particular sale or something, but my biggest joy came when a few years back I wrote and sang the Bachman’s jingle. My Mom mentioned they were looking to come up with a new one and I asked her what the old one sounded like? She sent it to me and I found it so sappy it almost made me angry. I asked her to let me try one . She said Todd Bachman wanted to do something about the signature purple color that Bachman’s delivery trucks and packages were “Like the Power of Purple or something”. “OK, fine, I can do something like that” I recorded a demo with my friend Thomas Chan and to my pleasant surprise they liked it and we were hired to do a Jingle. By way of closing on a happy note. I will leave you with said Jingle as it was used in 2004-05. My prayers and love go out to the whole Bachman clan.

 I Blame San Andreas, it’s his Fault

Yesterday, while working on a script at Frank’s condo here in L.A. for an upcoming episode, Frank and Joel and I wrote a joke so hilarious that the earth itself began to convulse with laughter to the tune of 5.4 on the Richter scale. Sorry about that, Los Angeles area.

The earthquake did help me make an important decision. I intend to nominate Joel Hodgson as official Cinematic Titanic safety captain. For within a second or two of realizing we were in a real earthquake and not just a little tremor, Joel was on his feet saying “we should get out of here”. At this point, I was saving the file on my laptop, Frank was looking around for his shoes. Joel repeated his point, with greater urgency, “Guys, we should go!” Clearly he wanted out, but he was a good enough friend not to bolt without us. After all, Frank was busy with his socks and I was making sure I had my phone. When he then yelled “Guys!…” it was starting to feel like “Moviesign!” I told him to go on and that we’d follow – after all, Frank still had one shoe to go. The earthquake stopped just as Joel reached the door. Read the rest of this entry »