Friday, Sept. 18 at 7:00 PM at the Regal Arbor Cinema at Great Hills in Austin Texas will premier the movie Horse Boy. Former Austinite and author Rupert Isaacson based his book and this movie on his and his wife's efforts to cure their autistic son by means of shamanic healing. The author will be present for a Question and Answer Session following the event.
Here is a synopsis of the movie.
How far would you travel to heal someone you love? An intensely personal yet epic spiritual journey, The Horse Boy follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing. When two-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife Kristin Neff,a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son— but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals— particularly horses—and the family set off on a quest for a possible cure….
My local Shamanic Wisdom Women's Healing Circle is planning on attending the event.
I include this photograph of mine taken at Liberty Hill's Spirit Reins Ranch. This young man, autistic and normally unresponsive to almost any and all stimuli has a moment of connection with a horse. I was most blessed to capture that moment.
Photo courtesy Candace Craw-Goldman and Spirit Reins Ranch
(My friend Ron writes a terrific blog and podcast called The Final Taxi. I have enjoyed his writings and recordings for a few months now and would like to introduce you to what I think is some of his finest work so far, a piece about character actor Charles Lane. Thanks for allowing me to repost your blog here, Ron, this story is just first rate!)
I was floored
when I found out that character actor Charles Lane had taken the Final
Taxi this week. Not because of his death but that he had lived so long.
He as 102. He was the oldest living actor in the US. ( The oldest actor
is Dutch actor Johannes Heesters who is 103 and only did 80
productions)
I remember seeing him as a boy and thinking he was old then.
Lane’s lean frame and stern features were familiar to millions of
movie and television fans, most of whom, it is safe to say, never knew
his name. He was in over 800 productions in his 60 years in show
business.
Lane was born Charles Levison on Jan. 26, 1905, in San Francisco and
started his work life in the insurance business. In 1928, he joined the
company at the Pasadena Playhouse, which was known for training actors
for the movies. If you listen to this week’s Final Taxi podcast you
will hear that Kerwin Mathews was ‘discovered’ there as well.
Lane made his film debut as a hotel desk clerk in “Smart Money” (1931) with Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.
He went on to act in films such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (a
newsman), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (the rent collector), “You Can’t Take
It With You” (an IRS agent), “No Time for Sergeants” (the draft board
driver) and hundreds of others in which he played shopkeepers,
professors, judges, bureaucrats, doctors, “a guy at the bar,” policemen
and salesmen. In the 1930s alone, he appeared in 161 films, sometimes
moving from set to set to deliver a few lines in each of several movies
in one day.
Starting in the early 1950s, Lane also appeared on dozens of TV
shows, including “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.” Perhaps most
famously, he appeared in classic episodes of “I Love Lucy,” playing
several characters who all seemed to have in common a stunned if
comical lack of patience for the bumbling Lucy. He said it was on this
show that he perfected the crusty skinflint.
Throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Lane could be seen on “Perry
Mason,” “Dennis the Menace,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Bewitched,” “Get
Smart,” “The Flying Nun,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Lou Grant” and
many other shows. In the 1970s, he had running parts on “The Beverly
Hillbillies” as Foster Phinney and in “Soap” as Judge Anthony Petrillo.
In the 1960s, audiences got to know him as Homer Bedloe, a scheming
trouble-shooter for the railroad in “Petticoat Junction.”
Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” said
that although Lane played “a gruff, arrogant kind of guy” there and in
dozens of other roles, “That was not him at all, that was a character.”
In 2005, when friends and industry admirers gathered to celebrate
his 100th birthday at a TV Land special event, he accepted their
plaudits from a wheelchair and declared, “If you’re interested, I’m
still available.”
Oh, to have that kind of energy when I am that age and to be seen by as many people has Charles Lane has been seen by.
A person like Charles Lane is the reason I created the Final Taxi podcast.
"Where are we going?" -- McCoy "Where they went." -- Kirk "What if they went nowhere?" -- McCoy "Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all." -- Kirk
I recently reported a story about James Doohan and 200 others who had portions of their remains launched into space. Well apparently, Scotty and the rest of the space travelers bought the cheap seats. For about $495.00 their ashes rode a rocket up for a brief visit to the upper atmosphere of the earth. Their remains were not ever supposed to be released into space, but just hang out for a while and then come home to be retrieved by relatives. The rocket's payload returned to the earth by parachute and was promptly lost in the New Mexico mountains.
- "Level, please?" - "Transporter room!" - "Thank you!" - "Up your shaft..." A talking turbolift and Scotty
Somehow the idea of a portion of Scotty floating in space seemed appropriate and worthy of the carbon fuel spent to get him (and the others) out there...but... just for a tiny visit? And not even into deep space?
And then, they LOSE the "landing party" of 200 cremains?
"She's all yours, sir. All systems automated and ready. A chimpanzee and two trainees could run her!" "Thank you, Mr. Scott, I'll try not to take that personally." Scotty and Kirk
You gotta wonder what Scotty must be thinking. "All I can say is...they don't make them like they used ta."
-- Scotty, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
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