(left to right) Arthur De Mattei, Adolph De Mattei, Silvio De Mattei, Katarina De MatteiMy dad joined the US Army at 17 years old, that’s him on the far left standing next to my Uncle Adolph. My grandfather, that’s him on the right standing next to my grandmother, had to sign for my Dad because he was a minor. Dad was assigned to the 37th Infantry Division (Buckeyes) during WWii and shipped overseas to the Battle of the Pacific (Leyte, Luzon, Baggio, Guadalcanal, etc). I grew up hearing stories of the bloody island battles, of how hitting one beachhead after another kinda a makes a guy hate going to the beach, especially after watching your friends never make it home. My dad carried a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) because as he likes to put it, “I was a big son-of-bitch.” As a child my dad was my hero, he still is. He says, “I’m no hero, Son, the heroes never came home.” If you want to read more about the 37th infantry, there’s a decent summary on Wikipedia. If you want to hear more first hand accounts of the perils of war, give my dad a call or drop by and see him. Happy Veterans Day to all Dwho served and especially my Dad.
I was not around on December 7, 1941 but my dad was and that “day of infamy” so moved him that at 17 years old, with permission from his immigrant father, he joined the Army and was immediately sent over seas to be, as he likes to put it, “a sand bag”. He didn’t return home until he was 20. My point is, unlike many other young boys, he returned home and has never let me forget those that did not. Pearl Harbor Day also reminds me that kids everywhere are still the future of this world and we adults continue to treat them as if they are sand bags. I for one want the next war to leave the kids at home and send the adults. We’ll see how fast all this insane shit stops.
To post on the internet that Actorman is self indulgent is like a child saying, “Whatever!” when being scolded by a teacher or parent; it’s passive aggressive and meaningless. And what’s worse, it shows how one has put absolutely no thought into what one is posting. It’s stating the obvious and therefore not saying much…
Yesterday I heard a man say something in Russian to his children. I imagine he was referencing the storm we were walking through as compared to winters in his native cheery Siberi-a. Probably went something like, “Why, when I was young we didn’t have clothes, we had to wear the snow to keep us…
The other day I watched commercial television for the first time in quite awhile. I had no choice, really, there were flat-screen monitors throughout the busy waiting room tuned in to a healthcare channel. Haven’t been there in years. Mandatory physical before changing doctors. This is good for business, I thought. Not to mention the…
My sister Deb saved a box of memorabilia for me to go through while out here in San Jose for the summer. So, I’ve been scanning old family photos into my computer and reliving some of my life. This is an incredibly self indulgent, painful, cathartic, joyful, sad, happy, and depressing process…kind of like life…
Got off the JetBlue jet plane at 7:30 AM. Driving through Queens is a throwback to all of those gritty films shot in the NYC of the ’70’s. Queens was untouched by the 80’s Disneyfication of Manhattan. Queens still flaunts the rust and rawness that you’d expect to see from the window of a beat-up…
PHOTO: Director Bartlett Sher (and me) at Joe Allen Restaurant in Manhattan Many years ago, while filling salt and pepper shakers after a busy graveyard shift in a corporate-owned fun-themer restaurant near the college I was attending, I was having one of those show business chats with a budding actor standing next to me filling…