Rubber Bullet

Bye Bye, Bucky

In November 2007, the evil Kansas City Southern Railroad went ahead and demolished the old Union Tank Car building, one of the most significant historic buildings in Baton Rouge (if not the most). Designed by Buckminster Fuller as a repair station for railroad tank cars, this geodesic dome was the largest of its kind built at the time (1958). Demolished under the cloak of night and a holiday weekend. Nope, not fishy at all.

Three Old Men and a Milk Truck: a radio play (Scene 4)

by Michael Stone Johnson, Maurice Martin and William Smith
SCENE 4: THE BEACH

SFX (OCEAN SOUNDS. SEAGULLS.)

MORT: Herb, do you know what day it is?

HERB: Tuesday?

MORT: I mean what special day is it?

HERB: What? It’s Morrie Amsterdam Day in Canada? How am I supposed to know?

MORT: It’s ten years ago today that we crash landed in Florida.

HERB: Oy. Let me guess... You’re depressed.

MORT: I can’t help it. I'm thinking of Ira. Poor Ira.

HERB: It’s ten years already. Let it go.

MORT: (SIGH) In my mind, I see it happen again and again. First we get hijacked, then we crash land into that milk truck...

HERB: It wasn’t a milk truck. I keep telling you, it was an ice cream truck.

MORT: It was dairy products!

Three Old Men and a Milk Truck: a radio play (Scene 3)

by Michael Stone Johnson, Maurice Martin and William Smith
SCENE 3: THE AIRPLANE

SFX (LOW HUM OF JET AIRPLANE HEARD FROM INSIDE THE PASSENGER’S CABIN.)

SFX (PLANE’S P.A. SYSTEM AS RIKI, A MALE “STEWARDESS,” ADDRESSES THE PASSENGERS.)

RIKI: Hello passengers and welcome aboard Oceana Airways flight 1864 non-stop to Miami. My name is Riki, and I’ll be your server today. The captain has turned off the “fasten seatbelt” sign, and I’ll be coming around in just a moment with a selection of healthy refreshments.

MORT: Look how high we are. I knew this was a mistake.

HERB: What’s the matter now?

MORT: We’re too high up!

IRA: Throw up? Here, use this bag.

SFX (BAG RATTLING.)

HERB: It’s a plane, Mort. We’re supposed to be high up. If we were on the ground it would be a bus.

MORT: We’re too high, I tell you. We’ll never get down.

IRA: I haven’t gotten down since September 2, 1978. That was the day that disco died.

Three Old Men and a Milk Truck: a radio play (Scene 2)

by Michael Stone Johnson, Maurice Martin and William Smith
SCENE 2: THE AIRPORT

SFX (HOLLOW BACKGROUND AIRPORT SOUNDS. GENERAL CROWD MURMUR AND PERHAPS MUZAK.)

ANNOUNCER: Flight 142 is now boarding at Gate 11.

HERB: Come on, we’ve gotta find Gate 11. Pick up your feet, Ira, you’re shuffling again.

IRA: I’m shuffling as fast as I can.

MORT: I can’t believe it! He must’ve gotten batteries.

HERB: Hurry, Mort.

MORT: I’m hurrying already. I changed my mind. I don’t want to go to Miami. Look, we’re not even to gate two and I’m sweating like a pig. Nine more gates and I’ll be bacon grease.

HERB: Morty, you are not sweating like a pig.

MORT: Yes I am. It’s my sweat, I should know!

Three Old Men and a Milk Truck: a radio play (Scene 1)

by Michael Stone Johnson, Maurice Martin and William Smith
SCENE 1: THE HARDWARE STORE

SFX (BUSY, CLANKING BACKGROUND NOISES OF SMALL HARDWARE STORE. AN OCCASIONAL CASH REGISTER “CHING.”)

MORT: Miami? All they got in Miami is a lotta sand and Cubans.

IRA: (HARD OF HEARING) No thanks, I don’t smoke.

MORT: And I don’t tan well. See that little mole there, Herb? Skin cancer.

HERB: But Morty, we’ve been running this hardware store for 32 years without a vacation. I’m tired, already.

MORT: What no vacation? You spent two years in bed with the gout!

IRA: Grout? Aisle four, by the wood putty.

Musical Idea for Zooazoic

“Zooazoic” is a work in progress combining music, movement and film. The purpose is to draw attention to endangered species of animals. This musical idea is a preliminary experiment that with each emerging musical theme represents a different animal.

Download Zooazoic.m4a

The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads

All Things Considered, October 24, 2006 · A dog may be man’s best friend. But one dog, Lady, decided she needed more friends—and she found plenty in the knot of toads living at the local pond. A suburban family's secret struggle with an uncommon addiction comes to light in this personal essay by NPR’s Laura Mirsch.

Russell Campisi: Steps to Recovery

The following is a short montage of photographs I took in October 2007 of an injured truck driver, Russell Campisi, whose employer is a policyholder of my employer, a workers' compensation insurance company. Along with Campisi's strong-willed determination, his remarkable recovery, both physical and psychological, was facilitated by then-Claims Specialist Barbara Gilchrist.

 Download Russell Campisi: Steps to Recovery (.mov)

Ore City Christmas, 1989: A Chilling Memory

It was the latter days of a two-year stint working as an actor in a traveling children’s theater troupe on weekdays in remote schools in east Texas, southern Arkansas and north Louisiana. On weekend evenings, I was part of an ensemble of both locals and expatriates entertaining tourists with dinner theater fare at the Haywood House, the renovated remains of a Civil War era hotel, claimed to be haunted. On weekend days, I drove an open air, motorized trolley car working as a tour guide, telling the colorful history of Jefferson, Texas, a small town settled by New Orleanians that sprung up in cotton-rich east Texas and that just as quickly became a ghost town after the Army Corps of Engineers TNT'd the Great Red River Raft of logs that clogged the waterway. At the time, I was living out of the back of my 1982 Ford Mustang hatchback that stank of mildew from leaking seals, cigarette smoke, stale beer and body odor. My life was on the cusp of a major change.