Dear Steemits,
You don't know me. I’m just a regular guy who’s figured out clever ways to make his dreams come true. Here are a few examples:
BECOMING A SCREENWRITER:
I've been a screenwriter for a lot of years. Here are some of my movies:
How did I do it? I wasn't from L.A. and didn't know anybody in showbiz. All I knew is that I loved movies.
Nobody can stop you from sitting down and writing a screenplay, right? So that's what I did. I was persistent. I found clever ways to get my scripts to people, I cold-called agents and producers, I made friends with receptionists (this was all pre-internet). What finally worked? I applied for a Disney fellowship that I wasn't eligible for. I enclosed a funny cover letter asking them to read my script anyway. They did and I haven't looked back since.
Just like every professional screenwriter I have ever met, I had to figure my own way into Hollywood. If a dumb trick like that worked for me, why not for you too?
BECOMING A JOURNALIST:
Before Hollywood, I wrote for various newspapers and underground ‘zines. I got to meet and interview interesting people like Jello Biafra (DEAD KENNEDYS), Keith Morris (CIRCLE JERKS), Harvey Pekar, and Dan 'HOMER SIMPSON' Castellaneta. How did I get to these people? I asked! This was also pre-internet. I called record labels, sent letters to publishers, inquired with managers and publicists, I went to gigs and introduced myself. Then I wrote the articles and submitted them to newspapers and 'zines until someone printed them. That was an awesome way to get writing experience and meet people I admire.
Me with NOFX in 1992:
BECOMING A ROCK STAR:
I always wanted to be the lead singer in a touring rock band. Through a clever trick, I managed to pull that off too. I told the Warped Tour I was going to write about them for Rolling Stone magazine. The gimmick was that I would write from the perspective of a band on the tour. All they had to do was put my unknown garage band on the bill and I would write a big fat article for the biggest music magazine on the planet. The thing was, I didn't know anybody at Rolling Stone magazine. But they didn't know that, so on the tour I went. My band was CARNE ASADA and we brought punk rock mariachi music to the Mid-West.
So was I lying? Not exactly. After they agreed to put me on the tour, I actually DID call Rolling Stone, but they turned me down. I submitted the idea to a couple more places, and they all shot me down too. But by then it was too late. I'd already gotten my slot and I was on the road with the likes of BAD RELIGION, THE VANDALS and MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. Warped Tour forgot why I was there in the first place and never said a peep.
We also put out an album. We even got it on iTunes:
BECOMING PEN PALS WITH BUKOWSKI:
One of the coolest things happened when I was writing for an underground rag called HALF-TRUTH in 1991. On a whim I reached out to one of my literary idols, Charles Bukowski, for an interview. Bukowski said no. I never hassled him but I kept sending him issues of the 'zine until one day, for whatever reason, he started submitting material. Over the next two years he sent poems, short stories, an early chapter from a novel, cartoons, and self-portraits, all of it brand new and unpublished.
I recently rediscovered this treasure trove, and that's what prompted me to join Steemit. I want to share this material with people who might appreciate it. As far as I know, none of it has been seen since it appeared in HALF-TRUTH 25 years ago.
Here's a letter he sent apologizing for giving an interview to a rival 'zine instead of ours:
If you haven’t heard of Bukowski, do yourself a favor and discover this wonderful drunken skid-row poet, gambler, screenwriter and novelist. LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL is as good a place to start as any.
So that's my deal. I've got stories to share, some cool pictures, and over forty pages of unpublished Bukowski.
I really don't know how to Steemit, so please be patient. I am crap at reposting or upvoting or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing. Any advice would help.
Best,
Rich Wilkes
Here's my proof of identity (or whatever you call it): My IMDB page
I'm unfucking believably amazed by your introduction Rich! I would not even know where to start to comment but I'll just say that 1) the Carne Asada band with their mariachi punk-rock could be very well featured in a Quentin Tarantino movie...genius! 2) All considered, with all the good stuff you put in your post you could have made..let's say a series of engaging introduceyourself, not just one! I wish that this post could be noted by @curie and receive a lofty upvote, it would be deserved.
Why don't you partecipate to my Finish the Fiction Story contest? I guess it's easy stuff for you...today's theme is an evil A.I. in he shape of a teddy bear.
Also, we would be honored to see you at the ..
The @greetersguild is a great community that cares for newbies and helps them. We at @greetersguild genuinely want to see users learn, earn and grow.
Join us and we'll grow together! This is our discord channel.
What an awesome greeting, f3nix. Thank you. I checked out your latest Fiction contest. That is an awesome idea and enjoyed reading some of the replies. I followed some of your links. I don't know anything about the discord channels, but I guess I should look into them. Thanks for the encouragement!
Well, honestly thanks to you (the Bukowski letter was priceless!) Just drop your end of the story Rich in my comment section (or you may make a post by itself) and I'll introduce you to the guys of my contest when I'll publish the results.. my plan in time is to create a fiction workshop, who knows maybe some good ideas can come out in our delirious brainstorming sessions 🤔 I transfered to your wallet a symbolic welcome tip.. keep up the good work!
This is an amazingly interesting introduction post. I expect to see you at the top real soon.
Ha! Thank you!
Hello! It's nice to see you here!
Welcome to Steemit @carneasadafilms!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?
Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit be truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman
Welcome and best regards
Congratulations @carneasadafilms! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
Well come to the jungle my brother.. i like Vin Disel!!.
Who doesn't love Vin Diesel? The man's a legend!
Hahaa.. my stuntman favorit in the all him movies!!!..
Bukowski is a legend. The Post Office is a classic! Welcome to Steemit man, I'm sure you'll enjoy it here as much as we do :-)
I wish I saw your ska band when I was last in Amsterdam. Thanks for the comment
Wow! I love your story and how are you looking for the smart way to make your dreams come true... Welcome to this great family... I'm in steem schools and it's great, we help each other grow in steemit, we all win together! We have live art classes, business, poetry, cryptocurrencies, many contests and we had a great time ... if you want to come, you will be welcome. https://discord.gg/h6ykdsu
I guess I will have to learn about Steem Schools too. Thanks for the tip!
Hey there @carneasadafilms! Your introduction was great! I love the idea that you grabbed life by the horns and made something happen! You've gained a follower!
You've gained a follower right back! Thanks for the note and the nice words!
Sweet! Thank you!
Congratulations @carneasadafilms! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPAwesome intro bro! Welcome to Steemit. There's a great group of people who can help you. Check out Steemit Greeter's Guild on Discord. It's fun! https://discord.gg/AkzNSKx
Followed. Thanks!
This has to be one of the more interesting introduction posts I've read. You have it all - writers, rockers, celebrities, oh my! Just the whole kit-n-caboodle.
I agree with @f3nix that this could've been a whole series of intros. I love your go-get-em attitude and love even more that it's actually worked in your favor. Most people give up then just bitch that it's someone else's fault. In that right, you have my respect.
Congrats on becoming active after all of this time. Even more impressive is that you remembered your login after more than a year! 😵
Of course, you have another follower; my curiosity is piqued and I'm just dyin' to see what stories we'll be regaled with. I'm sure there's a ton. I'm also betting you're going to enjoy a meteoric rise to the top - welcome! 🤗
Thank you so much for the kind words. Yeah, it took me a long time to actually post. I needed to dig out the Bukowski stuff and just never got around to it. Thanks again, and I have followed
Well, I'm glad you did! Can't wait to hear more and thank you for the follow!
..just don't take another year, Rich.
Resteemed. Great post, Rich, great stories. And great to have you here.
Thank you for resteeming this, Neil (if it's okay for a stranger to call you by your first name)! If it weren't for you, I might have not found this gem of a new Steemit user!
Long live rock n' roll and welcome, @carneasadafilms!
Your story is a good example and proof of the Russian proverb "He who doesn't risk never gets to drink champagne!"
Can't wait to see more posts from you!
I love that proverb! I'd never heard it before!
Coming from you, that's an honor
Great to have you here. Looking forward to seeing your correspondence with Charles.
All you have to do is be consistent on this platform. Great start!
Yeah, I have about 40 pages of stuff to post. Glad you like it
Oh, please do post Bukowski lore.
I really must read Factotum again. The movie made of it was pretty good even if at times a bit jarring. Supposedly set in Los Angeles, it was actually filmed in the Twin Cities so many locations are places I’ve been (the “ocean boating” scene was shot on the lake near my house for instance).
I wasn't even aware they made Factotum. The only one I knew about was Barfly. Thanks!
Well, I suppose that's one way to get your dreams to come true.
Welcome to the Steem blockchain! Hope you manage to find your place here.
BTW, Airheads was an awesome movie! It's one of my all-time favorites.
Ha! Yeah people who grew up with Airheads really like it. Thanks!
Welcome to the Steem Scene ;)
Sounds like u’ve had some cool moments thus far in life.
I enjoyed ur tricks, although pre-internet was definitely on ur side as far as the warp tour shenanigans... there was no easy way to confirm who worked for what magazine etc.
I loved reading “Women” i laughed my way through that one with a grin!
Lookin forward to ur future stories my man!
JB
Actually the Warped thing was 2004, well into internet age. They just didn't bother to check. Besides, I had a friend from The Vandals vouch for me / help with my plot.
hahah, there ya go. Get by with a little help from your friends ;)
BTW you should connect with @brian-rhodes on steemit. He's heading up steemfilm and a variety of other film/screenplay stuff.
Can't wait to read more! (I've seen all of those movies, and NOFX are one of my all time favourite bands)
You are too cool. Love me some NOFX! Can't wait for the new Cokie The Clown album!
Hmm, how do we know you aren't just lying your way to the top here? :D Nice introduction, I admire your persistence in all those stories.
You got me. I am a bot
POWERFUL RICH!
Awesome to have you here 😀
Loved your stories in your intro post, any others you think of regarding getting into places where you otherwise don't deserve to be would be fun!
Excited to read more from you! 🤗
Thanks so much. Working hard to get up to speed here...
I love nofx, and bukowski bro, welcome. Ty for sharing. Welcome!
I'll search for your band now.
Loved the story about the warped tour, I can just imagine how great could it be. I'm a musician too and I grew up listening to nofx/bad religion/nufan/millencolin, etc. So, It would be kind of a dream to live something like that, and you know what, I needed to read something like this, if you could do that sht, why not me? then again, thanks for sharing this with us, I'll be waiting for some other stories from you. Cheers bro.
Btw, this is gold.
Never trust an old drunk.
Thanks for the feedback! Followed.
Wow. First off, I just have to say hats off to you @carneasadafilms for such an outstanding, inspiring and entertaining introduction post! I most heartedly agree with @f3nix and many of the others here that you will, with no doubt, be rapidly rising to the top of the Steemit pile. I eagerly look forward to observing this process and will be very much enjoying reading all you have to offer. I've resteemed your intro and you've definitely gained another follower.
(You can feel free to stop reading now as I do tend to lean towards verbosity sometimes, but I still do wish to share some more of my thoughts on how much I enjoyed your intropost and even more so on the weird and wonderful series of clicks that led me to your post, because, at least for me, it truly represents some of what makes Steemit so astoundingly amazing and exciting! )
So to begin, again, your post and the parts of your life that you shared in it were truly inspiring to me, @carneasadafilms. One of the main reasons being how you've continually in your life taken the bull by the horns and just gone after everything that you've wanted in your life. This is something that I have struggled with in my own life. I have been blessed to have a mind that is constantly filled with ideas, inventions, stories, concepts, music and more. I literally sometimes have entire new songs or even concertos just pop into my head. Yet I have never learned how to put all this music down onto paper, or get it out of my head so others can hear it. I have numerous ideas for novels and stories brewing around and collecting dust on various scribbled notes. I've even written a children's book, about death, called "Butterfly Kisses" (and it’s pretty good! Apparently) that I still have yet to finish and Get Out There. I have easily over a hundred inventions and improvements to existing items that I've never done anything with, yet. I've even written (or, well, ok let's be honest here, half or partially written) a few screenplays. The list goes on. The worst part is though that I don't really have any idea why I haven't done anything about or gone anywhere with most of these gifts that have been given to me.
I mean, to be fair to myself, I have done many other things, I've helped and positively touched the lives of a lot of people. I have a great life myself. I've experienced an impressive and sometimes surprising amount of fantastic and fun things. (Which as I continue to gear up to share some of those stories here on Steemit, some people will hopefully get to hear about) I most recently have been raising a beautiful daughter, and I'm a pretty good Dad and a very proud Papa. Yet still, it is a truly sad and disappointing waste that so much of this potential that has been given to me has gone unused.
All that being said, however, I absolutely believe that anything and everything can change, at any time, and your intropost has inspired, and reminded me that anything can happen, especially if we just toss caution or fear to the wind and make it happen. So truly, @carneasadafils, Thank You from the fullness of my heart.
The second thing I wish to talk a little bit about further was, as I mentioned, the strange trail that led me to your post. I believe it all started with my wondering, as I have a few times before, how we can all help make Steemit even better, and bigger, which will of course only help us all. So this time I started thinking about celebrities, and I put that into the search bar, to see which, if any, celebrities are on Steemit presently. That led me to a most excellent post by @scipio titled: An Open Letter To @neilstrauss : Another Game. That article, of course, led me to @neilstrauss himself (!!) and from there, I was drawn to your intropost by Neil's Resteeming of it.
It wasn't the length of this journey which so impressed me, but rather how, all within the scope of a few minutes and clicks, I became aware of and was introduced to the works of a genius coder and huge Steemit enthusiast (@scipio I am talkin' bout you ;~), a world-famous author, and you, the writer of some of my most enjoyed movies in my younger years and a guy who has a treasure trove of Bukowski letters stored somewhere! That's he's willing and planning to share with us all!!
I mean, WOW indeed!! I truly Love Steemit and the amazing, eclectic and brilliant community of people that comprise it! And this is all not even yet mentioning all the other interesting people and blogs I've yet to explore and discover just by reading the comments here and on the other aforementioned blogs. Like for example @f3nix and the Steemit @greetersguild! I will definitely be checking that out pronto. It sounds awesome! I don't know who @curie is yet but they certainly sound like someone I should be looking into. @anaiscarolina03 certainly seems friendly and the Steem Schools Business Movement looks like it would be very helpful to a newbie like me (or you! Ha!) And much more.
Anyway, I think I've made my point(s). Steemit is Awesome!
If you have by any chance made it this far, I thank you and applaud you for your stamina, @carneasadafilms (and anyone else who may have stumbled upon and been dragged into the depths of this novel/comment!) I apologize for its length yet I am grateful for the platform for me to be able to write it.
I wish you, and all of us, the very best and, as I've said, I look very much to seeing what more is in store! For us all!
Peace.
Hey, thanks for all the kind words. Definitely if you have so much creative energy popping you have to harness it. Following through is the hardest part, that's why they say writing is re-writing. I too used to have trouble finishing a project. For me it came from a feeling that it wouldn't be good enough. How can somebody criticize or judge me if I never finish the thing? It's perfect in my head. If I put it on paper, will I still think it's any good? The other factor was, if I spend time on THIS one, then I can't spend time on THAT one. I think the solution for both is the same. Take one of your projects to the end zone. The only way to get to the other ones is to finish the first one. Once that project is done, move on to the next BEFORE going back over the first one. If it's screenplays, finish the second one BEFORE rereading the first. You will learn so much writing the second that you'll be able to attack the first with new insights. Also, finishing doesn't have to be a finished product. Your script could be 60 pages, with blank spots, as long as it tells a full story. You can fill in the rest when you know more what you're doing.
I have kids too, and that's the best part of my dad. But you have to make use of those gifts. They are like muscles. They have to be developed through repeated use. The first thing you create will not be the best, so keep at it.
Thanks for the long note!
Rich
Ah man! My apologies for the late reply, Rich! I could've sworn I already replied to this. As I've said, I'm still figuring my way around here too.
I very much appreciate your reply and great advice. You're absolutely right about all of it. I will be taking heed of your words, and hey, who knows, maybe you'll be sitting in a theater watching my movie some day 😎
Wishing ya all the best brother and I look forward to seeing what else you have to offer here. Feel free to follow me if you like, but regardless I'll be around.
Cheers!
James
This is a great pep talk @carneasadafilms.
I love your story. Thanks for sharing it.
Welcome to the community man! I just finished reading a book by Mark Manson where I had read about Bukowski and again I'm reading his name here. Looks like the signs are indicating me to read Bukowski haha!
See you around :)
I just read your synopsis of the Manson book. You just saved me from reading it! And yes, I think there is Bukowski in your future
What a life you've lived, that's awesome. I loved the Bukowski part, I love him so much <3 He was amazing and to be pen pals with him must had been awesome! Welcome to Steemit :)
Thanks! I read some of your poetry. Pretty amazing. Especially if English is your second language!
Haha yes, the first one in my heart though. Thank you <3
Yo! I love this story. Read it a few days ago, and forgot to follow you. All i remembered was warped tour, steem, imdb so that was enough for google to find you. The Carne Asada thing is absolutely amazing. Followed!
thanks man! I checked your blog too and followed!
Well gracias, hope I keep your interest! Looking forward to more stories!!!
Please, more Bukowski ! The man was a genius!