Snow Day. Bert & Ernie Gay?

January 28, 2010, found the City of Memphis under a few inches of snow, sleet and ice. I suppose that sleet is ice, but it settled into a sheet of ice. Then, there was slush. Not the kind you drink, but the yucky kind that is made in the streets. So, of course I've got these pictures to share.

HELP HAITI!!

Please support this Better Business Bureau accredited charity.

BERT & ERNIE: GAY?

I've always been made moody by the silly rumors about Bert and Ernie being gay. After all, not only are they puppets, but characters on a children's program. Seriously, do you think something like this would be a topic on a kid's show? Would you let your kid watch a show with such a topic? Of course not! So, to put the matters to rest, I've taken the official 1993 statement of (then) Children's Television Workshop which not only debunks the gay rumor, but also the rumor that Ernie would be retired after Jim Henson's death.

Here is the letter, statement, and newspaper articles from Sesame Street's producers.

2010 Celebrity Waiter Night Follow-up

A special thanks to Richard Meeks for his assistance with Muley at this event. DaMarco Randle performed as photographer extraordinaire again. The event was full and fun, we met really nice people, and the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis still needs donations which can be given by clicking on their banner below.

Even before Muley got indoors, several people stopped him and made donations to the event out in the parking lot. One guy drove up in a truck and handed out a $12 donation!



A banner on the interior of The Half Shell restaurant
on Winchester Road, Memphis, TN.

Muley poses with Fox 13's Leon Griffin and Tom Dees

and wrestling's Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Kev and Muley pose with Muley's Official

Girlfriend, Felicia!

There's good news all the time, and Muley

met a group of lukemia survivors!

Everyone was involved in gathering donations.

Roxanne Lemmon was there, too.

Muley poses next to a banner of one of the world's best

radio stations in the world!

15 Days In The Rubble

I saw on the news today that a young woman was found 15 days after the quake ALIVE! There was no word how she survived. I hurt thinking of those who won't make it, but cheer for those who do. Still, their country is a long, long way away from getting where it needs to be. Among that, the food rations are certainly low. You can click the link below to donate to the Haiti Relief charity that is accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

Muley, A Celebrity Waiter; Jetta, Haiti and more

HELP HAITI

You can continue to help the children of Haiti by clicking on the following banner. This links to UNICEF. Other banners below represent other charities who are BBB accredited.





JETTA: FULL CIRCLE--EDIT ONE COMPLETE


Powerful, entertaining, emotional...just a few words to describe the next graphic novel in the Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa saga titled "Full Circle." I've finished my first round of editing and, I have to tell you, it is surprising and full of action. You don't want to miss it when it arrives on shelves! Click the logo to know more about Jetta and MAW Productions.

CELEBRITY WAITER NIGHT
THE HALF SHELL, WINGHESTER RD
JANUARY 26, 6 - 9


For the past several years, Muley has participated in the Ronald McDonald House Celebrity Waiter Night, calling himself the Maitre'd. This year, he's back and assisted by his friend Richard Meeks for an appearance at The Half Shell on Winchester Road. You can learn more about the Half Shell by clicking on their logo below.


The RMH houses 51 kids and their families for free while the children are being treated at St. Jude. It is operated solely on donations and if you would like to donate to Muley's pet charity, click on the RMH logo below.





2009 CELEBRITY WAITER IMAGES


Here are some pictures from 2009 Celebrity Waiter Night held at Bosco's in Overton Square:
(Photos by Lin Workman)


MULEY HANGS WITYH FOX 13 METEOROLOGIST LEON GRIFFIN,
THEN STEALS A KIDS FRENCH FRIES.

HERE, MULEY AUTOGRAPHS HIS PHOTOS FOR FOLKS,

THEN CLEANS OUT ROCK 103'S TIM SPENCER'S BELLY BUTTON.

THEN, ON TO HARASS HIS PALS JANET AND MARTHEUS WADE

OF MAW PRODUCTIONS. TOO MUCH PEPPER!

Mid-January Updates

A 6.-something aftershock later, Haiti REALLY needs our help. You can find accredited charitiesat the website of the Better Business Bureau. Presently, we want to focus on a charity that the Muppets appreciate (benefitting them withy the live Muppet Show during 2001's MuppetFest): Save The Children. Donate to them by clicking on the "Help Haiti" banner below.

Please also, listen to your heart and use your brain; don't listen to false prophets like Pat Robertson who says the Haitians don't deserve our help. He is supposed to represent Christians, but is not representing any I know. I'm not even a very good person, but I am even better than he is at it. There are also the self-centered biggots like Rush Limburger...Limbaugh saying not to send help...give what you can, folks, as one of my friends wrote back in an e-mail: I hope that one day when I'm in need someone will be there to help me.

SIVADS OF MARCH Art Show.

Dates and details coming up, but I (along with Martheus and Janet Wade and more) will be participating. Here, you can see my reference and my very first left-handed painting:

Screaming Tiki Con, June 2010

Speaking of my Toshigawa family, the Wades, we are going to appear at the Screaming Tiki Con in June 2010 with a LIVE Muley performance and a Jetta Look-alike Contest!!

Broken Arm Update:

Still broken! But, healing...YAY! Today I went from a full-arm cast to a short arm cast. It is still very painful but I was glad to be out of the long-arm cast. I cannot wait until February 17th--I'll be cast-free!!! The doctor said that the art and puppetry is my best therapy. (I need to start changing clothes more than once every two months!)

December 14th January 20th

For the Special-K Lovers:

A while back...well, here's a video with the intro about how folks made fun of a 'Curly Howard' face I made:

Well, here is the Grande Addendum created by my pal Marco, featuring him and me:

BTW: Marco is a fine arts painter focusing on abstract art. For samples of his work and quotes please contact me.

Haiti Earthquake Tragedy

Watching the news recently, I was shocked and moved to tears to see a lone, hurting child in bandages standing in a roadway crying as the reporter says, stating what I'm seeing, that the child "does not know where any family members are." The killing part to me is that you want to reach in the television set and pull that child into your arms to heal and protect him.

Without that ability, we are left with an opportunity to donate to relief funds to help the Haitians. I believe I have found the proper donation link for The American Red Cross. Please donate to help the Haitian people by clicking the banner below.

Santa Mule at RMH

Here is a short bit of video from that day:

Some December 2009 Flashbacks

December 25, 2009
Family Time


Though the holidaze have passed, I'd like to share some photos with you. at home, here I am with my stepdad and mama, Sam and Bonnie Davis. It was a great visit, but on the night of the 25th, someone broke into my mom's car. That they stole some things she planned to return to the mall, what hurts us most is that Mama had been studying in a bible for many, many years and marked it throughout as she planned to pass it along to me one day. Also, in it was family photos including that of my Papa Roy, Granny Ethel, and Grandmother Williams. It's sad to lose that which was planned to be a family heirloom, but we forged on and had a good weekend together with hopes of a great new year, one which I hope brings peace to everyone...except a certain thief who I hope chokes to his doom!!




December 19, 2009
Breakfast With Santa at the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis

Muley appeared with the help of and much thanks to his assistant Richard Meeks and photographer Tim Berry.



It ain't often you see both asses at once!



Muley poses with some friends who helped him make an ornament.

Santa Mule and Santa Claus. Santa Fish has a restraining order from here.

The Mississippi Riverkings mascots, Sheldon and Riverthing,

join Muley to help sing Christmas Carols.

While I did show up at the RMH for a little while, I did have to leave for a trip to see my dear friend Angela Freeman graduate with a bachelor's in education! WAY TO GO!!

Flash Back: December 1995/January 1996

Most folks know that I once worked at The Disney Store which was located at The Oak Court Mall. It was the 8th store in the company, with two more that opened at other malls and I helped train the new management and employees as well as help set up the new stores. Big duties which I enjoyed. Back at our store, we were consistently given the highest scores by our secret shoppers: 101. Yep, same numer as there are Dalmations. So many, in fact, that we were featured on the cover of the Castmember Newsletter "The Disney Store Scoop."

Not everyone was photographed, but we were there at the bottom right.

Back row: Jeff, Elisa, Michelle
Second row: Elaine, Lin, Kris, Moi

Front Row: Patti, J-9, Carrie, April, and I'm too stupid to remember the last three.

So, why did I post this memory? One of our great pals, Dave Dermon III, passed away during the las week of 2009. He was a Beatles historian and Redskins fan. His and my connection came through Disney and The Blues Brothers. I'd thought about getting in touch for quite some time but never did. I was unaware of the cancer at all, and I feel like a jerk for not getting back in touch. So, my advice to you is if you're thinking about being in touch with someone, do it. If you wait 'til it's too late you'll be mad at yourself, too.