If you were to ask me if I ever could’ve imagined being personally involved in something so political and controversal – I would’ve said go ask my evil bitch of a half-sister and her satanist spawn of acolyte offspring back east who would drop trou to go cause havoc whatever a bloated orange tanned madman told them to do.
My family back east participated in something heinous and evil when they were sold a fucking bill of goods from a oompa loompa stepping out of the frame of a Willy Wonka movie telling them to storm the castle and to inflict harm upon those finalizing an legitimate election in which he fairly lost. While I, on the West Coast proved I could pick a more warrantable battle in helping those in trying to secure a fairer wage and a better way of life. So put it up on the toteboard: I, on the West Coast = good guy. East Coast area Half-sister, jerk-off half brother-in-law and their little asshole brainwashed toadies (of which I’m completely repulsed to be regarded as their living uncle) = COMPLETE TOTAL ASSHOLE BAD GUYS.
Ok – so while they had their little tiptoe throughout the rotted tulips of history, I carved my own niche in getting facefront in trying to help quell the incitement breaking out in the entertainment industry strike. I was at first in disbelief that this was actually happening. Waking up that morning of Tuesday May 2, 2023 AFTER preparing the evening before being told to download a WhatsUP app on my decrepit iphone that I was forced to buy more gigabytes for, did the sudden realization befall me that THIS IS NO FUCKING DRILL! I’ve always been mentally preparing myself a handful of times in the recent past. Almost went on strike 2017 (for reasons I forgot). Putting Hollywood agents to task on packaging fees a couple of years later almost invited a skirmish. A strike was in consideration in 2020, but the pandemic proved to be top priority – but I’m sure whatever issues my employer had with the studios have been simmering in the pot since then. During those preparatory times, I got to work member meetings and was taught how to work specific functions on a tablet. But now, that I’ve lived through most of the strike (even though my tasks are technically finished, I’m still living in it and it ain’t over until every last guild and ALL the studios are in lockstep and agreement). It’s been a surreal, frustrating and joyous experience so far.
If it all seems paradoxical – then I would have to asky myself this:
Why do I participate in something that could’ve proven to be damaging to my health? Counting on my severly worn callus digits (from handling all those stack of bundled picket signs): heat exhaustion, sleep deprivation, risk of skin cancer, overeating, a piss poor habit of reaching for a Gatorade instead of water, and fuck, don’t leave out all that smoking and comic book reading.
But through all those self absorbing proclivities in the roll call of the Cary Coatney seven deadly wages of sin, I can at least name two major Jedi spectre constantly leering over my shoulder reasons:
To honor both the memories of Harlan Ellison and George Clayton Johnson, who I personally felt were my two nurturing souls while they were still amongst the living, they at various times coaxed me into trying my hand in writing comic books and submitted miscellaneous stuff to comic book news related publications and they never frowned down upon me when or if the results came out under par – the more important thing was their belief in me to believe in myself to usually get the job done.
So from where we left off last month – here’s the continuing presentation of what occured on Colfax Avenue – GATE C to be precise at The CBS Radford Studios between the months of June and July of 2023.
This lemonade stand made a few appearances on Colfax. The cucumber flavored one was particularly refreshing.
Fresh barbeque deliveries.
A whole massive array of portable ice cream and frozen treat trucks.
Not to mention pippin’ hot fresh pizza from some fantastic local pizzerias. But if you missed out on all the splendor of the gourmet pies – at least you were left with the scintillating taste of cardboard whenever some kind person with a Zelle account brought over a couple of pies over from Costco.
One of my favorite celebrites I met on the picket line. Last month it was Rose McIver, this month, reaping in like a whirlwind of brains and beauty was Gabrielle Dennis. I know Gabrielle from her current recently renewed Apple+ comedy, The Big Door Prize (co-starring Chris O’Dowd) and as The Deadly Nightshade from the 2nd season of Netflix’s slash now on Disney+’s Marvel’s Luke Cage. HOWEVER she’s more widely known to audiences as the female foil to comedian Deon ‘oh,woe is me, men have skin too’ Cole whenever she skips away with his Old Spice body wash and a whole other bunch of stuff, including a portrayal of Whitney Houston in a BET miniseries about Bobby Brown. Anyway, she was so sweet and nice and easily approachable. She was purposily there to throw in her support for a Beyonce theme day. When it came time for us to pack up, I made sure she took some of that barbeque home with her and doubly made sure she made it safely to her car which was parked on the other side of the bridge which was only assessible by escorting her beneath the bridge where a lot of Studio City’s local dregs and druggies happen to reside.
What was particularly odd about Ms. Dennis’s suprise appearance that day was that she was practically walking around incognito. Nobody I witnessed hit her up for a selfie or an autograph. It just seemed that I was the only one around who really recognized her.
We had some fancy bluegrass music to brighten our mornings. I never caught the names of these two gentlemen, I ran into them again at a recent SAG-AFTRA picket at Warner Bros. I totally forgot I took photos of them.
Cast reunion of Boy Meets World sans Ben Savage, who made a separate appearance at CBS Radford in Part 1 of our memoir. From left to right, Trina McGee, Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle (also famous as the voice of Terry McGuiness on Batman Beyond) and Rider Strong.
Move along Gramps. You’re way too old for Danielle Fishel.
Picket Line Karaoke – a popular past time on the hot winds of CBS Colfax. Even our very own lead captain Andra Whipple, (center, in right hand photo) belted out a few tunes..
Kid’s making a malodorous point and itt seems her little pet is inclined to agree with her, because he’s really busy checking out her story.
Shortly after this soiree starring this little chipmunk was finished. I took a day off with a friend to see The Flash over at the AMC Burbank 16. However, on that day, I must’ve caught a wee case of Cinema Co-Vid crud, because I wound up being sick for a week.
But when I got back, it was as if I didn’t really miss much. I believe they brought in, actress Cheryl Coleman to fill in for me and the only report I got from my crew was that the day finally came when our tent got blown away by an unsuspecting gust of wind and wound up in the riptides of the LA River.
Bob Odenkirk’s second appearance @ CBS Colfax.
One small step on the picket line, one giant leap for all striking writers and actors.
One of our more familiar Pre-Wgaers. Although she couldn’t decide which side she would prefer to be on, so she became Ms. Marvel Two-In-One. Just a note: people not connected with the Writer’s Guild of America or Screen Actor’s Guild had to sign to participate on a seperate sheet. If you were a director, a production assistant, a I.A.T.S.E. teamster special effects person, or whatever other ties you had in the industry – even some cognizant working stiff schmoe off the street, you were refered to as a PRE-WGAer.
Soft serve ice cream and carne asada tacos. The strike life doesn’t get any better than this.
Homestate breakfast tacos, usually donated to us by the DSLA. They are mother f-ing delicious and were usually scoffed up fast. There’s one located down the street from me here in Sherman Oaks and they’ve proven to be so popular in the neighborhood that they’ve been robbed six times since opening up a few years back.
Got a visit from one of my facebook gal pals, Jeanne Testarossa on her way back from a acting class. She had some time in her busy schedule to help us ziptie some signs and load up our truck at the end of the day. My teamster driver, Kim at the time, was really impressed by her natural Amazonian strength, that she practically begged her to come back and help us some more.
I am Groot is also on strike.
Bob Odenkirk came back for a third time.
Michael Nouri recently of The Watcher and Yellowstone.
Danny Pudi – late of Apple+ TV’s Mystic Quest. Just finished watching the first season of the animated series, Strange Planet, also on Apple+ TV of which he provides one of the lead voices for.
Poutine Brother Fries – a popular cuisine dish hailing from Vancouver made their multi-state road all the way to Studio City.
Steven Kriozeres and his merry band of BIKE THE STRIKErs came back for an encore.
Hold on a sec, they just called my order out for beef brisket, cheese curls and fries.
So, Poultine, according to Wikipedia is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s – but to anyone who’s practically lived most of their work career working on movies and television shows up in our neighboring country of Canada (like anyone involved in a Arrowverse show), this is the biggest thing to ever hit Canadian comfort food since Chipote– which is nothing more than Mexican cuisine made popular by hipster gods with beards all hailing from Minnesota.
Steven Kriozere ready to throw it all in gear again on Bike The Strike, number whatever.
Former Fear The Walking Dead, Deadwood, Hand of God, The Gifted and a whole slew of other stuff cast member, Garret Dillahunt. Yep, he’s sure been in a whole lot of stuff I’ve watched.
The Deuce’s Michael Krostoff and Mark Gray.
Randall Park
Randy West – another actor I was lucky enough to run into again on a SAG strikeline. You should’ve seen the name of the actor I originally thought he was.
Pae Pae.
After BIKE THE STRIKE had got done drinking their fill from the LA River behind us, they were ready to press on, but first I had to get them all to sign in to show that they were actually in attendence. I found it was no problem coaxing in their newest female recruit, social media sensation, Ms. Mya Rocks.
My signs were showing some signs of improvement or at least some competence. Captain Patty Carr couldn’t keep up with the special picket themes, because her kids going back to college were beginning to take priority and we, at the time, had no idea that this strike was going to prolong itself past 60, let alone thirty days, so Captain Carr, who’s usually the first captain on the scene every morning, had to take frequent absences, so I took control of ‘writing out the board‘ every morning and keeping track of the days that everyone was on strike.
Our savior of the box office summer since The Flash failed to make the cut.
Bob and Bill Odenkirk both mixing it within the crowd.
One good thing I could say about the Colfax side. It seemed there was more room to stretch. If one side got too crowded, you could go to the other side of the bridge and picket, but the pavement on the street had much less to be desired due to traffic and the speeding upon of cars and trucks. There was a lady who tripped up on a pothole and boy, a handful of us went ripping without a second’s hesitation to lift her off that street before someone’s souped up hot rod came barrelling down the street.
Nikiva Dionne from S.W.A.T.
Brad Koepenick.
Rich Stickler.
Chivonne Michelle (right) of HBO Max’s South Side and friend.
Aisha Tyler – ok, here’s someone who wasn’t quite crazy about my wacky friendly demeanor. I don’t know if it was just day one jitters of the SAG-AFTRA, of which I’m certain this photo was taken on, or my ignorance of SAG-AFTRA‘s picketing protocols. First, she didn’t really want me to take a photo of her to show the rest of my WhatsApp peeps at STRIKE HQ, and secondly, she scolded me because I asked her to verify the date of when the final season of Archer will debut on FXX. She got standoffish about me asking that question, because unknown to me at the time, the first rule of SAG STRIKE FIGHT CLUB is: don’t talk about or promote anything about your upcoming projects – because it’s a violation of some sorts AND THIRDLY, I called her “Alicia” by mistake. I apologized to her and made sure she knew that I pleaded the dumbass fifth that I totally forgot about that very miniscule little rule during my job sensitivity training.
Ed Begley Jr.
There was one day put aside for a special ‘captain’s celebration’ and I believe this was the same day we inaugurated Captain Camille (far left) – next to her in the back row, Zach or Zeke, or something that begins with a Z(??), Brian Nelson. Front row from left to right: Andra Whipple, Joelle Garfinkel, Patty Carr and Charles Kelly.
Cast members from Act Your Age, Ratoya Banks, Alisha Henson and Xiantoni Lynch come out in celebration of their special picket.
Bob Odenkirk carefully chooses his weapon.
Bob Odenkirk marches into battle.
An enbattled Anthony Dennison (A Crime Story and The Closer) ready to punch this picket up.
Michael Krostoff’s encore appearance.
Somebody who’s very famous, whose name escapes me at the moment. If any of you know the gentleman in the red t-shirt, please comment below. In fact, make it contest: properly identify him and I’ll award you a free signed copy of a random Deposit Man issue to be presented to you on the SAG Strike. (Psst – I’ll be at the big Disney rally tomorrow, November 1st).
Actor/musican Samwise Aaron paired with one of his closest actor friends Buddy Friedman.
Paula Poundstone – who I didn’t even recognize at first. She arrived really early one morning while my teamster driver and I were setting up the tents and as other members slowly joined in with setting up the table and snack boxes, she just sat there not saying anything watching us until one of the captains asked her by name if she needed some water.
Electric brite lite billboard truck – I already posted the picture of Yvette Nicole Brown (2nd in the middle of top row) from last month by mistake, (yeah, I jump ahead of myself like in Quantum Leap sometimes) but it bears repeating here, because I’m pretty she can colaborate with me that we both saw David Zaslav decked out in his biker gear checking us all out from behind this truck whilst bemusingly smirking at us.
Francis Fisher greets fellow SAG-AFTRA member Cheryl Chapman Teague and to warn us that Michael Chiklis is on his way.
And sure enough SUPERSTAR ARMAGEDDON smacked us straight in the balls. Michael Chiklis is a familar acquaintance of my half-sister, retired pre-school teacher Rebecca, who know resides in Arizona. The day after Chiklis won his Emmy for The Shield, he brought his Emmy to show all the pre-school kids at The Stephen Wise school of which his daughter, Odessa attended in the class that Rebecca taught.
of which you can see here – Odessea’s all grown up and helping Daddy to fight in this war. My half-sister, Rebecca nearly had a text meltdown. She thought Odessea was Michael’s wife! Anyway, Michael was happy to hear that my half-sis was doing fine and I also reminded him that we both used to live around the corner from him in Sherman Oaks when we shared a house once owned by Jack Haley and he had given Rebecca a bobblehead of himself in his Vic Mackey character in The Shield when she saw him tinkering around in his garage. I somehow got in possession of it and it wound up on my desk of where I used to work at Sony. The only other time I ever ran into Michael Chiklis in person is when I said hello to him when I ran into him on the Sony lot in Culver City. Amazing how fate works that way: close neighbors, but rarely run into each other on a more frequent basis.
Star Trek Lower Decks’ Jerry O’Connell. I’ll say some nice things about him for NOW, HOWEVER in future upcoming installments- well, in our next chaper particularily, you’ll be seeing a lot more Jerry than you’ll ever want to. CBS Radford was Jerry’s total destination picket – until something not too nice happened towards the writer’s strike end.
Jerry ‘Connell in many bendable poses as wife Rebecca Romijn helps Jerry pack up our van. On the left, he’s pictured posing with Teamster Driver Kim and in the middle exchanging iphone info with Captain Andra Whipple.
Rebecca’s hairdo on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is half AI generated and half wig. That’s probably one more intresting fact I know about her than anyone.
Rebecca Romijn rewards the best celebrity no-show on the picketline until the very last minute award with all our left over pizza of the day to Jason Ritter, who just literally popped out in the middle of nowhere behind Kim’s van.
That’s okay – it didn’t dawn on me that he was the lead voice character on Netflix’s filthy-mouthed Adult Animation show, Captain Fall until I got around to the ninth or tenth episode.
Preparing to take the fight down to San Diego Comic Con International. Newly made sign from WGA Headquarters. Dig the new fangled Marvel billfold specifically bought for this special occasion.
Okay the story you have all been waiting for. I took a week off for San Diego Comic Con. This would count as my second short break from the con. I took one week off the previous month of June to see The Flash, in which I ended up catching some of the cooties left from that movie’s bad Rotten Tomatoes score, which left me bedridden for a whole week and then I took a week off to attend the con. Plus add in the one day I took off in August to see Blue Beetle, which left me with a site coordinator’s total days off of…12 days. 148 minus 12 = 136 days I was onsite, I don’t know if I’d beaten any of other site coordinators’ records at CBS Television City, Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, Netflix, etc; etc – but I’m usually comfortable in rooms of one hand clapping anyway whenever I pat myself on the back for my unusual accomplishments.
My roommate and I went down for the first day of Comic-Con International, and it was his first trip down since the mid-eighties when he was working for one of Jack Kirby’s assistants Michael Thibodeaux. (an assistant to an assistant? That’s so fucking Hollywood!) so he hasn’t seen first hand what change and growth this show has undergone. So, due to traffic in his boss’s Ford Ranger (and I insisted we take the train down) we didn’t get there until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, DESPITE us leaving the house at 7:30 in the morning. The parking situation was really overwhelming to him, so rather than staying in the car with him before he lost his shit completely, I volunteered to get out of the truck and let him figure it out for himself, while I went inside to pick up the badges. I brought down a picketsign and decided to show solidarity for any those television writers who might have found their way down to nerd it up (I had asked Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romjin if they were going to attend in which Jerry responded, ‘where the hell would we stay? They cancelled all our appearances and our hotel rooms!‘). NO sooner as my brand new Sketchers touched the bare sidewalk in trying to make my way to Hall F to pick up the badges. Four cop cars slid in formation on the street beside me, as if they came back from the Miramar Air Show. One cop had his hand on his holster of which looked to be much like a taser.
“Sir, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?“, one officer politely asked.
I played coy. I kind of suspected something like this was going to happen – but four to eight police patrolman approaching me? Kind of like, overkill isn’t it?
“Officer – I’m simply a meager cosplayer exorcising my free speech rights as a member of the Writer’s –“
“Bullshit, sir! We can’t allow you on the convention center property with that sign. Please stay here while we contact...OUR WATCH COMMANDER“.
Oh jeez. all this pomp and circumstance. HOWEVER, as I was awaiting word of my bedeviled fate, some people walked up to me to take selfies of me and my big ass sign. Which come to think of it just dawned on me that I’ve should registered it as a ‘non-lethal’ weapon at the masquerade section on the convention room floor. I texted my parking spot sniffing roommate that I’m being detained by cops and I might be headed to the hoosegow. Of course he was freaking out, but I suggested to him that most likely calling Michael Thibodeaux inside would be your best bet in retriving that guess pass.
So the cop got back to me with word on where we go from here: ‘Okay, you troublesome protesting jerk-off, this is what you need to do: you need to walk across the street to that trolley station and do your protesting over there, because you’re not allowed within 100 feet of the convention center with that protest sign“. I said fine and I told him, I’ll just cross the street at the crosswalk with the rest of the patrons. They said absolutely not. ‘Cross right here to where all that grass is. There’s no traffic coming – we’ll watch for your safety. (while winking to his cop colleagues)’. I set up shop for a few minutes. Redialed my roommate again to tell him I needed picking up from the Gaslamp Quarter to put the sign back in the back seat.
“Well, where the fuck is the Gaslamp Quarter, Coatney? I’m not familiar with San Diego like you are! AND I STILL HAVEN’T FOUND A PARKING SPACE!” my roommate maniacally retorted.
Eventually after we yelled at each other, we got things sorted out. Found a parking space near the downtown jail. And my roommate had a happy San Deigo Comic-Con first day everafter – or whatever the hell was left off it.
And it was all witnessed by this random selected stormtrooper who recognized me from Colfax Ave (I think this may have been the same guy who dressed up as that astronaut). Huh, what are the odds?
I called out for the Spirit of Vengeance for help in perhaps to light a hot foot on those unfriendly cops’ asses outside – but The Ghost Rider did not answer any of my pleas. He was too busy perusing through all those Silver Age treasures inside before I could get my flaming mitts on them.
Here some amusing DC Exhibit Hall floor items.
Uh oh, better get out of the way, Marvel Zombie Captain America and The Falcon coming through.
Alex Ross wall griffiti. Or to be more precise, his idea for another wall calendar. They’re friggin’ huge. My niece and I put one up of this year’s Marvel Super-Heroes up on my living room wall.
Marvel’s promising new pricey series from writer hitmaker Jonathan Hickman. The 1st issue retails for $9.99. Came out a few weeks ago real filmsy and cheap. If Marvel is going to charge an arm and a leg for a new issue, at least put a spine on it.
Ahsoka ain’t no dummy.
I brake for Grogu.
It didn’t dawn on me that the forthcoming Ahsoka series was going to feature live action versions of some characters introduced on the Star Wars Rebels animated series. Here’s Chopper in the AI flesh.
For your space scoundrel smelling scrotties, here’s Dr. Squatch‘s line of limited edition Star Wars scented soaps. May the body scrub force be with you, smelling fresh and brand new as a nebula starburst! But please make sure, before you get to toss that Evil Emperor Palpatine over that railing into that yawning abyss of the reactor shaft, be sure to partake in a few sniffs of his fine lavender scent.
Various floor statues and props on the floor of the exhibit hall.
Hey, HR at work? I think I’m going to need a slight advance on my next paycheck.
Time to hit on the cosplayers starting with this salicious Jessica Rabbit number.
Various cosplayers of all shapes and sizes on the convention floor and just outside the exhibit hall.
Even Poison Ivy showed up along as well as The Poopybuttholes from Rick & Morty.
Some of them even spilled out into The Gaslamp Quarter. Uh oh, watch out – the evil minions of COBRA from the GI Joe franchise are coming through.
Old Man Thanos.
Well, since the strikes has paused production on Peacemaker’s 2nd season, time wasted dressing up as The Vigilante shouldn’t have been for naught.
That’s all the time I have for this month. We’ll pick up before the Thanksgiving holiday with the 4th and final day of last summer’s San Diego Comic Con International, back to the grind on Colfax with August days that exploded into instant blistering 100 degree temperature heat that it all nearly became a fight for our very survival. What was the deciding factor that finally lead us to close shop forever on Colfax and move over to the shady side of life?
Find out next time in Chapter Three: Secret Origins of The Radford Radicals!
PPGuru 