The Internet is truly a remarkable invention. I was searching for an old friend I knew when I was 19-21 years old and living the fast life in Hollywood, CA. I found him! This guy was my best friend and partner in crime (literally) when I was living out west. We lived so fast. It is a miracle that I’m not dead or caged up in LA County Prison. We were drug addicts, drug dealers, and street urchins. Our friends were the pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, and wannabe superstars, musicians and artists.
Robert landed a gig filming segments for a tabloid news television show that ran in syndication from 1989 to 1999 called Hard Copy. I filmed a lot of those episodes with Robert, with a hand-held cam, from his bandit taxi cab (a cab not approved or sealed by the city). Basically, we just had our friends from the street tell their stories and we recorded them on our cam and handed them to Hard Copy producers at Paramount. Our friends, again, were the street people in Hollywood. People living in the suburbs all over America loved the view into the city we provided. Hard Copy ate this stuff up and ran regular segments on their show and titled them “Hollywood Exposed.” We made a bunch of money from the show and that really helped fuel our fast, fast living.
At any rate, the education I received from living on those streets is incredible. The experiences I shared with people living on those same streets are invaluable. Man, the stories I could tell. Wow. At any rate, below is a picture of a TV set with our “Hollywood Exposed” segment playing on Hard Copy. I actually found this photo on the Internet! That’s Robert in the background, driving the cab, and you can see the “Exposed” part of the “Hollywood Exposed” title Hard Copy stuck on our segments.
You can catch a glimpse of these street stories from Robert himself. Google led me to a prison forum conversation wherein Robert shares his story from inside Jackson state prison in Jackson, Michigan. I can confirm his tale, because I was there, living it with him. It turns out, that after I left Hollywood, Robert continued living in the streets and doing drugs until he decided to car jack a woman in a K-Mart parking lot with a toy gun. His goal? Prison. So he could kick heroin. For him, prison was the only place on earth where he could kick. It’s some story. You can read it here.
NOTE: I actually found Robert and this conversation via a Google search back in 2005 and forgot about it ’till now. I actually left a comment in the thread back then (on page #7, comment #95) under the handle of “userx.” I then got in touch with my long lost friend, thanks to Robert’s girlfriend, Jeni, who responded to me in the very next comment in that prison forum thread (on page #7, comment #96). The last I heard, my friend was learning a trade and trying to get it together. I haven’t heard from him since. I hope he is well.
I’m thankful for my experiences in Hollywood. I’m thankful I lived through them and no permanent damage was done. I’m thankful that the personality that drove me towards that life no longer resides inside of me. Most of all, I’m thankful for those experiences because they keep me real. I’ve been there, big time. I’m thankful that I spent those years in dirty city alleys before I went to Bible College. When I reflect upon my days on the streets of Hollywood, I can’t help but to sing the following lines from “Bad Apples,” a song by a band who knocked it around those same Hollywood streets called Guns N’ Roses.
Gold and caviar, now won’t you pour my apathy
I’d have all my bases covered, if I could teach my hands to see
But now we’re down in the deep end, where they’d love to watch you drown
I said your laundry could use washing, we’ll hang it up all over town
I said Hollywood’s like a dryer, and we’re down on Sunset Strip
And you’ll be sucking down the Clorox, ’til your life’s all nice and crisp
I hope you are well, Robert, Mike, Ray, etc., etc., etc., etc.
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amazing… dirty city alleys…Bible college
obviously your story reminds us of God’s redemptive plan for all of us… thanks for sharing living and inspiring me!
Had no idea of all that, Shawn. Thanks for sharing this part of your story.
You are most welcome, Hafidha! Though, I will say, that’s just a fraction of that total story. I may have to share more of it in the future. :)
Divinity is constantly re-creating things. :)
Thanks for dropping in, Rich!
wow shawn.brings bk memories, when u live life at that speed its difficult b n a typicall joe,but im glad u made it though,ya i did finish electrical school but iz a life without such excitement even worth living,4 so long i didnt thing so but im finding out family iz what its all about.