I'd like to meet:
GORDON RAMSAY Actual letter to FOX Broadcasting: [email protected] : In March of this year I was hired at Safari West, a wildlife preserve and tent camp in the middle of Northern California's wine country; an amazingly beautiful place, the only of it's kind North America. I was hired to be the Sous Chef of one A.J. Lockwood, the Executive Chef at Safari West and (the owner of Safari West) Peter Lang's personal Chef. In a short time, after my hiring; A.J. was forced into a mandatory leave of absence, and or let go (fired). All along, I knew that I would be taking over for Mr. Lockwood but his early departure left me in a tight spot. For some reason,the higher-ups have relinquished control of the kitchen to an on-staff mechanic named, Jerry. Safari West is a tourist attraction and draws a great number of visitors (see the May issue of Sunset) and we provide a hearty meal so that our guests need not leave the grounds. We barbecue massive amounts of chicken, ribs and tri-tip on a custom made, 10 foot in diameter pit and smoke a lot of brisket in our smokers. We offer fresh salads and soups (soups, when it's not too hot), house made scalloped potatoes and fresh vegetables on our buffet line yet there are some drawbacks. A large part of the menu relies on frozen products such as lasagnas, macaroni and cheese, desserts and the the terrible appetizers. In my opinion, the entire food- related division of Safari West is in need of a complete overhaul. Upon numerous attemps to introduce new and adventurous dishes, the preexcisting waitstaff is dumbfounded and stuck in their ways, unwilling to embrace and serve such dishes. From the menu, ordering of supplies, special events, managerial, kitchen and waitstaff , this place is in deep shit. I refer to it as working in the snack bar at Knotts Berry Farm, and I've been doing this for 22 years! Safari West has great potential&n bsp; and I feel that the integrity of myself and my crew is being wasted. This place needs help but there is no way I am going to volunteer to take the helm of this sinking ship.
Please visit our website at www.safariwest.com to get a better idea of what we're all about. Accomodations in luxury tents highly reccomended, not to mention private tours on our over 400 acres. Come and explore and please help us remedy a thorn in the side of a majestic destination.
Please respond, one way or the other; if you would. My name is John Harmon and further correspondence is invited ,let's do this. I can be reached by phone at 707)5836600, you would be providing us a great service and I think it would make for a great (getaway) show.
John Harmon
S.W. Kitchen Kitchen Nightmares - Finn McCool's
Music:
Like a supernova, Roger "Syd" Barrett burned briefly and brightly, leaving an indelible mark upon psychedelic and progressive rock as the founder and original singer, songwriter, and lead guitarist of Pink Floyd. Barrett was responsible for most of their brilliant first album, 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but left and/or was fired from the band in early 1968 after his erratic behavior had made him too difficult to deal with (he appears on a couple tracks on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets). Such was his stature within the original lineup that few observers thought the band could survive his departure; in fact, the original group's management decided to keep Syd on and leave the rest of the band to their own devices. Pink Floyd never recaptured the playful humor and mad energy of their work with Barrett. After a period of hibernation, Barrett re-emerged in 1970 with a pair of albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, which featured considerable support from his former bandmates (especially his replacement, David Gilmour, who produced most of the sessions). Members of Soft Machine also play on these records, which have a ragged, unfinished, and folky feel. Barrett's eccentric humor, sly wordplay, and infectious melodies range from brilliant to chaotic on his solo work. Lacking the taut power of his recordings with the Floyd in 1967, they nevertheless remain fascinating and moving glimpses into a creative psyche gone awry after (it is theorized) too much fame and too many drugs too early. With increasing psychological problems, Barrett withdrew into near-total seclusion after these albums and never released any more material.
Heroes:
VOIVOD Larry Harmon, longtime Bozo the Clown, dies at 83LOS ANGELES (AP) - Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos."You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview."Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, was the first Bozo the Clown, a character created by writer-producer Alan W. Livingston for a series of children's records in 1946. Livingston said he came up with the name Bozo after polling several people at Capitol Records.Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume."I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo."He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday.The business - combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances - made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets."I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.Bozo - portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell - was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig as the first. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history.He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character - "What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like" - and what he did to popularize Bozo."Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time.Harmon protected Bozo's reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown.As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior."It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products," Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996.A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. "Harmon's is a classic character. It's been around 50 years."On New Year's Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena.The crowd reaction, he recalled, "was deafening.""They kept yelling, 'Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.' I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had," he said. "I still get goose bumps."Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California."Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life," Harmon once said. "People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.