Allen Rucker

BOFFO MR. NO LEGS

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:41:00 +0000

Thank you all for your overwhelming response to Mr. No Legs. We will try to find more footage of MNL to show here or if you have any suggestions of comparable dis-action films to see, let us know.

Meanwhile, check out the latest edition of the Journal of the Tranverse Myelitis Assoication on-line. I'm now a regular contributor. My own offering is on page 53. Scroll down.

Please copy and paste the address:

www.scribd.com/doc/3665429/

YOU ASKED FOR IT!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Here is one of the big action scenes from MR. NO LEGS, 1981 low-low-budget cult-crip classic. Mr No Legs himself is not a cheery poster boy for triumph over adversity. He's a hitman and all-around vicious bonebreaker, wonderfully dis-ably played by actor Ted Vollrath. Remember...don't f**k with Mr. No Legs!

WHAT'S HAPPENING!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:26:00 +0000

Classic TV redux. For your viewing enjoyment. This bit of whimsy has gotten 10,000 hits on Youtube. And 75 thumb's ups!

THE BEIJING SHUFFLE

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I hate to trump Mr. No Legs -- don't worry, he'll be back -- but the lovely GAIL WILLIAMSON, exec director of the Down Syndrome Association of LA sent me an article about the Beijing Olympics from the Times of London which is just INSANE. Titled DISABLED GROUPS OUTRAGED BY BEIJING SNUB, it describes what organizers think volunteers should know about the disabled, in their words, "a 'special group' with 'unique personalities and ways of thinking.'"

Here's my favorite bite from the article:

The section of the manual entitled “Skills for helping the disabled” goes on to say: “Some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective. They can be stubborn and controlling . . . defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority."

But, hey, other than that, they are just like the rest of us!

I recommend that you read the whole piece at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4009610.ece

They don't like disabled folks in China. They think we're weird and slightly sub-human. According to the piece, there are bans on marriages between disabled people over there. I hope some stubborn, controlling, defensive, unsocial Paralympian goes over there and sets them straight.

And I know just the man for the job: MR. NO LEGS!

MR. NO LEGS

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:25:00 +0000

My son Blaine sent me this poster of what is obviously a classic B-movie from the 70's with the baddest-ass double amp in the history of film. Go to YouTube to catch a clip from this opus. And remember...never f**k with Mr. No Legs!

Also: check out the June issue of New Mobility magazine. Included is a piece I wrote about a trip to visit wounded warriors at Walter Reed Medical Center in DC.

WE AIM TO PLEASE

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:27:00 +0000

I got an email the other day reading..."Hey, what's up with that beautiful niece of yours in Tulsa, Laura Blight? Is she still married to that English lad who looks like Hugh Grant? Doesn't she have a passel of bright-eyed kids? How come we never see THEM on your blog? Signed, Your Biggest Fan."

Thanks, Fan, we love special requests here at allenrucker.com/blog. So here they are for your viewing pleasure, the ballet-loving Blight Family. Love to all, AR

NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:11:00 +0000

Hey, why don't you to come to the ABILITIES Expo in Anaheim, CA this coming Saturday, 5/31, head right for the NSCIA (National Spinal Cord Injury Assoc) booth where I'll be signing books, and say, "Paulie sent me." Persuasive, guy, huh?

For more info, go to: http://soc.abilitiesexpo.com/iaesoc/v42/index.cvn

NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO PROBLEM!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:50:00 +0000

This eye-catching photo was sent to me by my good and great friend Billy Bob Harris of Dallas, Texas. I can't wait to drop by, have some pork chops, and give them a copy of the book they obviously named their restaurant after. I just wonder if the place is, you know, accessible.

If you've eaten there, please let me know.

AR

DO DROP INN

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Briefly...I will be speaking at the 10th Annual County of Los Angeles MULTICULTURAL CONFERENCE at the Universal Hilton at 10:30 am on THURSDAY, MAY 15.

Also, I will be signing books at the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) booth at the So Cal ABILITIES EXPO at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim both morning and afternoon on SATURDAY, MAY 30.

Come to either event, say you read about it on this web site, and...well, just come and find out yourself.

WOEFULLY REMISS

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I know, some of you have turned to this blog periodically only to mumble, "Jeez, this guy is a one pathetic blogger. He should be thrown out of the international brotherhood of blogmeisters."

I'll try to do better, I swear.

Just out: the new issue of ABILITY Magazine with celebrity chef Sandra Lee on the cover and a piece I wrote about my "undercover" trip to the Glen Ivy Spa in Corona, CA to see how they treated users of wheelchairs. I aspire to becoming the foremost expert on worldwide spa/disability reporting.

Coming up: in the June issue of New Mobility mag, I write about the trip we made to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center a few months back to visit some wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was eye-opening and very moving. Please check it out if you can.

Here are two pics from that trip. First, there's Ann-Marie and I out front of Walter Reed, then a group shot including Nicole Ray and Dayna Jamison, the two wonderful women at WRAMC who paved the way for our visit.

And thank you out there for the hundreds and hundreds of letters I keep getting re "The Best Seat In The House." Maybe I should publish a few. They're great.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:17:00 +0000

From my friend Hudson Marquez: this is how our Chinese hosts will greet the disabled.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Thanks for checking in even though there hasn't been a new blog here for a while. I swear, I'll strive to do better in the future.

This just in...check out a wonderful new book called "NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING." It's a delightful compilation of six-word memoirs put together by the editors of the on-line magazine, SMITH. See, Ernest Hemingway was once asked to write a story in six words and three drinks later, he announced..."For sale. Baby shoes. Never used." So, the SMITH people began to solicit six word life stories from both the famous and the obscure. Ergo, this book.

If you're just thumbing through it in the bookstore, mine is on page 92, right before Harold Ramis's.

For more info, go to http://www.smithmag.net/.

Then sum up your own life in six words and send it to them for the inevitable volume two.

IT'S ALL NEW AND THE KIDS LOVE IT!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:06:00 +0000

Brand spanking new web site, thanks to Blaine Rucker. There are many more videos, both on the home page and the VIDEOS page. If you scroll down the home page, you'll come to a video made by an industrious 15-year-old high school sophomore -- code name "Hyperwires"-- and posted on You Tube. Here is her explanation of the video:

"For another English assignment, I was assigned to read a non-fiction book, give a short speech about it and provide some sort of visual such as a slideshow or poster. I decided to create a video for the book by Allen Rucker which I read, The Best Seat in the House. In the book, he tells of how he was instantly paralyzed from the waist down one Tuesday. I used clips of one of my favorite shows, Lost, because Terry 0' Quinn seems to portray Allen Rucker very well and he plays John Locke who used to be in a wheelchair."

Thanks, Hyperwires, and thank YOU for watching.

IT'S A WHOLE NEW YEAR

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:58:00 +0000

In every way. Soon this site will get a remod, courtesy of master designer Blaine, but meanwhile, here is some news you can use:

The paperback edition of “The Best Seat In The House” is now in bookstores and at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. At only $13.95, it fits any budget. Buy one for the library and another for the bath.

I’ll have the distinct honor of visiting wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Wednesday, Feb 6th. My editor from Harper Collins, Gail Winston, is flying down from New York and we will be meeting recovering paralytics and handing out books. I only hope it does some good.

Check out this user-generated video about the book on You Tube. http://youtube.com/watch?v=koslh7iEs7I
Thanks, "Hyperwires," whoever you are.

I’m writing an article on artist/director Julian Schnabel for the next issue of ABILITY Magazine (http://www.abilitymagazine.com)I met with him last week on an awards-tour swing through LA. If you haven’t seen his film, “The Diving Bell and The Butterfly,” about a man with “locked-in syndrome,” the most extreme form of paralysis, then you are missing out on something profound, moving, and in its own absurd way, comic.

Finally, there is an upcoming one-day So Cal symposium on transverse myelitis and other rare neuro disorders on Saturday, Feb 23th in Anaheim. Sponsored by the Transverse Myelitis Association, noted doctors in the field like Dr. Douglas Kerr from Johns Hopkins will be presenting an all-day educational program. For more information, go to the TMA web site -- http://www.myelitis.org/.

Support the WGA strike! Later.

SEE YOU IN SAN FRANCISCO

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:05:00 +0000

A week or so back, I got a wonderful note from a woman in Connecticut named Nancy Noonan. Nancy's 34-year-old daughter-in-law in San Francisco, Cynthia, had recently be stricken with Transverse Myelitis and is currently a C5/T1 paralytic. Nancy asked me if I'd be willing to come up to San Francisco on Saturday, December 8th, to be part of a community fundraiser for Cynthia and her husband, Trevor. So I'll be there, for sure, signing books and whatnot. The wonderful people at Book Passage in SF are donating books for the occasion. If you live in the area, please drop by and add your support.

The event is at a tavern called Liverpool Lil's, located at 2942 Lyon @ Lombard in San Francisco. The phone is 415.921.6664. The event is from noon til five.

To learn more about the Noonans, go to:

Go here

Remember, Saturday, 12/8, Liverpool Lil's. See you there.

STRIKE!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Photos from the picket line yesterday in front of Warner Bros in Burbank. Performers with Disabilities (PWD) joined writers with disabilities (WWD) and many others. One pic is with actor/activist/pal Danny Murphy and one is with Down syndrome maven Gail Williamson. A rousing good time of political oneness was had by all. Thanks intrepid photog Marty Sweeney for the pix.

WGA STRIKE PART TWO

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:37:00 +0000

Videos about the Writers Guild strike now pop up daily and it's my duty to pass on the best of them to you, the millions of loyal readers of this blog. The best of the best, I think, is this video by Phil Alden Robinson, writer of "Field of Dreams" and "All of Me" and WGA board member. Please go to You Tube and watch this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tqrrwxfP29o

Then please send it on to anyone who has ever watched an American movie or TV show. Is that asking too much?

As usual, your comments and suggestions are always welcome here at allenrucker.com. In fact, we live for them. Thanks.

WGA STRIKE

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:21:00 +0000

If you want to know what the Writers Guild strike in Hollywood and New York is all about, it's about money. The six giant corporations that control virtually all of broadcast and cable television and feature film distribution want to keep all of the money generated by new media like the Internet and podcasting and watching "The Office" on your telephone, etc. Under their plan, the writers who write all the shows that appear or re-appear on those new outlets get nothing. Nada. It's billions for them versus pennies for writers.

To learn more, watch this video on You Tube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

More to come.

URIM &THUMMIN

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:57:00 +0000

My friend Dub Cornett's documentary about three country boys who found an object at Goodwill which allows them to communicate with God -- the hallowed URIM & THUMMIN -- has recently been accepted at the prestigious International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam. Go to the Urim & Thummim website -- http://www.utmovie.com/UT%20Website/Welcome.html -- and watch the trailer. You can also go to the IDFA site -- http://www.idfa.nl/en/ -- to check it out. Dub is headed to Amsterdam to sit on a panel with Werner Herzog, a fan of the film.

This is absolutly mind-blowing stuff -- outsider reality, as it were -- something Dub specializes in. These boys have located a spiritual icon of the ages. Flannery O'Connor could have written this story. Think "Wise Blood" centered on a sixty-nine cent curio through which believers have mystic visions.

This is exactly how Mormonism got started and now we have a Mormon running for President.

Think about it.

ABILITY

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:56:00 +0000

To all dis-cogniscenti: check out the current issue of ABILITY Magazine, just out, for fine pieces on the soon-to-be-released movie, "Music Within," all about the rise of the disability movement leading to the ADA; the rise of MS in children; and my own contribution, a rant about the invisibility of the disabled called "Stuck At The Starting Line." Actor Ron Livingston is on the cover.

The pic is me speaking at the Goodwill Industries gala in Nashville. Nice suit, huh? Thanks again to David Lifsey and company for a great time.

LITBLOG ALERT

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:41:00 +0000

If you haven't done so already, check out the literary blog The Publishing Spot -- http://www.thepublishingspot.com/ -- which is running a five-part interview with me all this week. Litblogs have replaced the daily newspaper and other print outlets as the media bullhorn for new books, new authors, advice to writers, and all other things literary. They are entertaining, informative, and yes, essential to the survival of civilization as we know it. The Pub Spot is a good place to start.

QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:18:00 +0000

Check out the brilliant Harry Shearer's reports about the recovery of New Orleans -- called Crescent City Stories -- on his own channel on the My Damn Channel web site. http://mydamnchannel.com/.

Harry Shearer is a national treasure. Let's bronze him and put him on the steps of the Capitol.

YOU MUST READ THIS!

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:11:00 +0000

OKAY, it's not that important, but now that I have your attention, I want to thank the good people at Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee in Nashville and at Rancho Los Amigos Rehab in Downey, CA for inviting me to speak in the last couple of weeks. Goodwill is a GREAT organization (dating back to 1902) helping people get back on their feet and Rancho is the #1 facility of its kind in the US, at least according to US News, and you can't argue with them. When this web site gets its fall make-over -- any minute now -- you'll learn more about these fine groups and some of the other places I've been recently to talk about life after paralysis.

Item #2: Check out the fine literary blog, The Publishing Spot, created and edited by Jason Boog. You'll find it at www.thepublishingspot.com. I did a long written interview with Jason that gets posted next week. Jason is part of a growing army of young writers and book-lovers who won't let The Book get eaten up by the ever-looming Digital Behemoth without a fight to the death. I'm not that worried, but then again, I'm not young and can't imagine a world without books and dogs. Books are not just a "delivery system," for chrissakes. Books are an un-replicable experience, a highly intimate, mind-to-mind encounter, a...ask Jason. He'll set you straight.

Finally, here's a picture from the TVTV archives circa 1975. This was taken during the shooting of a show about Cajun Mardi Gras and music called "The Good Times Are Killing Me." The show is available through Electronic Arts Intermix in New York.

That's it.

BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:02:00 +0000

For all you fans of HBO's "Flight of the Concords," here's Max with Jemaine at last Sunday's HBO Post-Emmy Party. Bret was off mingling with the ladies and Murray was apparently still parking the car.

Also new: an excellent spread about the book and my college days in the Washington University, St. Louis Alumi Magazine. http://magazine.wustl.edu/Fall07, then scroll down to article. Hats off to editor Terri Nappier, writer C.B Adams, and photographer Ron Brown for an A+ job!

GRAVY OVER ALL

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:30:00 +0000

Just back from my hometown of Bartlesville, Oklahoma and the distinct honor and privilege of seeing a framed cover of "The Best Seat In The House" on the wall of fame -- right next to OU legend Barry Switzer -- at one of the finest eateries west of Le Cirque, Murphy's Original Steakhouse. That's owner Paul Murphy, high school classmate of mine, next to me in the pic. I brought 13 in-laws -- including five squirmers -- to dinner with me and Paul treated the whole clan. If you're in the area, do yourself a favor and drop by Murphy's. Order the hot hamburger with gravy over all. You won't be disappointed.