John Alden Photography

  Why I left Scientology Same as it ever was  Open show with this.  Paddy- twin? 02/04/24 What if debi opened with an incredible song… then into my bit.  Just to set the mood. Ok… start it off as a sort of , line in a hat.” But, instead, hand out a one question questionnaire, and Tha question would be, what would you like to know about what I know about Scientology.  Add… and, I do not know if john travolta is gay. The show opens with a question being drawn from the box. Before anything else is said, a question is read. And answered. (All off script, truth as recalled.) "Then, there is the box in front of me, and you, it is 36 pounds of mail I got last year from the church of Scientology.  They have called me more times than I care to remember.  They ask if they could verify my address.  I’d ask them what address they were using and then I’d validate whatever they said, because it wasn’t my address." Then in March of 2023, after ...

  Five things that I a m proud of about myself. I'm in a relationship that is beyond my expectations I've been a ble to build a business that is a mover and a shaker I can make people laugh and feel more comfortable with themselves  4. I am a talented artist  I'm proud of my children and the lives they are living, although my influence in their lives was short-lived  Journal a day in my life when I was living fully and confidently 

  Today I attended a memorial service.  Once the service was over it was announced that there would be a reception with food and drinks in the banquet hall.   I followed my sister and her adult children in and we sat down. My niece said that the food was from Panera and asked me if I liked it. I told her it was good. She said her husband didn't like it because they don't give you very much food for the amount you spend. I said, "So the food to cost ratio is out of alignment?" To which replied, yup.  Made me think about how we want to be able to realize a deal even if it means overeating. I wondered how much food would have to be there on his plate to make him feel like it was an equitable deal.  Just another subtle social construct that pervades our food consciousness- cost vs quantity.  By the way, I had a 1/2 sandwich and salad - no chips, extra bread, or saucer sized chocolate chip cookie, and I (most importantly) stayed on budget. My observation for...

May 24, 2924 The Young Warriors - Join us for the one and only and evermore, this century, premier?   In 1986, the film The Young Warriors (aka- The Graduates of Malibu High) was in limited release to 10s of theaters. It payed once in a now-defunct theater in Clovis one night.  Why would you want to see this? Well, I, John Alden, was a co-star in the film. I play a shy mexican boy,Jorge, my ass (albeit a younger, 26 year old version of my ass) and I am brutally murdered.  I have been asked repeatedly over the years to show it. So be it! Saturday, May 11, 2024 will be the ONLY! chance to see this ill-breed, foot-licking, hedge-pig of a film  I understand if that’s the day to get the dogs toenails clipped and you can’t make it, but tere will ot be a next time. After this canker-blossom of a movie,will dive headfirst into the archives, and wither to dust, never to be seen again. There is a lot of stories of the behind the scenes making this film, in the scenes, outside ...

  I couldn’t hear you through all your talking.  Oct 28,24 Sequoia

The cats that live in between There’s the front porch cat.  There is the back porch cat,  & there is the cats that live in between. It’s not that they are different,  it’s not that they are mean It’s by no fault of their own that they are cats in between.  living within these walls,  Chasing one another as the urge calls, One a girl the other like a brother.    Surging through dining furniture  between the legs  the overhang  and all. Narrowly dodging beams overhead Missing one would knock them instead They pass through the wall Through the portal built within, To the Catio outside into the sun  where I swear they grin Allowing them space Air and grace To be the cats in between. Neither the front porch cat whose name is the same Nor the back porch cat, who we call Penny Their lives together are simple and don’t require many living together, nice and never mean But these are not the cats in-between .  The cat that’s the olde...

  I have driven home from Pasadena, let’s face it- so many places in southern California,   this afternoon.   As many times as I have made that drive, and dreaded the next 3- 31/2 hours of coming across the grapevine, crossing the greater Bakersfield  area: Pumpkin Patch, White Lane, Panama and Ming (if you wanna get to the mall), rolling past I58, California, Rosedale Standad Road then greeting the valley at 75/80 MPH. It’s Small town after small town, Freeway attraction after another Freeway attraction. If you missed the Starbucks or Panda Express , or McDonalds (no listeria detected) at that last exit, give it 15-20 miles you’ll and you’ll be at another. They even look the same.  So, here’s an,  headed south on the I-5, 2-3 miles before the grade, and I took this photo, forever and hereafter known as 75SBI5. Beautiful sky.  Apple  IPhone 14 Pro Max

  June 2, 2023 - Bugs To me, as a young boy freshly relocated from the depths of a Los Angeles suburb of Fullerton to a seven acre ranch in N. Fresno, anything that crawled in the dirt was a bug, Small things, things with black shells, or wings, or pincers, or they were red, blue, green or translucent, with six legs or eight or a hundred. Wings or wingless, they were all bugs and I’d study them, poking and provoking them and sometimes I’d felt the need to step on them. But as a boy i liked to catch bugs. Trap them in a jar, and wait for them to die. Then I’d pushed a pin though their backs into a piece of styrofoam kept under a homemade dried bug rack. It was something I had seen in books, elevate the bugs above a substrate and attach a label of best guess species and type to the date. It was my way of making sense of the environment. I thought about studying bugs deeper, but there was a distinct noise made when the pin snapped trough the exoskeleton and plugged through to be s...

 Unconditional love -   Dogs I’ve always had dogs in my life. I really can’t remember a time, maybe when I was away at school in Monterey, when I did not have a dog. All my dogs were remarkable, loyal, and loved unconditionally. All special and talented in their own way. Boogie, the first dog I remember, was a basset hound. His eyelids drooped, so did his jowels and especially droopy, were his ears. They seem to nearly touch the floor when he walked. If he had his nose down, sniffing, his ears dragged behind him like two wet mops.  When he ate, his ears mixed with his food and often the wet canned food he ate, would cake on his ear tips, dry and get crusty. Mom would clean it off until the next time. I don’t recall whatever happened to Boogie. He was there with me as a toddler and a kindergartener through first grade at Woodcrest Elementary in Fullerton. He was always hanging round, loafing, eating, sleeping wanting pets.  One day that I heard we were ...