Are you ready for new dimensions and countless possibilities today and for the future?
It's an exciting new time and the answers are out there.
So join Mary Jane Pops as she explores the unique and unusual for a better life on Popsop
and Search for the Truth.
And here she is, Mary Jane Pops.
Yep, here I am.
Thank you, Michael.
I appreciate that.
And yeah, welcome to our two of Popsop Talk and got a good one a little bit later on.
Judy Norton is going to join us.
If you remember the television series, the Waltons, and it's kind of interesting because
people are seeing it for the first time.
New generations are seeing.
I was thumbing through some of the stuff on the Internet the other day.
And there it was.
And then I was watching something on television.
There was.
It's still running.
The Waltons.
It was a time when people got together with families to watch television at that time.
So Judy Norton, she played Mary Ellen on the Waltons.
She's going to be with us later.
But before we do that, where are we?
You know, the technology in movies and television and, you know, how do we even get our information
that we believe?
How do we have feelings about the information that we're getting?
I'm not sure it even exists anymore.
We're going to find out.
Hang in there.
It's Popsop Talk.
And you know we do talk about it all.
Boy, is it a sign at that time?
No, let's be honest.
Life can be complicated.
And we can be drawn into situations that influence our personal lives.
And I'm sure that influence came to Carrie Ricky as she delved into the life of Agnes
Varda and her book called A Complicated Passion, The Life and Work of Agnes Varda.
And I'll be honest with you.
I didn't know who Agnes Varda was.
Now Carrie is an award-winning film critic, art critic, film historian.
She was the film critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer for like 25 years and written for
the New York Times, The Village Voice, Political.
I can go on and on and on.
But she's got so much to be able to share with us.
Carrie, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us on Popsop Talk.
Well, thank you for asking me.
Oh, absolutely.
My pleasure.
So what?
Tell me who Agnes Varda is.
I mean, I got some information.
But I don't know her.
And why is she important?
Well, she was a Belgian-born French-raised photographer, filmmaker, artist.
She is the female filmmaker with the longest career in cinema history, 65 years.
And when you consider that Steven Spielberg is 78 and he's only made with me for 54 years,
that's pretty...
65 years is pretty good.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Okay.
How did you...
When did she pass?
I was just...
She died in 2019 at the age of almost 91.
She worked from age 19 to three days before she died at almost 91.
And she never stopped.
And there was a lot of obstacles for women directors.
And she somehow surmounted them all.
Amazing.
And continued working for so long.
Did you ever meet her?
I met her three times, twice for Blanche at Film Festival and went to for a formal interview.
And she was a pistol, as they say.
Oh, that's good.
We need more of those pistols, I really do.
Why a complicated passion?
Why was that book important?
Well, why the book?
Well, I just...
She has people who are movie geeks like I am, know who she is.
And they love her movies.
But I just thought that although she had many fans in America and although she worked in
America, she is not as well known here and it would be good to have a biography in English.
Not only because she was a great photographer and filmmaker and artist, but because she
shows us how to never take no for an answer.
And to take joy in working and to take joy in connecting with people and to take joy from
connecting, you know, just living.
And she has an incredible amount of empathy and she...
And in order to an amount of humor.
And I thought that story was interesting to tell too.
And, you know, no matter whether you know the movies or not, she's just interesting.
Also Mary Jane, she knew everybody.
I mean, Susan Sontag was her ally in the anti-war movement during the 60s.
Simone Dubois, the French philosopher, was her ally in the reproductive rights movement
in France.
She made a movie about Huey Newton called Black Panther in 1968 and she was friends with
Huey Newton.
She made Harrison Ford's first screen test.
She discovered Gerard Defardou.
I mean, shall I go on?
Wow.
That's all I can say.
Wow.
That's amazing.
Have you friended everyone from celebrities to, you know, gypsies who were as people say
food insecure and why they gleaned from...
From gleaned food from fields and because they were hungry.
And because it is stipulated as a rule in the Bible and also in French law.
And it's allowed even though corporate agriculture doesn't really want to recognize it.
But she made movies about things that no one else made movies about.
And she's always ahead of her time.
Yeah, I was just going to say.
You said she addressed things like sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights,
race relations.
Man, she was definitely ahead of her time.
And yes.
And she...
There are a lot of people who make documentaries who are telling you what to think.
Varna had respect for the audience and she just...
She was like a reporter.
And laid out what was there and she wanted you to do the work to make a conclusion about
what you thought.
How did she influence you?
Well, when I was 18 years old at the University of California San Diego, I had a film class
with a eccentric and wonderful film critic named Manny Farber.
And he told us we were going to watch a film by...
I misheard it.
Angus Varna.
Oh, okay.
A filmmaker.
And the movie started.
The movie was named Cleo from Five to Seven.
And the director was Agnes Varna.
And I realized, oh my God, a woman director, is there such a thing?
And if there is, why haven't I ever heard of one?
Wow.
And the movie was so different than the male-male buddy movies or whatever I was seeing in
the early 1970s.
Oh, and movies like...
Really great movies like The Godfather.
But there was a woman in it and she wasn't only pretty or nagging her husband.
Yeah, gotcha.
She had a character.
Yeah, yeah.
And I was so stunned that it politicized me.
But I enjoyed the movie a great deal.
Oh, that's good.
That helps.
You're entertained in addition to learning something.
But did she have issues of her own?
I mean, she fought, obviously.
She had a fight to be a director during her days.
Well, I don't know if you knew this.
And I'm sure a lot of your audience doesn't know this.
As early as 1896 when the first movies started being projected in Paris and America, there
were women directors.
Really?
They were there at the beginning.
And most of them were erased by film historians.
But they weren't, you know, they weren't important.
But they were hugely...
They were excellent directors.
They...
Some were funny.
One of them were making movies about women's issues, about women going to colleges, about
women wanting reproductive rights as early as 1916.
Wow.
These women and their names are Alice Gee Blache, Lois Weber.
They are erased from film history.
I didn't know about them until I was 40.
Why do you think they were erased from history?
Male dominance?
I have to guess because most of the film historians at the time were men.
And maybe they just didn't know.
Or I don't know.
I would have to...
I have to think that that was part of it.
And I have to also think that they were...
When the studios happened in the early 1920s, these studio bosses didn't want people who
had their own studios like Alice Gee Blache, who was the first woman with her own studio
in 1910 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, or Lois Weber, who had her own studio and made tons
of money, was the most popular director at Universal Pictures in 1917.
And there were more women working or releasing movies at Universal Pictures in 1917 than 2017.
Wow.
And that's kind of annoying.
But they didn't have the...
They were made their movies before the studios conglomerated.
And the studios had more power than these independent directors had.
And the studio directors got put down in history books that were written about and were not
erased.
So...
But anyhow...
It was amazing that those women could do what they did because they couldn't even at
that time own anything for the most part.
They had to have the husbands, you know, it would be under the husband.
Oh, correct.
You know, and I have to say that a lot of women directors had husbands who were also in the
business that did other things.
It's really, really interesting.
But that's not about Agnes.
Agnes Bordeaux also produced many of her own movies.
She actually recognized that a lot of women had been written out of history.
And that wasn't going to happen to her.
She bought back the movies that she made with other producers because she wanted to own
them and she wanted to make the money off of them and didn't want to share it.
Amazing.
With producers.
She figured it out.
And for you being a filmmaker and a director, what do you think about movies today?
I kind of love the kind of movie that when you leave you remember something.
What makes a difference in your life?
It somehow makes something inside of you feel something.
And a lot of the movies today, I don't feel nothing when I leave.
Well, that's why the independent film movement in America is so important.
And Bordeaux was the person who made the first movie of the French New Wave, which
very much influenced the independent cinema movement in America in the 70s and 80s.
And she basically said, do it yourself.
Don't ask someone to help you.
Figure it out.
Figure out how to finance this.
And you don't have to make a terribly expensive movie with a lot of bets.
You can just go out and shoot outside and make movies about life.
I'm glad you mentioned that because I don't know if you're familiar with Perry King.
Perry was the original TV series Riptide, but he did Slaughterhouse Five tons of stuff.
And his dream was to make a movie that he really felt that he had to do something inside
of him said he had to do.
He finally accomplished that.
I think it started in 2015, 16, 17, something like that.
And the problem was to produce that movie he had.
People came out of the woodwork.
We'll give you the money to do the movie.
However, there was a caveat.
We want some sex scenes.
We want some love scenes, some skin, that type of thing.
And he said, no, that's not the movie I want to make.
And he went ahead and financed the movie himself.
It turned out to be a beautiful, it's called a divide.
And it was the kind of movie that when you left, first of all, you were crying.
I always liked that.
Yeah.
And the second is I never forgot it.
I never forgot some of the things that he said in that movie or felt in that movie.
And I don't see much of that anymore.
Do you?
Well, I have to say that when COVID, about six months ago, I was writing a book and
copy getting in a book.
And I wasn't seeing a lot of new movies.
But I saw enough new movies to realize I wasn't going that much anymore because I wasn't very
interested in Marvel movies.
And although my younger daughter loves them, then she's sensible.
But I don't get emotional about superheroes.
Well, all they do is blow up things.
Well, there is just too much explosion.
I mean, I have to admit, I like Robert Danny, Jr. in the Iron Man movies because he's a
great actor.
And he makes things emotional.
And if you have a really good actor, they can rope you in.
Yeah, I agree.
Yes, I'm not seeing it now.
And I'm not seeing it on streaming services either.
I'm seeing really for the most part, formula movies.
The only thing I really have enjoyed on streaming is a comedy series called Hacks with Dream
Smart.
Oh, I haven't seen that.
A great series with Michael Douglas and...
Oh, God.
I'm forgetting his name.
It's called the Kamikski Method.
And it was hilarious.
Oh.
But this is a couple of...
Both of them are a couple of years old.
TV is not about...
TV theories are about cliffhangers and will they or won't they sleep together so they
can stream along?
Yeah.
It's about character.
It's not about places or scenery or deep stuff.
Yeah, or something.
Or actually learn something from it.
But I have to say, Varda made movies that were emotional.
Yeah, I love that.
See, I do love that.
Now, okay, which brings up another thing.
Artificial intelligence, Eddong got no emotion.
So how is that going to fit into this whole thing with films and TV and all that?
I can't say.
I don't have a crystal ball, but I read papers by college students who have used artificial
intelligence to construct a paper where I asked one question and the AI machine they
used didn't answer it.
That's how I knew they were using AI and they finally confessed.
And I said, I want what you think.
I want you to think it through.
I don't want a machine to think it through.
Good.
Good.
And that's one of the reasons I don't like teaching anymore.
I don't blame you a bit.
Kind of mine has a young daughter first year in college and they were asked to give a synopsis
of some kind of paper that they wanted to write.
I don't remember what the subject matter was.
And they said, when you have that synopsis done, then do AI and let it give you suggestions.
I don't want a machine telling me suggestions on what I think or feel or want to do.
That to me is not real.
What do you think?
It's not real.
It's not.
And I think that's why we like movies about real people.
That's why film biographies wrote people in because, wow, he or she did that and I was
a real person.
This is an advocacy.
Yes, absolutely.
Well, and I apologize to everyone who loves Marvel movies.
They're fine.
They're there.
It's fun to watch it once in a while, but to have a steady diet of it too much.
That's how I feel.
I still like to talk to people.
I don't want to talk to an Android at this point.
I don't see these androids being like data from Star Trek the next generation is not
there yet.
Even that Android wanted to be human.
So it's like, well, that's the whole thing about angels and androids.
They all want to be human.
There you go.
We want the androids.
You had an encounter with Amazon.
Did it frustrate you?
I was trying to explain to an AI chat bot that the package on my the belly left on my
doorstep when they were advised to put it through the mail slot was stolen.
And it kept on kind of saying that wasn't anything he was programmed for.
And it was a he and he kept on interrupting me and telling me my choices of what I could
say.
And I got totally frustrated and I called it an emergency line at Amazon and then please
a human please.
I do that all the time.
You hit the zero or keep saying representative.
Representative, I want a human.
Thank you very much.
But I want a human.
I don't think my chat bot recognized the concept of human.
There you go.
I think you're absolutely right.
He has been programmed.
So what do you want people to take away from a complicated passion?
I want them to be.
To think about being open to the world and looking just looking for stories everywhere.
Ever large or small.
And thinking about how a lot of Vardamovies oppose something that an individual is doing
with with that person's place in a community.
And she her characters and stories really go from individual space to community space
and how we deal with both.
And everyone deals with both and how much better is when you can strike up conversations
with people who aren't like you.
Which I think is a really important message this election year.
Because not all of us are in agreement.
But we can be civil to each other.
No matter who we vote for.
We're all human I hope.
Sometimes I wonder.
Sometimes I wonder.
We have the same needs and we have the same.
I think Bardo was just an inherently generous and politically aware person who believed
that everyone had a right to food, to respect, to jobs.
And then to thoughts.
And the movies come from a different time.
But she really influenced a lot of people to make movies.
And not to make big extravaganzas but just to make movies that mattered.
And without preaching to us.
Absolutely.
Do you have a website?
I do.
It's karaiki.com.
It's the ARRIE.
It has some of my writing on it but it mostly has quotes about the book and promotion of
the book.
But yes, you can just search me.
I have a lot of stuff.
Fantastic.
Well, Carrie, it really has been a pleasure talking with you.
I'd love to have you come back again sometime so we can continue.
To be continued.
How's that?
Well, thank you very much.
And hi to Sacramento.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And you just take good care.
Oh, I love Sacramento because Bardo Keaton made movies there.
Oh, I love it.
That's true.
I mean, do I watch Bardo Keaton?
No, no.
But it was fun.
Those movies are great.
They're still funny.
That's it.
They're funny.
And it didn't take dirty words to make it funny.
It was really something.
It was a belly laugh.
It was a real belly laugh.
But anyway, Carrie, thank you so much.
I hope you'll come back again because we've got so much more to talk about.
Okay.
Thanks for so much.
You bet.
Bye-bye.
The name of the book, A Complicated Passion.
And what?
I mean, this lady, I got to look up some more information on Bardo.
This just sounds fascinating.
Anyway, stay with us.
Remember the Waltons, the TV series, the classic iconic TV series?
Well, we've got one of the stars.
Stay with us on Top Talk.
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I mean, how can you forget what that music was from?
Yes, it was and still is a classic television series.
One that actually brought families together to watch the Waltons.
And of course we know her, our guest, as Mary Almond in real life, Judy Norton.
But Judy, she had been busy as ever with so many projects from Stargate, Inclusion
Criteria and so many more.
From stage at the tender year of seven years old to television, the big screen, add song
stress and director to.
We're going to find out what this multi-talented Judy Norton is up to these days.
Hi, Judy.
How are you?
Hi, I'm fine.
It's been a minute.
It's been a while since we've talked.
But you know what?
You didn't let the grass grow under your feet.
I mean, you were just, you kept doing stuff.
Yeah.
I've always been sort of, well, if a door closes, crawl through a window or something.
Yeah, whatever.
They always say another door opens.
No, you have to open it.
That's the thing.
Sometimes you have to kick it in and sometimes you have to grease the locks.
Who knows?
You betcha.
What draws you most?
Stage, TV, singing, film or all of the above?
All of the above.
There's things I love about each one of them and I love being able to sort of mix it up
because there's a different energy to each of those creative outlets.
So I can find enjoyment in each one of them, whether I'm working as a performer or I'm
working behind the scenes writing or directing.
Yeah, there's joy in all of it.
So what's most important to Judy Norton?
Ah, wow.
That's a trick question.
Not really, but I would say always having some sort of a goal that inspires me.
I think that as long as we're continuing to pursue things that we enjoy and bring satisfaction
to us, I get a lot of satisfaction out of creative endeavors that I sort of an artist
that's at my core.
So having an opportunity to entertain, to inspire, to help bring hope.
And I think that being able to touch people and what was wonderful about the Waltons was
that we did, I think, bring a lot of hope to people and we fled their own lives.
And I have found over the years more and more that the work that I do means more to me when
people are somehow touched by it.
They relate to it even if it is just that they were able to forget their troubles for
an evening and sit back and laugh and enjoy.
So I think that means a lot to me.
We don't seem to have, and I want to get your read on this, the movies that we see today,
whether it's made for television or the big screen, you know, it's the Marvel movies.
It's the blow everything up and, you know, the crazy stuff.
I want to walk out, you know, in tears or remember something very special from that
movie that the changes me, that touches me.
And we don't see a whole lot of that anymore.
I think that I think there's something for everyone.
There just may not be the same degree of what some of us want.
Clearly there are people watching a lot of the things that are being made that may not
appeal to me, but I can't say it isn't within their right to enjoy that and want to watch
that.
I think that I can have enjoyment out of some of the big blockbusters and just enjoy a good
romp.
And I think some of them do have enough of the story of the core, even if it is good
triumphing over evil.
And again, that sense that we can, no matter how big the crisis seems to be, that the impending
disaster that the human spirit is such that if we really strive and we work together and
that we can overcome anything and I think sometimes even in the darkest times that that
is valuable and can serve.
I mean, that goes back to the old western, you know, with the good guys and the bad guys,
the white hats, the black hats.
So I think that in some ways we can still cheer that victory by the good guys.
I have a harder time sometimes when the bad guys keep winning.
Yeah.
It isn't a hero to root for.
Yeah.
When I watch something and I feel like I don't like any of the characters that in the quest
to perhaps show that everybody has their flaws, that often I feel like I'm presented with
an anti-hero that I have a hard time caring about.
And unless they in some way ultimately seem to be on a path of redemption, then I have
a hard time caring and I have a hard time cheering if they're winning at the expense
of other people.
Now, I have more of a problem with that.
Got you.
Well, no, the pandemic was a pretty rough time too.
It was.
How did you get through it?
I mean, you just in front of it.
Didn't you do inclusion criteria in 2018, right?
Yeah, that was before the pandemic.
I did a little short film called Space Limbaugh that is really only available on my YouTube
channel.
But it was.
I was part of a writers group and when everything was shut down, we sort of continued our group
virtually and someone at one of the weekly sessions said I challenge someone to write
something we can do during the pandemic.
And I thought, well, why not?
And so I came up with a concept that I thought would work.
And ultimately we were at a point in the pandemic where we could shoot a small, you know, little
film and keep everybody safe and the protocols were in place to be able to do filming and
we followed them and we spent a couple days filming this short little just silly fun.
Face adventure.
Cool.
So I did get that done.
And then the main thing I did during the pandemic when everything was shut down, I started watching
seminars and workshops and things and ultimately was inspired to experiment with a YouTube
channel.
And so I started a YouTube channel about the Waltons behind the scenes of the Waltons
just talking about the theories and different episodes and the actors and the characters
and it's now been over four years that I have been doing that.
It's been continuing to grow.
And it initially was an experiment.
And then it has come, I've come to realize from the viewers and the comments that people
make how valuable it's been to them and particularly during the pandemic, it became a community
that people could share with me and with fellow supporters and viewers and lovers of
the Waltons about the show and what it meant and it represented going through tough times.
So what do they ask you most about the Waltons?
Gosh, it initially a lot of my questions have been about the cast.
We really get along where we really like a family, which we are.
We're still very close.
We still see each other just we get together to get together because we love each other,
not just because it's work, because we're not working together now.
So we are still in each other's lives and we share each other's life events, be they
wonderful ones or as we've been losing parents and whatever, bad ones.
So I get asked about that and then what's my favorite episode?
Well what was it?
You've got to tell me.
Well, it's hard with over 225 episodes of the favorite.
There were one and I had not watched the show really for years because when it first
went off the air, I couldn't get whatever channel it went into syndication on.
So for years I couldn't watch it and then finally it came on a channel but I wasn't
necessarily home when it was on so then I was trying to tape them.
So I was trying to collect all these tapes of the episodes but then I never went back
and watched them.
So in a way this has reconnected me with this series because in order to talk about
the episodes or answer questions from an Australian episode blah blah, what was blah blah?
I was like, that was 40, 50 years ago.
So I remember?
No.
Well didn't Mary Ellen do it?
I don't know.
Yeah, probably did but I don't know.
But you think of that thing.
I'm like, I don't remember what I was thinking when I was filming that.
Probably what time am I going to get out of here so I can try and meet my friend for
dinner.
There you go.
I know that's right.
But in going back and re-watching the episodes I am constantly watching an episode that maybe
I saw one, maybe twice.
Sometimes I'm not even sure I ever saw it because if I wasn't home on a Thursday night
when it went on the air, I didn't see it.
And then if I didn't catch it in the rerun, so there are episodes I don't even really
remember especially if I didn't have much to do in it.
And so because of that I keep watching episodes and thinking, oh that's a great episode.
I love that episode.
So my favorite sort of have evolved.
I still think since I will ask the question one of my top ones is the Easter story.
From the first season it was a two part one that finished the first season when Olivia
when our mother got polio.
And it was just a really sweet episode.
Everybody had something to do.
Everybody had a little storyline and how it connected us to each other and to our mother
and what she was going through.
So I love that because it was really the whole family.
And it always brings a tear to my eye at the end when she comes out of sleep because for
younger because it was at this calling, mom, mom, mom and without thinking without really
being awake she gets out of bed and starts walking after having tried for ages and failing.
And she wasn't thinking about it and she just got up because her baby needed her.
So I find myself being so moved by episodes.
So that one one of my favorites has always been the firestorm about we refer to it as
the book burning.
It was John Ritter had joined the series as Reverend Fordwick and there's this just incredibly
powerful scene at the end where there's local people.
John Boy wants to write about and share in his little paper about what's going on with
the UN and mine come and you want the print parts of this and the communities in an uproar
because how can you be printing this German propaganda and John Boy feeling as well he's
dangerous and people need to know about it.
Not because I agree with it but because it's my job to let you know what's happening out
there and so some members of the local community have decided they're going to have their own
book burning and they're going to burn a bunch of German books.
And then right at the end John Boy bought something in the fire and he pulls it out and
there's a local woman in the community who has German heritage but she doesn't want anyone
to know because everything is happening in Germany and she doesn't want people to treat
her differently or be afraid of her or start attacking her.
But when he pulls it out and he recognizes what it is even though it's in German and
he says oh I wish someone spoke German and she stepped forward and she starts reading
in German and then she translates into English and it's the Bible.
So you're saying these are all dangerous books because they're German.
So it's just a very powerful moment about fear.
Sounds a little familiar doesn't it.
I'm operating on fear.
How do you get just a little?
And that's what I find.
I mean the show first aired in 1972 and here we are doing it again.
And later and the story are still so relevant yesterday.
And that's what I find in interacting with people on the channel.
I mean if people want to check it out it's just you can look me up on YouTube, duty Norton
channel behind the scenes of the Walton.
And I think more and more people search something about the Walton.
I hear people say I was searching such and such for this episode or this aspect and your
channel came up.
That's great.
Are you still singing?
I am.
I recorded that was something else I did during COVID because we couldn't get together
into a lot of things that I had forever been wanting to do a Christmas TV.
So during COVID I thought well I can certainly put this together during COVID.
So 90% of it was me spending time choosing the songs and learning the songs and learning
the arrangements and making those choices and then just really just getting in the recording
studio with the only thing I did that wasn't just from my home basically.
So that I released a couple of years ago and that's available streaming and through my
website.
Okay what's it called?
Home for Christmas.
Say that again?
Home for Christmas.
Oh home for Christmas.
Oh I like that.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice.
Are you now I know you're a singer.
Did you write songs too?
I never have.
I have helped write the lyrics occasionally for shows I was working on some theater production
that I have never written music.
I play a little bit of guitar and I've been trying to learn piano for years.
But I don't I don't spend enough time practicing so I'm sort of nowhere with it.
I know I understand believe and I understand.
So what makes Judy Norton happy?
I just think being able to engage in activities that I enjoy and I'm very fortunate to feel
as to that whether it is creating projects with friends and fellow artists or just being
able to engage in hobbies I feel I've gotten in the last few years involved.
I've been riding horses forever but I've gotten into some different aspects of riding
and I've begun to challenge myself a bit by doing going to the horse shows.
So that's that's kind of a nice therapeutic outlet for me.
From the norms you know the other things I do so.
Do you have horses?
I have a horse yeah.
A horse that's good.
That's enough.
Do you have any other furry critters?
I do not.
No no no for recruiters.
No other pets at this point.
Still family?
I mean that's that's important to you too isn't it?
Oh absolutely.
None of none of my family was really close by so I don't always see them as much as I'd
like to but they're still definitely part of my life as is my my TV family.
Yeah of course.
Of course.
So you have a son.
That's the husband and I yeah yeah.
And does he?
And I love doing some traveling and stuff here and there.
We'll go take the trips and do things.
Nice.
Yeah my son is actually in Japan right now.
No kidding.
Back this weekend.
I just went on to you know he's always wanted to go to Japan so he's been his girlfriend
so I went to Japan and he's looking forward to him being back because he does all my editing.
He does all your what?
Editing.
Oh editing.
Built in editor huh?
I have like that.
I hire him to do my editing because that's what he does.
That's great.
No no that's great.
So newest project.
What do you I mean you do some all these other kinds of things.
You've got the YouTube thing you got all that going.
Any new projects movie television anything that you're going to be doing.
Nothing specific at the moment.
I also made it I also physically moved during covid out of LA from a little further out of
sort of that circle.
Yeah.
So I'm just finding more and more that things have to have to matter to me or appeal to me
you know because there's a lot involved with with projects of any kind.
So it's not something that really speaks to me.
Then I'm not I'm just getting picky about what I'm willing to do.
I don't blame you.
Of course you're entitled to it.
Yeah.
Do you have any do you watch anything on TV that you like now?
I mean that's going on now.
My husband I watch a lot of we watch a lot of British shows.
Really?
Yeah some news some old but we love sort of clever British murder mystery.
Yeah okay.
Whether it's sort of the the offshoots of Agatha Christie or nothing to we don't like anything
to dark and gruesome but we like them when they're clever and the lead characters are
interesting and people we care about.
Interesting.
That aren't too soap opera ish you know in a in a corny way.
Oh this is getting yeah.
Yeah no I understand what to say.
Yeah but there's some there's some really sweet shows when we're talking about family
things.
There's a show called All Creatures Great and Small.
That in the in the small little village in England just before the first world war.
Oh.
Or second world war I guess it's like yeah in between the first and second world war and
and it's just it's like a veterinary clinic and all the different patients they have because
they deal with small and large animals so they have to go out and help there's a problem
with a cow or the sheep or.
That sounds like fun.
That sounds like a good one.
You know it's really sweet yeah.
Going back to you know the series the Waltons.
I mean I've had the opportunity to talk to Michael learned and Richard Thomas and I think
all of them have the same feeling that it's family it's in it remain family and it will
always be family no matter what.
Absolutely yeah and and I mean we've talked before about you know about writing and stuff
and stuff because of being all the involvement I've had with the Elvarn Hubbard Golden Age
of Fiction and his yes and all of the fiction works that Mr. Hubbard wrote and I mean though
which like the Waltons really endured and so it makes me back to what I thought really
made our show work which was wonderful stories that people could relate to and cared about
and that seems to be a universal theme so when you're asking about me and potential
projects the material makes such a difference if I get something sent to me like oh hey I'm
looking to maybe do this and I read it and I it doesn't speak to me and I think that it's
just not a great story or not well told then it's hard for me to get excited about it
and I think that's what those two things in my life had in common is you know that the
Waltons we had a lot of wonderful writers and Earl Hamner who created the show was a wonderful
writer and you know he came up through the same era as Elvarn Hubbard you know and and
you know they were they were writing fiction at the same time yeah you know where Elvarn
Hubbard went down the route actually not just by five because he wrote in so many genres
well he lived most of those stories yes as did Earl Hamner so we have two people basing
their stories on aspects of their life and their travels and their experiences now you
did a lot of radio plays at the Elvarn Hubbard theater in Hollywood too didn't you?
I said it was always such fun and I always enjoyed you know reading the new you know
the new story that we were going to be working on and getting to be a part of that.
Yeah I mean they were you know everything from and that was in the day when you didn't
even have television right away so you were listening to the radio or you were reading
books or short stories that's where you got that's where we got our adventure from and
so those those key things just are ingrained in me I guess from the time I started getting
involved in creative activities. Well you know when when you have something that speaks
to you you start living it you it is becomes part of you. Yeah it's amazing. Do you have
a philosophy of life? What's your philosophy? I believe in optimism and hope. I feel like
there's always an answer and that things can always get better that life can improve and
it is I guess dark as it might seem that you know you never give up hope that you just
keep you just keep believing that you can make things better and that you know we you know
I believe life can get better and even if I don't like things that are happening I feel
like giving up is never an answer. Good. I like that. I keep moving forward and I trust
in people I believe people are good. I love that there's a country song I think it's called
I believe most I believe most people are good and I think that's true that that I've met
so many wonderful people and so many nice people. I just had an experience today this
and this speaks to character somebody that had bought my CD and then for some reason there
was a glitch in my website in the you know in the sort of cash out whatever you know in
the payment page there was a problem and so she sent me a message on like my Facebook
or something like that and said you know the money that I spent for this I got the CD but
then they refunded my money and it's like I think somebody there's a fake count anyway
we started digging into it and it wasn't it was just some glitch in the payment thing and
she had got the CD it was it was from me I did personally sign it but the money had
been refunded to her and she took the trouble to track me down and figure out how she could
make sure that I got that payment. I mean you know it was like twenty dollars but I wouldn't
have even known I wouldn't have even noticed. Amazing. But it mattered to her and I thought
that was so sweet and such a positive sign about people. Yeah they would go to that
trouble do that and probably figuring it twenty dollars wouldn't matter to me. Yeah.
And it might matter to her but that she wanted you want to make it right. So when I hear stories
like that it's just my faith in in my fellow man just raises another notch because I think
that that's how most people are. Well there's a few there's a few too much about the people
aren't no Judy there are a few a-holes out there but that's okay. They're far out numbered by
good people. I believe that too and I think that we have to focus on the good people. You betcha
and not give power to the a-holes. Yeah. By giving them attention. There you go. My my theory is
by K you know you focus on the positive and that's what you'll get you know that's what what comes
you is what you have your attention on. You bet. If you're busy looking for trouble you'll find
trouble. Now now we know about your YouTube Judy Norton channel. Do you have a website?
I do. It's Judy Norton dot com. Oh that's easy. Yeah that's easy and that's where you can find
you know that my CD if you want hard copies which I personally find. You can order those there.
Or I don't update it enough I'm really bad about that because my YouTube takes so much time and I
do interact with everybody on the YouTube channel. How fun. I don't have I don't as much on my Facebook
page but I you know I use my Facebook page primarily to let people know what's happening on my YouTube
channel. I know. Well Judy it was such a pleasure having you on the show. I love talking with you I
love to have you back again. Thank you. It's always such fun. And you just take good care keep
up the good work and the good attitude. You know if everybody you know just be nice to someone in
every day do something nice for someone every day. It'll make a difference. Yeah. You take good care
we'll talk again and stay well. Okay all the best. Bye. Judy Norton you can go to Judy Norton dot com
or the YouTube channel for the Waltons is Judy Norton channel. In the meantime live simply laugh
often loved deeply and above all else you dare to dream. Talk with you next time right here on Pop Talk.