La ‘Loser Jessie James

Jesse James

Once upon a time, many years ago when we all lived in little villages you had fame if you were a blacksmith, a singer or the storyteller.  You had a defined role and if you did it well you received accolades and everyone in your village knew who you were.  Most people had barely been to the next town so the concept of spreading your ideas far and wide didn’t even cross people’s mind.

Then came modern transportation and media.  Suddenly, you could reach everybody and there was worldwide fame.

Speaking of fame.  After reading a press release on the Discovery Channel…I just threw up in my mouth a little bit!

Yeah, it’s a line from “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” but seemed appropriate from my perspective.

In case you’ve been living in a tent at Occupy Portland… it would seem that Jessie James has flamed out with his squeeze, Kat Von D and when he looked at the man in the mirror, became tired of the same old you.  He will recycle in the industry to the Discovery Channel for what’s being hailed as an E-P-I-C showdown where he will go head-to-head with Paul Teutul Sr. and Junior on “American Chopper Live.”

Selling out and letting co-writers/producers deliver what the lowest common denominator TV system wants, as opposed to what you want, will clearly revive the custom chopper business!

Can’t they leave well enough alone and just move on already?  Maybe they should rename it the “American Horror Story: Tricks and Treats From Formerly Warm Bodies!”  Since 2003 Jessie began a slow-and-steady nosedive with his character arcing to new lows that only a Hollywood script for “Desperate Housewives” could love.  Combine this with the other two demoralizing builders who get their ‘hate-on’ and we now have what they call that new math: 1+2 = 4!

Our shiny enigmatic motorcycle monster friend will turn up not once, but twice on December 5th and 6th.    It’s sure to create a mega motorcycle buzz – YAWN!

Next up has to be a Jessie James guest appearance on Glee or maybe it’s DWTS.  You heard it here first.

Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel

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The Shock Of OCC’s Doping Scandal

Since the first day when Federal Agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) back in September 2003, the ‘steroids scandal’ has engulfed some of the biggest names in sports and brought increased scrutiny to the illegitimate nature of pharmacy law.  This link provides more information on the MLB debacle.

Now we’re learning from Times Union about a connection with James M. D’Amico, a dentist from Cape Coral, FL., who had a revoked dental license while prescribing “nutritional supplements” a.k.a. steroids and human growth hormones.  This case, prosecuted in South Florida has ties to a steroids-distribution investigation launched four years ago in Albany and recently brought to light one of Mr. D’Amico’s high-profile clientele as none other than Paul Teutul Sr. of Orange County Chopper (OCC) and ‘American Chopper’  fame.  According to Mr. D’Amico’s seized records, Paul Teutul Sr. received 73 prescriptions at a cost of over $51,000 from August 2, 2002 to October 3, 2006.

Now I’m not a dentist, but clearly there must be a lot of legitimate uses for steroids in a dental practice for 73 prescriptions?!

Maybe Paul Sr., was overwhelmed in the fiercely competitive custom motorcycle business and realized it’s not enough to be smart and charismatic — you need to have bigger, stronger and faster moving biceps than all the other also ran’s — and as a result looked to nutritional supplements to build the one-of-a-kind choppers in record breaking time.

According to the Albany NY based Times Union web site article, the D’Amicos prescriptions to Teutul were processed by Orlando’s Signature Compounding Pharmacy, whose operators remain under felony indictment in Albany.  Robert G. Calson, a Sarasota, FL., physician who pleaded guilty in Albany three years ago to insurance fraud for his role in that case, also prescribed supplement drugs to Tuetul through Signature.

In connecting the dots it wouldn’t be a big leap to assume that some of that ‘American Chopper’ yelling for prime time was more related to “roid rage” and it’s possible that this doping scandal is truly the end of the road for the Teutul dynasty.  Translated: The threebie that isn’t.

More blog posts on the “Ragin Teutuls” HERE.

Photo courtesy of Automated Trader

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Too Much Of Nothing

Paul (Senior) Teutul -- The Hair Club Motorcycle

That’s how I would described American Chopper, the reality television show based on the Teutul family business, Orange County Chopper custom-built motorcycles.

Unless you live in a cave you’ve been unable to avoid hearing about Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. revving up their litigators and fighting it out in the courtroom — a shareholder dispute or family feud?  If you’ve missed it I’ve previously blog about this father/son feud HERE and HERE.

At this point I suspect that Paul Jr. is doing a victory break dance after the decision by the appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling that would have forced him to sell his 20% interest in Orange County Choppers to his father, at a price to be determined by the court.  Teutul v. Teutul, 2010 NY Slip Op 09248 (2d Dept Dec. 14, 2010).

You may recall that the lower court’s April 2010 ruling enforced Senior’s exercise of a buyout option contained in a January 2009 letter agreement that had temporarily patched up the father-son business relationship, and avoided cancellation of their television deal with Discovery Channel, following Senior’s on-air firing of Junior.  The court enforced the option notwithstanding that the buyout price was expressed in terms of “fair market value as determined by a procedure to be agreed to by the parties as soon as practicable.  The solution to the parties’ inability to agree on valuation procedure, the court concluded, was for the court itself to step in and determine the fair market value of Junior’s shares.

Only a legal student would find the previous two years of this business divorce interesting.  I did find it curious that according to Discovery Channel the Jan. 3rd premiere show garnered 2M+ viewers and was the number #1 cable program (excluding sports and movies) during prime time among the male 18-54 demographic.

American Chopper’s Hair Club Motorcycle

The next new episode of Senior vs. Junior is Jan. 17th where Paul Sr. will unveil the newest completed chopper built for the 35th Anniversary of the Hair Club.  Most notable is the brushed metal skull-themed paint which illustrates Hair Club’s signature “magic” where one skull is bald and the other has a full head of hair, flowing like flames.  In addition there is a promotional opportunity that I wanted to make you aware of where you can win the Hair Club motorcycle by entering their contest HERE.

Thanks to Sam Mazzarelli of Marlo Marketing and Communications for the  email with this information and corresponding photos.  The Hair Club motorcycle will be unveiled for what is expected to be a large crowd at Washington State University (Pullman, WA) on January 17th.

Photos courtesy of American Chopper, OCC and Marlo Marketing.

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