Audrey Sequenzia: Danny Fulgencio
Post-awards season is a notoriously rotten period for movies. Sure, you can find quality television this time of year, but only after wading through an excess of options that actually might cause a loss of brain cells. May we humbly suggest an alternative? Turn away from the tube and read on for the real-life stories of Lake Highlands’ action heroes, speed racers and criminal minds.
Audrey Sequenzia: Danny Fulgencio
Featuring Audrey Sequenzia in
Kill Bill
Ever since Lake Highlands High School graduate Audrey Sequenzia was attacked as a teenager, the idea of learning martial arts appealed to her, she says. But life got busy — there was school, organized sports, college, work, marriage, motherhood — and the ambition took a backseat. But a few years ago, feeling out of shape and vulnerable, the young mother walked into the Dallas Academy of Martial Arts on Plano Road. That was almost four years ago, and she has been attending faithfully — four nights a week, three hours a night — ever since. The color of her belt progressed from white to yellow and red. And a few months ago she earned her black belt. Sequenzia — an attractive and gregarious woman with an infectious laugh and obvious sense of humor — doesn’t possess the rage or revenge-lust of Tarantino’s heroine in “Kill Bill,” but she does feel that if the need ever arose, she could defend herself, maybe even pluck out an eye (OK, she didn’t say that). “I am completely different,” she does say. “I feel in control and powerful. I really feel that I could physically defend myself.”
Colby Vokey: Can Türkyilmaz
Featuring Colby Vokey in
A Few Good Men
He can handle the truth. It’s all he wants, really. Even if he makes a few people mad in the process of trying to wrest it — kind of like when Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) had to call Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) to the stand during the criminal trial of two rookie Marines. Colby Vokey is known for handling controversial cases as a military lawyer. He built a national reputation by demanding fair representation for U.S. soldiers accused of war crimes. The world took notice (he appeared on “60 Minutes,” on National Public Radio and in the Wall Street Journal) when he spoke out against the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as the defense attorney for 15-year-old prisoner Omar Khadr. “Colby Vokey is a guy who always did the right thing, even if it upset everybody,” retired Col. Jane Siegel says. He resigned from the Marine Corps in 2007. Today he practices at a Dallas firm and still specializes in military law. Among the 1983 Lake Highlands High School graduate’s high-profile clients was Frank Wuterich, a staff sergeant accused in 2005 of leading Marines in a deadly attack on civilians in Haditha, Iraq, an incident widely referred to as the “Haditha Massacre.” Vokey might defend military personnel accused of murder, manslaughter or major offenses, but he also fights for the rights of those whose crimes, such as drug possession, might have been a result of the mental trauma of war. “If they are dishonorably discharged, they can lose their [military] benefits. We owe it to them to get them a good defense.” To anyone who questions his efforts, he says it is all about implementing the law fairly. “The bottom line is that I support the U.S. Constitution, and justice is not for certain people, but everyone.”
Holly Hunter: Can Türkyilmaz
Featuring Holly Hunter in
Orange is the New Black
The Netflix show (based on the book by the same name) about a young woman’s 365-day drug-related prison sentence was the critics’ darling last year. While the show garners some laughs, it also captures the general icky-ness that is institutionalization. Neighborhood resident Holly Hunter (no relation to the actor) knows the inside of a women’s prison. She already was into drugs when she got kicked out of The Hockaday School for swearing at a staff member, she says. At 16 she hooked up with an older boy and started selling. “I was trapped in the money game,” she says. “I could make $1,000 for 20 minutes of work.” Despite the constant rush of adrenaline, steady flow of money and feeling of power, she knew deep down that things were all wrong. “I thought I had it good, but I was living in fear. Constant fear.” Then one day she woke up feeling miserable and prayed for help. Be careful what you wish for, she warns. “Less than 72 hours later, I was sitting in jail.” She couldn’t shake the addiction, and she ultimately revisited prison multiple times. “Let’s just say — all told — about a third of my life was spent in prison.” It was during that last stint that she sobered up. She could have taken drugs while behind bars. Her cellmates regularly did, she says, but instead she asked for rehabilitation. “I began requesting substance-abuse counseling immediately when I got to prison [in the 1990s]. It took two years for me to get into classes and treatment.” After release, she embarked on an education in chemical-dependency treatment that included becoming certified as a licensed chemical-dependency counselor. Now — many years clean and sober — she works with Dallas attorneys and courts and runs A Court Class, which specializes in drug counseling and education, especially for those in legal trouble because of drug abuse.
Carnival Triumph: courtesy Carnival Cruise
Featuring Janie Christy in
Titanic
Like the passengers on the fated luxury liner, Janie Christy and her traveling companions had no idea their cruise would turn disastrous (and like some of our other anecdotes, this real-life experience was far less tragic than its infamous counterpart). Christy owned the Janie Christy School of Dance in Lake Highlands for more than 10 years before she took up teaching at Dallas Ballet. When she was due for a vacation last spring, a Carnival Cruise seemed perfect. She traveled with some cousins, with whom she spent a fun-filled first day in Cozumel, Mexico. But hours after setting sail, a small fire caused the ship to lose propulsion and eventually power; the massive boat and its 4,200 passengers were left adrift — powerless and plumbing-less — off southern Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The story of the stranded ship instantly overtook all news broadcasts and the Internet. On Twitter it became #poopcruise; the plumbing issues most captured the public interest. But Christy says it wasn’t so bad. The crew was kind and positive, and no one was in actual danger. Tugboats eventually pulled the ship to shore in Alabama. The only cruising Janie’s interested in now is on Cedar Creek Lake where she pulls her grandkids behind the ski boat, she says. “That or a nice afternoon sail with my husband, Glen, on our Skipper 20 vintage sailboat, named ‘Miss Janie’.”
Amtgard players: Benjamin Hager
Featuring Jorge Rodas and friends in
Game of Thrones
The battle for supremacy once was waged at Artus Pass. Never heard of Artus Pass? Ah, yes, you probably know the place by its common name, Norbuck Park. Many a Sunday afternoon, men, women and children have gathered there to eat, drink, socialize and clobber one another with well-padded swords. The participants belonged to Amtgard, a non-profit organization dedicated to recreational medieval and ancient-culture role-play. As in the HBO saga “Game of Thrones,” Amtgard players don 15th-century garb, and most speak with what sounds to the layperson like barbaric Scottish brogue. However, this cast gets along with far less actual dismemberment, gore and other R-rated content. Years ago, neighborhood resident Jorge Rodas was waiting tables at Chili’s in Casa Linda when a co-worker introduced him to Amtgard. It was magical, he says. “Another waiter took me to Garland’s Midnight Sun Park, and I was immediately hooked,” says Rodas, known at the park as “Duke Lord Squire Protector Sutra Bahuas.” Eventually, with the help of others, Rodas started the Artus Pass “shire,” a subgroup of the citywide Kingdom of the Emerald Hills (which most of us call Dallas), but it was short-lived. Now Rodas is a working actor, and the remaining Artus Pass players have re-integrated with the Midnight Sun crew. For current-day live-action role play in the White Rock area, check out the Barony of the Steppes branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism, (steppes.ansteorra.org), which meets regularly at Tietze Park on Skillman at Vanderbilt.
Slew Devil: Can Türkyilmaz
Featuring Slew Devil in
Seabiscuit
There is something about a horse with a personality that thrills. The racehorse Seabiscuit so inspired the nation in the 1930s that his life was the subject of a book and at least two movies. In the 1970s Seattle Slew took the world by storm and won the Triple Crown — and while Slew has no direct Lake Highlands connection, one of the thoroughbred’s (more than 200) sires is living a life of relative anonymity right here in the neighborhood. White Rock Stables resident Slew Devil is a descendent of the champion and biological sibling of more than 100 stakes winners. Slew Devil raced as a young-un before moving to a show barn in Florida where, following a jumping accident that ended his professional dressage career, Lake Highlands High School graduate Karly Kilroy bought him. Like his silver screen counterparts, Slew Devil has a charismatic personality. When our photographer showed up for a shoot, Slew was a total ham — obediently and repeatedly running, posing and pausing for a treat. “He loves people and wants to be near people all the time,” Kilroy says. “He follows me around, neighs at me when I walk into the barn, puts his face close to mine. He is very patient with children, very calm.” He also loves watermelon.
Muffins: Danny Fulgencio
Featuring Ian Walker and Joseph Tellini co-starring “Miss Rita” in
Breaking Bad
While Lake Highlands’ answer to Walter White and Jessie Pinkston are hardly Heisenberg level, there will live on in neighborhood lore a TV-worthy tale of a duo whose dabblings in the drug world left them in deep trouble. All hell broke loose on May 16, 2006 when Bishop Lynch seniors Ian Walker and Joseph Tellini, in an ill-advised prank, delivered marijuana-laced muffins to the Lake Highlands High School teacher’s lounge. By all accounts the pastries were lovely and delicious, but within minutes of consumption, staffers were feeling woozy. By day’s end, soon after administrator Karen Clardy caught on that the muffin’s were at fault, the LHHS conference room was wall-to-wall with representatives from Dallas Police, North Texas Regional Drug Enforcement Task Force, Dallas Fire-Rescue, Food and Drug Administration, Dallas County Health and Human Services and even the FBI, which showed up because of fears someone had tampered with commercially prepared food. Over the next several days, the prank became a national story and the butt of many a late-night television comedian’s joke. Everyone from the victims — including a beloved 80-something office worker, Rita Greenfield — to the LHHS principal, to the community at large was laughing. Everyone, that is, except the pranksters, who were facing serious criminal charges, and their parents. Eventually the young men received probation and both went on to graduate with honors from the University of Texas. Ian’s mom Caroline Walker published an Amazon e-book in 2006 entitled “Epiphany in Ordinary Time” about the family’s struggle with the consequences of the, ahem, Baking Bad incident.
Cindy Causey: Kim Leeson
Featuring Cindy Causey in
Romancing the Stone
Most days you can find neighborhood resident Cindy Causey working at Dallas Media Center at the corner of Skillman and Interstate 635, a small business owned by her and her husband, Scott. With her blunt, blond bob haircut and conservative attire, she looks like a totally in-place working mom. She preceded her entrepreneurship with a 20-year stint as a copychief/editor/content manager for J.C. Penney. But like Kathleen Turner’s subdued character in the 1980s adventure flick “Romancing the Stone,” Causey has a sexy side. All while juggling motherhood, grand-motherhood and business, she has penned two steamy romance novels — “A Different Drum” and “A Hot Time in Texas” — as well as one nonfiction book back in 1996 about environmental warming called “Cherish the Gift.” She’s keeping the romance alive, she says. “I have another book in the works.”
Featuring James Reilly in
Gravity
The 2014 Best Picture nominee “Gravity” offers a beautiful and terrifying look at space travel; astronauts portrayed by George Clooney and Sandra Bullock lose all communication with Earth and are set adrift in infinite space. The film potentially will have the same chilling effect on astronautical ambitions that “Jaws” had on all aspirations of a nautical nature. But back in the 1960s, like a million other little kids, Lake Highlands-raised James Reilly wanted to be an astronaut. His interest was piqued at age 8 during a visit to the dentist where he listened to communications between John Glenn and Mission Control, he has said. After graduating from Lake Highlands High School in 1972, he pursued those dreams. Selected by NASA in 1994, he trained for more than a year before eventually logging more than 853 hours in space, including five spacewalks totaling 31 hours and 10 minutes. In the movie, even when Clooney’s character knows he is about to (SPOILER ALERT) spacewalk right into the afterlife, he takes time to appreciate the view. No matter what seriousness was underway, Reilly has said, he also took time to do the same. “One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from Yury Usachev, the commander of Expedition 2, on the space station. When I was about to do my first spacewalk, he told me that it was important to focus on my work, but every hour take 10 seconds and look around because those are memories that you will take with you that make all this worthwhile,” he says. “He was right. Every hour I set aside 10 seconds to look around. I could look past the tail of the orbiter and see the Earth going by below it 25,250 miles away. That will be a memory I will never forget.”
Lisa Curtiss: David Leeson
Featuring Lisa Curtiss in
Rush
From “The Fast and the Furious” to “The World’s Fastest Indian” and last year’s Ron Howard-directed success, “Rush,” the true story of Formula One rivals, there is no shortage of movies about excessive speeding in a motorized vehicle. Lake Highlands mom Lisa Curtiss has a little something in common with the subjects of the aforementioned flicks. She can drive really fast. Racing vintage cars along the famous Utah Bonneville Salt Flats, Curtiss and team set several speed records. Her personal speed-record was set in the Lakester, a borrowed car built by Curtiss’ dad Grant Grumbine and his ingenious, dare-deviling pals, which reaches speeds of more than 200 mph. She notes that racing on the Bonneville Salts speedway is very different from a track race. “You are not racing other cars, but rather you are going for a time, and it’s all on this expansive salt flat.” (Think Anthony Hopkins in “The World’s Fastest Indian,” the true story of the world land-speed record setter). While exhilarating, it’s risky. “The biggest fear is fire,” Curtiss says. “My dad always tested out the car at the speed we needed to go before putting me in it,” Curtiss adds. Though her dad lost a good friend to a racing accident, Curtiss says that they’ve been lucky, overall, and that the experience has been a family-bonding experience. She stopped racing a couple years ago but still moves fast. The mom and grandmother has her own gymnastics-teaching business, which — along with participating philanthropic and family endeavors and even racing a triathlon — keeps her running.
