Things are Horrible.

So, staying busy is definitely working out for me.

Currently I have my lighting and special effects work with Arts Alive's production of Les Miserable. Such a good, impacting show. I'm actually thankful to be a part of it. I hope my design is to everyone's liking and it serves to strengthen the show. I like doing lighting jobs. It's difficult and I feel like I have something of a knack for it. Although, I am getting a little burned out on it. This is my fifth show this season.

Aside from that I've got to get things prepped for my Shakespeare camp this summer. After that I'm directing a teen production of A Comedy of Errors. I like directing. It gives my visualization ability a good work out. The camp should be fun, as well. I do enjoy teaching. Especially to these kids who want to be there, who want to hear what I have to say. Not that I think I'm god's gift to theatre or anything, but I do feel I have some knowledge to impart.

Perception is in post and looking good. I'm excited to see it and I hope it's the first of many films I'll direct.

And probably the biggest news of all right now...I was cast as Dr. Horrible in the Plaid Player's summer production of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Woo-freakin-hoo. I cannot emphasize enough how excited I am. It's been a year since I've been on a stage, so that's exciting in and of itself, but the fact that it's a musical that I thoroughly enjoy just makes it that much better. Also, I'll be designing and building a lot of special props for the show, which is always a blast. And to top it all, the proceeds go to charity for Tornado relief. Can't beat that. I like using my talents to bring joy into people's lives and now I get to do that times two.

I love staying busy. I love my work.

Nauseous

I preface this with a warning: If you are A.) a devout Christian and B.) a friend of mine; these statement are rather incendiary and could quite possibly be a friendship shattering insult. If you continue to read, please keep an open mind and know that I am full of nothing but love of Honor and Wisdom.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. A man reviled and feared by the public. A man blamed for so much, and so much deserved, I'll admit. Someone who brought so much pain into more lives than any of us probably know. The terrorist who had a profound impact on the foreign policy decisions of this past decade. He is dead and gone from this plane.

He did bad things and he paid for it.

Now...I am ashamed, disgusted, and saddened beyond belief that so many of my acquaintances, friends even, would say 'Thank God' at this. Don't get me wrong, he was a bad man, no doubts there, but to 'Thank God' for the death of another human being? Why not ask God 'Why?'

Hatred...hatred is an affliction. A serious affliction that will consume and distort individuals worse than any cancer can. Hatred is suffering, not only on those who are on the receiving end of that hatred but those who are filled with it. It is a poison. They are suffering. Afflicted by an all consuming feeling that they cannot control, for one reason or another. Now, I know some of you reading this will look at that remark and scoff, but I seriously doubt anyone, ANYONE, can honestly say to me that they've never been all consumed by some feeling or another at some point in there life. Feeling something so deep that it takes complete control of you. Be it a joyful feeling, or depression, or jealousy, or any of the shades of emotion from the broad spectrum we humans feel. I recall have feelings so strong for a girl in my life that when we broke up I literally could not eat for two weeks. Ended up in the hospital. This man was consumed by his feelings and it turned him into a despicable, deplorable, deviant thing and now he is dead. And you know my feelings? I'm not thanking God....I am praying...PRAYING with all the power of my blood, that this man, this man who was a fellow human riddled with an emotional disease, be released from his suffering.

Thanking God for the death of a person, however terrible their deeds, is disgusting and I pray that those who give in to this rise up from their base ignorance and learn to forgive and look on all with loving hearts and minds. This is the only way we can rise up as a people. Peace and Love, even to those who are full of hate...they need it more than anyone.

Sig Jera. Sig Wunjo. Sig Sowilo.

Not in an attempt to propagate my rantings, but if you agree with these thoughts, please share them. Knowledge is powerful stuff.

Can You Dig It!?

SO!... This weekend we begin principal photography on 'Perception'. I find it's tricky switch hats. Getting my head in the 'director mind set' has been difficult, to be perfectly honest. I usually blanket to creative process, so to speak, but for this I feel the need to focus in specific areas, so I'm trying to do just that. I find that I'm way too critical of myself and I am more than a worried about the criticism of others. Directing is something I have limited experience with, admittedly, and it don't really have a gauge to determine whether or not I feel any good at it. What's more is not only am I directing this film, but later this summer I'll be directing a teen production of Shakespeare's 'A Comedy of Errors' and then again near the end of the year I'll be directing another teen production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. I mean...people are asking me to do this, so I guess there is a consensus or over all feeling that I'll be good at it. Of course, with that in mind all I can do is worry about 'letting people down'.

I find myself with an almost continuous headache, these days. I can't tell if it's from stress or from my lack of eating and sleep.

In other news, my swivel dolly is gonna be sweet, I think. If I can manipulate the track the way I need, it should be in good shape. I wonder if building these to sell is a viable option.

OH! And I got an iPod touch. I can't believe I'm even blogging about it. But man, is it great. Music at my fingertips, a digital calendar, and all sorts of useful stuff. If anything, it's a good test to see how much use I actually get out of such a device.

Good tangent...anyway, despite my apprehensions I am excited about all that's going on and coming my way. If nothing else it will be an invaluable learning experience.

Con Nooga 2011...what a ride.

So, as most of those who have read this, I've been working with the Adrenalin film group for almost a year now. With the film "A Few Brains More: Summer of Blood" being nearly 100% complete the film group took the movie to the Con Nooga Multi-Fandom Convention in Chattanooga Tennessee and as a result I got to attend the convention as a Special Guest. Now, short bus and helmet jokes aside this was a fairly big deal to me. I mean, an up and coming actor is invited as a guest to a convention? That's awesome.

So, Thursday, February 17th, Vicki, mt Sister Shana, her husband James and I all departed for Chattanooga. They 7 hour ride was indeed a trip with my sister and I shouting out random signs we saw in funny voices and enjoying a variety of flavored corn-nuts. We arrived at our hotel that night at around 12:30 AM. I was overwhelmed. The Chattanooga Choo-choo Hotel was awesome. An old building with cool architecture and decor that I was just giddy over. We got to the room and went for a midnight swim in the indoor pool to relax a bit after the ride and then I went back to the room to work on the playlist for our 70's themed room party.

The next morning I woke up, amped to get things rolling. I went to get to pick up my badge only to learn it wasn't being kept with all the others so I made the trek across the rather large property to the Exhibition hall, picked up my pass, and began exploring the Con. For lunch we went to an absolutely delicious restaurant called the Terminal Brew House. I had one of the BEST beers of my life, seriously. Afterward we returned to the con. Saw some cool stuff, met a few cool people and then when the rest of the group arrived the event really got started. First up I was on a panel called "So you want to be an actor". Needless to say, it was about breaking into acting. The crowd was small but full of questions and it was nice to have people interested and responding to what I had to say. Toward the end of our hour an actor named Jason Carter, of Babylon 5 fame, exploded into the room and immediately stole the scene. It was amazing, and quite entertaining. After the hour was up Mr. Carter tagged along with our group all over and we had a delightful chat about this, that, and everything in between. As corny as it sounds I felt sort of a kindred spirit in him...or something like that. Anyway, later on we went to the premiere of the film and it was great. It really came together nicely, especially for a rough cut. Though the keystone was a little screwed up and the sound wasn't perfect but it gave everyone in attendance a good idea of what we put together. A fun, campy, entertaining zombie flick. Later that night there was more hanging out, more talking, and more fun.

The next morning/day was great. Spent the vast majority of the day at our groups table, signing the occasional autograph, talking with various people, and posing for a variety of nerdy pictures that I just could help myself to get. At noon we had another panel, The Adrenalin Group hour, where we talked about the movie, the whole process that went into it, and a little about some of our future plans. Again, it's great to have people, strangers even, that want to hear what you have to say. The rest of the day was spent back at the table. Later in the afternoon I returned to my room to get ready for our Flashback in 3D room party for the room party competition. I was going for a Afro Kung Fu look and think I pulled it off quite well. Our room was incredible, much to our and all our guests' surprise. In the first hour we had over a hundred people come through. It was nuts. Eventually I returned to our room with Vicki and ended up passing out. I'm sad that I missed the latter part of the night but I think I really needed the sleep.

Sunday was...well...difficult. Physically speaking, we were all either sleep deprived, stiff and sore from lack of sleep, bad beds, and hiking across the property or hung over. But it was still a good time all together. Talked more with Jason. Met some more people. Signed some more autographs. And got some cool toys. It was sad to leave the con, but exciting nonetheless, as I handed out a lot of business cards and met a lot of people with the high prospect of future work. Vicki, Shana, and James returned home, but the group and I went to Pigeon Forge for a company retreat to discuss future work. The ride up was cool. I rode with Lanny Maude, a friend of the film group, and had a great conversation about all sorts of things.

When we arrived at the cabin I was, again, overwhelmed by how cool it was, though I was a little disturbed by the rampant bear motif. Despite that, it was beautiful and on the plus side there was a hot tub, which I thoroughly enjoyed after such a long weekend. The next day we woke up, ate, and discussed future projects and scheduled much. Then later that day we watched the DVD of AFBM: Summer of Blood and discussed minor tweaks and changes. Afterward, we had a fire, roasted some giant, mutant marshmallows, and discussed the theme for next year's room party at the Con. Then, after another dip in the hot tub, I went to bed. We had to be out of the cabin by 10 the next morning unfortunately, but I did want to get home. So we got up, packed and cleaned up, and headed to breakfast before the long drive. After a good meal with some scrumptious bacon, we hit the road. It was a long drive, but with good music, beautiful scenery, and good conversation it wasn't a bad drive.

Now, I'm happy to be home and so excited for the coming future. With all the contacts I made, the people I met, the ideas I discussed I know things are going to start rolling faster and faster.

So, I'm excited.

And this is good.

Forged in the Fires of Awesome

Okay...so, what to blog about.

Hmm...I suppose I will divulge the 'current events', as they say.

First off, things are moving forward. Gears are turning, that's for sure. For one, I'll be directing two short films in the next few months and if that wasn't cool enough they're both my own screenplays. One, is a Lovecraftian horror story entitled "The Tattered King", the other is a psychological, science-fiction, drama(how's that for a genre mash-up?) called "Perception". The latter will be done by The Adrenalin Group. The film company with whom I spent the summer and fall shooting "A Few Brains More: Summer of Blood". The prior will be with a new, as of yet unnamed production company. "AFBM:Summer of Blood" will be premiering at Connooga in February, a multifandom convention I'll be attending as a special guest. How cool is that? Aside from that, I'm still gathering materials and tools to set up my prop-shop. I'm also planning on making some custom T-shirts. Hopefully, I'll be able to stimulate a bit of income that way and put that towards a nice camera.

I'm hopeful, optimistic, and above all...excited. I can't wait to see what the next few months hold.

I'm...dreaming of no....Christmas....

So, we're home and not having fun with our families. Not giving them the gifts I spent hours making. Not giving them the gifts we saved money for weeks to buy. We're not having fun with gifts we gave eachother...cause money has been too tight to do so (we decided to get eachother presents in February).

This sucks. Granted, the brunt of it sucking is due to the, so they say, inevitable winter weather that is headed our way. They never treat Bass Mountain Rd for snow or ice so it's not a good idea to go out anywhere for long periods of time when there's the chance the weather could take turn for the worst.

But even more so, the biggest reason this sucks is because of the bullshit importance people invest in this day. And I don't want to hear that "it's one day out of the year where you can be nicer and jolly and blah blah blah" cause we should all be nicer and more jolly all year around. We give in to materialism, I'm guilty of this as well. Spoil our children with toys and the occasional practical gift. There are those who invest time and thought and feeling into their gifts, but I really feel this is rarer than one would think. The more I meditate on the subject the sicker I feel. Really. "It's a day to spend with your families" Whatever. You should spend more time with your families anyway, if they're important to you. I find it insulting that that's an excuse. Like I'm not important enough to spend any 'real' time with, but since everyone else spends time with their families on this day I guess we should too. And how can you not be sickened by the overt, nonstop commercialism? It's bloody disgusting.


...I'm sorry if you read this and it dampened your 'spirits'. Have a beer and get over it.

I'm pissed off cause I wanted to see nephew and give him the lightsaber I bought him, yes I'm guilty of the commercialism bull too, but I never said I wasn't a hypocrite.

It's beginning to look a lot like Bullshit...

So, it's no mystery to those that are close to me that Christmas is not a favorite holiday of mine.

Humbug, Grinchitude, whatever...call it what you will, but my overall disdain for this time of year is well rooted in legitimacy.

So, let's begin...

First off, I used to work retail and yes, I worked retail through two Christmas'. Some people claim that this holiday transforms people into greedy s.o.b.'s that have to make the holiday perfect for their loved ones because their loved ones matter more than anyone's. While this is a close observation, it's not true, however the truth is far more distressing. Instead of transforming people all this holiday does it bring whats buried down deep inside most people bubbling up to the surface; the whole greedy, s.o.b. thing. People clog retail outlets clawing at, often, meaningless garbage to stuff in stockings and shove under trees to make people smile on that fateful morning, which, ya know, is just beautiful; making someone smile with products. Things. Consume, conform, and obey, America.

And even worse about this time of year is the fact that society, and more importantly, Christians, accepted this holiday as the birth of their savior because the Church decreed it so. It is a suject of great debate, but if one were to do the research I feel they would come to the same conclusion most, along with myself have, and that is that the man named Jesus was born sometime in the Spring and the early Christians decided to celebrate on the 25th of December to steal attention away from several Pagan holidays that all happened around that date. Being a pagan, and more importantly, one who celebrates the Festival of Yule, I find this time of year to be...overly offensive. I try my best to shrug it off, as I know deep down inside of me it doesn't really matter, but with the almost continuous holiday music on the T.V. and the just completely irritating Christmas messages plaguing my Facebook newsfeed it's hard to 'shrug' it all away.

I guess what all this really is is me telling more people to rise above ignorance.