I am a passionate person. I have strong beliefs in a lot of things, but I tend to keep them to myself, because I have such a wonderfully diverse set of friends and loved ones that despite our camaraderie, we rarely see eye to eye on everything. So expression of my beliefs is mostly limited to polite discussion and casual debate.

But I look at these six videos that I created over the last month, and I get this overwhelming feeling of pride and accomplishment. I pushed myself, created a product more professional than any I've created on my own before, and instead of being just funny or entertaining, they actually MEAN SOMETHING. I have placed a stone on the scales of justice on the side of fairness and equality, and that makes me feel good.

PLEASE, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter who you LOVE... stand up for equality and fairness. Stand up for the rights of those who don't have the things you have. Let your voice, and your opinion be heard.

Separately, we are just the noise of a crowd. But together, we are a chorus of the mighty, and no amount of hate can drown that out.

me
No, I'm not going to play "My Country Tis of Thee" now...

Being able to put this together for a shoot? Priceless. :)

This is The Pocket Paradox's application to the Evil League of Evil.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you've not watched Dr. Horrible yet.

( Video Cut )

No, this isn't a POLITICAL post, because same sex marriage isn't a political issue, it's a human one. And so, under the supervision of the very talented and awesome wildpaletz, we have created these:

( Anti-Proposition 8 PSAs... I didn't want to put them under a cut, but... )
Please help spread the word to other California voters.

http://www.youtube.com/user/VoteNoOnProp8
http://crackle.com/members/2460428
http://www.dailymotion.com/VoteNoOnProp8

Yes, there will be more of these coming.

me
Doing something about it

... and pick up a copy of Portland Magazine, check out the story by Bill Barry on page 50. My dad and I are both mentioned in a piece about a practical joke we played on someone for almost 10 years.


pg2 pg3

me
Snickering

So that funk that came down on me last week still hasn't abated.

There have been some low tides, of course: Spending a whole day working on the 3 Days Later script with Amber and Dave, and then hanging out with them and melibabe playing games, Tropic Thunder (holy crap that was good), preparing a resume and cover letter for an AWESOME job (that later turned out to be a stale posting), getting ready for the 10 minute improv gig that was going to pay me $1000 (that got canceled because they canceled the entire marketing campaign 4 days before the seminar).... Ups and downs. Ups and downs.

But the mood, on the whole has been kind of... meh for more than a week now, which sucks. Usually there's a drop and a bounce right back, but this funk lingers like the funk of a zombie's kiss on prom night.

I don't know what that means, but I thought it was funny... but no.

ANYWAY, in conversing with one of my wise friends, I was reminded that it's my own job to pull myself out of this crap, and not one to be a hypocrite, I'm taking my own advice and returning to posting about things that make me glad I'm me. Focus on the positive, that's what pulls us out of the ruts we get stuck in.

So here we go, #44:

I love to do a lot of things. And a lot of those lot of things I do passably well. So passably well, in fact, that I can often fool people into believing that I do them REALLY well, which is what a good Improviser does... fake it so realistically that it seems real.

But once in a while, I pull something off in such a spectacular manner that I even impress myself.

This is one of those times:


(IE Users may have to go to http://myspace.com/moronlifemusic and listen to Overplayed there)

It's the parody of the Daniel Powter song I did that got linked off the BBC Website. I can listen to it over and over again, and I'm still amazed that it's me a little bit.

Needless to say, I'm really proud of it, which is why I'm bringing it up again.

I need to make more music.

me
Counting down

It was an absolutely fantastic night in San Francisco tonight. Just cold enough that you need a jacket, but warm enough that once you're walking you really want to take the jacket off, but you don't, and instead walk with it unzipped, allowing the cool night air to intermingle with the body warmed air just enough to raise goosebumps across your torso.

The trees with the little, white, honeysuckle like flowers are starting to bloom, filling the air with a light, sweet perfume that makes you think you're in some amazing garden, even if you're standing in the middle of the street.

I found parking about 2 blocks from the theater, and the walk was the perfect length. My tummy was filled with burger, from my stop a King of Burger for some protein. It was there that I did my good deed for the day. As I walked into KoB, there was a young, scruffy kid dressed in a green hoodie and jeans sitting with his backpack and bedroll outside. I walked by and smiled, and he smiled back. He looked like he wanted to ask for money, but he saw the look of pure exhaustion that has been glazing my eyes for the last two days and instead just smiled and asked how I was doing. So I ordered and extra double cheeseburger and tossed it to him as I left KoB, telling him to have a good night. He made this huge smile, and armed with the burger, proceeded inside, where it was a little bit warmer.

As we were getting ready to start the Cue to Cue, the stage manager stopped, looked at me and asked, "Have you done anything with Un-Scripted?" I nodded. "I did the puppet musical with them last spring." She grinned and said, "THAT'S where I know you from! You were FANTASTIC in that. Really really funny!"

Needless to say, that got my night off to a good start.

Cue to Cue went well. The run through after went well. The drive home went well.

All in all, the evening was well. As am I.

Now, off to bed, to try to get as close to a real night's sleep as I can.

me
One-Actor

So I know that my summer, while amazing from a creative standpoint, may have come across as slightly stressful for me.  There were a couple really awesome things that happened, though, that I didn't share through Ye Olde ElJay.

Why?  Probably because I was really enjoying sharing them in a more face to face manner.  And because I was sort of holding on to them as lifelines to happy.  Because by not posting, I could keep retelling the details without 'Oh, yeah, I read that...' popping up 3 sentences into the story.

So here's the first (not in chronological order):

The folks from Un-Scripted (the Puppet Show People) called to ask me to audition for their winter musical.  They were sad to see I'd not signed up for an audition spot, and wanted to check to see if they could convince me to come in.  That's the happy part.  Unfortunately, because of the holiday banquet schedule, there's really no way I could do it this year.  But still... they liked me.  They really, really liked me.

More later, when I feel like sharing another.

me
Talented!

... at the Studio.  I stopped by to pick up my steady cam setup, but on the way in, I grabbed the mail.

As I sorted it in the Elevator, I came across something from GoFish addressed to Accounts Receivable.  You may remember that the GoFish guys met with us back in February.  We signed a content agreement with them that gave us a 50% revenue share of advertising profit from hits on our content on our site.

Today we actually got a check... ( Read more... )

I took 440 pictures of this amazing woman today.

This is my favorite.

More forthcoming, once I get them sorted.

me
175% Pure Awesome, today...

There's alot of history behind this post.  Damn, do I go into it or not.  Okay, sorry.

So in college, I performed with the Penn State International Dance Ensemble.  Fantastic group of people, and it really fed my love of All Things International.  For several years, every Labor Day weekend, we'd get together in Pittsburgh for the long weekend, sing our asses off Friday thru Sunday, then hit a recording Studio for three hours and sing our asses off even more.  The amount of tracks we were laying down the first couple years was INSANE.

Eventually, with babies and lives, the reunions became less and less frequent.  And at some point, the awesome folks in charge of the reunions handed over the five years worth of master DAT (digital audio tapes) to me, so that at some point I could get them burned to CD so we could do something with them (we put out a CD after the first year-- my first "producer" gig).  So every six to 10 months, I come across this stack of DATs and try to find some place that will convert them for me.  The CHEAPEST I found was like $100 per tape.  Yeah, um... no thank you.

So Wednesday afternoon, I was having lunch with Greg from the restaurant at his place.  He is a musician, and has had music on shows on the WB and FX and even had a song appear on Buffy!  No shit!! :)

Anyway, we're talking production crap after he gives me a tour of his recording studio (I may be borrowing it for an upcoming project), and I mention that I have these DATs that I need converted.  He says to me, "I've got a DAT player.  I never use it anymore.  Want to borrow it?"  And he immediately goes over to the rack, unplugs the thing, and hands it to me.

So here I am, sitting at home, FINALLY getting these DATs converted... mind you, the oldest is from 1992.  The first one I did (1994, maybe?) had FIFTY tracks on it.  FIFTY!!!  Come on, say it with me now... HOLYCRAP!!!

Anyway, I was just going to do one, but I had so much fun listening to this music that has been stored as 0s and 1s for over 10 years that I popped in the second (only 26 tracks) and then the third (24 tracks).  Near the end of the third, some guitar music started, and I was suddenly stunned to hear myself singing.  It was the song I sang for kellyangel's wedding, which I also sang in concert with PSIDE my last year with the group.

This year's recording has to be immediately BEFORE that concert - which would make it 1995, but that's not possible, because Tape 2 was marked 1995... which means it would have to be shortly AFTER, which means Labor Day 1996 or 1997.  Anyway, the guitarist playing for me had only seen the music that weekend, so she was having some trouble with it, and we never actually recorded the whole song (which is probably why I didn't remember doing it).  There's just a couple takes of us starting off and not finishing.  But the first one... it made me really happy, so I'm sharing it with y'all if you want to listen.

I Love The Way You Love Me (1:16 - 1.17Meg mp3 file)

I hate to sound like I'm a braggart, or that I'm trying to be modest, or that I'm FALSELY modest... I'm never really sure how much to crow when I love something I do... but damn I love this.  It's the complete raw audio, no processing or mixing.  And again, it's a bad take, it cuts off early, and I think that's why I like it so much.

Enjoy!

me
Sorry the post is so long... and I'm sorta sorry I didn't cut it... but people don't read the cut posts mostly, right?

And no, it has nothing to do with a banana costume.

I am now, officially, a published photographer.  (yeah, yeah, I was published twice in the SF Guardian [once on the front page]) but this is cooler.

It's a book.

My first published book.

Yeah, yeah, I self published it.  And yeah, yeah, it's really just someone's wedding album. But... wow. 

And it's not even that it's a printed book, but it came out so AWESOME that I'm prouder of this than of anything else I've ever done.



Click the picture for a shot of the back cover.  If you'd like to see the interior of the book (in pdf format) check here.  It's the final draft, and a couple tweaks were made before publishing.

But it's done, and I'm amazingly proud of myself.  And best of all... they don't know that I did this for them.  They think they're just getting a DVD of photos that they have to sort, print and put in an album. :)

me
Photographer

Let's not talk about waking up late thanks to screwing up AM & PM when resetting my alarm clock (THANKS PG&E!!) and having to drive 85 the whole way to Pleasanton.

Oy.

me
in a Post-Adrenaline Rush coma

ps: There is video. Oh yes, video.

Hey Buffy fans!  Looks like I'll be working on THIS project.  As Angel.  I'm only in 1 episode in the first 12, so it won't be a big time commitment, but I'll likely get some incidental voices to do, too.  They just sent out the "do you accept you part?" email, so technically they could change the casting before the official cast list is posted if people turn stuff down, but that would just mean a meatier role...

me
Building up the Voice Work resume and being a fanboy at the same time...

So this past weekend was A&N's wedding over in Half Moon Bay.

Beautiful, fantastic, stress free, and awesome.

I took 1140 pictures between 1:30PM and 9:30PM. That's 2.375 pictures per minute. Holy crap.



me
My shutter finger is sore...

So get this shit... I actually have TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW.

This is practically unheard of.  And of course, since I can't actually just rest, yesterday I got up and did things WITH A VENGEANCE!

1. Burned DVDs of Festival photos for 3 for All and Mark Baratelli.
2. Went to Starbux to get breakfast and coffee for me and the house/office mates.
3. Burned 3 copies of my "Summer Burn" compilation.
4. Figured out how to add photographer copyright to digital image EXIF information.
5. Mailed all the discs (SF, Florida, UK, UK, Canada).
6. Uploaded three Moron Life videos to a sketch comedy contest.
7. Went to In-n-Out for lunchies.
8. Created the Jurassic Penguin image for esmerel.
9. Installed guestbook on future project website.
10. Recorded ambient audio for hollow sounding sketch.
11. Sorted Friday's SFIF photos and uploaded them to Flickr.
12. Captured ambient audio from tape to PC.
13. Re-processed hollow sounding audio so it wasn't so hollow.
14. Wrote and published this week's "Some Guy" blog for the SFIF MySpace page.
15. Added ambient sound to now not-so-hollow sketch.
16. Watched the Colbert Report.
17. Re-rendered sketch, converted to MP4 and re-uploaded.
18. Took and sorted a bunch of pictures of my face (and made an icon out of it).
19. Finished my Amazon Chocolate ice cream.
20. Edited together five minute video for future project.
21. Went to Sizzler with the house/office mates and baby for dinner.
22. Converted five minute video to MP4, MOV and FLV file formats.
23. Played around on IILWY.com.
24. Figured out how to install flash player on future project website.
25. Posted way too much to LJ.

I think that's all...

I doubt today will be as efficient.

But you never know!!!

me
FASTER!  FASTER!!

So I've had a low grade headache since Thursday morning. At first, I thought it was me being sick, but I realize now that I'm just REALLY FREAKING TIRED.

The funny thing is that as soon as I'm engaged in something, the headache goes away. Once I'm idle again... ow ow ow. I'm sure it's not going away, but I'm just able to ignore it better when I'm busy. Not a great impetus to slow down and get UNtired.

Anyway, as many have read, Thursday was the opening of the Festival. I've gotten to spend some time hanging out with Emo Philips, and his fiancee Kipleigh Brown (who's been on Star Trek! You guys!! WOOO!). They're both really really sweet people. Kipleigh is freakin hysterical, and just a really really really really nice person. Emo may be is one of the most brilliant commedians ever.


The standup set he did at the post show was amazing.  Just freakin amazing.

Friday night was another brilliant show, by both Bassprov (with Emo) and 3 For All.

After the show, it was a quiet evening at a French restaurant on Hayes.  I got to pick the wine for the table, which everyone highly approved of.  Had some warm Camembert cheese on buttered toast with walnuts, and a little dish of olives.  Desert was something that is akin to the chocolate creme brulee from LP, but it was more mousse like, and just as sex-in-a-cuppy.

It was just a really neat evening, with these amazing people just having casual conversation and hanging out.

YAY!

me
Hangin' out with the stars