I don't have much to say, but thought I'd pop my head in.

Really, I came to brag. I've decided to drop $ on concerts this year. I'm old enough and earn enough that I no longer need to accept nosebleed or lawn seats to see a show. So the concerts I have tickets for now are.

Coldplay
NIN
NIN
Radiohead

Yes, that's nine inch nails twice. I've seen them(him) three times in the past and that show has never failed to knock me off my feet. (Not literally, I never buy floor tickets for a show like that.)

Focus slowly returns

For the past couple weeks I haven't been fired up for much. Maybe it's a subtler form of post perfomance depression, but it wasn't at all bad. I watched movies, saw friends, got a ton of sleep. I just never really felt the itch to get creative.

For two reasons the juices are flowing. One, the script I've been writing (oh so slowly) has finally been finished. At least the first draft. I've been working on it since November and it's about four months overdue. For the last week I'd been pecking away, promising to write at least four pages but walking away after two. This past week the muse sat down next to me and we cranked out the last twenty five pages in three sittings. Now it's off to the guy I'm working on the story with and we can start hacking away at it.

Finishing the first draft is always a bittersweet experience. You've finally gotten all those pages down. The big push to just get it to the the end is done. Might as well jump. (Jump!) Do a funny dance. Drink something. I did all of these things and more. Then run away from it for a week and read it all back. I promise, it'll be crap. The real work begins now.

Of course, now that I've finished the first draft for this script I have to get into story meetings with the second guy I'm working with. This involves doing a remake of an old movie, obviously can't say which. Where the other script our intention is to raise financing and shoot guerilla ourselves (and the script is tailored to it) this one is a spec script, with some nebulous connection to a NY producer. I never get my hopes up about that kind if stuff, I'm far more interested in writing the script itself.

The second thing that happened was hanging out with the Martin & Silveira boys last night. Apparently I know a little more about wrangling ProTools than they do. I've been banging my head against it longer. Ran into the boys at the watering hole at the beginning of the week and they asked me to stop by. Had a great time listening to, discussing, and playing music.

My batteries are recharged.

Juno - and my reaction to it.

So recently the lady friend and myself set up on the couch to watch the courageously hip, Academy Award winning indie flick Juno. Allow me to offer my thoughts.

In the first fifteen minutes my hair blew back like the Maxell commercial from the tidal wave of hipness I was encountering. Every second, every word of this movie is a mathematically precise example of chock-full-o'-hip. The soundtrack crawled out of the speakers in its indie-unwashed-tattooed-protesting way and hung out right next to your left ear to say, "See?! We're
HIP GODDAMMIT!" In complete defiance of the fact that teenagers don't speak that way, that parents are never that cavalier about their children mouthing off in that way, ("I should smack her for saying that, but it's just so witty and clever.") Juno never breaks stride. I thought this was going to be a long trip.

From minutes fifteen to thirty, I watched with my mental arms crossed. I decided I hated this girl. I hated the boy who knocked her up. I hate the adoptive family. I am watching just to keep watching to keep my street cred up. (I have a policy of finishing almost every movie I start to watch, notable exception to this rule is Freddie Got Fingered, horrible.) Most of all I hated myself for seeing Diablo Cody accept the Oscar for best screenplay and know deep in my heart what this movie was going to be, but still wanting to believe.

After minute thirty something strange happened. I grew a callous over my over-hip sensor, immune to the pop-culture references delivered wryly and self-congratulatory. The acting went from brash and masturbatory to actually being characters that interact. Bateman I liked, personally I think he delivered one of the hardest roles, not because he was the coolest or most heroic, but because he was believable, completely.

(On one note of pop-cult reference I liked, this movie does have the best reference to 80's after school cartoons I've ever seen.)

In the end, I had to like it. I realized, again, that movies aren't supposed to be real life, they're only going for verisimilitude. I know why the 50-to-80 year olds who make up the Academy loved the S.P., they have no idea how false it is.

Oh, and the soundtrack that drove a pick in my ear? I can't stop listening to it. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

The Final Chapter of the Insanity

(I promise I've been working on this for a while.)

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one.

The end is bittersweet, sometimes more one than the other. I'm really glad to get my life back. It's funny how everything else just seems to stop for a while when I'm in the run of a show. At the same time, I'm usually incredibly depressed for a few days after knowing it's all over. Any actor can tell you about post-show depression. Just ask them.

This time around, I'm not. I'm exhausted, that's for sure. Even without a rip roaring party at the end of the run, I still managed to sleep til almost two in the afternoon Sunday. Monday, pretty much the same.

But I feel okay with letting McMurphy wander his merry way off my path. Being him was definitely like slipping into a well made suit, (Friends comparisons: "He's a hard partying wiseass who bristles at authority, REAL stretch.) but for some reason this time I feel no need to cling to it. Together we said all we wanted to say, and we bounced on a high note. How many times in your life do you get to say that? Maybe I'm becoming more mature about it, or maybe it's that I have so many other things to turn my energy back to. Either way, I finish this chapter with new friends, came full circle on a few personal issues, and got to play one of the best characters written.

I feel we accomplished something that hasn't happened in the area for a long time. We put on a show that no one really thought could be done, or done very well at best. We had a pretty drama-free (offstage) run from casting through to strike. People came out to see it, people that usually don't do thea-tuh. We had huge crowds who were incredibly interactive. For two weeks we became a small spot on the area map. The show brings out quite a few generations who are all interested in seeing it. You can take that attendance as a given, but the second weekend obviously told us we were doing more than 'putting it on'.

I wanted to write some of the things that were said to me after the show, but I just realized how incredibly arrogant that is. A lot of people said a lot of nice things, and people I've never met made it a point to stop and say hi. I was very grateful for their praise.

There were a ton of funny 'woops' moments during production, I think these moments are the ones we actors remember most. I could tell you about the final night when McMurphy is supposed to make his first entrance like a tornado, all energy and laughter, but for some reason a frog jumped down my throat that moment so he entered like a British police officer 'whatsallthis'-ing. Or the night when my 'funny' boxers are supposed to be next and I drop my pants and...they...aren't...there. Or the poor kid playing the aide who I've never messed with, until he opened the door during my offstage rendition of 'F$ck you, I'm drunk.' You get the point.

There were some holes. We were so well rehearsed that when an audience showed up, people got excited when the audience responded. Some of the guys wanted to give them more, sometimes it took away from the action at hand. I don't think it ever pulled too much attention away from the spine of the show but it damages the work that the other actors put into making it the experience we all wanted the audience to have. I spent a lot of head time making sure the play honored all the characters, not make it a 'McMurphy' show. Everyone should have had their moments to shine.

The biggest question in the aftermath I heard was, "What are you going to do next?" The first was that no, uh-uh, no way am I doing Oklahoma. Sorry folks, less than no interest. I have a rule about the theater I do just for enjoyment: I should enjoy it. I do not enjoy that show, no matter how good I'd be at this or that character. Dracula, maybe. For reasons I can't divulge right now that's way too close to me personally right now, and I had a bad enough time soaking up three different versions of OFOtCN. Another group is doing a locally written show, a musical no less. I saw the original production and I liked it. Schedule can only tell.

I thought I had a lot more to say on the subject. Ah well, let's get to pictures. Apologies for the formatting, I still haven't figured it out.

l to r: Harding, Cheswick, Billy, and Martini. As fine a group of psychos as you can find.

There was a better pic of this somewhere, but I can't find it. McMurphy meets the residents. On the floor is Scanlon, back in the nurses station is Nurse Flynn.

McMurphy meets the Chief. I'm not a small guy, so you get the idea. Wonderful actor.

Martini.

I have no idea what was going through my mind at this moment, but I love this picture. It looks like I got him.

McMurphy confronts Harding. I'll pretty much work with this actor any chance I get.

It would take too many words to explain why, but this is one of my favorite moments in the show. There's no feeling like having an audience CHEER for your character.

The end of Act I, the World Series. This is an early rehearsal photo, but it's as perfect a shot as I can get. It's currently my wallpaper.

The basketball game. Good times.

I like this picture for two reasons. One, it's great moment between the Chief and McMurphy. Two, I look almost buff.

After the shock treatment. This is my other favorite moment. It says everything about this show, this character, more than I could ever say.

The amazing, incredible cast.

A much longer, incredibly verbose post about the final weekend of the show and my reaction to it will show up soon, once I've finally wrapped my head around the whole thing.

And there will be pictures.

Update...blah blah blah

Show tonight...amazing. Tomorrow ends it all. I wish I could begin to tell you.

I can't.

Good night.

Update on the Insane (XII)

After a few days off we're back at the theater tonight for a quick rehearsal. Speed through, really, just to get our brains back into show gear. I've had a bit of a rough week. My back has decided it wants to do nothing but hurt, so I've been unable to enjoy the new incredible weather we're having. My chiropractor and I are getting to know each other very well lately.

To our surprise, there was not one, but two reviews in local papers. One took a couple pages of space. Both were very good for the show, extremely positive when it comes to reviews. Of course one paper got my name completely wrong which caused plenty of hilarity among the cast and means precisely less than nothing to me. The day I'm walking through the supermarket and someone calls me the wrong name because of a local newspaper's coverage of local theater...let's just say I don't see it in the near future.

The level of our shock was because one of these papers has gone to the trouble of letting everyone know that they don't DO that anymore. Whoever pulled whatever strings needed to be pulled, thanks. Reservations are coming in faster than our producer can write them.

I'm feeling really good about tomorrow. Don't let the vault fall now.

In other news:
I've finally gone and done it. I started watching Lost. (I refuse to link this because if you don't know what Lost is, then you sure as hell don't have the savvy to get here.) I like it. I'm neither as ravenous as die hard fans nor as angry as critics are. I'm well into the second season and find the twists not too hard to follow. Generally I like it because the production value is high, the acting is pretty damn good for tv, the directors seem to have it right, and the writing is aaaaalllllmost good. For the most part I like the writing but don't like when writers add twists without seeing where those twists go. I can see them writing themselves into a corner. I can only suspect time travel will solve these issues. (No, I'm not that savvy, I was given the hint time travel might happen.) The character writing is usually brilliant or totally ridiculous, but I can live with it.

I saw Street Kings recently. You should see it. It wasn't well liked in the critics' circle but I enjoyed it. The director had written the two movies I thought it was very similar to; Dark Blue and Training Day; and I think he upped the game. Finally he left out the sparkling clean new cop who wrestles with corruption. I've always had issues with white knights, and I'm glad that everyone here has a little mud on them. I can imagine that being a cop in one of the toughest areas of a large city removes some of your ability to think in absolutes, and this movie doesn't try to convince you otherwise.

The main reason to watch this movies is Keanu Reeves. He got back into my good graces a while ago, and I've staunchly defended him to anyone who challenges his talent. Most leading men in today's Hollywood are relative one-notes. They can change it up a bit for each movie, but they take a spine for their character and keep ramrod straight to it. They'll go deep down that path but never really stray too far from it. It's ok, that's how most of these parts are written anyway. I had always felt this true of Keanu. He had one good note: "Whoa." It worked in quite a few movies. Bill & Ted (natch), Point Break, The Devil's Advocate, The Matrix was perfect for him. Neo is a character who lives in a state of constant discovery, most of those being mind-bending. With Street Kings he accomplished two things:

1)He doesn't look like a boy anymore.

2)He never reminded me of any other character he'd already done.

He's quite dark in this movie, and his path to redemption, well, I don't want to ruin it for you. Let's just say it's nice to see him be an asshole for once.

Update on the..hell, THIS is what drugs can't even touch...(REVISED 4/14)

Im changing a lot of this post because it's too self-indulgent, as if blogging isn't inherently self-indulgent to begin with. Way too morose for such a great weekend.

I write this in the wee hours after the first weekend of shows have finished, and I see no sleep for a while...because I am too high on what happened this weekend.

In this first weekend we've already broken attendance records for this group's last half dozen shows (at least that's what I'm told). Tonight the tally was around 160. I can't even remember the last time that many people came out for a show that didn't have a pit band. Granted, the show itself carries its own weight through recognition, but apparently word of mouth is already working its magic. We doubled the crowd from the first night.

It's a long standing given that Saturday night crowds are far less excitable than Friday night crowds. Tonight was the exception. Through the tinny speaker in the green room you could hear the electricity of the crowd. The first ten minutes of the show (nearly the only time I'm not either on stage or frantically getting into the next costume) I could hear the crowd work with the cast. The air popped. I don't know how to describe it if you haven't felt it before. I just knew that it was up to us to keep them alive.

And we did. ALL of us. The minor snafus kept none of the energy off the show. For personal reasonsI walked onto the stage angry and ready for war. I used every bit of that to get through the opening, and the cast and crowd carried me through the next two hours. By intermission I felt invincible. I can't even begin to describe to you how well this cast works together, onstage and off. Do I have complaints? Sure, but the overall sense of community and harmony far outweigh any of those. We got down to it and we worked. We gave that crowd everything we could, and they gave back.

I've been remiss in mentioning that the John Proctor from last year's Crucible is playing the part of Harding. In fact, he got me to audition for the show. He and the other insanos built such a believable group of wounded it was hard not to want to help them.

The reviewer who came for the dress rehearsal has posted his review on his own website here. Kind words. I know he gives nothing false praise, so his comments were especially appreciated. He went so far as to submit it to the website that's run by the local newspaper magnate, and they plan to run an edited version of it Thursday. If that and word of mouth work, hell we might come close to sell outs. This weekend there will be a lot of family and friends out for the show. Pumped. Only wish there would be more.

Update on the Insane (X)

A quick recap leading up to last night...

The final dress went extremely well. The friends and family who came to see it were extremely responsive. There weren't more than a dozen people, but it felt like more like a performance than any other dress I'd been in. They were very supportive, we walked out of there confident. I decided to stay in that night and get some sleep.

Yesterday morning, opening day, I woke up and my throat felt like sandpaper. Awesome. So everything I had planned went on hold. I sat in the house, drank tea and played videogames. Before getting to the theater I picked up a bag full of drugs.

The show...

There's no way I can think anything other than good thoughts about last night's show. The crowd was huge and very responsive. The cast had an energy that fed everyone. If I had to comment, I'd say that there was almost too much energy, but I'll take that over too little any day of the week. With a bottle of water on either side of the stage and throat spray right next to them I got through the show without a problem. The crowd loved it, they were great. Awesome positive comments. I just pray all the shows go this well.

Update on the Insane (IX)

I guess Tuesday was MY tense day. I'm not quite sure what it was but I certainly got snippy. I kept a pretty tight lid on it, though, I got through it without coming down on anybody. Last night's run through had me feeling good. The only thing we're missing now is an audience. Which we're getting tonight.

It's the usual thing where everyone is allowed to invite a few friends to the final dress, just to get the feel for an audience. In my case, I brought a reviewer. A local writer who haunts my favorite bar is going to be my guest, he runs a website filled with his rants on music sell outs, corporate America, and sports. They're all entertaining and well thought out. I enjoy them, particularly the music rants, we talk long hours about music. He was also one of the few people who came out to The Crucible last year. (Let's face it, there's two kinds of people in this world. Those who love The Crucible...and everybody else.) I asked if he'd be willing to give us a viewing and he said he'd be happy too. I'll post the link when it's up.

I know I wrote about the dearth of local media's coverage of local theater, been trying to think of ways to fix that. I was thinking about a website, a blog in particular, that could have a few dedicated writer/reviewers to cover whatever they could. That could be a ridiculous amount of work, I don't know if I have the time.

Apparently begging and pleading has been helping ticket reservations. It seems we've broken the hundred mark on non-comp reservations. It may not sound like much, but it's definitely encouraging.

I'll let you know how tonight goes. Hopefully it won't suck.

Update on the Insane (VIII)

Production week has begun.

Had our first night with the set. It's way bigger than we imagined, but I like it more than I believed I would. Some of the guys are worried about spacing, but the folks watching seem to have no problems with it. Personally, I like some curveballs. Having to adjust to something, be it physical or 'upstairs', helps keep things from getting stale.

I have to say, I love my costume. I LOVE it. It's nothing too fancy, in fact I bought most of the stuff myself, but the effort was worth it. I scoured vintage shops for weeks finding the perfect jacket. Getting into it adds that layer of 'this is it' that ramps things up.

Tons of production photos, which are great except when you're standing on stage mostly naked and the flashes keep coming faster. Really, the pictures must be taken by the blind, because me with no clothes on isn't that pretty a sight.

On a downer note, I think some pent up feelings have started to show themselves. What's funny about it is that none of that anger is MINE. I have nothing but respect for everyone around me, and hopefully continue to show that respect. There haven't been any huge shouting matches or anything like that, just now some people seem to be putting their foot down instead of listening to each other, which is what we've been doing so well, and which has made us special in my eyes. We've also been a pretty big group of goofballs, and the director is getting pretty tired of it. A lot of that I have to own, and be more in tune with the work. Hopefully tonight we'll get some of that fixed.

As far as how good the show looks right now, I have no idea. I'm so deep into it I can't step back and look objectively.

"I Hate That Guy...I Hate ALL Those Guys" and Update on the Insane (VII)

So yesterday was one of those totally bizarre, awesome, weird days that I have to tell you about.

The lady friend and myself trekked out to the Boston area to do a day of extra work in the as yet untitled film by starring a very famous funny person. It takes place in a mall.

Extras holding/sign in was in a gigantic tent outside. We get in line, probably extras #262 and #263 out of 300. There's so many people I figure I gotta know at least one or two from my last experience doing an extra gig in September, so I'm scanning the crowd. That's when I see her. It CAN'T be her, but it looks so much like her, I gotta know.

I lean in to the lady friend, "Look at her...do you think?"

"Sneak a look at her sign in sheet and make sure."

So I sneak a look over her shoulder thinking if I get caught doing this it will be another in a loooong list of embarrassing moments. Fortunately I am smooth like 007 and got the name. Yeah, it really was her. The lady friend gives me the thumbs up, go for it.

Nervous like a schoolboy I go for it.

"Um, excuse me...Kat?"

"Yeeees?"

I can see the lack of recognition, and I can swear I hear her mentally preparing the judo chop.

"I'm Kevin..."

Still nothing.

"...an actor darkly."

That's when the light bulb goes off. Yay!

And so a totally random event kicked off a day of complete tomfoolery. We ran into E, who was my partner in crime on the last gig, and made a new friend and the five of us spent the day cracking each other up. It was so bizarre, we were kinda like old friends, just without the ever having been in the same place part.

And in case any Magickat readers were wondering, she is just as (actually even more) funny, charming, sarcastic, effin' hilarious, beautiful,witty, sweet, and warm as she reads in her blog. She's now promised to come to Cuckoo's Nest so that's one more reason why I can't suck, but at least we got to meet before the show itself. Which leads me to...

Update...
We are now moving to the final week of production. Tonight's rehearsal was the last outside of the performance space, and by Monday we'll have a set to work with. I am excited and terrified at the same time. I'm excited because the cast looks so good I'm overwhelmed. I'm terrified because now I wonder if I can measure up to them.

I haven't really talked about it much, but I'm kind of shitting myself. Not in a stage fright, oh-I'm-gonna-stink shitting myself. More like a hope-I'm doing-it-right shitting myself. I've been free to say what I like during rehearsals. Mostly it's about traps that I find myself falling into and seeing others fall in as well, but I hope I'm putting my money where my mouth is. We go back to rehearsing on Sunday, and I hope all I'm doing is putting finishing touches on the character. I can't see the forest for the trees.

Right now I can't tell.

Update on the Insane (VI)

Um...hi. Remember me? I know, I know. Bad poster.

Honestly there really hasn't been much to talk about. Rehearsals continue, the show gets better. My real worry is that we're already solid. I've noticed that in order to keep things interesting we're playing things up a bit, mostly the laughs. We talked about it and agreed that needed to stop. We had a six day break and then had three nights in a row of rehearsals last week and a lot of us (i.e. ME) felt totally out of gas. Thankfully this week it's come back with a ton of energy. We also aren't in the actual performance space, and set or no, that helps.

One of the great things about this performance is the sense of freedom that comes with it. Every director has their own sense of leadership, and ours really lets us make our own decisions. He only changes things when they aren't working, and doesn't really get too picky about it. Our real sense of checks and balances has been each other. As a cast we're continually having open discussions about character, how the scenes should work, how to adjust things. The great thing about this respect everyone has is when the advice come out of the blue. Someone who isn't even on stage for some scenes will approach me and offer adjustments, and they'll be totally right.

Also, with the huge mouth and fierce opinions I have, everyone is blessedly patient with it. When we've stopped and talked about things as a group I can find myself rambling on. I look over at the director and tell him to shut me up whenever. Usually he nods and tells me to get it out.

My big focus the last couple days is thinking of everyone I know and convincing them to come to this darn show. I've handed out posters, emailed, done the myspace (gag) thing, called, and begged. The group would like to see an attendance of 400 over the four shows. They read the numbers of the last half dozen non-musicals they've done. Never got over 230. Funny, you can't swing a dead cat in Western Mass without hitting a local theater group, but where's the audience? For some reason local papers won't review local productions, I guess there was bad mojo about negative reviews and nasty letters back and forth ten years ago, so it all stopped. So I am whoring myself to get people to this thing.

Update on the Insane (V)

Yeah, I never made a (IV) in the last post about the show. Sue me.


So as I always do when preparing for a show I scour the internet for information about other productions, I found some stuff on "Cuckoo's Nest."


Note: Some people will not watch a movie, another production, look at pictures, or hear stories about other productions of a show once they start doing it. They feel it will affect their interpretation, and don't want to be accused of "copying" another version, or they feel it will alter their 'vision.'


Happily, I have no such qualms. In fact, when I hear someone talk about their 'vision' my brain instantly goes somewhere else, like how long until I need my next oil change. If you want inspiration, go get it. If you think you're copying someone, stop. It's not like you're going to build the crazy bridge/junk thing in Les Mis and suddenly wonder where you got the inspiration from.


I haven't found much. I was looking for clips of other productions, and mostly got a couple high school versions that were played for laughs. I can reject those outright. There was a great piece on Charlie Rose with Gary Sinise that has a couple scenes but the sound is so choppy it's unwatchable.


I DID find this. I guess I've never looked at it quite that way before. I can't say I agree that was the intent, I mean Ken Kesey was so f*cked on LSD he probably had very little idea what he writing period. But I'm willing to concede the point, if you look at it from that direction.


Thankfully, most of the time, I don't.


I've been told by more than one person that the link doesn't show where the theater itself is. Try here.

Some Fun Things to Look At

A couple things I've seen floating around the internets lately. I was recently reminded of them on zefrank's site.

I've seen this twice. It's funny AND scary at the same time.

And if you ever need to know what the pinnacle of being awesome actually is, watch this clip.

Other stuff I've found that makes me happy...Webcomics. I don't read too many, chrissakes it takes me too much time catching up on blogs (I'm still catching up on some new ones) so here are my two favorites.

Questionable Content. Do I like it because it's set in my town? Yes. I actually recognize the bars and locales in the comic. But mostly I like it because it's hiLARious. Read from the beginning.

Penny Arcade. Balls out funny. If you're a gamer. If you haven't sacrificed GPA to playing Warcraft (the original) or lost two days playing Metal Gear Solid or lost a MONTH playing Neverwinter Nights, this might not be to your taste. It is to mine.

I Can't Eat that Much Rice

Another night of rehearsal. Another night when I look around and wonder how I got so lucky.

Not only am I doing a show that's a favorite of...well, just about anyone who knows it, and doing the part that speaks to me, but I get to do it witht the most wonderful group of actors. I couldn't have dreamt up such a great cast.

What amazes me time and again is the quiet competence each person brings each night. There's no histrionics, no drama, just a simple working of each scene. A tweak here and there. A "Hey, I got an idea.." What's remarkable is that everyone listens to it, and everyone usually accepts it and adjusts accordingly. Our director seems to understand that he pretty much can let us figure most of it out, and only needs to jump in when it's not reading off stage. I was talking to the costume lady and watching the business on stage and realized how much was going on that I truly CAN'T be aware of. No one ever stops. No one stands, waiting for their next piece of business.

I already know this show will be incredible. How did I get so lucky?

If you're in the area (western Mass) you should come. If you're near the area, you should come. If you're way out of the area, I'll buy you a drink if you make it. Don't come for me. Come for the whole thing.

You can find the partic'lars here.

Update on the Insane (III)

So last week I had been to precisely zero rehearsals. Most canceled due to weather, one big one I never wrote in my calendar, so didn't know there WAS a rehearsal until the next day's email. "We missed you last night," came from the director. Consternation on my face, I check my little calendar. Nope, no rehearsal there. Then I check the emailed schedule. Hey look, there's a rehearsal I never wrote down.

And I felt horrible. I'm a pain in the ass about scheduling enough I don't want to miss the ones I DO get to go to. So to make it up I locked myself in a room for the weekend and got off book. I had about twenty pages done, but there were fifty more to go. Now that's done, all I have to worr yabout is this damn character thing.

Rehearsal this week were, in a word, awesome. It just keeps getting better, and we've added a fun new element...

We're drinking together.

Two nights this week so far a bunch of us have made it to the nearest bar, and several of us were there when the lights went off.

It's too damn scary that it's going so well.

In other news, I did a spec commercial today. Actually two at once, but it was great fun and they should be done in a week or two, so hopefully they will be someplace online for you to see them. They're very funny "Office"-ey type stuff.

A Love Song to My Town

I live in this wonderful little city called Northampton. Some of you may have heard of it. It's best known (or so I'm told) as the lesbian capital of the eastern seaboard. Check your fantasies at the door, frat boys. It might have a bit of that to it, but it's so much more.

Northampton in the 70's and early 80's was another broken mill town on the Connecticut River. No jobs, crime rampant, blah blah blah. Until a bunch of starving artists in New York couldn't afford to live ther anymore, and the rent in Noho was cheap.

Now it's a thriving haven for artists, to the ones who can afford it nowadays. (Real estate here is prohibitvely expensive.) Name your medium, it's probably living well here. (Except for community theater, but that's a much longer post.) Every day I go out onto the main drag I see something I've never seen before. Tonight it was a guy banging on a bucket and singing to it. To his defense, he sang well.

Because I'm a little bit of a lot of things, but not really great at one, I have never really 'fit into the mix'. I have good friends, great friends but I'm not the guy you turn to for a great tour of the parties of the town. I have a haunt where everybody knows my name. (Northampton Brewery, if you're in the area and miss it's amazing beer and incredible food, you should be brought up on charges.)

I could go on like this for a while, but what I really wanted to talk about was this amazing musician and friend that I had a ridculously long conversation with tonight. His name is Greg and you can check out his stuff here. I recommend 'The story of Catfish Slim'. It's what slide guitar is all about.

I bumped into him towards the end of the night, and we closed the bar and sat outside the bar and just talked about music for god knows how long. We've played together before, but he kinda breathes music the way I wish I could. I'm not a great player of music, but I think I write fairly well. Every time I listen to 'Catfish' I'm reminded of my failings. The best thing about Mr. Silvera is that he'll take your fears about music and make you realize how stupid it is. He's so inclusive about music you wish there were more musicians out there like him. the same goes to his partner, Josh Martin.

So I just wanted to give a tip of the hat to both of you bad boys, for your amazing music and your 'keepin it real'.

Give them a good listen. They deserve it. You've earned it. When I write something I hink you'll like to her, Reader, I'll post it.

You live for something, or die for...aw, hell just blow something up

So in a much needed break from reality and all its shortcomings, I went to see Rambo today.

Surprise, it didn't suck.

Okay it didn't suck when you remove the moral platitudes that just don't work, the poor direction given to really good actors (Julie Benz and Paul Schulze come to mind) and the underabundance of...uh...RAMBO-ness that you'd be expecting, it wasn't half bad. At least it didn't try to be something it wasn't. Now I have to go rent the other two bad ones. (The first was a really good movie.)

Update on the Insane (II)

First, I am continually thrilled with what the cast of Cuckoo is putting out, and we've had less than five rehearsals. Most of us barely know each other and moments are already happening, and scripts are still in hand. The terrifying thing is that it's going so well. I'm used to the early stages being such a mess that I keep looking up, waiting for the piano to fall on my head. Tomorrow night is the first post rehearsal drinks session, and I'm terribly excited to get to know these guys more. I think it'll be great to be able to talk about the show outside of rehearsal.

Next, a mild rant. I just finished watching all of Six Feet Under. Whoa. Earlier in the season I was itching to write a post about how much I had come to hate the show. They never shied away from taking an interesting choice, but how come I had grown to despise these characters so much? The final two episodes completely floored me, and I'm glad I never gave up. If you want to see great actors doing great acting, look no further.

Finally, the rewards of making friends. The director of The Hop and Cillian has invited me to be a part of a spec commercial. It shoots later this month. This is why you show up on time, ready to work, even though there's no money in it. You never know what will come back to you.