This Time You Should Believe The Hype

the "711 Convenience Store Theater" show was a great success last night, and i'm not just saying that because c and i have pieces in it and they were well-received...! it plays for 3 more weeks, so please check it out one time, will you...?

very exciting to see my own piece done, not having met the actors or the director beforehand. i came in with no expectations and they did a lovely job.

c's piece was also beautifully rendered. especially considering they lost an actress a week before and brought in Monica Hong out of thin air. you wouldn't know that Monica had just been there a week, coz she was excellent. the piece looked excellent.

some opening night roughness here and there, but i can see that it should all tighten up nicely.

of course, the scarier thing is following this up with something. i've come to realize that name recognition is a big thing. especially when you're a retarded schmoozer, like me. people like a piece they see, so they look down at the program to check who wrote it. they don't recognize the name but they try to make a mental note of it. if they don't see that name for a long while, it quietly slips from their minds. however, if they see that name again in a few months, maybe they start to make the connections.

But it is so time/energy-consuming to write new material, and there's so much other writing that I need to do. As much as I hate to "repeat" myself, I was thinking of the idea of putting up a show that was a compilation of a bunch of these small pieces that I've written over the past two-three years. A way to clear the vaults and perhaps try to court some representation. A showcase, if you will.

Ah, but right now, I need to be concentrating on the wedding...

[laughter]

there is no god.

Do you wanna go down? Do you wanna go down with me?

Bluegrass Forever

My buddy Ben from way back in college is swinging into town again, with his bluegrass band, "Yonder Mountain String Band". They're playing Irving Plaza again.

It's so great to see someone really make it. Living the dream. I've seen a shitload of bands play at Irving Plaza. INXS (their last tour), NIN, Marilyn Manson, Pop Will Eat Itself, Erasure (that's right, laugh it up, get it all out), Beth Orton, and... um... many lesser bands... And it's true that I don't go to nearly as many concerts as I used to anymore, but it makes it that much cooler to see Ben up on that stage, with this massive following of kids who somehow KNOW HIS NAME, and can sing along to his words, and... well, it's a bit of a PHISH-y, pot-smoking vibe, which Ben always clicked with...

So, that's tomorrow night... it'll be nice to catch up...

Dead Presidents

Blizzardy President's Day. Stay home from work. Play with technology.

Friend sent a picture of the cake I had made for C's birthday:



While I've got your attention, please check this out:



I'm really looking forward to this thing. Both C & I have pieces in it. I have no idea how my stuff is going to look, since I wasn't able to make the rehearsals, so it'll be a first for me.

Another One Down

Just finished editing the "Frozen Lemonade" show footage that I shot three weeks ago. Took the better part of those three weeks to edit. I edited together footage from the two nights of performances into the one tape -- I am very pleased with how it looks, I must say. I was able to *tweak* a lot of things through the magic (and deceit) of editing. So the performances of the pieces that can be viewed on the tape never actually happened. They're largely constructed, some more than others. If an actor flubbed a line reading on the 2nd night, I could use the clearer reading from the 1st night. If a cell phone rang during a crucial moment on one night, I could scotch-tape in the same moment from the other night.

Yes, in a way it is no longer an accurate representation of the actual experience, but what tape is? Most of the tapes people have made of their shows look like utter shit. They're nearly unwatchable. Ugly, static wideshots. Coulda been a great show, but it looks like fuck-all on videotape. All that work, relegated to choppy memories. I understand that you can't replicate the experience of live theater on a tape -- that why I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to capture the *spirit* of it. Why do people spend weeks or months preparing to do a show, put it up for 2-3 nights and not even bother to get a decent document of that work?

The answer is probably that people aren't willing to pay for it. [The secondary answer is that most people/groups just don't have that kind of foresight.] Now, if I could only *convince* people to pay for it...

Hello, World.

A lot has happened since my last update.

C is back from the hospital. Will be on medication for a few years at least, but has made a miraculous recovery. Nothing short of miraculous.

Had a little recovery/belated-birthday-party for her. Showed a little video I'd secretly shot and edited for her. It seemed to play very well. It was the biggest audience I've had for any of my "film" work in many years. Round one...

Now, focusing on the wedding. Trying to get back to writing. Finishing up video editing. Need to make sure that I conquer the world before the year is out. And when I'm there, I'll crucify the insincere...