Invisible forest

I shot a film earlier this year called "The Invisible Forest". The film is almost done, and the director has a nice trailer up here. The trailer gives a really good sense of the film, and the sharp eyed will see that Gary Dailey (The Fear Project: Pinch) and Juliet Tanner (from Crowded Fire) are also in the cast.

I saw a pre-pre screening of the film on Christmas Eve. I quite liked it, and the few issues I did have I told Antero about, and it seems that two of my concerns had been voiced elsewhere and will result in some minor (but significant) adjustments to the final copy. It's a very meditative, visual film. It's very beautiful. I'm looking forward to hearing what others think of it, because I'm entirely too close to it to have any objective sense of how it works. It's more like a painting than anything else. I have so many memories attached to almost every shot that it's hard for me to decontextualize the film. So, if you see it, please let me know your thoughts.

Christmas day I spent at Dave and Kate Austin-Groen's place. I visited my aunt in the morning, then headed over to their place for a mind-bogglingly delicious dinner and a long afternoon and early evening of conversation and games. I like my holidays stress free, and this fit the bill perfectly.

Brian Schirmer got me a t-shirt that says "I'm big in Japan", which is an ongoing joke at Radiostar, due to our unusually high download stats from that country. Dave and Kate got me another t-shirt that says "I want to direct". I wasn't expecting any gift exchange at all, but my embarrassment quickly gave way to delight at the shirts.

Today, I work from home and discover how cold it is in my apartment. I wish I had direct control over my steam radiator...

get this...

It's just become sickly funny.

I had two more actors drop out of the show last night. Boom.

We have five rehearsals left.

The reasons why aren't important, although I understand why one of them needed to leave. The other, well he clearly wasn't invested in the show once he realized how small it was, so I halfway think he just took the first excuse he had. That sounds bitter, but it's not. Others in the cast had noticed it too, so I don't feel like I'm projecting.

Regardless, as of 6:20pm last night, I was down two actors. I was able to fill one role within ten minutes. I called Paul Jennings, who had originally turned down the role for schedule reasons that no longer apply at this stage in the game and he is on board and will be off book by his first rehearsal. This is good, since he only gets four rehearsals before we open.

The other actor was playing two roles. A bit harder to fill. The call has gone out, and the call appears to be spreading rapidly. The community is rallying for us, and I deeply appreciate it. My remaining cast has been in a bit of shock, but are pulling together regardless.

Various ideas have been floated of what to do if we can't get this last actor. One was to do a "concert version" of the show, which would work but is not my first option. Another idea was to turn one character, who isn't a person so much as a psychotic hallucination of a person, into a puppet. This will cost us some choreography, but it fits perfectly into the logic of the show and would be hilarious. I don't know if we'll do that, but I bought the puppet a few minutes ago so it will be here if we need it. That will make the casting a little more loose, since we don't need someone who can act, sing and dance. Just act and dance.

I should be completely freaked out by now, but I'm not. All I can do is what I am doing. The show will go on, one way or another.

The show always goes on, dammit.

break

My new duties in my day job involve lots of Flash, Photoshop and Powerpoint/Breeze work. As a result, after doing tech work professionally for 12 years, I am just now starting to experience a bit of discomfort using a mouse. So, I'm taking a break and doing a little typing instead.

The show is going well, and it feels so nice to say that. It's hit a point where rehearsals are fun, and my stress over the show is back to what I would think it should be. Of course, the stress level I expect is very high, but at least I no longer have questions as to whether or not the show will HAPPEN.

There are moments of relaxation, however. Dave and Kate Austin-Groen restarted their annual book party, which was on Saturday. Last year didn't happen due to birthing issues, and I had missed the previous two years due to show commitments. This was, therefore, a real treat. I gave a book about the schools of philosophy as expressed through the Simpsons, which went to a computer programmer who I believe will actually read and appreciate it. Lucky break that. I got a book called "A Humument" from Martha Soukup, which is a victorian novel which has had each of its pages painted over, revealing individual words and phrases that offer up observations about love in the midst of a refrigerator magnet type narrative. It's strange and beautiful, and I am looking forward to slowly savoring it. In addition to the books, lots of wonderful people were there, including Dylan Russell, Arwen Anderson, Brian Schirmer, and Kevin Montegrande.

Later that night I went with a new friend to go see Crisis Hopkins playing at the Climate Theatre. I haven't seen much theatre in the last month, and it's been even longer since I saw any improv. Julie Potter has stepped down from active membership, it seems, but the quartet has filled out with Lily Harvey, who I've always been a fan of. I laughed hard enough to bring tears down my face, so I consider it a good evening. I didn't hang out for long after the show, however, as I have been feeling the exhaustion rather more than usual.

The easy reason for this would be "age", but that's not the real reason. I'm sure that my temporal location as a man in his late 30's is having an impact, but the fact is that I don't get home until almost 11pm every night, and got home much later for much of last week, and when I get home I can't just fall right asleep. I should probably read, as it might send me to sleep earlier, but instead I've been picking up the XBox 360 controller and playing an hour of whatever is in the tray before slamming my head against the pillow.

As a result, I am tired all the time.

I know that I should just fall asleep when I get home, but part of me is unwilling to release that little time to play and let my mind disengage from everything that is going on. I wish I could figure out a way to have that disengagement without it resulting in so much fatigue, but with Christmas coming up next week, and New Year's after that, I'll have a few chances to chill out and catch back up on my sleep. Once I hit January, my weeknights will be completely open... at least for a while.

Honey, have you seen the cat?

Heather McCulley found this one.

So, South Korea has cloned cats with modified genes. Why modified genes? They say that it is a step towards being able to clone animals that suffer the same diseases that humans do, so that more precise research can be done in finding cures for human illnesses. Let's lay aside the ethics of creating animals for the express purpose of suffering for a moment, although you may guess at my stance based on the phrasing of this sentence. Why would the first thing they clone be glow in the dark cats?

I see a new pet market forming.

I am a dream

Antero has posted a little clip from The Invisible Forest, the film I died my head white for this summer. The final product should be done in January, but this is a neat preview.

Also, fun for anyone who wants to see what I look like as a crazy, white haired old wizard.

ew

In my apartment building, near the mailboxes, there is a small table. People can leave things there for the other tenants, and sometimes UPS puts boxes there for people who aren't home. It's a very useful table. I leave postcards for my shows there, as do some of the other theatre people who live here. I've seen books, New Yorkers, knick knacks and odds and ends left on that little table for anyone who wants them.

This morning there were six individually wrapped twinkies.

I thought that was rather odd, but was not tempted by the synthetic sweets. I used to like Twinkies when I was a kid. Hell, I was practically raised on Hostess snacks. Still, whenver I've succumbed to the nostalgic urge for a HoHo or a Hostess Cupcake, I've felt let down. My tastes are changing, and it really does taste pretty awful.

When I came home tonight, there were three Twinkies sitting there in their individual wrappers.

I've been wondering about it for a while now. Who picks up Twinkies left on the garage sale table?
Did they enjoy them?
Do they feel..... dirty?


I would.

Time for a new job

I so want to be an astronaut right now.

And I can think of at least one of the four that would work.

A question from a non-breeder

As part of her Advent Calendar of Hilarity, Becky Haycox continues to bring the holiday funny with this photo gallery of unhappy santa visitors.

Now really, children being terrified of Santa is not news. It seems that ever since we've had department stores, we've had Santas to terrorize our young ones. What I wonder is this: Why would otherwise loving parents do something to their children that they know will turn them into terrified and screaming balls of sound? Do we so buy into the idea that this is something that you MUST do that you're willing to put your child through that? Do parents secretly *enjoy* seeing their children suffer? Do kids scream in fear so often that it no longer curdles their blood? Why not, when you can clearly see that your baby wants nothing to do with the frightening man (and really, Santa right up there with clowns on the scare-o-meter), just get out of line and walk away?

"You're going to embrace the magic of Christmas if I have to drag you kicking and screaming through the candycane fields and elf infested warrens of the north pole, and you'll like it you little monster!"

And Merry Christmas to you, too.

Bits and Bobs

Brian Schirmer brought this to my attention. Good lord. It is official U.S. policy that we can go to any country and kidnap people and bring them back to the U.S. without the permission or sanction of the country that they are in. Now, I don't particularly like the idea that someone can embezzle a billion dollars and get off scott free simply by hopping the border, but I like it even less that as a country we've taken the stand of "If we want you, we'll get you, and damned be the laws or rights of any other country that wants to stand in our way." Basically, we've once again given the finger to every other country on the planet. I swear, I wonder why we have any allies left at this point.

Becky Haycox made me aware of this debunking of a myth I had never even heard of: that candy canes are rich in religious symbolism and were developed out of piety. The more likely version, based on evidence, is that the only thing religious about them was church leaders taking the existing candy and having them made into shepherd's crooks in order to keep the restless children occupied during holiday mass. What I find rather disturbing about the whole thing, however, is the historical retrofitting of something highly banal to make it spiritually profound.

It's much like an article that one of Neil Gaiman's readers pointed out, detailing the numerous "authors" of the poem "Footprints" and what has become practially a sub-industry of legal wrangling, chest puffing, and positively hallucinatory arguments of asserted authorship. Absuridty of the highest order.

As for me, things are moving along. Sweetie Tanya continues to move forward. In some ways, it's all golden. In some ways, shakey. Yet, the shakey things aren't about the quality of the work that's being done. I am still having casting issues, or might be. I'll know for certain tonight. I've stepped into the role of the Boss after holding auditions, offering the role to two people and those people having to turn it down for reasons either mundane or heartbreaking. I'm not prepared to enter the Equity waters at this stage of the production (Equity is the Stage Actor's Union for those of you not in the field), and I don't want to keep hunting endlessly for an actor when we should be rehearsing. So, unless a "Boss" falls into my lap (so to speak), I'll be performing in January. What this means, however, is that if I can't resolve this other casting issue by tonight, I need to look for another performer again. I can't step into both roles.

The lesson to be learned, boys and girls, is never to rehearse a show over the holidays.