It has occurred to me that the last several Januaries I have not recapped my
previous year as I had done before. I'll be out of town the next few days and
perhaps I'll do a catch-up of 2006-2008 and post it. I probably will have some down
time as well as access to a PC.
Later today I am headin' slightly west to visit a fab photographer, a gifted young
musician, a talented young athlete and beautiful little red head.
It'll be Christmas
all over. In fact, I'm off to wrap some presents right now.
There is an article in this January issue of American Cinematographer
(vol.90:no.1) entitled, "FotoKem Transfers Still Me," by Jim
Hemphill. It is mostly about the transfer of the digital video to 35 millimeter
film, which was necessary to help fulfill technical eligibility requirements to even
start the process to be considered for an Oscar nomination. Hemphill interviewed
the Still Me DP Chun Ming Huang.
The article is about eight-hundred words, starting on page 81, and it's targeted to
filmmakers, and specifically cinematographers. As a novice filmmaker I find it
most interesting despite that much of it is over my head.
"Is it possible to see someone you love for
who they are,
not for who you want them to be?"
Still Me
Scott King - Tina Gloss
written & directed by Beth McElhenny
* WINNER - Best Short Film Audience Award at
The Big Bear Lake International Film Festival
* WINNER - Best Family Film at The Secret City Film Festival
* WINNER - Scott King for Best Actor at Spudfest Film Festival 2008
* OFFICIAL SELECTION - Spudfest Film Festival 2008
INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE & OTHER BILL HOLLENBACH NEWS:
On another front, I have been able to secure an order for a copy of that DVD of the
FutureFest 2008
performance of Bill Hollenbach'sInside the Gatehouse. I should have a copy and be reporting to you how much
I cringe while watching myself within the next week or so.
Meanwhile, I exchanged Christmas wishes with Bill and he told me during these
communications that he was about to finish a rewrite of the play, one based heavily
upon the feedback he received from the FutureFest adjudicators and other
participants. That work is probably done by now.
He also told me that his one-man play,
Citizen Paine,
opens January 19 for the Iron Age Theatre
at the Centre Theater Black Box in Philadelphia. Adam Altman plays Thomas Paine and
the production is directed by John Doyle, one of the founders of Iron Age Theatre.
January is looking slim for shooting. I am putting out feelers about a shoot the
last weekend. That location scouting for the home of Kate and Dave is now scheduled
to take place this Wednesday evening.
Here is an announcement that has made it's way to me that I must share.
Dr. Martin wrote the poem
"Dancing On Air (1903-2003)" for a virtual chapbook I put
together in 2003 to celebrate the centennial of
powered flight, First Flights, which was at my old literary
web site.
The documentary film, Jump Back, Honey: The Poetry and Performance of Herbert Woodward
Martin on the City of Dayton Poet Laureate, funded largely by the Ohio Humanities
Council will have its world premiere at Boll Theater at the
University of Dayton on Friday evening, Jan.
16, at 7:00 p.m., followed by a reception at Rike Center Gallery.
Martin's poetry has been singled out by institutions from the Village Voice
to Time magazine. He has won the national Mellon poetry prize and is still
going strong, as he was with Dayton's Philharmonic in December.
What many today do not know is that in his NYC and early Dayton days he was a
colleague/member of the Black Arts Movement. U.D. administrators have been known to keep
his powerful second volume in a brown paper bag in order to protect young eyes from
certain four-letter words.
Prof. Martin also brought many of America's most important poets together after 1968
to reconsider the usefulness of traditional poetry, in this case the work of Paul
Lawrence Dunbar.
The title of the film is based on a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, whose poetry Martin
has done much to bring back to life. The film explores Martin's creative and political
life up to the present including appearances by Bing Davis and Nikki Giovanni. It deals
with a bright page in Dayton, Ohio's Post Colonial history.
I am back adding professional training to the ol' actor's résumé. I'm
taking another Human Race Theatre Company c
lass. This taught by Jake Lockwood ‐‐ AKA: Mr. Dayton
Improv Maestro. The classes start next Monday evening and I happen to know
there are still spaces open, for you locals who may be interested:
www.humanracetheatre.org/classes.shtml.
I'm taking the class because there is no way around it, comedic skill is most
probably the very weakest of all my weaker points as a performer. No, not
"most probably"; more like "most certainly." The blurb for the
class says, in part, "Jake will draw on his years of
professional action and improvisation experience to delve into the daunting world
of comedic choices (emphasis mine)."
Gotta tell ya, that intimidates me. But, it's one of the skills, along with dancing,
that I suck at, so it's something to painfully work on.
Which reminds me, I could stand a few trips to the
Arthur Murray School of Dance, too.
No dance lessons in my immediate future, but I am also eying the next two
HRTC classes: "Secrets of Acting
Shakespeare" with Bruce Cromer and then "Actor's Training III" with
Marsha Hanna. I am hoping to be cast in shows in the general time frames of both
these, but I could be cast in everything I hope to, and still take both classes only
to miss but one or two rehearsals, early in the processes for each show, which is
feasible.
I saw some nice work in the final dress rehearsal.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
I scouted out the apartment space where we plan to shoot the Kate & Dave at home
sequence (Elena Monigold and Gino Pasi). It will work. All I got to do now is
confirm that I have everyone for the projected date: Saturday, January 31.
I also have been in contact with a cast addition, a talented actress I want to bring
in to play the girlfriend of Marcus (Duante Beddingfield). Shooting sometime in
February is my goal. I don't even have a location yet. There is one I have thought of
but I don't believe the space will be available.
There are some Grady and Celeste (Wayne and Crystal Justice) shoots to do, as well.
Plus I'd love to bring in Kate's and Jeremy's (Brett Taylor) older sister Devon for a
vignette that would include the mom Leola (Barbara Jorgensen) and Marcus. There is an
actress also in line for that, but her schedule might be a problem if she is cast in a
theatre production she is most interested in.
I still haven't recorded those o.s. (off-screen) audio snippets of Quincy (Loren S.
Goins) answering the phone and maybe taking other orders down the bar for the Balboni's
bar segment.
As I was saying to Ms. Monigold the other night, I have to figure out a way to soon
draw this project to a logical conclusion. The connections between the pieces are
not 100% cohesive; on the other hand, it's all tied together enough now that there
needs to be some sort of a sense of conclusion to the macro product. And I don't
want to keep conceiving new segments to add. I have other projects coming up.
I'd love to end up cast in both the shows I am producing, but have no reason to
believe I will be in either. Still want to keep my schedule open in case I would
be. I am interested in two more
Human Race Theatre Company workshops
this spring. And, I want to get to my next movie project. So this Bar Flying
project needs wrapped sooner rather than later.
The Jan 31 shoot is on, now all I gotta do is hone the set-up. Okay, okay, I have to
develop more than just the vaguest of concept that is in my head right now. I also
need to set up the other scenarios, some of which I have absolutely no locations for
at the moment.
As for the segment I want to do with Marcus (Duante Beddingfield) and his girlfriend
Marian (TBA), I have an idea of where, but the problem is working Duante's schedule
around when the facility would be available. He has a show up soon: Sly Fox at
Beavercreek Community Theatre. The prime
opportunities to shoot at where I want to will come at times he may be in
performance.
I have another idea for an actor who happens to be one of Duante's cast mates in
Sly Fox. This is a segment which would be shot the same day ‐‐ actually, in
this case, night ‐‐ as the Marcus-Marian segment. This second idea would be Marian
and the new character, and the bit with Marcus would flow from this. But, again, I
have the problem of the Sly Fox performance schedule verses when I could use
the location I want. Although, just right this very moment, it hit me that I have
another option, possibly. And I need to check into that.
Then there's a scene in the Balboni's office, which we are shooting in Springfield
as soon as I set that up with Wayne and Crystal Justice, both as the providers of
the location and as Grady and Celeste. And we will do a scene with Grady, Quincy and
at least one other "buddy," which can be shoot in another part of the same
building.
The Leola (Barbara Jorgensen), Marcus and Devon (TBA) segment is one I really need
a home for. It should represent Leola's, I believe. I currently have nothing. But I
haven't put it out there, either. I need to do that. I know when I looked for a
place the shoot The Chorus for Candice, I was
concerned I would get no potential offers. I got more than enough and was able to
find the perfect spot, that of course, being the dinning room of Ms. Barb Coriell's
home. So, though the pessimist in me is sure I'll find no place, I probably will,
because theater arts people love to help theatre arts people.
Meanwhile, I am also still seriously thinking of interviews with all the
participants about the improv process in general and their experience with this
project in particular; with the production people, it would be about the
"production" side of this project, if I can lay that word on with any
weight.
I am almost tempted to have two different edits of the footage. One version, would
be the straight narrative material, glued together to make as cohesive a
"story" as the footage will permit. The other would use the interviews
together with a more expansive use of the narrative footage, meaning I would use
spots that were not working well and spots where we were on camera discussing what
was next, etc. It would show material that would be cut from the first version.
It's also occurred to me I could put together some video trailers, too. And I have
a line on some local musicians who want to create original music for the project. I
have yet to follow up on that, but it's getting to be time. I also have access to
both some of my own musical work and those of a friend, that I can use. The friend
is Lou Lala, whose song "My Coma" is the music emanating from Elizabeth's
room in the second half of The Chorus for Candice. The band was known as The
Hip Replacements at the time, but I understand the name may have changed because Lou
was made aware of a band out there with a most similar name. I haven't directly
approached him about using anything but I am reasonably sure he will be okay with
it.
You see, I am trying to push myself into wrap-up and post-production mode for this
project to clear the slate for onward motion of new things.
The audiences responded very well both Friday and Saturday night. I was there as
house manager so I saw only bits and pieces of the show either night. I had seen
the Wednesday night dress rehearsal and can tell you that the script plays well.
There are some really funny bits brought off by the cast and the inevitable sight
gags I am sure are orchestrated by director Saul Caplan. And, well, as I said, the
audiences both nights really liked the show. Unprecedented was also that opening
night was sold out; that's rare. I make the assumption that today's audience
received the performance as well as the two I was there for ‐‐ so, we had a good
opening week.
Looking forward with both anticipation and trepidation to tomorrow night's first
session of the comedy workshop with Jake Lockwood. Comedy just quite simply
intimidates me, as I have declared before. Having a sense of humor is one thing,
having a sense of comedic timing is another. I don't know that the feel for comedy
can be taught, though I'm sure it can be learned, or, developed, if that's a better
term. Timing, and maybe some other fundamental tactics can be learned, at least I
believe that right now.
I know that often it's deadly to know a character or a particular line is funny and
then aim for that goal. In many cases like this, if not most (or all), just
playing it straight is the road to the comedy. But there are those times when you
do need to make the comic delivery. And I suspect there are many situations
that call for a blend of the two approaches. I have practically no clue how to
recognize or sense which when.
So I go to this class, fully expecting to fall flat on my face frequently during
the six sessions. Hey, it'll build performer's character, right? Every performer
needs to die badly in front of an audience a few times, whether that audience is in
theatre seats or classroom seats. Here come more chances for me.
I keep meaning to add pictures to my humble little page at IMDb. It's a relatively
cheap expense. I just keep losing it on my radar of things to do.
WAITING FOR TWO DVDS:
This week I ordered the Still Me
DVD on-line (see the promotion, including the trailer, below) and I mailed a check
for the DVD of the
FutureFest 2008
performance of Bill Hollenbach'sInside
the Gatehouse. I keep checking the mail box for both.
The big thing with Gatehouse will be that so many people told me how good my
work as Zipper was that I know I am set up to cringe even more than I already would
have as I watch myself. I may actually find a lot to be pleased about, but I still
will not see the character I visualized nor the performance I aimed for, so I will
be as displeased as pleased, at the very least.
As I told somebody once, (in fact, I may have written it somewhere in this blog),
as I'm up there on stage doing the work, I see George Clooney in my mind, but then
when I look at the screen: that ain't George.
MORE ON STILL ME:
There may be another film festival screening coming up. This one would be close
enough that it's possible I might make the journey, depending on my schedule and
available funds. When the acceptance is official I'll post that; we'll also see if
I am going. I want to, if I can.
The promotion for this class was a little tardy so the enrollment is not high.
Last night there were four of us pupils: myself and three youngin's ‐‐ young ladies
ranging from 14 to 18.
It was a nice session, but if the enrollment doesn't get to at least six, the
course will be canceled. If you're local, I recommend it. Jake Lockwood is a
very good facilitator. Go to
www.humanracetheatre.org/classes.shtml
so see the details of registering.
The focus of the class is really going to be more on writing comedy, but performance
will be a part, too. Last night we did some exercises to help warm our brains up, we
discussed what makes something funny, and we told jokes and shared humorous
anecdotes. A lot of what the lesson for the night was, was about how you need to
get the less-funny ideas out of the way so you can get to the funny stuff.
WAITING FOR ONE DVD:
Yesterday my copy of the Still Me
DVD arrived. I haven't watched it, yet. I believe the hard drive on my Mac tower at
home is dying so when I got home from the workshop the rest of my evening was about
diagnostic programs and backing up vital files.
To be honest, I anticipate the arrival of the performance of
Bill Hollenbach'sInside the Gatehouse,
from FutureFest 2008, more,
only because I have not seen that yet and since my participation is a bit more prominent.
I am one of four leads in an ensemble cast there, whereas I am a small supporting player
in one segment of Still Me.
WAYNE-FAYETTE IN-UNION IN-HARDIN-MERCER-AUGLAIZE-DARKE-SHELBY-
LOGAN-UNION OH-DELAWARE-MIAMI-CHAMPAIGN-CLARK-PREBLE-MONTGOMERY-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... RICHMOND... CONNERSVILLE... LIBERTY...
KENTON... CELINA... WAPAKONETA... GREENVILLE... SIDNEY... BELLEFONTAINE...
MARYSVILLE... DELAWARE... PIQUA... URBANA... SPRINGFIELD... EATON...
DAYTON 356 AM EST FRI JAN 16 2009
...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST THIS MORNING...
...WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 6 PM
EST THIS AFTERNOON...
ARCTIC AIR WILL REMAIN IN PLACE INTO THIS AFTERNOON. THE VERY COLD
TEMPERATURES WILL COMBINE WITH WEST WINDS TO PRODUCE DANGEROUSLY COLD
WIND CHILLS OF 20 TO 30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO INTO THIS AFTERNOON. THE
COLDEST PERIOD WILL OCCUR EARLY THIS MORNING WHEN WIND CHILLS OF 30 TO
35 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WILL BE OBSERVED.
WIND CHILL VALUES WILL REMAIN BELOW 10 BELOW ZERO AGAIN TONIGHT.
THOSE PLANNING TO VENTURE OUTDOORS SHOULD DRESS WARMLY...MAKING SURE THAT
ALL EXPOSED SKIN IS COVERED.
A WIND CHILL WARNING MEANS THE COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND WINDS
WILL CREATE DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES OF AT LEAST 25 DEGREES
BELOW ZERO. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA OR
DEATH IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
Ahh, the Midwest! This morning it was -13. So, someone from Nebraska or Wisconsin will
read this and think, Yeah ‐‐ So?
The bad news, sort of, is that the Wednesday evening session was canceled due to the
winter storm advisory for the Miami Valley. The Good news is that the class in
general has not yet been canceled. But, the class is still in need of two more
enrollees.
We have an assignment due, now, on Monday, based on an exercise we did Tuesday
evening. Jake had us each write a list of items somehow related to
"jackets." it could be types of jackets, who wears a jacket, anything
somehow related to jackets. For instance some things from my list were: outlaws,
fleece jacket, and full metal jacket.
Next we each read an item from our list and if anyone else had the same item, all
who had it crossed it off. We were all left with a list of unique items. Our
assignment is for each to write a little skit or story using at least a few of the
items from our own lists. And there should be some familiarity to the situation or
people and there should be some sort of surprise ending.
It was originally due Wednesday night, but we got a several day extension, which I am
glad about. I have something started but what would have been brought to the
session last night would have been pretty weak. Not that it'll be Hollywood
writers' guild level work when I bring it Monday.
If we have a class, Monday. Really, you Dayton local theatre arts folk ought
to consider the class. Go to
www.humanracetheatre.org/classes.shtml
to see the details and to register.
I am seeing a 15-inch
MacBook Pro
laptop with a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 320GB 72000speed hard drive,
and a USB modem (just in case), in my future. I will probably apply for the signature
loan tomorrow. With tax it's gonna run me just about $3100, but I may ask for a little
more because I am going to need things like an adapter to accommodate FireWire 400 in
FireWire 800 port and I may need a few more supplemental hardware or software items
I am not award of at the present.
Ultimately I need a Mac Pro tower, but that's
going to be a later purchase, when I can afford the almost five grand to get the machine
I really need. I've been without a laptop for more than a year now and I really want the
utility and mobility of having one. On the other hand I need something far more powerful
than what I have right now in my 400 mghz Power PC tower. This MacBook Pro will certainly
meet that requirement.
And my Power PC tower is behaving with more and more hink with each session. I am
hoping to have the new machine ASAP. Now we see if, in this most stable of stable
economic times, the bank will give me more than three grand in an unsecured loan.
STILL WAITING FOR THE INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE DVD:
I'm still in anticipation of the arrival of the DVD of the July 2008 performance of
Bill Hollenbach's play, performed during
FutureFest 2008. Perhaps
it'll be in my mail box when I get home tonight.
REMINDER ABOUT THE DEBUT TONIGHT OF THE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT DAYTON POET
HERBERT WOODWARD MARTIN:
Again, Dr. Martin wrote the poem "Dancing On Air (1903-2003)"
for a now-defunct virtual chapbook I put together in 2003 to celebrate the centennial of
powered flight, First Flights. He is,
without a doubt, one of the most interesting people I have ever met. His interpretive
reading ("performances" is a better word) of Paul Laurence Dunbar's
is an experience not to be missed. So, I again pass this along to any Dayton-local
folk who might read this.
See you tonight.
The documentary film, Jump Back, Honey: The Poetry and Performance of Herbert Woodward
Martin on the City of Dayton Poet Laureate, funded largely by the Ohio Humanities
Council will have its world premiere at Boll Theater at the
University of Dayton on Friday evening, Jan.
16, at 7:00 p.m., followed by a reception at Rike Center Gallery.
Martin's poetry has been singled out by institutions from the Village Voice
to Time magazine. He has won the national Mellon poetry prize and is still
going strong, as he was with Dayton's Philharmonic in December.
What many today do not know is that in his NYC and early Dayton days he was a
colleague/member of the Black Arts Movement. U.D. administrators have been known to keep
his powerful second volume in a brown paper bag in order to protect young eyes from
certain four-letter words.
Prof. Martin also brought many of America's most important poets together after 1968
to reconsider the usefulness of traditional poetry, in this case the work of Paul
Lawrence Dunbar.
The title of the film is based on a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, whose poetry Martin
has done much to bring back to life. The film explores Martin's creative and political
life up to the present including appearances by Bing Davis and Nikki Giovanni. It deals
with a bright page in Dayton, Ohio's Post Colonial history.
Director Beth McElhenny reports that she's been notified that the movie has
received an endorsement from the
National Stroke Association and will be
written up in their February newsletter. She also reports that next month, Still
Me will be featured on the
Final Draft website.
"Is it possible to see someone you love for
who they are,
not for who you want them to be?"
Still Me
Scott King - Tina Gloss
written & directed by Beth McElhenny
* WINNER - Best Short Film Audience Award at
The Big Bear Lake International Film Festival
* WINNER - Best Family Film at The Secret City Film Festival
* WINNER - Scott King for Best Actor at Spudfest Film Festival 2008
* OFFICIAL SELECTION - Spudfest Film Festival 2008
This class still needs a couple more pupils for the last four sessions, which are
scheduled for Mon. & Wed., Jan 26, 28, Feb 2 & 4.
Go to
www.humanracetheatre.org/classes.shtml
to see the details and to register.
MACBOOK PRO UPDATE:
I have applied for the $3500 loan for that
MacBook Pro
laptop: 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 320GB, 72000-speed hard drive;
USB modem; a copy of
Logic Express.
Pending approval of the loan, I may amend it down a bit. I had not thought about
the education discount I am eligible for. The discount saves me over $300. I may
drop the loan down to something like $3250, still allowing for peripherals, such
as the 400-to-800 FireWire adapter cables and a new lap top case. It depends on
whether or not I can keep the monthly payments at $100 or less with the $3500 loan.
But there is something cooking as seriously wrong with my G4 Power PC. I am getting
crashes of software when I try to execute straight forward commands. The Disk
Utility app is diagnosing the hard drive as having no problems, so I think I have
a growing problem with another component, perhaps the processor or some bad SDRAM
chips. The RAM would be easily rectified, but, as I have said before, I am needing
much more power than this 400 mghz can give me. Even if I ultimately need the
MacPro tower, the MacBook will give me the quicker remedy ‐‐ and I'll be mobile
on the computer again, which I really want.
AND I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE DVD: No arrival yet of
the DVD of the
FutureFest 2008
performance of the Bill Hollenbach play.
LOOK FOR DTG AT
MySpace: I threw out at the board meeting
this morning that I'd like to create a MySpace page for the Guild. The response was:
Do It! Thus, it shall be done. Stay tuned.
FaceBook?: we'll see. I haven't even done that one myself, yet.
See the pictures column on the right ‐‐ courtesy of Ron Duckett ‐‐ of a
gathering of students, faculty and staff, in the group study room of the main
library at Wright State University, watching the
inauguration of the forty-fourth president of the United States. The guy in the
green shirt and cap with a beard, best seen in the third pic down, is somewhat
connected to this blog(*).
*He's the producer and director of that 'Bar Flying'
movie project thingy.
AND STILL WAITING FOR THE INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE DVD:
I have been re-g()()|)@/\/\|\|-jected for my request for a
$3500 loan. It was not exactly clear why at first, since the woman I spoke with on
the phone and I had a communications snafu. She wasn't getting what I was asking
and I wasn't getting what she was answering. I was able to later sit down with a
lending agent who could hold a lucid conversation.
Seems the most my credit union will extend the loan pay back to for a signature loan
is twenty-four months; at that period the monthly payment cannot be as low as $100,
which is my preference. They gave me a "counter offer" of $2500. My impulse
was to write an email with instructions for a place in the deciding loan officer's
anatomy.... Instead, I and the lending agent I spoke with amended my request to $3250
with a new high end payment of $150. We will see today if that works.
The Power PC is still acting badly on frequent occasion. So I am starting to feel
some level of impatience.
I do have a friend who thinks the MacBook Pro is not worth it, that I should wait for
some upgrades to the iMac or the MacPro tower. But, I am not convinced.
BEING A PRODUCER:
MOVIE BOY ‐‐ working on the locations for the
February shoots. Will probably scout some or all of them next week.
I still have a few actors to confirm for those February shoots, two who
will be new additions to the project. One of those is on board; the
other has expressed interest but I have not gotten with him yet. I have a
great idea for his scene; he'll actually be with the other new addition.
It'll be her introduction into the "story."
Meanwhile, I have some prep to do for the shoot next week on the 31st. For
one thing I have to fake up a page of a novel manuscript to be seen being
written in a close up of a computer lap top screen. I also need to shore
up production people. Right now I don't have that all-desirable second
camera operator ‐‐ and I may again go for the third one. Though this time
the set area will be a bit cramped so that third cam may be tricky to work
in.
Two cameras, in fact, may prove tricky.
I'm sending some 5x7's of the Kate & Dave apartment set to DP Fred today
so he can come in with at least some idea of what he's walking into.
THEATRE BOY ‐‐ moving into real pre-production mode
for the DTG production of The
Cashier. Have been in communication with a set designer for a little
while, and really had the idea that he is on board. But a few days
back, Director Sarah Gomes
asked me to confirm him. To appease her I contacted him only to find out
he wasn't committed yet. We will need him to be committed soon or we need to
go hunting.
I've also asked Ms. Gomes to have her character breakdowns and other
requirements and info for auditions to me ASAP so I can have the audition
specs posted to the Guild web site and various other places by Feb 2,
which is a month before our auditions happen.
I'm further beginning to actively pursue particular people for production
staff positions. And I'm starting to look at the script with a decisive
focus on production needs.
One need we have is a damned live mouse. Last show I produced, with Sarah,
by-the-way, we needed a cat.
Continuing with some early pre-production for the other DTG show, Fuddy
Meers. I've talked today with the person who will design and
construct a prosthetic ear we need for the character Limping Man. At the
suggestion of Director
Fred Blumenthal,
I will also be approaching someone
about a special building project for the set. Fred is designing the set.
And, yes, I am still thinking seriously about
auditioning for roles in both shows. Though, it would be faulty thought
to believe my producing either show will bear any serious weight toward being
cast ‐‐ I actually suspect it will work against me, at least a little.
There are, I might add, a few specific actors I am encouraging to audition for
each show.
OSCAR NEWS:
Well, earlier this morning the nominations for the
81st Academy Awards were announced. The nominees
for Best Live Action Short Movie are:
Auf der Strecke (On the Line) (Hamburg Short film agency), An Academy of
Media Arts Cologne Production, Reto Caffi
Manon on the Asphalt (La Luna Productions), A La Luna Production,
Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
New Boy (Network Ireland Television), A Zanzibar Films Production,
Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
The Pig, An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte H¯gh
Spielzeugland (Toyland), A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander
Freydank
Well..... it would have been great to put up a big ol' "Yay!" in large and
bold font. But, man did I get closer to such a big deal than I ever would have
guessed. And Still Me is still a
consistent award winner at the festivals. It's a fine movie to be able to claim
association with.
At lunch today I will send a cashier's check for $3,159.71 to Apple Computers Inc.
I was notified early yesterday afternoon that the renegotiated loan was approved.
Within the hour I was on the phone to Apple's customer care line and I ordered my
new laptop. Between the end of the work day and the gym I had the cashier's check
drawn. By noon EST, today, it'll be on its way to Austin, Texas.
Stay tuned for probably a week or two of blog
entries where I am impatient about how the MacBook Pro has yet to
arrive.
The specs, again, you ask?
MacBook Pro 15" screen
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
Soon I shall be back in the wonderful world of computer mobility and the
enhanced productivity that state will lend me.
THE INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE DVD:
And, tonight I'll get my copy of the DVD of the performance of Inside the
Gatehouse by Bill Hollenbach that I
appeared in as Zipper at
FutureFest 2008
this past July. It's getting dropped off at the Guild, where I will be, first, as
house manager for a bit before the performance of Catfish Moon. Then I will
be an audience member.
ANOTHER GOOD REVIEW OF CATFISH MOON:
Speaking of the current Guild show, Burt Saidel wrote another good review of the
show for the January 20 issue of
The Oakwood Register.
Stage Manager - Deirdre Root
Assistant Director - Shannon Fent
Designer - Sarah Gomes
Props/Set Decor - Wendi Michael
Special Effects - Don Bigler
Here are some pictures of the set I took during the second weekend of the
run. I didn't want to post them too early as it seemed like a spoiler to me.
I am pleased to say I had some hand in making this set, but only as a
drone. The true creative artistry came from Wendi Michael and Sarah Gomes,
who had the visions the rest of us helped bring alive. Although some other
people had valuable input and made valuable creative contributions, such as
Ms. Carole Finley and local theatre patron of the arts, Don Bigler; Don
created special the effects for the production of the boards in areas of
the dock which had to break when stepped on in each performance and then be
easily and seamlessly repaired for the next show.
MACBOOK PRO POSTAL ZONE:
The "Track & Confirm" page at the USPS web site has this to say, this
morning, about my cashier's check, which I sent Express mail:
Label/Receipt Number: EHXX XXXX XXXU S
Status: Arrival at Pick-Up-Point
Your item arrived at the AUSTIN, TX 78758 processing center at 9:20 AM on
January 24, 2009 and is ready for pickup. Information, if available, is
updated every evening. Please check again later.
I assume that means it is not actually at the Apple Computers facility. . . . .
! ! ! ! ! !
The specs, again, (because)
MacBook Pro 15" screen
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
THE INSIDE THE GATEHOUSE DVD:
I have watched the DVD of the
FutureFest 2008
performance of Bill Hollenbach'sInside
the Gatehouse. As impatient as I was to get the DVD, I was then a little
reluctant to watch it. But I did.
Surprise! Surprise! I am less than impressed with my own work, over all. One major
complaint I have is one I usually have: I don't like my movement. There is that
jerky, awkwardness in my stances, and even my walking, that seems to plague me. It's
a spastic quality that just is unappealing to me. I have found the self same
complaint about virtually every performance I have seen of myself on screen. It is
clearly still something I need to work on with vigor.
I also found that I did not enunciate well in many spots. Two other people who saw
the actual live performance said they did not remember having problems
understanding me, but I did from the DVD, which seems a pretty accurate
reproduction of the night.
It's not likely I will ever play the DVD again, except that I may force myself to
pick a few less intolerable moments to use on the DVD reel that I know I need to
make.
MR. BIG-SHOT THEATRE PRODUCTION BOY (INSERT
MOCKING SNICKER HERE):
We have picked up our set designer for The Cashier and I am pursuing a
lighting designer. We already have our Stage Manager ‐‐ Sarah Gomes secured Steve
Strawser the moment she was awarded directorial duty; she approached her producer
at the same time.
Fred Blumenthal
and I spoke a little about Fuddy Meers yesterday, while
eating lunch after a work day at the new Wayne Ave. Guild building. Today, I will
approach the fellow Fred has suggested for the special building project for the
F.M. set.
MacBook Pro 15" screen
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
And, just because Winter sucks!:
WINTER STORM WARNING (4:30 AM; TUE 2009-01-27)
UNION OH- DELAWARE- CLARK- MADISON- FRANKLIN OH- LICKING- MONTGOMERY-
GREENE- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... MARYSVILLE... DELAWARE... SPRINGFIELD...
LONDON... COLUMBUS... NEWARK... DAYTON... XENIA 438 AM EST TUE JAN 27 2009
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST WEDNESDAY.
LIGHT SNOW THIS MORNING WILL TAPER OFF TO A CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW AND
FREEZING DRIZZLE THIS AFTERNOON. ANOTHER ROUND OF SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD THE
AREA TONIGHT...CONTINUING INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. SNOW MAY MIX WITH SLEET
AT TIMES TONIGHT. SNOW WILL TAPER OFF FROM WEST TO EAST WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.
1 TO 2 INCHES OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED TODAY. ANOTHER 5 TO 7 INCHES OF SNOW
AND SLEET WILL BE POSSIBLE TONIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY.
TOTAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATION FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT IS EXPECTED TO BE
6 TO 9 INCHES.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET...AND
ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR
IMPOSSIBLE.
We had class last night, under the looming threat of snow. It did not start until
well after the class was over and we were all home.
The class, itself, went well. We read our little skits/stories based on the workshop
exercises from the first class. Then Jake facilitated a discussion on how to revise
each.
We improvised a few skits and then were charged to write a vignette based on elements
from each of those exercises. As well we each picked folded papers with locations,
items and characters and we each have to create a story based on the ones we picked.
As to whether there is class tomorrow night: the "whether" will be determined
by the "weather."
MR. PRODUCER BOY:
Movie Boy ‐‐ I am supposed to scout some locations in Springfield
tonight. Plans are still on, unless Old Man Winter derails them.
I'm waiting on word from a few people about helping crew the shoot this
coming Saturday, the Kate & Dave at home segment. I have picked
Dara back up for the shoot. This time, she's bringing her digital camera to
snap picks. I've actually asked young Chris to join us and bring his new
digital camera to snap pics, too, which he had offered up his services for a
few weeks back. He's not replied, yet, about this specific day. If he does
make it, ending up with two people snapping shots is more than okay.
Theatre Boy ‐‐ A little more ground has been gained on the
DTG shows I'm producing. Well,
at least for Fuddy Meers. Looks like I have picked up that specific man
to do the special project for the set, as requested by Director
Fred Blumenthal.
Meanwhile, Director Sarah Gomes
needs both an assistant director and a stage manager for The Cashier. So
those are added to the list.
So now I begin to make a more aggressive effort to get Cashier crew. We
are getting into the realm of, we need to know the crew spots are covered,
territory.
WAYNE- FAYETTE IN- UNION IN- HARDIN- MERCER- AUGLAIZE- DARKE- SHELBY- LOGAN-
UNION OH- DELAWARE- MIAMI- CHAMPAIGN- CLARK- MADISON- PREBLE- MONTGOMERY-
GREENE- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... RICHMOND... CONNERSVILLE... LIBERTY...
KENTON... CELINA... WAPAKONETA... GREENVILLE... SIDNEY... BELLEFONTAINE...
MARYSVILLE... DELAWARE... PIQUA... URBANA... SPRINGFIELD... LONDON...
EATON... DAYTON... XENIA 401 AM EST WED JAN 28 2009
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON EST TODAY...
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON EST TODAY.
SNOW... PERHAPS MIXED WITH SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN EARLY... CAN BE EXPECTED
THIS MORNING. SNOW MAY BE LOCALLY HEAVY AT TIMES DURING THE MORNING RUSH.
SNOW WILL TAPER OFF FROM WEST TO EAST LATE THIS MORNING THROUGH EARLY
AFTERNOON.
ADDITIONAL ICE ACCUMULATIONS... MAINLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 70...
WILL BE LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH. ADDITIONAL SNOW AND SLEET
ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 INCHES.
STORM TOTAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATION FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT IS EXPECTED TO
BE 8 TO 12 INCHES. STORM TOTAL ICE ACCUMULATION FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT MAINLY
ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE IS EXPECTED TO RANGE BETWEEN ONE TENTH AND
A QUARTER INCH.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... AND
ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. TRAVEL WILL BE HAZARDOUS IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
MOTORISTS ARE URGED TO ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME TO REACH THEIR DESTINATION THIS
MORNING.
So now I am at home with the most-likely delusional belief that I am going to kick
out a lot of work on various projects whilst I am hold up in the ol' apartment.
At least the storm warning has been pulled back to noon today, which, as I write
this sentence, is a little less than an hour from now. The warning had been
in effect until midnight tonight.
*I just opened up my front door to snap the pics below, at 11:08 a.m., and there
is a fresh and sturdy snowfall happening, though the heaviness of the fall does not
show well in the photographs. Still, a forecast revision may be on the way.
11:00-ish in the morning: the view out my front door, looking right.
11:00-ish in the morning: the view out my front door, looking
forward.
11:00-ish in the morning: the view out my front door, looking left.
MacBook Pro 15" screen
- - -
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- - - - - -
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
- - - - - - - - -
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
- - - - - - -
Logic Express music composing program
- - -
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE CUSTOMER "SERVICE"...!:
I have been tracking the progress from "build" to "lap"
of my MacBook Pro 15" screen 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
processor 320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm Apple USB Modem for
when I need a dial-up connection Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
The extra battery was shipped yesterday ‐‐ and boy is that a funny
story.
Yeah, I was just laughghghing.
When I called Apple on Thursday to order the computer I made sure to
emphasize that I wanted the product shipped to the resident manager in my
apartment complex, not to my actual apartment. My mistake was that I did not
have the exact address on me; I had to call the sales rep back with the
resident manager's address.
Last night I logged into my Apple account to check the progress of the
order. The extra battery had already been shipped. I noticed two problems:
1) The name of my street in the billing address was spelled wrong; 2) That
same, wrongly-spelled address, rather than my resident manager's address,
was also the shipping address. So, I called the sales rep I had originally
placed the order with and got his voice mail.
Profanity was not used, but I am sure the tone of my voice conveyed my
anger. After I hung up, just a few minutes later, I decided I needed to
speak with a rep who was there. I had also gone to FedEx to track the
whereabouts of the battery; last night it was in Pennsylvania with an
estimated delivery date of Jan 29. I called Apple back to have a
conversation with someone about the address problems.
The new rep corrected my misspelled street and changed the shipping address
for the actual lap top. But I had to contact FedEx about the extra battery.
Here's where it gets reallllllllllllllllllllllllllly funny.
The Ship-To address FedEx had was nothing but my apartment number and the
city/state/zip ‐‐ no street, misspelled or otherwise. FedEx told me I had
to get back with Apple.
Now here's where "you just gotta love Customer 'Service'"
changes from an irony to an accuracy. This sales rep during the third call
was able to recognize the input error ‐‐ aside from the misspell and the
failure to assign the resident manager's address ‐‐ that led to the street
being dropped from the FedEx shipping process. She put her supervisor on the
phone and he was able to authorize the change of the FedEx delivery
address for the battery. It may delay it by a few days, but I don't need it
until the MacBook Pro arrives, anyway, and that may be as late as the middle
of next week.
Although I did just check my account at Apple, and note that my street is
still misspelled. Did some people get laid off in Redmond, WA and take
jobs in customer service for Apple? It does smell of the trademarked MS
Incompetence.
So far there has been no notification that the class tonight is canceled. In light
of that, there's more stuff I have to do today: home work for Jake Lockwood.
Though my county is currently at a Level 2 snow emergency which means I can
be out but "Roadways are extremely hazardous with blowing and drifting snow.
Only those persons who feel it is necessary to drive should be out on the roadways...."
The status may change this afternoon.
Must admit I'm worried this workshop as a whole is going to fizzle out due to
circumstances.
MR. PRODUCER BOY:
Movie Boy ‐‐ I forgot to mention that another actor I wanted is on board
for the shoot tentatively planned for the last week in February in Springfield.
We have not ironed out his schedule for the weekend, but I think there is not a
major issue here.
The location scouting planned for last night was canceled. As I said in my text
message to Wayne, it wasn't the
drive over at 3:30 I was concerned about, it was the drive home a few hours
later that worried me. We briefly discussed Thursday as a rain (or snow)
date.
I have plans to produce a couple props today for the shoot this Saturday. I need
a CD album cover and I have a pencil sketch I made years ago that I want to use,
if I can find it. I also need to, as I think I've mentioned before. mock up at
least part of a Word doc for Dave to be working on, on his laptop.
Theatre Boy ‐‐ Also have plans to get the crew call blitzed out there for
both DTG productions I am
producing: The Cashier and Fuddy Meers *(see the latest rendition
of the call below). I also have some specific names to approach for various of
the crew positions, and I plan to initiate that process today, as well. The
Cashier being the more urgent of the two shows, of course.
Cashier Director Sarah Gomes promised me the
character breakdowns last night but they have not arrived yet.
Fate has decreed that this course end prematurely. In between weather woes ‐‐ the
class had to be canceled again last night ‐‐ and the student body dwindling down to
only three members, there was no realistic way to keep the class afloat. There also
was too little session time for me to ethically add it to my actor's
résumé.
2008 TAXES:
Yesterday I got my 1099 form from
The University of Dayton for the
U.D. School of Law dramatic improv gigs I
did last year. At first I thought there had been an error as my records showed I'd
received less money than the 1099 showed that they had paid me. But looking at my
checking account I found a check I'd cashed from them, late in the year, that I'd
missed recording in my actor's earnings. The addition of that check put my records
in unison with their records.
My total 2008 earnings as an actor came to a whopping amount of just over a grand.
My earnings through my talent agent were not enough to warrant a 1099, but just to
keep myself safe, I am going to claim them ‐‐ I did put back money to cover, at
least conservatively, the taxes on them. I put back 30% of all my monstrous income
as an actor. I am pretty accounting ignorant and more so about taxes, so 30% may
not be enough, considering fed, state and, probably, social security. As a state
employee at my rent-paying job, I don't pay into SS but rather into the Public
Employees Retirement System. But I probably will owe SS for my
"miscellaneous" income.
I also recorded a lot of tax deductions in 2008 and now it's time to find how they
apply.
I'm going to revisit the idea of putting all my creative arts under the umbrella of
a LLC, too.
MacBook Pro 15" screen
- - - - - -
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- - - - - -
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
- - - -
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - -
Logic Express music composing program
- - - - - - -
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
Yesterday morning I got an Apple Store shipment notification via email
indicating that my MacBook Pro had left early in the morning with a "delivers
by" of February 3. And this time the shipping address is what I want it to be.
I can't wait. The night before I used the simple calculator on my Power PC and when
multiplying 300 by 4.75 I kept getting "E" as the result. Had to restart the
program to get it to work right. Other strange crashes have been occurring. Nothing
catastrophic yet inconvenient all the same.
About 9:30 last night, FedEx reported it in Anchorage, AK with an estimated
delivery of February 4 by 10:30 am. This morning at when I checked the FedEx site
reported it had been scanned at 7:04 this a.m. at the destination sorting facility
in Vandalia, Ohio, which is eighteen miles from me. The ETA is still Feb 4.
The battery, too, is in Vandalia, but with the status of "On FedEx vehicle for
delivery," and with today as the ETA. Looks like I'll get the battery today
while I'm shooting. I'm betting the laptop arrives Monday while I'm at the
rent-paying job.
This stuff can't get here too soon. My tower is acting up more and more. Simple
cut-&-paste commands are often crashing programs or I am getting out of
memory messages when I have almost a gig of DRAM and 15 gbs free on the hard
drive.
Can't get here soon enough.
Here is the Heart Walks CD album cover for the music of the
fictional David Dawn. Yes, that IS a picture of me. As to whether
this will be the art work for the REAL Heart Walks CD ‐‐ by
K.L.Storer ‐‐ I don't know. It's not the graphic I want, I could
not find the sketch I have planned for the cover for years. The art
here is actually an illustration I created for a poem by
Robbie Cartier Le'Nepveu,
"Yellow in Villanelle "
from the virtual chapbook,
Blue and White Light.
BAR FLYING:
Today's shoot has been pushed down two hours to accommodate Gino Pasi (Dave) who
needed the time changed. Actually, we had come close to losing the location, which,
by-the-way, is Elena Monigold's (Kate) current abode. There was a scheduling
conflict of a sort brewing but it ended up not developing.
So we are on for today. Fred and I will arrive at noon, Dara and Chris will
get there about 2:00 and Gino is expected about 3:00. This time the two principles
and I are going to discuss the scene before we shoot. I think we may rehearse some,
too. I have some worry about flirting with the spontaneity of the improv process.
The other side of that coin is that skilled actors can put the most well-rehearsed
moments into the immediacy of the now.
I've mocked up a page of writing for Dave to be working on, on his laptop and I
have a faux CD jewel case cover. Dave will be listening to an album called Heart
Walks by David Dawn. Heart Walks is the full-length home-grown album I
recorded between 1984 and 1987, and for which is virtually finished, save for a bass
line in one song and that final mix that I have, over the course of the last
several years, consistently threatened to get to. David Dawn is the professional
nomenclature for the L.D. Cooper, the protagonist of my novel,
Starting for the Sun. Yes, I do plan on his
music being real songs I have and ‐‐ I am hoping ‐‐ I will write myself.
Heart Walks will be an album by him with the same song line up as mine. The
mix for this movie will not be the real mix, I don't think. I think I am going for
a simple mono mix for this project. I doubt I have stereo soundtrack at all for
this improv project movie.
Outside of maybe a few academic history and social science books, I don't think
I'm going to be bringing a lot of set dressing this time. We are going to take
this living room area of an apartment and make it a down stairs den in the
basement of a house. I am going to use Foley sound to suggest the descension down
the stairs, as well as other sounds from "up stairs."
I am, of course, going to be adding David Dawn's fabulous music in post-production
along with all the other Foley sound and music. Speaking of, I have had a line on
a songwriter who is a friend of Duante Beddingfield and who is interested in
writing and recording original music for this little project. My biggest interest
is music for the Balboni's scenes. I think it needs to be that sort of canned
Italian music one hears in restaurants: think Olive Garden. I have yet to get with
this particular songwriter, but I do have time.
Meanwhile I have not been able to get to Springfield to scout the areas of the
Bushnell Building and maybe the State Theatre. We are looking at this coming
Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
MacBook Pro 15" screen
- -
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- -
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
- -
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
- -
Logic Express music composing program
- -
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
The battery was delivered yesterday, as expected. It waits for me to pick it up
at the resident manager's place. I haven't done so because I did not get home last
night until later in the evening. Today, I was gone most of the day. It's true I
could have dropped in late in the afternoon, but I figure I'll be dropping by
sometime tomorrow to get the actual computer; I might as well get both at the same
time. The laptop is 99.9999999999% likely to be delivered tomorrow. I will
potentially have that location scouting in Springfield tomorrow and I am likely not
going to want to do it.
IMPROV MOVIE ALMOST MOVED FROM A WORKSHOP TITLE TO A TENTATIVE FINAL
TITLE:
Bar Flying was about to be retired as the nomenclature for the improv movie
project. On the drive home last night I thought of Ties as the possible title
for the finished product. However, IMDb lists two
other movies with that title, one of them, a short produced in Canada, released just
four years ago. It would have been a pretty good title but I guess I keep on looking.
YESTERDAY'S SHOOT FOR THE IMPROV MOVIE:
I'll have more later, but the shoot went, once again, quite well. Elena Monigold and
Gino Pasi gave me lovely, lovely work. I'll have no screen captures for a while
because with the Power PC tower acting so weird, I don't want to transfer the footage
onto it. I'll just wait until I have the MacBook Pro 15" Screen -
2.8ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor - 320gb Serial Ata Hard Drive With 7200 Rpm
up and running with the FinalCut software.
OOPS! FORGOT ABOUT AN AUDITION TODAY:
Ray Gambrell is holding, probably as I type this, auditions for a sit-com he's
show-running. I am not right for any of the principals, but I was going to make an
appointment to audition for some guest or day-player appearances. It completely
slipped my mind to get back with him. Perhaps there will be future auditions for
these non-principal casting spots.
I have not thought to mention that I am still shooting footage here and there of the
work being done at the new Guild building. I shot some last weekend and I shot some
today. I also spent time on all these occasions actually helping with the work: a
lot of hauling crap and some painting walls.
THEATRE PRODUCER BOY:
So, The Cashier is confirmed for a set designer - Mr. Blake Senseman, a
sound and light operator - Mr. Bob Mills, a sound designer -
Mr. Shloopheim Hickendork. I have a line
on the lighting designer (who needs to check schedules and such) and the costumer
(who needs to think about it). We still are in need of our stage manager and our
assistant director ‐‐ the same person might hold both positions.
MacBook Pro 15" screen
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
320GB Serial ATA Hard drive with 7200 rpm
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
When first I checked the FedEx site this morning, the laptop was, as of 6:35,
in the status of "At local FedEx facility."
About an hour later I checked again (actually I reloaded the screen) and it
was updated to "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" and time stamped:
Feb 2, 2009 6:39 AM.
But then.....
.....FedEx made a delivery attempt just before 9:00 this morning and the resident
manager's office was not open yet. My MacBook Pro is in the state of "Delivery
exception: 'Customer not available or business closed.'"
And the customer service rep at FedEx needs a vacation because though she wasn't
the crappiest customer service rep I've ever had to endure, she was much farther away
from good than I am sure she would ever have the honesty to see.
I was just trying to find out what I need and she was getting defensive and
aggressive. She either needs a vacation or a pink slip.
It won't be delivered again until tomorrow and I have a request in for a later
delivery. The rep would not guarantee that later delivery would happen.
You know, the whole: we don't guarantee our promises of customer care. The song of
corporate America.
That will mean that along with the delay I may be in the position that I have to
drive to the hub to pick the item up. Not the worse thing to happen but an
unnecessary inconvenience when you consider that there is no reason FedEx should
be so inefficient as to not be able to delay the delivery to later in the day.
They just don't want to bother altering their systemic practices to be a better
service company.
Okay, I've griped about poor service attitudes. Now, onward......
......Onward to the phone call I made to my resident manager at about 11:50 to
verify that after 10 a.m. tomorrow would be late enough.....
....Turns out the FedEx delivery person dropped back by later in his or her run.
So the FedEx tracking page now says: "Delivered" with a time stamp of
11:43.
Only hitch now will be that I had first cancelled then rescheduled the location
scouting for after work. I am not going cancel again, so I will definitely not
drag my heals on site in Springfield. And I'm leaving work early to first grab the
computer goodies and get them to my apartment then still make my 4:00-ish
appointment with Mr. Justice.
IMPROV MOVIE:
Yep, checking out locations for scenes with Grady, Celeste, Grady's friend Quincy,
Rev. Marcus, his fiencé Marian, and, I hope, at least two more characters.
That in Springfield, after work.
At which time I will have the new MacBook Pro that
waiting for my attention, bubbling around the surface of my consciousness the
whole time I'm checking the sites out.
Apple USB Modem for when I need a dial-up connection
Logic Express music composing program
Extra battery because an extra battery is always a good idea.
There it was, 7:35 p.m. I just started the migration of files and
programs from my G4 Power PC to my
MACBOOK PRO.
The migration program told me the ETA to completion was sixteen hours,
plus. That put it at noon today. But I have noticed those copy ETA's
fluctuate and usually downward. Though I checked a little while later
and sixteen hours
and one minute remaining isn't exactly a big fluctuation down. I hated the
idea of leaving in the morning to go to work while there's still
several hours to go on the migration.
I composed this little section on my Sidekick Notes utility, then
edited it to put it in the past tense.
The "good" news is that I did not leave for work this morning with
the files migrating from new to old, in the midst of old to new computer. The bad
news is that I had to abort the migration because there was a problem indicated as
the old computer not responding. I wasn't sure if that was because of the hinky
problems with the old computer, or not. At first I did, but as I grabbed the laptop
and all related stuff to bring to work today, I also brought my larger external
hard drive, which at the moment has a back-up of my whole old computer on it. I was
going to copy files over, whilst at work, from that.
But it did not appear to load onto the laptop. I had plugged it in during the
initial config of the laptop last night, then decided to use Migration instead,
since that program automatically deals with various configuration issues. I also
saw no indication that the MacBook Pro hard drive had read the external. I unplugged
it and got that a device has been removed improperly messages.
So the question became: was there a problem with the external hard drive and the
laptop hard drive communicating with each other or was it with the cable?
Or ...... and this is the bad one ...... was there a problem with the external hard
drive? It really needed to not be that, because the only copy of most of my FinalCut
scratch files are on that external. And if I've lost access to them, that will suck.
The improv project is there, but I was planning to re-transfer from the tape into
new scratch files on the laptop ‐‐ because now I believe I can capture longer
segments than I could on the old computer. There's also the footage from the
in-progress movie about the progression of our work at the Wayne Ave. Theatre Guild
facility. And I am not sure that I have not rolled back over some of that footage
and re-used the tapes.
Now for the better news! The laptop just needed a bit of time to scan and index
the portable HD. The little light was blipping that it was reading, I just was not
noticing because it was faint and blipping fast. So, I spent my afternoon at work,
attending to work, but giving some attention to copying items from portable HD to
laptop.
But then comes another "Ahh crap!" I transfered over my
Final Cut Express 2.0.3
and then opened it; and promptly got a message that I didn't have the needed AGP
graphics card to use the application. My software is too old for the new machine. I
had thought I'd save a bit of cash right now and hold off on upgrading that
particular software.
At least the upgrade package I bought at Mac Depot
was almost perfectly half what it would have been had I added it to the machine
order.
Didn't stop me dropping a lot of money at the Mac Depot. I also picked up
Tech Tool Pro,
a Mac maintenance and repair utility software. And, I bought a new carrying case.
So by the time I got to this paragraph, I had
Text Wrangler installed on my
MacBook Pro
and I was (am) keying on the back-lit keyboard of my new
MacBook Pro.
but enough (already) on that.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Yesterday I scouted the locations in Springfield. Some of them are most promising.
Today, also, Chris Tung dropped
off a disk of some photos he took Saturday at the shoot. As I write this I have not
yet looked at them.
I am thinking I need to move one shoot from the last weekend in February (Feb
28/Mar 1) to the next weekend, the first full March weekend. The point being that
the person who is allowing me access really can't make it on Feb 28/Mar 1. So, I
will try to see if I can get all the actors on board for the next weekend.
Meanwhile I am trying to get the ducks in the row for a shoot on Feb 21 or 22. This
would probably wrap the Celeste and Grady (Crystal and
Wayne Justice) story line up. And I still
need to get those os (off screen) dialogue lines from Quincy
(Loren S. Goins).
But since Quincy would be part of the Feb 21/22 shoot, I can do it then.
The picture used here is one of those
Chris Tung took last Saturday.
The frame captures and more of Chris's photos will be posted when I post the
recount of the day.
IN A RELATED VEIN:
Ms. Monigold needs clips for her reel and her web site. So, my first official
use of my new
Final Cut Express 4
was this morning while I was at the garage having my windshield wipers fixed (the
deep freeze last week broke them). I started work on footage of her as Kate in the
Balboni's segment from November. I have yet to dump the footage from this past
weekend so, at least for now, that footage of Kate can't be available.
And man wasn't it great to be doing work mobile and to
be working in a movie editor mobile? ‐‐ yep.
Another photo by Chris Tung from the January 31 shoot.
I'm close to firming up Sunday, February 22 and Sunday, March 8 as production days.
Haven't confirmed everyone's availability but I have confirmed most. I still need to
cast Grady's second ner'do'well buddy, but I have hopes. Then I plan one more
shoot after these two, one that I hope will also happen in March ‐‐
but not out of the question as in April (!!). That last shoot needs to be the
"wrap up" of this story, just exactly whatever this story turns out to be.
With the amount of post-production that needs done and with other projects looming
in the close horizon, I need to move this thing into that state of post.
Beyond that and in the immediate future, as in today and tomorrow, in between more
work at the Wayne Avenue DTG
building, I plan to re-transfer as much as I can of the project footage this weekend,
so I can have the longer segments I'd rather have to work with when editing rears
its interesting yet tedious crown of cherry blossom thorns. What I don't get
re-dumped this weekend I will get during the week; but the goal is to get it all
over. It's just going to better and easier for me if I have clips based on themes
rather than short bits of time (which was only the case because the Power PC would
freeze the program if I was grabbing much more the three or four minutes at a time).
The recounting of the January 31 shoot, at home with Kate & Dave, as
well as frame captures (and more of Chris's pics) is an entry also on my agenda for
soon.
I have no more detail than this, but I did receive news that "The Community
Champion Award from Ixia Communications was given to Beth McElhenny for Still
Me and [for] her work for stroke survivors and caretakers." Update will
soon be posted at www.brookwoodfilms.com.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
We probably have our lighting designer but are still looking for our SM/AD (stage
manager and assistant director). Plus I have approached someone to be our a costumer,
one who is much more than hesitant to say yes. We need at least one run crew person
if not two (or three), as well.
As for the SM/AD, so far everybody that we've really wanted is, for one reason
or another, not available. We are approaching one more who is top notch at it. We
shall see.
DP Fred Boomer, camera operator Dara Bornstein and (seated)
some stand-in, during prep
for a scene for the Jan 31 shoot.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Saturday evening I got all the footage from the January 31 shot transfered into
FinalCut files *(today's image is from that footage). At this point I've
changed my mind and am not inclined to re-transfer the first eight-plus hours over
from tape to hard drive again, mostly because it will be one major, time-consuming
proposition.
Feb 22 and Mar 8, though still not wholly locked in, are more and more looking like
the dates for the next two shoots. There was a potential schedule clash for one
Feb 22 actor, but I was able to schedule him in a way that makes it work.
As for when I get the recount of the 31st posted remains to be seen. The dance card
has been and will continue to be pretty full. For instance this coming Wednesday
through Saturday evening I am in the audience for a play each night. Tonight I will
be putting together those clips for Ms. Monigold, and as it turns out,
she will get footage from the 'Kate and Dave at home' segment. Tomorrow evening
I really ought to spend time split between being the
Guild house manager and being the
producer for The Cashier.
Then, I think about my goal to have at least a full rough cut by something like
mid-July and that seems pretty crazy unless I get cast in nothing including no
FutureFest09 show ‐‐
and the rumor is that there is a strong pool of candidates for the final six that
get put up this year. Not that I know I am auditioning, but I am probably more
inclined to do so than to not.
THEATRICAL ATTENDEE:
Not that I shall be theatrical in my behavior ‐‐
though no guarantee I will not be so ‐‐
but that I will be in the audience for performances theatrical, like I said above,
four days in a row:
Saturday, Sly Fox,
Beavercreek Community Theatre. This cast
has several actors from my little movie project, namely Duante Beddingfield,
Bret Taylor, Jeri Williams, and most probably Mark Diffenderfer, unless there
ends up being a scheduling conflict.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
We have our light designer but we still haven't heard back from the person we've
approached about SM/AD. And we need a costumer still, but I have been given a
suggestion for someone to solicit that may just be a good idea.
BY THE WAY, I WROTE THE BULK OF THIS RIGHT AFTER
WORK AND ON THE THIRD FLOOR OF THE LIBRARY
WHILE LISTENING TO GROOVE SALAD,
THANKS TO MY LAPTOP'S Y-5 AIR PORT CARD AND THE WIRELESS ACCESS IN THE LIBRARY. IT'S
ALSO WHERE I FTP'D THIS ENTRY TO MY DOMAIN SERVER. I KNOW IT'S REALLY NOT ALL THAT
EXCEPTIONAL OF A HAPPENSTANCE IN FEBRUARY OF 2009 IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
BUT IT IS A NEW PHENOMONUM FOR ME (THE WIRELESS PART) AND A HAPPY RETURN TO A
FAVORABLE ABILITY (THE COMPUTER MOBILITY). SO I JUST HAD TO COMMENT ON THIS NICE
LITTLE REALITY.
Monday evening I got to play two different characters for a U.D. School of Law
criminal trail class. The class is taught by Judge Huffman, but she was out of town
so Judge Barbara Gorman conducted this session, which was direct and cross
examination exercises. We used Judge Gorman's courtroom at the Dayton City Courts
building. Next month we will be with Huffman in her courtroom. slightly revised March 17, 2009
Both people I played were the victims of the crimes: a medical doctor who alleges he
was defrauded in a real estate related deal and the owner of a restaurant who was
mugged in his parking lot after closing.
Two sets of students examined or cross examined each witness, so I was "on the
stand," as it were, four times. March 16th I will be back with the same
students in that same courtroom. This time I will portray the defendants in both of
the same cases.
I also have gigs for U.D. Law coming up next week, Tuesday and Thursday ‐‐
intrasessions: interview and counseling practice sessions. I do not yet have the
specifics of this character and his case.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Gino Pasi
Elena Monigold
Feb 22 & Mar 8 are now locked in as production days, but I have to recast one
new character. I was going to use Mark Diffenderfer but he has become unavailable
because he is cast in a show, She Loves Me, at
Beavercreek Community Theatre, and the March
8 day is a performance day for him. So I have just approached someone who I already
wanted to bring in for the Feb 22 shoot. I will have the same character show up in
the two desperate segments ‐‐ if he's on board. That's already happened anyway in
this odd little "story line" so it speaks to the suggestion of a
motif.
If that fella can't do it, I have some other fine choices I haven't approached yet,
or in one instance, re-approached.
Meanwhile, another lady I was going to cast for what I conceive of as the final
segment can no longer be involved because she's now Blanche DuBois in the upcoming
Dayton Playhouse production of
A Streetcar Named Desire ‐‐ that would be Wendi Michael.
The clips for Elena are much more of a rough cut than I'd prefer but I did not
have th time to color correct or sweeten the audio of the dialogue. I did add music
and in the footage I took from the Balboni's resaurant segemnt, I added background
restaurant sound. The footage from the apartment is more mismatched in terms of
audio and video. There are distinct differences in the ambience and the
equalization of the sound tracks and the differences in color, lighting and
contrast between the three different cameras is quite distinct. For Elena's
purposes it works well enough, I suppose.
At least I know that I have a lot of audio and visual correction to do for the
final cut, if I want the movie to look anything close to right.
Actors are waiting for set-up material for both upcoming shoots, as well. I need to
get on those. And I still have not confirmed the additional actor I need.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
Still on the prowel for a good SM/AD (stage manager/assistant director). Also still
need run crew and a costumer. I just sent another spammish-like email to all the
theatre related email addresses I have that I recognize as such. I actually lost
some, maybe a lot, when my last laptop died on me.
That's why ya back-up yer data daily,
Skippy.
ALL THE PLAYS I SAW LAST WEEK:
I ended up only seeing three rather than four plays. Friday I had the oddest bout
of illness. As mid-morning came on I began to feel most fatigued and by 12:30 I
felt as if I hadn't slept in several days and like I had done some sort of strenuous
work that left virtually every muscle in my body tight and sore. By 1:15 Friday
afternoon I was home in bed. I got up later in the day to call the
The Dayton Playhouse and cancel my
reservation for The King and I that night and then went right straight back
to bed. It seems like over the course of the last year I've missed at least three
shows at DPH, once because of a blizzard and, including Friday, at least twice
because I was sick.
So I had three nights at the theatre, the highlights being:
another fabulous performance by
Bruce Cromer as Grin Dell and Rattler
Man in Brother Wolf at the
Human Race Theatre Company. Also
otherwise a nice evening out at the theatre.
some impressive chorography (the design and execution) for My Fair
Lady at
Cedarville University.
As some may remember me writing in the blog in the past, my
first role on stage was as Jamey, Alphie Doolittle's buddy, in my
freshman year at Wilbur Wright High School, on the east side of Dayton,
Ohio ‐‐ see photo.
a fun night with a silly play, Sly Fox,
which Larry Gelbert wrote as based on Ben Jonson's Volpone. As I said,
a few actors I have worked with were in this, as well as others I know. From the
improv movie:
Duante Beddingfield got to go over the top; Brett Taylor got to be
beady-eyed and conniving; and Jeri Williams got to be prim, proper, and tragically
naive ‐‐ (i.e.: pretty damned stupid). They and the rest of the
cast clearly had a blast, and it was fun to watch the performance.
HEY!! I KNOW THAT CRYSTAL BALL GUY!!!:
If you watched the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 you saw the commercial spot for Dorito's,
that which was the winner of a contest. It's the one that has aired since with the
fella who throws a crystal ball into the vending machine to smash open the glass
panel and get free Dorito's. Well, that guy is
Steve Booth and he and I ran in
the same circles in the 80's. He's also one my MySpace friends.
Steve actually wanted us to get together several months back because he "had a
project coming up" that I might want to be involved with. Our schedules did
not seem to jibe so it never came to be. I don't know if this Dorito's project was
that which he was speaking of then, or not.
Check it out here, if you
haven't seen it. It's a funny spot. Congrats to Steve and his colleagues on the
project and their big win.
In the midst of my me-ism I forgot to offer my condolences to director Beth
McElhenny and her family for the loss of Beth's father, John McElhenny. I met and
spent time with Mr. McElhenny during the Still Me shoot here in Ohio, as well
as with Beth's mother, Carol. They were both most pleasant people. John seemed to
me, in my limit exposure to him and that now being well over a year ago, as a Dad's
Dad, and a very nice fellow who enjoyed talking to folk.
This is scout photo of a basement room in the State Theatre in
Springfield where we will shoot one of two segments today.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Today we shoot the wrap up of the Celeste and Grady "story line." Details
to follow ‐‐ along with the pretty tardy account and pics of the wrap of the
Kate and Dave "story line."
The time did have to be changed from arriving in mid morning until 1 pm today and I
was a little worried that one of my actors did not know about this change. In fact,
as I write this at just before 11:30, he just called me from the site to see where I
was. Fortunately he will be able to go do something and come back.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
It's about 99% probable that we have our SM/AD *(stage manager - assistant director).
Between Director Sarah Gomes and
myself we will be in further contact with a strong possibility this week.
After wrap on the improv movie shoot today, I head to the location of the Ohio shoot
for Still Me to attend what will be left of the Ohio release/wrap party for
the movie. Oh but would it be nice to be celebrating its Oscar nomination. But,
so-oh-well.
"First of all" note:
It is so very nice to be able to sit in the cafeteria or any other remote
place I wish to be and work on stuff on my laptop again.
Now that includes editing movies.
And it's nice to have joined the WiFi nation. How helpful is it sometimes to
be able to check and send email from a park bench?
Or, send an update to a blog, via FTP, from a table in a
college food court
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Dara Bornstein, me (K.L.), and Fred Boomer discuss a shot in the
shoot that took place yesterday in the basement of the State
Theatre in Springfield, Ohio.
Don't have time right now to give much of an account of yesterday's shoots, but I
will say that things went well. We ended up not using the part of that basement
room, at the State Theatre, where the fireplace ‐‐
or, really modernistic hearth ‐‐ is at. My decision was to make it look more
basementy. In fact, the pic here is a capture from the small three CCD with
less exposure control. Fred's two cameras, we dropped the stops down and have a much
darker, moodier exposure. I did use the little one as a third camera, so there will
be drastic color and contract/lightness correction for visual continuity in the
final cut. This is true of most segments we have shot.
There is now some chance that the shoot on March 8 is in danger of needing to be
moved, which will be a drag because it was a major deal getting a day that worked
for everyone. But, if it has to be moved, what can I do but move it? I very much
hope I don't have to, though.
I still need to create the set-ups for the March 8 (or whenever) segments, which at
the moment are only very broad ideas.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
I will talk with our potential SM/AD this evening.
Tomorrow is the first of two days this week I'm at the University of Dayton playing
a client for law students in intrasession interview and counceling excercises.
Haven't looked at the material yet, but there's not a profound amount of information
to know so I should be able to have it down before I get to bed tonight.
Joan Cornett of Beavercreek was the lucky (?) winner of Leroy, the giant
stuffed catfish pillow that was auctioned off during [The Dayton Theatre
Guild's] recent run of Catfish Moon. Joan assures... that Leroy will
be safe and happy in his new home, at least until she can find enough
cornmeal and some giant stuffed hush puppies to serve with him.
The Great Leroy Raffle raised over $900 toward [the]
Wayne Avenue
Renovation Fund. Congratulations to Joan and THANK YOU to all who
contributed!
Joan Cornett, Leroy, and Catfish Moon director, Saul Caplan.
*I do indeed admit that I have "taken" both the pic & the
text from the DTG web site.
Fred Boomer, Dara Bornstein and that director guy during the
basement shoot at the State Theatre in Springfield, Ohio. ‐‐ Photo
by Wayne Justice
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
Things seem to be on track for the shoot on March 8, a week from tomorrow, up to
and including that I have a host for
The Guild performance of The
Paris Letter that day ‐‐ 1) see beg below for
hosts for Guild shows; 2) I shall be in the audience tonight, myself.
I am 97% confident that I have two of the actors, those being: Duante Beddingfield,
and Natasha Randall. I am simply awaiting that last final ultimate confirmation from
them ‐‐ the nothing-has-come-up message. Unfortunately, one actor, David
Sherman, had to bow out. This is the second actor intended for that specific role
that had a schedule conflict. I sent a query to another actor, today.
The journalized blog accounts are truly being gradually worked on for both the January
31 shoot, with Elena Monigold and Gino Pasi, and the February 22 shoot, which includes
on-screen work from Loren S. Goins, Crystal Justice, Wayne Justice, and David Sherman.
There is just one more segment I'd like to shoot and I must admit I've done very
little to make this last wrap-up segment happen. I need to find a house that will
work as the setting for the character Barbara Jorgensen played (will play(?)),
Leola. I also need to find an actor to play Leola's oldest daughter. The one I had
initially approached, Wendi Michael, as I have already reported, is now in rehearsal
as Blanche DuBois in the upcoming
Dayton Playhouse production of
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Interesting gig this week for the U.D. Law Clinic. Seemed to me like a pretty
open-and-shut case but truth be told the real skill being assessed in these
students was their interviewing and their counceling skills, more so than their
legal acumen ‐‐ though I am sure a wholly troublesome interpretation of the case
would not go unnoticed nor unremarked upon by the faculty.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
We seem to have our complete complement of production crew for the show. We have
approached someone who will be SM/AD for the first time, but has been getting good
review and reference. And we have some experienced stage managers who are going to
give her any advice, answers, or expertise for which she asks. She's running lights
for The Paris Letter and Sarah
(Cashier director) and I are meeting with her after this Sunday's performance.
PRODUCING FUDDY MEERS:
Time to start pushing for crew and such for this one. Auditions are seven weeks
from now, so I need character breakdowns from Director
Fred Blumenthal
soon so I can have the detailed audition notice out by March 20 ‐‐ one month before
they are held.
Elena Monigold & Director of Photography Fred Boomer during
the "Kate and Dave" shoot. ‐‐ Photo by Chris Tung
The recounting of all of the January 31 "Kate & Dave" and the
February 22 "The Boys in the Basement" and "Grady &
Celeste in the Office" shoots will be posted sometime soon along with an
over-abundance of pics from all three.
ELENA MONIGOLD IS QUEEN ELIZABETH I:
Just got word that Elena has been cast as Queen Elizabeth I
in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony
on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Rehearsals begin in May and the show is up late
May through August 20.
Steevin Speeldork, Loren S. Goins (back) & David Sherman (front)
at the "The Basement" shoot. ‐‐ Photo by Wayne Justice
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
I've picked up Craig Roberts for the scene vacated by David Sherman. Craig will be
doing the scene with his wife, Natasha Randall, who gets double duty as she will
also play a segment with Duante Beddingfield. Both those segemnts, of course, being
the day for this coming Sunday at the State Theatre
in Springfield.
Which reminds me I have material for both Craig and Duante to get to them (well,
I suppose I have to finish it first).
Had a pretty good turnout last night, but was a little light on men. Really need a
few more men to show. I know of at least one more who is coming tonight, but a few
more would be better.
I did audition and who knows what that means.
TALENT AGENCY CHANGES:
Well, I have held of mentioning this until now but I got a letter in January from
my talent agency, Roof-Goenner, that informed that both owners, Marsha Roof and Jim
Payne, were retiring and had sold the business to Peter Condopoulos, who is, or was
(I'm not sure which), with Ashley Talent in Cincinnati. The
web site still says "Roof-Goenner,"
but Peter told me yesterday the agency is now "P.C.-Goenner." Speaking of
Peter, his call yesterday was about an audition for the Kentucky Lottery ‐‐ this
will be my second audition for that.
I will head to Cincinnati for the audition tomorrow morning with a head cold. I
ctually emailed the agency this morning to warn that I have a strong nasal
congestion and a froggy throat and enquired if I should still go. I was advised to
go despoite my ailments. So I shall go, and in the meantime gargle with hot
water, salt, & lemon juice and suck on lots of menthol-lyptus lozenges.
I have some Saturday morning gigs coming up in late March and early April. These I
believe are mock trails. I have one more mock trail session for
Judge Huffman's class,
which will again, as last month, be held in her courtroom at the Dayton Municipal
Court. This time she will be the presiding judge.
Another good turn out and we got a few more men, which was good. I think there is a
big and difficult job facing our director,
Sarah Gomes, especially in terms of
most of the female roles; she got a lot of very good reads from a lot of very good
talent.
AUDITION FOR THE KENTUCKY LOTTERY:
So this morning I drive down to Cincinnati to audition for commercial spots for the
Kentucky Lottery. I still am a bit congested and my throat is a little out iof wack,
but I am better than I was. In the midst of the menthol-lyptus lozenges, the
concoction of hot water, salt, & lemon juice, a couple cups of chicken bouillon,
some non-drowsy nasal decongestant and a few hours sleep yesterday afternoon, I've
cleared up a bit.
No word, but since callbacks are today, it seems clear I'm already elliminated.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER:
And that is the extent of my involvement. I am not cast. And it bugged me a little
more than I would like; which is not a unique thing, unfortunately. Now it's time
to suck it up and get on with the job at hand.
ADDENDUM (Late morning): Actually, there is still one
character, who shows up in Act II that is yet to be cast,
that of Larry:
20's - The new guy who's traveled and come back to settle.
Still Me has been accepted into another film festival, the
Newport Beach Film Festival.
Don't have any more detail than that, except that the dates are April 23-30, 2009.
All biased admitted, I got nice work from all the actors ‐‐ again. And again, there
will be a more detailed account coming, probably as part of a massive catch up
with the last several shoots recountive entry ‐‐ I
don't even know if "recountive" is an actual word, but as long as it
communicates a clear and obvious thought....
One DOH! story I will relate right now: as I was
sending out the emails to everyone last week to confirm the shoot and the site, I
made sure to remind everyone to remember that yesterday was the first day of
daylight savings time ‐‐ the day that we "spring forward" one hour in a
major chunk of the nation. "Remember that what would be noon will now be 1:00
pm," I wrote, or somthing close to that. So, I get up about 9:00 Sunday morning,
with a few things to do but planty of time. I know I need to drop by Best Buy or
some place comparable and buy some mini DV cassettes, as I am out. I'm figuring
that with Best Buy is on my way, the State is 15 minutes away, the detour will be a
total of 15-20 minutes at the most. The arrangement was to get to the theatre at
noon to set up. Leaving at 11:00 should give me PLENTY of time. At about
10:55 my cell phone rings; it's Wayne Justice,
who is allowing us the use of his space in the State for his
recording company.
"Hey, K.L.," he says, "Listen, I forgot about this being
'Spring Forward Day.'"
"You know what?" I say, "So did I."
Rather than 10:55, it was 11:55, and I was due at the front door of the State in
five minutes. Since our host and I had made the same time error there was some
softening of the DOH! factor, but only some. The
thing is, Director of Photography Fred Boomer was there at that front door
waiting to get in. Also, Craig and Tosha had a 1:00 call and my hope had been to be
ready to shoot when they arrived. Wayne didn't think he'd get there until 11:30,
and that was pretty much when I thought I'd arrive ‐‐ still had to get the tapes.
We did start a little late but it was not a major catastrophe. In the end, we
did wrap the day on time, so it all worked out.
I was contemplating these as the last segments I shoot for this odd little project.
I've been feeling a real want to wrap this little experimental production up. It
would be best, on the otherhand, if I shot one more segment to better wrap the whole
"story line" up, at least give it better sense of resolution, even if that
would be as truly false as the suggestion there actually is a "story
line"; well, at least a strong plot.
Impatience, I suppose, is my problem.
The argument, though, is that there is not good closure to the whole thread dealing
with Jeremy (Brett Taylor) and his mother, Leola (Barbara Jorgensen). I got a couple
very good suggestions from cast and crew yesterday ‐‐ about both a house that might
make a good location and the actor who lives there who would be a good choice for
the older sister. It's a good call so I will approach this particular lady about the
prospect.
Tonight, I transfer yesterday's footage onto my harddrive and into a FinalCut
project. Last night I went to a social event.
Fred Boomer,
Natasha Randall, and Duante Beddingfield
during the "The Ring" shoot at the
State Theatre in Springfield, Ohio.
IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:
The play, The Cashier, had its first read through last night while I was home
dumping footage of my shoot Sunday from the DV cassettes onto my PowerBook harddrive
and on into FinalCut projects.
My first thought, as per technicals, is that this footage of "The Audition"
and "The Ring" will need less color and brightness/contrast correction
than some of the footage for other segments. The image to the left is not
truly representative of any of Sunday's "take" footage and is actually a
frame from an outtake section.
I have yet to contact the actor I wrote of yesterday about her possible involvement
as both a character and the provider of a shoot location. Honestly, bringing her in
for her work in the role is the better of the two ‐‐ though I do need a proper
location for the shoot.
PRODUCING FUDDY MEERS:
Trying to get together with Director
Fred Blumenthal
to discuss a few imminent things, such as the casting requirements, which we need
finalized sooner rather than later so they can be out and about by March 20.
The only "progress" I can report since yesterday is that I have
processed quite a few frame captures from several of the shoots (like the one to the
left, from the February 22 shoot). I have more to go.
Quite a lot to go, actually.
As for any composition of a blog entry (or entries) recounting January 31, February
22, or March 8....
.....
.......
.......not quite yet.
As well, I have yet to contact that actress whose talent ‐‐ um, and, home ‐‐
I am going to call upon.
THE CASHIER ‐‐ Dropping by rehearsal tonight
to remind about the need for bios and headshots, arrange to take headshits for
those who don't have one, schedule the publicity shoot (probably at the same
time as the head shots), and see what else is needed.
Oh, and by-the-way, we still need to fill a role: still in need of a
male actor who can play early twenties to be Larry, who has a scene in Act
II. Email me at
KL_Storer@yahoo.com.
FUDDY MEERS ‐‐ Nothing, really. Still need to
have a meeting with
Fred.
Performed as the accused in two scenarios last night for the criminal trial class
taught by Judge Mary Huffman.
This is the same class I did last month, and in fact the same two cases. I was both
the victims and the defendants on the stand, and no yet for the same students.
Went up on a couple facts during the class and it also became clear that a few
pieces of information about my characters weren't provided me and that I missed at
least one that was. One of the defendants was a lawyer, from the same case where,
last month, I was the doctor who was allegedly swindled by said lawyer. But I saw no
indication in my material of what my specialty was. I found out from the students
beforehand that I practiced civil law and used to be a public defender. I also
found out that I am divorced with kids. For the other defendant I missed that I had
been in the Army.
Judge Huffman had an actual trial case that ran long so the class started close to
a half-hour late. She is presently trying an armed robbery case. The bailiff allowed
the students and myself to enter the courtroom to watch the end of the day's
proceedings. It was interesting to watch the procedure to see that it was sometimes
as much dramatics from the counsels as one sees on television and in the movies, but
that there is a certain air of "quasi-informality" that you don't
see on the screen. What I mean is that there is often a more casual tone in the
voice when requesting things from the judge, such as, "Your Honor, may I
approach?" It's not necessarily as stiff or official in tone as it might be if
Jack McCoy were addressing Judge Pongracic.
I have a couple Saturday morning gigs for U.D. Law coming up in a few weeks and
possibly another one, related to the interview and counseling sessions I just
particiapted in last month.
MESSIEURS BURKMAN & CAPLAN DO DRUMMOND & BRADY*:
Got to watch Geoff Burkman and Saul Caplan spar as Henry Drummond and Matthew Brady
in the classic American play, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Inherit the
Wind, last Saturday night at
Playhouse South, directed by Jennifer
Lockwood. This is the first time, in all of these gentlemen's tenure on Dayton area
stages, that they have acted on the same boards in the same production, though Saul
has directed Geoff at least once (last summer in
Bill Hollenbach'sInside the
Gatehouse for
FutureFest 2008). As
Geoff wrote in his bio copy for the ITW playbill, "the karmic wheel will
be complete once [I have] had the chance to direct Mr. Caplan."
Hats off to these two men for the energy they gave off in their courtroom clashes
and to each for bringing to their respective roles the fullness of character that I
went to the show with confidence I would see.
As Zipper, in the Hollenbach play, I got to go after Geoff's Jackson the same way
his Drummond went after Saul's Brady. I'd love to write with a surety that I was
on par, but I'm afriad I can't write that.
It was a fulfilling theatre experience to see these two on stage together. And it
was nice to see a few others I have worked with on stage adding their work to the
show: Cynthia Karnes, Roger Watson and Richard Young, plus the young lady, Wendi
Williams, whom I haven't worked with but was associated with via my production work
for The Cover of Life at
The Guild, in which she appeared as
a principal.
*Another biased personal commentary that is NOT a
critical review
GENERAL AUDITIONS FOR THE 2009/2010
HUMAN RACE SEASON:
Need to start gearing up for the generals for the Human Race Theatre Company, which
are the weekend of April 25 & 26 ‐‐ the second weekend of the Cashier
run. I am about 99% sure of one of the two monologues I am doing ‐‐ it's from Work
Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright. As for the contrasting one, I am not
sure at all.
AND A HUMAN RACE CLASS:
I am also certain I am taking the "Actor's Training III: Scenework" class
in April, despite that I will miss one night of the auditions for Fuddy Meers,
both as the producer and as an auditioning actor. I'd also, if cast, miss two
rehearsals the following week, but I don't see this, as I said before, as a problem
-- my schedule would be clear from that point on.
On A Related Note ‐‐ I'd love to check out the Doubt final dress
rehearsal tonight, which one can go to by giving donations of can goods or by
paying whatever cash you can afford. But I am not sure I will be able to make it.
But I am going to make the attempt.
Had either
Marsha Hanna
or Kevin Moore
asked me at last year's generals if there were any shows I was particularly
interested in I would have said Doubt. Mind you, I have no illusions about the
chance (IE: NO CHANCE) of an actor who has never been on a professional stage of
even getting an audition for one of two major principal roles in such a celebrated
play for an Equity stage, but, hell, I still would have said it because it would
have been true. And despite the abstract terror that would have jolted through my
body had I managed to get a callback ‐‐ in the bizzaro world where such would
happen ‐‐ I would have gone, cotton mouth and cold sweats not withstanding.
PRODUCING AT THE GUILD:
The Cashier ‐‐ Nothing really to say except
that I am in the midst of corralling all the head shots and bios from everyone,
which always takes more time and griping than it ought to. Also trying to get
the various designers together with those with whom they need to converse and
consult.
Fuddy Meers ‐‐ Moving into active searches for crew *(see below). We
also now have the character breakdowns for the audition and the announcemments
are starting to go out:
THE CASHIER ‐‐ Set construction started
yesterday. All sorts of "preliminary" preparation was done: facing
some walls, skirting some areas and some final decisions were made between the
set designer, Blake Senseman and the director, Sarah Gomes.
On another front, one role had to be recast due to the actor's schedule
conflicts and we filled in our last hole in the cast as well. Heather Atkinson
comes on board as The Painter and Aaron Grabianowski is Larry.
Haven't gotten all my bio copy for the playbill from all the cast and crew as
of yet. I am in the midst of reminding them ‐‐ which will soon become griping
-- which will shortly thereafter become unashamed spamming and harassing. I'll
be damned if I am going to attempt to prepare the playbill material for the
designer at the last minute. I'd hate for an actor's bio space to read,
"No information provided," but they will have had plenty of time to
provide a brief bio (100 words or fewer), so....
Blake usually takes the big responsibility for props. In this case he's brought
Windi Michael in to help with props. I'm dealing with a few myself: we need a
dead mouse, which will be some sort of toy or perhaps we will have a local
artist who us adept at such things do it. I also will be dealing with a
particular office sign that keeps coming up missing; and I'm providing a
portrait of President Reagan (the show takes place in the summer of 1981).
FUDDY MEERS ‐‐ There is a bit of
pre-production going on for this one. Of course, the audition announcements are
now out and about, *see below, and production crew is conveniently
falling into place with some slots being filled with hardly an effort on my part.
A young lady emailed me, asking if the role of Kenny was locked in as a male. I
got with
Fred Blumenthal
and his reply is that Kenny is, indeed, locked in as male. The truth is that,
though some directors and companies do make such changes to play scripts, one
truly needs the specific permission of the copyright holder, usually the
playwright or his/her estate, or the publisher acting as the copyright agent,
before any changes can be made. That is especially true of something as
momentous as changing the gender of a character; it even holds for changing
the character's name, or the location of the setting; it's actually not even
allowed to change the location of a scene from one established scene place in
the play to another ‐‐ I.E.: if the playwright has Dick and Jane arguing about
the money in the living room, the director isn't really allowed to put it in the
bedroom without clearing the change with the rights owner, unless such
alterations are specifically stated as allowed in the agreement for the
performance rights.
But I digress.
More personally, I am eyeing several roles in this one to audition for, as I
have stated before. I would love to be on the Guild's Salem Avenue stage once
more before we vacate.
I have that mock trial gig coming up this Saturday morning, which I will spend some
evening time this week familiarizing myself with the facts of. There is also a
follow-up session for some law students for the recent interview and counseling gig
I did, that I'm participating in this coming Friday afternoon. I'm still waiting
particulars on the set-up for that.
INTRIGUING APPROACH:
Recently I received an offer that surprised me. The people who will shortly open a
new art gallery in the area contacted me via my
MySpace page to tell me that they
"loved" my artwork, which I have posted there. It is all computer
generated work, most which are illustrations for
virtual chapbooks at the main literary site. They say
they want to do a showing at their gallery when it opens. I responded with,
"You realize that all my graphic artwork is computer generated?" ‐‐ that
is where we stand at the moment. It is an interesting prospect, though.
THE GYM? UH HUH:
Yeah. The plan is to ‐‐ in all my boring redundancy ‐‐ be back in the ol' gym on a
regular basis, starting after work today. Don't ask about my last trip there.
My gym work has been as disciplined as my return to musicianship on that acoustic
bass I bought, what?, three years ago? and have utilized artistically only once,
and barely touched otherwise.
So yesterday I broke down and finally created a Facebook account for myself.
Unfortuntely a Facebook profile page doesn't seem to have a simplified URL to hand
out like MySpace does. There's the first complaint I have. Next is that using
"K.L." is a bit of a problem. At first the system didn't want to accept
it as legit; I was able to get it through, but the display reads "K.l.,"
with the L being lower case. So already I am under-impressed with the braintrusts
that run the thing.
So now I get to poorly network myself on Facebook much in the manner that I poorly
networked myself in MySpace. Though I have connected with quite a few theatre
people already in Facebook, including Glen Merzer, the playwright of The
Cashier and the final impetus that got me on the site.
I actually have a mission I volunteered for that involves both MySpace and
Facebook. I just havn't taken the time to begin.
I've been vacillating on whether to start an account or not. The scrape that
came up a few weeks ago about the company assuming rights to whatever one posts
there is a big deterrent. What got me to start the account was the fact that Mr.
Merzer has an account. I had been in Google and Yahoo looking for bio info, pics and
contact info for him, for the playbill for our production, and I was finding
virtually nothing. There were bio pages at his various publishing houses, but they
were all barren of valuable information. And there was no contact info anywhere,
even for his agent. But, his Facebook page did show up on a Google hit list, so I
joined to contact him. Thus far I have no picture for the playbill, but he did send
me bio text.
As for putting material by myself, that I wish to control the rights to, up on
Facebook : I will be placing URL's to point to other servers. Facebook will see
little of my content in its domain.
I have the facts of three different characters to assimilate by the end of this week.
One is for Friday afternoon when I play a client in counseling sessions for some law
students who have to re-do the counseling section from the gig I was involved with
in February. The other two are witnesses in a mock trail Saturday morning at the
courts builiding in Dayton.
Last night was fun as I was sending emails about various Cashier
production issues (including the new vacancy in the cast) while I was making flash
cards for my gig characters ‐‐ multi-tasking is over-rated.
JUST ME AND BILL ‐‐ AND THE
OTHER 200+ PEOPLE IN THE HOUSE:
Last night I bought a ticket for the August 1 performance of David Harrower's
Blackbird at Chicago's
Victory Gardens Theater, starring William
Petersen, in a return to the theatre where he earned his
Equity card. I am in the
friggin' second row center, too! Row B, seat 3, of the Zacek-McVay Mainstage, to be
exact ‐‐ (see to the right).
This is a two-person show featuring William and
Mattie Hawkinson. The play has
generally recieved high critical review and it won the 2007
Laurence Olivier Award
for Best New Play ‐‐ the "Olivier" is Great Britian's equivalent to the Tony.
According to a
Theatremania article from last summer
the play will be adapted into a feature film. Both that article and
a Broadway.com article from this month
say no cast has been announced. Mr. Peteresn seems to be taking a break from
screen acting so it's just as likely as not that he won't be in the film version.
Having secured my juicy little great seat for the show, it's now time to book a
hotel room.
OTHER, MORE IMMANENT MOMENTS IN THE THEATRE AUDIENCE:
Been studying away. With these guided improv gigs I feel, as I prep for them, like
I'm back in college working toward a mid-term. These are different than scripted
plays or movies. Line study is one thing, but this digesting the facts is different,
not better or worse, just different.
Likely, those who have worked in Bar Fying have a similar response, or at
least some of them have.
10:50 am ‐‐ I'll be off in a little less than an hour to spend the afternoon in
intrasession Counseling re-do sessions. In the meantime, I've spent some time on
the last of my study on the facts and the character directions I have been given.
Just final brush up; I pretty much have the material committed.
When I get home later this afternoon, I'll spend the rest of my day doing the same
for the mock trail tomorrow. Honestly, I'll probably spend a few hours tomorrow
morning, doing the same, before I get there, depending on when I get to bed tonight
and then get up tomorrow morning.
Got a good line on two hotels within walking distance, no less, of the
Victory Gardens Theater.
Haven't reserved the room yet. I have not decided when I am coming in
and when I am leaving. Economics will likely dictate that I stick with my
orginal plan to drive up Friday, July 31, spend that night, see the show,
stay over again and check out on Sunday.
Thing is I will have far more than enough vacation that I can spend some
healthy number of days from my reserve and still have well more than the
banked three weeks I wish to always keep on hand. I actually have that
right now ‐‐ finally, after months and months of try to get it there but
periodically having to dip into the reserve.
I'm sure I'll rent a car, and Chicago's a bit more expensive than my little
southwestern Ohio region. I may drop in on my friend Dave in Indianapolis,
either on the way there or on the way home.
The white mouse finger puppet from The Puppet Gallery.
We need a mouse for the show, two, to be more exact: one which has expired, then one
that is alive. The second of those two is the easier ‐‐ we do have pet stores in
the Dayton area (of course, what the mouse's destiny is after the production is over
is something that must be considered). The former, the dead one, presented some
problems, though I'm happy to announce, not unsurmountable whatsoever. We
certainly were not going to buy a second "pet" then
"condition" it so it could properly play the role of a dead mouse
on stage. So, last evening I spent some time on line looking for a stuffed mouse
facsimile. AT first I was finding either items that looked real but were way to big
(like a 6" mouse) or items that were the right sixe, but looked decidedly like
stuffed toys. Enter The Puppet Gallery
where I found a three-inch white mouse finger puppet that will work fabulously. I
ordered it last night. The item is fairly cheap; in fact, the shipping is more.
I got the puppet for $3.95 and shipping is $5.95.
This went well, quite well. I was very happy with my performance as both an expert
witness for the plaintiff (a retired mechanical engineer) and then later the
vice president and assistant chief executive officer of the company being sued. The
case was a wrongful death action. I gave them two very distinct characters and I
made not one factual error. I was pleased with myself.
For the mechanical engineer, Franklin Wilson, I was a studious sort of fellow with
just a slight tendency toward stuttering. I wore my reading glasses, half-ay down my
nose with the neck string attached. For the big wig, Randall Mercer, I played what
I'd call a slightly over-blown version of my father when he was being his subtle
brand of officious.
Also in the court room, doubling as the other two witnesses (another one for the
plaintiff and another one for the defense) was Wendi Michael, who herself did good
work on the stand, too. I would see her later in the day as a strong part of a
well-done production of Streetcar. *(see below)
The actual white mouse finger puppet from The Puppet Gallery, which
arrived in the mail yesterday.
The white mouse finger puppet from
The Puppet Gallery was waiting for me when
I arrived home from the mock trial sessions. It is, as it has arrived, not exactly
what I had thought it would be, however, with a little bit of tweaking it will work
just fine as a stand-in for our dead mouse. The little fabric legs will be either
greatly worked on or replaced to give a more authentic look, as well as will the
whiskers need such attention (replacement, most likely) for the same reason. The
ears, which are now gray, will probably just need to be painted pink. The puppet
needs to be stuffed with fabric or cotton then sewn shut on the rear, but that was
a given when I ordered it.
There's set work today that I am just a few minutes from leaving for, and I'll
attend to some of this dead-mouse-enhancement project as part of the work
day at the theatre.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE:
As I alluded above, I saw very fine production of the classic Tennessee Williams
play last night at The Dayton Playhouse.
The cast took us audience members into that little apartment in New Orleans and gave
us a real and intimate look at this band of misfits. I always feel a little jealousy
and envy when I see an ensemble work as well as they did.
Hats off to the cast: Jonathan Berry (Stanley Kowalski), Amy Brooks (Stella Kowalski),
Judi Earley (Neighbor), Ginger Hubbs (Nurse), Wendi Michael (Blanch DuBois), Dave
Nickel (Harold "Mitch" Mitchell), Kevin Rankin (Doctor), Mark Reuter (Steve Hubbell),
Zayne Swain (Eunice Hubbell & Mexican woman), Cory Troxtel (Pablo Gonzales),
Bryce Van Dyke (Newspaper collector). Hats off to Director Barb Coriell, and the
production crew too. And it was a lovely set by Chris Harmon.
Yeah, this is probably a little bit of a review but I
still insist it's more of a "response."
More set construction yesterday, as I wrote there would be. Actually, there was at
least a little bit done on Saturday, too, but I wasn't there for that session.
My little mouse may be ousted as the dead body. Our properties designer for the show,
Wendi Michael, has a cat toy at her house that may look pretty real, so she's going
to bring it in. If it beats out the finger puppet, then the finger puppet will lose
the gig. I did no enhancements on the puppet yesterday as I'd planned. No sense
taking the time until I know it'll be in the role.
I have to get a print of the President Reagan portrait. Probably will get in poster
size. We'll frame it and it'll be hung upstage; it'll look like a photo print. I'm
just waiting for word from our set designer, Blake Sensemen, about what size he
thinks is best: 16x20 or 20x30.
Tonight we take publicity shots as well as some headshots for some of the cast.
Fred Boomer will take those. I'm taking photos for the name badges, with my
little 2 megapixel camera. I'll set it on the lowest quality; these particular
pictures should be relatively crappy.
And, the role of Larry has been filled, once more, now by Jared West. Let us hope
this is the last of the casting jumbles.
PRODUCING THE CASHIER ‐‐
ONCE AGAIN WE NEED TO CAST A LARRY:
Well, here we are once more with a void in the cast. We need to again fill the role
of Larry.
So, pass this on to anyone who may be interested:
Larry, 20's - The new guy who's traveled and come back to settle in. It's an easy
gig of sixteen lines over the course of about six and a half pages toward the end
of Act II.
Fred Boomer came in last night and took the publicity shots as well as a few
headshots for a few actors, for the playbill and the lobby display poster. I took
pictures for the characters' photo ID badges. I also took a few shots of rehearsal
but those mostly did not turn out too terribly well.
I'm back tonight to take at least one more badge shot and try to get at least a few
good rehearsal shots. I actually have a new camera that takes better pictures but I
haven't sat down with it yet to learn the thing. I am sure I can get better motion
capture on it than my little 2 mgpxl will give me.
I pick up the Reagan poster for the back wall of the stage today after work. Well,
after the gym, because believe or not I have been back in there as of late.
Also trying to deal with a light board circuit card problem. We actually don't
have access to all of our light dimmers. But Tim Guth, a local sound and light
engineer, whom I actually went to high school with and, for a short period of time
was in a rock-&-roll band with, can get to us the dinasaur-esque card we need
and we will get at least six running. Tim designed lights for the Guild's last show,
The Paris Letter, and popped it in for that. So I'm getting him to pop it
back in for this show, and probably for Fuddy Meers, too.
JUST ME AND 
