The Ramblings of an Unpublished Writer

Sad Island

2011-06-16T11:42:00.001-07:00

Boy, I bet NBC hockey commentator (and former New York Islander general manager) Mike Milbury was trying not to slit his wrists last night. After watching game seven of the Stanley Cup finals and seeing Zdeno Chara shake hands with Roberto Luongo at the end of the game my first thought was, 'Wouldn't the Islanders like to still have both of those guys."

If you'll recall, it was Milbury who traded Chara to Ottawa- along with a 1st round draft pick, which turned out to be Jason Spezza (yikes) and forward Bill Muckalt- for Alexei Yashin. How did that work out? Despite playing his last game in an Islanders sweater in 2007 the Islanders will still be paying Yashin $2,204,000 a year till July 1, 2015. What has Chara done since getting off the Isle? Just score 119 goals and 260 assists in a little over 700 games.

Three times a finalist for the Vezina Trophy (2004, 2007, 2011) as the league's best goaltender, Roberto Luongo was drafted fourth overall by the Islanders in 1997. His time with the team lasted exactly three years, as Rick DiPietro was selected first overall in 2000 and Luongo made his escape from New York that same day.

Mike Milbury could have selected either Dany Heatley (2nd) or Marian Gaborik (3rd) who were also drafted in 2000, but instead he went with DiPietro and traded Luongo to the Florida Panthers (with center Olli Jokinen) for winger Mark Parrish and center Oleg Kvasha. Ouch.

What is the difference between Luongo and Dipietro? How about, despite the fact that Luongo only started his NHL career one season earlier, he has more wins (308) than Dipietro has games played (307). Way to go, Mike. Way to go.

Boogie

2011-05-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

I just heard the awful, tragic news- New York Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard has passed away. Apparently, he was found deceased by his family in his apartment. Derek was only 28 years old. He came to the Rangers last summer as a free agent from the Minnesota Wild. Derek played just 22 games before suffering a concussion doing what he does best (fighting) and missed the rest of the season. Since he only played such a short time with the Rangers I can't say I knew that much about him, but what I do know is, whenever the Rangers showed footage of a charity event they had held you could always see a 6'8 guy wearing the number 94 jersey there helping out.

Is There Anybody Out There?

2011-05-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Is there anybody out there that'll represent me? I started sending out letters to agents this evening hoping that somebody, anybody will take me on as a client. Who knows, maybe somebody will be smart enough to make an investment in me.

Che-Check It Out

2011-05-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

The first seven pages of 'Paroxysms of Caesars' are up here and you should definitely check them out. Chapter one will be appearing in the next issue of Flying Saucer magazine, coming in July. so be sure to get a copy!

Oh! Now I Get It

2011-03-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Flying Saucer issue #1 is finally done (get it at flyingsaucerproductions.blogspot.com) and Paroxysms of Caesars is coming along nicely, so I've been doing a lot of the social media/guerrilla marketing b.s. that everybody has to do to grab some attention for their project nowadays. And I finally understand why most people have high school kids or college kids doing this work as 'interns'- it is so mind-numbingly boring, time consuming and frustrating. Besides, I'm an artist- I'm not a businessman, I'm not an IT or internet or social media or marketing expert. I should be spending my time creating art, instead of wasting it on this bullshit. Certainly makes me wish for the simpler old days of 1995 when nobody had to spend all their time tweeting about the tweets they read other people tweeted. Seriously. What a waste.

P.S.- Seeing as how I've spent a good deal of time on it, I might as well ask all of you to go join our Facebook page. Follow me on twitter, yadda yadda yadda. You know the deal.

Page One

2011-03-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here's the first of many pages to come of Paroxysms of Caesars, the graphic novel:

One Wrong Turn

2011-03-09T10:32:00.001-08:00

Of the millions of things we all do every single day, a number that is so hard to fathom we couldn't do it if we tried, it is amazing how one little thing can so clearly effect the rest. The metaphor, that we all know, of a butterfly flapping its wings in Central Park causing a tsunami in Tokyo comes to mind.
My one wrong turn has become exceedingly clear the past few months. And God do I wish I could take it back. I'd give anything to have back the life I did before I took the exit that brought me here. I'd rather burn the whole car to scraps than continue riding in it down this path; but life is not a video game where we can hit 'restart', it is not an email we can unsend before the person reads it. It just is. And if yours sucks, then you just have to deal with it the best you can until it's over.
So I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make this mistake of a miserible life end as quickly and as shortly as I possibly can. thank you to all five of you out there that have actually read this at some point in time. see ya on the flip side.

Finally!

2011-01-26T17:20:00.001-08:00

Finally, the first chapter of 'Paroxysms of Caesars' the graphic novel is coming together. Finally, I'm over a cold/sinus infection/strep throat/flu thing that had me knocked on my butt for pretty much the whole year 2011 so far, up until about a week ago. After many people teasing me by saying they love my graphic novel idea and they'll get right on illustrating it, finally my blue balls are gone and somebody has come thru. Stephan Petersen is a fantastic artist from Canada and he's doing a super job with bringing my story to life in pictures. Here's a quick look at the very rough version of a page from chapter 1. Many more are being worked on, so keep coming back here to check out the updates and to find out when you can get your hands on a copy.

Paroxysms of Caesars, the first chapter

2010-11-17T00:04:00.000-08:00

Paroxysms of Caesars

I

It was a cold, drizzly day in late September- one of those days that truly signifies the end of summer has come- as Carrie Woods skipped to school. Around her the streets were filthy, filled with garbage and the rusted-out shells of cars long ago abandoned in their parking spots. Above her, the buildings that lined Carrie’s path threatened to crumble on her. After the attack most people fled the city for the safety of the suburbs and whole sections of town became empty. They've remained that way for a while now, slowly deteriorating under the weight of indifference and neglect.

In the aftermath of the attack everyone in the country was frightened, and the government took the opportunity to clamp down even tighter, thoroughly shredding the Constitution and with it the very idea of individual rights. Overseas, the war quickly spun out of control, with more and more countries joining in on both sides. It‘s been going on for so long now that an entire generation has grown up only knowing these dark conditions.

Carrie continued on, occasionally jumping into a puddle of water along the way. The black high-heeled dress shoes of her uniform soaked up most of the water anyways, 'So why not have some fun while I’m at it?’ she thought as she marched slowly on. The only problem was the severe lack of warmth offered by her tiny school skirt. 'I'll have goosepimples on my legs for sure,' Carrie worried to herself.

II
Jason Taylor moved easily trough the streets of Brooklyn behind the wheel of a beat-up truck. Traffic moved quickly with so many people choosing to stay warm indoors on a day like today and so few people left in the city to begin with. The truck pulled up to the entrance of the bridge, where Jason was stopped by two sentinels stationed in front of a large tank. Jason’s hands started to tremble, beating on the steering wheel rapidly as his breathing grew more labored and sweat dripped down his cheeks.

One of the soldiers approached the vehicle’s driver’s side window and demanded, “May I see your work permit, sir?” Jason’s heart thudded against the hollowness of his chest as his hand slipped the plastic wallet from his pocket and into the soldier’s hand. The soldier inspected the document thoroughly before handing it back to Jason and waving him past. It was only once on the bridge that Jason was able to take a deep breath and allow his heart rate to approach normality.

III

Though she had dawdled, Carrie still arrived at school in time for the morning message. Every day when they arrived at school, the children were herded into the main lobby for a video that told them how well the war was going. "Today is day number eighteen thousand, two hundred and thirty-seven of our struggle against the evildoers. Three-hundred and fifty-five more terrorists were killed today," the nameless bureaucrat told the mass of uniformed bodies and, as always, ended with how much the country loved them.
'If the war is going so well, how come father hasn't been home in almost three years?' Carrie thought as she walked down the hall to her first class. Her father'd been away for so long she was beginning to forget what he looked like. As far back as she could remember she'd only seen him for small bits of time, spread out amongst vast periods of loneliness.

IV
Jason removed his gray latex coat and threw it on the pile at the front of the Hamilton Used Autobody shop and scrapyard. Fixing cars and other vehicles was the one marketable skill that Jason had picked up during his time in the army. Yet he was lucky- most people around didn't even have a skill. They worked serving drinks and food, or selling clothing in the expensive boutiques that stuffed downtown, or- the worst off-taking care of the children and condos of those who had money in their pockets.

He shook the cold gray water from the bottoms of his trousers, tossed his head to and fro in an effort to remove the drops that had managed to stick in his short, coarse hair and went directly to the coffee machine for a warm drink.

V
Carrie rocked her long right leg back and forth, absently running fingers threw her short chestnut hair as she sat in class. She tried to follow the lesson; but her seat was so far back from the screen she could barely make out the video as it flashed by. Instead, she turned her attention out the window, imagining what spring will be like-warm sunlight beaming onto her skin as she sat by the ocean, hopefully next to a cute boy who loved and wanted to marry her.

Occasionally one of the monitors strolled into the room to make sure the children were paying attention to the lesson. She found a sea of sedate bodies staring- silent, hands folded- at the screen.

VI
In the autobody shop, Jason slapped a fresh tire on the hunk of rubber and plastic that was a brand new Panther RS convertible. 'Some day, I’ll be able to afford one of these myself ' he thought naively. Even if he could somehow acquire one, it's not as if he would know what to do with it. Other than punching the directions into a carrier's keypad Jason had never even been in the pilot's seat of a vehicle.

VII
Later in the day Carrie was in the school library, sitting at a table and staring at her laptop. Tall shelves stuffed with videos lined the walls around her from floor to ceiling. Other students were scattered at different tables, wearing earphones and staring blankly at laptops of their own.

Needing a video for research on a project, searched through the aisles. She found one that might be of use and removed it from the shelf. As she did, something fell down behind the other boxes. Her hands slid around in the dark seeking it and finally rested on the soft, worn, dusty, leather cover of a book. Carrie pulled it from the shelf and gazed at it a moment. The cover said, 'Our Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United States' in gold letters, but she couldn't tell what that meant.

It was different and Carrie was curious to understand it. She glanced around the room quickly as she stuffed the book into her bag- hoping that nobody else had noticed- then started on her way out of the room.

Just as she entered the hall, two buzzedcut men in black appeared. “Hold it right there!" yelled one as he pointed at her. "Stop!" bellowed the other as they started to run towards her.

Carrie took off down the hallway, her feet carrying her around a corner, down another hallway and out of the school, as quickly as they possibly could, the men at her heels. She walked quickly down the street a few blocks before sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a building for a moment to catch her breath. She had just begun breathing normally again when the cops appeared across the street.

Carrie felt it best to keep moving, though not too fast as to draw attention to herself. She only made it halfway down the block before she was spotted. A nearby subway station seemed as good a place to run to as any. Unfortunately for Carrie, when she reached the bottom of the stairs there was no train waiting to whisk her off to safety. She began again, on across the platform, up another flight of stairs and back to the outside. Carrie raced down a long flight of stairs and found a door waiting in the alley. She yanked on the handle, but it did not move.

A set of hands grabbed a hold of her bookbag, tearing it from her shoulder, as another pair slammed Carrie against the wall, her body shuddering as it met the bricks. She was pinned there helplessly by one officer as the other tore threw her bag, discarding the contents onto the sidewalk. Two voices were yelling at her and the sounds collided confusing and scaring her. Tears started to stream down Carrie’s cheeks as she struggled against her captor with no result.

The pair of hands that confined Carrie began roaming over her body- along her legs, up under her skirt, tearing at her top, clawing and clutching her skin. She kicked and screamed and cried but nothing seemed to change. Suddenly, a voice came from somewhere. "Hey, assholes," it yelled.

The cops turned their attention away from Carrie for a second. A dark haired man in his early twenties- tall and thin but strong- was approaching quickly. "This is none of your business. Just trying to maintain the peace," one of the cops told him. "You're doing a bad job of it," the young man said, running forward.

A flash of fists and feet was occurring before Carrie, one of the cops and the stranger becoming covered in blood, as they danced. Still Carrie was pinned against the wall. Her feet could barely reach the ground and she stopped struggling as the hands that had been groping her now just held her elbows tightly. More fists were flying, grunts and thuds like sacks of wet leaves landing on concrete filled the air, ending with a body lying on the ground in pain.

Carrie's captor was grabbed from behind, punched in the face by the stranger and thrown to the ground. Carrie hastily gathered her scattered belongings back into her bag before crumpling in a heap. She covered her torso with her arms and cried into the pavement a moment. “You’re alright now. They’re gone,” said a voice as a hand stroked her back gently. The sound of a siren rang through the air. “But we can’t wait around here for their reinforcements to arrive.”

He helped her to her feet and didn't let go of her hand once she was standing. "Come on." They ran quickly down the street, around a corner and up an alley before finally coming to a stop before an old, dilapidated building.

Dont forget, you can find the illustrated version of this story in the first issue of Flying Saucer zine, due out December 1st

Coming Attractions

2010-11-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

December 1st will, finally, see the publication of the first issue of Flying Saucer zine. This is the culmination of nearly two years worth of writing, editing, re-writing, networking for submissions, photographing and, yes more re-writing. In it you will find some great short fiction by yours truly as well as Sam Slaughter, Steven Hunley, photography by yours truly and Kimberly Glatz, poetry by Sashia Dumont, the first chapter of the graphic novel 'Paroxysms of Caesars' written by Alan Lawless and illustrated by Camillus Peluso, and much, much more! But you don't have to wait till December first. Go on over to www.flyingsaucerproductions.blogspot.com, order your copy today and guarantee you'll have a copy as soon as it rolls off the presses. The first 25 orders get a special gift!

Punk Is...?

2010-11-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

We all now the fashion, the look: lots of safety pins, mohawks, Doc Martens, plaid, fishnets, hand drawn band logos on any and every space and, of course, tattoos and piercings. But, besides the shallow, materialistic nature of it, what is punk? What do punks do? What makes doing something punk? What is the whole purpose behind the movement we all know and love as punk? I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I try to capture the energy, the feeling and-yes- the look that is punk in some form of art, whether it's the graphic novel I'm working on or a short story idea I have. But I honestly don't know what to say. 'People with lots of piercings sit around unbathed and look pissed off' does not make a very interesting story. Maybe it's the youthful anarchic energy of just breaking into places and tearing stuff apart, the spray painting art on walls, smashing windows with baseball bats and (anti)propaganding the public space. But is that really punk? People have been doing that in some form or other since at least 1850s Russia- whether it was the social democrats under Czar Alexander II, the labor movement of the Haymarket Square affair, 1920s dada and surrealist in Europe and the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s. So, do we then say that 'punk' is really just the latest incarnation of something that's been done, over and over, before? If so, then we can kiss the whole originality of punk good-bye. And I thought being original and doing something new and different and without fear or borders was the whole point behind punk in the first place. I guess not. What do you think?

The Object of..

2010-10-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

So, recently I've become obsessed with nuclear bombs, crust punk, comic books/graphic novels, sci-fi, pulp fiction and mumblecore. I'm presently at work on a way to mix all of these together and I don't think it's going to be easy, but I'll get it done. Oh, and by the way, Flying Saucer Productions is now on facebook. So, go over there, search us and hit us up. Join the party.

Vote or Die?

2010-10-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the top one percent, as well as his spending nearly three trillion dollars on two wars, have combined to drive this country into financial ruin. But, let’s blame Barack Obama, the man who’s been in charge for less than two years. Of course this must all be Obama’s fault. In those two years he must have singlehandedly allowed millions of American jobs and corporate tax dollars to be shipped overseas. He must have overseen the deaths of nearly six thousand American troops, the biggest fiscal surplus in history turn into the single biggest deficit we’ve ever had as a country. Yes, after years of economic and social bliss during the 1990s, it must have been Barack Obama’s two years in office that retroactively caused three of the greatest financial recessions in the history of this country in seven years between 2001 and 2008. Don’t listen to the wackos on the right. Hell, don’t even listen to the wackos on the left. Don’t listen to anybody who works for a corporate-owned news outlet and has a financial, biased interest in the political arena. Just listen to your neighbors, listen to your co-workers (if you have a job), listen to your children and most importantly, listen to the facts. Letting Republicans take back Congress is almost guaranteeing that this financial crisis will never end.

Nerds Unite!

2010-10-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

On this, the weekend of Comic Con, I thought it would be fitting to tease a project of mine a little bit. Some of you may know of my short film, 'Paroxysms of Caesars'. Below is a short snippet in case you haven't seen it. Well, I've been working on writing a feature length film and a graphic novel version. The story is set in New York city in the near future and involves a teenae girl as the main chracter. There are several story lines all occuring in the city at the same time and all held together by the fact they involve ths young girl. A fascist president has taken over power in the U.S. and shredded the Contitution. This is my reaction to the Bush, Patriot Act years. Look for the first chapter in the debut issue of Flying Saucer zine, coming this fall. Fans of 'V For Vendetta' '1984' 'Sin City' or any dystopian sci-fi story as well as film noir and pulp fiction will enjoy this story, as I am a huge fan of all these genres and attempting to blend them all together in this story.

chase scene from alan lawless on Vimeo.

Fall...

2010-09-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

I love fall. The weather is cool enough that you can actually walk around town without sweating to death. The Simpsons come back tonight, the Jets have a game tonight and the Rangers are playing as well. It's almost perfect. The only problem is how to watch them all at the same time.

It's In the Mail

2010-09-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

I took the first step towards selling one of my scripts to Hollywood today. Now we wait and see. Dribble and shoot, that's all you can do, right? Cross your fingers for me.

How Much Can Government Actually Do?

2010-09-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

We’d all like to think that the President- whoever that may be at any particular moment- can come into office and singlehandedly fix all of our problems. We like to think this because it is easy, it gives us hope that with the simple pull of a switch in a voting booth on one November day we can effect the outcome of a game most of us aren’t actually playing.
The problem is that, though President’s can change every four years, their mistakes and problems have no such limits. The President can cajole, strong-arm or collaborate with Congress to pass a tax or repeal it, to lower it or raise it, but what then? We all got $300 checks in the mail a couple of years ago- yet Circuit City and many other retailers like it still shuttered their doors. How was that money spent? Mostly, paying the rent or mortgage we were behind on, or the credit card debt we rang up by spending money that we didn’t really have. This extra $300 had nearly zero effect on the economy, as we saw a year and a half later when the whole thing collapsed anyway.

Not long after that we elected a new President, one from the opposing party, yet unemployment is still near double digits, and underemployment is estimated to be twice as high, at 20%.

Obama’s spent a great deal of his political capital on health insurance, which is all fine and well. I guess if you’re one of the millions of people that’s working below their skill set, or not at all, you’ll need him to hand you health insurance. But does the best insurance in the world matter if you’re homeless because you can’t pay your rent? Doesn’t seem so. The stock market is back up after the bottom fell out, yet I don’t have any extra money in my pocket to show for it. Do you? The banks that caused this whole mess in the first place are handing out seven figure bonuses to their employees, yet I can’t piece together seven dollars some days. And we shouldn’t expect banks to start handing out loans to use any time soon. Why is this happening? Because this is all an illusion- the U.S. economy, our representatives in Washington- it’s all fake.
At this point all it seems the people we’ve elected can agree on is it’s not their fault, that they have a better plan or that we shouldn’t listen to the other guy. And this I agree with. Both sides have been equally as responsible for getting us here and neither seems to be capable of doing anything to get us out. So who will?

A Year in the Making

2010-09-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

here's a clip from my short film, 'Paroxysms of Caesars',

Missing 'Superstition'

2010-07-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

I just heard somebody across the street playing Stevie Wonder, and man do I miss listening to him. You see, I had two of his awesome cds on my laptop, but when it crashed earlier this year everything got wiped out. Thus, no more Stevie. I still have the actual physical copies of the cds-about 90 minutes north of where I'm currently residing in a box at my parents' house, but I don't get up there very much. And when I do, looking through my boxes of stuff I left behind is not high on the list of priorities. Usually I'm there for some family function or another and busy trying to make sure I spend as much time with my family as I possibly can. There are plenty of other cds, movies and books I left behind when I moved down here. Knowing that I was only going to have a small studio apartment and that space was going to be precious, I tried to minimize the amount of physical items I had as much as possible. And, in a way the loss of Stevie is just one more in a serious of things I miss about my 'old' life. I used to blast those songs loudly, early in the morning while drinking and writing, or after getting home late from a bar. I had a job which, at the time, bored me to tears, but I'd give anything to get back at the moment. I had stability in that job, a guaranteed paycheck every Friday, a routine of when to wake up, what time to catch the train, even the same guy handing me my amNewYork magazine as I walked out of the subway station every day. Now, as I'm freelancing and in a long term relationship, all that seems to have vanished. No more space all to myself. No more Stevie blaring through the speakers at 4am as I pull another all-nighter of writing before the boring desk job in the morning. No more eating really bad cooking and starving (might be a good thing) but most of all, the freedom to come home whenever I want from wherever I want. Now I have somebody waiting for me and always angry if I'm not home exactly when I said I would be. It feels like prison a lot of the time. A lot less time is spent on writing, and a lot more spent on 'quality time' with the least significant other. And to think, the whole time I was young and single I wanted a relationship and stability. I don't think I want it any more.

Anyways, on a far less depressing note, I've got a bunch of work up online that you should all check out. I'm at:

flyingsaucerproductions.wordpress.com, alanlawless.webs.com, scribd.com/alanlawless, myspace.com/flyingsaucerproductions and wemakezines.ning.com/profile/AlanLawless and vimeo.com/user3732873/videos So check it out and let your skull absorb the beauty-ness that lies there. And thanks in advance. I'm putting all this out there for you to enjoy. I hope it's working.

Bulls? Bears? What kinda place is this?

2010-05-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the stock market. My favorite over-hyped false indicator. The place where imaginary money gets imaginarily lost one day just to be made again the next day (or week). Apparently, the Dow fell below 10,000 earlier today. 10,000 what? We don't really know exactly what this number actually represents.

Why is it important it's below or above 10,000? No real reason, it's just an 'indicator of the mindset' of traders and being below this imaginary line makes traders uncomfortable or lose confidence in the market.

Does the stock market actually affect the daily lives of you or me? Not really. It's not putting any real money into my pocket right now. It would if I sold the few shares I own, but then I wouldn't be in the stock market any more. So, let me get this straight- the only way to make money from the stock market is to sell the things you own that made you in it in the first place? Makes perfect sense to me.

On a daily basis we hear numbers about the stock market thrown around, but the impact they actually have on the average person is small to none. The only time we actually see this effect is when, during a crisis like the past 24 months, we hear about some poor, little old lady who's whole life savings was wiped out. And where did it go? We don't know. It just vanished.

To me the stock market is where greedy people who want to make money without actually having to do anything can go. And the sad thing is that most of the people in college nowadays see this daily lottery (which, I think, is the best way to look at it) as a viable career option. I call it a path to potential riches where little is actually produced and much is wasted.

Excuse me maam, are those loaded?

2010-02-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sad but true, the greatest threat to our national security right now may reside in the 36D bra of a Middle Eastern woman. A news report out of England says that al-Qaeda has been looking for a way to put bombs inside of a woman's breasts implants. Crazy idea, right? Well, the plastic surgeon who this report quoted said it's really not all that difficult to do. Can we protect against this threat? Are we going to be able to detect bombs hidden inside of a part of a person's body?

Considering our astounding track record of success with catching other people who wanted to smuggle explosives or weapons aboard planes, I'd say it's a safe bet we're not going to be successful keeping these off a plane either. We have had two different attempts (if not more) to blow up planes made since September 11th and caught neither. This does not bode well for us. Besides, if al-Qaeda starts blowing up fake boobs, haven't they won this war already? I just hope they hire more security at LAX. That's a lot of fake boobs to inspect there.

Thank God for the 'Undo' Button

2009-10-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

Nearly a month after I began, 'Do Over'- the short film written and directed by my friend Christina Raia- is done being edited. It's the first time I've ever edited a film and I learned a hell of a lot, it just frustrated the hell out of me getting to this point. But now it's in the can and I can move on to editing 'Paroxysms'. You can check out the trailer on my kick ass new website- alanlawless.webs.com

Rooftop Drinking

2009-09-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Thursday night Erin (my new best friend) and I were knocking back some Guinnesses and white Russians in a little place on 27th called Jake's. We made a new friend when the guy on the stool next to Erin started talking to us. His name is Fred and he's from France and very nice. Erin's boyfriend joined us a few drinks into the night and Fred invited the three of us to his place to continue drinking. We sat on his balcony and kept drinking till Freddy had to call it a night. Erin, her boyfriend (Keith) and I rambled to a rooftop bar on Fifth Ave where I broke out one of my Cuban cigars and we sipped down wayyyy overpriced martinis. Keith's a decent guy and the three of us had a fun time. Who knew actors could be fun to hang out with?

Laboring for Film

2009-09-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

Labor day is usually a day off for people who work hard for a living. But not us filmmakers. Our only holiday is the day we wrap our projects. I arrived at Hunter College around 10am and met up with my cast and crew (Justin Bennett, Christina Raia, Andrew Bradley and Betty Kaplan) to start filming the most important scene of our movie. Then we found out that the doors of the school were all locked. Fu*k! We had started filming in a wonderful location we accidentally stumbled on inside of the school the day before, only to run out of battery power and realize that I had forgotten the back-up battery at home. Not good. But luckily everybody had off from work today and we could meet up again. Great luck, so we thought. Instead we rented a studio for three hours and picked back up where we had left off। The footage we got was amazing. Betty and Justin were fantastic. The scene revolved around Betty's character (Carrie) first arriving at Justin's safehouse/hideout and the two of them getting to know each other. We spent a couple hours running through the scripted material, then I told them to improv and just got out of the way. Like I said, the end result looked fantastic. We finished around 2 and split up, planning to reconvene in Long Island around 6 to put the finishing touches on Christina's short that night.
Arms loaded with gear, it took me a lot longer than necessary to make the 7 block walk to Penn Station, but finally I made it. I took a nap on a park bench on Long Island while waiting to work on "Do Over" again. We reshot a couple scenes that didn't turn out exactly how we would have liked, some in the office building Christina got for us and some in a house belonging to one of her relatives. Aizzah (our star) was running late and after much standing around and waiting we got much better footage the second time around.

'Paroxysms of Caesars' the movie

2009-08-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

Hotter than hell in Williamsburg, Brooklyn but we went on with the filming anyway. There were some amazing abandoned warehouses and buildings under construction that made for great backdrops. Starting at noon we filmed Betty ('Carrie') walking on her way to school, then we had a fight scene between Joe, Andrew and Justin (playing the hero) and a few scenes of running thru the streets. We went thru twenty bucks worth of bottled water, but it was fun and we got the job done. Everybody did a phenomenal job and the footage we got was amazing. More filming on Thursday and next Sunday. Keep your eyes here for more footage.

photos by John Gebhart.

Up and Down on the 6 Train

2009-08-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

I've been locked in the office for about 10-13 hours almost every day for the past two months working on 'Belle' and generally running things at First Line, yet I still managed to put something together for 'Paroxysms of Caesars' auditions. I rented a studio in Midtown from noon to two and was expecting a dozen guys to show up and read with Betty for the part. No such luck. Far less than the dozen guys who said they'd be there showed, but we got our guy, so it's all good. After seid auditions Christina, Justin and I walked over to the east side carrying armloads of gear in the sun and nearly died from heat exhaustion. Christina and I bid farewell to Justin in Grand Central then continued on to Hunter College to finish shooting her film, 'Do Over'.

After a lot of complications with air mattresses (them not having air pumps to blow them up, or having pumps but no batteries) and me riding the 6 train up and down from 68th street down to the Sports Authority on 3rd Ave and 53rd street we finally got the situation under control. Why did we need an air mattress you ask? Because our scene was supposed to be taking place in an insane asylum- even though we were filming in a classroom at the college- and we needed somewhere for our actress to sleep. So, I rode the train back and forth 5 times, buying a mattress, returning it, buying a new one, returning that one and finally getting one that was usable, before we were able to finally commence with the actual filming part around 7 hours into our day. Aizzah is an amazing actress- able to play insane as hell one minute, then cry on cue the next, and we got some amazing footie. After we finished filming the six of us ate some slices of pizza and hung out for a while, which is always fun. Then Christina, Yuritzel and I took a nice moonlit walk thru Central Park to Barnes and Noble for some coffee. We sat at a table in the cafe and discussed our next project till Christina had to bolt. We walked her out to the train and then Yuritzel and I finished our coffees on a park bench in Columbus Circle under a light rain in the quiet, peaceful Manhattan night. It was a great way to cap a long, intense, productive and fun 12-hour day of work in the city.

Right now though, I'm in the middle of editing 5 tapes (nearly five hours of footage) down to fifteen minutes for Christina's film, as well as working on pre-production for 'Paroxysms' which is set to begin filming next weekend, writing 'Belle', and putting together my first book of poetry/short fiction/photographs as well as working on my own feature length scripts. All in a days work kids.

Drinking and Drawing

2009-07-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

Gershwin Hotel lobby at 7pm. Lots of people awkwardly milling around not exactly sure what to be doing- to talk to the other people around or concentrate more on the art- and mostly concentrating on the free glasses of wine. Mariana's boyfriend was the featured artist of the exhibit and after a handful of people that I used to work with showed up we spent a couple of hours talking, catching up and taking full advantage of the free wine.

After a couple hours of that we went to Live Bait, a little bar/restaurant on 23rd and 5th that's set up like some kinda southern crab shack. The Guinnesses were only $6 and the pulled pork sandwich was delicious. George, Will, Brian, his girlfriend Katie and I spent a lot more time talking about film and life and chicks and such, then eventually the party had to break up.

Except for George, Brian, Katie, Lucy (George's friend) and myself who stumbled around the area 'til we found another bar, this one a little Irish pub called the Limerick House where we kept talking about films and such. Around 3ish we called it a night and headed back to our respective pads.

Ask Not For Whom the 'Belle' tolls

2009-06-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today makes nearly four straight days of working on (re)writing 'Belle' in Tribeca with Ed. Friday morning I got to work at 11 and didn't leave till 10 that night. We were trimming, editing and re-working scenes beginning on page 1 and didn't stop till we got to the end.

I was back on Broadway at 11 Saturday morning and spent only a couple hours there because of previous Father's Day engagements with the family, but of course I was on the phone for about an hour with Ed after lunch/dinner in Queens with the fam was over.

Sunday I was up and on the train as soon as possible, getting to Ed's where the two of us spent roughly 9 hours going word for word threw the script yet again changing scenes, creating new scenes, polishing up dialog and making it fit together in a nice little package. It was raining all day apparently, but I couldn't tell because I was stuck to the desk at my laptop creating new material, emailing people, making phone calls to the other parties interested in reading/producing the script and otherwise wanting to be involved. By the end of the day I was so psychically drained that I could barely find my way to the train station.

Monday, more of the same. Going thru page by page, this time trying to make the scene and action descriptions sound more sophisticated and flowery though. As well as cleaning up, creating, trimming, adding and deleting scenes, of course. Started that around noon and got finished about 10:30pm.

All in all, it's been a very long 4 days. But it'll be worth it to see my words up on the big screen and to make this the best fu*king movie we possibly can. Also, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan are waiting to read the script, apparently, so we want it to be perfect. Plus the fact that of the people who started in January I'm pretty sure Brian and I are the only ones left. Mariana, Paul and George have all jumped ship within the past couple weeks and I'm gunning for George's job. And the fat paycheck that I'm sure went along with it.

Writing, watching and making movies

2009-06-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

Friday at First Line we spent all day reading, critiquing and fixing 'Belle'- going word by word thru the script. After a couple hours of reading it silently to ourselves and taking notes Chelsea, a new girl, and I read the first 50-odd pages outloud, made notes and debated how to fix things that popped up along the way.

I was at the office till about 7pm before dashing over to Film Forum to catch 'Food Inc.' on its opening night. It was an ok documentary, not groundbreaking and nothing that I haven't heard already; but it was good to see over a hundred people waiting on a line out the door for a documentary like this. After the movie the least significant other and I wandered around the village aimlessly for a while till we found a decent restaurant in Little Italy where we ate the most unimpressive Italian food I've ever had. I would think you could at least get good pasta in Little Italy, but I 'spose I was wrong.

Saturday was a lazy day that involved nothing more than sleeping till noon then a bit of work on a couple short stories I've been writing, but mostly it was a cold, dark, rainy, lazy day used to recharge the batteries a bit before they (and I) died.

Sunday I spent in Brooklyn again filming, eating pizza and talking with Christina. She's really interesting and fun to talk to. I can't wait till the two of us are able to work on a project worthy of our capacities, rather than something with Ken which may not be as good as we can do with some more talented help.

We were filming a fight scene on the streets of Brooklyn in an empty, industrial area, yet that didn't stop everybody who drove by from watching us and trying to stick their nose into things. The cops showed, thanks to some nosey women who, they thought, were just trying to help a poor boy that was getting the snot kicked out of him. Little did they know (or care) that there was a camera and boom mic across the street filming Ken being beaten up by Tim. The most obnoxious of the two women was complaining that we had 'traumatized' her 'baby' daughter, who it turned out was TEN YEARS OLD! If your daughter is ten years old and not capable of telling the difference between real and make believe, then maybe that's your bad parenting and your fault, not our problem. Why do we and the cops have to be dragged into this?

Anyway, the cop was a pretty decent type and after getting this hysterical lady to calm down and hearing our side of the story he let us get on with our day. When we really stopped to think about it and got over the initial shock of being annoyed, bothered and kept from working it really was quite a comical situation. And it was encouraging that our fight scene looked real enough to passersby that they felt it necessary to scream at Tim all kinds of horrible names and offer to take Ken to the hospital. All in all, it was at least a slightly productive day of filming and I got to spend some time with the warm sun on my face and talking to a really cool girl.

Poemness

2009-06-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Her

long ivory legs

encased in fishnets

scrape along the

cold, dark concrete

on thin black heels

as the train

rushes by overhead

blowing short blond hair

past her ears

black fingernails

hold loosely a cigarette

to dark red lips

in the naked white light

that bathes her skin

a thin black jacket

wraps around narrow hips

while she walks along

below my window

she turns a corner

out of sight

I see her

for only a second

but hold her image tight

After Work Walk

2009-05-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics I took while walking around Tribeca after work and at the train station on the way home:

Drinking and Filming in Brooklyn

2009-05-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Last night found me at a place called Studio B in Greenpoint. They were giving away free PBRs and free tequila, so I got my Chucks in gear and headed thru the door. At first the place was empty and it looked like a long night of boredom was ahead of me, but then... I started drinking PBRs and it all started. John from work and his friend Allison showed up and we found a little corner with big soft leather couches to sit in and down the free booze. John and Allison were fun to talk to and a good time was had. After the free booze ran out we walked around the streets of Brooklyn for a bit, where we stumbled on a spot that gave out free beers with their pies. We each bought a small pie and had our beers while we kept the night moving on.

Sometime around 4am I stumbled in the door and my head hit the pillow. Till the alarm's screaming woke me up at 8:30 later that morning, that is. I had to crawl out from the Crash Site and spend almost an hour and a half on various trains to Borough Park for filming adventures with Ken and his band of merry Hunter kids. Filming was rough with a hangover that coulda driven a monk mad, but I took a bit of a nap on the trains and as the day grew longer the hangover dissipated. More evidence of seid filming will be available for public consumption here shortly. For now the photo at the top of this entry will have to suffice. (I'm the one in the white t-shirt and jeans). Till later. Be good.

Walking thru the swamp

2009-05-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

I went on a wandering walk thru the swamp near my house today with the least-significant-other. Here's some pics I took:

Maiden Voyage

2009-05-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple years, so in order to get my act back in shape I did my first poetry reading in the state of New Jersey last night. It was at a small community center called the Williams Center in Rutherford and most of the people in the audience were over the age of 5o, but they were nice and it went well. The poem I read is called 'The Eternal Clown' and I 'spose I should post it, so here it is:

The Eternal Clown

the eternal clown

has come to town

riding on a wave of

compassionate ignorance

dressed up

in the guise of bliss

free money for businesses

big and small

don't worry about the poor

they don't matter at all

from coffers in town

the eternal clown

hands bills to churches

all the country 'round

he says

“don't mind if we listen in

on your next telephone call

we have to protect

the weak and small

from the evildoers

with towels on their head

who'd love nothing better

than to see us dead”

brand with your

black and white brush

don't take time to judge

just rush rush Rush

lock people up

gather them in jail

the eternal clown

all hail!

cut the taxes,

that's surely the way

for a three trillion dollar

war to pay

cut the budget for needy

hands off the banks

our country works best when greedy

'uniter not a divider' you said

you've done a great job uniting

the world around a pile of dead

your time is over

your reign is thru

hope is riding into town

and we’re so glad

to be rid of you!

Officially Part of the big Time

2009-05-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

I spent all day walking around the island of Manhattan in search of copies of the 'Hollywood Reporter'. 'Belle', the movie that we've been torturing ourselves over at work for the last 5 months was officcially announced Tuesday night and there was an article about it in THR. So, now everybody knows about it and it's really happening. You can check out the article here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3if21dd856cfb9103e9bc50578aa646eac. It's a really interesting story about the first and most prolific female serial killer in the history of the U.S. and you should definitely check it out. My boss is directing it and Angelina Jolie is possibly playing the lead, so Angelina covered in blood and hacking people to death with a hatchet sounds like a movie I'd wanna see.

Filming.. or Not

2009-05-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

So... filming has stopped before it really even got started. My wonderful insignificant other has still refused to pick up my camera or be helpful in pretty much anyway, so filming isn't happening.. yet. She says I'll have my camera tomorrow. Let's hope. I've heard her say that so many times before I can't help but not believe her.

The Unfinished Masterpiece

2009-05-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures from 'Lang Ren', a short unfinished film I was making with a few friends about a year and a half ago. Just thought I'd share them with everybody.

Making New Friends

2009-03-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

After about three months of messaging back and forth I finally met up with a girl named Kat this evening at the Starbucks on Astor Place near St.Marks. My first thought was that she's very cute. We smoked a couple cigarettes and drank our coffees while sitting outside and talking about everything from going to college at NYU, Antonin Artaud and experimental theater, being from a small town and moving to NYC, tattoos and Dick Cheney as Dr.Strangelove. We grabbed a slice at Ray's original pizzeria and talked some more, then smoked another cigarette as I walked her home. I'm definitely looking forward to more times talking and hanging out with her. She's one interesting Kat.

Hippies on Film

2009-03-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

At work this afternoon Matt asked me if I'd like to go check out an art exhibit, so I did. Eddie Kramer was a record engineer and producer back in the sixties and the exhibit was pictures he had taken while working in the studio with bands like The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Carlos Santana and Led Zeppelin. Eddy told us some interesting anecdotes about being in the studio with Jimi and Led Zeppelin and it was all quite interesting. Except for the drunk guy who was stalking me for most of the night telling me his brilliant idea for a movie about teenagers joining a cult and dropping out of college. That was a bit creepy.

Hold on to Your Wallet

2009-03-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

So today's planned filming was done in by: one actor loosing their wallet at the gym, another actor's mother visiting tomorrow and my third actor's in-laws being in town for the weekend. We were probably only going to be able to film from around 6 tonight till whenever it got too dark to see by the streetlights, but still this is fu*king frustrating. I just want to shoot this film and get it done already. I'm *this close* to just giving up and forgetting about it for good. But, I really wanna make a film, so I trudge onward. I just want one day where we could start filming early in the morning and work all day and get everything we need to done and then move on to the other aspects of making and releasing a film. Anyways, apparently everybody is available to work next Sunday, so we'll see if anything happens then. So please, say a prayer for me. I may be an atheist, but I need all the help I can get.

It's Been A While

2009-03-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

It's nearly three weeks since I've updated this blog and two weeks since I last filmed. Filming hasn't happened because the wonderful *sarcasm* person who was supposed to pick up and deliver my camera two MONTHS ago has yet to do so. Now, I understand that sometimes people get busy, but this person (who shall remain nameless) really is not busy. Ever. They're just lazy as fu*k. My friend Ken has been wonderful. Not only has he been my sound department and helped me with pretty much every aspect of production, but he's allowed me to use his camera too. I'd have been lost without him so far. Just goes to show that sometimes the only people who'll help you are strangers.

I'm hoping to have my camera tomorrow (said that so many times now it's lost all meaning) and looking to get shooting back on the road on Sunday. Cross yur fingers.

The Cast and Crew

2009-03-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

Today I started shooting my short film 'Paroxysms of Caesars'. It was snowing when I woke up but that didn't deter me. The sky was gray and overcast- exactly how I wanted it to look when I was filming. We all gathered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, then waited an hour and a half for Ken to show up with the equipment before we finally got to start working. Betty was a trooper and she was willing to do whatever we needed her to- including running up and down the street for blocks at a time repeatedly, getting slammed into brick walls and running thru crowded subway stations. All while wearing nothing but a short dress outside in subfreezing temperatures. Craig was amazing and gave a great performance as the very scary secret police officer chasing Betty. We were only able to work for a couple hours, as part of our cast wasn't able to be there, but I think we got some great work done. Craig and Betty had a fight scene that was vicious, dark, intense and superb. I can't wait to look at it. Now I'm off to try and regain the feeling in my toes and elbow- holding a camera gets heavy and painful real quick.

Ken's Bleeding Palm

2009-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I was up till 6am and out of bed again by four hours later. I was running on almost zero sleep, but that didn't matter- I had a film to direct. It was freezing cold out in the streets of Manhattan but we made it work anyway. My friend Ken wrote the script and he was guilty of gathering the actress and 'crew' as it were. And by crew, I mean the 5 kids who mostly stood around inside of Starbucks and the dollar store doing nothing while Ken and I tried to run the shoot.

You would think that people in Manhattan would be used to seeing movie cameras on the street, but apparently not. People were constantly annoying the hell out of us all day trying to get their face on camera and basically making our already difficult shoot that much harder. We had the crackheaded rapper from Harlem who kept following us talking constantly about how awesome he was and how we needed to videotape him. So, eventually just to get rid of him we did. People constantly walked threw our shots, ruining good takes by sticking their faces into our camera and smiling at us as if we cared that they existed. How narcissistic are people that they all shouted 'I'm famous' or wanted us to video tape them or listen to their opinion on how to shoot our movie or what we should do. But I digress.

I got some time behind a camera and learned a few things so that's all that mattered.

Actors are Such Interesting Peoples

2009-02-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

I spent every night last week in Manhattan meeting with a different actor. Tuesday night I found another great actor and was very excited. He even hung in there until the next afternoon when he emailed me to say that he was cast in a feature and couldn't do my project anymore. I understand completely and I wish him lots of luck, it's just frustrating to constantly have people coming in and out of my project and wasting my time sitting in coffee shops in Manhattan meeting with total strangers who only let me down. But, now I have my cast. Saturday was rehearsals at yet another coffeeshop in the city and everything seems ready to go. Now I just need a group of extras to fill my classroom scene. Shooting begins next Sunday in the streets of Brooklyn.

Return of 'The Flu'

2009-02-04T21:07:00.000-08:00

I've spent pretty much 24 hours a day for the past 7 days glued to my laptop (which, honestly is only slightly more than usual) reading some of the worst screenplays ever written in the history of bad movies. As well as fighting off that demon known as the flu. It's been fun. I kid. But, I'm really starting to get along with and know all the people at work and putting my networking skills to the test. There are a lot of talented young people working in the office. As well as a couple beautiful girls. The whole environment has been very conducive to thinking artisticly and learning the craft of filmmaking, so I really can't complain too much. But the scripts that I've been reading, ughhhhhhhh. Most of them are a chore to struggle threw they are so poorly written, but there have been a couple exceptions. Plus, it gives me hope that I can one day get myself an agent and have a script land on the desk of a Hollywood producer. I mean, if some of these writers could do it I should definitely be able to.

Covered in Slush to My Knees

2009-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

Day three of working at First Line Entertainment/Edward Bass Films started out pretty crappy. I walked out of my building to be hit with a downpour of freezing cold rain/ice. Not to mention the wonderful mix of snow/ice/slush/whatever that was coating sidewalks in all five boroughs and had to be walked threw for blocks and blocks between trains, subways and buildings. But other than that, I must say that I'm really liking this job so far. All the people I work with are very friendly and they all seem to like film. And really, what better people are there to hang out with than film people? It's been lots of hours spent in front of my laptop reading threw script after script while taking copious amounts of notes for the past three days. This is going to, at the very least, be a great learning experience in what it takes to write a good script. Just the shear amount of time reading scripts written by other people, that producers/actors/directors are actually interested in reading and making come to life will only help my writing ability. Then, there's what I call the committee session. At least an hour or two every day is spent sitting around the livingroom at the office sharing our notes and impressions and brainstorming how to fix problems and debating the merits of certain lines of dialogue or scenes or what have you. This is a very fun and enlightening process and I enjoy it a ton. I'm loving the fact that I actually get to travel into the city and hang out around movies all day. What could possibly be better. Right now, life is very good.

Creeky stairs are scary

2009-01-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

It was pretty warm in the city today as I went to my interview at First Line entertainment. The office was pretty crammed and still being renovated, but I managed to find a place at the table to sit down at and answer a few fundamental questions about my resume. After that, I sprawled on a nice big leather couch with a pretty cute girl named Susan and my laptop and read a very rough draft for a film that Edward Bass is working on. I took notes, ate pizza and we had a fairly informal brainstorming session, giving notes, ideas and impressions about the script. i think this is where the interview really began. Either way, I was opinionated, but polite, forceful but respectful and got my points across then got the job. I start Monday- I think- doing general work that any entry level slave in the film biz does for a boss with much more experience, money and power, and is kind enough to give them. Plus- and here's the bonus- I may get to spend the month of March in Tennessee working on a film staring Christian Slater and Demi Moore. This is my dream in action people. It's definitely a step up from freezing cold lofts in Union City with people who have no idea what they're doing to an Academy Award winning producer in Manhattan. It's another scratch mark on the bricks as I eagerly try to climb up the edifice of the movie biz and break in thru the window. Let's see where it goes.

2009-01-20T07:56:00.000-08:00

The whole country has gathered to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama but more so the end of the George W. Bush reign. An air of relief has taken over around the country. We can all breathe easier now. Dick Cheney looked impotent and feeble, rolling down a ramp and out of the White House for the last time, taking the smell of sulfar and his evil chess set with him. Millions of people screamed at the top of their lungs as the first president of hope took over. Time to party.

Snow Angels are people too

2009-01-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to find a fine white powder about half an inch thick covering all the cars parked along the road outside my house. Called Jeff to see if we were shooting the pilot today only to find out that shooting had been canceled so I went back to sleep. Around 5:30 pm Nikki and I started getting ready for my auditions. A handful of people were kind and brave enough to make the trip from points all over the metro area despite the steady fall of snow. After some trouble with trains (missing them, taking the wrong ones and getting off at the wrong stops) we were able to proceed. All three of the girls who read were amazing and I had no problem with casting any of them, but unfortunately am only able to cast one. All three definitely nailed the character and gave great performances, but alas, the two guys who auditioned did not. Luckily I'm meeting with a couple other actors this week. It was definitely a fun and exciting experience to hear and see people acting out words that I had written. Everybody seemed very nice and we all had fun and got along well. The easy part is over, for now. On to the task of finishing rounding up the gear and the people and then the actual filming itself.

TV Pilots and Frozen Toes

2009-01-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

Today I was in beautiful Union City, New Jersey working on a pilot for a tv show called 'Grind'n'. It, supposedly, centers around a group of young wanna-be rappers who run their own label and recording studio. I was in a big loft with no heat (but two spaceheaters) freezing to death while holding lights, setting up lights, holding cables and doing other miscellaneous production assistant-type duties from noon till about six. Today was the first day of the shoot with four left to go. The best thing I can say about this job is that it is something I can put on my resume and may lead to other (hopefully paying) jobs in the future. More filming, plus auditions for my short film, tomorrow.

Silver Plates

2009-01-15T18:14:00.002-08:00

small flowers crack your skull

like lightning bolts

through silver plates

like days that never end

and dreams that never start

like the distance between

two kindred hearts

and sunshowers

that refresh your soul

like the weight

on your shoulders

that never gets lifted

and the prayer

that never leaves your lips

like deserts of time

that stretch out before you

and dreams

that never end

2008 in review

2009-01-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, 2008. What a wonderful year. The year that showed us the most sensitive person on Earth might be a cartoon robot, that even Governor's like to get their freak on and that George W. Bush is really good at ducking shoes.

Billionaires are shooting themselves in the head at an alarming rate, a Starbucks on Fifth Avenue closed and even Manny Ramirez can't find a job.

The house you live in is worth less than the paper your mortgage was written on, you're unemployed (or very soon will be) and the crooked bank that gave you that mortgage? They were just handed billions of dollars more to invest wisely.

I find it entirely fitting that 2008 will go down as the only time a professional football team played sixteen games and didn't win any. Did anybody do well this year?

But let's look on the bright side. All of that is over now as we've officially turned the page on '08 and in a few days we will have a brand new commander in chief. One that is actually competent, unlike the outgoing one. And if all else fails, we can always go to Gaza or Mumbai on vacation. Wait. Nevermind.

Making My First Short Film

2008-12-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

The script has been written, the storyboards drawn, the shotlist and schedule created and the casting call has been put up on mandy.com. Now the wonderful, nerve racking, hurry-up-and-wait part known as pre-production unfolds. I have gotten many responses from my casting call. Some seem promising, some not so much. When I put 'caucasian male, aged 22-26' in the ad did I expect to be getting replies from Middle Eastern men in their late thirties? No, but I guess that's what I get for putting myself out there, huh. Stay tuned here for more updates and adventures as I make my first film.