FINAL NIGHT OF DIRECTOR'S CUT

Live in LA? Not doing anything tonight?

Well, swing by the John Raitt Theater at 6520 Hollywood Blvd. and see the final performance of Director's Cut, a live show written by yours truly. It's been up for a month now and while things haven't gone as well as we had hoped, tonight is our last chance to pay off investors, so if you can make it, you'll be helping a LOT. Plus it's a pretty fun show, if I do say so myself!

Tickets are $20 cash (hey, it's cheaper than Broadway!). Swing by any time before 8pm (that's when the show starts) to get your ticket. Be sure to ask for Pete so you can meet me in person!! EXCITING!! ;) (I'll be the one behind the camcorder.)

OH YEAH, and rumor has it that George Clinton will be there tonight, so if you dig him, it'll be a great opportunity to rub elbows with him. (Actually, this is no rumor--he'll definitely be there!)

So come on over!! Parking is available behind the Raitt for $6 (enter on Wilcox, south of Hollywood Blvd) and $6 is pretty damn cheap for Hollywood, these days.

I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! Thanks!

Success for Me and Some Pals!

I'm going to start off today on a positive note by blogging a bit about a strange (but welcome) wave of creative successes rolling over my life and the life of a few people close to me.

First, my internet cafe buddy and fellow writer MK Asante Jr has just published a new book called [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592214223/qid=1129566168/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-6568812-7588168?v=glance&s=books&n=507846|Beautiful. And Ugly, Too]. It's a book of poetry and it's Asante's second book after publishing [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592210074/qid=1129566168/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-6568812-7588168?v=glance&s=books&n=507846|Like Water Running Off My Back] in 2002. If that's not enough for you, his film 500 Years Later ([http://www.500yearslater.com/|official site]/[http://imdb.com/title/tt0444593|IMDB]) screened in front of [http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/10/prweb298498.htm|more than 1 million people this past weekend at the Millions More March in Washington DC]. Funny how it's the first movie in cinema history to be screened in front of that many people and yet the only coverage of it is a PRWeb press release.

While Asante's success may seem unmatchable, we all should remember that success can be measured a few hundred different ways. For instance, my friend Lauren Raab is a student at UCLA but has written a STACK of articles and columns all [http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/searchresults.asp?author=Lauren%20Raab|readable at the Daily Bruin website]. I think her list of articles is impressive period. She's still in college and has had the opportunity to write that much? That's pretty cool. Of particular note are her food columns that will leave you entertained and educated regarding how you can live life like a college kid while still managing to eat well and fairly healthy, too. :) So, check out her stuff!

Meanwhile, TheWife, has been asked to return to the cast of Mulholland Christmas Carol which begins it's performances for the 2005 winter season Thanksgiving weekend. If you're not familiar with the show, I highly recommend checking it out. I saw the show something like 4 or 5 times last year and it's awesome. It combines the general structure of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol with the story of how Mulholland brought water to Los Angeles at the turn of the last century. It's both hillarious and sobering at the same time since the LA water stuff is all based on real events--real events that include a terrible damn breaking that killed hundreds. You can get more info on this show at the Theatre of Note website's [http://www.theatreofnote.com/upcoming.html|upcoming productions page].

And not to go completely success-free, my show Director's Cut is still being performed at the John Raitt Theater at 6520 Hollywood Blvd in the heart of Hollywood, just down the street from the Egyptian Theater. It's a truly crazy show that blurs the line between reality and fiction. The story follows an up-and-coming filmmaker who is being haunted by the ghost of his ex-wife whom he killed to stop her from ruining his first film. So, CHECK IT OUT!! Call 310 933-5927 to reserve your seats TODAY! It performs Fridays and Saturdays between now and November 5, 2005.

I've also written another short 1-act play that I'm hoping to convince the director and some cast members from Director's Cut to do some nights after Director's Cut performs. More news on that as it occurs.

I'm also planning on bringing back the infamous The 5 Minute Show. With the advent of the ViPod, I feel like the timing is right to give this fun little show another chance. For anyone new to the site, The 5 Minute Show was a show I produced for the site back in the winter/spring of 2003. I did it as a weekly (yes, 5-minute-long) show that covered all sorts of topics. Part homage to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart part mental enema, T5MS ceased production because of the Iraq Attack. I got so depressed about the US invasion, all I could think to do the show about was the Iraq war and that got old fast. But now I feel like I'm overflowing with ideas for everything from short films to commentary on topics more varying than just the Iraq war.

So, lots of good things happening. Of course, I'm also getting sued for old credit card debt by a collection agency. That's pretty funny since the debt is older than 4 years, which means that, thanks to the statute of limitations on collection a debt, it's too late for them to sue me. But they're trying anyway because they're scumbags. :) So, I'm not too concerned, I just have to figure out how to handle this. I've never been sued before, so this should be a fun learning experience. Oh and you can bet I'll be blogging about it.

In general, I'm trying to keep my eyes on the positive momentum around me. I seriously think that's the key to making things more positive permanently. Wish me luck!!

From Zero-to-Show in 7 Weeks

So, two months ago, today, I got married in Scotland. A week later, we were back in LA. A week after that (or so) we started seriously working on ThePlay that would eventually come to be called [http://undergroundparadigm.com/dc|Director's Cut]. That was seven whopping weeks ago.

Opening night was last night and while the show was far from perfect, I'm pretty damn happy with what we have to show for the past 7 weeks of extreme effort. Acting-wise, everyone did a great job. While they did rush things, I think generally everyone did their jobs just fine and I'm sure they can only get better. Alas, on the technical side of things, we had a much bumpier time. This is thanks to having no full tech rehearsal with all of the systems we'd actually be using for the show. I missed about 8 of my 15-20 cues (see? I haven't even had time to count my cues) and the lighting board has somehow spit out different lighting and fading time almost every time we used it. I don't understand why it's a better idea to program a board to do the cues for you when a human is about a thousand times more reliable than some wonky board.

Keep in mind, however, that I have precisely ZERO experience in the booth--I'm a part-time, occasional projectionist and have never set foot in a lighting booth as an adult EVER. So, the board could be perfectly fine--all I know is that with our inexperience with it we couldn't get the lighthing we told it to give us.

So, I'm bowing out of the technical side of things for this and other reasons. I'm terrible at catching cues--it's all about performance anxiety. Trying to keep things straight in my head while following the events on stage, or at the very least the script of the stage manager is difficult for my easily-distracted brain. The director wants me to keep doing it because she knows I'll get better at it, but really she just doesn't want to take the time to find someone who has experience. I don't blame her since there's still work to be done to get the alternate cast up and running for this coming Friday's show.

In the end, people seemed to like the show just fine. They spotted a couple of technical errors but said they were still able to enjoy the show. So, I'm very glad about that. Still, the show did go as badly as I expected and the rest of my life is kind of falling apart now that I've been living and breathing this damn show for the past 7 weeks. I really need to stop doing stuff for the show and get back to the job hunt. I need a job fast or I won't make rent in three weeks. Ugh, and I don't want to work at some restaurant or retail place. I'm an immensely talented guy who just wrote about 80 percent of a show in about 3-4 weeks. After that I designed a poster for the show, flyers and even the stage bill in the 3 weeks that followed my work on the script. I also redesigned how our multimedia cues were done (I work with audio/video technology) and heavily tweaked the videos we use in the show in about three days.

There's got to be someone out there who can pay me to do one of those things!!

So, here's my list of things to do once I'm done working on the show:

1) find a job
2) sell my first novel
3) write more
4) draw more
5) spend more quality time with TheWife
6) schedule my wedding reception
7) start working on my next play
8) sleep... a LOT

My Play, Rita, and Some Other Junk

It has been a stressful month for me so far. I've been spending a LOT of time working on the play (not just writing it) and following the news and especially the weather has been pretty damn depressing. I feel like every morning I wake up and instantly feel like going back to sleep. I got 9 hours of sleep last night and I'm still ready for more sleep. I seriously need a real vacation. TheWife was commenting that we just got back from Scotland--but that was not a vacation--sure, we "vacated" but I think of more than just leaving LA when I think of a real vacation.

The good news is that my work writing the play is more or less done. After the table read last week I handed the script over to Dave, my co-writer and told him it's all his now. He has made some changes, some of which I don't like, but c'est la script. I've voiced my concerns and they may be ultimately ignored, but I know they'll be considered. We also had our first rehearsal last night and that went real well. Dana (the director) covered the blocking of the first act and then did this cool exercise with the actors--they had to improv their characters own backstories. To be honest, there were a couple of times where I wanted to speak up to "correct" them, but I held back--it's now the actor's job to continue creating the characters.

We've got another rehearsal tonight which I'm going to try to make it to and before I forget, my friend Asante is currently on his book tour--he's got signings coming up Philly, DC, Baltimore, San Diego and finally, in November, he'll be back in LA--check out his website Asante.info for more about him, his tour and his books. His new book is entitled Beautiful. And Ugly Too and it's poetry.

OH YEAH--and my cell phone crapped out on me. The power comes on and sometimes I can even get calls, but the screen is just white and the thing doesn't make any sounds when I press the buttons. I've got to hit a Sprint store today to get a new phone--of course, I'm broke, so who knows if I'll even be able to get one with a camera. Which reminds me--damn--I still have pictures I took on that thing that I never emailed to myself. Damn...

But there are bigger things to worry about right now than my little life. Rita has become a real powerhouse. I woke up this morning to read that not only had Rita hit category 4 but now it's approaching category 5!

In fact, I just checked with http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ and they're saying Rita has made it to Category 5.

Of course, that makes me think of my family--I have an aunt, uncle and cousins in Houston and upon calling my dad to find out about them, I am reminded that he and his wife are in Texas, too--about 150 miles from the ocean. My family in Houston have not yet decided to evacuate but I'm hoping/betting they'll leave now that Rita's a Cat 5. Dad got some supplies for his wife's family and they're going to sit tight there because my step-mom's folks are on the older side and might need help evacuating if they decide it will be required. I'm thinking it's required...

Anyway, so I'm off to the Sprint store in a bit. Man, there's stress all over the place. I think it's time we all take part in Globalgasm.com or at the very least, Hugnation.com...

We gotta do SOMETHING to relieve the world stress-level going on!!