A little kindness goes a long way.

By George, the sun is breaking through the layer of haze… May haze, June gloom.. The joys of living on the southern California coastline.

So I am back in my “So Cal” abode, after a six week stint visiting in the NW followed by a week working in Huntington Beach for Vans. I realize exactly why I love the Northwest, trees and people. I find it straining on the eyes the miles of endless development we have here. Imagining this area overgrown with native sagebrush and well I don’t know what else seeing as so many flora and fauna have been introduced it is impossible to know what was here two hundred years ago. Oh, but we have history books that can tell us about it. So I am a little negative this morning. Some people just make my head spin is all. It seems that a fair amount of people here are so self absorbed and focused on their next task at hand that they lose their courtesy, failing to let you in on the freeway, or cutting you off, or not smiling instead flashing a scowl and distrusting look. I guess I get spoiled on my trips north, waking up to a view of the mountains, having people say hello to me regularly on the street, and no fingers on the road, well rarely. It makes me ask the question, “what happened here?”

Aside from that, I was cast in a show that I did 12 years ago.. Very funny. Have a short film I am working on next month followed by another in July, and hopefully another in August.. Say hello to someone on the street today would you.

Nunchucks and Knomes

Was awoken this morning at 5 am by the neighbor loading his trailer for the day with yard equipment.. And I mean a ridiculous amount of equipment. As if this guy and his coworkers were off to prune and trim all of Golden Gate Park. Which makes no sense as it is an eight hour drive. Forget that tagent, the point is, this moron chose a time far earlier than most rise to load a crap load of equipment chatting with his buddies all along.

Here is a novel idea.. Load everything the night before so your neighbors won't be awoken in the pitch black thinking someone is breaking in their house, or stealing their truck (bad neighborhood) or whatever funs threw their heads in the daze of being jerked from sleep. All your stupidity does is make your neighbors want to run outside in their undergarments flailing their roommates Samurai sword (oddly enough he has a bunch of them on display, nunchucks too) screaming "Do you realize what time it is moron!" Of course I just laid there thinking how glorious it would be. At some point they finished their racket and left, and I drifted back off with fantasies of shiny blades and “chucks” whooshing through the air.

Maybe I will just go to home depot and buy the thickest chain and lock they make… Oh no, it is 5am and you can’t open your fence.. muhahaha.. Whoosh of ninja star cutting through the air..

Anyhow, sipping a bit of the ol Mr. T café this morning.. That man is still bad ass at 56.. I mean, he is not BA anymore but still..

Still waiting on the production project to start, so I have spent the time working on pre-production of a couple of film shorts. Things take a lot longer when little or no budget is involved.. You have to work around when the people willing to help you for the sake of the art are free.. So trying to get a handful of skilled and free people at the same time is not at all a task I wish upon you.. So, I will give it a couple months before all falls into place. That gives me plenty of time to work out the kinks.

What is the deal with Spring? I mean, yeah flowers are pretty and all, but it leaves my sinuses feeling as if they were violated by a group of large inmates. I don’t understand why my “allergy” medication does not stop that spot between my eyes from feeling like some gnome crawls through my window at night with a mini-baseball bat and smack me four times right in that spot.. Maybe he just has relations with my nostrils.. Think of that next time you blow your nose.


*I had to add this in because it was funny.. Well at least the city guys thought so this morning:

I despise the street sweeper.. He is the only one who can draw me running out of my house with the home made bright green pajama bottoms my parents gave me for Christmas.. The sweeper guy actually stopped and pointed..

Upon further thought, if I were to come running out of my house in the wee hours with a Samurai sword, nunchucks and ninja stars ablaze, only to be wearing bright green, overly baggy, quite feminine looking pajama bottoms with bed head and no shirt chest rug swaying with my quick movements.. Would I look crazy or like a complete moron?

Fetish, cookies and cold coffee.

Well my past couple of blogs have been a little on the depressing side, so keeping in tradition, lol.. Seriously though, I have a cold and it sucks. I hate being sick, not that anyone enjoys being sick. Except maybe some weird S&M fetish who chews on used Kleenex out of the dumpster from the local hospital.. OK… I just threw up a little in my mouth.

My Mr. T coffee is cold by this time.. I mean it has only been sitting here a couple of hours.. The thing about strong black coffee is that it is only good when it is fresh. If it sits in the pot too long, it taste like the ass end of a yak. If it gets cold sitting around, it tastes like cold ass end of yak.. Either way is no good.

Girl Scout cookies are the work of the devil btw. My sister just brought my nieces over who with their GS skills finagled me into dropping twenty bucks on thin mints, samoas, and chalet crèmes.. I think the GS must have a merit badge in “ridiculous cuteness.” My nieces have a couple of these each. Being sick only weakened my defensives both against the power of the GS and my willpower against those godforsaken cookies.. Half a box later I hid them from myself.. Glutany is easy to fall into when your under the weather, you have an excuse to eat like crap cause you feel like crap. Lately I have been trying to eat better and today my diet has been a balance of fruit and garbage.. They cancel each other out right? Right?

I have managed to devote time in my sick stage to working on the second draft of my current screenplay. With any hope, I can get it wrapped up today and sent to my DP and confidant for some notes and a stab at a third and perhaps final draft. I am seriously going to try to devote more time to my blog, as I will be freed up more..

Damn.. I want another cookie.. I will just go dig out the Blue Diamond wasabi Almonds I hid on Sunday.. Sad that I have to hide things from myself.. Unfortunately, microbrews can only be hidden in one place.. the fridge.. At least being sick I won’t be tempted to crack open a Petrus.

And in the name of Crom.. my battle of the cold continues.

Hello and goodbye old freinds.

I have been told that I do not blog enough.. SO… here is a freshy.
Lets see what is new in the world of Mr. A.. Well, I was offered not a raise but the complete opposite by my former employer, former yes because I already was working below my average charge. As he is my friend, I chose to bow out rather than continue working and be pissy about being paid even less then charging less.. He will discover that good help is hard to come by, and it is not that cheap.

My days of drinking swill coffee are over, well at least for a while.. Some Mr. T grade coffee arrived via USPS.. Straight from Stumptown Roasters in P-Town.. Hellooo delicious! This coffee, is f’n delicious, and I am eagerly awaiting waking to it. I may even prance about the house tossing my hair as if I were in a “Finesse” commercial. Nawww.. Just head straight for the pot of liquid black lust, fill my mug to the brim and ahhhh-cha-cha-cha.

Goodbye to Marvin, a family friend, and friend to the theater who passed away. I have this feeling of guilt hanging around. I saw Marvin pop his head in to the theater last week when I was working diligently away on the set because they were behind, but I was so rushed I did not stop to wave, or better yet walk up and say hello. It had been a couple years since I had seen him. But at the time, getting the set done seemed more important. So this guilt, this guilt of looking up and seeing him, only to go back to work.. That tad bit of guilt has lead me to look hard at the bigger picture; take the time to say hello to people when you haven’t seen them in a while because you never know if that is the last time you will have the chance.

And on that somber note…

Stepping further into the millennium

So I am sitting, on Valentines as the third wheel at the grace of my friends.. There lies ahead of us a plethora of deliciousness to dance about our tonsils. An array of Belgium to local brews, all in the name of love.... Love of beer that is. Lately I have become more inclined to expand my taste buds from the usual... between sours and dubbels, I find the world of fine brewhaha more and more worth the 10, 15 and 20 bucks a bottle. I scoff at those of my friends who fail to leave the familiarity of Budweiser.. I have grown far from the days of Schlitz and Magnum 40's.. Yet, I admit that a can of pbr can hit the spot on a hot day out camping with the menfolk.. But as I near another year into my early thirties (that early word is crucial), I realize that I am becoming more cultured. Some of you may think beer is low brow.. However, I have to say, spending as much on a bottle of "good" beer as a bottle of mediocre wine makes more sense.. Wine is made with grapes, and maybe some fruit. Beer, on the other hand has an array of ingredients that make it more versatile and worth while in the long run.. So, thank you wheat, thank you barley, thank you hops, and malt.. thank you yeast.. you make my singleness not so sniffle filled on this holiday that keeps sees and ftd thriving..

PS hallmark can go bankrupt..

Long live Petrus

Rest easy Uncle Chris.

Yesterday, my uncle Chris succumbed to Cancer. My mother didn’t want to tell me last night for fear of spoiling my evening as it was New Years Eve. I do not know why I am writing this.. I think perhaps to give some ease to myself although I am not deeply effected.. It had been years since I had seen him. Perhaps that my mother is so upset, and throughout the years our similarities had been pointed out by her. Last night I had a long discussion with a friend about going out to visit him and making a documentary about his ever losing battle that begun at age 28 when he turned to a reliance on drugs and alcohol as a staple of daily living. I wanted to hear about his life, from his mouth. The good the bad, the history of him through his eyes. I wanted to show that there was more to this man than one beating by addiction. I wanted to capture his memories to leave positive memories for others to experience. I was so adamant last night about doing this, about contacting investors today, about going out there this weekend and filming… but the moment had passed.. my uncle had passed. My opportunity to really get to know him had passed.

But I can still learn from others.. These are some things I learned about him today from my uncle Mike that I never knew about Chris:

• He raced and continually won motor cycle championships.
• He managed all the restaurants and bars at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at the age of 21.
• He snow and water skied like an Olympian contender.
• He was a veritable Craftsmen God as a carpenter and even rivaled Thor with his prowess of the hammer.
• In grammar school as a "problem child". The district psychologist gave up on him because he "was a genius and the darn kid would be asking him the questions before the session would end"
• In the summers during junior high, he took the train with his friend to visit family to Guadalajara Mexico and spent months living as a local, playing football (soccer) and speaking Spanish.
• He would captivate a crowd with jokes and stories. So much so a pub would become silent to listen and roar with laughter and joy as he entertained."

Rest now, it had been a long hard road for you, this is something I have always known.. Bless you.

Tears from heaven mean no fun in the sun.

Welp… It seems no matter how much I plan updating you with the lastest and greatest in my worldly experiences (comprised of the western United States that is) as a constant routine, I simply get caught up in living.. Sorry..

So with out further ado (trumpets blare), Mr. T coffee in hand of course, Life Update.

I am back in Southern California, and finally plugged back into the interweb on a daily basis. The weather is just as pleasant as I remember, well except for today, as Jesus tears patter away at my window, must be his birthday approaching.. being 2008 years old would make me dump tears from heaven too.. But the rain is much needed here in So Cal. Man I sure do miss the green surroundings of Oregon. Although I heard Bend received six inches of snow.. so in that respect (raising java) welcome home me.

I am still waiting for my Senior Production Manager position to start with the channel our company is launching. After months of waiting and a 1000 miles back to my birthplace, I am ready for the ball to roll.. It has inflated to astronomical proportions by this point.. This week should be the determining factor, yet I have heard this tale before and probably can expect waiting til next year for it to kick off. We did hold our first venue this past Saturday, and as a co-promoter and working like a madman to get the technical side up, I have to say it went pretty well. We sold a lot of tickets, so Santa came early for me allowing me to splurge a bit and get my nieces and nephews trinkets for Christmas.. Little devils got lucky, I was going to give them rocks with sharpied faces.

So with that said, and plenty of holes for those of you who don’t know me.. Happy holidays..

Stop crying up there though buddy, people still pay ridiculous prices to live here for the sun despite the economy.