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June 30, 2003
Fratricide rehearsal
I finally got my phonecam-to-website gateway working. I'm at Fratricide rehearsal
right now (it's a dance/music rehearsal with the choreographer, which is
why I have time to diddle around with this stuff).
We're in the final stretch of rehearsals for Fratricide -- my friend and
Cinema 2.0 cast member Homer Marrs wrote a sketch show about gay guys
and frat guys and dead guys and stuff. And asked me to direct it. And so
I am.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2003
4 reasons ...
... why you should come see The Neutrino Project tomorrow at the Lakeshore Theater:
1. The Lakeshore has been beautifully renovated and it's nice to just sit around and look at the space (until we turn the lights out to do the show).
2. Ben Taylor will be joined by Pete Prezzano this week to help create a live score. I've been grooving to some Ben & Pete jams all day, so I can't wait to hear what they come up with for the show.
3. It might be your last chance. Sure, we'd like to do the show again, but we never know.
4. I'll miss you if you're not there.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:48 PM
June 25, 2003
PdP
I stoppped by the Virgin Megastore last night after work to try and get a Game Boy Player. No luck on that front, but Poi Dog Pondering was doing an in-store performance to promote their new album. Damn, but they make me smile so hard my eyes were hurting.
I bought the album and got it signed by everyone in the 200-person band. Yay!
I want to be the Frank Orrall of improv. Always evolving, tackling new projects, surrounded by people having fun and having fun doing it.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:05 PM
June 23, 2003
Opening night! - "Narcolepsy"
All told, everything went very, very well for our first show at Lakeshore Theater.
The dimensions of the theater and the constraints of our projector meant that we had to use rear-projection. Which we had never done before. So we arranged for a rental screen and crossed our fingers. We formulated a series of back up plans, but fortunately didn't have to use any of them because the projection looked great.
A huge leap forward for this show was the addition of Ben Taylor as musical director. Ben was half of the band for Cinema 2.0, and just as I found with that show, that music fills out a movie enormously, the same was true with The Neutrino Project. Ben played bass, drum machine, effects box, and iPod and everyone said the music was great. (I had set up a VCR to tape the show, but forgot to press record before I left the theater. I had Megan do it when I remembered, but we only got the last 20 minutes of the show. That 20 minutes sounded great, so I trust that the rest was great, too.)
The show was rather good, too. The suggestion was "Narcolepsy" and we had the world's worst cop duo, a narcoleptic date that ended in an accidental death, a very over-protective friend, and a dream sequence.
The only down-side to the whole night was that there were only 62 people in the audience, our smallest audience yet. We didn't have a lot of time to do advance PR, but it was still a little disappointing, especially in a 330-seat theater. One of those sixty-two, though, was Emo Philips. Evidently, he liked the show. Emo is going to be performing with our friends Bassprov on Wednesday at WNEP.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:58 PM | Comments (3)
Wrap-up
We finally shot the last few bits for the "Dinner Party" short I was in. 4 of us had to come back and shoot the 'guests arriving' scene. Gosh, movies take a long time to make when you do it 'right'. We were there for 5 hours shooting a minute or two of screen time. I took a nap somewhere in the middle (not while I was supposed to be on camera, silly).
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:32 PM
June 20, 2003
Mighty Mango-go
Man, if 540% RDA Vitamin C doesn't do something for this lingering ick I've got, what will?
So we're doing The Neutrino Project this weekend and next. The two-week run is a bit of awkward timing (we're opening! we're closing!), but between all the Neutrino cast members getting married this summer and The Science Project and Bare's out-of-town trips, these two weeks were the only two weekends we could do before September. And we didn't want the opportunity to perform at such a large and beautiful space to slip out of our hands. Even if it means killing ourselves to make it happen.
Or killing each other. Shaun and I have been at each other's throats since before Omaha. I even know I'm doing it, and I can't stop myself from snapping at him over the most trival things. (I yelled at him about a napkin at the Vidiocy showing this Tuesday. A napkin that he was giving me as I had requested. The nerve.)
Anyway, speaking of Vidiocy, Cesar and Adam's Vidiocy entries both made it into the semi-finals and Adam's took 3rd place, so yay! for the Neutrino folks. We'll be showing their entries at the Neutrino Project show. (Not-too-surprisingly, Shaun's entry that we made in 2 1/2 hours the night it was due, didn't make the cut.)
And speaking of making the cut, Ben Taylor, who was Musical Director for Cinema 2.0 and did such a great job on that show is joining The Neutrino Project with the same title. Ben will be DJing and performing live music to create an improvised score for the improvised movie.
And speaking of the Lakeshore Theater (work with me, here), you should know that they finally got their liquor license and will be serving. Booze, that is. Also, the Lakeshore has 330 seats and has been very nicely renovated, which is cool given its long history in the neighborhood. And speaking of 330 seats -- if you ever had trouble seeing our early runs because we kept selling out, well... this is your chance (not that I'm saying we can't sell out that many seats, I'm just being realistic).
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:28 PM | Comments (0)
Challenge DVDs available
A two DVD-set of The Challenge movies is now available. (The short I shot and directed is called "Ying Ling : Ling Ying" and is on DVD 1.1) Split Pillow has a sample clip from the movie (1.6 Meg Quicktime). The clip is the "getting to know each other" montage from the middle of the short and features a song that the editors wrote and recorded just for that montage. You can also see my "the stupid kite won't actually fly" special effect and Matt in a skirt and some great frolicing.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:01 PM
June 16, 2003
Matt & Trish's Wedding
Shaun, Beth, and I just got back from Omaha, Nebraska and my friends Matt & Trish's wedding. We took tons of pictures.
We went straight to a rehearsal for The Science Project when we got back to Chicago. So now it's off to collapse-land.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:11 AM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2003
Sick, Omaha, Etc
It's late, I'm sick, and I'm in Omaha. Oh, and I'm wireless on a stranger's net connection for the first time ever. Thanks, gardien35.
Why am I sick? Oh, the usual surviving on four hours of sleep a night for weeks leaving my body defenseless and unable to stave off the tiniest of germs. Saturday was a prime example: Shaun, Beth and I drove an hour up to Des Plaines for a motorcycle training course we were taking, spent the day riding around a parking lot on motorcycles (p.s. even dressed in full safe riding gear and a helmet, don't forget to put sun screen on your nose and neck. Ouch.)
Then we drove back to Chicago, got dressed as pirates, went to eat at Frankie J's and then to the Playground Prom. Prom, of course, means you're up until 3 am, minimum. A few hours sleep, then off to ride more motorcycles. So... I got sick. But I passed the class and I have my class M endorsement on my license now. Woo-oo!
Omaha? My friend Matt's wedding. The first of several weddings this summer. Just getting here was an adventure -- I ended up taking a one-way flight on Southwest while Shaun and Beth drove. And the bachelor party is tomorrow night, so the crazy-quotient of this trip can only increase.
OK, gotta go to bed. Lots more to write about, like Fratricide and the bad DVDs I bought tonight and then how we ended up at the Midwest's largest indoor family fun center wasting time playing classic video games, but the Nyquil is kicking in. So I'm off to snooze city.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:27 AM
June 6, 2003
Two Neutrino Project Shows
We have just confirmed a booking to do two performances of the Neutrino Project on two Saturdays, June 21 & 28, at 8 pm at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N Broadway. It's a gorgeous 300-seat theater, so please help us fill it.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased from the box office at (773) 472-3492 or through tickets.com.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:46 PM | Comments (0)
June 2, 2003
St. Louis
Pictures from Bare's trip to St. Louis this weekend.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:22 PM | Comments (1)