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October 31, 2003
Happy Halloween
An oldie but goodie, from back when I didn't have a beard and did have poofy hair: Happy Halloween!
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)
October 29, 2003
Special Guests
You love their radio show. You've been to all their live shows. Now, thrill to Schadenfreude on the big screen as Chicago's own WackyFunsters(tm) join Neutrino Project 30,000 for one night only -- Saturday, November 1 at 9:00 pm.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:11 PM
October 25, 2003
Two AM
2 am, leaving a bar alone because KW is in Monteal, it's raining, feeling like a cab is an extravagance, running through intersections then hugging buildings, Chiyoko on the iPod (so beautiful, so sad), almost missing the El station because my head is bowed to the rain. Home. Alone except for the cats who ruined my dinner and broke a bowl. Sleep. Tomorrow can only be better.
(Though, Mexican Wrestling Macbeth was great.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2003
This weekend
You've probably already left work where you do all your web-surfing, but here's what you should find yourself psychically-influenced to do this weekend:
- Saturday night @ 9 pm - see Neutrino Project 30,000 at the 3 Penny Cinema (the time is different! 9 pm! different!)
- Saturday night @ midnight - see Cinema 2.0's Fury of the Wolfman at WNEP
- Sunday - rest
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2003
Schadenfreude and Neal Pollack
Working backwards, the reason I couldn't go pick up my FFFF topic on Friday night was that I was at Schadenfreude's extravaganza of a show at the Athenaeum Theater. Schadenfreude wanted to document the show like crazy, so they had five camera people with six cameras shooting the show from all angles. I was on random-backstage-nightshot patrol, which was great because it was low-pressure and meant I could get a bunch of still pictures, too.
KW was one of the Balcony Bits Players, so we kept dashing past each other in the dark. She got to be a tiger and kill Roy in a sketch, whoo-ray.
Neal Pollack's band, the Neal Pollack Invasion, was the opening act of the show. Because I wasn't doing Schadenfreude-documenting yet, I got a ton of good shots of the band. I like taking concert photos and I have to say that the lighting in the Athenaeum was a jillion times better than in most rock venues. And, I'm a fan. So, yay.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:41 PM
October 22, 2003
McGuillicutty II
One thing that made this last weekend so busy that I'm still catching up was the 11th Fast Forward Film Festival. I looove the FFFF. 21 hours seems, to me, to be just the right amount of time to make a 3 minute film. It's an evening of brainstorming, a morning of filming, and an afternoon of editing.
This time the theme of the FFFF was "At the Drive-In" and the topics for the movies were poster tag lines from old action, horror, and sci-fi movies. Our topic was: "When the heroes are forgotten. When the stakes are life and death. There's one stand you've got to take. There's one rule you've got to break." (I just did the search to discover that this was the tagline to a medical drama, Article 99. I didn't look before we made our movie because I didn't want to know.)
FuzzyCo's FFFF crew this time was me, Shaun, Brian Goodman, and Sean Cusick. Shaun had a CCC gig Friday night and I was at a Schadenfreude show, so I coerced my friend Kate into going and picking up the topic for me. After a short amount of brainstorming Saturday morning, we decided to do a sequel to Ted McGuillicutty, Man of Action, starring Brian as Joe McGuillicutty, Shaun as the villain, and Sean as everyone else. We would use the lines from the suggestion at dramatic moments in the film.
This was our highest production value shoot yet -- we filmed at my house, on Lake Shore Drive, at the 59th Street Metra station, and all over Chinatown. We had special effects and stunt motorcycle riding and real (cheap) Chinese weapons.
Somehow, between all the running around, and then the demands of editing the film down to 3 minutes (I seem to naturally tend towards 4 minute movies) all the suggestion lines got lost. So I'm not sure if the movie looks like it was really inspired by the suggestion, but it was, I swear. I'm really happy with the result. I even turned it in 8 minutes before the deadline.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:47 PM
Squirrel
Shaun has the same sort of love/hate relationship with this squirrel that I do with Mustapha. Except, of course, that I don't have to worry that Mustapha has rabies.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 PM
Word count - 0
Another year, another Nanowrimo. I'm really debating whether to do it this year or not. I've failed to complete my novel both years I've tried. And this year I'll be out of town again over Thankgiving, which is traditional make-up-the-time-you've-lost for Nanowrimosters. I'd hate to just set myself up for failure.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:44 AM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2003
Start Scary Early
Since Halloween is on a Friday this year, you'll likely be headed to 7 or 8 parties that weekend (since you're so popular, you devil, you). So the weekend before is the weekend to get started on all your spoooky movie goodness. Like, por ejemplo, with Fury of the Wolfman at Cinema 2.0. A man's girlfriend brainwashes him into becoming a werewolf. Or something. It's hard to tell, the dubbing of this 1972 Spanish movie is so bad. Fortunately, you won't have to deal with that, since you'll have our hilarious dubbing making the story something completely different.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)
Sick
After the NP30K show, Dan Izzo, who's the new producer of The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard, said he was feeling ill and asked Shaun if he could deal the game that night. Shaun was running the marathon on Sunday morning (he finished, btw) so I poked my executive-producer head in and took over.
Usually the line-up at SFSIEH is a mix of unrelated people, but this month we the cast of WNEP's current main-stage show, Let There Be Light. The show was, I can humbly say, delightful. I had come with a couple stories in my back pocket (figuratively) but in the end I just kept the poker game going, chewed on my Strawberry-flavored Swisher Sweet, and kept out of the way of the sick, sick stories that the boys were throwing around.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:16 PM | Comments (2)
"Hot Dog"
Saturday night was the 3rd night of our new Neutrino Project (30,000!) run, and the 3rd week in a row that we were up against a Cubs playoff game. So... we once again had a light audience. It seems likely the Cubs will be playing Game 1 of the World Series on Saturday night. If you care nothing about baseball, this may be a great week to come see the show.
Bassprov's Joe Bill sat in with us and played a lascivious bartender to great effect. Joe had done the Neutrino Video Project at the Toronto Improv Festival, so he was able to jump in with no prep, which was great since we didn't give him any.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:54 PM
October 8, 2003
Fight Club
I've been going to a... well, I guess I'd call it a rehearsal group, for the last month. My friend Dan Izzo organized it and it's variously called Fight Club or the Manifesto or "that Tuesday night thing". Last night was the most challenging night for Dan's rule that we always start right at 10:45, with the Cubs still tied at that point, but we stuck to it. We even had 6 people, despite the game.
It's been great to just do some improv just for the sake of doing some improv. No pressure of being "good" for an audience, no notes from a director. Just trying stuff out and seeing if it works, if it feels right.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:03 PM
October 6, 2003
"Fellowship of Nothingness"
HCBB and their pirate leader. The ATM at the Osco next to the 3 Penny was broken, so we were all buying little items to get cash back with our purchase. I bought a juice. Sean bought an eye-patch. Sean is much cooler than I.
Neutrino going up on the marquee.
835? Whatever.
Adam shooting Sean and Jen in the middle of Lincoln Ave.
Set up at the 3 Penny went a lot faster this week, because I spent a couple hours at home on Saturday afternoon organizing and labeling cables, making sure I only had the gear I needed, etc. It was good that it all went faster, because the 3 Penny had scheduled an even tighter interval between our show and the earlier movie than the week before. And Shaun was out of town, which mainly affected my pre-show time in that I had to answer the question "Where's Shaun?" 20 different times for each cast and crew member. Special thanks to the HCBB crew for stringing cables like mad.
We also had camera person confusions (Andy Eninger's shooting, right? Well, he is, except he hasn't slept since GayCo got back from LA. But Starcevich is out town. Oh, no he's not.) and a runner no-show. But we had some great last-minute help from Rachel Michalski and Phillip Mottaz, who came just to see the show and ended up teching and running, respectively. We also had some great (planned) sit-ins: Schadenfreude's Adam Witt on camera, Megan Kellie and Jen Ellison on camera, and Paul Miller joined Ben to create the score. And I gave up my on-screen spot to run.
The audience was, again, a little small (damn you, Chicago Cubs, for winning so much*) but enthusiastic. David Shepard is in town to do a workshop on his video improvisation techniques, and he came and saw the show.
* The rumor around town is that a Long-Running and Popular Show had 7 people in their 300 seat theater on Friday night. We had quadruple that, so I don't feel so bad.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:50 PM | Comments (1)
October 3, 2003
Only 7 more chances!
OK, that doesn't have a lot of urgency, I realize. But maybe this delightful article in today's Chicago Sun-Times will change your mind. [I'm not actually Australian -- I lived there for 3 years in the '80s, but that's all. The rest is true. Even Shaun's sentence, "It's amazing to movie and improv people." That's the most true of all.]
This week is your only chance to hear trumpet player Paul Miller join Ben Taylor to create a live improvised score for the movie.
Saturday, 8:30 pm at the 3 Penny Cinema, 2424 N. Lincoln.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:05 PM | Comments (1)
I'm a temporary king!
Well, I have a temporary crown, anyway. Oh, my poor mouth.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:54 PM
PAPOACTYB Day
Mustapha
Latte
It's the First Annual 'Post A Picture of A Cat to your Blog' Day. So here are my two cats. Done.
Can you leave a dog or a baby alone for three days with a big bowl of water and another of food? No. The dog will poop all over the house and the child will die and then you'll be arrested. That's why I like cats.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:12 AM | Comments (1)
October 1, 2003
War Stories
There's a piece on "wacky things we've encounted doing the Neutrino Project" in this week's New City. The "gig up in Toronto" was, of course, Neutrino (NY) at the Toronto Improv Fest. This is the piece that I thought was going to run in the RedEye and then missed the day I thought it was out.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:56 PM
Fast Forward
The next Fast Forward Film Fest has been announced. The info's not up on their site yet, but registration for teams is open now at Atomix Cafe (1957 W Chicago). Topics will be given out Friday, October 17 at 7:30 pm at Atomix, and then the films will be shown Saturday, October 18 at 8:00 pm at open-end gallery (2000 W Fulton).
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:28 PM