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July 29, 2005
We've moved!
If you can read this, the move was successful. Here's looking forward to a stable and happy FuzzyCo.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)
July 28, 2005
Moving
Things are going to be a bit quiet here for the next few days as I try and move FuzzyCo.com to a more-stable server. Come see the show if you're in Michigan!
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
I'm a MicroPatron
I love supporting artists. The best way to support them, I suppose, is to buy their art, but I don't have the cash to be throwing around, say $900 for a painting by an artist I love. So I buy a lot of prints and such. And El Rey art.
Dorothy Gambrell, who draws the webcomic Cat and Girl, has a Donation Derby. If you donate $5 or more, she'll draw a picture of how she spent your money and share it with the world. Self-selection of donation amount and personalization. It's a Fuzzy-dream-come-true. The picture for my donation showed up today.
I'm not sure I could be any happier -- my donation got spent on beer and music and a geeky discussion of beer bottle sizes. Whee!
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:35 PM | Comments (2)
To Ann Arbor and back
Hey, our Neutrino Project trip to Ann Arbor this upcoming weekend got a mention on the brand new Detroit Metblog. And there was no cross-metblog nepotism to it at all. Much. Except for all the nepotism.
Saturday, July 30 at 8 pm
Improv Inferno
309 S. Main St, Ann Arbor, MI
Special Izzo-guests! Super fun times! Maaaaybe special Chicago guests in the X Show later. Who knows!
And work continues for getting the show up for the run here in Chicago. We finally got into the space at the Improv Kitchen to deal with all their ker-azy tech. Which really isn't that ker-azy, but it's the little differences that threaten to trip us up. For example, all the times we've done the show in the past, Greg switched between our video decks with a simple Radio Shack A-B switcher, which switched both the video and audio signals. So Ben just had a single slider on the audio mixer marked "video" which he used to mix in with the music. Well, at the Improv Kitchen we're using their video mixer, which makes the transitions between scenes look 100x better. But it means that Greg isn't touching the audio signal at all, so Ben has two sliders -- video 1 and video 2 and will need to switch between them during scene changes. Which is, of course, not very complex and certainly within Ben's awesome abilities. But it's new and different.
I also need to finish the Intro Video -- we decided to up the professionalism a bit and have our explanation of how the show works be on video. I have over an hour of footage to edit into a 5-10 minute preview of the show. Neutrino (NY) has a Flash Intro that is our loose inspiration (this version of it is tailored for their Edinburgh shows last summer).
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
DSTW
Don't Spit the Water was fun on Saturday night. Cutey had a new bit with a Ladicakes 'Stache pillow, so I was unneeded and sat in the front row taking pictures the whole show. Even though I was sitting right in the center, I never got spat on once. Otto von Otto was not so lucky.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2005
Illinois - 1/50 by Senator
Chicagoist asks where all the hipster Illinois t-shirts are. Erica has this one... "I found a boy... in Illinois". I especially like the proportionally-sized area codes. Unfortunately, I can't tell you where to find one, because Erica's mom found it in a McRae's in Mississippi. Her friend Mel spent a day internet-searching for it, to no avail, and ended up custom-designing her own via the T-Shirt Deli.
To help fill the gap, I've ripped off (borrowed? homaged?) Cat and Girl's non-ironic t-shirt idea and made this offering:
Available in a variety of lovely Cafe Press offerings.
Posted by Fuzzy at 8:42 PM | Comments (1)
July 22, 2005
Hats
I've been mentioning lately (in person, at least -- I don't know if I've mentioned it here) how much I enjoy having Lillie as a director. Among other things, she's taken full control of rehearsals and it's been really liberating for me to just show up to a Neutrino Project rehearsal. Well, tonight that bit us in the ass a little when I realized that while the actor-Fuzzy can just relax and show up to rehearsals, the tech director-Fuzzy needed to have planned ahead for tonight's rehearsal. It worked out OK for the cast, but I had to leave the rehearsal in the middle to have a talk with the Improv Kitchen tech guy who's going to be working with our show. Which screwed actor-Fuzzy out of some of the rehearsal.
I'm wearing three hats in this run of Neutrino. I'm an actor in the show, which as I've said means mainly just showing up to rehearsals. I'm also a co-producer of the show, and Shaun's so busy with his game that I've taken over a number of the press-liason duties he usually covers, in addition to the graphic design work I usually do (though maybe that's a fourth hat). And I'm the technical director of the show. Out of all the different parts of the show that I've tried to delegate over time, it's the hardest to give up -- I have the gear, I know how the show works, and I just don't trust that anyone else understands it as well as I do. Which is silly -- there are plenty of very technically competent people in the FuzzyCo family. It's just... my baby.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2005
Chugging along
The Neutrino Project is chugging along. Lillie and I did an interview today with a publication that I think I'm not suppposed to say what it is until the article comes out, so I won't. I talked so much that I only ate half of my Corner Bakery D.C. Chicken Salad sandwich -- and I love those things. I hope I let Lillie get a word in edgewise. Anyway, I'll be plugging it to pieces once it's published.
The rest of the Neutrino Project PR seems to be in place: I got a big 24"x36" version of the poster to the Improv Kitchen so they can hang it in their window. Erica and I spent our Sunday afternoon flyering in Wrigleyville and tomorrow I'll be giving the cast regular-size posters and half-size postcards. (FuzzyCo promo trick - I get regular 4"x6" postcards printed at Rocket Postcards and then cut them in half. I mean, I lay them out as small cards side-by-side, I don't just take a big postcard design and cut it in half. Oh, you know what I mean. Anyway, I did 250 and Erica did 250 last night. Chop chop chop on the ol' paper cutter that Lee Davis gave me years ago.) Oh, and buttons. Dan Telfer made me some neat lil' 1" buttons. Tell you what, if you'd like a promotional Neutrino Project 1" button, email me with your mailing address and I'll send you one. Um... while supplies last and all that.
Rehearsals, as I was telling the mystery reporter from the mystery publication, have been great. Lillie has been coming in with a ton of fun exercises and lay-ons. And one of Shaun's colleagues in the gaming industry who does cinematography for video game cut-scenes came out to a rehearsal and gave us all a Cinematography 101 lesson. I'm a self-taught film-maker and I learned a ton in just that hour. For example, I had never known the 180°ree; rule. And now I do. Too bad I'm an actor in this run.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
Good
On behalf of Erica, apology accepted.
Posted by Fuzzy at 8:35 PM | Comments (1)
Wranglers
Our kickball rivals, Rusty's Wranglers, (that is, the ones who wear costumes) have a piece on chicagotribune.com.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)
Drrrty
Erica and I (that is -- "Gerdes and Reid") will be joining the lovely ladies of the Belmont Burlesque Revue this weekend to tell some drrrty jokes. (Jokes about Christina Aguilera? No. Except now that I've said that... maybe.)
Belmont Burlesque Revue
Saturday at a quarter past midnight
The Playground, 3209 N Halsted
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
Chicago is for Fighters
My fellow CMBer Lauren has a design in Threadless' ongoing design competition. Go vote for her so she can fill her insatiable needs.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
No, they're real
Steev has posted scans of the Time Out article about Don't Spit the Water. (If you're a Time Out subscriber, you can read the article here. But if you're a Time Out subscriber, you have the magazine at home.)
The good news is that the only comedian (other than Steev and Paul) mentioned by name in the article is my girlfriend. The bad news is that they called her Tara Reid. Oops. My girlfriend is much prettier.
Update: Dear Chicago Comedian, please do not be the 96th person to call Erica "Tara" thinking you are being original or funny. Unless you're doing it just because you're really hankering for a swift kick in the nads. Because that's what you're gonna get.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:12 PM | Comments (0)
Just me being a jerk
Adam posted some musings yesterday about RyKrisp crackers and the tension between doing one thing and doing it well versus endless expansion. The only problem with these musings is that I am a jerk and can use Google.
RyKrisp crackers are manufactured by Bremner Biscuit, which is owned by Ralcorp ("a leading store brand company").
"The combined Cereals, Crackers & Cookies segment has annualized sales of approximately $650 million."
And to answer the question Adam poses in the title of his post, it looks the RyKrisp stockholders should be reasonably happy:
(Except in May. What the f' happened in May?)
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
Cup o' Joe
I just did a CMB post about the coffee shop in my office building closing down and made me remember that I had wanted to check something Erica had mentioned...
Erica's parents' house has a SBD of zero! I know they don't suffer for lack of coffee in the Reid household, so I'm very impressed. (If I crank the radius up to 50 miles, I do get one-and-half.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 8:03 PM | Comments (2)
LATE Ride
originally posted on Metroblogging Chicago
As usual, I'm nowhere-near as sore as I'd think I'd be from the LATE Ride. This year, far from resting up ahead of time, I made it out to see KOKO and Don't Spit the Water at The Playground before heading downtown.
I'm no LATE Ride veteran or anything -- this was the 17th ride and only my 3rd time out -- but I'm pretty sure of the simple key to my enjoyment of the ride: start out in front and stay in front. Stuck in the middle of a pack of 10,000 people, bicycle traffic is what stalls you, not car traffic, and there's more chances for accidents. And there's a difference in the reactions of car drivers and pedestrians -- when you're in the midst of the pack it's obvious to onlookers that some sort of organized event is in progress. Riding up at the front of the wave, there's just a general sense of puzzlement from bystanders -- 60 or 70 bicyclists riding by is unusual. My friends and I are, of course, the epitome of maturity and we decided that correct answer whenever a drunk asked where we were all going was, "your girlfriend's house!"
This year, a new sponsor of the ride was McDonald's -- part, I suppose, of their new "Hey, Mickey D's isn't just for lard asses, you could, you know, skateboard, or something" campaign. So Ronald McDonald started the ride just a few bike-lengths ahead of us and we were riding pretty much the same pace as him most of the ride. When we were on the home stretch, right at the Lake Path and Grand, Ronald headed north along lower Lake Shore and Shaun turned left towards Navy Pier.
"What are you doing?" I yelled, "Follow Ronald -- he knows where he's going."
When we got turned around and back on track, Ronald McDonald was about 50 yards ahead of us.
"I know this is 'not a race,'" I said, "but if we finish this behind a man wearing clown shoes, I am going to be pissed."
So we hauled ass for the last mile and were able to get in to the breakfast line (for our sample-size Fruit & Walnut Salad) before the clown. Who winked at me as he rode in. Creep-town!
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)
LATE Ride
LATE Ride in numbers:
Trip Odom: 22.1 m
Max Speed: 22.7 m/h
Moving Avg: 14.6 m/h
Time Moving: 1:31:10
LATE Ride in pictures:
LATE Ride in words:
My Chicago Metblog post on the LATE Ride.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)
July 7, 2005
I blush to admit
if, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog.
(via Josette)
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
July 6, 2005
Neutrino Project returns
Well, it's been lurking up there on the calendar for a few weeks now, but I finally got the poster done, which seems like a good excuse to formally talk about the show. To wit, the Neutrino Project is back!
If you're a new FuzzyCo reader, the Neutrino Project is a unique film-theater hybrid: we create an entire movie while the audience is watching it. That's cool if you want to take a moment to wrap your head around that -- it blew my mind at first, too. The show was created by Neutrino in NYC and Shaun and I were the first outside group to ask them if we could develop the show in our own city, back in 2002. There are now versions of the show in Seattle and Washington, DC, too.
It's been a year and a half since we've done a run of the Neutrino Project in Chicago, and that run at the Three Penny Cinema was, frankly, a little rough. At the start of the run we overlapped with the Cubs play-offs appearance and at the end of the run we had problems getting paid by the Three Penny management. (Actually, we've never been paid. Fie on them, I say.) So that put us off the show for a while. But over the interval, I went to the Edinburgh Festival with the NY Neutrino, we took the show to Toronto Second City, and teamed up with the Seattle Neutrino Project to do the show at the Phoenix Improv Festival. All of which kept reminding us how much we enjoyed doing the show.
So Shaun has been on the prowl for a venue for a while and recently got us hooked up with the Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark). The Improv Kitchen does an interesting short-form show with green-screen work, but the big attraction for us was that they have a full video set-up backstage and a big plasma screen at every table. No more setting up a projector and screen minutes before the show!
A big change for this run is that we brought in an outside director. Well, outside as in "outside of Shaun and I" as we've both directed the show in past runs. Lillian Frances has been an actor in previous runs of the Neutrino Project, but is an accomplished and acclaimed director and she and we all leapt at the chance to have her direct the show. Greg Inda, whose been integral to the show from the beginning as our tech manager is now also the assistant director. Looking back, I think we spent a lot of time in past runs on getting the show to work, and now Lillie is really making us all think about how to make the show work well.
There are a few new faces on the cast as well as plenty of old hands (alphabetical by first name, since that's how it comes out of my email program): Adam Devlin-Brown, Alison Mayer, Andrea Swanson, Ben Taylor (musical director), Bob Ladewig, Brian Goodman, Cesar Jaime, Chad Reinhart, Erica Reid, Fuzzy Gerdes, Jacqueline Stone, Jin Kim, Josh Chamberlin, Megan Diemer, Michael Starcevich, Patrick Brennan, Rebecca Hanson, Sean Cusick, and Shaun Himmerick.
The show will play Friday nights in August and September at 9 PM. The Improv Kitchen has a full bar and (of course) kitchen, but there's no two-drink-minimum or anything -- you can just come and watch the show if you want. But the food's really yummy...
Other exciting Neutrino Project news is that we'll be book-ending our Chicago run with trips up to Ann Arbor to Neutrino-alums Dan and Trish Izzo's Improv Inferno. I've been trying to get up there since it opened (and I have a computer to give back to Dan) so it's nice to be forced to go up and do a show.
We're halfway through our rehearsal process now and Shaun and I have been taking a few Behind the Scenes shots. Unfortunately, during the active part of rehearsal, we're usually too busy to take any pictures. So most of our shots are of people sitting on couches watching a TV or listening to Lillie give notes.
Like this.
Adam hungers for Jin's head-burger
Adam films Bob and Erica
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:03 PM | Comments (3)
More swearing
More swearing and typos from Shaun in his second Developer Diary about MK:SM.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 5, 2005
CMB posts
Over at the Chicago Metroblog I've recently posted about Kate O'Leary's art at the LPZ, fireworks, and an ad on the El.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:27 PM | Comments (0)
What part of "Don't Spit" does that woman not understand?
Steev had guessed that the opening night of the new open run of Don't Spit the Water would have 30 people in the audience. I'm happy to say that he was 200% wrong (50% wrong?) -- the show was jam-packed* and they had to turn people away. A reviewer was there from the Daily Herald, so look for that review soonish.
I had my camera* along and Steev has put up a gallery of some of the shots. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do because I was helping Cutie Bumblesnatch with some of her bits, but here are some of my favorites:
A completely candid and unposed backstage photo.
Cutie makes someone spit just by staring at them while wearing a viking hat and marshmallows on her fingers.
Staedtler Per Müstach emotes the heck out of a song.
Earl LaRue makes the same woman spit through the sheer power of his maniless.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)
July 1, 2005
This weekend
Some weekend suggestions from FuzzyCo HQ:
The exhibit at the Lincoln Park Zoo that Kate did all the art for has opened. You can go visit anytime the zoo is open, but we're headed over tonight to gawk.
Tomorrow (Saturday) night at 10:30 is opening night for the new run of Don't Spit the Water. You'd be a fool not to go. Reason for non-foolishness Number One - the three comedians are all great - Erica as Cutie Bumblesnatch, Robert Buscemi as Earl LaRue, and Nick Vatterott as The Interragator. Reason of non-foolishness Number Two - Sasha and the Noob puppets. Most Important Reason Number Three - this show only is FREE.
And hey, if you've made it out to the Playground to see a FREE show, you might as well stick around and pay for Documentary South at midnight. Chris Biddle said, "The cast is confident and smart. ... The Documentary Style of play also works, really, really well. ... I really, really enjoyed myself at the show. I am recomending the show, without reservations. ... Do yourself a favor and check it out. ... Congrats cast and crew on a genuinely entertaining show. It's the good stuff." And he should know, because he's on the Internet.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)