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November 30, 2005

Big News

Ring

Well, we had a great time in Austin, and I took a bunch of pictures of cute nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters, but the big news is that ring above -- Erica and I announced our engagement to my family. We were going to wait until Christmas to tell her family in person (and so I had to maintain blog-silence -- Hi Tricia!) but she couldn't wait and so we called them last night.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:26 PM | Comments (5)

Von's on fire!

Oh no, Von's is on fire! A significant percentage of the way-too-many books I own came from Von's.

(via girl in black)

Posted by Fuzzy at 9:05 AM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2005

Ruth Buzzy

Matt

Did a photo shoot with Ruth Buzzy last week. They're putting together a new Booking Info page and wanted an up-to-date shot. Compare and contrast:

ruthbuzzy2k.jpg

ruthbuzzy2005.jpg

In any case, they've made their choices, but I made a Flickr set of some of my favorites from the shoot.

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:43 PM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2005

Cutie

Fuzzy as Cutie

Can you tell that someone is working through their photo back-catalog? Here, courtesy of Dan Henrick, is me when I was playing Erica's character Cutie Bumblesnatch for the Don't Spit the Water Halloween show. That's Camenae's Alex Bennett (as Trinity) in the hot seat.

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:29 PM | Comments (0)

Treo 650

A nifty thing about my new Treo 650 is the built-in camera has a black and white mode that actually takes some neat pictures.

Erica

Fire hydrant

Kate

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:23 PM | Comments (1)

Handyman's corkscrew

handyman's corkscrew

We'd just moved, managed to unpack a corkscrew and find a bottle of wine, and then the rassle-frassle corkscrew breaks off in the cork. Never fear, we will have a glass.

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:42 PM | Comments (1)

First Kiss BTS

Ben Taylor

Ben Taylor home-studioing his little heart out creating the soundtrack for First Kiss.

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:31 PM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2005

Bezeus Calendar

Colossus

Our friend Noah has made a 2006 Calendar featuring his Bezeus And Friends characters parodying fine art pieces. Some (most? all?) of his characters are based on his friends, or on characters that they play. Mouse Beard Fred, for example, is a character I created in a one-man improv show some time ago, and Weensie is based on Erica's Cutie Bumblesnatch. So the July image, above on the left, is Mouse Beard Fred (and a barely visible Weensie) replicating Goya's The Colossus (above, right). The whole thing took Noah longer than I think he thought it would, because he really painted all the paintings -- no easy Photoshop work here (hey Noah, why no easy Photoshop work?). So treat yourself to a hand-crafted calendar this year.

Oooh, and if you want to have a odd version of me-as-a-character peer out at you from your bumper or chest or coffee mug, why all of those are available, too.

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:10 PM | Comments (3)

November 16, 2005

Panpipe Need Flowchart

Panpipe Need Flowchart

Found in the dressing room at the Improv Kitchen.

Update: Matt Martin points out that this is almost certainly inspired by the Toothpaste for Dinner cartoon panflute flowchart.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:31 PM | Comments (2)

OK Go at Schubas

OK Go

Thanks to Cherie, Erica and I totally lucked into a free* OK Go show at Schubas (with Detroit's Tiny Steps opening). I took a bunch of photos. We were 6 feet in front the stage (which is why there aren't any pictures of the whole band -- I was too close) and right in front of Damian (which why there are so few pictures of Dan -- he was hidden behind Damian crotch for most the show**).

OK Go will be playing a regular buy-your-tickets show at the Metro on Friday (11/18). I have to say that they put on a heck of a show. I also heartily recommend the Audio Play that they've been periodically running on their blog.

* Sponsored by Lacoste (who supply the band's shirts) and Jane Magazine. Thanks, corporate music sponsors.
** It was a little disconcerting -- Damian would leave the center spot to go do something and I'd be looking through the view finder, focusing on Dan's face, and all of a sudden I'd be staring at a magnified Damian-crotch. Eek.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:19 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

First Kiss

Click above to play First Kiss, the movie we made for the Fast Forward last weekend (5MB Quicktime movie, requires Quicktime 7) (you can also right-click here to download the movie.)

This is also the first movie in my new vodcast -- occasional FuzzyCo short films delivered straight to your favorite newsreader or iTunes. I'll be working through our FuzzyCo back catalog -- I'm hoping to post a movie a week -- and as we film new shorts they'll show up on the vodcast also.

Vodcast XML file (for your newsreader or aggregator) or subscribe with iTunes. (Hmmm... looks like I'll have to add a link for iTunes later...)

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:28 PM | Comments (5)

Shamless pluggery: Threadless

Threadless.com Product - Odd But Cute

My favorite t-shirt company, Threadless, is having one of their periodic $10 sales. I'm an L and Erica's a ladies' M if you're stumped for Christmas present ideas for us.

Posted by Fuzzy at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2005

Fast Forward

I'm burning the DVD right now to go turn in -- this may be the earliest I've finished one of these. And it's been an easy process.

Last night Erica and I had a lovely evening shopping at Rotofugi and having a bite to eat at Cleo's and then picked up our topic ("First Kiss") and Dan Hendricks' as well (his Fast Forward plan involved drinking to celebrate his birthday and then filming under the influence). We met up with Dan and his friends and Shaun at Hopleaf, and then Shaun, Erica and I brainstormed as we walked back home. Jin and Kristen came over, we were done filming by midnight or so, so Erica and I went home and watched this week's America's Next Top Model. What a weird judging...

So this morning I got up later than I wanted to (10 AMish) but I had a first edit done by noon, took that over to Ben Taylor's house where he composed and recorded an original score, came back to add the music into the mix, final tweaks, and the DVDs (gotta have a backup) are done now and so I'm off to turn in our movie.

Come see our short (and 24 others) at Open End Gallery (2000 W Fulton) tonight. (Or, you know, I'll probably have it up on the web on Monday or so).

Posted by Fuzzy at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2005

1 year of DSTW leads to this...

Last weekend was the 1 year anniversary of Don't Spit the Water. The show was followed by a special performance by the Hump Night Thumpers. Which, as we all know, leads to one of two things:

Washboard!

Can you tell that Erica is excited to be playing with the jug band?

Fight!

Sure he's Chicago Underground Comedy legend Tony Sam, but to me he's just a sucker who needs a smackdown.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:41 PM | Comments (0)

Veterans Day

My Veterans Day post is over at the Chicago Metblog.

Posted by Fuzzy at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2005

50 more

No time for actual, original thoughts from my head, so instead another list! I've taken Empire movie magazine's "50 Greatest Independent Films" list and turned it into one of those internet meme things. (And yes, this is an ordered list, so go read the article first if you want to be surprised by their choice for #1.) Bold for ones I've seen, asterix if I own the DVD. Only 26 out of 50, which ruins my 68% streak.

50. El Mariachi*
49. Run Lola Run*
48. Cube*
47. Blood Feast
46. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
45. Mad Max
44. Amores Perros
43. Shadows
42. Swingers*
41. Dead Man's Shoes
40. The Descent
39. The Passion Of The Christ
38. Grosse Point Blank
37. Being John Malkovich
36. Buffalo '66
35. THX-1138
34. The Blair Witch Project
33. Shallow Grave
32. Two Lane Blacktop
31. Pink Flamingos
30. Sweet Sweetback Baadassss'...
29. Bad Lieutenant
28. In The Company Of Men
27. Dark Star
26. Lost in Translation
25. Drugstore Cowboy
24. Happiness
23. The Evil Dead
22. Nosferatu
21. Roger And Me
20. Slacker*
19. Lone Star
18. Withnail And I
17. City of God*
16. She's Gotta Have It
15. Blood Simple
14. Stranger Than Paradise
13. Memento*
12. Eraserhead
11. Bad Taste
10. Mean Streets
9. Sideways
8. The Usual Suspects
7. Sex, Lies, And Videotape
6. Night of the Living Dead
5. Monty Python's Life Of Brian
4. Clerks*
3. The Terminator
2. Donnie Darko
1. Reservoir Dogs*

(via Boing Boing)

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2005

No words

I knew I was going to be skipping NaNoWriMo again this year, but I didn't even know that there was NaDruWriNi, and it would have just taken one night. Poo.

(via girl in black)

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)

The Comedy Canon

Following up on the SciFi Movie Canon meme, here's the list of The 50 Most Significant Comedy Films of All Time, as selected by Bob McCabe in The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies. Ones I've seen in bold, DVDs I own signified with an asterix.

Weird -- 34 of 50, the exact same number as the SciFi movie canon. Have I seen 68% of all significant movies?

(via Whatever)

Posted by Fuzzy at 11:15 AM | Comments (1)

November 4, 2005

Don't Spit the Wha?

Halloween Don't Spit

Just another ol' Don't Spit the Water photo... Bwha? Yup, that's Erica as Sasha and Tyler ("Big Dummy") as the Noob. The Halloween surprise was us all playing each other's parts. I was Cutie Bumblesnatch (photos if Kate ever sends them to me).

We'll all be at tomorrow night's DSTW, but back in our regular places. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the show and will feature the Hump Night Thumpers jug band and a parade of comedians from the last year.

And tonight I'll be at the Music Box Theater at midnight for a showing of Ted McGillicutty, Man of Action (and other films from Image Union's 28 year history). They've been including Ted as one of the "highlights" on the promo emails they're sending out and it's such an honor. We made a movie and people like it!

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:30 PM | Comments (0)

Don't ask

Noah

It'd be too complicated to explain. Or, the explanation is not as interesting as the picture. Just know that if you keep your camera with you and take enough photos, every now and then you'll take a perfect one.

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 3, 2005

Last Minute Bare

It's crazy-last-minute, but Bare will be performing tonight in... 2 and a half hours, at the Playground Theater (3209 N Halsted). It'll be our first time on stage together since the Phoenix Improv Festival. Eek.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2005

We done moved!

Boxes, pre-move

Super thanks to Noah (first one up), and Robin and his two friends (Kate's friends in town for SOFA, helped out just because), and Dan, Victoria, Ryan Dee, Ben, Rebecca, Leslie, Mel, Brandi, Shaun for the truck, and Jin (Sunday clean up crew). They all helped turn the picture above into... well, the same sort of pile of boxes, but half a block south. (Minus the Galaga stand-up -- that was the one thing of Shaun's in the dining room.)

We're making excellent progress unpacking, and we'll have you all over soon.

Posted by Fuzzy at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)

November 1, 2005

Neutrino Project wraps

We finished up our 5th full run of the Neutrino Project in Chicago with another daaaangerous show. Normally, the different camera crews leave the theater as soon as they've gotten their audience-supplied object and head in different directions, and then we meet up at the end of the show to see how we can connect the disparate story lines. For some time, I've been wanting to try reversing that -- to start by showing all the actors together in some situation and then having them break off to pursue their own stories. I'd like to do it with an extended first scene at a dinner party or something, but that would, given the nature of the show, require some math that I just didn't have time to work out before Friday night.

So we did something perhaps even more complicated -- we started the show by having cameras 1 and 2 film their intermingled actors leaving the theater together and then breaking off, and then cameras 3 and 4 doing the same for their actors. Further, we stayed within a block of the theater and each crew was given the challenge of interacting with the two teams that they hadn't just left. So it became a very tangled show, with many scenes being filmed twice, from two simultaneous perspectives, and tons of connections between the different scenes. Some people who've seen the show before gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

So now we're on hiatus again. We might be taking the show to the PIF again (if they'll have us) and I've got some ideas for a summer run. Or, we might never do the show ever again (I say that every time...).

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)