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October 30, 2006
Coming Soon
It seems incredibly unlikely that I will be doing Nanowrimo this year. But I think I can handle one night. With drinking:
It's the same night as the Fast Forward showing, but I can get a good head of steam going with some drinking while I watch the films. Some of those films need the help of a drink or six.
(via Girl in Black)
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:44 PM | Comments (1)
Uncanny
"For these 15 contestants, Project Runway is the chance of a lifetime."
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:04 PM | Comments (5)
October 27, 2006
Pastor of Muppets
I've been sitting in with the Playground member ensemble Pastor of Muppets for their last few shows and now they've asked me to officially join the group. I was honored and I've accepted, so come see me in some shows.
I'm pretty excited, A) because I've had plenty of fun performing with this guys, and I see no reason for that to change. But also, B) I've been involved with the Playground since just after I moved to Chicago (I auditioned for the Incubator program like 3 weeks after I got to town) but I've never been on a member ensemble. And now I am. Whee.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:10 PM | Comments (1)
Vote for Cops
A whole bunch of our friends (watch for Phillip Mottaz as the most cheerfulest prisoner ever) made a short film that's in a contest at JibJab. Vote for So You Want To Be a Cop and they could win a majillion dollars* and a pony**.
* $10,000.
** no pony.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:10 PM | Comments (0)
Temptation
Sometimes I just get an image in my head and I can't rest until I make it a reality. And so a chance discovery of dog costumes at Walgreens a few weeks ago (yes, Parker is the size of a medium-sized dog) led to a full-on photoshoot last weekend. Some photoshoppery later, and I can finally get rid of that picture in my head, because you can see it too.
Oh, and Mustapha is really dapper in a cape.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:47 AM | Comments (3)
October 25, 2006
Matt Larsen, Marathoner
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this last Sunday we went over to the Larsens' house to congratulate Matt for finishing the Chicago Marathon. I didn't pay Matt nearly enough attention, though, because I was having too much fun taking pictures of his cats jumping around.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:34 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2006
Little Sprouts
It's called a "Little Sprout" -- for about a $1.50 you get this little plastic guy with a half-dozen gummy worms in his belly and a little dirt-and-seeds bag on his head that will, in a week or so, grow a little head of grass. I'm all about novelty candy, and I think this little guy was well worth it.
And, my lord, I just discovered the Kids Brands Grass Heads "hair" cutting contest. How am I going to cut my Grass Head's "hair"? Does it even matter -- do they possibly even get 25 entries every 3 months?
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:18 AM | Comments (3)
October 23, 2006
Yeah, we're fancy
The invite said "dress up" so I pulled out the $10 tux and ruffly shirt (and my Playboy cufflinks, but the jacket is a little long, so no one saw them) and Erica had her sparkly dress. We're classy.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:45 PM | Comments (3)
Congrats, Erica!
Erica's friend Erica (one of the wedding pirates) has just been cast in the New York cast of the Neo-Futurist's Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. We're super jazzed for her and can't wait to get out to NYC to see her in the show.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:42 PM | Comments (0)
Tails
It was VERY important that before Kate left for Japan I measure the cats' tails. Parker, 10.5", Latte 11", Mustapha 11.5". Very interesting.
Kate's hat with ears by Boho Butterfly. Squishy skulls by Wal-Greens.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:34 PM | Comments (0)
Quick Name Fun
It's not that there are two "Fuzzy Gerdes"es -- I searched using my seldom-used birthname. And "2" seems pretty accurate -- I've even corresponded with the other guy, via email back in my college days. There's also a scientist in Denmark. Fuzzy Gerdes, though, there's one of those.
(Via Crooked Timber)
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
G'bye Kate
Kate leaves for Japan tomorrow. Last night she had a few friends over to the Ten Cat for drinks and telling the same three pieces of information over and over (Beatrice Cat is at her parents, she's happy she quit her job, she'll be working on freelance illustration). If, like me, you can't get enough Kate, you'll want to bookmark:
Arsonist Cow
KateO's Photos
Kate's Sketchbook
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)
It's Like Baby Season!
Congrats to Beth and Kyle on the arrival of Pierce Alexander Kolbe, 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:28 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
Welcome Rachel
Congratulations to Chuck and Sara.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2006
I'm on Ze Frank's The Show!
For, like, 5 frames. I recorded an intro for his show out in front of
"Z" Frank Chevrolet and he used a tiny clip at the start of today's show.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:50 PM | Comments (3)
Local News: Cooking with Tou Khen
Cooking with Tou Khen, Ethnic Reporter. Written by and starring Jin Kim. Off-camera voice by Kristen Freilich, camera by Shaun Himmerick, and edited by Fuzzy Gerdes.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
Local News: What's My Name?
Jin Kim wrote and stars in this commercial for a new reality TV show, What's My Name?. Megan Diemer co-stars. Shaun shot this one and edited it (his first time using Premiere, so give him some props).
You can also download this video as a MPEG4 video (6.5 MB).
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:01 PM | Comments (1)
An Apology
Not that the residents of Texas are looking to FuzzyCo for advice on voting, but I'm apologizing for my earlier position and renouncing any support of Kinky Friedman. Chris Bell for Governor of Texas, please.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2006
Sexy Halloween Costumes
My friend Zabeth Russell has all of this year's sexiest halloween costumes.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)
Clapkees in the RedEye
The RedEye's cover story today is about YouTube and Steve was interviewed about all the videos he puts up on YouTube, including the Clapkees (pictured above).
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
The Vodcast
I discovered today that I had broken the FuzzyCo Vodcast back in May. I also haven't posted anything to it since May, so you weren't really missing out on all that much. But it's back! I'm sure future posting will be as erratic as ever, but at least it's working. If you'd like to subscribe to the Vodcast in a News Aggregator, here's the RSS feed. Or to subscribe using iTunes, click here.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
Local News: two more bits
Margarita Martinez (Erica Reid) presents an important PSA.
Bunny Busmeister (Andrea Swanson) investigates playground safety. Filmed and edited by Greg Inda.
If you'd like to keep these Local News bits, you can download them as MPEG4 videos:
Margarita Martinez PSA (750 KB)
Bunny Busmeister (12 MB)
Thor Skørvald PSA (800 KB)
Van DeCamp (16 MB)
Posted by Fuzzy at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2006
The End
"Wicked people never have time for reading," Dewey said. "It's one of the reasons for their wickedness."At lunch I'm going to walk over to Borders and pick up The End, the last book in the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (really Daniel Handler). I've been reading these books for 6 years now and I'm quite invested in the fate of the Baudelaire orphans. I actually purchased the 12th book, The Penultimate Peril, last year but waited until this week to read it, because I knew that it would end on a cliff hanger and I wouldn't be able to handle the worry for a whole year.
-- The Penultimate Peril
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Don't get a Panasonic digital audio recorder
Not that you were going to, anyway, but I just want to go on the record saying that you shouldn't buy a Panasonic digital audio recorder. Not because of the device itself, which seems fine, but because of the software it requires. I borrowed a Panasonic RR-US360 last night to record an interview and when I got home I went to Panasonic's website to download a driver so I could copy the recording to my computer. They don't have one. You have to have your original CD. I finally found a copy from driverguide.com, which made me wade through a couple dozen ads before I was finally able to download the driver and transfer software.
Why on earth wouldn't Panasonic provide this software? It's not like it's some awesome audio editor or something -- it's a clunky and badly written get-my-files-off-this-device transfer program. And digital audio recorders are something that are used by people who are on the road a lot and might end up in a colleague's office or something and need to download files from their DAR. So, boo to Panasonic, I say.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:26 PM | Comments (1)
Kate!
This is friendship -- minutes (well, weeks) away from moving to Japan, Kate came over before Erica and I got home, cleaned our messy kitchen, and then cooked us a wonderful dinner. One of the 10,000 reasons we're going to miss her dearly for the next 10 months.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:22 AM | Comments (3)
October 11, 2006
Oh, the troubles I have
Get ready for the lamest piece of sharing ever. Ready? Here we go:
I usually keep my wallet in my back right pocket. But these jeans are developing a hole in that pocket, so I moved my wallet to my back left pocket. And it has thrown everything off. Somehow, a big fat wallet (I have too much stuff in my wallet) on the right was fine, but a big fat wallet on the left is unacceptable to my body. It feels weird when I sit down; it even feels weird to walk. I might even have to fix the hole in my jeans or take stuff out of my wallet. The horror! What a terrible life I lead.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:24 PM | Comments (2)
Local News: Van DeCamp interviews a candy seller
I think I'm going to take Steve's advice from his comment and double-publish everything, but in the meantime I've set up a FuzzyCo YouTube channel and here's a The Local News clip of Van DeCamp (Josh Chamberlin) interviewing one of those kids (Greg Inda) who tries to sell you Peanut M&Ms to "buy uniforms for his basketball team".
Update: You can download this video as a 16 MB MPEG4 video.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Local News: PSA from Thor
I'm trying out YouTube for hosting these little videos. Is this easier or harder for y'all than when I host the videos myself? To my eye, the quality is lower, but do you care?
Anyway, this is Thor Skørvald, the producer of The Local News, with a Public Service Announcement.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:49 PM | Comments (3)
October 9, 2006
Local News follow-up
So, we did the Local News show. The audience was very small. We had a few technical glitches, but no where near as many as I expected, thanks to the hard work of FuzzyCo's Greg Inda and the Improv Kitchen's Liviu Pasare. We got some great feedback from a few of our audience members, which mainly consisted of "everything needs to be half as long," which I think I agree with. So, what next? Good question. I'm checking with the cast to make sure it's OK with them, but if nothing else I'll probably be posting some of the pre-filmed bits here.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
Moo MiniCards - eh
A company called Moo made a big splash a couple of weeks when they announced a new product -- MiniCards -- that could be printed from your Flickr photostream. To get buzz going, they gave away 10,000 packs of 10 minicards to Flickr Pro users (the cards are normally $20 for 100).
Of course, you have to follow up buzz with product. I got my free pack this weekend and I have to say... eh. I have three problems with the Minicards. First off, I wasn't ready for how mini they are -- about half the size of a business card. I'd be worried about losing them before I could give them out. Second, them seem really dark to me. Shots that I know have pretty vibrant colors, like our jumping wedding shot, came out rather murky, I thought. And lastly, the mini-cards are, of course, gang-printed (that is, printed a bunch to a page and then cut out) and I was surprised at how many of the cards had a strip of someone else's photo down the side. You'd think that for your "show off to the power users" batch, you'd take extra care with stuff like that.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:11 PM | Comments (1)
I thought it was a super-hero hat myself
Yeah, we got him that hat. The drool is all Izzo, though.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2006
The Clapkees!
I love having friends who ask, "are you busy Saturday morning? Can you come shoot a video for us?" and then have the edited video done by Saturday afternoon. Presenting, The Clapkees!, a Blewt! production (with camera work by yours truly):
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:36 PM | Comments (3)
October 6, 2006
The Local News
Tech went really well last night, which is always a relief. John from The Unfinishe... Project was kind enough to guide us through all the changes to the Improv Kitchen's tech set up since the last time we were there.
An awesome thing about the process of developing this show, for me at least, is that other people have gone out and prepared most of the pre-filmed video bits themselves and presented me with edited pieces. Wow! Usually, it's me staying up until 2 am putting all that sort of stuff together. Hoo-ray for the cast.
So, come see the show. Please. Pretty-please.
Tonight at 11 pm.
Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark St). Tickets are $10.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:20 PM | Comments (2)
October 4, 2006
Local News flyer
Thanks to Kristen for whipping up this Local News flyer.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)
Where's Mustapha?
I got out a cardboard box to make a $2 macro studio (from the $10 macro studio plans on Strobist) and it took Mustapha about 4 seconds to plant himself on display.
(I used the studio to take a shot of a bottle of Malort. Hmm... terrible liquor.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)
October 3, 2006
The Local News
FuzzyCo is proud to present a single performance of our new show The Local News. The show will be performed this Friday evening at 11 pm at the Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark St). Tickets are $10.
This is something of an experiment -- Shaun, Lillie Frances, and I have been developing the show largely by email over the last few weeks and now we've brought the cast in for an intensive week of rehearsals and outside assignments. The show is going to be a mix of live improvisation and pre-filmed pieces to create a complete local news broadcast.
As so often with FuzzyCo shows, I'm impressed and honored with the quality of folks who are willing to come and participate in our crazy ideas: Andrea Swanson, Josh Chamberlin, Sean Cusick, Chris McConnell, Jin Kim, Erica Reid, Kristen Freilich, and Greg Inda are all part of the cast.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:51 PM | Comments (0)
Your odd request
"Hey Fuzzy, I'd like to see some pictures of your goddaughter, and possibly be enticed to purchase some crafts created by your friend Maria."
That's a weird thing to ask for, imaginary corespondent, but man, am I on it for you, or what?
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:21 PM | Comments (1)
October 2, 2006
Fishin'
Photo by Erica Gerdes
Me and Sean Ellis at the Chicago Comedy Company Theater at the Streets of Woodfield Mall over the weekend (Tami Torok was our third cast member). I've been out there two weekends in a row and it's been really refreshing to get back into the swing of pretty straight-forward short form.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:14 PM | Comments (0)
Three cats on a bed
Photo by Erica Gerdes.
I promise this is not going to turn into an all-cats-on-beds-all-the-time blog. Wait a minute - I promise no such thing. You never know.
Anyway, if you know the awkward dynamic between these three (Latte hates everyone, Mustapha loves everyone, Parker is still feeling like the new kid and isn't sure what to think) you'll understand why "three cats on a bed!" brings an excited cheer in our house.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:54 AM | Comments (3)