So now that it’s been another eternity since I wrote on my blog, I decided it was time for another change. I moved the blog (Musings of the Somewhat-Above-Average) and my main website (Ripley’s Roost) and am merging the two together under the WordPress platform.
This is largely an experiment to see if I can build and maintain a website on my own over an extended period of time. As I move forward with my life, I pledge the following:
I also post on Twitter often enough (for me). I’m not on there obsessively posting every little thing I do, but I’ll have notices of site updates for this blog and my new review site, Random Reviews (check it out!) as well as pithy responses to my fellow Tweeters as I can.
So I’ll wrap this post up for now. Stay tuned for news from me in the coming months.
This is a test of Flickr functionality for a different website that I’m working on updating. The photos are not related to that site (like I said, it’s a test).
I promise, I’ll post a catch-up really soon…
Okay, so once again, I’ve let this go far too long without an update. Guilty as charged!
So what have I done this summer? Gallop around Europe, work a fishing boat in Alaska, move to L.A. and pursue my acting career?
Nah… I drove a cab. That’s right, you heard me…
When graduation was nigh, I decided to find a job that offered a chance at gaining some new life experience and a little extra green on the side. What I got was:
Now that’s not to say that the people there aren’t good people. Like any business, you meet good and bad eggs both. But I can’t help but feel a little more heartsick for having participated in this activity while giving up valuable creative time for myself to further my actual career. Shame on me!
Anyway, on to happier stuff…
I was nominated for my first ariZoni Award for my sound design work on Proof at the beginning of this year. While I will admit that part of me wishes it had been for acting, this is an amazing honor for my first-ever sound design. And a little freaky too. I keep telling myself that it may be setting the bar too high. But I think that it also is a good message that it may be something I could be consistently good at. More in a few weeks on this after the awards are announced.
I finally received my diploma from ASU in the mail a couple of weeks ago. So it’s final… I did actually finish my college degree first ahead of my siblings! Yay for me!
Oh, and since I didn’t cross-post it here back in May, I did release the “Ashcan Edition” of my theatre company’s first production. It’s over at the Aureality Project blog site. Go check it out if you haven’t already.
I may be moving soon too. So I’ll do my best to keep you up on that.
I came across an article by David Gergen today. You can read it here, but what he said really struck me as true. The Democratic candidates are spending a lot of time quiblling over personal attacks and alleged racist comments rather than dealing with the pressing issues of this nation. After reading all the various comments, none of which struck me as particularly insightful, I decided to post my own there. And I’m reprinting it here as well:
While it is true that they do need to focus again on the problems actually facing this country and its citizens, I don’t know if that’s been true in any recent election, going back almost as long as I’ve been alive.
It’s become a world of sound bites and photo ops because that is all that both politicians (I include their operatives) and the media think we want to read or see. A world where all we get to see are video clips of candidates preaching to the choir, made up of those who can afford to pay $1000 for a fundraising dinner in the hopes that they have some chance to exert influence in a way that benefits them (the buyers, not the candidate). It is one giant Potemkin village of shiny, happy “voters” and I mourn the loss of a truly inquisitive citizenry.
This is why voter turnout has plummeted in this country… because we know deep down that our votes really don’t matter and that those who run for national office really don’t care one whit for what we have to say or what our concerns are.
I think it’s becoming more and more important in this day and age for we the people to challenge the government as much as we can through intellectual discourse. Only by questioning and challenging their actions can we hope to make our government and those who seek to control it do better on our behalf, which is why they are supposed to be there in the first place.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have donated to Barack Obama’s campaign and support his candidacy for the presidency. However, I have never had any direct contact with any of the candidates or their campaigners, even though I am a resident of Arizona and thus a constituent of John McCain in his role as our senior Senator. I feel that my comments above express my feelings about the political process in general and my hope that it will get better.
I’ve got a new podcast blog up and running for my new enterprise!
It’s the basis for (and hopefully an outgrowth of) my senior capstone project in Theatre at ASU. I am creating an original radio drama to be recorded live in front of a studio audience that will then be offered over the internet. The premiere is anticipated to be late April 2008 (because I have to graduate right after that), so check it out. I will also be podcasting the development process leading up to the first show so that people can get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of this art form.
Check it out: The Aureality Project
Too overexcited? Too bad!
My personal website is finally posted and online. As I go, I’ll fill out the functionality of it and hopefully add some extra features not currently available. But check it out:
Feel free to let me know what you think of the site. Constructive criticism is always welcome…
“Hello, Brian?” the voice on the other end asked. I cleared my throat and replied in the affirmative. “This is Milward Simpson over at the Horse Barn Dinner Theatre. The reason I was calling was to thank you for your audition and that I’d like to offer you—““I’ll take it!” I’m just glad he never saw me dancing like a wild man in my bedroom. I nearly knocked over my computer in excitement.
“Well, take a breath, now,” Milward cautioned. “Let give you some details about this, because it doesn’t pay a lot.”
“I don’t care about that,” I stupidly replied. “I’m just glad for the opportunity.” The next morning, I woke up realizing that even the severe hangover acquired from the celebratory binge drinking I did with my brother the night before hadn’t diminished my excitement and anticipation. I had done it. I was on my way. I tossed off a silent message to God: Tell Grammy there is money in it.
I suppose I could add an ironic post-script to this, but I’d rather not.
“I’m gonna be an actor,” I declared, my face beaming.
Awkward pause.
My mom and grandmother looked at each other for a long moment in surprise. Their eyes locked, as if formulating a response to my statement via telepathy. Then my grandmother preceded her thoughts with what I had learned even by that point was a mark of disapproval from her, that sound like a clock that sneers as it swings… tchk. I braced myself from the blast of her feeling that “There’s no money in that!”
To be fair to my grandmother, she grew up through the Depression and several wars and she and Grampy were very frugal people. As a result, we were reasonably centered in the mid-upper-middle class of working professionals. A lot of doctors, nurses, engineers and the like… focused, reasonably successful people. We were living in what I called the “White House” of Quakertown, mainly because it looked like a smaller version of the actual White House. We were comfortable. So I can understand now that this sounded like to her like a declaration that was going to strip naked and go live in the forest.
I turned to my mother in surprise, hoping for some support here. I was her genius son, the gifted kid who finished his homework in school ten minutes after it was assigned. I did what I was told, could do no wrong… surely she’d let me pursue this dream, this firm goal that I had held firm for all of two hours. And then I got her response – the patented “I don’t think that’s such a good idea”. I’ve heard that response many times since and understand it to translate as “you’re my genius boy and I love you, but if you think I like that idea, you are f—ing insane”.
I was stunned. How could they not understand how easy and rich a career this would be? I knew deep down that it would be, even without the necessity of actual facts and statistics to back me up. I could do anything I put my mind to, according to Mister Rogers. Surely if I show the women of the house my exhaustive research, they too would see the wisdom of this endeavor and support my chase for my own big brass donut. But no, just like that, they shut it down as a career. No child in this house is going to waste their life that way. Eventually, I was allowed to act in school and church plays as a hobby, but I tucked the dream away for the moment, never far from my reach where I could pull it out when I was grown up and on my own.
Fast forward… approximately 20 years later. I was living with my uncle in Wyoming when I came across an audition for a local summer job as an actor. I had started acting again when I was living in Flagstaff by getting involved in a radio drama (which never got finished) that reawakened for me. That led to some work in community theatre through out most of 1998. The amount of free work I was getting made me start believing again that I could make a living at this. But of course, I was destitute in Flagstaff, living out of my truck… and winter was coming. So I did the sensible and moved in with my uncle, who was very welcoming while I got back on my feet. Laramie being a college town, there was a company that offered call center jobs to attract the student body. So I was working there, helping people with technical support and thinking about finishing college, when I heard about this audition. It wasn’t a fancy gig, but it PAID MONEY. How could I not give it a shot? Sure, I didn’t have a headshot… or a really great resume… or family support… but once they see my talent, how could they not hire me?!
I went there that evening. There were about 40 people or so that showed up for this. We did some cold readings and actually did a dance audition. Not that I could dance, but neither could most of the guys there. We even sang a little, which I could deal with, despite not being in the shower at the time. Then we were sent on our way back to our lives. And the waiting began. Which brings me back to that day. I had the day off of work, so the lack of people not able to figure out how to plug my modem into the phone jack to dial in to AOL left me with just my own thoughts, which naturally settled and focused on this job. I just knew deep down in my soul that if I could land this job, I would work hard and some agent would visit and see my genius, catapulting me to the very heights of stardom. And that’s when the phone rang.