On one hand, Monday and Tuesday of last week I worked two days on the ABC Family original TV series Greek. The report is incomplete only in that my own computer is offline (on which is my FTP program with which to update my official website), and won't be available for a few days or so. I am able to use a friend's computer when she's home and not using it, so until my computer is back up and running I have somewhat extremely limited Internet access.
My computer isn't broken: my paying my share of the rent in advance notwithstanding, my roommate S_____ (in whose name is the lease and who deals with the actual paying of the rent), has tended to be... untimely with full rent payments... enough that the apartment managers had had enough sent S_____ a 30-day warning to vacate (the envelope of which S_____ did not even open when it arrived), so when I got home Tuesday night the 30th, he informed me the apartment is lost, we had to vacate... "by" the next day, July 1st.
Thankfully friends helped each of us clear out our stuff as quickly as possible:
(Greatly appreciative thanks go to Jennifer, Jack, William [who helped me throughout the morning of his wife Amy's birthday; thankfully I was able to find the gift I'd bought Amy which William brought home to her, to her squeals of delight upon receipt], and Michael for their selfless physical assistance during this crisis [as well as Lee Hexum, who wanted to help but was prevented by circumstances], plus deep thanks and gratitude to those Friends online and off for whose prayers, good wishes and emotional support were so needed.)
Taking responsibility for rendering me homeless (as well as such without notice), S_____ rented a truck I was able to use as well. His barely English-speaking friends loaded up the truck, (apparently arbitrarily ) deciding not to pack my computer desk (thank gods they didn't chuck my bed as well).
S_____ obtained a storage unit; I upgraded mine to a larger one into which went 99.99% of my stuff. Now not only does it all fit, there is room to move around to Get At some of it.
A good friend of mine had another friend who actually needed someone to take over his place, but issues had caused him to reveal too much information to his own apartment manager, negating and sort of an easy transition. The apartment was already a long shot, and it didn't pan out. S_____ and I had friends with whom we could/can stay. An inexpensive computer desk is replacing the former one (once it's assembled my computer can be hooked up again). I've sorted out a bunch o'DVDs and such with which my friend and I can do a yard sale, hopefully as successful as the last one she had.
With this crisis, I did have to miss my San Pedro friends' annual July 4th BBQ, not merely due to Still Handling Stuff, but being utterly physically and emotionally spent. I also lacked time to upload my bad-government rant as I'd planned t'do...
I did learn that my mother had recently been upgraded to Day Player, on the [two hour?] TV pilot of a new series, Broadway Empire, scheduled to air in January. Mom's line and coverage was directed by the show's main director Martin Scorsese, who afterward shook her hand and thanked her.

Update on the previously mentioned upcoming Strictly Background screening:
It is not an official SAG Foundation event: it is an open public event, using the SAG Screening Room as a venue.
So if you're in the Los Angeles area and you've still not seen it, come one, come all...!
As with the United Film Festival screening/s, for this event it is ten dollars (Q&A afterward with director and cast), and for an additional ten dollars you get the film's DVD.

We are proud to announce that charming & quirky documentary "Strictly Background," which follows the lives and careers of ten background actors trying to make it in Hollywood will finally screen for the Screen Actors Guild. The film has garnered 6 prestigious awards and has become a real crowd pleaser after screening at 23 film festivals across the U.S. & Europe, plus it attained DVD distribution in August 2008.
The screening will include a Q&A with the filmmakers as well as the cast!
Date: Friday, July 17th, 2009 @ 7:30pm
Location: Screen Actors Guild Foundation Actors Center
5757 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(Mezzanine Level)

Yesterday after work I had some errands to run, finishing with getting advance tickets for Transformers 2 for tonight (to make sure my friend and I didn't show up and find out they were already sold out). As Transformers 2 is about three hours long, I figured seeing if Friday evening would "get it out of the way," considering if we're available Saturday, there's the film My Sister's Keeper I really want to see. My brother called when I arrived at CityWalk to say, "Well, you outlived Michael Jackson" (in seven days, so will have he). If I was taken back by Jackson's unexpected demise, I was astonished to learn Farrah Fawcett had died the same day ("What, were they in th'same car...?!").
Alan conveyed the details, surprised I was unaware of the events. I explained that I'd not yet been home to be online to learn of their passing. Alan told me the celebrity-exploitation site TMZ had nearly crashed considering its user traffic throughout the day...
This morning walking to Highland, every news channel truck in the world was lined up in front of the Chinese Theatre, a circus of desperate news hounds video taping Jackson's now-covered star, interviewing people (I had no idea as to who, and as I was on my way to work, I had no way to find out, nor the interest).
While technically Jackson's death is quite a loss to the musical world, he was still a little more Out There than he could have been. Apart from some dark-humoured comments my brother and I exchanged, he and I really suspect that Jay Leno is kicking himself by retiring "a month early"...
As I walked home yesterday afternoon, Hollywood Boulevard was gummed up with the premier of Bruno (a film I want to see eevn less than I want/ed to see Borat), and as I passed the wreath/flower/candle/message covered Walk of Fame star for Farrah Fawcett, I realized the public was denied Michael Jackson's star until after they'd cleared up the premier, as his star is in front of the Chinese Theatre. Once home, in my favourite chat room, one regular did wonder as to who now gets the bones of the Elephant Man: I still felt it was Too Soon for two of the comments up with which I had come...
(Later in the evening over on Facebook, a former girlfriend of mine related via IM that the Jackson-starved public had gathered to mourn Michael Jackson in front of the wrong Michael Jackson star: even those who were aware it was actually the star for some British news commentator who happened to be named Michael Jackson as well.)
As for Transformers 2, it was entertaining enough, I just wish they'd used tripods or proper camera cranes, rather than Tony Scott'esque "cinematography" and such Absolute Close-Up shots one could barely make out which unfocused blurs were which.

This just in from our director Jason:

We are proud to announce that charming & quirky documentary "Strictly Background," which follows the lives and careers of ten background actors trying to make it in Hollywood will finally screen for the Screen Actors Guild. The film has garnered 6 prestigious awards and has become a real crowd pleaser after screening at 23 film festivals across the U.S. & Europe, plus it attained DVD distribution in August 2008.
The screening will include a Q&A with the filmmakers as well as the cast!
Date: Friday, July 17th, 2009 @ 7:30pm
Location: Screen Actors Guild Foundation Actors Center
5757 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(Mezzanine Level)

Hope my Los Angeles SAG friends can/will attend!

I was surprised to learn last night of the passing of Ed McMahon, particularly as his passing marks the "Third of Three Rule:" David Carradine actually being the second, and as of June 3rd (I just found out last night), the first being writer David Eddings, one of my top favourite fantasy authors of my lifetime, author of the books series The Belgariad (also in two volumes), and The Mallorean series (also also now in two volumes), The Elenium and The Tamuli trilogies, and The Dreamers series, all of which available via my recommended [fiction ] book titles page on my website. David Eddings was 77, and a great loss to the literate world of fantasy fiction. I dread his wonderful books being made into films, as while they could be wonderful, they also could be as destroyed (as demonstrated by the horrific TV series barely "based on" the Terry Goodkind fantasy series The Sword of Truth books, the latter topic about which I've previously blogged).
Eddings's Belgariad and Mallorean comprise ten books in a single series (five books each), along with two prequel novels Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress, written (and only to be read) after reading the original ten books. While in length the ten books are quick and easy reading, not merely are each more exciting than the preceeding, all of Eddings's are extremely character driven, with firm friendships so strong they often good-naturedly snark at each other, to the point the reader is drawn in to feel a part of their fellowships. His two Sparhawk trilogies, Elenium and Tamuli, introduced another set of believable characters in a different world of magick, but no less character driven than his previous ten books, equally with likeable rogues, heroes and somewhat anti-heroes.
David Eddings will be missed; thankfully his works will live on.

And there are those who still think when he swore to uphold the Constitution for the united states of America... that he wasn't lying through his teeth... as he has already identified himself as the sort of domestic terrorist he "swore" to defend this country against...!

International treaty to give
foreign troops
identities of
American gun owners

Happy Father's Day!

Being a double Taurus (sun and moon), I am a loyal and staunch supporter of friends with whom (and companies with which) I associate myself (unless proving themselves unworthy of my support). To people who claim Taureans are stubborn, I point out that more accurately it's not that we're stubborn, it's just that we're always right...
To keep updated friends and family on my acting, I created a Yahoo Group, through which I would blog my exploits, maintained a calendar of activities and kept track of birthdays and such. Suddenly Yahoo did a sweep to remove Adult Sites that were a little over-the-top (for want of more apt description), but in so doing they took out numerous legit sites and profiles as well. My group was untouched, and it still exists, but my account password got wiped, and Yahoo lost it. Literally.
After a week I managed finally to track an actual phone number to talk to a live human being at Yahoo. I provided all my information and my password, and she asked me my security question, but claimed my answer... was wrong. Meaning, either they'd lost my security answer, or someone had hacked it. This rendered me unable to moderate or even enter my own Yahoo Group! My only ability was my still being able to publish a post via email, as my EarthLink email was still registered, but it takes a Yahoo email to enter the site itself.
Then I stumbled across MySpace.
I set up a bare-bones profile so as to use my account with the same purpose as the Yahoo Group. Ironically, some of the more important people (e.g., my own mother) never set up a MySpace account, so to keep her apprised I'd either have to send her the URL to a recent blog entry, or notify her directly (she'd had no trouble being a member of the Yahoo Group).
As time passed I relented and added a few bells and whistles to my profile, which I maintained with my use and knowledge of HTML, and could configure the page the way I wanted it to look.
Then Facebook came along.
Like the upstart AOL when CompuServe was the primary online service, Facebook began to grow, but I had little interest in it as I had/have MySpace. Eventually my producer friend urged me to create a Facebook profile, and after much insistence I did so. Predictably, I was irritated at how user unfriendly Facebook was, particularly both in navigation, and its refusal to allow for user configuration of one's own profile. So the account sat and I occasionally checked in, trying to figure it out. Eventually I discovered the differences.
MySpace allows for profile configuration, while Facebook sets up the profile page based on provided information. Facebook has since updated this, somewhat, so "apps" and links and such are off to the side.
If at a website such as YouTube or such from which one can share a video or news article, Facebook (now) allows for publishing within one's profile, on one's Wall. MySpace Comments are similar, but have been surpassed in this regard. With a MySpace Comment, one can reply back to the sender's message inbox, or reply-comment, but it's one-way: with Facebook one can reply to a comment privately, or have it as an open dialog one can both read, or allow it to be public for all to read and for others to put in their two cent's worth (often with humourous and/or informative results).
With MySpace and sharing a video or article, one has to acquire the embed code and/or URL to the video and create the blog entry manually. Selecting the Share On MySpace link just tosses a lame "entry" of sorts that merely contains the URL to the article page. Yuck: not exactly pristine.
But Facebook, when last I looked, is still woefully inadequate for blogging. Last time I checked it was plain text; with MySpace I can configure my blog entries with HTML, including but not limited to links, graphics/photos and embedded videos, et al. And yet, Facebook allows one to auto-import blogs from other sites, including but not limited to... MySpace.
So, I can still write my blogs here for my MySpace profile, and have "the blog entry" be available at Facebook.
Sort of.
(Unless it's a very short blog), Facebook does not import an entire blog entry: just the first few sentences, and again, only in plain text. So it I have a sentence or two notifying readers of a new report on my official website, they just get un-clickable plain text. Facebook does provide a link to the original post, if the Facebook reader thinks to go to it to acquire the link, but it's more helpful with longer blogs as to read the whole thing, one must click the View Original Post link to read the whole thing.
Facebook also contains dozens of people with whom I attended high school; people I knew barely in passing send me Add Requests, so they're now aware of my acting, mostly by checking out my website. Few of them have MySpace accounts, but they can read my blog/s here via Facebook.
The compromise I've reached is to maintain both profiles. MySpace is my primary profile regarding my acting and such, while I will use my Facebook profile to import articles and humourous videos. Understandably I will continue often to place videos of note here as well.
I am saddened when I hear rumours that MySpace is fading. It is not fading for me. I keep files with my blog entries: if the worst happens, I can create on my website a page containing every MySpace blog entry I've submitted, at least those going back to late 2005.

I was just able to get done my errands before heading down to Beverly Hills to attend the book launch party for the latest collection of Wondermark comics: Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death by artist David Malki !
I arrived at the 7pm event at 6:40pm, greeting by David's lovely wife Nikki, who brought me up to speed on a few things beyond who was who at the event, helping David, as well as certain inside information on the progress of a possible feature version of Expendable, the short on which I'd worked with them a couple of years ago (while my scene was cut, it is retained as a Bonus Feature on its DVD, and within the short I was still given one of my favourite IMDB credits: Dude Whose Scene Was Cut...). The short film's producer Todd arrived shortly after the event began.
Once 7pm struck and I felt I wouldn't officially be underfoot (as he'd been setting up), I went up to the small room overlooking the larger area to see what items on sale David had brought. On hand also were copies of his previous book collection Annotated Wondermark and Beards of our Forefathers, his satirical purple prose Dispatches from Wondermark Manor paperback trilogy, numerous dark humoured greeting cards, t-shirts, bumper stickers et al. Financially I came ill prepared (almost thankfully): I acquired a few items, and had him sign my copy of Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death as I'd pre-ordered it from amazon (ordering it from his site would have had it autographed in advance). David not merely autographed the larger volumes, but drew elaborate little artwork therein for each purchasers. As each sketch was done on the fly, what probably could or should have been done was for posterity have a quick photo taken of each new piece of original artwork he did...
In keeping with David's latest "beard motif," the event held a comical Beard Photo Opp. I dutifully dressed up and was informed by the photographer that the photos would be placed online both to celebrate the event and promote David's work, as did each of those who came by for book purchasing and autograph acquiring. And so they were.
Three of the photos taken of me are here: Image_0896, Image_0895 and Image_0890...
While David did confirm he no longer does movie trailer work, I was pleased to learn his wonderfully humourous surreal Wondermark artwork work has been successful enough to being paying th'bills. I look forward to learning how well the event left; as of 8pm'ish when I departed, there had been a several people who had come by: I'm sure far more after I'd left.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 17th (at 7:30pm), as part of the first-ever San Francisco United Film Festival, writer/director Jason Connell will be screening his heart-felt, multiple award-winning feature documentary Strictly Background (in which, as most of you know, I am second billing): Jason will be doing a Q&A afterwards, and the DVD should be on sale, as well as the newly released original soundtrack CD.
Obtain your tickets for the Strictly Background screening HERE.

The DVD copy arrived of the USC student film Womanhandling on which I worked, so I've updated its report page at my official website, with a few frame-grabs as well as my thoughts on it.

Wednesday, June 17th (at 7:30pm), as part of the first-ever San Francisco United Film Festival, writer/director Jason Connell will be screening his heart-felt, multiple award-winning feature documentary Strictly Background (in which, as most of you know, I am second billing): Jason will be doing a Q&A afterwards, and the DVD should be on sale, as well as the newly released original soundtrack CD.
Obtain your tickets for the Strictly Background screening HERE.

Yesterday I spent the day recovering from a horrific Wednesday night. I don't know if I ate something bad, or had some sort of stomach flu, but I was in bad shape all night, unable to find a position in bed that didn't cause extreme discomfort. My midsection was distended, I had to rush to the bathroom every twenty minutes or so (in "diarr straits" one might say), every few times my body insisting wanting to vomit but not enough really to do so: essentially false starts there. It was all extremely unpleasant; regurgitation finally took place a few times as of about 5:30am. Forced to take the day off work as I was a mess, my cat Murray was rather pleased wkth himself that he had me as a captive audience. Around 12-1pm I was able to become ambulatory again (e.g., beyond bathroom rushes).
I notice there are not too many new movies being released this weekend I'm wanting to rush out to see. I already saw the better-than-I-expected Land of the Lost, but I think it's time to start seeking out advance tickets to films I do want to see, most specifically Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (as always since ...Prisoner of Azkaban), so see how far off from the prime source material Steven Kloves has gone this time...

Those working actors who have wrestled control of SAG are thrilled at the producer-friendly, actor-hating "new contract" having been "approved" by 70+% of its less-informed members. [Most, and/or uninformed] working actors are also thrilled as it barely touches them, or their working, or their careers. Barely working actors to be hit hardest, foresee the end of acting as a career, and most likely already see the foundation-crumbling end of SAG. A contract designed to remove residuals from actors, and allowing unlimited non-SAG actors to do New Media (again, without residuals): this is a Good Thing how again...?
The producers' logic was, "We got the DGA and the WGA to accept the crappiest contract we would offer, and you saw how AFTRA literally leapt at a similarly completely-crappy deal in order to screw over its members: why do you dare ask for what you deserve...?"
Those in SAG who were awake and paying attention were/are aware the producers make money hand over fist, and pay a pittance to the very resource from which they receive such earnings. Now Starving Actors and/or barely-working actors won't be able to afford to survive as actors. But hey, the perfidious few who'd taken over the contract "negotiations" proudly hail the downfall of SAG as a "victory," when in fact this downfall is of anything and everything for which SAG in the past has striven for actors.
People chuckle or laugh when I ironically point out in Strictly Background that SAG is a guild, not a union... those in SAG who allowed this "deal" even to be voted on have really driven home my point...
Those in SAG who "negotiated" this "contract" [e.g., accepted the offer for the sake of expediancy over value], have chosen to take the road less traveled... the one with quicksand, very live land-mines, and at its end... only a poor-house.
Below is a reminder of to what now SAG actors get to look forward...

Actors who studied and understand
the ramifications of the
2009 TV/Theatrical Contract

In the tolerable film Empire (that is probably much better if one never sees first the trailer for it), John Leguizamo plays a neighbourhood criminal, the boss of his particular territory. During various parts of the film he has internal monologues, one of which is worth having every American purchasing a copy of this film to learn this information by heart: how to deal with being arrested, and what to do during interrogations and how they work.
I've been aware of such for decades, but it never hurts for people who wrongly believe Police Are Your Friend...

Never speak to/with Police:
first of two

Never speak to/with Police:
A Police Officer Confirms:
second of two