Ah how long the silence. And yet if you pay close attention you'll notice that it is not silence! No, for there is the careful click clack of keys being struck upon a computer. Given the mundane nature of my night job I have recently taken to a new game to amuse myself. This new game is of course radically set apart from my other game which is to make all my co-workers believe that I am completely out of my mind. My new game is a mental exercise that I have set myself to keep my mind engaged and active during those hours where I might be subject to the distinct attributes of depression and life questions. I'm sure you are all familiar with the state of mind to which I am referring.
"Why the hell am I doing this?" "I'll never make it!" "I wonder which came first, chess or checkers... I should look that up." Of course you never do look it up. Cursory research indicates that checkers came first by the way.
At any rate, my new game involves the crafting of scenarios, from the ordinary to the completely absurd. Being me they mostly tend to be absurd. But it has been a very interesting venture, which has resulted in several new scripts, and let me tell you I'm just itching to start getting some of these filmed! It might sound strange but I feel like if I can get even one of these put together in a way that is satisfactory it will make putting the others together easier somehow. I don't know why I feel that way, but in any case I'm very eager to see these new ideas come to fruition!

In other news I just opened a show, The Miser, with Parson's Nose Theatre Company here in LA. I'm working with an amazing cast of very talented actors and it's been a blast. Our first two shows went very well, and we've got four more to go which I'm pretty sure are going to kick ass. You know, moving to LA, I think I can put that down as a good idea. I'm glad to be able to add this to my list of life experiences.

"The unexamined life is not worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining."
- Company

Hey All,

I know it may seem as if Mark, Corey and I aren't doing anything, but that is definitely not the case. Work and life has slowed us down a bit but we are still working on Oedipus. We have been trying to juggle the schedules of eleven cast members, which you can imagine is very hard. That eleven cast members has become more like seven at this point. Oedipus will be grand. We are sending the script to Corey and she will be doing way more pictures. On top of that, she'll be doing color and there will be backgrounds and stuff. Exciting.

On the home front. I have been working my new job at a local clinic. Working sucks, but this job doesn't. It's full time and I'll be getting my first pay check in a couple weeks, and I couldn't be more stoked. It's a clinic though, so there are some bad times as well. Things went missing yesterday, and I can only see that meaning bad times ahead. There was also a patient whose HIV seems to have turned to AIDs. So, very real stuff.

As for the lighter side of life, I am looking at renting a house with Kristen and we're finding some awesome ones. We're keeping in mind the needs of Dogtheatre and it looks like the dogstudio's Florida branch is going to actually be of decent size for a change.

There ya go. An update. A blog.


Nick

So it's been crazy here lately, and needless to say between all the this and that Nick and I have been swamped. Nick's picked up a new job, and I'm cast in a show while sound designing for another show and still managing my "part-time" job at Target which has me working 40 hours a week. I think by "part-time" they just mean that I'm only there "part" of the time. You know, because they do let me leave for a little while after every 8 hours of labor.

All that said we're working on getting you guys some new comedy sketches. Not to mention our work on Oedipus which is turning into a far larger project than originally intended, but that's good! You guys are going to love it! In the mean time look forward to some new Alan Explains segments as well as other original skits!

Okay, so that's the business stuff out of the way.

I broke down a while ago and started a Pandora account, wanted to vary up what I was listening to but I'm not a huge fan of the actual radio. It turns out that this was probably the most dangerous thing I could have done. Well dangerous for my wallet anyway. It's also helped me rediscover a ton of songs and artists that I really love, but haven't heard in ages and had sort of forgotten about. Oddly enough several of them are 90's bands/songs... Now I'm not music connoisseur, mostly because I don't do a lot of con-ing. When I was younger I had very little hope of even being able to name what band played what song, but I've always loved music and that love has only grown over the years and there are some truly moving pieces out there. Most recently the one that I've been hooked on is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSBFehvLJDc

Simply moving.

"Some times we just need something to lift us up when we're down. That's why I ride the escalator."
- Me

Hey everyone. Christmas is upon us. I'm with some family at my grandparents' house in Ocala, FL. They're good, good people. I hope you are all having a great holiday. I have spent the past couple days playing Farcry 3 and Civilization 5 (when I can get my PC to run it) to my heart's content.

While it's not official yet, it looks as if I may be getting a new job in January 2013. Should be a move up, but will miss my old boss. As far as bosses, go, I had one of the best.

So that's what I've been doing. I survived the end of the world. I survived the ridiculous traffic driving down here from Pensacola. I plan on surviving 2013, too. I'm looking forward to finishing up/releasing Oedipus soon. It's been a long time coming, and is very good, if I do say so myself.

Merry Christmas
Nick

"Ho, Ho, Ho!" - Santa

Those who know me could tell you, with a sigh of exasperation and a look of disgust, how I feel about the Lord of the Rings movies. The phrase “don’t get him started” might be used as well. I’m a huge fan of the books and in spite of my over dramatic raving I do have legitimate reasons why I don’t like those movies very much.
That said you can imagine my mixed feelings regarding the release of The Hobbit. Particularly when I found that Peter Jackson was planning to make it a trilogy as well, and include story points and elements from the extended work of Tolkien such as the Silmarillion. And while he did rewrite certain plot points and change things that I felt he didn’t really need to change, I was shocked to find that there were few things that really frustrated me.

One of my biggest reasons for having issues with the LOTR movies was that Peter Jackson made changes not just to events, but to characters. Much to my surprise I found that there were very little in the way of character changes that were drastic enough to catch my attention. Martin Freeman as Bilbo was excellent casting. While I don’t think he embodies the slight pompous attitude that Bilbo has at the beginning of The Hobbit, he certainly captures the uncertain and adventurous side of Bilbo which is the most important aspect of the character.

There are several moments that are iconic within the realm of the book, and not the least among them is the Riddle Contest between Gollum and Bilbo. I don’t think I can express how brilliant I thought that scene was. They captured in a near perfect picture, what I had imagined for that scene and I cannot say enough how pleased I am with it.

As with the LOTR trilogy, one thing that this movie does brilliantly at without question is its amazing visuals and amazing score. The landscapes, both real and fictional, are fantastic. The fabricated locations such as the Halls of the Lonely Mountain, and Rivendell are beautiful pieces of work that I think successfully capture the imagery in the books. And to go with these stunning visuals is an amazing score. The music in the LOTR trilogy was mind blowingly good, and The Hobbit is no different. The music is simply fantastic and very moving. We catch a glimpse of the Dwarven song The Misty Mountain in the trailer, and that is truly just a small taste of the great music within this film.

All in all I very much enjoyed the movie and I’m extremely interested in what the next installment will bring us. Will this be like the LOTR? Will I enjoy the first movie and then curse Peter Jackson’s name after the second? We shall see. In the mean time, if you’ve not seen the movie I’d suggest that you do. Be you a fan of Tolkien’s work or no, it’s a great movie and good time. If you enjoy high fantasy style stories then you’ll very likely enjoy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Mark

“Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.”
-The Hobbit