Post #801 - In Which I Discuss The Future!

I've been quiet lately mostly because I've been busy. I've discovered that those who are doing usually aren't blogging about doing it. And I've been doing lots of stuff. Though, really, I have very little to show you just yet.

I had a few milestones in 2011. The high point, surely, was seeing my friend Russ get married to the girl of his dreams. That was a great moment and I was honored to be there. A close second was watching my first play being produced and shown. Had it been really good, it probably would have been the high point. ;) But we live and learn and will produce a much better and more streamlined version in 2012.

The biggest thing I will take away from 2011 though will be a paradigm shift in my thinking vis a vis my creative work. Sometime early in the year it occurred to me that I had better put up or shut up, because I had been talking a good game for a long time with little results. I was like Mike Singletary of 49er's fame. I talked a good game, but at the end of the day, I was still in last place with Alex Smith as my Quarterback.

So, 2011 has really been the year where I've been working towards project completion. It's been an ambitious year, but I think the results will speak for themselves in 2012.

In the last six months of 2011, I've shot two films, begun editing a DVD, written about half a novel, and restarted my website. All of these things have been trickling out there not for the sake of secrecy but, because, quite frankly I didn't want to raise any expectations until I knew I could deliver.

Sometime in 2012, these projects will be completed.

First will be my Kenya DVD. This is the DVD that I've been trying to put together for two years taking footage that I shot and that a colleague shot in Kenya last year to tell the story of our project in Kenya and the partners that we work with there. I've edited about a third of it so far and it's really good.

Second will be my Super Secret Sucky Project, or, as it's safe to call it now, The Amazing Mole 2. This is the most ambitious project I've ever worked on - so it's bound to suck (nobody, except maybe Amadeus, gets it right on the first try). It basically involves a reality contest that I shot in Disney World earlier this month with animated characters both competing in the contest and calling the shots behind the scenes. Test animation looks good. Audience reaction to the tests has been encouraging. But I need a lot of effort before I can pull this one off. Expect a preview pretty soon.

Third will be my untitled Folk Music documentary. My Dad has been singing off and on with the same group of folk singers since the earliest days of the Folk Music revival in the early 1960's. They meet every year in a reunion and have a hootenany. Since the San Francisco crowd was hosting the event this year, I decided that someone really ought to tell their fantastic tale - punctuated with taped performances. So in October I recorded their entire Hootenany and conducted interviews. I shot more footage in that weekend than I did during my three weeks in Africa. But I'm still only about half way there. I need to form a storyline in my mind before I finish the documentary with a second round of interviews and other footage. This one has a special deadline - next year's hoot. So I expect to be busy completing this during the summer of 2012.

And finally, I shall be a writing up a storm. In addition to the revised streamlined Last Supper play that I'll be working on here in the next couple of weeks, I shall also get back to my novel, continue writing for my website, and shall begin editing my sister's novel (I finally have an idea of how to unpack her dense, but fun, story). And, if there's time, I want to produce my next play - Next Year's Christmas pageant - as I think I have a unique take on it.

I'm going to be a busy guy in 2012 - so don't be surprised if I'm not around here a lot. I'll try to keep you up to speed, but I'm only going to mention things if I think they're up to snuff from here on out.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I'll see you all on the flipside of 2012!

A Holiday Message From The 99%...

With profound apologies to Dr. Suess...
And Thurl Ravenscroft...

A Holiday Message To The One Percent

You're a mean one, One Percent.
You're really a heel.
You're cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
One Percent.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, One Percent.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
One Percent.

I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, One Percent.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
One Percent.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, One Percent.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
One Percent.

The three words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote:
Stink, Stank, Stunk

You're a rotter, One Percent.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splotched
With moldy purple spots,
One Percent.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, One Percent.
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
One Percent.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce!

(Sorry, I heard this song today and I thought, "This is exactly the message the Occupy Protesters have been preaching for the last three months." ;)