How To Beat Illegal Wire-Taps

My friend Mary Lasswell sent me this... seems like good avice to me.

Really, it's pretty sad when it takes the people writing for Boston Legal to point out the truth about this country's apathy towards the misconduct of their elected officials. Click here for an mp3 of the audio from their episode "Stick It."

Oh, that's right... just more from those "Hollywood Liberal Elites" who don't understand what people in the rest of the country think. Silly me...

Are you tired of it? Do you want to get the word out to the rest of the country? Check out Moveon.org's new ad campaign, and throw them a few bucks.

Remember, all that's required for evil to triumph is for good men [and women] to do nothing.

The Hardest Part of the Job Is Moving On

Yeah. It's been an interesting few days. And yes, it's been good, bad, and ugly.

Lets start with the Good: I got called back for Nickel and Dime, the short film I auditioned for last weekend. Trish got cast in the industrial she auditioned for last week in Eugene. We're going to see Cirque du Soliel's Varekai on Wednesday (Trish's birthday present to me last December). In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer's audiences are building... we had a nearly-full house on Saturday, and we've still got three more weeks in the run.

Now, the Bad... sorta. For some time now, Trish and I have been struggling with, well... time. As I'm sure you know, I work a day-job as an independant computer consultant and web designer. Trish has a variety of day-jobs that all patch together to pay the bills. Both of us have also been spending more time acting, both on stage and in front of the camera, and we've been working hard to build that career up a bit. We realized over the past year that we're spending a lot of time running, and not much time "being," just sitting back and enjoying the life we've built for ourselves.

To some extent, that's one of the reasons why we're selling our Duplex. We needed to simplify our lives a bit, and take some of the crazy out of them (but not too much... can you imagine us with absolutely NO crazy? I think we'd both collapse into ourselves and form little anti-sanity black holes... and no one wants to see that).

And that realization led us to consider our connection with Mt. Hood Rep. To be sure, we've loved our involvement with The Rep... both Trish and I have grown immensely as artists, and we've learned a ton about the production of theatre and the running of a company. On the other hand, it's gotten to be more and more of a time and energy drain. As other parts of our lives have gotten busier, the needs of The Rep have grown as well. Something was going to have to give... we just couldn't keep juggling it all.

So... this brings us to the Ugly. We had dinner with Board presidents Karen and Riley Caton at the Berlin Inn Saturday night (great food, but no one told us it was going to be violin and accordian night... eeesh! My ears are still ringing a little...), and we met with our good friend and Artistic Director Tobias Andersen this afternoon (probably the hardest thing I've had to do in a long while). Then we drove to the Mt. Hood Rep office and dropped off our letters of resignation. As much as we hated to do it, we just had to step back and allow ourselves some time to "reset." Karen and Riley took it pretty well... Tobias, I think, was a bit taken aback. He certainly understood our decision, but I don't think he was expecting it from us.

The truly ugly part of all this is that I feel a bit like I'm deserting my friends in their hour of need, and that grates on me. As the readers theatre season at Mt. Hood Rep winds down and the company gears up for its annual summer festival (the 10th anniversary festival, in fact), they're facing an uphill struggle. You may remember my talking about the smaller-than-average audiences at last year's festival. Since that past summer, the fund raising efforts have been less than stellar. A lot of the private money and foundation funding has been going to disaster relief in the wake of last year's hurricanes. We've also lost some people from the board, and many of the people on the board are getting tired. This is a time when the company really needs support, and I'm walking away from them.

On the other hand, our lives have changed pretty substantially over the course of the past four years. When we first started working with The Rep we didn't have nearly as many irons in the fire... and the irons we did have at the time weren't nearly as hot. We spend a lot more time on various projects now, and seem to spend a lot less time with each other and the folks we love. As we walk away from The Rep, Trish and I are both looking forward to remedying that.

It's a little easier to leave knowing that there are good people who can step in to fill the void we're leaving at The Rep. I've asked Jan MacDonald, the drama teacher at Reynolds Middle School and our Education coordinator for the past two years, to step into the Operations Manager job. Kirk Mauser has been working closely with Tobias in the formulation of plans for this season, and Trisha Pancio Armour is, as always, lending her expertise on both the artistic and marketing sides of the company. Karen and Riley Caton are still there as well, taking charge and adding their business and organization accumen to the company.

And we're not disappearing in a puff of smoke... not by a long shot. I'm still going to be maintaining The Rep's web site and sending out their monthly email newsletter, The Aside (though I won't be writing the content for them any more), and we're both planning on volunteering as ushers, box office staff, or whatever the company might need. We still plan on providing adivice and ideas to the company whenever we're asked for it. It's just the day-to-day operation that we don't have room for... but we've still got The Rep in our hearts, and we want to see it succeed.

The hope, however, is that this painful process (and it is a VERY painful process) will yield something of a more centered and balanced existence for Trish and I. At least that's the hope... time will tell.

Time for bed. Hope you're all doing well.

-Harold

The Age of Movie Palaces

So I went down to Infusion Salon yesterday to get my hair cut (one thing about this new "do" of mine... it takes a LOT more maintenance), and my barber Dean mentioned that the movie theatre up the street from him had just opened.

The Academy was originally built in the 1940's, and had been vacant for as long as I'd been coming down to the corner of SE 79th and Stark. Dean filled me in on the history: the theatre had been closed for many years when a young man who'd worked there in his youth bought the Flying Pie Pizzaria next door. Over the next few years he worked to restore the Academy to its original condition.

After my hair cut, I walked up the street and took a look at what was playing. Trish and I hadn't seen Good Night and Good Luck yet, and (God forbid!) we actually had a night open from rehearsals, performances, and auditions... so we figured we'd go check the place out.

Boy am I glad we did! The movie was great, and deserves all the press its gotten (boy do I wish we had mass-media with the balls to stand up to Bush and his cronies like Murrow stood up to McCarthy), but the theatre was a revelation. They've reproduced its original condition perfectly, with art deco fixtures in the lobby, comfy chairs, rounded mirrors on the walls... it really is like stepping back in time.

It's a "second run" theatre, so the films they play aren't in their initial release. This drops the ticket price to $3.00. As an added bonus, the theatre offers babysitting for families with children too young to stay quiet in the theater.

Since there's a partnership with the Flying Pie restaurant next door, the concessions offerings include pizza and salads (plus, once they work things out with the OLCC, several local beers). There are small tables in the lobby that you can eat at if you get there early, or they'll profide lap trays for taking the food into the theatre.

The theatres themselves are very cozy. This isn't a super-zillion-plex type movie theatre. The seats are all new, high-backed, and they recline somewhat. The screen is small, but they've got Dolby sound. It was a great venue to see an intimate film like Good Night and Good Luck.

If you get a chance to get down to the corner of SE 79th and Stark, be sure to go catch a show at the Academy. It'll be like stepping back in time.

-Harold

We Iz Actorzz

(But we Iz not Iszes, those interesting little creatures from Sam Kieth's masterful 1980's comic book series (and animated MTV Series) The Maxx)

Well well well. A busy few days in actor-land for Trish and I!

Saturday I got up at 7:00 to pick up coffee and donuts for Mt. Hood Rep's rehearsal of The Road To Mecca (we don't pay the actors much for these staged readings, so I figure the least we can do is give them coffee and donuts for coming out to Gresham at 10am on a Saturday), then "ran" the rehearsal at Reynolds Middle School. Well, "ran" seems like I did a lot... generally all I do at these staged reading rehearsals is give the actors and director a tour of the space, answer any questions they might have, and then watch the rehearsal and give feedback to the director. It doesn't sound like much, but it made for a full Saturday morning.

After the rehearsal I drove to the Mt. Hood Rep office and worked with my good friend (and our liason at Reynolds) Jan MacDonald to put together the program for the reading on Monday night. Then we said our goodbyes... until we saw each other again two hours later at Than Thao on Hawthorne. Trish and she went to see The Water Principle at the Back Door Theatre (they didn't care for it much... I didn't see it, so I can't elaborate.)

I, meanwhile, took off after dinner to do the second performance of In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which was quite well attended by a very vocal crowd. They liked the play quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if, after the word-of-mouth is spread, this show becomes something of a hit for the Northwest Classical Theatre Company. We haven't had any reviews as yet, but we DID get a full page preview story in the Jewish Review, and our director Fred Walton was profiled in the March 12th Oregonian.

These notices didn't help us much with our reservations for Sunday, however... by the end of Saturday night we had no one on the books, and we were considering canceling. Four people did show up for Sunday's performance, though, so we went ahead with the show. They were exceedingly supportive.

After Sunday's show, I burned rubber to make a 6:00 audition at the Northwest Film Center. Late Bloomer Productions had sent a casting call out over the internet for a couple of experimental films they're planning on shooting. The films won't pay anything, but it's good experience in front of the camera, and a few more film credits on my resume won't hurt me. I felt pretty good about the audition... I did a monlogue that I normal do for theatrical auditions, but felt very comfortable pulling the presentation back (internalizing, as it were) for the camera. I walked out of the audition room feeling that, even if I didn't get the roles I was auditioning for, at least I gave a good audition.

Monday morning saw me putting on a suit and tie for another audition... this time for a coffee company. The casting director gave the woman I was reading with and I a lot of direction. I don't know how well my audition read on tape, but felt pretty good about it.

From the casting office, it was out to the Mt. Hood Rep office to buy new ink cartridges for the printer so I could print the programs for that evening's reading of The Road To Mecca. While I was getting the finished programs to Reynolds for the performance, Trish was headed to the same casting office to audition for the same coffee commercial (thankfully, we're not competing for the same role).

Tuesday Trish drove down to Eugene to audition for an instructional CD that's going to be used to train long-term caregivers. Having looked at the script, I think she'd be perfect for the role... but hey, it's up to the director, right? She logged a lot of miles going back and forth, but she ended up feeling pretty good about the audition she gave.

On Friday, Trish is shooting an instructional video for Providence Medical Group. This is a piece she auditioned for back in late January. They had some scheduling problems and had to reschedule the shoot a few times... but now, finally, they're going to put it on film.

So, yeah... a busy few days. Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold

Rachel & Julius, Together Again

Howdy y'all

Missed my trip to the gym today. It's especially hard to fit my "three visits a week" days like the past couple. Ah well... at least I'm making the effort... and as you can see the gym visits are certainly showing some results - as are the trips to the tanning salon! :)

Actually, that Harold Phillips and I periodically trade the top spot on the page whenever I google my name. He's had photos published in plenty of nation-wide muscle magazines, so I'm surprised to see that I'm even in the #2 spot... yeah, it's ego-surfing. Sue me. I think it's funny that anyone who looks me up would find that Harold first. "Ooo... don't mess with Harold! He looks tough!"

So, why didn't I make it to the gym yesterday or today? Well... sit right back and you'll hear a tale.

Thursday morning, while I revised the Mt. Hood Rep web site and sent out our monthly electronic newsletter, The Aside, Trish was busy at the Duplex. As I mentioned in a previous post, we've put the duplex on the market. As a pro-active move, we had it fully inspected so that we wouldn't be in for any surprises when someone made an offer and conducted their own inspection.

Well, we had some surprises, but none were too bad. Trish met with some folks yesterday to have both the furnaces serviced, and a pest control company to take care of some rodent evidence. We also had Zane Palmer, a local actor who's also a licensed contractor, do some exterior work on the place. That pretty much took up her morning. Then she went home and did some last minute work before the reading of My Name Is Rachel Corrie that she was directing.

I took off to do a couple of appointments that were going take the rest of my afternoon, but I planned on going with Trish to see some of the reading, before my preview of In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (because my character doesn't give his "testomony" until near the end of the show, I don't have to be at the theatre until 8:30).

My first clue that something "interesting" was going to happen that evening was when I mentioned the reading to my last client of the day. "Oh," she said, "your wife's involved with THAT???" "Uh, yeah," I replied. "She's directing it. How did you hear about it?" "Well, there's a big article about it in today's Oregonian." "Oh, really..." (I have to admit, I took some small note of pride in the Oregonian article since I wrote the first draft of the press release that was sent out).

Then I got home to prep for the preview of my show and to follow Trish to her reading. Trish mentioned, in an off-hand way, that she'd called local radio talk-show host Thom Hartmann on the air, and he let her plug the show. "Cool!" said I.

THEN the phone rang. It was Francesca Sanders' husband Rick, telling Trish that things were getting ugly. Apparently another local radio talk-show host, Neo-con mouthpiece Lars Larson, mentioned the reading on the air as well... and he wasn't complementary about Rachel Corrie or those who were taking part in the reading. Threatening phone calls had been made to the church where the reading was going to be held. The church had hired security. The people at the church who had given us the space to use were very worried.

It was with some trepidation that we headed off to the reading that night... but it went off without a hitch. I was able to see the first hour of the piece - VERY moving. Funny and not a little bit sad. All told, about 160 people came to see the reading, and none of them were violent or tried to disrupt the procedings. Trish can probably tell you about it best though: Click here.

About 8:00 saw headed for the preview of In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (though I detoured past Jack In The Box to get something to eat). The preview audience was small, but appreciative. Preview night was the first night we did a curtain call (the director gave us a diagram to indicate how we were supposed to enter, bow and leave, but we'd never run it). There was some confusion there, but over all thing went pretty well.

I had to get up at 6:00am the next morning, so there was no partying afterward. Friday was anothe rcompressed day: I had to do some Standardized Patient work at NCNM in the morning, then run down to Beaverton to get a part for a job later in the day, run past the mailbox in Tigard, go to the Mt. Hood Rep office in Gresham to pick up the binders and forms for rehearsal scheduled for Saturday morning, and then get out to a client's house by 3:30 (well, it was more like 3:50 by the time I got there... there was a huge accident involving a semi on I-205 that hung me up).

That evening we opened Oppenheimer to a half-full house (the house only holds 26, so "half-full" ends up being 10 or more :) ). The audience was very appreciative. We actually got a Standing Ovation! I did hang back to have a glass of wine and talk with the cast, but couldn't stay for long... because I had to get up at 6:00am the next morning to run the rehearsal for Road to Mecca.

So, yeah... I haven't made it to the gym much in the past few days. But that's ok... the other Harold is working out enough for both of us :)

Hope you're all doing well

-Harold

Say You Want A Democratic Party?

You may recall my saying in Monday's post that I'm no fan of the Democratic party. If you want to know why, all you have to do is look at their reaction to Russ Feingold's call to censure Bush over his illegal wiretapping program.

Is it any wonder that the Conservo-bots constantly paint the Democratic party as a bunch of spineless losers? Here you have a president who has admitted to breaking the law, and has said publicly that he intends to keep breaking the law. The reaction of the Republicans in the Congress? "We've got the power, and you 'mythical little guys' can't do anything about it."

The reaction of the Democrats in Congress? "Oh, well, we don't want to raise too big a fuss."

Today I got an email from the Democratic National Committee complaining about Republican Senator Wade Allord saying that Feingold has sided with "the terrorists," and asking us to demand an apology from him.

Yeah, whatever. I signed their little web-form-petition, and then I hit the reply button (god knows if anyone at the DNC will read the email, but I copied Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, and Feingold himself. They'll at least see it). This is what I sent back to the DNC:

To whomever checks this mailbox

Please forward this message to Gov. Dean
and the leadership of the DNC.

I signed your petition calling on senator Allord to apologize to Senator Feingold. I've signed several petitions and have been very vocal in my support of Senator Feingold's resolution.

I was appalled, however, to see Senate and Congressional Democrats reactions (or lack thereof) to Senator Feingold's resolution to censure the President because of his
illegal wiretapping of American Citizens. Gov. Dean's regular emails champion the idea of "Democratic values," and the party's defense of them. The run-for-cover attitude that congressional Democrats have displayed, however, flies in the face of
the concept that this party stands for anything at all.

We are to believe that the Democratic party believes in the rule of law. We are to believe that the Democratic party stands against government corruption. We are to
believe that the Democratic party will take the side 64% of America, and voice our outrage at the Bush administration's criminal negligence and blatantly illegal conduct.
When one member of that party, however, shows his mettle and takes a stand against this imperial presidency he is left alone in the wilderness by the minority leaders of both the House and the Senate. Democratic legislators are quick to distance themselves from him, and rather than speaking in unified support of Senator Feingold's resolution they hem and haw about procedural processes. Our country is crying underneath the boot of criminal leadership, and members of the "opposition" party seem unwilling to extend their necks from their shells to defend the principles that this nation was founded on.

For this reason, I decline to contribute to the DNC, as you requested I do after signing your petition. Until I see some real action from the Democrats in congress to act as an opposition party, please don't expect to see me open my checkbook to you. I don't ask that members of the Democratic party walk in lock-goose-step as the Republicans do, but I do expect them to be true to the values that they claim to represent.

I don't know that anyone will read the email or take it seriously... but at least I've been able to vent my frustration with the "opposition" party.

If you're ticked off too, do us all a favor: Contact your Senators and Contact your Representatives. Let them know how you feel about Feingold's resolution. While you're at it, head over to Moveon.org and sign their petition in support of Feingold's censure resolution.

Bush's approval rating is down to 36% - the only people supporting him now are the rabid Conservo-bots who can't or won't bother seeing the evidence of Bush's illegal acts, even when they're splashed out in front of them. There's no better time than now to let the voice of 64% of the country be heard.

Don't Forget The Parlor-Tricks!

You thought that after that big long post over the weekend you were going to dodge the political bullets I'm wont to fire, huh?

Fat chance.

Finally someone in congress is officially taking a stand against Bush's illegal domestic spying and inept conduct in office. Unfortunately, it appears that the AP got Jeff Gannon to write the story on Feingold's call for censure (a surprising number of people haven't heard of Jeff Gannon. For more on him, see his Wikipedia entry and, to be fair - and show you just how slanted his "reporting" is - his own web site).

Feingold's not the only Congressman who's working to eject our neo-Fascist President from office, however... John Conyers has been building a groundswell of public and congressional support for articles of impeachment he's drafting. As he said in a recent notice,

There was overwhelming public support for pursuing a case
against Richard Nixon, while these same conditions did not exist when the
Republicans tried to impeach President Clinton. Public opinion is on our side
and now is the time to make a difference.

To sign on as a "citizen co-sponsor" of his impeachment effort, click here.

All of this means nothing, however, if the neo-Con's maintain their stranglehold on the two houses of Congress. Feingold and Conyers can draft all the articles they want, but as long as the Republicans are in the majority they'll go nowhere. That's why those of us who believe power-change is necessary in Washington need to be focused on the mid-term elections this fall. Even if you're a Republican, you have to admit that our system of government is founded on debate and on checks-and-balances. We don't have that right now; as long as a single party controls both the Legislative and Executive branch of the government, there will be no oversight and whoever's in power (Democrats or Republicans) get a blank-check to do whatever they want.

That's why it's imperative that we elect Democratic members of congress this year. Click here to find your state Democratic party (click your state on the map graphic at the top of the page), and then find out what you can do to help remove some republicans from Congress. I'm no great fan of the Democratic party; they've done plenty of things I've disagreed with. This time, however, even those of us who support third-parties need to get an opposition majority into congress to stop this one-party rule.

I know, I know... I'd better be careful what I say. After all, the FBI is already reading my email and watching what I do online. Don't believe me? Click here!

Seriously, though, as the clock keeps ticking down on mad King George II's reign of error, things are getting nastier and nastier. Check out this woman in California who was fired from her job simply because she had a progressive talk-radio bumper sticker on her car. It's creepy how the conservo-bots keep forgetting little things like the constitution allows us to think and say whatever we want to. Oh wait, I forgot... the constitution's just a "piece of paper."

Remember, my friends, "all that evil requires to flourish is for good [people] to do nothing."

-Harold

Emerging From My Blog Guilt Spiral

Howdy everybody! Long long LOOONG time no talk!

You know how sometimes house-keeping will get away from you? You'll get busy for a few days and not get around to cleaning up after yourself... then a few more days will go by, and you'll think "I'll get to that soon..." and before you know it the house is SO messy that you don't know where to start, and the task seems insurmountable... and it just keeps getting messier and messier and you start to feel depressed over how messy your house is, even though all you need to do is start cleaning, and then you stop washing, and you sit in the corner of your bedroom rocking back and forth facing the wall and babbling to yourself!

Well, "blogging" can be like that. You get busy, and things happen that you keep meaning to post but you never seem to get to it. Before you know it, you're a month behind with lots of tales to tell, and you don't know where to begin.

Well, the only way to get the house cleaned is to start working on one room and spread out to the rest. The only way to get back on track blog-wise is to start writing and try to get back to point zero. So, with apologies for the rather haphazard nature of the material to follow, here's what's been going on the past few weeks:

(Want to know the truly pathetic part? I wrote that intro two weeks ago and saved it as a draft, meaning to publish this post that night... GOD I suck!)

>>Theatre:

It's been a busy month indeed theatrically. Trish opened Fiddler on the Roof at Mt. Hood Community College last Friday. The run-up to opening wasn't exactly a ball of fun... long rehearsals that started at 3PM mixed with some dance moves that, with rehearsing them over-and-over again, injured her neck. She managed to keep her neck pain in check, however, and they've been enjoying big audiences throughout the run. There are just two performances left - tonight at 8 and tomorrow at 2pm.

I got a call a couple weeks ago from the director of In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer at Northwest Classical Theatre Company. An actor who was cast in the show got another role at ART that forced him to drop out, and he recommended me to replace him (thanks Randy!). After a brief meeting with the director, I signed on to play David Tresell Griggs, one of the witnesses in the play (the play is a dramatization of a real event. In 1954 the Atomic Energy Commission decided to strip J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the Atomic Bomb, of his security clearance because of his "left leaning" views). It's a small part, but a good play. I don't mind telling you, it's hard dialogue to learn (especially stepping into the role with only three weeks of rehearsal before we open). The already dry and scientific language of the board-of-review hearings was translated into German for the original version of the play, then re-translated into English for the version we're putting on.

The themes that are brought forth in the course of the hearings, though, are very familiar. How much personal liberty are you willing to give up in the name of security? Do your personal associations determine your loyalty to your country? Is there such a thing as disloyal thought? If you guys get a chance to see it, I think you'll find the ideas it contains very relevant to some of the things we're going through in the US today. We open on Thursday, May 16 and run through Friday, April 15. Come on a Thursday or a Sunday matinee, and I'll actually get a cut of what you pay at the box-office (that's how we're getting paid for this little endeavors).

Finally, some of you may have heard about a play called My Name Is Rachel Corrie. It's a one-woman show adapted from the diaries, emails, and other writings by an Olympia, WA peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while she was protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes. The play was a big hit in London (Directed by Alan Rickman, to boot!), and the New York Theatre Workshop had planned a production in the United States for later this month, but then pulled the play from its schedule (many presume that they were afraid of protests by pro-Israeli groups).

Well, local playwright Francesca Sanders and Trish are going to produce a reading of the play on Thursday, May 16 at the St. Francis of Assisi church in SE Portland. You can click here for a digital flyer, and here for a press release on the reading. It's totally free, so if you want to find out what the big bad New York Theatre is scared to produce, come on by next Thursday.

>>TV & Film:

My auditions have cooled off a little bit, but Trish is still a pretty hot commodity in the TV & Film world. She's been cast in a Providence Health System industrial (a training video for their employees... sorry, unless you work for Providence you'll probably never see it), and her Yard and Garden Show commercial was in pretty heavy rotation this past month on KPTV, our local FOX affiliate.

I'm still getting out there, however... I had an audition for an infomercial on Thursday, and in coming weeks I'll be auditioning for a couple of short experimental films. The films don't pay anything, but they'd be good resume credits, good experience in front of the camera, and good material to add to my hopefully-growing-promotional reel.

>>Personal Notes (sorry, Dave Koz, for swiping your radio show's title)

On a somewhat related note, you may remember a previous 'blog entry wherein I mentioned that I'm trying to get to the gym more often. I've totally surprised myself by managing to get out there at least three times a week... for the past month-and-a-half... and durned if it's not beginning to show. I've dropped about 10 pounds (not that I was horribly overweight to begin with), and really firmed up.

And I'm not the only one... between all the dancing that Trish has been doing in Fiddler on the Roof and a concerted effort on her part to eat better she's lost close to 20 pounds. We're dwindling away together :)

The work on my body has been coupled with a new hair style. I got a call from my agent Kaili about a month ago. She told me that she'd heard from some local casting directors that the hair style I've been using for about ten years wasn't really working for me, and that I had, in fact, not gotten a job or two because of it (Yeah, I know. That sounds shallow, but that's the business). The word was "Short short short." So, I went to my lovely hair stylist Nancy at Infusion Salon and she and her husband Dean cooked up a new look for me. It's still going through some refinements, and this photo isn't exactly a professional shot... but it kind of gives you an idea of the transition:

Yeah, so, it's pretty different. Suffice it to say, I'm still learning how to work with it. I got the thumbs-up from one of our local casting directors at the infomercial audition on Thursday, however, so it must bsomewhatat closer to what they're looking for. Of course, a fit body and a trendy hair style aren't going to get me the work... but there's so little in this business that's under one's control. Generally, whether you get the job or not depends not on how wonderful an actor you are, but what the director is looking for on a given day (and you NEVER have any idea what this... heck, half the time the directors don't have any idea what they're looking for until it walks in through the door). It's always nice to feel like there are some aspects that you can have an effect on. So, I'll keep hittin' the gym, and keep refining the hair. I guess new head shots are on the horizon soon... Mr. Carey will be getting a big chunk of money from me.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!

>>Work: I have been busier than... something really busy in a particularly silly context ("one legged man in an ass-kicking contest" comes to mind, but I've never really thought that someone like that would be "busy," per se... I mean, he'd be on the ground after the first kick, right? I mean... Oh never mind).

Aside from the usual running from office to office, fixing computer problems as they develop, I've been doing a lot of web site work. My friend James Lawrence, for instance, wanted a web site to promote his ministerial services to couples looking to get married. So, he and I worked together to create

The Manhattan Monk I'm very pleased to say that James' site has been a success since it's been up. He's gotten lots of visits, and with a little cross-promotion with the Bravo Wedding Guide he's already booked two weddings for this coming summer.

I've also set up a new site for Robert J. McGaughey, one of my lawyer clients, and I re-designed a site for Doggy Duty, a service that provides "dog boxes" (boxes with artificial turf for dogs that aren't fortunate enough to have a big yard and a doggie door so they can go do their "business" whenever they need to).

And there's still more!!

>>Real Estate

After a long discussion with our financial advisor (Andy Pollack - a GREAT financiaadvisoror, in case anyone out there's looking for one), we came to the conclusion that it was time to sell the duplex. Between the fact that Trish and my lives have been getting busier and busier (I think the past three pages of 'blog can attest to that) and the very good chance that Portland's housing market is going to cool off in the next year or so, the time seemed right.

So, we met with our friend David Meyers (a local actor who's also an EXCELLENT realtor - he brokered the original deal on the duplex as well as our purchase of our current house), got the place inspected so we won't have any unpleasant surprises when someone makes the offer, and put the place on the market. Outenantsts were understandably concerned, but we're doing our best to find a buyer who'll want to keep both units rented (that is, after all, how you make money in the landlord business - with rented units).

So, there's plenty of work to be done, but it's on the market. Hey, you wanna buy an investment property? Give David a call!

So....

Can you see why I haven't had many spare moments to keep the 'blog updated? Now that I've got all that out of my system, I'll hopefully get back into a more normal schedule. Hopefully.

Until I get too busy again... Anyway, Hope you're all doing well!

-Harold