Trish and Harold's Weblog

News, information, and random thoughts from the busy lives of Trish Egan and Harold Phillips.


Monday, July 24, 2006

Last Week Was Heavy, Man...

Hey folks

Been a bit since my last 'blog post so I thought I'd update you on what's been happening in Trish and my life. Last week started off nice and mellow... Friday was Trish's birthday, and we went out to see her brother Pete Bolliger play a gig at our favorite local wine bar, Why Not Wine. If you folks haven't been out there, it's a lovely place... a small, intimate atmosphere and a wine stock which is 100% local (the owner, Lindy, has never steered me wrong when recommending a wine to sip).

After a nice evening of wine, music, family and friends Trish and I packed the dogs in the car and went up to Long Beach, WA where our friend Sue has a beach house. We had a wonderful relaxing time Saturday through Monday hanging at the house, walking on the beach, and generally getting away from it all. Our friend Kate even came up and stayed the night on Saturday. Everything was mellow yellow.

Then, on Tuesday, things started to get exciting. I had one of my "standardized patient" performances that morning (I play "patients" for medical clinics and schools from time-to-time; I'll learn the "character" and symptoms of a patient and then improvise a visit with a practicioner. Good practice for them, and good improv practice for me!). I was playing a heroin addict at a local drug treatment center going through the introductory visit of a clinical trial the National Institute of Health is running.

As I was driving away, I got a call from Adrienne Flagg. She and Lorraine Bahr are co-producing a new play by Dan Trujillo called Jingle Spree at the Coho Theatre in October. I'd talked to Adrienne about auditioning for the play the previous week, but the auditions were going to be held while I was in Long Beach. So, I'd pretty much written the project off... until I got her call. They thought they'd cast the show, but one of the people they'd cast dropped out. So, she asked me to come out to the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center on Saturday to read the play with the rest of the cast... and I might just have a part waiting for me. I'd read some samples of the play on Dan Trujillo's web site, and was pretty excited about the project.

When I got home and told Trish the "good news" (we were actually planning on cleaning out our garage Saturday, so she may not have considered my disappearing for a three-hour read through such "good news") the phone rang. It was Nicholas Hagen, a local film director. I'd auditioned for a new film of his, entitled The Lonely Apocolypse, in April. I didn't get the part I'd auditioned for, but they kept me in mind "for future projects." Well... the future project ended up being a different part in the same film. They had an actor slated to play a sheriff in two scenes of the film (now re-titled Dark Horizon), but a last-minute conflict popped up, and he couldn't shoot his scenes. So, they called me... to shoot a scene in Woodland Washington at 8am the next morning. EEEK! Needless to say, I hit the sack early.

I got up at around 4 on Wednesday morning so I had time to look over the script and get on the road to Woodland by 6 (as it turned out, it was only a half-hour drive, so I didn't need to get up that early... but at least I wasn't late! :) ) . I had breakfast in Woodland while I waited for the crew at our rally point and looked over my lines again. Once everyone had assembled at the Woodland Chevron we drove to the staging area, got into wardrobe and makeup, and then drove to the location of the shoot.

The sheriff I play ("Officer Warren") actually appears at the end of the film... I'm the sort of "Deus ex Machina" who explains what's been going on during the film. Even though this was only Nick's third day of filming, they were filming this scene for the end of the movie (doing things out of sequence isn't that uncommon on film shoots - the order the scenes are shot in is often determined by the availability of the players and the availability of the locations, rather than the order the scenes will end in for the finished film). The shoot took a half-day; it consisted of my driving a truck across a covered bridge, noticing someone, stopping and getting out. Well, ok, it consisted of more than that... but you'll have to see the movie when it comes out. :)

I still have one more day of shooting scheduled, on Sunday August 6. This time the shoot is in Ridgefield, WA (just off of I-5). They're blocking off a street in the center of town, so it'll be an early morning shoot - 4am - 12pm. Fun fun fun!

After the shoot, I drove back to Portland for an appointment (because of the last-minute nature of the scheduling I had to push a couple of day-job appointments around in my schedule). From there it was off to OPB for a broadcast of Oregon PM Live on the Golden Hours Network. Then, immediately after the broadcast I had to hustle to Northwest Children's Theatre to audition for their upcoming production of The Witches (from Roald Dahl's famous children's book). Given the early morning and the rush-around-nature of the day, I don't think I was at my best for the audition... If it had been a perfect world I would have had time to decompress in between projects so I was fresher.

Thursday was mostly a catch-up day for computer consulting appointments. Like I said earlier, I had to move some things around on my schedule Wednesday to make room for the Dark Horizon shoot... I spent a lot of time on the road. When I got home, however, I had another piece of good news waiting for me: I got called back for a promotional DVD I auditioned for a couple of weeks ago. Again, I hadn't heard anything so I'd written this project off... but it looks like the part hadn't been cast, and they were still looking for that "right person." Thankfully, I was still one of the choices :)

I shot on down to the casting agent's office the following morning (Friday) for my callback. Checking my email afterward, I found that I had another audition scheduled on Saturday for a film called Whiskey Marine, produced by a group of Art Institute of Portland students. The film is about surrealist artist Max Ernst and, fittingly, it's going to be very surreal. The part the director wanted me to audition for was Max's father, who will appear in the film at different periods in Max's life (I'm not sure whether he'll really "exist" in the world of the film, or whether he'll be an apparation... like I say, it's a pretty surreal film).

So, Saturday ended up being pretty full. I had the Whiskey Marine audition at noon, the read-through of Jingle Spree at 1 (it went very well... Adrienne and Lorraine were very happy and added me to the cast), we headed to Beaverton for my - achem - grandson's birthday party at 3 (actually, it's Trish's son Jesse's girlfriend's son Duncan... but he's dubbed me "G-dude" - yeah, the "G" stands for Grandpa - so now I have a "grandson" at 35), and then we went to see Pete play a show at Why Not Wine at 8:30.

Boy, was I happy not to have anything scheduled for Sunday!

Anyway... that's what's been going on my life. Or, at least, what went on last week. I'm both excited and nervous to see what this week is going to be like.

Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold

Thursday, July 13, 2006

John Stewart Talks About Ted Stevens Talking About The Internet

Hey folks

You may remember my earlier post about Ted Stevens' Senate floor speech about his vision of the internet (as it currently is) and why we need to give big telecommunications companies control of it.

The Save The Internet Coalition sent me this message through my MySpace account this morning... check out the links below (especially you Alaskans. God GOD I'm glad Stephens isn't my Senator any more. Of course, I have to put up with Gordon Smith, who's not that much better...)

Thursday, July 13, 2006

During last nights Daily Show, Jon Stewart questioned Senator Ted Stevens grasp of the Internet, calling into doubt the telecommunications legislation that bears the Senators signature.

To clarify Net Neutrality, Stewart goes to Stevens dump truck-tubes symposium, a 10-minute monologue in support of the Senators own anti-Net Neutrality bill. Check out the show:

Stewart on Stevens

Why didnt Senator Stevens get it? asks Stewart. Well youll have to watch the clip for the Daily Show hosts interpretation. Hey, why should the good Senator have to understand an Internet when theres an army of telco lobbyists on hand to define it for him?
To find out where your senator stands on Net Neutrality, visit our Senate Map.


Of course you all know how passionate I am about this net neutrality issue. Right now the smallest business or 'blog has equal standing on the internet with the biggest companies and press outlets. The Internet as it currently stands is a truly equal free-speech zone, where everyone's opinions get heard equally. If this bill passes (and, of course, Bush will sign it), big companies can pay the internet service providers to have upgraded standing. If I weren't to pay the Comcast version of "protection money" to get my site listed on thecompany's "preferred customers" list, for instance, and someone searched for my name, they'd be perfectly free to direct that search to this guy (assuming he DID pay for the priveledge).

This changes the open-information-value of today's internet, and gives the telecommunications companies the keys to the information superhighway. If this bill goes forward, the ability for a small business to compete with a big one goes away. The ability for dissenting views not in line with Management's editorial policy is obliterated. It needs to be stopped. Check the map above - see where your Senator stands on the issue, and then call him. Let him know how you feel. Remember, squeaky wheels do get grease.

-Harold

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Flying solo on Golden Hours

Hey folks

Been a bit since I updated you on what's going on in Trish and my life... we've been fairly busy with auditions over the past few days, and I've been keeping my plate full with my computer work around town.

Wanted to let you know about a couple of specific things:

** As the title suggests, I'm going to be anchoring this evening's Oregon PM Live broadcast on the Golden Hours Network without regular host Duane Hanson. Duane is off in Eastern Oregon shooting an a show for CourtTV, so it's up to me to produce and host the show. Trish is going to join me, though, so I won't be ENTIRELY alone. For those of you who don't know, Golden Hours is broadcast on the SAP channel of OPB's (our local PBS affiliate - Channel 10 here in Portland) regular programming. You can hear Trish and I from 6 - 8 (PST) by tuning your television to OPB and choosing the SAP option in its audio configuration... or you can listen to an internet stream by clicking here.

** I've almost completed shooting my scenes for Sum of The Parts. We shot a very odd scene in a park in Southwest Portland on Sunday, and I've got one more scene to shoot on Thursday. Then, all I have left to do us ADR looping. Raymond Steers, the director, plans to have the film finished and ready to be shown sometime around the end of August (post production time would usually take much longer, but the marjority of the film has already been shot and rough-cut together). I'll let you know when the premier is scheduled.

** Trish's Brother Pete Bolliger will be playing his guitar on July 14 & 15 at Why Not Wine, a lovely little wine bar that Trish and I like to go to in Portland's Montevilla neighborhood. It's a warm, intimate little place that only serves Northwest wines and has live music most weekends. Stop on by and check the place out - it's located at SE 79th and Stark. Trish and I will be there on the 14th (Pete starts playing around 9:30) sipping a couple of glasses ourselves to celebrate Trish's birthday. Hope we see you there!

Ok, that's it for now... gotta run! Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

These People Are Deciding The Fate of Your Internet

God, I can't believe Ted Stevens used to be my Senator. I'm even MORE ashamed to say that my current Senator, Gordon Smith, broke the tie in the Commerce Committee to allow this bill to head for the full Senate floor. Sigh...

Read On... and find out what kind of tubes YOUR internet comes through!

What's the deal? Why do I care? Click here.

It somehow seems appropriate, on the Fourth of July, to point out that this country is not a land mass. It's not a group of people. It's not a flag. It's certainly not a President. This country is an idea. As we celebrate the brith of the United States of America, lets take a pause in between fireworks and barbecues to consider that we were founded on these principals:


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security...


But then, I finally saw V for Vendeta last night. Maybe I've just got Revolution on the brain...

Have a happy and safe Independence Day, everyone!

-Harold

Monday, July 03, 2006

Happy Fourth, Everyone...

...Even if it is a day early.

In honor of this explosive holiday, please enjoy this little science experiment. I promise no one got their hands blown off by gunpowder (but they did get really really wet).

My friend Jill also sent this story from New Orleans... "Transvestite Gang Pesters Magazine Street." God bless America, eh?

My brother-in-law Pete is in town for the next couple of days. We've sort of become his defacto "managers" as he pursues small guitar gigs here in Portland. We set up a MySpace Profile for him last night, and once he gets some music recorded we'll post some songs on his soon-to-be-built web site at http://www.petebolliger.com.

That's pretty much what's going on in our lives right now... oh, I've run into a little scheduling crunch with the two films I'm doing right now. How Important Moments In My Life Would Have Been Different Had I Been Shot Twice In The Stomach was supposed to shoot yesterday, but one of the actors got cast in, like, a real paying movie and stuff :) So, the shoot day had to be rescheduled... to next Sunday, when I'm supposed to be shooting a scene for Sum Of The Parts. Now I have to contact Ray, that film's director, to see if we can bump the shoot day to make room for the other one... oh, my life is so hard. We should all have such bad luck, right? Balancing the schedules of my many movie shoots? Your eyes are welling up with tears as you read this, I'm sure.

Ok, that's pretty much it... have a happy 4th of July tomorrow.

-Harold