There was a time…

… it seems so long ago. When I had the time to blog each day; to share little games with you all, or random thoughts about this and that. I’d talk about the good movies I’d recently seen… ah those were halcyon days.

Nowadays, I’m lucky if I get one entry done per week, with quick updates on Trish and my progress. Like this one.

Not to worry, those mellow yellow days will return once more… sometime in the future (heck, Jingle Spree closes on November 18, and that’ll open up a fair amount of time right here). Meanwhile, here’s what’s been happening:

>> Frequent visitors to the blog will notice that I had to re-set the Buddy Counter… the little bastard got out again on Sunday while Trish and I were both at our respective Matinees (The Witches for Trish Jingle Spree for I), and Trish’s brother Pete was watching my show. I had to rush home after the show to help look for him… which was a pity, since I was supposed to go to a cast member’s house to hang with Jingle Spree playwright Dan Trujillo. After a couple of hours of fruitless searching, he showed up on his own in the front yard – fatter than when he left, as usual.

>> Speaking of Jingle Spree, we got another review. This time in the Willamette Week (the first listing we’ve had in that paper, even after running for two weeks). This review isn’t as complimentary as the Oregonian Review from last week… but the critic’s main complaint was about the script, not the work we were doing on stage. I guess that’s something.

>> Shot a scene in a short film for Noah Stanik on Sunday… it was a bloody good time. "Bloody" because I sliced my thumb with a razor that morning while I was shaving. No big deal, thought I… I’ll just stick a band-aid on my thumb and hit the road. Unfortunately, one of my tasks during the day’s shoot was to put an eviction notice against a plate-glass window (showing the notice to a boy inside a house). This meant that I needed to be band-aid free, because the camera was behind me. No problem, thought I… the cut was all closed up by now.

Nope. After the first shot, we realized that my thumb was leaving bloody streaks on the back of the paper which were VERY visible to the camera. Luckily, they had a second eviction notice prepped. I spent the rest of the morning keeping pressure on my thumb in between takes, and then carefully putting my thumb in the EXACT SAME PLACE on the paper each time to avoid leaving streaks. I was pretty successful for the most part, and Noah seemed very happy with the way the scene turned out. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what it looks like when he’s done with the post-production.

>> I’m not seeing too much of Trish these days because of her shooting schedule for the film The New Scarf (a Late Bloomer Production). She auditioned for this film a couple of months ago, and was pretty disappointed when they cast someone else (she really is perfect for the part, if I do say so myself). Then, this past week, producer Wendy Jo Downing contacted her and told her that the woman they’d cast had dropped out. The film is shooting this weekend, and they were (obviously) in a bind… and the offered the part to Trish.

Well, of course, Trish took it. Unfortunately, this project is making her already full schedule (between day and evening performances of The Witches and evening rehearsals for Inspecting Carol) start to slop over the rim; she’s now got every single moment of the day filled with one of these three projects. Thankfully, the film will be in the can after this weekend, and The Witches closes Sunday so she’ll get some breathing room soon.

So… that’s pretty much what’s been going on in our lives. Things are pretty crazy right now, but they’ll mellow out after this weekend… I’d better sign off and get some sleep – I’ve got an audition in Eugene in the morning.

Hope you’re all doing well…

-Harold