Back On The Treadmill

Hey folks

Just have a few minutes this morning to update you all on what's been happening... it's funny, the first part of the year started out a bit slow. Well, not slow, per se, but the pace was measured and regular. There was plenty of time for everything, and lots of moments to stop chill before embarking on the next project.

Then, all of a sudden, it seems the universe has shifted a bit and I'm back on the run again. The astrologically inclined among you will nod knowingly and say "Well, Mercury is in retrograde..." and I suppose that's as good an explanation as any. It doesn't keep me from sitting back in wonder, though, at the cyclical nature of my life... slow one week then raging-busy the next.

I could tell the winds were shifting last week when things started heating up in the day-job realm... projects started coming due at the same time, clients started having strange and hard-to-explain issues with their computers... you know, the stuff I'm usually there to fix anyway - but this was one of those time periods when the wierd stuff all happend at the same time.

Added to that were preparations for my weekend shoot with Rebecca Rodriguez and Drink Me Pictures for their video series to be shown at March's OEN Conference.

And re-writing the patient profile I'll be using for my corporate role-playing gig with OHSU/OrNode... I'm meant to be playing a meth addict who's been placed into treatment, but the case I'm using was actually written for the meth addict's abused wife. So, there was a lot of re-thinking and re-writing of the case... and then research into meth addict behavior and the physical effects of the drug.

And then there was our next-to-the-last weekend of Dead of Winter at Performance Works Northwest (the audiences keep building, even in the face of a less than stellar review in the Willamette Week - if you want to come see the show before it closes next Saturday, be sure to head to http://www.theblustockings.com/ and make a reservation; it's not inconceivable that we'll sell out).

This weekends shoot went wonderfully... Rebecca and her producing partner Steve Herring are a blast to work with, and they have a firm idea of what they want while still giving their performers the freedom to bring their own ideas to the table. I think the videos are going to bring a lot of laughs; Rebecca has found a way to make the process of "pitching" investors for venture capital funny.

Between Dead of Winter's evening shows and the shoot's early call times, though, I was pretty tired when Sunday rolled around... and looking at the week ahead, I'm feeling more weary already. This week I have to:

• Finish the OEN shoot today
• Start the run of intake interviews for the OHSU/OrNode job
• Get my car re-registered (sigh... that time of year again)
• Meet with my tax preparer on Friday (double-sigh... see above :) )
• Memorize three characters in seven scripts for an indy audition I have on Sunday

Plus, you know... try to have something approximating a home life with Trish :) Oh, and finish a bunch of web projects for the day-job. Oh, and make office calls during the day when people have computer problems. Oh, and sleep :)

But here's the really wacky part of it all... I'm not complaining! Not one bit; in fact, I'm loving the craziness of the schedule and the challenge of fitting it all in and doing well at my assorted tasks. Maybe it's the mix of my type-A father and my mother's Quaker upbringing... maybe I'm just a loon... but I'm happier with my time filled than I am with it empty, and I wouldn't trade the life I live for any other. Besides, look at what's keeping me so busy - I'm not running all over for "the man" like the proverbial chicken-with-my-head-cut-off... I'm balancing all these projects for myself, doing what I want to do FOR myself. That's the trade-off to being self-employed (both in the acting and day-job fields); it's a "beast and famine" kind of life.

I'm just really thankful for my Treo to help me keep everything straight.

Maybe Mercury and I just get along really well together...

Hope you all have a good week. I may wave as I run past :)

-Harold

A Scary/ Funny Valentine...

... and for once, I'm not talking about MY show (though tickets are still available and Thursdays are pay-what-you will night, so come on down)!

My good friend Bostin Christopher from college (and, heck, from high school if you want to get right down to it) is starring in a new movie that's coming out soon on DVD. He just posted the trailer for Otis on his MySpace page... check it out!

It looks like a hoot! And what a perfect time to release the trailer... Valentines day is such a sweet day to kidnap a prom date, don't you think?

Hope you all have a lovely Valentines Day. Try and get your dates the "traditional" way, huh? :)

-Harold

Still Breathing... Showings on the Horizon!

Hey folks

I just got word from Skyler Stever that How to Breathe, a short film I appear in briefly, will be showing at Salem Oregon's Mid-Valley Video Festival this Saturday, February 16th a 5:00 pm.

Looking at the festival schedule, I notice that a feature film I did with director Nicholas J. Hagen (who recently won the MySpace Storyteller Challenge and landed a development deal with Fox), Dark Horizon, is also slated to show at the festival on the same day at 9:00 pm.

Both showings will take place at the Northern Lights Theater Pub, located at 3893 Commercial St SE in Salem. I'll have a Dead of Winter performance that evening, so I won't be able to attend... but if you're in the Salem-area and looking for something to do, drop on by the showings and take a look.

Speaking of Dead of Winter, the word is getting around about the show. We had a sell-out performance on Saturday (in fact, people had to be turned away at the door). We only run for two more weeks (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00pm; doors open at 7:30 and there is no lobby, so don't get there too early...), and Portland audiences are notorious for waiting until the last weekend of a run to see shows. Don't make that mistake with this one! Performance Works Northwest only holds about 40 people, and if we're already selling out this early in the run tickets are just going to be harder to get. Pop by http://www.theblustockings.com/ and reserve your tickets today, while you still can!

Like the photo, by the way? It was taken backstage at Performance Works Northwest by the lovely and talented Reba Kenison who's also in the shot. She said she like photos of squishy faces, so I gave her the best I could... and the camera somehow survived!

The majority of this week is going to be spent prepping for a corporate role-playing gig (I'm playing a meth addict for OHSU/ OrNode to help them assess the intake and interview procedures for a clinical trial they're starting up) and preparing to shoot some videos with Drink Me Pictures that will be shown at the upcoming OEN Conference in March... it's going to be a busy busy week!

Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold

Creeeeeeepy...

(Thanks for posting the photo, Steve...)

Possible captions:

1) McCain pledges to conservatives that he will suckle at the teat of incompetence.

2) "Hold me daddy... don't make me pick that nutball Huckabee as my running mate..."

3) "Mmmmmmm... Prince Bandar will have to get closer in your next photo-op to top this!"

Dead Critics, A New DVD, and Other Bits

Hey folks

It's our first night back performing Dead of Winter after our four days off... the house is small, but it's good to be back in the groove. Thankfully, the kind folks who run Performance Works Northwest were good enough to share their WIFI key with me, so I can check email and blog when I'm not on stage (lets hear it for the 21st century, huh?).

The show got a good review on Followspot, the Portland-area theater blog, as well as a very kind comment about our inaugural preview performance. We're hoping that the audiences will continue to grow as we get further into the run... though Trish and I were a little dismayed when we opened up this week's Willamette Week to find that 20 shows are up and currently running!! That's a heck of a lot of competition!

So, if you're in Portland, do stop in and see us, and spread the word!

A couple other morsels to share with you while I wait for my scene change...

>> You might remember that back in August I appeared in a film that was part of the 48 Hour Film Competition called Secret Identity Crisis. The genre assigned to us was "Super Hero," and our writing and directing team came up with a really good take on the form... a very unexpected take! Scott Cummins, our director, wasn't able to get the film finished in time for the competition's deadline (missed it by that much!), but it was a real standout among the films that were shown as part of our "group."

I got a Christmas present from Scott Cummins in the mail - a completely packaged, re-cut version of the film (he tightened it up quite a bit from the version he frantically cut together for the competition). The DVD has both versions, actually, as well as behind the scenes featurettes, a making-of documentary... it's kind of funny when you consider it's a 7 1/2 minute film shot over the course of about 20 hours.

Anyway, Scott is now offering the DVD on his web site at http://www.riverscapepictures.com. For $10 you can have the film that was the talk of 2007's 48 Hour Competition... or would have been if it had been finished on time :) Don't buy it because you expect to see a lot of me, though... I appear briefly at the beginning of the film (my chacter's name was "Innocent Bystander #2..." that'll give you an idea of how much screen time I have); buy it because it'll be good for a laugh (and trust me, it will be).

>> Bad news for Australian Harold Phillips... or, rather, for the bank he held up and the police officer whose arm he broke! We Harold Phillipses are gonna start getting a reputation unless something is done! Thank you Google News Alerts for keeping me informed of my international doppelgangers' infamy!

>> Finally, be kind and forward this link to "that special someone" in your address book who is quick to hit the "forward-to-all" button whenever s/he gets an email about a killer virus, a child abducted in Tennessee, Barak Obama's Muslim upbringing, or what have you... personally, I think all internet browsers should come with this page automatically bookmarked:

Snopes.com's 25 Hottest Urban Legends

We all know someone who will send "urgent emails" out to their entire address books about the "Life is Beautiful Virus," "Starbuck's Vendetta Against US Troops," or Aladdin telling kids to "Take Off Your Clothes" in Disney's movie. Do us ALL a favor and let that person know about http://www.snopes.com.... and before you forward that email claiming that Bill Gates will give you money, check it yourself, too!

The funny thing about this page, though, is how old some of the "Top 25" are... and they're STILL being circulated. Sigh...

Time to go change the set... hope you're all doing well!

-Harold

THE DEAD LIVE (and other little nuggets)

Howdy everyone

Just a couple of items to share today...


>>Dead of Winter opened last night to a mostly-full house, and things went GREAT! Thursday's preview, which was pretty well attended, went all right... though I felt my energy in Whitechapel was more than a little bit "down..." Friday, on the other hand, fixed that and we came out of the gate swinging.

The house for opening was almost full, helped by the fact that we were mentioned in the Oregonian's Top Five things to see this weekend, and a radio interview on KBOO with our playwright Steve and some of The Bluestockings company members.

And at least one person on Followspot, our local theater review blog, seems to think our opening "Rocked." :)

Now we're off and running... we'll be playing at 8pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until February 23rd. Come on out and see us if you get the chance! Tickets are cheaper if you buy them ahead of time at http://www.theblustockings.com/ ($10 in advance, $12 at the door); be sure not to show up before 7:30 pm, though. There's no lobby area at Performance Works Northwest, so until the doors open at 7:30 you'll have to stand outside in the cold and the rain (and nobody likes that...). Hope we see you there!

>> In Lady Wasteland News, director Mark Roush recently sent word around that the first seven pilot episodes have reached a half-million hits worldwide! In a recent blog post on AliveNotDead.com, Mark says:

"Work in progress for the wasteland consists of thus: We're in talks with a production company about turning the series into a television show, we're actively looking to bring on a development partner for the series to expand our business and new episodes are being worked on a daily basis."

So, we'll see where that goes... keep talking up the series to people who may no know about it...

>>Oh, yeah, Giggity Giggity Giggity

A couple weeks ago I auditioned for a series of videos that are going to be shown at the The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network conference in March. I got a call from Steve Herring at Drink Me Pictures last week letting me know that they want me to play a part in one of the shorts.

From the way Rebecca Rodriguez, the director, describes the videos (I didn't get a chance to see a script at the audition), they're going to be pretty funny... I'll be bringing a little white-guy hip-hop "flava" to them. We'll be shooting the videos later this month - when I get my copy I'll be sure to post them in the Video section of http://www.haroldphillips.net/. They should be pretty funny.

>> As if MySpace and Facebook aren't enough of a time-sinc in my life, now there are two more networking sites I'm part of... these focused on Oregon filmmaking. http://www.oregonmedianetwork.org/ is a great networking site that just launched for people working in the film and television industry here in our fair state... and http://www.portlandfilm.org/ is a networking site for portland filmmakers. Check 'em out.

I've also started using Skype every once in a while... after a phone call with my friend Kert up in Alaska, I finally got off my butt and downloaded it. It's a great program that allows people to talk for free over the internet. If you'd like to save on long distance and don't mind sitting at your computer and talking to your friends, check it out. You'll find me at Haroldphillips1.

>> Finally, January was a busy month for other Harold Phillipses... A while back, on a lark, I set up a Google News Alert for my name (without being TOO self-serving, my name does occasionally show up in newspaper reviews, etc... and I like to know when an article shows up about me). It's really pretty easy - just visit http://news.google.com/, and search for a topic (like your name). Then, once the results are displayed, scroll down to the bottom of the left-hand navigation links. You'll see an envelope icon with a link to "News Alerts." Set up a Google account, and new articles with your name will be emailed to you.

Now, ya know, I haven't done anything particularly newsworthy of late (though Dead of Winter may just garner a mention or two in reviews)... but OTHER Harold Phillipses have been busy. Check these items out:

• Kansas City Councilman Harold Phillips had some important votes: Liberty Adopts New Goals
• Douglas County (Oregon) Fairground Director Harold Phillips had a good month: Fair Picks Up State, Regional Awards; He's a little unhappy about the lack of hotel development near the fairground, though: Fairgrounds Hotel Deadline Comes and Goes
• A Harold Phillips in Missouri, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Missouri, is doing the lord's work in Kenya - good for him! Recent Violence May Not Hinder Scheduled Trips to Kenya

This month isn't starting off too well for us Harold Phillipses, though... check out what I got in my email today:

• Pricey Home Near Windermere Destroyed By Fire
• Fire Rips Through Windermere Home

Well, to be fair, he's doing better than his neighor!

Ok, sure, this is all kind of silly. It is interesting, though... there are many many people out there who share our names, and they all lead different and varried lives (even this one!) Their lives really have no bearing on ours per se... but it's kind of a hoot to get an email saying that "I'm" in trouble with the law, or winning some award for city planning, or... whatever. Give it a shot yourself - you might find that another "you" will start your day off with a smile!

And on that note... time to get in the shower and head to the show. Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold