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