And The Tide Rushes In...

Hey everyone - as so often happens, my grand plan to fill you in on Trish and my crazy life went a little awry... I was hoping to get this post done last week, but things got in the way. After the craziness of yesterday's 4th of July, though (more on that in a moment), Trish and I are enjoying a nice mellow morning on the back yard swing with the water running to cool the air down... so I thought I'd take a few minutes to let you in on what's been shakin.'

The blog title, while it calls to mind a song on Justin Hayward and John Lodge's wonderful 1975 album Blue Jays, is pretty evocative of the feeling around Casa de Trish & Harold these days. Those of you following me on Twitter have probably seen notes over the past month about auditions I've gone out on. The first part of the month was, frankly, pretty slow... more than a few auditions that I felt pretty good about, but no bookings were coming my way. Things were so slow, in fact, that when the opportunity presented itself to take an inexpensive cruise up Alaska's Inside Passage (that's a whole separate blog post I'll get to in the next little bit), we went ahead and booked it. What the heck, we thought... nothing much else going on...

You can see where this is headed, I'm sure - soon after booking our tickets, the bookings started rolling in. Nothing that'll conflict with the cruise (well, almost nothing... again, I'll touch on that in a moment), but suddenly, our July and August are filled to the brim! It's the natural ebb and flow of our business, I guess... that's why it's so important to keep your savings account full (to deal with the slow times) and your schedule open (to deal with the torrent of last-minute additions). Anyway, with that big long preface... here's what's lined up':

>> As you know, I've been talking about building a home voice studio for a quite a while. The pheonomenal Marc Rose helped me pick out some equipment from a great company called Musician's Friend (based, as it turns out, in Oregon!), and over the past couple months I've been constructing a plywood box in my garage to house my little voice nook... or at least I've been gathering supplies and making plans. The whole construction part of the project, however, kept getting put off... until, that is, my buddy Mercedes recommended me for a voice job, and the producers contacted me asking for an audition track. That really kicked me into high gear, so I spent about eight hours putting humpty dumpty together... and voila! My little studio was born. Seems to have worked out ok, since the voice track I recorded actually got me the job. I can't tell you much about it (I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before recording), but it's a travel piece that everyone will be able to hear when it's finally out of post-production. Now that the studio is finished, I've been sending out more voice auditions as the opportunities present themselves... and I might even get Trish into the box with me to do a little recording of her lovely pipes!

>> As I mentioned above, not a lot was happening at the beginning of the month. I'd gone out on more than a few auditions, but nothing had yielded much fruit... or so I thought. As the month progressed a lot of the projects I'd written off contacted me to tell me that I did, actually, book a part them - even if it wasn't the part I auditioned for! Here's a quick run-down:

• I'll be playing a small part (the member of a corporate board) in a TV pilot for a new comedy called Nick Bradley Might Be An Alcoholic. The pilot films in late July.


• I'll be playing another small partin the independent feature Little Blue Pill, which also films in late July. I'll be playing a detective in one scene towards the end of the film.


• I'll be appearing in a viral video for a new Cisco Systems networking product - I'd thought that I lost this job to another actor who I really respect in town, but it turns out he wasn't available for the revised shoot dates, so they came to me. Hey, I don't mind being the number two choice... when number one can't do the gig :)


• I'll be playing ANOTHER detective in a new web series... again, I've signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can't tell you much about it - we're referring to the series by the code name "Viral PDX" for the time being. I can tell you that the two pilot scripts I've read are amazing, that the crew producing the series are top-notch, and that the lovely Trish Egan plays a major part in the series. You're really going to want to watch this one... when I can tell you more about it!


• Finally, I'll be part of a new theater piece I'm helping to develop at Artists Repertory Theater by playwright Susan Banyas. Tentatively titled "The Hillsboro Project," the play focuses on an event in Hillsboro Ohio that was an early test to the seminal Brown vs. Board of Education case that forced desegregation of public schools in the US. It's a very powerful piece, and makes great use of movement, music and video. I'm very excited to be part of it!
  

So... that's the nutshell description of what's going on at the moment... from zero - to - sixty in just a week, it seems. Trish and I are going to be heading down to Salem to spend a little time with her family today (it's her brother Rich's birthday... sure wish he could be here to celebrate it with us!). I'll try to write a little more detail on some of these projects as time allows - hopefully I'll get another post in before we head to Alaska.

If not... well... I hope you're all doing well!

-Harold