…and then it was February.

In this episode: Sea Shanty update, baby photos, Duke vs. UNC basketball, USA vs. Mexico soccer…

Sea Shanty Films stuff first:

MATT is still pounding the beat in Hollywood. He’s got some nice leads on scripts and agents and Hollywoody stuff like that. His writing for LA2Day magazine (which can be found at, well, La2Day.com obviously) is diverse - movies, music, theatre. A recent one on Nirvana generated tons of comments and replies…and may have single-handedly caused apoplectic seizures in every “Tool” fan in North America. See the site and just search for articles by Matthew Long.
In the works are a thriller and something else we’re carefully brainstorming and planning as the next Sea Shanty film. With technology like web cams, conference calls, Skype, conference call web camming, Word documents that track changes, screenwriting software, etc. - it’s really not much of a problem to co-write and plan and even do pre-production stuff from very long distances away.

BRIGHAM has been working on several projects small and large in Sea Shanty’s ancestral home at Pirate’s Cove Studios and Hydrotherapy-Massage Compound. He’s got DP, directing, editing, and a bunch of other fish in the frying pan.

MY most recent film work was not a Sea Shanty production, but with our friend and fellow filmmaker Jay Tyson (Manny the Pupeteer in X-GEN). His short feature “The Story of ONE” was screened at the “Puppet Parts Film Festival” just down the road from me in Austin, TX! I was just actor in this one…a very broad, funny, often silly comedy with a good heart to it.
I attended with 6 family members and got to experience again the bizarre, exhilharating fear of hearing and watching an audience of strangers watch me pretend to be someone else. As I communicated to Jay, we got a lot of laughs (some in places we wouldn’t have guessed), a very positive audience response, and praise from the festival director. Jay wants to juice things up with even more music and by adding in a few sequences he had to leave out due to the festival’s 30 minute limit.
Here’s me as “Roger” in his cube farm office…barely holding on…the part in my hair as severe as my personality:

In Non-Movie Business, there’s this small update:A BABY GIRL!

[ Click on the thumbnail to see full-size. ]

And here she is again looking slightly more human and less Rick Baker puppet-like:

[ Do not click on that photo, because if you do, she will grow even larger and eat you. ]

So there’s a baby in the house (read: small 2-bedroom apartment) now and a whole lot of pink stuff. More on that topic later. I’m learning to leave things for future posts so months don’t pass before I feel like writing anything.

Edifying Thoughts:
This WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 gives US soprts viewers the chance to watch two of the greatest rivalries in the Western Hemisphere. Both start at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central:
On ESPN: Duke vs. UNC basketball
On ESPN2: USA vs. Mexico soccer

USA-Mexico is big. Really big. Even when supposedly a “friendly,” it is huge and brutal and dramatic. We have owned Mexico over the past several years everywhere in the world *except* Mexico’s home stadium. We’re fielding a decent team as Bob Bradley tries different combinations - Mexico is doing the same. Not all the stars will be there for both teams, but neither is playing the “call up only unseasoned players so we have an excuse if we lose” tactic, either.
The game is in HOUSTON, so it will certainly be an “Away” game for the USA…and that’s not a joke or exaggeration. MORE ON THIS dynamic and the rivalry before Wednesday…I have some harsh things to say.

Duke-Carolina is widely considered the greatest rivalry in college sports. Having lived in Durham for 12 years worth of them, I’m not going to argue. This year should be epic - Duke is ranked #3 in the country (17-1 and undefeated in the ACC) and UNC is ranked #4 in the country after having been at #1 for months.

The only downside is having to look at big ol’ goofy Tyler Hansborough barge through people without getting called for fouls and hearing announcers like Billy Packer rave over this guy as they did last year”How great is Tyler Hansbrough?! And he’s ONLY A FRESHMAN!!!” Every game, all &$%*-ing year.

Well, yes…last year he was “only a freshman.” But he was ONLY A 21 year-old FRESHMAN !! Fine to recognize him as a great player, but give me a break with the “only a freshman/sophomore” nonsense. He played well last year as he barged through guys who, even as juniors were younger and less experienced than he was.

OK - got that off my chest.

Next time…which will be SOON!: USA-Mexico and something about PhD work (since it is actually what takes up 90% of my time…evidence on this blog notwithstanding).

This entry was posted on February 4, 2008 at 2:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.