Hey folks, guess who's going to be on TV tonight... That would be me. I'll be a guest on Richard Rants from 8 to 9pm on San Francisco Cable Access channel 29. I'll tape it and have some streaming clips (if I get to say anything good or don't look too bad on TV) for those outside of San Francisco.

Finally, Terri Schiavo gets to rest in peace. As if being in a vegetative state for 15 years isn't bad enough, being used as a prop for political masturbation by the right while in that state is even worse. If there is any cosmic justice, her ghost will torment the Bush family for all of eternity. And speaking of Bush, what will the republicans do now to pander to the nutjob religious right in order to divert attention from their bloodbath in Iraq, their scheme to turn social security into Wall Street's personal casino, or their appointments of every last scary neoconservative to positions for which they aren't even qualified? Paging Janet Jackson, your nipple's presence is requested at a major sporting event.

Holy crap! More music downloads than you can shake a stick at!

Looking through my referers today, I found the usual searches for a whole variety of things and people who have "gone bad," but I also found something far more disturbing. Who on earth would want to look at pictures of Ilsa She Wolf of the SS Ann Coulter in a thong??? What the hell is wrong with you people? I don't even bother reporting what that skanky republican fluffer says anymore, but Exit Stage Left has an interesting take on her thoughts on the Terri Schaivo rabid right wing hypocrisy-fest case. As usual, she's embraced another embarassing piece of American history to lamely try to make her point.

Not only is it Friday today, but it's Good Friday. I've never understood why the day an angry mob nailed a guy to a cross would be considered to be good, but then again I don't understand how people can take a book written a couple thousand years ago and translated from several languages to suit the needs of the ruling classes at face value. Exactly 15 years ago today, I was in the Vatican on the last day of a school trip to Italy. This one guy, let's call him Darren, who had been a pain in everyone's ass the entire trip had gotten really smashed on a bad combination of beer, wine, hard liquor and espresso and he had started throwing up before we even rolled into St. Peter's Square. Despite having had this guy get on all of our nerves from before we even got on the plane at JFK, we still tried to get him to be OK enough not to miss the Sistene Chapel, but he made it about a block before he was back on the sidewalk puking his guts out. But enough about him for now. Michaelangelo's ceiling was just amazing, and I was lucky enough to be there with my favorite art teacher who was pointing out all these details that made it even more amazing. We got out and Darren was waiting for us with a story about how a dog had come over to him and started licking up his vomit which just made him vomit more. He was the only practicing Catholic in our group, so we made sure to let him know that puking in the Vatican on Good Friday was a definite one-way ticket straight to hell. He had seen that there was a McDonald's in Rome and really wanted to go. We're in the country that invented Italian food and this guy wants Mickey D's, and it being good Friday, he had a filet o' fish. Anyway, since it's Friday and since I haven't posted a whole lot lately, and since I just finished it last night, I would like to present to my dear readers, A Guy Walks Into a Bar (15mb Quicktime). Enjoy!

Yeah, I've been pretty non-prolific on the old blog as of late. Part of that is because I picked up Max Payne in the discount games rack at Target and have been playing it nonstop. It's an older game, but it's new to me and it's really well done. It's like being immersed into a film noir comic book, and unlike many video games out there, it is completely unpredictable. And I feel much less like a sociopath playing that than I did playing Vice City (which is still oh-so-much fun!). I've also been doing some freelance work, and I'm still putting the finishing touches on A Guy Walks Into a Bar. I should be done with that really soon and as promised I will be posting it here once it's done. I've also been pretty uninspired to write about current events (at least events that don't involve protests over Foghat songs). I've definitely reached my outrage threshold with Bush Term II: The Fascist Boogaloo. When congress held their weekend pander-fest over Terry Schiavo, I didn't even get mad. I just shrugged my shoulders and considered it par for the course. There was also an anti-war protest this weekend and I didn't even bother going. I think I'm all protested out, and I find it somewhat masturbatory to protest in San Francisco anyway. You can't throw a rock in this city without hitting 5 people who are against the war and the rest of Bush's foul agenda. We should just pass something through the city council stating that we as a city are in a perpetual state of protest against the war and anything else that Bush has to do with so we can spare ourselves having to go out, wave signs and listen to ANSWER's speakers rant on about every topic regardless of the relevance to the actual protest. And while we're at it, why not set up a collection to send Frank Chu to join the permanent protest in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House? They've never even heard of the 12 Galaxies in DC.

Given the state of politics right now, it's good to hear stories of student activism like this. Take it easy.

Fire up your grill, get out the barbecue sauce, whip up your favorite marinade... today is International Eat an Animal for PETA day (via freakgirl)! I'm not usually one for events designed just to offend one organization (unless it's a right wing organization, that is), But PETA have to be the most obnoxious group out there. They are an embarrassment to the progressive left. I have nothing against folks who are into animal rights (though I think that there are slightly more important human issues that they should be focusing on, especially with Bush Term II: The Fascist Boogaloo going on), but there are organizations who work on these issues without comparing eating meat to the Holocaust or making fun of people with cancer. So, if you want to learn about the truly cruel conditions in the meat industry and what you can do about it without being bombarded with obnoxia, check out Compassion Over Killing instead of PETA. And treat yourself to some tasty meat today, preferably free range and organic. If you're watching your weight, be sure to check out these recipes.

James at Why I Hate DC wants to beat up a member of the Washington Interns Gone Bad cast. I realize that drag cheerleaders might be a little creepy to some, but Brittania (who was given that name by none other than Billy Bragg) is one of the nicest people I know and he would never hurt a fly.

I found this on Metafilter today and had to share... MP3s of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's somewhat rare until recently 1969 recording session.

Oh man, I'm hurtin' today. Yesterday afternoon my boss shows up telling me that we needed to cut a whole bunch of signs for a conference that he's doing today in LA. We had to lay out all of the text to be cut in vinyl. Layout is ordinarily easy, but our accountant was in and she needs to use my desktop computer when she's here. So we had to use my boss' laptop. There's only one USB port on it, and our software requires a hardware key to operate, and that took up the USB port, meaning we had no mouse. Trying to manipulate layout elements with the little touchpad and nub is not particularly easy. Neither is pulling out the non-letter space around very small and thin layers from very sticky graphic vinyl. We were there until 10pm, though we took a little bit of time out for dinner (fresh chioppino with a tasty 2002 Australian shirraz - really hit the spot!). I need some coffee badly right now! This weekend we're going down the coast to visit Anne's family which should be fun. I can't wait to show them the short. It will be nice for them to see a movie that I did that isn't all angry politics and four letter words. The editing is coming along very nicely. I've got most of the shots matching in light and color, the sound has been sweetened, background bar noises and music have been added, and I'm considering dropping in one line of ADR. I expect to be able to have it up and streaming some time next week.

Here are some stills from yesterday's shoot. The edit is coming along nicely. I have a really good cut, and I'm in the process of ajusting some of the light levels, color correction, and audio mixing. Here are the stills...

Today's shoot went extraordinarily well. We were running a little late getting the equipment, but it was well worth the wait for a 3 chip camera and good boom mic. Once we were all set up, we had about an hour and a half to shoot, and we finished just a few minutes before the first customer walked into the bar. I'm currently taking a break from editing a rough cut and it all looks and sounds really great! The colors are nice and rich, and the natural lighting was almost good enough (it will be easy to touch up in post). The acting was hysterical, and it was by far the smoothest shoot I've ever been part of. A little bit of pre-preparation really goes a long way, not to mention the experience of making a much larger, more elaborate film like Washington Interns Gone Bad. I'll try to post a few stills sometime tonight, and I'll be posting updates of the post production process as it happens. But first, an enthusiastic round thanks are in order. Thanks to Tori (and the management at the Little Shamrock) for opening the bar early for us and for pouring beers both on and off camera. Thanks to Carlo for being in on this from the getgo, setting up a killer location, helping come up with the idea, and of course for his brilliant comedic acting. Thanks to Wendy for also being there from the getgo (not to mention moderating the fun corner of cyberspace that brought many of us all together), helping come up with the story, colaborating on the script, and for pulling together an incredible cast. Thanks to Diana for colaborating on a very funny script. I'm sorry you had to miss the shoot and hope your spider bites heal up quickly and well. Thanks to Aaron for lining up the equimpment, running sound and being an overall technical god. Thanks to Sarah for script supervising despite our timecode issues, and for coming on as an extra at the last minute. Thanks to Anne for catching a major continuity issue in the script, for getting up early on a Saturday to drive all over the city to get us in action, for overcoming her camera shyness to be an extra, and of course for being the best wife in the whole wide world. Thanks to Jabal and Erika for agreeing to play our leading couple, and for nailing it. Thanks to Erin, Jen, Josh, Jeff, Toby and of course the Madame herself for adding a motley assortment of bar folk (both human and canine) to the background. It was my honor and pleasure to work with such a talented, creative and dynamic group of people, and I sure hope we do it again in the near future.

April is the new March, and I am a moron. Looking at the contest page for the Three Minute FIlm Festival, I'm sure that I read that the submission deadline was April 11, but for some reason, my mind got stuck on March 11 and rushed this production along. The cool thing is that we really came through with some great stuff under pressure, and now we have a month for post production. Last night's rehearsal went really well. We have some very funny actors who worked very naturally with each other. Saturday's shoot is going to be a lot of fun.

Want to build a mini model airplane that really flies? Check out these easy instructions.

Remember the Bush in 30 Seconds contest? MoveOn.org has a new contest: Bush in 30 Years. This time it's for a Flash presentation on Bush's Social Security privatization scam. I wish I were better with Flash, but I might just throw something together and enter anyway. We'll see. The grand prize is a G4 Powerbook, though I have no problem bashing Bush for free.

Film Contest News: Well, we now have a title (A Man Walks Into a Bar), a script, storyboards, a cast and a shoot scheduled for this Saturday. It should be fun. This is my first real project since Washington Interns Gone Bad, and it's going to be a lot of fun doing something so quick this time. I learned a lot of what not to do from my experiences making Washington Interns Gone Bad, and I've learned a lot of what to do while crewing on a couple of the 48 Hour Film Project contests. We have a decent camera lined up with a boom mic, so the look and sound will be great. I've been perusing public domain recordings to use as a soundtrack. There's some pretty cool stuff out there, though it's all recordings from original 78 RPM records with all the pops and scratches which give it a unique flavor. Browsing that site, I found out that Led Zeppelin didn't write When The Levee Breaks, though Bonzo's drumbeats make it so much better. Tomorrow evening is a rehearsal with the cast, and I hope to be able to check out the location sometime before the shoot.