Playing Beatles RockBand

As a last minute thing last night before going to bed, I was coerced by my girlfriend to play some Beatles RockBand. Having an extra microphone from Guitar Hero, we tried to sing harmony. Although I can play a good bit of songs on RockBand or Guitar Hero on Expert, the harmony aspect of the game is a little more tricky but still very fun.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!

After getting back from an editing meeting, my girlfriend had delicious No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies waiting for me. They were sooooo good and they were even vegan.

Signed photo by Robert Englund aka Freddy Kreuger.

The last 3 years I’ve attended DragonCon in Atlanta, Ga, a big convention of popculture, sci-fi, horror and all things geeky. One of the best things in the world about that Con is that lots of celebrities from TV and movies attend this gathering of geekdom and you can even get autographs from some of them.

Probably, one of  my all-time favorite autographs is from the guy who plays one of my all-time favorite villains(behind Darth Vader, of course.)  That actor is Robert Englund who played the Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. A horror franchise that was a big part of my youth. I use to collect everything Freddy from comic books to bubble gum containers to the full Freddy outfit and razor glove. I even had a license plate in high school with the letters “Nitmare”.

Suffice it to say, I was in movie heaven the day I got my picture signed by Mr. Englund. It’s a moment I will always remember and I have a picture to prove it.

Danish Butter Cookies

What is it about Danish butter cookies that make them so darn delicious? Especially the ones in the shape of a pretzel. Yum!

The tree near our apartment

In the walkway between buildings of our apartment you can see a tree at the back of the complex. It always seems to perfectly frame that tree. It’s always nice to look back at it, when I’m leaving for work. It’s like a piece of art in the real world, where life is the museum.

My girlfriend's dog, Maxx

Alena’s dog, Maxx, has got to be one of the cutest and most loving dogs I’ve ever met. It’s always great to come from work and see him shaking with excitement to see me.

He’s a people dog and if you’re not paying him any attention, he’ll bring you one of his toys to give you a hint to play with him. He loves to be near you, especially in your lap. He’ll fall asleep there which may not be the most comfortable thing at times but it’s the sweetest thing in the world to see.

My appreciation for animals has grown to it’s biggest level being around Maxx. I can safely say that he’s the only dog I’ve ever had a real connection with.

A piece of paper with my grandmother's supposed recipe.

Before the recent Christmas holiday I visited family and my Mom unearthed an old piece paper with my Grandmother’s handwriting on it. It was a recipe for Turkey dressing. It’s probably 15 to 20 or more years old. My Grandmother(or Mamaw as I affectionately called her) passed away in the early 90’s.

My Aunt had asked for my Grandmother’s homemade recipe for Turkey dressing and she wrote it down for her. It wasn’t until she read the whole recipe that she realized the sneaky nature of my “Mamaw”.

“Recipe for Turkey Dressing

3 cups of bread crumbs
2 cups of popcorn
2 cups of celery
1 cup of onions
1 tbsp of salt
1 tbsp of pepper
1 tbsp of sage

Moisten with milk. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 hours until popcorn pops and blows the turkey’s ass clear across the room. This indicates that the turkey is done and well cooked.”

Even in the afterlife my Grandmother is cracking jokes. Hilarious!!

Me as a ditzy redneck

What started as a way to get some hands-on experience on the set of Todd Tinkham’s upcoming film “Southland of the Heart” ended up becoming a role in the movie instead. Talk about an interesting challenge. Especially considering I’m not an “outdoorsy” person by any stretch of Dr. Parnassus’ imaginarium.

One day involved more physical activity than I’ve had to perform in the past few years with enough running to make the guys in Chariots of Fire jealous. But I’m not complaining about it. It’s been a real eye-opener taking the director’s hat off for “Southland” and I think it’s helped me to appreciate actors more by switching roles Freaky Friday-style. Plus, I even got to act in one scene with my girlfriend, Alena Koch. Best job ever!!

If you want to check out my Forrest Gump running skills, you can see a revised clip of the scene from the film at the link below. Out of shape is as out of shape does:

Southland Of The Heart… Opening chase scene, revised. from Tinkham Town on Vimeo.

My mini-arcade version of Zaxxon.

Every so often, I’ll take a picture of something from my past. Something that brings back great memories of my younger years. I’ll always file these under Retro Stuff of Awesomeness.

Before you could play a game of Pac-Man on your iphone, many of has to have carry around bigger forms of entertainment that didn’t have all the fancy schmancy options of today’s cool gadgets. Here’s my mini-arcade version of Zaxxon. A side-scrolling spaceship shooter that was a fun part of my pre-teen years. Video games were a big part of my life growing up. I had every generation of console game system from a Sears Pong System to the Atari 2600. I was the first kid on the block to have an original Nintendo. I’ve had a Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, XBox, PS2 and XBox 360. Despite all the stuff people say about video games rotting the brains of the young, I can safely say that I turned out okay.

Looking through my script, so I can storyboard

Hitchcock was notorius(pardon the movie pun) for storyboarding every one of his shots for all of his films. He practically had everything mapped out before one frame of film was shot.

I think in such cinematic terms, I wish there was a way to relay the images in my brain to paper without having my hand and pencil as a go between. Sadly there’s no Minority Report-type of technology to revolutionize my ability to do such an act. With all the weird crap I think up, that’s probably a good thing.

Therefore, today at lunch I started the process of visually storyboarding shots for my next big short film. I need to do this, because I really want the story to flow in a way that makes you feel like you’re drifting down a river of building tension and atmosphere.

Hopefully, I can bring my inner thoughts to life. At least in a way that I’m at peace with but we’ll see. As a stage improviser I’ve learned to be flexible with my approach to things. I just want to bring this story concept to life for everyone to enjoy and be shocked or entertained by it.