Roger Rabbit

Hey Gang, it's Mike. I just realized that during my hiatus from blogging I finished reading a couple of books I'd like to tell you about. One, I finally got to read Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The book on which the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is VERY LOOSELY based. I didn't realize how loosely until I actually read the book. The only real similarities are the names and personalities of the characters.

For one thing, in the book the characters are comic strip characters not animated cartoon characters, and they speak in in word bubbles. They often have trouble figuring out what to do with them before they burst into mist. Also, it takes place in "present day," which of course when the book was published was 1982. Differences aside, I loved the book. It is a pitch perfect parody of those hard boiled detective stories I love so much. And the use of cartoons to allegorize racism is spot on. Really nicely written book.

Now, here's the neat part. I have been trying to get my hands on a copy of that book literally since I was in high school, but it was out of print so I have never been able to find a copy for less than $45. That's just too much for me to spend on a paperback used book. Finally, I got a copy from the library to read, which was great, but I still wanted to own a copy. The movie is in my top three favorite movies. And the book is charming as well. So I did some searching on the internet, and you'll never guess, I stumbled across Gary Wolf's personal web site, which had his email address on it. So I emailed him, and he is going to give me a new copy autographed by him (and Roger) for $25. How cool is that? Thank you interwebs.

I also read a book that has been on my "I'll get to you next" stack for over a year. It was a Disney bio. And as we all know, I try to take in a Disney bio once every 3-4 months. Well this one is a book called How To Be Like Walt, it's a combination bio and motivational book. There will be a chapter of bio and then a blurb about how to use the lessons of that part of Walt's life to be like him. Seemed interesting, plus it's the only Disney bio on Amazon to have all 5 star reviews.

I definitely do not give it 5 stars. 3.5 at best. There are some neat things in there and the little blurbs are pretty well done, but the bio part is nothing you couldn't get by reading any other Disney bio. The other thing is that Disney is obviously a hero of this guy's and he looks at Disney life through the rosiest of rose colored glasses. Disney was nearly a saint according to this book. And trust, as someone who has read over forty books on the man, he was a lot of things, but he was no saint. In fact the only real negative trait that he seems to attribute Walt is the fact that he was a smoker. So that was a bit of a disappointment. After the reviews on Amazon, I was really looking forward to this one.

Anyway. I also did stand-up at the Comedy Store on Wednesday. that went really well. It was a lot of fun to do comedy in an actually comedy club again. Not a theatre or a coffee shop.

Have a lot of potentially exciting things going on this weekend, so hopefully bigger and better news next week.

Best,
Mike

Catching you back up.

Hey Gang, it's Mike. I know I have been away for several weeks, but I have legitimate reasons this time. Two weeks ago I was on vacation. I went on an amazing retreat with the LIchtenbergians to the North Georgia Mountains for a few days, then I spent a week with my family in Newnan. I always love returning to the South. People are so much nicer. It's a little disarming when you first get back into it.

Last week, as a part of my Artist's Way experiment, I had undergo what the book refers to as "Reading Deprivation." Essentially you are not supposed to read anything at all, but seriously, people with jobs can't not read, no matter what you hippy-dippy book says. However, the point of reading deprivation is that we often use reading as a way of taking ourselves out of our present lives. We don't think, we don't create, we don't imagine. We let our head be filled with other ideas. I decided that since this book was written there are things that have taken reading's place on that, so I went ahead with what I referred to as "Artificial Stimulus Deprivation." These are the things that I did for one whole week:

-Read only as it related to a necessary part of my job. (ie company email, scripts that I am asked to read, etc.)
-Check my personal email no more than three times a day. (Just to make sure I'm not missing something important.
-Read and write only as related to creative acts. (The whole point of this process is to revive you creatively so if I got an idea for something I wrote it down.)

These are things that I was not allowed to do:
-No television.
-No online videos. (Youtube, hulu, nothing.)
-No ipod. (Not on the way to work, not on runs. Not at all.)
-No reading. Other than the above exceptions.
-No music on in the background during anything--work, sitting at home, nothing.
-No facebook, no checking blogs I like, no blogging myself, and basically no computer usage except for the above exceptions.

Basically me left alone with my thoughts and silence and whatever I wanted to do with those things.

Al of that for seven whole days. I realize that may sound incredibly boring. But I have always been of the mindset, "Only boring people get bored." I was up to the challenge. And let me tell you. I NEVER thought I would get as much out of it as I did. I never realized until doing this just how much I had closed myself off from the world. Here are some things I found myself doing since I couldn't do the above:

-I called people more. Normally at work because I usually have a podcast or a tv show on in the background, I don't want to interrupt it. So I shoot over an email. To people who sit less than ten feet away from me. I found myself calling people and here in the office going to people's desks to talk more.
-I was much more productive. I wrote about 5 new minutes of stand-up on the bus and polished several old stale jokes.
-I went to lunch with people to talk about projects and just talk.
-I was able to let things go and not be as annoyed as easily. For example there's kids that play soccer in the parking lot behind my apartment building. Normally, when I get home and sit down to dinner, I put on the television, and those kids are such a loud distraction. But early in the week, I found my self thinking, "God those stupid kids! Wait, what's the matter with you? They're just kids playing." So over the course of the week I listened to them playing every night. I learned the way they keep score and who likes to cheat. And it was fun.
-I talked with my wife more.
-I went on more walks.
-I went and did things. Shows, the zoo, art galleries, etc.

I had an absolutely great time. Now, I'm not saying that I'll keep this up to this extreme forever, but it has definitely changed my habits. I no longer turn on the television the second I get in the house. I listen to classical music, zydaco, or dixieland jazz (three of my favorites) at work instead of podcasts or online tv. I no longer plug myself into my ipod on the way to work. I'm back to reading on the bus, but I listen to what's going on around me. And of course, I can't give up cartoons.

I don't know if we can blame all this on a week of experimentation, but last week, I booked the Comedy Store (one of the biggest comedy clubs in Hollywood), I got an improv show I'm doing tonight, and I got a voiceover agent as of Monday. I'm not sure all that is thanks to my stimulus deprivation, but it certainly got me paying more attention to actual things rather than plugging into entertainments.

Best,
Mike

Disneyland

Hey Gang, it's Mike. Went to Disneyland again this past weekend with Eli, Melissa, and Chris and Katie for what was one of the most fun trips to the park I think I've had. It was so much fun, though quite a marathon of a day. We were there from 8am until midnight thirty. As Katie put it, we walked into the park at 8 am on Saturday and THE NEXT MORNING we were still eating candy on Main Street. It was quite a silly and fun day.

Also, the new fireworks show they have going on for Halloween is crazy good. I have to admit I could give a shit about fireworks. My dad loves them, so I have been dragged to many over the years. And Eli also loves them, so I always stick around for the show at Disneyland when I go with him. But this one blew my face off. It is really cool. Also the new dragon they have in the Fantasmic show. Also super cool.

Anyway, even though we didn't get home from the park until around 1:30 or 2, Eli and I got up at 7am the next day to go for a 10 mile run. I don't usually brag about that kind of thing. I just do it, but for some reason doing that made me feel morally superior to everyone else on the planet.

Now I'm prepping for the Lichtenbergian retreat this weekend, which is going to be SO awesome! Followed by a week visiting family in GA. Woohoo.

Best,
Mike

Where Have I Been

Hey Gang, it's Mike. I know I have not been posting as regularly the past couple weeks, and I just want to let you all know that I am fine. I have just actually been working on a new thing. I have been going through The Artist's Way Course. By that I mean that I bought the book and have been going through the 12-week course prescribed therein. I have to say it is VERY hippy-dippy, very touchy-feely, but I promised my self I would commit to doing everything the course asks regardless of how dumb I think it is. Sometimes, I am surprised by how well something works, sometimes I just end up feeling stupid. But I am doing it all.

Which is the major reason I haven't been here. The course takes up about 1-2 hours a day, plus 1-2 hours of marathon training, doesn't leave much time for things like blogging. I thought about posting my coursework here and making you guys a part of the process, but i decided against it. I felt I might censor myself. That I might hold back because I didn't want you guys reading something. And as I said, it is my intent to give it 100%, so if it doesn't do anything for me, it won't be for lack of trying. I know several people who swear by the program, so I am interested to see how it goes. I am only three weeks in. In another couple months, we'll really see how it works. Plus I'll keep you posted here from time to time.

Best,
Mike

Ian Redmond

Hey Gang, it's Mike. This weekend, Bailee and I went to see a lecture given my Ian Redmond at the LA Zoo. He's a famous primatologist and conservationist. His speech was really informative and he is quite a funny guy also.

[I wrote a bunch of stuff in here about the some people at the zoo, but it was too mean, so I took it out. Sorry.]

Best,
Mike