day of the dead -- the worst day of the year

November 1st is always pretty depressing for me. That's when there's the most amount of time before more Halloween. May as well post some swell pictures of this past holiday season (even though it's now November 2nd).

This might be interesting. We did a few storyboards for the Zombie movie. So here are some of the concepts and how they turned out. For some of these I actually took some preliminary pictures before I did the storyboards.












Here are some production photos that a few of us took while we were filming:

(I think this was my first day of being a zombie. Many more to follow)

Here are images from normal Halloween parties. Starting with the ones the weekend before Halloween:

Lucia and I didn't have our proper costumes ready so we both had to fall back on old ones. Joe and Camille knocked it out of the park with their Labyrinth theme.

This is the view from the mansion party the week before Halloween. This is looking west from a few blocks north of the capitol.

Here's a gang of us at Dee's a week before Halloween.

So the day before Halloween I went and helped out at the Nielsen Family Haunted Forest. My job was to hide in the trees and scare people who came down the path. Pretty standard haunted forest stuff. My main strategy was to jump out and take a picture with my camera while screaming. In my old age my creepiness knows no bounds. Hopefully these young girls don't mind me posting their screams.

Here is some of the gang gathered for the premier of The Last Zombie Movie EVER!

And finally, here's me posing in my costume, which I finished at about 6:30 on Halloween afternoon. In case you're wondering, I'm Jack Torrance from The Shining. I adjusted the t-shirt words to something I could personally wear and not worry about it being a Halloween costume.

the last zombie movie EVER!

Well, here it is. It's done and that makes us all a little bit sad in a way. Maybe we'll tinker with it a little. Before we showed it I apologized for it not being funny, but everyone laughed anyway. So, good fun to be had no matter what?



Are you questioning your own duality now?

Check it -- here's the direct YouTube link for more HD access.

So if you want, you can download the Halloween cd on J.R.'s blog. You may need to own up to some kind of 14-day trial. Hey, everything's free though!

Maybe now would be a good time to mention that J.R. is the co-conspirator of the Halloween cd. Probably should have acknowledged that sooner. Good job, boy.

halloween cd 2009!

So this year's Halloween cd is finished and ready to go! Actually we still need to print out the lyrics and the artwork, BUT if you want your copy of the cd, NOW'S THE TIME TO TELL ME. I'll give you the cd, but because of demand and because I can't trust my printer to save my life, you may need to get your own jewel case and print off your own liner notes.

This year's track listing:

1. "Heads Will Roll" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. "Mr. Smiley" by Mustard Plug
3. "Eaten by the Monster of Love" by Sparks
4. "Thirteen" by Johnny Cash
5. "Of Wolf and Man" by Metallica
6. "Werewolf vs. Zombie" by Oingo Boingo and Nellie McKay featuring Jon Madsen
7. "Monsters in the Parasol" by Queens of the Stone Age
8. "Shanty For Arethusa" by The Decemberists
9. "Burying the Bunny" by Shriekback
10. "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring
11. "Storm Coming" by Gnarls Barkley
12. "Satin in a Coffin" by Modest Mouse
13. "Rocking Horse" by Dead Weather
14. "Sickness Taking Over" by Pankow
15. "Shadows on Your Side" by Duran Duran
16. "Every Last Breath You Take" by The Police featuring NosferRoytu
17. "Les Velos Pour Deux" by The Brobecks
18. "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton
19. "Complainted d'VN Mate" by The Avett Brothers

You totally know that I would provide download links to all these songs, but a little while back I got in trouble with my server space people. It had to do with copyrighted material or whatever. Here are some (legal (maybe)) YouTube clips for some of these songs:

Heads Will Roll


Storm Coming


Satin in a Coffin


Rocking Horse

'09 halloween movie trailer

Okay, so I haven't been blogging lately. I'm sorry (or maybe you're welcome). Now's as good time as any to check out Twitter.

Anyway, things have been plenty busy because it's the holiday season for me. By that I mean it's Halloweentime. As part of the festivities (not limited to horror commentaries and Halloween cds) we've been extra busy producing this year's big Halloween movie.

Here's the trailer for it below. Notice that it's not SUPER funny. Only SORTA funny. I think we tried to make it funny, but since I haven't been feeling very funny at all in the last few months, it's kinda turning out to not be funny in the slightest. Well, we'll see how it turns out. Please enjoy! Hard!



Btw, here's the direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEMHeTD2xZ0

Use it to send out in email, link on your blog, whatever.

Also, you can watch the HD version right there on YouTube.

worse than hitler

So Tuesday I found myself at a softball game. I was planning on simply watching, which I hardly ever do, but it was my big excuse to go out and I gladly took it. Not thinking, I wore my awesome velvet Chuck Taylors and some non-holy thick jeans Joe gave me because they're "too tight in his thighs."

Anyway, If I was thinking, I not only would have worn shorts or something, but I would have also brought my mitt. Turns out the team playing was short a player, because Rhett had double-booked his sporting events and was playing soccer at the exact same time. Joe was there to sub-in for someone else and suggested I play. I was glad to play, I was just slightly uncomfortable. I don't know how basketball players ever played basketball in Chuck Taylors in the 50s or whenever, because Chucks are more designed for... I dunno... sitting really.

Also, I didn't have a glove. One of the guys on the team ran up to the officiator's box and managed to borrow one for me, which was awesome.

All the other guys took the time to learn my name and cheer me on. Real cool. Thing is, I was taking Rhett's place, so I was put on the roster as "Rhett." I couldn't just "join the team." I had to be someone already on the team or there would be a potential forfeit. Strangely, Joe was the only one who yelled "Good job Rhett!" when I'd hit the ball or do some other awesome monumental play. So obviously when everyone else yelled "Good job Jon!" things were quite suspicious.

After the game, I thought I'd run the glove up to the box myself. Silly idea. I hoped to just throw it in there, but I sort of had to ask who to give it to and the commotion made the officiator-lady (it seems like officiator-ladies are way more anal about stuff like this) take the glove back and ask, "What's your name?"

Me: *big pause* "... Rhett." (Of course I figured she COULD have been specifically asking my name on the team, but I totally knew what was up)

Her: "Okay good, because there was some confusion as to who you were out there and if you really belonged here."

I didn't correct her.

I suppose that's lying right? Usually I don't actually lie unless I lie to myself first so I actually believe what I'm saying.

To be fair, it's not like we pulled some huge scam. Our team lost by about 15 runs. I'm no ringer. Surely, if this city league game were to be called off because of a last-minute substitution the other team would be plenty angry that their hitting stats would be erased.

To further the silly matter, this kind of thing happens all the time in leagues such as these. We're busy sometimes and other times we got time to fill in for people who are. When I suddenly found myself in the position, all I wanted to do was lend a hand to the team -- not piss them all off by not being more Rhetty and announcing it.

Anyway, I'm sorry. Maybe this helps. More than likely not.

I only wish I lived in a world or a way or whatever where being dishonest isn't the obvious choice. I sort of want to believe in a world where everyone's at an advantage through honesty. Weird -- I know.

tired... take this though.

I keep meaning to write stuff in here. Lots of stuff to say. I still say a bunch of stuff in Twitter, so you should check me out there -- or stay here (on this actual blog -- not Google Reader) and look at the column to the right. It should be updating my awesome Twitter posts (although it only goes back like four tweets or something).

ANYWAY, the point is, I've got a lot to say, but I'm leaving for California in a couple of hours. Yeah, Joe and I have another film festival to go to on behalf of Dunkball. This time it's the SoCal Film Fest.

We made a trailer for Dunkball. Love it a lot, but we totally should have made it long before we showed the movie to anybody. Seems sensible. Anyway, here it is (and it's awesome):



See you next week, I hope. We'll have fun-fun.

the mother of all yard sales

Alright I made this announcement on Facebook and Twitter, but it needs more coverage so I'm going all archaic and actually posting this.

I am having a yard sale Saturday morning. I want it to be pretty huge, so I want YOU to bring stuff to sell at this thing. We'll mark your stuff with colored stickers and when it sells I'll put the money in an envelope with your name on it. This will be a great chance to get rid of some of your stuff and perhaps make a little dinero. Plus, you'll be doing me a service by making it awesome and big and therefore more people will be drawn to it.

Do it! Bring your stuff to me Friday night (which is tonight I suppose). I'm thinking 9ish. Then we'll start sellin' stuff the next day (probably about 8ish in the morning).

Tell your friends.

living in the geekdom #7

Finally! The results of the poll revealed! You must read Living in the Geekdom #6 to get what's goin' on below.

I doubt this needs any explanation. It is notable for sort of having six panels (at least five). I think all of the other ones have had four.

Wow. I'm hesitating to publish this. It's almost like I don't want to be finished with it. This was a real real fun one.

two quick comments

Forgot to mention that John Hughes actually only directed eight movies. Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful are not on the list. Hughes was kind of like yesterday's Judd Apatow -- with his name everywhere, but actually directing very few movies.

Also, my John Hughes thing is the blog's 400th post! At least it is according to my Blogger dashboard. There may have been a few abortions, so if you go back and count everything, it may be a couple short of 400.

"this party is about to become a historical fact"

I can't believe it.

How old do I feel now? Real old. The guy who made me love being young... died yesterday.

I distinctly remember a childhood of lingering around my teenage brothers and their friends, hoping to catch a few glimpses of the "adult" John Hughes movies they watched. Maybe it was the John Hughes movies that made me idealize teen years as much as I did. Maybe, despite the fact that high school was kind of lame, I never really complained about it because I seemed to suffer in similar ways to the John Hughes characters I grew up with. Maybe, because of all those movies, I never, not even today, figured I'd ever get older than 17.

Anyway, I pretty much want to thank Hughes for the work he did during 1984-1987. He's been silent lately, but he freakin' OWNED '84-'87.

It all started with Sixteen Candles. According to my cinematic trivia genius brother, Hughes wrote and directed this one in order to impress the studio enough to deliver his real baby -- The Breakfast Club. For a buttering-up project, there is no film perfecter. EVERY teen party sequence since has owed itself to the party in Sixteen Candles. Strangely, I've seen few teen comedies to show the humiliation of riding the school bus. Maybe because it couldn't be topped in this one. Of course, this weirdly-rated PG movie was also quite a coming-of-ager for me. I still remember right after the pull-up scene my brother suddenly being like, "Oh, crap. Jon, close your eyes!"

Anyway, Breakfast Club is pretty weird. It was his script that he had to fight the studio to produce, but then you check the imdb trivia and it says that a huge chunk of the emotional parts of the movie was improvised. It makes me wonder what parts he was so anxious to film in advance. It also explains the weirdness of Claire going after Bender at the end after he humiliated her so bad. Of course it wasn't Bender who made Claire cry, it was Judd Nelson who made Molly Ringwald cry.

Pretty in Pink was such an important story to Hughes that he wrote it twice. The second time, was as one of my very favorite movies -- Some Kind of Wonderful. The love triangle sexes were merely switched. The stories were about Andie & Blaine and Keith & Amanda, but all of us viewers were completely and hopelessly attached to Duckie and Watts. Watch 'em. You'll know what I mean. John Hughes' third wheels were very three-dimensional.

Oh, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off! Sheesh! Love. It. Brilliant. I need to watch that again.

I'm sure you've seen this already (it's all over the net right now), but check out this blogger's story about him.

Anyway, bye John. Make some awesome movies for God!

R.I.P. John Hughes (1950-2009)

morbat

Morbat? Wasn't that one of the Decepticons that hung out in Soundwave's chest?

Anyway, many people don't know but I grew my big beard in order to be an extra in the Mormon Battalion movie that's supposed to play in the San Diego Mormon Battalion Visitors' Center. October, I think? We'll road trip it.

Anyway, we were filming the past couple of weeks. For the most part it wasn't very fun... but in hindsight it pretty much was.

Pictures!

lightning pics from like a couple of weeks ago

living in the geekdom #6 (important reader participation!)

Before you read the latest Living in the Geekdom, be aware of a few things. First, I've decided to take the comic into a much broader territory. No longer is it necessarily about RPGing. Also, I'm trying out each panel as an individual image. Should be easier to read. Finally, please vote in the poll.

.

create free polls | comment on this

Alright, so as I've said, please vote in the poll. I know most of my friends don't care one way or another, but that's really not the point at all. So you're not a geek, just humor me. If you have a real funny zinger, go ahead and let me have it. If not -- if you have the same old tired groan-inducing snide comment geekery -- go ahead and save it this time. Maybe charge up your wit factory and really say something good next time.

This marks the beginning of a comic story thread. Trust me on this one. It'll get pretty good.

Anyways, this one was a fun one to do. Notice the addition of a new character. If you're wondering how long it takes me to do these, just take a guess and then add 10 hours to that. This one's been in the works for a week and a half or so -- off and on.

old news part 2: 14th of july 2009

Once again, July 14th was a smashing success. The slip n' slide had a sort of car wash building with a flappy door on it. Here's Scott Hanna taking the dive right at the beginning of the night before he had to go to work.


Added this year was the freedom water drinking competition as well as the little red wagon float competition.

Brandon Smith handily won the freedom water competition by drinking, I think, nine cups of tonic water/Perrier. That was a full five cups ahead of the next person. I probably should have told him that he only needed to beat the next guy by one cup, and that he probably drank five cups of the stuff in vain. He also tied for first place in the milk drinking competition.

It was Scott's idea to do the wagon float competition which probably explains his win by default. Here's the manatee/barbie/zombie float he brought to the table.


I forgot to get a count this year. My guess is about 35 over the course of the evening. If you attended, please comment. Let's get an accurate count here.


Oh look, here are the people who threw up last year. No such luck this time around. I think since we extended the drinking contests through the whole night, people were a little more conservative.


After winning the red wagon float competition, Scott wowed us with his freestyle slip n' slide skills.



The wagon, slip 'n sliding and also the bringing of the July 14th photo opportunity cut-out solidified Scott Steele's position as reigning July 14th monarch.