07.23.09
 SHOOTING SOME STUFF

Man. I really need to change this part of the site to some kind of easier-to-read and easier-to-post bloggy thing. In fact the whole site could use a re-design. But I digress...

Got back in the saddle this weekend and shot some promos for a comedy project which I hope to unleash in the next few months. It stars James Bewley, Michael Crane, and Gabe Weisert, amongst others. We have another shoot in August, and hopefully a pilot shoot in September. So look for that.

In other news, yet another OK Go project may be kicking into gear soon.

But perhaps most interstingly to me, my web stats tell me that someone was directed to this here site while googling the word "pentabo," which is a word I made up in my Scrabble Neology a piece a few years ago. Which I am assuming can only mean that I am firmly taking the reins of the future of the English language.

05.11.09
 LONG TIME, NO SEE

Hey, so two years, no posts. What's been happening? Pretty much the usual. Got married. Writing a lot. Eating fried items. Etc.

These past several months I've been documenting the making of OK Go's new record. Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly both posted my video about a typical day in the studio (scroll down for vid). The band has posted several other little tidbits, including this one about a typical night at the studio and this song teaser. See them all at OKGo.net or on their YouTube Channel.

I'm also working on a few narrative comedy projects, which hopefully may see fruition this summer. So look out for that, and maybe I'll post something about it in two years.

04.09.07
 YOUR TURN AT HI/LO

My thoroughly-penetrating, inspired, and sublimely profound 60-second meditation on getting crappy letters in Scrabble will be showcased at this year's hi/lo film festival April 12-15 in San Francisco and Oakland. It is in Shorts Program II. The more astute of you will recognize the conflict of interest at work here, as I co-founded that particular festival and was the co-director for its first 5 years.

Of course, this conflict of interest is not without precedent, as one of the primary raisons d'etre of the first hi/lo in 1997 was to show Paul Charney's and my spirited but middling first 16 mm short -- "Space Chocolate" -- which conveniently enough is playing in the ten year retrospective program.

Your Turn and The Space Choco notwithstanding, the retrospective contains some of my most favoritest pieces of filmed entertainment ever made by creatures real or imagined, and the new leadership over at hi/lo continue to program some of the most odd and delightful fringe films and videos you are likely to see outside of some crazy person's basement. And let's be honest, Theater Brava and the Parkway are way safer than random crazy-person's basement. GET THEE TO HI/LO!!!

Reserve tix here.

11.17.06
 KASPER HAUSER AT UCB

Mind-bending SF sketch wizards Kasper Hauser are in NYC this weekend doing shows at UCB Theater to promote their new book Sky Maul. The Friday show is at 8:00 PM, and the Saturday show is at 7:30 PM. If you're in NYC and like comedy that makes you feel like you've taken psychedelics, you should go.

Reserve tix here.

11.13.06
 NYC COMEDY WEDNESDAY

This Wednesday I'll be co-hosting a Two for the Show, a monthly variety show run by Maura Madden and Rufus Tureen, because Rufus is out of town being a fancy boy actorman. The skinny:

Wednesday November 15
7:30 PM
Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction
34 Avenue A between 2nd and 3rd

The show normally rules. Come on down and see if I make it suck or not.

11.06.06
 OK GO + BLP = DVD

OK Go is releasing a special edition of their most recent record "Oh No" on Tuesday Nov. 7. "How is it special?" you ask. I'll tell you. One word: red hot video action. That's right, the CD comes with a DVD. I told you it was special.

There is more than an hour's worth of video content on this bad boy. I myself directed three of the videos and four of the short films. Also present in the directorial mix are Hollywood hotshots Scott Keiner and Todd Sullivan (and also a bunch of total loser nobodies like Francis Lawrence, Olivier Gondry, and king of the nerds Damian Kulash).

So if you love rock, videos, OK Go, me, or any combination of those things, go buy it before someone degrades the picture quality and puts it all up on YouTube.

More text info here. And a teaser reel here.

10.25.06
 HEY MONEYBAGS, MEET MR. HOLLYWOOD

Hey baller, wanna bankroll a movie? Here's your chance. International supergenius Todd Sullivan is making his thesis film. It will be awesome. Go here to find out more about it and here to become a part of the movie magic.

10.20.06
 INTERNET OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!

I just pre-ordered two books: Sky Maul by the dudes in Kasper Hauser and The End As I Know It by Kevin Shay. You should too. For America.

10.19.06
 K SHAY WROTE A BOOK

It's called "The End as I Know It." It's being published by Doubleday, and released December 26. Tonight he'll be reading from it. Reading like a mothertrucker. The action is at Pete's Candy Store at 7:30 PM. See you there.

09.26.06
 CHICAGO SLO MO

That's right folks, the slo mo train keeps right on-a-runnin'. Tomorrow, the fest of 100 one-minute slow motion videos, curated by multi-media svengali Ryan Junell hits Chicago. Not to brag or anything, but my obnoxious videos consitute a full 1/50th of the programming. Bladow.

Click here for more details. Note the amazing still from Michelle and Laura Dean's totally mesmerizing Calling Occupants.

09.20.06
 VH-1 LOVES ME

So much so that they've taken two of my videos, degraded their sound and picture quality, removed all references to my name and participation, and hidden them away in a dusty corner of their labyrinthine web site called "BOX SET." That's right, OK Go's recent rocketride to the spotlight brought VH-1's attention to the What To Do and Ping Pong videos. To see them in all their now-brought-to-you-by-Viacom glory, go here. There's a little commentary about the What to Do shoot, as well (Note to Damian: that filmstock so wasn't free.).

Of course, if you'd like to see the vids looking like they're supposed to look, and sounding like they're supposed to sound, you might want to look here for music and here for ping pong (scroll to the bottom for this second one).

07.11.06
 RE-REMAKE

This is outrageous. Apparently some other enterprising youths (how many enterprising youths are there anyway? Aren't they all supposed to be hypnotically glued to hyper-violent first person shooter MMOGs?) also re-made my OK Go Ping Pong Training Video, but as an added twist they re-imagined it as a Mathelete Training Video. And it looks like they shot the mothertrucker on FILM. Good lord. So extra points for:

*Use of the the concept of mathletics
*Not backing off the sex act line
*Use of muzak
*Shooting on a more difficult and expensive medium than the original

See it here: Mathlete Training Video.

Still no one has attempted the bravado stunt scenes with flying children or human field plowing. Any takers, nerds?

07.10.06
 MAKING REMAKE HISTORY

Greetings, nerds. Some of you may remember a hamfisted little promo I did for OK Go around five years ago. Well, in what is, as far as I know, a total first, my corporate video has been remade, nearly line for line (as far as I can tell, they changed two lines), and as far as technically possible, shot for shot (it appears that, believe it or not, their budget was smaller than mine). I shudder to think what cruel circumstances forced them to do such a thing.

But I digress. Basically I guess this means I'm up there with Hitchcock and Tarkovsy. Can a Thalberg from the Academy be far behind?

Revel in the meta-awkwardness:
The Original
The Remake

07.05.06
 THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

In Brooklyn. "The Eagle" being me. Naturally. Meaning that I moved here. "Here" being the aforementioned Brooklyn. Did it just the other day. New video projects in the works. Hopefully something new up in the next month or two. Or at the very least an apology for its tardiness. But you'll get none of that now.

04.10.06
 APRIL SOUNDS

Alright folks. Two new items in the SOUNDS section. First, an educational piece which reviews useful Swedish phrases for American travelers and renders all other Swedish audio phrasebooks pretty much obsolete. Second, a hot friggin' dance jam written to honor administrative professionals, who are quite frankly sorely overlooked in almost 100% of hot friggin' dance jams.

03.24.06
 TEXAS SLO MO

Two of my vids, Your Turn (costarring Erin L.W. Bradley) and Time Passes Slowly When You Are Mildly Irritated III (starring a very slowly moving box that cahnges colors to grating experimental music), will be playing in Austin this weekend. That's right, Ryan Junell's Slo Mo Video Fest is coming to town. One hundrend one minute slow motion videos. I'll admit, sounds like torture. I too was skeptical. But frankly, it's awesome. Check it out:

Slo Mo Video Fest
SUNDAY, March 26th at 9:45pm
Alamo Drafthouse (downtown)
409 COLORADO ST
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 476-1320
Program
Tix

02.27.06
 FEBRUARY ERRATA

Some European cable channel wants to license Rezelscheft. I always thought that the Europeans would enjoy it. Some Manhattan cable show already has licensed it, and I have given a touring high school theater company the greenlight to make liberal use of the concept in their upcoming production of Macbeth.

The feature development game continues at a slug’s pace. In the mean time, I’ve started writing for a very popular TV show.

Jon Wolanske is in a new play called “4 Adverbs” by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and the Word for Word Theater Company in SF. Check it out.

Gabriel Roth has a hot new piece of pretty robot pop for you.

Rob Erickson continues to be about 1000% more interesting/crazygonuts/prolific than the rest of us put together.

Al Madrigal has a brand new baby girl, so go to one of his upcoming shows (in Irvine, LA, SF, Chicago, and Dallas ) and give him some money. In exchange he will make you laugh your beautiful ass off. The SF show is the annual 826 Valencia fundraiser that I used to help produce. Apparently Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, and Patton Oswalt are performing. Patton headlined the last show I produced, and it was one of the best stand up performances of all time. He is not to be missed. Nor is Al.

11.28.05
 SSSSSLLLLLLOOOO MMMMMOOOO

!Achtung Brooklyn! Attencion Providence! Hey there Boston! The Slo Mo Video Fest, brainchild of video freak Ryan Junell is coming this week. Can you even believe it???!!!

Travelling inside the belly of this maginificent beast is at least one, maybe even several, of my own videos. Which ones? I don't even know. But it's very possible a few from my Time Passes Slowly When You Are Mildly Irritated quadrilogy or my very poignant Scrabble relationship drama Your Turn will be featured. Check out the site for more info.

INFO ARCHIVE