Phoenix Rising

Just got done with a 140 line scene for Supes 56…and Audition crashed on me before saving. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

testing…ignore this

I joined Tenzil and GreenLion’s soccer team this year, and today was the last game of the first session prior to the end of session tournament (which not really a tournament, it’s just two games: Play for 3rd and Play for 1st). Lots of people on all teams were away, so there was quite a bit of ‘Hey, can you play on our team?’ stuff going on. We had a 30 minute game at 4PM, which we unsurprisingly lost to Blue, and then a half-hour break, then a 1 hour game at 5PM against Gold, which we actually won. For the 4PM game, we recruited a Gold player to join us. For the 5PM game, we recruited a White player. Then, after our 5PM game, I played goalie for White, and did pretty well for myself, except for the scraped knee. I was informed that someone broke their ankle in the Open league, and in the game I played goalie, one of the girls on White fell awkwardly and separated a rib. I tried to help her by cracking her back (at her insistence, I didn’t offer but didn’t mind doing it - she’s not unattractive, after all), but didn’t really succeed, as my technique is particularly suited to backs, and not so much to ribs.

Good fun. But 3 hours of soccer.

In an effort to broaden my audio drama experience, I’ve picked up a few production companies outside of Pendant to listen to. Here are my observations:

1> Pendant is a very writerly production group. By this I mean that a main goal is to show off your writing chops. This is shown by all the long term story arcs and interpersonal conflict in the shows. Also, the writers generally have more authority than the directors, and if a writer insists upon a specific change, it gets done. This isn’t to say this is a BAD thing, it is what it is. As a director, you are told this before you take on a directorial role, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.

2> This is not meant as a slam on Pendant, but audio drama companies that meet up together and rehearse ahead of time and record their lines together, instead of recording them line by line and mixing them later, have a more authentic conversational style. I try as best I can to mimic that when I direct, but it’s not always easy when two people don’t see the scene the same way. With a director in the same room as the actors, you can get around the limitations of recorded lines.

Some recommendations:

Decoder Ring Theater. Home of the Red Panda and Black Jack Justice. Very good stuff.

Afterlives: An interesting story set in a universe of Heavens and Hells, the main characters are all dead and are trying to solve what appears to be an epic mystery in the Afterlives.

Umket Industries Presents The Dixie Stenberg and Brassy Battalion Adventure Theater: Pulp-ish (not quite pure pulp) WWII show. DISCLAIMER: I work with Pendant, who produces this one.

Austin had his first experience pitching competitively tonight. It was against a team we’d played before. He pitched the first inning. Allow me to describe my thought process:

Last week: Coach informs me Austin will be pitching tonight. I say to Austin, “This is your first time pitching. Expect to get the maximum runs scored against you (5), and not to get any outs. If you manage to get a strike, I’ll be proud of you.” I didn’t want him to think he would succeed against these guys on his first try.

Tonight, after the game: HOLY CRAP! A ground out and 2 strikeouts! Only 4 runs score! VICTORY!

He was proud of himself. I’m proud of him.

The breeders we’re working with to get a new puppy sent us pictures of the 24 hour old puppies.

Thundercats puppy

Harvey Dent

Zan and Jayna

So, once I got caught up on Pendant stuff (as in, when I was done with Superman 56, since that’s my last episode), I was going to start work on a NEW show for Pendant. There was some discussion about whether it would be an original show or a ‘fan’ (i.e. copyrighted, or in this case trademarked) show. Thanks to the help of a copyright lawyer I know, we contacted the trademark holder, and after discussion, it turns out that they were not willing to allow us to use the trademark. Which would result in a likely takedown notice upon the release of the first episode. So, it’s a no-go.

For those interested in what it might have been:

Being a reprint from the reminiscences of_ JOHN H. WATSON, M.D., _late of the Army Medical Department.

A STUDY IN SCARLET

In which we are introduced to the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his erstwhile compatriot, Dr. Watson.

Oh well, I have other ideas.

I am not a Star Trek kind of guy. I grew up with Star Wars, and Trek fell in my ‘not watching much TV’ period. TOS was before my time, and TNG was after my time. DS9 looked interesting, but I was doing other things then. Voyager sucked ass, and Enterprise was a blip on my radar for all of two episodes.

With that in mind, my wife and kids went to Kennywood today, and I knew they wouldn’t be back before bedtime (in fact, 11PM), so I went to see Star Trek tonight. There were 4 people in the theater. Me, another guy by himself, and a couple. That’s not really relevant, except that it means that maybe the movie won’t be in theaters much longer.

Anyway, as to the story:

There were plot holes large enough that I could pilot the Enterprise through. I mean, really. If I can tell there are plot holes, they are gaping chasms stippled across the fabric of reality. If the Red Matter (I could tell it was capitalized) could cause black holes when a single droplet of it impacted normal matter, how did they contain a sphere of the stuff larger than a basketball? How were they able to extract a single droplet using a giant heroin needle without it destroying the entire vessel? How come when they shot the ENTIRE SPHERE of it at the bad guys, it didn’t create a GALAXY CONSUMING black hole larger than the nearest Supercluster? Why couldn’t they just drop the single drop on Vulcan’s surface and have it eat it up from the top down instead of from the core out?

And yet, I liked the movie. The opening scene was just ridiculously good. James T. Kirk was enough of a jerk. Spock was Spock, although his emotional outburst was perhaps a little over the top. Scotty got a little TOO Scottish, but I’ll survive. McCoy was excellent. Sulu was ehn, as was Chekov. The love story between Uhura and Spock was not developed enough, and I don’t think it really fit that well. A red shirt died, there were the classic fan-service lines, “I’m givin’ her all she’s got!” etc. I’m sure there were more nods to the fans than I recognized, I’m no Trekkie/Trekker. And, I enjoyed the fact that Leonard Nimoy reprised older Spock. He’s getting old, which is not surprising, but either they played that up with makeup or failed to cover it at all with makeup, despite trying. The ‘re-imagining’ of Star Trek was done well. I think they have stayed true to the major concepts behind the show, while being a little more modern (whether that’s a good thing or not is up to the individual).

If you don’t want your kids to see violence, this movie is not for your kids. If you don’t want your kids to see sexual content, cover their eyes for the 30 seconds in the first 1/3 of the movie that has women in their underclothes, and you’ll be fine.

The Penguins/Capitals series was billed as a match-up of superstars. On one hand we have Alexander Ovechkin, league leader in points for a couple seasons. On the other, we have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (the latter of whom was league leader this year in points). The NHL nearly wet their pants when they saw the match up.

The teams obligingly ran with it. Five games won by one goal, three of which were overtime games. Three overtime games in one series. That right there is epic. The skill level of both teams was just over the top.

Tonight was game 7. The deciding game. Win or go home for both teams. Whatever cliche you can think of.

And it was kind of anticlimactic. I mean, up 5-0 halfway through the game? Final score of 6-2?

And now, the Penguins get to play the winners of Boston vs. Carolina. If Carolina beats Boston, we have home ice. Otherwise, Boston does. I want home ice, but I want to beat Boston because my brother-in-law and his wife are no doubt B’s fans, and I have to tease them. Whatever.

In the Western Conference, it’s the Blackhawks against Detroit/Anaheim (tied at 3 games). It would be nice to play against Detroit, but they’re still a really good team. The Blackhawks aren’t slackers either.

No matter what happens, it’s a great day for hockey.

The kids had their piano recital Sunday afternoon. Here are videos to prove it:

Austin’s piano recital

Serena’s piano recital

The two of ‘em together