The Following Fifteen

Yesterday, the family all gathered over Grandma's house for Father's Day/Grandma's birthday. It's been about a year and a half since I put together a family video (and they've made a point of frequently reminding me), so I surprised them with a new one.

This one's a followup to The First Four, highlighting Matthew's fifteen months since that video. I give you... The Following Fifteen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgv0av9xVaA

June Updates

Just thought it was high time I posted updates on some things, so here goes.

It's been pretty slow going on new projects lately. The main reason is basically that I've just been stressed out with life these days and pretty much stuck in a bad mood since I got sick a couple months back. I honestly just haven't been in a frame of mind where I'd be able to work on these without feeling like I'm just going through the motions. I don't want that to happen and I'm working on powering through it. Things ARE moving forward. It may be slow, but it's happening.

I've been doing some fun stuff lately, but nothing has been able to snap me out of this funk I'm in. I'm hoping something comes along soon and does the trick.

I'm looking forward to the Canada trip at the end of the month. The Chantal concert at the winery might be just what I need.
Grandma and Maude are tagging along with Mom and I for this one. It'll be the first time the four of us have gone on a trip together since the Corrs adventure of 2004. If that trip is any indication, this one ought to be a blast.
The hotel room is booked, our passport cards (what a rip) have arrived, I'm ready to go. Everything's ready.
Now we wait.
Sixteen days to go.

I've been hanging with Bridget a bit lately, which has been fun. Things got hectic and we didn't get to see each other for a long time, so it's been cool to be able to catch up, vent, and swap music with her again.

I saw Terminator Salvation after much waiting and anticipating. It was alright. I'll admit, I had pretty high expectations, and while it didn't quite live up to those expectations, I didn't dislike it.
Up, on the other hand, I thought was amazing. Heartbreaking, funny, just a beautiful movie. I thought the 3D was fantastic was incredible too. Just an all around great experience at the movies. I'd love to go see it again.
Currently at the top of my "to see" list is The Hangover.

On the Fan Film front, word is that Stan Lee traveling, but the DVD is on his desk waiting for him. This waiting to hear something is torture.

There's really not much else to update on at the moment. I'm feeling pretty boring story-wise. Hopefully some summer adventures will change that.
Now go outside and get some sun, you. There's only three months until The Beatles: Rock Band comes out, so I better get outside before that addiction hits.

At the Zoo with the Crew

Larry made some plans a while back for the gang to go to the zoo. This past Saturday, those plans came to fruition.

I was running late when I woke up and, honestly, not feeling my best, but decided to push myself and go anyway. I was happy to hear the other zoo-goers were running late, yet I somehow managed to run even later.

Mom and I eventually arrived and met up with Larry. We walked and chatted with him as he led us to Clint, Larry's girlfriend, Shannon, and her kids. After they had a quick bite to eat, we headed out into the zoo.

It was so strange, I went to this zoo all the time as I grew up, but this was my first visit in at least 10 years. There were so many new attractions and areas, I found no sense of where I was as we wandered around.

It was perfect zoo weather- mid 70s, not too cloudy, not too sunny, though I still managed to get a sunburn.

A zoo trip is pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just jump to some pictures and interject sporadically. Don't forget to click to see them bigger.

Love the colors on these guys.

They have a new area where you can ride a camel. None of us took part.

A freaky looking lemur.

Check out the tail on this dude.

Loved the outdoor gorilla area.

They had a whole dinosaur exhibit going on. The animatronics were okay, but they earned major cool points for blasting John Williams' Jurassic Park theme at the entrance.

They tore down the old bridge that used to cross over the zoo, I think this is the new one going up.

Larry, Shannon, and the kids walked faster than the rest of us, so Mom and I hung with Clint most of the day. Here's us chilling at the bench by Monkey Island.

My camera's memory card filled up at this point, so that's it for pictures.

We ended up rushing to the RainForest with just 15 minutes left before it closed. It was a hurried walkthrough, but we got to see some cool birds, orangutans, a big python, and Clint got to see the crocodile before we were told to leave.

It was a fun day and a cool trip down memory lane full of old memories and new experiences. It sucked that we didn't get to see the elephants, as they're currently building a new enclosure for them, but hey, it'll be another reason to go back. And I would love to go back soon with Matthew.
And a fresh memory card.

VI

Six years today.

Miss you.

Love you.

Proof That My Nephew Rocks

Mikey, Mo, and Jeff were over to play some Rock Band last night. Matthew, now 17 months old, decided to join in and show he's ready to join the band. Thankfully, Mom grabbed the camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsXlOpwyJ7c

Blogging As I Watch Sesame Street with My Nephew

Well, I've finished my antibiotics and I'm finally feeling mostly better. Still need to shake some of the cobwebs out, I think. But, I'm happy to say I am finally feeling good enough to get things rolling again.

There was a little trouble with getting The Greatest Fan Film of All Time to Stan Lee's people via the internet, so I put a DVD together last night and mailed it today. It's on its way!

I've been in writing mode this week and have the groundwork laid out for what could turn into new animated short. It's still early, but I'm really excited about this idea. I'll update more as it evolves.

I was feeling artsy recently and figured I'd try to illustrate one of my Mucinex/dehydration hallucinations from my hospital stay. I chose one where my hospital room wall appeared to be a hellish cavern with an old lady holding a cat standing in the middle of it.
(We've all seen that one before, haven't we?)

click to see bigger

Mom and I went and saw the new Star Trek movie yesterday. I've never been a Star Trek fan, but I thought it was pretty good. A decent start to my summer movie-going season. Personally, I can't wait for Terminator Salvation.

Not much else going on at the moment... I'm boring.

Big Things

So, I'm still working on bouncing back from the pneumonia thing (and now, a cold on top of that), but I'm getting there and things are happening. I've been writing and Larry's been writing and there are new projects in the works. But they're still cooking, so stay tuned for more info on those.

On Monday, the folks over at Fan Cinema Today posted a review of The Greatest Fan Film of All Time.
My personal favorite part?

"Despite all the yuks, however, there are moments when the movie shifts moods. The flick starts out with baby Superman’s departure from Krypton, which is depicted with a melancholy that Richard Donner never managed to achieve. Later, too, when the bad guys have all but won, the tone is genuinely grim—not an easy thing to achieve in a fan film."

A scene from our fan film just got compared (and favorably) to a scene from Richard Donner's classic Superman film? A scene featuring Marlon Brando?
I can't wrap my head around that one. Wow. Just awesome.

Check out the whole review here:
http://fancinematoday.com/2009/04/20/the-greatest-fan-film-of-all-time-is-it/

If that's not enough, I got this text message from Larry on Tuesday.

"Stan Lee's people asked for fan film to show him"

I heard from Larry again today and I guess that'll actually be happening tonight.
It's insane. I seriously can't think about it too much, or I may go nuts.

I mean...Stan...Lee. Watching Fan Film.

Stan. Lee.

Another Journey North

Yeah, I know my trip recap is a little late, but here it is.

All packed up and ready to roll, Mom and I left around 1 PM on Tuesday the 7th, despite winter giving us its (hopefully) last hurrah.

There's no way to sugarcoat it, the weather sucked. Especially for driving. It was the worst while we were still in Ohio. At one point, the snow was coming down so hard, we could only see maybe a quarter of a mile ahead of us. Observe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PtlJemyWSM

It improved to just some flurries in Pennsylvania and a few scattered flakes in New York, but the wind never let up. As I've written in the past, Mom's a bit of a nervous driver, so I'm sure it was a long drive for her, but she did great. A couple hours in, we made our traditional mid-journey pause at the rest stop in Angola. I swear, they play no music in that Denny's unless it's at least 30+ years old. Honeycomb, anyone?
We sat, we ate, we hit the road and crossed the border into Canada. Thankfully, we were out of the snow, though the cold and wind stuck with us.
We got to the hotel some time after five and settled in a little bit. Mom sorted our stuff in the room and I checked out the view. It was really weird to look out at the Falls and see almost nobody walking around. Even weirder (but way more impressive) was seeing the massive ice bridge spanning the river at the bottom of the Falls. Take a gander, won't you?

After a little bit, we headed off to St Catharines to wander the Pen Centre.

We didn't stay too long, as we wanted to be sure to have time to get back and have dinner at The Keg. The highlight for me was HMV, where they were having a sweet sale on DVDs. I picked up Sunshine and [REC].
We shopped around a little more, then back to the Falls and to The Keg inside the Embassy Suites. An awesome chicken dish and a glass of wine later and we headed back to the Marriott to crash before the big concert day.

I woke up to some bizarre Canadian children's TV shows. If I had caught the name of this one particularly odd show, I'd find and post a clip in a heartbeat. If my memory serves me, this one lady was supposed to be a doll or something and was dressed in a blue (or maybe purple) full body suit. The only part of her that remained exposed was her face and it was painted to match the rest of the costume. It was freaky, man.

Once we were up, we headed across the street to Tony Roma's for some lunchtime breakfast. It was a little less chilly, but the wind seemed to have picked up.
Tony Roma's was kind of a strange experience. When we got there, we were literally the only people there (excluding employees), yet the service was extremely slow. Seriously, after ordering our drinks (tea and hot chocolate), it was about 20 minutes before we actually got them. Don't get me wrong, I love it there, but that baffled me.
After finishing eating, we scribbled our names on one of the brick pillars (can you find them?) and aimed back toward the hotel.

You'd think crossing the street would be an uneventful thing. Not in this case. The second I got into the street, a gust of wind smacked me and I ended up with my sweatshirt and blanket blown up over my face. Mom quickly fixed it, but between the wind and how hard we were laughing, we had tears streaming down our faces by the time we made it across the street.
Finally, we made it back to room, got ourselves ready, and left for Brock University.

We were invited to get there early for the soundcheck, so we did. Upon entering the theatre, we were greeted by Karen Graves, so we sat and chatted with her for a bit. Not much later, Kevin Fox came in and joined us for a few minutes before the pair of them started soundcheck, as Chantal was still on her way and hadn't arrived yet.

When she got there, we talked for a couple quick minutes and then she hopped behind the piano for another quick soundcheck. To my surprise, she turned to me and asked "What do you want to hear?"
I thought, smiled, and said "Something new."
Chantal, Karen, and Kevin debated for a few seconds and Chantal said "Let's play something that's not in tonight's set."
I was in musical geekout mode as she played a new song called Say the Word from her upcoming CD. It sounded fantastic, I really can't wait to get my hands on a copy of that CD.
They played around with the sound a little more and headed backstage to get ready, so we headed up to our seats.

Kevin opened the show with songs from both of his CDs, Come Alive and Songs For Cello & Voice, including covers of River and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). His set was great and it was nice to see him at the front of the stage. You should check him out at kevinfox.ca

At intermission, I met up with my friends from Chantal's message board, Elements. It was great visiting with Kathy, Sandy, and Terrence again, the first time since the Jackson-Triggs show. I loved finally getting to meet Angela, after years of corresponding online. As intermission ended, we agreed we'd meet up again after the show.

Chantal made her way onto the stage and kicked off her set with Leaving On A Jet Plane. This was the last night of a seven show tour and everyone sounded excellent. They even played a couple more new songs- Today and Half of Me. Have I mentioned I can't wait for this CD?
Chantal was extra chatty that night, thanks to a visit from "The Claritin Man." She was on a roll and had everyone cracking up all night.
Toward the end of the show, Chantal thanked a fan of hers, whose family sent Chantal a letter, explaining how her music helped this girl through some rough times. Then she thanked her best friend and followed that with thanks to "Jacob and his mom." She talked about how we come up from Ohio to see her. "They're always traveling that road..." she said, and then tried to remember which road it was. People in the audience started calling out freeway names before she finally said "Jacob, what's the road?"

From the back of the theatre, I yelled out "90."

"90. Thank you, sir" she replied.

For her last song, she explained that during the other shows on the tour, two of her sons, Rowan and Lucca, would come on stage and sing What A Wonderful World together. They weren't there that night, so Chantal sang it on her own to end the night.
Just for fun, here's a clip of Rowan and Lucca doing their thing at a previous show.

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

I met back up with my Elements friends as the theatre emptied and Kathy once again surprised me with a setlist, this time, it was Chantal's. Thanks a million!
We eventually made our way out to the lobby and hung out for a few minutes and snapping a couple group pictures. Kevin and Karen even got in on the photo fun.

Eventually, we said our goodnights and our hope-to-see-you-in-Junes (Chantal's playing at the Jackson-Triggs winery again) and Mom and I headed backstage. Sadly, we just missed her, she had to get back to her kids in Toronto. Ahh well, next time. So, we said goodbye to Kevin and Karen and headed back to the hotel.

Before crashing, we scooted over to the Fridays in the Embassy Suites for our traditional last-night-at-the-Falls drinks and snacks. Such an excellent way to end a trip.

Thursday morning, we were up fairly early, which was nice , as some of the pressure to rush to get out on time was relieved. We ate some cold leftovers, packed our things, enjoyed the view one last time, and set out for home.

Thursday was actually a pretty smooth and uneventful day. It was a sunny day and much warmer, though it was still kind of windy.
We made a quick stop at Duty Free for some wine and a couple little gifts. The border was crowded, but the wait wasn't too long. It was the first time they've wanted to look inside the van, but even that was fast and we were on our way before very long.
It was a nice ride with wide open roads...except in PA. There was a traffic jam (with no apparent reason) that had us at a standstill for about 20 minutes. That sucked, but it was all easy going after that.

It was a great trip, I was definitely in need of a little getaway after this seemingly neverending winter. It was weird not being able to wander around and see the sights of Niagara Falls again, but hey, there's always June.

New Month, New Entry, Pneu Monia

That's just how it goes. I make a promise to update more, then get knocked out of the game when I least expect it.

As far as I can tell, I caught a cold when I was out at the midnight showing of Watchmen. It lingered for a few days, but got worse on that following Tuesday. By Thursday, I was stuck in bed and coughing so much, I could barely eat or drink.
I tried everything from Vicks VapoRub to a generic version of Mucinex. Neither worked, but the latter was a really bad idea. Apparently, one of the ingredients in the medicine can cause nightmares and hallucinations. And it did.

I'm not one who normally has nightmares and these were intense (murders, losing limbs, being ripped apart), so I was pretty freaked out. Then, it would continue into my waking hours. A pile of socks in my room looked like a demon form to me, so much so that I had to ask Mom to move them. It was...interesting.

So, on that Saturday, Mom put her foot down and took me to my doctor, who declared I had pneumonia and promptly sent me to the hospital. During the ride to the hospital, I had the back of my wheelchair reclined so I was laying down and just trying to breathe steadily. I'll be honest, it was a scary ride.
I was more at ease once we arrived and I got a bed and got an IV and oxygen. Everyone there was great, but my two-night stay felt like a week. Between struggling with the uncomfortable beds, nurse check-ins, and continuing to see weird things (thanks to being dehydrated), I didn't get much sleep at all during my stay.

Since I was finally able to eat and drink, they let me go home on Monday to continue my recovery. I've been working on bouncing back ever since. Physically, I'm feeling pretty much back to normal, but I'm still all out of whack. My normally nocturnal schedule has shifted to me waking up between 9 and 11 AM and exhausted by midnight. I miss my nighttime ways.
I'm also lacking my usual attention span, lately an hour long TV show is pushing it. I miss movies.

I'm getting there though. Slowly, but surely.

In a complete change of pace, Mom and I are taking off on a little road trip tomorrow. Chantal's playing at Brock University in St Catharines again, so we're gonna spend a couple nights in Niagara Falls and catch the concert. I can't wait. It'd be nicer if we weren't in the middle of an April snowstorm though.

I'll try to post a trip recap and pictures when I get back on Thursday. Maybe Friday.

Oh, and Watchmen was just okay in my opinion. Ah well.

Running to Catch Up

Happy New Year!!!

...Yeah, a little late, I know. So, where have I been? Right here, pretty much. To be honest, I've just felt completely burnt out since finishing The Greatest Fan Film of All Time. I really haven't wanted anything to do with anything and I've been keeping a low profile, both online and off, in hopes of recharging myself a bit. Hasn't quite worked yet, but I'm slowly getting there.

Over the course of my journey to recharge, the holidays came and went and were nice. Santa brought me a digital video camera I'm hoping to put to good use.
In January (and beyond), Mother Nature unleashed her fury and gave us near-record-setting amounts of snow and left me stranded inside the house for a long, long time. On the bright side, it gave me a chance to make a dent in my monstrosity of a Netflix queue. Unfortunately, most of the movies I watched were disappointing. But I discovered how much I love the Bourne movies.

I broke my long streak of not going to the movies by going to see Coraline in 3D a couple weeks ago. The movie itself was great and the RealD 3D was amazing. Stylin' glasses too.


Tomorrow night I'm heading to the midnight showing of Watchmen. Can't wait.

Matthew has been a constant source of entertainment and exhaustion. He's 15 months old, huge, and smart.


On the movie-making front, Larry and the guys are working on both a new film and a new animated project. After a lot of hard thought, I made the difficult decision not to head up this animated project. I need to take a little time for myself and wrap up some of my own projects that have been sitting on the back burner. The Girl and the Ghost is still unfinished and I want to finally get it done and out there, even if only for myself.
I'm sure they'll do just great without me on this one.
It's been insane and great working with the guys these last few years and I'm sure we'll be teaming up again on something spectacular before too long.

You might notice the site's looking a bit different. I'm in the process of giving it an impromptu update, so hang in there and we'll be snazzified soon.

Before I wrap this entry up, I just wanted to take a minute to mention my niece. A few months ago, we found out Kris & Jessi were expecting another baby, a little girl. We found out a couple weeks ago that Jessi lost the baby. It's been hard on all of us. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to write this in memory of the niece I never got to meet.

I know I keep saying it, but I really will try to post more often. I swear.

Weekend Recap and Beyond

Well, Saturday night came and went, it's high time I update the ol' blogaroo.

The Greatest Fan Film of All Time was finally completed the day before the premiere. We cut it close, but we made it. The premiere, thankfully, went really well. True to fashion, the speedbumps continued right up until showtime. Apparently Larry and the gang were having tech troubles with the projector, but managed to straighten everything out with fifteen minutes to spare.

I arrived at the Kent Stage around 7:30, bought my tickets from Derby, and made my way into the theater. It was a great setup and I was surprised how many people were already in there. And they kept coming. We planned to start the show at 8, but waited a half hour, as there were still people lined up outside.
It was great, a bunch of family came, including cousins Bob & Fran, who made the drive in from Pennsylvania. The biggest surprise was seeing Lindsy, who I haven't seen in about a year and a half. That was awesome.
I was really glad to see Aaron even made it in from the Carolinas.
The theater can seat 600, we had an audience of about 400 to 500. Not too shabby.

Before the lights went out, Larry showed our own version of the pre-movie trivia slideshow. Next up was a series of new skits the guys made. They were sprinkled throughout the night, popping up before, after, and between the movies. You can see them here (not suitable for youngins):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2WAK9xyRM

Next up was the debut of The Wimp Whose Woman Was A Werewolf:

THE WIMP WHOSE WOMAN WAS A WEREWOLF

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=48264163

Finally, it was time for the unveiling of The Greatest Fan Film of All Time (it was even my first time seeing the finished film):

The Greatest Fan Film of All Time
Uploaded by Bullcrank

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7pw7l_the-greatest-fan-film-of-all-time_shortfilms

It was great seeing the films with a crowd and hearing everyone laugh and react at all the right places. Just wild.

After the theater cleared out, I hung in the lobby with the remaining cast and crew for a while and just chatted. Of course, we took the obligatory group shot.

It was a crazy night and went by in such a blur. It still hasn't processed that after all those hours of work, Fan Film is finally done.

It went live on Dailymotion as the premiere was going on and has already been viewed over 11,000 times. Many thanks to Aimee Carlson yet again.

Speaking of Aimee, she gave us another shoutout on Lunchbox over at ifc.com:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1454928837/bctid4691270001

It's been a crazy year, culminating in a crazy weekend.

Next up? I'm taking a break. A nice, relaxing break full of movies, Rock Band, and World of Warcraft. Then I'll push forward and finish The Girl and the Ghost and see what happens after that.

Mmm... downtime...

It's Time

On my way to the premiere, hope this all goes well.

Be sure to head to DailyMotion.com around 9 PM tonight to see The Greatest Fan Film of All Time.

Here goes...

For Those Who Can't Attend

As of Tuesday, animation for The Greatest Fan Film of All Time is finished. I finished the main footage at 10 AM on Monday morning, Larry came to pick it up for editing that night. He showed up with Clint and Vince around 9 PM. We expected speedbumps, but not in the amount we experienced that night while copying the footage. By the time we got everything squared away, the guys ended up heading home after 7 AM Tuesday morning. It was a long, frustrating night.
Now, we find ourselves in a mad rush to get the film finished on time. No pressure. We'll get there, though. One way or another.

Have you gotten your tickets yet? If not, grab 'em up!
http://kentstage.org/december.html#werewolf

For those who can't attend, you'll still be able to see Fan Film on Saturday night. Here's a new trailer to tide you over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Nz516HYEY

Almost There...

The premiere is exactly one week from tonight. In dramatic fashion, we're cutting things a little close, but we're doing it. Larry finished up The Wimp Whose Woman Was a Werewolf a few days ago and I'll wrap up animation on The Greatest Fan Film of All Time tomorrow night/Monday morning.

I hit the 1,300 hour mark last night and have somehow managed to animate over 40 minutes of footage so far. I completely lost track of how many different characters I've put in there. This thing is epic. You'll see in just a week. Which reminds me, tickets for the premiere are now on sale at this link:

http://kentstage.org/december.html#werewolf

Get 'em while they're hot!

We want to fill this place up, so let's get some butts in these seats. Spread the word, bring some friends, tell them to bring friends (but not that guy, you know the one). If it sells out, I will personally hug everyone in attendance, and let's be honest, who wouldn't want a hug from a shaggy, wheelchair-bound animator?

So, yes, you go get your tickets and I'll go work on finishing this movie once and for all.

It's clobberin' time!

Tootsie Pop on PopTub!

While I'm animating giant robots, check this out. PopTub Daily featured Tootsie Blow Pop on their show today! It's Sansoneriffic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afRxSX2D-ps