Episode 3: The Views Expressed...

Rob and Joel (Kyle and Jim of Kirby Krackle) are back as guest stars in the third episode.  In a sequence reminiscent of Office Space, the team members of the Power Posse meet with the corporate tools to justify their jobs.  And no, we're not too proud to go for the pee joke.

Episode 2: Tool Time

For this episode, we enlisted the talents of Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens of Seattle nerd rock band Kirby Krackle to portray Joel Bradavky and Rob Schufeld, a couple of tools from upstairs at "corporate" (meaning where the actual decisions regarding the Power Posse are made).

Some trivia:

• Kirby Krackle are responsible for the end title track on each episode of The Collectibles.  "I Wanna Live in a World Full of Heroes" is exactly the vibe we wanted for the show, as it's about throwing off the mundane yoke of an office job or flipping burgers for the exciting world of superhero crime fighting.
• Jim Demonakos has done some improv, but has no formal acting experience, and it is his rehearsed delivery that makes him so painfully believable as a corporate manager.
• As the chief songwriter and front man for Kirby Krackle, Kyle Stevens is the literal voice of the band, while lyricist Jim Demonakos stays more behind the scenes.  For episodes 2 & 3 of The Collectibles, we reversed their roles.  Jim does the talking while Kyle remains silent.
• Jim's character, Joel Bradavky - what does it mean?  "Joel" is a reference to Joel Schumacher, the movie director who many Batman fans say ruined the 1990s movie franchise.  Batman the Animated Series contained an episode where an overly-flamboyant kid is fantasizing about how he would tell his Batman story, to which the other kids reply, "Shut up, Joel."  This has become comic book jargon for addressing any bad idea.  Among Schumacher's many perceived sins was putting nipples on the batsuit.  "Bradavky" is nipples in Czech.
• Kyle's character, Rob Schufeld - what does it mean?  "Rob" is a reference to Rob Liefeld, a comic book artist in the 1990s whose hyper-stylized drawing bore little to no resemblance to the human form.  "Schufeld" is an amalgam of Schumaker and Liefeld, two extremely divisive personalities in comic book franchise history.

The Collectibles Goes Live

I can't believe I haven't posted anything new since Sam's birthday, but I assure you there was good reason.  The Collectibles premiered at Emerald City Comicon on April 1st, and went live on the interwebs the next day.  We're releasing a new episode every Monday.

As great as the reaction has been, some friends and family are hesitant to jump in because they "don't get" superheroes or comic books or that kind of thing.  But The Collectibles is not about comic book superheroes.  It's about every cube farm in which you've ever worked, and the co-workers just happen to be superheroes.  You don't watch shows like The Office because you work in commercial paper sales.  You watch it because everyone has had a boss like Michael or a co-worker like Dwight.  If you've ever worked in a soul-sucking corporate environment (show of hands?), you'll "get" The Collectibles.

Here's the pilot:

45

You know, I'm really happy with where I am.  Not just geographically, but in life.  I'm especially happy with the woman I chose to spend the rest of it with, and who chose me right back.  But some days require remembrances, and this is one of them.  And the aforementioned woman to whom I'm married is incredibly supportive of the need to remember.  She knows it's not about her, or any kind of comparison.  It's about family, and history, and respect.  And I love her for that.

Samantha would have turned 45 today.  I was in a very different place when I marked her 40th.  I was far angrier.  At an unfair Universe.  At the cancer that claimed her life.  At myself for surviving.  But here, five years later, I'm much more at peace.  I no longer write first-person letters to her.  I rarely feel her presence anymore.  I don't think it will ever seem fair, and I will never forget over twenty years with my high school sweetheart - which includes two children who are almost adults themselves.  It's important to mark these days, and to remember.  If only to contrast the present with the past.  It's all about perspective.

Happy Birthday, Sam.

The Eagle Has Landed

And welcome to the first post of 2012.  Our New Year holiday was low-key and intimate, much like our Christmas (and the older I get, the better I feel about that).  We hung out at Dan & Trish's with some friends, and, since I was fighting a headache, I stuck to water and remained the DD for the evening.

The second draft of the Green Light screenplay is done, now we're really starting to hone the work.  We've shown it to a small, select handful of our filmmaking peers, and there is some buzz about it, which feels good.  Of course, writing even a fictional version of real events tends to dredge up some of that stuff, which knocked me emotionally off-kilter for a few days.  Now things are mostly back to normal...

"Must. Have. Coffee."

"Normal" being the occasional wake-up call at 3, 4 or (if I'm lucky) 5AM.  This morning it was 3.  I know when this happens, I can usually parlay it into some productive time while the rest of the household is still sleeping, but it still messes with my ideal schedule.

And today I realized that I used to be an incredibly sound sleeper.  Never really had a problem with 3AM awakenings until after Samantha died.  Go figure.  There's likely some hyper-vigilant sense being triggered. 

Not sure what I'm going to do about it yet.

Mid-Holiday Lull

So here we are in the eye of the storm, between the craziness of Christmas and the New Year.  Life has kept us all busy during the past few months, and I've actually felt the itch to blog far more often than in 2010.  I'm making regular posting a priority for 2012.

After two years of being tardy with the holiday spirit, we actually started decorating the day after Thanksgiving.  Hosting a holiday party on December 3rd gave us the perfect motivation for getting the tree up, the lights on the outside of the house, and festive lit garlands inside.  And the party was, I believe, a rousing success - what with the fifty-some people crowded into our tiny main floor, the Winter Warlock theme cocktail* and the karaoke machine going full blast in the living room.  At one point, someone found me in the kitchen and said, "you need to come see this..."  I pushed through the crowd of stunned onlookers snapping photos with phones and digital cameras to see my 17 year old son giving a karaoke performance for the ages.  As longtime readers know, Tyler is not the most outgoing or social person, and coupled with his hatred of crowds and the normal teen angst, performing FOUR karaoke numbers in front of fifty plus people was not exactly high on my List of Things I Thought I'd See, Ever.

But when it came time to pile into the car and head north to Bellingham for Christmas Eve, my boy was back to his hermit persona.  Which we're actually learning to be okay with.

Said Christmas Eve celebration in Bellingham was a lovely gathering at my mom & stepdad's place (formerly my grandparents' home), including my sister & niece, brother & sis-in-law, stepmom and grandmother.  We shared a wonderful meal, exchanged gifts, drew names for next year's exchange, and headed home.

On Christmas day, we stayed home and didn't do a thing.  Oh, we did the stockings and gift thing, I cooked breakfast, and we mostly lounged around in our pajamas all day, watching movies.  Kayleigh got The Lion King blu-ray, and I was the happy recipient of Thor, Amadeus, Stand By Me and Citizen Kane bu-rays.  Kayleigh also got a bit choked up when she found a framed version of this photo in her stocking:

Kayleigh with Bob Schneider at the Triple Door, Seattle (2011)

It was perfect.  And Boxing Day was perfect too.  Now we have a short week, and the New Year this coming weekend.  My New Year was back on November 1st, but what the hell?  It's a reason to celebrate with friends.

Then, in a few short weeks, we'll be in production on The Collectibles episodes 4-7.  Looking forward to getting back on the set with some terrifically talented people.

And then there's Green Light, the screenplay Raechelle and I have been planning for two years.  We finally outlined it this year, and now the first draft is almost done.  It's the somewhat fictionalized story of what happened to me after Samantha died, and what happened to Raechelle after her breakup with her ex, and how there were several opportunities for a crossover of worlds, but we didn't end up meeting until a certain guy placed an ad for a vocalist on a certain online bulletin board.

Crazy.

Anyway, we're almost done.  When we have a workable first draft, we'll give it to Dan Heinrich and Lisa Coronado to look at.  From there it will be honed, sharpened, shopped, sold and produced.  Hopefully here in Seattle.  Although the Washington State legislature just tied our film industry tax incentives to a homeless spending bill and drowned it to death.  But that's a topic for another post...

Season's Greetings!