Catch a Rising Star

I'm working on a longer blog post about a childhood Christmas play gone horribly wrong. I'll post it soon - in the meantime, just had to share this bit.

Recently, I was talking to someone about various aspects of the animation industry. This person asked me, "Have you ever worked with Writer X?"

I replied, "No, but I know them."

Person nodded and told me, "Writer X is a rising star."

Needless to say, I am beaming EAR TO EAR and giggling like a school girl. Can't wait to see my friend Writer X next so I can tell them what I heard. They'll get a kick out of it... and they'll understand why I'm clinging tightly to their coat tails from now on.

Post Thanksgiving Post

-Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I headed down to San Diego, planning to stuff myself on Thursday. Unfortunately for me and my plans for over-eating, before we left home on Wednesday, someone had to eat the leftover ham, chicken, and pork. So by the time Thursday dinner rolled around, I was all meat-ed out.

-As per my annual tradition, I finished up most of my Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. Now keep in mind that I'm not a morning person. (I'm a writer for @#$#'s sake - mornings are for sleeping!) But a few years ago, I learned the big Friday shopping secret - go in the afternoon. Sure, you miss out on the 27" tv for $1 and the laptop computer for $20, but on Friday afternoon, the mall is manageable. All the hardcore shoppers have gone home, so there's plenty of parking - but all the employees who're working are still there, so everything's re-stocked and there're no checkout lines. I still need to pick up a few last things, but 90% of my shopping is DONE.

-But I can't be too happy, because by the time I'm done with all these Christmas cards, my arm's going to fall off.

-I finished Final Fantasy 12 before the weekend. Three weeks of my life - nearly 70 hours of gameplay - but it's finally done. I only did about 1/4 of the side quests, though, so I may go back and try to do a few more of those.

-Is there any more annoying errand than having to get your car smogged? I have to find some time in the next month to go take my car to some expert who's going to analyze my car and inform the state of California that yes, my car license should be renewed because my pollution machine of a vehicle is destroying the planet, but at an ACCEPTABLE level of planet destruction. I'm like Galactus behind the wheel of a Mazda Protege...

-Remember the digital photo frame that I was so excited about building? Well, it broke. I've ordered some replacement parts and hope to have it back up soon. I think the motherboard got fried from overheating, so digital picture frame 2.0 will have more air holes and maybe even a PC fan of some sort.

-If you use AOL or Yahoo IM, I've changed my IM username (my MSN one is unchanged). If you need the new one, email me and I'll send it to you.

An Open Letter to People who put their Christmas decorations up the week BEFORE Thanksgiving

Stop it. Just stop.

November 2006 Music Diary

Show Me What You Got - Jay-Z
A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers
Motorcycle Loneliness - Manic Street Preachers
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers
Take a Chance (Live/Acoustic) - The Magic Numbers
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Smile - Lily Allen
We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols
Say You'll Be There - Spice Girls
You Got The Love - The Source/Candi Staton
The End Has No End - The Strokes

I pre-ordered the new Jay-Z album. Jay-Z is like Radiohead to me, in that even their "bad" stuff is amazing to listen to.

I discovered the Manic Street Preachers this month. Caught a bit of them doing two songs on television and I couldn't believe that I'd never heard of this band before. Got their Greatest Hits CD and have spent a lot of time listening to them.

Still haven't gotten the new Magic Numbers album, but they did an acoustic set on Virgin Radio this month. They even did a HYSTERICAL cover of "The Unknown Stuntman" - the theme song from the Fall Guy.

My Chemical Romance. They REALLY have that thing for Queen, huh? Lily Allen's song was a free download on iTunes - she's catchy.

I'm still hooked on the first season of Veronica Mars, so I got the theme song by the Dandy Warhols. I love how Dandy Warhols fans are livid that their band is mainstream. Whenever I meet anyone who's a Dandy Warhols fan, I never tell them that I first heard of them when they were a college-radio band. I just shout, "Stacy's mom has got it going on!" and watch their heads explode.

Funny story behind the Spice Girls track. My teen sister was looking at my music library and found that I had that track. She was embarrassed for me, but I'm confident that enough time has passed that the Spice Girls are now retro-cool. Don't know if I'm right, but it ended up getting the song played in regular iTunes rotation.

The other two tracks are just random ones that iTunes randomly played multiple times this month.

How NBC shot itself in the foot

This past weekend's Saturday Night Live was hosted by Alec Baldwin. A great episode - possibly the best one in years. Search online and you'll find people quietly buzzing about it.

The best sketch was an unassuming one with Alec Baldwin and Kristen Wiig as co-workers carpooling. No outrageous concept or gimmicks - just a REALLY well-written sketch that starts as a believable situation, then gets more absurd and funny as it goes. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it, but a google search for the phrase "Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother" turns up 400+ hits and counting.

I'd like to share the sketch with everybody - the way everyone shares funny sketches online. The problem is that I can't find it. NBC has a draconian policy that they don't want their materials on YouTube, because they want to host them themselves. And sure enough, they have a bunch of sketches from this past weekend's SNL up on their website... but not the carpooling one.

Therein lies the problem.

NBC - like all media corporations - want more control over their creative material. They want the eyeballs going to THEIR website, driving THEIR advertising. But how are viral videos supposed to gain momentum if NBC's I.T. department is the one deciding what people want to see? SNL's "Lazy Sunday" sketch was built because of online buzz - thanks to video sharing on YouTube. But now NBC has crippled the method by which it promotes itself.

Let me put it this way. There are websites where people are making t-shirts with the phrase, "Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother" - but NBC won't let anyone see the sketch.

Clearly NBC needs to maintain some creative control over their intellectual properties. But their hostile policy to video sharing has KILLED an amazing opportunity for them to show the world how good SNL has gotten this season. Online buzz can't be bought - and that's what SNL should have had this week. That SNL sketch SHOULD HAVE been the most forwarded joke of the week. Inboxes and IM windows all over the world should've been clogged with people forwarding that sketch to each other. But it didn't happen.

I don't know what the answer is. I just wish NBC would let me share the sketch with everyone. Not only because it's more fun to share a good laugh with others, but because I'm tired of people looking at me like I'm a sicko when I joke, "Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother."

My girl likes to Party All the Time, Party All the Time, Party All the Ti-ime

Follow-up to the last post after a couple people emailed me. There seems to be some confusion about the various industry holiday parties that first week in December. To add to the confusion, almost all of them are in the span of five days. So here we go to try and clear things up-

Wednesday is the Animation Writers Caucus Annual Reception. The AWC is the caucus in the Writer's Guild of America West (WGAw) - the event takes place at the Writer's Guild.

Friday is the Animation Guild Holiday Party. The Animation Guild is Local 839 of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) - the union for animation employees (animators, artists, timers, nuclear technicians, etc).

Sunday is the WGAw Holiday Party. Their holiday party is going to be at the Memphis restaurant in Hollywood.

And then there's the wild card party - the Gotham Group Holiday Wrap Party. My inside source at Gotham (in exchange for 10% of my earnings) let me know that the date isn't set yet, but it looks like it might be on Friday.

I suppose I should find it strange that somehow Christmas and Comic Con are the two times a year where an animation writer can party like a rock star. Someone needs to find an excuse to throw another party sometime between Christmas and Comic Con. "Animation Mardi Gras" or "Animation President's Day".

I'm going to have to get on that.

Cartoons and Hockey Collide

This year's Animation Guild Holiday Party will be hosted at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank... on the same night that I have an ice hockey game at Pickwick Gardens. The party is from 6pm to midnight, while my hockey game is at 10:05pm.

So if things go as planned, I'll attend the holiday party for a few hours, then slip out, change, and play ice hockey. Maybe a few of my friends will walk next door to see me play for a few minutes and get a good chuckle out of it.

Unless my friends get liquored up at the holiday party. Then they'll stumble next door and yell things at me as I play.

"Get off the ice #91!"
"Learn to skate #91!"
"Your sense of story structure and ear for dialogue suck #91!"

Anyways, I know I have plenty of buddies who'll be at the holiday party. Just letting you know it'll be your chance to watch me flail about on the ice like a dork.

Mean People Suck

Remember those "Mean People Suck" bumper stickers? The guy who came up with that probably made more money than he thought he would for a silly slogan. Wonder what happened to that guy? Maybe he lived happily ever after with the guys who made those "Obey" stickers? It'd make for a nice story if the guy who made a fortune off "Mean People Suck" bumper stickers somehow met his fate in a fiery hail of gunfire like Tony Montana in Scarface. Gasping with his last breath, "you mean people.... SUCK!"

Mean people have been on my mind today. Friend of mine is dealing with - what can be best described as - sucky mean people. I was hoping blogging my thoughts would help, but it really hasn't.

I still believe the universe works on the principle of "God thinks this is funny." Everything that happens happens because God has a sense of humor - kangaroos, the Olympic sport of curling, Lake Titicaca, pomegranates, Vanilla Ice, the sheer volume of jaw-droppingly beautiful single women I've met the moment the words "I do" left my mouth.

I'm hoping that in the grand scheme of things, my friend will come out the winner vs the sucky mean people. Or at the very least, I hope he does better than the whole Vanilla Ice thing did...

June Foray & Michael Maltese

I never got a chance to blog about the June Foray event. A few Wednesdays ago, the Animation Writers Caucus of the WGA had a night with voice actress June Foray. I'd never met her before, but she was awesome - a very classy individual. She had the room eating out of her hand, and that was BEFORE she did the Natasha voice doing "Kill the moose and squirrel." Afterwards, I asked her about her experience working with Michael Maltese.

Michael Maltese worked on Warner Bros cartoons during the 1940s and 1950s and his name is attached to a lot of great ones - especially his classic collaborations with Chuck Jones. While he was a story artist, his real genius was writing, and Maltese is sometimes described as the first animation writer. It's hard to know what exactly he wrote, due to the collaborative nature of the process used to create those classic toons, but he's given "story" credit on most of the best of the old Looney Tunes shorts.

This Bugs Bunny line from "Rabbit Hood" was probably Maltese's genius-



"In the name of my most royal majesty, I knight thee. Arise, Sir Loin of Beef! (WHACK!) Arise, Earl of Cloves! (WHACK!) Arise, Duke of Brittingham! (WHACK!) Arise, Baron of Munchhausen! (WHACK!) Arise, Essence of Myrrh! (WHACK!) Milk of Magnesia! (WHACK!) Quarter of Ten!"

Like I said. GENIUS. The problem is that I haven't been able to find much about Michael Maltese. There aren't any biographies written about the man and what little I know about him is from books about people he worked with. So when I had the chance, I asked June Foray what Michael Maltese was like. She asked me, "Did you know him?" I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was in elementary school when he died, so I just said I was a fan.

June Foray said that Maltese was one of the funniest people she'd ever met. I was hoping to get a little insight into his brilliant genius, so I asked if there was anything else about him. Then Foray explained that Maltese was very into astrology and could tell someone's zodiac sign just by looking at them.

Okay. Not really what I was looking for, but I guess that's what I get for hoping for insight into someone's genius talent. I thanked Ms. Foray for the info, which all things considered, is still first-hand info about someone who I can only hope to be 1/10th as good as. In the meantime, I'll stick to learning what I can about the man from his work.

I wonder if Mr. Maltese would've been good with that? I heard someone say that as a writer, you have to always do your best, if only because your work will live on long after you're gone. And speaking as someone who's written dialogue for talking turtles and blogged about video games, I have a feeling my great-great-great grand kids will either adore me - or they'll change their last names and take to my branch of the family tree with a hacksaw.

I Approve of this Message

Election Day is this Tuesday - and BOY am I excited! Two more days until voting day! Two more days til I won't have to be subjected to those stupid ads for all the Propositions.

I don't blog about politics, but will someone explain to me whose brilliant idea it was to develop the Proposition system? Someone decided, "You know what? Instead of having laws written and voted on by lawmakers who'll lose their jobs if they're influenced by money? Let's have laws written by guys with clipboards who stand in front of Target - and then have them voted on by people who are influenced by millions of bucks in advertising!"

I know I know. I'm being cynical. Clearly the Proposition system puts the power of government back in the hands of the people. But I've been voting long enough to know how the Proposition system works. If the Alternative-Teen Tobacco Abortion Energy Notification-Tax Bond Measure Proposition passes on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning it's going to be sued to be blocked. Then it'll get tied up in the courts for years, wasting time and money, and then the law will be declared unconstitutional. And someone like me will snap and beat up that guy in front of Target with his own clipboard. "You can have my signature... written in YOUR BLOOD!"

See you in the voting booth on Tuesday. Or in front of Target. One or the other.

The Only Thing I Learned from High School

My little sister recently had some issue at school that got her really upset. It involved the typical high school drama - backstabbing, unrequited crushes that last for four years, jealousy, lies, and hurt feelings. You know, the stuff you usually only see in Hollywood. Of course, while all this stuff is deadly serious to her now, the truth is that all the high school drama is meaningless in the long run. Almost none of high school sticks with me today.

Only ONE thing sticks with me.

Senior year in high school, me and four of my friends had gone to see our football team play an away game at Valencia High School. As usual, our school got crushed. Badly. It was Valencia's homecoming game and schools try to schedule their homecoming game against a school they know they can beat. My senior year, four out of the five road games we played were the other school's homecoming game. The final score was something like 40-3.

After the game, we piled into my car and tried to get on the freeway - but we had to screech to a stop. There was a sedan going backwards in reverse down the on-ramp. We shook our heads trying to figure out why someone would go in reverse down an on-ramp. As I drove us past, we realized what'd happened - the guy had gotten a flat tire. The driver was in his late fifties and driving alone. As we got on the freeway, one of my friends asked us if that guy looked familiar. None of us knew who he was, but one of my friends said that he'd seen him at other football games.

Suddenly, the guy wasn't some stranger - he had some connection to our high school. By now we were on the freeway, but someone suggested that we should go back and help him. It was late on a Friday night, the guy was by himself, and we had nothing better to do. So I got us off the next freeway exit, we turned around, and went back to see if we could help. We found him waiting by his car at a nearby gas station. We pulled up and offered our help. The man was genuinely surprised and thanked us. In hindsight, I can't imagine he was expecting that - waiting in line for help at a gas station late on a Friday night, then suddenly five high school seniors pile out of an Acura Integra and offer to change his tire for him.

I got the car's owner's manual and started reading the instructions on how to change the tire. After I read the article, I looked up and found that my four friends had already jacked the car up, gotten the tire out, and was getting the new tire on. I don't think I could've looked any more like a nerd if I could.

As we changed the tire, one of us asked the man who he was, since one of us had seen him at previous football games. He smiled and said that he went to all our high school football games. I remember thinking that the guy must have a high tolerance for pain, since our high school football team was so terrible.

Then his smile disappeared. And he explained further that his son had gone to our high school years earlier and had played football. After high school, his son had joined the Peace Corps and went to South America to (in his words) "save the world." While in South America, his son got sick and died. The man explained that to remember his son, he went to every football game our high school played. Year after year, Friday night after Friday night.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I'll never forget the look on the man's face - this combination of immense and immeasurable sadness, with an equal amount of immense and immeasurable pride. The way he muttered "save the world" exuded cynicism masking unending love for his lost son. My friends and I all shared the same thought... THANK GOD WE CAME BACK TO HELP THIS MAN.

After we changed the tire, he thanked us and drove off. After he left, we discovered he'd slipped one of us $20. They'd tried to reject the money, but he'd insisted that we go get hamburgers with it. In hindsight, the man must've really known what teenage boys are like, since we went straight to Jack in the Box and spent the money just like he'd said.

And that was that. We'd done a good deed and we felt good about it - end of story. Or so we thought.

A few months later, I got called into the principal's office. I just assumed I'd done something wrong, especially when the principal shut the door behind me. She came up and asked me if I was one of the boys who'd helped the man with his flat tire months before. Hadn't really expected her to ask me about that. She gave me some speech about special pewter pins that the school only gave out in rare occasions, then gave me one of the school pewter pins. I don't know if the speech was true or not, but I'd never heard of a school pewter pin before - and now me and my four friends each had one.

End of story? Of course not.

The principal called the Anaheim Bulletin and had them send a reporter to interview us. It was a laid back interview - held in the school office. We recounted the story and one of us made a joke that we'd only done it for the money. A few weeks later, there was an article about it in the newspaper... and the reporter had decided to focus the article on the $20 that we'd gotten and how we spent it. NOT ON THE GOOD DEED - but on the $20 at Jack in the Box. And to top it off, he ended the article with a jab about how we laughed about how we'd only done it for the money. It made us look like selfish chumps. Needless to say, I didn't save a copy of the article.

And really, this event is the only thing I carry with me from high school. I still get chills when I think of a father honoring his son - wondering what it must be like to lose your son like that and wondering what he thought about sitting in the bleachers of a football stadium every week. I still wonder about what made me and my friends decide to go back and help him, and I still wonder why that reporter decided to b*@ch slap us like he did in the paper.

But all the other stuff from high school? Crushes, friendships, tests, dances, jobs, parties, graduation? They just don't stay with me. I don't want to go on too much about it, since it just makes me sound like an old guy, but seeing the best of humanity that night in that man and in my friends is the only thing from high school that will always stick with me.

Oh - and never trust the media.

I'm a Dork, Not an Addict

They say the first part of overcoming a problem is admitting the problem. Well, this week, I finally had a breather in between projects. Got out from behind the computer monitor and ran some errands around town. One thing led to another and...



There are only two video games that I'm so addicted to that I rush out the first day they're available and plunk down whatever money they want from me. One of them is Grand Theft Auto - the other is Final Fantasy. The latest Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy 12, was released this week.

I was going to blog about how much I love the Final Fantasy video games, why the epic and sweeping stories are so amazing, how weird it is that a video game could influence some of my storytelling sensibilities, my favorite Final Fantasy games, the time my friend Eric lent me the first Final Fantasy game on the Gameboy and got me hooked, the way I nearly wigged out in Final Fantasy 7 when one of my favorite characters got murdered in cold blood, etc.

But you see, I'm still up against deadlines and now I'm fully engrossed in Final Fantasy 12. So unless my Playstation2 gets destroyed in a freak accident, don't expect any writing out of me. No blog updates. And definitely no writing work. Not this week.

I gotta keep my priorities straight.


NOTE: If you happen to be my story editor and are reading this while waiting for me to turn something in, I'm TOTALLY just kidding about playing video games when I'm supposed to be working for you. You'll find that 100% of my blog is blatant lies... and most blogs, for that matter...