Where does he get those wonderful toys?

I auditioned for The Dark Knight Rises today.  Okay two things are wrong with that sentence. It was extra work so it wasn't so much an audition as it was filling out a form and having my picture taken. The other thing is that officially the "audition" was for Magnus Rex, which is widely known as the fake title shooting title for DKR.  Not that I want to venture back into acting again, but to be apart of a Nolan Batman film is any geek's dream. Plus, being unemployed, any money is good. They were looking particularly for people with military and police backgrounds. So I'm guess there's a big military/cop scene. I don't have the experience, I'm kinda short, I'm a little built, but not enough to notice on camera. So I bet my chances are pretty slim. But who knows. It'd be fun. And I walked by Gilbert Gottfried afterwards. Not that he was auditioning, though that would be pretty funny.

The above picture is something I started a few days ago. The lack of drinking makes me less likely to tune out with Netflix and video games at night. There was a time where I used to spending evenings drawing pictures like the one above on a nightly bases. Granted I didn't come up with that, it's copied from a picture in the excellent series GCPD, a graphic novel series centered around the Gotham City Police Department. The comic itself hits a theme that I absolutely adore.  That theme being, living in a world of something fantastic, how does it affect those on the sidelines (or those in the center) from a realistic and human perspective. What happens when two cops, following the lead on a kidnapping, run into Mr. Freeze? How does a major crimes unit deal with losing one of their own to a super villain way out of their league? The concept of taking the fantastic and dealing with realistic reactions I find utterly fascinating. It's why I love the Nolan Batman movies, it's why I appreciate Cloverfield, it's why I hate any action movie with a superfluous explosion or any collateral damage that the hero doesn't get chewed out for. And it's something all of my personal writing will always strive for to some degree.  

Another important note about the picture above is that it was done in pen. Not pencil, pen. That distinction may seem meaningless to you, but I assure you there is something very important to my personal and artistic growth signified by that drawing being done in pen. That distinction? Control and trust. All though my 6+ years of acting the number one note most frequently given was that I'm "a heady actor" or that I was "thinking too much." When you tell a person that lives in their head those notes, it's like telling a fish to enjoy a walk on the beach. The concept is completely alien. As a thinker, the only way I know how to solve problems is by thinking. The problem doesn't get fixed? Think harder. It likely stems from a deeply rooted fear or lack of trust in myself. I can't let go because at any moment I could fuck up and it would all go to hell. That might be all well and good for science or math, but for art? Not so much. Art comes from a very different place. Once again I was told that for years. It wasn't until my final year of acting that I learned how to let go. In my last two shows, I finally got comfortable enough to put my foot on the gas and let it get out of control.

So what the fuck does that have anything to do with pen vs pencil? When I went back to drawing, after this acting epiphany, I applied the same concept. Rather than sketching with pencil, constantly erasing and course correcting until I finally got it as perfect as possible (which it never did.) I decided to say fuck it. Trust my years of drawing, and let my body mind take over. (Body mind is a term borrowed from Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis which is essentially a book about this very concept.) Sure enough, the picture turned out pretty damn well.  But judge for yourself.

The original.

This concept has also been applied to my writing. Stephen King, in his book On Writing, advises that instead of doing major plots and outlines, he tends to put in characters in situations and then he lets them figure it out. He even has an exercise to help you do it. With my first two plays, I would sit for days daydreaming and brainstorming before anything was actually written on paper. With my newest play (which is mere lines away from a completed first draft) I took to King's suggestion. I got out of my own way and let the characters sort it out. I have to say the results are pretty marvelous. More on that play in a future post.

I was going to spend most of this blog post talking about Moneyball. It's pretty late so I'll just give you the skinny. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in a sports movie. I didn't care until I saw Aaron Sorkin's name in the credit on the trailer. Then I was curious. It got great reviews and it rightly deserves them. The movie is fantastic. Most sports movies are about an underdog player or team struggling to win the championship once and for all. Their particular struggle is what makes the movie unique. What would The Fighter have been without Christian Bale?  Moneyball is a sports film that plays by slightly different rules. Yes it still has the underdog team and it still has the montage where they team makes its transition from sucky to good. But this film has more. Much much more. Dialogue, humor, acting, characters, and something else that I haven't given enough thought to yet to clearly define. There is not a scene in this movie that is boring. And Brad Pitt nails the character and because of it, the heart of the movie. Moneyball even transformed a song I hated into something that almost made me cry.

That song.
The Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgh6HQSM1gM