August is the new May?

Wanna bring a community blog to a screeching halt? Talk passionately about race! >;) Seriously though, as free as we are to say what we want, we also realize what people are willing to talk about is often not as free as what rolls around in our thoughts. Articulation with compassion or sympathy often opens doors of that nature, but then these are quite different times, so we may need a new type of can opener to realize the outcome we desire.

At any rate, I myself have had a few important things run through my mind in recent weeks, but not the impetus to document them. I've had some weird dreams about friends and relations that were odd compared to real life: did I mention that I found my ex-fiance and her family on Facebook? I hadn't spoken with her in fourteen years, but then when I saw her sister's name on a friend's comment, I looked her up and before you know it, I was in touch with the one who inspired Sillone, Ozzark's girlfriend in my comic strip. She's married now, still living in the southwest from where we left off, but by her own words matured from the days of youth. I'm truly very happy for her; she found someone who is compassionate and tending to her needs, and also in her words, "willing to put up with me and listen at 3am." Ha! I remembered the marathon conversations we used to have in our youth, so this was not a surprise at all. I think the only thing that surprised me, and not that it should have, was that from her pictures, her appearance had not changed. She was still Sillone in many ways.

The air in Texas is far better than the air in New York, I suppose. But then, I paid a far greater price than most people to be where I am, and I've got little reason to complain personally. I've given up the notion of having a wife and kids, as reasonable as those may be to most. Life is not reasonable in New York unless you're rich; tolerable if you have a steady job and ambition. All I have is ambition, but the ambition has propelled me further than anyone could imagine under the circumstances. I remember talking with various female interests about the goals in life we reach for, and invariably there was a tinge disappointment in their eyes when they remarked, "you're very ambitious." That always struck me as very funny; why would you be disappointed bty something like that? Now I know why. And though I get lonely from time to time, I would not take back my decision to pursue my dream. Such is that I was prepared to break from humanity in order to tell it on the mountain. The price is too steep for me to come back... for now.

In other news, I intend to produce and/or direct two shorts in the coming weeks; one is a spoof on the Subway commercials starring ace pitchers CC Sabathia and Johan Santana, and the other is the Ides of March scene from Julius Caesar. My producing partner and I agree that we need to exercise our talents more often; in the spring we had begun producing web shorts at a once-a-month clip, but when my uncle became sick we dropped everything to tend to him. Since his recovery, we've been slow on the uptake and we've had to struggle to find work and keep up with our individual needs, but the tide is turning once again and it's time to work again. We have a longer short in the works involving a strange trip on a household spice that will definitely be making the rounds in the festivals; I believe we will be shooting that in a month. But the two I mentioned above should work well as warm-ups to the bigger acts (if you can imagine Shakespeare being a warm-up act >;) So we have that... we also have the potential for a full-length feature that may begin production in a few months. Yes, it will be my first feature film which I hope I can direct; there are some names involved that me preclude me from directing due to union rules unless we can score a waiver (I'm guessing). Not that I would mind joining DGA at this point; benefits are benefits >;) But as is my policy on all projects, I won't talk about it until it actually happens. So, like Jesus said to the blind man when he laid his hands on his eyes, we will see.

Anything else? Hmm... I hope the others will come back and update in a little while. I'll let you know if anything new is happening. In the meantime, feel free to comment and/or contribute. Support by the way of resources and funds for our film projects would be nice as well! >;)