The Gold Head

Originally uploaded by RossWhite.

We’ve done a lot of stuff today. Whew. I’m tired.

Also, for like the first time in like 5 years, I made dinner two nights in a row.

Seriously, can you see him? Because I cannot, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how this is national news.

Jesus in a tree

If you can photoshop this picture and draw in the relevant Jesus-parts, that I may better see our lord and savior, I’d appreciate it. Otherwise, I call shenanigans.

Thank you, Katy Jack, for finding this little gem. I’ve been thinking recently that I needed some more memes in this blog. You know… to pass the time while I’m not writing anything.

Giant Bear!

Originally uploaded by RossWhite.

Watch out! There’s a Giant Bear trying to get into the Colorado Convention Center! You could be mauled! Or trampled!

Denver has great art.

I have been getting geeked out on Creative Commons and I spent about two hours yesterday creating information for the LEARN NC teachers on how they can use Creative Commons to search for materials they can use. While doing so, I found the MIT open courseware site, and I think I almost lost my virginity to it. That site is amazing. Seriously. You could geek out so hard in there that the world would stop for a few minutes.

Monica Byrne is an MIT grad. I’ll have to rant and rave tonight in her last level 1 class about it.

There’s been an announcement on the IRC and the ComedyWorx boards that IO will be teaching classes at ComedyWorx, beginning in February. Several people have asked me today what I think of the news, and the truth of the matter is that I’m very stoked for this to happen. Anything that furthers the art of longform improvisation in North Carolina is a good thing, and I stand by the DSI motto: Support your local comedy. I’ve got a bunch of great friends at ComedyWorx who weren’t thrilled with the drama of “pick CWx or DSI,” and those that picked ComedyWorx will now have a venue to continue their study of longform. This is great. Depending on the faculty involved with the project, which hasn’t been announced yet, I may head over and take some classes. I love working with experienced improvisers who’ve been in another scene than I have, and if I get to study with my peeps from CWx, that’s even better.

I know some of the people around DSI immediately felt threatened by this, but I really don’t see it as competition in any way. We’re 30 miles away, we draw a completely different crowd because of the geography, and anything that raises awareness of improv comedy in the Triangle benefits all improv in the area. I’ve said all along that we’re not competing for crowds, and I don’t think we’re competing as training centers. I hope there’s lots of cross-breed now, as there has been in the past. I will always be supportive of DSI improvisers seeking more training and experience.

So, a big kudos to ComedyWorx, and I eagerly await more information on who will be coming down to teach the classes!

I like fiction where the robots kind of act human, and there’s a murder mystery involved. What can you suggest?

Blackboard has acquired its biggest rival, WebCT, and will almost certainly have a huge monopoly in online learning in the next couple of years. I like Blackboard’s product, but this is only bad news for online learning, because Blackboard will jack up their prices on you as soon as they get the chance.

Perhaps online learning will mirror the general condition of our country and spiral downward. I think even Bush has the feeling that he’s plummeting. (And if he lands safely, you can drag him off the edge and watch him fall more.)

I really, truly, loathe the .pdf format and all Adobe Acrobat-related software. Adobe, Photoshop is awesome, but you guys have your thumbs in your butts when it comes to the Acrobat suite. Figure this one out.

So, can I possibly sum up the opening weekend at DSI into words? I doubt it, I doubt it seriously. But here are some attempts:

1. The improv was good, all weekend long. I don’t think anyone felt pressure; I think people felt the genuine elation that I did. We have a permanent theater space.

2. We sold out two of three shows on opening night and had only about five free seats for the third show. ComedySportz was near full the second night, and we had at least 25 paid for the other two shows.

3. Customers left smiling. I believe they will be back!

4. Of course, the best thing about DSI is being surrounded by friends. Opening weekend was particularly nice, because we had friends in from all over. Got to play shows with Rene and Jon Karpinos, Andrew Hutson and Erik Martin were back with Community Bike, Matt Urbanic was up from Fayetteville before he ships out to save the world.

5. After the first Mister Diplomat show in the new space, Jennings sent an e-mail saying, “Daniel Wallace should be our new best friend.” He IS our new best friend. I cannot imagine a better monologist for an Armando show. I think Daniel liked doing the show, and he absolutely owned it. I can’t wait to have him back.

By the way, bitches, Rene says “What’s up?”

I’m sitting behind the counter at the DSI Comedy Theater and I figured that if I have to pay attention to the door and not the show, at least I’ll do a Daily Diplomat (the show started ten minutes ago and I don’t think anyone else will come in, but if they do, I won’t count the transaction time towards my 10 minute limit).

Star Wars is my first memory. Of course, memory is a tricky, tricky thing, so I’m not sure that i didn’t just construct this later, but I do have a memory of being very, very young, of being with my uncle and my parents, and being in a movie theater showing Star Wars. I was 2 in 1977 so this seems like it could easily happen.

I wish I could say that I remember something cool about Star Wars, but the memory is of being in the aisle of the movie theater, and seeing C-3PO. This seems like a striking enough image to keep with me– a giant golden robot. I dount if I would have seen anything else like it by that age.

I’m sad that kids today didn’t grow up with Star Wars, or at least not good Star Wars. The first (Episode IV, natch) was a brilliantly well-made film, with just about everything you could possibly want in a film. (And it still lost the Oscar to Annie Hall. Is there no justice?) The secon was almost better, for reasons well-described in Clerks. Return of the Jedi, well, it sucks, but it was of its time and not completely awful in the way that the prequel trilogy was. Star Wars was an event when I was growing up, and though we tried to make it one again when Episode I came out, it wasn’t. The only good thing that came of Episode I was the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog spot. Isn’t it sad that one of the greatest films ever was later reduced, by its association with the crappy prequels, to a pleasant little film that actually took time to develop character in an otherwise bloated saga.

My brother still loves Star Wars. I think he was six when Episode I came out. He didn’t really like JarJar all that much– see, George Lucas, even kids can smell a stinker sometimes– but he loved the special effects. We loaded him up with Star Wars toys, which of course delighted him. And he wanted to see the film again and again, I took him with me the second and third time I saw the film.

Thanks to CeCe Garcia for today’s suggestion.

Having never been Asian, I have decided that I am in need of having the experience of being Asian. I previously thought that this would require death and reincarnation, but as it turns out, a Hollywood actor knew what I was thinking and designed a special solution just for me: Steven Seagal’s Asian Experience Energy Drink. Werr, herro!

Come see some shows at the new DSI Comedy Theater. Tonight. 9:30 PM, featuring Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish.

Friends of Improv Everywhere,

Our U2 Mission from this past May is going to be on the TV tomorrow night. Set your tivos to record VH1’s “40 Greatest Pranks” (9 to 11 PM). There will be footage from the mission and interviews with Agent Todd and Agent Slocum (aka “Fake Bono”). For those without a tivo-type device, the program reruns at 12 Midnight and also at 7 PM Saturday evening.

In other news, IE was mentioned in Rolling Stone this month (Hot List issue) and also in the current issue of New York Magazine. Check both articles out:

http://www.improveverywhere.com/press_rs.jpg

http://www.improveverywhere.com/press_nym.jpg

And for those of you who live in NYC, remeber that The Mp3 Experiment 2.0 is taking place a week from Saturday (10/15) at 3 PM. More information and the Mp3 itself will be available by Monday afternoon on our site.

I’m way behind on my hipster reading and my blog reading. So if you’re a friend of mine and I don’t know what’s going on in your life, it’s that I haven’t hit your blog in about six weeks. And I missed some dandy news gems like this one: World of Warcraft Virus. That’s pretty funny. Very cool.

Looks like I wrote about selling out too soon. This would have been the place to do it. Ah, well. Corporations are really good at getting my money. Even when I intend to do the right thing and patronize the mom and pop, I usually screw it up by purchasing something there from an evil corporation that summons demons and has them supervise Argentinian infant workers.

You know who deserved my money when they got it in exchange for shitty product? Steven Spielberg. Or, more technically, the company (I assume was Dreamworks SKG) that put out AI: Artificial Intelligence. That movie was freaking horrible, no? To this day, though, I have seen very little fiction as compelling as the interactive story designed as a promotion for the movie.

Why is Hollywood not crapping itself for the chance to tell more convincing stories over the web to sell product? Sooner or later, they are going to have to realize that all that separates the giant communications megacorporations from the little guy is the money to really develop out an artist’s vision. With digital stuff getting cheaper and easier, the amount of independently-produced music and film is staggering. If Hollywood wants to remain a real industry, I think sooner or later they’re going to have to stop pandering to mass audiences and develop films for more targeted audiences. When we’re one day presented with loads of choices, no one’s going to choose The Wedding Date. Well, the eight Debra Messing fans who have enough disposable income to blow $20 on a date film that won’t get the date stirred up at all.

AI’s marketing campaign was an interactive piece of fiction that was updated twice weekly and actually looked at what the users were saying to improve the story or correct small inaccuracies. Because it was a series of complicated puzzles, the “reading” community was forced to come together and work together for the solutions to some puzzles to get to the next piece of the story. They faxed the “readers,” called them, created phone numbers readers could call, even manned them with a voice actor at one point. They created a whole world (very little of which remains, sadly, since the sites came down after the shitty movie came and went) that had character.

Thankfully, the community of people who came together to solve those puzzles have kept their site active: http://cloudmakers.org/

Thanks to Amos Brown for today’s suggestion.

Happy anniversary, hot stuff.