BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

So it’s Wednesday Again

So it’s Wednesday Again.

That means current event.  Let’s see what’s on the good old news.google.com.

 

I think I’ll go with this article…

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c9691fdc-6624-11e0-9d40-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JSrgkwlS

Demand for tablets hits PC shipments

It’s a short article because I’m short on time and it’s late and I’m sleepy.  Sooooo… here goes…

 

So talk about sleepy.  I just fell asleep. HA!  I typed that I was tired and then bam… out.  I’m going to keep this short since I’m so super sleepy.

 

One word.  It’s all about the interaction.  Interaction.  People want devices that they can touch.  Ok, maybe people don’t.   But when I say people… I mean, I myself want devices that I can interact with via touch.   Here’s actually something I bring up a lot when I’m talking about the future of computing…

I think the weakest chain in the link has to do with getting the information from my brain to the computers “brain” or processor and then to be stored on the hard drive.  OR vice versa!

Right now the interaction HAS to be done through touch.  Through some sort of device that I can manipulate through my hands.  Keyboards, mice, touch tablet interfaces.

So just think about how much of a slowdown this is for getting information TO and FROM the PC: TO and FROM my brain.

I believe that the biggest advance we will see next in computing will be the removal of that bottleneck.  So somehow we can better interface with typing or manipulating the on screen pointer device.

I am not saying that we need USB ports on our brains.  I’m just saying that perhaps doing away with the mouse and keyboard and introducing alternative means to input data might be more productive.  Maybe for the pointer device is to do away with the pointer device and make it touch oriented as in how tablets work.

Who knows!  The future is pretty awesome and has some interesting things in store for us!

 

Last Minute Entry (or more like last day entry)

Soooooo I'm blogging about my friend Kara giving away a 10 dollar Target gift card on her blog.

But that's not all she's also giving away a snazzy super creative silhouette picture of any pet you have a picture of... OR your favorite animal!  She's super creative like that.

Here's the link: http://www.lilmisswisecracker.com

She's cool and  and you should check out her blog.

I'm attempting to sneak in at the last moment with my entry.   Or the last day... instead of moment.

I'm all about a 10 dollar target gift card.  Now the question is... what would I do with a 10 dollar gift card to target?

Hmmmmmmmmm... oh the possibilities...

Let's see...

Well, I could always use it to buy some sort of ya know Man's MANly candle to freshen up my apartment.

 

I'm a dude... soooo as you know... dudes apartments don't smell naturally fresh like girls apartments do.  It's true... girls always smell so flowery and scented and I didn't know if you knew this or not but it's naturally like that.  Girls give off their own scent that smells like flowery heaven goodness...

Whereas guys just give off a "what is THAT smell" scent.  It's just how it works.

So a 10 dollar Target gift card would help cure me of what most Dr's refer to as Guy Smell Syndrome... or... they PROBABLY would refer to it as that if it were a real thing.  But it's POSSIBLY real... I think... I mean... it COULD be real.

 

Anywho so I imagine there would be some sort of manly cool fresh smelling something or another product that I would be able to purchase for 10 dollars if I were to win that would give that gift card

(breathe's in heavily....) ahhhhhhhhhh.

That's better.

So then my apartment would smell more like ya know... maybe a mountain stream... or a beach?  or ya know... something MANLY!  MANNNNNNN!

yea... like that.

Smells like a man... MAN!

So then I won't have to walk around like this anymore:

 

(That's not me, just a picture of a dude I found online)

*I just want to clarify that  I believe my apartment smells about normal for a guy's apartment.  But I would still buy some sort of man smelling something for my apartment to make it smell even more awesome than the average smell that it currently smells.

 

Actually you know what... I just realized I don't have a freakin bathmat!!!

 

I'd totally buy a bathmat.

OR a new cooking pan... my current pan is "non stick"  and EVERYTHING STICKS TO IT!

 

Probably the bathmat though.  And definitely the duck shaped one.  Because let's be honest.  Duck shaped bathmats are the about as MANly as you can get.

 

Weird Day

So today was kind of weird.  I had 3 out of the usual things happen:

Happening # 1 – The Random Bike Ride:

So I went for a random bike ride.  It was pretty nice out so I thought I would check out Radnor trail.  It’s a cool little paved bike path with an entrance basically right near my new place.  I decided to check it out.  I took my bike out and pedaled off to the trail.

The trail is nice.  It’s just a few miles straight with only small hills.  I saw a lot of people running as well.  I’ll most likely use it to go jogging on as well as ride my bike.

What’s so weird about that?  Well… about halfway through my bikeride a fellow came up beside me and started chit chattin about my bike… it’s a folding bike so it’s a little different from most bikes.

I thought, eh people have done that before.  It’s cool.  Well, we kept chatting and riding next to each other.  Then after the trail had been ridden we ended up continuing to chat and bike together for a little while.  He showed me where the famers market is and he was just an all around awesome dude.  We biked back to near where my place was and then parted ways.

It was super random and unusual.  But he was just completely friendly and awesome and I wasn’t expecting to have someone to bike around with.  So that was pretty cool to have a complete stranger just be so super friendly.

I think this first one wasn’t really weird or strange, but it was simply unexpected.  But at the same time it was very much welcomed!  I wish we all lived in a society where it was very easy to be friendly with complete strangers!  Why are we so weird about talking to people we don’t know?

Happening # 2 – The reverse rear end:

This was most definitely very much so weird.  I witnessed a really strange car accident.  So here’s the setup.  Two cars are traveling down a pretty busy main road.  Car number 1 is a super newish looking BMW SUV.  The driver is very business looking.

Behind the BMW is car number two.  A really old Honda Civic.  The driver is a super young looking dude who has on tshirt and jeans and just looks like he might have recently rolled out of bed. Bed head crazy hair going all over the place look.

So BMW has Honda pretty close behind it.  Then all of a sudden the BMW slows and stops.  Then the Honda starts honking.  Then the Honda keeps the hand on the horn and just holds it down.  So then the BMW starts backing up.  It keeps backing up until it hits the Honda.  The force was enough to break some plastic off and make it go flying.

Then the BMW starts to go forward and drive into the next parking lot up ahead.  The Honda follows it.  Then the BMW gets on the phone and makes a phone call.  While the Honda guy just gets out and seems to be screaming angrily at the BMW.

After a short while the police show up.  I don’t know what happened after that…

I have a bad feeling that I should have stayed as a witness to set things straight with the police.  Now, I don’t know for sure and it’s not good to assume things…

But here’s what I think might have gone down.  I think this was a bad case of road rage.

I think the Honda driver was pissing off the BMW driver.  So the BMW did the whole stop in the middle of the road just to piss off the Honda guy and to make him go around so he could either be rid of him.  Or I think that the BMW was then going to follow the Honda close on the tail.  As soon as the Honda driver started holding down the horn I think that’s when the BMW got really pissed and came up with the following plan.

Hmmmm… Nice looking BMW… Business suit dressed guy… Jalopy looking Honda missing a hubcap and kid that looks like he might possibly be high.

BMW reverses, backs into Honda… BMW calls the cops and here’s what I think he probably said…

“Hey, yes I’ve just been rear ended, I need a police officer right away”

The police officer shows up…

“Officer this person rear ended me… I was just driving along and bam…”

Honda guy: “That’s NOT true at all, he backed into me.”

If you were the police officer who would you believe?  No other witnesses to confirm who was actually telling the truth.

So the cop is faced with a business suit dressed man driving a nearly brand new BMW SUV on one side of the argument and a tattered jeans and tshirt kid with crazy hair driving a hubcap missing beat up Honda civic from the mid 90’s on the other.

The damage on both cars seems to indicate that the BMW was rear ended by the Honda.

What a crap situation.  Because I think most people in the police officers shoes would probably think the kid is lying and the business suit guy is on the up and up.

But seeing it happen I know that the kid was on the up and up and the business person was at fault.

It’s very weird to have the view of knowing what ACTUALLY happened, and then not really having a way to set things straight.

I guess I can only hope that what comes around goes around and things will eventually even themselves out.

It was a very weird situation.

Happening #3 – unknown callers:

So every now and then I get a random call.  But usually I can figure out who it is… telemarketers can be easily identified because Googling the number that called usually results in an 800notes.com entry about it.

If it’s a friend calling from a new phone number they usually will either A: not even call, but text. Or B: they will at least leave a voicemail.  In this case it was very mysterious…

I tried texting both numbers shortly after they called but got no response.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to call back and say hey what’s shakin?  I figure if it was super important they would have def left a voicemail, or they might have kept trying to call.  So, maybe they are just mistakenly calling me drunk?  Hmmm… I guess like the number of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop… the world may never know.  Or, at least I might never know…

Ohhhhh but the curiosity is driving me nuts!!!  Oh well.

Anywho… So… If anyone has any information leading to the identity  of these callers let me know!

I feel like Robert Stack in unsolved mysteries.

No lie, we used to watch this show as a family…  It was one of my favorite shows… It scared the crap out of me and I’d have nightmares for a few days after watching it… but then the next week, I’d be begging to watch it again.  It was just strangely addictive and terrifying at the same time!

So here’s the random details on the mystery callers:

Caller number 1 is a 908 number… as far as I can Google, it’s a North Jersey number.

They called twice.  The first call was at 12:39am on April 10^th.  Then they called again right away at 12:40am.  They left a very odd voicemail.

The voicemail is 13 seconds long… it’s just breathing… CREEEEEPY… then I hear a hardcore jersey accent… there’s two dudes…

 

Dude A: “Should I call it back?”

Dude B: “YEA BOYYYYYYY”

I added the BOYYYYYY part… he just said, YEA… if he had said YEA BOYYYYYYYY there would be no mystery… The caller would be none other than:

FLAAAAAAAVOR FLAAAAAAAAVE

 

Ok so then 6 minutes later I get a call from a 610 number.  As far as I can google from this number it’s a philly number… But I already knew that and didn’t need google to tell me this.

 

Anyways, soooo this person didn’t leave a vmail.

 

So I have a policy that I don’t answer any numbers that aren’t in my address book contacts list thing.  So if you are calling me or texting make sure you leave your name at least!  Otherwise I’ll probably think you accidentally dialed my number or you are a telemarketer.

So that was weird thing number three.

But you know what they say… things come in 3’s.  Unless we’re talking about eyes, or arms, or ears.  Those all come in 2’s.  That would be super weird if they came in 3’s.

 

The True Cost

Written after I wrote the blog: Warning… this is a bit wordy.  I just kept typing and rambling on.  Soooooo read at your own risk.  Also… I’ve had two beers.  Soooo I’m generally little more verbose than normal when I’ve had a beer or two!

Tonight I watched maxed out.  Well, that isn’t all I did.  First I walked down to Christopher’s Neighborhood Bar and got myself a burger and a beer.  I like to refer to the place as “Frippers”.

http://www.christophersaneighborhoodplace.com/

It’s a nice little place down the street.  I decided to get myself a nice burger and a beer.  I enjoyed it.  I wasn’t going to go out, but I decided to “Splurge” on myself and treat myself to a good time out.  Which by good time I mean, me chatting with the bar tender and eating my burger and sipping on my beer and reading a book on my Nook.

For me… that’s a decent night out.  Simple pleasures for a simple man.

Why Frippers?  Well… when my brother was little he couldn’t pronounce Christopher.  We had a family friend named Christopher.  And he used to call the kid Fripper.

So I’ve decided that I like the name Frippers.  OR actually in truth it just reminds me of my childhood and this kid named Christopher.  So I just like to refer to it as Frippers.

Most of the time no one except me seems to know what I’m talking about anyways.  But that’s ok.

So Maxed Out is a documentary film…

http://www.maxedoutmovie.com/

I have a thing for documentary films.  I really don’t know why I enjoy watching them so much.  I know that for the most part they aren’t very factual or representative of the information they are giving out.  The producers/writers/creators usually have an agenda that they want to push.  It’s not bad really, it’s just something to keep in mind.  The films are USUALLY biased to what the views of the team of people involved in the making and they definitely do not ever tell the whole story.  They are generally lacking in depth and the data is, most of the time, flawed and misinterpreted.  But not always.  There are also some really good films out there that are just documenting the facts and presenting them.  But this is the same for all media.  Just have to use good judgement when watching.

But for some reason I just like watching them.  I think I enjoy what I get out of it more.  After watching a documentary film I always feel like my brain is on overdrive and it inspires me to think about things in a new way.  So with everything I mentioned above I still feel like there is some good that comes out of it.  Although I also get the same over drive mind from regular movies as well.  So I suppose it doesn’t matter the type of movie I watch.  It’s more the fact that it just sparks my mind and gets me thinking in high gear.  Although most of the time my brain is in high gear anways.  Unless I’m sleeping,, then it’s in low gear.

 

So the movie Maxed Out is basically about credit cards.  It’s about debt.  It’s about living the American dream, or trying to.  It’s about not really being able to afford even the most basic things in life.  Again like I mentioned before there are some things the director did with it that really tug at your emotions.

There are some scenes in it that especially play on your emotions and make you just MAD at the credit card companies.  I don’t know.  I think that yes it’s part the credit card’s for making it so easy to get a card.  It’s also that we just have so many things to spend our hard earned money on.  But I think ultimately it comes down to our choice to spend that money.  I didn’t have to go out tonight.  I had food here and I have a strict budget that I adhere to that makes it possible for me to move out and live in this place.  I have bills and responsibilities.  I have a savings, but that’s something I’d like to keep built up and build up even more.  I don’t want to have to rely on that to live.  But it was my choice to go out and splurge on dining out.  How did I pay for it?  I put it on my card.  But unlike many of the subjects in the movie, I don’t ever carry a balance on the card.  As soon as the bill comes in I pay it all off 100 percent in full.

Why use a card then?

3 reasons.  Most people use a card because they don’t have the money up front and they need to borrow that money and then pay it back.  Nothing wrong with that, but I think that’s how many of the people who use credit cards get into trouble.  When purchasing a good or service there is usually hidden or unaccounted for costs.  I like to triple the cost of anything.  Generally the cost of most things is double or triple the cost.  This is the true cost.  In order to get people to buy things many marketing plans like to have the LOWEST cost in big letters and then have the rest of the fee’s and taxes and additions in fine print.

Here’s a quick example.  A car.  If someone wants to buy a car…  they might say hey I just saved up 15 thousand dollars.  I can stop riding the bus and start driving around in a nice little nifty go-mobile.

So, that person goes to the dealer and buys a nice little automobile for … let’s say 12 thousand dollars.  And done.  Look at that I have a car that I paid for.   Now I can drive right?  Well… no.  Here’s some of the other costs that have to be paid for in order for that kind person to get from point A: to point B:

1: Gas – $1200 a year

2: Car insurance - $1100 a year

3: Maintenance, planned, such as oil change, and tire rotation - $200 a year

4: Maintenance unplanned, my transmission just blew up 1 mile after the warranty ran out – $500 a year…

5: Car registration other various fees - $100

6. let’s say you get a parking and or speeding ticket.  OR you have to pay tolls as well -  $$$MORE money

As you can see it’s adding up very fast.  And think about if this person DID NOT have the 12K to buy the car in cash… now you have interest to be paid on the loan…

We won’t even go there.

If we are talking about owning your own home… well… that’s for another blog post.

It’s amazing that anyone can even keep their head above water.  There are always SOOOOO many extra costs involved with anything we do.

Even just my dinner at Frippers tonight was 25 dollars when all was said and done.

25 DOLLARS!  For a burger and a beer!  This is what I mean by splurging.

Let’s break it down:

8 dollars for the burger

6 dollars for the beer 1 – I decided to get my favorite.

4 dollars for beer 2 – I decided that hey, it’s Friday night.  I’m going to go all out and have a second beer!  What the hey.

Tax…

Now we’re at like 20 bucks… of course I have to leave a tip.

So there we are.  So from me looking at the menu…. To what I actually end up pulling out of my pocket.

Well, it turns out to be pretty pricey! Compared to that… oh look 8 dollars for a burger? I can swing that.  Bill: 25 dollars?!?!?!  HOW did that happen?

Everyone wants to get paid and this is true for you just as much as it is for the companies that you are dealing with.  I don’t really think the movie made me hate credit card companies (or in the case of my example the bars).  I think it just made me think again about why I use a card.  So as I mentioned before I use one for 3 reasons… if I already have the cash to pay for a good or service then why am I using a card?

Well here’s why I use a card…

1: protection from unauthorized charges:  With a credit card if something is purchased the money doesn’t immediately come out of your account.  It goes on the credit bill.  This means that I am not out in my checking (as with a debit card) that few hundred or thousand dollars.  I have a little bit of protection and time to get that charage removed.  Luckily for me I have not had this happen yet.  Let’s keep it that way.  So knock on electronics or wood…. I just knocked on real wood…. My coffee table next to the couch I am sitting on is made of wood.

2: Cash back.  For every purchase I get 1.5 percent cash back.  I don’t get weird points, or some strange store to choose gifts from.  I don’t get some cash on some products.  I have a card that gives me 1.5 percent cash back on everything no matter what I buy on every single purchase.  This can add up!  It’s not much.  But given a year of purchases, this can mean free hosting fee’s for my website.  Or maybe a month or two worth of free gas.  Etc. etc.

3: The third reason is that it builds up my credit score.  At least I like to think it builds up my score.  But let’s just say for the sake of argument that it does.

So there you go.  Used properly credit cards can have a positive use.  But mismanaged they can mean trouble.

The most heart breaking part of the documentary was when the two mom’s are being interviewed.  One mom talks about her son, and the other her daughter.  These two college kids got cards early on in college and got into some pretty bad debt.  After a few years they were in over their heads with credit card debt and kept it a secret from their family.  They were simply to ashamed to tell anyone that they just couldn’t afford to pay it all off.

Both of the kids ultimately found that the only way out was to commit suicide.

It’s pretty horrific.  No matter the situation keeping things to yourself is never a good way to deal with it.  Humanity has gotten through some pretty tough times by brainstorming with a group of people.  Sure parents/family members/friends might be mad initially.  But I think eventually they will help figure out a way to fix the problem.  If maybe these two kids had asked for help then maybe they would still be with us!

So if anyone reading this is struggling with debt, or any other kind of in over his or her head problem… seek out some help.  Things in life always change.  There is always hope!

Wow this is a pretty intense blog post.  Anyways so yea the movie had a pretty big emotional impact on me, which was probably what it was supposed to achieve.  I recommend watching it just as a sort of wake up call to your own finances.

Maybe think about how much you spend and where you spend your money.  Do you buy things that you probably could do with out?  Maybe that money can be put to better use elsewhere?

I think with all that is going on in the news about the government budgets we really can learn a lot from maintaining a budget and sticking to it.  Really thinking about where our money is going and really valuing every dollar we earn.  Credit cards and debt can be used in productive ways.  But they can also be used in ways that can get us in trouble too!

Whoa… what did I just even write?  Ok well It’s late… sooooo good night!

 

Tired Much?

Sooooo I just woke up.  I came home and did the good old "laid down for a minute" thing.  That was that.  I'll post up my current events thing tomorrow.  I went out to dinner with mom after work and had myself a beer with dinner.  The beer made me all sorts of tired.  So as soon as I got home... yep.

OK, well I'm ALREADY zzzzzing off again.  I need more hours in the day!  I feel like I always have soooooo much to do and just never enough time to do it.  This means I usually end up taking away time from sleep to get things done.  And that's never a good thing.  Sleep is super important and I really should get more of it then I do.

I have a small break coming up at the end of this month from work.  It will be awesome to have a few days to catch up and do things and hopefully sleep in every day.  So I'm going to get my sleep on now.

And on that note... so should you!  Well, if you are reading this at an odd hour.  If you are reading this during the day and you are, perhaps at work or somewhere similar I might not recommend going to sleep.

Boss's aren't too keen on sleeping on the job.  Oh wait... WAIT... I JUST might be able to do my current events after all... in a reverse weird kind of way...

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/apr/06/mcghee-tyson-traffic-controller-slept-job/

Yes... here's an article about sleeping on the job.  OK, sooooooo it's a far stretch to tie this in... but BAM... there you go.

I give myself a B... +... or A-... or... a pat on the back for even being able to write something half coherent at 3am after waking up confused and stumbling around in the dark.

SO yes... I say Bam...

 

Current events wednesday is officially did and done.  OR, as I'm temporarily renaming it to.... "supporting evidence wednesday".

Peace and good night.

Apple TV and Creativity

I was supposed to go to some karaoke tonight, but my friend wasn’t feeling too well when it came time to go out.  We planned to reschedule for next Tuesday.  I am just as happy to stay in and watch something on my new setup of Apple TV and Netflix streaming.  I just love this thing, there is more than enough content for me on Netflix streaming and I love that you can play what you want when you want.  I can pause, rewind, fast-forward, etc… but my favorite part?

No commercials!  Although, sometimes commercials are funny and make me laugh, like the living under a rock commercial from geico that I mentioned in my blog yesterday.

Right now my favorite commercial is this one…

The giraffe on the treadmill is absolutely hilarious.

So besides no commercials…

My other favorite thing is the screen saver.  If you let the Apple TV go without using it for a couple of minutes and nothing is playing it will start to display a screen saver.  The default screensavers are either flowers or animals.  Both are pretty cool.  If you want you can have it pull photos from a mobileme account.  I think the last option is the coolest.

You can search for a term in flickr and it will display random flickr photos with that search term as the screen saver.  How cool is that?  You can also use the flickr menu item to browse and display search terms in a slide show.  In addition to searches you can add a username to display your own photos.

Super nifty!

So what does Apple TV have to do with creativity?  Well aside from catching myself zoning out to the screen saver from time to time in awe of the awesome photos I’ve found that if I put on an episode of something or a movie I’ve been able to work better with the whole crafting thing.  Why am I crafting?  Well, I’m not crafting like scrapbooking type of thing going on…  I’m using crafts of the “arts and crafts” kind to make cover art and among other things to make the animation, and wallpapers and other things for my website.

I always have been one of those people who seem to work better when I have something going on in the background.  I like to go to coffee shops to blog.  Or I like to just generally have people around me when I’m working on something.  I used to go and hang out in the library when I had to type papers for class.  My all time favorite was just hanging out in the dorm lounge room back in the day and we would all be working on different home work projects and things… but we’d just be kinda there hanging out with one another.  Although most of the time very little work was actually accomplished compared to the amount of goofing around that would happen.

Well like I said I’ve found that if I put something on in the background like a movie, or a tv show.  I’m able to focus on creating new things to post on my website.  Or in this case… blogging .  I just put a tv show on.  What show?  Bones, before that it was futurama.

I promise VERY soon I’ll actually have some new creative things up instead of just talking about them a lot!  Well it’s late and I must get to sleep soon.  So until next time!

 

Random Open Mic Blog Monday April fourth twenty eleven

So… I don’t really have anything cool or specifically awesome to blog about today.

So I’m just going to type about the open mic at the Gryphon Café.  I’m just hanging out here now.  I actually dilly dallied too long at my apartment and took my time making some dinner.  Oh yea, and I kinda sorta went on a bike ride since it’s super super nice out.  Sooooo I missed the sign up.  But the dude said that he would probably still let me play at the end of there’s time.  It’s ok… if not I’m just here enjoying some nice tunes.  And ya know, there’s always next week!

The first dude is doing Creep by Radio Head.  It’s a standard open mic song.  Almost as standard as Wonderwall by Oasis.  If you have never played guitar and you want to learn and you want to play your first open mic I recommend playing Wonderwall.

There’s never a bad reaction.  No matter HOW many times we hear Wonderwall we always sing along and like it.  It’s a genius song.

If you happen to live under a rock and have never heard of wonderwall like this guy:

Here’s the music video:

 

The other option is the song that I learned in the fall to play for someone and then never got the chance to play it…  that song is probably one of the best songs ever written…

Hotel California by the Eagles.  I’ll definitely cover that at an open mic here in the near future.

Tomorrow night is karaoke with one of my cool cat friends.  So that will be pretty awesome.  If anyone is in or around the area of Berwyn they should TOTALLY come hang out and do karaoke as well!  I promise it will be a ton o fun o.

Ok Actually you know I DO have something to blog about.  One month from today I will be playing a SECOND show at The Fine Grind in Lil Falls NJ!  So if anyone lives up in or around the area up in northern NJ they should totally come to the show!  It’s a Wednesday night and it’s from 7:30 to 9:30.

OOoooo exciting!  Hmmmm… ok I think that’s about all I gots for this blog.  I’m just going to sit here and chill and listen to some music and sip on my coffee and mellow out.  So.. speaking of things that end in out… peace out!

 

Extra Extra

Extra Extra

So I realized that I never blogged about my experience of being an extra in a movie.

I was waiting for my friend that hooked me up with the gig to send the candid photos from the set of us in action.  OR I was waiting for word of when the movie was going to come out.  I figured I’ll just do an update blog when that happens, because if I don’t blog this now… I’ll completely forget what happened!  Well, ok I’m not a goldfish… so I won’t COMPLETELY forget.  But I’ll at least get a little hazy on the details.

So here’s the run down on how it all went down.  SO then you’ll know what’s up… and you’ll be down with being up.  Got it?

Ok.  Here goes.  So here’s the “Call Sheet” from that day.  They make one of these every day to know what’s going on in the filming and who’s needed on the scene and what kinda make up is needed and effects. And wardrobe… and also what the weather is going to be.  Etc. etc.  It’s EVERYTHING you need to know.

I made it low res because there’s some personal information on there so I didn’t want the public interwebs having like Parker Posey’s cell phone number.  Actually I don’t think her number is on there, but there’s some other numbers on there and I have no idea what half the stuff really means or is… it COULD be top secret!  And since the movie isn’t out yet I want to be all on the up and up and not leak anything that might not want to be leaked.  Ca-peche? SP? Quiche? No lie, I just looked over to the food case here in Barnes and Noble where I’m typing this to look up the spelling of quiche… they have a yummy looking spinach and artichoke quiche that looks mouthwatering.  I may have to get it.  Just might.  For now… I’m going to keep writing.

So I basically got this gig through a family friend.  They needed extras…  he was advertising it on facebook saying that he needed headshots.  So I sent him one of my spring ’10 photoshoot photos.  The one of me in the black shirt with the guitar looking at the camera holding the guitar upside down.  You know… the one that makes the girls swoon.  Hmmm… Or, so I was once told.  I don’t know if girls really swoon over me.  Sigh…

Anywho… so… yea.  I sent him that picture.  Well he liked it.  And so he sent an email back… and said: “Rockin photo… Can you be here in NYC one day next month?”  I said “YES!”

That was in January.

In February I took the day off.  Hopped the train from the metro park station in NJ to Penn Station in NYC.  When I got to the metro park station it was COMPLETELY FULL!  I started to panic!  Where am I going to park? What am I going to do??? I was like oh no!  What now?!?!?!  Then the attendant motioned at me to come forward to the LOT FULL sign and he moved the cone to the side.  I rolled down the window and he said… “I can fit you in over here on the side… I don’t normally do this but you’ve got a pretty small car… so I’ll let it slide this one time”

Wow… yes.

I then took the F train to Brooklyn.  The filming was at a neat little bar pub restaurant in the basement where the club is.

http://www.waterstreetrestaurant.com/

 

SO… as you can guess… It was a club scene. I showed up wearing some hopped up clubbing clothing.  I had on my most expensive pair of everything… shoes, shirt, and pants.

When I got there I was sent down to holding with the rest of the cast and we all just kinda hung out and joked around and talked.  It was super interested to hear all the people’s stories!   Some were aspiring actors and actresses.  Some were just there for the heck of it.  Some just doing extra work to pick up some extra income for the day.

Oh I almost forgot the best part.  When walking the few blocks from the train station to the actual location it was mega windy.  I had my backpack on and there is a little elastic thing in the back.  Well, at the exact SAME time as a giant gust of wind coming in my face I also hooked onto some random pole that was sticking out…

I thought the wind was blowing so hard that it was holding me in place!  Then the wind stops blowing and I realize I’m caught.

At the exact same time a kind new Yorker girl unhooked me… she was doing all she could to stop from laughing.

How embarrassing.  I just said… “Thanks.”

She giggled and said “no problem” Then she walked into the fresh market store with her giant reusable shopping bag.

So the first scene I wasn’t in.  It was just people sitting in the bar in the background.  Now they actually add music and talking and everything but the main characters and their lines AFTER.  So everyone had to be SUPER SILENT while the scene was run and just mime everything.

It was weird at first.  After a while you get the hang of it.  They ran that a few times and got a good take fairly quickly.  The scene was pretty entertaining and I was content just watching the actors and actresses do their thing.

Who was in it?  Well here’s the biggest names you might recognize:

Parker Posey: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000205/

 

Eric Mabius: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0531095/

 

Cheyanne Jackson: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2091145/

 

Actually here’s the IMDB for the movie.  This wasn’t up the last time I checked but that’s pretty sweet there’s a IMDB entry for it now!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1845849/

That makes it officially official!

So the next 3 scenes I’m in.  The first one is leaving the club and a fight breaks out.  I’m walking out and you probably will only see the back of my head.  I’m wearing a blue shirt with the sleaves rolled up.

The next scene we did was a band playing and I’m in the crowd standing near Parker.  We’re all just jamming out to this soft rock song.  This was probably the most mellow song I’ve ever heard.  It was actually pretty hard to dance to it and make it believable that you were ALL about this band.

Basically they played this song on loop.  And just kept rolling cameras.  We had to stare at a GIANT X on the wall and make believe that was the band.  We had fake drinks in our hands that looked like real alcohol but didn’t smell or I imagine taste anything like it.  I didn’t drink from the drink.  It was probably not a good idea to put the glass anywhere near your mouth.  Movie set props probably shouldn’t be ingested.  At least I think?

So they just had this song on repeat, and after about the 5^th time through we started to memorize the chorus of the song.  So the director said feel free to sing along or mouth the words like you know the song.

It’s REALLY actually interesting.  They do scenes multiple times because you start to get into it each time.  The first time you run through a scene everyone is kind of stiff and awkward.  Then as you run through it more and more and more…. You start to really GET INTO THE PART!  It’s amazing.  This happened with live theater the few plays I’ve been in.

I think as well this is similar with friendships and relationships.  Things are always awkward the first few times… and then after like the 4^th or 5^th time you really start to get comfy with the person and then things start to really become awesome because you really learn what each other needs from the other person.

I don’t know, sometimes it does happen right off the bat the first time.  But usually it takes a few run through to get into the motion of things.

Relationships AND movie scenes.  The more you do something over and over the more comfortable and better you get at it.  So… the moral of that is…

Don’t give up after only 1 or 2 or even 3 tries… keep at it a little while.  I guarantee it will go somewhere once things get comfortable.

The very last scene was all the extra’s hanging out inside the door of the club as the main characters were entering.  This time we actually had to talk loudly and make it seem like loud music was playing.  There wasn’t actually any music playing but we just had to pretend it was a big crazy club scene.

After all was said and done we went upstairs to wait for the cashola we were to be paid for the days worth of work.  While waiting I got to meet miss Parker Posey herself!  We even said hello and talked about some random things.

She’s super chill.

I was with some other people so it wasn’t just me talking.  But it was still fun to be like wow hey how are you?

I was kinda starstruck.

So I got paid and then went on my way back to catch the train.  I decided to stop off for a burger and a beer at Tir Na Nog…

http://www.tirnanognyc.com

 

That’s across the street from Penn Station in NYC.  It was soooo freakin good.  The bartender was an awesome fellow who was actually from Ireland.  So I felt like I was in another place entirely and not just in NYC.

While I was enjoying my burger and beer a fellow sat down beside me and we started chatting.  Turns out he was from the same area in western PA where I went to college.  So we talked about that.  He also did IT work so we started talking about that!

He was a consultant for NBC in NYC.  We exchanged tech IT guru stories and ideas and secrets.  It was pretty awesome.  He gave me a card when he left.

I need to get one of those business card things.  That’s on my list.

Well so the secret he gave me was gold.   I’ve already used it at work to fix a few issues that seemingly are unsolvable.

He told me of this website which is really a group of sites together.

http://stackexchange.com/

It’s gold for IT people.  There are a TON of sites under that one site and you can ask and answer questions.  I’ve been using http://serverfault.com/ which is for networking and IT stuff.  But they have A TON of topics to get help on from Cooking to Physics.

There’s even one for Photography!  So if you are into professional photography… check out:

 

http://photo.stackexchange.com/

 

Anywho I left the bar, a little tipsy… got on the wrong train… got OFF the train just before it left the station… got on the right train… was sober by the time I got to my car and drove home.

It was an amazing experience and I’m so glad I did it!

Well, I’m being kicked out here at Barnes and Noble.   So I hope everyone has a fantastic night.  I’m going to hit up the grocery store for some food stuffs and then maybe hop down to the local pub for a quick brew and to mingle with the locals and see if I can have another interesting convo like I did in NYC.

Then bed time for me!

Until tomorrow.  I hope everyone has a good Saturday night!