CollisionWorks

Just finished about six solid hours of writing/editing/conceiving work on Spell, with another hour or two spread out earlier in the day. Feels good.

Sent off the 22 pages of material I now have to the cast, to give them something to look at and think about at this point.

Here's the first page of what I sent:

SPELL
Moira Stone - ANN
Fred Backus - Doctor General Jane (aka 2 JANE)
Alyssa Simon - General Doctor Jane (aka 1 JANE)
Jorge Cordova - ANDY
Iracel Rivero - WITCH 1 (Cuba)
Rasha Zamamiri - WITCH 2 (Palestine)
Jeanie Tse - WITCH 3 (China)
Gavin Starr Kendall – The MAN
Olivia Baseman - Fragment 1 (girlfriend aka FRAG 1)
Sammy Tunis - Fragment 2 (woman of business aka FRAG 2)
Liz Toft - Fragment 3 (worker aka FRAG 3)

SEGMENTS currently conceived (not really in any order yet):

I. Opening – swinging lamp over ANN as she sings “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray,” stopped by 2 JANE, then buzzer, siren, explosion and screams.

II. First Interview – same dialogue done four times between ANN and 1 JANE/2 JANE from different perspectives.

III. Light Bulb Discussion

IV. The Bedtime Ritual (with diagnosis speech from 2 JANE) – midshow relaxation/expansion

V. The Firing Squad Dream Sequence (relates to following sequence listed – “Piggies”)

VI. The Witches or Fragments Become Manson Girls

VII. ANN as Patty Hearst as “Tania” (connect to Che Guevara’s “Tania”?)

VIII. ANDY’s revolutionary speech (with James Brown cape routine)

IX. The introduction of the FRAGMENTS and their positions

X. The MAN and FRAG 1

XI. The MAN and FRAG 2

XII. The MAN and FRAG 3 (includes stereotyped “chasing the secretary round the desk” sequence, set to “Yakety Sax” – 1 JANE makes ANN back up and tell the story “right”)

XIII. The Male Gaze lecture – ANN lines up the women downstage – the men gather upstage to be manly and laugh together

XIV. WITCH 1 spell sequence

XV. WITCH 2 spell sequence

XVI. WITCH 3 spell sequence

XVII. ANN and 1 JANE/2 JANE discussion – Cuba

XVIII. ANN and 1 JANE/2 JANE discussion – Palestine

XIX. ANN and 1 JANE/2 JANE discussion – China

XX. ANN and ANDY on trains, travel, and getting to know the country

XXI. Finale – ANN accepts her actions – exit – “Just Another Day”

When I have some that excerpts well, I'll put it up.

So, a couple of good ass-kicking images that brightened my day . . . first, from LP Cover Lover, a man who kicks arse for the LORD!

And from Photo Basement, Batman kicks ass because he's full of PAIN!

And in video land, this young man's "Pyro System" could kick someone's ass, maybe his own . . .

( Darwin Award waiting to happen . . . )

Gary Cooper kicks cyborg ass!

( High Tech Noon )

And the Mean Kitty is just ass-kicking mean . . .

( Hey, Little Sparta )

Enjoy.

From around the series of tubes, some links and images for the dining and dancing pleasure of you and yours . . .

First, an album cover that went up today on LP Cover Lover that I couldn't resist ganking and sharing (dig the song titles) . . .

Next, great comic artist Wally Wood's instructions to himself on how to spiff up a boring, talky, and badly-written story (which I got from Joel Johnson Has a Blog): "22 Panels That Always Work!!"

(note: You might want to see this larger, which you can, HERE)

Finally, as a big fan of the retro humor-art of Bruce McCall, I am very fond of the site Modern Mechanix, and have posted images and links from and to there before . . . but this may be my all-time favorite.

From the March, 1956 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, an article and splash page that asks an important question facing America . . .

(again, can be seen larger HERE - full article is HERE)

Enjoy. Back to breaking down scripts into french scenes and scheduling for me . . .

Berit really liked the album-cover-creating meme I participated in BELOW, HERE, where you create a fake band's album cover from images/words found in random web searches.

So, she had to do one herself. As she says, she could do this for fun all day. Well, it would take a while, since she goes through 19,000 fonts or so looking for the "right one" (I just keep hitting the interestingly-named ones until I find a really good one that works).

When we were doing the random generating that went into this, we first thought it was for a Laibach-type band, then Berit decided it was more like Electric Six. Now I don't know.

What kind of band is Frederick Gent School?

B's just said she thinks they wound up more Pixies-ish, but she isn't so sure either.

Here's the best meme I've seen in a while (coming from flemco, who finds it "silly," but I dig . . .)

Rules for Making Up Your Fake Band's Album Cover:

1. Your band name is your first hit on Wikipedia's Random Page

2. Your album name is taken from the end of the last quote on this random quotes page.

3. Your album cover is made from the fourth picture on Flickr's Interesting Photos.

Add a Back Cover:

1. Reload Flickr's interesting photos page twice. Use the seventh picture, but desaturate it.

2. Reload the random quotes page. Take the last few words of each quote to make song titles. Use them all.

Which brings me to that big hit album - from that new alt-prog group - that's sweeping the ocean . . .

So be on the lookout for when Amiret Township Minnesota comes to your town in support of their album Least Likely To Offend (with the college-rock chart-climber, "All Over The Floor")! Next stop, Lawrence, Kansas!

(Aw man, now I feel like I have to actually make up this entire album as some kind of art project or something . . .)

I needed some production photos quick for publicity purposes, so I asked some of the actors who live near The Brick to come by last night and get into costume and get some photos after the shows were over. Gyda Arber and Bryan Enk were able to make it - and thanks for the loan of the camera and for uploading the shots to Gyda.

So here's some of what the show pretty much looks like. Here I am as Hamlet with Enk as Polonius (". . . conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive . . ."):

With Gyda as the Norwegian Captain, talking of futile war:

And the two of us again, looking out on the Norwegian troops being sent to their deaths in Poland:

And finally, the shot you have to get, Hamlet with Yorick:

Now, a rush. Shower and shave, off to Staples for new programs, off to Big Apple Lights to exchange a loaner piece of equipment with our repaired one (the "brain" for our practical dimmers), off to The Brick to put the piece in and then practice for a few hours. I'm feeling good, though Berit and I were at The Brick fixing tech things until 5.00 am again last night (this morning). Now to keep this up through the show.