Happy Birthday Bettie Page

Today would have been Bettie Page’s 87th birthday. I’ve been a fan of hers since I’ve been a fan of women. I know that doesn’t make me at all unique… Her appeal (and cultural influence) had already spanned a couple of generations before I stumbled upon her iconic image and deliciously devious smile. What makes me a bit unusual is the fact that I once got to talk to her on the phone… an experience I chronicle in my weekly cartoon blog: ANOTHER LA CARTOON.

I was also invited to attend her private memorial service & funeral where, just like everyone else lucky enough to have an aisle seat, I spontaneously reached out to touch her casket as they rolled it out to her final resting place after the service was concluded. I  think it is fitting that she is buried in the same cemetery as (and actually just a few dozen feet from) Marilyn Monroe.

“I was never the girl next door.”

— Bettie Page

Marching on!

I’ve been enjoying the month of March so far, partially because I have managed to crack a few new stages. I started the month at the delightful Story Salon at Coffee Fix in the valley, hosted by the amazing Beverly and last week I got to throw down a story at The MOTH at Busby’s… The Moth is a storytelling show/project that is spreading all over the country. It was a great time – about 100 people in the audience, great story tellers and a good vibe. They actually have judges and each story is ‘scored’…which was a little intimidating, but I managed to take second place, missing out on the win by just 0.2 points… I’ll be going back for sure. …plus: It looks like my Moth performance might have gotten me invited to yet another storytelling show, this one on the Eastside… details to follow when I know them.

Improv-wise I have been digging the weekly alumni jams at bang (where else?) and last weekend’s “S&BJ Day” show was, as expected a hilarious and debased good time. It always feels reassuring to have a run of a few good improv sets in a row… especially when I’m about to start teaching another “level 4” class next week.

Have a safe Saint Patrick’s Day everyone.

I saw Sandra Bullock win an award this weekend…. no, not that one.

OK, for various reasons I regularly attend the annual RAZZIE awards… and so on Saturday night I was there when Sandra Bullock showed up to collect her “Worst Actress Award.” She was funny & classy and I’m very glad she won that other award on Sunday night too.

Calendar updates.

Testing out the usefulness of my newly added “Calendar” feature…. click the link in the right-hand column to get a rundown of my upcoming shows… I remain disappointed that wordpress hasn’t yet created a seamless/integrated “Upcoming Events Calendar” for us faithful WP users…but this is at least a good temporary solution… using google calendar and a link… click on the items to see full details.

Thanks !

Updates.

I have completed the outline for my next comedy feature and will begin hammering out the 1st draft on Monday. For the first time I won’t be using ‘Final Draft’ screenplay writing software… The copy on my laptop has become extremely buggy as of late… so I’ll be trying out Celtx instead. If you do your writing on a MAC, check this program out… it is free and so far it seems pretty stable (note: This was not a paid endorsement, just a report and observation.)

Episode 2 of Bud Fallbrook is in the production stage. I locked the script last week… ok so it is only a five page script…but at least it is locked. I’ll start recording the voices this weekend. Meanwhile I have started working on building new backgrounds and testing out some animation ideas.

I’m still working on shortening some of my various punk rock stories and spoken-word pieces so that I can try them out on some local stages that have strict “5 minutes or less” time limits… That works out to about 700 words max… which, for me, is practically a haiku…. but it is a good challenge.

This week I put up the 100th “Ask A Punk” post… I know I recently put up a big self-congratulatory “2 year anniversary” post… but I thought it was/is worth noting.

I have been getting a lot of good feedback lately on some of my other writing samples that have (finally) getting some good circulation around town… I’m excited to see what might happen next.

Stay Strong Everyone !