A sampling

  You say you're anxious to know the status of my 20 years of Delta Wing Pictures project? You say you're chomping at the bit for some highlights? Well, you're in luck, friend.
  Below you'll see a taste of some of the forthcoming material. These are three bloopers taken from the production of "Gunman" in 1996. Let me set the stage: It was July, about 98 degrees out, we had been shooting all day in the sun, I had badly injured the inside of my right hand, and we had now driven an hour to this location to shoot this scene. Like everybody else, I was fatigued. Even our cameraman was tired, as evidenced by the massive amount of headroom he gave us in these shots. Anyway, here's me completely dropping my lines thirteen years ago. Enjoy.

Scene.

  Last night marked the official end of the semester at the DC Studio Theatre. Although both of my classes are over, I still have one more appearance to make, that being the public performance of our final scenes, which happens this coming Monday night at 7:30. It's a very important audience of supporters, fellow students and faculty. I have two more rehearsals between now and then, just to put the final polish on, and I think we're in great shape.
  One of the things I'm most excited about happened in last night's final workshop rendering of our scene and subsequent notes by our instructor. The very thing I've been trying to accomplish all these years as an actor, and especially these past months since I began the only training I've ever had- almost happened. Why would I be excited for an almost? It's difficult to explain.
  When you recognize your weaknesses as a performer, it pinpoints where you have to work, and it forces you to do things outside your comfort zone to accomplish your goals. I've been trying to break down this remaining wall for such a long time now, and last night, I actually got a taste of what that felt like for the first time. It was exhilarating, and gave me tremendous hope.
  I'm having the rest of the class over to my house on Sunday evening for a big post-semester pre-show cookout. We've all worked really hard this quarter and want to send it off in style with plenty of wine, good food and games. Can't wait to see where it all leads next.

Kicking of the ass

  That's what my new layout is good at. I worked hard on it and wrote a lot of the code myself based on a loose configuration of codes I Frankensteined from other sites. Yes, I used Frankenstein as a verb. It's legit.
  The new site has a few minor bugs, and I'll be ironing those out, but for the most part, ta-da.

All shweaty from ze Roller Boogie

  Some nights are just such great experiences that you can’t help but enjoy every minute of them. Here are some of my favorite highlights of last night:

  Just the general atmosphere backstage in the hallways as four classes scrambled to ready their scenes. A flurry of furniture and setpieces moving to and fro, being carried by fully costumed characters: showgirls, 1940’s immigrants, famous authors, cops, Asian businesswomen, and me, the cowboy conman.

  Having all my fears allayed when I stepped out onstage and found my voice still available even during this early recovery.

  My instructor put me and my scene partner up front and had us slow dance, pressed against each other, in character, and had us deliver our lines point blank, never breaking eye contact. The intimacy of that moment and my delivery of the line “I wanted to speak to you…alone,” where I leaned in close enough that the brim of my hat hit her forehead. I dribbled the seduction on so thick that it finally broke the tension and made her laugh.

  Another great moment happened when I changed up my delivery on a line. The line was “Attaboy, Jim, you beat that drum,” to an offstage character, and then I’m supposed to step into the doorway of the house and look across the room at Lizzie in a very flirtatious way. I did “Attaboy, Jim,” then stepped in, stared at Lizzie lustfully and said, “mmm…you BEAT that drum.” The entire class lost it, and I broke too.

  Then, just that feeling on the long Metro ride home. Sitting there, making notes in my script as the train rocked on the tracks. Happy to be acting. Happy to be learning.

  “Falling Slowly” pops onto my iPod as I step off the train and walk alone through the Metro station at 1:00am, literally the last person out. A beautiful moment, if bittersweet.

  Filling my very empty stomach when I got home.

  Finding all the joy I could in the short amount of sleep to which I gave myself fully.

Back in the saddle

  I've realized this week that I don't "recuperate." I just pause briefly.

  Well, the pause is over and I'm officially back at it. Realistically, I was back at it on Saturday, but for tax purposes, we'll call it today. My Mom, God bless her, did her best to make me rest, which I did for part of the first day. After that, I got tired of wearing bandages and tired of sitting around, so we went out and explored DC. Thanks, Mom. Best surgery ever.
  Yesterday, I went to the doc to have the plastic shunts removed from inside my nose. Remember that part in "Total Recall" where Arnold Schwarzenegger pulls that homing device out of his nose and his nostril stretches to about three times its normal size? It was pretty much like that. It's amazing what can actually fit inside your nose. After the shunts were out, I leaned forward in the chair to talk to the nurse and a huge amount of blood literally spilled out of me and soaked the front of the apron. I apologized and leaned back while the nurse sprayed the inside of my nose with a clotting agent and stuffed me with a little cotton.
  A few minutes later, she removed it and I leaned forward in the chair to stand up. Kaboom! It was like somebody pouring a shotglass full of blood through my nose. This time, I got a little lightheaded and had to lay down. She was a bit concerned about the uncontrollable bleeding, but after laying there for a few minutes, I was cleared to go. I was advised to basically do nothing for a couple of days and try to rest and let things knit themselves back together.
  So then Mom and I went out to breakfast and afterward I took her to the airport and we said our goodbyes. I went home, took about an hour nap, and considered that to be my recovery. I drove up to Maryland and rehearsed for my final scene (public performance in two weeks!), then drove back through a pounding rainstorm, went grocery shopping, and finally got into bed late.
  Today, I'm back on the job, and tonight I have class and performance. I'll get home and in bed around 2AM, be back up at 5AM for work, then leave work and go immediately to my voice lesson. Don't know how much power I'll be able to put out on that, but I have a recital in less than a month and can't afford to slack now!

  And then, of course, it'll be time for the season finale of LOST. I don't give a shit how much I'm bleeding or dying, I'm all over that.

...and he's okay!

  So, the surgery went well, with a few minor post-complications. When I woke up in ICU, I was shaking violently from some side effects of the anesthesia, and the pain was bad enough for me to ask for meds. Once all of that got under control, they put me in recovery, and I rested up for about an hour while Mom came in and stayed with me. I was helped to the dressing room shortly and then put in a wheelchair to be discharged. I had convinced the staff and myself that I was fine. Mom went to pull the Jeep around, and while she was gone, I suddenly got seriously ill and passed out.
   They say I was unresponsive for a short time, and it got everybody a little worried. I woke up with a team of eight people around me, and I was so disoriented that I didn't know where I was or what was hapenning. Somebody ran out and told Mom, and she came back in, naturally a little concerned. I got the shakes again really bad and started vomiting blood. They sent a specialist in to hook me up to the EKG and check out my heart. For some reason, they were worried that there could be something a little heavier wrong with me. Since my original IV had already been pulled out, they had to re-tap me, and the post-op nurse had a hard time with it. She attempted three times to successfully thread the tube into both of my hands, but failed.
  Eventually, she found an anesthesiologist who came and tapped my arm. They filled me with a couple of bags of saline over about an hour and put some warm blankets on me to get me to stop shaking. They also dripped some anti-nausea meds, which pretty well knocked me out. Finally, at about 8:00pm, they discharged me a second time. I made it home, had some food and got a fairly decent amount of sleep, despite having to be in an uncomfortable position all night.
  Today has been pretty much a normal day, except for the constant flow of blood out of my face and the bandage changing that accompanies it. The pain is mild at worst, and I've been up and about almost doing my normal routine. My caretaker is keeping me from getting too out of hand and making me take it easy, but it's already driving me crazy after only one day of recovery. Hopefully tomorrow we can go do something. Cabin fever!!!
  My Mom, being awesome, humored me by taking pictures of the day's events:

Slicin' and dicin'

  Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be going under the knife. For those of you who might have missed it in recent blogs, I'm getting surgery for a deviated septum, caused by a number of nose breaks and other head traumas.
  The hope is that this will help me to breathe better at night and at least alleviate some of the apnea issues. It's a fairly big procedure, and I'll be intubated and put fully under. I'm told the recovery is pretty rough. Docs are saying that I will need a week or more of recovery, but I have to be back to the world by Monday night for a rehearsal and then back to work Tuesday morning. I typically bounce back pretty quick, so I'm optimistic about my recoup time.
  I initially told the hospital that I'd take a cab home from the surgery, but they wouldn't allow that and said I'd be physically unable to take care of myself the first couple of days. So, I did what any 35 year old man would do. I called my Mum. I'm flying her in to look after me for the weekend.
  Thanks for the well wishes and prayers all, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop.