Getting older ain't no drag

  As is usually the case around birthdays, people tend to ruminate about their advancing years. Unless, of course, you're ten and every year takes an eternity to go by. No, I'm talking about us folks that are in the "Good Lord, it's already 2012? What happened to 2011?" bracket.
  That wonderful image above is from a movie I did in 1996. What made me think of it was a trip to the local multiplex to see "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol." (By the way, if you haven't seen it, go see it. It's the most entertaining action movie I've seen in ages. Even if you don't care for Tom Cruise and his insanity, do yourself a favor and go see it. But, I digress.)
  Seeing the film made me think about seeing the first Mission: Impossible movie way back in- you guessed it- 1996. It was an amazing summer; one of my favorites in fact. My friends and I were busy all summer filming "The Price of Truth VI: Final Mission," but we squeezed in a lot of movie viewings when we could. Mission: Impossible was one of them. It was a great time, and helped to keep us all in the action-movie mindset during filming. It made us push our action sequences further, including the above, which culminated with me being dragged down a gravel road for several weeks to get all the shots we needed. We had quite a variety of injuries on that film, but the result went on to become one of our favorite projects ever.
  So, thinking about that on my way to see this new movie, I realized it had been sixteen years. SIXTEEN YEARS, in case you didn't hear me in the back. That's insane! Quite a lot has happened in those sixteen years. Quite a lot.
  Then there was my birthday on the fourteenth of this month. The age/time thought train continued to steam ahead in my mind. I was gifted a fantastic new watch this year, and retired my old watch to the sock drawer. That watch itself had been a birthday gift exactly five years prior. Had it really been five years? I thought about all that had happened in THOSE years, and everywhere I had been with that watch strapped around my wrist.

  Time really does fly.

  But you know, it's nothing to be down about. It's an exciting time. Goals I have worked for all my life are within my grasp now. It's been a struggle out here so far, I can't lie- but things are constantly improving. New opportunities, networking, new projects. It's what's AHEAD that's exciting; not what's dragging along behind you like some battered action hero clinging to the bumper of a Chevy Suburban.
  Time to make some new memories.

New Gear, New Year

  What would you say if I told you I was starting another picture-a-day for a year blog?

Why would you say that? That's just rude.

  Regardless, I AM starting a new picture-a-day effort, similar to my old "Frame 365" blog. I've since updated all my gear, so the image quality will be even more stellar. This new blog, appropriately titled "Frame 366" (it's a leap year!) will bring you all the joys and heartaches of the original blog, with a whole extra day thrown in for your viewing pleasure. You can find the new blog, which begins posting tomorrow, 1 January 2012, by clicking on the stunning black & white logo in the right hand column of this very page. Please follow, and please feel free to leave comments or feedback on any of the images you see fit. Remember, clicking on any image will show it to you in its full-sized glory.
  Happy New Year!

Christmas Craziness!

  What a Christmas! It was truly an epic day. After a very early start and presents, it was off to church (after a minor delay with my dead-battery car) then lunch, and then an afternoon of cleaning and cooking before a fantastic Christmas dinner. We had all the usual suspects- turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, an amazing new type of coleslaw, and wine. After dinner, we were joined by a whole apartment full of friends for games, Christmas movies, and the sharing of two delicious pies I baked. One was my traditional apple, and the other was a new pie I had never tried before- French Silk. Both were amazing, if I do say so myself, and I think I do. We finished the day very late, and I went to bed exhausted but very happy. Can't remember a Christmas this good in a long time, and that's saying something, considering that I haven't had any income coming in for about a year and a half now. Just goes to show you, it's not the material things that make Christmas great!

In defense of Christmas, Christians, and Christ

  I am a Christian.

  Still here? Good. That opening statement has come to be so tainted these days that a good majority of the time, it offends people, or at least gives them pause about the nature of your character. Saying that you are Christian or that you go to church is kinda like saying you liked Michael Jackson (before he became cool again). People are hesitant to mention it aloud.

  What a strange, strange irony.

  Being a Christian doesn't mean I'm a whacko. It doesn't mean I'm no fun. It doesn't mean that I judge you for not being a Christian.
  I swear. A lot. I sometimes lie. I'm not very forgiving. Helping people out is sometimes inconvenient and gets me really irritated. I watch violent movies. I have lived with women outside of marriage. I have gay friends that I love dearly. Basically, I've done a lot of things non-Christians would consider "normal." In that, I've also set myself up to be judged by hardcore fundamentalist Christians who would say I have no right to be in church every Sunday.
  These are the very sort that have given Christianity a bad name. The haters. The judgers. I saw an article the other day, posted on Facebook, about something that some terrible church in the south had done against interracial couples. A commenter on the post wrote, "This is why I don't go to church." That's very sad to me. I get it, but it's sad that the church has been marked like that. That's just not how it's supposed to be. LOVE thy neighbor.
  Last night, I was at the Hallmark store buying some cards, and heard a woman tell her husband, "I want to get a Christmas card, but they're all religious." I literally laughed out loud. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. That's like complaining that you want to get ice cream, but you don't want it to be cold.
  I also saw a video clip this week from Bill Maher's show where he talked about the growing atheist movement. His panelists were cheering and saying "It's about fucking time." I understand that people are going to have different opinions, and that's fine. I just don't understand the hatred for the church. Well, I guess I do. Fundamentalism and radical churches like Westboro are driving a giant stake into the heart of Christianity.
  When I posted a while back about getting baptised in the ocean, I had a couple of people tick the comment box labeled "Toilet." That was really hurtful. You look at those pictures- you see the joy on my face- the pure peace- and you call it shit, basically. I don't know if those comments were from people I knew, or people who just happened upon the blog, but they were incredibly hurtful.
  And this is my point, people. Being a Christian is about being an inherently good person. Nobody's perfect, and the church can't hold anybody to that standard. Why would you hate on people who are just trying to be honest and good? At the core, we are all children of the same father, but don't lump all Christians together. Because some white people or black people or Mexican people or Native American people have robbed, killed, raped- does it mean all of them do? Of course not. Give Christians the same leeway. Not all of us want to bash you over the head with our Bibles. Not all of us are going to call you immoral. Not all of us are trying to recruit you or make you put all your money in the collection pot. Rather, a few of us hope that you would see how wonderful it is, become intrigued, and try it for yourself. You might just find something beautiful to fill that empty space inside you.

  Merry Christmas, everyone. May you have the peace of Christ this holiday season.

Where have all the death and disaster songs gone?

  While listening to some music on my way to the set this week, I heard the old Tom Jones song "Delilah." It's a first person perspective where Jones sings about going to his girlfriend's house and seeing her doing the nasty with some other guy. He waits until morning, watches the guy leave, then confronts her. She laughs at him, and he stabs her to death.

Wow.

  That's pretty heavy material for a song. Can't see anybody trying to release that track nowadays. It got me thinking- there were a lot of songs like that in the 70's. Murder. Death. Disaster. What the Hell was going on in the 70's that made people want to sing about death so much?
  Consider these: Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," about a cargo ship that sank in Lake Superior in 1975 with a loss of all hands. Then there's Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe," about a young girl whose lover jumps off a bridge to his death. There's also Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John," about a big, tough miner who dies saving his fellow miners in a cave-in. Along those same lines, there's also the Bee Gees' "New York Mining Disaster." Look at pretty much every song that Marty Robbins ever sang, and you'll find a plethora of "death tunes."
  Granted, some of these songs were in the late 60's, but I heard them on the air a lot in the 70's when I was a kid. It seems so odd to hear these kinds of songs now, in an age where we have Colby Caillat singing about how she gets "tinglies in a silly place." It's interesting to see how the times have changed. We certainly have our fair share of death and disaster going on in the world. Why don't people sing about that? I guess it's better to try to have cheerful songs or some kind of escapism, or, in the case of most rap, songs about how much wealth and loose women you have.
  Not a lot of story in that. I guess that's why some music endures, and some is forgotten in a few weeks time.

From the set!

  Just a quick shout from the set of my first LA project, a short film called "Shark." I'm playing Lester, the lead, who is a scheming bastard jewel thief. What a great set to work on! We wrap tomorrow, and the film should be finished sometime in January. More info on that to come. For now, enjoy a few pics I snapped between takes.

What's Going On

  Hey, ever more sparse blog followers! I guess it's kinda hard to follow a blog when the blogger only posts once a month or less. Sorry about that. It's kinda hard to blog about things when there really isn't much to put into words.
  The life of an actor is all about the grind. There's a lot of research to be done, a lot of salesmanship, and, hopefully, a lot of auditioning. With those auditions, though, comes a lot of rejection. This is not a business to be in if you have low self esteem or a poor outlook on things. It can be very easy to become discouraged. The best thing an actor can do is go into an audition, rock it to the best of their ability, and then let it go. If the job comes, that's amazing, and you dive in. If it doesn't come, for one of a billion possible reasons, then you're not upset or self destructive. This town will eat you alive otherwise.
  It's been a wonderful period of learning, networking, and auditioning for the last couple of months, and things are really starting to lock in. Every new opportunity leads to another and another. It's amazing to be here in LA, living the dream!