DANGERFORCE PRODUCTIONS

alex_victory @ 10:22 am: Guitar Hero VIP Pass...
...just went live today and is a free download from the XBOX Live Marketplace. It gathers all of the DLC for all the various Guitar Hero games in one place. Which is cool enough, but the reason I post about it is that this is our first shipped anything since becoming part of Activision Blizzard. Very proud of the team that worked on this!

hawkmoon268 @ 01:34 pm: Dear LiveJournal,
How are you? Long time, no see. It's the Age of Facebook, you see. But I do miss blogging. I have many ridiculous dating and renting stories to share with the world. Maybe in 2010 I will find an audience for them.

In the meantime, I still find it a worthwhile exercise to do the annual Year in Review, so here goes:

2009 Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Get a hot stone massage, go by myself to Greece, hire movers, paint a room, live with a cousin, do this much baking, buy a (table top) Xmas tree, throw a big surprise party, scrapbooking, drive on the left side of the road, see U2 in Ireland, see Stonehenge, see the Cliffs of Moher, visit an Ionian island, visit Northern Ireland, visit an Aran island, travel all around Ireland, seriously consider home ownership, get on Facebook, see a physical therapist, listen to Michael Jackson a LOT.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Annual resolutions are a great idea, but I hate them. Instead, I’m going to try to get back in the habit of setting very achievable weekly goals. (Note: this was my exact response to this question in 2008.)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My friend Ari from high school, and my friend Kellee from college.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully no.

5. What countries did you visit?
I love years where I have an answer to this question other than ‘zero’!! This year I went to Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, and Greece! Yay!!

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
The same things I said last year.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory?
December 12th—Kelly’s surprise party. Sept 1—moving.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Recruiting Kelly as a roommate.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Same as every year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing other than my rapidly deteriorating memory.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets to Europe!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Kelly’s for dealing with Felix. Voula for dealing with me. Mom for being Mom. Corey for picking me up on my way back from Europe and hauling my ridiculously heavy luggage up to my third floor apartment. Laura for getting me on the plane (a 24 hour commitment on her part).

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The Supreme Court (overturning DC handgun ban). CDCs for not funding my Center (again). JL. JW.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Europe, moving, rent, car, eating out.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Europe. U2. Living with Kelly. Kelly’s surprise party. Quality time with Voula. It’s so nice to feel like I actually have extended family.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
All Michael Jackson songs will always remind me of 2009. Also “Time to Pretend” by MGMT.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?
I think happier.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
Fatter, definitely. Gotta do something about that.

iii. richer or poorer?
Unfortunately I think poorer. Moving and a month in Europe in multiple countries are great for the soul and lousy for the bank account.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Dancing, job hunting, playing guitar, throwing shit out, meeting new people, eating better, practicing vocal exercises, learning greek, exercising.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Wasting time. Wasting money. Eating fatty foods.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
In Albany with the 'rents.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don’t watch TV, but I finished watching Arrested Development on DVD, which was awesome. I need a new comedy series.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don’t think so.

26. What was the best book you read?
“Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Of course, it might also be the ONLY book I read…

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The only post-1985 band or artist whom has made more than 3 songs I really love is Beck, and he’s at about 6. I should offer a prize to whomever gets me into a new(er) band, if that ever happens.

28. What did you want and get?
A trip to Ireland. A trip to Greece.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Probably This is It. Shut up.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 32. Had dinner at Dogwood with Rebecca, Marissa, C&N, Massie, and GLENDENE!! Dinner was followed by Bag of Nouns, as any good birthday dinner is. And G spent the night and we hung out the whole next day, which was super super awesome.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Umm….

34. What kept you sane?
Friends, mom, music, laughter, kitty, Massie, cousins.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The DC handgun ban.

37. Who did you miss?
Glendene, my family in Greece, JW. And plenty of other people who live far away. I miss almost everyone who’s ever been important to me in my life, that’s why I’m so good at keeping in touch with people.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Hmmm…I can’t think of anyone…let’s say Allan Massie because it was long overdue.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Life is just easier if you don’t get too attached to any particular outcome.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"I'll leave the front unlocked cuz I can't hear the doorbell" -TMBG

Tags: family, friends, greece, movies, music, my boys

prog @ 06:28 pm: Steam
Early in the year I bought a surplus PC from taskboy3000 to help me work on Project X, and we all know how that went. So I ignored it for a while, until long after the bitterness had faded. Last week, following a burst of energy from no particular direction, I shouted "Quick, someone sell me a small desk", and dougo came through. So now I have a nice little begging-your-pardon gaming rig in my office, separate from the console setup in the living room. I like this.

As a result I'm on Steam now, as "zendonut", and feel free to react to this news in any way that makes sense to you. I've been also taking the opportunity to play various little amuse-bouche-sized commercial Windows games that I never quite had the gumption to play via virtualized-Windows on my MacBook, and which Steam makes very easy to find and tempting to purchase. Have gulped down Samorost 2 and Loom (though, yes, the latter, hailing from 1990, could hardly be called a "Windows game"), and next on my inevitable-buy list are Osmos and the locally-grown AaaAAAaaAAAaaAAAAaaA!!!, which is probably the only video game that doesn't care how badly you misspell it, because it's still close enough.

Tags: digital games, games, steam

prog @ 05:40 pm: Give that chicken fat back to the chicken
Wii Fit Plus is a fantastic piece of software, a $20 upgrade to the original that fixes its most annoying flaw. In the original Wii Fit, exercises lack flow. You choose one from a menu, work at it for a minute or two, then have to click through screenfuls of text and a high score list before getting dumped back to the menu where you must choose another exercise. (Sometimes it will suggest a follow-up exercise based on the one you just did, but infuriatingly, leaves it to you to paw through the menus to find it.)

You can still use Wii Fit Plus that way, but you can also instead use it to build up a custom regimen either from individual exercises or thematically linked blocks of three. You can also just say "Gimme N minutes of exercise" and the Wii will oblige you. I find that after working through a Wii-scripted regimen, I actually enjoy spending a few more minutes poking around the full menu in the old style, just to wind down. And then I'm done for the day.

I've been hitting the balance board every other day for a weeks and I feel super duper, working muscles that I ordinarily barely use. Even though some of the yoga poses cause my belly to become twisted or pinched in ways so unfamiliar that my guts misconstrue the context, and then I have to actively resist the urge to retch. Downward-facing BLARRGGHHFFF!

Anyway, if you own Wii Fit and are disappointed with its not-quite-thereness in the way that I was, please go pick up this update. You will like it.

Tags: digital games, exercise, games, wii, wii fit

prog @ 02:11 pm: Realization about the fam, and education
One of the reasons I wasn't accepted into grad school in 2002 (if I might make an educated (ho ho) guess) is that I had literally no clue about what I was getting into, and made many mistakes, surely enough to make my application look quite unattractive. Half of the reason for that is because I was too young and stupid to realize that I had built up a pretty good network of friends to ask relevant questions of, but the other half, it only just now occurred to me, is that I grew up in a household that only barely grasps the concept of higher education.

My mom went to college, but did so as woman circa 1950, so I assume that only went so far. And my dad nominally went to college as well, but did so on some kind of military ticket (he labored stateside as an enlisted Air Force cadet though the Korean War), and he didn't enjoy it and got out as soon as he could. As I prepared for my freshman year at UMaine - the same campus he'd attended - he broke it to me that that college would be a cold, hard, and boring time that I had to endure out of necessity. We were both surprised when I took to it much better than that. (And that there were no communal showers in the dorms any more. That was a real shocker to both of us. You don't know how long I spent that summer coming to terms with the idea of communal showers.)

Ricky went to a military college, so whatever; that's in a different plane of reality. Peter, then, may have been the first person in our particular lineage to attend a four-year program of the sort I'd recognize, though at a college I wouldn't otherwise have ever heard of, and with no particular post-graduate ambition. And finally, after my own graduation, there was full assumption from my own family that I was done with school forever, because what else was there? As I didn't have any college-based friendships close enough to survive the trauma of graduation, I had no reason not to assume that as well. And so it went.

Anyway, all this comes to mind now as I reflect on a conversation I had with Peter earlier this week. Amy and I spent Monday day-tripping through Maine, visiting members of my family where they each lived, since I wasn't going to see them on Christmas this year. For our third stop, we took middle-brother Peter and sister-in-law Janice out to dinner. While chatting, Peter asked about what Amy was up to academically, knowing only that she was "in college" in one way or another: "What's your major?" After Amy gave him a cogent summary of how she's working towards her master's degree in library science at a graduate program at Simmons, Peter paused to process this, and then said "So, that makes you a... junior, right?"

He nodded and made appropriate ah-yes-of-course noises when gracefully corrected, but I still think he has no concept of education past undergraduate school. And neither did I, up until I moved to Boston, years after my own graduation. So, yeah.

Tags: family, maine, parents, peter, ricky, school, umaine

misslizzers @ 10:50 am: Pieces of [this past] April
Can I tell you how much I love Wednesdays? I have one Nia class down, one to go, and I get to take a nice breather by having 9 people over for dinner. Supper Club is tonight, and we have two new members joining us, and one is Ben from San Francisco! This is a coup, as he has a million places to be on these short trips, and as it turns out SEVEN of us around the table tonight will be Hair alums. To the other two I apologize, because I guarantee you are going to hear once again all about that time we got naked on stage and the fateful brownie incident.

Here's what I was up to in April. Guest commentors include: Rich Burns, Zach Davis, Susan Doran, Dan Goldstone, Dan Kotler, Matt Marrone

( click me! )

misslizzers @ 11:49 am: Where were you in March 2009?
The past few days have been emotionally, physically, and intellectually demanding in turn, to an outrageous degree. I kicked off this triathlon of sorts by making a grown man cry in a restaurant, and ended it last night with a stellar first date involving four hours of non-stop banter and three bottles of Schlitz. I am too distracted to even freak out about how much shopping I still have to do and how desperately I am lacking Nia funds to pay for said shopping. It's the most, craziest time, of the year.

Here are my posts from March 2009 with the following guest commentators: Rich Burns, Adam Costa, Martin Farawell, Mary Ferrara, Jameel Haque, Liz Laneri, Matt Marrone, Chuck Meyer, Jen Siegel, Noah Tobin, Mary Vriniotis, Janet Wertman, Austin Williams, Darin Wolpert

( click here )

rogue01 @ 07:41 pm: 2009 In Review...
It's a rainy Saturday evening as I sit alone on the couch in my new apartment. The Christmas tree stands in the corner, disheveled from the two kittens constantly climbing it. I've got cookie dough chilling in the fridge (my solution to what to get everyone for gifts this year - homemade Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies). Jenn's at work at Build-A-Bear for the next hour and a half or so, then she's off to the theatre to Stage Manage tonight's show. I'll head down there myself afterward for the TU Company Christmas Party. But first, I've got some time to kill.

It's been a crazy year. A lot has happened. A lot has changed. A lot of plans were realized and a lot of unexpected things threw monkey wrenches into the works. It's been exciting and, for the most part, positive. 2009 has been a great year for us. So, just because I can, I'm going to brain dump the highlights.

Us
- Well, Jenn and I finally got married. After 18 1/2 months of planning and trips back and forth to the East coast for showers, meetings, etc., we tied the knot July 18th. Best decision I ever made was to propose to her.
- Before that, though, we had our "Engagement" Photo Session in Disneyland in February.
- The ceremony was at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Springfield, MA, right across the highway from the Basketball Hall of Fame. Jenn's grandparents had gotten married there, years ago, so this place was incredibly significant to the family. The reception was on the stage of the Belding Theatre at the Bushnell Center of the Performing Arts. Perfect for the two of us.
- We honeymooned in Belize for 10 incredible days. We spent 5 days in the rain forest (climbing Mayan Ruins, cave tubing, zip-lining through the Jungle canopy, and 5 days on the beach (sleeping, eating, riding around town in golf carts, snorkeling, watching meteor showers and enjoying sunset cruises).
- We got back from Belize July 30th, and 5 days later we'd found a new place to live. We moved from the Party House on Martha Street to our own apartment two blocks away. We're glad it's so close, as Jenn had a hard time leaving Erin, her best friend and roommate of over 10 years, behind. Not to mention the two cats they share, Hermione and Amelia. We did bring Miranda with us, though (she's sitting on my lap as I write this). Shortly after moving in, we adopted a little brother for her, Jake.

Me
- After bouncing around from job to job and using up all of my unemployment, I finally found a new 9-5 home as a Customer Service and Marketing Coordinator at Gentle Giant Ltd. Check 'em out and you'll see why I now love my job.
- Went back to DungeonMaster for the first time since late 2006. Brought back an old character with a new twist, got voted Fan Favorite, and survived the season finale to become a Guardian of the Flame.
- Followed the Red Sox daily from Spring Training up until they got swept out of the playoffs by the Angels. Painful way to end the year, but it was a great time. Went to 6 baseball games this season (Sox/Angels, Sox/Nationals for a 3 game series, Sox/Royals [Beckett's complete-game shutout] and Dodgers/Giants with my buddy Jim). I caught 3 home runs during batting practice at Nationals Stadium - two from Ortiz and one from Drew. Gave one away and had the other stolen by some little kid before I could give it to him. Seriously, the kid took it out of my glove as I was reaching in to hand it to him. Bastard. The third ball sits proudly on display on my bookshelf.

Family
Cousins of mine had kids, my folks moved from my childhood home to a new house just outside of Richmond, VA and my brother and sister-in-law got pregnant again. Their daughter, Sadie, is due in January.

Career
- After firing my agent last November, I decided to take 2009 off from pursuing the career and take the time to plan the wedding, move, etc. It was a tough decision, and I wrestled with it constantly at first. Early in the year, I'd sneak out for an audition here and there, but that stopped after I lost my day job at the end of March. After that, searching for a new job, planning the wedding and developing Theatre Unleashed really took up all of my time.
- Worked on a few webisodes produced by various friends of mine early in the year (episodes for Absolution: The Series and Rob's World, among others).
- Guest-starred on an episode of Star Trek: Federation One. The promotional graphic for that episode features a disturbing photoshop job of my head onto a Starfleet Uniform.
- Acted in The Way of the World, Tales of an Unsettled City: Beginnings, Acting Our Age, the World's Smallest Renaissance Faire, a few episodes of Pulp Graveyard Reader's Theatre and Through a Caffeine Haze: Watching the World Go By for Theatre Unleashed.
- Directed Through a Caffeine Haze: Watching the World Go By for TU. First show I've directed in years.
- Produced the World's Smallest Renaissance Faire and Cheap & Easy Neighborhood Magic for TU.
- Most importantly, I watched the story I had spent three years crafting, Friends Like These, open on our stage and achieve critical acclaim. It was the first show Theatre Unleashed ever put up to earn a "Go" from LA Weekly. It was also nominated for an Artistic Director Achievement Award for Best Ensemble by the Valley Theatre League. We didn't win, but hey, it seriously was just an honor to be nominated.
- I was also cast and featured in an episode of Conspiracy Theories with Jesse Ventura for TruTV. I'll let you know when it airs. I get hypnotized and turned into a Manchurian Candidate. It was fun.
- My Heaven, Your Hell and the Monster.com Spec Commercial finished post-production (w00t).

Super Sidekick
Late last year, I put out a call for composers to work with me in adapting my childrens play into a musical. I found Mike Shapiro (madbard ) through CraigsList, and he and I met frequently throughout the year developing songs for the piece. Although we didn't finish the whole thing by the end of this year like we'd hoped, we've made significant progress and we're shaping up for something really cool in February.

Theatre Unleashed
- The company accomplished and grew by leaps and bounds. 22 productions this year alone, 6 ADA Award Nominations and finding a new home at The Sherry are all just a small fraction of what we managed to do. I couldn't be any prouder.

Overall
- Looking back at the list of things I wanted to accomplish in 2009, I managed to do a lot of it! What suffered the most (not surprisingly) was my career. I didn't get a new demo reel cut together. I didn't get my new headshots printed. I didn't build a new career website and I didn't recruit new representation. Despite lots of talk and planning, there has still been very little progress on The Vampire Game and the Super Sidekick children's book (that's my fault, march__hare ). Jenn, Erin and I abandoned the idea of opening a Huntington Learning Center after learning about some of their less scrupulous business practices. Also, we scrapped our planned trip to Disney World with the gang due to lack of time and funds. Lastly, we're not hosting our folks for the Holidays at our new place. As much of a bummer as that is, it's also okay, as Jenn and I get to start our own Holiday traditions. All-in-all, it's been an exciting, productive year.

The Future
- Theatre Unleashed has some awesome plans lined up for next year: 4 Main Stage shows, the start of our own Childrens Theatre wing (and educational programs), monthly late night and fringe productions, a new website, and several improvements to our new home at The Sherry.
- Friends Like These is returning to the Sherry January for 3 weeks. Then, I'm going to produce it at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and fringenyc. I need to raise several thousand dollars to do that, though, so this should be exciting. I'm also submitting it to a play writing contest, theatre companies in other cities and publishers next year. You can follow the show's development on its website, become a fan of it on Facebook and follow it on Twitter.
- Mike (madbard ) and I are going to continue developing Super Sidekick: The Musical and submit it to the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop directed by Stephen Schwartz in February.
- Gentle Giant will be sending me to San Diego ComiCon for work.
- I've also got ideas for some new scripts I want to write (a film, a new full-length play and a web series) that I'm going to start developing.
- I may start pursuing the acting rat race again, but then again, I may choose to focus on writing and producing. It seems like that's got a lot more potential for me right now, and it's going to take a lot of time and energy to really make those goals happen.

Either way, I'm very excited about 2010! I hope it's good to all of us. =)

prog @ 10:37 am: I need a small desk
Does anyone local have a small desk they'd be willing to part with under reasonable terms?

I only just now figured out that my two desktop computers who would eminently more usable if I gave them their own space to play on, rather than pile them off the side of my work-desk.

Edit: dougo's set me up. Thanks!

Tags: furniture

rogue01 @ 02:51 pm: What's YOUR Holiday Horror Story?

Theatre Unleashed asks "What's YOUR Holiday Horror Story?" Check out Greg's story, then hear from Spike McDog about how to get involved! Submission Deadline is this Saturday (12/12/09) at 8pm! The best (or worst, as the case may be) submission will be chosen by the cast and the winner will be sent a copy of the Holiday Hangover script, autographed by the cast! ( Details behind the cut. )

rogue01 @ 12:31 pm: I'm a Mac.
In preparation for both Hollywood Fringe and fringenyc, I've taken it upon myself as a producer to acquire the resources we need to make the production portable. The script already calls for a simple set and can be done with the most basic of lighting plots. However, the sound design is crucial and the World Premiere production soundtrack is something I'm particularly proud of. Our sound designer, Corwin Evans (an incredibly talented artist - I highly recommend him to anyone that needs sound work done) turned me on to QLab for the Mac.

Now, I've been a PC user since I was 13, so for years I've bashed Macs. That all changed after I got my iPhone. The quality of product is fantastic. The customer service I've gotten is top notch. In short, they've blown me away. They've earned a loyal customer that will stick wtih their line of phones for years to come. I'm pretty sure my next laptop will be a Mac, too. Anyway, enough of that. Back to the story.

So, yeah, Corwin introduced me to QLab and I was blown away. We can run lights, video and sound off of the fully-licensed version, but even the freeware is enough to run the sound cues for the production (which is all we really need). He was generous enough to loan us a spare iMac G3 he'd gotten off of CraigsList with QLab for the World Premiere run and the January re-mount. However, I don't want to stretch his generosity and ask him to loan us this machine (which he could rent out to productions or use on his own projects) for the entire summer. So, here's the call to action - we're seeking a Mac Laptop running at least Mac OSX Leopard or later. If you have one you'd be willing to donate, please contact me via private message. We're open to a desktop, but we'd prefer something easily transportable and able to be set up in a small space. Theatre Unleashed is a non-profit, and this can be considered a tax write-off. If that's not enough, you'll even be credited in the program! Thanks in advance!

Originally posted on friendsliketheseplay.com

alex_victory @ 12:20 pm: It's YOUR fault!
So like four years ago Shelby, Bri and I had a conversation -- since immortalized on LJ -- about Stockholm Syndrome, only Shelby called it Helsinki Syndrome and I couldn't quite remember the correction.

Well Shelby, guess what -- you probably have just watched Die Hard too many times. From the Trivia section on IMDB:

The Helsinki Syndrome mentioned in the film is a reference to the real-world Stockholm Syndrome. Why it was changed in the film is unknown. Coincidentally, the newscaster incorrectly informs his viewers that it refers to Helsinki, Sweden (Helsinki is actually in Finland, while Stockholm is in Sweden).

Why am I reading Die Hard trivia on IMDB during my lunch break? I blame Cracked.com.

Edit: Oh, and in fact Annika told us about the Die Hard connection in the comments of that original post. It's not bad enough that I don't remember things, sometimes I only remember HALF of things. Grrr!