The Commitments. Yesterday's three minute comedy bit went okay I guess. I wasn't nervous until I actually got on stage. People laughed in mostly the right places. A couple bits could be either expanded or be thrown out altogether. I also need to organize the material better for maximum effect. But the biggest thing was that Eddy said I wasn't committed to my material. There's that word again. I'm beginning to realize this my BIG ISSUE! He said I delivered the jokes like I wasn't sure they were funny, or didn't believe in them. This is so much like what Doug said last week at Improv. I also have to commit to believing I can be a success at both stand-up and Improv as well.
Hopefully with a COMMITMENT to practice, this will come about.
Links of the Day: The movie and group of the same name, a personal favorite. A bit of trivia: The movie is 113 minutes long and the "f-word" is used 145 times!

Million Dollar Miracle. Hoy cow, the Oscars are over 15 minutes early! Amazing. Some of the new tricks must have worked. Only saw about half the show. Chris Rock wasn't very impressive and the "rigged" no-show of Catherine Zeta Jones with Adam Sandler was lame, lame, lame. No suprises at all in the winners. Million Dollar Baby deserved every award it got, and Jamie Foxx gave the most touching acceptance speech. If you haven't seen Eastwood's greatest picture yet, do it as soon as possible!

All Hail the Birthday Queen. Karen's birthday bash was a rousing success yesterday. The Queen was pleased. The trip up to Santa Fe was interesting though, as we got lost on our way to La Fonda. We travelled in two cars, Barbara driving one, Vivian, the other. Vivian had all the birthday goodies in her SUV. We stopped to let Karen out in front of the hotel, and everyone wanted me to get some of the birthday gifts and stuff out of Vivian's SUV. Someone says "Vivian is right behind us." so I jump out of the car and pound on the window of the SUV behind us to get them to pop the trunk. What I get is the horrified, ashen face of some poor scared-out-of her wits New York Jewish looking tourist lady who probably thought she was being car-jacked. Ooops, sorry dear lady, Vivian is TWO cars behind us. Oh well, I'm just there to entertain.
On-again, Off-again. Sue kinda talked me back into having the Oscar Party, but last night, I find out almost no one, including Sue, actually planned to attend or had the time to attend. So now the party's off, and shall stay off! Frankly I'm glad, because now I can just focus on doing a good 3 minutes of comedy at the Laffs class.
Today's Link: A no-brainer, I think.

Happy Birthday Karen! My friend Karen has her birthday today, and we are all going up to La Fonda in Santa Fe to celebrate with music by Karen's heart-throb Syd Masters and the Swing Riders. She will be honored as the Birthday Queen. My weekend of multi-tasking starts today too, as I must bring numerous goodies for Karen's party, fetch flowers, and go to improv class this afternoon. If not enough people show up to have class, Wendy and I plan on leaving early to visit the wonderful world of Trader Joes. But if class happens I'll just meet everybody and carpool up at 5:30. Then tomorrow is me ushering at church, coming home, practicing my stand-up cooking for the party, going to stand-up class, and then arriving back at my own party late! Make sense? No? Well, it barely makes sense to me.
Today's links. Thanks to Sue and the recent broadcast of The Power of Intention, I've become a big Wayne Dyer fan. I'm currently reading Manifest Your Destiny, and I highly recommend it.

Rollin' 5 Deep. Went to see the student improv team perform last night, which included my fellow level 3 classmates Lani DJ and Steve. Yeah, there was some visible and understandable nervousness, but they actually beat the unbeatable team of Devin, Nando, Adrian and Matt.
Great job you guys!
Decided to go ahead and have my big Academy Awards Party this year. I've been so nervous about the stand-up routine that I didn't think I should have the party....too many things to worry about. But the party is somewhat of a tradition, and I love doing it, so here we go. I have to be at stand-up class, until 7 though, and the awards start at 6. Sue has agreed to "start the party" for me, and act as temporary host til I arrive.
Have you heard of Tift Merritt? You should. Her site is really a pain to navigate, she, however, is amazing to listen to.

What Condition My Condition Is In. After a REALLY rough start yesterrday, started feeling much better by mid-day. Got in about 90 minutes off and on of rehersal time for my stand-up routine. Still a bit over 3 minutes, but hopefully Eddie will give me some slack. Have NO idea if this stuff is funny or not. Will find out Sunday.
Buy Bollywood. To purchase those wonderful Bollywood movies, visit India Weekly. I;m gonna buy a hand full of cheaper dvds.

Aaaaaauuuugghh! What in the hell is wrong here? Went on a great bike ride yesterday, had a very good massage, so I thought I would be relaxed and focused for improv class last night. Man I stunk up the joint! I'm too hesitant, and I have problems committing to a character or scene. God, how this sounds like my everyday life! I also had a lot of problems following what everyone else was doing. By the end of the night, my neck ache was back, and this morning I woke up with BOTH my neck ache and a sinus headache. I will keep doing all my meditations, affirmations, and head massage, but I can't help but feel a bit discouraged.
Meanwhile my improv class pals DJ, Steve and Lani make their stage debuts as part of the student team this Thursday at Gorilla Tango as they compete in the short form elimination games. Good luck guys, I'll be there rooting for you!
Bollywood 101:I'm a big fan of Bollywood movies, primarily because they tend to pack everything you would ever want in a movie into one package: music, romance, action, drama, comedy, you name it. A good Bollywood movie wraps all this up in a 3 hour package. Here's a list of my favorite Bollywood movies:
1. Lagaan
2. Sholay
3. Mission Kashmir
4. Dil Chahta Hai
5. Don
6. Koi...Mil Gaya
7. Company
8. Amar, Akbar, Anthony
9. 100 Days
10. Gumnaam
Check the links on these to find out more! Some of these are "non-typical" Bollywood fare. Darker or weirder than average(Don, Company and 100 Days for example). The films on this list that most closely conform to the Bollywood masala formula are Lagaan, Mission Kashmir, Dil Chahta Hai and Koi...Mil Gaya. If you want to learn more about Bollywood in general check these sites out:
Planet Bollywood
BollyWhat?
Bollywood- Wikipedia

What's That Beeping Noise? Okay, so a weird thing just happened. Started hearing a weird beeping noise comin from somewhere in the house. It happened about 3 times. Just a soft one-off electric beep, about one a minute. I was just about finished writing my blog entry for the day, and then the computer automatically restarted itself, wiping out what I was working on. Haven't heard the beep since. Poltergiests? CIA bugs? Alien invaders? Who knows? Weird science indeed.
Anywhoooo....
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World? By now you've probably seen some of the hype regarding Aishwarya Rai, the Indian Bollywood megastar who is taking on English-language films with Bride and Prejudice. She is gorgeous and amazing, and I learned a lot about her in a recent 60 Minutes interview. However, my favorite Bollywood actress is Preity Zinta, who is less glamorous and has a more wholesome, girl-next-door Sally Field kind of vibe.
Everyone knows it's...Wendy! Just wanted to put in a big thanks to my good friend Wendy Bodin (pronounced Boh-deen, like the band the BoDeans) for cooking me up a fine vegetarian meal last night and then putting a bunch o' reiki, kinesiology and neurolinguistic programming on me to help me with the mental and emotional blocks standing in the way of my performance and practice of stand-up comedy, improv and just performing in front of people. Lots of raising and lowering my right arm, following Wendy's spinning hand as I recited affirmations, and doing a number of different head massage techniques. My neck isn't aching so much today, and I'm actually in a pretty cool mood. Wendy does all sorts of classes on these ancient healing techniques, and sells really cool furniture too. Check out her websites. I highly recommend her for all your spiritual, emotional, health and furniture needs!

Cool Links of the Day: I've decided that even though I don't have much to say on certain days, I'm gonna try to come up with at least one coold link per day, depending on my mood.
For some reason, I'm in a very Gigantor mood today. One of my favorite cartoon shows of the 1960s is soon to be a live action film and has some pretty cool trailers. Hope somebody releases this stateside!

My Freakin' Neck Hurts! Don't know if it's stress or what, but damn the back of my neck has been aching for like two friggin weeks. I have been really stressed about the stand-up comedy class lately. I have brought a bunch of it on my self, largely by not doing much work on material or rehearsal. I have wanted to do this for so damn long, and now that it is actually within reach, I think my fear is trying to talk me out of it. Wendy is going to help me out with doing some neuro linguistic programming and maybe some reiki tomorrow, and I am scheduled for a massage on Tuesday. I just need to chill, meditate and relax.
I went to open-mike night at Laffs tonight....man, I know I'm as good as most of those guys and better than some. I can do this!
Eddie Tafoya came over to my house today and did some "mockumentary" type interviews with Susan and myself as part of this movie he is making about "the world's funniest comedian." I was supposed to be a comedy booking agent talking about the main character's first open-mike shows, and Susan was an ex-girlfriend. It seemed to go pretty well. Never know, Eddie could put this thing on the festival circuit!?!
Just finished another cool book: Hard Rain by Barry Eisler. This is a hit-man thriller set in Japan. Biggest drawback is that this was the second book in the series and I hadn't read the first, so it took some doing to get what was going on. Anyway, very hard-boiled, great anti-hero, and lots of great descriptions of Japan. A bit dense and slow going, but it made me want to read the other books in the series.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Watched The Bourne Supremacy tonight instead of working on my comedy routine. Well I did kind of work on it. I ran through some of my material in front of the mirror to see how long it took me. It took me about 5 minutes to get through the stuff. Got to pick up the enthusiasm and pace. I ended up taking a jacuzzi bath and when I relaxed I actually came up with some funny premise ideas.
Finally contacted the Albuquerque Little Theatre to sign up for their Adult Acting Class. This starts March 19th. Same day as the US vs. Honduras soccer match at UNM Stadium. I want to do that too...luckily they don't overlap. I plan on continuing the Improv stuff too...GT's next class is on creating a short form show.
Read a GREAT comic mystery today at work (no business again). It's Pipsqueak by Brian Wiprud. This concerns a taxidermy collector who stumbles across a fur puppet of a squirrel used on an old kiddy show. Little does he know, the puppet may hold the secret to world domination. This involves LOTS of bizarre characters, wild plot elements, and oodles of pop culture references. Very funny, smart, and a super quick read.
Tried cooking some more curry yesterday, and thanks to a good can of mildish curry and some tips from Wendy, this time it didn't suck. Actually it was damn good.

Happy VD! Okay, so I'm cynical and grouchy as a junkyard dog on February 14th. I've only had the occasion to celebrate one Valentine's day with a romantic partner in my adult life, about 8 years ago. Little did I know what nightmare this supposed "love" relationship would turn into a year later. My self-esteem still hasn't recovered totally from that mess. This year I'm just trying to love myself as much as possible, and I don't mean that in the "waxing the old flagpole" sense. Just trying to conduct my day in ways that treat myself nicely. Dad helped my mood this morning by taking me to breakfast and giving me a nice card. He knows how cranky I can get. I may go to a movie later this evening or go book shopping. I intended to go bike riding but it isn't getting anywhere near as hot as they said it would get, so I may postpone that until tomorrow.
Whaddaya mean you think I'm funny? Eddy's stand-up comedy class yesterday had 16 people in it, thanks to the Journal article on him a week ago. It was mostly review for me, but he put us through the usual exercises and also made us rant on stage for 2 minutes, plus, he made Laura, Susan and myself perform our homework assignment of 3 jokes. I was nervous as hell, but got some laughs. Generally I felt pretty good about the whole deal. For the next class in two weeks, I have to have a three minute routine ready to perform. Yikes! Must work hard. Eddy also wants to use me as an actor in a mockumentary-type movie he's making. Cool! That's going to shoot next Sunday. George's improv class Saturday got cancelled, because only two of us showed up. Hope it doesn't get cancelled for good!
New ministers. Wow, for once I voted for a winner. Yesterday, the board at Christ Unity Church announced their choice for new minister, and it was my pick; Ross and Judi Campbell. They are young, open-minded and very spiritually centered people. I think they'll bring lots of new ideas, freshness and enthusiasm to the church. They're coming for services next week, and will be taking over for good in April.

My Asian Market Adventure. Wendy took Sue and I to the 99B Market today and "enlightened" us to the wonderful world of Asian grocery stores. I ended up dropping $63.00 on several different kinds of noodles, assorted curry pastes, and a wide variety of teas, each formulated to boost health in one way or another. Who ever heard of Ginseng coffee? I now have and it is yummy!

I met a woman named Blue Lightning today. How cool is that? She is going to open up a Native American themed coffee shop in Old Town.
Maybe I'm going nuts, but have you noticed that Chris Rock and Condoleezza Rice look like they could have been separated at birth?
Damn, I need to stop writing and go to bed! I'm gettin' loopy!

Random Babble.
Gorilla Tango started their new improv show formats last week. All are improvements on the old shows, especially the now competitive short form show on Thursday and the musical longform on Saturday. Turn off the damn TV and go, Sparky, it only costs an Abe and a George.

My old pals Kari Simmons and Todd Lowry have moved a couple of their shows closer to my home base. They are now doing weekly shows at the Sheraton Old Town Q-Bar on Thursdays, and they'll have their full combo at the La Posada downtown the first Saturday of every month. We saw them last Saturday, and they were smokin'! Kari could kick the ass of any of those wannabees on American Idol, and Todd plays piano like a madman. If you love jazz, soul and pop standards, there's no better lounge act in town, mister.

If you want to see a movie that will lead you down an engrossing, but traditional plot path, then in the last act, pulls it out from under you and take a totally unexpected path, then rip your emotions, expectations and preconceived ideas out of your guts and stomp all over them, then go see Million Dollar Baby. It made me bawl like a two year-old. Awesome performances by Eastwood, Swank, and Freeman, all of whom deserve their Oscar nods, and brilliant less-is-more direction by Clint Eastwood. After seeing the film, it is my favorite for best picture, but I've seen all the nominees except Aviator, and I loved them all. A really excellent crop of nominees this year.

Business is slow as hell, so I've been getting in some reading. Here's what has passed before my nose lately.
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, by John Mortimer. Another great mix of courtroom suspense and wry humor. This one goes back to Horace's first and most career making case, as he, a junior lawyer, must defend a young man of killing his father and his old WWII buddy. Laugh-out-loud funny and a damn good story too. If you are not familiar with Rumpole's adventures in British justice, Mortimer's stories were brought to life by the great actor Leo McKern in a long running British TV show.
Bad Company, by Virginia Swift. Sue turned me on to this author. She is actually a UNM History professor called Virginia Scharf. This is a very fun, if slightly overlong mystery set in Laramie, Wyoming. The heroine is Mustang Sally, an ex-hippie folk singer turned History professor at UW. Here she gets involved in a brutal rape-murder of a teenage girl and some shady land dealings. Well drawn, likeable characters, complicated situations, and a breezy pace make this one a reader.
Double Play, by Robert B. Parker. This is a rare non-series book by Parker, who is best know for the great Spenser series. This one is about a ex -Marine who comes back from WWII to find his wife has left him, despite his being wounded and labeled a hero. Totally drained of feeling, he gets a job guarding a mob-boss's daughter, and eventually ends up as Jackie Robinson's personal body guard. This is an AWESOME book, some of Parker's best writing ever. Not a mystery, but a unique work that feels like an old film noir movie, mixing personal memoir with social commentary,
romance, and a story about someone regaining their soul. Buy it NOW!
Grift Sense, by Jim Swain. I love hard-boiled fiction, and this stuff is HARD! Picked this up the other day 'cause it was cheap and sounded good. This one is about Tony Valentine, a "consultant" who specializes in exposing gambling cheats and cons. Here Tony heads to Vegas to unravel a scam involving a supposedly dead hustler and an "innocent" dealer. Sleazy, funny, and very page-turning. I've got about 60 pages left in this one, and I don't think it'll let me down. Definitely want to read more of this guy's stuff. Go to his ULTRA-COOL site.
Evan's Gate, by Rhys Bowen. Another in the wonderful cozy series featuring Welsh cop Evan Evans. This time Evan deals with a missing child and accidentally digs up the bones of a young girl in his own front yard! Bowen always weaves a complex, fun tale, and this one doesn't disappoint. I can almost smell the fresh North Wales air when reading her books. This was also nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.

Catching Up with Movies. All last month I've been trying to catch up with movies, especially those nominated for Oscars. Here's what I've seen since the last movie post.
Ray. One of the best biopicks ever because it attempts to get inside the main character's head and explain who he is on an emotional level. If Jamie Foxx doesn't win for best actor it will be a crime.
Sideways. Funny, touching, and flat out honest. Of othe greatest movies ever made about men and why we act the way we do. My pick so far for best picture. Paul Giamatti should have gotten the nomination instead of Thomas Hayden Church, though.
House of the Flying Daggers. Combines much of what I like about Chinese swordplay movies with what I hate about much of modern Chinese cinema. Great fights and beautiful cinematography, yes. But, when the action stops, so does everything elas. Too many scenes of people sitting quietly contemplating their angst, and waaaay too much slow motion stuff. The melodrama is already hokey without extending it to laughable extremes. A BIG disappointment. And DAMN, the snow sure falls quickly in China!

Gone AWOL Again! Yeah, I know...a month since the last post. Hell, man I've been busy. Two different improv classes, a stand-up comedy class, singles group stuff, a vacation to Tucson, a few movies, a few CDs, a few books, two dogs...oh yeah, and work. The next few days I'm gonna try and catch you all up.
Local CDS. Albuquerque residents should be picking up some CDs from some local musicians. My favorite local western swing band, the Buckarettes, put out a Christmas album at the end of the year called Snow Angels. A great and unpredictable mix of holiday tunes. Pick one up now and make everyday Christmas for the rest of the year. Katie and DJ and the band will be performing somewhere near you soon.
It ain't just the tattoos...believe me, but it was what initially drew me to local jazz songstress Bernadette Seacrest. The cover of her album No More Music By the Suckers is bound to get any heterosexual male interested, but what is on the album is equally hot. Sultry, sexy slightly creepy jazz and lounge tunes with backing by her amazing band the Yes Men. Remember all those cheesy trucker songs from the 1970s like Convoy? If you find that stuff amusing, you'll find the band Breaker 19 a hoot. Their new album Keep It on the Road is great fun.
Listen to it and buy it here.