Tackling Earl Campbell

Last night I was searching for a decent old school Earl Campbell jersey on eBay. It got me on youtube watching some old highlight films of Earl as a running back for the Houston Oilers. This one is insane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfJybuzkMT0


I am writing a longer piece called "Tackling Earl Campbell" which is a personal story about struggling with something. I mean, no running back today ran like Earl Campbell. He was a monster. Hence, trying to tackle him is the perfect metaphor for overcoming a huuuge obstacle in life.

Grizzly Bear

Getting into Grizzly Bear's album "Veckatimest" It takes a few listens, but wow, it's tremendous.

A great album to spark the imagination.

Youtube the song "Two Weeks" or "Ready, Able"

Here We Go...

Ok, I'm going to dedicate a lot of the blog for the next few months to tracking the production of the short film:
“THE MUSTACHE”
Written by Eric Balchunas
Directed by Gisela Aydin
SYNOPSIS:
Evan, a hometown guy who has moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and turned into a hipster, comes back home to South Jersey for the weekend sporting a trendy new mustache. This new facial hair triggers a whole chain events with his old friends, ex-girlfriend and a floozy, resulting in a thorough and comedic deconstruction of Evan’s identity.
*****
With this short we will be going into a new area of real production and plan to submit to Sundance Film Festival and many other national film fests.

The two big things going on now are:
1. Auditions - We are holding auditions on Nov 7.

2. Equipment - We are looking at renting a camera called the Canon 7D, which will literally come out right before our shoot. It shoots 24fps, which will give the short a film-like quality.

Two Things at Once

All the sudden there are two projects developing at once:

1. HELIUM - Working with the typical crew to get ready for a show at Helium. We are allowed one sketch and if judged as the best we get a slot in the Philly Sketchfest in December. Doesn't that sound like the plot of some 80s movie? Anyhow, I'm still debating what sketch we should perform. Right now I'm 40% Inner Child, 40% Kmart and 30% Camping Sketch. Going to get some input.

2. SHORT FILM - Working with Giz to cast The Mustache short film using outside actors. Already we've received some decent resumes. It will be fun to mix it up on this project and swing for the fences. Giz is key, with her the end product will be elevated and we intend to submit to some festivals. We are using no copyrighted music or pics or anything. A first for me!

The Mustache

I am doing some editing on a short play I wrote 18 months ago called *The Mustache* which is about one of the hometown heroes, who moves to nyc, and then comes home for a long weekend sporting a mustache. He thinks it's cool cos he sees hipsters in the East Village bars wearing them and his friends think he's an ass, trying to be cool. There's also a love triangle involved.

We are having a rehearsal in a few weeks. I hope it reads as well I think it can. I am trying to do this new thing where I thread into a short script a plot of a real popular movie, so that it becomes a play that literally plays out the "life imitates art" concept. I am so affected by pop culture especially as a kid, that it makes perfect sense that my writing reflect that, almost becoming unreal, or a halfway zone between reality and pop culture.

Performing in December

Just signed us up to perform on Dec 6 and 7 at UPenn modern dance show. The reason is there is an old script that I really want to make into a short film. It's called *The Mustache* and is about one of the hometown friends who lives in nyc comes back sporting a mustache because he thinks it's cool. Doing this live performance should help set the stage to make the film in January.

I think performing live is the ultimate tool to use for writing because a) it applies pressure and deadline b) you know from audience what's good and what sucks. It's a distillation process.

We may also do a new sketch if they give us two slots. I already have thrown some new ideas up on my board, although I've kept with my goal to do no real writing for another few weeks.

What else to name a blog?

This is the first post of the blog i am calling "Disgusting Self-Indulgence," which is the best thing I could think of to name a blog. I don't even pretend that anyone will read this or care about what I have to say, but I do enjoy writing, so I guess it's more for my benefit in the end- which brings us back to the natural title for the blog.

So anyway, the third Wawapalooza came and went with a bang. Many months of writing, editing, planning, coordinating, picking up props and stressing over schedules are over. It's always bittersweet. But, I'm working on doing nothing from now thru then end of October. I did submit a longer play I wrote to a workshop conference called PlayPenn and I do plan on submitting the Whole Foods video to two short film fest.. but other than small stuff like that, I'm hanging in, eating, watching college football and not worrying about anything for a change...