Day fifty-one – therapy

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Simon

Well another week has past – work has been picking up – where there’s life there’s hope.
My internet has been on and off all week – my provider is clearwire ..when it rains I have no connectivity. Quick note to self : not a good idea to use clearwire in Seattle.
I have a new favorite cartoonist his name is David Glenn Rinehart it is free to subscribe. Im guessing he’s a little jaded but then again so am I. Reading his cartoons is like therapy for me . I’m not alone. All of the included cartoons relate to my ex-relationship. Now all you have to do is figure out who is who!
Good luck!

Hope you like ’em more coming in future blogs

Simon

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My Internet Date-Site Ad

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Simon

I thought about this long and hard… a friend of mine who I have recently renewed acquaintance with through facebook – its been great getting to know her again, (she knew me at high school twenty odd years ago) asked me today, after reading yesterdays blog entry, if I would ever consider joining an internet dating site, I replied no. She then asked if she could write my profile for me, just for fun.

Hell, why not.

I WILL NOT join an internet dating site despite being barraged with google ads for them, but I will post her (half-mocking but very complimentary) impression of me.
I am blushing at the thought… but here goes. You never know, maybe Ms Right will read it and come storming to my door … probably not.

“Incredibly handsome, cheeky faced 43 year old male seeks like minded female. I am massively flirtatious, intense and probably inappropriately sexual. I may put you off at first, but Jesus I will hook you in pretty goddamn quickly with my charm and sexual chemistry. If you like lightning speed quick wit and a wacky sense of humour, you will find that in spades. I am intelligent and highly creative. I don’t mind being the centre of attention. I am an extravert, who quickly wins the affections of others. I laugh a lot. Quite loudly. You may detect a slight fragility in my nature, a little vulnerability that will only make you love me more and more. I am a sensual creature who requires lots of touch, warmth and affection as well as massive amounts of sex.

Jesus, I would never have written that..or anything vaguely like that!

Todays blog entry brought to you by Carita Birch.

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Day Forty-four

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Simon

Gday punters.

I’ve just had the most enlightening experience. I read my first blog – it was the first one I’d wanted to read – the blog of a friend, who has become, after reading the blog, a close friend. At least that’s how I feel. For the person in question the blog must have been very therapeutic, managing to be an interesting read full of humour and uplifting stories and a very personal account of an excruciatingly difficult time in their life. It was a pleasure and an honour to read.

This amazing experience has made me question how I would like this blog to be received by you – the reader. Right now I think it is a journal of our journey through the process of making The Bloke Show – which is what it was originally intended to be. Both Bj and I have shared some personal anecdotes but (speaking for myself) I feel I haven’t really let you in to who I am, which is what I loved the most about my friend’s blog. It is a very difficult thing to be so transparent and giving but I’m hoping to move more in that direction from now on.

Lets start by telling you some random information about me that you probably wont know –

I am homesick as hell – I crave sunlight and hot days , I miss the faces of loved ones , both family and friends. I miss sitting on a verandah with friends having a beer while sharing stories and laughter. I miss the blue blue ocean and the golden soft sand. I miss body bashing (body surfing) at the local beach. I miss the southern star filled heavens and the heady humid smell of summer.
My reason live here and I have an ex here who is well entrenched. My reason need their mother and I need them and they need me. Why not visit Australia, my homeland? Well, due to recent economic misfortunes I am behind in child support payments – no I am not a deadbeat dad! – it just became a financial impossibility at that time, I am catching up payments now, but as it stands I am not allowed to leave the US. My passport has been revoked (or the equivalent- whatever it is called). So here I stay. Sometimes life just deals you a dud hand, its not the end of the world it’s a hiccough. I’ve not lost a loved one, I am not homeless, I do not live with a life threatening illness or a life altering disability. My reason are well and happy.

I am working on being more grateful.

I am working on building bridges and repairing old beaten ones.

I regret not completing a “real-world” degree.

I love cricket (the sport) and will forever be grateful to my father who made my brother and I watch Test Matches as children when we begged him to watch cartoons or The Brady Bunch re-runs.

I wish they would show “Catch that Pigeon” (Dastardly and Muttley) or better yet, do a remake of it.

I wish the phrase “…when I was your age…” was unknown to humankind.

I’m yearning to see someone I can’t see…I think the feeling will pass but its been a long time and it hasn’t left me yet, which begs the question : will she ever really leave me? Is this simply unrequited love? God, that would be really dreadful.
I want this feeling to go and I want it to hurry up!

I’m a shocking snob – I don’t mean to be, but I am – about just about everything.

Money is not a big priority in my life and materialists are not people I choose to emulate ..yet a lot of the things in life I love are really, really expensive.
If you can sort that mess out you’re doing better than me.

I love watching happy people and I’m really bad at hiding the fact that I’m watching (read – staring at ) them and I can’t hide that I’m happy that they’re happy. It’s sometimes misread as creepy. Not good really.

I’m a terrible romantic and cry at the drop of a hat, but I loathe sentimental movies.

I suffer shocking insomnia.

When a child enters my heart they will be loved by me forever. I have seven children/young adults in my heart.

I love good food and good wine AND I love going to the gym – a happy coincidence.

Well that’s enough for now. Maybe more later, but tomorrow more TBS progress.

Have a ripper day,

Simon
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Day forty-three

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Simon

Another giant leap… yesterday we received the Bloke Show theme from Tyrone Noonan. What a fantastic theme we have – I just love it. After Ty had agreed to write the theme I deliberately made the brief, well… brief. I gave him a rough running time for the piece, asked him to construct it so that it would be possible to cut it up for use as incidental music and sent him a couple of scripts so that he could glean his own impression from what we have written. I wanted to enable him to freely interpret the texts with as little interference from me as possible. I simply asked him to do whatever he wanted in his own inimitable style. The result is wonderful – Ty’s unique contribution to our project. In Ty’s own words “…the riff has an augmented feel ala the simpsons theme song and the track is inspired by the original, slowed down version of the southpark theme.” I hope you like it as much as we do. You can listen to it here – The Bloke Show Theme

My approach to direction is similar, I am very keen for the actors to bring their own interpretations/impressions to the performance. I do not (in theatre terms) block a performance. I would prefer actors have as free a hand in developing the production as possible. This often means any pre-conceived ideas I may have had are thrown out, and the process has a much more fluid feel. Both myself and the actors throughout the process are then constantly adapting and questioning : the text, character motivation and physical relationships – particularly in relation to the space. The more the actors can bring into the process, the more dynamic the process itself. Most rehearsal exercises and explorations are prompted by the performers and I wait as late as possible to finalize decisions. For me, this style of direction has produced a much more layered and interesting final product – things transpire that I could not possibly have forecast – it is this that delights and inspires me – and hopefully the results of our work does the same for our audience.

More about style and development in later blog entries . Its time to write some more webisodes . Hope you have a bonza day.

Simon

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Stardate forty-one continued…

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Simon

Blog the second – An entry from co-pilot Kalms

Welcome back. The wombat has moved in now. He’s living under the desk. I haven’t thought of a name for him yet. In other news the weather has been pretty foul in these parts, flash floods, hailstorms, towns cut-off by water in the outback, and a cyclone is hovering off the north Queensland coast. Mother Nature at her best and worst, I still call Australians home.

I have been watching the new star trek movie again…

Co-pilots Blog; Stardate 20something.

Thanks to a couple of setbacks involving the ships’ mascot, a stolen keg and the local constabulary, also a dodgy insulation problem, the ship is still in dry-dock. The Crew has been meandering around on the planet for so long now they are starting to pick up the local accents. I have been entrenched in my digital-art podule for coming on 73 hours straight, and the smell is starting to make my eyeballs melt.

The Captain is off-world again, at another series of meetings and his communicator is set on hold, hope he changes that voice mail message he downloaded, my achy breaky brain can’t face another call. I have managed to develop the program diagnostics he demanded whilst writing new syntax for the vid-link we have planned. I also had to help my father-in-law with a tentacle issue he picked up in the war, which we don’t mention, as there are only so many hours in a solar-cycle.

So with the crew scattered all across this little blue green world it’s becoming difficult to estimate when we can get the ship out and hit the go really, really fast button. The engineers are still trying to figure out where the fuel goes in, the electricians haven’t found the elevator system yet, and the cook has caught a case of insinuative scabies, or so he seems to be trying to tell us.

I have had it with this podule.

We’re on track for the Bloke Show t-shirt designs; I read we have e-met with various fabulous folk who want to join the team, I be the third or fourth person to welcome them. It’s interesting how the dynamic changes as more genius pours in. I’m excited about the overall concept now, it’ll be fun, and fierce, and chock full of chunky bytes!

Signing off

BJ Kalms

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