Dakota

I have been suffering from a terrible bout of stress eating. I was attempting some work on the Lil Attila novel and haven't gotten past a third panel... I've been using the internet, text messaging Matt, eating, and television all as excuses to not get past anything. Legitimately, I'm at a block. Can't figure out how to get from where I am to where I need to be, convincingly. I have a lot of the last half figured out (although there's another bit that will probably give me similar problems later) but I can't fucking get there... Blargh.

I thought of like 3 other projects this past weekend. Most of those are online and complicated. And then there's my latest longterm venture: a musical. This is my trying once again to be a prodigy, 20 years too late. Genevieve and I are actually getting things written, though. It's a slow process, but these days, the weeks are flying by at a scary pace. Possibly because I haven't done my taxes yet, and I don't actually know how to do them.

Ok, I want to crawl into bed now and not wake up, so I think I'm making progress.

Plus South Park was on and about head lice. My head itches now.

It was a very long, interminable day. Unfortunately, I've got another 2 ahead of me this week. Tomorrow should be awfully quiet, with Genevieve gone. Days seem to go by slower with no one else back here. I had such vicious thoughts throughout the day, though. Spite.

...

I have the new Regina Spektor album; I am of course listening to one song over and over, although I like a lot of it. She redid "Samson," which was kind of pointless, but "Fidelity" and "On the Radio" and "That Time" are especially wonderful. This is another musician who needs to make albums every couple of weeks. Although to be fair, "Songs" and "11:11" probably could have been one album, because they're both awfully inconsistent. She makes a damn good mix CD, though.

...

Unhappy weight issues. I'm going to have to go off Chinese again, work out more, drink even more fucking water, and be more conscious of my portions. Hell has come back to me, and for a while there, food was the one thing going for me during the day. That may've been the issue to lead to the ten pounds.

...

Sex is a beautiful, holy event. The drought is over, finally. If anyone heard chimes (or a hallelujah chorus) 'round about 1 am this morning, just congratulate me and move on.

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Lil Attila: The Movie (as I'm recently calling the novel 'cause I can't think of a fucking title for it yet) is going very slowly; it's driving me very crazy. I'm trying, and I have ideas, but they aren't coming out... I'm just so angry at that... it's about 4 months past due (for my own personal deadline), and it's just not coming. I had such a beautiful start, and I'm on the 18th page and the ink is just taking forever.

Snark.

Things that are good:
1. Hanging out with Genevieve and Danielle yesterday.

2. Hanging out with Genevieve, Danielle, and Matthew yesterday, which doesn't ever happen.

3. I am Riff Raff this week, and working off Randi.

4. More pages of the Lil Attila book done. I think I've actually hit a point of intrigue, and I prewrote a scene for later that could be on the verge of poignantly sad, particularly for something as light-hearted as Lil Attila.

Things that are bad:
1. Late cast lists. I shake my fist at Larry and then crumple my face into my hands, sobbing.

2. Nausea from not eating yet. That's coming up.

3. Having to work after getting maybe 4 hours sleep.

At the least the good outweighs the bad, 4 to 3.

God-fucking-damn-it.

I was talking to Matt about Lil Attila, and I mentioned the character Vlad, and he didn't know who that was. So I went to show him in the comic that he just read tonight. He's missing a page.

It's very likely everyone that received a copy is missing the second page. It doesn't completely affect the plot, but sets up a huge point made at the end.

So much for the $2 making up for costs.

"I am so bored. Episode One bored."
-- Andrew Wells, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Dead Things"

Yeah, that about covers it. So, a few random, recent events of little to no importance:

1. The Pizza Man Mistrusts Me
I asked Matt to order me a pizza from Dominos, and so he went to the one on McBride and ordered it to be delivered, paid for it and left. Some time later, the doorbell rings, and the pizzaman tells me I owe him $17. Despite the fact that the sticker says "Paid." He reasons, "Well, sometimes it's wrong." Um, ok? So how do I prove that it's paid for-- I sense a faulty system in "sometimes it's wrong." So I have to wait while the driver calls the store and makes sure it's paid for. He doesn't have some private office number; he calls the main line and has to wait through those menu and special deals... Sure enough; paid for. Thanks. Is there no trust left in the world?

2. Matt and I have prolonged watching season 3 of 24 for about a year. We just haven't had the time to devote. Finally Matt unwraps the copy we have and we sit on the couch to watch at least one (but likely more than) of the episodes. I comment that the menus are always the same on the seasons, as we see when the DVD loads. The first episode's menu has a photo of Jack Bauer and George Mason. But George Mason died deep into season 2. Matt suggests it's a flashback. But 24 doesn't do flashbacks... it's all real-time. Whatever... ok. So we start it. The beginning is instantly familiar. The credits rolls. A "Sara Gilbert" title card comes up... This is season two... Sara Gilbert's character died like 5 episodes into it. Sure enough, for the last year, we've had two copies of season 2 and been completely oblivious to it.

3. So, instead we watched two episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the Romulan-Tasha ("Redemption II"), and an interesting if underdeveloped one about trying to communicate with an alien species that speaks only it metaphors ("Darmok").

4. I'm on page 5 of the next Lil Attila graphic novel. I have hopes. It's already different than I was expecting, including an extended sequence between the Pope and God. Matt saw the dailies, and laughed. I consider that a good sign.

Night 3 was far, far superior to night 2. This was evident to me being in a really great mood after the show, and fully pleased with 2 of the 3 shows we did in total. Next year, Halloween is on a Tuesday, so we'll probably have the Saturday and Tuesday shows, which sounds a whole lot... better.

It's November 1st, which means it's Willow's birthday today. And it's also Jake's birthday.

I sold off two more Lil Attila comics, which will probably be the full tally. In the two weeks, I conned Randi, Jordana, Richy, Sarah, and Christian into buying them. Since Katie was sick, I gave her a free copy. I'll hang onto the extra's for now, in case anyone eventually wants one. I still have computer files.

The actual show seemed to go pretty well. Working with Katie was great, and while I bega the show completely not in the mood to play Brad (after going off-the-wall for Frank and Rocky the nights previous, Brad seemed so much the straight-man), I ended up enjoying it all, and having fun, and I think throwing in a good performance.

The preshow went off I think the best it ever did. It was "Coin-Operated Boy" by the Dresden Dolls. It was a black-and-white reinterpretation of lab scene (essentially) with Genevieve as a Germanic matron version of Frank. Sarah and Danielle were pretty much direct-from-the-film Columbia and Magenta, respectively. I was Rocky, and the title character of the song. I wore my white shorts and had black suspenders and a bowler hat on. The audience responded well, Matt taped it, and I'm just very happy with it.

As awful, overcast, underehearsed, and ill-received as "This is Halloween" was (and, well, it was), "Coin-Operated" was that much better. "This is Halloween" was just so grand in it being bad, and it was no fault of the performers; I knew after the first night that it sucked and we had to go through two additional nights with that very clear. "Coin-Operated" however seemed to be the favorite part of the show for a lot of people, and I was flattered and ecstatic with the compliments I received. It was completely a group effort, and everyone did a fabulous job. I will have to get to mastering it and sending it to the Dolls and see if it gets on their website. 'Cause, gee, that'd be nifty.

This week will be the recovery time til Saturday, which is not all that far away.

I had a good enough show on Saturday... There were newspaper people there. I didn't get interviewed, which was a blow, but they saw me as Brad and took something like 800 photos. I'm looking forward to the article in general, as well as what stills they decide to use to represent the show as a whole. We never get fully objective views, so that should scary and interesting.

We went to the diner, which was an awful, awful idea because Matt and I were going with Jamie to Six Flags for Fright a-Festing at 10 AM. About 50 minutes after that initial goal, we were on the road and had a very nice time there, even though my neck feels stiff and in some discomfort since the Batman ride. It was not a very ride-heavy visitation at all, actually. We did Chiller (Robin; I haven't seen the Batman track open in like a year), Nitro, and Batman the Ride. That was really it.

However we made a point to do the Haunted Hayride and the Terror Walk (or whatever it was specifically called)... Both were fine. Short. But fine. We ate and watched Dead Man's Party (which is always good), and two very stupid new shows, which ironically were like the only theatrical shows that had live vocals. The sound and singers were terribly off. One involved four dead celebrities (Marilyn, Elvis, Bogart, and Lucy)... doing random shit. The other was Satan and his Devilettes, which was downright deplorable because of the speakers. Plus... well, lame. Satan, the gayest man outside of Clay Aiken, and three trollops screeching "Disco Inferno?" Yech.

A lot of the day was spent waiting for it become night, which is the best part of Fright Fest. There were other castmembers at the park, but we didn't run into them. While we were in line for something, I thought I saw Sarah, or rather a girl with dark hair and a Fraggle Rock purse. Probably Sarah, and a blonde girl that may have been Reese Witherspoon... probably Liz, but they were too far away and we were late for a Fastlane (which was almost useless on the most crowded day/night I've been to in a long time) appointment.

Such was late Saturday and Sunday.

Mid-Saturday involved very good hanging out with the Kids and Danielle, which involved strawberry shortcake, candy corn soda (I didn't try it), and at least two people liking the new Lil Attila graphic novel (Genevieve was driving; she couldn't read it.)

All I got for now.

The first Lil Attila extended graphic storyline is completed! It's not really a comic book and it's not really a graphic novel... It's something, though!

It took me three nights, and it's finished! Yaaay!

Bizarrely productive... Was working on Lil Attila comics, and the graphic novel for Lil Attila. I wasn't really aware until now that some of the later strips... really were a practice run for aspects of the novel. And the only reason it's a "novel" is because if I try to chop it up into strips, I'm going to go crazy.

The working title is Lil Attila Finds Jesus, but that's really just been so I can do a quick throwaway gag title. It actually seems like I'm going to put a lot more work/thought/effort into this. I may actually have to prewrite the entire thing.

Jeepers.