Happy Birthday, RCL!

Happy Birthday, R. Christopher Lucas. For those who don't know, Chris was a friend and roommate from college. ("Go, Geoducks, go! Through the rain and the mud, let's go!") We roomed together for a while after school, bummed around Europe together for a few months, too. He partially credits me with helping him turn away from being a science geek to being a film geek. Currently living in Austin, Texas with his wife and two boys while completing his Ph D. (How is that dissertation coming, Chris?) The photo is circa 1993. I think we were still rooming together then. I know we were both spending after work hours at AHA! Theatre. And yes, I thought he was quite the hipster back then. I mean look at that shirt! Total hipster. (For those who think my posting the photo is low blow, I got it from his own website, so... yeah.) Happy Birthday, Chris. Wish you were here.

Correction

I want to correct an impression from a post I wrote a few weeks ago about two movies I was in as an actor. Specifically, I made some comments about my performance in The Audience Strikes Back. I did not explain myself very well and some have thought it comes across as disparaging of the movie. Not my intention in the slightest and my deepest apologies for giving that impression.

Actors often look back at earlier work and see only the flaws. I have talked many a friend through this impulse, trying to get them to look at the whole performance and focus on the positives. Then I got sucked into that trap myself. So let me put a new spin on this.

Yes, I could have been more free and relaxed in a number of places. But on the positive side, there is a very nice connection with Danielle Reierson, who plays my wife. The big emotional moments come across quite well. As do the laughs. The movie as a whole is quite good; my cast mates all turn in solid performances and I was happy to have worked with each of them.

Any flaws in my performance are my fault - my own limitations as an actor - and my mention of them is intended as self criticism only. They certainly do not rest on the director, or any of my cast mates - all of whom I would work with again in a heartbeat, as a director, producer or actor.

It is a good little film. And just as a reminder it comes out on DVD July 29th. You can pre-order from Amazon here and request that Netflix carry it here.

Get Reconciled

Our latest project, Serial Reconciler, is up. Guerilla shoot we did one afternoon. It felt great to get out and actually shoot something instead of sitting at my computer massaging spreadsheets so that we can hopefully shoot something in the future. I want to do more of these smaller things to keep the rust of my creative skills while working towards the larger projects.

That is Jeff Benoit as the father. Jeff has some serious acting chops, so any other filmmakers looking at this should jump at the chance to use him. Plus he is an all around cool cat. (I think that was the slang in his era, but it was so long ago that who knows....)

Happy Birthday Mom... Congratulations, Mike

Today is Mom's birthday. Not enough room on the blog to list all the ways she has been a great mother. Not enough skill with words to express it properly if there were. Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

Sadly, in posting this I realized that the only digital photo of my mom that I have access to is from the bio page on her work website. Going to have to do something about that.

And we got word this weekend that big brother Mike has been nominated for a regional emmy. (PDF, his nomination is listed on page 4.) Mike is a news photographer for Channel 12 in Portland. The nomination is for a special series he did last year, Living in the Landfill.* Powerful story about the people who live in the Managua, Nicaragua city landfill and some of the best work in his talented career. Congrats, brother and good luck.

* Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Festival!

We got late word from our director that "Behind Closed Doors" was accepted to the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival and is playing tonight.

This comes on the heels of acceptance into the Seattle True Independent Film Festival which runs in June. The schedule for STIFF will come out in May so I will let you know when we know showtimes.

In the meantime, if you are free tonight, head down to Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center at 7pm and check it out.

Ceaseless Harm

I had to switch the no complaints bracelet again. The less said in public about the reason for this the better. Suffice it to say that someone did something that pissed me off and instead of confronting him on it I griped to friends who were in agreement that he shouldn't have done it. Given my history with this person I do not think I could have confronted him but I sure shouldn't have been griping to others. Ah well. To distract you from my shortcomings I offer you the ultimate in cyborg names:

Get Your Cyborg Name

i'm in the movies

It really is funny how long it can take a movie to hit the shelf. Back in the summer of 2006, when I was still acting, I was cast in two local indie films and at long last both have DVD distribution.

The first, Max Rules, is written and directed by Robert Burke. An action adventure story following three teenage friends and how they foil an international spy ring that has the FBI stymied. I have not seen it yet, but it got great press at the various festivals as a kids adventure movie. I have a blink and you'll miss it part at the very end as the football coach. Available on Netflix for your renting pleasure. (By the by, Rob wrote the story when he was in high school and directed the bulk of it at age 20. He has chops and I cannot wait to see what he does next.)

The second is The Audience Strikes Back, written and directed by Pat Beacham. Born out of his frustrations with the Star Wars prequels, the film is an extended conversation starting with Star Wars and evolving deep into personal territory. I am featured much more prominently but I am not sure that is such a good thing. I saw an early cut and was not crazy about my performance - stiff and anticipating with almost no honest moments. (Not criticizing the director here; entirely my fault as an actor.) Due to be released on July 29, 2008, you can pre-order the DVD at Amazon. Have no idea if it will be carried by Netflix but I suppose if enough people requested it, they would have to.

It is great to see these hit the market, even if it means truly embarassing publicity photos get posted on imdb.

US & Torture III

And now we have the President of the United States of America admitting on national television that he personally approved of the torture of detainees.

What happened to our country and how do we fix it?

US & Torture II

More and more details are surfacing about how the U.S. government approved the use of torture at the highest levels. Again, it is information that has been assumed for some time now being confirmed. These actions are horrific and I would ask again, what do we do about it?

Wrist Switch

I had been doing so well, too. I made it through a couple of projects getting dumped on me at work, a couple of fights with Trish and just general stress. And tonight during a 5 minute car ride, I yell at another driver for not making a turn quickly enough. ratsenfratsenmumblegrumble Anyway, made it twelve days this time around. 

5 Things

Todd tagged me and I am still thinking up his appropriate retribution ("One day, your uppenace shall surely come!"). In the meantime,

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
* Starting a new job at Adobe
* Taking a writing course at UW Extension
* Living at the top of Queen Anne
* Spending far too much time at Chris & Gary's playing video games
* Trying online dating for the first time

5 items on my to-do list today
* Contact executive producer about shoot date for short film
* Shop for baby shower gifts for Katie & Jim
* Revise Duo budget
* Ensure all my billable hours for March are entered
* Quality time with Trish to celebrate her play closing

5 snacks I enjoy
* Kashi GoLean snack bars
* Bananas
* Cashews
* English Cheddar
* Any fresh berry

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire
* Buy home and a vacation home
* Buy homes and pay off college tuition for all Loyd and Heinrich family
* Set up charitable trust with All Saints Church
* Travel so often I rarely use the vacation home (yes, you can use it while I am away)
* Fund my and my friends' film projects

5 bad habits
* Procrastination
* Worrying over issues I have no control over
* Infrequent and poor quality housekeeping
* Diet Pepsi
* Beer

5 places I have lived
* Honolulu, HI
* Spokane, WA
* Olympia, WA
* Seattle, WA
* That's it

5 jobs I have had
* Information booth at Pike Place Market
* Elevator operator at Space Needle
* Actor in indie film The Audience Strikes Back (paid and everything)
* Legal Communication & Tools Technologist at Adobe
* Book packer at Mountaineers Bookstore warehouse

Now I am supposed to "tag" 5 people who have to do the same thing, but I hate putting others on the spot that way. So we'll end it here. There you go, more than you needed to know about me.

US and torture

The John Yoo legal memos were released last week. (John Yoo was the number two man at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department and wrote a series of legal memorandum that promoted skirting the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law to allow torture of terrorist suspects, as well as promoting unchecked powers for the commander in chief during wartime.) If you blinked and missed it, you weren't the only one as the traditional media seemed more interested in Obama's bowling score than U.S. sanctioned torture. Glenn Greenwald at Salon captures my anger at the whole situation.

This issue gets to me more than any of the other dozens of abhorrent actions taken by the Bush administration. Maybe it is just my romantic notions, but torture and its faux-legal justification are fundamentally opposed to what it means to be American. We tried Nazis for just this kind of action. And now our country has done the same thing in our name.

The question, of course, is what do we do about it. I have participated in online petitions and have written letters to my senators but that seems to do nothing. Even with a Democratic Congress, there is too much posturing and too little action. So my question is serious. What do we do about it?

I know the few people who read this blog do not comment much, but I really am interested in a discussion on this issue. How can we stop this from happening now? from happening again? Is it just a matter of wait until the election? Isn't there some way we can take steps now? What do you think?