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Fellow improv-er Anthony Farinas and I, sitting in a car during one of our scenes |
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A little about me: My personal interests include golf, music, travel, writing, movies and improvisational acting. Speaking of improv, look above at a snippet of Anthony and I engrossed in a scene. The group I've done improv work with is associated with the Speakeasy Happy Hour Club. They have various groups who perform improv shows every Friday in the basement speakeasy of the Green Door Tavern. And folks, this is real improv--not scripted--just impure, delightfully random impulses whipped up and regurgitated in the most effectively entertaining fashion. Feel free to stop by the 8:30-ish time slot and check us out. And if impurity is built into your genetic code, Felt will make you feel like you've come home for dinner. It's one of my absolute favorite shows of all time, put on by the talented teams at iO. Not just because puppets are 'behaving badly', but because every show is completely different, and completely hilarious. And at $5 on Wednesday nights, including an improv show beforehand, it's probably one of the last few bargains in the city---and the only way to survive the workweek. I personally guarantee it. What's my ear poison? I've been listening to way too much AM 780 to update my music to a respectable level. But I still think it's quite diverse with everything from Alternative and Soft Rock to Rhythm and Blues. Some of the ones you may recognize are Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Alicia Keys, Joni Mitchell, U2, Sting, Train, Howie Day, Sheryl Crow, Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews and Journey with a side of Styx....I could go on and on....but I won't. And if you're looking to find the most detailed information on your favorite songs, artists and undiscovered talent, visit Netscape Music or EMusic. I think they even have background on that guy that sang the "I'm just a Bill" song from Schoolhouse Rock! Sin-uhhh-ma- My new spelling for some of the crap that is making its way into our theaters. Such a wide array of disappointment. Even movies you THINK are going to be good just bomb miserably. Recently, Hostel, Derailed, Red Eye and The Village were all tied for most colossal waste of time (although I do give credit to "The Village" for unexpectedly jumping its genre over to "Comedy" for me. It's actually on my 'buy' list now. To contrast the bad, I must now list (and unfortunately you must read) some of my favorites which made it to the top like Love and Sex (with Jon Favreau), American Beauty, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Amelie, Office Space, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Christmas Story, The Goonies, Saw, The Shining (Wendyyyyy...I'm not gonna hurt ya), Shawshank Redemption, Singles, Thelma & Louise, Wedding Crashers, A Simple Plan, Midnight Run, Elf and the all-time classic When Harry Met Sally. So many to sift through yet so little time. To get the latest and greatest details on who has starred in what movie or commercial, there's no better resource than the Internet Movie Database. For a trip down memory lane, check out Fast Rewind. And one of the best places to buy DVDs cheap is Deep Discount DVD. Candygram. And if I don't make it out of the house on a rainy day, I can be caught watching Entourage, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Dr. Phil, Oprah, and anything on TLC, HGTV, CNBC and Discovery Channel. "Do you just ever shut up?" you ask. And I'm happy to report that I do, and even much more often than when I just snuggle up with a book or two. And for the record, that was kind of a rude question to ask. Moving on. I must share that I read the most amazing book the other day. The Mastery of Love, by Don Miguel Ruiz (who also wrote the best-seller "The Four Agreements"). Now don't be swayed by the title, because this book covers all relationships, romantic or not. This means family, friends and co-workers can all benefit from your knowledge. So unless you're living in a box and never speak to anyone, give it a read. One of the readers sums it up as this: "All relationships start with you, and how you feel about yourself....[which directly relates to the the level of abuse] you will allow [in your life]." He calls this kind of abuse you wave off an "emotional poison" that you inflict upon yourself. A truly loving relationship requires self love - which is so lacking in most of us. Ruiz tell us that humans hunt for love because we don't have it within ourselves. We hunt for love from other humans who also don't love themselves and are also on the love hunt. Then we are surprised and upset that we don't get the love we want from them, and they feel the same. We stay and put up with abusive or unsatisfying relationships because it satisfies a need in us; a need which should be satisfied without or before that person enters our life. Well, I'm sure he explains it much better than I do at this point. And a note for those who are inclined, there are some references to God in it, but the book is not overflowing with that kind of subject matter. If it was, I don't believe I could have gained as much as I did out of it. [NOTE: Please refer to photo of autographed copy of the Bible on page 3 of this website]. I simply breezed through any references to God, and found myself with a very refreshing and quick read. It's on my list of must-give gifts for friends and family. And simply put: it's a life-changer. Speaking of life changes, if you haven't already gotten TiVo yet (or some kind of equivalent), get with the program people--and make sure you refer me if you do get it since I only have 4,567,203 points left to earn my own upgraded machine. I rarely watch television these days, but when i want to watch it, or make sure that what I like is being recorded whether I remember or not, TiVo is the bomb. Okay, enough about TiVo. I've promoted those people so much and written them tips on features to include in future release and they STILL have me paying $12.95 per month! Some of you may find this a bit odd, but I fancy myself somewhat of a consumer advocate in my spare time. I'm the one who doesn't hang up on companies that enlist services to phone me up and survey how my last experience was. I'll call customer service if something went wrong. I'll write a letter, and sometimes I'll hold on much longer listening to the same ad telling me to 'press 1' than I need to. What's worse is, I even end up telling the guy who's making $8.95 an hour how it makes me feel. I get it out, and then I move on and do it again. Perhaps someday you'll begin to notice a measurable difference in the efforts I'm putting forth on your behalf. You're welcome. For a little more perspective on my consumer twitches, I have also taken the time to write these kinds of opinions on epinions.com Yup. Feedback propels change where it's needed. And I'm not alone. Countless others have done the same (although I think they're in it just for the money), so check it out if you're looking to buy something or go somewhere. And if you're a resort representative reading this column and need anyone to travel to exotic locales and report on their facilities and services down to the smallest of details, I'm definitely your gal...okay, i guess i'd settle for domestic travel as well... :0) My professional background includes experience in the areas of investor relations, communications, venture capital and real estate appraisal. But my passion reaches beyond that into sales (without being too sales-y of course), marketing, advertising and media. Dream jobs/careers or companies on the list: Movie critic, Jellyvision, Google, Greeting Card Writer/Designer, TV/Radio Producer, permanent Maria Bartiromo substitute, Screenwriter, Consumer Reports Columnist, The Onion Columnist...the list goes on. Not surprisingly, one of my long-time goals is to get something published (like a commercial or a product jingle). I tend to breeze through a lot of commercials on my TiVo. But I truly am a lover of a good ad. And they are far and few between these days. A fun place to browse the latest ads is Ad Critic. I'd also love to produce a children's book or a specialty game item. The best thing right now is that my honey and I are finally done with our first full-length screenplay together!!! It's a Farrelly Brothers-type comedy, and we're sending it out to an Oscar-winning writer in Hollywood who asked to see it. Of course, we'll also market it to other power industry folks with hopes of either optioning or outright selling it. And after a short break (ha! we've already started up again), we'll be working on our next masterpiece. JK thought it should be either a horror film or a romantic comedy. I say why stop with the comedy when we're on a streak---and I think it's the most fun and creative---but it's also the toughest. Besides, he has others he's working on by himself, and I plan to revisit my own drama I abandoned years ago. We'll need to update and overhaul JK's site Band 3 Films soon. It will be a combination of both of our works and we've begun the process of marketing them to Hollywood studios. JK won 2nd runner up in last year's People's Pilot Contest, presented by TVWriter.com. We co-entered two pieces this year, and ended up in the top 30 finalists, although we didn't win the grand prize. |
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