Bloggy-blogging

It’s Time for a Sleepcation

Image by Tomaniac (click to buy a sticker)

This week, I’m not having a vacation, I’m not even having a staycation. I’m having a sleepcation!

I was calling it a bedcation at first, but it turns out that fake word already exists and isn’t quite right in this situation. So, sleepcation it is.

As of this past Saturday and until this Sunday, I have 9 days where I’ll be sleeping as much as possible for as long as possible with as much sleep as possible. Because sleep is good. Especially after overdoing it for too long. It’s either sleepcation now or crycation later. You can probably imagine what that entails. Of course, we all can use a good cry now and again, but 9 days straight sounds exhausting.

So, if you need me, my bed and I are going to be getting it on.

And OK, I’m hoping to also edit that video and write that web-series script, two things I’ve been trying to get to for a few months now. You see, as it turns out, I’m not very good at doing nothing. Even when not on vacation, I fill my time up with projects. I hear other people go home after work and watch TV or something. If I want to watch TV, I have to schedule it as a weekly thing and make an event out of it.

So I’m trying to sleep and lounge around and just decompress. So far I can’t say I’ve been terribly successful. While I have slept a lot (I’ve always been real good at that), I’ve also stayed up real late, and during the day I’ve been working on The Comics Observer, done some administrative stuff for the Magic Meathands, and been an obsessive dork about our music library. But I’ve also hung out with Nahleen and Cleo some, watched the Twin Peaks episode 6 (my favorite so far!), and started reading Any Empire by Nate Powell (if you’re a child of the ’80s, read this!). And I’ve kiiinda not been on Facebook a ridiculous amount, although I’m still staring at the computer way too much, which I’m sure isn’t entirely relaxing. But the week has only started. I’ll get this right some day.

Anyway, I can’t believe I just reviewed my own vacation.

How do you do with taking time off? Do you like empty time or do you need to keep just as busy as when you’re not on vacation? Or maybe you’re good at finding a satisfying happy-medium?

Can’t Blog Now, Getting Yelled At By My Cat

Family portrait... sorta

Got the internet fixed (thank you, Verizon tech support, for actually being knowledgeable, efficient and effective).

Then got all set to write today’s blog until I kept hearing this little meow in the hallway. You see, our awesome kitty Cleo recently started this thing at night. Once Nahleen goes to bed she has to sit in the hall and wonder aloud why I haven’t also gone to bed. So I get these little reminders that just demand attention.

This is a recent addition to her nightly ritual where earlier in the evening she rather vehemently yells at the toilet for having its cover down. At no other part of the day does this bother her. Once I lift the cover up, she then heads into the living room to yell at Nahleen through our sliding glass doors to the balcony. Nahleen usually spends several minutes out there each night to read or do whatever Nahleens do, but Cleo doesn’t like this one bit because she’s out there and not in here with us.

So the point is that Cleo is a hilariously insistent kitty who prefers that all three of us be together. And I have no blog post. Well, except this.

Is This Saturday the Final Mary Pickford Studio Show for the Magic Meathands?

Change is certainly in the air for the Meathands.

This Saturday night, our Tag Team Comedy Show with the variety show Fun Night Live may well be our last time performing at the Mary Pickford Studio.

In case you haven’t heard, Indiewire initially broke the story and Deadline Hollywood has the most recent information. The basics is that the Mary Pickford Foundation cut off funding of the Mary Pickford Institute, which owns the Mary Pickford Studio. For those that don’t know, here is the Mary Pickford Institute’s mission statement:

The Mary Pickford Institute (MPI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating awareness of film pioneer Mary Pickford’s life, preserving her work, furthering her philanthropic legacy and honoring her creativity. Our community resources and services provide a bridge from early cinema to modern filmmaking. Our innovative outreach programs ignite an excitement for learning while building participants’ sense of accomplishment and self-esteem by utilizing teaching tools that are immediate, relevant and current.

There’s an online petition set up to ask the Foundation to reconsider. Please join us in adding your voice in support of continuing the legacy of Mary Pickford and the Institute’s (and our) efforts of outreach.

Truthfully, we don’t know much more than what’s been released in those links above, but we know that this Saturday night’s show will almost definitely be the last chance to catch the Magic Meathands in this great venue. We’re crossing our Meaty fingers for a last minute Hollywood ending. But in the meantime, we’re going to give the Mary Pickford Studio one heck of a blow-out for our final show! Please come out and help celebrate the good work the Institute has done. We have given a percentage of the box office from every show we’ve held at the Mary Pickford Studio to the Mary Pickford Institute. Maybe if we completely pack the house, we’ll send the signal to the Foundation that the Studio has value in the community and both the Studio and the Institute deserve to stick around.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

  1. Come to this Saturday’s Tag Team Comedy Show at the Mary Pickford Studio at 8 PM!
  2. Sign the online petition to Save the Mary Pickford Institute and the home of the Magic Meathands!

Help Save the Meathands' Home

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Magic Meathands: Our First April Show Will Feature More Making $#!& Up

I’m writing about our first post-Bill show and I’m already cartoon swearing. And the show is Family-Friendly! Oh, we’re doomed.

Come on out and see us completely make… stuff up based on your suggestions. (There, is that better?)

Every second Saturday of the month, the Magic Meathands (that’s us!) and Beach Cities’ Jump Start Improv put on a full night of improv comedy appropriate for the whole family. While staying sharp we offer a night for grownups where they can feel comfortable bringing the youngsters along.

A portion of ticket sales is donated to the Mary Pickford Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating awareness of film pioneer Mary Pickford’s life, preserving her work, furthering her philanthropic legacy and honoring her creativity. Part of the organization’s outreach includes the Mobile Film Classroom, which brings cutting edge digital film technology and the opportunity to learn to children throughout Los Angeles.

Tickets: $7 ($3 for kids 12 & under)

Mary Pickford Studio
8885 Venice Blvd. Ste 102
Los Angeles, CA 90034-3242

Plenty of parking in the lot right there at 8885 Venice Blvd. (cross street National Blvd.).

RSVP on Facebook

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

What Are Your 10 Songs About Trains

Or somehow inspired by trains. Something to do with trains in some way.

My father’s favorite mode of transportation is this month’s Ten on the Tenth. It just kicked off about an hour ago, so click on that link, compile your list of 10 songs and post away!

Can’t wait to see what people come up with this time.

Magic Meathands: Goodbye to Our Director, Hello to Our Future

Bill Johnson sees something he has to go do. Shane doesn't like it, Marshall ignores it.

Sunday’s rehearsal was our final with director Bill Johnson. He was the original founder, teacher and director of the Magic Meathands improv comedy ensemble.

After 8 years of guiding us, he is leaving us behind to let us grow to the next level while he pursues his own opportunities.

Bill taught most of us for years and encouraged us to explore the absurd, the silly and the joyful. Because of that influence, the Magic Meathands have developed a dynamic, high energy that is unique among most improv groups. He also brought his focus to community outreach, making the Magic Meathands the only improv group in Los Angeles that regularly brings live comedy to the very people most in need of joy and laughter. Just this past Saturday, we played to an enthusiastic crowd at the Ocean Park Community Center, a facility in Santa Monica that serves the homeless and mentally ill. Next month, we’ll return to our friends at the Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services facility in Altadena, where they house over 40 boys aged 10 to 18. We first performed for them in early 2008 and continue to visit them several times a year. And finally, because of the variety of our audiences and venues, Bill developed a team of performers comfortable with audiences of different age groups and content preferences. Not too many improv groups have their own rating system for their shows, but the Meathands do to make sure audiences know what they’re getting into.

So yes, Bill created a pretty magnificent thing but the time has come for him to go. So now what?

Always passionate about reaching out to the community and helping children, Bill is pursuing a teaching career at a school in the Coachella Valley where he’s teaching math to struggling kids. Yes, math. We don’t get it either.

We also expect him to continue his writing. Bill’s first novel, The Dark Province: The Son of Duprin, debuted last year to great reviews. We’re told a sequel and another novel are in the works.

Meanwhile, the Magic Meathands have been preparing for this day for some time. Over the last year, we became a self-directed performing group. That means we all share the responsibility of running different parts of the show, instead of Bill serving as sole director and emcee every show. In turn, our shows have been evolving into a completely new format that is bringing out the best in our cast. Simply put, if you haven’t seen the Meathands in the last 4 months or more, you haven’t seen the Meathands!

Your next chance is the popular Family Friendly Show with Jump Start Comedy Improv at the Mary Pickford Studio on Saturday, April 14, at 8 PM! See you there!

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Resume Running Red Lights, LA

Found on Flickr (taken by puck90)

Good news, Los Angeles! Those automated cameras at certain intersections will no longer flicker that annoying white flash to let you know you just ran a red light and can expect to get a nice present in the mail. So if you’re looking for photographic evidence that you were driving somewhere at a specific time, you’re just going to have to ask someone to use their camera phone or something. Maybe they’ll even take a more flattering picture, and for free.

The 32 red light cameras throughout the city have documented an average of 45,000 traffic violations each year. The downside is they were also more expensive than the revenue they generated, and the tickets issued from those pictures were difficult to enforce (“That’s not my blurry, pixelated face! That’s not even my car! Plus I was in Denver that weekend and have a friend who can back me up.”) and caused an increase in rear-end collisions (some drivers slammed on their breaks hoping it was the car in front of them that got caught, much to the chagrin of the car behind them). Fortunately that’s all behind us now. We’re once again able to run red lights to our heart’s content! Let’s go forth and endanger people’s lives, everyone!

Better news: If you have an outstanding ticket from a red light camera, throw that sucker away! The city is no longer collecting money from them. See? Procrastinating pays off!

(Just be careful. There are still cities around LA proper that have cameras just waiting to get us.)

Nahleen.com shares the journey of life with chronic health challenges

Uh oh. The blogging bug has spread to my wife. Our cat might be next.

Yes, Nahleen has started blogging at Nahleen.com, where she’s writing about her experiences living with multiple sclerosis and lupus. Emphasis on living and trying to live better.

What’s amazing about this for me is that I’m learning new things about what she’s going through or gaining a deeper understanding, even though we talk a lot about it and even though I see her go through it every day. I guess that’s why we humans developed different ways to express ourselves.

Anyway, I hope you’ll stop by Nahleen.com, subscribe, and share it with your friends if one or more posts resonate with you. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.

The Comedy Outreach Project of the Magic Meathands

We just completed a thrilling run of shows, as we teamed up with Jump Start and Danger Pants! (formerly known as The Callbacks), but we’re not done yet! We’re revving up for a special show at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica as part of our Comedy Outreach Project. We’re also in talks to help out fundraising for an elementary school and seeing about returning to some of our regular partners.

The Comedy Outreach Project is all about us taking live improvised comedy out to the community. Whether it’s a boys’ home, transitional housing for women, a halfway house, senior centers, or local schools, we bring our funny to them. For some, this is their first experience with live theater and improvised comedy, and the discovery of joy and laughter is powerful to behold. It’s not always easy to get through to them to share that joy and laughter, but after a few hundred shows of doing just that, the Magic Meathands understand how to use high energy and audience-appropriate material that involves them and encourages creativity in diverse settings.

Do you know of a group of people that could use some laughter? Check out our Comedy Outreach Project page and get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

My Face on Funny Or Die, and 2 Film Festivals Like Web-Series I Was In

I don’t know if it’s still up this morning, but since Friday or Saturday, my face has been on the front page of Funny Or Die for a political satire video I acted in, Mayer For Mayor, Pt. 1. Craziness.

Here’s a screen capture from writer/director Sam Sero for proof, because as the internet has taught us, pics or didn’t happen.

There I am, right under Stephen Lang. (How many people get to write that sentence?)

Please go watch the video on Funny Or Die and vote ‘Funny’ so we can… win Internet points or something, I guess.

I would embed the video here but apparently Funny or Die and WordPress are rival gangs. If you can’t bear the thought of leaving CoreyBlake.com, fortunately the Poopdog Entertainment team posted the video on YouTube so you can watch it right here:

My fellow Magic Meathands improviser Seth Rotkin is in this too. Yes, there are plans for a Mayer for Mayor, Pt. 2 and possibly more. It seems like maybe there’s some sort of political thing going on for the next 9 months or so that might make this timely. So if you like what you see, please let us know in the comments, share with your friends, and watch it over and over until you’ve memorized the entire thing backwards and forwards. There will be a test.

In other news about me and my face, two film festivals specializing in web-series and online content are particularly fond of a web-series that I appeared in called The Starmind Record. I originally wrote about my appearance in episode 6 and the project here. The Starmind Record is an official selection of both the LA Web Series Festival and the Hollyweb Festival.

If you’re in the LA area and want to check out The Starmind Record on the big screen, the LA Web Series Festival is running the weekend of April 6-8 at the LAX Raddison Hotel (exact screening details to be announced March 20). The Hollyweb Festival will begin screenings on March 9th (exact details should be announced any second now) with an award show on March 31 at the Dim Mak Studios (formerly Cinespace) in Hollywood. Check out the festivals’ websites for more details.

Here’s the episode I’m in, if you missed it the first time around: