Caught up in the tide..

So much going on in the last few months, just been busy living it to get the right moment to write about them. Also, the inclination to do so is waning, as I tend to share the experiences with the people that matter to me.

I still think about it, and do miss it.

Just have to find the feeling again---or better still, let the feeling find me.

Balderdash! The Triumphant Return: Holy Batman Edition!

With the Stars:

Batman

Robin

Batgirl

Commissioner Gordon

With Special Guests:

The Wonder Twins

And our host for the evening:

Mr. Burt Reynolds

Recorded in front of a live studio audience
Shot on location at: La Espanol Fork Studios
7/15/12

Can you believe it, folks? 

It's been more than a year since our last episode!

That's just ridiculous! 

How did we manage to let that much time pass since playing?

I guess it's a good thing we don't pay our actors and have a virtually non-existent studio or this sort of thing would never happen at all! 

Anyhow, hello there, friends... 

How have you been? Have you missed us as much as we've missed you? 

It's so great that we can finally put together another fun filled episode of this nearly award winning and almost always inspired show for you. 

Tonight we feature a rare treat, a handful of those blindingly colorful denizens of the D.C. Comics, the Dynamic Duo themselves, Batman and Robin, supported by their super friends Batgirl and Commissioner James Gordon! 

We also feature our special guests, whose answers are sure to win an A for effort, The Wonder Twins! 

Last but least, who should walk into our 'studio' with such casual interest but Mr. Burt Reynolds himself! 

Yes, that's right. 

Burt likes colorful costuming as much as the next fan..and really wasn't doing much else to boot. 

So, sit back, relax, have yourself a watermelon mojito, as we lovingly present... Balderdash!

Let's bring it out!

1. Laws: 

"In Suffolk, UK, it is a criminal offense to snooze..."

*MBR: ...while in the public library.

WT: ...at the work place.

B: ...longer than ten minutes when your spouse is trying to sleep.

R: ...on a cruise..drinking booze..while reading the news..and counting by twos.

BG: ...in church.

CG: ...with booze..unless accompanied by a fooze named Balooze.

2. Words: "Pogonip"

BG: A small green vegetable related to the parsnip.

B: An herbal supplement given to depressed kangaroos kept in captivity.

CG: The sensation one feels in the extremities while jumping with a pogo stick on cool autumn evenings.

MBR: The high jumping game of cats on drugs.

*R: A thick fog that forms in deep valleys during the winter.

WT: A spice which causes an up and down motion.

3. Names: "Norman Orenteich"

*B: The doctor who invented the hair transplant.

CG: Commissioned (ha.) by Adolf Hitler, Orenteich captured scenes of every day Nazi family and town life.

WT: A Nazi german spy posing as "Norman the Doorman"..(This was one of the biggest laughs of the evening..and I'm still scratching my head over it..go fig.)

 R: A serial killer who brutally slaughtered anyone who mispronounced his last name. (Can you blame him?)

 MBR: Of the famous German band, Norman and the Stingy Potatoes. (This clearly was not Burt's best work of the night, but on an unrelated noted, he decided to call himself "Ballstein" on the comment card, which led to his subsequent and usual chuckling. True story.)

 BG: A German/Jewish Naval officer who deceived Hitler and helped the US win the attack on DDay.

4. Words: "Trocar"

R: A position of great authority in the leadership of Stone Masons.

MBR: A profanity uttered by the Gingerbread Man when his gumdrop buttons are enjoyed. 

WT: Newly appointed medication for impotency.

BG: A walking stick decorated with horses' heads.

*CG: Surgical instrument stuck in the side of a cow to remove gas pressure caused by overeating.

B: A shortened version of "trolley car", used mostly in San Francisco, CA.

No, really, where are all of the movie ones already? Yes, we're asking ourselves that too. 

Fear not...I think we're getting closer to those..

5. Names: "Offty Goofty"

B: Swiss scientist who perfected the chocolate truffle.

CG: The late Offty Goofty was the inspiration for Disney's classic character, Goofy.

*R: Turn of the century panhandler who charged people 10 cents to kick him. (Quite possibly the best answer of the night, moreso because it was true.)

BG: The only man in history to die when a piano fell from a one story window. It broke his toe and led to blood poisoning.

WT: A clown ventriloquist.

MBR: He was the original Indian Howdy Doody.

6. Laws:

"In New West Minister, it is unlawful to put.."

*WT: ...garbage in someone else's garbage can.

BG: ...a collar on a rat.

B: ....more than 4 kids in a bathtub at the same time.

MBR: ....all of your eggs in one basket.

CG: ...the word canadian before bacon.

R: ....live crabs in a public swimming pool. (Why not?)

7. Words: "Scurryfunger"

WT: A little brown fish that cleans the coral in the ocean and spews a mucosa causing the disease of the same name.

CG: A euphemism. 'Nuf said. (It would seem that our Commissioner knows his euphemisms.)

*BG: An ancient device used for cleaning teeth. (What an unlikely name for a toothbrush, but okay..)

R: A species of mole native to central Asia subsisting primarily on root mold.

B: A sea-faring, wood-eating worm that attacked pirate and merchant ships.

MBR: An angry Utahn replacement word meaning "roughly bad". 

This is getting to be too much. Seriously. Where are the movie questions? 

Yes, we know. Take a breather. 

They're coming, we promise. 

Would we lie to you?

 8. Words: "Drintling"

*WT: The clucking noise made by turkeys. 

MBR: The act of getting intentionally angry at dolphins.

B: The act of breeding horses.

BG: The process of pitting cherries for pie filling.

CG: The adolescent drint found in sub Sarahan pockets feeding on lint.

R: The Hindu working class, one caste about The Untouchables.

9. Words: "Woom"

R: The sound of a women exploding from a build-up of gas after consuming large quantities of rellenos. 

MBR: Where you pass out when you've had too many.

*CG: The fur of a beaver.

B: A bumblebee's under-developed brain.

BG: Where Elmer Fudd goes when he's in trouble.

WT: A spanish lady's skirt.

Here you go, pal. On us.

Oh..and um..we have played this one before..but don't worry. New answers! Yayyy. 

10. Movie Titles: "Henry's Night In"

BG: A perfectly normal night turns crazy for Henry when an escaped circus monkey breaks into Henry's apartment. Hilarity ensues. Starring Tony Danza and Bob the Monkey. (Second longest laugh that night mainly due to the extreme possibility of Tony Danza being reduced to working with a monkey. Plausible.)

*B: A man mixes up a magic formula and becomes invisible whenever he sneezes. He leaves his nagging wife and starts spying on nosy neighbors.

R: Henry is a total nerd about to spend another weekend alone. He hatches a brilliant scheme to build himself a woman out of spare computer parts. (Weird Science cough rip off coughcough.)

WT: Parents gone- food drink, movies, girls, friends-- in other words- Party!

CG: Follow the life of Baltus as he attempts to become a knight in the court of Henry the 8th.

MBR: It's 10pm. He's out of formula. Sorry Mr. Hyde. It's Henry's Night In.

And that, friends, is the end of this round of that endearing classic game we've come to love so well, Balderdash! Thanks so much for coming along on this fantastical ride, and our sincere apologies for the lack of movie questions.. though we probably could have put what we had in the beginning of the game so as to entice you...

Yeah, that's true..but we couldn't do this..

Bonus Games!

That's right. 

Two movie ones. You're welcome. :) 

*1. Movie Titles: "Ooh, You Are Awful"

R: A comedy starring Tom Arnold as a down trodden failing businessman who becomes a contestant on a Japanese game show. (This really could happen.) 

WT: A lady who enters a cooking contest with horrible cooking sills. Every year she enters homemade Russian pizza. It kills judges. (You'd think the judges would get the hint and sit this out if it happened every year. Oh well, that's Hollywood for you.)

*MBR: A con man searches for a girl who has the location of hidden bonds tattooed on her body.

B: Jenny wants flowers and candy like the other girls, but all she gets for Valentine's Day is a slaughtered pig in her bathtub. It's a holiday to die for. (Another big laugh of the night...Dark comedy potential.)

BG: Set in the 1920's, it's a silent film about a man with extremely bad manners who works in the restaurant at the base of the Empire State Building.

CG: Winner of the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals, this documentary follows the career of the word stand up comedic tours.

*2. Movie Titles: "Nocturna"

B: An owl nesting upon a nuclear power plant gains supernatural powers and terrorizes the nearby townfolk. (The premise is too clever to be a real flick...would be cool if it were though..)
R: A horror film about vampire clowns that attack people in their dreams.
(Anyone else got the willies here?)
*BG: The granddaughter of Count Dracula leaves Transylvania to check out the NY disco scene.
CG: Johnny Depp and David Spade star in this horrific, yet slightly humorous adaption of the classic children's lullaby. (Still have the willies.)
WT: A land of no sleep.
MBR: Comedy classic starring Soupy Sales and Tippi Hendren about a Yiddish vampire named Mirna Nocturna.

The stars were:

Batman: ???

Robin: Batman's friend

Batgirl: Not tellin'

Commission Gordon: Mike
The Wonder Twins: Powers activated! Form of...secret identity!

Mr. Burt Reynolds: Jimmy

So..yeah..I'm a..

slacker and a half.. At least I acknowledge it, right? :)

And now..

Something old..yet very familiar is coming.. ...soon....

More of the same.

I'm still here...just had a lot of stuff from the last time I've written. Tend to spend too much time living in my head to formulate words on a screen these days. The people that know me get my day to day things, and probably understand quite a bit of it. Yeah, I know. That doesn't translate very well to here. :)

Things..

There's definitely things happening right now..a bombshell actually. I just don't have it in me to write about it just now.

Idling Engine..

The writer mind is definitely clicking clicking, but the sense of urgency is missing. That's the best way I can put it these days. I feel like I'm taking in this year with a full lens, the scope of which is at least several chapters of some 2012 tome in me. But, really, I'm not feeling much committed to make that a reality on any level, be it short form prose or in journal form. It's more a feeling of wanting to experience it, feel what comes, then the desire to report every little thing. It's been a good year thus far. That much I know for certain--

Acknowledging it..

Yes,you're quite right. Far too much hush around here..

Some smattering of update..

I'm being too quiet in my digital form..really don't care for that. The trouble with being fairly successful in one's professional life is having little time for the things one loves doing. That's no excuse for not being able to drop little blurbs here and there about how he or she is doing. In light of that..


I'm doing pretty well.

Some trivial things of note:

1.I need new headphones. Working and lacking music do not gel.
2. The laptop is pretty cool, but due to a few connection details and my considerable admiration of certain friends(and their new very cool Kindles), I'm considering other realms of opportunity there..
3. I haven't written anything of note on the creative end. Still a tad bummed by it, but won't let it get me down. Beginning to understand that things work better when you don't obsess over them.
4. Been at current job for six months. That may seem a small number, but I'm feeling like a adult.


That about does it. Hope you all keep on keeping on-

Oh, the lack..it seems you're back.

I am indeed still alive..just not saying much(as per my usual around here.).

Hope you're all faring well-

One further detail of note--

I now have a laptop. You're probably asking yourself reasons why I should feel inclined to mention this, taking in to consideration the era in which we live. "Pfft. Laptops. How trivial at best."

Right right. But..

I tend to write better/easily with one..or had in the past.

So..here's to hope, yes?

Audiobookery- Episode I: Finding Jim Kahuna Pt. 1

Finally finished part 1 of Finding Jim Kahuna, the first episode of Audiobookery, a podcast series I've been tooling around with for a bit.

Apologies for the length, as the ep. clocks in at 28 mins.

I really intended about 10-15 mins for the ep...

but I guess it shaped itself.

Ah well.. Enjoy-

PS.. Is the clock chasing you?

No problem.. Click here to listen later..

The dam breaks..

Although it may not look like it, I actually have been making strides to enact my New Year's resolutions, specifically the writing bit.. Yes, yes, I know what will come of that thought--the lack of output and proof, and all of the usual hub-bub(and by this I'm referring to my own in terms of things I may have said or currently say..) about how the muse doesn't have anything for me to 'say' or how I'm lost in my own world and can't find a boat back to the creative shores of my written voice.. Blah blah boo hoo noise noise. Yes, there is that to contend with.

Despite all of that, the process of creativity has still been flowing through me, though without any subsequent volumes arising from it. In terms of this process, I'd have to say it's been mostly an internal experience in that I have been thinking, pondering, questing, what have you on some ideas, some 'scenes', as I tend to see them. For me, writing is both to do with the hands forming/shaping the journey, and the inner version of yourself seeing scenes from the 'mindfilm' playing on...And just like that, when you're least expecting to see the new feature, it comes to you..in scattered bit and pieces, like a memory from some crazy vaseline lensed dream.

The logic in this statement probably seems foreign and off balance, but I'm sure you can understand the meaning if you were to consider...an idea that came to you that was so vivid you could actually put yourself in it--like if you were asked to recall something that really makes you smile or something that may have happened to you that affected your outlook. It would be pristine, near crystal clear. That's what the mindfilm is. It's a sharp image that can be manipulated, freeze framed, and ultimately incorporated into something more than the sum of its own parts.

That's what I've been doing...not writing so much, but moreso plotting ideas..drafting dreams.

And in doing so, I've been referencing things I've done before but to little success. One such idea of old is that of creating a weekly series of vignettes; not necessarily anything that's related to one large fullscale idea, but more the drips and drabs of things that could loosely come together at a moment's notice. It's more the mindfilm scenes muddled together with some slapdashery, spliced and performed every week without a true focus..or is there. I love a good puzzle, and that's just what they are... You don't have much a clue about the origins of these sudden windows, but while you view them, you're there.. It's a living thing, if abstractly so.

So, yeah, that's where it's at right now. Dabbling dabbling on...always that way, even if it doesn't appear like such. The problem(or at least, one of the problems, that is..) that arises here is that I haven't a clue what these little weekly jaunts into my mind will be. I only know that I've been seeing flashes of ideas, of subplots and life-sized yet confused sides(often readings for auditions that give only the vaguest impression of the whole feature)...

Forgive the ramble. It's almost as if I haven't said anything for months. Pfft. (Insert snide look with undercurrent of hand slapping forehead moment here.)

One further bit... I'm wondering if I should write them first then record them vocally...The act would serve two purposes then--sometimes both the writer and the performer require expression...the self is often better served when all within are maintained and satisfied. That's something I tend to neglect and only ever understand when the moment allows me to step back and see it. So, yes. Things are brewing.

In what direction, I do not yet know..

A 'Few Brief Awkward Lines' on 2011

Thinking back on 2011 has me feeling a multitude of things--ranging from complete happiness to a few rounds of sadness to just simple gratefulness in being around. I haven't been putting much stock into writing lately, but it doesn't necessarily mean that I've fully given up on that dream. It makes me consider the idea that we don't always have it within us to do the things we wish and dream at the time we want to; moreso it's something to attain, to achieve. Merely being around and hoping for something won't get us any closer to fulfilling the desire, but then trying to push for something over and over again isn't always the best course of action. For me, that sentiment applies not only to the writing bit but also to my life in itself. Being lax is foolish, but trying too hard and being disappointed with the lack is sometimes the very thing that creates our undoing. That may sound too 'on the fence', but it's becoming an element of truth these days.

So--2011. Bad. Good. Both. Personally, it's been a year of renewal(though every year in its fashion tends to be...this year was completely apparent in that.). I've been grateful for good friends and family, and for the ability to work and find some sense of stability. I've been blessed with the time to feel my age---an odd statement to make for one who has shunned the idea of getting older for so many years..but really--whether it's been good luck/fortunate circumstance/the kindness of those close to me/being watched over by a higher power or the combinations of all, it's been a year for personal growth and change. If 2011 has taught me little else, it is this... Change can be beautiful.

And with this, I set forth my hopeful 2012 resolutions:

1. Write more, even if it seems like complete hooey. You can't capture lightning by staying indoors. Have to get out in it and not be afraid to get..struck..now and then.

1 1/2. Taking Res. 1 a step further-- Don't neglect the talent given to you. Don't verbally poo-poo the things you do best/things you love because you're not currently doing them. You know who you are. Be that. Nothing else matters more.

2. Don't be afraid to update your thinking on quite a few things-- This year has been a year for changes, subtle though most have been. Change can be so helpful, planning doesn't have to be shunned. Spontaneity is lovely and exciting, but knowing the direction give us purpose.

3. Try to love/feel more..and show it more often. Closing yourself off fully negates resolutions 1 and 2.

4. Maintain/further build financial stability. It's been getting better, and with further self control, it could well be great.

And lastly, rediscover the passion for the things you love. Resolution 1 is definitely a part of that, but there are other things--things that make me who I am. Theatre. Music. Lists. And this blog..once.

Have a great year, readers. I'm going to give it a shot too-