The Big Date

The Big Date @ Yahoo! Video

My good friend and former colleague Christopher Johnson has completed his first film called The Big Date. It was shot on film (no digital camcorders here) in Chicago with a band of usual suspects from the Chicago theatre scene, including some former Defiant Theatre stalwarts.

Chris almost single handedly started Defiant Theatre. Without his determination, along with the hard work and talents of a small core group of his former college buddies, the incredible 11-year institution that was Defiant could not have happened.

This film offers a very keen representation of the theatre company's fundamental spirit and artistry. Please enjoy.

The Cold Civil War

Last night I watched the unedited interview with Jon Stewart on the O'Reilly Factor. It was a riveting and eye-opening look into the media circus and the great divide between the right and the left. I recommend watching the whole thing here. That same day I listened to a Fresh Air interview with John Oliver from the Daily Show. He also provided a great insight into the current tea party movement.

Both interviews solidified my notion that we are under a cold civil war in our country. It used to be that democrat and republican citizens could actually live and work side-by-side and have healthy arguments about their differences and come out of it unchanged but affable. That doesn't seem to be possible any more.

As both interviewees have illustrated, the tea party movement--the grassroots GOP gatherings--are a formidable force that's sweeping the heartland. These are angry, determined men and women who are hell-bent on steering the country more to the right, mostly by venting their anguish over what they consider a tyrannical president. These everyday Joes and Janes have a lot of venom in their movement. All the while, Fox News gives an illusion of washing their hands of it all, yet at the same time fanning their flames. "Obama is a muslim." "He's a socialist." "He's a tyrant." It's almost as though the tea partiers themselves don't know what they're talking about, but they need to spout out bad-sounding epithets to quicken their blood and the blood of those around them. And Fox has the cameras well-focused on it all.

And the differences between Stewart and O'Reilly confirm my rationale of being a democrat. Stewart is a comedian whose passion is politics, and O'Reilly is an political opinionist whose passion seems to be bullying. Stewart was his usual self-effacing funny man with many good points--not all of which necessarily fell in line with the left. O'Reilly kept this smug, 'gotcha' look on his face and really only stood out when he was name-calling. He called the Daily Show audience a bunch of 'pot-smoking slackers' and its writers 'pinheads'. But that's how I see a lot of intelligent right-leaning folks, like it's all a big joke or a game. It doesn't seem like they're FOR anything. They're scrambling to reverse things or keep things from happening. There's no progression in their politics, just prevention, reversal and maintenance of the status quo.

There were lots of shades of gray in Stewart's set of beliefs, which showed thoughtfulness and care. O'Reilly was dismissive and priggish, which was off-putting, and it didn't really get any point across. I agree that Obama's first year in office has been flawed. But this mainstream GOP media outlet has whipped the public into so much an irrational frenzy, that it seems impossible for this president to get anything done.

Jimmy Slonina: Instructor

When Anthony Gatto asks you to do something, you should probably do it. Anthony and I collaborated on a grassroots Barack Obama ad right before the elections. It was such a success, that CNN called to enter it in their contest at the time, and it made it into the top 20 (it was robbed from winning if you ask me). That vid can be seen here.

Then a few months ago, Anthony approached me to do a pratfall how-to video. I wasn't convinced at first that A) I was the right guy for the job or B) that an instructional video of that kind was possible or marketable. Anthony was creating juggling how-to videos himself, and he wanted to expand it to include other circus skills, effectively providing a suite of instructional vids to would-be circus performers. After seeing his instruction style, I could see how to piece together and break down several basic pratfalls--funny or stage combat--into a tutorial.

Here's the result! Thanks to Gatto's keen sense of fancy directing and editing, for a measly $12 you can own a download of a slick video of how to pratfall effectively. I think we did a pretty good job of it.

Hope you enjoy, and please forward to anyone you might think would be interested. Thanks!

CLICK HERE FOR GATTO'S DOWNLOAD PAGE.

Unfriend

Yesterday I was hostilely 'unfriended' on Facebook for the third time in six months, that I know of. If it wasn't so unsettling, I would wear that sort of thing as a badge of honor. Pissing people off is what gets people laid, better salaries, and generally more interesting lives. But it just made me ponder the difference between unfriending on Facebook and unfriending in real life.

It's so much more devastating to be unfriended on Facebook. It's a light switch that gets thrown off. Whereas in real life, you're never really sure where you stand in friendship status even after a heated argument. None of these unfriending Facebook friends were really my friends in real life. In fact, I'm surprised some of them accepted my friend request in the first place. I shouldn't feel sad that any of them have gone, but the "off" position of that light switch is a pretty effective knife to the gut.

The word "unfriending" calls to mind Orwell's Newspeak--removing words with opposite meaning because they're redundant. Ungood. There have been calls to add an "Unlike/Dislike" button in addition to the "Like" button on Facebook. How about an "Enemy" status? Might be nice to have a social network of everyone you hate. All would get together and call each other names and send each other bile-laden apps to each other. Instead of "Poke", one could "Give the Finger".

These unfriending experiences also really broadened my circle of awareness. Chicago was such a warm, comfy blanket of community. Even some people I didn't like somehow remained close friends. Since leaving it, the rest of the world reared it's ugly head. In real life, as well as in cyberspace. My mom was right. There ARE people out to get you. There ARE people only looking out for themselves. There ARE people who are jealous, spiteful, and insecure, and they're not looking to be my 'friend'.

Since I left the comfy blanket in my mid-thirties and didn't really explore the world in my youth, the shock of these "unfriendlies" is still big. I'm still trying to grapple how to move on and take it in stride.

UPDATE: Huh! Apt: 'Unfriend' Picked Oxford Dictionary's 'Word of the Year'

Gotta Love the Germans

If there's anything I've learned of what Germans like, it's the Hoff, my lipsync videos, and this!

Leo Robert

It's great to be a dad!

I know it's been a while since I posted, after promising myself I would write a little something everyday. But life just takes its turns, ya know? Speaking of...

Leo Robert Slonina gets himself born on December 17, 2009 in Whittier, CA after a 44-hour laborious labor process (more on that story later). And in the few weeks he's been around, the concept of fatherhood really starts to set in. I kinda just take everything in life in stride and try not to make a big deal out of anything, for better or worse. Even during Robin's pregnancy, I went along with everything as I do with most things in my life, without too much emotion one way or the other. Just doing my job as dad-to-be and helping her out wherever needed. In the last few weeks of pregnancy though, things get pretty ramped up. Anticipation gets the better of you, and pretty soon you get anxious to see the little guy already!

And once the final moments of pregnancy into actual birth rolls around, practicality and level-headedness gets thrown to the wind. And the real meaning of life and the cycle of the universe washes over you like a raging, warm waterfall. I'm not an emotional guy, so I can't imagine what more emotional guys go through when they see their first born coming into the world. Cuz I was an ecstatic wreck!

Now that Leo is here, practicality sets back in. We had some friends over yesterday with their 4 year old. And the dad said he didn't really feel a 'bonding' with his boy for the first four months. Then, when he saw his son smile and laugh at his jokes and really connect, that's when the bonding hit hardcore.

It made me think about how I'm bonding with Leo. I'm not even sure what that means. I'm sure when this four month mark hits (which everybody talks about), I'll hit another level of connection and elation with the little guy. But for now, I'm loving every minute--even when he cries mysteriously after being fed, changed and burped, or he stinks up his 40th diaper of the day. There's something about his face that's perennially irresistible.

Looking forward to it actually getting better!

I fall down

Every muscle in my body hurts. It really is an eye-opener how out of shape I am. I really get a good perspective about how my body gets used to the twist and turns and bangs I have in the show everyday. I don't get sore from all of that, but once I do anything new and strenuous, I get sore beyond all comprehension. I can't believe I got on with the show today.

Yesterday, master juggler Anthony Gatto and I worked on a collaboration for his suite of circus skills instructional videos. Anthony asked me to put together a stage pratfalls how-to. I was reluctant at first, thinking it's really not my thing. But really, when Gatto asks you to do something like this, you can't turn him down.

I've seen his videos for how to juggle three balls and seven balls. Quite a leap between the disciplines, I know, but both are marketed to very different groups of people, obviously. I was able to get a sense of his teaching style, which is very thorough and accessible, and it's fun to watch. So it was easy to tap into his style for my own how-to.

I spent a few days writing out how to physically fall down on stage--super strange--keeping in mind that I would be going back and forth between showing the moves and talking about the moves in front of a green screen.

He's editing it together now, and he hopes to have it done by mid-October. Stay tuned!