CageMatch Report

Quick report, as today has gotten crazily busy. Here's the video.

Nothing particularly special this time. Lots of Photoshoppery, a little bit of stock video, and a bit of amusement sticking Mary's face on a piece of Catholic schoolgirl clipart. Had to change the script halfway through the process, as it was going to end by saying "Mano A Mary is well-grounded in improv comedy, but Banana Breakup will be flying high," followed by Ozzy Osbourne's "Flying High Again" off the album "Tribute". But it didn't rock hard enough, so I switched to the "breaking the law of gravity" ending with "Breaking The Law" by Judas Priest. Rock on.

Oh, and another triple-meaning audio intro this time! Do ya get it?

Open Letter To My Mysterious Benefactor

I've been meaning to do this for a long time--I think more than a year now--and keep getting distracted. But now I'm wired on stimulants and working through the night to finish a video, and decided I better go ahead and do this and quit putting it off!

Sometime last year (year before, maybe?) I mentioned somewhere (no idea where; thought it was here on the blog, but damned if I can find the post now) that if somebody wanted to be a nice person and buy me a present, they could get me "Autumn Thunder", the boxed set of cds featuring music from NFL Films. I love that music; uber-dramatic and ovr the top and everything I adore. I already owned "The Power And The Glory", but that's a single disc. This set had TEN CDS full of music.

Anyway, I mentioned it as sort of a joke. Who the hell would buy me a $100 boxed set of music? Well, somebody did. It arrived anonymously in the mail one day. I tried my best to figure out who had got it for me, but all my choices for kindness candidates denied it was them.

So now, far too long after somebody was amazingly thoughtful and giving, I take this time to thank you. You've made me both curious and happy, and have inspired lots of creative moments and CageMatch video drama. Many thanks.

-Your pal,
Ted

The Wrath of Grapes: The Trailer

So a few weeks ago, my friend Ryan Locante invited me to join in on a project he had devised. He came up with an idea he called "Scrambled Video Eggs", where a bunch of folks would get together, divide into teams, get a suggestion, and then have 24 hours to script, produce, film, and edit a short film. Well, only a handful of folks showed up, so we just made up one team, and decided to leave the editing until later.

The personnel assembled were Ryan, Megan Stein, Nick Borgerding, Joe Stanton, Lisa Palmisano, and myself. Our suggestion came from the great state of Ohio and one Austin Nava. We started brainstorming, and with such a diverse bunch of minds, we came up with some wacky ideas. We ended up making a movie about a guy who really hates it when people eat grapes, so much so that he murders them...using grapes.

I've just finished editing the trailer, with music from the fine folks at Fenario Sound Recording. You can view ninety seconds of thrills and chills here. The full movie should be finished within the week, and I'll notify you loyal readers when it's up. Enjoy!

From Government To Creativity

So I just sent out this mass email to the folks I like at work:

Pardon the impartiality of a mass email, but I wanted to make sure my nearest and dearest got the news all at once. Soon, I will be a free man. Yes, after six years with the Town of Chapel Hill, I’m a-movin’ on. My friend Mel has asked me to come work as a graphic artist in her t-shirt store, and it looks like it will be a fun and creative opportunity for me. Yippee and hallelujah, I say. I’ll be working on a Macintosh (and escaping my desk here before they install Vista on machine—don’t you dare try it, Cantrell!), able to listen to music while I work, be creative all day, AND helping out a friend. All for more money (and less insurance). Plus, I’ll never have to hear another phone call about how we’re all heathens for sponsoring Halloween, or explain to people that no, you can’t vote at Town Hall. I’ll be working at Bread & Butter Screenprinting in Glen Lennox, so I’ll still be around (and don’t you dare get your shirts printed anywhere else!)

So yes, I'm finally quitting my job at the Town of Chapel Hill. The job was never that great, but once Cal Horton retired from his post as Town Manager, the atmosphere of the place just died away and it just wasn't fun to come to work anymore. The duties I had been doing all along, like making coffee and filling up the copier, became really demeaning for someone who has a Master's degree. There was a tension in the air as everybody seemed to start grabbing for power and didn't want to work smoothly together anymore, and the whole atmosphere in the building just became oppressive. They kept tempting me with carrots of new positions and higher salaries that never materialized, and I had been wanting to move on for some time.

I'm not good at searching for new jobs, so I was just sort of languishing at Town Hall. But fortunately for me, my friend Mel suddenly had an opening for a graphic artist position at her screenprinting store, and we talked about the possibility of me coming in to fill the spot. I told her I'd have to think about it, but after telling a few folks about the situation, I felt such an amazing load lift from my shoulders that I thought, "ah, apparently the decision has been made, and I never noticed!" It'll be a much more fun place to work, more creative, and I'll be helping out my friend, which always makes me feel good. I like helping people.

Anyway, my last day at the Town Of Chapel Hill is May 29. (A Thursday? Well, that's what they asked of me...) Then on to better things.

CageMatch Report

Ah, I keep forgetting to put this up. My mind seems overwhelmed by pollen, so I've been quite absent-minded lately.

Anyway, here's the poop on the latest CageMatch video. Go watch it here, and then we will discuss.

So this whole concept was dreamed up and executed in 24 hours. I've been busy working on a short movie for another project, and wasn't able to even think about CageMatch until Wednesday. Fortunately, it all seemed to come together rather nicely. Mano is Greek, and when I was doing the "Flavor Shot European Tour" video a few weeks back, I had intended to have one of the European teams be from Greece, naming them "Mano A Mano" and just putting two pictures of Mano's face up there. I ran out of time on that video, so I was pleased as punch to be able to do a flashback to the European Tour and use it as a part of the plot for this video.

I agonized over what to call the Greek team for this video...I made a list of all sorts of terms and names that popped into mind when I thought about Greece, and even asked other folks what they thought of when I said "Greece". Then I started thinking about Greek mythology, and looked at a list of Greek gods. When I got to Ares, the choice seemed obvious: good pun, Greece is also known for pottery, and I love the game "God of War". Thus was born "Ares Potter".

The rest of the video was pretty straightforward. I liked the two shots of the amphitheatre, with the voiceover about how the rioting crowd destroyed the place. The rippling effect on Flavor Shot that was overlaid on the soldier picture turned out rather nicely. I had to buy a screen-capturing program (ScreenFlick) to get Mary's video off the Rooftop Comedy webpage so I could use it in the CageMatch video. That part went over well. The final logo animation wasn't quite as fancy as I had originally planned, but I ran out of time.

The music at the end was a mashup of the Knight Rider theme and Eminem ('cause Mano A Mary is M and M). The opening sound was "Proud Mary" by CCR. "But Ted," you say, "you left out the other half of the team!" Nope--it wasn't the stereo version of "Proud Mary"....it was the mono version. (Man, I'm so clever!)

I got nice compliments from Mano after the video was shown. He said his mother would love it because it made him look like a good Greek boy, and that I used traditional Greek music. I thought that was darling.

Gryphon Doors Shirts

So my friends Kit, Katie, and Tommy put together a great act that they did the past month at DSI. They created avatars in Rock Band, dressed like their characters, and played Rock Band songs live but whilst singing parody lyrics. Amazing and great. I thought they deserved concert tour shirts, and so made this up for them. Eitan Lees was always roughly treated by the cruel (and British) Kit FitzSimons as he ordered Eitan around as a lowly roadie, so Eitan got a special shirt that reads "ROADIE" in humongous letters on the back.

See if you can figure out the reason I called it the "Double D" tour.

Cameron Antique Fair 2008

Just a quick post--me and mom went down to Cameron, a small town in rural North Carolina, to shop at their annual antiques fair, where all the residents rent out their front and back yards to folks who sell all manner of things, from treasures to crap. Half the fun is seeing the unique characters that are the residents of this fine backwoods area. As I did the last time we went, I've taken some surreptitious pictures of the folks to share with you, my loyal readers. So go through this photo set, read the descriptions, and vicariously enjoy my trip to the sticks.