Belfast & Comic Arts Laugh Festival

I've been meaning to post some pictures from our weekend in Belfast, ME 2 1/2 weeks ago. Below is the Colonial Theater where the Comic Arts Laugh Festival held most of its screenings. And yes, there was a red carpet, a camera, and a guy in a tux.

I mentioned before that the festival played all of my comedy shorts, many of them quite old now, but it also screened some new films such as He's My Dad by the Mensher Brothers, a touching tale of a young girl discovering her misunderstood serial-killer Dad (you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll call Social Services) and The Perfect Mark, a film by none other than Route 66 Film Festival director, Linda McElroy. In this film Linda plays an elderly woman who has her own way of dealing with two men who scam her. This was the world premiere for Linda's film and I hope she finds more screenings for it.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks and a couple of post ago, Jeremy and I had a great time at this festival and loved visiting Belfast for the first time. So here are some more pictures to give you an idea of what our weekend was like.

This is pretty much the center intersection of town. Take a right
here and walk down the block and you'd soon find the Colonial Theater.
If you follow the intersecting street downhill, you'd be walking towards
the water.

Looking uphill as we were walking back from the dock.

Jeremy, a lamp post and a view downhill.

This man in the tux is Tim from the Mark and Tim Show, a TV
show broadcast on Maine cable TV stations. He interviewed me for
the show. Here he's telling me to wave at the camera. I realize that
missing are an entourage, fans, film attendees (well, it was in the middle
of a screening), but hey, I was still enjoying the moment -- and was
having a decent hair day.

I have more photos posted on my myspace page.

A Post to Pacify Me

I'm not sure what I'm here to write. I'm supposed to become officially full time at my job tomorrow (even though I'm working full time hours anyway) and while I'm thankful for the opportunity, there's a big part of me that feels choked. Every hour I'm at work I feel away from myself and away from creating and being creative. Now it's not my employer's responsibility to provide me my happiness and my dreams. I just wish I didn't need the benefits of being fully employed.

Thanks to all sorts of regulations, I do need them. Trying to refrain from any political-speak here, I can't help but to think that if there were fewer regulations we would all be freer.

Oh, and I love my freedom.

I've been feeling depressed over not having time to do my thing, so I'm trying to insert a wee bit of creativity here. The above photo is actually from a slide that Jeremy took of me for a cinematography class five years ago at LA City College. We both have many slides from our classes. One day last month I started experimented with scanning them wondering how they would come out. Just a straight scan caused them to appear dark so I played with bringing up the light. What you see above is the result of that. I think it's kind of neat. It looks almost like a painting instead of a photo.

Alright, I had my fun for this evening.

I also want to give a little shout-out to Nicole Ouellette who attended the Comic Arts Laugh Festival last week and left a comment on my last post. Nicole works for the internet newspaper, Ellsworth American in Ellsworth, ME and has her very own blog on personal finance. This past week she has featured some posts on saving energy and even ties in being green with last week's festival. And, oh, she kindly mentions my films and me in it. I'm grateful for her sending traffic my way and I hope to return the favor here!

OK, I think I feel a little bit better having written something, so I'm turning in now. Here's wishing you all a wonderful week. And tying back to the idea of freedom, have a Happy Patriots Day!

The Londonderry Inn

Jeremy and I have just gotten back from Belfast, ME where the Comic Arts Laugh Festival was held these past five days. I'm too tired to be able to do any justice in describing the town and our weekend right now, but I do want to mention the Londonderry Inn, which is just two miles down the road from downtown Belfast. We stayed there just one night and boy, do we want to go back! The people running the inn were just so warm and friendly. They made Jeremy and me feel so comfortable from the second we walked in the door. Even the cats got up to say "hello" to us. (OK, that's an exaggeration, but they did get up.) The room was beautiful, homey and even had a little refrigerator in it -- and yes, it's own bathroom, too.

I like B&Bs but I always worry a little before staying at one. Since the setting is much more intimate than a hotel, I want to make sure I feel at ease with the people running it. So if you're like me, then no worries -- you'll be happy with the folks here.

Jeremy & Sandwich Updates

OK, so that last post has me on this photos-from-the-80s theme. So here's a picture of Jeremy from high school. (I'm not sure of the exact year.)


And here's Jeremy graduating from USMC boot camp in 1985. He's here with his grandmother and younger brother, Jamie.

You guys were never cooler.

I feel like some updates are long overdue and I wanted to start off with what Jeremy has been up to. Jeremy Ward, my fiance, has done a lot of work on my films, helping me produce, do sound, sometimes camera, and, for most of my projects he's also done my music. If you've checked out my trailer, you may have read that he did the music for 4 of the 6 films on there.

Jeremy also has his own music myspace page. This is separate from his work with his Suitcase Poets partner, John McNeeley. I urge you to check out all their pages but I wanted to draw attention to Jeremy's page in particular right now, since in the last few weeks he put up four newly recorded songs, Mr. Not Quite Right, Going Home, Little to Say and Nothing. These are all rough demos but he felt good enough about them to share with the world. I've know Jeremy for nine years now but his voice has never sounded better to me. I find myself listening to these songs not just because I love the man but simply because they're just so compelling. They're all great songs, but Little to Say is my favorite.

Jeremy has written posts on his page about each page, so if you want to know how he came about writing these songs, well, he can tell you better than I can.

Now onto I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich. It has been accepted to a few more festivals -- the Comic Arts Laugh Festival in Belfast, ME (next weekend), the Indie Spirit Film Festival in Boulder, CO (in 3 weeks) and the Ohio Independent Film Festival in Cleveland (screening on May 10th).

I also found out through some Google searching, that I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich was reviewed by The Peaceful Critic, Richard Propes, at the Lake County Film Festival a month ago, and... he liked it! If you'd like to see his review, click here and scroll down and look for the review on the right of the page.

In addition to Sandwich, all my other comedy films will be playing at the Comic Arts Laugh Festival on Sunday, April 13th at noon, as well. I will also be giving a brief intro and Q&A after the screening.

Lastly, one of my Sandwich cast members, Zele Avradopoulos, has just filmed a day role in the new Kevin James movie. Check out this article on it in the Boston Herald. Way to go, Zele!

Thanks for tuning in.

Do you know Jack?

I got a comment in my previous post from an old Arlington High School class of 1986 classmate of mine, Jack Paradis.

I like when people leave comments. It makes me feel like, well, somebody reads what I write.

And I like Jack Paradis. I haven't seen him in a loooooong time. Apparently, we are not able to live on the same coast at the same time. Jack is now in LA. And while I was in LA, Jack was in Arlington.

I've decided I should thank people who leave comments for me. And the best way to thank anyone who writes a comment is to post a picture or two of them taken in the '80s. I'm going to try to do that from now on. And, if you didn't exist in the 80s, well, you're too young too read, aren't you?

Eek, we're turning 40 this year. Jack just has.

Jack, the entertainer, with Marianne DiMascio -- December 1985
This was right after our performance of Story Theatre.

Jack the meat cutter -- May 1986

So that's my thank you to Jack. Anyone else want to see what photos I can drudge up of them?