My name is...

...Jonas?

That looks like a good tour. They’ve really laid down a plethora of dates in California this time around. The San Diego and L.A. shows are probably the most tempting on the list (for me anyway). I’ve never been to the Troubadour.

The bad blood between Weezer’s front man Rivers Cuomo and former member Matt Sharp was cleared February 12th when Cuomo joined Sharp onstage during a live acoustic performance at the Fullerton CSU campus. Pitchfork posted a lengthy article on it and included a track list for their new DVD. Interestingly, it also mentioned that the two are writing songs together again.

In regards to the three-name discussion, I really like the idea of going by ‘Brock H. Brown’. By simply referring to myself as that I feel like I’m instantly in that clique of actors and directors. Brock H. Brown has a slick feeling to it. I feel like I should have a website devoted to my work entitled BHbrown.com

Vagrant Comes Through?

It's good that Vagrant came through for Hey Mercedes. They're the red-headed stepchild of Vagrant (no offense to Bob and Mike, who I believe are both red-headed).

Ladies and Gents, we have a date for Casket Lottery's EP, Smoke and Mirrors - May 25th. Of course, we can pick it up earlier at one of their shows in mid-May. Here are the dates:

4-17-04 Lawrence, KS @ JACKPOT
5-6-04 Colorado Springs, CO
5-7-04 Salt Lake City, UT @ KILBY COURT
5-8-04 Reno, NV
5-9-04 ???San Fransisco???TBA
5-10-04 ???Sacramento???TBA
5-11-04 Santa Barbara, CA @ HARD TO FIND SPACE
5-12-04 Anaheim, CA @ CHAIN REACTION
5-13-04 Los Angeles, CA @ TROUBADOUR
5-14-04 ???San Diego???TBA
5-15-04 St.George, UT @ ELECTRIC THEATRE
5-16-04 Las Vegas, NV
5-17-04 Denver, CO @ ROCK ISLAND
5-21-04 Kansas City, MO @ SPITFIRE

Brock H. Brown

Hot diggity dog, Brock! You got that script done with a few days to spare! Phew. Now for some major critiquing and editing. Hand it over!

So, I was teasing my wife Rebekah last night about actors and directors with three names. Brock and I like to throw around intitials like PTA (Paul Thomas Anderson), JCR (John C. Reily) and PSH (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Brock, you should definitely use Brock H. Brown on your script and when you direct movies.

Last night I watched Glengarry Glen Ross on IFC for a few reasons. One, I always heard it was good and have been wanting to see it for a while. Two, I'll be performing a monologue from the play for Acting class. Now I'm set. The movie's pretty much word for word of the play, since David Mamet, who wrote the play, also did the screen adaptation for the movie. The only difference is that he added a character with a short part for the movie.

I received too many signs to do Glengarry Glen Ross. When I came into class Wednesday, I really hadn't chosen a monologue yet. The teacher was going through a students book and mentioned "Ooh, Glengarry Glen Ross would be good for you guys!" So, later I found the play on the Internet and downloaded it. The next night it's on IFC. I also get a magazine that night that has a brief article on...you guessed it, David Mamet. I can't go wrong.

Saved a Life

You’ll be pleased to know that the Hey Mercedes issue seems to have cleared up. Bob Nanna reposted on the issue and cited fan support as well as Vagrant's support for helping to clear up their lack of funds. Thanks should go to dedicated fans and also to Vagrant for their help in the matter. It’s nice to know that good music goes appreciate by both the fan community and the record label.

Here, at the end of all things

Thanks Gabe, that was a great post, man. And yes, he’s right. We’d enjoy hearing from some of you readers every now and then. Don’t be shy.

Anyway, I’m feeling quite productive this week. Every school quarter seems to have a few weeks or a certain period during the semester when it feels like I have to kick into high gear. This week is one of them, as I’ve churned out and shown my second project in class, a simple editing exercise. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t have enough footage to show to the class however. When I started the project I had plenty of raw footage to edit together, but I seemed to be compiling it at a slow pace. Last night I finished the product with more then enough footage to show the class. Moreover, the class enjoyed the project and the teacher felt it was nicely done.

That isn’t all. Today is it. Today is the day the script ends. I’ve spent all of February working on this thing and it amazes me that I’ve been able to turn around a complete script in a ludicrously short amount of time. That doesn’t mean that it’s a good script, but at least I’ll have something to turn into the Film Festival.

Here's to you, Phoenix!

The Casket Lottery has posted some tour dates. Yee haw!! It's a West Coast tour. Is Phoenix on the list of stops? Nope. Yet again, the Casket forgoes Phoenix due to limited support here in the desert city. Oh well, another road trip to Cali!

Man alive, I can't believe we had our one year anniversary on Monday. And I missed it! I'm like the insensitive husband who's forgotten an all important date! A year did go by fast.

Ah, Brock, that's very sweet of you to say! But Brock's the writer here. I too forge on at this here Blog with the thought of keeping all those imaginary readers updated. Even if Brock and I are the only ones ever here, at least we have a place to rant and rave and we can appreciate each others viewpoints.

I am a major music lover. Sometimes, too much, and it irritates the wife. But she gets over it. I guess it stems from an early age. I'd pull out my parents' records and listen to them on my own initiative. It's pretty weird, actually. My parents weren't major music lovers so I'm not sure how it all really started. But I'd often go to sleep with the radio on. It sort of became my security blanket. The habit would continue on to my teens. I'd often put on my favorite CD of the moment, hit repeat, and go to sleep with the album playing all night. I have to hand it to my wife and her brother, Alex, for helping me expand my musical tastes. They only had to throw me a morsel and I ran with it, like a ravenous wolf. I'm glad Brock could share in our musical endeavors also. He too now has developed his own musical palate and has a passion all his own.

Ha, brilliant actor! We'll see about that. Brock will be more than a mediocre director. Trust me. In acting class, we now get to perform a monologue of choice. I don't know if we can do one from a film, though. I hope so.

Happy anniversary Eyes Like Static! If there's actually anyone out there, email us! We'd like to know. There are links at the top, right-hand side.

Blossoms and Blood

PTanderson.com posted links to two very interesting articles at the Film Journal on Punch Drunk Love.
They're pretty intriguing and both offer a unique angle to the film's conflicts and characters.

On a fairly discouraging note, Bob Nanna posted a rather sullen update on the Wire regarding Hey Mercedes. Due to the band's constant troubles with transportation (one van repair after another it would seem) they've decided to put their tour on hold for the moment. He also asked (rather embarrassedly) for any donations you could give to get the band back out on the road.
All I can say is, 'where the hell is Vagrant'? Can't they afford to kick back a few to help buy Hey Mercedes a nice van to tour in? If they can readily supply tour busses to their other bands then they should at least be able to pitch in when monetary issues keeps one of their own from touring. I swear, it's ridiculous.

Playwriting

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Eyes Like Static. I gotta admit, it kind of crept up on me. A year flies by just like that. When I realized that the one-year anniversary was coming up, I promised myself that I wouldn’t write an obscenely long post to mark the occasion.
In retrospect, I wondered just what it was that empowered me to create an online blog and stick with it for more then a week. I concluded that it was a number of things. For one, the imaginary readers helps me to believe that somewhere out there someone checks our blog regularly to see if we’ve put up a ‘new post’. Moreover, my love and interest in music and the many other topics we discuss here has enabled me to find a forum to express my thoughts and feelings regarding these great entertainment mediums. But most of all, this blog has survived because of its writer Gabe Loyer. Gabe loves music more then I ever could and in turn got me to appreciate it on a completely different level. His enthusiasm for the great bands, music and movies we discuss is the driving force behind our energy. He’s the brilliant actor to my mediocre director so to speak.

Thanks for being there, whoever you are,

-Brock Brown