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It's an amazing thing to be working again. Yes, that's right, after my more than a year stint as a "freelancer" I am back into the world of the working. A lot of people may not like working, but I happen to be one of the one's that actually does, since it makes you feel like you're part of something and that you belong to a larger something that actually matters. It's hard to get that when you get up at ten or eleven in the morning and sit around in you boxers until something like one or two in the afternoon. Now, it's not to say that I haven't been productive. In fact, I have a lot to show for my time off, including www.cinefuse.com, a documentary film, a short dramatic film, and a feature-length film. I know some film directors that haven't been able to accomplish that in seven years, let alone 15 months. Of course, I did go to Europe in that time and worked a brief freelance job, just to toss it all into my list of accomplishments.       I guess I'm fortunate in that in the previous week, I just woke up one morning and said, "Geez, I really want and need to get a job." and then in the next week, my dreams of W-4 came true and I started working. I think that it may in part be due to the fact that I wasn't bemoaning not having any money, it was due to the aforementioned fact that I wanted to be part of something again, which just wasn't happening in said boxers. Well, that's not totally true, since I did all those projects, but those were because of me pushing them through and making them happen.       What sacrifices did I have to make to get this job? Well, that's the screwy part, because there is only one and that's the fact that I need to take Bart out to Walnut Creek everyday. But, this isn't a bad thing, since it gives me time to write here, read books I need to read, and just zone out for a half hour or so. Other than that, compared to my last fulltime job, I'm making significantly more, have better benefits, am in what I feel is a more professional environment, and also am a manager who sees over several people. A middle America dream come true in some regards.

Wow, haven't been writing all that much. I think it has a large part to do with the film. It's been taking up so much of my time these days. It's a real hog for my personal resources. Luckily, I think I've managed to keep everything in check and not get too megalomaniacal in the process. Overall, it's been a very interesting process. Tough as hell though. People who think movie production is a breeze are nuts. It's damn hard work that takes just about everything out of you it can, leaving you just with the hope that you're going to end up with something entertaining in the end.       Oh yeah, the other thing is that I got a job again. Little stressed out about the balance between job and last week of film shooting, but we'll see how it ends up going.       Here's to crazy assedness.

I simply can't tell you how good I feel now that I'm not doing Bikram Yoga anymore. My back pain has gone away. My ankles don't hurt. I have full motion in my neck, and most importantly, I am full of energy again!       I don't know what they're thinking, but this heated yoga garbage is completely unreasonable. I still plan on doing yoga, but just not in the hot hot room and not with instructors who don't listen to you because you're new and because you probably don't know what you're talking about. Or as the little dreadlocked white girl at the counter of Funky Door Yoga told me, "Dude, you only did it for a month. You gotta like stay with it."       Those people are borderline cultish and they really ahve no business as instructors teaching new people the in's and out's of something that isn't very easy.       I'm definitely not very flexible, but the only way for me to get that way is by slowly working into all of this. Of course, it's hard to want to go back to any of it since I feel pretty darn good right now.

Saw this play called "Psychos Never Dream" last Saturday as per the highly excited recommendation of my lead actor. He saw it twice actually and has just been constantly raving about it. He's traditionally a theatre guy, so I figured he knows his theatre and that it must be an impressive show. It was at a venue I hadn't been to before - The Intersection for the Arts - http://www.theintersection.org was cheap and so I figured that I might as well go.       First off, the good things. It was extremely well acted. The set design was some of the best I've seen for a play in the US and the sound work was great.       Okay, with that out of the way, I can safely say that I truly did not enjoy the play. It was about people killing each other and so that right there wasn't the most cheery subject. But subject matter doesn't always deter me from something. In this case it was two flaws with all of the characters.       The first main flaw was that there was nothing redeemable in any of the characters. I don't mean that they had to be saintly, do good things, or be heading for the Pearly Gates to be redeemable. What I mean is that there was nothing in them that made you want to see what direction they play took them in. They were nieght good nor bad, they were just there and that in turn made them flat. I blame this partly on the director and partly on the writer.       The other problem with the characters and this is by far and away the biggest problem is that these people were gross generalizations of the people they were portraying. The play was set in Northern Idaho and so everyone had this cowboy twang for some reason. I've been to Northern Idaho and the people pretty much sound like Northern Californians unless they've decided to purposely affect a twang. They're shown as being stupid and ridiculous and lacking any qualities that make them human. This problem falls squarely on the writer's shoulders.       This is a problem that I've seen a lot from writers who have lived their lives in big cities and think they understand "country folk." Writers like Denis Johnson don't and they don't have any clue where to start with them. I grew up in a hick town and the people there could be "homespun" and seem "simple", but they're still people. They have all the problems that big city people who live in San Francisco have and to say that they don't is blindly stupid.       By doing what Denis does he not only does a disservice to people who live in rural areas, but he also does a disservice to people who are watching his plays, since it forces this haughty separation between the audience and the characters, thus making them seem less reel and in my estimation less engaging.       It would be nice if these guys who think they know country people would actually visit the country and learn what people are really like instead of basing their ideas upon the plays and movies of other people who have created these stereotypes. It's poor writing and poor judgement.