the move

So I just found out I’m not allowed to check any luggage in on my train ride. This drastically reduces the things I can bring with me to Chicago.

I’ve been making a check list of what I’ll want to enjoy on my first day there, and I’m making a big decision between reading Scott Pilgrim in the park or enjoying netflix and video games with my friends over pizza in our apartment the first night there. Big decisions, I know.

I said goodbye to my friends and family at my respective jobs last night. I think they’ll be sad to see me go, I hope they will be anyway cause I’m sad to see them drift away as I time travel across time zones. It is exciting to be a time traveler!

I woke up to read that two alums of iO Chicago are reported to have received jobs at SNL. I don’t want to get schmaltzy but one of my dreams is to be on SNL and knowing that I’m going to take classes at iO really gets me pumped up. It sweet y’know? So we’ll see… So many of my friends have had the means to move on from school and do their thing and I was a bit late to that party due to a number of reasons, but I’m ready.

My next trip to tumblr will be from my apartment in Chicago. Whew.

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Hmm, Blogger wasn't redirecting my posts for some reason, so I shall add an addendum!

Damn Chicago, you are HOT. 90' degrees on my first day? Why did you do that to me? I merely wanted to experience the windy city and you made it into the humid city. Not cool. Not cool.

I hear you will be a little breezier and cooler tomorrow though, do I'm happy you're done being such a hot head. This will give me more time to explore and go to the theatres here looking for gigs. I must admit, this is the scariest thing I've ever done, and your blistering first day was not a very warm (well it WAS warm) welcome but I'll make due. Did you know that my girlfriend plans to visit you soon? And reside here once she earns enough money? Yeah! I know! She just made the decision last week and I'm pretty proud of her! :) We're moving on up like George and Weezy.

Your wireless phone service here is pretty nifty. The only place I had problems was at my new bank. Otherwise you're hot to trot! I am ready to become the mayor of your city on FourSquare. I haven't decided on whether or not I want to make my new apartment a viable location on FourSquare cause it is kind of cheesy, but we shall see. As my friend Tiffany told me, there's tons of free stuff going on right now so maybe I can check-in at those soirees.

All in all Chicago, you're a little intimidating and that's kind of a nice challenge. I feel like I will conquer you one day. Just you wait.

Sincerly,
Aaron J.

high fidelity

August has flown by at such a rate I'd have to believe it used Mass Effect technology. In any case, August has been fantastic. In the course of the last 3 weeks I've seen Scott Pilgrim twice, secured my new apartment in Chicago with a good writing partner of mine, and even started working on 2 projects. I guess I just took my time in relaxing so I didn't have a ton of time to sit down and write.

I'm very excited for Chicago. VERY. I feel like it's ten times the geek outlet my current location is. I want to connect with "my people", and not have it be over the internet. I got a taste of that at the Scott Pilgrim premiere and I forgot how therapeutic it is to be in the presence of people who truly "get" you. I'm also seeing my super fantastic awesome girlfriend in 2 days out in San Diego so I'm sure I'll get that same rush when I'm around her.

Moving to Illinois will bring about its own series of problems and triumphs. I would lie if I said I wasn't a little scared about it, but once I start auditioning I'm sure all that fear and trepidation will fade away. It is just natural to be 'scurred' right? I mean it's a totally foreign place for me. It's like placing Picard in Star Wars! Amirite? Amirite? *pushes glasses up on nose*

The name of the game for the rest of the year is Collaboration. Kyle and I are ready to jump into the LAN'ded abyss once again, and thanks to Elton John I finally found an outlet for a smaller project I had swishing around in my head. Gotta love those homosexual english knighted musicians. Always good for inspiration.

I'm a bit turned off by the media's handling of the Scott Pilgrim movie. It seems like half the critics are turned off because they are unwilling to even try to connect with the ideals and virtues of the twenty-something lifestyle in the film. Did their disagreements about Tyler Durden sway them from saying Fight Club was a modern classic? If critics think that superheroes dressing up in crazy costumes is outlandish and childish, then why would they idolize The Dark Knight? I feel like there is a terrible double standard at play here simply because the comic book/movie uses video games as a tentpole for some of its deeper themes.

I see Scott Pilgrim as a conceptual film. Obviously it is very seldom a realistic movie. It dabbles in realism but shrouds itself in surrealistic tendencies and metaphysics. These are the same principles musical theatre is consistently founded on. Every time Scott sees an evil ex or an obstacle in his world, he views it simply as a level to be completed. He must work out a strategy. Does every critic believe that Scott must actually engage in hand-to-hand combat in order to defeat the enemy? No. This is simply a conceptual device employed skillfully by O'Malley and Wright to show how Scott thinks. In reality, the encounter could be just a short exchange of words or MAYBE a shoulder brushing past him while he tries to ignore a bad scene.

I don't know, it just makes me a little sad. You can invest so many geek hours into reading and watching something you connect with only to have a few snobby older critics turn up their nose. It doesn't ruin the experience at all for me, but I don't like it when someone tries to invalidate my opinion using the excuse that older viewers "know what they're talking about". *shruggity*

And now I'm packing for San Diego. I think that is spanish for something, not sure though.

~ Aaron J.

Working 50 hours this week and so happy about it.

There are some nights where I am overcome with a tidal wave of inspiration. Tonight has been one of those nights. Working a slow night at the restaurant, I was able to do some people watching and usually some great ideas come out of that. I just had a nice opportunity to sit back and think about LAN’ded and how an audience might react to it. The fact that Code Monkey is wrapped means one thing: LAN’ded, the reason why Code Monkey was made, is ready to be worked on once again. It scares me in a way but the message behind LAN’ded is the whole reason why Kyle and I started Imaginary Trends in the first place.

I was able to come home and jot down rough notes on where I wanted to take LAN’ded, but got very distracted by the X-Games on ESPN. Yes, I’m still a dude so the X-Games are like a present under the tree of my Christmas-In-July. Seriously, those guys doing those crazy superman stunts are like Gods. If I could even do a single jump on a bike then I’d consider that a major victory, the fact that they can do flips and stuff make me re-evaluate my fear of flying because they take off like birds.

Wow, my analogies and metaphors are getting really wordy tonight. Ugh.

I also came home tonight to a very nice surprise. An interest musician named Blue recorded an online web-concert that she put on earlier today. I was bummed out I couldn’t actually view it live cause of work but she recorded it! Watch it now @ http://hello-the-future.net/2010/07/30/webcomics-webconcert-the-video/

More artists need to facilitate an audience like this event has. Plus she did a Lilith Fair rendition of Launchpad McQuack. Seriously, she did. I almost choked on my food. If there’s a way into my heart, it’s through a Lilith Fair rendition of Launchpad McQuack. Nice. The fact that there's artists out there who are ballsy enough to just put themselves out there so freely makes me want to work with ALL of them. Maybe someday.

ANYWAY…LAN’ded. Back to that THING! That crazy, long, derivative, heady, existential THING. I can’t believe how much it has changed since the first draft.

Actually, I’m going to quit writing this and go back to compiling notes on it. There’s too much in my head about it.

Before I go though…to everyone who has supported my endeavors in Code Monkey in ANY way…thank you. It’s still not done but the way people have connected with it by reading the script, hearing our renditions of JoCo’s music, or seeing our behind the scenes videos, is just incredible. I am thinking of some way to thank you all…though I don’t know WHAT yet.

~ Aaron J.

OK, so I'm cheating on my blog with Tumblr.

I couldn't resist. In my downtime I've found Tumblr to be super-duper cool. Thus, I'm gonna use it. Thanks to my tweeps who convinced me of this.

Since "Code Monkey" has wrapped, it is totally time to sit back and relax for at least a day. That is until I start working 40 hours a week again. The only responsibilities I have for CM now are 1) ADR work on some scenes where we shot outside and 2) figuring out the release party. I'd like to get Southside Works Cinema for our premiere, but it is sort of expensive. Maybe if I ask around I can raise some money...

Did anyone else play the Alan Wake DLC this morning? Holy moly did I enjoy it! I love the original game itself, but the DLC was able to take the narrative further and I can really respect that. Remedy is definitely a company I'd love to work with one day. The way they take gameplay and infuse it with story is pretty rad. I don't think any other studio does it as well as they do.

The proposed date for moving to Chicago was set in stone a few weeks ago: August 29th. I just woke up one day and it sounded like a fantastic date to pack everything up and go. I now realize that I'm going to be quite the jetsetter in the coming weeks because I need to travel back to Pittsburgh for audio work, and then I'm going to San Diego to visit the girlfriend. FourSquare is going to BLOW UP! Finally I can rival my friends on tour at least for a few days.

FourSquare is such an interesting device. Whenever I go out now I have to decide whether or not I want every fast food chain I visit included in my history. Do I let my friends know about my Burger King obsession? Do they seriously need to be aware that I constantly celebrate my fourth meal at Taco Bell? For better or for worse, they do. They totally do.

I guess it is time for me to start raising money for this premiere party...here goes nothing.

I promise I will not cheat on my Blog with Tumblr.

I feel as if I'm standing on the edge of a precipice. I've been walking up a mountain for the past 7 months and I'm about to jump and see what happens next. Tomorrow is our last day of shooting on Code Monkey. After tomorrow, it is finished. There's no more going back to shoot, no more "oops I forgot about this", and no more "let's re-write the line to be this". I'm not unhappy, it is just difficult to process. We will of course need to go back to do some ADR work and I'd like to sit in on some editing sessions but I know I can't. After tomorrow, all I've left to do is promote it and get it out as quickly and efficiently as I can. It's. So. Strange.

It's like you're reading a book. Something AWESOME like Terry Pratchett or Stephen King. You get real absorbed in it and love it even though it eats up all your time. When you're done with the story though, you're left with so much free time that all you want to do is start another book. One person asked me if I'd ever write a sequel to CM, and the thought of that kind of scares me. There's no real route for these characters to take while accompanying JoCo's material. Unless they turn into vampires or zombies. I wouldn't want Guy/Laura to break up and I wouldn't want any other strange catharsis to occur either. I just hope that the finished product is something that JoCo (and his fans) will appreciate. He's given so much to us, it is time we give something back.

It is almost fitting that once the project wraps, I'll be ready to make my move to Chicago. A nice clear-cut change of scene.

Wait a tick, I signed up for a Tumblr. Is that better than Blogger? It seems more dynamic. Does anyone else have thoughts on this? My inner geek wants me to have the best tech out there, but my compassionate side says not to cheat on my blog when it has facilitated so many of my entries the past few years. This is why I'm incapable of cheating on my girlfriend. My guilt is enormous, even when dealing with objects without life or any discernable human behavior. This guilt eroded my soul when making my 360/Ps3 decision and I'm sure it'll rear its head again later with other decisions but seriously is Tumblr cool? Lemme know.

Time to pack and fill up the car before my trip to Pittsburgh to finish filming. Then I get to play the fun game of marketing Code Monkey! It's up to 4 players, anyone want in?

Thank You

In the span of 3 days, I've seen Code Monkey go from being a small passion project of mine to something that could grow to great heights. The internet never fails to impress me and the amount of support we've been able to garner thus far has been inspiring.

To everyone who has been tweeting and re-tweeting, thank you. To everyone on facebook sharing our behind the scenes videos, you're truly amazing. And to all of my friends and family who are saying "oh hey, this actually looks pretty sweet", I told you so ;) When you're working with people who love what they do and all aspire to put forth their best effort in any project, you're going to wind up with a winner. I should probably insert my foot into my mouth right now and stop talking up CM, but I just have a great feeling about it. A fortune cookie once told me that a good feeling was creativity trying to tell you something.

Regardless of all the good feelings and hunches I have right now, I'd have none of them without my friends and family. Thank you all so much, and I hope that this project can continue to thrive in the coming days as much as it came to life last Sunday.

~ Aaron J.

Principle Photography starts on Sunday!

Just spent a week in sunny Florida visiting the Disney Parks and Hogwarts. Am I happy? I got to see the Great Hall, of course I am happy! I may have even shed a single year of happiness upon entering Hogsmeade, but will I ever say for sure? Never!

OK, I may have, but still, it was amazing.

This was all a lovely distraction from the project that has captivating me for months on end: Code Monkey. We have an excellent cast (yes I know part of that is me, blah blah), a fantastic director, and a legion of cameramen and extension cords just waiting to be used. I'm elated, anxious, nervous, and excited all at once just knowing my pet project is going to see the light of day soon.

This would be longer but I'm crazy tired...maybe later I will update you all with more, but I have to say that after seeing everyone support Code Monkey via the internet, I have seen how much talent is actually out there and I want to collaborate with everyone. I wish the world weren't so big sometimes...