Rapping Parent Video Throw-down

My friend posted a rapping parent video today.  It’s the 3rd one that I’ve seen so I thought I’d have a throw down here on the ‘ole blog. I’m going to post all 3 and provide no commentary.  Seriously, I’m going to say nothing.

After you watched all three videos, you get to make your voice heard by VOTING in the snazzy poll at the end.  You can even drop some wisdom on us all in the comments section.

Now enough with this intro – let’s drop the beat on this throw-down!!

YouTube Acting School With Ricky Gervais

Look at that picture of me.  That’s me doing some fine acting in the short film “Textually Active”.  You can, of course, read about that in my earlier blog entry JD: The Gifted Director.

I have been at this acting thing for quite some time now and it was interesting to have a chat with someone recently about all of the training we do.  We spend a LOT of time, energy and money trying to get back what we did naturally as kids.  When we were kids and played cops and robbers, we believed that we were the parts we were playing.  When my sister had a tea party, she WAS the fancy hostess.  It was play, but we committed to it.

As grown ups, we have that playing squashed out of us, so we ‘study’ to try bringing it back.  It can cost a lot of money, but now we all have a chance at learning from a leader in his industry.  We can learn from him and his guest lecturers for free and even without their knowledge.  I have collected clips and provided commentary so that you can learn from the Unofficial Ricky Gervais School of Acting’s (RGSOA) YouTube Campus.

DalyDose of…Valentine’s Daly

Valentine’s Day gets a bad rap as a corporate holiday, but in reality it is…well, it’s so much worse.  It’s so bad that it doesn’t even warrant a day off for our valiant postal workers.  In fact, it would seem to me that they have to work extra hard on this day.  You can take that to bank.  I mean, literally, you can take it to the bank because the banks are open on this “holiday”.

To make matters worse, this is the most exclusionary holiday on the calendar.  Another saint’s day, Patrick to be exact doesn’t require one to be Irish; anyone can get filthy drunk on this holiday.  That’s inclusion.  President’s Day is coming up next and we’ve all voted for somebody that won.  If you didn’t vote, then you have probably at least been screwed by presidential policies at some point.  We all get to enjoy the holiday.   As I rack my brain, every single holiday other than Valentine’s Day is for us all.

What about this day devoted to St. Valentines?   

DalyDose of…Phone Sex. Is it a Date?

I like writing, but it would be so much better to get paid for it.  I came across this opportunity to submit a blog sample to this company starting a website for single people.  They were looking for funny, unique views.  I submitted my DalyDose of…10 Single Resolutions and they responded that they would like a 500 word sample using their test topic.  The test topic is “Does phone sex count as a date?”. 

I took on the challenge.  I transformed myself from nice guy to inner jerk and starting hitting the keyboard.  They wanted 500 words or less….here are my 493:

DalyDose of…SmartPhone Down!

This phone is only good for talking…it’s useless!  -JD

Tilt 2 pics from GSMArena.com

Remember the film “Black Hawk Down”?  That wasn’t nearly as tragic of a problem as I’m currently facing.  This blog entry has two purposes.  The first is to give you an idea of what happened.  After that I will pontificate on how important having a smart phone has become in my life.

Let me lay out the scenario for you:

I was out doing the ‘ole Hollywood networking thing; I was meeting people, they were eager to join the JD Experience.  I whip out my trusty AT&T/HTC Tilt 2 to load up some contact data.  I have to swipe my finger to bring up the unlocking code input screen.  I started to do so, but the screen wouldn’t respond.  You read that correctly: The SCREEN wouldn’t RESPOND.  That meant that I couldn’t even unlock the phone.  It was now useless to me.

DalyDose of…Stuck

Stuck is the short film that I made in 2009.  Thanks to the generosity of some talented people, I was able to make this short film for about $500.  Stay tuned after the video for more….

This film stars:
Jeff Daly – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3560614/ 
Femi Emiola – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1435292/
Steffanie Siebrand – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796809/

The film was directed by myself and Aldo Lara.  Aldo also edited it and I wrote it.
Jayme Lutz was the producer and we were able to use equipment generously supplied by Stormmaker Productions.

As I submit this project to festivals, I am now writing some new webisodes based on these characters who love each other, but don’t always like each other.  The transition to something with a little more of a sitcom feel will brighten up the shooting style and add more “jokes” to the scripts.  Stay tuned!

PLEASE NOTE: That no one’s marital status was harmed during the filming of this project.  In fact, common law marriage is only applicable to 11 states and the District of Columbia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage_in_the_United_States)

DalyDose of…Switchover

“Don’t Freak Out”

Remember this past June when there was a minor buzz going on about the digital switchover for antannae based television viewing?  Well, my friends over at Stormmaker Productions thought we should make some PSA type of things in honor of the occassion.  There were three versions made and here is the one that I acted in. 

Here is the link to Stormmaker’s YouTube channel where you can watch all three:  http://www.youtube.com/user/StormMakerProds.  There are some pretty amazing editing and greenscreen skills on display so even if the DTV switchover meant nothing to you, you should check it out.