UPDATE AS OF 27 / 11 / 04 Howdy, Finally I am updating my rave here. My apologies if you have visited a few times and seen the same old blurb here each time. I have just arrived home from the theatre, having just completed the third performance in a month long season of a show called “A Christmas Carol”. It is a kiwi adaption of the Charles Dickens story, written by a kiwi writer, Dave Armstrong. Fortunately it seems to have already connected with people and bookings are strong, response is very positive and the vocal chords seem to be doing their bit. I have never sung songs, even at parties, I never knew the words, just loved partying to the music, so over the years singing has become a bit of a fear for me. This show is my first real chance to face that fear and I am loving it. We sing a number of carols, some very old ones and we even crank out “Jingle Bell Rock”. I have always marvelled at people who can make music, be it with their voices or with instruments, so to be standing on stage singing 4 part harmonies in this show is scarily wonderous. Here is a link to a site about the show, ATC(Auckland Theatre Company) web site. You may recognise some names. Reviews have been great apparently (I have not read any yet) so we are hoping for a very successful season. Midway through the 5 week rehearsal period for the play, I had 4 days off and travelled to Seattle to attend the wonderful RingCon that is put on there by Ron Cleveland. Royd Tolkien and another kiwi actor, Peter Tait, were the other guests. As usual with Ron's gigs, a great time was had, not only was it cool to catch up with Ron and Teresa, but also Reg and Larkin from Ravenswood Leather. It is great going back for a second year to the same event as you see familiar faces. Thanks not only to Ron, Teresa, Reg and Larkin, but also to all the incredibly hard working people who work behind the scenes, great hospitality room, great music and dancing! Of course, since I last updated this part of the site, I have also been to London for the Fellowship Festival, Paris for the Pulps Comic Con, and Atlanta for the astounding DragonCon. Each of these experiences were totally different to the others and it is such a pleasure to be able to be at these gigs. Thanks Louise and ‘family’, Emma, Aurelian, Claude, John Tackett and Jincey. Partaking in DragonCon is a little akin to travelling to another planet. The hotels themselves are wonderful on the senses, massive atriums that distort perspectives and infuse a sense of contemporary grandeur. Then there are the party goers!!! Klingons as far as the eye can see, and bloody elves starting to appear in abundance also! Give me a good possie of Rohirrim any day. Huge thanks to Sala and David once again for letting me and my son crash at their place. I was away from New Zealand for just one a month, and had my middle son Joe with me for the first two weeks. We went to Venice Beach both days one weekend, the second day armed with spray cans for Joe to do some graf on a wall on the beach that is an evolving canvas for graf artists. The cross section of humanity that you swim amidst as you walk around that place is astounding. We also got a photo taken with the beautiful actor who plays Tony Soprano's daughter in the TV series. I was more excited than my son. I will put the photo on the site. [Note from the Webmaster: This photo can be found on the Fellowship Festival photo page.] However, as always, it is very nice feeling when the Land of The Long White Cloud comes into contact with the wheels of the plane as it touches down returning me to my 2 cats, 3 kids and the prospect of a surf on the west coast beaches of Auckland. Now that “A Christmas Carol“ is up and running I have to address some other missions, such as getting my doco about Operation Read rattling along. I had a couple of fantastic meetings in LA and have some great people supporting the idea, so now it has to be made into a reality. I am also working with Amarbir Singh who directed a digital feature I acted in last year called “1 Nite”, to promote the film. We’ve got a couple of showings lined up for the Rialto Cinemas here in Auckland (28th and 29th of Nov.) and also a one off showing at the Paramount in Wellington (30th Nov). Amarbir and I are also currently writing a feature we intend to make next year. I shall keep you posted. If you would be interested in showing “1 Nite” at any film festivals etc, go to the site for the film and contact Amarbir. Rice Digital. Mithril Armoury have come up with a very cool “Gamling Package”, thankyou heaps Ginger for this great chance to join with you. Take a look at what Ginger is offering at her site. Till next time, I’m outta here, sleep is needed, one of cats is currently doing just that beside the keyboard and I am inspired to try it myself (in bed, not by the keyboard, there’s no room now! Bloody cat!) |