Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

WNJS clip of episode 3

So, we have an entire episode 3 of We're NOT John Stamos recorded, but I don't know when I'm going to get around to animating it since we're working so hard on the new stuff. You've seen part one of episode 3. This is what I've animated so far of part 2. It's the funniest part anyway. Most of it is still with no animation software, but you can probably see the parts where I started testing the new software out. Enjoy!

PS. We've got two things in the works before episode one comes out: A New Years Resolutions teaser, and a character introduction piece, the latter being recorded this holiday weekend LIVE. The former already recorded via Skype.

Comedy Writing and Animating

I felt kind of bad that I'm not really working on a writing project at the moment. I'd go to the NJ writers group and they'd be like, "What are you working on now?" and I'd be like, "Uh, nothing. I'm taking a break to work on my podcast," which is kind of blasphemy, and I understand that because writing is really the most important thing to me out of all my projects. But I realized something last night. Now that Lindsey and I have decided to script all of our podcast episodes (except the features where we interview celebrities (which ones? Here, here, and here)), I realized that we are now officially comedy writers. We are writing comedy for broadcast. How cool is that? I wrote what I thought was a funny 5-minute piece about my New Years Resolutions (I have to do a playback to see if it actually is funny). And now we are going to write character intros, which I hope is funny. These guys here did an awesome job at introducing the characters on their podcast.


Also, I have animated a rough version of our new intro. Some of it needs to be tightened because parts are really slow and some too fast. The default has that motion blur on it, but I didn't realize it until I got to the last shot where I turned it off. I don't really like the blur--I think I will keep it off from now on. We will be auditioning for music to go behind it. Also, we have like 49 fans on Facebook already and we hardly know any of them. Very cool.

We're not Not John Stamos (Exciting Podcast News!)

Lindsey and I are armed to the teeth with new podcast goodies! We've revamped the show for 2011 and given it a new name: Plain Ketchup (We're just plain saucy). And we have

a new website !!! plainketchuppodcast.com
a Facebook Fan Page !!!
a Twitter account !!!
a YouTube channel !!!
a Vimeo channel !!!
a monthly e-newsletter !!!





All we need now is the blog (which will be supplied by Libsyn once we start paying them), a Kickstarter page for donations (which Lindsey is handling this week), and...umm, episodes. But the episodes are going to be fantastic because

1. We have a cool new structure--it's like a magazine without all that hard reading stuff.
2. I have new animation software that makes things look a little smoother (and takes less time to make).
3. We are having special guests! I've already gotten a yes from one of my absolute favorite comedians, my all-time favorite singer/songwriter, and I'm querying a comedian who Lindsey and I are both huge fans of very soon. We have a list of other potential guest stars, but we might hold off until we have episode 1 up so that they have something to see before deciding yes or no.

Goals: Raise enough money on Kickstarter to afford the web-space to be on iTunes, and sell schwag on CafePress.

Also, we're taking applications for regulars on the show at jaimeandlindsey@gmail.com. We're also looking for a theme song, and any volunteer collaborators are much appreciated.

So, please like us, follow us, subscribe to us, join us, bookmark us, digg us, stalk us, whatever it is you kids do. Spread the Ketchup! (Ooo, I just made that up, that was good.)

TV teasers

Dirk Gently trailer...

A scene...

Doctor Who Christmas Special trailer...

Writer Events

The ironic thing is that when you do anything worth blogging about, you don't have time to blog because you're doing those exciting things. Been very busy lately.















Here are pictures of author events this week. One author asked trivia questions and the winners get to accompany him to a Broadway or off-Broadway show. The other author screened a hilariously terrible Christmas movie (a 50 year old Mexican film about Santa and Merlin vs. Satan called "Santa Claus") which you can watch on YouTube:



I also led a free workshop on social media for writers at the local library this week. It went really well. I think I inspired some people to take the next step in their internet marketing. People asked a lot of great questions, and you can download the workshop presentation here.

Pictures and podcasts and complaining

1. I bought some art for my room. Look at this ridiculous goat with his tongue out. I'm going to laugh every time I look at it. [link]

I also bought a few of these because I think they're really really cool.

2. I am so over the Montclair bus system. Third time now that I've gone to catch a bus in the cold or rain and it just never came. I'm not an idiot--I can read a bus schedule, and the NJ Transit site says the same thing as Google Maps, but the buses just don't come, and I keep missing church. So this morning was a lovely walk,stand,walk in the cold to no avail and getting locked out of the apartment because Fed Ex said they left a package at the front door, which they didn't, and the door closed behind me, and thank god my upstairs neighbor was home because I had no coat, phone, wallet, or keys. Curse you too Fed Ex.

3. Very very very exciting news with the podcast. It's starting to take shape. It's going to have a new name because we don't want to be sued by John Stamos' people (turns out even celebrities names are legally protected). And we're collecting applications for some more regulars. We'll still have special guests, of course. There's going to be a website, blog, new Facebook page, maybe a Twitter, new YouTube, new Vimeo, e-newsletter, the works. Now we just have to think of a name.

Work videos

Imagine my surprise when sifting through all the publicity hits at work to find that one of the reviews used MY video for their online magazine. Here's the review with the video. So my video shot up to 133 views, which still isn't much, obviously, but it's better than what it had been. Too bad the quality of the footage is so bad.

Also, here's a recent piece of work I shot and edited. One of our authors' book signing: