Today I was a background extra for a short video about a website. I don’t know if I’m supposed to keep quiet about who its for, so I won’t say. The theme of it was kind of like when Morpheus is explaining The Matrix to Neo using The Construct. Well, if Morpheus was 5’5”, Jewish and wearing nerdy black rim glasses. Otherwise, the same thing. Sort of.

This was my first time acting (sure, you could call it that). I had fun. I didn’t fuck anything up too bad. I got a little screen time. I even got paid a few U.S. dollars for it. I guess that makes me a professional actor. Or something. But really, the work itself was the reward.¹

It was a lot fun. I’m really happy that I could be a part of it. There was lots of standing around, lots of waiting, lots of fake talking, lots of standing under the hot, hot heat of one million light bulbs. The movie making world has a different name for everything. It’s like a secret language to keep the muggles out. I learned that apple boxes have different names for their orientations depending on which coast you’re on. East coast calls them 1, 2, 3 while west coast calls them New York, Chicago (or maybe Texas) and LA. I like that. We wore booties over our shoes for a good part of the day.

I met some new people that seemed nice after one day’s worth of hangout. I met Adam Lisagor (@lonelysandwich) IRL finally. He’s a real good dude. Loads of fun to work with/for. I hope that I can do more with him.

Finally, a Pro Tip™: read the call sheet closely with regards to wardrobe. If it says “Wardrobe: Business Casual. Please bring an extra change of non-business casual clothes. No logos, small patterned, stripes, solid white or solid black clothing”, don’t show up wearing black pants, white shirt, black sweater, black tie and a baseball hat with a local sports team logo on it. Or do, and be happy that the director is such an awesome dude that he’s not only ok with your outfit, but tells you to keep your hat on for the day.

My friend Heather is working with a band called Vedera. Last weekend she directed a video for them in the desert at an abandoned water park. They wanted to play a show while they were in LA writing new material. So, we’re doing it tonight in the backyard of The Farmhouse in Hollywood, CA.

The house is an old farmhouse from way back before Hollywood was Hollywood. It once sat on 300 acres of avocado grove. There’s still one avo tree left in my backyard. Under that avo tree is where Vedera is playing tonight. We strung up a bunch of lights last night and it’s amazing back there when it’s all lit up.

Wear a hoodie (it gets chilly at night). Find street parking. Be nice to the neighbors. Come by at 7pm. And have fun!

Find more information at farmhouse.co. Limited to the first 100 people. The address is 1558 Gordon St / Los Angeles, CA / 90028.

I made another mixtape. It’s been sitting my iTunes sidebar for months now. It started as making a mixtape of hardcore bands that I thought a friend (who’s mostly into metal) would like. And turned into hardcore-plus-other-things-still-kinda-close-to-hardcore.

This one runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, 18 seconds long.

Go listen to it.

I’ve been using this avatar for years and years now, but I never made any cards with it on them. The best time to start was five years ago. The next best time to start is now. Right? I’m about out of my old Less Than Three cards which I don’t really like giving out anymore, because I don’t do <3 as a consultancy anymore. I’m going to New Orleans for RubyConf right soon, so I figured I should pull the trigger on new cards. Here’s what they look like.

On September 13, 2001 the band that I was in was supposed to play a show opening up for Randy and Propagandhi at the Emerson Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our band, Rise Over Run, was a vegan straightedge anarchist pop punk band from 2000-2003 from Bloomington, Indiana.

Two days before the show day, planes crashed into buildings. The day after the plane crashes, we got the phone call: Propagandhi went back to Canada and the show was cancelled. They never rescheduled that show. At least never before we broke up and I moved away.

To this day Propagandhi is still one of my favorite bands and I’ve still never seen them live.