Marked Anthony

A Christmas Carol 12/08/10

2010-12-09T00:01:00.004-07:00

Tonight was an awesome performance! Wow what a show, we were all on our A game tonight! It was great to see so many smiling faces come out of the theatre. This is why I love theatre so much, you really get to see what kind of impact you made, we made magic happen tonight! Just to see what kind of difference you got to be a part of in changing peoples lives and perspectives...it's indescribable.

Chucky Dicky, thank you kind sir wherever you may be. May you rest comfortably knowing you made this possible. I am honored to hopefully do it justice. It's funny to say this, but I really am glad that I wear the black knitted gloves I wear for The Undertaker. I'd be lying if I said I didn't dab my eyes with them during the second act, but especially tonight. I'm so honored to be performing with such an amazing load of talent that we can make people forget for just a couple of hours that we're actors, and that we are really those people.

I was feeling the Spirit of Christmas tonight. How about you? If not, you really ought to find out. I hear that there are already performances that are sold out, like lots of them! Today, in fact, my boss asked me to come into her office with her and her husband (he works there in another department) to show her the best seats to buy when they come. They were on the last row of the theatre. It's pretty awesome really.

What's great about doing this many shows in such a short period of time, is you get to give it something new each night, even if it's just something really tiny that gives a bit more reality to the character, something that pulls just one more person in the audience into believing in who you are portraying. Ray Bradbury said once, "You've got to jump off cliffs all the time, and build your wings on the way down." As an actor and for this role in particular, I feel like I really do that from the moment I burst through the fireplace, and Jacob Marley is face-to-face with Ebenezer Scrooge.

So long Porthos...You will always be with me.

2010-06-17T23:40:00.010-06:00

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Thank you to everyone who has been bugging me when my next post is going to be. This one's for you. A little taste of my last days of playing a role of a lifetime, and what is coming up next for this crazy life that I am so grateful for.
So long Porthos. Amazing to think that he was a real person in the 17th Century in Paris, France. He was really there at a time when he had King Louie (who was not raised by his parents to rule mind you) and Queen Anne of Austria (her father is the King of Austria for those not in the know of 17th century French History) as a ruler and employer. Porthos was basically a hired bodyguard/secret service agent that he would be willing to die for them to save their lives. What a crazy job! No wonder he used his all of his money on his wardrobe. He really lived it up and always felt that he was larger than life. I think I gave that to the Bacchus like fellow Porthos while on stage. I hope I served him well and may his memory live on in the books by Alexander Dumas. I feel like I really had a chance to be an actual Musketeer and what it would have been like to be friends with these two incredible fighters, men who would find a way to win at any cost despite their different personalities, and who made each other that much stronger/wiser/smarter/braver than if they were to do it on their own. I owe a lot to my fellow cast-mates/Musketeers ( I know, that's a lot of slashes, but here I go on the parentheticals, so better to let that go, I'm almost done with those) who went into the fray with me each night. Them and everyone else who was in my incredible cast. Mainly though I have to say thanks to Jeff Dickamore/Aramis for really bringing it each and every night. Even though we had to tell you to get it together from time to time, you were the coolest cat I've ever had the pleasure of being backstage with. Thank you my friend, I couldn't have done this thing justice without you. I am looking forward to your future successes that I know you will have.
Equal thanks to Michael Hohl/Athos for really being our leader on and off the stage. I loved going into battle with you on that stage. An incredible experience, as you said, "We're freakin' MUSKETEERS!!!" I don't think I would have enjoyed being present in every moment without those refreshing words going through my mind. It's hard not to imagine Athos, Porthos and Aramis saying that to each other every time they shared a drink. I almost thought about saying that on our final performance as we were on our way up in our second to last toast. I really felt like we were a solid unit together out there. It was a pleasure serving/acting with you gentlemen. Musketeers for life-don't you forget it guys! All for one and one for all!
I've never had so much fun backstage and onstage in all my years as an actor. I will never forget how special it was to me, I appreciate each and every one of you - yes, even you others in the T-H-S cast. I don't want to get into names, you know who you are Monte/Rochefort. You kick ass my friend. I loved your performance every night. For playing the bad guy, you were probably the nicest guy backstage. Thank you for everything. That's all I'm gonna say about those guys...like Dru Watts/Fache. (OK I'm done with the slashes now. What do you expect from someone who has been practicing with a slashing weapon for the past 8 weeks. Speaking of which...) We really made each other look good out there and keep it safe. Well, as safe as you can be swinging swords about and such. I would have to say that we had some amazing moments in our fights. Including our final two really good ones. What I'll miss the most was when we'd do our bit in fight call. It was really fun when we'd just say all the unscripted stuff. Alright, that's enough of that. I will miss it all. Porthos most of all I have to say to you, wherever you are, so long my friend, it was an honor bringing you back to life, you will always be with me.

I have other photos from this performance. The fight scenes are amazing if you look at them in sequence. If you want me to post them on my flickr account and create a link to them I'll do it, but only on demand.

So after the play ended, my wife breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. I found myself face-to-face with a pile of honey-do's when I suddenly had all this time now that the play was not occupying it. I've had my hands full, but I haven't got them dirty enough. I have some house work to tend to and then I hopefully will have time to build the tree house before Summer is over. I must admit, I have also had to have some time to decompress. I had to let Porthos go and I shaved my mustache. I should have put the hairs in a box or something, but cest la vie. I had to acclimate with my two boys and my beautiful wife. I've had to get out and play at the park and show my youngest that Daddy is done being a Musketeer. I've been doing some book reading with Dante before he heads to California for the Summer Break. I also had to line my personal projects up and really decide what it is that I need to be doing with my life. I also have had the time to study up on what is going on in our country. I've been out of the loop for a bit with politics. Porthos wasn't good with political issues either, but I decided I'd better pop my head out and take a look. I'm really shocked and surprised, and I will talk more about that later.

I am currently past my bed time now, so I'd better wrap this up (for now anyway). I am...whoa. I just got really tired. Alright, I'm done with this post. Closing the computer now. I'll have to hit you with another post soon. Good night all!

Saturday performances

2010-05-30T09:33:00.003-06:00

We only have one more Saturday performance, and it's our last one. I have to say though, there is something special about our Saturday Matinees. We always seem to have some of our best shows that day. I tend to bust out the French Accent on Saturdays, but I didn't this time. Everybody was on fire! The pacing was incredible, and it seemed like everyone brought their A game. I would even go as far as saying it was our best performance thus far!

We have such an amazing cast. I've come to the conclusion that we all just really feel comfortable around each other. We all really enjoy each others company, and it's a total blast to be around everyone. Even with people in the other cast, but especially the people in the MWF cast. I know I might be biased, but everyone is so supportive of each other, and we all can joke with each other and nobody takes offense at anything.

This is the last week of performances, and I have to say, I've really taken my wife's last comment to heart. I have been just enjoying each and every performance as it happens. I am going to miss being a Musketeer when it's over, but for now, I'm doing everything in my abilities to bring Porthos to life.

Oh one more thing about Saturday's show. Jeff is dating Ms. Utah (or at least a former Ms. Utah) and in honor of her being in the audience, all the girls wore tiaras during curtain call. The intermission show in the greenroom was especially hilarious. I'll have to get a copy of the video from Dave, or at least provide a link to it, because it was priceless and deserves some face time.

If you haven't seen the show, I strongly suggest you get your but out to the theatre. Use this link: http://www.halecentretheatre.org/2010Season/the-three-musketeers.php to buy your tickets. Memorial day still has quite a few tickets left, and they're a great price. In fact my wife and a bunch of her friends are coming that night. I have a feeling that it's going to be just as good, if not better than this last Saturday performance, we're at a place now where we are all fully in tune with our characters, so every show from here to the end is going to be epic. Don't miss it!

Only 8 performances left!

2010-05-25T23:43:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to get bummed. Nearing the end of the run now, and I have to say that so far, I've had the time of my life. I truly love bringing Porthos to life every Monday Wednesday Friday and Saturday afternoons. So on Friday, my boss and her husband were in the audience. They both really liked it. I'm just glad I didn't know they were there, or it probably would have made me nervous. As it turned out, I had a great time out there.

I really love the stuff that goes on with our cast. We are such a tight knit group now. We all have such amazing energy and we're all so supportive of each other to get the best performance. We sing backstage, we joke on and off stage. One of my favorite jokes onstage comes in the ballroom scene. Rochefort circles around at the end of the first dance and Athos says something to him and then he busts out in kind of a hiss, "Smells like Assssholes." it's awfully hard to not laugh in that situation.

Oh I totally forgot to mention what happened on Wednesday. So we got brand new swords. that is because our swords are beat up and the strength and integrity has been compromised from all the fights up to this point. So on Wednesday during the Luxembourg I go to block an overhead slash and the sword I blocked broke in half. A huge part of the blade starts flying toward the front row of the audience and this guy in the front row raises his hands in self defense. Luckily it landed on the stage and didn't slice anybody up. It threw me off for the rest of that scene and the next one as well. It's crazy that it was a BRAND NEW sword and it broke like that.

On Saturday we had performers and Tech crew from the Cirque de Sole' in the audience. I normally like to bust out the French accent on Saturdays, but I was a little apprehensive because there were French speaking people in the audience, but the King and the Cardinal came into the wig room and they both told me to do it. I had to do it after that! It was so much fun, and I'm glad that I did. I had a blast doing it! I got a lot of good response to it. What was great is that I had 3 co-workers in the audience on Saturday, so my boss and co-workers got two totally different performances, and both groups loved it. I'm having a hard time deciding if I just want to go to the French accent for the remainder of the show. I get the most laughs when I do it. I'm for sure doing it on Memorial Day. We'll see how it goes. I should see what the rest of the cast thinks for sure though.

I can't wait to get the CD full of photos for this show. I really wish I could get a copy of it on DVD. I just want to watch it at least once.

On Monday we had another fun and fabulous performance. What I love about this show and the cast that I have the privilege to be a part of, is how well we all work together on the stage. We're not afraid to try new things, and work things out on stage as it happens in the moment. We try it and come off stage and high five and say how fun that was, or we take something that went a little wrong and turn it into something that will be totally cool the next time we do that scene. Some great stuff going on. If there was one show that would be fun to watch every night it would have to be this one because of all the little tweaks and changes to our performance. It's a true tribute to how well we all react off of each other and listen to how they are delivering it. I haven't had this much fun in a show in my whole life! Thanks to all of you guys. And thanks to all who have been supportive and came to see me in the show.

And then there were 19

2010-05-11T20:57:00.002-06:00

Yes folks. 19 more performances to go. It would have been 20, but they canceled one of the Friday Matinees. I'm a bit bummed about that, but there you are. The reason is because we haven't sold out the rest of the show at this point. That's pretty surprising because the feedback I've been getting in the lobby after the show has been all good. It's a fun show. What amazes me is the men who go that looked like they were dragged there by their wives, and they come out with a smile on their faces. It's a great show for men who like action films or even Westerns.

So to catch you up on the latest... Friday night went really well. I couldn't help but notice that Jeff/Aramis was using his French accent, and it was getting thicker and thicker as the show went on. I almost slipped into it myself, but I managed to hold off. After the show though, I decided that I was going French in the Saturday Matinee. I figured why not. I've already developed the character for it. I worked on it all night and the next morning, and on Saturday I let it fly! Wow what a blast! I found more parts that are funny about Porthos because of it, and Jeff and I were really playing a ton off of each other. Eden/Milady even said she liked it, and that we were like the Brownies from Willow when we were on stage together. It certainly felt good, and I was able to maintain it throughout the show. I also took the liberty of kissing Rosalie/Adele on stage in our scene. It was so funny to catch her unaware, her reaction was priceless. Allan/d'Artagnan and I had to do a little recovery because the timing was a bit off between us, but we were able to make it work, it was quite funny how we worked it out. Afterward I was just flying high. I was really proud of myself for pulling it off like I did. I didn't hear anyone complain about it, and I got quite a few compliments too.

However when I got home I started getting a bad feeling. I probably over thought it, but I was really beginning to worry that I offended people in the cast. I didn't ask for permission, (although I did announce it on Friday night in our dressing room, so the Musketeers, and Rochefort knew) and in a way, it was selfish of me. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think I could pull it off and be believable, but still I was getting worried that someone would complain and I would hear about it on Monday.

When I got to the theatre on Monday however, I told Tammy about it and she said she didn't hear anything, and she usually hears all about what goes on. So that was a good sign. I had already decided that I wasn't going to use the French accent all the time, maybe once or twice. I have fun doing it the way that I normally do it anyhow. When we got to Greenroom before the show though, Kacey said that he noticed that some people made some minor changes and additions. I assume that some of that was aimed at me, but he didn't point me out, and he didn't say that it was horrible. Our director had said at the last dress rehearsal that it's our show now, I guess I may have taken that a little too literal, but I would have never done anything that would have ruined the show. If I didn't get a talking to, then it must have gone over alright. Who knows, the French may actually return. The kiss is definitely going to make a return, but we're going to have to work the timing out before we do that again in a performance.

Monday's performance was a blast though. After I found the laughs from playing it French, I implemented some stuff in my Standard American English accent and it went over well with the audience. My big fight scene went over really well too. Everything was crisp and on point, it had all the intent it should have had, and it was just awesome! Something happened to the stage though on Monday. It wouldn't raise or lower and the center column was all the way down. We were backstage near where we come on stage for the next scene and the stage crew started filling up the hall with the chessboard, table and stone benches. Jeff and I both wondered what was going on. They told us the stage was broken, and they would have to carry that stuff on for the last garden scene. They also had to carry off the bench and table that was currently on the stage. We lined up in the Vom waiting to run on, and the tech crew was standing right next to us ready to come on after the blackout and do their thing. It was crazy, but it couldn't have happened at a better time in the show. We only had once scene left. After we all ran off stage and the blackout occurred, we were all backstage watching the monitor as the tech crew came on and worked their magic. Those guys and gals are total studs! Unsung heroes if you ask me. They were pretty fast about it too. It was interesting doing the last scene like that, but it enabled the whole audience to see me pull out the Cardinal's nightcap and taunt him with it. It got the biggest laugh to date because of the visibility. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm pretty sure they fixed the stage for tonight's performance. I just hope we don't have anymore issues with the stage for the rest of the run. That's the danger of relying such high-tech equipment though. Luckily it happened when it did, because it would have been a beast to do a majority of those scene changes with a broken stage.

Tomorrow is my last day doing the educational performances, (unless my double can't do them with his cast.) I'm excited! The last time we performed for the kids, it was amazing. They are the best audiences we've had so far. They really get into it, and cheer and clap. I can't wait! I'm having so much fun doing this show. I could totally play Porthos for another 60 more performances and probably still be juiced up about it every time! What's great is it's constantly changing. Right now it's just minor tweaks and adjustments, but it's all in the name of making the show better as a whole. I really love performing with Mike and Jeff. We've developed a great bond together onstage and off. It's so much fun working with those guys. I'm definitely having the time of my life!

Backstage shenanigans

2010-05-02T09:38:00.005-06:00

So here are a few pictures from backstage. I thought you might want to see what happens during the play. In this one Charisse is removing my wig after the show, and Greg's hair is freshly de-wigged as well. In the bar scene I am supposed to yell out the name of 3 different girls that I toast to and take a huge swig off of the bottle. In the Saturday performance I toasted to Charisse and she didn't even hear it. Oh well. The other Musketeers agreed that I should take requests for names to say, so if you want your name said on stage, I'm taking suggestions, and if I actually say your name, it will cost you. We can discuss method of payment later.

Here is a picture of the ball gown I wear for the King's Birthday party. I'm dressed as a rooster. This is my favorite costume of the show, even though I don't have any lines while wearing this costume. I do however bust out a mean Mer Laison in this getup. So if you haven't seen it yet, this is yet another reason to come and see the show. The biggest problem I have with this thing is it's so long. It's set to the length of both myself and my double Matt. He's a few inches taller than me, and when I have to go up the stairs, which is a couple of times in the dances, I sometimes step on the gown. I've nearly tripped about 3 times, but I've gotten better at holding onto it while I go up the stairs. The mask is amazing with the detail, the only problem with it is, I can't breath out of my nose in this thing!

This is part of my nightly ritual, and the best part, removal of my wig. I've been growing my hair out so that I wouldn't have to wear my wig. Hopefully It'll be long enough that I can go without it the last couple of performances. I honestly think it's long enough now, but that's not how the makeup department sees it. Until then, I have to get enough metal pins put in my hair to make Pinhead jealous. When she takes them out my hair has been through pressure, heat, and sweat and comes out all sorts of funky. Almost Medusa like.
Oh and one more backstage item with Charisse...I'm standing in Vom 2 just after we rescue d'Artagnan, and she comes in to brush all our hair in place. She's standing behind me and mentions that the threat she made on my fly away hairs when she was putting it on, has worked! Then she finishes and starts to walk around me when she bumps into my scabbard that is always on my hip and says, "I'm just not good with swords."
I reply, "That's what she said."
I think Mike Hohl/Athos and I were laughing at that for a good 30 seconds. I know Allan/d'Ar and Jeff/Aramis joined in. I really love the bond we are developing back stage as Musketeers.

So I'm walking down the hall to Vom 2. I've got Rosalie/Adele on my arm as we're discussing this lovely cape I've purchased, and I'm asking her to guess what it's made out of. (I could probably write a whole piece just on that daily conversation up to now.) Anyhow, we get to the Vom and Jeff walks in and set's down his freshly filled water bottle near the prop table, and he turns and Aramis is suddenly hitting on Adele. Porthos couldn't allow that to happen, so he shoves Aramis out of the way, and curses some made up words at him. I think we were all laughing at that one until we got on stage. It was good, it made Rosalie's cheeks live up to her name.

I know there are some more, and I'll have to write them all down. Those that are in the show that read this blog, please feel free to leave one of your backstage moments in a comment.

Acting is my Crack!

2010-04-29T16:24:00.006-06:00

Three performances in one day! The morning started off with my alarm going off at 6:30AM so that I could get dressed and to the theatre by 7:30AM for fight call. We ran fight call, got our makeup, hair, and costumes on and then ate a great breakfast provided by the Guild, and we were off and running. We had to cut down the show so that it wouldn't run over 2 hours, so that was a challenge, but the pacing of the show was great because of it. The two day performances were back to back, and full of Jr. High and High School students. I have to say, they were the two best crowds we've had so far! What a rush to perform in front of them. What's even better for me is that my first experience with live theatre was when I was 15 years old at the old Hale Centre Theatre. I saw "See How They Run" with my peers from High School and was never the same since. I can only hope that our performance has inspired even one of those kids to dream about performing on stage someday.

We had an hour between the first and second show to eat lunch, and then we were back at it. My step-son Dante was in the audience for this one. It was his first time seeing me perform on stage, and he LOVED IT! (I have to say, I love text messaging. During intermission I was backstage sending texts to him and my wife about how they were loving the performance so far.) That audience was by far the best! They cheered at all the right places and laughed and clapped in spots we didn't expect. One thing we knew for certain, they loved the kissing and stabbing. We were going to try to put a kiss and a stab in every scene, but that just didn't work out. Didn't matter, they still loved it, you could tell by the loud ovation they gave at curtain call.

After that we had a break from about 2:30 to 6, so I went home, ran some errands with the wife and then took a small nap. When I got back to the theatre, the gal in the picture above (Rosalie Bertrand) was just buzzing. I'm not sure if she had too little sleep, or too much caffeine, or was overdosing on adrenalin, but I can honestly say I've never seen her that way. She wasn't the only one either, I'm just glad I got in a nap!

The third performance, we found out that one of the major cuts we made is going to remain throughout the run. It was kind of a bummer because it contained one of my favorite fight scenes, but I can see why they decided to keep it cut. It really does slow the show down, and it's kind of redundant. So if you saw the performance before Wednesday, then you saw it all! If not, you really didn't miss too much, it was really just to show the audience how cool our stage is. (just kidding Kacey)

My wife's Grandparents were in the audience for the evening show. Of course the crowd was less energetic than the day shows, but that was to be expected. I think it kinda slowed some of us down because we finished the first Act 7 minutes later than we usually do. We managed to pick it up in Act 2 though, and finished ahead of where we normally do. (a big chunk of that time was because we cut the montage out of Act 2) A great performance nonetheless, and my Grandparents enjoyed the show!

When I got home, I was buzzing from all the adrenaline my body had endured throughout the day. I was literally shaking until Midnight. It was like telling a junky that they can have 3 free hits of smack, and then they take them all in the same day. I have to admit, Acting is my Crack! I'm addicted to performing! That was just AWESOME! It definitely goes up there among the best days of my life.

Today I'm experiencing a kind of hangover. I've had a headache all day long. Not sure if it's from lack of sleep, or my body just sapped from the adrenal glands riding overdrive, or if reality is setting in on the two latest losses of life in my family. I dedicated the second performance to my Grandma Lovato before curtain. I would have loved for her to see it, I'd like to think that she did.

31 to go

2010-04-26T15:44:00.003-06:00

34 performances total. That's more than I've ever done for any show I've ever been a part of!
After the weekend I have 31 left, and I plan on loving every single one of them! The last three have gone pretty well. You read about opening night, but on Friday it was a great show, not really any technical issues, but we did have a problem in one of the sword fights. A guy who I'm supposed to parry wasn't able to get his sword out of his scabbard because his tabard was in the way. lol We still managed to make it work, but he fixed the problem after that, and I don't think he'll ever do that again.

I had a bunch of friends from High School come that night, so it was awesome. Lisa Thomas came down from Logan with her sis-in-law and was so excited for it. My best friend from High School Devin Marks and his awesome wife Franci made it all the way from Schweitzer, Idaho as well. The surprise friend was the gal I had a big crush on through High School. Wendy Mattingly. She shook my hand and tried to walk by without being recognized. She almost made it too, but I said her name when she was almost past me, and that stopped her in her tracks. That was fun to see them all. It was great that they all came out and supported me in my passion. I have such awesome friends. Can't wait to see who shows up next. Despite having those friends in the audience, the crowd was kinda quiet, especially for a Friday night. Not a lot of clapping or reaction from the crowd, but I did hear that we scared one of the patrons. She passed out during one of the fight scenes, and soiled herself. I guess it was too violent for her, and we must have been playing the realism of that pretty well. It may sound rude, but that's FREAKIN' AWESOME!

Saturday we had a matinee at 12:30. I was a little more nervous for this show because I had a lot of people that I knew were coming. My Mother and Step-dad Gordon, my Father and Step-mom Nelly, my Grandma and Grandpa Bate, My Uncle Randy and his wife, and My Uncle Rick and his wife (who left after intermission, due to my Aunt being a freak and setting it up so that would happen, but that's another story) and my Brother Chris and his wife. So I knew there would be a dozen people there to see me perform. I had a great time and my performance I felt was great, all the way until the curtain call. The Three Musketeers all come on one after the other, and I was the second one. On the way onto the stage, I had a major faceplant and lost my hat. I was able to pick myself and my hat up in time to still do the bow, but with 24 eyes for sure watching my every movement, I knew someone had to see it. Surprisingly the only person who did was my Uncle Randy, who kind of has a negative attitude about life anyhow, and made no hesitation to ask me in the lobby if "I had a good trip." Ha ha pbffttbl! I was a bit upset, because I almost made it through the whole thing unscathed, but alas it wasn't to be. Despite my fall at the end, the show went great. My stepfather Gordon loved it! That was the biggest shocker to me, but he loved it so much he said, "that was the funnest Saturday I've had in a long time." He and my mom are buying tickets to come back and see it again! The other really cool thing about Saturday is that my Grandpa Bate was there to see it. He is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and his memory is really not what it was, but he was able to follow the story, and he even remembered the performance later at dinner! That to me was very rewarding. I'm glad it was entertaining enough to have that kind of impact on his memory.

So now I'm at work getting ready for the day here to end so I can get to the theatre for my 4th performance. We have Jeff Dickamore back tonight, so it's gonna feel like opening night all over! I'm so excited, I can't wait to perform with him in front of a packed house. It should be a great night!

Opening Night

2010-04-22T15:43:00.004-06:00

After 11 weeks we have put blood, sweat and tears into this production, but I guess we didn't have enough blood until a half hour before curtain. Our Aramis (Jeff Dickamore) is the fight call captain. We were running through our fight call like we're supposed to at 6PM. Somehow or other, a sword went into and through the webbing between his middle and index fingers on his left hand. The producer called his double and got him to a doctors office where he could get it looked at immediately. Opening night hasn't even begun and we're a man down. Thankfully Jeff's double (Paul Cartwright) came in to save the day. I heard he had to break off a hot date in order to cover for us. Bummer man, I hope he gets a redo on his date, because he was a total stud to step in there and do an incredible job. We won't be getting our Aramis back until probably Wednesday.

So after I shook that off, I got prepared to perform in front of a sold out theater of 600 people. Quite a rush. Especially when you consider that this is the first time I've been on a stage in front of a live audience in over 5 years. This is what I've been missing, what I've been wanting back in my life, and now it's happening! I was still nervous, but that was to be expected when I knew that my Uncle, Sister, Mother-in-law, Brother-in-law & his girlfriend were in the audience. Top that all off with my amazing wife being there. This is the first time she's ever seen me perform in a play, so I was pumped up for this one.

I think overall it went really well. The responses I was getting from the patrons after the show were all good. They laughed in places I would have never imagined, and it was awesome! It felt incredible to be on stage again! I feel so at home there. I had a great time playing Porthos. I did have one small issue with my costume and I totally forgot to place one of my props before the show started. That was an interesting situation let me tell you...
Near the end of the show, we have an inauguration ceremony to make d'Artagnan a Musketeer. I am supposed to walk off stage in rhythm with the music, walk back to the prop table, grab the hat we put on him, walk back on stage in rhythm and hand it to the Queen. As soon as I got past the curtains, I walked quickly to the prop table and there was no hat! I had to run all the way down the hall to the dressing room, grab a hat off the rack, and run all the way back behind the curtain and then walk on in rhythm with the music. I made it back just barely in time, but I was breathing really hard all through the rest of that scene because of that. I won't let that happen again, I promise you!

I heard there was a technical issue with one scene as well, but I was too busy getting into costume to witness it. Really other than that, I think the show went great. If I had to give it a grade, I'd say overall it was a B+. We definitely have room for improvement, but it was certainly entertaining! Can't wait to do it again on Friday.

Get well Jeff! Can't wait to do this show with you my friend!

Final dress rehearsal

2010-04-20T14:52:00.004-06:00

So we had our final dress rehearsal on Monday. It's opening night tonight for the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday cast. This is a picture of my boy. He did indeed get to come see that his Daddy is a Musketeer. He was a little bit afraid of me when I first walked up to him in the audience before we started, but he warmed up pretty quickly. It took longer to get started than when I told my wife it would. Noah wanted to go home before we even got started, but once it began he seemed to like it. He was able to stay long enough to see me do my first sword fight, and then he was ready to go bye-bye. That was totally fine with me. We didn't end up finishing until 12:23AM, so I'm glad he got to see what he did. On the way home he was telling my wife all kinds of things, but mainly that "Daddy's a Musketeer!" That makes my heart sing more than anything I've experienced as an actor. I'm so grateful that he got to see me on stage at this age, and as a character that he can recognize. I'm also glad that my beautiful wife didn't see the whole thing last night, because she's gonna see it a couple more times.

We changed the dance scene at intermission, and I still don't think I have the new step down, but everyone said it looked better, so whatever. It was fun and it was kind of bittersweet because we are now split into our two casts. I've really developed some good relationships with people from both casts. We've been working together nearly every day since February 4th. I can't believe it's opening night tomorrow. I'm excited, nervous, happy, and relieved that it's finally here.

So long Tuesday Thursday Saturday cast. I will miss you. Have a great and amazing run, and we'll see you on the other side. Break a leg everyone tonight.

I had a few minor personal costume issues. It's been a while since I've been in a play that has costume changes. This is probably the most costume changes I've ever had before. My costume looks pretty good- yesno? The best thing of all...My hat stayed on, through the whole show! John the Director busted my balls after the curtain call on Saturday and pointed out that my hat fell of like 4 or 5 times. I was disappointed in myself after, but I was also mad because I felt like I haven't had enough time to even work with that hat. Plus I had a nightcap that I was being tyrannized by, but there you are. Oh and my sash. Geez louise! That thing is my own personal hell, I can't seem to keep that damned thing on in the right position AND make it look good. One other thing that I noticed about my performance. I let the costume stuff effect me from getting fully into my character. I can't let that happen tomorrow night. I think I just need to change into my clothing while I'm in character, and add that to my "moment before."

Anyhow, if you are a reader of this blog, and you're coming to the show, please leave a comment as to the night you're coming, and then again after you see it and let me know what you thought of it.

I know tomorrow night, My lovely wife Rachel, my awesome Mother-in-Law, my Brother-in-Law, and his girlfriend Elise are coming to see it. I think our show is sold out, it's gonna be a fun night for all!

I'll report again after opening night. Stay tuned for more Marked Anthony to hear some backstage stuff.

"Cling-ting-clangety-clang!"

2010-04-18T01:41:00.003-06:00

Saturday! In my heart! (I wish I knew how to make music notes) Anyhow, we did a double header today in tech week. The MWF cast (that's my cast) went in the morning, and the THS cast went later. I've been at rehearsal today since 9:45 AM and finally got into my car to go home at 11:11PM. It took us that long, but only because the Tech crew had to work on putting all the finishing touches on all entrances and exits.
At the beginning of our run, the Rochefort sword broke during the Luxembourg fight. I had just finished off my first Cardinal guard in the scene and I turned towards my next opponent and I heard a "cling-ting-clangety-clang" as a shiny silvery sword tip was heading in my direction. Of course the clangety-clang part of the sound was it hitting the ground well before it got to me, but still. As my son Noah would say and still does say, "Whew-da whas close!" We stopped and changed swords and started again, but I really hope that doesn't happen again, although I have a feeling that it just might, because it happened again today, to our cast even. I agree with Brad on this, and I think it's because we are hitting too hard in our fights. I like what one of my fight partners said, "we need to really work on pulling back on every hit, every parry, every floor touch." It really is a team effort in the sword fights. Although one person is winning and one is losing the fight, it still takes both of you to make it all happen the way you want it to in looks and in relation to how the story goes. It really is telling a story in of itself. Like a dance. I think the second break occurred with a d'Artganan fight. We had a little kid in the audience (a child from the parents of someone in the THS cast as they ran final dress rehearsal) who we all looked at because Brad pointed him out to us, and it really did make me think about how horrible it would be to see something happen that would damage that child, physically or mentally. He doesn't need to see anyone get hurt, (parent, patron, actor, or otherwise) or seriously injured.

**Just a side note, we don't use blood packs in the show, and I am thankful for that for a few reasons, but it's clear to the audience when we make a kill, or a slice to an arm, so there is no need to make our costume and the changes any more difficult than quick costume changes already are by themselves. (We have a few of them in this run and it's no picnic, but it's also kind of a rush. It's a great feeling when you pull it off with time to spare, a real thrill in the theatre biz.)***

I'm really excited about the performance of this show. It's been great to see the actors really step up and take on this character. I think it's even greater for me as someone cast in this show to see how a fellow thespian takes on their role and develops it into something real and tangible, and intriguing at the same time. The characters they all play are not what the actor is really like, in fact it's often times a long way off from how their characters really are. It really helps to see them off stage to realize that when they are on stage, they truly are that character, that person. Who knows if Porthos was ever a real person. History says that all the Three Musketeers characters were real, but may or may not have been the person that is being portrayed in this play. I would like to think that Porthos did exist and he was written about and mentioned in journals from back in the seventeenth century, so he must have been someone worth noting, and someone worth noting must have done something that was quite exceptional to have someone else write about you. So what was it really? Was Porthos a pirate? Was he a womanizer? Was he foppish, or just someone who really liked to look good? Was he a brawler, or did he just like to fight because he was really good at it, and it was something that was put to service back in those days? Did he want to honor the King and protect the Queen? To me a Musketeer is a lot like someone from our secret service would be in the U.S.A. A Musketeer was probably the first service where a body guard could say, "I took a bullet for them." However they were troublemakers, and great fighters to have lived as long as the stories say they do. I think the real Porthos is smiling at the way that I am portraying him, and I really enjoy what choices others are making and playing off of them for their character.

We are finally on the stage! Days to go:8

2010-04-14T10:16:00.003-06:00

Wahoo! We finally got to be on the stage today! And what a stage it is! This is not your normal community theatre, that's for sure. This stage required the assistance of the Las Vegas stage engineers to come and get it ready for this show. The stage (costing a million dollars) can now do things it never could do before, and we get to be the first run with all it's modifications.

The best part was being able to do the sword fighting scenes on stage to see how much spacing we actually have, and to make sure that with the new spacing, we don't accidentally lop someones head off, (These are real swords boys and girls.) and to get used to going up and down stairs in the fights. Here are a couple of pics of the action.
We did have someone rack their knee on the center column, that was no good, but it was a reminder of how we all need to be careful of all your moves, not only for swords, but for the stage as well. I'm just glad we get to do 3 full run-thru's on the stage before opening night. I'm telling you, this stage is another character all on it's own. Parts rise and lower, parts rotate, the center section can transform into stairs, it's amazing! I just hope it's nice to us from here on out. We don't need anymore injuries. So we have One week until opening night! I can't believe it's almost here. Thanks for reading. More tomorrow.

The the music begin - 9 days to opening night

2010-04-12T23:37:00.003-06:00

Welcome to tech week! Tonight we added another layer to this show...music. We worked from 6 to 11 PM on adding music to the fight scenes. We had a good time with it and it really is like having another character in the show. Our fight choreographer had an especially fun time with it. Check out this little clip I shot on my phone.

What's great is I never thought I'd ever see Brad doing this. Truth be told, it really did help get us all into the spirit of the music combined with the fighting, but I'm still not sure what was up with the bull horns. It was good stuff anyway. I only wish I would have recorded him every time he did it, I could have melded them into one long ballet.

11 days to go: A bitch that slipped

2010-04-10T23:47:00.002-06:00

So today's rehearsal went great! We took time today to really work some scenes. Of course they were only in the 1st Act, but it was still awesome. We needed to work on some of those scenes. The timing really felt like it was dragging in parts, and today we really put our foot on the throttle, and it made a huge difference to me, and because they had everyone from my cast there tonight I took the liberty to pick fights with a few of the Cardinal guards. Well...we went over our fight scenes on our own anyway. I also worked a scene I've been struggling with on the timing with d'Artagnan, and it got a lot better. I'm getting so excited about getting the show going, 11 days to go, oh wait, It just turned midnight...10 days to go!

I got some great news today at rehearsal today too. My boy is 3 years old now, and they don't let kids less than 5 in to see the play. We've taken him to see his Uncle Jesse in a couple of plays at The OBT in Salt Lake and he's done pretty well sitting there and watching, (at least while there was action on the stage and the lights are on anyhow) and I was bummed that he wasn't going to get to see his Daddy perform on stage as a Musketeer. He watches the Mickey Mouse version of The Three Musketeers all the time, and I know it's not the same story, but still he'd get that it's the Musketeers. So today I asked if he could come to one of our full dress rehearsals, and I got a green light! I'm so excited! He gets to come watch the show on the Monday night before my opening night! I just hope he enjoys the show and stays riveted. If we can keep his 3 year old mind glued to what's happening, I'll have no doubts that we're going to electrify the rest of the people who see the show.

So one other thing. The Director of this production is John Adams. He is a great joy to work with, and I really like his style and way of thinking, and he really does bring the best out of his actors, but he says the funniest things sometimes. Especially when you think of what he says as a sexual reference. It's really hard to not let your mind go there, because I get what he's saying, and it's extremely helpful. Today however he went right after it, and it certainly made me chuckle, I'll leave it up to you to decide. He said, "W-H-O-R-E It's like a bitch that slipped!"

Full costume

2010-04-09T15:48:00.004-06:00

So here are a few of the costume shots, the first is a publicity photo and the second is a shot from my phone. wearing the Musketeer tabard.

I'm getting pretty excited about this. Next week is tech week. We'll be rehearsing on the stage, and in costume so we can work all of that out. I'm looking forward to it, there are still some things that I've got to work out, like the hat. Will it stay on, or is it going to constantly fall off? The stage is a lot taller in places than I originally thought, and I have to jump up on it in one of my sword-fighting scenes. I've got to get my legs into game shape to be able to handle that on a nightly basis. Not to mention getting from one spot when I come off stage to get to my next spot that I enter the stage. We've had 2 full run-thrus so far and they've been pretty decent. I'm really getting along great with my fellow Musketeers and we're starting to bond in ways that are going to be really helpful on stage. It should be an amazing show!

Balls! Balls! I love Balls!

2010-03-30T15:46:00.002-06:00

That is the line the King says when he enters the room and we're all dancing. Great line, especially the way he says it. Hilarious! So we danced and danced for 3 straight hours. We only learned 2 dances, but they were pretty complex dances. We spent 2 1/2 hours on one dance that we learned last week, which meant we only had 30 minutes to learn the second one. Thankfully it wasn't as long of a song, but still, it was more technical, and to be honest, I totally sucked at it and was feeling like I really did have two left feet. The scary thing to me was that I consider myself a decent dancer. I'm not Barishnikov by any means, but I can hold my own. I was being proved wrong in this case under a time crunch. The cool thing is that because it was so short, we were able to do it over and over. I think in the 30 minutes we had, we were able to run through the dance about 18 times. By the time we got to the end, it really started to look pretty good. Of course we'll need a little more work on this, but it was really cool that the whole cast was on board with running this over and over. It was to the point that near the end, we would have the Monday Wednesday Friday cast run through the dance with the music, and as soon as it was over, we were all running to get into place for the Tuesday Thursday Saturday cast to run through it. We were all saying, "let's run it again!" It was awesome.

More Rehearsals

2010-03-19T13:46:00.002-06:00

The rehearsals are going great. We have all the fight scenes choreographed now and solid. So now all we have to do is nail down the moves and the intent of our characters in the fights. Oh, yeah, and do it with real swords while not injuring or slicing anyone.
It's been scary and fun at the same time. The show is really starting to come together. I'm excited to see it all put together again. We're going to be running the full show next week and then fine tuning it from there. I think next week we'll be able to practice on our stage as well, so we'll be able to incorporate the stairs in all of our fights. Now if they would only get us our hats and scabbard belts. I think that's going to be a big adjustment in our fights once we have those. It's too bad we don't have them already. All we can do is work with what we have for now, and for now it's looking good!

Sword Play

2010-03-11T11:07:00.003-07:00

For the first 3 weeks of rehearsal, we've been learning stage combat. Everything from fisticuffs to sword fighting. They gave each of us a wooden dowel the length of our swords and about the same weight to work with in order the strengthen our arms and muscle memory. The fight sequences are pretty technical, and we've finally choreographed all of them. Last night I got to finally go through one of the fight sequences with a real sword. We took it really slow, and I have to say that's a great thing because it was kind of scary knowing that I was wielding a real weapon that could actually kill someone. Here is a video that shows some of the moves from the stage combat training. My neighbor was gracious enough to learn some of the fight with me and played it off beautifully.

The Three Musketeers

2010-03-10T14:29:00.003-07:00

Up to about 4 months ago, I was having a struggle. I saw something about this 11 year old boy in England who is already a master painter, like in the ranks of Picasso good. His paintings are incredible. I remember thinking, "Wow, how cool would it be to learn what your passion is at such an early age!" I was jealous. I've coached kids on my soccer teams who are just freaky good at that, and they have continued to play the sport on a highly competitive level all the way through high school and possibly beyond. I see it in their actions. They do something everyday it seems to get better at something that they are already better than 95% of the population. Why, because it's fun to them. That's why it's called a passion.

So during the past 3 years, I've been trying to figure out what my passion is. You know, like really find out what it is that I love to do, that I'm willing to work on nearly every day. I've dabbled with painting, but I don't have the desire to clean up my mess each time I finish, not to mention I've got a nearly 3-year-old boy who would probably make an even bigger mess with it if I were to forget to put things away. I've picked up the harmonica, and have learned quite a few songs, and I really enjoy playing it, but I'm certainly not passionate about it. I was beginning to wonder what I would be willing to do every day of my life - aside from having sex that is.

My wife and I took this course called The Landmark Forum in October. It was absolutely amazing and has really helped me to let go of the past and work with a clean slate from the present and live into a future that I've created for myself. But what future am I living into was the big question.

Shortly after that we took the boys to a local theatre and watched my brother-in-law perform in a play. It's been a long while since I've been to a play, and as I was sitting there, I felt a burning desire to be on stage again. It has been over 4 years since I was in a play, and it was 6 years before that that I've been onstage. Aside from my brother-in-law, the show was abysmal. I began tearing it apart - how sloppy it was, and how unprofessional the whole thing seemed to be, and how some of the actors didn't even take their acting seriously. I had to stop and ask myself why it upset me so much. What did it matter to me? Well, the answer hit me pretty hard. I knew that I would have done a much better job on stage, and was disturbed by such poor acting, because it's something I know I'm good at. So on the drive home I said to myself, 'I'm going to be onstage again!'

I found it! My passion! It's been under my nose the whole time and for some reason I've been dismissing it. Here is the definition of the word passion according to thefreedictionary.com:
pas·sion (pshn)n.

1. A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.

a. Ardent love.

b. Strong sexual desire; lust.

c. The object of such love or desire.

a. Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don't quite match his passion for the game.

b. The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.

4. An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He's been known to fly into a passion without warning.

5. Passion

a. The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.

b. A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus's sufferings.

OK so aside from number 5, acting for me fits into all of these categories. I must admit it, I am a performer through and through. It's almost like it's in my blood. I love to be in front of a crowd performing. My bones almost ache to be on a stage of some kind. I feel in throughout my entire body. It is undeniable.

After dusting off my passion for acting, I decided to take action. I called the theatre that I used to perform improv comedy at, and asked them what it would take to get back into the rotation. The owner recommended that I take his next "performing improv" class. So I signed up. I was once again in my element. It felt right. It felt good, and I had a renewed sense of confidence in my abilities. After a few weeks, I realized that improv may not be the best thing for me, and I really wanted to get into some kind of scenes class or something like that, but the stage was still calling me. I did a google search for "acting auditions Salt Lake City" and came across a site that gave information on local auditions. As I searched through what was out there, I remembered where the passion for the stage really cemented in me...

I was 15 years old and my High School acting class attended a performance of "See How They Run" at the Hale Centre Theatre in Salt Lake. After that show was over, I was a changed man. I knew that was something I wanted to do. I even went as far as being cast as James Keller in "The Miracle Worker" and I performed on that very stage that started it all for me. Of course that was 18 years ago, and they moved into a new building since then.

I didn't see anything that was interesting to me on that web site, so I looked up the Hale Centre Theatre, and their site was pretty easy to navigate, they had a tab that said Auditions. I looked there and they had auditions coming up in 2 weeks for The Three Musketeers. I was floored, this was perfect! It was in the right time frame for me and the characters were perfect for my skill and abilities. I decided to go for it. I called and set up an audition time, printed a copy of the 1 minute audition pieces for Aramis and Porthos, and began to memorize them.

I went to my audition on a Saturday, and I was nervous as can be, but still I felt good about it. I went into the room with all the directors and producers with 5 other people and gave my reading of Porthos. (they only had time to hear one piece from each person) After everyone was done, we walked out to find a hallway filled with other people there waiting for their turn to audition as well. The gal that sent us into the room told us to wait around, and they would tell us if we got a call back to the 2nd round of auditions. So I waited with sweaty palms, and 15 minutes later was relived to know that I made it to the next round! I had to come back in two days!

On Monday, I came back to the theatre to the audition room full of about 60 people who got called back. They took all the men into another room and the choreographer taught us a sequence of a fight scene and we had to perform it two at a time after going through it about 8 or 9 times. I was having a heck of a time remembering all the moves in the correct sequence, but some guy put a dowel in my hand, and I was on. I felt like I did OK. They then took us back into the audition room and we had to read a few scenes. I got to read some of Aramis, Porthos, Rochefort, and Athos. I just tried to be loud and clear every time I read, and then they sent us all home and let us know that they would call us if they wanted us to come back for a final round.

On Tuesday they called me and let me know that I made it to the final round! I was so excited, and had to go back to the theatre on Wednesday night. I was right in following my passion. Even if I didn't get past the final round, I knew that I was good enough and that I belonged in that environment.

I returned to the theatre on Wednesday evening. The room was full of about 20 guys. They must have already decided on who would fill the female roles. I read for Porthos, Athos, and Rochefort. It appeared that they had already cast Aramis and D'Artagnan because they only had the same guys reading his stuff. At Hale they double cast all their shows, so I knew that 4 guys were not going to take one of the roles I was after. I really wanted Porthos, or maybe even Athos, but I was reading for Rochefort an awful lot, and I was a little nervous because although it would be fun, I really didn't want the role of bad guy. I just did the best I could, but everyone there was really, REALLY good.

Thursday at lunch time, I got a phone call from the stage manager. She offered me the part of Porthos! Woo Hoo!!! I was so excited. I really wanted that part, I felt like that was my part right from the beginning, and lo and behold it really was mine!

So we're in the middle of rehearsing now. Lots of sword fighting, fist fighting, and all sorts of running around. I'll continue to post, and hopefully the next one's won't be as long as this one. Stay tuned.

So I started a reading group...

2009-03-13T16:39:00.002-06:00

We've been reading "Think And Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. We read out loud, a chapter a week, and then we discuss what it means to us, and how we can benefit from it. We just read Chapter 2 last week, and were about to read Chapter 3 tonight.

Chapter 2 is about getting specific with your goal. I know I definitely have mine, but I have more than just one. I've got a few I've realized, and I thought that it would be good to post them on here in an effort to "Burn my bridge" or "Throw my hat over the fence" or whatever you wanna call it. To me, it's my commitment, I'm in this all the way, and there's no going back, it's as they say in Chapter 2 time to "win or perish." So here I go.

1. Get my web based business off the ground. I've been thinking about this business for the past 3 years. I've done quite a bit of the formatting and design work for it (on paper) and I've written a bunch of the wording for the website so far. I really need to get in touch with a good programmer who does MySQL and builds websites. I need someone who knows about text messaging, and I need a good business lawyer to make sure I do this all right legally. But I am bound and determined to get this thing off the ground. I'm shooting for July 20th of this year to have a working website.

2. Learn how to play the piano. I grew up in a house that had a piano most of my life, and I've never had one piano lesson. I was even in Madrigals and Jazz Choir in high school, and I couldn't tell you if I was singing an F or and F#. I had no clue, I just knew that when the note was higher on the scale, I needed to sing higher, and I knew rhythm from playing drums in 9th grade. I've always wanted be able to play the piano. We have my step-son in piano lessons, and we bought him the beginner books to learn. He practices every day for 30 minutes, and I figure that if that's the way it's supposed to be done, then why not do it at the same time? I should be able to learn how to play the piano at least as quickly as him, right? I think I'm doing pretty well. I learned how to play a small part of Beethoven's 5th already. I don't know why, but I've always had the ridiculous idea that playing the piano should come instantly to me. In the ripe age of 36 I've realized that some things just take time and action by you to become a reality. It's perfect that I'm going for two pretty big goals at the same time. I'm going to be able to judge my progress in both and be able to see if I'm falling behind.

3. Get into the best shape of my life. I love to mountain bike. I went 3 times last year, and all three times I felt like I had my ass handed to me on a platter. I was getting smoked by my fellow riders, and I used to do pretty well on uphill, but not last year. This year, I'm devoted to get back to the fitness level I was at 7 years ago. I started swimming at the local rec center. I swam 2-3 times a week for the month of February, and I was increasing the number of laps I could swim in 30 minutes every time I went. I need to get another pass this month, but I should still be able to do some stuff at home. If any of you have a Bowflex that you haven't been using, let me know. I'm the kind of person who would exercise more often if the stuff was right in my own home rather than go to the gym. I'm going to start doing push-ups and sit-ups daily as well, that can't hurt.

4. Simplify my house. Alright, what that hell are you talking about, simplify your house? Well this is what that means. My garage is full of crap that I don't need. In fact, there is a lot of stuff in my home that I haven't used or even looked at in over a year. My house is full of clutter, and I used to believe that a clean room or desk or what have you, was the sign of a sick mind. In truth, I'm sure it helps keep your mind clear. I've been thinking that the clutter of the house is like a metaphor for the clutter in my brain. With reading this book, I'm getting focused on what I truly want, and I'm going for it. In order to do that, I have to eliminate outside distractions that prevent me from putting in the effort and taking the necessary actions. So I should also clear out any unnecessary clutter from my eyesight as well. I recently visited a friends house, and they took us on a tour of their huge house. The one thing I noticed throughout the tour was how clean the house was. There was virtually no clutter! Their bedroom looked like it was about to have a picture taken of it for some magazine insert. All of the kids rooms were impeccably clean. I'm sure it's a team effort in their house, but really it starts from the top down. I wouldn't want to bring anyone into my room except family at this point. We're not slobs, we just have a lot of clutter. I know a good portion of it is me, and I'm working on that. Spring cleaning is going to have a whole new meaning for me this year though. It's starting to warm up now, and my garage is calling me in my sleep to clean it out. Can you say yard sale? Target date for completion: garage 3/29/09; upstairs 4/30/09; downstairs 5/17/09; basement 5/31/09.

5. Start getting to bed at 11:00PM. I have realized that I am not getting enough sleep for the past few years. My excuse for this has been that I'm used to it now. My body is telling me otherwise. I'm not going to hold myself to this bedtime every night, but if I can manage to be in bed by eleven 4 nights a week my body will thank me for it. Eight hours of sleep has got to be better than the 5 1/2-6 1/2 I've been managing lately.

So there it is. My 5 commitments. I know it's pretty ambitious, but it's also very doable. I'll be sure to write updates on how it all goes. Any encouragement would be much appreciated.

I'll finish with this quote by Les Brown:
"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." Well, here are my first 5 steps to greatness, and now I can't say that I don't know what it is that I need to do either.

The cross country road trip

2009-02-12T14:28:00.009-07:00

So I flew to Baltimore, MD last Saturday to drive my mother-in-law back from the Washington D.C. area. It was quite the adventure, and quite the drive. We journeyed 2130 miles, most of it on I-70.
The drive started in Takoma, Maryland. The night before we went to Virginia, and right into the downtown D.C. area where we ate at Ben's Chili Bowl. It was really cool. There was great music blaring inside, and a line that snaked around the counter to where we were finally able to order the Chili Half-Smoke. This is apparently the same thing Barak Obama orders when he goes there. Many famous people have eaten there in fact, and there is a sign behind the counter that says, "Allowed to eat free here, Bill Cosby, and the Obama Family." Bill Cosby went to Howard University which is not far from Ben's, and he visits often. There are pictures all over the wall of famous people who have eaten there. This picture was taken outside of Ben's. There is this statue of a bear that is painted all over.

From there we went to see the Capitol Building. I've always wanted to see the Smithsonian, but we didn't have time to even get out of the car. As a matter of fact, we passed all sorts of buildings, and I didn't take any pictures of them, because I was more concerned with Michele's driving. She was freaking me out. I did manage to get this one picture though. This is where it all happens for this country. I was able to see the Washington Monument, and get a quick glimps of the Lincoln Memorial from about 400 yards away, but like I said, I was busy being worried about my life. So We packed up all the boxes from Michele's apartment into the Penske truck and loaded her car on the towing trailer, and hit the road. So far we traveled through Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland. We drove out on Sunday afternoon. On the way we passed through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and stopped in Richmond, Indiana. It was a smooth drive, and a new record for me to drive in 5 states in 8 hours.
The next morning we hit the road and drove through the rest of Indiana, Illinois and almost all the way through Missouri. We stopped at a little town called Blue Springs, Mo. while we were shooting to get to Salina, KS. We were way off on how much distance we could cover in a day in that huge yellow beast.
Plus when we reached St. Louis, we stopped to check out the arch. I'd watched an episode of 'Modern Marvels' about the Gateway Arch. It was pretty cool to see it, but it was even cooler to go up inside of it. If you never get the chance, then enjoy what I have here, and maybe one day you'll have an opportunity to post about your national monument experience, and return the favor. Here are just a few of the photos from the excursion. I've got a video from going up inside it. Those carts were tiny. So here are some pictures from the little window looking west towards downtown St. Louis. Wanna go up? Check this out? So I took these from left to right. There is where the St. Louis Cardinals play. Home of the great slugger Albert Pujols. In the middle there is the courthouse. On the right is the Edward Jones dome. Home of the St. Louis Rams. Rumor has it that the Larry H. Miller family is going to try to buy the team and bring them to Salt Lake City. Only time will tell on that one.

Here are some other great shots looking down from the top. Here are a few more images from the arch. Me from the peak of the arch at 630 feet up. Here is a barge pushing three loads down the Mississippi.
It was quite the adventure. I'm glad that we stopped.
So we take off the next day and enter Kansas. This has got to be the flattest piece of earth on the planet. So flat in fact, that you can see the curvature of the earth. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but this will have to do. This is one huge country we live in! What was really cool about the whole trip was that each state had it's own terrain. I mean, if you were to show me a picture of Wyoming, or Kansas, or Indiana, I would be able to tell the difference just from the terrain. Here is the path we took.
After Kansas we drove into Colorado, and then headed north and just into Cheyenne, Wyoming. From there we were going to make it to Salt Lake City the next day around 5PM. The only problem was, while parking that night in Cheyenne, I had to back up the truck to park, and in the process I ended up jack-knifing the trailer and bent the tongue of the trailer. I was so pissed at myself, because we had managed to be incident free throughout the drive. I got some help from another trucker and straightened it out somewhat and then we hit the road again.
The next day we drove through The Cowboy State and finally into Utah. I am so happy to be home with my family again. I am also extremely grateful that we made it alive and nothing really bad happened. Driving through 12 states and one district in 5 days was more than I ever want to do again, but if I had to pick a sponsor for our trip it would have to be "5 Hour Energy" I never would have made it without that tiny little bottle. It truly kept me awake and alert behind the wheel, and I didn't have the sugar crash when it wore off either. That stuff really works. I was so motivated to get home to my wife and boys, I had to use what ever would work. I'm so thankful for technology today. That trip would have been tons worse had it not been for cell phones and hotels that have internet access. And screw ONSTAR and Qualcomm we had an even better navigation system. We had RACHEL. Not only did she have a sexy voice, and I knew she equaled that voice in looks, but she would look for Motels that we were approaching and make sure there was availability and what the parking lot situation was like for our truck and trailer, and then would call back and give complete directions including the exit to take, and how far it was. Then she would plot out our course for the next days travel. It was pretty awesome let me tell you! I love that woman. If you want to hire her, it'll be $1200 a day.

Anthony tells all! Exclusive interview.

2009-02-03T11:46:00.003-07:00

So I read my wife's blog and saw a meme, that I commented on and lo and behold, here we are. Five questions that she wants the answers to.

1. What one film do you think everyone should see?
Well that's really a toss up. It boils down to two films:
Shawshank Redemption is probably one of my all time favorites, and it's always been in my top 10 list. I just looked it up on IMDB in the top 250 movies, and it's there at numero uno.
Schindler's List is the second film, and I would have to go with this film as the one that I think everyone should see. Spielberg did an amazing job with this one. This is a moment in history that we should never forget, and it gives a pretty good idea what those times must have been like.

2. Name the best TV series of all time & why?
This is a tough one, but the first series that I was ever hooked on, and that I watched every night and saw every episode of was Moonlighting. I loved David and Maddie's conversations where they would both talk at the same time, and how they seemed to be able to say what they were saying and still hear what the other one was saying. This series had everything though, mystery, comedy, romance, drama. I thought it was very entertaining. Bruce Willis at his best.

3. What would you do if your spouse asked you to unplug their life support machine?
Wow, really? This is a question that comes from my spouse and I'm not sure what I'd do. It really depends on how coherent she was. I'd want to spend as much time with her as possible if she could communicate with me still. But if she told me in advance that she didn't want to be plugged in anymore if she was a vegetable, then I'd pull the plug, but that would be really hard for me to do.

4. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?
Well everything that I've ever done that seemed hard, turned out to be not too difficult when all was said and done. The hardest thing for me to do now, is to get some kind of business off the ground. So the answer to that in a nutshell is, not following the path to what I want to be when I grow up.

5. You have been named personal adviser to Barack Obama. What is your first piece of advice to him?
To throw some kind of mandate at credit card companies that they need to lower their interest rates if they are getting part of that bailout money. They are just as bad as cigarette companies I swear. They are killing people. If they would take the time to do some kind of education on how to use credit wisely, that would be a good start towards correcting their image, but when they charge interest rates that are as high as the Mafia would charge, there is something messed up with that. Then the next thing to follow would be to do something about those Payday Loan centers. They're worse than the Mafia when it comes to rates.

****
Here are the meme details:
If you'd like to play along, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (And realize I might
take a while to get back to you.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions. (Eventually!)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be
sure you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them
five questions.

25 random things, facts, habits or goals about me.

2009-01-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

I got this thing that said:

You are supposed to write a note with 25 (or thereabouts) random things, facts, habits or goals about you.

So I thought I'd give it a whirl. Let me know what you think.

1- I've never been farther east than Denver, Colorado, but I've been to 9 states, and lived in 6 of them. I think that's all about to change though because I'm flying to Baltimore to drive my Mother-in-law and all her stuff back to Utah from Washington D.C. during the second week of February. My two ventures outside of our country was to Tijuana, Mexico and Alberta, Canada each for less than 12 hours. So I haven't even been out of the country for an entire day.

2- Because I moved around so much, I went to 9 different elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 Jr. High, and 1 High School. By the time I got into High School, I moved in with my grandparents. I was determined to go to the same high school all the way through. It was rough going to so many schools. As soon as I would make good friends and start to get comfortable in my surroundings, we would pack up and move again, and I'd have to start all over again as the new kid in school. I guess that's why I've never had a problem finding friends. It was either that, or be a loner all through grade school.

3- I've been married 3 times, (some of you already know this) but I married my first wife twice. We were much better as friends. They say third times the charm, for me it is. Truthfully, I realized what I really wanted in a life-long partner, and waited until she came along, I just didn't think it would be someone I had already known. I have never felt this way about another woman before, and the day Rachel and I got married, was one of the happiest days of my life. (definitely top 3).

4- I've written a book (more of a guide really) called, "So You Wanna Get Married, Huh?" So far I've managed to sell about 35 copies. It's a book of universal truths that nobody ever tells you about, you end up having to learn them after you've been married, which is where I gleaned the information in this book. My previous 2 marriages taught me a lot about tying the knot. If you want a copy, I still have about 200 copies to sell. LOL

5- I broke up with my girlfriend and got a new date to my Senior Prom just hours before the dance. There was 2 great reasons for this: 1) I was avoiding asking my girlfriend, because I was planning on breaking up with her, but I was having a hard time finding a date, and she was expecting me to ask when really, I was just trying to find a way to get out of the relationship all together. 2) I had asked a certain gal to dances before, only to find out she had a date like 3 months in advance. At the Senior assembly, I sat next to her and found out that remarkably she had not been asked to go with anybody, and this was my last chance. My friend John Ricks was sitting with me in the assembly, and knew my predicament. He asked me what I was going to do, and I told him he would have to see who I showed up with at the prom. When I walked in with the gal from the assembly and not my (ex) girlfriend, he was stunned, and quite frankly, so was I.

6- I've written 4 screenplays. Only 2 are prepared for the screen now, so if you know anyone looking for a good script to turn into a movie, send them my way. Actually the last one I co-wrote with my brother in law, and we'd like to shoot it ourselves, but we're short of fundage right now, but please feel free to let us know if you would be willing to donate to the cause, and we'll see if we can set something up for it.

7- I have a forked tongue. Well, not really, but I can make it fork so that I can whistle really loud without using my hands.

8- All the way up to my 18th birthday, when I blew out the candles on my birthday cake, I wished that I could fly like Superman. I never told anyone either, and it still never happened. Whoever said that it won't come true if you tell was full of it!

9- I'm in the opening scene of the movie Boogie Nights. I had no idea what the film was about until my 3rd day on the set. I knew my parents would be proud after I learned that it was about a porn star with a huge member. If you look for me, I'm like the 3rd person in line waiting to get into the club when Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds pull up in their car to go inside. At that time in my life, I had hair down to the middle of my back. Don't bother looking for me in the rest of the movie. I was in some other scenes, but I'm so far in the background, or I'm like 2 feet out of the picture.

10- I hate not having my watch on. I wear my watch all the time, sometimes even to bed. We don't have an alarm clock in our room, so when Noah wakes up in the middle of the night, I like to be able to look at my wrist and know at what ungodly hour he's interrupting my sleep, so I can torture him later when he's a teenager and I can get even. Besides, my watch was given to me as a birthday present from my lovely wife when we were dating. She had it inscribed, and it's got a ton of sentimental value to me.

11- I once left my watch as collateral at a cowboy boot store, so that I could borrow 3 pairs of authentic cowboy boots worth about $450 for a skit I was asked to perform within 2 hours. The skit was awesome, and we got lots of compliments on the boots.

12- I like to cook. In fact I cook about 90% of my families dinners.

13- I can solve a Rubik's cube in less than 3 minutes.

14- I'm really good at starting things. Coming up with great ideas. My self assessment has revealed that I lack at getting things finished. The hard part for me has been implementing these ideas and taking action on them. That is one of my goals this year. To take action! So I'm not really going to care so much how pretty or perfect the idea is. It will never come to life if I don't take some kind of action to bring it to life, even if it turns out at 75% of what I expect it to be, it's still something. And I don't know who said it, but it's fitting "If you fall on your face, at least you're moving forward." How very true, and 75% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

15- I'm a total night owl. I stay up most nights until 12:30, but I succeed at getting to bed at 11:30 from time to time. On weekends the wife and I sometimes stay up til 2AM, but it really hurts the next day because for some unknown reason, our nearly two year old, Speed, is waking up at the butt-crack of dawn. I'm lucky if I can sleep past 7:30 on the weekends.

16- I've personally trained my blue-tick Beagle "Callie" how to perform over a dozen tricks on command (of course I have to have a treat in hand or she won't budge) including Roll Over, High-Five, Dance, and her best performed, highly dramatic, Play Dead.

17- I'm into the "Green Movement". I really believe that every single one of us can make a difference on this planet, and in what we leave behind for our children. I'm a little perturbed that in my little cul-de-sac, I am one of 3 out of 8 neighbors who puts out the recycle bin for collection, and that I only take my garbage to the street every 2 weeks. I think some people don't care, but in reality I think it's more that they just don't know. So here is a little tidbit. Did you know that 40% of landfills consist of paper that could have been recycled? Or this one: It cost's 90% more money to mine and refine aluminum than it does to recycle it. There is plenty more where that came from, but I'll stop now.

18- I've been a bartender ever since I was 22 despite having an alcoholic for a father. The amazing thing is, I know how to whip up a tasty drink, but I can count on one hand how many times I've been drunk in the past 3 years. Some of you may have known that, the bartending part, but not all knew that I worked most of those years slinging drinks at a gay bar. There will be no coming out the closet for me. I am comfortable enough with my own sexuality to know that I'm not gay, but I don't have anything against the gay boys or girls. They really know how to party, they are great tippers, and there is rarely ever a fight at a gay bar. Not to mention that while I worked in a crowd of people that was 98% male, the females that did come were usually smokin' hot. Let's just say, that I went home with more hot straight women's phone numbers in my pocket on gay nights than on non-gay nights. Plus it was never dull, I always saw something different every night that I worked.

19- I really enjoy coaching youth sports! I've only played baseball on two official teams in my life, but I've coached youth soccer for the past 8 years, both recreational and competitive teams. I also tried my hand at coaching Jr. Jazz one season. I was assigned a team that lost every single game the previous season, and we won 8 straight games before losing the last 2. I was really proud of that team for coming together. I've only had a child of my own on 6 out of the 12 teams that I've coached, so I'm definitely doing it for the love of sport. I get excited about seeing them improve throughout the season. I think I'll be taking on a 4th grade baseball team this spring due to the Kiddo branching out and trying a new sport.

20- I am a happily married man. My wife and I have been crossing paths over the past 13 years. I'm so glad we finally had some decent timing and I was able to move to Utah so I could marry her in front of my family and friends. Now more than 2 and a half years of marriage, and I love her more now than the day we said, "I do."

21- I love the outdoors! I love to mountain bike, go camping, hiking. I used to love to go rock climbing until I got banned from it by the wife, but hey, what can I say, she loves me.

22- I have never bowled a game above 200. I've been really close a few times, but I don't go often enough to get there. Maybe I'll cross that threshold on the Wii soon though.

23- I was in the Jazz Choir and Madrigals singing groups in my high school. I'm still not really sure how I made it really. I couldn't tell you what note to sing without doing the Every Good Boy Does Fine, and FACE. I just blended really well. I think it's was all that singing in the car my Mom and I did when I was a kid. Because of that, I've been known to belt out some beauties at Karaoke Night.

24- Every day I'm thankful to be alive. My mother gave birth to me at the tender age of 15, and has taken care of me mostly on her own. We ended up growing up together through life, and I'm thankful that she brought me into this world and did everything she could to take care of me growing up into who I am today.

25- I'm dedicating 2009 to getting into the best shape of my life. I'm ready to push my body through the aches and pains of starting up a new exercise regime. I don't think I'll do any Marathons this year, but I might just hike to a few peaks this summer.

So you can either take this upon yourself to write your own 25 list. And if that seems to daunting for you, do a 16 list. But don't feel pressured by me.

Sharing time

2009-01-14T13:34:00.006-07:00

This is from a journal entry I wrote last night. Enjoy.

HA HA HA! :) I laugh as I look at my watch to figure out what the date is. For posterity sake - It's January 13th 2009.

I'm watching the damn History Channel and "The Universe" is on. This silly show just blows my mind every time. And while I'm in an entranced and enchanted (read: sucked in/duped/slapped in the face/punched in the gut) sort of way, I really realized how very lucky and fortunate I am to even be living and breathing in this insane, chaotic, unpredictable, AMAZING Universe, let alone the Galaxy, or even the life sustaining, free thinking, fast moving, communicative, goal chasing, hard working, insanely great feeling baby making, ever progressing, always learning, critical decision making, creative and daring, colorful and melodic life this planet has to offer. I am thankful to be able to love and enjoy the people who love and enjoy me, and to be able to plant my foot, raise my flag, scream from the highest mountain, take care of my family, and not worry that my neighbor is trying to take what I love away. Oh, that and I'm thankful that we have a good Jupiter in our Solar System that protects us from all the outside bad shit that could wipe each and every one of us out in two minutes, and there is nothing we could do about it. Thanks History Channel.
Be thankful that you have the eyes to be able to read this, and a brain to understand it (maybe). I'm just thankful I have the wherewithal to be able to write it in the first place. I'm thankful that I even have a place in this Universe to be able to live out this life, which begs the question:
Why the fuck do we (and I say "we" as in the entire Human Race) need to be fighting in wars with one another?
How hilarious it would be if some old planet near our solar system blows up and sends a "cosmic burp"thanks to HC right at us and blows the atmosphere clean off the face of our planet! Those men with guns pointed at one another better start laughing soon because there wouldn't be enough oxygen to make it past 2 minutes, and they'll barely have time to wonder what the hell happened. Let alone what they were even fighting for. In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

Enjoy this life! It's that simple. Oh, and another thing, be nice to one another, and other people will be nice to you. Because the truth is, we are all miracles! Each and every one of us.

Do whatever it takes to do these two things and you will live with a smile on your face, and hopefully a ton of laughter. I love this life! I wouldn't want to be any other place than where my wife is and where our children are, wherever that may be on this one-of-a-kind planet, in the great free-thinking and innovative nation of the United States of America. Why do you think so many people have (and still do) immigrated to this country? I feel incredibly lucky to be here, where I am at this moment and that I have a mind that can figure out a way through many things in this life, but not anything beyond it. So I'll choose to enjoy my life today, tomorrow, and always - RIGHT NOW!

So it's officially 2009

2009-01-01T13:43:00.003-07:00

Good bye 2008, and hello 2009. You know, in all honesty, 2008 was a pretty good year for me and my family. No broken bones, doing much better financially, and we got a new bed right at the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to this year. I think this is exactly the time for me to kick it into high gear and really start going for my dreams. I've been doing a little personal education, and I'm going to start a study group this month. We're going to be reading "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. I think that this is exactly what I need. A personal study group of people who are looking to better their life. I don't want anyone attending to try and recruit people to join their MLM or even for the group to say what company they work for. I just want them all to be people who are skilled and have some brains, and are creative, and for us all to help collaborate and help each other with their ideas and help encourage them to keep pursuing their dreams. I think it's easier to do when you have people like that backing you up and holding you accountable for your actions. This year my theme is going to be, Improving my life in more ways than one! I know that sounds pretty basic and simple, but I don't think I've ever consciously thought about it every day. Things improve in my life, but I don't always see a daily progress towards improvement, hell sometimes I don't even see a weekly improvement. Not so this year. It's going to be on my mind everyday. I'm so thankful that I have today to do something that will get me closer to my dreams becoming a reality. I'm tired of barely making ends meet. Now is the time to make something happen. I found this quote by Ray Bradbury - "You've got to jump off cliffs all the time, and build your wings on the way down." Of course when he said this, he was pertaining to getting into a relationship, but I think it's fitting for many things. You can't just stand at the top of the cliff and work on making your wings so you can eventually jump. Otherwise you'll second guess yourself and find excuses to not jump. If you just jump, now you'll have to take some kind of action to build those wings.

Remembering High School

2008-12-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

OK so I was reading this forum about "If I knew then what I know now" and it referred to high school. All the stories that I read were about how they didn't enjoy high school as much, and they'd study harder or choose different things to focus on...blah blah blah. I was like... Man! You're bringing me down! I don't know what those fools were talking about, but here was my reply, so you can all enjoy.

I remember thinking about this a couple of times. I don't really have many regrets from High School, I pretty much had a good time. I didn't let it stress me out, but that may be why I didn't get the best grades either. When I went to college I realized how easy I had it in High School, and if I would have just applied myself like 20% more, I would have been a straight A student. But that 20% was being used to have fun, so to me that was worth it.
There were a couple of classes I wished I would have done better in, but only because they were boring to me. Mr. Crooks, Mr. Gray, and Mr. Lord all got mad at me because I would ace the tests, but I didn't turn in all my homework, and they'd all say, "If you'd just turn in your homework, you might have had A's or B's." Maybe I was just arrogant, or whatever back then, but I felt that I was above homework. I hated it. It felt like a waste of my time. My test scores proved that I understood the material, and it wasn't that I was lazy, I just used my time that I should have been doing homework, to hanging out with friends and have fun. Plus I was really involved with a ton of high school activities. Maybe I stretched myself a little too thin, but then again, I didn't regret it.
I loved being a part of most of the plays we did, I loved being a part of a performance choir, I loved planning for the Debate tournaments, and going with Peer Leadership to elementary schools to teach kids. The best part about it was being a Senior and knowing how to work my way out of not being marked absent or tardy in my Social Studies class while hanging out in the Choir room or on stage working on the upcoming play. I really learned how to work it.
So now the real thing for me would be how I was socially in school. I now know that I was pretty intense as a teen -aged boy hopped up on hormones. I was then and still am today, a hopeless romantic. I think I let that get the better of me sometimes, but I also know that I could have been even more confident in myself than I was, and I probably would have had an insane high school experience. My only regret was that I didn't know how to reduce my intensity. I think I intimidated the girls I liked. That's probably why I never got asked to girls pref dances. I came across as a psycho, when really the truth was I just wanted you to hang out with me and give me a chance, you might like me. I hit my peak of intensity when I was in 10th Grade.
I had a huge crush on Amber Neilsen from when we went to Valley Jr. High School, (me and 20 other guys that had a crush on the head cheerleader) and I kept it pretty quiet. The first month of my 10th grade year (wow- I can't believe I'm typing this.) I decided to become her secret admirer. I would write a love note, and it had clues in the letter as to who I was, and I would cut a rose from my grandmother's rose bush and I put the note and the flower on her doorstep. She lived fairly close to me, so I would walk over all dressed in black and drop it off at around Midnight, and then head back home. I had 4 successful nights of keeping my identity a secret, and then the 5th night it all fell apart. Her boyfriend at the time (and I didn't really know if she even had one anyhow) waited in the shadows for me, and as I dropped off the note and started to head home, he jumped out. Wow was I embarrassed! I'm lucky he didn't try to pound me, but I think he might have been a bit afraid of me too. Some strange guy dropping off roses and harmless love notes to your girl, never know what kind of crazy things he's capable of. Well that was the end of that, and it did some damage to my confidence level after that. (This is the first time I've ever told anyone about this, but I also know that it's in the past, so I hope you enjoyed the story.) I used to want to be able to go back and do high school over knowing what I know now, but I stopped wishing for that when I turned 27. After all I survived that period of my life. I understood then, that the only thing you can really do, is live for right now. Those things shaped who I am today. I wouldn't change a thing. Screw going back, I'm enjoying right now!