Carrot - The Crunchening

So here it is, over a week since my last post. Phew. And what a week. Here are the highlights:

• Received a response to my challenge of the school district's rejection of my appeal for Tyler's placement, despite currently having the situation in hand. I don't think they tell each other what they're doing in that particular bureaucracy, but then again, life would be boring if bureaucracies were efficient.
• Screened Ordinary Angels for Shandalla, who had not yet seen a finished cut. She's given a director's thanks for child care while we were shooting. We also watched Luther, which is a great historical biopic with Joseph Fiennes and Alfred Molina and Peter Ustinov, which tells the story of the origins of West Seattle culture. That's a little joke, you see, as there are so many Lutherans in West Seattle...
• Worked on the Mattress DVDs - it's giving me more trouble than I really care for right now, but hopefully I can get them done before Oklahoma! opens.
• For some reason, our Red Dwarf RPG has been enjoying a sort of resurgence in popularity. Not bad for a game that's been out for four years, but... what's THAT about? A gamer podcast is going to do a full-on playtest, review and interview this summer.
• I screened Free Enterprise and The Specials for my 12th Night buddy Raff, and he agreed that the Rob character in Free Enterprise was completely unredeemed by the end. He is saved by the girl and does nothing whatsoever to make good on his past immature behavior. We also agreed that Judy Greer as Deadly Girl in The Specials is super hot.
• Shot footage for a 30-second web spot for a private school in north Seattle.
• The old And Tears Fell remastered CDs are now up for sale on my online store. I make no claims as to their brilliance or lack thereof - they are simply a time capsule of Samantha's and my artistic collaboration in our college years and young married life. I kept the price point low, as this is old, lo-fi music recorded for an indie label and should not be construed as any sort of new release. Putting these albums back out into the virtual marketplace is simply a way to keep a small part of Bay Area alternative music history alive - to keep Sam singing as it were.
• Made my first new electronic solo music since releasing Impetus - Triskelle in 2005. I decided to re-embrace the Starbug identity of my past releases: funky, experimental, an homage to the pioneers of pop electronica (Bill Nelson, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Yello). But this is not the old Starbug. So the project is now called Starbug2.
• Put together the DVD menus for the OA DVD. Now just need to tweak the end credits.
• Conor sent me a mix of "Good Night My Love" with Julie, a vocalist friend of his, singing the lead. I love her voice, but it's important that the words be sung by me on the released recording, so he is going to remix the track to put Julie's vocals on the chorus and leave mine on the rest. Conor is really growing as a producer. This walkabout of his is going to be really productive for him, IMHO.
• Wrote two more scenes for an audio drama project for podcast. More on that later.
• Talked to two lawyers today about representing my non-covered losses from the fire, and hopefully working a settlement with RestorX's insurance carrier.
• This morning I noticed that there had been a power failure to the security system and when I tried to reset it, I got a blast of auditory trauma and a phone call from ADT. They're sending out a tech to fix the chronic problem with the mysterious Zone 3.
• Miscellaneous financial hoo hah that's not anyone else's business.
• Bought my Mother's Day cards a week in advance, and as of yesterday afternoon, they were sitting on my desk. So I called and/or emailed my moms and let them know they were loved, and I'll send out the cards this week. No such acknowledgement from the kids this year, after all the hubub about me being their mom AND dad last year. I'm not whining - it's just interesting how things change in a child's mind over the course of a year.
• Went out to lunch with my stepmom and got to see her new condo/apartment in Ballard. Nice building, 1960s construction, beautiful views.
• Considering writing a new play for directing in spring '08 for 12th Night at Youngstown. The artistic director and I have been discussing options for next season. If I did, it would be something simple with no more than 4 cast and a single set.
• Need to go get a new lawn mower and edger, as my yards are beginning to resemble the Brazilian rainforest.

...and that's all I can think of for now. I'll try to be more prompt with the posts this week. Sometimes it just gets away from you.