Well folks its been awhile since I sat down and hammered out a what\’s up to y\’all ! I haven\’t been on the tribe much this past summer except for a drive-by every now and again…Much love to all of you and thank you for my Birthday wishes on 9-11 ! I can\’t say I was thrilled about this one and really prefered to let this one slide w/o much fanfare…The height of that day was making downtown to the courthouse and back unscathed with my new car tags. Seems that someone had organised a demonstration at the State Capitol building against the administrations heath care reform package…All well and good and I respect the people\’s rigjt to assembly, BUT I thought it incredibly callous and tacky to use 9-11 as a platform for the protest ! Add to that, the woderful and spiritual ( heavy sarcasam here folks)Reverend Phellps and his mob of haters had devended on the Hyant Regency downtown for some sort of hate rally…FOr those of you who don\’t have the pleasure of the Rev Phelps aquaintence, he is a  so-called man of god who\’s ministry is based on hating homosexuals…His church regularly holds rallys and protests at the funerals of gay men AND funersals of our slain service people whos deaths he also blames on homosexuals….What can I say except " What a TOOL."I managed to get to the courthouse, while avoiding the scene at the capitol building….I was SO tempted to go to the Regency Hotel and join a the counter-protest that always acompanies Phelps mob across the street . I decided not to push my luck. Adam was at work and would have been pissed off if he had to come bail me out of jail for getting into it with a pack of Neandrotol idiots.!  Common sense won out but damn sometimes I hate being a grown-up!

Adam made a very good contact for me from the restaursnt this summer!  It\’s a comedy group from Decatur (part of metro Atlanta). They\’re called Sketchworks Theatre and  you can look up their stuff online at www.sketchworkscomedy.com …A

A bunch from the troup eat at Roxx , the place that Adam manages on a regular basis…They commandeer a table and brainstorm for hours over food and drinks. When Adam asked them one evening what they did ,  he got excited and blurted " Oh nice, My husband writes and does stand-up! "….I was mortified when he told me this because yeah I write…and yeah I\’ve been on auditions but these people are PRO-FESS-ION-ALS….veterens of the brutal open mic nights and road tours….They gave him thiir card for me and said they\’d love to meet me but i fighured that they were just being nice….then I thought " Wait  a minute, these people are comedians….comedians aren\’t usually  just " NICE."  The I got really scared.

I went online and discovered that several of their veteren actors offer workshops at various times of the year…Workshops of everything from "writing stand-up 101" as it were, to workshops on Improv Comedy and so forth…Of course these workshops aren\’t free, and they arent cheap by my wallets standards either….BUT this is a possible launching pad.

Up to now i\’ve been flying by the seat of my pants ( well my whold life, but that\’s beside the point!).  I will give myself SOME credit for raw talent which hs taken me years to do. But I have never been known for my FOCUS or my follow-through. My own mother used to refer to me as " Late Mr David H. "…um nice huh….but  ANYway….I thought that here finally, is a way to learn some technique to my base talent….to actually have a lolid acting foundation to build on…I was always discouraged from seeking out the artistic side of mysef growing up. Both my parents were young during the Great Depression and my Mother sacrificed a prommising carear as an artist to have a family….I don\’t think she resented it ( too much) but I know that it left her sad and unfulfilled untill her 70s when she took up painting again…She used to remind me of Grandma Moses, the artist who didn\’t  even begin a carear as an artist untill very late in life….Mom went on to show in local art festivals in her 70s and even won several Blue Ribbons…I\’m very proud of her for that!

I was going to take a four week  workshop from Sketchworks this month (Sept 09) but as luck would have it several factors conspired against it….Adam was sick and I hate leaving him alone when that happens. There is little I can do but leave him to his mysery and get him soup and Pedia Lite or whatever…But ever since his heart scare 2 years ago I don\’t leave him alone if hes sick. period. Anoterh factor of course was…..money….or should I say the fact that like everybody else, we\’ve been bleeding it for the past year! It has somehow fallen to me to be the unpopular voice of reason when it comes to our finances. Adam wanted me to put the Class on one of our Credit Cards for my birthday but I just couldn\’t bring myeslf to…WE had just about paind off one and I like to keep that ballance NO highter than $300 max. The other one I caount as a lost cause and I just setttle for paying on it monthly….The crooks who made the original deal of 8.9% APR fixed,  just decided to go back on the deal um…..BECAUSE the bastards can apparently rewrite the rules and contracts as they go along and if you don\’t like it  well, you\’re just SOL….We told them that if they couldn\’t keep theor word then just *maybe* they were going to have *Somebody* defauult on the balance owed….It was trhen they offered to close the account and let us pay the remainder in minimum monthly installments at the original agreed upon 8.9%…..funny how that worked, Y\’all might try that!  SO that means we\’re down to using one Credit card not counting HomeDepot which is well under control….usually :-p

Anyways, long story short ( I can hear Adam saying "TOO LATE! "), I didn\’t take the september workshop….BUT there is another one that will be coming up probably this next apring and it will be an eight week workshop taught by one of their premeir comic actors!  This workshop culminates with Sketchworks theatere showcasing their new talents on a special night. Who-HOO!   now I have more time to save up the money (it\’s twice as much as the other one of course) and plenty of time to get the major nervous stomach and throw up dozens of times before I even start class….You know, all the FUN stuff that goes with being onstage!

In the meantime, Adam is on the mend thank goodness….He\’s pretty resiliant excepth when he wears himself down…that late shft and closing every other week really gets to us sometimes…He doesn;t make it home till 2AM sometimes and then we don\’t wind it down and into bed before 3 or 4AM some nights….Not the best thing for ones immune system! I got into the bad pattern of waking up bright and early no matter what time we had turned out the lights and even if we didn\’t have to jump up the next morning….One of the things I\’m trying to do is get back some of the old dicipline to just refrain from late nite TV…..internet ….blogging…..anything that keeps my mind whirrling half the night…I barely barely dodged being real sick on the heels of Adams recovery….WE have a house rule that is kind of an inside joke that " Nobody in the house is allowed to be sick at the same time! "….so far, knock wood, it has worked for the most part…When I\’m in caretaker mode, i just dont get sick!…

I may be a total ditz 98% of the time, but one thing I\’ve learned about myself is that during an energency or crisis, I snap into a rarified focus….Need CPR"  I\’m your man!…..choking on a bite of food? I\’ll save you! Sheesh . Why can\’t I be that focused in my everyday life?

Anyways friends, it is good to be back…Pics gently spanked me and told me not to worry her again by disappearing so I will do my best no to …far as long a stretch anyway….I really have to put the afterburners on if  I want this stand-up  and/or writing thing to happen!  It comes down to persona achievement for me, not to fame….Not that I\’m not an attention whore because I am!  But it comes down to a love of the art which I think has to come first…SO many of us were reared on Air guitars and sold the illusive fantasy Willo-the-wisp of fame, that we forgot that it is the beauty of the art that matters….Well, that is what I tell myself…What do you think?

Thanks to ALL of you who encourage each other every day to be the best we can be!

Much Love to You!

Loki