Entry #56
 
9:24 PM, Wednesday, July 5th, 2000:
 
??? Yeah, that's a strange title for an entry...but very true.
 
I guess most of you pictured an old wise-man with the white beard and wearing a white robe. Well, I pictured Walter Mathau with a fishing cap. Yes, whenever I thought of God as a kid...I pictured Walter Mathau. No idea how this happened. I actually pictured him until about age 9. How strange is that? So you can imagine the shock I had this morning upon hearing he had died. What a bummer. God is dead. What can I picture now?...man I'm a weird person.
 
So what's this about a new site? Well released just to coincide with the death of God, 4tvs got a makeover. I just got sick of the look of the old site, and started having fun with the ol' lens flare in photoshop. So I've retouched just about every page. And once I get some problems with quicknet squared away, there will be an extensive mp3 archive as well as the nearly 100 videos. Unfortunately my ideas for the site, and my know-how kind of went their seperate ways...so it still isn't completely done. In time it will be a lot more animated. To give you an idea....go to mothership.com. At least on a highbandwidth connection, this site kicks ASS.
YouTube link added 02.13.09
 
Anyway, as everything is new, if you find a mistake, feel free to give me a shout...
 
So what else? I had a recently that went pretty well:
 
Friday, June 30th, 2000
LULU'S BEEHIVE 5
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF CHAMPPS!
 
THE PERFORMANCE & REACTION
SET 1: HARRY - RHYTHM - LOVE - SLIDE
SET 2: LIFE - PARODY 2 - ABBEY
 

A year ago tonight I played my first paying gig in Columbus Ohio. Now I'm in LA begging for change. Heh heh. I can't believe I'm happy about this. The set-up of course was a bit tough because I was alone, but not too bad. The show was alright...but there was no one there....until I tore down, and then it was PACKED. A complete mess trying to tear down with all those people. Which of course begs the question..why don't I start at 10 PM and go until close? Sure would make sense wouldn't it? People who were there enjoyed it. One guy told me to contact Mike Nesmith. Hmmm...may be the tip of the year. Or a complete waste of time. We'll see. And yes, I'm calling Lulu next week and asking to go on later. If she has to have an act later...let me be the later act... I dunno. It was nice singing again after a month...and it looks like once a month will be 4tvs future from now on. That's fine with me. Too much other shit going on now to book more gigs....for free...

 
Mike Nesmith. LOL. Yeah, the Monkee. It's actually a pretty great idea. As you all know I'm a pretty huge Monkee hater, but only because the comparisons to The Beatles occured. Otherwise it is an interesting story. And some of the stuff Mike did after the show was really different. He did a lot of film and movie work that basically showed he had lots of freedom....heh heh. Your mom inventing Liquid Paper can give you that sometimes. Anyway this guy said Nesmith was just the type of guy who would dig my stuff. Cool. That'd be nifty. How ironic if a Monkee would help my career. Anyway, I'm in the process of finding a way to get a tape to him.
 
I've also entered a short film entitled: "Bread In The Freezer" to a site called eveo.com. Apparently they give you $100 just for entering. It's a $25,000 prize if I win. Wouldn't that be the shit. If any of you saw my final shows in Columbus, I did the Bread in the Freezer video. The short film is basically the same thing.
 
As far as life is concerned, it's actually pretty freakin' stressful...lol. My computer is just dying. I mean DYING. It's crashing at least 4-5 times a day. And I don't mean freezing...my computer turns OFF. Sometimes it just freezes..but usually it just goes black. Easily 4-5 times a day. Unfortunately I'm in no position to try and upgrade, and at this point I feel I may need a whole new computer. So I really have no choice, but to keep saving every 90 seconds, and keep working. We obviously need the money. I hate to say it, but this sort of work (video editing, and graphic arts)...needs a mac. Period. Hard to get around it. PC's are great for home use, but on the professional level...Windows is just too damn unstable. For now however, I have no choice.
 
Had a cool little moment last week I forgot to mention too...
 
So we're shooting Episode 4 of Movie Minded (they'll all be on the site soon!). The movie was the Patriot. So I was all dressed up in the ol' civil war garb and the 4tvs were in the fields and woods with me making fun of me and talking about the movie and so on. So I had done a running scene and was resting while everyone else set up the next scene with the 4tvs (thank God we bought the prop tvs!)...I was watching them and it all just hit me. That moment where you kind of sit above everything and watch it unfold. I keep referring back in my mind to what I used to tell everyone the last few months of 1999. About what 4tvs was going to gain by moving west:
"The exposure...some night I'm gonna be playing, and a guy is gonna be in the crowd that has the money and sees the potential. He'll take 4tvs to a level that I haven't even dreamt of yet..."
 
And that's exactly what happened. I'm still in awe that the 4tvs are basically starring in a tv show. As I watched them set the tvs up, I finally had a sense of pride. Probably the first time in LA that I really was able to smile to myself and think: "cool...I never could've had this happen in ohio..." And that's what it's all about. Who knows how long this California dream will last, but the idea is to accomplish as much as humanly possible before the rug pulls out from under you. And for the past 6 months, that's exactly what I've done. WOW:
 
IT'S BEEN EXACTLY 6 MONTHS!!! Woo hoo! And under binding contract we're out here until August 2001 at least. As you can tell, the stability of California just hasn't gotten to us yet. It's still CRAZY-tense day-to-day. Looking forward to August, when hopefully there will be some stability. Will I ever wish for unstability? Will I ever look back at the first 6 months of 2000 and wish my life had that kind of excitement again?
 
no.
 
Jess and Adam
 
original video file
JULY 2000