This was
originally going to be part of the last entry. Just as
I'm closing the most tumultuous entry of my life, I
tell you that I'm working on an entirely new one-man
show. A great example of poetic timing. In the midst
of such hell - I think I've had a killer idea that I'm
now going to pursue full force. Showing my spirit to
always move ahead, and just as a part of me is dying -
there's a new chapter ready to not only take it's
place, but to lift everything up yet another notch. I
was afraid that it would simply get buried in the last
entry, so alas it gets it's own. I'll start from the
beginning: December 1999.
I had just
completed "A Day in the Life". The 4tvs movie. It was
the first time I really pushed the concept of 4tvs
past "talking heads" and used the TVs as different
parts of a movie. I had hoped it would be the
beginning of several uses for the technology.
Unfortunately when I got here, my ideas required
a captive audience. Even "A Day in the Life" was
pushing it where I was playing as most people would
walk in and out of each venue. I became somewhat
stucl. Then in February 2001, I met Charlotte and
3 words changed everything: "One-Man Show". Why the
hell hadn't I thought of this before! Of course!
There's my captive audience. Because 4tvs had to be
profitable in the beginning, it was a show of little
15 minute minuets of simply singing and light
interraction. This allowed me to play clubs as a BAND
would and get paid. Keeping that up out here didn't
mean SHIT because I wasn't getting paid
anyway...so one-man show was the way to
go.
So when Charlotte
first mentioned that, my head spun. I could do so much
creative shit with a block of 45 minutes and those TVs
and characters...now was my chance to push 4tvs even
more. I had no idea what exactly - but I was excited.
Charlotte however was ready with an idea right out of
the gates. She saw a boy-band from the beginning, and
that sounded good to me. We went ahead with that
course and The Trinitrons were born.
Cut to this
PAST February. I was house-sitting for Marshall
who was getting his cable modem hooked up while he was
at work. Playing a little Super Mario World on my
Gameboy and thinking about the amazing drama unfolding
in my life. Just the high of November alone vs. that
moment was an amazing story. And almost as it happened
in 1998 when I thought of 4tvs, I INSTANTLY saw my
idea in my head. Sitting on a stage telling the story
of The Journey as my memories were visually brought up
on the TVs behind me. As I got to a part of the story
that involved a show, I could seamlessly (almost
magically) - stand-up and be WITHIN the show I was
talking about. As if I was taking the audience to
THAT NIGHT. I could even have the actual audio
crowd reaction from the show I was talking about
coming from the speakers! So it would be this mix of
memories, shows and story that was absolutely
effortless. All edited and timed perfectly to look
like I'm just telling a story. What a way to
incorporate every passion I have. The video editing
could be just as beautiful as the songs, or the story,
or the characters. It was really a great moment in the
midst of the worst month of my life.
I told Marshall
about it and he really seemed to dig-it. He threw in
the idea of making the whole point of the show to be
poking fun at my obsessive chronicling of my life.
I have this WEALTH of material just within
"The Journey" alone. 186 videos that I have
SLAVED over, all nice neat little produced bits -
READY to go. Full resolution too... It would give
the show such heart to make fun of how insanely
STRANGE this is. You know, looking at The Journey from
a stranger's perspective - it's no wonder people think
I'm an arrgant bastard. LOL. What was once just a
newsletter to my radio listeners keeping them
up-to-date on what the next show would hold - has
become this epic ADAM SLANT on life.
"HERE IS MY WORLD! HERE
ARE MY THOUGHTS! LISTEN WORLD! LISTEN!"
HAHAHA. I thought about Marshall's idea, and man it
just really struck me as something that could blow
people out of the water. I imagined at the end of
each show being able to tailor make it to each
audience. Telling them that the show they're watching
right now will be the basis for Entry #206. Show them
the web page and the title being typed out. Even tell
them they'd better be a good audience, 'cause you'll
read what I REALLY think of you tonight when you go
home. LOL. And it will have the one thing missing from
The Trinitrons, that I feel is just crucial to a
successful one-man show: audience interraction. I'm
talking to them. It's something I tried to add into
The Trinitrons with Cameron's openings, but for the
most part it was completely self contained. The
audience was watching a sit-com being performed live.
With "Adam & The Journey" I can take best parts of
"Adam & The Trinitrons" and also add drama. This
won't be funny in the same way The Trinitrons was.
This will never be performed at a Comedy Club. It's a
theatre piece for sure. And it's got me PUMPED again.
In fact, as I'm typing this I'm thinking of just what
this is... It's really making a show out of the site.
I know I just SAID that, but it's really the
"stage version" of the journal. And it'll
constantly be updated. WOW! God, I really, really dig
this. My biggest challenge will be to keep it from
being arrogance personified. At moments the audiecne
really needs to be laughing at how anal and compulsive
I am. And I certainly mean laughing
AT me. I think that'll give it the "heart"
it needs...
This all begs the
question doesn't it. Come on, you know you're thinking
it..."Uhm, aren't you going to do The Trinitrons
again?" Honestly, I'm not sure. It seemed a foregone
conclusion that I'd book the ever-lovin' hell out of
it now, but it's become a bit of a legal question now.
Not performing it mind you, but if I were to get
industry interest because of it that's a whole 'nother
issue. I need to speak to a lawyer and figure all that
out. I would never try and cut Charlotte out of what
part she played in this, and I hope someday to be able
to prove that to her. As I was doing the last song, it
occured to me that it's just all too serious right
now. While trying to think of the next verse I was
struck with the need to reassure her that I wasn't
trying to cut her out.
The
only way she'll truly know that though is
if I get a development deal and she sees
that I'll certainly make it well known the
part she played in everything. (sigh). She
probably won't be laughing
at
this...but
someday she'll know I'm being sincere. As
far as now, ideally I want to do both
shows. Each would be drastically
different, and I sort've like the idea of
"The Journey" talking about "The
Trinitrons" as the REAL show...you know?
Kind've an alternate reality.
I'm talking about
doing a show - when that's what I'm doing right then.
LOL. More to play with. I just realized though...talk
about pressure to have an interesting life. LOL.
I thought having a video with every entry was
nuts - now I stake a live performance on it. Ha! But
man, I just love how DIFFERENT it can be every night.
As well I become a bit more of a traditional one-man
show but can keep all the uniqueness of The
Trinitrons. And hell if I'm doing both, this
advertises that as well! And it gets people to the
site...yadda yadda. It just seems like a great way to
creat buzz. We'll soon see. Don't ask me when, but
know that it'll be a SHITE-load faster than The
Trinitrons writing process. Jesus one year later and
I'm writing another show...Who'dve thunk
it.
In other news Jess
in currently in Vegas at a manager's conference. She
is absolutely kicking ass. Her store is winning all
the contests, scoring the highest in every facet and
she's truly excelling. She just takes so much pride in
her work and her work ethic...MAN. I really feel for
our kids. They are gonna catch such SHIT from us.
Anyway, I'm alone for 3 days... :-( It'll gimme some
time to work on things though...
One of which is
getting my car back. I never wrote about this before,
because I thought it was just a formality - but
over 2 months later I'm still being screwed. I got in
an accident on January 10th. It was the other guy's
fault, and his insurance was paying for it. Adjuster
came out and said it would be $1500. I took it to
two body shops and they said $3000. Great. Well that
meant I had to leave it at the body shop of my choice
and then have the adjuster and the body shop haggle
over it. Of course I'd be without my car. The guy's
insurance company said they'd only pay for 5 days of a
rental car, the length of time it would take to fix
it. Bullshit because I would be without it for
much, much longer. I ended up not getting one for fear
I'd be stuck with a huge bill. So on January 29th I
drop of my car. The adjuster came and they agreed on
about $2200. Body shop assured me that THEY were
eating labor costs, not me getting shit parts. So they
fix the car, it's ready a few days later. The
insurance company however says they never got the
paperwork saying the adjuster approved the work! But
what kills me is that they should've sent out the
original estimate check for $1500 over 2
WEEKS ago. The supplement check was what was in
dispute. Well after 2 more weeks of bitching, calling
and faxing they say they're sending out the checks.
It'll take 7-10 days to get here. ?!?!?! This company
is based in Atlanta (ACCESS by the way), but I was
unaware that the Pony Express was still around.
(sigh)...
But it never
comes. More nasty phone calls to supervisors and the
agent and she had sent it to the wrong body shop. I
was livid. They resend one check on the 28th of
February and another on the 2nd of March...and as of
today, the 14th - STILL nothing. I call telling
them to stop payment and resend - nothing. Yesterday
morning they call at 7:30 AM and say they stopped
payment AGAIN and sent on the 13th...but again 7-10
business days. Anyone reading this a lawyer? I've been
without my car for 6 weeks now. Have paid my lease on
it, my insurance...everything for a car I can't touch.
Amazing. This and the Sony computer credit (which took
a YEAR) are mind-boggling. Ahh well. At least i'm
unemployed - right? LOL.
And finally,
I went back and re-read the original
"soiree-thrower" entree and slightly edited some of
it. I started straying from the purpose of the
entry near the end of it. The point was simply keeping
your value system in LA, and how I chose to deal
with one specific person. I started telling outlying
stories that went nowhere by the end of the entry and
it just made very little sense. I guess when you
have ZERO going on in the rest of your life, you tend
to get off on a tangent simply to take up space (kinda
like now Kontras?) - heh. So check it out, and
hopefully it's a bit more to the point.
So I'm off to
outline "Adam & The Journey". Finally creating
again...the best feeling on earth.
