KingLou Drops Science 2.0

So my short film, "Friday the Thirteen Incher" was rejected by the Channel101.com selection commitee. I was a little surprised by the rejection because it was a really well done show and definitely in format required. Basically they want a 5 minute version of 30 fake TV show. Something that can have multiple episodes without getting boring. Unfortunately my show was rejected. On a good note they did like it enough to heap excellent praise on me. And here is that praise.... From the desk of Rob Shrab: "Lou, the show was top totch. It looked great and you in particular are really funny in it. We just had A LOT of "dick" shows this month and one of those is fine every once and a while but everyone seemed to have "dick and ball fever" over the last three months. It was discussed at great length last night and I think you should resubmit it for next month with a different primetime panel. In the mean time please represent the east coast and continue to submit. Your work has quality and craftsmanship. I look forward to more." From the desk of Dan Harmon: Lou: We desperately need you to keep making stuff, Friday the 13 incher was audible, seeable, understandable, "franchisable," very clear of purpose. You guys totally get what we're doing. There was a really specific overlap in terms of some very specific imagery between your pilot and one of the prime time episodes. To the point where whoever's show came second would have met with eye rolls and silence, and people in the back saying, "what is this, the ___ show?" There were a couple of voices on the panel saying, regardless of the overlap, "but it's just a __ joke," but everyone agreed it was well executed and I'm pretty sure if it weren't for the overlap we would have eventually come around to putting it in the show. Especially in light of the shows we DID eventually have to agree on. Yikes. I will definitely hang on to the tape and make sure next month's prime time panel, whether it includes me or not, understands the situation. I'm positive September will be ridiculously light because now all these pussies that spend 3 months on their videos need 3 months to lick their wounds. So hang in there. Also, make more stuff." And finally from the desk of someone named Andy: "Now I'm not Dan or Rob, but I am a prime timer, and I would love you to make more stuff, Lou. I think it is swell that Dan is passionate enough about your show to want to hold on to it for next month, but channel 101 is all about just jumping back in and making another show. You and your team are great. It looked sounded and smelled of excellence. I can't wait to see that excellence applied to another show. I may not be the biggest fan of Friday the 13 incher, but I am a big fan you and your team." So all in all a good showing and maybe it'll get shown at next months screening. In the meantime I need to work on a different show so I can bounce back and prove to them that I gots the goods. It's been an action packed weekend. Friday: Jodi's birthday, Saturday: Cook out with Ted & Cindy and Sunday: Brunch with Meg & Frank and then parent type socializing at the playground. Phew. Add all that in with RNC fear and temps in the 90's with crazy humidity... I am freakin' tired. The Olympics end tonight. Farewell international competition. Farewell hot and scantily clad female vollyballers, farewell scandal and crushing defeat, farewell reliable TV choice.

School year is about to begin.... YIKES. So many thngs coming at me at work it's making my head spin. Student job descriptions, Carlos replacement job switch, DVD requests and so on. It's really a lot of work. I've been pretty proud of some of my stuff. I rewired two important classrooms to their potential. I guess for a long time no one had hooked any of the equipment up in those rooms to work together. Like one of the podiums had a computer, amp, DVD & SVHS deck. Only the computer was hooked up and no one of the machines was hooked up to Amp so there was no sound. It was dumb. I re-did the whole set up. Did the same thing in one of the other rooms. Really ass backwards solutions to problems had to be undone. In one of the rooms I found a file cabinet that was labeled for my department but it had a padlock on it. I managed to open it and found it was full of some really useful stuff. Laser pointersm, rca cables, duct tape. slide projector lenses and more. Why were these things in in a locked file cabinet in a class room? Anyone's guess. Well the shit officially starts hitting the fan as of Tuesday.... sigh. I was talking with the IT guys at work and got the official word on Mac support for the dept. What was the word? "No" and "We don't support them." Then they said it was because no one uses them. I tried to point out the vicious circle they were supporting but it doesn't really matter. I will continue to support the Macs at work.... for nothing. So it's RNC week here in NYC. The city has been slowly swelling with protestors nad supporters all week. Everywhere I have looked I have seen people wearing anti-bush stuff. Selling pins, buttons and other stuff. All anti-bush. On friday, Jodi's birthday, we were in a cab in crosstown traffic when our cab came to a stop. We soon realized that we were caught in a Critical Mass event. Not just any critical mass ride but a protestor swelled one. 5,000 people on bikes kept us in the cab in one spot for about 15-20 minutes. It was alright, we survived and went on to have one of the better Mexican meals I have had in NY. It was a restaurnat called Los Dos Molinas. (the 2 grinders). Really great and spicy food. Jodi said she had a really decent birthday. I was glad she liked all her stuff because I am a terrible present giver. But I did good this time around! Today we went down to the farmers market and everywhere we looked there were people gathering for this Pro-Choice womens rights rally. I feel like we're missing out a little on the history aspect of all the protests we aren't marching in. Jodi just is afraid there will be trouble and doesn't want to expose Ace to that. It would suck to be suck in some crazy riot with a baby but with amount of cops that are out in force I don't think that is going to happen. Tomorrow is the BIG rally. We have a lot of friends who are going but I think we're going to brunch instead. Protesting with our omlettes instead. Yet another sigh.

Back from vacation and right back into the swing of things. The vacation ened in a decent fashion. There was threat that a huge hurricane was going to swamp our last days but the storm broke up well before it got to us. All we got was rain. Fine with me. I lived through one hurricane there and I don't need to experience that again. Back to New York topics. I am back at the job. Yesterday was Carlos "Just Kidding/Why aren't I having Sex?" Castenada's last day. i am still waiting for the edict to be handed down saying I can post that job so we can get another person in here to help out. I think I am going to be short handed for the busiest time of the year! Meeting with Dean to talk about it keeps getting pushed back. Sucks! Yesterday I was waiting line for my daily breakfast sandwhich and someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and was greated by a handsome african american gentleman who say, very politely "Hey. Boston Sucks" I was wearing my Red Sox hat and so random strangers telling me that my team sucks is nothing new. However the up close intimate method of the sport fandom totally caught me off guard. I agreed with him to get him to stop talking to me but he just started a conversation with me instead. Telling me about the olympics and other weird stuff. All while waited for our food at the deli. It was very odd. Went to an interesting gathering last night. It was a meeting of people who used to work at name removed and those who will be quitting soon. It was a monumental bitchfest and stroll down the lane of painful recollections. Lots of laughing as we went on and on for 4 hours of stories. It's crazy that the place is still in business. Found out that another friend of mine is starting to try and have a baby. I am pleased. Jodi and have zero friends with babies. We're stranded in a babyless friend land. Well my G5 here at work is acting up so I will cut this short. EDIT: removed name of former employer because of hurt feelings. Fucking Google.

Surprise! I got tickets to see the Red Sox today. Out of the blue tickets were offered and accepted. My brother and I drove into Boston to watch and boy... Did they suck. It was a terrible game for the Sox. Just a suck-fest of sucking with suck sauce. One good thing was that I got to see the first pitch. That has been a real drag for me in the last 4-5 years. I alway miss the first pitch. Don't know why it's such a big deal but I like to see the first pitch and stay for the last out. You never know how it's going to end! Well I saw the first pitch (made it by like a minute). getting home was another story all together. We waited in molassas like traffic for about 45 minutes to get to a sign that said the road we wanted was closed. It took another 30 mins to get back on track. We got home at 12:50. I should be asleep but I am a little wound up after the drive and the loss. In a recent discussion with my mom she was trying to convince me to move to Boston to be closer to her when she moves to nearby Marblehead, MA. I retorted that "every person I have ever met from Boston has been a complete asshole." I stand by this statement. My limited experience with the people of Boston has lead me to this conclusion. Mainlyl when I was about 19-20 I went to visit my friend, Sam, who was at B.U. While hanging out with him I was 1) Threatened by the son of a Mob Boss' bodyguard at a Yellowman concert. We were getting pissed at this one guy who was being a dick at the show and I iwas taken aside by a gentleman who kindly explained that I was fucking with the son of a made man in some well known Family. He wasn't threatening but his message was obvious and scarey. 2) Punched in the chest at a dance club after being told that I should leave for no clear or explained reason. I wasn't asked to leave by the staff but rather a group of buff patrons didn't want me there anymore. If I recall they idn't like my dancing or something? They weren't very clear... except for when they punched me. 3) Played basketball in one of the most asshole-y attended games I have ever played in. This game was too shitty to go into. It was full of trash talking and people making up their own bullshit rules like the winner gets to pick who he plays against. Mainly his own friends. It was maddening beyond belief. I stand by my odd feelings on Boston. Love the sports teams, hate the people. The beach was awesome today. Water was freezing but the waves were huge. We boogie boarded for a while and it was fun. My tan is coming along swimmingly. Hmmmm....Going to sleep now.

The day started with clouds and rain but gave way to sun and major waves. As you may or may not know I have major back issues. Buldging disk, siatica and possible spinal fusing. It sucks. The pain caused by these combined problems has rendered me an un-athletic bum for the last few years. Even last year I did some body surfing and it caused me all kinds of grief. But today I decided to give the ocean another shot. My mom and her friend went and bought some boogie boards because the waves were so big they NEEDED to be ridden. I was so nervous that I would catch one wave and be crippled by back agony. BUt the first massive wave came, I caught it and rode it to the shore. Awesome. Backpain: Zero. As I repeatedly sloshed out to the big waves, I am talking big like 4-5 feet over my head when he crashed, I was always nervous that some shooting back pain was imminent. It never came. Even now, hours later when I was convinced I would be crippled with built up spinal compression, I am fine. Hooray! I still have back pain but it's actually like the ocean beating I took helped a little. Worked out the kinks or something. Toinght Jodi and I went out to see Farenheit 9/11. I know it's been out for over a month or whatever but it was still a powerful film. Some of that footage was harsh and actually good to see. The sanitized news we see at home is so clean and video game-like that seeing the soldiers bodies and dead children was kind of a nice wake up call. Very very horrible shit going down and now it seems like it's all out in the open to some extent. I don't know how you could go to the movie and leave still in complete favor of Bush. Yes, Moore often leads the audience down a path they are already willing to go down but he did expose some interesting things and show footage that the American public was never meant to see. Kudos! Ace continues to kick ass all over the place. I am so glad he loves the ocean so much. The water up here is cold but he has given me nothing but HUGE grins every time I dunk his little feet in the water. He's a champ! My brother arrives at the beach this weekend. Soon shopping will come. One distressing thing. When we went into Portsmouth for our dinner we discovered that 2 of our favorite stores have closed. Most distressing is the store I always buy my sunglasses at is gone. It was a cool independent hipster store for years and then last year it was bought by Boards and Blades. I guess they shut it down because now it's something else. Sad days. Now I don't know where I will buy sunglasses. Maybe I'll just end up shading my eyes with my hand for the rest of my life. Man, my arm will be so tired.

As I write this a thunderstorm is rolling in to the coast. Flashes are lighing up the night and that sweet rolling thunder is working it's way across sky. It's nice. Now back to the DC wedding: Saturday. After a nice little brunch with a friend of Jodi's who has moved down to DC we headed out to the wedding. I hadn't printed a mapquest map on how to get to the wedding because I had planned to uise my cousins computer. Turned out that his hard drive totally hosed on him so I was out of luck. It seemed by the street names that we were very close the day before when we had missed the picnic. So we drive back to the park and as we got there we realized that the church could be anywhere on the road we were on. In either direction. We panicked and called the groom who hanhded us to someone who gave us awesome instructions. We made it to the wedding with about 5 minutes to spare. Ace looked great and was relatively we behaved. He did manage to get half-way to the priest once and was pretty vocal but no one seemed to mind. After some awesome kindness by Rob Blattt's sister for lett8ing us hang at her house while we had time to kill and more kindness by Rob's girlfriend, Marion, we headed out to the wedding. There was a report of an accident on the hwy we were going to take so we took backroads to the reception. That sucked but we made it in time for the end of the cocktail hour. The reception was insane. Too much craziness to recount but I will say that it was a wedding of over-achieveing families. The groom sang a song he wrote to the bride. The brides family all joined on stage and played wedding cover songs. There was story after story about how cool everyone was and how hard everyone works and so on. It was depressing and happy all at the same time. Seriously. Everyone in the wedding party had actually lived the addage "If you put your mind to it you can do anything." Not a loser in the bunch. Sigh. After dinner Jodi, Ace & I decided it was time to bail. We couldn't find the brode & groom. They haad vanished. No doubt to change into yet another style of wedding garb. They had already switched from traditional western wedding attire to traditional vietnamese wedding gear. All very handsome. The night ended back at Rick & Cecily's (my cousin & his wife) home. We stayed up until 2-3am talking about stuff. It was fun. Sunday: Rick & Cecily made us a nice breakfast of pancakes. All very yummy. Then we went to the DC National Zoo. It was coo.. They have a giant display about pizza. All about where the indredients come from and so on. They even hav e a giant pizza you can crawl on. That was like the lord of the flies. Kids throwing giant mushrooms and giant onions. Stacking them up abouyt 5-6 feet high and them throwing themselves into them. It was all a bit much for Ace. There was also a petting zoo and Ace got to pet a nice white chicken. He liked it a lot! We drove home that night and it was actualy not so bad. We ran into some traffic but it was nowhere near the 7 hour nightmare from Friday. The major miracle of the day was the fact that I got a parking space right across the street from the apartment in Brooklyn. A very rare treat. Then on to the beach.... The lightning has gotten closer. Time to shut down.

Started the 2 week vacation with one of the most trying driving experiences of my life. The event: A friends wedding in Virginia. The plan: leave nyc no later than 9-10am to make it to Virginia by 3pm so we could take part in the rehearsal picnic for the wedding party. Actual deaprture time? 11am. Mapquest says 3-4 hours drive. First problem: Ace barfs up the entire contents of his stomach 2 hours into the drive. The car smells like bile. We pull off and change him. Traffic is slow. Second problem: Traffic gets slower. Cops are out in force and writing tickets. Third problem: Ace barfs again. Jodi is losing it. Fourth problem: We hit the beltway rush hour. Traffic is crazy slow. How do people deal with communting like that? It's madness. We finally make it to the picnic site. Driving time 7 hours. Fifth problem: We arrived 10 minutes after everyone left. Get back in the car and drive to my cousin Rick's house. But get lost near the house first. Eventually make it to the house. Total driving time? 9 hours +. Exhausted we settled in for a nice night of relaxing with my cousin & his wife & two great kids. Luckily the rest of the trip was no where near as crazy.