Television Killed the Internet Star?

Ok, so it’s a silly title, but whatever.

I am about to be on TV, and I think I like that.

Next Thursday, March 19th at 7:00 PM those of you in Seattle can see the King 5 Evening Magazine segment about our series and hopefully at least some of the interview they did with Ben Andrews and myself. Everyone not in the Seattle area will be able to see the segment on the King 5/Evening Magazine website beginning on Friday March 20th.

And one month later: April 19th at 9:00 PM ET/PT on Comedy Central Ron White’s new comedy special Behavioral Problems will debut on Comedy Central. That’s right, folks. That’s me on national television. Cool huh?

In TREK news, we have two more character vignettes in the pipeline and a rehearsal for both tomorrow will tell me more about just how awesome they are going to be. But I know that the actors involved are solid and that the scripts are solid as well. All should be great. And more scenes from the Pilot are slated to shoot the end of this month. All will be revealed at Norwescon.

In personal news, I had the amazing opportunity to see The Lion King here in Seattle with my friend Maurica in the role of Nala. If you have a chance to go see this tour: GO. It was great. I won’t spoil anything for you, but get there early because the opening number is worth the entire ticket price.

And this week I auditioned for a musical and a film and am currently driving myself mad wondering if the phone is going to ring. Call backs for said musical are Sunday and Monday and so there is still time for a call to come (please?) and the film should be cast by tomorrow night. So I’ll be squirming for only a couple more days.

More when there’s more news!

Another Year… REALLY?

So remember when I used to blog regularly and then it was November and then it was the snowpocalypse and then it was Christmas and now it’s bloody January?!?!?!

The short version of what I hav been up to:
There is a post-NaNo group here in Seattle which I am trying very hard to find time to attend. There are some wonderful writers here and I can’t wait to show them all the TROPHY that NaNo HQ sent me in honor of our #1 fundraising (we wwew #1 in word count, too).

My mom came fo a visit and we had a BALL. It was nice to hang out with mom for a while and she bought me my Christmas present while she was here: A brand new SOFA! I love my living room now and will be having a party any minute to celebrate my lovely new furniture.

My friends Iuli and Mihai have a daughter. WOW.

STAR TREK: PHOENIX shoots beginning January 24th and we are still waiting to figure out where. Nothing like waiting ’til the last minute- although it’s not US who are the hold up. There is a lot of red tape in using someone else’s studio space and we’re waiting on our deal to come through or not. More on that as the story develops. The whole cast will be together this weekend to read the final shooting script and I can’t wait to see my fellow cast members all together again.

I auditioned last week for a new musical based on the story “Catch Me If You Can” which is being written by the folks behind “Hairspray”. The music is a lot of fun and I hope to get that job- but the casting is out of New York, so I’m not holding my breath.

My friend Maurica is coming to town with < a href="http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/#/tour/">The Lion King very soon and I am SO excited to get to see her.

And if you think I am behind on blogging: I still have CHRISTMAS/ HANUKKAH presents which I rescued from under the tree so the kitties can’t mess with them but have yet to be mailed. So if you’re my best friends in FL, or a member of my family, and you’re wondering if I forgot you at Christmas: I didn’t. Really there was no parcel service due to the TWO FEET of snow we had and I have now, of course, fallen behind on getting chores done. Did I mention that the dryer was broken for more than a week? Yeah. Lots to get caught up on 🙂

And that’s pretty much it. Not so interesting, but things are getting rolling again- apparently there’s a little bit of an entertainment industry lull in December. Peace on Earth and good will to all y’all.

All that Blogging I haven’t been doing

So it was November. Strange things happen in November; like my birthday and NaNoWriMo and (this year only) Abigail getting married. So then there are things that don’t happen in November, and blogging always seems like on of those. Oops.

Oh well, so here’s the Reader’s Digest Version of what’s been up:

You know about the kittens: we still have 5 of them and they are 3 weeks old today and learnig to walk. One of them gets a bottle so she’ll grow faster and they are all adorable.

STAR TREK: PHOENIX has been a busy bunch of folks and we will be meeting with our studio partner again next week, this time with the Board, so that we can iron out all of the interesting details of our future shooting.

I wrote most of a book. This one is silly sci-fi and in accordance with the Facebook “Page 56” experiment: “I understand the concept of ‘top secret’ and ‘classified’ but there is somewhere a line should be drawn about letting certain people join the ‘need-to-know’ community when it could save the lives of an entire crew and perhaps even the success of an entire attempt at diplomacy.
Maybe I’ll finish it someday- but if previous NaNos are the rule then I probably won’t.

My computer broke. But I am getting a new part soon and then it’ll be all peachy again.

I was called back for Show Boat at Village Theatre and I went to that audition last night. Hopefully I will hear back one way or the other soon. I hate not knowing more than I hate not getting a job.

Katy’s movie opened and was #1 at the box office. GO KATY!!

My vignette wasn’t released on schedule, but that’s not a problem, as I am more interested in it being good than it being done on time. If Harry Potter can stand a post-production delay, then so can I.

Tomorrow my mom is coming for a visit and that’s going to be AWESOME. And I think I’m getting a new sofa.

Saturday is the NaNoWriMo Regional TGIO party at 3:00 PM at Seattle Center Ice Rink and I am thrilled to be preparing to party with other wrimos. This is fun. And before that, I’ll get to go back into the studio to work on “No Other Medicine”, which will be the fourth vignette in the pre-quel series leading up to the pilot of STAR TREK: PHOENIX. In the mean time, HERE is a BTS piece for your entertainment.

All for now. I have squeaking kitties and need to make lunch 🙂

Best Week Ever

This past week was quite possibly the best ever- I’d have blogged more but I was too busy enjoying it. The week started out like any other, really. Monday was just a monday. But then there was Tuesday.

Tuesday was election day. I’m not sure that I voted for any candidate who won or any ballot measure that passed. BUT that doesn’t make the voting and the volunteering any less wonderful. It’s about the process; America gets to save itself or damn itself every November and I, personally, love that about my country. I went and voted in the morning, volunteered in a GOTV phone bank in the afternoon, got my free Starbuck’s and free Ben & Jerry’s (Cherry Garcia in a sugar cone) that evening and then went to an election night party at my friends’ beautiful new house (Thanks Chris and Sora for having us all over!).

Wednesday was just another Wednesday save for the fact that the whole city seemed to be in a better mood thanks to the liberal leanings up here and the election results. I got some house work done and generally had a nice day. Wednesday I also bought THIS DRESS to wear to Abigail’s bachelorette party.

Thursday I got to go and see the premiere of Poppies at the gorgeous Historic Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon and enjoyed it immensely. Thursday was also my first chance to see the rough cut of “Third Degree”, and I can’t wait for everyone else to get to see it. Danara is one heck of a character and I hope that everyone else will love her the way I do. Thursday I also got a casting notice for an upcoming Ron White comedy special.

I got the job.

Best. Job. Ever.

That was my Friday morning: some very nice people paid me to hang out with Ron White and his buddy Alex for a few hours and laugh my proverbial butt off. Oh, and they fed me wine. And Ron jacked a sip of it from me. He was SO friendly and fun to work with, and he gave me a silly nickname which I will not repeat, but which was overheard by the VFX supervisor of STAR TREK: PHOENIX and therefore repeated on the set on Saturday.

Which leads me to Saturday. We shot the third vignette in the prequel series: “Holo-Victory” starring Ben Andrews as Captain Bryce Avari. I won’t spoil the plot of it, but suffice to say it was intense. We shot the vignette in the “play barn” at Gas Works Park and the shoot, although frought with the usual perils of location shooting (rain, the public, etc.) was great and I cannot wait to see the finished product.

Friday night, thanks to Ron and Alex, I got to go and watch the taping of the upcoming Ron White DVD (the one I had done the opening and closing scenes for the previous day). I took Leo Roberts with me, the Senior Executive Producer of STAR TREK: PHOENIX and a huge Ron White fan. Alex had told me that he wasn’t sure where our tickets would be, because they don’t save the front rows for house comps when they’re shooting for TV (makes sense). Well, we wound up in row 3 and had a great time. Everyone will want to watch this DVD when it comes out; it’s hilarious- AND I am the girl with Ron in the closing sequence so you will definitely be able to see me.

Sunday I was glad to be able to prepare my house for my upcoming house guests. We went to a nearby Linens-n-Things and got great new sheets and towels and blankets for the girls who will be staying with us… Janet and Rachel, if you’re reading this, you will be very comfy when you get here :). Then we made a pilgrimage to the Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale to serch for shoes for the wedding and Bachelorette party. I found THESE in black and they will be perfect for both. We then came home and washed the foster cats and their things so that we could let them come upstairs and join the houehold (although still in a crate most of the time); so now we had 2 new kitties (mom and baby) added to our sitting room. And as though that was not enough for one week:

Last night I was watching an MSNBC documentary and trying to catch up on my NaNoWriMo word count when I heard the oddest sound: a really loud squeaking noise that I could not identify. I looked over at Bristol (foster mama cat) and thought maybe she had hurt herself and the noise had come from her. Not so. Turns out she was pregnant and we didn’t know it.

Before bed last night the number of kitties in our house doubled. We went from 4 of our own 1 foster mama and 1 foster baby to our 4, the foster mama, the foster 8 week old baby and 6 foster newborns. Yep- SIX of them.

This week will see a VFX meeting, two house guests, a film industry gala (good luck Ben and Rodrigo!), a bachelorette extravaganza, a tea party, a wedding rehearsal complete with italian dinner, and a wedding. Oh, and a birthday of undisclosed number. And I still have a novel to write.

Tara’s Birthday should be a National Holiday

Today is November 4th, the 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday this November. What an important and momentous occasion. It’s Tara’s birthday!

Tara is my dear friend and politico soul mate whom I met volunteering on a Congressional campaign in 1994- yes I was 15. We were best of friends all through high school and she was the maid of honor in my wedding last year. Tara is an elementary school librarian in a high poverty area of a middle-size city and a hero and role model to underprivileged children where she works. For those reasons and Tara’s just-plain-awesomeness alone should make today a national holiday.

But there’s another reason that today should also be celebrated far and wide: IT’S ELECTION DAY! I love election day and I hate living in an all-mail-in county so that I can’t have one of those nifty “I voted” stickers. I missed the ’96 Presidential cycle by something like 8 days of not being 18 and I still get all excited to go and vote. Again, “fill out the thing at home and mail it in” leaves me nonplussed.

But today I will be able to help a candidate I support and have been too darned busy to do much for in last minute get out the vote efforts. And it starts right here at my blog. So to all of my family, friends, fans, and random strangers who have stumbled across my blog:

VOTE people! If you are a legal citizen of the US, are over 18 years of age, and have never been convicted of a felony go and VOTE. Cast your ballot for your guy or gal today before the polls close. Don’t think your candidate doesn’t have a chance, or that he or she will win with or without you. I know of a race that came down to 129 votes, and it was a BIG one. I’m not just talking McCain v. Obama, either. There are good Governors, Congresspeople, Senators, State Officers, Judges, and Sherriffs that need to stave off opponents, and there are bad Governors, Congresspeople, Senators, State Officers, Judges, and Sherriffs who need to be replaced. And that’s our job.

Whether your political leanings are red, blue, green, or some other wonderful color representing a “Third” Party, tell the world with your ballot.

Call it a present to Tara on her birthday. Happy birthday to the Smartest Girl in the World!!

The Six Degrees of Pensacola

People who know me have likely heard to the “sucking vortex” that exists in my hometown. People leave and come back, and come back, and come back. But I think the reason that vortex has to be there is that P’cola is this ridiculous nexus of talent. Just a few examples: actress Abigail Spencer, recording artist Josh Walther, Broadway actress Ashley Brown, and former G4 Cheat Cory Rouse are just a few folks that I personally worked with when we still lived in my home town.

Andrew and I watch TV and every now and then I’ll see somebody and cry out, “he/she’s from Pensacola!” It drives him nuts.

And in the be all and end all of Pensacola spreading it’s talented tentacles into the rest of the world, my friend and super talented actress, Katy Mixon just wrapped a film called All About Steve in which she worked with the indomitable Beth Grant which, you likely recall, I was thoroughly enamored of when we worked together on Dear Lemon Lima.

Is that crazy, or what? Katy and I, who have known each other since 1994, have just this year worked with some of the same people even though we’re in different cities thousands of miles away from home.

Pensacola is pretty cool sometimes. And the people from there cooler still. This week has also gotten me in touch with some of the best friends I ever had, and every one of them is just as cool as ever.

Life is good. I should be back on set at The Whole Truth later this week. For full details on the film and its progress, you should read director Colleen Patrick’s blog “Wassup!”. I just discovered it (thanks Mireille!) and am reading it regularly now.

News from STAR TREK coming soon!

GeekToberFest

So two engineers, a PhD and an actor from STAR TREK walk into a bar….

Are you waiting for the punch line, because there’s not one. That was my real life weekend. I had the chance to drive across the mountains and party in Leavenworth, WA. For those of you who don’t know, Leavenworth is one of those wonderfully kitschy Bavarain Village towns, and they REALLY do Oktoberfest. If you’re a person over 21 and have a way to get there- you should. It was a fabulously good time.

Watching the lady yodel while she played “Edelweiss” on cowbells was worth the entire trip.

Next year I think the cast and crew of STAR TREK should all get together and go. The only thing that could have made the night more fun would have been more geeks.

You’ve Probably Already Friended Me

But in case you missed it, today I took the cyber-plunge and joined Facebook. I joined at the request of the other Producers who have set up a community for cast, crew, and fans of STAR TREK: PHOENIX. Ok, so I knew Facebook was popular. But what I didn’t know was that everyone I’ve ever met had a profile already. Five minutes after I registered I had a dozen friend requests from people I see in real life and talk to via email regularly.

Turns out I was the last person in America to sign up for Facebook (actually, that’s not true. Ben A hasn’t set his up yet- I was the NEXT to last person in America). So if you haven’t friended me, I’m there for the friend-ing.

In other news, NaNoWriMo is still down. Oh well. October is for bugs, right?

I love pants!

For those of you following the saga that is ST: Phoenix, you may or may not know the trousers situation. Our wardrobe department asked us to find our own breeches to go with our uniform blouses because there was no way in this galaxy or any other that the limited staff could complete tunics AND trousers by the photo shoot on the 14th. Pants are notoriously difficult to make and require a LOT of fitting to make them look good.

So we need to find our own pants to match a fabric swatch and then the wardrobe department may tailor them if need be. As PR rep for the production, I fugured I should look early so that I can share any thrilling finding with the rest of the cast. Well, I found the perfect pants today, and I found them at Target of all places.

And I tried them on in a 4, thinking that with all the dieting I might be a size smaller. Lo and behold- they were TOO BIG! I had to buy them in a 2!! A 2!!!!! Very exciting.

And it gives me an extra boost of self confidence as I go to audition for The Comet Chronicles tonight. Yay pants!