Various updates: Calamity Cash, Familiar, and Twitter

Few things to cover, mostly business-related.

Quite a lot of work was done on "Calamity Cash" during my week or so of radio silence here on the Mojo Wire. Justin has posted samples here, here, and here on his blog, going from most recent to least. Some may have been posted here before, and as always, I encourage you to click on M.R.C.R.W.

Justin's been trying something different with the way he's working on pages, doing five or so at a time, and then getting to the computer work, which has seemed to up his output considerably. I remain impressed with how well the pages are coming out, and am excited that we've crossed the half-way point and are getting deep into the action of the story. Just recently sent me the finished pages, and I can't say enough about how amazing they look, and how he's made at least one of my dreams come true, by putting an exclamatory "COCKBLOCK!!" in a situation I'm almost 100% certain it has never been before.

Proof positive that if something is awesome, it's more awesome on a motorcycle.

Lately, I've also talked a lot about working with a photographer -- the purpose being to take some pictures of Elk River for a movie I'd written [Re: The Familiar]. Regrettably, it looks as though those plans aren't going to be working out anymore. While the photographer I tapped seemed very committed to the project, she now feels she's unable to fit me into her busy schedule, and I'm left a little out in the cold. I had a lot of hope for the collaboration, and felt like I put myself out there a little bit for a fellow artist. While the timing is no longer as pressing as it was, it is difficult for me to have put so much time into preparing for something, and then have it fall apart like this. Such is life, I suppose, and best to look at this as a learning experience, pick up, and move on.

No hard feelings to any of the parties involved. Some things just don't work out as they should. If anyone is a camera jockey, or knows one who might be interested in pro bono work with the possibility of a payday in the distant future, leave a comment in this entry, or e-mail me at mojo.wire.productions@gmail.com.

Finally, in a smaller note, I'm giving Twitter a try. My user name is, surprise, "themojowire." I feel slightly like I'm selling out for having it, and I blame John completely for starting me on it. Near as I can tell, the program is just a sewage drain into a shallow trench of trivialities where anyone can troll the internet, real life, or people talking about the internet and real life in 140 character bursts. Unless, of course, you live in Iran [you don't].

So why have it at all? There are a lot of things I originally intended to do in this blog [talk about what I'm reading, watching, or the music I'm listening to] which I quickly shuttled in favor of trying to keep the focus on writing and my creative process. And being honest with myself, there's really nothing terribly interesting or professional about me talking about how I'm digging the Detroit Cobras, or how Matt&Kim's album "Grand" makes me smile. The same is true about links to articles I'm reading, thoughts about pro wrestling, or even political musings -- all stuff I toyed with in this blog earlier on that never really took. I'm hoping this can be a place for that.

I also think that as time goes on, and I get busier with some of this film stuff, it might be rad to be able to send updates in real time from my phone to whatever set or anything I'm working on. Honestly, I might be too busy, but if I'm not? That'd be pretty useful gadget to have, and if I suddenly get serious with it, expect it to be integrated into this site in some way.

For now, I just use it as a place to be faux clever, crass, and mopey. Wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for information, or to be entertained. Still, I'm told it gets fun when you start following people, so this is me, giving it the old college try.

Shalom.


P.S. I would also like to send a message to my friend Kaley, and her family. I know since Steven's death they occasionally check this space, and I want to send them my condolences for their recent loss. Each one seems to make all the others sting that much more.