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This evening, I begin to understudy for my friend John O'Brien in a musical version of the 1970's disaster classic, The Poseidon Adventure... The Musical.

My website is now over four years old! It is undergoing some major renovations at this time, so it is possible that some links might not work or take you to unexpected places. Some pictures may disappear. Beware of holes in the stage.

I have just finished shooting a movie called Zen Noir, written and directed by Marc Rosenbush. It is a murder mystery centered around a death at a Buddhist monastery. I play a mad monk named Ed. See Pictures.

Here is a picture of me and the dog I spent two days with shooting a commercial for Cingular Wireless

March and April have been busy months. I have directed two plays now running at Theatre of Note. One is called Son of a Biker and is running on Wednesday and Thursday nights and the other is Truly Truly Judy on Friday and Saturday nights.

Today I have a new management team. They are called Sovereign Management. They can be contacted at 323.462.0070. The announcement appeared in Variety.

My Canon Copier commerical began playing this month during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Well, awards season has begun. I am fortunate to be in several movies doing very well.

Ghost World has won numerous awards. It has won Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay from the San Diego Film Critics. Thora Birch won Best Actress from the Toronto Film Critics. Steve Buscemi is Best Supporting Actor says the New York Film Critics Circle. Steve Buscemi and Thora Birch were both nominated for Golden Globes.

Rain is not in competition but is an exhibition film. Friends tell me it is sold out. So far Rain has won best cinematographer at the Stockholm Film Festival.

Ghost World is getting some buzz at the awards shows this year. Steve Buscemi won b

I am now busy stage managing a show called Destronelli at Theatre of Note.

Last week I shot the commercial for Sonic Burgers. They say it should be on the air starting in February. As should my Canon commercial.

I have been cast in a commercial for Sonic Burger Restaurants. It is a southern regional chain of restaurants. They have cast me as a barber. Shooting should be the second week of the new year.

My theatre life is busy these days. In between my performances at Theatre of Note I flew home for Thanksgiving and was in a dramatic reading of

Opening night for three one act plays collectively called NEAR LIFE at the Theatre of Note. I am brilliant of course. I play an aging man trying to connect with his adult son and not succeeding who then turns to the fortune cookies that come with his daily chinese meal, hoping to find some meaning for his life in the fortunes.

Everybody in the film industry knows that when you begin a project it's as if you've been brought into a new extended family. This is not always such a good thing. Sometimes it works like a well-tuned machine. Other times it falls apart like a cheap suit and everybody who doesn't die gets sued.

But, just like families, film sets are full of intrigue, "dysfunction", vendettas, agendas and slights. They are also made up of special bonds, shared joys, secret laughs and tolerated truths.

But the one true thing about working on a film, or any other project, I suppose, is the inevitable and unavoidable certainty that the extended family of which you are a currently part is, at its core, temporary.

This can conjure great sadness. It can also be the one thought that gets you through a hellish project. "Well, at least it's temporary."

Whenever a film wraps there is a joyous cry of victory immediately followed by a shared emptiness that creates a void where, only moments before, had been something substantive if intangible. Even if one is going right into another project, there is the sense that this special world that had been created specifically for this short period of time, this esthetic machine incorporating a one time only mix of individuals who came together briefly to create a specific something, has now disappeared into the ether and can never be recreated. For the wise there is also a joy in knowing their own place in that act of creativity. Like having children, that to which you have contributed will live on after you.

While working on "The Towering Inferno: The Musical" I was struck by the ease with which a number of the cast members could work with each other. It was as if they knew what the other was thinking at any given moment and would, on occasion, finish each others' sentences. I noticed that all of the people who shared this intimacy were members of the same theatre company:

There's an old theatre exercise called "The Machine". A group of actors are given a subject or a theme: "The Bush Administration", for example, or "violence in our schools". An actor then approaches the playing area and creates a movement which s/he repeats (like a machine) as s/he says a line and repeats that in tandem with the movement. Another actor then incorporates him/herself into the machine by adding on to the movement and vocalization. It's an ensemble building exercise designed to assist in creating a physical and aural dependence the other ensemble members.

If one cog gets screwed up, the entire machine can easily collapse and everybody would die. Or get an eye poked out. Or, maybe, be sued. So one must be dependent on the entire ensemble so as to achieve the goal of creating the machine.

I shot a CANON copier commercial last week. It should start airing nationally on the major networks in October. It was was a kick. I got to spend the entire shoot laughing. Literally. The bit is that I've found something extremely funny on the copier. And I literally fall down laughing. We shot on the 14th in an industrial area of L.A. down near the airport. When the director saw me at the shoot he came over and said: "Hey, I saw GHOST WORLD last night."

I've heard two negative comments about the film and I've discounted them both as just a matter of personal taste. I'm very lucky to have been associated with such great artistic projects as GHOST WORLD, FIGHT CLUB, and MAGNOLIA. The other films I've done have been great in their own ways as well, but to be attached to classics, well, that's a different kind of feather in one's cap.

Word is that RAIN starring MELORA WALTERS, JAMEY SHERIDAN and DIANE LADD (which I shot in Iowa last October) has been accepted into the VENICE FILM FESTIVAL. The name might change as there is another film out there by the same title. I can't seem to find a website address for their current festival, so, if you happen to know of one, please forward it on to me so I can post it. I think it runs later this month.

SAY IT ISN'T SO should be available on DVD and video soon. Check your local stores and check it out. The reviews were overly cruel to this film. I think due mostly politics (the fact that it was the first Farrelly Brothers produced film that didn't feature them as directors.) But check it out. It's the same director (J.B. Rogers) who just released AMERICAN PIE II.

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