Jeez Jon

Sidecar Shrugged

Hey, blog! Long time, I know.  I've been keeping busy, including starting a new blog with my friend Sue.  It's called The Sidecar, where we are doing some pop culture commentary and highlighting some goofy things.  I'll be reblogging some of my posts here on this blog. 

Today I watched Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1, and reviewed it on The Sidecar (I'll reblog here in a bit).  But as I watched the film, I live-tweeted it.  Here are some my choice comments:

A man in a trenchcoat watches a poorly shot debate on TV and leaves a $5 tip. That generous a tip? He must be a socialist. #atlastweetspt1

For the actors, this movie's directorial style is straight-up Objectivism: don't look to me, direct yourselves! #atlastweetspt1

One benefit: Rearden looks great with his shirt off. Atlas can shrug as much as he wants with lats like that. #atlastweetspt1

Dagny is wearing the best women's pantsuit you can buy at Target. Or the wardrobe people hate her. One of the two. #atlastweetspt1

SPOILER ALERT: Dagny & Rearden do it. If he was truly selfish in a Rand-ian way, he won't give her an orgasm. #atlastweetspt1

Avoid.  Avoid at all costs.

Hollywood Nights

I've been away from this blog for a long time.  A very, very long time.  Apologies for that.  While it's obvious that I've been away because I've been busy, I wish I could say it's because something amazing was going on in my life.  That's not the case.  Nothing horrible, either. I've been working a lot.  In fact, the show I've been working on, Flip Men on Spike, debuted this week to some strong ratings. While that's going, I have other things going on as well.  Here's the list:

• Work: Flip Men
• Acting Class: Steppenwolf West
• Acting Career
• Marriage
• Family
• Friends
• SAG Nom Comm Screenings

My life is pretty busy right now, and I'll work in the blogging as much as possible.  I have to admit that Facebook has eaten up my political links and posts lately but once the 2012 campaign starts next year, I'll be more active here.  Thanks for being patient.  Be back soon.

 

So I Did This Today...

What did you do?

The Master Plan, Part 4: The Website

After my VO demo, the new headshots and the reel, Part 4 of my Master Plan to bring all my acting weaponry online is now here:  My Official Acting website:  jeezjon.com All of my stuff is on there: the demo, the reel, the resume, the headshots, everything.  All that you wanted to see is here.  So, enjoy!

(I'll be back to blogging soon, trust me.)

Ain't That A Kick In The Head

You can check out my story producing prowess on this Sunday's episode of Jerseylicious on the Style Network.  And boy, is the episode a doozy.  There are guys bowling, women at singles mixers, two girls get into a fight where one's knocked unconscious and then she's kicked in the head, nurses getting makeovers...  wait, what's that?  Yes, Olivia and Tracy get into a big... well, let me just show you:

 

The title of the episode is "Jersey-vicious", and as you can see, it's appropriate.  Tune in!

Master Plan: The Acting Reel

First I did the Voiceover Demo, and now the acting reel is ready.  To enjoy:

 

Thanks!

Coming Up For Air

I've been working tons lately and it's eaten up a lot of my time.  I've a few ideas for some posts that'll be coming down the pike soon.  I'm alive so expect a few posts from me soon.

Shake It 'Til The Butter Melts

One afternoon in my freshman year of high school, I was home from school after rehearsal watching TV.  One of the local channels was playing videos and they played this:

 

I'd never heard of the B52s before, and the video and the song had me transfixed.  The soaring chorus, the beautiful harmonies, the strange but simple imagery: I was thinking "Who are these people?" and "Where can I hang out with them?"  A few weeks later I heard Rock Lobster, and fell in love with every bizarre second of that song.  But it took a couple more years before I would buy any of their music... and that's when Cosmic Thing was released. I bought the cassette from Coconuts Records, flew home, and started playing that out.  I can remember bouncing around in my room listening to that album over and over on my little cassette player and on my Walkman.  I remember watching an episode of Doogie Howser a couple of weeks later where Doogie was sad over his girlfriend dumping him and he played "their song" over and over again.  Here was their song:

 

Yup, "Channel Z".  Love that song.  I love The B52s for so many reasons.  The biggest one? They are a FUN BAND.  They play fun, tuneful, party music.  You can't tell me that if you hear the first couple notes to "Love Shack" that you don't have the song running through your head all day.  They have a quirky sensibility that I love but they aren't pretentious. While they occasionally mix some messages into their songs, their main objective is for you to have a good time.  And since they are completely enjoying themselves, you can't help but smile when you hear their songs. The subject matter of the songs may be strange (party crashers, planets named after women's names, offering a girl fish and candy to a rival to get her man back, et. al) but you can play a B52s song in any party setting in front of any kind of audience and someone will get up and dance.  And also that they do have a rather distinct gay sensibility that's wrapped around a party vibe in such a particular way that they don't seem like "the other" to many people.  And then throw in what talented musicians they are.  Keith Strickland is a fantastic drummer AND guitarist (taking over the guitar when original guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS in 1985), Fred Schnieder is a great showman, and then you have the ladies.  Cindy Wilson (blonde) and Kate Pierson (redhead) have some of the best rock voices in the biz.  And they harmonize beautifully.  In my mind, the B52s is the ultimate party band.

Before this past weekend, I've only been to 5 concerts in my entire life.  The first was They Might Be Giants and Squeeze and my second in 1992 with the Violent Femmes opening for, tra la!, the B52s.  And it was a wonderfully fun concert.  I went with some friends (including the marvelous Pam Turlow, who is the biggest B52s fan I know) and we were maybe 17th row or something, and down in the front was a group all dressed up in glitter and bouffant hairdos grinning from ear to ear and talking in stage whispers about how amazing it is to be there.  Once The B52s went out on stage, they were dancing the whole time.  The eldest of the bunch just stopped during "Private Idaho" and exclaimed "We're not worthy!", which totally made me smile.  It was an amazing concert and it was the last time I saw them...

...until this past Friday.  My birthday happened a few weeks ago, and Tom said that one last present that was coming.  So I waited... and waited... and waited.  And then, last weekend, he spilled the beans on the last gift.  He was taking me to see the B52s in concert at an Indian Casino about 2 hours outside of LA.  But wait, there's more!  In addition to the concert, we were getting backstage passes beforehand for a meet and greet with the band. Let me repeat that: it's a MEET AND GREET WITH THE B52s!  Gahhhhh!  I was floored, excited, nervous, etc.  I didn't tell Pam about it because I wanted it to be a surprise for her, but I did tell everybody else.  Alex, one of my teachers at Steppenwolf, was very impressed and rather envious.  I downloaded a bunch of their music from iTunes, and bought some CDs as well for them to sign.

After driving 3 hours Friday afternoon (the 91 is the purgatory of Southern California freeways), Tom and I finally made it to Temecula.  We got dinner in the casino after scoring our tickets and credentials from the box office.  During dinner, Tom and I split a bottle of champagne and that helped to calm my nerves.  Slightly.  After dinner, we gathered with the remainder of the fellow VIP ticket holders and were lead into the back of the theater.  I was carrying a couple of their CDs and a couple signs, chatting with some of the other people in line. 

Me: I brought a couple CD's for them to sign.

Fellow Fan: Oh. They're not signing anything tonight.

Me: They aren't?  Oh, okay.

Fellow Fan: You could always ask.  They are doing pictures.  I did double check on that.

Me: Okay, cool.

I put aside the CDs and Tom and I held onto the signs.  After a few minutes of waiting, the band's stereotypically British manager entered the room.

Manager: All ri'. 'ere's the deal. You get ONE photo wif the band PER GROUP.  'N I'll take the pitcha. Righ'?

All of the Fans: Righ'!

Tom [sotto voce]: We'll each hold one of the signs.

Me [sotto voce]: Cool.

And then, the band came out and waved to us.  They were all pleased to see us but were ready to get this over with since they had to do a show in a few minutes.  One by one, people ahead of us in line were lead up to the band where you'd shake hands with them, the manager would take their picture, you'd say thank you and take your camera and leave. That's it.  Which is fine, honestly.  They have a job to do, they've been doing this for a long time, I get it.  Then finally, it was Tom's and my turn. We walked up with our signs and said hello. I shook Kate Pierson's hand (eeeeeee!) and Keith Strickland's (eeeee!).  Tom was on the side with Fred and Cindy.  They looked down at our sides. 

Me: Oh, some friends of ours couldn't make it to the concert, so we thought it bring these signs in for them. 

Kate then peered over at my sign and laughed a bit.  Kate: "That's clever." 

The manager ended up taking two pictures of us with the band, and this is the 2nd one:

This is exactly what I wanted.  I do love how Kate is completely playing along, which just makes it all the better.  I said thank you, shook Kate's hand (eeeeeeeee!) and then Tom and I walked off.  Sorry, Tom walked off and I floated away. 

The concert itself was amazing.  We were 3rd row center.  THIRD ROW CENTER!  They played non-stop for 80-some minutes, and considering they are all in their late-50's to early 60's, they looked and sounded fantastic.  They did some of their new stuff as well as all their classics.  It was a fantastic time and an amazing evening.  And that photo above really says it all. 

Here are some of my favorite songs of theirs. Let's start with "Give Me Back My Man":

 

"Private Idaho"

 

"Party Out of Bounds"

 

And of course, "Rock Lobster"

 

I love The B52s.

My Head Sounds Like This: On Shuffle

I've been working intensely over the past month or two on Season 3 of Jerseylicious, which has been fun if all-consuming.  Combine that with my acting class and dealing with a severe bout of allergies (which culminated in a 4:30am drive to a CVS to get eye drops to douse my burning eyeballs), I haven't had much time for the blog here.  But, I've been listening to a whole bunch of music lately, so I thought I'd share.  I'll set my mental Earworm mix on shuffle, and here's what my head sounds like lately:

Bruno Mars -- Grenade

 

My niece Alli introduced this song to me via Facebook. I'd heard of Bruno Mars before but never heard of his music.  I think this is a dynamite song about how long love can linger past reason.  And it's catchy as hell.

La Roux -- Bulletproof

 

This is how I like my dance music: the vocal is front and center, it's uber-catchy, and the artist has a signature sound.  After my birthday, I'm planning on picking up whatever CDs La Roux has to offer. If they're anything like this song, I'll be one happy camper.

Mumford & Sons -- The Cave

 

A complete change of pace from La Roux, Britain's Mumford & Sons is all about the acoustic guitar, bango and soaring harmonies.  I listened to their album driving around LA one Saturday afternoon and had to fight against tearing up 'cause their songs? Are powerful and gorgeous.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - In Motion (from The Social Network soundtrack)

 

This score is fantastic and this has to be my favorite track from it.  Reznor & Ross won the Oscar for Best Original Score, and they deserved it.

I'm hoping to come back up for air soon.  Until then, enjoy the music.

The Master Plan, Part 3: The Demo

The relaunch of my acting career has been a methodical process.  After getting my debt into a managable amount, I've slowly and surely been getting the rest of my stuff in gear.  The first was my headshots.  The second is acting class; it's been ages for me and now I'm back at Steppenwolf, getting my ass kicked in the best way possible.  Also on the agenda is redoing my reel, losing some weight, etc.  It's all part of the Master Plan, and I'm happy to report that another part of the plan is done.  My VoiceOver Demo is done.

See, as an actor I'm in a weird middle zone.  I'm too old for "Young Dude" but I'm a tad young-looking for "Young Dad."  I'm already a rather specific-looking actor, so falling into this age limbo is not helpful.  So, why not try something where my looks don't matter?  How the voiceover world works in LA is that you do commercials first, then you can start doing animation.  As a young lad who watched A LOT of cartoons, I've always marvelled at cartoon voices.  Mel Blanc is bit of a personal hero of mine.  I follow Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko Warner & Pinky) on Twitter.  I wanna be Billy West when I grow up.  One of my dearest friends is voiceover goddess Pam Turlow (check out her blog here).  Doing voiceovers have always been part of my agenda, and now I've taken the most significant step forward to making that happen.  It won't happen overnight, it'll take lots of time and effort, but I'm more than on my way.

You wanna hear the demo?  Check it out here:

Jon Collins FINAL DEMO 3-23-11

The Master Plan continues in earnest.