Projects Update -

Today I'm using the old blog as a way to organize my life. Enjoy.

www.daht.blogspot.com

I've put DAHT on hiatus until the fall. It's been a great learning experience, but I need to make some space in my day-planner. I'll still post over there from time to time, to keep up the fiction of where the ensemble is and what Tex is up to. When I bring the series back, it will be more than just a crappy makeshift rubber chicken rod-puppet in front of a sheet of black foamcore. (I may switch to white foamcore.)

www.uptobat.blogspot.com

I'm updating on Monday mornings. I back date the posts to Sunday, because that's when the strip is actually "released" to the public (at Jennifer's Coffee Connection. If you're in the North Hollywood area, and can't wait for Monday morning, drop on by! The strip is posted at the cash register sometime before noon.)

I registered with www.onlinecomics.net and doubled my traffic in one day! Sounds impressive, huh? Yeah. Doubled from approximately 10-12 unique hits a week to 22 hits at last count. Woo hoo.

I'm going to do custom made t-shirt art for Up to Bat. I'll post more about this over the weekend, but the idea is to get those 10-12 hardcore Up to Bat fans to submit ideas for t-shirts, and then I'll create the art and slap it on CafePress. (BTW . . . I'm always trying to keep my ear to the ground on this sort of thing. If anyone knows of a cool on-demand service similar to CafePress [only better], let me know!)

I'm also planning a limited run, self-published compilation, sort of like what Joe Sayers does with his strips.

Timmy Tubesock

Remember Timmy? He's actually Pamela's brainchild. He has the dubious distinction of being our first stab at online content production. We're taking Timmy to Chinatown before summer's end and then he's off! We've received requests for Timmy from as far away as Australia and Israel. I'm pretty sure that we can also send him to Houston, Texas and Boston, Massachusetts and Tustin, California if we ask nicely enough.

Punch and Judy

This is in limbo! Weird, huh? I haven't heard back from the producer in a couple of weeks. Harumph! That's not the way you do it! I'm going ahead with building the puppets (I need to fool around with Sculpey anyway) so we'll see what happens.

Mad Theatrics

I'm finishing up a third draft of my new play "Sonny" and I'm looking at putting the thing on its feet at the end of August. Unless it becomes a multi-media extravaganza, then it may not happen until later this year.

Beanman

I'm about halfway to having the artwork completed, and need to reestablish a good, solid communication line to Jimmy's family so that the book sees print by Thanksgiving. Along those lines, I need to contact the couple of people I know in the publishing industry, and see if they're interested in publishing a quirky little book of coffee house comic strips.

Last but not least, the reason for this blog, The Felties

I fooled around with Google SketchUp to see if that would be an easy way to render the set design. (Mad props as usual to "Buck Beaver" Andrew for being about 50 paces ahead of me and far more tech savvy than I can ever hope for; he recently pointed out Google SketchUp on his Bear Town Production blog.) It's a neat program, but it would take me longer to learn to use than it would to grab a piece of paper and draw out the finished plan. On a related note, I made an interesting discovery regarding puppet scale that I'll blog about in the coming days.

Still without a production home. I think I'll just set up in the middle of a public park and shoot. Actually, I should blog about what it's like trying to book a studio in Los Angeles when you have no money and few industry contacts.

I did video tests of the puppets I have, and they look just beautiful. I need to meet with Russ Walko and pick up Pupsumoto and Kabuki. I need to meet with my puppeteers and do a rehearsal/read-thru. And finally, I need to shoot the damn thing!

That's that for now.