Happy May!

I hope that all is well in the land of you.

I got back on track last week with a bunch of groovy activities...

Last night I attended the ASIFA-East Animation Festival in NYC. I saw some INCREDIBLE cartoons!!! The ones that stuck out for me included two Bill Plympton pieces, a student film called "Hedgehug", and the Best In Show, "Fantasie in Bubble Wrap". The Dora the Explorer spoof "Maraka" was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time! You can see the winners' pieces as soon they post them on the ASIFA website.

The big news is that "The Upstate Four" (the Cartoon Network pilot I was in) won an award for "Excellence in Animation"! I was the first person Will & Fran Krause thanked when they accepted the award! That is a very cool feeling, I must say.

BTW last night I was accompanied by the beautiful and talented Nancy Gannon. She is an old friend from college who owns Sing and Play Party. If you want musical entertainment for your little one's birthday party, book her!

I had another great recording session at Full House Productions for Pearson Learning. I took the train this time since it's less expensive than parking and using up molten platinum, I mean gas. While at the station I ran into my good friend Liz Hartman. She is in charge of special events at two lounges in NYC. So if you wanna to book a party at swanky place, look her up! I took the train home with my recording partner Emily Bauer. Emily is a VERY talented VO talent and an awesome person. You check her out at www.emilybauer.com.

I wrote Act One of Episode Eight of Project T.E.R.R.A. So far, so good!

I narrated two and a half sci-fi short stories for Infinivox at Angelo Panetta's studio with the help of his intern Sierra. We ran out of time so I have to go back some time this week to finish the third. As always, Sierra did a great job! BTW "Kin" by Bruce McAllister is the best audio book I've ever narrated. You can read it here. AND I got to have lunch with fellow GKN member Liz de Nesnera that day. We had a great time!

TIP OF THE WEEK: Narrating "Kin" got me thinking about family. I think the saying "blood is thicker than water" is a lot of crap, in a way. I have seen people say and do horrible, unconscionable things to other family members that they would never even think of doing or saying to a non-relative. Another old saying is, "If you treat your friends like you treat your family, you won't have any friends".

I have a small family which I made even smaller. I've "dumped" family members because they just went too far and they're out of my life for good. It's unfortunate, but why should I keep someone in my life who constantly hurts me and the people I love?

Treat your family like you treat your friends. Give them the respect they deserve and don't take them for granted. At the same time, don't let family members treat you like dirt just because you share some genetic material with them. Family is not blood or money. Family is love and love is a verb, not an excuse.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. Martin Luther King Jr.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Do you treat your family the way you would want to be treated?

Have an amazing week!

Hey there all you TV fans!

Enjoying the wetness? I sure am. Thank goodness for New Jersey Transit!

Mom was still in town and baby Asha had my rapt attention so life was still a bit nutty last week. Mom went back to Florida on Wednesday and Carly was discharged from the hospital on Thursday so life is slowly getting back to normal.

I did have another great recording session with ETS In Princeton, though. I also landed a new client! I am now doing the intros and outros for Symantec's Geek Weekly Dot Com podcast. Jeremy Goldmsith of Tabby Sound in NYC found me via Voice 123 and hired me over the phone. Don't you love those? The client was very pleased with my work and there may be more gigs to come!

I hope you enjoyed reading about Project TEERA last week. I was wondering; what do you guys do when you're not pursuing acting, VO's, modeling, etc?

TIP OF THE WEEK: So I went on a date last Friday. I'm a busy dude so those don't come up too often. It was with a great girl who I went to college with. We were both interested in each other back then but never acted upon it. We had a great time. One interesting thing that came up were all the observations of who we were then and who we are now. Are we who we thought we would turn out to be? Do we have regrets? Did we make the right choices?

You know what I learned? It doesn't make a damn bit of difference! We are who we are and who the hell knows where our choices will take us. Sure, we all make mistakes and wish certain things turned out certain ways, but you know what? I like who I am now (warts and all) and there is no point in looking back. You can learn from the past and hope for the future, but you have to live in the present.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

You haven’t learned how to live until you learn how to give. Kirk Douglas

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: How can you let go of the past and embrace who you are now?

Have a great week!

How's it goin'?

The past week has been pretty special for me. The big news is that my best friend Carly had a baby girl, little Asha. I've been at the hospital almost every day for the past week (Carly was sick so they kept her for a few days before the big event). Also, my mother has been visiting from Florida and is close to Carly so right now I have three very special ladies around!

I hope you got a chance to check out those casting websites I shared with you last week. Any leads?

Last week was another light one but it worked out since I was at the hospital a lot. So, I thought I'd share with you something that's very important to me...

Project T.E.R.R.A. is a computer-animated web series that I've been working on. I'm the co-creator as well as the writer. About a year ago, Angelo Panetta (my sound engineer) asked me if I could write a short script based on a rough outline and some animated test renders a guy he met online made. Two and a half hours later I sent him the script and we've been building the Project T.E.R.R.A. universe ever since!

So far I have written seven nine-minute episodes, a detailed outline of Season One, rough outlines for Seasons Two & Three, and an extensive bible (that's what they call the back story of a film or series).

Our co-creator and computer animator David Martin lives in England. Our storyboard artist is based in Florida and our VO talents are from California, Connecticut, and the Carolinas.

We have a website, a forum, a mailing list (which you can sign up for on our website), and a merchandise site (and someday we'll have stuff to sell!).

Our computer-animated storyboard should be ready by the end of the month.

If you want to see some sneak peeks of Project T.E.R.R.A. you can check these test renders or you can go to David's profile on You Tube.

It would be awesome if you check out all things T.E.R.R.A. and join our forum & mailing list!

TIP OF THE WEEK: Yesterday I got to hold Asha just a few minutes after she was born. Let me tell you, it was incredible! It made me think about how amazing it must be to be a parent. Kids learn almost everything they know about the world just from watching you. Talk about the ultimate in self-awareness! The cliche that actions speak louder than words really is true. Think about that next time you walk into an audition or recording session. Your body language speaks volumes!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Part of what keeps us stuck is that we take ourselves, and the process, too seriously. We turn it into a big deal and wind up getting more and more frustrated with the whole thing, and with ourselves. Suddenly, it's become something to beat ourselves up about. Needless to say, the frustration and self-flagellation just further block our creativity and intuition, and the next thing we know we're in this awful cycle, like a hamster on an exercise wheel spinning around and around and getting nowhere. So take a few deep breaths and let yourself off the hook. See if you can approach the problem with an attitude of play. Michael Port

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What physical habits do you have that "give you away"?

Have a great week!

Howdy Doody!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I'm laid up with a bum knee. I blew it out in college and it occasionally flares up. I'd love to tell you it was a football injury or something but, in actuality, I hurt it doing a jazz split. I am not proud of this, but am I secure enough in my masculinity to share the truth!

I FINALLY joined Voices.com. I've been corresponding with owner Stephanie Cicarelli for months about various topics so it was about time. I hope I have as much success with it as Voice123!

I had another ESL VO gig for ETS in Princeton.

I compiled a huge list of VO websites as a result of a great sticky post created by the Voiceover Bulletin Board Administrator Deirdre Cooper. I've been sorting through them and rating them based on my experience as well as the experiences of other VO talents. When I'm done, I'll post the top rated sites.

I re-wrote Project TERRA Episode Seven twice! It's getting closer to where it needs to be. Hopefully I'll take one more shot at it today and lock it.

TIP OF THE WEEK: So my knee hurts. It sucks for a couple of reasons. One, because, well, it hurts. Two, it reminds me of something stupid I did a very long time ago. I did the jazz split because we were warming up and I saw the teacher do it so I thought I should be doing it and POP!!! It reminds me of the Chinese proverb, "One disease, long life. No disease, short life." It means that you need to know your limitations and work within them. If you think you're great at everything and rush in headlong, bad things tend to happen. I'm not saying you should be uber-cautious and not try anything new or beyond you. Just be smart about knowing yourself and using your strengths and weaknesses to your advantage.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Going separate ways isn’t a sign two people don’t understand one another, but just the opposite. Anonymous

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What can you do to capitalize on both your strengths and your weaknesses?

Have a great week!