Check out my comic book video games write-up on my video game blog!

http://www.adamcreighton.com/blogs/gaming/2005/07/2005-2007-years-of-comic-book-video.html

Audition for The Apprentice ...

It's called a turn lane!

This is the carton for a fly fishing desk I bought from American outdoor franchise Cabela's. I don't know whether to be more concerned that it was manufactured in China, or that Cabela's is misspelled.

Minor tweaks to the website today.

"Home" is now "About", I separated out "Demos" and "Clips" into "Voice" and "Video", etc.

Yeah, not sexy, but hey, hopefully a little more intuitive.

I'll post more video clips of me soon. Now that's sexy ...

Yeah, but is it made with real Asian?

Dwayne McDuffie is absolutely amazing.

OK, I've like Dwayne for along time. I think St. George (on which he was editor) was amazing and underrated, and it was the first title I remember getting angry about being canceled. I felt like he rejuvenated Deathlok as a character for Marvel, and, of course, The Tick. And I'm very impressed with his bravery in creating and championing Static (Static Shock).

But what I'm most recently impressed into writing about Dwayne is his work on Justice League Unlimited. After a shaky start this second season, JLU righted itself, and I just finished the series finale arc, written/produced by Dwayne.

You need to see this finale. It carries through with themes are devices introduced throughout the series, but arguably starts in earnest with Question Authority, and ended Saturday with Divided We Fall.

The writing (including dialog) is striking, witty, passionate, and moving. The almost filmic finishing arc is dark, and the stakes are high.

As an aside, I get a little bent out of shape at politics in my entertainment (a la Revenge of the Sith), but the politics injected in JLU feel organic, necessary, common sense, and ... well ... right.

So, check out the series finale arc for Justice League Unlimited. It's cartooning for adults -- seriously, I've had folks who aren't overly keen on my cartoon viewing floored by this series.

Also, check out Dwayne's site. The guy is a mainstay and a courageus power in the industry.

So, I was attacked by a dog tonight.

I'm fine -- the dog was a bully, not a biter -- but I'm pretty peeved at character disordered pet owners.

I was out running in the rain (I find it a great, refreshing, creative time to run), when a guy stepped out of his house with what looked like a large red akita. The dog ran at me, which I ignored, because the owner was there, and I thought, "Surely the dog is safe, with his owner standing right there."

The dog barreled in to me (must've been about 90 pounds), looked surprised that I didn't run, and took off up the street.

No reaction from the owner. None. Zip. Nada. Seriously, he looked expressionless as I continued my run past him.

I was 25 yards down when I could hear the dog's nails clipping across the asphalt as he charged me again. I turned around, planted my feet, and wound up to deck the dog.

So, here's the other scary part (aside from the owner doing nothing while all of this is happening): The dog saw what I was doing, it registered, and he skidded to a stop and ran back down the street. A dog that that has enough history to recognize a runner going into self-defense is a scary thing.

I'm a dog person, but seriously, if you own a dog, take responsibility for it. Don't penalize a dog for your bad decisions, if you can't handle or manage your pet.

I guess I'll have to do my rave of Dwayne McDuffie later this week, and defer my update of my video game blog with comic book gaming goodness as well.

Stupid character-disordered dog owner ...

I saw The Fantastic Four at lunch today (yes, the movie).

Good summer flick, a lotta fun, great trailers, good cast.

Speaking of cast, though I think they made a major miss-step in making The Thing foam-rubbery-looking rock (instead of CGI, a la Hulk), I'm finding myself liking Michael Chiklis. Then, Jessica Alba (Sue Storm/The Invisible Girl) is (of course) incredibly watchable (Gorgeous? The comic book leading lady? And she can act?). I liked Julian McMahon (Dr. Victor von Doom) in The Profiler, and I'm looking forward to Prisoner. I'm still thinking about Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic). He's a surprisingly prolific (professionally) young(ish) actor, so I think I'll check out King Arthur and a few of his other things and get back with you. He does do a good job with some rough dialogue, though.

Which leaves us with Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/the Human Torch), who is a lot of fun in this flick. He looks like he's haveing a fun, and his scenes feel authentic.

Other than the movie, my trailer awards include the following:

• Best Trailer: King Kong (still second to The Chronicles of Narnia; that one still makes me want to stand up and applaud).
  
• Best well-deserved 2nd chance for an actor: Jason Statham, in The Transporter 2. I've found Statham a joy to watch since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and felt he gave us a taste of his future greatness in Snatch. The first Transporter film was terribly underrated, and I was worried the critical pan was going to short-circuit his career. The new film kicks off a 7 flick run over the rest of this year and next for Strathum, so I'm a happy camper.
  

Back to FF, I can't help but find it significant that the film opened a week after its planned release (so as not to compete with the July 4 launch of War of the Worlds), but has made $25 million more (in a week's less time).

I gotta think Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise find it significant, too ... ;-)

I am so freaking TIRED!

On my way FROM the AFF competition trailer shoot ...

On my way TO the AFF competition trailer shoot ...

Bummer. Client dinner for the toy job kept me from meeting with biz buddies and a bunch of out-of-town acting buddies tonight.

*sigh*

Ah, well. At least the clients are pretty cool. And Fonda San Miguel rocks!

I was invited to talk about "marketing and branding for actors" tonight by my film acting coach, Van Brooks.

It was beyond generous of Van to invite me to chat to his students tonight, and I also got to sit in on their mock auditions and monologue reads.

I didn't "teach" anything (personal bias: "God teaches, man parrots"), but I basically ran through what I do for my personal branding/marketing campaign, from Email templates to thank you cards to postcards, to whatever.

Kind of an abbreviated version of the stuff I talked about in the Biz Directory.

Caveats in a nutshell:

1. Don't use marketing or the business as a replacement for honing your craft, or for getting to know people.
   
2. It's about building relationships, not just networking.
   
3. Do what works for you. I do what I do for marketing myself because I don't know how to do anything else; other actors will probably do something else. Yeah, it's business, but hopefully it's a little organic for you.
   
4. Freakin' treat it like a business! Know what your goals are for each week, month, year, 3-year, 5-year, whatever. I know if I'm doing OK on the biz front any given week or month, because I have specific goals. I know if I'm doing well, or if I'm sucking it up, and I know why (and if it's OK).
   

Anyway, Fun shtuff ...

I finally made it back to the Reel Women "First Monday Mix"!

I haven't made it to the Monday Mix for a year (I've been doing ongoing Monday night class for that long), so it was great to get back into it. Even though it was 99-degrees, pouring rain, and humid as hades ...

I got to hang out with Donise Hardy (CSA), casting assistant extrordinaire (and actress) Leigh Green, actress (and fellow "The Mastery" buddy Christine Wolf, actor David Blackwell (with whom I did Bunny & Clydo), and I met some new folks from Damien Malice Independent Cinema (DMIC).

I also got to finally meet Doran Ingrham (who's also represented by my agency, Collier Talent Agency). This guy is even more stunning in person than he is in his headshots -- and seems to be a nice, genuine kind of guy.

Now, if we can just get AustinActors.net started again ... Hmm ... Watch for it ...

Voice session for Austin Film Festival competition trailer:

Sunday breakfast ...

Sunday Breakfast ...

So, I'm not a big breakfast person. We've got coffee in my favorite mug (Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King!), whole milk in a Hornsby's Hard Cider Mug (I'm not into single-use items), pseuphedrine (I've got a nasty sinus thing going on), and Motrin (I over did it a wee bit on the home improvement front yesterday).

I felt a bit silly after taking this pict, so I had a multi-vitamin and a bowl of cereal, too (out of Crunch Berries, so I settled for Crispix; yeah, I'm a health nut) ...

I've added a new clip from "Don't Know Why" to the "Video" section of my website.

I shot "Don't Know Why" in April (read about it here), and finally got past the technical difficulties to convert it into a web-friendly format.

I did a bunch o' editing to get my best pieces (hey, it's my site, so it is all about me ...), and I find the whole process a ton of fun.

Anyway, check it out -- and let me know what you think!

Sux ...

It's a brave new world ...

Time to catch some more live music -- wanna join me?

I'm heading down to Momo's Club tonight to catch Lee Simmons. I think Lee will be backed up by bassist JJ Plasencio in a power-pop trio format, post-July 4th celebration of "our independence from the British and [JJ's] own personal dependence on Brit-rock".

I'm eager to check out Simmons for the first time, and Plasencio was the bassist for Sixpence None the Richer (remember "Kiss Me"?) and Plumb. He's also got a new band, Stereovolt (and, hey, I'm a comic book fanboy, and Stereovolt's got a song called "BatmanBelt", so I figure I need to support them and anyone associated with them; or something).

If you wanna catch the set (or me), they're on starting at 9:30 p.m. (yeah, JJ's site says 8 p.m., and Momo's Club doesn't list them at 8 or 9:30, but JJ and Lee told me they're on at 9:30. FYI, I'll probably be at Katz's before (or after; I'm wild like that).

Justin Long is a guy to watch.

So, I finally got around to watching Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. And, yeah, Rip Torn still has it. Sure, Ben Stiller is still Ben Stiller (in a good way). I still wouldn't complain if I were Vince Vaughn. Stephen Root is understated genius (whether this or News Radio or Office Space).

But Justin Long? Man, the guy is amazing. If you don't think so from the film itself, don't miss the DVD extra, "Justin Long: A Study in Ham & Cheese". Absolutely brilliant, and committed to the scene.

Looks like Dodgeball: is Justin's breakout film -- he's got no less than 4 new films 2005 alone. I'm a little concerned that imdb.com doesn't list anything for him for 2006 this late in the year, so I hope his career doesn't tail early.

This guy is good.