Italy – Day Four – Modena/Marenello – The Prancing Horse!

DSC04140Our first full day in Bologna wasn’t spent in Bologna nearly at all. Instead we were going to be taking a little excursion to Modena and Maranello. For Rasa, these were the places to be excited about. While she certainly enjoyed where we’d been, today was all about her passion: Formula 1 racing.  Continue reading “Italy – Day Four – Modena/Marenello – The Prancing Horse!”

Italy – Day Three – Florence is hungry!

DSC04064Waking up in Florence, in our private B&B, was a weird experience. We knew we wanted to make the most of the day (we’d planed our route the night before) so again we got up early (not as early as yesterday, however, we learnt from that mistake) and showered and packed all without seeing another person (and in fact, the other two rooms on our floor were demonstrably empty). As we were leaving, though, a door opened downstairs and our host sleepily stumbled out, asking for payment. I proffered my bank card and was asked for cash. Two hotels booked through Booking.com and two hotels asked for cash after requiring a credit card for booking purposes. Inconvenient to be sure. The other thing to remember about Italy – they charge you a tax for existing. There is a city tax per person per night at each hotel and most restaurants add in a per person fee for the pleasure of dining in. Additionally, something I didn’t know, but if you stand at the bar and drink your beverage, you’ll pay significantly less than if you take a seat at a table. Important tips. Continue reading “Italy – Day Three – Florence is hungry!”

Aga – Boom (Boom Boom)

IMG_2755_2A few weeks ago, my friend Kevin contacted me on Facebook. A friend of his was a in a clown troupe who would be performing in Vilnius and might have need for a stage manager. So I contacted Kevin’s friend, who put my in touch with Iryna, one of the clowns and the partner of Dimitri, the guy who had created the show – a show called Aga-BoomContinue reading “Aga – Boom (Boom Boom)”

Review: Saga, Volume 1

Saga, Volume 1
Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow that was good.

While I’m not familiar with the work of Brian K. Vaughan if this book is any indication, he’s certainly earned the reputation for quality writing. Continue reading “Review: Saga, Volume 1”

2015/1981 Marvel Desktop Wallpaper Calendar | Andertoons Cartoon Blog

This is incredibly cool! Due to the cyclical nature of, you know, the laws of the physical universe, there are only a handful of different variations on the annual calendar. It so happens that this year, 2015, matches up perfectly with 1981. 1981 when Marvel comics put out an absolutely brilliant calendar featuring all their heavy hitters.

Artist Mark Anderson decided to scan the pages for his own calendar this year. Then he generously made the scans available to others (Thank you!!). Anyone want to go in on a piece for your own wall?

2015/1981 Marvel Desktop Wallpaper Calendar | Andertoons Cartoon Blog.

Cultural Icons’ Favorite Books – Flavorwire

Cultural Icons’ Favorite Books – Flavorwire

Cultural Icons’ Favorite Books – Flavorwire.

This is a fascinating list. At a cursory glance, Catcher in the Rye seems to be the book mentioned most often. There are a number of Science Fiction fans (And I’ve fallen madly for Olivia Munn merely because of her choice, which is in my top ten). I think some of these are rather pretentious, feeling like what they shouldbe reading as opposed to what they actually enjoy.

For me, Lamb, by Christopher Moore, would be on the list, as would Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides. The Sun Also Rises is amazing but really shouldn’t be read before you’ve had your first real break-up. So many great books out there…

But what about you? What’s your favorite book?

A Palace, a Castle and Some Lights… What’s involved with a day trip to Riga?

DSC_0207When Monika says “There’s a bus tour going to Riga to see the light festival,” your first response should be “I wanna go.” At least that’s my response. Going with Monika on a day trip is always fun, especially to another country, so I was in! Rasa was game as well so we told Monika to book it for us. See, this wasn’t just a “let’s go” trip, this was actually a bus tour operated by the company she works for, Guliverio Kelionės. Continue reading “A Palace, a Castle and Some Lights… What’s involved with a day trip to Riga?”

DAVID • Think: Little Histories

David 9-14DAVID • Think: Little Histories.

That link there is to my latest piece for David Magazine. It’s different than the normal editorial stuff I do in that it’s a short story, this time about families and holidays. Sure, it’s set ostensibly around the High Holidays of Judaism but I’d like to think it’s a fairly universal piece about any time the family gathers to celebrate anything. It’s not a long piece, shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to read it, but I’d appreciate it if you actually gave it those few minutes.  Continue reading “DAVID • Think: Little Histories”

London 2014: Day Seven & Eight – Cars and Cards

2014-08-20 12.17.31Tuesday was our last full day in the Big City and we still had a full day’s use of the CityPass to take advantage of so naturally, we were once again up and out early in the day. This time, our destination was a bit outside the city center and was looking like it would take close to an hour to get there: The London Motor Museum.

Continue reading “London 2014: Day Seven & Eight – Cars and Cards”

London 2014: Day Six – There’s popular and then there’s POPULAR!

2014-08-14 18.36.46With the Con basically behind us, we were all set on Monday to start really exploring London and making full use of our CityPass. Of course, in order to do this, we figured we needed an early start so we were up, had breakfast and were on the train by 9:15, heading out to the Tower of London. This seemed the best place to start, to reverse our trip of Thursday. Do the Tower, then the Bridge, then The Globe. Made perfect sense. Continue reading “London 2014: Day Six – There’s popular and then there’s POPULAR!”

What I did on The Assets

Remember last October when I filmed a tiny little scene for the ABC series The Assets? The show was supposed to air in January – in fact, my episode was supposed to air the week I got back to the States. Would have been fun to watch it with the family.

Unfortunately, ABC decided to cancel the show during it’s initial run and it wasn’t until this summer that it ended up airing all 8 parts.

But now, rather than put you through that grinding ordeal of having to watch all 8 hours, here’s my scene (I’m the guy with the silly mustache – the other guy is the wonderful stage and screen actor Jonjo O’Neill who has enormous street cred as McGillop on the Doctor Who episode – “The Day of the Doctor“)

What’s good for actors (may also be good for writers)

Quora: What Are Some of the Telltale Signs of a Bad Actor?.

There’s some great advice here for actors, both in your own performance or in watching/evaluating another’s performance.

That said, as a writer, I think there’s an awful lot to be said for some of these observations. The ability to reveal yourself on the page, to make your characters face uncomfortable situations and honestly deal with truths is what will define a good character and by extension, make you a better writer.

Mostly, I’m posting this for me to remember. One of the hardest things for me is to be cruel to my characters, to let them not be nice people, to put them in circumstances where the easy thing to do might be the least honorable.

Happy Birthday, Marcel Proust: David Bowie Answers the Proust Questionnaire | Brain Pickings

BowieHappy Birthday, Marcel Proust: David Bowie Answers the Proust Questionnaire | Brain Pickings.

Bowie has always been one of my heroes – not so much for his music (of which I enjoy a fair bit but certainly not all) but as a person. I love his chameleon like nature and his creativity. He’s always been an inspiration and role model and these answers just solidify that for me.