And thank you so much to Annamita Virosa (annamitavirosa.wordpress.com) for nominating me a fifth time for this award! Check our Annamita’s awesome doodles and dream memories.
To view the post from my first and second nominations, click here, here, and here.
I’d like to apologize in advanced for my answers to David and Annamita’s questions — I found a number of these queries a bit confusing. But I tried to answer to the best of my ability!
As I mentioned previously, I continue to accept these awards because I love being able to share/promote other talented WordPress bloggers by nominating them. So please take a look at the list of nominations below!!
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Rules
Post eleven facts about yourself.
Answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven questions for people you’ve nominated.
Choose eleven people to give this award to and link them in your post.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following images or video!!
One of my favorite operas is Jacques Offenbach‘s The Tales of Hoffmann(Les contes d’Hoffmann). This opera is a fantastical retelling of the life of the German Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann, casting Hoffmann as the protagonist of his own stories.
Placido Domingo performing the “Chanson de Kleinzach” aria.
Désirée Rancatore performing ”Les oiseaux dans la charmille.”
Through The Tales of Hoffmann, I developed an interest in Hoffmann and his stories, quickly leading me to Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny. In Freud’s essay, he uses many of the same Hoffmann stories as Offenbach, but in this case to prove a psychological point (not that Offenbach’s opera isn’t deeply psychological). If I remember correctly, Freud even mentions Offenbach’s opera.
Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
I’m sure you are all wondering, “What does all this have to do with The Nutcracker?” Well, little do most people know, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote in 1816 one of the earliest versions of The Nutcracker story, entitled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Nussknacker und Mausekönig).
Alexandre Dumas was also a fan of Hoffmann, employing allusions to Hoffmann’s stories in The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas even went as far as creating a revision to Hoffmann’s Nutcracker in 1844 called History of The Nutcracker (Histoire d’un casse-noisette), or The Tale of the Nutcracker.
Towards the end of the 19th Century, Hoffmann’s Nutcracker was adapted to ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, perhaps the most famous incarnation of the tale. I write this post because my dad purchased tickets to the San Francisco Ballet to see The Nutcracker at the end of the month. Perhaps later I’ll add my thoughts on the production to this post.
Tchaikovsky’s music is always wonderful, if not a little too overplayed for the holidays. A lot of people tend to associate The March from The Nutcracker or The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy not with Tchaikovsky, but with the thousands of Christmas commercials that use these pieces. This also happens with The Chinese Tea Dance from The Nutcracker with Disney’s Fantasia and The Sleeping Beauty Waltz with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
I believe the most creative and exciting production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut. The Hard Nut is set in 1950s America with a very retro feel inspired by the comic artist Charles Burns — a strange but brilliant compliment to the classical music. I hope to one day be able to attend a live performance.
Advertisement for The Hard Nut.
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Just wanted to share some of the work I’ve been doing collaborating with writer Gabe (G. Martinez Cabrera) on the children’s book Elias & The City of Cats.
I’m really enjoying working with Gabe — we’re good at bouncing ideas off one another and both have the creative energy to push one another to make the best book that we can!
Currently, we’re working towards creating a mockup of Elias to shop around to publishers.
A few weeks ago, Gabe took the time to cut up his story and arrange it into a format that gives me a better idea of the images he’s looking for. From that, I worked on a rough sketch storyboard draft of sorts.
Recently, I showed Gabe this first rough draft, and from our discussion I’m putting together a second rough draft. I’m sure both of us will be doing a good number of drafts before we have a polished mockup!
Elias and Ignis, preliminary character designs.
Ignis, another preliminary character design.
Two pages from the first rough draft.
Another two pages from the first rough draft.
The second rough draft, in progress!
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
Entered The Poet and the Flea into the UnHate Unemployee of the Year contest!
Saturday, October 6th
The Poet and the Flea was approved by the judges on the UnHate Unemployee of the Year website. Now all you have to do is vote!
Busy promoting my IndieGoGo campaign.
Went to see Frankenweenie and LOVED IT!!! (｡♥‿♥｡)
Sunday, October 7th
Went with Wes to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. It was quite a culture shock! But I had a wonderful time. (^-^)
Monday, October 8th
Working on character designs for Gabe’s children’s book. Looking forward to further discussion with Gabe on Friday.
On Craigslist, responded to a post — a production company interested in short screenplays. Wish me luck!
Continuing to promote my IndieGoGo campaign.
Tuesday, October 9th
The wonderful Infernal Reviewer wants to make a post about my blog and The Poet and the Flea. I’m so excited!!! (ﾉﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ
ComicKick, “…a community dedicated to promoting comic book and graphic novel projects on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and other crowd funding sites,” has promoted my IndieGoGo campaign! Thank you so much!!
Continuing to promote my IndieGoGo campaign.
Wednesday, October 10th
E-mails, e-mails, e-mails…!
Drafting ideas for The First Reich last-minute DIY postcards for APE.
Working on some upcoming blog posts and project ideas.
Interested in eventually creating a “zine” — brainstorming ideas!
The Poet and the Flea: 47 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-24, 27-30 completed, and 25-26, 31-36 in progress) of illustrated work.
Did not make it to the next round of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. All of these screenwriting competitions/contests/labs are so competitive, but I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. There are still about 6 more I’m waiting to hear back from. Anything could happen!
Busy with preparations for “The Poet and the Flea100 Day Countdown to the Premiere,” which begins August 20th!
Thursday, August 16th
Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
Friday, August 17th
Errands, errands, errands…!
Saturday, August 18th
Attended The Pixel-Flick TV Actor/Filmmaker Alliance Second Meeting. Discussed some projects with Brian and received some interesting feedback/advice.
Must reschedule one-on-one meeting with Brian.
At Alliance Meeting, got to know fellow filmmaker J.R. better. I think he has some great ideas for potential Alliance projects! Check out his blog: jrbiche.wordpress.com.
Sunday, August 19th
Busy with preparations for “The Poet and the Flea100 Day Countdown to the Premiere.”
Continuing correspondence with potential director/producer.
Wednesday, August 22nd - Thursday, August 23rd
Continuing work on The Flea and The Man…
Etcetera
The Poet and the Flea: 38 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-18, 21-23, 27, 29-30 completed, and 19-20, 24-26, 28, 31-36 in progress) of illustrated work.
To Do:
Work on research, character sketches, etc. for Shannon.
Schedule second meeting with Shannon.
One-on-one meeting with Brian (Pixel Flick Entertainment).
Finish The Man Who Never Smiled by end of August.
Sign up with IMDbPro.
Apply to the Bluecat Screenplay Competition (before October 15th).
Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!
These past few weeks have been quite the roller coaster…! （⊙□ ⊙；）ノ
Sunday, June 30th
Through Meetup.com, discovered The Pixel-Flick TV Actor/Filmmaker Alliance (Pixel Flick Entertainment). It seems like this production company is interested in producing short films and web series. Will attend the first meeting on Saturday, July 21st.
On Stage32.com, received a very nice personal message from Ben Cahan (the creator of Final Draft) inviting me to join his website Talentville.com. I created an account there, but I’m not ready to post my work yet (perhaps after I hear from all the contests I applied to?).
Monday, July 9th
Robots Are a Girl’s Best Friend: Unfortunately, have hit some snags and the project is on hold.
My full-length screenplay Who is Laurence Harvey? has advanced to the Second Round (the top 25%) of The 2012 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards!!!!!!!!!
On Craigslist, have responded to a few posts about writing and creative projects. We’ll see how it goes…
Tuesday, July 10th
The Poet and the Flea: 37 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 36 pages (1-10, 21 completed, and 11-20, 22-36 in progress) of illustrated work.
A special announcement about The Poet and the Flea coming soon!
Bit by bit, working on my third full-length screenplay called TheModern Prometheus. The process has involved a lot of historical research about San Francisco. Every screenplay is a learning process!
I’m thinking about compiling a list of comic book-related (more on the small press side?) conventions for future reference. I would love to attend some local ones (Bay Area, California, etc.?) in the near future. And perhaps eventually fly out to other conventions. Any suggestions?
The most amazing gentleman from London overheard my conversation on the bus & gave me his ticket to Michael Kolhaas. THANK YOU! #cannes201315 hours ago
I just watched Alexander Payne's Nebraska in the same audience as Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern! #cannes201315 hours ago
Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
