...I've got class, and Chicago's wet climate right now is seriously jeopardizing my plans to watch a few innings, down a beer, and eat a dog before sitting inside for 4 hours.
Anyway, kinda busy today but in honor of Opening Day (which, let's be honest, should be a national holiday) here's a great article Hupp passed along about one half of the Chicago Cubs broadcasting team, Len Kasper.
Let's get a Blue 'W' today
CUBS IN '08!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Mark Kosin: Bud Man....DODGER FAN!?!
OK, before you spit out your Old Style let me explain.
The Dodgers are celebrating their 50th season in Los Angeles and to kick off the golden anniversary season they played an exhibition game against the Red Sox at the L.A. Coliseum.
Being a fan of both baseball and events of historical significance (the last time the Dodgers played in the Coliseum was 1961) I decided to make the 15 minute walk and check out the scene. With $15 in my pocket I had a very specific price range in mind.
Needless to say after running into a few scalpers preying on the naive asking $4o and up, I finally found my guy.
The guy you want to buy a ticket from is the guy who is there with other people and there's one person who couldn't make it (could be family, friends, co-workers, doesn't matter) . They want to go in but this guy is determined to sell the ticket and make some money. He's going to start asking too much. Then he'll be "reasonable" and ask for face value. By the time you decide to walk away, this guy gives in b/c he's already invested so much time in the haggling process and his wife/girlfriend/daughter wants to get to their seats. And you get a ticket for the price you wanted.
I guess that's a blueprint for how to get into a game for not a lot of $. It worked for me in Wrigleyville a bunch last summer and apparently out here now, too.
Anyway, satisfied with my haggling skills I bought a commemorative hat for double my ticket price. I took a very fuzzy picture of it. Damn auto focus.
The game has been hyped here for the last couple of weeks and it was great to go into the Coliseum finally. I can't wait for Trojan football to start.
Here's some more pics:
(It seems like the you need to click on the pics to see everything). My favorite image is from the national anthem with LaSorda and Torre: Dodgers' past, present...and future? Overall, it was a pretty awesome introduction to a franchise that I've always kind of liked but never new much about. With the L.A. Times running retrospectives all week, I think I've covered everything from Jackie Robinson to Kirk Gibson.I won't say much about the Dodger fans. I don't think tonight is a fair judge b/c it was an exhibition game with 115,00 people and there were beach balls, get-early/leave-laters, and the dreaded "wave". Hopefully these things don't continue when the season really starts.
So have I actually "gone Hollywood"? Have I turned my back on a franchise that hasn't won a championship since the election of William Howard Taft? Have I forsaken day games at Wrigley for star-studded nights in Chavez Ravine?
Next you're going to say that Ron Santo doesn't drive a Chevy. Get real.
I'm mentioning all this to announce that the Dodgers are now my very strong, but very distant # 2 team. And for those who may doubt that I still bleed Cubbie (and not Dodger) Blue, I can only tell you that I spent a good while on the phone calling liquor stores from Beverly Hills to Brentwood trying to find a case of Old Style for consumption at 11:20am on Monday. I was unsuccessful.
In other news, this week I'll be preparing for my third project. I'm really reaching on this one. It's tentatively titled "The California 29th" and it's about two women working on the congressional campaign of the handsome thirty-something son of the governor. The candidate has yet to name his campaign manager and both women are competing for the job. One is a well-organized, professional, attractive strategist who has worked hard to get where she is and has great ambition beyond this campaign. The other woman is hot. Like, really hot. And she uses that to flirt and flatter her way to a position of influence. And so sparks fly.
Like I said, way in over my head here. I've got extremely talented and stunning actresses. I've got an actor who's great and has been featured in commercials that some of you who watch a lot of TV (Nick) have probably seen. I've got 5 locations. I'm bringing in someone to do make-up. I'm talks with somebody to write and musically score it. It's been (and will be) a lot of work but if it all comes together.....it'd be just amazing.
Either way, I'm having more fun then when I ran for freshman representative at Loyola with the campaign slogan - Mark Kosin: He Knows What He's Doing.
Let's hope so.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Jesus Dyed Eggs For Our Sins
(with respects to Reverend Lovejoy)
Happy Easter!
So my second major holiday away from home (I count St. Patrick's Day) and definitely missing the cast and crew from the central time zone. I hit up mass at L.A.'s big cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and saw the Cardinal of the L.A. diocese. It was a very diverse congregation today: whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians...no Scientologists though. Probably a good thing.
And during the baptism part I got just pummeled with Holy Water. I swear, you'd have thought the guy was using a Super Soaker or something.
Or course, a water gun fight wouldn't have been that inappropriate b/c it is really damn hot out today. I saw the car thermometer hit 88 when I was driving to get some breakfast. It's ridiculous.
Today marks the end of my spring break. I'm glad that I went to Arizona cause I pretty much did work-stuff all week. Except for a fun-filled afternoon at Universal Studios with a buddy of mine who had never been on the Jurassic Park ride. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that ride. Anyone who comes out here to visit me, I promise I will go on that damn thing.
Anyway, here I am, sporting a BRAND NEW Hawaiian shirt. So to all those who had hoped that L.A. would give me some sense of personal appearance or fashion sense I can only say: HA!
And there's also a shot of me next to the Kwik-E-Mart that will be near the Simpsons Ride (Opening May 2008).
The next 2 weeks are going to be pretty busy, I'm planning film no. 3 and I'm biting off way for than I can chew. Let's hope it pans out.
I leave you with everybody's favorite celebrity: Krusty the Klown.
"I tried to drink a Coke on the bus, and they took away my pass!"
Happy Easter!
So my second major holiday away from home (I count St. Patrick's Day) and definitely missing the cast and crew from the central time zone. I hit up mass at L.A.'s big cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and saw the Cardinal of the L.A. diocese. It was a very diverse congregation today: whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians...no Scientologists though. Probably a good thing.
And during the baptism part I got just pummeled with Holy Water. I swear, you'd have thought the guy was using a Super Soaker or something.
Or course, a water gun fight wouldn't have been that inappropriate b/c it is really damn hot out today. I saw the car thermometer hit 88 when I was driving to get some breakfast. It's ridiculous.
Today marks the end of my spring break. I'm glad that I went to Arizona cause I pretty much did work-stuff all week. Except for a fun-filled afternoon at Universal Studios with a buddy of mine who had never been on the Jurassic Park ride. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that ride. Anyone who comes out here to visit me, I promise I will go on that damn thing.
Anyway, here I am, sporting a BRAND NEW Hawaiian shirt. So to all those who had hoped that L.A. would give me some sense of personal appearance or fashion sense I can only say: HA!
And there's also a shot of me next to the Kwik-E-Mart that will be near the Simpsons Ride (Opening May 2008).
The next 2 weeks are going to be pretty busy, I'm planning film no. 3 and I'm biting off way for than I can chew. Let's hope it pans out.
I leave you with everybody's favorite celebrity: Krusty the Klown.
"I tried to drink a Coke on the bus, and they took away my pass!"
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Getting Crazy in the AZ
Cubs Win! At least they did on Sunday. On Saturday they lost. But who cares? It's spring training!
Yep, last weekend I took a much-appreciated trip to Arizona to catch some spring training baseball and do some good old-fashioned boozin'. The whole trip was a great break and I've got a few things to say about the Grand Canyon State.
Friday we rolled into Scottsdale about 9 or so and headed to a place with a great outside deck where I got to enjoy a Margarita and an Ashton cigar (which I bought to celebrate my liberation from LA's smoggy grip). After that headed to a place called Sand Bar: wall to wall sand. Awesome.
Saturday we jetted down to Tucson to catch the Cubs take on the White Sox at Tucson Electric Park.
OK, at the risk of turning off more of my few readers (since Mike & Matt have claimed disrespect) I still have to say a few things about where the White Sox get ready to play ball.
Tucson SUCKS! It's 2 hours from the Phoenix-area, which is replete with bars, golf, and other fun things to do. Tucson has NOTHING, and the park is in the middle of nowhere. Literally, it's surrounded by rocky sand. Oh, and there's a state police outpost across the street. I guess I shouldn't be surprised cuz the Sux or so cheap they rival the Bears and Bill Hupp in the World Championship of penny-pinching.
[That's just unfair ripping on Bill, who actually went to Atlantic City last weekend and I am really jealous of, even though I've heard his performance at roulette described as Farnsworth-esque]
Anyway, we spent Saturday night in Tempe and had a blast. Tempe is the place to be. Tons of bars and restaurants, great atmosphere. It's right by Arizona State so it's got that college feel but not so much that it's Champaign-Urbana. I'd like to describe the details of the night but they are lost in a sea of cigar smoke and sake bombs.
So, to sum up: Scottsdale = nice, Tempe = awesome, Tucson = never again.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun, and really made me sour on Los Angeles. The Phoenix area just seems like a cleaner, clearer, funner, more picturesque, and better laid out version of LA.
Speaking of the City of Angels, I was quite skeptical about celebrating St. Patrick's Day in a town that doesn't serve alcohol past 2 am, but had a decent time at a pub called O'Brien's in Santa Monica. It doesn't in any way compare to Paddy's Day in Chicago, but then again, does anything?
Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, I leave you with one of my personal favorite "Simpsons" quote of all time, spoken by Kent Brockman:
"Top of the mornin' to ye, on this gray, grizzly afternoon. Kent O'Brockman live on Main Street, where today everyone is a little bit Irish, except, of course, for the gays and the Italians".
ps: if I have yet to directly disrespect you in the blog, please let me know, I'm trying to alienate myself from all 6 readers by the end of March.
Yep, last weekend I took a much-appreciated trip to Arizona to catch some spring training baseball and do some good old-fashioned boozin'. The whole trip was a great break and I've got a few things to say about the Grand Canyon State.
Friday we rolled into Scottsdale about 9 or so and headed to a place with a great outside deck where I got to enjoy a Margarita and an Ashton cigar (which I bought to celebrate my liberation from LA's smoggy grip). After that headed to a place called Sand Bar: wall to wall sand. Awesome.
Saturday we jetted down to Tucson to catch the Cubs take on the White Sox at Tucson Electric Park.
OK, at the risk of turning off more of my few readers (since Mike & Matt have claimed disrespect) I still have to say a few things about where the White Sox get ready to play ball.
Tucson SUCKS! It's 2 hours from the Phoenix-area, which is replete with bars, golf, and other fun things to do. Tucson has NOTHING, and the park is in the middle of nowhere. Literally, it's surrounded by rocky sand. Oh, and there's a state police outpost across the street. I guess I shouldn't be surprised cuz the Sux or so cheap they rival the Bears and Bill Hupp in the World Championship of penny-pinching.
[That's just unfair ripping on Bill, who actually went to Atlantic City last weekend and I am really jealous of, even though I've heard his performance at roulette described as Farnsworth-esque]
Anyway, we spent Saturday night in Tempe and had a blast. Tempe is the place to be. Tons of bars and restaurants, great atmosphere. It's right by Arizona State so it's got that college feel but not so much that it's Champaign-Urbana. I'd like to describe the details of the night but they are lost in a sea of cigar smoke and sake bombs.
So, to sum up: Scottsdale = nice, Tempe = awesome, Tucson = never again.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun, and really made me sour on Los Angeles. The Phoenix area just seems like a cleaner, clearer, funner, more picturesque, and better laid out version of LA.
Speaking of the City of Angels, I was quite skeptical about celebrating St. Patrick's Day in a town that doesn't serve alcohol past 2 am, but had a decent time at a pub called O'Brien's in Santa Monica. It doesn't in any way compare to Paddy's Day in Chicago, but then again, does anything?
Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, I leave you with one of my personal favorite "Simpsons" quote of all time, spoken by Kent Brockman:
"Top of the mornin' to ye, on this gray, grizzly afternoon. Kent O'Brockman live on Main Street, where today everyone is a little bit Irish, except, of course, for the gays and the Italians".
ps: if I have yet to directly disrespect you in the blog, please let me know, I'm trying to alienate myself from all 6 readers by the end of March.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Meet Me in Mesa
Well, Tuscon, actually. But seriously, check for those cheap last minute fares to join me in the desert for some Cactus League Baseball. Anyway, it's Tuscon instead of Mesa b/c this Saturday the Chicago Cubs are playing this other team from the south side, or something.
That's right, its the crosstown classic - spring training edition - and yours truly landed some tix on StubHub (StubHub!) and I couldn't be any happier. It's been fun, don't get me wrong, but the writing, the shooting, the editing, the casting, the editing....it gets to be a lot and the break, though perhaps not well-deserved, will certainly be appreciated. It'll be nice to hit the open road, too. So far, traffic in LA has been bad, but not horrible. It just seems like there's always something somewhere-and it gets annoying.
But enough complaining, I am pumped about the drive out. I got a buddy out here in the program who's also a Cubs fan and also happened to go to Arizona State, so he knows the scene in AZ which means we get to hit up great local bars instead of just going to Buffalo Wild Wings (damn you, Dayton!).
I love spring training. It's the one time you get to watch baseball and you don't live and die by every pitch, hope springs eternal, and you get to stop pretending you're interested in mid-season NBA ball. Especially after a long winter (present company excluded) the sight of the green grass of the infield, the sound of the bat hitting the ball, the smell of grilling hot dogs, the taste of a cold beer, the feel of the peanuts cracking in your hands...damn, I love spring training.
Anyway, I also promised photos from shooting "The Deflowering". To preface, a bit bout the story: it's about a girl (Kay) who goes to an indie film set to try and make new friends but ends up meeting two very bizarre filmmakers (Carmelo and Toad).
So here's the photos:
(Above Right) - location of the infamous "bedroom scene"
(Above Left) - Carmelo and Toad
(Below) - Kay and the shadowy Carmelo
This last one has a cruddy image of me in the gray working the camera.
If these pics all look creepy, then good. That's kind of the thing I'm going for.
Anyway, after Mike got madder than Lou Piniella b/c of the lack of shout-outs to Western Springs' favorite son in discussing the dentist movie I worked on, here's a few pics from my buddy's flick. They're pretty awesome:
The movie follows an average guy's visit to an "average" dentist's office, and he has a horrible experience, which ends up being a nightmare. Or is it?
Hope you enjoyed this small sample platter of the kind of ridiculous things we're doing here at USC. Can you believe people actually get paid to do this stuff? Nice work if you can get it.
That's all I have for now. I leave you with an image of me sitting in a chair that I hate.
I hate this chair. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE IT.
I'd like to get into WHY I hate hate hate this chair but it's late and I have acting class tomorrow.
Sometime, I will tell the story of this horrible hell chair, sent from hell, to torture me, and where it now rests.
It's a good one.
Hate that chair.
CUBS IN '08!
Monday, March 10, 2008
You Wanna Get Nuts? Let's Get Nuts!
Man, this weekend has been just crazy, and it all started with "The Deflowering".
Ever since getting back from Chicago I've been scrambling b/c I had to shoot this past weekend and decided to do some big-time rewriting on the ride from ORD to LAX.
You probably saw my less than stunning location photos from the last post: the only reason I put those up was b/c I was doing some stunt work on Fri nite and wanted my stunt coordinator to see what everything was going to look like. Rather than emailing all the pics I just assumed post 'em on here, make everyone's life easier.
As far as how shooting went on Friday, well, I was hoping to finish by 11pm, or midnight the latest and didn't get done until a little after 1am. But I did get all the shots I wanted. A friend of mine took some production stills and post 'em as soon as I have 'em. It was a pretty long day, especially since certain parts of the movie got really weird and funny and we all just about lost it at one point. On the one hand, it was probably the most fun I've had on set since DeLara's basement. On the other though, was a very "silly" movie, and probably the last of it's kind that I'll make, at least at USC. I start editing this week and then I'll find out if I really shot something cool or if all I have is an hour of ridiculous trash.
So after getting to bed around 3:30am on Fri night I "happily" got out of bed at 8 am to help a friend of mine on his shoot. He had me play a white gangster who wore a Cubs jersey, and my character was in the waiting room of a dentist's office to get his gold teeth checked out.
And I thought my project was silly.
No, seriously, the guy made a really funny movie about an average guy going to a dentist office and has this horrible nightmare about teeth getting bashed in with a sledgehammer and using a monkey wrench to pull teeth out. Fun stuff.
Yeah, then after that shooting I helped another friend with his shoot which included a sight gag of a guy opening up a door expecting to find a beautiful girl and instead finding a 6'5'' bald man wearing lipstick and a robe that was way too short.
Needless to say, between the stunts and over-the-top sexual awkwardness on my shoot and the insanity of the crazy dentist shoot, seeing an ex-Navy Seal putting on lipstick for a no-pay student film made me realize that I'm having way too much fun out here, and have developed a very high tolerance to all things weird, creepy, strange, ridiculous, nonsensical, and generally f*%$ed up. But I guess that's a necessary tolerance for living in this town. L.A. is almost like someone took the strangest people of Wicker Park in Chicago and said "How would you freaks like make your own city?"
I'd like to write more about my shoot, spring break plans, and my eye-opening night out in downtown L.A. but I'm very mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. Plus I think I have a sore throat.
That's all from the Pacific Time Zone. Enjoy the Monday!
Ever since getting back from Chicago I've been scrambling b/c I had to shoot this past weekend and decided to do some big-time rewriting on the ride from ORD to LAX.
You probably saw my less than stunning location photos from the last post: the only reason I put those up was b/c I was doing some stunt work on Fri nite and wanted my stunt coordinator to see what everything was going to look like. Rather than emailing all the pics I just assumed post 'em on here, make everyone's life easier.
As far as how shooting went on Friday, well, I was hoping to finish by 11pm, or midnight the latest and didn't get done until a little after 1am. But I did get all the shots I wanted. A friend of mine took some production stills and post 'em as soon as I have 'em. It was a pretty long day, especially since certain parts of the movie got really weird and funny and we all just about lost it at one point. On the one hand, it was probably the most fun I've had on set since DeLara's basement. On the other though, was a very "silly" movie, and probably the last of it's kind that I'll make, at least at USC. I start editing this week and then I'll find out if I really shot something cool or if all I have is an hour of ridiculous trash.
So after getting to bed around 3:30am on Fri night I "happily" got out of bed at 8 am to help a friend of mine on his shoot. He had me play a white gangster who wore a Cubs jersey, and my character was in the waiting room of a dentist's office to get his gold teeth checked out.
And I thought my project was silly.
No, seriously, the guy made a really funny movie about an average guy going to a dentist office and has this horrible nightmare about teeth getting bashed in with a sledgehammer and using a monkey wrench to pull teeth out. Fun stuff.
Yeah, then after that shooting I helped another friend with his shoot which included a sight gag of a guy opening up a door expecting to find a beautiful girl and instead finding a 6'5'' bald man wearing lipstick and a robe that was way too short.
Needless to say, between the stunts and over-the-top sexual awkwardness on my shoot and the insanity of the crazy dentist shoot, seeing an ex-Navy Seal putting on lipstick for a no-pay student film made me realize that I'm having way too much fun out here, and have developed a very high tolerance to all things weird, creepy, strange, ridiculous, nonsensical, and generally f*%$ed up. But I guess that's a necessary tolerance for living in this town. L.A. is almost like someone took the strangest people of Wicker Park in Chicago and said "How would you freaks like make your own city?"
I'd like to write more about my shoot, spring break plans, and my eye-opening night out in downtown L.A. but I'm very mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. Plus I think I have a sore throat.
That's all from the Pacific Time Zone. Enjoy the Monday!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
ROUND II: The Deflowering
"The Deflowering" is my next short which I'm shooting tomorrow. Want to know what it's about? Look at the title and use your imagination. Pretty busy throwing it together. All I have for you now is some pictures of one of 
my locations.
We have the lobby, the stairs, and the doors that go out of the lobby.
That's all I have for now. This weekend I'll dig into my brief homecoming, Spring Break plans (hint: rhymes with Ping Laining), and my quest for fantasy baseball glory.
Wish me luck.
my locations.
We have the lobby, the stairs, and the doors that go out of the lobby.
That's all I have for now. This weekend I'll dig into my brief homecoming, Spring Break plans (hint: rhymes with Ping Laining), and my quest for fantasy baseball glory.
Wish me luck.
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