I've recently become a bit obsessed with Brooklyn-based band Plushgun, after hearing their first single, "Just Impolite" (video below). Even their EP has only whet my appetite for the full-length album due in February.

On Tuesday night, I got to see them play a small club date on their first-ever West coast tour, and was equally impressed with what I heard (despite the audio problems with the gig, and the guitarist sitting in the back of the stage on a chair with food poisoning).

Dan Ingala, the main guy behind the band, got the San Francisco crowd dancing despite these issues, because you could still tell the material was strong. I detect a bit of a Pet Shop Boys vibe in his music, but he also likes to hear that guitar cut in and rip it up beautifully, as in "How We Roll," which showcases the balance of electronic influence and rock guitar nicely.

You can check out more of their music on MySpace. It's definitely worth the time...

http://www.myspace.com/plushgun

I'm having a get-together for my birthday later this month, so just let me know and I'll send you the proper invites, etc.

Hey... Sorry for the site being down this weekend. Our hosting provider was moving servers around and Adrian didn't think we were going to be affected, but as you may have discovered, we were.

Hmm, I just won tickets to see Idina Menzel in concert next month.

Sweet...

If you ever thought to yourself, I wonder what a day would be like for Jeff if he got food poisoning at his job with the hellaciously long commute from his apartment. Would he be able to make it home before all the vomiting starts?

If I just described you, today's your lucky day.

http://www.jeffwalsh.com/2008/07/15/the-upside-of-a-gag-reflex/

Enjoy.

I originally posted this as a comment to loreonpravus's post, but it seems way too long for that, heh. So, this is my pride wrap-up, albeit not a normal experience for most pride-goers, I wouldn't think.

Went to pride on like 3 hours sleep after being up late/drinking the night before...

Was OK, met some friends, some minor celebs, was like two feet from Margaret Cho backstage, but I'm kinda over her... although she is looking great, and I still think she is very supportive and inspiring to people. So, I didn't even go out of my way to say hi to her or anything.

Saw some young Latino guy get an incredibly hot naughty XXX photo with our beloved city hall as a backdrop. Except for him, most of the male nudity was either eh or blah. Since people mentioned it before, there was indeed female nudity... I know I saw it, there was definitely enough there, but no recollection. Mainly cuz it means nothing to me...

Spent too much time trying to make an interview happen, after a phone number someone entered into my mobile last night didn't get saved, or is saved under something else, somewhere, and I can't find it... but, oh well, we'll reschedule, hehehe.

Trying to get the interview did land me in the VIP area inside City Hall where the A-gays go to get away from the sweaty commoners, so open bar, free food (and a lot of vegan options). Chatted with Leslie Jordan, Gus Van Sant... I told Gus Van Sant he needs to use the one take of me in Milk where I'm 18 inches from Sean Penn, and he said he would, although he did cover his bases by saying a lot of people who were extras that night will probably see themselves in the finished flick, they used a lot of that footage, so we shall see...

In a big party, Gus is easy to find, look for the person in the corner standing alone who looks like they'd rather not be there. Turns out the rest of the Milk producers/writer were getting something, so they quickly swarmed around him and all was OK again.

To not appear like I cared he was Gus Van Sant, I asked him directions to where the new bust of Harvey Milk was in City Hall, and he directed me, so I used that as my way to actively leave our chat, rather than waiting for his party to descend on us or him to excuse himself...

With all my running around, I missed seeing my friend Garrin play, and also didn't get to catch the Ethel Merman Experience play the main stage, the only thing besides Cyndi Lauper I cared to see. Didn't see her, either. When I was at the Asian area, Ms. Cho showed up and did a brief set there, too. Still over her, so of course, I happen to catch her perform. Figures.

On Saturday, met Perez Hilton (over him, too), peed next to Brent Corrigan, a porn star who, as one might imagine, isn't too concerned about people seeing his junk at this point, not that he was *that* far back from the urinal. But unlike most people, I can honestly say my first time seeing him, he was flaccid, so that's something unique, no? Of course I looked! He was cute, I would have looked if he wasn't a porn star...

Actually, I mainly chatted him up before then to mention that I grew up in the town where he built his porn star reputation up, and when I grew up there, NONE of that was going on, so was just a funny moment to share. Didn't go too far down that path, since the guy who started the gay porn studio there was murdered under dicey circumstances, so kept it very surface.

Probably write reviews of the two movies I saw last night for Oasis tomorrow, since I'm way too freaking tired now. Trying to stay awake against my body's desires now, so that I don't wake up rested at 3 a.m.

Just like I commented here on a recent journal entry about why I didn't congratulate someone who graduated high schools, I said I follow Chris Rock's philosophy that you shouldn't get credit for something you're supposed to do.

Today, Barack Obama also quoted the same Chris Rock segment, in relation to people giving their daughter a big party for graduating 8th grade. In his prepared speech, there is no Chris Rock reference, but he mentioned it on the video. His prepared notes read:

"You know, sometimes I’ll go to an eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. To really compete, they need to graduate high school, and then they need to graduate college, and they probably need a graduate degree too. An eighth-grade education doesn’t cut it today. Let’s give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!"

So, you know, just saying, great minds and that... :-)

Hey there...

Starting to do research for my second novel, and part of that is going to be putting up fake online profiles and ads and using the real responses that come in to sort of flesh out the world I'm looking into.

Sorry, that's as much detail as the general populace needs. I will say the novel is using this essay as its seed: http://www.jeffwalsh.com/2005/10/29/the-cuddler/

What I need are pics of guys in their mis 20s in bed. Now, before ya'll think this is a scam, I should point out they should be pics you can show your mom. No nudes (topless is fine).

Should be sort of arty shots of you in bed, face can be partially/completely obscured, and I will also not post ads to your region as far as Craigslist, etc., so it should remain somewhat anonymous.

pm me for more info.

Thanks.

A line that was removed from my novel this morning:

"The media throw more softballs than lesbians."

Just amuses me, for some reason. Doesn't really fit in the book, though.

OK, back to bed now, so I can wake up soon to go to work?! There really has to be a better way than this, no?

I keep voting rich husband, but none shows up.

The spam filter on the site was acting up, preventing people from posting, commenting, etc., so I temporarily disabled it. So, you'll see more nonsense on the site, but I'll go through and clean it up, so just ignore it.

Three reviews on the front page, and I didn't write any?! I'm liking the looks of that, though it's sadly an anomaly, heh.

Gavin DeGraw canceled his SF show tonight, so now I have to find other things to do... probably update vegocentric.

On February 1, I embarked on a life-changing program to help prioritize my life and help me think clear about what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm talking, of course, about Seintology. I'm sure there are detractors but, with the month coming to a close, I have to acknowledge how well it has been working for me.

Now, I realize Seintology isn't for everyone. Many people don't want to believe in something larger than themselves to accomplish results. And far be it from me to prosthelytize. Do what you want. I'm only here to explain what I've found effective in my own life.

The word Seintology literally means "the study of Jerry Seinfeld." It comes from the Jewish word "Sein" meaning "knowing in the fullest sense of comedy" and the Greek word "logos" meaning "study of."

Like the Buddhist concepts of emptiness (shunyata), Seintologists have long questioned nothing. By which I don't mean they didn't question anything, just that they specifically questioned the notion of nothingness itself. Seinfeld's nine-year run on NBC was often derided unfairly as being "a show about nothing."

In 2001, Seinfeld himself stated:

"Doing nothing is not as easy as it looks. You have to be careful, because the idea of doing anything, which could easily lead to doing something, that would cut into your nothing -- that would force me to have to drop everything."

This is one of main texts in Seintology and is heavily debated among people who fear its implications. There are smear campaigns and million-dollar lawsuits meant to protect Seintologists and enable us the right to practice our beliefs.

But I'm not here to hash out the old tired arguments about the road Seinfeld took to get his headliner (or thetan) status, only how I'm using those philosophies to improve my own life. The knowledge is already out there, but I think the only interesting thing is showing how I put it to work for me. Only applied knowledge has actual use in our daily lives.

In his documentary Comedian, Seinfeld impressed me with his work ethic. He said that from his office window, he can see construction workers who take their lunch break, but then have to go back to their jobs. They likely don't want to return to those jobs, but it's just how the world works. But his takeaway was that if people who have jobs like that have to put in a full day, then far be it from him to pack it in after a few measly hours.

It reminded me of Woody Allen's famous quote about show business: "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

And just seeing Seinfeld's focus throughout the movie getting a joke perfectly tuned was pretty impressive and a testament to how seriously he takes his craft.

Recently, I found a website that had a productivity secret from Jerry Seinfeld, and as soon as I read it, I knew it intersected with the twisted way my mind works.

In the piece, Seinfeld says to motivate himself he gets a calendar where you can see the year at a glance, and on days he writes, he puts a big red X through the day. And after you get a nice chain going after a few weeks, the only thing you need to do is not break the chain.

"After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day," Seinfeld said. "You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

It sounds simple, but I have to say, it has made me write for the past 23 consecutive days, as well as keep track of my weight lifting and cardio as well. One day, it was rainy and early in the day, I didn't get a chance to go to the gym, as it was quite a downpour at the time. Later, I got into a project. Then, it was dinner time. Finally, it was about ten o'clock at night, and I saw my calendar on the refrigerator. It had the red X for having written that day, but lacked the green X for cardio. So, it was down to a drizzle now and I dragged myself to the gym to make sure I got my X for the day.

Some days have certainly been better than others. For example, I am still trying to get the writing happening at the same time every day, which is supposed to improve things. But, for now, that it is happening every day is enough of a victory.

Like I said, I'm not here to sell you on Seintology. Only to tell people about my own personal journey.

--
Cross-posted from jeffwalsh.com.

Today was my first day as an extra on the set of the movie about gay rights icon Harvey Milk. "Milk" is being directed by Gus Van Sant, with Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones, and James Franco and Diego Luna playing some of the other roles.

The Castro has been buzzing about the production for a while now. First of all, the place looks amazing. The Castro Theatre, which is the defining landmark of the gayborhood has been given an amazing paint job to bring it back to its 1970s glory, and for the first time in my decade-plus of living in San Francisco, all of the neon letters spelling out CASTRO actually work. It does raise the question as to why the gays let it get so run down. Vintage is one thing, this thing was beaten down.

I had went to an open call a while back, where basically they took our photos, we filled out a form, and that was basically the end of the run for me. Supposedly that was to cast some background players, so my not getting a call was just that I didn't look like some random city councilman in the 1970s for the sake of authenticity or somesuch.

Today was the first day where we had signed up to be a part of a march out on Castro Street. Before our march, as a special treat, we were shown the Academy Award-winning documentary about the life and death of Harvey Milk in the Castro Theatre. Before the film, we got to hear from the producers of the movie, Gus Van Sant, and he brought out Franco and Hirsch to say hi. Cleve Jones, who was there on the front lines with Milk and later founded the National AIDS Memorial Quilt project, taught us cheers from the stage, so we might use them later in the street scenes.

I sat near the front, and happened to be across the aisle from and slight behind current San Francisco Supervisor and stand-up comic Tom Ammiano, who is one of the eight people who tell the story of Harvey Milk in the film. When he was describing hearing the news of Harvey Milk's assassination and how when we went to City Hall, he happened to walk by the doors where the bodies were being removed from the building and how Harvey Milk's body bag had his shoes sticking out, he was crying onscreen. I looked across the aisle and saw Ammiano crying again nearly 30 years later.

After we saw the movie, they said we'd probably start sooner than they had expected, and they told us about the scenes we were going to do. I didn't sign anything (and I just checked the website and it doesn't say we're not supposed to talk about anything there, either). So, in the first scene, the crowd is milling around Castro and Market, after an anti-gay ruling in Anita Bryant's campaign had passed successfully. As we are angry but aimless, Sean Penn (looking pretty damn convincing as Milk, btw) jumps up onto a platform with a bullhorn, says a few words, and then jumps into the crowd, channeling our frustration into a march to City Hall (or, in movie terms, half a block down the street).

So, I noticed pretty quickly that there are a lot of hot guys who are really dressed the part for the mid-70s scene. As we are supposed to keep milling about for each take, and then go back to our places after they cut each time, I use my milling to get closer to the hot guys. Not because they are hot, but because I figure they are the paid extras (hence, them being models and actors), and they are in the foreground of the shot, whereas we the self-dressed non-descript 70s people are mainly adding "volume" to the wideshot in our unfocused glory. By take three, I am the first line behind all the paid extras, and stay there for the rest of the scene.

The second part of our Sean Penn time is just a different angle on that same scene, where he is pushing through the crowd with Emile Hirsch in tow, and we follow him toward City Hall. In the first take of this one, I am like two feet from Sean Penn as he pushes through the crowd, so hopefully that's the best cut, because it's as close as I ever got. (Well, I think I was closer to him one time at a Strokes concert, but that's not quite the same thing).

Then, we film a similar thing where Emile Hirsch is rallying the crowd, and again, we turn and march to City Hall. In each take, we do different things each time, sometimes we chant different things, turn toward City Hall at different times. The most interesting thing is that we are screaming and chanting and when they are doing takes with dialogue, we do like 2-3 chants and then we switch to pantomime, so the only people still chanting aloud are Penn, Hirsch and the real actors, and the rest of us are just throwing our fists in the air and making no noise. (This is similar to how on the set of Queer as Folk, they would play some music, get everyone dancing, and then cut the music so they could get clean dialogue recorded).

I must say, though. Ricky Gervais made extra work FAR more glamorous than it actually is (he made the HBO/BBC series Extras), which is saying a lot. We were all there because Milk is part of gay civil rights history, and you wanted to be a part blahblahblah, but it's certainly mind-numbingly boring.

Of course, the greater tragedy was seeing the paid extras. Most of them were just skinny hot guys wearing tight 70s outfits, and just doing whatever they were told. But, every so often (since I kept close to them), you could kind of pick out one or two who think this is a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Are there many examples of known movie stars who were first seen doing extra work? All the examples I know of are minor speaking roles and bigger parts that didn't make the final edit, it's never, "Look, there, in the fourth row of the crowd... a young Julia Roberts!"

At one point, I'm in a crowd that crosses around and toward the stage when Emile is speaking, and they just brought in even more paid people because they were told to follow Emile when he jumps off the stage and runs toward the front of the rally. So, one of the paid guys starts working on blocking with me since I'm next to him. Now, I've already done this same thing three times, AND he understands it wrong. He says I can't be in his way because he needs to be in the shot when Emile runs by. I told him that I'm very much gone before Emile is done speaking, and that Emile doesn't go right off the stage, he comes around past the point where he's standing and runs around the mass of people, so he shouldn't move at all. He said that's not how he was told to do the scene. I knew I was right, although I didn't look back to watch how far off his mark he got, since well, I'm a pro and I'm meant to be headed to City Hall at that point. It just seemed a bit mental. I mean... it's a crowd scene, chill. (Emile did run past me way on my left, as I told that guy he would).

After those two scenes, they mention another set-up, that someone is going to pull the overhead hooks off a streetcar, with some pyro sparks, and another march toward City Hall (these people certainly marched to city hall a lot). But I was just kind of done at that point, so I packed it in and went home. I'm also signed up to be part of the candlelight vigil for Harvey on Friday night, after we find out he was murdered... but as of right now, I can't imagine standing around for 7-8 hours doing that.

And, as you may have noticed from this play-by-play, one missing element... where is my Diego Luna?! Love him! So, yeah, I'm sure the time would have drifted by easier if I were staring at Diego, but that wasn't to be. Actually, between takes, you rarely got to see the actors hanging around, they had some area they were taken to (aside from Sean in the middle of the crowd, where we just did a bunch of sequential takes in a row). So, we're waiting to shoot a scene with Emile Hirsch, but instead some older guy in his 40s with Jewfro to match Hirsch's in the flick is just standing in the same spot, so we're mainly getting stand-in.

(I do plan to get some interviews of the gay people involved for Oasis while they're in town (definitely the writer, maybe Van Sant, but I'll hold off on running them until the movie is about to come out, which I assume would be this fall).)

I was slightly surprised by the amount of passion people brought to the project. I think I stay too aware of my surroundings in general (I always knew where the cameras were being set-up, got close to the paid, period-costumed extras, etc.), but one lady seemed to go to the same desolate spot way far removed from the scene, and walk toward it like she was completely pissed off about whatever we were rallying about. She was throwing her hands around and looked ready to snap, but I knew for a fact she had never gotten anywhere even close to being in front of a camera the whole night.

But I'm sure she went home saying what a great time she had, and will look up at the screen this fall and see if she can spot herself, whereas I was like two feet from Sean Penn and thinking, eh, this is sort of boring. It's like seven hours of waiting for 20 minutes of doing something.

So, the Oasis account on MySpace never really found its groove, and all it was seemed to be people requesting to be added, and people commenting me asking what was supposed to happen there, so... I just deleted it.

We still have a group on FaceBook, although I think it's pretty stagnant as well. But I think a few people have joined the site here after finding us on FaceBook, so that can stay, I guess.