Monday, May 18, 2009

Bored and uninspired

Okay the video is a little on the dark side, but definitely smoother> Have to work on the lighting when I post late at night, Had the overhead on, but...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The first review is in!

The first review is in!

Alexandra Bonifield
Get Critical: Rants & Reviews
NEA/Annenberg Fellow in Theatre Criticism
http://sjamaanka.wordpress.com

"A New Drama" explores the desperate, lustful side of darkest vengeance in classic love betrayal. Cinema Noir's Coen Brothers would blush with nihilistic glee: an "ancient" (by Access Hollywood standards) stage drama that portrays with painstakingly drawn detail the anguished disintegration of a tortured soul enslaved by the grotesque savagery of petty human nature. No wonder Manuel Baus' play triumphed in Europe in the late 1800's with absurdist expressionism emerging across all fields of artistic endeavor. On our side of the pond, puritanical sensibilities focused prudishly on the impropriety of the play's central torrid love affair and missed the work's triumphant transcendence over hyper-romanticized slice of life "realism." A jovial male lead that transforms into a disgusting monster, a Frankenstein gone mad beyond reason, over betrayal by a virginal babe with comely heaving bosom, so locked into victimized sexual repression that only a dedicated Freudian could truly love or tolerate her....it's delicious sustenance for those whose hearts long for a dark night of the soul and no facile endings where lovie-dovieness blithely conquers all and everyone lives happily ever after. Like slivers of rich bittersweet chocolate on the palate, MBS Production's "A New Drama" foments a crescendo of guilty pleasure with each sensual ensnarement-driven scene. Guaranteed to whip up the flagging ardor of well-seasoned lovers, or to inspire those daring to stray outside the bounds of conventional coupling...

Opening night, GOAL!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Inaguration, sucky rehearsal

There should be a "night y'all" at the end. Oops! :D

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Let The River Run

The lyrics are appropriate for today, plus this is just one of my all time favorite Carly Simon songs. Enjoy!

Friday, January 16, 2009

The cats are watching me...

Valentine's Day mech is live!

Fun and flirty, our Confetti Hearts design incorporates layers upon layers of festive heart confetti in pink, red and white giving it a rich dimension and texture. Great for Valentine's Day or any time you're feelin' the love...


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Finishing the scarf, the story of the hat and sneezing

Thursday, January 15, 2009

St. Pat's merch now available!

Yeah, I know - it's still two months off and I leapfrogged Valentine's Day, but shamrocks are harder to draw than hearts!


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Unemployement, decision validation, the color Blue and Welcome!

Comment: Isn't it amazing how one can achieve that freshly-fucked look without ever having been touched?

Monday, January 12, 2009

Craigs List can be so much fun

A plethora of people who are overly fond of ALL CAPS and many many exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like it makes it more exciting, somehow, to break the English language into bits, rub the bits in the dirt and then fix it all back together again with used duct tape.

What I truly love, though, are the men who post ads looking to fulfill some sort of fantasy. Take this one for example:


Dallas-based professional seeking dancers for private nude lap dances at my home. Would like to entertain dancers 2-3 times a week. $250 for 30 minutes.

Also seeking an assistant/girl friday to perform work in the nude. I'm not looking for a maid or a secretary, just someone to straighten the pillows on my bed, mix a drink for me, sit in my lap while I watch a game on TV, take showers with me, that sort of thing. $500 an hour.

As long as you're over 18, age and race is not important. Also, I'm not interested in filming or photographing you, so no worries about that. I work from home, so my hours are flexible.

I am 32, handsome, hung (11 inches), green eyes, brown hair, 6'4", 225 pounds. I am disease free, HIV negative and 420 friendly.

If interested, we can exchange photos to see if there is mutual attraction, and if so, can meet for coffee or a drink to see if the vibe is right. Since I'm letting strangers into my home and will be relaxing around them, I want to feel comfortable.


Oh to be an electronic fly on the wall and see what kind of responses he gets!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Desk of a Creative Genius



Forgot a couple of things and I'm being too lazy to edit it together (hence what I say at the beginning - I planned on it, but...well... fuck it :D )

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The internet commericial for A New Drama

this is the commercial I whipped up this morning for the play I'm doing. Nothing brilliant, but it get the job done quite nicely, I think...

Monday, January 5, 2009

Today is Soup Day

I've had this turkey carcass in the freezer since Christmas (my cousin was going to throw it out! Two of them! My mother took the other) and I finally broke down and bought the veggies to make soup. A friend dug up an old recipe that I'm sortof using, mainly for the cooking directions.

I threw in an onion, some carrots, celery and mushrooms, garlic and cayenne pepper, simmer for 6 hours (two hours left at this writing). Clean off the turkey meat, throw in some egg noodles, simmer for another 30 and done.

I just tasted it.

Let's just say that if I actually bothered to really cook more often, I'd probably never stop eating.

First rehearsal

Tonight was the first rehearsal for A New Drama, the show that marks my return to the stage later this month.

I thought it was just going to be a read-through, but nope - I got to stay after the read through and block the first scene with Mark-Brian and BOY was it fast paced and furious. I'm still trying to get my sea legs back and here we are zipping through this. I'm sitting here trying to redevelop my blocking shorthand and make sense of it afterward for a quick runthrough. AUGH My brain was on semi-overload, trying to get dialogue right, translating my scribbles into action while trying to get the pacing right. But hey - I wanted to get back into this and WHEEE I'm getting in spades, possums!

Luckily, the director seems to be a patient guy (and super nice, too). He's very exacting, knows what he wants, expects nothing less and it's really cool. I've had stage directors in the past who who just point and say - "oh just move sortof over there somewhere." Not Charles! He has it down to the specific seats he wants us to move in front of (this makes sense if you know the performance space, an old stone cottage where the seats are placed in a "L" shape around the perimeter of the main room). No generalities here!

But in the end, it's all a very good thing Charles does what he does the way he does it. Anything less, and I'd probably have a much more causal attitude about the whole thing.

Thank god Shakespeare is only a supporting role. I only have 5 or 6 scenes across the three acts, and some of them are super-short (for me) so I have time to breathe through this rehearsal process.

Oh and this just hit me today: How fun is it that a Hathaway is playing Shakespeare?