Over two months. How Often I have briefly glanced at you, my blog, but only had a moment to reflect, not even a minute to update.

This has been a hectic time for me. My Job as Assistant Clubhouse Coordinator at Grandstreet Settlement ends tomorrow. My roommate, Graham, has moved out and moved in with his girlfriend, Gineen. Christian has continued to only show up once a month to pay bills, and no one really objects. My new roommate, Safahri, finally was able to get his stuff here from The Bronx. On Monday I received an e-mail from the folks at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in Australia. They apparently really liked Exquisite Corpse and have it programmed to show on the 17th of July.

This news is very exciting to me and I am considering traveling out to Melbourne for a week for the festival, if I can afford it.

I went to the MUFF V website last night and was taken back quite a bit by their promotional images. I e-mailed the festival director asking him to explain. Here is what he had to say:
"The image this year is meant to be a little shocking I guess and convey ceratain ideas about our theme. Then again it is meant to stand on its own and mean nothing on another level. Last year we had image of Gilles Peress of an IRA terrorist for our politics theme. This year our theme is violence so we have a hyper real shot of woman spanking her own ass. There is censorship laws here that forbid any kind of S&M imagery so we are pushing that envelope sure down under. But we are also saying. Is this violence? I think not. What is sexual violence then? All these kind of things come from the image. If people don't like it, they should ask why, what moral hang ups make this image a problem? We like that here at MUFF and deliberately provoke with our catalogue and program. At MUFF we believe in freedom of speech, thought and are quite amoral, we play hard core pornography alongside traditional underground and avant guard work. We make no value judgement between underground film, exploitation cinema, pornography and erotica, indepedent film, genre film and B movies; to us they are all interesting and worthy of examination and viewing."
I think I agree with some of that. But I have questions about some of it too--which is what they are looking for.

I received a disturbing e-mail today form my friend Leah, warning people that NYC has news that there will be a terrorist attack on 6/11. (The Madrid train was 3/11 and the WTC was 9/11--in case you have been out of it for the past 3 years) A lot of what the e-mail said was rather frightening but made some sense. The e-mail had a point about scheduling Friday as the day to honor Ronald Reagan so that many people (conservatives mostly) would not be at work and would not take the train. If there is a terrorist attack tomorrow, it would be pretty fucked up that they just let it happen, in order to prevent hysteria. The last time they did the same thing, and it just created mass hysteria, which gave the Bush cabinet the elbow room to do what they want.

That is my rant about that e-mail I was in Boston and Providence a couple weekends ago. My first time in either place. Both decent cities. When in Boston I was fortunate to hang out with some members of Socialist Alternative. They were having a nationwide convention out there. Most of the folks I liked, and the literature I have read looks appealing. I am seriously considering joining the organization once I get back from my upcoming trip.
On Saturday I fly to MN for my friend's wedding. I have known her since I was in elementary school. It is sort of weird when I think about it, but I am super happy for her, and I can't wait to see her and her family again. I have not seen any of them for about five years, I think.
Well, I have quite a bit of work to get done tonight, so I'd better go.

Happy Birthday Blog, you are One Year Old.

This is a self portrait--accidentally taken when I was dancing over a month ago.

I saw Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind today. It makes me happy and sad at the same time.

I know what you are thinking... another update... so soon!? Well, the answer is yes.
I have had one of the most crazy nights of my life. Why does this shit always happen to me? Does it happen to everyone?

First off. This evening, I was supposed to meet a nice young lady to exchange films and go to a movie. This meeting was not a date or anything, but getting to know someone new is always fun. Anyway, I ended up getting a call last Wednesday from this artist, Ruben, who needed someone to help him run video projections during his performance at experimental intermedia. The performance was for tonight so I contacted the young lady I had plans with and invited her to Ruben's show instead of the movie. She was not down with it so that sort of sucked, but, in hind sight, I am glad she did not come.
I came in this morning to help Ruben set up and to go over how the show would go tonight, but he did not have everything set up yet. I left just before 2pm to go work and when I came back at 7:30 after work, I was surprised to see that not much more had been set up in that 5 hours.

By 9pm, the time when the show was supposed to start, we were still setting up VCRs and cameras for the whole thing. At 10:20 we began (keep in mind Ruben had not really gone through the piece with me, so I was unsure of what to do). We began and there were many bumps and mistakes and things we should have worked out before. Essentially, Mr. Murphy let loose his law to rear its ugly head. After the show, I think Ruben and I were both relieved that the thing was over. I feel bad because it was his piece, but I am pretty free of guilt, because I did my best and a damn good job considering. After the show I talked briefly with my friends, Jim and Camille and Aaron. Aaron and I grabbed a drink , which gave me a good buzz, lasting me until the present and we went our separate ways. On my way to the subway, I called my friend Amy back who lives in LA, while she was counseling me on how relationships work after I had updated her with my recent events, I came across a fire in the middle of the street at Rivington and Suffolk streets. There was a rubber hose leading into the sewer and it was ablaze. As I talked to Amy, I watched the fire spread down the hose until a small canister which said "gas" on the side of it started on fire. I backed up, sure that it would explode in my face. It didn't.

In fact, a fire truck soon came and put out the flames. The signal dropped on my phone call to Amy twice to I proceeded to the subway station. On the platform, two other young gentlemen and I were informed that the F train to Brooklyn would not be running. After brief conversation, we realized that we were all heading to the same neighborhood in Brooklyn. On a whim, I suggested that we all split a cab. They agreed and I introduced myself. Paul is a 6'4" bald man from London who teaches junior high English in Japan. Geoff is from Albany, but has lived in NY for many years. Me, well, you know me. (If not, you should leave this website immediately!)
Anyway, we talked the entire cab ride, joked around and I had one of the best, and strangest experiences of my life. At one point when explaining that I make movies, I found two stray copies of Exquisite Corpse in my bag. I gave them each a copy. In the words of Paul, this night was "not atoll poncy, mate."

"It is a strange and beautiful world"--Roberto in Down by Law

As you may or may not have noticed, I have given the site a lot of changes. -- the site is now all under the umbrella of the domain www.nocinfishel.com. Enjoy that my friends. It has been over two months since my last entry. There are several reasons.

This should bring all my fans up to speed:
I worked on the play Klub Ka in January and February. Made a lot of friends, had a good time, and started dating a wonderful young woman who also worked on the play. After the play was done, I went to Iowa City to help my friend Paul shoot his movie, Wet Cotton. I was the DP. It is going to be a very good movie. Paul is a smart director. Everyone who worked on the movie did a terrific job, especially the very fun Mike Cassidy. After a week, I came back to New York, started teaching at Grandstreet Settlement on the lower-east side of Manhattan. I work in an after-school program for kids. My official title is Assistant Computer Clubhouse Coordinator. How about that?

The kids are pretty cool. Some of them have managed to wonder to this website and play "Clean the Streets with Rudy Guliani." I guess they like it, some of them.

After my second week at Grandstreet I took a 5 day trip to Chicago to seem some old friends and visit the young lady who I had stated dating before she left NY to be back in Chicago On the Saturday of that trip, I rented a car and drove to MN for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. That was a a lot of fun and I got to reconnect with a lot of relatives I had not seen since I was a young boy. On the ride there, My friends Mikey and Brian accompanied me back to Rochester. We had a really great time and talked about a lot of crazy stuff. It was probably the best "road-trip" I have been on. On the trip back to Chicago, I entertained myself by beat boxing, nearly the entire way there. I had some killer beats which I have not been able to recreate. :---(

When back in Chicago, I goofed off with my friend Brad and his family at the Chicago art institute, and then spent the evening with the young lady I was there to see. She broke up with me on the way to a movie and then I flew back to New York the next morning. what fun.

That was about two weeks ago and I have been keeping myself busy since with my internship on The Baxter, an independent comedy by Michael Showalter. The people I work with are cool and I find myself working extra hours just cuz I like the folks I work with. It does not pay, but that is what the teaching gig is for.

Last weekend was the No Fun Festival in Brooklyn and Northsix. It was a lot of experimental and noise bands. Jim O'rourke is always good, but some of the people needed a lot of work. I also really liked a guy running laptop called Mossimo.

On Monday I went to a free show at OtherMusic with my friend Aaron and saw a really cool performer called Sufjan Stevens. I bought his album the next day. It was the first album I have bought since August 2003.

Last night I went to a show at the Anthology Film Archives where Animal Collective and Black Dice played. It was a really cool show and I had a great time.

On Monday I will be mixing video for an artist form Portugal named Ruben at Experimental Intermedia. The place is run by Phil Niblock, a good artist.
A lot of other things have happened, but that is all that is fresh in my head right now.
Until next time,
-David

I have posted new things again. I am now the official website designer for 2 kings judgment film festival. do not look at the site now-- I have not started yet-- I will when Dallas gets me some info. I entered Exquisite Corpse into Cannes. I think that is funny.

Oh my--I apologia so. The visit back to the midwest and the search for job has kept me (dare I say) too busy to update my site and work my weblog. (GASP!!) Say it ain't--shut up dave.
Okay, first order of business: there are a couple of new things on the site and there will be much more coming. I made a flash toy out of the posters for exquisite corpse. Try it out-- it can be fun to look at.

watch out--he's loose. (ANGRY DAVEBOT- six-TRONSAND)

I would like to take this moment to congratulate myself on completing the editing and compilation of the movie I have been working on for a year and a half, Exquisite Corpse. Horrah Horrah. This project involved a lot of help from a lot of people. They are listed in the end credits. You can see the end credits of the movie if you go to one of the screenings this weekend in iowa city. There are six screenings. Here is the blurb I have been sending around:

Honors thesis film screening...
*David Fishel's "Exquisite Corpse"
All screenings free and open to the public:
(It also Features Songs by: William Elliott Whitmore, Ten Grand, Jamal River,
and Troubled Hubble)

Friday Dec. 12
3:00pm in the Information Arcade Classroom, UI Main Library
7:30pm in the Terrace Room of the IMU

Saturday Dec. 13
3:00pm in the Info Arcade; 5:00pm in the Terrace Room

Sunday Dec. 14
3:00pm in the Info Arcade; 7:30pm in the Terrace Room

"Please come at least once. Every screening will be different, so if you like
it you should come again because it is bound to be just as good; and if you
hate it, you should come again because it is bound to get better.
If you hate all of the screenings, you get your money back!"

HahahahahahahahahahahahahaHA! I love that last part. It is so funny. oh funiness is the best, is it not?

Shh. rhetorical.

Also. My good friends Alec Johnson and Elma Berhamovic are getting married as I wirte this. Congrats to them. I am very happy for both of them. :---)

Well, a lot has happened in 2 months. I shaved my head, wore orange pants, became active in noshame, officially quit my job are "the arcade," said my good-byes, moved away from iowa city and back to rochester, mn. Whilst in mn I visited many old friends, celebrated my birthday, saw a killer experimental music festival (de stijl) in minneapolis and I saw don herzfeld and his animation show. I then began my journey out east.

first night october 10, 2003: 9pm left rochester in one white dodge caravan, property of my parents. arrive in madison, wisconsin, just after midnight. stop at mcdonalds to use restroom. after briefly admiring the custodians above average janitry, I proceed to get lost on the downtown isthmus of madison. find my way. stay at my friend, dave's house. oh so comfortable air mattress.

october 11, 2003: with the knowledge that my 'chicago' friends are in iowacity for a show I am missing I decided to stay one more night in madison and spend some quality time with dave. we had fun. i bought a hat and then we went to a rock show and then a party. I drank too much Chianti form the bottle and I was drunk fast. In my drunken state at this stranger's house, I found a secret door behind the refrigerator which led to a drum set in a basement of the house. I sat alone for a long time softly rhymasizing with felt mallets. then suddenly everyone form upstairs had appeared around me in the basement. dave and his friend, brian, began to hook up the bass and guitar. I had slipped into a rhythm that made me happy. I did not want to stop. I peered over my shoulder and the owner of the nice trap set looked at me as if to tell me to stop. I began to let up in anticipation and he spoke into my ear, "don't be shy." I smiled and continued to play. after a short time everyone left the basement to go get more alcohol. I was drunk, but for the first time I was enjoying it. later dave and brian and I made some beautiful noise and some other guys said we sucked but dave and I did not think so. we went back to dave's place, fell asleep

october 12, 2003: I woke up at 1pm with a hangover. with a lot of water and a little movement I was able to pack up my stuff and shake the headache. dave and i got some food and then I left.
it took me about 6 hours to get to chicago due to traffic. ick. I arrived, called my good friend brian, and we met up and walked to go meet my other good friend pat at his work. I got a great meal which came with a banana and then slept well at pat's apartment. pat's place has low ceilings with lots of ceiling fans even lower. I am tall. I hit my head a few times, but it was worth for the place to stay and the company.

october 13, 2003: the next day I saw kil bill with my old roommate, shoe. it was good to see shoe. we hung out the rest of the day went to a record store and used the bathrooms at a mcdonalds. they wanted us to buy something so i bought a small cone and ate it. I felt like I was licking plastic. I also was periodically on my cell phone alot because my friend, lisa had informed me that i would not be able to stay with her in pittsburgh. i was trying to get in contact with an old friend from high school whom I made my first movies with. his name is dave as well and he is a graduate student in robotics. I was luckily able to contact him and he seemed happy to put me up. that evening after pat got off work, pat and I talked about movie ideas for a long time. i hope pat's screenplays get made because I sure do want to see them. he is a genius. the guy is my hero.

october 14, 2003: i prepared to leave early in the morning. it was very rainy. pat and i decided to get some breakfast and i got a call from my friend brad. he was driving in from the burbs because he wanted to try to meet up with me before i left. i did not have much time since it was a 10 hour drive to pittsburgh and in rainy whether I was not too excited about that. brad finally caught up with me after pat and I ate and said goodbye. it was good to see brad.
the drive was surpassingly peaceful. I listened to some books on tape and made my way across indiana and ohio, possibly the flattest states in the entire union. at one point in indiana, I looked on the map and noticed that the highway just graced the southern border of michigan. my fathers family is rooted in michigan and I had not been to the state for many years. I was tempted to just pass over and take a slight tour just to make my trip one state more impressive. a state with two peninsulas, i might add.
then came pennsylvania. as i approached pittsburgh, i became more and more aware that the city was nestled the prelude to the Appalachian mountains. i had never been to pittsburgh before and it was quite fascinating. despite my mapquest directions, amidst a brewing thunderstorm, i did get lost for a bit. I became increasingly aware of my false sense of control over the back heavy caravan. three nights prior i had dreamt-or rather nightmared that I was riding a back heavy white bicycle on a high, narrow overpass and lightning struck, i lost my balance and I fell to my death. i swear to you, dear reader, the same exact thing happened on my descent to andy warhol's home town, except that the bicycle was actually a minivan. I began to climb an overpass when suddenly--CRACK!-- a bolt of lightning flashed directly infront of me. For a moment I was blinded and startled. I could not see the road. the rain pounded on the windshield. i began to veer off the road. heard a honk on my far left rear and noticing a house several hundred feet beneath my elevation, I quickly steered back onto the road and slowed form 35 mph to 15. i did not die.
dave was very hospitable. we got a pizza together and i slept on his very comfortable futon. we did not get to hang out too much because he was busy with his robot project. i slept great that night. all was still.

october 15, 2003: I was able to get in touch with my friend lisa and we had lunch before I left. she showed me around the carnegie melon campus a bit and we caught up. i had not seen her in a long time as well. the campus is very pretty and "college-like" in the middle of a declining steel town. it is sort of sad, but I guess rent is cheap.
i left pittsburgh around 1pm and I took a nice slow drive on the pennsylvanian turnpike, through the mountains, through new jersey, through the holland tunnel, across manhattan, and the brooklyn bridge to finally arrive at my new home in brooklyn, ny. it was good to be home. to be stopped to not be traveling any more. i missed the road a bit, but i know i would see it again. i was elated to arrive in this beautiful city. I gave my new roommate graham a big hug and I began to unpack. I slept on the futon and woke up at 5 am ready to get settling in.

that friday, my parents flew in and drove their van back. a week later the building next to us went up in flames. I was scared I would loose my entire movie. i didn't

since then, nothing too extraordinary has occurred. I have been working hard and making a lot of progress on my movie-- just not enough.-- because of this-- this will be my last blog until i am completed with my film, but for all you readers-- i am still alive and kicking.

i am at work.

This weekend has been good. I have completed another scene and I am almost finished with the rough cut for another. very productive. Yesterday, My father drove down form MN to collect all of my belongings that I could fit into a white dodge minivan. I am now down to a small collection of books and dvds, my computer, and some clothes. I slept on a matt on the floor last night. My back is sore, but a good sore, as if someone straightened it out.

On Friday night, my friend Paul and I performed a choreographed humorous piece for No Shame Theatre. Paul has been doing No Shame for a long time. He is very talented and fun to work with. There was a sold out crowd and I have been informed that our piece received a half standing ovation. I had a lot of fun and I am really glad I was able to tap dance in an office chair in front of a large audience of people. The feeling was comparable to not having to pay for sex.

Nearly a month. AN ENTIRE FOUR WEEKS since my last update. Reason/Excuses: I had surgery on my right foot. I was out of town and I did not have access to my web site. Another reason is that I have been super duper busy in the last couple weeks and I have not had a spare moment, until now to update this sucker. I apologize.

Well, a lot has happened in the last month. I have made a lot of progress on my movie. No, sorry, it is not done yet. Classes are back in session and it is good to see a lot of people I missed over the summer. The majority of my friends have moved away, so my social life was beginning to look at little translucent. (for some reason I am still busy all the time-- i think that might be good, but I am unsure) Mr. Show Season 3 came out and I have been laughing. (in ways, this could be bad--you know it.)

I find it funny that the one moment I get to write down the events of the last month and my memory seems to be blocked. I am sure the unfunny anecdotes and streams of bullshit will come to me later and I will surely update you.

The one thing that does stand out about this last month is the loss of my friend Matt Davis. Matt was 26. He was a wonderful human being. It is customary for people to only remember the good things after a particular person's death. In Matt's case, though, there were only good things to remember. Honestly, he was that good of a guy. It is hard to think that he is gone. I will miss him a lot and I know many others will, as well.

www.ten-grand.com

After attending Matt's memorial service, a couple people asked me how it was. I was initially surprised to say that I actually had a good time. While we were all in a mournful state, I felt that we were celebrating Matt and his life. I laughed a lot. I feel lucky that I had a chance to know Matt Davis.

Aprille Clarke has a nice memorial to Matt here

Well thanks for the input folks-- I have decided to go with poster E.
Last Wednesday, ten friends from MN came down for a show I put together at Gabe's Oasis. (6 of the friends were members of the band). No one came to the show. Only a couple of people. Out of the 30 or so people who said they would come there were at least 10 who promised that they would be there. None of them came. In my opinion: their loss. I had a lot of fun and I thought the show was killer. Being the individual who promoted the show, I enjoyed the entire show, especially the last two bands (The Red Market and Genital Hercules) They are very different from each other, but I thought they both had good shows. Because every group was very different from the others, I think I was the only person at the show who enjoyed everything. Of course, then again, I was the only person at the show (period).

Photos from the Stabbiest Mexican are up at Aprille Clarke's website. They are good pictures.

On Friday, after work, Joe Hall and I went canoeing up the Iowa River. We goofed off a lot and claimed it was in the name of fighting terrorism. Then we decided to start are own private river patrol where we keep a look-out for terrorist and un-american activity.
This last weekend was hectic. This week has been similar.

I plan to drive up to MN tomorrow to have my foot surgery on Friday. I will be stranded in ye olde Crotchfester, MN until the 12th. I will bring my computer to keep up the editing. A few friends have promised to hang out with me, too. I am actually looking forward to it.

My boss told me today that she thinks I am "wicked." Not in the sense of wicked as in cool or rad or bitchin'. No -- wicked as in evil, crazy devil's knee-high socks wicked. I am sort of taken back by this. My co-workers have agreed with her. I guess maybe I truly am an evil evil being. I can't help it. I wonder if I should just give up the rouse. I try really hard to be nice, but I guess I am not. I am wicked!

I must be going now. I have to go terrorize old ladies with shopping carts and steal candy from babies.

(do the old ladies have the shopping carts or am I using the shopping carts to terrorize the old ladies?--you decide-- cast your vote in my guest book)

Well, I have had a busy week. Wednesday-Friday I was in The Stabbiest Mexican, part of Stengl vs. Clarke at Public Space One. The plays were both very good. I think I did okay. I did not get laughs until the Friday performance. I now have two new roommates. Annie and Sarah-- they are cool-- they own a lot of furniture. On Saturday I got to talk to my friend Paul about my movie and I showed him some scenes-- He has given me probably the most useful feedback yet. He is a very smart man and wise man. I just finished up working on what I think is the final version of the poster for Exquisite corpse-- I have narrowed it down to five fonts-- email me and tell me what you think.

poster A
poster B
poster C
poster D
poster E

I just got back form Chicago. Chicago is where "This American Life" is recorded for NPR. I wish my uncle was Philip Glass so that I could pretend to be a journalist.

Hey, here is the first draft of the poster for my thesis film. I think it turned out nicely. Let me know what YOU think by signing my guestbook.

I went to see Hope Tucker's graduate thesis film, about Lemonade stands. There were a couple similarities to the Orange movie I did. I wonder if Iowa filmmakers have some kind of deep rooted fascination with citrus. mmm.

Feast your hungry eyes on this:
and eat it.

I celebrated Amerikkka's birthday on Friday. It was nice. I moved a bunch of my stuff to my sister's house in Austin, MN. My friend, Amanda, came with me on the trip. Much fun was had. Rochester depresses me sometimes. I saw some people I had not seen in a long time. Whilst in Minneapolis after seeing the Walker Art Center, I had the chance to see a person who was an asshole to me for many years. She began to appologize for all of that, but it turned out she was just looking for some quick and easy redemption so that she could feel better about herself. The whole experience really pissed me off. I am greatful that A-bomb was there to give me an outside opinion. I guess I am just a slow learner.

Anyway, for happy news. I got to see my friend, Alec, on Sunday night and played some frisbee with him and Amanda for a while until I hurt his thumb and we had to get him an ice pack. The weather here in Iowa is really nice and warm. I have been spending all my time inside editing and such.

Here is a skit I have been meaning to write in my blog for a while:

A woman and a man stand on a legde overlooking a beautiful kingdom. They are both dressed in elegant robes. The two look over the splendorful kingdom as the sun sets. The woman turns to the man and says,
"It truly is a magnificent empire."
With out batting an eye or diverting his gaze the man says flatly,
"I built it."
the end.

hope you all enjoy that one.

More to come soon. Sunday I lost at chess for the first time since March. It was an exciting and educational game. I am currently bedless. My review is up on TMT. Rereading it I have noticed the problems I have with parallel structure. More to come soon. Until then, feast your eyes on this:

"If there truly is a way to read one's mind, you would think that all the kings horse's and all the queen's men could have found a way to avoid scurvy by now." --M. Allenby Dumas dir, of the Sallissburry Institute for Gifted Elderly at the Jorgess Convention Center, 1974 (after the tri-annual meeting of blind pirate compensations).

What? Aw...huh? 'sthat you say? A whole f-ing week? Well that is right. I apologize to leave the thousands of you hanging for a week with out an update from me about my preciously important life.

My recent wanderlust:

The tour of Minnesota was grand. It took me twelve hours to drive up to Bemidji last thursday and I made it just in time to catch Blake's play. The play itself was okay, nothing too great. Nothing too bad, but Blake was hilarious. His cartoony portrayal of officer O'Hara in Arsenic and Old Lace was over the top with greatness and not only I, but the entire geriatric ward in the audience and the cute, obviously in-closet couple sitting next to me, laughed out loud at Mr. Hogue's antics. Usually I am a bit skeptical of the comedic "stunts" Blake has pulled in the past, but this instance had me raving for days--hmm I guess, an entire week, in fact. After the show, a woman thought Blake and I were brothers or something. We had fun joking about that and then took a picture which I will post when it is developed.

Friday morning I trekked east four hours over to Duluth and along the show of Lake Superior up to Gooseberry Falls State Park. I arrived to find my oldest sister, Becky laying on an air-mattress under a tree reading "Me Talk Pretty One Day" while attempting to alleviate her back pain. Mary and Dave (my brother-in-law) were finishing up their lunch of HyVee Mac and Cheese. Hungry as a mentally ill sheep, I dove into the Cheesiest Mac I had ever experienced while "roughing it." Due to Mary's new found fake allergy to campfires, the rest of us were not allowed to experience the full camping experience. All cooking was done with a small propane grill. It was declared that if any of us were to think about building a campfire, it would mean that we did not love Mary, and in fact wished her death. As logical as this all sounded, I was able to abstain the joys of camping for this one trip.

On the up side, it was absolutely beautiful up there. (I really fit in --Bw-HA!) But seriously, folks, Lake Superior was surprisingly calm and the sky was clear. Everything seemed to have a wonderful pastel color to it. The so bright. It was wonderful. When looking across Lake Superior, it was clear enough that I could see the shoreline of Michigan on the other side. Quite amazing. After that we all hiked along the gooseberry river and checked out the falls. I had a lot of fun hopping from rock to rock across the river to the edge of the falls and then just taking a seat on the overhanging rocks, admiring the scenery. Latter, I continued this practice of hoping from rock to rock, and I managed to slip on some moss and bash my left shin. That hurt and I sat on a rock in the middle of the gooseberry river wet, stranded in pain, for a good 5 minutes. I then managed to creep to he shore and hobble back. Hurrah for glacier rocks beating up my shin! Hip-Hip-shut-up.

That night, unable to sleep due to the wonderful chorus and occasional three part harmonies emitted from my companions, I wrote a comedic skit I am fairly proud of. I am refining it and I hope to post it by my next blog.

Saturday I drove back to Iowa City with my friend, Tyler. After dropping him off at his car around 10 pm, he noticed that his tires on his tan 2000 Toyota Corolla had been slashed. Why someone would slash the tires of a tan, 2000 Toyota Corolla, I don't know, but someone decided when they saw Tyler's tan, 2000 Toyota Corolla, "Hey, look at that tan 2000 Toyota Corolla I would like to slash the tires of that tan 2000 Toyota Corolla right now. I will now go fetch my swiss army device." That person was obviously a genius and spoke with an irish accent.

On Sunday I was the best damn dancing robot umpire ever in Jason Nebergall's movie. It was fun. I had fun. During a break in shooting, I took off my robot legs and arms and in a pickup game I hit my first home run I have ever hit. I rounded the bases with vigor and was very gleeful. The robot suit began to give a weird rash on my arms but that seems to have gone away now. The last few days have been spent working on the movie. I made a lot of progress yesterday. Woohoo.

I will leave you with this quote: "If dog's are really man's best friend, then why don't they buy us beers after they have been hit by cars?" - Lucient Sanderson, PHD.

Today was a solid day, folks. Keep it real. Do whatcha can. Do your best. Stay Afloat, that's all we can hope for.

Since last time on "We Blog"
I talked to Graham Goetz last night. He is a good friend of mine. I love him to bits. thousands of teeny-tiny bits. sliced, diced, and pre-priced. The guy is overworked and I worry about it sometimes. Graham lives in NYC. As my conversation with Graham was coming to a close, Amanda called. Amanda is staying in Manhattan as she is improvising at the Upright Citizen's Brigade. My conversation with her was cut short because her telephone's battery died (please emphasize the first syllable of battery so it sounds like BATre). Within a minutes time, that's 60 seconds, who calls, but Sam Rosenberg, master of ceremonies. He and Amanda had hung out earlier that night and apparently they saw Colin Quinn do stand -up and the man was actually funny--really. I was and am still shocked by this fact. (three calls from nyc in a row!) Anyway, Sam and I talked at length about you, the person reading this right now. Woah! You are asking yourselves, "How, in the sacred name of Charles Bronson, did mr. fishel do that?" Well the answer is simple. I'm not telling.

Yesterday I had my first rehearsal for Aprille Clarke's play, The Stabbiest Mexican. I play a downtrodden, yet chipper, middle-class, half-Mexican, veterinarian who performs lethal injections named Mike. I am working on that. I have about one page of dialogue. It was a fun but kind of awkward practice. I think I will become more comfortable the more we practice.

Last night I constructed a robot costume for Jason Nebergall's newest epic, The Baseball Kid. (aka Million Dollar Dog Two, Deuces Wild) Max took some pictures of me in the suit. It rules, people. The robot's head and hands might be the best part.

Today at work Joe Hall and I finished up the chess game we had started on the 14th. I totally whooped up. I am gloating now because after twenty-two years of losing at everything, I think I deserve the chance to gloat. These things come along so rarely, you have to live life. In other words, when you get a chance, sin as much as you can. I have included a picture of the final chess board from the game. Look to the left (for the right is filled with rich white men.)
Here is a joint interpretation of the chess game created by joe hall and myself. This was made before we were able to access any sort of photographic documentation device.

Well, I tried out Blogger.com. I realized, though I would have easier access to my weblog, I would not have as much freedom. c'est la vie. Or such is life, even. Today my friend Amanda is the maid of honor in her friend Lynette's wedding. Then, tomorrow A-Bomb leaves for NYC where she will be studying with the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre. This is exciting. As far as I know, Sam is still rocking the mic out there. By now he may in fact be hosting his own talk-com late-day celebrity worship hour, but then again, he might be roaming Penn Station, collecting change for his next hit of ecstasy. I don't know which would be more demeaning. I hope he is kicking out comedy and having a blast, no matter what you jerklords wish upon him.

It has been a slow day today at work. Joe Hall has been bothering me for two hours, trying to figure out a way in which I would let him listen to Hail to the Thief which is securely placed inside a pocket of my backpack. It is somewhat comical because I have been waiting for Joe to simply ask for the CD. I guess he assumes that I am some kind of jerklord.

Here is some news, the overwhelming success (?) of my web site has landed me an offer to write a column for Tiny Mix Tapes Gone to Heaven. Marvin Lin, editor, has given me one week to write a piece, then we will go from there. Next stop: Broadway!

This Thursday I am going back to MN to visit my two sisters, my brother in law, and two of my sisters in law. (I never understand the plurals for those) We are going camping at gooseberry falls. I have not been there. For the first eighteen years of my life, I would travel with my family 6 hours north to Northern Pines Campground on Fishhook Lake outside of Park Rapids, MN where we would check into a cabin as a family and "camp" there for a week. I used to look forward to taking that trip for the entire year. I would waste all of my summer waiting for the chance to escape to this magical place where structure and formality were vacant. Any definitions of who I was or where I was from could easily be formulated and/or refined. I think when I was young, I would adopt a different personality, and I enjoyed every second of it. For some reason this bliss was manifested in my memory of the place, Northern Pines. As I grew older, I changed, and the camp itself physically changed. Because of the alterations and "improvements" made on the campgrounds, and more importantly, because of my supposed growth, Northern Pines, the magical campground outside of 'Bark Rabbits' no longer exists. I remember retreating to the camp when I was 17 and 18. At that time, my sisters had moved away and it was just my parents and I. For those last few episodes, I recall still feeling the anticipation, the excitement I used to feel, but when I would arrive and check in, the magic and fun seemed to be vacant. I would blame it on the new owners, or the modifications to the camp, but the real reason came from me. With age, I had lost the ability to escape myself and become the different David (the one deemed grimace). At the age of eighteen I said farewell to any leftover excitement I had for Fishhook Lake. Occasionally I will walk to class or work and catch a whiff of a pine tree or kick up some mulch and dirt, triggering a lost memory from the campground. I then wonder if I could return and reclaim that feeling at that place. Would it still be there? I have come to the conclusion that I have changed too much. Never again, will I experience that experience, and this saddens me.

So I chose to optimistically look to the future. A future of motorcars and superb railways made of candy-canes. A future where commonplace surgery allows everyone to be beautiful according to the standards set forth by the media. A future where racism does not exist because everyone's skin is made of gold. In this better future, poverty is not a problem, because all of the poor and homeless will be gassed in camps. In the utopia of the future, no one will ever have to work, beaus all the tasks in the world will be completed by special robots which are simply minorities in funny aluminum hats. And a funny licorice marionette will be president king of the world, or as we will call it in the future, America.

It has been nearly a week since my last blog. That is good, in a way, it means that I have been busy with other things. Last night I listened to the new radiohead album for the first time. It was so good that I had to stop halfway through and take a break before continuing. My friend Alec is apparently back in the states. I received a telephone message from him this morning that is one of the funniest phone messages I have received. Did I mention that the new radiohead album is great? Yea I love it. I also will continue to sing the praises of Finding Nemo. If I ever have children, or a wife, or a girlfriend, or a friend, in the distant future, I will show them the movie. In the last week I went to visit my very good friend, Amanda, in her home town of Tama, IA. Tama is very small and there are not a lot of things going on in Tama so it seems boring, but I had a lot of fun. It was really good to see Amanda and to hang out in Tama for 26 hours. Today at work I was cast in a play that Aprille Clarke is putting on at Public Space One. I don't think it will be a very big production, and I will have a very small part, but it will be my first play in over four years. I am excited. I also will be playing a Robot Umpire in Jason Nebergall's upcoming feature entitled The Baseball Kid. I am very excited for that. I think, because of ease and because it will be easier, I am going to begin using blogger to make my blogs instead of this manual method of using tables in Dreamweaver. Joe Hall and I successfully produced a DVD for the movie Ishtar. Why? Because no one else will. I think we are the only two gentlemen who truly appreciate Ishtar. Others might say we are the only two stupid enough to take pleasure in watching pure crap. Hmm there is a thought "pure crap" Is that even possible? Even if someone only ate fecal matter, I doubt their crap could be pure. What makes it pure anyway. I will contemplate this for the following hour as I sit here at work. Waiting for patrons. Silly patrons. Most of the people who come in here are very kind and pleasant, but occasionally a grouchy apple enters the barrel. A woman toting five partially filled hemp sacks stomped into the info arcade today demanding that Joe Hall and I help her take an already burned DVD and edit down the video from that. We both politely informed her that our facilities did not have the technology to rip a DVD and then edit the video from it. She forced us to repeat this several times and then retreated in a grumpy grouchery. I wonder if she had compressed everything into only the amount of hemp sacks that she required, if then she would be in a better mood. I doubt it. Okay I will now go on my break and the next time I blog will probably be via blogger.com.

I just got home after seeing Finding Nemo with my friends, Leigh, Tyler, Ben, and Kristin. The film was great. It is good to know that some movies are being made by some studios that are not bad. I can tell you the characters in Finding Nemo are much more realistic looking than any of the special effects in Matrix Reloaded. Down with the Matrix, up with Nemo. It is so incredibly refreshing to see an animated feature that is not just void of musical numbers, but entirely vacant of musical montages as well. AND The music they DID have was pretty good, and fitting! Good Job Pixar. Keep making them movies. Ellen DeGeneres is hilarious and all around it is a fun movie that tells a good, classic, and interesting story. I give it three thumbs up --and one fin. hee hee. (Sorry ladies, I'm not telling).

So today after I finished up at work, it turned out that the library had locked up and I was all alone inside. I felt as if I had slipped through a portal and entered a John Hughes movie. Alas, Jennifer Grey never appeared and I did not make out with anyone in the 900 section, but after about half of an hour of trying every door and deliberating over whether to spend the night absorbing all the hard-bound knowledge in the building while finding friends among the roaches and rats residing in the bibliotheque's walls or breaking the fire exit open and running for 'it' to avoid campus police, I chose neither. Realizing I had an armful of paintings/drawings, a newly purchases vinyl record, and a shotgun mic, I opted to set my items on the front counter and rummage through every drawer until I found keys. The third drawer I tried (the most obvious one) was the jackpot... of drawers. Six keys lay at the base, two of them with labels. After using every key on every surrounding drawer I finally figured out a way to open the entrance to Shambaugh Auditorium and still have the door lock behind me so that I might return the key. It involved a bit of hopping, but in the end I made it away scott free. yippy I am alive and I made it to Finding Nemo, a wonderfully good film for everyone.

EFF some Major ISH, If you know what I mean. This day is going poor to mediocre. First of all, I got to work late because my alarm did not go off at the proper time. That has happened to me with other alarms and to other people with alarms. It makes me wonder if there is a conspiracy of alarm clock manufacturers to make them routinely fallible. That way, when they, or their kin, show up late for work, they can just say, "sorry my damn alarm clock didn't work, " and everyone will believe them. In fact, I bet if you were to try to make a perfect alarm clock that would always keep perfect time and always go off when it is supposed to, you would be assassinated for sure-- probably within minutes, because each and every piece of equipment that works incorrectly some of the time is wired with tiny men who are holding microphones which can read your thoughts, but only your thoughts, not mine. Never! (Sacre Merde! Talk about a run-on.) Does it bother anyone else that I never use paragraphs in these blogs? email me. we can talk about it.

Anyway so I am sitting here after work trying to finish up some stuff before I leave. I am all alone, tired, hungry, cold, and desperate for human contact. Not really. No.. wait.. Yes, really. that statement was actually true. Oh, but that one right there wasn't. HA ha. gotchya. I love the written word, when you are a poor writer it is so confusing. Hell, when you are good at it, it is confusing. Look at James Joyce. Hmm. Maybe he was not really a good writer. Maybe olde Jimmy J. was just as bad as I am, but just because he has an irish accent, everyone thinks he is a genius. You know what -- I think I am on to something. Fact: All you need to do to be a genius is to speak with an Irish accent all of the time. Here is a list of persons: Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Neils Bohr, J. Kepler, Einstein, Eisenstein, Hitler, Abe Lincoln, Sylvia Plath, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., The Wright Brothers, my boss, Julius Irving, EE Cummings, Alan Cummings, Malcolm X, Professor X, The City of Ann Arbor, Robert Openheimer, Beethoven, Mozart, Sammy Hagar, The Royal Dutch of Dukes, Picasso, Galileo, and Brady St. Eldrige DeWitt. All of these individuals are unquestionable recognized as geniuses, and all of them also had Irish accents. Wow, to be able to figure that out, I must be some kind of genius. (winkity wink). Anyway, I am stuck here at work for another hour probably and then I plan to go see Finding Nemo or whatever the F it's called. I am excited because I rarely get to go see movies with a bunch of my friends who really love movies as much as me. I also really loved the last pixar film, Monsters Inc. I found it to be genius (cough*) and I hate Shrek with the mightiest passion. email me. we can talk about it.

Horrah! In a valiant effort to procrastinate I just spent the last hour juggling. I made it up to 57 tosses. That means in 24 hours my skill level has more than doubled. And all had to do kids, was to not practice. Ciao.

Well folks, brad never called me this morning so we did not get to shoot the smoking ad. oh well, I got something else up my sleeve. Woo hoo. I will work on it all night tonight. Work went well today. When I was on my break and eating a tuna sandwich outside, a cute girl thought I was hunched over in pain and asked me if I was all right. I then gave her directions to the art museum (Yes, she did ask for them). I know it must look like I am ill, but that is just how I eat, folks. Oh yeah, I found out that the info arcade is closed this weekend so I do not have to work. Crazy wild! more time to edit! my roommate, Max, and I arrived home at the same time tonight (shortly after 9pm). He brought home some amazing cheesecake he had made for work. One piece was left over because all the ladies he works with were overly modest and unwilling to stoop to the level of eating the last piece. Well guess who is willing to stoop to that level? Me! all right, enough jokes for one night, but seriously. Speaking of jokes, my good friend Sam Rosenberg (that's right remember that name) is in NYC now hitting the standup circuit. Apparently he is doing really well and performing a lot. I am proud. He is proud. Pride spews. Speaking of spewing, If I spewed up that cheesecake I would not be upset, because then I would be able to eat it up all over again. (Rim-shot) B-HA! I will leave you now with some quotes Max and I stumbled across this evening in our stupor of weirdguyness:

this first one works like a skit involving members of a band who just toured Europe:
A: "So I'm doing this French girl all French style with the frenchily-french"
B:(interrupting)"That means up the butt."
A: "Yeah!"
A & B immediately high-five.
A:"So anyway (all of a sudden his voice raises an octave) Isn't cola expensive over there?"
B: "That's right, it is expensive and that's why America invented bombs. You see, In 1965 the first bomb was created in a laboratory by Archer D. Boddenbury, a custodian. Then, the united states navy was formed in order to bomb and destroy shipments of soda to the rest of the world. That way, because of the shortage of soda, prices went up for those silly frogs. And Now, everyone in the rest of the world wishes they could be as good the Americans because of our endless supply of inexpensive soda-pops."

It sounds funny if performed correctly.-- oh well. The last couple just have to be imagined in their own referenced contexts:
"Introducing Tooly LaMone, Insult-Prop-Comic!"    and    "Let me tell you about a magnificent little castle which I like to call, 'my anus'."

I just got home from my friend brad's house. I went over there to start working on a non smoking ad for a contest. They are due in a day. We ended up driving to wal mart to pick up some super 8 mm, pall mall lights, matches, and some stars and stripes pasteries. I learned form the stars and stripes package that when I thought I was hanging the american flag up backwards for my film in the background, that I actually was hanging it the right way, oh well, it doesn;t really take anythign away, just doesn't add as much as I thought it would. ha. Anyway, when we got back to brad's I just ended up trying to juggle the whole time. My previous record was 20 tosses. tonight I got up to 24! but I was trying for 30. I guess, like everything else, I am just barely a failure, right guys? Email me if you would like to be the compliment catch of the day.

After starting another scene and eventually loosing my ability to concentrate somewhere around 7am, I went to sleep. Two nights ago I had this conversation with my friend Brian about how neither of us are able to fall asleep unless we are watching a movie we have seen before and we know we don't care about. I mean I guess if I started watching 2001: a space odyssey I am sure I could still fall asleep, but I have much too much respect for that film. I remember the first time I saw 2001. I was bored one summer night and bothering my father to play a game with me. I was 12 at the time and he was very busy with his work so then I began looking at his video tape collection. He came over picked out 2001 and handed it to me. Since his office was the same room as the TV room, I retreated to my parents bedroom and began to watch 156 minutes of pure unmitigated genius. At the time all I understood was that I was not ready to comprehend the film and that it was one of the most beautiful things I had seen. My father asked me what I thought. I believe I responded, "it was kind of boring." He just sort of smiled and chuckled. I am sure my father knew that someday my opinion would change once I had grown more, but that is me just speculating. Who knows, maybe he just agreed that the film was boring. Well that was a hugely long tangent, but I just woke up and my mind is in a weird place.

I had an extremely detailed dream last night where I was trying out for bob and david. This is the third one of those. They are exciting at the time, but they are starting to scare me.-- okay that is it for now-- I will now go get ready for the day.

Well I just finished the scene folks. It doesn't add up to much ( about 2 minutes) but it is pretty much done. I just have a couple things to tweak with sound and I am done with it. The best part of finishing up the scene was that as I was finishing up I went to switch on my receiver and hitting the wrong switch I was warped back to the aluminum age of rock as "carry on my wayward son" filled my bedroom, and my pants. I think Scientific American did a study that showed the only humans who continue to perform that song are over the hill alcoholics and high school marching bands. fight on, spartans, fight on.

something of a poem about editing movies:

how much more editing is left? too much
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
final cut just "unexpectedly quit" I just lost the last two hours worth of work
damnit!!!!!
fuck fuck fucxk
it is frustrating
I have been having the hardest time with this scene
: when I shot it-- I decided to be "artistic" and play with the exposure so things are all in the shadows
it looks nice but it sucks because I can;t edit during the daylight hours at all
it is too bright even with the shades down to see the details in the shots
it will be fine in a dark screening room, but it sucks for now
the stupid thing is-- I will probably be one of every thousand people who will appreciate it
I bet most viewers will complain about how it looks
I hate people