Had Enough/Can't Get Enough #1

So, this will be an ongoing segment and here is the first installment.

This week, I've totally Had Enough of...

• The TomKat wedding
• Trigger-happy cops
• Celebrity splits
• Almost everything in my closet

But, I totally Can't Get Enough of...

• Jeremy Enigk "World Waits"
• Thanksgiving leftovers (Thank You, butternut squash lasagna. You loved me when my wife was far away. I hope we know each other for the rest of our lives...)
• "Dexter"

On a separate note... After a whirlwind weekend in London doing a substitute stint on QVC UK, The Missus has been offered full-time spokeswomanship for Fran Wilson Creative Cosmetics. In the coming months, you'll be able to see her both on QVC UK online and right here on QVC in the good ol' U.S. of A. Big ups, baby. Big ups.

Also, I just posted some pics from recent weeks here. Enjoy.

Saying No to Saying No

After a failed attempt at quitting smoking back in May, I'm happy to say this coming Friday will mark my 3 month anniversary as a non-smoker. Turns out hypnosis was the way to go (as I suspected it might be) and I seriously recommend it. (For those of you in the City who are considering it, go see Melissa Tiers. She's phenomenal.) It seems the hypnosis also helped to dislodge a whole host of other self-imposed limitations that clung - sludgy and unaddressed - to my inner workings. Anyone who's smoked knows that there's more to the addiction than the physical dependence on the drug itself. And it was quite a kick in the crotch to really start to come to terms with the fact that I had essentially been saying "no" to myself 20 times a day in the form of a cigarette. Not just "no" to my health. But "no" to just about everything else I had been trying to attain. That shit adds up. 20 "no"s a day for 16 years. That's 116,800 "no"s before I'd even turned 33. And that's a conservative estimate. It's a lot to digest.

It wasn't until I was able to actually see myself as a non-smoker that I could make an honest go of it. To get under the surface - the conscious buzz of my own addiction - and plant the suggestion of something better. Something I desperately wanted, but had subconsciously decided was out of my reach. Having the scales knocked from your eyes like that is dizzying to be sure, but also liberating in a way I'd only imagined.

So, the salient point of my experience is this: Fuck smoking. Just fuck it. Fuck it with a big ol' John Holmes dildo covered in porcupine quills. Fuck smoking, fuck cigarettes, fuck cigarette companies and fuck ever saying "no" to myself again. (Incidentally, we just Netflix'd this and loved it.)

Now, given what I've learned in recent months, I don't think it's any coincidence that, in the weeks following my quit, a couple very cool projects came my way. (Cue self-congratulatory theme music)

The first is an indie feature called "The Dissection of Thanksgiving" starring Jay O. Sanders and Kathleen Quinlan. Shooting wrapped in Buffalo last week and will hopefully be hitting the festival circuit next spring. My stuff shot last month and the role was a blast. If you check out the imdb listing you'll see that some of my favorite people on the planet are involved and I think it's going to be a really special movie.


The day after I got back from Buffalo, I got an audition for "Law & Order". I booked the role and shot last Monday. I play a frazzled and overworked ER doc who gets grilled by Green and Cassady about a former patient who's been murdered. You can check it out on NBC, January 5th at 10pm (9 Central).

And thankfully the good vibes have apparently been contagious. The Missus is in London right now making her debut on QVC UK. She has two airings left, so you might be able to catch her. The next is 10am EST, 9am Central today (Monday) and the last is Tuesday the 28th at 4pm EST, 3 Central. Just go to: www.qvcuk.com and click on the "Watch QVC Live" banner at the left.

All this good stuff AND a Democratic congress. I barely know what to do with it all.

BUT, lest I get too touchy Fili (oh, c'mon. You knew that was going to happen at some point)... next post I'll get around to talking about this shit and more...

I Didn't Want To Be The Last Asshole Without a Blog

So, I'm just going to stream-of-consciousness this since overthinking has already caused me to postpone doing it at all for like the past month. It has been my pattern in life to shy away from anything that has officially become a "thing". And in the case of the web log, my reaction has been consistent with that course. I grappled with my own attitudes about self-promotion and the seeming presumptuousness of the whole thing. Ultimately, I decided to go ahead and get over myself. The truth is, I read blogs. Lots of them. I love to check in with my fellow theatrefolk at Dup's Blog, Sheila Callaghan, Bog Face and laketch. I love to check in and see what's going on at my favorite radio station and hearing new bands for the first time at all of the various mp3 blogs I check in with daily. The list goes on. Politics, humor, you name it. I reads my ass some blogs.

In the end, I decided that if it was trite to write a blog, then it was really fuckin' trite to spend as much of your morning reading them as I do. So, everyone's just friggin' groovy and now, here we go.

The title of my blog suggests that I'm just going to spend all of my free time and effort raving about this thing or that, which I probably will. But, be assured that all of my content will first be vetted by Michael Richards for tact of presentation and social propriety. And since it's Thanksgiving and given my recent spate of good luck (which I'll address in a future post), I'll refrain from complaining. For now, I'll just say "Hi, 'sphere" and leave you all wanting more.

Not more of me necessarily, but just... you know... more.