Hola Amigos!
Boy did we have a hot time in the old town this weekend. Temperature-wise, at least. Holy crap. The car next to me got stuck at the traffic light when his tires melted to the street. I saw a bald man fry an egg on his head! Did I mention it was hot? So, we here at the Fredonia compound circled the wagons and threw us a backyard BBQ. Fun was had by one and all. Some of us had more fun than others. I do believe I glimpsed a 7am walk of shame this morning. And coming from my very own house! Apparently, karaoke and a dash of strawberry sour diesel is quite the aphrodisiac.
By the way, thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes. I'm feeling better every day and the walking boot is helping. As did the pitcher of mojitos yesterday. A bunch of you have asked to see the infamous boot so I've included a couple of pics. One showing the Frankenboot, the other showing my bruised up leg. Mind you the bruises are all from blood rushing to the torn muscle. I never hit the leg at all. Weird.


See... y'all thought I was kidding. That I was just taking vicodin for fun. Well, a couple of times it was for fun. By the way, not for nothing but not a single person associated with the film I was working on when I hurt myself has so much as called, e-mailed, sent a text, or anything to see how I'm doing. Seriously. Not a word since I left set to drive myself to the emergency room. This the same film I've been working on since November of 2006. Not a producer, an AD, production assistant, no one. Hollywood... Ain't it great? :-)

Random Thought #1: Hundreds of years ago, it was seemingly possible to buy forgiveness. Until Martin Luther came along to spoil the fun, the Catholic Church used to sell "indulgences," which buyers could supposedly trade in purgatory for a reduced punishment for their earthly sins.

In other news: After 3 months, the landlord finally sent someone to take a look at the living room floor that had swollen and pushed itself up in to what could only be described as something out of tremors. Seriously, I was waiting for a giant sandworm to break through and spit out Kevin Bacon on to my floor. Now we have holes where our floor and walls used to be. Fun.In case you hadn't guessed, I figured out how to add photos to my blog. Maybe not a big deal to you but I personally feel a huge sense of accomplishment. Next stop... VIDEO!

Random Thought #2: Sanity is the new Crazy. Shadow work, meditation, yoga, contemplation, prayer, authentic self inquiry. SANITY is the new Crazy."

Okie dokie, my little pound puppies. Time for me to hit the sack. Big days ahead. More news to come. Exciting things just around the corner. Stay tuned. Stay true. Stay weird.
Peace!

Hey there, my little blog-babies!
First of all, happy belated Earth Day! To celebrate I shut off my brain to conserve energy. I also recycled a lot of jokes and ate only organic prescription drugs. No, I'm not a druggie. I have a legit excuse... this time. I tore my calf muscle last week while at work on Avatar. No, I'm not kidding. I'm still working on Avatar. I know we were supposed to wrap last July. But conveniently, they were able to reissue the same memo espousing a wrap date by simply changing the 2007 to 2008. Sort of like Bush's memo about the proposed Iraq withdrawal date.
By the way, regarding my injury, Captain Jim of the S.S. Avatar was mightily impressed by my utter inability to run from point A to point B without hurting myself in a major way. Honestly, so was I. How does someone run a marathon only to crap out jogging across a film set? Getting old ain't for sissies. I sat around the set for about an hour with an icepack strapped to my leg fishing for sympathy and praying it was just a charlie-horse. Finally, I asked to go to the ER because that's always fun. They said fine, but told me to keep my make-up on in case I was deemed okay to come back and finish out the day. I was touched by their confidence and was sure it came from a desire for me to be fine and not from the fear that they had wasted a day's pay on a defective avatar. As it turns out I wasn't able to finish out the day but everyone in the hospital was quite amused by the green dots all over my face.
I was on crutches for a few days but got to trade the walking sticks in for a stylish black Frankenstein boot. Sweet. Hopefully, I'll only have to sport this particular look for a few more weeks. Meanwhile, it's all about vicodin and worker's comp. In a further bit of mocap news, I got the call on Thursday that I'm officially on board for Tintin, the new Steven Spielberg film. We start shooting on August 18th here in LA. The test shoots we did in February were a blast so I'm very excited for the film to start.

Random thought:
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." - Chuang Tse

While we're still on the subject of work... It's official. My partner Natanya and I registered our production company this week. Winning Swimmer Productions has officially launched. I'll let y'all know when we get the website up and running and you can check out the projects we're developing.

You may notice a little something new to the right of the blog. My friend Linda, learned me how to rig this jalopy so that you can subscribe to my blog by RSS (whatever that is) or simply enter your e-mail and be automatically notified when I update my blog. How's that for convenience? Now you don't have to check in everyday with your hopes up only to have them dashed by the absence of new and titillating Woodyisms. You're welcome. Also, I corrected my settings to allow everyone to comment, not just those with blog accounts.
I've always been about inclusion, after all! Except for ugly people. I'm kidding. Ugly people are fine. As long as they aren't poor. Or unless their name is Betty. She's cool. And I don't love smokers. Or people who wear furs. Or furry people. Also, not a fan of people who drive Hummers, people who pop their collars, people who wear dog collars, dogs wearing clothes, cats that steal your breath while you're sleeping, and traffic. Especially, traffic caused by someone driving 12 miles an hour talking on their cell phone. I'm also not in to black licorice. I'm not being racist. My own mother eats it and I'm fine with that. Okay, it's entirely possible that my evening vicodin has kicked in. I'll be signing off now before I say something I really mean. :-o Until next time...
Peace and grooviness!

Hey there my little funky cold medinas!
Hope everyone is livin' large on this fine Sunday. I don't know what the weather is wherever it is that may be be dwelling at present but it is hot as hell here in LaLa Land! It's not Africa hot but definitely hot enough to do a little crotch pot cookin'.
I was invited to go to Disneyland with some friends of mine (as opposed to say some random stranger on the street saying, "Hey dude! Wanna go to Disneyland?") but I couldn't even pretend to be interested. The crowds, the heat, the..., the..., the crowds, the heat. Last thing I need is to pay a small fortune to be around a bunch of sweaty strangers all up in my grill, making me wish I was living in the future and packing a hidden arsenal of retroactive birth control sprays that I could use at my own discretion. Plus, I was a mascot for the Super Bowl many years ago (Dallas Cowboy in case you were curious) and my heart would break at the thought of how friggin' miserable every one of those minimum wage earning plushie freaks pretending to be Mickey, Goofy, Daisy, or the ambiguously gay chipmunks, Chip 'N' Dale must be. And they can't even talk. They can't scream. They can't whisper to a passer-by "If I don't get out of this fucking fur coat in the next 2 seconds I'm going to drop kick the next brat that pulls on my tale or tries to stick their pretzel in my my mouth." Especially Chip 'N' Dale who just want to be poolside with their daiquiris or in their air conditioned tree watching America's Next Top Chipmunk. My point is it's hot.
Speaking of hot, I had a blast yesterday working with that firecracker of a funny lady, Julie Brown. It was more fun than I've had on set in a long time. No offense, Mr. Cameron. What a great reminder of how fun it is to just pick up a camera and do something on your own. I forgot how much fun we all used to have doing Strip Mall for Comedy Central back in the day.

Random Thought: Pablo Picasso had a difficult birth. When he finally popped out after a long
labor, he wasn't breathing. The midwife decided his face was so blue he'd
be impossible to revive. She declared him dead and left. But Picasso's
uncle, who was in attendance, got up close to the infant and puffed cigar
smoke up his nose. The shock brought him back to life.

I don't know what that has to do with the price of tea in China but I like it. Speaking of China (how's that for a segue, boys and girls?), What is up with the Olympic torch? Enough already. Yes, I like the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics and I love a good show of tradition as much as the next guy but can we just call it quits already. China sucks for not freeing Tibet or doing something about Darfur. But putting the flame out as some random runner jogs by with the torch will not automatically free Tibet. If you want to make a statement leave the torch alone and instead refuse to buy another single thing that comes from China. Go ahead. Try it. It's like giving up sugar. Once you try you realize that shit is EVERYWHERE. Also, since we are talking torch here, does anyone realize what a huge carbon footprint that giant match is leaving on its long trek home. It has teams of security with a fleet of cars, its own jet, its own hotel rooms, boats, buses, vans, food for all the personnel, the news vans, helicopters, etc. that are tracking its progress. Give me a break. Let's just e-mail a picture of the thing around the world and call it a day.

Random Thought #2: The U.S. Labor Department periodically analyzes the volunteer work done by Americans. In one report, it estimated that between September 2001 and September 2002, 59 million people offered their services free of charge as they mentored, tutored, built affordable housing, cleaned up the environment, and helped respond to community emergencies. The average contribution per person for the year was 52 hours. (Source:
Associated Press)

Way to go volunteer type peoples! Keep up the good work. Everybody now!
Until next time.... be groovy... be kind... be freaky... be yourself!
Peace!

Hey Y'all!
Happy Saturday to you. First of all, I've been up since 5 am for no good reason. I woke with a headache which I think has something to do with grinding my teeth in my sleep and which I'm in total denial about. Let's face it, who wants to wear a night guard. When I think night guard I think head gear and I have flashbacks to Joan Cusack in Sixteen Candles trying to drink from the water fountain at the school dance. Funny as hell, but not when it's you. Although, I'll probably break down and get one for the sake of my teeth. I mean what's worse, wearing a night guard or unknowingly grinding my teeth down to nubs and looking like an Appalachian hillbilly for the rest of my life? No offense to my undoubtedly large Appalachian readership. At least the two of you who can read. But then again you probably don't have access to the "internets" so screw it.
For anybody out there who watched Idol Gives Back because I mentioned it... my apologies. It was pretty boring and unspectacular this year. Annie Lennox aside. She, as usual, was amazing. Bono is still in the running for saint. Carrie Underwood should treat George Michael songs the same way Ryan Seacrest treats David Archuleta: Admire from a distance but do not touch! Still, the evening was for a good cause and I hope they raised a lot of money.

Random Rant: I can't stand people who have their Myspace pages so friggin' tricked out that it takes about a day and a half to load. What with the Slide pics, the dancing wallpaper, the 6 videos embedded from Youtube, their top 64 friends, the 100 song music player, and the animated flash icon of themselves, who has time to bother? I was going to send you a message inviting you to a really cool party in the hills but it ended 2 hours ago while I was waiting for your page to load. And when it finally did...TACKY!

Today is going to be so much fun. I'm shooting a short film with Miss Julie Brown. No, not "Downtown Julie Brown" (wubba wubba), the one with talent. Miss Earth Girls Are Easy, Just Say Julie, Strip Mall Julie Brown. She wrote a hilarious sort of E! send-up called "The Art Of Being Fabulous" in which she hosts an infotainment show about "fabulous" celebs. In the first episode she follows Paula Abdul as she gets ready for the Grammys. Did I mention she's also playing Paula. Yeah I know. Love it. I'm playing Paula's stressed out make-up artist. It'll be up on Youtube soon. I'll let y'all know. And no, I won't be posting it on my Myspace page! But I'm sure it will be on Julie's. :-)
That's all for my morning blog. My headache is gone, thanks for asking. By the way if you want to hear some good music I just helped my friend Brian Kinler set up his Myspace music page. He's a wicked good piano player from New Orleans. If you're in the LA area you should catch his show in a couple of weeks at Vitello's in Studio City. All the info is on his page. Check out his music (including some great live concert videos) here.
Have a groovy weekend. Catch y'all later.
Peace!

Wow, so apparently these things don't write themselves. Although I'm off to a less than illustrious start, please bear with me while I adjust to the pressure of regular communication with the masses. And by masses I mean the 3 of you reading this. Providing that I've actually taken that all important step of informing people that this blog exists. At the present moment that hasn't happened. I was trying to decide if this was going to be a weekly update or a when the mood struck me kind of thing. As best I can tell it's going to be the latter but never longer between posts than the former.

For those who are curious about the status of my entertainment pursuits I have a few updates. First, my participation in all things Avatar has come to a grinding halt for the moment. Sadly, so have the paychecks. I'm told I'll have another day's work next week but they told me that this week and last week, too. They LIE!!! Sorry. I'm a little sensitive as I just paid rent and it was raised this month.
Second, I'm moving forward with the launch of my new (as yet untitled) production company with my beautiful, talented (and single, guys!) partner Natanya. On that front we just optioned our first script to produce. Woohoo! Yea us! We're also hoping to convince the equally beautiful and talented (don't know the dating status) Emily Wolfe to be our partner in the company. She's an amazing person with enough business savvy to run 3 companies. I can't think of a better person to be the trois in our little menage of a film company.
Third, I'm making slow but steady progress on my internet talk show, Hooray For Hollywoody. I've been speaking with web tech guys about the set-up, hosting, etc. I've mostly learned that I'm old and easily confused by technology. So if there's anyone out there who can and would care to help out with the set-up I'm eternally grateful in advance.

As for the personal stuff...mind your own business. I mean nothing too new. Unless I haven't spoken to you in a very long time. Then, lots to catch up on. Mainly, I made it through puberty. I'm now 6'2" and, despite a false start, incredibly handsome and charismatic. Some have even said smoldering. I think they were talking about my looks and not my odor. Whatever. I'm quite successful and wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. Unfortunately I haven't been able to convince the imaginary leprechaun I call Fred to tell me where my wealth is hidden so for now I live the life of a struggling artist as not to rub my monetary good fortune in the faces of my friends or entice family members to re-establish contact. Also, poor is sexy. Additionally, and much to the shame of my parents, I came out... as a democrat. Even worse, I brought home a black candidate. They'll get over it. I think that pretty much brings us up to the present. If you think I left anything out or you have any questions just ask. My life is an open blog.

Eventually, I'll be doctoring the site up with the occasional video, pictures, links, or other extremely relevant doodads, thing-a-ma-bobs, bells and whistles. Until then you'll have to be dazzled by my witty dribble. Hope everyone is having the grooviest of weeks and continue to do so. I'm off to watch American Idol. Shut up it makes me happy. And tomorrow, of course is Idol Gives Back: The Sequel. Nothing does my heart so good as to watch Simon swat the African mosquitoes from his cleavage whilst smiling at the starving masses who have no idea who he is because they don't have a TV. Or electricity. Or food... Seriously, though, if you do watch please give. Also, if you're not already a member of the ONE campaign click here to find out more and sign up. Bono and I will love you for it.
Peace!