Okay, I think I’m just about to pass out. I haven’t really been home all day the past few days because Mike and I have been trying to make sense of this entire project so forgive me if this entry gets off topic or is stream-of-consciencous or my sentences turn out several fragments too long. I haven’t even had time to play with Tiki and Brown Dude (they’re getting lonely locked up all day home alone!). But nevertheless, it only took lunch with a good friend and filmmaker, Kevin Phipps, for us to realize: f*ck, we’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to do this right. And as Dan always says: “Do it right.” We should probably trademark that phrase. It seems like a good phrase to have for our [his] production company.We’ve finally started working on the set. Shela stopped by to start outlining the skyline. I know it looks skyblue right now… but it will look good when it’s done!
We tracked the final song earlier that morning. Ahh, these past couple of days have kind of merged together and I don’t exactly remember which day we did what. I thought today (Wednesday) was Thursday several times today. I’m going crazy. Since’s Mike is really more of a rock guy, and the 4th number is more of a jazzy number, I asked my good friend, Joe, to come in and lay that track down. Piece of cake! Joe performs in a cool little group called, The Neoprimitive, which is really hip. Check them out on MySpace.Later that afternoon, I headed over to Dan’s place to record Erik and Ryan’s solos. Soundin’ good guys! In this scene, Ryan (the Masturbating Bear) is trying to raise Erik’s (Conan) self-confidence.Tonight we rehearsed our dancers. That’s right, dancers! What would a musical be without dancing? There’s just got to be dancing for the opening number! The music just demands it!
…okay, maybe I just want to see girls move their bodies in sexy secretary costumes…After taking the girls out to TCBY afterwords, and a quick dinner with Linh to snap me out of daydreaming, Mike and I scouted the town for a few particular locations for filming.Gorgeous, I know.We eventually found ourselves in downtown Phoenix and I’ve come down to the conclusion that Arizona is just one ginormous under-construction sign. You can’t turn a damn corner without running into construction. But at least it passes for New York!Sort of.

When I heard Dan was producing a dance show in Scottsdale and that hot young highschool girls would be wearing practically nothing, I had to think about it…for a really… long…time… Actually, the show was really entertaining and had virtually zero downtime (despite the 3-hour playing time). The dance company, All About Dance, was having their annual recital. The studio has dancers from about 5 to 17 years old dancing everything from ballet to jazz to hip-hop. They even tap danced to a few hip-hop songs! And, I think I finally figured out where those 9 year-old girls get their attitude and the idea that they think they can dress that scandalously at the mall (see photos below). I felt very wrong taking pictures. Still, though, it was cute to see all the 5 and 6 year old girls in their little ballerina costumes holding hands and falling down on accident, the type of thing that you’d think only happens in the movies.Even Dan’s girlfriend, Amber, hung out. We all got dinner before the show at her favourite pizza place, Pizza Picazzo. The meaty, meaty, meaty pizza is delicious!

After only 3 hours of sleep, I was up and heading over to Dan’s place to help load up all the recording equipment. We got there at about 9:30 and after a quick trip to Radio Shack and Walgreens (for some early-morning candy and ice cream bars), we were more than ready to record for the next few hours.Dan’s shirt says it all. Then again, he is a frequent shopper at tshirthell.com. Decamp lead a quick warm-up and we got right down to business.Linh even stopped by for about hour before she had to head off to work to help with filming some behind-the-scenes footage. All things considered, the session went really well. In fact, we were out of there in about 3 hours. I’ll be meeting with Dan soon to mix/master the choir. And, on Tuesday, we’ll be recording Erik and Ryan’s solos. The dancers are probably going to meet Wednesday and Thursday and we’ve got to get into Dobson and start setting up lighting and constructing the set and holy crap there’s a lot to do! I will probably post a little tease soon, too, once I get something worth posting.

What? Me? At a car race? I know, odd, but it was a blast! My brother Theron invited me to go with him and my brother Kaleob and their dad, Scott, to head out into West Phoenix and check out some of the races they had going on at Manzanita speedway.The night was perfect for it and was actually even on the cool side (not bad for 110 degree days). And of course, we were strongly cautioned by this crooked sign. After the commencing pre-modified-dirt-car-racing-prayer, we were ready to watch lap after lap after lap after lap… …after lap after lap after lap. Not to mention the yellow flags that were called everytime a car spun out or crashed or failed to work or something fell off (which happened at least half the time we were there).But what goes better with racing, dirt, and loud engine noises better than an ice cold Dr. Pepper and a Red Rope? That’s right, nothing. Well, maybe beer.…or a commemorative t-shirt.Sorry about this photo. Those colorful blurry little things are actually cars.Like these. Okay, time for a little light reading and bedtime. Tomorrow morning, we record the cast choir to Conan! And in the evening, I’ll be joining Dan for a dance show he’s producing in Scottsdale. Yay for hot high school dancers!

Things are really rolling now; there’s no turning back. We only have one more choir rehearsal Thursday night before we record the choir on Saturday. Here’s our Conan (played by Erik Gustafson) singing his signature song, Funny Man. Erik was also in Karl’s Ghost Voices which is where the idea first blossomed in my head.
Before rehearsal started, Trey (Mike’s brother) recorded Mike on drums for the song Worse Than You. Adding Mike playing real drums–and Trey’s trained ear for recording–is really bringing the music to the next level. Without them, the music would just be all MIDI.Why does Mike always play with his shirt off? I mean, I get that he has more muscle than I’ll ever have but when you mix the muscle with the farmer tan and the freshly waxed chest, it just makes for a questionable photo.Mike’s family invited me to dinner with them before rehearsal. Mr. Decamp grilled hamburgers. Yum!

Mike enjoyed the fruit salad…He actually also missed the rehearsal tonight but with good reason. He met our lovely choreographer, Jessica Sims, to discuss the choreography for the first song. She showed him a few moves and I, instinctively, insisted he bring the camera to document the whole thing.

Other than that, I’ve been slowly putting together the website for the film (www.conanmusical.com). I will gradually be putting more interesting content up so keep checking up on it as the month progresses. Until then~