Well, it’s unofficial but we have finished filming our Conan O’Brien musical! With the exception of an insert shot or two, we have all the material we need to continue editing. Be sure to keep updated on conanmusical.com (more content coming soon)! And watch out for a premiere date in early October as well as being released on the website after the official premiere.

Today was Linh’s birthday and about 4 or 5 months ago, I bought us tickets to see Wicked when it toured here to Gammage. Of course, the show sold out in a matter of hours the day tickets went on sale so I was forced to pay about three times the retail price to just get a decent ticket (and that was only later that night tickets went on sale!). I’ve already seen the show on Broadway, but for Linh and my mom, the price was worth it. Matter of fact, Linh probably knows the soundtrack better than I do. She stole my CD a month or two ago and knows practically the entire thing by heart. She still hasn’t given it back to me.We had dinner at some swankified new restaurant called AZ88 over in Scottsdale. Very metro. Not really my style but the food was great–especially the chicken sandwiches. Of course, the girls ordered salads–how girly!And what would an evening be without the company of good friends?
Yes, behind Dan is indeed a work of art of suspended paint brushes dipped in various paints. I don’t care if it is art–it’s gay.After dinner we headed over to Gammage for the show. Compared to what I saw in New York, the traveling production was nearly spot on and the two female leads were fantastic! Man, those chicks can wail!Afterwords, we kicked back and hung out at Royal Palms for a relaxing conclusion to our evening.Also this weekend, we are finally finishing filming our Conan musical and picking up a few shots we never got back in July so we can hopefully get this out in a month or a little more. Being dressed in a bear costume in 100 degree weather is not for the faint of heart. I don’t know how Gaumont did it but he did it and he did it brilliantly. Being the Masturbating Bear really takes a lot out of a guy, you know? Deep down, I think we’re all Masturbating Bears in some way.And you wouldn’t believe how many people actually stopped, got out of their cars, or stopped what they were doing, to have their picture taken with him while we were in Phoenix/Tempe. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Some exciting things are on the way. I’m not exactly sure what those things are yet but I’ve got a feeling this semester is going to really make up for the past couple. School started back up yesterday and so far, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve got a great schedule that allows time to concentrate on my music, great classes and (as far as I can tell so far) great teachers. I’ve decided to step away from math (because why on earth would I want to dedicate my life to math?) and get some general studies courses out of the way. I guess that would make me an “undeclared” major though I’m still a “math major” in the computer systems. For my humanities credits I’ve really looked into the film program that is just being launched this year. I’m taking a screenwriting course, a production techniques course, and a course on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (way cool). So three out of the five classes I’m taking, I watch and analyze movies! As for my other two courses, I read and analyze chicano literature in one and dance chicano (latin salsa) in the other! I hope I don’t jinx myself so early in the term by saying all this, but like I said, I’m really… happy here now.I guess I should probably mention something about these pictures. This past weekend, I drove up to the Rim up north and camped out with my brothers, my cousins, and a couple of their friends. When we got to the camp site, we met this guy–probably the older brother of the last horned toad we found two blogs ago! Oddly enough, he is missing a couple front claws–a battle wound no doubt.Up at 7000 feet, the weather is a hell of a lot different from the hell back in the valley.When it rained (and even hailed!) the temperature was around 55, nearly 50 degrees cooler than the 100+ weather in Phoenix!Creepy.As soon as the weather cleared up, the sun came out and it was actually a little on the warm side. Chris and Tyke celebrated by… reading comic books.I went camping with… geeks. Geeks who go to Comicon and collect Star Wars figurines… but who I am to talk? I collected hot wheels for several years…We were camping up on the Rim right next to a canyon which was cool because there was a trail–a very steep trail–that we were able to hike down to get to a beautiful river at the bottom. My brothers Kaleob and Theron.Nash here loved the water and prefered it highly over hurting his paws on the rocks.Kaleob and his GPS.The trip was good, relaxing, refresing. With that and Disneyland behind me, I think I am revitalized to do some decent work this semester. Did I mention you could see the Milky Way up there? Highly inspiring. Thanks to the “I’m-going-to-have-a-productive-summer!” outlook that failed miserably these couple of months, I’m quite behind on my projects. Well, at least the Conan project looks promising so far (I’m even updating the website now). I need to get back to concert music and other fun projects! DAMN! Too many fun projects… what am I going to do?

School’s starting soon so Linh and I planned a short weekend trip to Disneyland. Of course, we went with her sister, Loan, and her cousins, Hung, Phong, and Ha. You’d think being the only white boy would be intimidating, but at least her family aren’t FOBs. One of our stops included California Adventure’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The last time I came here, they were only giving previews to friends, family, and park employees so it was cool to finally go on it!…though Linh was… a little scared. She had a blast on Splash Mountain though :-D!Asian tea, anyone?By about 3, we were all pretty tired. Even though the weather was a cool 85 compared to back here in Phoenix, we still needed some time out of the sun.And what would a trip to Disneyland be without CHURROS!!!!Loan even made a new friend.The next day, we headed a few miles away to “Little Saigon” which is basically…… Viet Nam central. We stopped for breakfast at some Vietnamese restaurant. I’m not even sure what everybody else ate… but Linh ordered me some good old american chicken and rice.But it was actually a small hen and rice raised for the sole purpose of being eaten. The hen’s destiny has been fullfilled… in my tummy.I’ll tell ya though, it sucks to be white sometimes.Especially in the Hello Kitty shop…

This morning, my bros and I took a drive up north to scout out some possible locations for an upcoming camping trip before school starts.Yeah, so this is pretty much what Arizona looks like away from the city and far east.Kind of nice. Somewhat green thanks to the monsoons.But who knew we had trees and creeks?!Okay, Arizona isn’t all desert. In fact, we were able to escape from the 107 degree temperatures and kick back, roll down the windows, and enjoy nice, cloudy, even somewhat rainy, 70 degree weather. This is a possible camp spot. The fire pit is literally probably 30 feet from the edge of this canyon. Here’s hoping no one gets there before us.We also met a few animals on the way. Sure this guy looks like a wolf, but no… just a dog… just a dog who was wandering the streets…. a few miles from any residence….just a pretty dog who must’ve gotten loose.And Lord knows how many of these tiny guys we almost stepped on.Next up: Disneyland!