July 30, 2024

Into The Dark Woods

This is Finish Your Monsters, a weekly blog/newsletter/blogletter about the creative process. I'm sharing adventures in art and life as well as setting CLIFFHANGER goals for myself, so--

--DID I MAKE MY GOAL?

Last week, I committed to writing a revised task list for the feature film I’m working on.

And I did it! I got home from my very amazing and very lucky trip to Norway, late on Saturday night after 21 straight hours of flying and layovers.

When we got home, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was on a cruise ship in a cabin with family. I didn’t want to wake anyone, but I needed to find the bathroom. Once I did, I stared at the shower curtain thinking it looked VERY FAMILIAR. Then my mind said to itself, “Wow! This cruise ship has the same shower curtain you have at home.” Then occam’s razor sliced through my fugue state. This was my beautiful bathroom. This was my beautiful shower curtain. This was my beautiful life.

All of which is to say: I did accomplish my creative goal. But only on Monday, after much sleep and emotional processing.

Looking forward, there’s lots of work to do on the film — more fundraising, pre-production, and a post-Norway pass on the script to punch up some of the folklore elements. But there are also a couple of big “hurry up and wait” tasks where I need answers from other folks before moving forward. So it was great to really look at what I need to do and when.

And extra important because I need to juggle film tasks with prep for my big birthday show, HORROR YEARS OLD on Fri, Aug 16th. I knew putting on the show would be a challenge, but I wanted to push myself to celebrate this big birthday with something joyful and creative that demands risk and community building. Things I’d like to keep doing as I get older.

Because I haven’t been performing as much lately (and I’ve never livestreamed one of my own shows) I knew ticket sales would start slow. So I have to REALLY focus on the business part of the show and promote it like wild. So if you’re in Los Angeles and want to attend OR you’re anywhere in the world and would like to watch the livestream, now would be a really great time to pick up tickets!

ADVENTURES OF THE WEEK--

This was, perhaps, the most adventurous week I’ve had in a long time. After writing last week’s blog, I visited the excellent Troll Museum in Tromsø, then rode a funicular up to a mountain called Storsteinen (English translation: Big rock) and hiked an additional mile up the mountain to an elevation of around 600 meters above sea level. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Andy, and niece, Kayla, for encouraging me to go on the hike. On the way down, the skies opened up and the rain slammed into our backs as if the ancient forces that lived on the mountain were saying, “Thanks for visiting, now get the bleep out of here.”

From Tromsø, we flew down to Oslo where we had many more cultural adventures. Saw rare Viking helmets and swords and 2000 year old plundered jewelry at the very directly named Historical Museum. Saw an actual Viking ship after taking a ferry to a place called Museum Island. Saw a bunch of inspiring artwork at the National Gallery and the amazing Munch Museum that deepened my appreciation of The Scream and Munch’s other work. Also discovered a new to me artist named Anna-Eva Bergman whose deeply evocative minimalist paintings made me want to drop everything and get out my paint brushes. I touched fjord water with my bare hands and gnashed my teeth that I didn’t have even more time to explore.

And during all of this, I worked on a creative project! I was filming bits and pieces of the adventure for a short horror film I’m calling DEEP INTO NORWAY. It’s a little travelogue about a person from Minnesota who visits Norway to connect with their cultural roots. As I explained to my wife, the short film is going to be “very autobiographical except the murder.”

I really enjoyed having the creative project to go along with the trip because creating stuff is the way I process things. When I look at a beautiful majestic fjord, I want to somehow be in conversation with it. I get joy and peace from absorbing the beauty, but I get vibrance and excitement from responding to the beauty.

As a kid, I was not thrilled with my Norwegian heritage. Everything about being Scandinavian was communicated to me as kind of a kitschy joke. I didn’t learn actual Viking history, I was given a dorky hat with horns and told to like football. I didn’t read the actual troll myths or see gorgeous paintings from Munch and Theodor Kittelsen of children on the precipice of entering the dark woods to confront their fear. I wasn’t told the history of aquavit or the time-bending effect of staring at the midnight sun. Being Scandinavian in Minnesota in the 80s, in my subjective life experience, was just eating weird fish, laughing at our own accents, and not talking about our feelings.

So it was a thrill for me to get the tiniest little glimpse of actual Norwegian nature, history, and art. From the far off mountains stabbing into the clouds above the fjords to the troll myths to Viking burial traditions to Munch’s visual exploration of our fundamental connection to nature—there was a great sense of venturing into the unknown. Journeys into the dark forest, the misty sea, elusive truths just beyond the horizon. A feeling that answers are good but there’s also great fulfillment in pondering the questions.

And speaking of venturing, it’s time for—

MY GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

There’s nothing like an already booked and advertised live show to get you moving and finish your monsters. So this week I’m going to complete rough drafts of my stand-up sets for the big birthday show. And hopefully really hold myself to the first draft mantra. They don’t need to be perfect this week, they need to be done so I have time to perfect them.

YOUR GOAL FOR THE WEEK--

I would absolutely LOVE to hear what you're working on this week in the comments below. What's your goal? Is it creative? What are the challenges? Are you making an autobiographical horror travelogue, too? How can I help you finish your monsters?

LIGHT PLUGS—

AWOOGA! NOW AVAILABLE FOR LIVESTREAM!

This comedy/variety show celebrating a big birthday is also going to be LIVESTREAMED! It’s called HORROR YEARS OLD and tickets are live here! Friday, August 16th at Lyric-Hyperion or viewable anywhere with an internet connection. I would love a packed house (and friends watching from afar) so if you’re interested, grab the tickets now!

I also wanted to share about Vote Forward—it’s a program where you sign up to write letters to voters. There’s a typed form and you add a personal message about WHY voting matters to you, nothing partisan. The org has done follow up studies and it really works to increase voter turnout. My goal this year is to write 200 letters. I’ve written 40 so far. If you’re interested, you can find out more by visiting Vote Forward!

Our short horror film, THE NIGHTMARE ADORABLE, has now been accepted in 19 film festivals. Screenings coming up in the Houston, Missoula, and more! Details on my website!

A LITTLE SKETCH--

This week’s sketch is also from lounging on the cruise ship sketching with my niece Kayla. This one is of the old Bryggen section of Bergen with its twisty wooden alleys and a chaos-troll with a match. For fun! Hope everyone has a wonderful, chaos-troll-free week!