I've been challenged to a sketch it out FIGHT-DOWN. My 6 year old nephew Keller drew a little picture of King Kong vs. Godzilla and he sent word that he would like to challenge his Uncle Jim to a little “draw-down,” a show-down... or, a “fight-down” as my other nephew Casey sometimes says.

This is the second challenge from Keller. He drew a series on monsters a few months ago and challenged me to return fire with a few monsters of my own...

Which I lOVED doing... whipping up a few good MONSTERS? Hell yeah.... drawing, for me, is SO incredibly soothing and cathartic... any excuse to put everything aside and just start drawing crazy stuff with a few magic markers... I'm all over it...

So Keller sent me a dramatic sketch that embodied the raw emotion and primala brutality of this classic confrontation...

I retruned the favor with a couple of quick magic marker mash ups of my own....


 


Now I will go ahead and send over the originals so those kids can mark em up... make adjustments... put their stamp on them...make them more "Kid-approved"

BAYAM!! Yankees win Yankees win THATS RIGHT... the BIGGEST BADDEST MUTHA F%$@-IN BESTEST team in the history of SPORTS THE NEW YORK Yankees win... wow... that was a mouthfull... I tell you what... Its a great day to be a Yankees fan.. and all you NON fans, haters, heathans...and most people in New England...EVERYBODY in Boston... can SUCK IT. The New York Yankees won their TWENTY SEVENTH World Series title last night and its feels F$#$@ING GOOD. ...It's all about chemistry... that's it... thats what did it... I mean it doesnt hurt to have one of the most talented and expensive rosters in MLB... but even with that... you have NOTHING without chemistry... Texiera fit right in... so did CC... no bumps...no adjustment issues... Phil Hughes and Joba embraced their roles in middle relief... Mariano showed up as Mariano... but BETTER (i have a feeling we may have seen his last amazing moment on the mound last night), and A-Rod loosened up and allowed himself to have some fun... that was the difference this year... a cooler, more relaxed atmosphere... pies in the face, dancing in the dugout... NONE of that shit was going on in 08... wasnt happening in 07..or 06... or OH FIVE... BAYAM! hear what I'm saying?

BAYAM! I watched almost every playoff game from the ALDS to Game 6 at THE HAPPY ENDING BAR in Hollywood. I discovered HAPPY ENDING a few months ago when I took my girlfriend out... on one of our earliest dates... to watch a Yankees Red Sox game... yes, thats right... BAYAM! I'm super smooth... anyway... I discovered that HAPPY ENDING was a NEW YORK friendly sports bar... undeniably... and to top it off.. they actually have really good food (for a Sports bar)... thats where Kristen and I watched the Yankees BEAT the Red Sox.. it was only a mid season game... but I THINK it was the first time this season that Yankees were able to pull off a victory against those bastards.... the Yankees had been swept... TWICE... in previous meetings... Who would have thought that after losing EIGHT STRAIGHT... going 0-8 against Boston to start off the year that the Yanks would take it all in the end? So yeah, we watched that game and BAYAM! I fell in love with this bar.... it was during that game that we created the "Lucky Slouch." Every time i would slouch way down in my seat... the Yankees would do something good... I slouched deeper and deeper as the game went on... The Yankees won and BAYAM! the SLOUCH was born.... Of course I developed the superstition that we MUST watch every important Yankees game... TOGETHER...at Happy Endings to do our part in helping the Yankees win... then later I added the superstition that I had to order the delicious Happy Ending ribs so as to inspire the Yankee hitters to start hitting. They have really good ribs there...rrreeeaallly good ribs...  the fish tacos are also awesome... oh and the buttermilk fried chicken skewers... reallllyyy goood... they come with this Rosemary syrup... holy crap its delicious... BAYAM!!

ALRIGHT... all that being said, I think I need to take a break from Happy Endings for a while... maybe a little break from massive amounts of beer and celebratory shots of Patron... and while the food is extremeley tasty... NOT so healthy... my digestive system has got its work cut out... I should be able move most of my inventory just in  time for Thanksgiving...

THANKSGIVING??? Holy crap... in THREE weeks its going to be THANKSGIVING...

I got shit to do.

OK... Tuesday morning. I'm firing away on my laptop, drinking my tea, mobilizing plans to mobilize. Looking for freelance work, browsing breakdowns and mapping out the next few months. My contract with IZZE came to a close on Friday. And while I welcome the change and a much needed break from the day to day duties as a full-time beverage marketing rep, I will miss that steady pay check. The good thing is I have 2 more industrial video projects to produce... and there is the possibility of doing more.

Last week I finally finished shooting legal video project #2, which was not short on challenges. Project # 1 was a 15 page script and it was a walk in the park compared to the 40 page, 15 actor, big nasty barn dance that was... "legal video project # 2."

Now, dont get me wrong, I am not complaining at all... I love doing this stuff... but this shit aint easy... casting, locations, equipment, scheduling, coordinating and "wrangling" a roster of actors and their "quirky" habits, hard drives and fire wire cables, something I forgot that I desperatley need, something i brought plenty of that I dont need at all.... there is a precarious situation at every turn... and I forget to eat... forget to drink enough water... so I end up feeling like shit when its all done

I still love it.... and of course I find a way to cast myself so I can do a little acting... I do that for fun but I also end up saving myself a little money....

I'm fully aware that every project I will ever work on will offer its own special blend of challenges.... thats part of the fun... I learn from mistakes and lucky breaks... and I take the entire experience with me to the next one.

Project # 2 definitely forced me to work for it and earn my money... But now I have a long list of notes... the do's and dont's that will enable me to be a better, faster and more effective producer...

I could share a lot of the stories of horror and heroism from this last shoot, but I dont want to throw anyone under the bus... and one thing i know for sure is that when you blog... people read it... and if you lack sensitivity... air out peoples flaws and fuck-ups... people get upset... I'm not doing this to get people upset...

I will say this... every thing that went wrong on this shoot was laced with my own mistakes... I have no problem accepting responsibility....

Ok... that being said.... We got it... we shot it... we finished strong... moving on....

My work as a producer is actually moving in a good direction. I have a few other projects in my back pocket that I will be looking to get started in the next month or two. One concept is based in the world of branding and viral marketing... an idea that I've been bouncing around for a year now... and I'm fairly confident that this one will work... be successful.... I think it would be an effective tool for a brand... I just need to find a company or brand who sees the value in using viral videos as part of their marketing game. The other project I'm looking to kick start is based in basic online entertainment... its another idea that I've been playing with for a while... and I actually have a bunch of footage shot with this project in mind... but I need a LOT more to make this one go... doesnt help that one of my hard drives is flatlined right now. I had a 500GB Lacie hard drive that was holding about 2 years worth of work and one day it decided not to power up. At this point, I dont know if all hope is lost on it... it didnt CRASH necessarily... but its definitely playing dead. I havent had the time to explore my options, but I think I'm about to get moving on that....

Ok... this blog post has taken me HOURS to complete... if you figure in that I took a break to have breakfast (just some protein powder mixed with coconut water), watch Sportscenter six times, email my girlfriend, FACEBOOK my girlfriend... then I was forced to get on the phone with Verzion because they turned my phone off... and that was because I was like... 300 minutes over my monthly limit... NOT because I failed to pay the bill... I knew that's what you were thinking.... and I have to say... real quick before I sgn off here... that Verizon was very nice to me today... they told me that I would owe them 168 bucks in overage charges unless I switched my plan to include more minutes...  whihc would cost an extra 20 bucks with the option to go back to my prigonal plan next month.... AND they reminded me to add up to 5 "friends & family" numbers... from ANY network....  that I could call anytime and not use up my monthly minutes...  DUH!!! That is somehting I should have done a long time ago...  but I guess I overlooked that option... so they really hooked me up... instead of just ramming me with the high hard one... like the good ole days.... so thank you Verizon Wireless... that was super cool of you...

I gotta go... I got shit to do...

Morning page again, back at it, trying to find a groove and start blogging on a better basis. scolded by my bestest, oldest, boldest buddy Al. "I feel i dont KNOW you anymore." LIfe is about to shift for me, again. My contract with IZZE sparkling fruit juice is coming to a close, so my daily full time duties of executing events at local grocery stores, fast food chains and corporate cafeterias will be reduced to an occasional support gig in the case of overflow or something big and special that requires my assistance. Thatr basically means that I am staying on the payroll in the off season. I just wont be working for them full time. They have already disucussed the option of returning for the next season in 2010, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in February. In the meantime I will get back to the freelance hustle that I know so well. I actually have a couple more legal industriual videos to produce, so thats good, I'm getting paid to produce. I'm cha-chinging that cheddar like charlie chaplin... yeah thats right... I said it... CHEDDAR! CHARLIE CHAPLIN CHEDDAR...Mutha F%$#@!!! And with these little producing gigs i get top spread the love around. I am able to hire people and throw them some paying work, especially the loyal and reliable friends that have donated so much of their time and energy to other projects of mine where they got nothing more than a couple granola bars and some shitty pizza (All pizza in California is shitty... sorry). So I'm happy with the fact that I can give back a little...you know... what comes around goes around... it helps me prove that I'm not totally full of shit. So producing these video projects will keep me busy, give me some street cred and put a little money in the bank... and MAYBE.... just MAYBE... I can get my acting game popppin again. I've been on a pretty significant acting hiatus since I started this IZZE job. My life has been so busy with a full time job, a few of these video projects, FOOTBALL season, YANKEE baseball... and a totally freakin awesome new girlfriend. So my acting career had to take a back seat.... but I'm makin a COMEBACK people. I feel like this year we may see the first proper PILOT season in quite a while. It seems like the past few years, each pilot season has been tainted by strikes and a piss poor economy. So MAYBE... just maybe... this year will be different.... Now I just need a new agent. GET TO IT... GET UP... GO DO IT... YEAH!! Nice slogan eh? I think it s hould go on a t-shirt. I said that to my girlfriend the other morning while trying to motivate her, and myself, to get out of bed... I accidentally rhymed... its kind of my trademark... and I thought that my newfound favorite phrase would do well on a t- shirt. I don't know why, but I want to start keeping a list of phrases that should go on t-shirts. I'm actually suggesting phrases should go on a t shirt quite often. THATS kind of my trademark. That and coming up with ridiculous names for a band... like I say something or hear some funny phrase and I say "HEY, that would be a good name for a band." Then everyone kind of shrugs and no one really says anything, maybe I get a half smile or somebody says "Yeah, thats funny...anyway..." and they continue the conversation that I interrupted with my trademark tomfoolery. My girlfriend likes my tomfoolery. She thinks I'm hilarious and makes me feel like I'm the funniest person on the planet. She is somehting else. I could listen to her laugh all day and never get sick of it. She has a trademark too. Her trademark is passing out in the car on the way home from the bar. doh, NO...he..didnt... sorry baby doll... love you. Good times with the GF. It gets better every day. I think we are going to spend New years together in New York. Then I want to take her up to Boston and we will probably zip down to DC and Fairfax, VA to see more friends, family and significant sights. I sent out an email last night to see if I could score a place to stay in Manhattan on New Years eve... long shot I know... a hotel room is not really an option becayuse they are, of course, expensive as hell on New Years eve.  So I just threw this email out there to see if I got lucky...

"My girlfriend and I will be back in New York for New Years and I'm asking around to see if anyone would be willing to sublet their place for a couple of days... like 2... 3days tops... Ideally I'm looking for a place to stay on any or all of the following dates... Wed Dec 30, Thursday Dec 31st and Friday Jan 1st... We will be out and headed up to Boston on the 2nd and bouncing around from there...totally willing to pay for the sublet... If you or someone you know is planning on being out of town that weekend and might be interested in making a little cash on a weekend sublet... please let me know.... THX!!!"

Score! I had a handful of offers from a few good friends... thank you thank you thank you... but a good buddy from college took the prize by offering his place on 76th street for free since he will be out of town... and he is just a great guy who is always makes sure you have a beer (or two) in your hand... which is great... ok sometimes thats NOT so great... but whatever.... a friend is a friend...and beer is beer... and besides... this guy  is forever grateful to me for writing a rap for him in college that he STILL uses to this day when he's in a pinch... When he is in doubt, he remembers that rhyme and breaks it out. He says he gets all kinds of street , office and dive bar cred with that line... he drops it with the doorman at the hottest club... and he is  suddenly being escorted to the VIP room... and whispers it to the host at New Yorks fanciest five star restauarant and he has the best table in the house ... When he gets pulled over at a DUI checkpoint and the officer asks him if why he is wearing a plastic batting helmet with two beers and straws attached... he never fails to get a pass... just by uttering these words...  in fact, I believe he met his past THREE girlfriends using this legendary phrase, authored by yours truly, way back in the early NINETIES....


"Can you CHUCK CHUCK CHUCK IT? Mutha Mutha F%#K IT! When I blow chunks, I blow chunks in a bucket!!"


No shit... true story.... unfortunately I think its also how he ended all three of those relationships....

LOVE YA CHUCK!!

LATER Y'ALL!!

I'll be back....

CATCH 5: The Texafornian, written & produced by James Huffman Features Bill Oberst Jr., Trevor Jones, Caitlin Moreland and Megan Forrest Directed by Jai Walia; First AD Eric Jones; DP Richard Samuels; Sound Engineer: Eric I Bucklin; PA Brad Holtzman

The latest CATCH installments for your viewing pleasure...

CATCH DOT COM SPOT #2>>>



MAGGIE'S V-LOG>>>>

This play list was created for a recent weekend getaway. Driving around Wine Country, Santa Barbara County... with my super sweet girlfriend riding shotgun...

Morning page again, Ok, I'm up. I'm here. Groggy but clear. Taking a sip of whatever's near. Ready to race, taking a taste. Jumping and Krumping with gumption and grace. Still on some sort of decline from a "REFINE my big behind" weekend. Touring WINE country in the big orange IZZE van, cranking my Klassical Konundrum playlist! Laying low with the Lompocodiles, conquering SOLVANG. Diggin that Dutch disco doo doo... Doing what they do in Santa Babara county, wine tasting, never done that  before. Went up to Santa Babara for work on Saturday, worked an event at a Gelsons Supemarket for a few hours, took my girl with me, then we stayed up there and scooted around town for the rest of the day, scooted the entire region for the weekend, lunch on the beach, ate some really nice sized oysters... they refused to serve me any club crackers, tried a Hawaiin beer that I really liked, PRIMO? bounced around on Santa Barara's State street, Headed north up to Lompoc, CA, stopped by THE SHAMROCK in LOMPOC, local dive bar, caught an interestingly bizarre performance by a band called Le Petite Protest, laid to rest at the Holiday Inn Express, where the hallways smelled like Grandpa dropped a duece and let the Lysol loose. Wineries and Vineyards, tasting rooms, I love the way the wine descriptions are written, the flavors and suggestions, the character traits that give each glass a hint of mythology. Honeysuckle, Gunpowder, Sweet barbeque, savory, sinister, sweet and petite. imagine a blend, say, cabernet, beaudacious in lace, then of course, there was my favorite, gumption and grace. Melville, Lincourt, Beckman and back, made dinner and home, trout filet, with a little lump crab stack, and a super sexy salad. Sexy salad just wasnt quite enough. Tasty indeed, but I was too worn out for a weekend recap. Plans to reschedule...

Back with another episode from CATCH...


CATCH 3 (Sugar Free) - Watch more Funny Videos

CATCH 3 (Sugar Free) should be called CATCH REDUX. It's a revised edition of the original CATCH episode 1, and now features original music by Jamie Coon ("Crazy") and by Kxll Kxll Kxll ("Damaged").

KILL KILL KILL... or KXLL KXLL KXLL... of K1LL K1LL K1LL>>>


http://www.myspace.com/k1llk1llk1ll

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kxllxkxllxkxll


JAMIE COON... or... JAMIE COON>>>

http://www.jamiecoon.com/

 

 

© 2009 Jamie Coon

 

 

Morning page, Oh morning page, shall I burn some sage, record my rage? I've pulled the drapes. I'm eating grapes, green grapes, the cripsiest grapes Ive ever eaten in my entire life, these grapes are SO crispy that the first one I put in my mouth I had to spit out, i panicked. I thought somehting was terribly wrong. "A green grape cant be THIS firm! THIS crisp! Is this a ceramic grape? Am I eating glass? Wait....wait... i s this bad? is this bad?" I'm all better now and I'm REALLY digging the crispy grapes... firm, cruncy...delicious. Water for tea is over there boiling. I know., I'm not really supposed to multi-taks during morning pages, but as you know, I'm one to bend and break rules, thats juts what I do, and I'm not supposed to be sharing my mrojning pages swith people across the world, nor am I supposed to eat freakishly firm GRAPES while I write my morning pages either, so I'm gonna go over to the stove, take the boiling water off, and pour it into a big 20 ounce mug for my morning tea, one black one green, one chai... and I'm gonna do that now, and you, my brother, my Mom, my 4th grade teacher and anybody else, aint gonna have nothing to say about it, you hear? I've got everything under control... I do... so lets just relax.. and go with it...

Aaaaah, okay, tea is steeping, tea is good, tea keeps me from sleeping, tea gives me wood. whatever, never mind. okay so the heat has broken and I'm SO freakin happy about that. Summer here goes from like July to October... last year it went til November, and its all fine and fun in July, but once football season starts and everyone is pretty much OVER Summer, those 5 days stretches of 90 plus get really annoying. look at that I got up to pour water for tea and I totally lost my train of thought, so what I have to do in that situation is keep trucking along, anything, everything. Dont stop, dont think, write write write write, ooze ON wit ya bad self. Its Panda day for me. I hat Panda day. Panda day SUCKS. Panda day means I have to work TWO IZZE events where I set up a big tent and a table in a Panda Express parking liot somewhere and pur little samplkes for people, but there are never any people. I end up giving samples to like, 3 people when I'm there, and I have to set up the stupid 10x10 tent by myslef, which is doable, buts its realy awkward and difficult with one person. So I'm out in te parking lot, wrestling with this big tent frame and awning, trying to assemble the damn thing by myself, everyone is sitting in the restaurant, watching me, and I look like a doofus, like I dont know what I'm  doing, dancing around this big, ungly, lanky metal frame that looks like some big alien spider. I used to have to do the same thing when I worked at 93Q Country in Houston, except I had to set up a big, 15 ft inflatable cow that was wearing a 93Q t-shirt and a cowboy hat. I would be out there in the 100 degree Houston heat dry humping this half inflated cow, trying to get the thing to stand all the way up and stand up straight....boy, THAT was fun.

Tea is ready, I'm done.