Summer's Bash

Well, just when we didn't think we could outdo another party, we did. See usually when you go to a kid's birthday, there's nothing really for the adults. It's usually at a place where you can play games, or jump on inflated mattresses or dress up ladies of the evening; nothing super fun for the above 25 crowd - unless you're into those types of things...
Not at the Gasaway house. We like to poison our young children's minds with the idea that you have to have alcohol to have fun. Actually, you don't HAVE to have it but it does make for a great party.
This year was huge. First, since we moved, we have gained a ton of new friends mostly because this neighborhood is super cool. Not only are there a ton of kids for Summer and Reece to play with but the parents are very similar to H and I. Basically, they like to have fun.
And fun we did have.
The guest list was right around 100 and we knew there were plenty that didn't RSVP. Since Summer's bday is around Halloween, we always make her party a costume affair. Oh, it doesn't just require the kids to dress up - the adults must as well, save for public humiliation. The adults definitely didn't let down. We had some seriously great costumes. H and I usually go for a couples' theme. This year was Sonny and Cher, although nobody could figure just who the hell I was.
I didn't have any of my beer because we drank it all the previous weekend at Oktoberfest - see next post. So I ended up thinking - sure, one keg (5 gal cornelius keg) would do. Now, there's about 50 pints in one of those kegs so I thought we would be good.
I forgot that the beer I was getting, people weren't familiar with and that it has a slightly higher alcohol content than Bud. Man did I UNDERestimate.
First off, the beer is my favorite - Allagash White from Maine. It's a Belgian white which is my favorite type right now. It's made of coriander and orange peel - just like the type I like to make. Well fortunately, everyone else dug it too.
The party really hit its stride once the karaoke started up and the juices really flowed. Joe Elwood and I were manning the grill and we flew through the burgers and dogs. Man, I've never cooked so much meat in my life let alone in 30 minutes. The grub was gone that fast!
Next was the beer. I couldn't believe it! The beer was tapped out! Now, I've always prided myself on having enough libations to make it through the evening unscathed. Not this night. We had to actually go on a beer run - the last time we had to do that was my wedding. I guess that should have been an omen of what was to come in our life - running out of beer on your wedding. Either we underplanned - NO WAY! or our friends are complete and udder alcoholics. I take the latter.
It wasn't bad enough that we had to run for beer for a nine year old kid's party - we grabbed another 2.5 cases - but we ended up running out of that!!! Insane I tell you! We had to go on ANOTHER beer run! Funny thing is, we didn't just have beer. We had some of that foo-foo malted drinks that the ladies like - a CASE of it - and that was gone too!!!
Holy crap - onto another 2 cases. But it didn't stop there. A few neighbors down the street brought some tequilla and that started flowing - a LOT.
Needless to say, the rest of the evening got a little foggy. There was still karaoke going on - both kids AND adults this time. It just was raucous all through the night until the wee hours of 11pm! We couldn't keep up anymore! BUT it was a great time. Summer got tons of Pokemon stuff and everyone had fun.
The legend grows...stay tuned.

Animating across the globe

Jet lag is a crazy thing. Just when you think you got it licked, it bites you back. I didn't believe everyone when they said it takes about a week to get used to the normal time. I thought, heck, I'll sleep a ton of hours and force myself to stay awake...yeah right...didn't happen.

Why the lag you say? Well, I say, I went to Bangalore, India for another trip with my old friend/co-worker Tom Grevera (or as my girls call him - Mr. Tom) to check out our overseas animation partner - Paprikas.

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to the trip - about 20 hours with a stop in Germany, a week away from the girls and most importantly, no pizza for 7 days!!!

BUT to my joyous surprise, the trip was actually very cool. The artists and production peeps at the studio were fantastic. They are a talented bunch out there, hungry to learn more. Tom and I were to go out there to help them take "Back at the Barnyard" to the next level. I was also out there to help approve shots for my hour special - Cowman: The Uddered Avenger! (Part 2 of the Cowman Series).

It was fun hanging out with our new friends, talking animation and eating a TON of food. Man, it was some delicious stuff. The surprise was some meal with these little ears of corn. I thought I was a giant when I picked them up but soon felt like Tom Hanks in Big when I ate them. Remember the scene when he's at the party and he eats something hot? Holy K-RAP were these things hot. Hoochie momma they burnt my tongue for days. The only thing that ailed my pain was the local beer - Kingfisher - and lots of it. Can't beat it for like $3 per. Tom and I had a few...

We had a good time on the weekend too - heading downtown to do some bartering. Now, just a few days before, there had been a few bombs that went off near a shopping mall in Bangalore. Heather wasn't too keen on me heading out but I was assured that things were fine. And they were! The weird thing is that Tom and I went to a mall and thought nothing of it - except being the only white dudes for miles...BUT I soon learned that the mall we were at was the SAME MALL the bombs went off. EEEEEP.

Still, no problems a few Kingfishers couldn't solve.

It was odd though that we found probably one of the only places in Bangalore that served Belgian Beers!!! I couldn't believe it...leave it up to me to find them. Needless to say, the ride home was more tolerable than normal. Man, the driving there is INSANE!!! I couldn't do it. Imagine a 2 lane highway filled with 5 lanes of traffic. Oh, not your ordinary calm parking lot LA traffic, either. 5 lanes of cars, scooters, motorcycles, cabs, tricycles, green machines...you name it - all HONKING! It's crazy. Everyone honks - all the time. I would think that with so much honking, everyone would be immune to it...my hotel room was facing the road...I can still hear the honking in my head when I close my eyes....

It was all good though. I think we made some good friends over there and learned a little more about a different culture. I learned also how much I love my sportscenter though - being that I didn't have it for a week. The bollywood movies are interesting and I learned that they really make the movies for the songs, not so much the story. If they can sell a song for the movie, it's considered a success. The crazy thing about this fact is that they have a TON of TV channels that show the songs. I mean A TON! I thought there were a million Indian MTVs or something. I soon learned that it was just the songs from the movies. WOW!!!

But now we're back and the lag of jets is gone. I'm finally back to sleeping my whopping 6 hours a night. Thank goodness the Olympics were on or I would probably be knee deep into Designing Women repeats. Delta Burke was hot at one point, right???

Well she was...maybe after a couple of Kingfisher Beers....

No Emmy for You!!

Well, at least the trip to NY was fun :) We came close but came away losers. It is such an honor to be nominated, or at least that's what everyone else says. Still it would have been cool to have that HUGE (It was really big) award on the mantle. My producer even said, it would only be cool for about a year and then it becomes just a piece of furniture - yeah RIGHT! At least you got nominated...

The pre-party was a little surreal because we kept saying, "What the heck are WE doing here?" It was held at the Lincoln Center right next to central park. The view from the party was simply stunning. It looked right down a major street with buildings on the right and Central Park on the left. Very cool.

The event was kinda fun and very long. The Best Directing category came up and my heart was pounding faster than a roided up Jamaican sprinter. I wasn't really nervous about the award but more about what we were going to do at the podium. The four of us (2 other directors and a voice director) decided that we would just all talk/thank at the same time. Alex Trebek had said at the beginning that only one person should talk and was only allotted 30 seconds. Rules be damned! It was going to be pretty funny too but alas, a different name was called.

Who wants a big dumb old Emmy anyway...besides me? :) Well, the show went on and the second category we were nominated for was up and...we lost that too. Kind of a bummer to the evening but we would prevail. We went to the Nickelodeon after party where salt was poured into the wound because Nick won 2 other awards (one against US!) and the winners were at the party getting pictures taken with their prize.

The other 2 directors were holding the award and getting pictures taking with it but I refused. I didn't earn it and, like the NHL players who won't touch the Stanley Cup unless they win it, was afraid to jinx my future possibilities. JINX IT?! The other directors asked me - "Why didn't you tell us BEFORE we picked it up and took pictures with it???!!" I simply laughed and said, "Well, at least you got nominated."

Emmy Nom!

Holy Crap! Today we found out that our little show about a talking male cow with udders got nominated for not one but TWO daytime EMMY Awards! First, the entire show got nominated for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. That seems like a long term for Best Animated Show to me :) It was the only Nickelodeon show to get a nomination.

The second and a little closer to home for me was for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program. Yipes! That's me! Like I said earlier, Holy Crap! It's extra special to me because not only am I the Supervising Director but my show - Cowman and Ratboy, was the show that got nominated. To say I'm excited is a little bit of an understatment...

Anyway - fun news! Hope to see ya on the TV near the end of June! Maybe the little statue is heading our way!!

We've moved!!!

We finally took the last step in becoming a full-fledged San Diegan and bought a home in Carlsbad! We had been renting a house for the past year and a half and we're ready to do our own lawn work :) We were looking for about 2 months online and another almost 2 months by going through a ton of houses. Housing market problem my butt!! Well, at least not in Carlsbad. We had looked at other towns close by but nothing was better than our little beach city.

We put a couple of offers on homes to no avail. The first was upside down - no not like the attic down, basement up (wait, there's no basements in california) but the owners owed more on the house than it was worth. This made it a short sale. It didn't mean that they had to sell it shortly but that they were going to lose money on it or selling it short of what it was worth.

ANYWAY - So California has this weird thing where the house are not listed at one price but at a range of prices. The house isn't 800k, it's between 775k and 825k. Well, of course I'm going to offer the low end! Well, the thing about short sales is that the bank is "kind of" in charge. They own the mortgage and almost the home - it hasn't gone into foreclosure yet. The owner can still say which bid it would like. So we basically offered the low end of the range. There was another offer on the table and the other agent said, we were the best offer.

We thought we had it in the bag, right? Well, for some reason, the owner picked the lower offer! My agent thought that either the other couple put more money down or the seller's agent was the same as the buyer...

So, one down...So after a few more houses, Heather walks through one and calls me right away. You're going to love this one, she says. I go and see it the next day and can't really control myself. It's stunning. Not a thing to do to it. Totally upgraded. Big back yard. No back neighbors, great views, did I say totally loaded?

So we put a low offer on it and get into negotiations. It was rough because the owner wasn't budging too much. Finally, we thought we were over our limit. I did some magic numbering with our financing and found we could actually do the number the owner wanted so we waited for our agent to get back from vacation and agreed to the number. Problem was, that exact same DAY, someone else came in with a relocation company and bid the EXACT SAME number we did. The owner did what I think anyone would have done and said, who wants it more? Of course we were already at our limit so we couldn't dance anymore.

I was devastated. I really dug the place and wanted to close the deal. Now it was out of our reach. We looked at a few more places but nothing could take the place of the dream house. We put another offer and was quickly rejected. I kept thinking...what housing problem??

Then a miracle happened. Our agent called us late on a sunday telling us we weren't going to believe what just happened. The agent of our dream house called our agent asking if we still wanted the house. The relocation company didn't want the house and made it fall out of escrow. It was available if we wanted it. I got greedy for a quick second and thought I should lowball them for 20grand less. Then I thought better of it and wanted the place too bad. Instantly, they accepted!!

We couldn't believe it. The place was to be ours. After some intense weeks of dealing with lenders - we had perfect credit, great incomes but not too terribly much in the form of downpayment so we had a VERY rough time getting the loan - we moved into the house!

House warming party in about a month when we should have half of our stuff moved in. Want to come???

Kids' Choice Awards part dos

So the day finally came and after scoring 4 tix - me, Summer and the O'briens (Hannah and Sean) made the trek up to LA for the day. The trip wasn't too bad; a little traffic but about normal for LA. Sean got to experience the infamous gasman patience. Wears very thin when dealing with slow drivers.

We got to UCLA relatively early and decided to walk around a bit. See, a few years back, we went to the KCAs (Kids' Choice Awards - at least that's what the hip 9 year olds call it) a little early. Make that a LOT early. Like when the doors opened. We waited nearly 2 hours before the show started and the girls were spent. They couldn't really enjoy the show because they were already anxious to leave. I wasn't about to make that mistake again this year.

So we walked around Westwood for a bit and after realizing how excited Sum and Hannah were, Sean and I decided to take the edge off and head to a pizza joint for a beer. After nearly having a beer spilled ON me, we headed off to the show.

Tons of kids from all ages, really. Lots of under 10s and then surprisingly a bunch of tweeners all decked out. Was a bit odd for me to see and then also a bit depressing to know that Sum and Ree aren't too far from that stage. Can't they stay young forever??

Inside we saw tons of celebs. A lot that I knew and a lot more that I didn't. Needless to say though, we had choice (get it - choice) seats. They were pretty close to the stage and right by where all the stars were sitting. A preggo Jessica Alba was next to Jennifer Love Hewitt who was ahead of Hayden Panitierre from Heroes. That was the corner to be in.

The biggest question from me was, who the hell are the Jonas Brothers and why was everyone and I mean everyone (including Sean) screaming like 8 year old girls? Oh wait, maybe it's because they are the hottest group FOR 8 year old girls. You would think the Beatles were walking around Pauley Pavilion or something. Everytime they would move, a shriek was heard throughout the building.

Oh and one other thing I found interesting. I just happened to look at tix prices for the soldout show and saw that a pair in the nosebleeds were going for about $600 each - holy cow! I couldn't believe it until I realized - Oooooh. Miley Cyrus was going to be there.

I know very little about Miley and her alter ego Hannah Montana but the midgets do. I couldn't believe the hype surrounding this singer so I was definitely interested in seeing what's doing. Sure enough, she can perform. The crowd was going crazy and she lived up to the hype. Now, I'm not going to pull a Matthew and buy all of her CD's or anything (I'll just borrow them from Reece) -(I KID I KID!!) but it was entertaining.

Overall, it was a pretty good show. Jack Black was great, as usual. Harrison Ford was there getting slimed,Janet Jackson looked pretty fine and Cameron Diaz has a set of legs that wouldn't stop.


It was also fun to see my buddy Jeff Garcia who plays Pip on Back at the Barnyard and Sheen on Jimmy Neutron and soon another show that I can't say anything about but it rhymes with Blanet Treen...

Hopefully more on that VERY SOON!!!

Kids' Choice Awards part 1

So we got lucky enough to score 4 tickets to the KCA this past saturday night. How did I get the precious tix that were going for about $600 per? Well, duh, I am directing on one of the most popular shows on Nick...well, maybe that had something to do with it. I also directed a live action spot for the KCA's themselves. Now THAT was pretty cool.

I thought I was just going to go to the shoot to help with the lighting and camera composition for when we added the 3d elements. I was a bit nervous at first - this being only my second live action shoot that I was actually a part of. I did a best buy spot about 10 years ago that really wasn't anything. The talent was someone pushing in a vcr tape in a vcr - anyone remember vcrs?

Anyway, this shoot was a little different. First off, it had two of Nick's big stars. If you're above the age of 16 you may have never heard of them. One was Lil JJ, the star of Just Jordan (on Nick) and the other was Miranda Cosgrove of ICarly (also on Nick). You may remember Miranda as the bitchy manager type on the movie School of Rock. So it comes down that we (at Omation) are doing this spot for the KCAs. I was asked to direct it so after the voices were recorded, we storyboarded the spot and married the audio to picture. I tried to think of the cameras that I would use in the live shoot to make things easier. None of my favorite traveling camera shots were allowed:(

So we get to the shoot and like I said, I thought I was just there to make sure they did what I had done in the boards. Well, right after the first take, everyone started looking to me for the overall direction as well. Now I've directed a lot of voice over talent but never action in front of the camera - even if it was two 15 year olds. After the initial nerves were gone, I was rolling. Really getting into it. Telling the Camera dude (the DP) what to do, the AD (assistant director) what to do - even the talent themselves. I was feeling all powerfull! Nah didn't like that - DO IT AGAIN! Now with more feeling!!!

Well, not exactly BUT it was unbelievably cool. I was on such a rush even for this tiny little 1 minute spot. I started to get in my groove and really let it fly. I kept thinking - I could get used to this. See the thing is in 3d animation, you tell someone what to do (like animation) and it takes days to get it back exactly the way you want it. Here, since there are REAL humans, its instantaneous. Man, I know that sounds very odd - like, no crap, Mike - but I loved it. Let's try this...now let's try this. I was definitely bitten by the bug of directing live action.

Oh and how did the actual awards go? I'll let ya know in a second...