Grab Bragg

worst theme song candidate #4 - Jerry Lewis

2010-10-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

It's difficult to believe this 1970's cartoon is even real. "It's so confusing" is right! Enjoy this awful theme song.

worst theme song candidate #3 - The L Word

2010-10-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

This is a very lame song that doesn't quite match that show, if you ask me. Though some people seem to like it. I'm sure it grows on you if you watch all seasons of this show.

1 - way too upbeat
2 - real subtle
3 - "Ingenues with long lashes" is a lyric
4 - ...wait for it.... okay.... AND LOOOOOOOOVEEEE!

...he drinks a cider drink...

2010-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I gave you a weird diet update...

The 21 day period passed without me purposefully cheating on the diet ever. Success!

After the 21 days, you add stuff back in one at a time and see how your body reacts to it. For instance, for 3-4 days you'd keep the diet the same except now you can have dairy.

Well I ran through most of this testing and I'm not super duper clear on the results...had small reactions to eggs and dairy, maybe a bigger feeling of sluggishness and inflammation when eating gluten. Haven't had any peanuts because I don't really care that much about peanuts anyway.

So what I'm doing now is keeping the gluten pretty much out of my diet. I've had some dairy on a regular basis now, but I'm eating way way less than I had been. I'm only having the occasional egg.

Sugar and flour I'm keeping out mostly (I had one ice cream cone and occasionally a mint or two). Caffeine I had a few times (like when we had that 4am show in the marathon...shoot me for doing it then). Alcohol I've...well okay I'm a bit of a lush, so...

The thing with alcohol is most beer is not gluten free so alcohol wise I've mostly had to stick with ciders (which is fine as they are delicious), hard alcohol, and wine. It's possible I drank an entire bottle of wine on Monday for no good reason. At any rate, I'm drinking again.

I went to the doctor the last day of the 28 days and at that point I had lost 5 pounds. They ran tests and my cholesterol was in pretty good shape for me...he said with the continued diet and add more exercise I would be able to stay off the medicine, which is welcome news. My blood sugar was kind of high, he said once again, you know, exercise.

I haven't been exercising on a regular basis and this is the next thing I've really got to focus on, but I can report that it is now 7 weeks after this all began and I have lost 11 pounds, now regularly weighing in around 196 pounds. I'm feeling better overall, those doctor results are welcome...all is going in the right direction.

Let's go out for a cider sometime.

weird diet update...whadda mean you can drink almonds?

2010-08-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

So this is the start of week 3 of the weird diet.

So far so good overall. Not eating dairy isn't as bad as I would have thought. There's a pretty decent couple of "soy cheese alternative" products at Trader Joe's that taste pretty okay. And instead of milk I'm having delicious Rice Drink and Almond Breeze. The chocolate is pretty good.

I'm eating a bunch more vegetables and fruits obviously. Also, a lot of quinoa, which I recommend to everyone. It's one of the best, healthiest things you can have...pure protein and fiber.

I popped my own popcorn in a pan this week with mixed results. Would like some butter for that.

Instead of tuna (I didn't mention the elimination of tuna for mercury reasons but that's kind of included in the diet) for lunch I'm having smoked oysters, pink salmon, and sardines. Bought kippers.

Pork chops are still in...still good but would like a little bit of bbq sauce. Especially since I discovered A&W Root Beer sauce a few months ago. Mmmmmm. But, still, it's okay without it.

Fish, chicken, shrimp.

TONS of hummus. I used to make fun of Hilary for eating all the hummus but I guess I just wasn't eating enough.

Oh, and we special ordered these konjac noodles which are crazy good for you. good to serve vegetable/chicken mixes on.

Gluten free bread with almond butter. What can't you do with these damn almonds?!

Overall, I'm feeling a-ok about the dietary limitations. Overall health-wise I feel slightly better. I still have issues. I should most definitely get more sleep (I say this as I head off to a 10pm Sunday night meeting). And the regular exercise thing is still a struggle (though I did it today). But, you know, good positive small steps, man. Good positive small steps.

week 2, waaaaah, now I can't eat nothin'!

2010-08-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Week 2 begins on this diet I'm on because of the book Ultra Metabolism. Stupid book. Wish I never read it!

No, seriously it's been going pretty well.

To review, in week 1 I cut out all alcohol, caffeine, refined flour and sugar, and some oils. Week 2...well here's the doozey.

1 - No dairy products of any kind. No milk! No cheese!!! Oh my precious precious cheese!!! As I knew this week was coming, I ate like a shitton of cheese last week. Probably not the best way to ease into it, but....ohhhhh my precious cheese.

2 - I'm going gluten free. This I'd been cutting whey (get it I misspelled that on purpose for the sake of a hilarious pun) back on anyway. But now it's absolutely no wheat, oat, barley, etc. No bread. Oh my precious cheese sandwiches!!!!

Plus, and this is the really irritating thing, most crap is made on equipment that also processes wheat...and I can't have any of THAT either. Why Trader Joe's makes almost all of there hummus that way is beyond me. That's about all I can eat now, assholes!

3 - eggs. well you can't make an omelet...

4 - peanuts.

The purpose of this 3 week period is to take all foods that are potentially allergenic and inflammatory out of your system and detoxify. Then, after the 3 week period, you can start to reintroduce them one at a time and see how your body reacts to it.

Guess what the first thing I'm adding back is. (picture is a hint) Hopefully my body likes it because my taste buds sure do!

I've substituted a lot of these foods I like with a lot of new weird things I'm not used to but maybe are okay. I'll talk more about that in the next post.

Until then...

update on the weird diet

2010-08-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well so far so good on the 28 day diet.

Review...this week it's no alcohol, no caffeine, no refined flour and sugar.

Toughest so far has been the sugar really...no ice cream!? This week!? Come on, it's hot!!! Also that takes away like, almost every drink but water and milk. Booo!!! I'm thirsty for a Dr. Pepper or a Vitamin Water or some kind of shit.

Speaking of drinking...the lack of alcohol has been interesting. I'm not really an at home drinker, so a night like tonight is no big deal. But Monday I had a big event in a bar (a very successful Chicago viewing of Welcome to Gentle Waters starring yours truly and a bunch of greats). Don came and handed me a free drink and I had to hand it back. I hate passing up on free things.

Then Tuesday I was part of the Poor Choices Podcast Live Show and I was backstage drinking a water and I looked over and all 8 people I was about to go on stage with was holding a beer! Not that I really had any feelings about it one way or another, but it's just interesting to make a rule that you can't have a certain thing and then see how much of it is right there in your face all the time. I admit I would have liked one of those free beers though...especially since it was so damn hot in there (because of the sweaty sold out audience!!!)

Caffeine? I'm tired anyway, so it's been hard to tell. Have you ever gotten into this weird pattern of stay up late, be tired at work, get home and you are so tired you take a nap which turns into a longer than expected sleep, stay up even later and get even less sleep, go to work even more tired, etc. etc. etc.??? That's my week. Probably a good week for it.

So today I finally exercised...30 minutes of Biggest Loser Boot Camp. Hoping for a run tomorrow if it's slightly less hot.

Sunday I lose a bunch of more weird things in my diet for the following 21 days...I'll tell you about those in my next posting.

time to get healthy once and for all

2010-08-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

I have been of so so, not in shape, not so fat but not so skinny, round belly, blah health for quite some time. I have high cholesterol, partially from genetics but also partially from just terrible eating habits.

Over the last year or so I've increasingly gotten more and more interested in not, you know, being like that. Interested in getting healthy...learning more about nutrition, starting a regular exercise regimen, etc. I've stopped and started with exercise plans and I've worked some healthier foods (like kale) into my diet.

But to make any real progress I had to hit a point where I made a big bold tangible plan and did something about it.

Today is that day. I am implementing new eating habits and a new exercise routine. I'll be blogging about the process so that it's out there to have people see if I succeed or fail and what the results are. So here goes...

So where am I at on day 1? I weigh 207.4 pounds and have a 40 inch waist (measured from the belly button). My goals are 175 and 35 inch waist. That's more than 30 pounds to lose! What am I thinking?

Today I'll talk about the first part of the eating plan, which had me whining all last night at that was the last day of the old plan, which I like to call the "Ummm, well I'm trying to eat better most of the time I guess" plan. I would write a book about that plan but most of you probably already are on it, so...

This is day 1 of a 28 day process that I'm going through partially because of a book I read called Ultra-Metabolism written by Mark Hyman, M.D. I highly recommend the book to all and you can learn more about it here. His plan is designed to kind of re-set your metabolism and have you feeling healthier and more energetic. Sounds good to me, I got a little tired just typing that.

In his book, there are phases to this "diet". First up is a 7 day prep week. This week is used to eliminate a bunch of bad-for-you stuff from your diet. Some of this stuff you will be able to reintegrate later (after the 28 days). Among these are caffeine, alcohol, processed and refined carbohydrates (white or wheat flour) and sugar, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats and oils, and most processed and packaged foods. And I would imagine smoking if you do that (I don't).

Right there that's about everything the sell at Walgreens! What could phase 1 have left to limit!? (Also, why does the book not call this phase phase 1?) Yikes!

Alcohol is going to be the tough one right now. How am I supposed to do a show without a few beers in me? I suppose I'll have to actually warm up. WHICH I HATE! (joke voice, really it's okay)

No refined carbohydrates??? The other night I got home (after drinking) and made a giant plate of spaghetti for myself. My first meal the next day? Another giant plate of spaghetti. I imagine this one will be somewhat tough.

One thing that WON'T be so hard in this phase, which may surprise some of you that have known me for a long long time, is caffeine. I used to drink soda (for a long time regular Coke then for a long time Diet Pepsi and even some Diet Pepsi Jazz while they still made it) in ridiculous quantities...like 5-6 a day minimum. But a few months ago I had a bunch of dental and strep throat problems (a previous post explains all this), and successfully weened myself completely off the stuff. I maybe have averaged 1 a week the two months.

I'll talk more about the other phases of the diet as I hit them, but for now I have to go and meet up with Hilary (she's doing it with me) at Trader Joe's. (That's the food store, not the shitty karaoke place Trader Todd's.) I think Trader Joe's will likely have a few better choices than Walgreens.

worst theme song candidate #2 - Boy Meets World

2010-06-23T18:58:00.001-07:00

I present to you the theme song to Boy Meets World...

1 - hiring a guy with a decent voice would've been spending a tiny amount of Disney money. making him sing energetically would have taken 1 minute of direction. neither of these things happened.
2 - talk about mumbly mouthed!
3 - makes the guys seem even lamer, if that's possible
4 - though it is mumbly mouthed, the super lame lyric is "Wandering down this road, that we call life is what we're doin'" Wow. Poignant.
5 - I will admit to a/watching more episodes of this than I'd ever like to admit and b/having an over-the-top crush on the redheaded one
6 - ho ho HO!!! they got em with that water bucket!!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha.

worst theme song candidate

2010-06-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a candidate for the worst TV theme song of all time...The Practice.

I mostly liked the series (especially the final season), but this theme song is extremely irritating...

1- no reason for the key change
2- waaaaay too much going on
3- corny sound effects added
4- that shuffley sound effect is weird
5- why the 80's keyboard?
6- if a dog hears that out of tune saxophone it probably goes nuts

the root of all evil

2010-05-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a rough month. Allow me to tell you about it.

This tale actually starts a couple of months ago, when I went to the dentist. My tooth had been hurting and there were obviously two rather large holes in them, but I didn't have insurance (nor a job) for a long time and also...well...you know, money problems. Anyway the dentist says I need two root canals. So the plan was to put in for the insurance pre-doing the procedure...they were going to call me. A month goes by, they don't call me because the insurance doesn't contact them and, well...anyway I hadn't heard from them...

...and I went home with a fever and my tooth was kind of hurting back on the 21st. For some reason I didn't think much of it after I felt better the next day so I went about my regular routine.

A week passes. I was feeling okay until the 27th, when all of I sudden I felt really feverish and crappy and, oh, now I get it this must be an abscessed tooth! Damn the insurance...they made me wait to long woah is me. So I call the DENTIST who gives me a 7 day course of penicillin or whatever and I'm back to feeling better enough to go to Grif and Irene's wedding and dance at the club all night by Saturday.

That Monday (the 3rd), first double root canal appointment. It goes very poorly...I need to get shot with novocaine like, I don't know, 8 times and my face hurts and everything...they do a couple hours of work and then say we need more root canal next Monday but that was a good first session. Great.

That week I'm on painkillers and feeling kinda crappy all week, and I'm feeling scratchy in my throat and...kind of like it's bad allergies and everything amplified by the tooth pain. This, at least, is how I had it figured in my head. Probably there being a news story on how bad this week is for allergies and such is what has this in my head.

Additionally I had now decided 100% to stop drinking all caffeine, especially Diet Pepsi. If anything good comes out of all of this it will be that I have kicked this lifelong habit...and by drink Diet Pepsi we are talking minimum 5-6 a day.

So, following Monday. I'm not feeling that great BEFORE I go to the dentist...very moody for some reason...maybe the painkillers or the no caffeine. Anyway, that appointment goes similarly. They do finish one of the root canals but CAN'T finish the other one and I need to see a specialist. A probably very expensive specialist. And that means, you know, really two more appointments minimum as I'll need to also come back for the crowns and everything. Needless to say I am nonplussed and feel particularly awful after this appointment.

They give me more, this time way-heavier painkillers. I take one whole one and sleep for 14 hours (taking the next day off of work). I go back to work Wednesday but still have a scratchy throat. So last Thursday I start to get really irritated by the throat and say, forget it I'm going to the doctor. I luckily get in that day and GUESS WHAT...I have strep throat! He gives me a stronger 10 day course of antibiotics and sends me on my way.

I guess it's possible I had it all along...that the strep throat made it seem like I had a tooth infection, then the 7 day course made me feel better temporarily BUT you must have a 10 day course to knock out strep throat.

The other possibility is that I caught the strep throat sometime in the week after I stopped taking the medicine which would be incredibly poor luck.

At any rate...at least now I have the right medicine (about halfway through it right now) and, yes, Friday I'm going to that specialist and still don't know how I'm going to pay for everything but, man oh man do I feel better.

So...lessons...

#1 go to the doctor first.

#2 don't ruin your teeth with inordinate amounts of soda pop.

Your movie sucks

2010-04-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

I love Roger Ebert. He went to the U of I and brought a pretty good film festival to Champaign, which was wonderful to be able to go to while I was there.

I had a little small talk with Ebert during the first festival. Yes, it was at the urinals...no I didn't say anything interesting. A few years later I saw the sad/funniest thing ever which was the late Joel Siegel alone in the back of a car eating a sandwich.

This year I wanted to go but had, well, a film premiere of my own to attend (Welcome to Gentle Waters)

But I was able on Friday to watch some of it...because they streamed the before and after on stage sessions online. I tuned in to see Charlie Kaufmann talk about Synecdoche, New York, which should have been way cool but, Q & A sessions are always disappointing. All of the questions at these things, fall into one of two categories...uber-pretentious or rambling and idiotic. Still, pretty cool to be able to watch all that.

My favorite favorite thing about Ebert are his film reviews...especially those for movies he hates. Check some of them out. Even if you disagree, they are hilarious. Check out "Old Dogs".

I'm glad he's doing better. He has this computer now which replicates his voice, and he's talking about doing some tv again with his voice being able to appear. I look forward to it.

The TV shows I watch

2010-04-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, a great new show called Treme debuted on HBO. It's set in New Orleans 3 months after Katrina...it's unique and immediately captivating. It's from the creator of The Wire, which, I'm sure I'm not the first to tell you to go watch that immediately. How good is it? HBO picked it up for a second season already, two days after it aired it's first episode.

Anyway, I watch good stuff and really bad stuff as well.

Here's what I'm watching (this is a list of shows that are currently on the air still only).

1 - Treme (mentioned already) Sundays HBO 9pm I think

2 - Breaking Bad. Go immediately rent this son-of-a-bitch and catch up to the currently airing 4th episode of the 3rd season. If you don't like it after the first episode, then I don't know what's wrong with you. It's about a guy with cancer that decides to cook meth to get money for his family. Bryan Cranston won the Emmy for this.

3 - Lost - I hate to think of people out there who still haven't caught up on this. Hopefully they at least are through "ghost of taller Walt". After the final episode I'm going to say "we're going to need to watch that again".

4 - Mad Men - You've probably heard this is good.

5 - Big Love - silly last season...still pretty decent.

6 - House - this year's been really good...not half as formulaic as it used to be.

7 - Survivor - yeah yeah I know...I've seen all of them. Actually I think it's a great character study...I'm modeling a character out of "Coach" from this season. It's the only CBS show I watch.

8 - The Thursday NBC Comedies (Community, Parks & Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock) Parks started kind of crappy but has really come along this season. The Office this season might be it's best...with all of the financial stuff it's turned into great satire.

9 - Modern Family. Awesome show. I'm writing a spec. Manny is hilarious, as is Phil Dunphy.

10 - 24. I said "what the hell" and stuck with it. They're killing everyone right now.

11 - Greek. A really really lame guilty pleasure. Weirdest moment of my life is when I realized the one tall weird fried of Casey's on the show is in the very cool rock band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

12 - Biggest Loser. Another lame one. I usually watch this while doing other things, and laugh at how many times someone cries. (But really I like it.)

13 - South Park. Still an amazing show. It's 200th episode is on tomorrow. You can watch them all free and legal here.

14 - The Celebrity Apprentice. Yeah I know. There was a great promo for it a few years ago when it was on right after Medium...Donald says "Sunday nights go from Medium to (h)Uge!"

15 - True Blood. I started out not knowing if I liked it or hated it. Liked it.

16 - SNL. The only thing I hate is when they do another, say "Gilly" and it's the EXACT SAME SKETCH as when they did it before. I would prefer them do something weird like the game show "What is Burn Notice?"

17 - Daily Show/Colbert. When I have the time to download it. (It is off hulu now, bastards)

18 - Friday night Lights. Waaay awesome newest season. "I'm Tim Riggins!"

19 - Damages. Good drinking game, drink every time they say "Patty Hughes".

20 - The Ricky Gervais Show. I could eat a knob at night.

21 - The Life and Times of Tim. Pretty wry.

22 - Dexter. I can't believe they killed ----!

23 - Entourage.

24 - Real Time with Bill Maher. You should see the dance I do to the theme song.

25 - Meet the Press.

26 - Weeds. It's gotten sillier.

27 - ESPN 30 for 30. This is one of my favorite things right now...great documentary series. Go find the Reggie Miller one Winning Time.

28 - World Series of Poker.

29 - regular sports

30 - Conan's new show on TBS

You know, I think that's about it. Wow I watch a lot of shows. Some might say too much. What shows do you watch?

....I'm cleaning out my closet....

2010-04-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

I've decided, after cleaning out my closet and drawers, that this summer is going to be cool-old-t-shirt-I-forgot-about summer. Since I clearly have dozens and dozens.

Look for me Saturdays all summer long at a probably bar near you.

Gentle Waters update

2010-04-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on the film I was in Welcome to Gentle Waters...

The post production is nearly complete. There's a private screening on April 24th, which I'm completely stoked about.

The hope is to get this film into some festivals...and you can help that happen. If you want to find out about this, or just to learn a little more about the project, click this link. Even a tiny donation will help a bunch.

I can't tell you how much I loved working on this project, and I truly feel the film is going to be something special. I saw a few rough cut scenes when I did ADR with Alina and it really looks great.

At the very least, become a fan of the film here on facebook. or follow them here on twitter

Phillies fan

2010-04-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

I grew up in East Central Illinois. In 1980, I was, you know, a kid and I started getting interested in sports for lack of much else to do out on the farm. I started collecting baseball and football cards and my brother had a bunch of Sport and Sports Illustrated magazines, so I began to choose teams to root for. Mostly I chose them Semi-randomly. Obviously I liked the Illini for college sports (they are testing me these days!). The Steelers were still great at that time so that was a no brainer in football (I'm glad). Pro basketball wasn't that big...I preferred the Lakers over the Celts because they always played in the finals (later, when Michael Jordan started winning championships, I would become a diehard Bulls fan and would more and more hate the Lakers.

Then there was baseball, which was hands down the biggest sport at that time. Where I grew up, there is this strange dynamic where half the people are Cardinals fans and half are Cubs fans and they all bitch at each other. (Hardly any are White Sox fans.) I guess I found this irritating at the time and, in 1980 the Cubs REALLY sucked, so I started liking a team with cool outfits and neat sounding players like Bake McBride and Tug McGraw...the Phillies!

For several years thereafter, the Phillies were pretty awesome with Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, and Steve Carlton. One of my fondest memories as a kid was watching the Phillies vs. Cubs on a tiny black and white tv and going nuts when Mike Schmidt hit his third home run against the Cubs. I had a plate of spaghetti at the time and jumped up and knocked it all over the place.

I stuck with them over the years, through the 83 disappointment and the 93 Mitch Williams disaster...and all the Lenny Dykstra injury years. I will admit to having a close second favorite in the Cubs now...more and more over the years especially since moving to Chicago. But, at heart I am and always will be a Phillies fan.

The last two years that's been pretty easy. The Phillies have gone to two straight World Series, winning 1 and losing one to nevermind that.

At the beginning of each year for the last 4-5 I have always predicted Phils Cubs NLCS.

Let's check the opening day scores to see how my prediction is going...

Phillies 11 Washington 1
Atlanta 16 Cubs 5

Well....it's still early.

Welcome to Gentle Waters

2010-02-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

Hey...first post in a while.

Good Lord I'm excited about the impending completion and release of a film I worked on last year called Welcome to Gentle Waters. A trailer for the film is now available here. Check that shit out.

Jessica Hardy and Brent Kado wrote and directed the film...a partially improvised mockumentary about people at a weekend treatment center. It was shot over the summer last year in Indiana and I think now that I've seen a clip or two that it's going to really be a good film.

random great sites

2009-12-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

Here's links to a few great sites...

Mental Floss magazine...a time waster that also makes you feel smart.

An endlessly informative site about my neighborhood Uptown Update They always let me know when there's been a car set on fire down the street, things like that.

Nerd out to TV at TV Squad, then go to the always reliable Futon Critic

Buy me something at Deals of America or...you know...your loved ones

Laugh at Wainy Days

And see what's good and what sucks at Metacritic

poor choices

2009-10-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

I was a guest today on Matt Owens and Mark Colomb's great Poor Choices Show Podcast...available on iTunes...

or http://poorchoicesshow.podbean.com/

become their facebook friend here

or twitter here

Sundays

2009-09-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Somehow things have worked their way out to give me a solid run of no-plan-nothing-to-do-lazy-as-can-be Sundays.

I don't remember the last time Sundays were my day off.

Back in college and right after...for several years I worked at GKC theaters (both the Country Fair and Co-Ed theaters, both of which are no longer) and would work all three weekend days. (Yes, I said Co-ed Theater. That meant both boys and girls could go.)

Then for a bunch of years I worked the Sunday noon shift at a radio station in Champaign...mostly carrying pre-taped religious programs and St. Louis Cardinals games.

Then even when I got hired on full time at WDWS (News-Talk radio) I worked the midnight shift, which meant I worked Sunday NIGHT at midnight. So technically I guess I didn't work Sunday day. You got me.

I had Second City writing classes on Sundays. I had iO Theater classes on Sundays for quite a while. I had rehearsals on Sundays for Grandma June's for a year or so. We had Sam Hill (current Playground team) rehearsals for a while on Sundays too.

But now, whatever all I had going has cleared off Sundays, and I'm left to lazy about half watching NFC football (since I can't get channel 2 in), maybe cleaning a little, and catching up on online episodes of Greek (I know).

Actually, that sounds kind of nice, huh.

no, I haven't quit posting either

2009-07-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while on the blog postings. Been very busy.

I've heard a lot of stories about people almost quitting something, then something makes them not quit, then that's when they have some success.

Well it kind of feels like that these days with myself and improv.

Not that I would've quit comedy all together (I had been working on the Adults sketch show at the time), but around the time that Hunter Family Crest had our last show, I was feeling very much like maybe I'd stop doing improv for a while..."take a break" (which is almost always bullshit anytime you hear it).

Anyway, I was feeling down about it, but some good friends and a few former teammates encouraged me to keep going. I auditioned for the Playground incubator program and got on Sam Hill, which has turned out to be a great group with great people and a really supportive atmosphere. A few months later my friend Matt Owens asked me to be a part of what's become the uber-fun Gypsy Fuck Fight (currently performing at the Improv Gladiators Saturday night shows). I was also asked to be in another group with Adal (see one of the first posts on this blog) and some people called The Scaleri Brothers. And I was also cast (as a replacement when someone dropped out) in an improvised film called Welcome to the Gentle Waters which is filming in a couple of weeks.

All of that culminated in a run of 7 shows (plus 1 rehearsal and a birthday karaoke event) in one week last week...about the most fun week I can remember having.

I'm not writing this to say "hey look how great I am" or anything of that sort. But I'd like to say that if you're doing something you love to do and it gets shitty for a while and you think you're done and maybe you'll give up...don't give up.

To take the edge off that sappiness...that reminds me of a memory.

Coach Jim Valvano once made a famous cancer-ridden speech at the ESPY's where he said "never give up".

They used to play this clip over and over again at least once a year on ESPN. My friend George saw this once and quipped "yeah you gave up...you gave up on life!" Which is both awful and hilarious for him to have said.

Then George himself died a few years later so that serves him. Who's with me?

(George would have liked being made fun of for being dead.)

Sam Hill - at the Playground click here and here

Gypsy Fuck Fight - Saturdays 8pm Cornservatory click here

Welcome to Gentle Waters movie here and here

starting today...

2009-06-28T22:41:00.001-07:00

It's officially over starting today.

October 15th, 2007 was my final day working full time. Since then, I had been unemployed, underemployed, or temping for low wages.

But today it's June 29th, 2009, my first day as an official full-time employee.

It was a very long, very hard 20 + months, and to everyone who supported me and helped me out from time to time with advice, leads, sympathy, money, etc. I will be eternally grateful.

A special thanks to Addison Search, the temp agency who placed me with my current employer, and to Standard Parking for hiring me.

My thoughts now turn to the many more people who I know and who I am close with who, over this lousy couple of years, continue to lose their jobs and search for work. If any of you need my sympathy, advice, etc. you have it.

update

2009-06-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Seems like a "things beginning, things ending" time...

Within the week I expect an offer sheet for a full time position after a long, painful 19 months of unemployment or underemployment. It's not stuff I want to do all my life, but it will be a load off to not constantly sweat every bill that comes along. Not that that long of unemployment doesn't spike one's debt sky-high. But, hey, one thing at a time.

The Adults run only has two shows left...so please if you get a chance come and see it. It's been a tough pull to get audiences but people who have come to see it have been speaking highly about it, so that's encouraging.

Check out our website at www.adultscomedy.com for more info. Thursdays 10:30, $10.

I'm on this new Playground team called Sam Hill. GREAT people. Rehearsals have been good but we've only had one show so far.

podcasts and radio shows.

2009-05-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Guys,

Here's a couple awesome shows to check out...

The Sound of Young America

The self-described "public radio show about things that are awesome." Great guests,including Sarah Vowell, Jaffery Tambor, Ben Folds, David Mitchell of Mitchell and Webb. Comedy, music, acting, writing. Great stuff.

here and also on itunes

The Age of Persuasion

This Canadian show is really interesting. The latest show is about myths in advertising. Smart stuff. Link right below.

here

We'll be Right Back! with Ruby Streak

Hosted by the musical director of the Second City mainstage. Second City members past present and future. I particularly liked the Keegan Michael Key episode, where he did the only good Obama impersonation I've ever heard.

here and itunes.

Morning Becomes Eclectic

Way way awesome live music and interview show from KCRW. Check out the deep archive for amazing shows from Blonde Redhead, PJ Harvey, many others.

here

Others (all at itunes)

The Chicago Sessions - great improv and interviews from Seth Weitberg and local Chicago guests

Hey, We're Back! - Johnathan Katz - short and funny stories from Dr. Katz. Did he steal the show name idea from Ruby?

The Interface - Live music

NPR - All Songs Considered podcast - indie stuff

new sketch group

2009-04-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

My new sketch group debuts our show on Thursday.

Come see it.

Check out details at www.adultscomedy.com

Everyone and everything in the show is great.

Rest in Beace

2009-04-25T14:25:00.001-07:00

Fare the well, Bea Arthur, fare the well.

Fare thee well, ER

2009-04-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

I love ER. I am sad it is leaving me. Please enjoy my rankings for ER episodes below.

The top 60
1. 6-14 225464 17 Feb 00 All in the Family
2. 2- 7 457207 9 Nov 95 Hell and High Water
3. 1-19 456618 9 Mar 95 Love's Labor Lost
4. 4-15 466365 26 Feb 98 Exodus
5. 1- 1 475079 19 Sep 94 24 Hours
6. 7- 6 226256 16 Nov 00 The Visit
7. 8-20 227270 2 May 02 The Letter
8. 6-13 225463 10 Feb 00 Be Still My Heart
9. 3- 8 465408 21 Nov 96 Union Station
10. 4-22 466372 14 May 98 A Hole in the Heart
11. 15-19 15019 12 Mar 09 Old Times
12. 9- 1 175151 26 Sep 02 Chaos Theory
13. 6-22 225472 18 May 00 May Day
14. 6-21 225471 11 May 00 Such Sweet Sorrow
15. 8-18 227268 4 Apr 02 Orion in the Sky
16. 10- 2 176002 2 Oct 03 The Lost
17. 3-20 465420 1 May 97 Random Acts
18. 3- 4 465404 17 Oct 96 Last Call
19. 8-22 227272 16 May 02 Lockdown
20. 8-10 227260 13 Dec 01 I'll Be Home for Christmas
21. 8-21 227271 9 May 02 On the Beach
22. 1-25 456624 18 May 95 Everything Old Is New Again
23. 2-22 457222 16 May 96 John Carter, M.D.
24. 10- 8 176008 20 Nov 03 Freefall
25. 7-15 226265 22 Feb 01 The Crossing
26. 5-20 467570 6 May 99 Power
27. 7-22 226272 17 May 01 Rampage
28. 11-14 177864 10 Feb 05 Just As I Am
29. 1-11 456610 15 Dec 94 The Gift
30. 1- 9 456608 17 Nov 94 ER Confidential
31. 5-10 467560 17 Dec 98 The Miracle Worker
32. 15- 7 15007 13 Nov 08 Heal Thyself
33. 8- 3 227253 11 Oct 01 Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic
34. 2-16 457216 22 Feb 96 The Healers
35. 13-21 2T8722 3 May 07 I Don't
36. 11- 6 177856 11 Nov 04 Time of Death
37. 2- 1 457201 21 Sep 95 Welcome Back, Carter!
38. 5-14 467564 11 Feb 99 The Storm (Part One)
tie. 5-15 467565 18 Feb 99 The Storm (Part Two)
39. 7- 1 226251 12 Oct 00 Homecoming
40. 3-11 465411 16 Jan 97 Night Shift
41. 8- 8 227258 15 Nov 01 Partly Cloudy, Chance of Rain
42. 9-10 175160 12 Dec 02 Hindsight
43. 11-10 177860 13 Jan 05 Skin
44. 9-21 175171 8 May 03 When Night Meets Day
45. 11-19 177869 28 Apr 05 Ruby Redux
46. 3-17 465417 10 Apr 97 Tribes
47. 2-18 457218 4 Apr 96 A Shift in the Night
48. 6- 6 225456 11 Nov 99 The Peace of Wild Things
49. 1-10 456609 8 Dec 94 Blizzard
50. 6- 1 225451 30 Sep 99 Leave It to Weaver
51. 10- 1 176001 25 Sep 03 Now What?
52. 3- 1 465401 26 Sep 96 Dr. Carter, I Presume
53. 8- 1 227251 27 Sep 01 Four Corners
54. 3-22 465422 15 May 97 One More for the Road
55. 7-12 226262 1 Feb 01 Surrender
56. 10-12 176011 15 Jan 04 NICU
57. 12-20 2T6070 4 May 06 There Are No Angels Here
58. 14- 7 14007 8 Nov 07 Blackout
59. 4- 1 466356 25 Sep 97 Ambush
60. 6- 3 225453 14 Oct 99 Greene with Envy
tie. 9-22 175172 15 May 03 Kisangani

The bottom 5

5. 5-16 467566 25 Feb 99 Middle of Nowhere
4. 15-21 15021 26 Mar 09 I Feel Good
3. 11- 7 177857 18 Nov 04 White Guy, Dark Hair
2. 4-14 466364 5 Feb 98 Family Practice
1. 2-21 457221 9 May 96 Take These Broken Wings

Hopefully tonight's episode hits the top 10

Albums you probably don't have but should

2009-03-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. Sorry for another long layoff.

Now onto buisness.

I'm guessing even if you're cool and buy (or however you get it) a bunch of music, you don't have the following albums. I could not recommend these high enough. Go find em.

The last 6 David Bowie albums The Buddha of Suburbia, Outside, Earthling, ...hours, Heathen, and Reality

The entirety of David Bowie's post-Tin Machine catalog has gone mostly ignored. Too bad for all of you, because there's so many gems here it's hard to know where to start. There's the brilliant art-crime narrative of Outside (produced by Brian Eno), which includes the nightmare dreamscapes "The Heart's Filthy Lesson", "The Motel", and "I'm Deranged". Then there's Heathen, written before 9/11, yet somehow songs like "Afraid" and "Slow Burn" seem to perfectly capture the angst of today. And Reality is maybe the best he's ever sounded. Check out "Bring Me the Disco King".

PJ Harvey & John Parrish - Dance Hall at Louse Point

Most people didn't even know this one came out back in 1996.

...Musician reckoned “The results are as engaging as they are disturbing....full of strange moves and unusual textures”, Logo felt it was “thrillingly sinister”...

I've listened to this damn thing a bunch of times over the years. It was maybe my favorite of hers until White Chalk of 2007 (also creepy and highly recommended).

PJ is about to release a second album with John Parrish which I am looking forward to.

Jon Brion - Meaningless

This guy you know only from albums and musicians he's produced (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann) or music you heard in movies (I Heart Huckabees, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). This album was released online only. It's great. You'll recognize his signature sound. I love "Her Ghost".

David Garza - A Strange Mess of Flowers

I don't know many who have heard of this musician from Austin. He had a small hit in the 90's called "Discoball World", and follwed that up with a good album called Overdub. But this 4 disc box set (cheaply priced when I bought it) is a giant feast of diverse creativity. Sink your teeth in. "I'm All Un", "Foul Jasmine", "American Crawl", "Daddy Don't Care". Awesome.

Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado

What? ELO? Yes. This concept album takes the suggestion (for you improviser friends of mine) of the Wizard of Oz and the result is beautiful and emotional. (note to self: I've never tried to sync it Dark Side of the Moon style...maybe try that.)

Harry Nilsson - Pussy Cats and/or "Pussy Cats" starring the Walkmen

This Harry Nilsson album from the 70's is really good and was produced by John Lennon. Also good, the complete album remake by the Walkmen a few years ago. Check out "All My Life" or "Mucho Mongo". Either version.

Michael Penn - Resigned

Sean Penn's brother and Aimee Mann's husband is a fantastic musician. Most of you have heard his 80's hit "No Myth". Read an interview from him somewhere about the crap he had to go through to be able to make this third album, loosely inspired by the tv series The Prisoner. I used to play "Me Around" in the basement with Eric Cler on drums.

James - Wah Wah

Brian Eno again. James recorded the album "Laid" and this at the same time. Laid was a big at the time and contained the more "normal" material. Then this was released with the more experimental stuff. It's a great one to just kick back in the dark and let take you weird interesting places.

Richard Thompson - Mock Tudor

I get irritated at how few people know Richard Thompson, or that the only song they ever maybe know is 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. This guy is one of the best, most interesting guitarists and songwriters there is. People should own all his albums. Seriously, all of them. And people should see him live. And buy a live album from his website here. It was hard to pick my favorite. 1000 years of Popular music has a great version of "Oops I did It Again". You? Me? Us? is a great album too. But Mock Tudor is great start to finish...especailly the scathing "Hard On Me" and the whimsical "Walking the Long Miles Home".

Well that's all I have time for, but here are a few more to check out...maybe I'll write more about these in a future post.

The Suede Chain - Piloted by Ghosts
Justin Clayton - Limb
Kim Taylor - I Feel Like a Fading Light
Lou Reed - Magic and Loss
Madder Rose - Panic On
Momus - Stars Forever
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Weld
Heather Nova - Blow

fans should not be "seasonal items"

2009-02-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't posted in a while because I had a lousy couple of weeks. Job, money, friend, comedy problems. I could go on and on about many serious things, but instead I'll take it out on...

Menards

Even if it's the middle of summer, somewhere you can easily get a coat. A lot of stores are selling swimsuits in 23 degree weather.

So why can't I buy a fan, Menards.

It's a "seasonal item" I'm told.

So there's no building that has funky heat so you might need a fan?

So noone is mildly weird and needs fan sound to sleep, even in the winter?

So you don't even carry industrial fans for cleaning carpets or someone needs it in their woodshop? Aren't you

"No. Fuck you guys." says Mr. Menard.

Oh, I can get a rake there, or a water hose, or all kinds of outdoor patio bullshit. That's not seasonal I guess.

But no fan.

Oh, wait, that's not right. I CAN get a ceiling fan. Two rowsfull of ceiling fans, actually. But no regular run-of-the-mill fans.

I'm not asking for rows and rows of fans, just keep one or two fans on the shelves, maybe a box fan or something, in case someone's got a need for it.

So, no thanks Menards. That goes for you too Target, Walgreens, CVS, etc.

And a warm thank you, Sears, aka fifth store I looked at, for your tiny $12 fan which can barely circulate any air. At least I can sleep now.

Good Riddance

2009-01-29T14:55:00.001-08:00

I told you so.

I tried to get people to vote against this assclown last election, but no. Now, thankfully, he is gone.

I did a scathing sketch about him in 2006 after he got re-elected.

I took an Elvis wig and cut off the sideburns.

Hello Governor Quinn. Hopefully you are not an assclown.

Disgusting, creepy songs

2009-01-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few songs which I think are wildly creepy.

Into The Night - Benny Mardones

This one is played a lot on lite-rock type stations. When I worked at WDWS in Champaign, they played it on LiteRock 97.5, and it's the sort of song you hear and don't think about. But, let's take a look at some of the lyrics...

She's just sixteen years old
Leave her alone, they say
Separated by fools
Who don't know what love is yet
But I want you to know

If I could fly
I'd pick you up
I'd take you into the night
And show you a love
Like you've never seen, ever seen

Wow. Pedophile anyone? It's even creepier when you see a picture of this guy.

In that vein...

Young Girl - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap

This one is commonly played on oldies stations. Also pedofantastic! I'm amazed every time I hear it.

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl,
You're much too young, girl

I agree, you better run girl!

Sweet Sixteen - Iggy Pop

This is actually a pretty good tune, and in some states 16 is legal. But in others...

Thank Heaven (For Little Girls) - Maurice Chevalier

enough said

State of Shock - The Jacksons (featuring Mick Jagger)

This one's not so much pedophilia related, and it's not too bad of a song. But I defy any human to not get a little sick at the end when Mick Jagger is whisper-talking "look at me, look at me, oooh, look at meeeeeee." Actually, Michael Jackson sings on it too, so I guess it IS pedophilia related. "please baby please!"

I have a degree in music composition

2009-01-11T01:01:00.000-08:00

I attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign from 1992 to 1996.

Overall my college experience was kind of a crappy one...lived at home for 3 of the 4 years and had a 25 mile commute to school...didn't "party" much or have much of a scene to belong to, save for a few accomodating nerdy buddies and some people I still knew from the small town I grew up in.

So I'm saying that most of my college days were kind of sorry. Usually I either don't bring them up or I joke about them.

But today I received in the mail the Winter 2009 issue of Sonorities: The News Magazine of the University of Illinois School of Music. I have a BA in LAS - Music Composition/Theory. Yes LAS not FAA, so I didn't have to continue getting Ds in Saxophone. (...some other time.)

On the cover and in an article inside was a man named Scott Wyatt, who directs the Experimental Music Studios, where I studied for two of the four years I was there. This and a recent conversation I had with some sketch comedy friends brought back a flood of thought about how I used to work in this really creative environment.

As a music composition major you would most likely be working on highly experimental music, possibly called by some "atonal" "avant-guarde" "20th Century New Music" or just "weird", depending on who you are talking to. Every Monday, there would be a Composers Forum, where new works may be played and then after it was played the composer and some extremely critical technical assholes would get into debates about the work. The pieces, to the common, untrained ear may just come off as a bunch of noise, or at best maybe an "oh that kind of sounds like the scary part in movies". Certianly it was not considered a highly consumable product by many of the people in the "scene". There was some article we read which said the pieces should only be played basically to other composers ("then why are we doing this again?" I thought, and boldly disagreed with the idea).

And, honestly, many of them were quite unpleasant to sit through, even on the trained ear. But I always, even at my most miserable at college and cynical about what I was doing and realizing even that I didn't want to do it for my life...always was I taken by the boldness of ideas and willingness to pour a bunch of time into this wild, sometimes enthralling experimentation to which there was likely very little notice or payoff or anything.

While at the Experimental Music Studios (even the name of the place puts you in a creative state) I worked on a piece that was trying to play with spacial depth...questioning where and how you would perceive a tone to be to where you were sitting, and also if you took something that had that sort of depth perception in a stereo field, but then maybe just have that combined track just coming out of the "right" speaker, does the music lose it's quality or, just...what happens to it?

The piece may not have been brilliant or even all that successful, but that didn't matter. It was a good idea. I got at least one good idea in college I guess.

All this got me to thinking, well these days I'm not doing music so much, but I am doing comedy and theater...what are my ideas there? Do I have bigger ideas? Am I boldly experimenting? Perhaps I could create my own "experimental writing studio". And, hey, I sometimes have access to a pretty good experimental improv studio...what bold ideas can I work on there? How can me and my fellow comedy composers inspire each other?

And after we do something, can we...shit...we're going to sit around and debate it in a really technical way just like those assholes in the composers forums, aren't we?

Like getting fired a bunch of times

2009-01-04T22:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know 2008 was one crap year for me work-wise. I was laid off allllll the way back in October of 07, thinking of course I would find another full time job sometime in the following year. That didn't happen. Anyway, so I've been temping while sending out fivehundredeythousand resumes and hoping for something good to happen....

Oh, temping.

Temping pretty much sucks all around.

Your temp agency needs you to start right away. It's always some job that is "below your skill level" and "only pays $10 an hour". Okay asshole, thanks for pretending to care, I'll take it.

Low pay, no benefits, no holiday pay, no paid anything, sometimes a half hour lunch is the only break, weird building rules, weird procedures, blatant glaring wastes of company time and money that you could easily help fix if you actually worked there, etc.

You get to the place the first day, finally get in the building, and never know what the hell is going on, but are always thrown into the deep end of some giant mess they made...like a month's backlog of scanning or something like that. This is usually accompanied by hurried, disorganized training from the person who was so overwhelmed they couldn't handle whatever the mess was, and they've got a mess of their own, so good luck.

You may or may not get a computer to use which may or may not have been used in a long time. So it's still running IE version 6. There's possibly pictures of the old old employee's naked girlfriend on it buried in some weird folder (this really happened).

You're just getting somewhat comfortable there, maybe even slightly meeting a person or two, and then the guy pops by and lets you know that they'll not need you after Friday. The "new person" is starting in that exact same job. But, hey they'll be here on Wednesday and you can spend a few days training them...the ultimate insult. Most of the time you have the exact same feelings as being fired...slight relief, some sadness at not seeing the people you did get to know, and fear of not getting another assignment right away.

The next week you're at home getting up again at noon, worthlessly sending resumes out to the newest bullshit craigslist posting, and what say let's knock out 5 episodes of NBC's "Life" today.

And with temping, there is absolutely no schedule stability or continuity, or having any idea of what the hell weird assignment is coming next.

December - you're scanning blueprints on-site for a construction site.

January - March - you're answering phones and helping people register online for a beauty show.

April - you're a file clerk, but at a really cool place you'd like to work for.

Later in April, same place - you're pulling together these giant packets for some giant interviewing session they are doing that weekend. (not hiring you, but...)

May - you're doing a giant stack of data entry at the most Joe v. Volcano non-profit office, where no one wants to even say hi, and you seriously have to play with the printer for 10 minutes every time for it to print anything.

June & July - no assignments, despite many calls/emails to them. You sign up with a few other temp agencies.

August, September, some October - data entry seems like a dream when doing data EDITING, which is like grading papers all day long. One day you go the entire day without speaking one word to anyone.

November - you go to some lady's house and help her with her computer. Not a bad assignment, just weird to be coming out of a temp agency.

December into this coming week - scanning again, some data entry. Not bad. Wait that's a whole year of doing this and I'm almost bankrupt! I hope this one hires...oh, Friday, okay. Yeah I can teach her scanning.

January, next week - a job, I hope. Otherwise I catch up on season 3 of Dexter.

Empty Planner

2008-12-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

I just bought a new 2009 planner. May it soon be filled with work and shows and parties.

This time I got a daily planner, not a weekly one. That's because I'm trying to write more stuff down, more "to do"s, maybe some actual goals. I read something recently that it is scientifically proven that people get positive endorphins from writing something on a list, then doing something on that list, and then crossing it off. In fact, if someone does something not on their "to do" list, they will probably write it down just so they can have the feeling of crossing it off.

I think it's good for me, because otherwise I will waste so much damn time. Tonight it was trying to load games onto my new ipod nano. Hours and hours of this. Oh, wait, I was supposed to clean front room.

I guess I'll go do that now.

At least "write blog" was on the list, so -----------

Thoughts on Christmas Songs

2008-12-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

They've been playing a lot of Christmas music around. Have you noticed?

Anyway...a few things have struck me odd.

Toward the end of the Beach Boys Little Saint Nick the background singers sing "Christmas comes this time each year." I guess that's why Brian Wilson is a genius. (note: you must find and check out the Beach Boys rarity "Johnny Carson")

The pushiest Christmas song is We need a little Christmas "Yes we need a little Christmas, right this very minute." Woah, chill out dude. Wait a day or...NO...RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE. I like to think that this "song" is a suicide note someone found.

Dear It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, I think I'd be pissed if everyone was telling me "be of good cheer!" What kind of assholes are going to do this to people? Try that tomorrow.

And now a list of great stuff you might not know about (they certainly don't play a lot of these at shopping malls). Find em and make yourself a swanky mix!

Sister Winter - Sufjan Stevens
(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag - Kay Starr
Just Like Christmas - Low
Christmas Island - Lennon Sisters
Pete's Dad - Porno for Pyros
'Zat You, Santa Claus - Louis Armstrong
She Came Home For Christmas - Mew
Christmas Kisses - Ray Anthony
Christmas - The Who
Christmas Wrapping - Waitresses
Sleigh Ride - The Ventures
Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty
Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well You Deserved It!) - Sufjan Stevens

New Blog

2008-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Hi it's Chris Bragg, AKA a shitload of nicknames.

This blog has come about because of my fellow Hunter Family Crest member Adal Rafai, a fine man and uber-brilliant improviser. We all give him shit for being in umpteen hundredey shows, but he's great in everything and I don't know anyone who doesn't like the guy a lot.

Hunter Family Crest, for those of you who don't know is a Harold team at the iO Theater. I feel fortunate to have been put on the team and especially to be working with such a great bunch of people.

Now...as far as blogging goes I hope to keep it going pretty regularly. Each post will be labelled a nickname of mine instead of a category.

So...thanks a bunch to my dear friend Adal for setting this up and away we go.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

2008-12-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

Hey there Noisebox!

I just want to let you know that you are one of my favorite people in the world and I consider it a huge honor to play with you every week. You are a fantastic improviser and an awesome friend. I wanted to make this blog for you so that I can get to know you even better so start posting on here as frequently as possible because I'll be reading!!

love you brother

Your Secret Santa