Break a Leg

Hey guys!

I wanted you all to join me in wishing our very own Vlad Baranovsky, my brother and co-writer/co-creator of Break a Leg a very happy 30th birthday.

A little background of our brotherly relationship. Vlad is roughly 5 years older than me and was the kind of older brother that, for some reason or other, took his little brother everywhere with him (are there a lot of older brothers like that? I'm thinking no). He was the reason I started writing because when I was around 3 or 4 he'd write me stories (while he was 8-9) about a chicklet living on a farm. I forget the exact plot, but I'm guessing it for sure had something to do with chicklet zombies (Vlad's the one that writes all the zombie references, by the way.)

He always wrote and I always tried to be like him and also write, except I did it a whole lot worse, something I realized around high school, where I stopped trying to write prose. I came back to writing in college and saw I had a knack for script writing. In the meantime, Vlad was still writing but had gotten a job as a programmer (now a senior programmer? Or something higher, I think. Elder Statesman Programmer? Grand Wizard Programmer? I'm not sure -- but he works at a company called Genesys) and was fulfilling what he lovingly calls the 7-year program at State for creative writing.

Break a Leg was the first thing that we ever wrote together and was, coincidentally, the most successful thing that either of us have done, creatively. We've gotten to the point where our style is so similar that we don't remember who wrote which line and I think that's pretty damn cool.

Simply put, he's a great brother, he's my best friend and aside from my parents, he's one of the main reasons that I'm where I am in my career.

And now that I got the gross, touchy-feely stuff out of the way, I'd like to add that I'm the better looking brother.

Happy Birthday, bro (we call each other bro, by the way. It started off as a mockery of two guys who did that... and that was around 14 years ago, so.. now it's bro and probably will be forever -- you can call him bro too, if you'd like) -- let's have this year be the year that we burst to the big screen like a fiery, zombie chicklet.

Happy Birthday!

-Yuri 

The new conversation is up, guys, and ready for your viewing! 

Chase and Francesca, bored and unhappy with their relationship, ask their dearest friend David if he could help them rekindle their passion by being in their triple.

You can watch on YouTube, where, as per usual, we beg for you to comment, rate, favorite and subscribe, or you can watch it as the first video under "episodes" right here on the side.

Also, for those of you who thought the Mint "Thank You" song was a sham -- it's recorded and probably the best song I've ever heard. We're going to try and release it this following monday (we're trying to make a music video for it), but it might end up being on the monday after this next one. We'll see!

Enjoy the conversation!

-Yuri 

Editor's Note: Hey, thanks for the various emails of support from fans asking if we've really quit. We haven't really quit, it was April Fool's Day and we were just being hilarious. A new, equally hilarious video is coming out Monday starring Chase Cougar, Francesca Scala and David Penn.

Oh, and Drew swears a lot. 

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I've made a harrowing journey this evening. An epic quest; to find something suitable to occupy the inner recesses of my mind and the outer periphery of my vision, as I compose my latest bloggal masterpiece for the apparently voluminous hordes of readers we have here at Break A Leg.

I've been channel surfing. Seeking something I know well enough that it won't distract me from the task at hand, but not so well that it bores me to tears. The other danger of knowing something too well, like say a beloved rerun of Seinfeld, is that you get sucked into the moments you know are just beyond the next commercial horizon, and can't get anything done then either.

I was only flipping through the channels (or really, flipping through the channel guide; does anyone flip the channels anymore?) for less than five minutes but it felt like an eternity. You know the feeling: what the fuck am I watching? Is this really on?

Last weekend I finally got around to going over to a friend's house recently that I hadn't seen in weeks, and he and his fiance mentioned that when they go to Tahoe they watch TV. They don't have cable at home, so they sit and stare to see what the rest of us do on a weekday evening. It was ghastly. I think they turned on the TV and saw an episode of American Idol, the one where the girl who really shouldn't be there sang "Proud To Be An American". I felt for them, I really did. I was watching that episode on purpose and felt mind-raped when she started singing.

So now I've settled on Alien, which is a perfect choice that fits all of my criteria for background watching, except for the fact that everyone is talking so fucking quietly! I have to keep adjusting the volume UP for dialogue and DOWN for music and sound effects, and it distracts me from this self-righteous cursing inspiration I'm having right now.

I sometimes ask myself if I'd stop and watch if I came across Break A Leg on a proper TV set. I mean, if I wasn't involved in it, obviously. It's really impossible to imagine hypotheticals like that. I mean, it's not impossible to imagine them I suppose, but impossible to imagine them and answer them honestly. You just don't know. I thought from the commercials that Arrested Development looked really stupid until I finally hunkered down and watched an episode about halfway through the first season.

Apparently the entire universe is succumbing to the effects of entropy, except for localized pockets in localized places; such as in a woman's womb during gestation, or while a flower is slowly pocketing its nutrients in the form of an apple, or even while I am forming the bubbles from a succulent wheat beer into a world-class ass-bomb.

Reality TV, however, is a classic example of entropy at work on our television networks. You can restore the useful energy to the universe by turning off Just For Laughs and reading a great book.

Happy Jenday , everybody.

 Today I'd like to talk about coincidences: those odd little moments in your life that occur and make you think "Now that's odd.  I wonder if it means anything."  I for one would like to think they do, but I'll be damned if I know what it could possibly be.  I think it's also significant when you start noticing a lot of coincidences happening in close proximity to each other.  And then there's the whole fate string thing.  Let's start somewhere and call it a beginning...

   When I got out of the Army I moved back in with my parents.  I had decided to take a some time off and figure out my next step in life.  They had been living in Oregon at the time, but then a month later both got jobs back in our home of Marin County.  I was reunited with my childhood friend Will.  Will introduced me to Leonard who was also unemployed and a fellow gamer.  He and I started hanging out and mostly (yes, I admit it, and proudly, too) played Magic the Gathering.  He introduced me to a comic book shop where they had Magic night ever Friday.  One of the regulars was this guy named Neil.  Neil works at Waldenbooks.  I was working at a Kinko's not far from there when I discovered this.  So now, whenever I finish a book and need a new one but I'm not sure what to read, I go to Neil and he tells me "read this".  He is always right. 

   On one such occasion he introduced me to The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.  This is an amazing series of books about a wizard for hire living in modern-day Chicago.  It's written very tongue in cheek like a good film noir, but there's wizards and vampires and monsterss and Dino-Zombie-Bob.  It's fantastic.  I'm going to go see Mr. Butcher on Friday in San Francisco.

   Anywho, I told all my friends about it.  One of its immediate fans was Gail, who is the First Mate of my pirate crew, the wife of the captain, and an amazing artist.  Gail got very heavily involved on the Jim Butcher forums talking about the books.  The new one is due to be out today, so Gail called (guess who) Waldenbooks because its the closest bookstore to her house.  She wanted to see if she could reserve a copy of the book, but the lady kindly told her they don't really do that kind of thing.  So Gail went on the forums again and mentioned this and Neil, who she has never had any contact with in real life, said that he would have her copy waiting behind the counter when it came in. 

   So the guy that introduced me to the books is reserving the book for the girl that I introduced to the books without either of them having had any prior contact or knowing that the other one knows me.  Maybe not so much a coincidence as a degree of separation, but still interesting, I think.

   Ok, maybe this next one will be better:

   In my pirate crew, and in the SCA in fact, I am known as The Reverend Mochran Killington, The Horny Bard.  I know, pretty awesome, right?  I have used Killington as a handle on a number of occasions, and really have come to associate with the name as if it were my own.  I created the personna about 6 years ago.  I got the name from an old Irish song about a bloodthirsty military leader, but other than that, pretty much the only references I can find to Killington are the fat guy on Studio 60 and Killington, Vermont, which I understand is a lovely little tourist town.

    Well currently I am reading Steven King's Dark Tower series, which is pretty engrossing, and not just gross like I consider a lot of his other stuff to be.  The story is all about these strange connections between people and worlds.  It's also pretty intense.  So when I was hunkered down this last Saturday morning burning through the last 3rd of the 4th book, I got to this part where there are two people standing in an abandoned train station in a city that was once something like New York, but a thousand years ago was destroyed and now all that live there are two warring mutant factions.  They all stay out of the train station because they believe it to be haunted.  Anyway, this couple are in there and the man has this flashback: suddeny he can see all the people that once walked through these halls, hear the sounds of them going about their travel plans, and suddenly over the loudspeakers he imagines hearing "Will Passenger Killington, passenger Killington please report to the information booth on the lower level?"  I literally felt a jolt go through me as I read that.  Of all the books in which to find a passing and almost completely random-seeming reference to something that is personal to me...it blew my mind.

   Ok, one more:

One of the latest books I read was "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.  I you like to read, read Neil Gaiman.  And if you like Neil Gaiman, read "Good Omens", co-written by Terry Pratchett.  If you like "Good Omens", read Terry Pratchett's Discworld stuff.  If you like audio books, get any of the Discworld books read by Steven Briggs, easily downloadable on I-Tunes.  Trust me, it'll be worth the $50.

    Anyway, American Gods, right.  Well, remember back when I started this whole Jenday thing?  And who did I want to take the day from?  Yeah, Odin.  And who shows up and turns out to be one of the major characters in "American Gods"? Odin.  And after reading the book I feel totally justified for stealing his day.  Then we get to another character, somewhat minor, but still important.  And what's his name?  No, not Odin.  Chad.  That's my name (the one on my birth certificate, anyway).  And then, the books ends at the beginning of spring, which is, coincidentally, when I finished it, without even planning to.

So, to sum up, my friends, there have been a LOT of coincidences going on in my life lately.  I'm not sure if they're a warning, or a message saying "Just keep on going, we're watching and we're rooting for ya."  But I can feel the change coming in the air, like that feeling you get before a storm.  Back before I was a pirate, I was a Jedi, and I'm starting to get a lot of those same feelings of premonition.  Like yesterday I was walking around all day KNOWING that my friend Nate was going to call me and see if I wanted to go get drinks and food.  And who called me JUST as I was finishing writing this blog?  Yep.  Things are getting creepy, folks.  Just remember I mentioned something when the shit hits the fan.

Chad
 

Kent Nichols, co-creator of Ask a Ninja, wrote a nice blog in response to my Gawker article and I wanted to respond here, in our blog -- mostly because Kent and I are afraid of creating too strong of an emotional bond (something that would happen if we, say, bumped into each other on the street and he was, say, wearing a leotard).

First off -- thanks, Kent. I appreciate the response and, out of curiousity, what are you wearing?

Secondly, I think people are jumping to conclusions about my article. The main idea was that, contrary to what various people have been saying more and more, Internet TV isn't even close to replacing real TV. Is it possible to monetize on the Internet? Of course. Is it possible to create a self-sufficient show whose quality rivals anything on TV? Of course not. Let's be honest, a show about an extremely witty Ninja is going to spread like wildfire on the Internet, while a full-length show about a writer trying to survive his way in a crazy Hollywood -- well, not so much.

I'm not complaining, it's the way the world works, and at the very best, I think the Internet can become the AHL (sorry, I'm a hockey fan) to TV's NHL and I think we'd all be happy if that was the case.

As far as Break a Leg is concerned -- it was never meant to be a web show and through various circumstances, it happened like that anyway. Would I have done things differently if we planned for making it an internet show? Of course. But we didn't and, ironically enough, the fact that we didn't got us the press and the views that we have now.

We, of course, are fully aware that Break a Leg may not make it on TV (though, we'll fight tooth and nail to try and get it there) but we are using it as a calling card and we are taking steps to move forward (mostly by making shows where people wear significantly less clothes.)

Thanks for your response, though, and I'll gladly accept a role in that new movie you're writing. I'll even give you or the Ninja a part in Break a Leg in exchange.

Thanks, Kent!

-Yuri