A few years ago I took the train to Kansas and spent two weeks shooting a film that I am intensely proud of. It’s called The Good Things.
The Good Things, like Neverland and Jane White is one of the very few movies I’ve done in the last ten years that I can enthusiastically encourage everyone to go out and watch.
Hollywood Bitchslap says:

The Good Things (2001) – Sundance
Wil Wheaton stars as a lovelorn young man working in a toll booth of his small, middle of nowhere community. The love of his life is marrying someone else, and his best friend sends missives from far and exotic locations. He yearns for something beyond the isolation and loneliness of life in the booth, but he seems unwilling to reach out or make a choice toward something more. This short is very effective in creating a mood of loneliness and ennui which resonates. The whole thing hits a little close to home, as I look out the window at the same town I have known my whole life. Perhaps there is a difference between being content and being trapped, but the line is a fine one to walk. This well-made short deserves a look. The performances are good, and the writing and visuals are worth experiencing.

Much of my adult acting career is marked by movies that, quite frankly, suck. I mean, there are some that have good moments, and there are some where I’m happy with my performance, but the overall picture falls sort of flat . . . then there are the ones that I’d rather forget entirely.
As I worked on Just A Geek I looked for the answer to the question, “What the hell happened to my once-promising acting career?” Ultimately, it was pretty easy to answer: I made lots of bad choices, based partially on bad advice but based mostly on the arrogance of youth . . . I regret a lot of the choices I made, because I blew a lot of very good opportunities, and lost twice as many more when I didn’t respect the work. When I grew up (literally and otherwise) I knew that I had the acting ability to give good performances, but it was too late. I didn’t have the fame or Hollywood cachet that is so much more important than talent and ability when it comes to getting cast in just about anything (See: Affleck, Ben; Kutcher, Ashton and Simpson, Jessica). It was frustrating that nobody would take a chance on me, but it was doubly frustrating that putting me in a film was seen as “taking a chance” at all! Seth Wiley, who directed The Good Things, and David Latt, who directed Jane White Is Sick And Twisted both gave me an opportunity to perform for them, in very different types of roles, and their leaps of faith paid off for all of us. Jane White has won more awards than I can count (including a best actor award for me, thank you very much 🙂 and The Good Things won best short at Deauville in 2002.
Thanks to WWdN reader Greg, I just found out that The Good Things is airing on The Sundance Channel this Friday, May 21st. It’s only 26 minutes long, so if you hate it, it’s not like you lost almost three hours of your life in The Hulk . . . but I would be very surprised if you guys didn’t enjoy it — Matter of fact, I can hardly ever enjoy things that I’m in, but The Good Things is a notable exception to that rule.
I encourage everyone to record it, and share it with their friends. I think it’s a great movie and I’d like for it to be seen by as many people as possible.

Great news about Kris!
In my last entry, I mentioned Kris would be going into City of Hope one last time to spend a week getting medication that would boost her immune system. That was done last week. I wasn’t able to visit her because she was feeling very pukey and tired. It was more important for her to get her rest anyway. She came home on Saturday. I called to check in on her Monday but her son said she was sleeping and that he was staying with her all day to take care of her. So I called her on Tuesday and she sounded great. We talked about our kids, Mother’s Day (she slept through most of her Mother’s Day) and how she was feeling. She was doing much better after sleeping for most of the past few days. She said she spoke with her friend Debbie about how well she was doing. Debbie is the wife of her friend that died from the same type of leukemia she has. Debbie commented on how much further Kris has come through treatment than Debbie’s husband did (he died from pneumonia after the radiation treatments.) It’s so sad to think that she had a friend who was diagnosed a year before she was but didn’t make it. But at the same time, I’m so relieved that she toughed it out through all this and stayed healthy. I know a big part of her motivation is being at the finish line with our marathon. Yesterday, Kris went to her doctor to have a pump put in that will give her the same immune boosting medication for another ten days. This is like a jump start kick to make sure all of the leukemia stays away. She said she doesn’t feel as sick as when she was in the hospital last week. She feels like she has a mild case of the flu. But, she says, she’ll survive. I know she will too.
Today marks her 80th day of treatment. Her 100th day will come just days before the marathon. I can’t even tell you how happy I am that she’s doing so well. And she always says that a big part of it has to be all the good “mojo” that’s coming her way.
So now Wil and I are down to the last couple of days of fundraising for the marathon. We need to turn everything in next week. So if you’ve been wanting to help by donating anything (believe me, it doesn’t matter how much you can donate, every bit counts) then today is the day to do it. The PayPal donation page will be coming down on Saturday to allow for time to transfer the funds. You can donate through the webpage we have through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s site. Just think, you can be part of something that will make a difference in the world. Trust me. It’s a great feeling.
I will post more information about Kris, as well as our total funds raised (I have a huge stack of checks I haven’t added up yet) next week. Keep your fingers crossed that we reach our goal!

First, the bad news: I chipped the evrlivingfuck out of my tooth a few nights ago. How did I do it, you ask? Something cool, like a bar fight, or a hockey fight, or jumping in front of a runaway shopping cart to save a GT40 from getting a dent?
Oh no. No, my friends, it’s much better than that. I chipped my front tooth so badly I don’t even want to open my mouth, by . . . . eating pizza. Pear and Gorgonzola pizza from Trader Joe’s, to be exact. (Which is frakin’ good pizza, man.) My jaw is all screwed up, and I’ve needed braces to fix my bite for years, but I always felt it was vain to worry about having perfectly straight teeth . . . and as a result, I’ve gotten this really nasty underbite. So I hit my bottom teeth on my top front teeth all the time, and it has resulted in three bondings in less than a year. I get to go back today to get yet another bonding, and this afternoon I’m meeting with the orthodontist so I can finally get the process of fixing my screwed up teeth started.
Now the good news: I got the unbound galleys of Just A Geek yesterday! It looks like a real book. Oh my god. I also got to see the cover art, which is amazing. I’m so excited! I have until the 24th to give them my edits and corrections, and then I won’t see it again until it’s printed and bound. I don’t have a street date, yet, but I think it will be June or July.
And holy crap, when you find out who is writing the foreword, you will shit. It’s just about the coolest thing ever.
I’ve also been talking with O’Reilly about a book tour, and right now it looks like we’re going to do something up the West Coast — probably San Diego to Seattle — in August. I don’t know if they’ll send me out to the rest of the country, but I’m sure if there’s enough interest, we can put something together. *wink*
Voice Over Excitement: Yesterday, I had the coolest VO audition of my life . . . for Family Guy! They are looking for “utility players,” and I got to go read about 12 different characters for them. If I book it, it will be a bigger deal to me than when I booked Next Generation. I did a pretty good job, I think. I didn’t “hear myself” in several of the characters I did, and I think my obsessive watching of the show on Adult Swim and on DVD helped me out, because I know what types of characters they have — I was able to go “bigger” than I normally would if I didn’t know the show so well.
Today, I have a major callback for this animation project over at Disney. I read three characters for this show about two weeks ago, and I felt like I completely blew it with one, barely made it with another, but totally nailed it with the last one — and they’ve bringing me back for the last one (a character whom I love, by the way) today!
Other stuff: A few weeks ago, I did an epic, three-hour long interview with Sequential Tart, the first part of which is up now. I read it last night, and discovered that I am a fucking LONG WINDED guy. I need to learn how to just get to the point and shut up.
There are two good reviews of Dancing Barefoot, too. This one is from MacCompanion, and This one is from The Southend, at Wayne University.
Okay, that’s it from me for today. I have to go work on Geek now. Anne’s got an update about Kris that she’s working on in the other room. It should be in a little bit.

Anne and I were training yesterday, doing the neighborhood route, and we passed a bunch of animals: mostly other people walking dogs, but a bunch of birds and some cats, too, including a tiny kitten who called to us from the window of a neighbor’s house when we passed. I thought about our dogs and cats, and the birds that are nesting in my backyard, and it made me happy.
Felix is doing really well, considering how close he was to death’s door just last week. He is eating a ton of food, and is super feisty. I still don’t want to get my hopes too high, but I think we have weathered the latest storm.
Yesterday, I gave him his medical catnip mouse, and he chased it around my bed like he was a kitten! I just love how he gets on his back, holds it between his paws, and kicks at it with his back feet. When he’s done playing, he usually tosses it to the side, then passes out on it like it’s a little kitty pillow.
I gave Biko and Sketch mice too, (they . . . uh . . . have glaucoma, or something) and they played even harder than Felix did. Right now, Biko is on the one cat-approved counter next to the phone, safely out of Riley’s reach, cuddling his mouse while he sleeps! Riley is chasing a fly, or something, around the living room, and Ferris is zonked out on the floor at my feet. Sketch is sleeping in the tall grass under a tree in our front yard, and The Bear is watching Anne clean the stove in the kitchen.
It’s quiet outside, except for the soft drone of a distant lawnmower, and the smell of orange blossoms and star jasmine flowers is pouring into my office through the open window. Two doves just landed in the middle of my backyard.
It looks like Demeter got Persephone back from Hades, and boy is She happy.

Nolan walked over to my desk and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around in my chair and looked into his cheshire grin.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“Oh . . . I just saw something I thought you may be interested in.” I noticed that he had one hand behind his back.
“It wouldn’t be related to what you have behind your back, would it?”
His grin got bigger, and he revealed People magazine. Jennifer Aniston was on the cover — apparently she’s one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.
“I don’t want to burst his bubble and tell him that I’m not all that excited about her,” I thought, “But I don’t want to lie to him, either. Crap! It’s a Parenting Challenge. What do I do?”
“Nolan, I –”
He opened the magzine and revealed a two-page ad for the new Ford GT. It was my favorite car at the entire LA Auto Show when we went a few months ago. He gingerly set it down on my desk.
“I think I’ll leave you two alone,” he said, and patted my knee before he left.
He managed to contain his giggles until he was just outside the door.