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We are opening up spots on Monday nights and will add Tuesdays if demand requires.

Class is $150/mo. for 4 weeks.

Next session starts January 10th.

For more information check out my Education Page.

I haven’t posted on this blog in a long time. I’ve been completely booked working at Panda Mony and on Alter Nation, although I have still managed to work a few acting gigs here and there.

It’s living the freakin’ dream!

I think that it’s a good idea to start documenting stuff here again. There’s all kinds of cool stuff happening and I’m really excited to share it. So I’m starting with a tease…

If you like t-shirts, hoodies and coffee mugs I suggest you check out our merch in our SHOP.

I have not written on this blog since May 22nd (Happy Birthday Author Jeff Garvin!). Oddly enough that was also my 1000th post on this blog. I’ve covered a lot of things on here, mostly about acting and my career in entertainment, but back in May things started changing.

They didn’t change in bad ways, they just… changed.

Since we’ve moved up Portland both Rene and I have not done as much performing as we thought we would. There has been some, but not as much as we had hoped. Speaking for myself, a lot of the reason why is on me. After Frankie died I threw myself hard into work. Any work. I really buckled down with the marketing consulting during the morning and pushed hard to make sure the Alter Nation action figures were ready for our run at ASTRA. Then I was traveling for work and traveling back to California to see family. And then back to work again and so on and so forth. I was purposely keeping myself moving so fast that I didn’t have to deal with Frankie actually being gone.

But trying to keep that up is exhausting and unsustainable, and the predictable thing happened, I crashed. 

That sounds more dramatic than it actually was. In the end I just needed rest and a chance to sit down and focus on the things that I wanted so I could figure out where to put my focus. And after doing all the digging and self work and journaling and over-coffee-conversations I’ve decided that…

I have no idea what to do next.

So I’m trying a bunch of things to see what I like best. Lately this has included a lot of writing, a little podcasting, not as much acting and a return to writing in this blog. 

So watch this space!

And this one.

And check out Patreon if you can spare a buck a month.

We’re going to be doing  so new creative stuff and every little bit helps.

And we have some great new Frankie merch available! Featuring art from Karen Halker Miller, this is the beginning of some new things coming from Rene and I.

There’s more coming, and I’m pretty excited!

Well this is a bit of a twist in the ol’ plan, we are moving!

Not far, literally down the hall. A bigger spot opened up on our floor and we were able to take advantage of it. However, it also means that we are moving THIS WEEKEND!

This may impact my ability to update, much less actually work toward the goal.

That being said, I am doing my acting intensive April 28th from Noon to 4pm in Portland. Right now registration is only open to actors at Actors in Action, but if there’s any remaining space I’ll post here about it as well.

Here’s the playlist for April:

We are really jumping into the Portland life and enjoying a lot of what our new city has to offer. We regularly use the public transportation, we enjoy the local bars and restaurants, and the creative scene is more than we could have hoped for. On Saturday July 15th we joined in on the annual Big Float put on by the Human Access Project. See the video below:

To learn more about The Big Float and The Human Access Project you can follow the link for more information, but here is a description of what they do:

What the heck is THE BIG FLOAT?
The goal of The Big Float, quite simply, is to encourage people to “get into their river” and support its preservation and healthy development as a recreational resource. And to have a whale of a good time in the process.

The annual event is a fundraiser for the Human Access Project. Open to all ages, TBF begins with, naturally, a parade. Floaters gather at Tom McCall Bowl Beach (where the Blues Festival is held), then carry or wear their floatation devices and march south along Waterfront Park to the put-in point at Poet’s Beach beneath the Marquam Bridge.

Floaters will paddle down river and land on the west bank at the Tom McCall Bowl. Here, Portland’s grandest downtown beach party will be held – complete with music barge and live bands, food carts, beer/wine garden, sponsor booths, and a kids’ activities area.

Human Access Project
Wouldn’t it be great if people in Portland could actually get into the Willamette River? Simply stroll down to the water’s edge, wade out into it, and swim or paddle around to their heart’s content in a safe, public area? It’s time we did something about that. And that’s what our not-for-profit organization, Human Access Project, is all about.

Let’s face it, even if you wanted to swim in the Willamette River in downtown Portland today, how would you do it? There’s no easy way to get into it. It’s like this: if you want birds to come into your yard you put up a bird feeder and plant trees to create a bird-friendly habitat.

The same is true for humans and the river. If we want to make it so people can swim in the Willamette we need to create better access and a more inviting environment. For instance, imagine the Tom McCall bowl area redesigned with a beach instead of the unfriendly jagged rock river edge currently there.

In short, the Human Access Project is driven to promote activating the Willamette River for recreational use that considers all the critters that live and love the water, including humans.
Human Access Project Mission
The Human Access Project vision is simple: a city in love with its river. This grassroots not-for-profit group has three concentric goals:

1) Create a human habitat and more access points along the Willamette River in downtown Portland.

2) Inspire people to get into the Willamette River.

3) Facilitate stewardship of the Willamette River and Watershed.
HAP Accomplishments
Human Access Project (HAP) was conceived in November 2010 when founder Will Levenson began organizing an event called “The Big Float.” The Big Float (TBF) is a group innertube float and after-party on the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon. The idea behind TBF is to get a large number of people in the water in an enjoyable way and make a powerful statement showing Portlanders and our city government that the Willamette is safe for human recreation. In short, to transform our relationship with the Willamette River.

TBF had its first launch in 2011 with 1,300 participants. By 2014 TBF had grown to 2,300 participants. This year, we hope to draw 3,000 participants.

Human Access Project has undertaken three Willamette River beach clean-up, habitat restoration projects which are ongoing. The first is on the eastside of the Willamette River by the Hawthorne Bridge. HAP has to date removed 18 tons of concrete in numerous clean-up events in this area revealing a sandy beach. HAP aspires to create a formal beach in this spot, which we have nicknamed Audrey McCall Beach after Tom McCall’s wife.

The second project is a beach creation effort at Tom McCall Bowl on the west side of the Willamette River by the Hawthorne Bridge. HAP hosted a community kickoff event called UnRock the Bowl in 2012 and has held an annual beach clean-up event every year since. Volunteers move rip-wrap rock from the water’s edge of the Willamette River back to the bank where it was initially installed 30 years ago as bank protection.

The third project is Poet’s Beach (under the Marquam Bridge on west bank) where HAP has hauled out immense chunks of basalt to clear the way for safe access to an existing sandy beach. To bring life to the site, HAP worked with the not-for-profit Honoring Our Rivers and the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde to inscribe children’s poetry and Chinook phrases into rocks lining the path to the beach. Hence the name Poet’s Beach. HAP will continue to undertake beach clean-up activities to support its mission.

Our first major advocacy success was in 2013, working with the City of Portland to install “Swim at your own risk” signs at the Tom McCall Bowl and Poet’s Beach .

That’s the question, so I got some of my best friends together to try and figure it out.

What do you think? Leave your opinions in the comments.

We’ve reached Day 50!

Here’s a recap of my activities leading up to today and a little news about what’s coming up for 2016. It’s a long one, but there was a lot to say:

Happy Thanksgiving from Rene, Frankie, Charlie & I!