Oscar Hopes and Predictions

Because it is very important to study and understand the industry I wish to be a big part of, and since, you know, it's part of my path to stardom and all that stuff...this year, I made it a personal goal to see almost all the nominated films. I saw all the "Best Picture" nominations, and many others that are up for awards this year as well. For fun, I am running an Oscar Pool with...myself....

Here's the movies I am predicting will win in each category. Click for a larger view.

If I picked more than one for a category, that's because it's a really close call. If I was betting money, I'd pick the one that I underlined.


Here's the movies I HOPE will win (but may or may not...). Click for a larger view.

Chad Vader

There's a YouTube series called Chad Vader that is actually filmed in Appleton, WI. I know a few people on crew, including the director.

They just released a special edition episode that is too good to pass up. Enjoy!!

MAGICAL Red Cross Class

Today I got to teach a Red Cross class at the Disney Animation Studios. It was awesome. We were surrounded by original drawings from classic Disney animated movies.

Enjoy the pics...

Harlem Globetrotters

Today I had the chance to be one of the 'official photographers' for the Harlem Globetrotters.

It was a pretty fun event (as the Globetrotters usually are), and it was neat to be there and take pictures of random fans, etc. I even got to see Barry Williams and Gordon Ramsay. Here's a few pictures of the setting and my awesome uniform.


Nice bright green shirts, huh??

Hollywood Collectors Show

Hello everyone!

Today was an exciting day. Once again, I had the chance to go to the "Hollywood Collectors Show" in Burbank, CA. I had the chance to see alot of great celebrities, take some neat pictures, and recieve some awesome autographs!

The entire album can be viewed at this link, but here's a few teaser pictures:

Rude Awakening

Tonight at around midnight, I heard a really large crash from right my apartment. It sounded as if it had come from the street, and I could hear fire sizzling after the inital 'crash' sound.

Since I was still up (unlike the misleading title of this blog suggests), I decided to quick grab my camera and head down to the corner of the street to see if I could see anything. When I came to the street corner, I found a car on fire, with another car upside down next to it. The cars had crashed into some other (parked) cars that were on the side of the road.

I called 9-1-1 and noticed that everyone from the 2 cars were okay and conscious. They came out, and I helped one of them over to the side of the road who was having a hard time walking. On the sidewalk, I stayed with them until help arrived...which was about 12 minutes later (thank you LAPD). One was having a hard time breathing, one was in pain, and the other had a difficult time walking.

Once professional help arrived, they thanked me for my help and asked why I had the camera. When I explained I was a freelance photographer (that was also Red Cross Certified for Disaster Relief), the officer chuckled and invited me to roam and get whatever interesting pics/video I wanted.

Here's a few shots:

Craig Furgeson

Hey everybody!

Make sure to check out The Late Late Show with Criag Furgeson tonight on CBS! I will be there with my roomie, Al, to see Robin Williams on the show! It should be pretty cool!

Kyle's Top 5 Super Bowl Commercials

Here's my Top 5 Super Bowl Commercial Picks. We'll see if the media/critics agree with me tomorrow and tonight when we watch the news.

1. Doritos Commercial (1st of the evening)
http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55646/super-bowl-xliii-ads-doritos-crystal-ball#s-p8-sr-i0

In my eyes, there was a tie for 2nd place...

2. Alec Baldwin - HuLu Commercial
http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55719/super-bowl-xliii-ads-hulu-alec-and-huluwood#s-p1-sr-i0

2. Potato Head Driving
http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55725/super-bowl-xliii-ads-firestone-taters#s-p3-sr-i0

And the last two (technically numbers 4 and 5)...

3. Doritios Power Crunch (2nd of the evening)
http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55728/super-bowl-xliii-ads-doritos-power-of-the-crunch#s-p4-sr-i0

4. GE Energy - Scarecrow Commercial
http://www.hulu.com/superbowl/55713/super-bowl-xliii-ads-ge-scarecrow#s-p2-sr-i0

Jennifer Hudson + National Anthem = WOW!!!!!!!!

Jennifer Hudson just sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

HOLY COW that was amazing.

That is all :)

Ponder Points

Wow, I feel like I've been so distant from here latley. So many things going on...so much to do....

The Hollywood Celebrity Convention is coming up on Valentine's Day. They have an even MORE amazing list than the last one I attended. Big names that I want to see include Eric Estrada and Carrie Fischer. Time to start saving my pennies, it looks like...BOY, it's coming up fast, but a chance to meet these guys and talk to them for a few hours is worth every penny. Not only is it neat to hear their stories, but to learn about the industry from real pros is something really special. Furthermore, it's a nice motivational boost to keep going.

Motivational boosts are good...especially right around now. I don't know why, but this week...although I accomplished alot, I feel like I'm still dragging a little. I'm really pushing for some new jobs and such, and things are SLOWLY working into place...but the word here is 'slowly'.

If anybody knows anyone that wants some VHS to DVD transfers done in the near future, let me know :)

We'll see what happens as time progresses. Things will work, it's just...slow.

I almost miss my friends back in Wisconsin a ton latley. Laura, John, Brandon, Sean, Sara...you are all missed dearly right now. Being so busy and whatnot out here, it's been hard to hang out with alot of people from around the area latley. Furthermore, alot of my 'friends' seem to have really changed since the winter break. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to stay interacting with some of them....they like to take the dangerous college route and I'm not sure I want to follow. Correction: I will NOT follow. So we'll see how that goes.

More to come soon, as usual.

I'm back!

Hello everyone!

Greetings once again from a nice, warm California climate! It's great to be back in the warmth.

The inauguration was fantastic and Sean and I had a great time and got some awesome footage. The website, www.barackdoc09.com, is being updated this evening and will soon have all the up-to-date changes.

Just for fun, take a look at some of the questions asked of me today on a job application for the Disney Corporation. They are pretty funny....

Hello from DC!

I am currently in DC with my good friend Sean filming our documentary on the Inauguration.

For more information, and to follow us, please visit:


www.barackdoc09.com

www.youtube.com/BarackDoc09


YouTube Videos will be added daily, newsletters will be out as often as possible, and we will try to update the blog on the BarackDoc09 site along the way, too.

I'm TIRED!

Today was a long, stressful day.

I had a Red Cross class all day long for a group of 15 ESL and Special Needs Adults. On top of that, half of them were dyslexic. I'll be spending my evening relaxing and trying to fill out alot of paperwork.....

Inauguration is sneaking up quick! Holy cow...I can't wait!

More to come soon. To all my friends in Wisconsin, stay warm since you don't have all that school to worry about....

1 Week Until DC!

Wow...I cannot believe there is only a week (less than, actually) until I am heading off to Washington DC to record the Inauguration!

If you haven't sent a donation for our documentary, and you would like to donate via PayPal...please click here and our site will help you go through the entire process. Every dollar helps to ensuring we can do bigger and better things in Washington!!

Tonight I will be updating the BarackDoc09 website with some major new updates...so be sure to check back soon for all of that excitement!!

Quick Updates

1. I ran into Jennifer Aniston at the post office the other day. It was pretty exciting.

2. I'm super glad Spielberg picked up the highest honor at the Golden Globe Awards tonight. There was a very nice, fitting montage that went with his speech...all of which were neat to witness.

3. For those of you that didn't hear, my friend and tech buddy Jake Kulba came out to Calfornia last week to visit with his family and friends and had the opportunity to come say hello to me in Hollywood for a day. We had a great time, and below is a picture of us hanging out!

Caught on TV...again!

Last November, when Sara came to visit me, we went to a few filmings of "Masters of Illusion" - a new show being produced by the MYNetwork. The shows were fantastic and very enjoyable. This past Monday, the first episode aired...which we were not 'technically' on. However, thanks to Hollywood magic...the editors decided to pull one of the routines from our 'episode' and place it on the premiere night.

Below is a clip of some awesome audience members they found during the filming :)

Yes, I'm Alive!

Wow...it's been a while since I posted. Alot of you know that I don't update my blog when I was home, and I was indeed home for the winter break. It was a very nice and enjoyable trip back home, and as usual, it was sad to leave.

Life right now is going well back in Hollywood. I'm once again getting into the swing of things and on the constant search for some new industry jobs. Rumor has it that I may be offered a job at a new school teaching under a different group than the one I am currently with...we'll see how that goes.

Today I traveled to the Post Office to find that they had ran out of stamps. Yes, you read correctly. The POST OFFICE ran out of stamps!! How? Apparantly a BIG group came in right before myself and a few others and bought them out. We could wait for a few hours or 'go to a different place'...so I got to explore the other side of LA today at the wonderful Post Office.....

I experienced MORE disappointment today when I found out that the "Pepsi Points Promotion Program" (that's alot of Ps!) has now ended. Over the last year, I have been accumulating a TON of points...since I am an avid drinker of Pepsi One. Sadly, the points expired on the 31st of December and nobody bothered to tell us..... :'(

Last, but not least, I am continuing to make preparations for my trip to Washington DC at the end of this month. I really cannot believe it is coming up so fast...but I am very excited and I know Sean and I will have some great opportunities while we are out there. A logo that was created for the movie is below. Special thanks to Michelle Rehak for her assistance in making it.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

If that's true, then this is one of my longest blog entries.....
Enjoy pictures highlighting the Wyland Event and my trip to Disneyland for Christmas!

More Updates...

Once again, I find myself super busy and not keeping up with my blog. (Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.) Next week is bound to slow down, but until then, here's the latest updates:

Last Day at "Last Call" - Thursday was my last day at "Last Call with Carson Daly". T'was a sad day :-( I'm really going to miss working with the entire crew there. It was alot of fun. As a gift, I recieved a "Last Call" T-shirt, hat, and other goodies! They also told me I was always welcome to come back and visit. Hopefully, I'll be seeing them again sometime soon on the backlot!

Alllll Alonneeeee - All of my friends, with the exception of one who is a half hour from my area, went home this morning for the holiday season. In some ways, this is good...it gives me time to do alot of things and catch up now that my busy-rush is almost all over. In some ways, this sucks...for obvious reasons :-)

Finding Work - Now that all of my jobs are on hiatus, or hold...due to the holiday season, I'm looking around for small, little gigs I can pick up this holiday season. It seems that I have better luck picking up stuff in Milwaukee than I do here! haha

Wyland Holiday Party - Tonight, thanks to my former elementary school art teacher, Mrs. Thatcher, I will be going to Wyland's Holiday Party in Santa Monica. I googled the hotel and it looks like I'm in for quite a treat. The hotel is right on the beach front...which I'm sure will make for some really neat picture opps! More to come on this tomorrow....

Updates...

Hello, all! Boy, it's been busy latley. Here's some major updates....

Control Room @ Carson - Today I got to switch out of my normal job at the "Last Call with Carson Daly" show and see what it was like to live in the control room for a day. As expected, I loved it. The control room is where all the action, excitement, pressure and screw ups....occur, and it's really neat! I had a chance to talk for a while with the director, Steve Paley, which was also a very cool experience, too.

CSI: Oz Debut - Tonight was the official debut of "CSI: Oz". The trailer, cold open, and show intro were all shown to a theatre of approximatley 500 people -- ranging from students, to industry professionals. The show went off without a hitch and people loved it. Of the 10 movies screened, mine was #6 in line...and was the only one to recieve a standing ovation at the end. The audience definatley connected to the plot and unique idea...and many encouraged me to start writing a full length movie script for the show. Here's the poster (with some modifications for all my blog readers!) that was used at the premiere...


Universal Movie Screening - Tomorrow I once again have the unique chance to go to yet another movie screening. The movie is called "Frost/Nixon", about Richard Nixon, the watergate scandal, and all that fun stuff.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I guess I should say "Happy Black Friday"...but Belated Thanksgiving sounds better. I hope everyone had a nice day with friends and family.

Yesterday was the first time I had been away from home for Thanksgiving, and to be perfectly honest, it was a little rough. I had most of the day to myself...which basically ended in me watching alot of videos, talking to friends back home, and thinking about alot of different things.

One of the major things I was thinking about, was obviously, what I was thankful for. I am thankful for way too many things to sit here and list on my blog, but I will give you a condensed version:

To anybody who has helped in my process of coming to California and persuing my dreams, thank you. My move out west has not been an easy one, and frankly, with huge talk of another strike and things happening in Hollywood the way they are, it will likley become harder before it gets easier. I am thankful, however, that I've had the opportunity to come out to this strange new land (and by that, I mean California) and fight for what I want to do. This is a challenging industry to even THINK about getting into...but I seriously could not have done it without the strong support system I have back home. Having this strong support system is what makes me miss home so much...which at times, is confusing...because it makes me want to be home when things get rough. I know that this is what I want to do....the problem, is creating my own system and 'flavor', if you will, for doing things that is different than everyone who came before me. With the industry changing so much, this is both easy and hard at the same time...but with time, things will happen.

Thanks again to everyone who has always been on my side...supporting me and keeping me motivated.

Sara's Visit to Hollywood

My friend Sara, (from back in South Milwaukee), came out for the weekend to visit me here in California! We had ALOT of fun and did tons of things. Here's a few highlight pictures.

More California Wildfires

More pictures of the recent California wildfires. And we thought the last set of fires was bad...HA! It smells like a BBQ outside...

Close pictures courtesy of my American Red Cross connections.

Titanic Exhibit

When I was home for my long weekend helping with the High School play, I had a chance to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum's TITANIC Exhibit. I had gone once before to this traveling display in Chicago with my dad, and I LOVED it. When you enter the exhibit, they give you a boarding pass telling you who you were on the Titanic. I was with Laura, and we both had different class tickets. In the end, she ended up living and I died.

Either way, here was our cool Titanic picture. (Yay for cheesy photoshop at the museum)

Happy Birthday To Me :-)

As many of you know, yesterday was my birthday - and I celebrated here in California by hanging out with a few friends at Applebees in Hollywood. Here's some pictures:

According to Jim Series Finale

Hard to believe, but the series finale of "According to Jim" was this evening. The show lasted 8 seasons on air...making it one of the longest running sitcoms on ABC. Tons of celebrities were in the episode....which made it extra special. Here's a few pics from the event:

Some of you are probably thinking, "Gee, Kyle...all these celebrities around you and not one picture with any of them." Well, tonight was a HUGE party...and while I did get to stay 'hi', talk for a few minutes, and shake hands...they clearly had other things on their mind. Alot of this Hollywood stuff is more 'the experience' than it is 'the proof, pics, or postcards'...and that is definatley what tonight was.

That being said, the 3 pictures above are me with the children stars of "According to Jim" that you may recognize from many different other things, as well. Over this past season I've had the chance to hang with and get to know the kids pretty well (since they are nice, genuine people who are willing to talk with you, hang out, etc). Tonight they found me and wanted to get pictures and play some games and such during the after party. It was alot of fun. One of them even said if it wasn't for me, the party wouldn't have been as exciting for them (since everyone else was so busy getting drunk). The kids also talked for a little about how sad they were that the show has ended....for all of them, this has been something they have been doing since they were barley old enough to talk and walk. In the end, it was a very LONG, but nice night and I had a great time.

Red Cross Reviews

Every time I complete a Red Cross class, a survey is given to all the students.

Below are some of the more....amusing answers I have recieved.

HSM 3: VIP!

I have tickets to "High School Musical 3" - The VIP Experience at the "El Capitan Theatre" at Hollywood and Highland this Saturday!

I'm pretty excited.  This video shows you a small preview of what is expected in HSM: 3.

No autographs, please.

Pumpkin Carving

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for not posting more recently. Things have been crazy with the fire, work, trying to find time to sleep, etc...

This Sunday, my friends from school and I decided to get together and carve some pumpkins. Here's a pic or two from the event:


I found this really nice pumpkin at the pumpkin place...but it was too heavy to carry, so I downsized.

Take a breath of fresh air!

Just don't take that breath in Southern California on the 405 near Kyle's apartment...


(Picture taken on my way to work today)

It is SOOOOOOOO dry and SOOOOOO nasty here. Alot of you know I REALLY don't like chapstick....but today I stopped at Walgreens to grab two tubes of it because I really need it...

Good News: Most of the fires are contained
Bad News: The big one that is closest to me (that I helped with) is still only 20% contained.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

A little over 24 hours ago, a huge fire broke out in Santa Clarita...a city about 15 minutes from where I live. (For those interested, Santa Clarita is where I teach my film classes).

Tonight I came home from my day working and running errands to find that my desk was half covered in ashes. My window was only open the smallest crack.

I turned on the news to find that there was a huge fire occuring in the San Fernando Valley...that had been created from the original fire in Santa Clarita. From my house, you can see the fire off in the distance, and from Northridge (where my friends stay at the dorms), they cancelled school today because of the air quality. They have even told us that the air quality in Van Nuys is getting bad, and we should close our windows and such....and if we go outside, take a mask.

I recieved a phone call this evening to go in and work at the Red Cross...so tomorrow could be an interesting day. We have the first of the film festivals for my school that evening, but I will be wherever I may be during the day helping with evacuation efforts.

Here's a picture from near my house of the fire:

Hollywood Celebrity Convention

Hello, everyone! WOW - I have been busy latley. Between school and jobs and everything in-between, things have been quite crazy.

As some of you may have heard, this past weekend I went to a Hollywood Convention in Burbank, CA. At the convention, numerous stars (many that were stars 'back in the day') were in attendance. I went with two of my friends from college - Adam and Stepahnie - and we had a GREAT time.

All of the pictures from the event, including the autographs I managed to get, can be seen on the following link: http://ppshollywood.com/Hollywood%20Convention/

Almost every picture has a story behind it, so if you are interested in learning more, shoot me an e-mail and I'd love to share.

Here's a few pictures you may wonder about when going through the album. I have described them a little more below:

The guy from "The Monkees" - Micky - talks with the original Lois Lane and gets her autograph.

Alan Ruck - "Cameron" from Ferris Buller - is standing with us at the corner waiting to cross the street after getting lost in the hotel with us in an attempt to LEAVE to hotel to grab a bite to eat at the local McDonalds.

Bill Farmer - the voice of Walt Disney's Goofy - signed the FIRST EVER "How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre" poster to me :-). For those that don't know, I am a HUGE fan of this animated short.

CHUCK Filming

As many of you know, my favorite show on TV right now is "CHUCK" (on NBC). Today I got word that they were filming near my house, and needless to say, I flew over to the film location to get some stills and such.

Here's two of the many awesome pictures I took. Notice any celebrities in the 2nd??

To check out the rest of my pictures from this exciting event, check out:

www.ppshollywood.com/Chuck