2017 is off to an awful start. Last Monday, Tera’s mom passed at the tender age of 56. Her death was very sudden and unexpected and has shaken our family to its core. Death is becoming an all too frequent part of life these days. Julie was a good woman. She was a fantastic grandma and loved Lily unconditionally, We had only just got back from Disneyland the week before. Had I known it would be our last vacation together I would have done so many things differently.
Her passing reminds me how fleeting life really is and when my number comes up, I can only hope I have achieved the most I can.
In order to make “Don’t Make Me Come Down There” the best book it can be, I’ve submitted it to a test audience to get feedback on it. I did the same thing with both “Blood Splatter” and “The Comicon and Convention Survival Guide”. It’s been a few weeks and the reviews have started to come back. This is one of the hardest parts of writing. Of course I like the book. I’ve spent years working on it, but how will the rest of the world feel when they read it. Will the jokes work? Is the plot enjoyable? Are the characters interesting? All I could do was wait with baited breath.
During this time, I started working on the screenplay adaptation of the book. Because, that makes sense right? Writing the script for a book I haven’t sold? Well, to be honest, it was more so a writing exercise to keep the creative juices going. Converting a novel to screenplay is no mean feat. You take hours and hours of a story and condense it into 90 -120 minutes, or if you’re The Hobbit, you drag it out over three movies.
During this project something interesting happened. I edited the first act of the book to be more concise and get to the zombie outbreak sooner. There was a lot of character exposition, but a lot of it really didn’t add much to the characters, so I edited it down. I’m about twenty pages away from finishing it.
In the past two weeks, I’ve had eight reviews back on the book and they have all been extremely positive. It’s a wonderful experience hearing how they have been affected by the character journey’s. However, one comment seemed to be unanimous. It’s a bit slow in getting started. So I’ve decided to revisit the story and tighten the first act. It isn’t easy editing your own story when you have become attached to each scene. But the kicker is I’ve already edited this act. In the screenplay. So the novel which inspired the screenplay is now inspired by the screenplay. I’m hoping to have both the book and screenplay completed by the end of January.
Last week marked the two-year anniversary of the end of the Butch G. Cat project. A nine-year project killed dead in its tracks because two people on the team decided they didn’t like the direction it was going and instead of reaching out and fixing it as a team, they destroyed it. I’ve talked about it plenty and didn’t actually realize the anniversary had passed. It still stings.
I’d been archiving files off of my home computer and rediscovered the soundtrack and screenplay and spent some time listening to the songs and reading the script this past weekend. I was immensely proud of both the script and the songs. I still am. I have posted the lyrics in the lyrics section of this site if you’re interested. I think that is why it still hurts after all this time, the project was good. Really good. I now know how musicians feel when they record an album that never sees the light of day because of a label or studio. It sucks. It really sucks. So much time spent and nothing to show for it.
But more than that, the project failure cost me a long-time friend. Scripts you can re-write and create from scratch, but friends can’t be replaced. I haven’t spoken to Danny in two years. The last time I saw him was at his aunt’s funeral. We parted on good times. We hugged and he thanked me for coming. We spoke about the Butch G. Cat project with enthusiasm and excitement. We drove next to each other as we left and he turned at a light. It would be the last time I ever saw him. The downfall came via email barely two months later. I haven’t dwelled on this for a while, but the days leading up to Thanksgiving, Tera was putting our friend invite list together for dinner and the first name that popped in my head was Danny, then I realized that was not possible. Stupid right? Things haven’t changed. We still don’t speak. There is far too much unresolved drama that we can never get past. He moved on with his life and I moved on with mine. I’m creating again and enjoying myself doing it. I have great things on the horizon, but there will always be that part of me that wonders “what if?” How big could we have made this project if inner turmoil hadn’t ripped it apart at the seams. If we could have communicated better. Trusted each other. Trusted in each other. We could have conquered the world. Now I’ll just have to do it one project at a time.
I don’t look back with anger anymore. More disappointment and sadness really. I think this is one part of my life I won’t be able to get complete closure on. It’s like the divorce you didn’t see coming. You patch yourself up and soldier on. I’ve sent out “Don’t Make Me Come Down There” out for critical feedback and I have some edits to make. But the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s always terrifying putting yourself out there for the world to see. I wear my heart on my sleeve and this is the hardest part of writing. I’m on the right path. I need to wrap the first act up and put this baby to bed.
I’ll be honest, I’ve downloaded movies and music in the past, but on saying that, I also buy a LOT of movies and music. I support musicians, actors and directors I like and own thousands of Blu Rays, DVD’s, albums and CD’s. My house is crammed full of media I have legally purchased. So where am I going with this? Well, today I found “The Comicon and Convention Survival Guide” available for download on a torrent site. I’ve never had one of my books available on file trading before and I am torn. The goal of the book was to give Comicon attendees an insider look on how to get the most out of their convention experience. I was never supposed to make a million dollars from it. But, being paid for my efforts is not an unreasonable expectation. What sucks is only three people other than me have it digitally. Unless someone has taken the time to rip the book apart, scan in the pages and save it as a PDF, which I highly doubt, someone in my inner circle shared it.
The book has been downloaded over 4700 times in less than twenty four hours. I’m flattered people are downloading it, but shit, I haven’t even remotely sold that many physical copies. It might be time to rethink my strategy on how I distribute it. I can’t fight it. I don’t have the lawyers on my side. Time to join the digital revolution and hope that those given the choice to legally buy or illegally download will choose to buy.
When I joined the 501st Legion in 2014, one of the many, many reasons was the chance at the opportunity to be able to troop the “Weird Al” Yankovic show. If you don’t know, when Al performs “The Saga Begins”, he has members of the 501st on-stage with him and they dance during the song. The legion first performed on-stage with Al in 2003 during an encore performance of “The Saga Begins”. In 2007, the 501st provided on-stage support for multiple stops on the “Straight Outta Lynwood” tour. It is now a staple of his tour.
I’ve been a big fan of Al’s since 1984 when I first heard “Eat It”. My dad introduced me to him. I’ve loved his work ever since. Well, this year I was lucky enough to strike off another mark on my bucket list. In February, “Weird Al” announced the second leg of his Mandatory Fun world tour and Phoenix was on the list. I’d been bugging our commanding officer about the show as soon as I knew the date. It was going to be a long six months waiting for the sign up to open.
July 20th, 2016
Registration for the event opened July 20th and I knew a lot of the garrison were interested in going. We have almost 200 members now and only thirteen slots were open. Whilst I love my garrison, it was every man and woman for themselves. Luckily my laptop is a touch screen and I was able to have one finger on the refresh button and another where I expected the new thread to appear. At a few seconds after eight, I hit refresh one last time and the thread shows up. I frantically log in and select my Stormtrooper for the costume. Just a few seconds later, all eight Stormtrooper slots, one Darth Vader, three costume wranglers and a photographer position were filled. I was in. I did a few happy laps around the house. I was about to check off another bucket list item.
August 3rd, 2016
The big day arrived. I work two blocks away from Comerica Theater and left work a little early to scope the place out and figure out parking.
3:00 p.m. I arrive at Comerica Theater and am told to park next to Al’s tour bus. That was parking sorted out easily enough. I check in with security and am by handed my backstage pass.
3:30 p.m. The rest of the garrison arrives and we meet out the front of Al’s dressing room. We are moved to our own dressing room.
We are greeted by JW, Al’s ringleader for the VIP experience. He gives us a quick rundown of the events for the evening and we wait around for a rehearsal.
Al’s stage manager visits us and we practice the dance routine for the show. Afterwards, we go down to the stage and are given our marks that we need to hit when the performance starts. I was advised to get to the left of Vader to have the best position on stage, but I’ll get to that later.
The auditorium looks a lot smaller from the stage, but while there I am able to see the bands set up and get a really good look at the band’s setup. I knew I would never get another chance like this. As we leave the stage I see the table Al uses for “Foil” and just behind is his accordion. The holy grail of polka! I admit to being a complete fan boy at this moment. The crew didn’t bat an eyelid at me geeking out, so I doubt I was the first person to do so. They let all of us take photos and take everything in. In a few short hours, Al would be standing where I was standing and putting on a show. I doubt I’ll ever stand there again.
5:30 p.m.
Our passes gave us unrestricted access to the VIP section and we were able to watch the pre-show entertainment and look at the traveling Al museum of memorabilia. It was full of costumes and items from his numerous videos. It was wonderful being able to check everything out. I’ve been to over 150 concerts over the years and have done a lot of VIP shows and I’ve never seen a VIP section quite like this. This was most definitely done for the fans and it was great being allowed to be a part of it.
7:30 p.m. Showtime
Mike Prekup, a 501st friend of mine, gave me some advice while waiting backstage for the show to start. I won’t post it publicly, but 501st members are welcome to email me to get the details to make your experience even more enjoyable. “Weird Al” begins the show with “Tacky” from outside the arena and I was able to position myself where he starts. At a few minutes after 7:30, I hear Al singing from down a hallway, seconds later he comes striding past singing “Tacky” accapella while the band is playing in the auditorium. He storms down the hallway and enters the theater to thunderous applause. The show was on.
I join up with the rest of the group who are watching the show. Apparently I was on screen when Al entered much to the delight of the group. I was able to watch him perform “Lame Claim To Fame”, “Now That’s What I Call Polka”, “Perform This Way”, “Dare To Be Stupid” and “Fat”, but then I had to go get in my armor. What I saw of the show so far looked awesome. I really wish I could have stayed. Al’s band is exceedingly underrated. For a band to seamlessly switch between rock, rap, pop, country, metal and polka is just incredible to see. The show was fantastic, but what was to come was going to hopefully be even more exciting.
9:00 p.m.
After kitting up we wait backstage for our call. The hallway is covered in autographs of performers who have played at Comerica before us. I am a huge music fan and could have spent hours there looking at all the names. I spotted dozens of bands I’ve seen play there over the years. Axl Rose, Jet, Kasabian, Oasis.
Al’s set ends and as the encore begins, we are given the sign to walk out on stage and take our places. I was pitch black and I was terrified my moment of fame was going to go down with me tripping on a cable and face planting on stage. Fortunately I make it to my mark unscathed and wait. Al enters the stage between me and Vader and starts singing “We All Have Cell Phones”. And then “The Saga Begins”… er… begins. For the next five minutes we’re pointing our blasters in synch and dancing like lunatics. It was absolutely wonderful. I was grinning from ear to ear. I could never have imagined being able to do this in 1999 when I first heard the song. As a huge fan of both Star Wars and “Weird Al’, it was a once in a lifetime experience and one I won’t soon forget.
10:00 p.m. VIP Meet and Greet
After the show, over a hundreds fans were in line to meet Al. Kids and adults alike dressed in costumes representing Al through the ages. I stood as security behind Al while he signed every autograph and treated each fan as though they were the only ones there.
11:00 p.m. 501st Meet and Greet
After a long and exciting evening, it was finally our turn to meet the man himself. He had been at it for hours and you could tell he was tired. He had been there long before we arrived and left as I was leaving the venue, but to his credit, he stayed to the very end. I had a million things to say to him, but all I had time for was “thank you”. He smiled and shook my hand. That was enough.
I handed Al my blaster for the group photo and then took my photo with him.
The experience could not have been any more enjoyable. Great company, great show, great meet and greet. This is one very big item I am crossing off my bucket list. I have done so many amazing Star Wars events, I don’t know how I can top this. Have I peaked? If so, this is one heck of a way to do it. Mr. Yankovic, I doubt you will ever read this, but if you do, thank you. Thank you for years of music that have brought a smile to my face when I didn’t feel like smiling and thank you for this opportunity to meet you. It could not have gone any better.
The official Craig W. Chenery website 