From the perspective of a 20-something, self-identified seeker I hope that The Gray Area will be at times, confessional, observation forum, story board, joke shop, and, if I get good, advice column.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
'Tis the Season
I hope you enjoy the "Rudolph" parody.
As I march through my final Kickstarter day. I hope for your generous shares.
And if you haven't seen it yet, watch my Kickstarter Vid.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Do it for the Laughs
OK You! Yes, you! right there with the computer (or mobile device). I need you like I have never needed anyone before (unless you're my mom). I need you to find it in your heart and your wallet to pledge $5 to my amazing book project (Romancing the Hilarity).
I have 52 hours left to make my goal or I am all the way back to square one. And, while I know you've enjoyed the attention, is that really what you want. If you can't find those elusive five dollars, can you spare a "Share."
Only 680 people need to
Go to Kickstarter.com
Search: Romancing the Hilarity
And be amazed (or at least amused).
Enough to pledge less than a gourmet espresso-based drink.
Let's do it!
I have 52 hours left to make my goal or I am all the way back to square one. And, while I know you've enjoyed the attention, is that really what you want. If you can't find those elusive five dollars, can you spare a "Share."
Only 680 people need to
Go to Kickstarter.com
Search: Romancing the Hilarity
And be amazed (or at least amused).
Enough to pledge less than a gourmet espresso-based drink.
Let's do it!
To the tune of Oh Christmas Tree.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Polos Aren't Dressy
Shuffling down the hallway in high school, I was behind a
fellow student wearing a polo shirt, when I overheard the following exchange
Sweatsuit:
Man, why are you so dressed up.
Polo: I
have a job interview.
Sweatsuit:
Well, you look good.
Me:…
Me: [Thinking]
Dressed up? Sad.
Dressing nicely is something I’ve always enjoyed. Even as a
child I was drawn to fedoras, top hats, mirror-shined shoes, vests and ties. I
asked for a white suit every Christmas and birthday from ages 6-10. My parents,
in their infinite wisdom, knew that my LOVE of fine clothes, did not always
directly translate into quality CARE of clothes. So, I never got a white suit.
And, I’m really okay with that. These
days, I don’t go for the white suits. I still wear a lot of shirts and ties,
but mostly I add my flair with cufflinks and pocket squares. When I’m feeling
extra dressy, I match my socks to my ties.
I was visiting friends in Maryland and Jeff, a friend of their
family came over sporting the Uber-functional look of Vibram FiveFingers™, a minimalist shoe marketed as a more natural
alternative for outdoor activities. Visually and functionally the footwear is
meant to replicate being barefoot and has flexible soles contoured to the shape
of the human foot, with VISIBLE individual sections for the toes. While I love the function, I can’t quite get
over the form. So, from the outset, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of
wearing those even in the most casual situation.
We chatted a little about the shoes, and then he said the
words which will ring in my ears until my dying day. “Yeah, I have two pair. This
is my everyday pair. Back home I have my dress pair, for church and stuff.”
I’m pretty sure that the puff in my head was audible, as a
tiny part of my brain exploded.
Knowing who I was, Jeff was being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but
we both go very much our own separate ways in terms of attire. And, we have a good time doing it.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
My Little Thank You
Friends and Followers,
Thanks for your support of my unusual expression over the years. You all helped me keep writing and improving, telling stories, and having fun.
I feel like I've kinda dropped the ball on posting new material because I got a little caught up in my book, and my Kickstarter Campaign. So here's an uplifting piece just for you my blog friends.
In a world that shares stories of the low expectations for children with no intellectual curiosity and is awash with bad examinations and false equivalencies, I'm privileged to share stories of active and involved parents, who raise fascinated, creative children. My parents set a fine example, but this evening's story is from a friend.
Thanks for your support of my unusual expression over the years. You all helped me keep writing and improving, telling stories, and having fun.
I feel like I've kinda dropped the ball on posting new material because I got a little caught up in my book, and my Kickstarter Campaign. So here's an uplifting piece just for you my blog friends.
*~*~*
So, we adults went to see Thor. Later, we are sitting around the table discussing the physics of the Thor type movies, and my eight year old granddaughter interrupts and asks, "What's a singularity?" Well, Joel [the girl's father] immediately and with all seriousness begins," A singularity is when....", and I absolutely LOST IT!!! But, it turns out Joel regularly discusses the most advanced quantum theory and particle physics with the little girls, and he is as adept at explaining these mind-boggling concepts as Bill Nye is at teaching how water freezes. Anyway, we got a bit bogged down when I tried to trip Joel up with the conflicting nature of gravitational vs magnetic forces, but it was nice to see my son not JUST speaking with his children about Tinkerbell or Hello Kitty. Although they enjoy those topics just as much.
This reminds me that, for all the children left behind, there are parents taking hands and walking together with the leaders of tomorrow.
Parenting Level: Awesome!
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Before tweeting vitriol (Look it up... I'll wait) about superstars remember, celebrities are human. http://t.co/VR9O778pm4 @JimmyKimmelLive
— Morris DuBose III (@MoTheThird) November 11, 2013
Share This Video... To Keep Me Out of Prison
Does the chance to video chat with Mo seem like it would be fun? See how you can bring that dream to life:
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
I have that little blue indicator under the "me" tab and I can't figure out how to make it go away...I feel old.
— Morris DuBose III (@MoTheThird) November 6, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
This is Why I Write 1: Waiting in Line
I love writing, a while back I wrote a post on why I write. Now, I want to share some of the stories about my life as a writer.
Often, DC between November 1st (the day 60% of
the establishments in Metro DC start playing Christmas music nonstop), and
January 5th (when the last of the New Year’s hangovers are finally
gone) can be a massive vortex of impatience and entitlement which in no way
resembles the touted “Spirit of Christmas.” People get so caught up in the
holiday to-do list that they miss out on all but a few moments in what could be
a month of magical comings and goings.
I was spending Christmas 2008 with friends in the area, and I had one gift left to get, a John McCain action figure, a consolation prize for a fairly conservative friend of mine, who happened to collect action figures. But, between the election being over and Christmas being days away the only place to get one was at a Borders® about an hour and fifteen minutes worth of transit riding away. On the plus side, I had just picked up Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris, so at least I would be
entertained.
Borders® was swarming with bodies, bags, books and egos. In
contradistinction to almost every other trip to a bookstore I got my action
figure and headed directly for the checkout line. Settling in for what promised
to be about 20-50 minutes of waiting, I listened to the grumblings and rants of
my fellow line dwellers for a minute or two before withdrawing my book from my
bag and picked up reading “The Santaland Diaries,” where I’d left off on the
bus.
Almost instantly I was chuckling quietly, but very quickly
my quiet chuckles became barely containable full on laughter. My line mates
stole glances at me, I assume to figure out if I was genuinely amused by the
book, or an unbalanced young man freefalling into Christmas induced madness.
After deciding that I was unlikely to erupt in rage at normal interaction, a
decidedly experienced and slightly worn-down looking soccer mom inquired,
“Seriously, what’s so funny?”
I gave a quick summary, “It’s about one man’s hilariously
intense time as a Santaland elf in Macy’s New York.”
“I could go for a laugh…”
“Same here,” said another shopper.
“Um…Okay,” I replied. I flipped a page or two back, and
started reading at the point where the narrator sets up his interview to become
an elf:
The woman at Macy's asked, "Would
you be interested in full-time elf or evening and weekend elf?"
I said, "Full-time elf."
I have an appointment next
Wednesday at noon.
I am a thirty-three-year-old man
applying for a job as an elf (p4).
I continued reading uninterrupted for minutes as my growing
audience of queued shoppers laughed along with me. When I paused to ensure I
wasn’t annoying people, I was surprised to see that many of the people within
the sound of my voice were listening intently, some going as far as shushing
others.
In what I consider to be the best line waiting experience I’ve ever had, a dozen or so strangers and I passed an absurdly long Christmas line wait, being highly entertained by the words of David Sedaris. And, I thought to myself, I’d like to do that for someone someday.
I’m Morris DuBose, and that’s one of the reasons I write.
Let It Not Be Said, "MoTheThird Did Not Try."
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The good news is that Mike (or at least his brother Joe) has seen some of the stuff I've written and posted in my quest to secure him as the writer of my book forward.
The bad news is, he has declined my request. Thank you all for your support. my "Letter to Mike Birbiglia" got a good number of page views in almost no time.
Please continue to check out my Kickstarter Campaign and share that love.
Sincerely,
MoTheThird
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1455357374/romancing-the-hilarity
The good news is that Mike (or at least his brother Joe) has seen some of the stuff I've written and posted in my quest to secure him as the writer of my book forward.
The bad news is, he has declined my request. Thank you all for your support. my "Letter to Mike Birbiglia" got a good number of page views in almost no time.
Please continue to check out my Kickstarter Campaign and share that love.
Sincerely,
MoTheThird
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1455357374/romancing-the-hilarity
Sunday, November 3, 2013
The Best Dream I Ever Had: starring Mike Birbiglia (Updated)
Update: Mr. Birbiglia has officially declined to write my forward...
~*~
I rarely remember my dreams or any part thereof. If 3 seconds after waking up I remember even a single detail, that’s almost celebration worthy. It took me an entire semester to complete a three-night sleep study that everyone in my psychology class did in a week. Every few years, however, I have a dream which gets etched in my brain.
~*~
I rarely remember my dreams or any part thereof. If 3 seconds after waking up I remember even a single detail, that’s almost celebration worthy. It took me an entire semester to complete a three-night sleep study that everyone in my psychology class did in a week. Every few years, however, I have a dream which gets etched in my brain.
Four years ago I had a dream that still gives me chills. I
was trapped by an inhumanly overbearing iteration of a not-to-be-named member of
my extended family. In what felt like cross between a Repo Men, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I was under this person’s power, and my escape attempts were met with crushing defeat. For the
only time since I was ten I woke up terrified, gasping for air.
But that’s not what this is about. This is about
The Best Dream I Ever
Had
Starring Mike Birbiglia
The day my wife encouraged me to reach out to my hero, to possibly write the forward to my book, I dove into all of my social media outlets, contact websites, and anything else I could find, with fervor worth noting. So, really, it makes sense that that first day spring toward getting Mr. Birbiglia’s attention, resulted in a (bir)big night.
What makes the dream so much better for me, in retrospect,
is that Mike has a fairly expansive repertoire of sleep and dream based
material. “Sleepy Karl,” the great dude/ bad employee who works the night shift in Mike’s mind and has ideas like, staying in bed to “…make out with Miss Pac-Man®.” He often discusses his love for sleep which seems to go back and forth between unhealthy and a full-on addiction requiring 5 wake-up calls between 7am and 1pm. And then, of course, there are his dreams, which, “…are so effortless. It’s like a movie. ‘I want to go to the store.’ [Cuts to the store][Fade to black] [Pizza montage]” While, there were no pepperoni-wheeled cars in this dream, there was the quest to meet Mike Birbiglia and ask him face to face, if he’d write the forward.
~*~
I set off to find him. I’m not entirely sure from where I
was setting off, or, why I wasn’t going to drive. But, it was a beautiful area
on a beautiful day and I was walking.
Thankfully I was in a dream, because suddenly I was strolling up the
final stretch of road on the way to his house after a travel montage of power-walking,
walking, and trudging across several states, and arriving at the wrong house…twice.
I’m walking up this path to the massive, yet understated home of my
storytelling hero. FYI, Mike’s house, in my dream also has an awesome
gully/moat in front of it, with a bridge. It was basically a 21 century
adaptation of a castle.
I actually ran into him before stepping foot on the bridge
and what followed was another montage of a fun-filled day full of sweet
hangouts, and diversions which all seemed to have a reality bending aspect. One
of which was bouncing a ball from his moat off of two walls into a basketball
hoop, on the first try. Kinda like how unplugged kids would have played around
if they were hanging out in the Matrix.
After the montage, we’re back in his place and, it’s
evening. There is a party of sorts going on and we start a massive laser tag
game (‘cause apparently Mike Birbiglia’s house is kinda like the Tardis, and he
loves laser tag enough to own 40+ packs). Mike invites me to be on his team,
and we tear it up for a little while. But, somebody does something stupid, mean
and moderately dangerous to others, inspiring Mike and me to break off from the
group and head to another room to talk about how mean people suck.
I screw my courage to the sticking place, and open my mouth
to do the big ask,
…
Then I woke up.
My brain, readjusting to conscious thought, is at once
flooded with these, almost simultaneous thoughts:
Crap!! You squandered
the perfect opportunity to ask, by waiting too long.
Don’t sweat it. It
could be worse. At least if you make contact with him now, you can just remind
him of the laser tag party.
Wait… it was a dream. None of that happened. You might
remember that party forever, but Mike was never there. You’re still completely
at square one
~*~
I still felt oddly encouraged, and took off from square one
with an overly-enthusiastic inspiration. I emailed, facebook messaged, tweeted,
wrote an open letter in my blog, inserted posts in my facebook pages and started a campaign of all my media followers.
At this point I fear I may have just scared him into hiding
(in my “Letter to Mike Birbiglia, I did call myself a Birbiglophile…yikes). So, that’s a concern. But hopefully he finds
my relentless pursuit endearing.
Either way, I’m going to keep pressing on until he accepts
my request or very clearly tells me, “No.”
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Designer Flyers
Are you awesome at designing? Do you want a signed first edition of Romancing the Hilarity? Are you full of leftover creative genius in the post-Halloween costume lull (and a little sluggish coming off of your sugar crash or hangover, depending on your vice of choice)? What you need is a chance to show off all your skills by designing the promotional poster/ flyer for Romancing the
Hilarity.
From now through Tuesday, November 5,
I’m looking for submissions of graphics of at least 82 x 82
ppi
Accepted file formats: .JPG, .JPEG, .TIF, .TIFF
It would be nice if the winning designer is able to submit a
layered file of the winning design.
All submissions must be original art/illustrations. Respect other’s intellectual property.
No copyrighted work.
To submit your work, message me at my Facebook Page
MoTheThird (https://www.facebook.com/pages/MoTheThird/314058095290532).
Include your name, email address, and website or Facebook page (optional).
These will be posted on my blog where fans and friends can vote
on their favorite designs until 11:59 on Friday, November 8th.
The design with the most votes (min 20) will be featured on
each of my media pages, including Facebook (MoTheThird), My Kickstarter
Campaign page, and blog. It will also be on flyers and other promotional
material. The winner will also, receive a digital and signed print copy of Romancing the Hilarity upon publication.
So, watch the video, and check out some of my other work to
inspire yours.
Good luck!
Tell your friends and show off your work and mine.
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