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So my goals and accomplishments review is coming a little later this year than normal.  In fact, my life updates in general for the Mike Varley Plain Dealer have come to a halt for over a year now.  I kept waiting for certain events to finish before I’d write one and another one would come along to delay the writing again.  It’s impossible to not come off pithy in this manner, but here are some bullet points of my personal life for the past year and change:

–Erin and I are no longer together as of September.

–After nearly a year of throat problems, I had my tonsils out in September.

–Mom is still undergoing treatment for her cancer.

–I’m still working at Carillon and I’ve taken on a second position there to save up money.

–I’ve had three new roommates since the last update in addition to Mark – Erin for a summer, her cousin Brian for a month, and presently Galen Pittman for about six months.

–I bought a new Macbook Pro, ruined it with water, then paid more to have it repaired.

–I visited Memphis for the first time and recently visited my sister in Richmond.

–Perhaps my three biggest media influences over this lost time was David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, Busdriver’s Beaus$Eros and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Of course, most of my life’s energy goes to creative projects, so my goals and accomplishments tell the other half of the story.  Let’s start with the Goals of 27.

Goals of 27

1. Finish Cord Project – “I’ve begun in earnest on a third canvas presently titled “Our Electric Tethers.”  The piece will be mounted on a 6′x4′ board and involves hundreds of electrical cords I scavenged from recycling centers and street corners.  You can watch a video of the cord painting here.”

Boom.  Finished it, exhibited it, and now it hangs in my apartment.

2. Bruce and Dom – “This year, I plan on finishing Bruce and Dom, building a website for it, having DVD’s made, submitting to festivals, becoming an indie darling, sweeping the Oscar’s, handling my new found celebrity poorly, leaving my sitcom in the middle of production, going on a whirlwind interview tour, and spreading memes like Johnny Appleseed until eventually succumbing to an overdose of sobriety.”

Voila. Website done, still submitting, DVD’s still not made but they’ll be done eventually.  This chapter of my life is not over, but everything about it is laid out and finished.

3.  Writing Project – “My last major writing undertaking was at the very beginning of 2009, when I finished work on The Events of Election ‘08.  In those two years, I’ve done a handful of short stories, travelogues, and other bits of writing, but no all consuming project.  With the cord piece and Bruce and Dom primed to come off the burners, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in a paper project again.  The topic will likely be the nursing home, but it remains to be seen what form it will take.”

I’d consider this goal achieved, but not to the scope I envisioned.  The focus has definitely moved from canvas work over the year, and in its place film has taken center stage.  “Osama Bin Laden, 2011,” The Hydrofracking series and the Brunch Movie all involved lots of writing on my part, probably 50-60 pages of content total.  I still see a large scale project on the horizon, but these works did the trick.

4.  Couch Project – “In the spring of last year, my parents renovated the family living room for the first time since 1970.  I took a 6′x4′ piece of brown shag carpeting and skinned the paisley couches for the fabric, recording it all on camera.  I think you know where this is going.  The only question is will there be time if I choose to take on a writing project.”

Never happened.  I thought summer 2011 would be when it worked out but it didn’t.  I still have the materials, but it’s unlikely this will materialize anytime soon.

5.   Songwriting – “I have a number of songs in various degrees of completion rattling around in my head and I’d like to hear what they sound like finished.  I just finished a demo for song number two yesterday; ten seems a reachable goal for the coming year.”

I don’t think I got to ten personally, but between Queen/Mob and various scoring opportunities for film, I was able to flex my songwriting muscles in an enjoyable way.