New Year’s Eve Messiah

Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may the next year and next decade fulfill all your dreams.

Ted Neely in Jesus Christ Superstar, though Corey Glover was not in the Calgary production. This image is from Ted's own website: http://www.neeleyontheroad.com

To ring this year out we went to see Ted Neely in Jesus Christ Superstar (on stage). Ted played Jesus in the original film back in the early 70s, so he’s now 66 — almost as old as God himself. Until now I’ve never been a really big fan of Superstar, even having watched the DVD of a stage production last night, just to renew the songs in my head, but tonight I really loved the show. It reminded me of so much of what I loved about doing theatre and what I miss by not doing it now. On the other hand, my better half absolutely hated it and nearly walked out. That just goes to show you that two people seeing the same production from two different perspectives can get two different impressions.

I certainly don’t think the production was perfect, but having been in a musical or two in my time, I really appreciate the interpretation I saw tonight. The only thing I would change was where we sat. Third row, behind some spiky-haired 6′ tall kid. That close to the stage the floor starts to slope up again, and this kid’s head blocked the entire centre stage for me. Then there were the four effeminate men of varying ages together in the first row, periodically commenting to themselves about some inside joke (probably a chorus boy’s costume). They were almost as irritating as the seniors behind me. Mrs. didn’t know the play that well and Mr. had to explain “That’s Herod” or whomever it was, in a voice loud enough for Mrs. (and me) to hear.They stopped after my third turn and glance over my shoulder.

I could list my criticisms of the show here (they’re minor) but I don’ t want to end the year griping — I’ll leave that to others. We went out and saw a live production and I enjoyed it. I may not be a huge Andrew Lloyd Weber fan, but I now have a greater appreciation of both Jesus Christ Superstar and Jesus Christ Messiah. End of story.

Now to get some sleep and start the new Year well-rested.

Ciao for now.

Tim.

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The Novel Process: START IT UP!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What we have here is a desire to communicate. I came up with the idea to create a novel completely out of blog entries and then I realized today that the process I go through will probably be as or more interesting than the novel itself. So this category, The Novel Process, will be some of what goes through my head as I brainstorm and futz around with the idea, trying to make it gel.

The Writing Tools of Tim Reynolds

THE CONCEPT:

I knew it was going to be notes from a young man to a young woman, but would they be…

…to a woman he is spending his life with

…or a woman he started to spend his life with but she died

…or a woman whom he knows (a coworker or roommate) but isn’t romantically involved with but wishes he were so he writes journal entries addressed to her that she probably won’t see

…or a woman he’s never met but has dreamed about and knows she’s out there

…or a woman he’s stalking?

You see my dilemma, I hope. The novel/journal could be written exactly the same for each of the situations, but his motivation will be different, varying from creepy to sad to loving and back to creepy.

Another question is how much do I tell the readers up front? Should they know where his head is at or will it be cooler if they have to watch as clues unfold? Also, is his writing to a dead woman too much of a cliche? Are the readers likely to quickly say “Oh, she’s dead. Boooooring.”?

Those are some of the questions I’ve asked myself. I also had to pick the right character name, the right location/setting, the right back story, so that it all works together in a believable tale all told through the journal entries.

HIS NAME:

Last name: Cotsan. First name: William. Why? Well, I think “Cotsan” is a nationality/culture-neutral name. Could be from a number of Western European nations and it’s not too difficult to pronounce. As a matter of fact, though, it’s an abbreviation of Cry Ourselves To Sleep At Night. I came up with idea when the main character/writer was definitely going to be a sad character in search of his dream woman. So, his name really means Will Cry Ourselves To Sleep At Night. I know, it’s cheesy. Whether the story is a sad one or not, I like the name and it’s going to stay… for now.

And HER NAME? Sara. Multi-cultural, but specifically Hebrew. It means “Princess”. It’s a strong name. Sara/Sarah was Abraham’s wife in The Old Testament.

SETTING:

Walking on the frozen lake at the resort.

A mountain resort. Why? because that’s what I know. I spent eight years living in one and I want to capture that lifestyle as the story unfolds. The resort will remain nameless, but it will be somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of North America. Could be Canada, could be the US. I won’t be specific until it becomes absolutely necessary. For my friends and family and anyone who has lived there it will be quite apparent where the story is set.

HIS JOB:

Of all the jobs I’ve had in my life, the most unique was renting canoes on a glacial lake in the shadow of stunning mountain vistas while avalanches thundered in the valley. The winter half of the job included standing on the frozen lake next to the castle made of ice, dispensing hot chocolate and chatting with visitors to the area, stargazing and listening to avalanches thunder in the distance. So Will is a Canoe Wrangler, our nickname for a Sports Attendant.

Those are the first things I had to bounce around in my head before I could actually start writing the blog-novel.

Ciao for now,

Tim.

NEXT TIME: The title possibilities. This is where the brain storm becomes a typhoon. Not a pretty sight.

www.tgmreynolds.com

All Words & Images Copyright Timothy G.M. Reynolds.

Stand-Up Comedy & Life: Love What You Do

An excerpt from the book Stand Up & Succeed by Tim Reynolds.

“Enjoy your material. Ask yourself what makes you laugh.”

Tim Reynolds at The Laugh Shop

~Matt Billon~

If you love what you’re doing and put your heart into it, people will feel that and want to be part of it. They’ll hop on your train just for shits & giggles, and bring their business with them.

A TRUE STORY:

Did you know that dog shows are the only place where a man can sit on a bench, point at a woman walking a dog and say “That bitch is mine”, and have the little old lady next to him lean in and say “You must be so proud”? It’s true!

Ciao for now,

Tim.

www.tgmreynolds.com

www.StandUpAndSucceed.com

All Words & Images Copyright Timothy G.M. Reynolds.

Did you know that dog shows are the only

place where a man can sit on a bench, point

at a woman walking a dog and say “That

bitch is mine”, and have the little old lady

next to him lean in and say “You must be so

proud”? It’s True!

NEW BLOG TOPIC COMING THURSDAYS

It will all start New Year`s Eve and it`s called The Novel Process. The posts will be a behind-the-scenes view of the thinking behind the blog novel I will be starting shortly. This novel will be written entirely on this blog, one post at a time, and The Novel Process will hopefully give insights into the who-what-where-when-and-why, without giving away too much of the story.

Russell Bowers (left) & Tim Reynolds

So watch here (or better yet, subscribe!) to catch both the blog novel and the making-of the blog novel. I`ll try to keep it interesting, I promise.

Ciao for now.

Tim.

www.tgmreynolds.com

Shooting for Success: A Soul-Cleansing Afternoon

This isn`t so much a photography how-to as it is just a quick note to accompany the snapshots I took on our brief afternoon-trip to Lake Louise from Calgary. It’s a roughly two-hour drive, one way, and although the forecast was for warm temperatures in Banff (40km south of Louise), there was an inversion in place up at the lake, 5680′ above sea level.

Castle Mountain in Banff National Park.

I don’t know all of the mechanics behind an inversion, but the end result is that the cold air is down while the warm air is up, and there’s usually an odd cloud formation involved (see the layer of cloud sitting on the lake in the image below).

In this case the cloud seemed to have trapped the frigid air right down on the lake, making it bitterly biting and difficult to go too far, especially for our two small dogs.

Skiers on frozen Lake Louise, Banff National Park.

Here are some of the snaps on the way up and then once we got there. We’ll be aiming to make another trip, sans mutts, in the next month or so, probably after the International Ice Carving competition in January, which needs to be photographed at night or in direct sunlight. That will be a Shooting for Success blog.

Castle Mountain, Banff National Park

Tim Reynolds' photo on popular tourist products.

I suppose one bonus of going up to Lake Louise was the discovery that one of my photos leased to The Postcard Factory (but no payment received in over 5 years!) has been made into a coffee mug and a pen (ooh, aaah), in addition to the fridge magnet, playing cards and the postcard which was my first-ever postcard sale. Although I couldn’t find the deck of cards for this photo, here are the other four items. And, yes, I will be contacting them ASAP to get payment overdue.

When I lived at the Lake I was the most published local photographer, with books, posters, postcards, magazine covers and fridge magnets. It was a blast while it lasted.

Ciao for now,

Tim.

All Words & Images Copyright Timothy G.M. Reynolds.

The Cynglish Beat: Singled Out

A certain loverly lady and I have been together almost 8 years now but it hasn’t always been this way. This poem came about when I was thinking about the perils of being single, the bullsh*t involved on all levels and the lengths to which we will go to not be single.

~TR

SINGLED OUT

There’s a point in time when a single person would rather eat a bullet than sit through another fixed up, mixed up, tricked out dinner

of jiggly Jello salad, soggy salmon, pasty pasta and sparkling whine served by friends in the misbegotten,

misinterpreted,

miscalculated

attempts to make the single into half of a couple, though who knows a couple of whats.

Couple of happy people,

slappy people,

slap-happy,

haphazard people

who would rather be fit and tied to the wrong person than find themselves alone with the right person, the person they have the right to be — themselves?

Fed up with being fed up and starved down singly and together, I put an ad in the column for singles who want to be doubles but should really remain singles.

Next thing I know I’m on a blind date with a deaf girl sitting in a movie theatre, in the dark, where she can’t hear my words and can’t see my signs, so we hold hands in silence and we both wonder how we wandered this far from the Sylvan Plath.

Not knowing where we were going, we stopped, and went home, singly, together alone,

Wondering who would wander yonder and keep us from placing another

mis-placed,

mis-construed,

mistakenly revealing

profile on LavaLife or Facebook or Craigslist

or the wall by the seldom-cleaned, always sticky, far-too-public payphone near the front door of the local 24-hour diner and fine eatery.

~

An excerpt from the upcoming The Cynglish Beat by Tim Reynolds, from Cometcatcher Press.

All Words & Images Copyright Timothy G.M. Reynolds.

Beat down by lost keys,

by lost wallets,

by lost innocence,

by lost love,

by lost interest.

Stand-up Comedy & Life: Your Craft

“Work on your craft and don’t just focus on your career — your career has to have an underpinning of substance or your lack of knowledge will catch up to you.”

~ Barry Kennedy~

True lasting Success doesn’t simply happen overnight. Even our ‘instant starts’ from various Idol  shows have sung for years, often in church choirs or bands before they were ‘discovered’.

Of course, lucky breaks can always play a part in Success, but watch one of the bajillion Texas Hold’em poker tournaments on TV and note that when the cards suck, experienced players know when to either bluff or fold and wait for the next hand, and that’s when we see the substance of their craft shine through.

So, work on your craft– hockey, medicine, financial analysis, music, politics, photography, parenting — and the experience base you build will give you the foundation your Success needs. And have patience. Time spent on your dreams is never wasted.

Ciao for now,

Tim.

An excerpt from Stand Up & Succeed by Tim Reynolds from Cometcatcher Press.

All Words & Images Copyright Timothy G.M. Reynolds.