Max "Bunny" Sparber establishes, at age 41, that he is an Irish-American, and sets out to explore what this means.
Bunny Sparber spends a year at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis's contemporary art museum; an experiment in new forms of arts criticism.
Max "Bunny" Sparber documents the process of writing a one-man show about performer Tiny Tim, including posting his rough scratch demo recordings of original songs, his early drafts of the script, and his research for the project.
A free full-length album of original music by America's favorite drunken sailor puppet, available for download here. Songs include "Pour Me Another Box of Wine," "One Million Frogtown Whores," and "Why Are Women So Afraid of Seamen?"
2009: A LOOK FORWARD
4:20 PM
2 Responses
I AM NOT A BIG BELIEVER IN RESOLUTIONS. And why would I be? Only 12 percent of New Year's resolutions are completed, according to a Quirkology study. And that seems natural to me. Resolutions are often vaguely worded and committed to without a real plan. As a reult, they should be called "stuff I wish would happen in the next year." I mean, you can put "lose weight" onto your list of New Year's resolutions every single year, but unless you actually have a plan for doing so, it's just going to show up on next year's list as well. Change is hard. If you can make one really significant improvement in your life per year, I figure you're doing better than average.
I do, however, believe in projects. I'm obsessed with them. I do little projects all the time. I start a new one a couple of times per month. Some I stick with, some I quickly abandon. Some I drop and then get back to. Some I start as a lark and just seem to take on a life of their own. In 2003, on a whim, I created an alter ego for myself, a Criswell-styled prognosticater. I was working for a newspaper then, and there would sometimes be spaces in the paper where an ad might go, but there was no ad, and so I would just stick a prediction in. I did this for a year, just about every week, simply because it entertained me to do so. At the end of the year, the editor asked me to make it a regular column. I have now been making outrageous predictions about the future every single week for six years. Never expected that. You just don't know what will happen when you start a project. Regular readers of this blog know that I am something of a junkie for adventures. These projects always end up being small adventures, and that's why I enjoy them as much as I do. As a result, I've gotten to the point where anything I want to do, I try to turn into a little project. (Coco and I sometimes call them "activities," inspired by one of the sillier scenes in the preposterously silly Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly film Step Brothers: The two lead actors, after initially being hostile to each other, suddenly become friends, and, like hyperactive 10-year-olds, burst into their parents' bedroom begging permission to turn their beds into a bunk bed; Ferrell's often repeated logic for this is that is will give them more room for activites.)
And so here is a short list of some of the projects I intend to pursue this next year. We'll start with some of the old ones and then move on to some new ones. Some of the new ones will certainly be abandoned along the way, and I will replace them with ones that haven't even occurred to me yet. That's just how it goes.
THE OLD ONES:
1. The Fake Memoir: I am two thirds of the way through it. I've taken a brief break, because I have been focused on the This Is Hollywood project, and I also wanted to take some time to recharge the batteries, as it were, and come up with some new story ideas. But I am excited to get back to work on it.
2. This Is Hollywood: I just wrote about it, so I won't go into detail about it again.
3. The Contestant: I plan to continue to send out things I write to contests. This is not a very complicated project, I suppose, although I do need to pick up a copy of the Writer's Guide for this year for a list of contests.
4. The Lowest-Concept Movies Ever: I plan to write at least one screenplay this year, and also to transcribe and upload some of my older screenplays.
5. Newspaper Doggerel: I enjoy writing these short humurous poems. I don't know how often I will do it, but I plan to continue.
6. The World of Sailor Martin: I seem to write a Sailor Martin song or put him in an old public domain movie short every few months. This will continue.
7. The Films of William Shatner: There are still a few I haven't written about. When I get inspired to do so, I will add these.
8. The Sparber Guide to the Twin Cities: I have been writing these in groups of 10 or 12 every few months, when I get in the mood to do so. I expect I'll continue with this, particularly since it gives me an excuse to explore Minnesota.
9. I don't know how often I will contribute to my various other projects, such as the Essential ghoul's Guide. With some of them, I don't feel very inspired to add anything new, but, then, suddenly the mood strikes me to do so, and so I'll plug in an entry or two and then lose interest again. I'm okay with this. Some projects can be things I do very infrequently. Some I may never get back to.
SOME OF THE NEW ONES:
1. Rock Star Skinny: I will be starting this tomorrow, and you'll get the details there, but the point of the project is to drop enough weight to make me look like a skinny rock star.
2. Bunny Teaches New Wave Dances: This is exactly what it sounds like. I will be teaching dances from the 80s.
3. The Greatest Films of Punk and New Wave: I will be writing about various films that are associated with the music and the social scene of Punk and New Wave, such as Liquid Sky and Suburbia.
4. American Badass: I won't be starting this project until after I complete my Rock Star Skinny project, but the idea is to take me, Bunny Sparber, who is decidedly not a badass, and go to various teachers and progeams that teach badass skills, such as stunt driving, or bar fighting, or tattooing. I will then report on this.
So that's what's in the works right now. Happy New Year, everyone!
I do, however, believe in projects. I'm obsessed with them. I do little projects all the time. I start a new one a couple of times per month. Some I stick with, some I quickly abandon. Some I drop and then get back to. Some I start as a lark and just seem to take on a life of their own. In 2003, on a whim, I created an alter ego for myself, a Criswell-styled prognosticater. I was working for a newspaper then, and there would sometimes be spaces in the paper where an ad might go, but there was no ad, and so I would just stick a prediction in. I did this for a year, just about every week, simply because it entertained me to do so. At the end of the year, the editor asked me to make it a regular column. I have now been making outrageous predictions about the future every single week for six years. Never expected that. You just don't know what will happen when you start a project. Regular readers of this blog know that I am something of a junkie for adventures. These projects always end up being small adventures, and that's why I enjoy them as much as I do. As a result, I've gotten to the point where anything I want to do, I try to turn into a little project. (Coco and I sometimes call them "activities," inspired by one of the sillier scenes in the preposterously silly Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly film Step Brothers: The two lead actors, after initially being hostile to each other, suddenly become friends, and, like hyperactive 10-year-olds, burst into their parents' bedroom begging permission to turn their beds into a bunk bed; Ferrell's often repeated logic for this is that is will give them more room for activites.)
And so here is a short list of some of the projects I intend to pursue this next year. We'll start with some of the old ones and then move on to some new ones. Some of the new ones will certainly be abandoned along the way, and I will replace them with ones that haven't even occurred to me yet. That's just how it goes.
THE OLD ONES:
1. The Fake Memoir: I am two thirds of the way through it. I've taken a brief break, because I have been focused on the This Is Hollywood project, and I also wanted to take some time to recharge the batteries, as it were, and come up with some new story ideas. But I am excited to get back to work on it.
2. This Is Hollywood: I just wrote about it, so I won't go into detail about it again.
3. The Contestant: I plan to continue to send out things I write to contests. This is not a very complicated project, I suppose, although I do need to pick up a copy of the Writer's Guide for this year for a list of contests.
4. The Lowest-Concept Movies Ever: I plan to write at least one screenplay this year, and also to transcribe and upload some of my older screenplays.
5. Newspaper Doggerel: I enjoy writing these short humurous poems. I don't know how often I will do it, but I plan to continue.
6. The World of Sailor Martin: I seem to write a Sailor Martin song or put him in an old public domain movie short every few months. This will continue.
7. The Films of William Shatner: There are still a few I haven't written about. When I get inspired to do so, I will add these.
8. The Sparber Guide to the Twin Cities: I have been writing these in groups of 10 or 12 every few months, when I get in the mood to do so. I expect I'll continue with this, particularly since it gives me an excuse to explore Minnesota.
9. I don't know how often I will contribute to my various other projects, such as the Essential ghoul's Guide. With some of them, I don't feel very inspired to add anything new, but, then, suddenly the mood strikes me to do so, and so I'll plug in an entry or two and then lose interest again. I'm okay with this. Some projects can be things I do very infrequently. Some I may never get back to.
SOME OF THE NEW ONES:
1. Rock Star Skinny: I will be starting this tomorrow, and you'll get the details there, but the point of the project is to drop enough weight to make me look like a skinny rock star.
2. Bunny Teaches New Wave Dances: This is exactly what it sounds like. I will be teaching dances from the 80s.
3. The Greatest Films of Punk and New Wave: I will be writing about various films that are associated with the music and the social scene of Punk and New Wave, such as Liquid Sky and Suburbia.
4. American Badass: I won't be starting this project until after I complete my Rock Star Skinny project, but the idea is to take me, Bunny Sparber, who is decidedly not a badass, and go to various teachers and progeams that teach badass skills, such as stunt driving, or bar fighting, or tattooing. I will then report on this.
So that's what's in the works right now. Happy New Year, everyone!
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