Reflection is not always about mirrors...

Good morning! I hope this week had lots of joy and happy times for you as it did me. This is the time of year where people usually reflect and then set goals for the upcoming year. It is year end and, as humans, we tend to get nostalgic when the end is near. I was looking at my reflection in the mirror today and for some reason it made me think of how big of a year I have had and that goal setting is very important. I set some realistic goals this time last year and have hit them. This time last year, after the acting bug had taken its hold on me, I said to myself that I wanted to buy a brand new car that nobody else owned, and I wanted to be in my first movie. In April I bought a 2012 Focus (my baby) and won a role in not one but two films. Good year right? I also did 5 shows of stand up comedy, was a principle actor in a Crime Stories episode, 3 commercials, a demo trailer, and I started writing. The writing has been a very welcomed addition. I currently have one short film story and 3 feature length stories on the go. I just got the idea for a book just over a month ago but want to finish my other writing first. Now anyone can say they are a writer, so I have decided to reveal a scene in my blog from the first story that started it all. And please, if you like it I would love to hear your feedback. I'm also going to post a link to my Crime Stories episode that I think aired in the UK earlier this year to give you an example of my work.

During my reflecting (I'm not in front of the mirror anymore), I thought about the friend that really encouraged me to get into the industry. On our latest visit, she just sat there and smiled at me and told me how awesome I was because of all the things I have done in this relatively short period of time. I just looked at her and said the same thing I say everytime she does this....I am just Glenn. I'm just a guy that has finally found what balances his life. I also got to visit another friend of mine this year (after not seeing her for 20 years) and she says I am fearless. I wouldn't say fearless, because when I do stand up, fear almost fills my pants. What drives me is that I need to do this....I love to entertain people so believe me being fearless has nothing to do with it. I would say its just like going home everyday....we do it because we live there. Well, the same thing goes for my creative process....when I go there I am home. Its what I need to do. I've been a fish out of water for so long that not that I have immersed myself in the creative waters, I have really found peace with who I am and what I am all about. I've found myself! I really like what I see.....really!

Back to goal setting. So after seeing what I have done this year, I have decided to make my 2013 goal setting a two pronged process. This year, I want to film more movies. This year my goal will be three. I also want to finish my three stories that I started this year....and I really want to start writing the book idea that I had so I do have my work cut out for me. This is the first part of my goal setting this year. The second is what one would consider "Long Term" goals. One of my long term goasl is to finish one of my scripts, pitch it and then have it filmed. The seoond long term goal is to appear on Jon Stewart (funniest Jewish guy ever) and David Letterman. I figured if I have truly been successful, I want to be on their shows...Jon and I will have a discussion about anchor babies and Letterman and I will discuss everything absurd....he's so cool cause he drives a Viper!

Now, without further ado, I am going to reveal a scene from the first story I started working on with a friend of mine. I kinda took over the whleo thing because my imagination took over.... but I think you'll like what you read. The story is called Zombie Legend: WW1. It is about a zombie infestation that takes place in WW1 France, 3 weeks before the Battle of Passchendaele. It is also the first part of a trilogy that I have planned. I use elements of the WW1 timeline and have included people that were players or quoted individuals from the Great War. The scene I am about to show you takes place early on in the story. I will warn you ahead of time that it is graphic, but what zombie story isn't right? I like this storyline because it sets up nicely in a time when technology was very limited and so was some of our ways of thinking. Once you have read this, I would love to hear what you have to say. This is the first time I have released any of this publicly so I am nervous but excited to share this with you.

Exerpt of Zombie Legend: WW1- The origin story has a parasitic organism that gets released by a comet fragment that falls during a gas attack in France during WW1. The zombies will have different traits than your normal zombie. More agile and brutal. Also, you will see there are camera shots described. It was more for my own visualization and will be filtered out later on subsquent drafts. Enjoy!

The trenches: British front

We see a group of British soldiers in the mucky trenches. They are shooting and firing artillery shells. All are wearing masks. We can see a few dead bodies in their vicinity. Some look shot, others look like the gas got to them.

SOLDIER 1: Bloody hell! The plumes are changing direction...we can finally get those fuckers!

Soldier 2: Don't get your knickers in a knot mate! I still don't trust them fucking Krauts!

SOLDIER 1: Yeah...me neither.

A soldier gets shot right next to Soldier 2 which causes him and Soldier 1 to duck down into the trenches more, along with the rest of the troops. The wind has now shifted so the gas plumes are now being sent back to the German side of the front. Everything goes quiet. We now hear echos of screams and loud animal roars. A smoky haze hovers around the trenches. You hear no gun shots or explosions. Its almost like the Germans just disappeared. You hear a loud growl echoing nearby, which instills more fear than gunfire.

Soldier one grabs a trench periscope and tries to take a look at what is happening. He can't see anything so he gives a thumbs up to the other soldiers. They all kind of peak over the trench to take a view. Its still quite smoky/foggy. When they see there are no Germans in sight, they all stand up more relaxed.

As solder one looks at soldier two, you hear a loud roar again. All of a sudden a mangled torso flies at them as if thrown like a ball and lands in the trench. The head is gone, a partial right arm is still intact. One leg is missing too. There are big chunks of flesh missing throughout the remains like a bite from a hamburger. The torso and the one leg are partially clothed in what appears to be a German uniform.

SOLDIER 2: What the bloody fuck did that????

SOLDIER 1: Do we really want to know? I say retreat! Whatever it was that did this isn't too far behind!!

Soldier 2 yells out the retreat to the rest of the entrenched troops. As they are starting to climb out of the trenches, about 20 zombies come leaping out of the fog and start attacking the soldiers.

The zombies skin is darkened, a trait that was brought on by the parasite's DNA. Their eyes glow and it appears their facial bone structure gets altered as well. The jaw is more square, more prounounced cheek bone. Their muscles appear more defined and 3 times bigger (noticable on arms and legs). They appear very agile, some of them show they are able to run faster when they are on all fours.

Soldier 1 gets bitten in the right shoulder by a zombie. The zombie rips the muscle right off. The soldier falls back into the trench with a stunned look. He lays there, motionless as the creature that bit him goes off to attack another soldier that has caught his attention.

Another solder has a creature ripping off his arm, then hitting a retreating solder, as he is running by, in the head with the arm and knocking him out cold. He throws down the arm onto the ground, lets out a roar, and proceeds to feed off the one armed soldier.

The first German solder that got infected when he drank the tainted water appears. He spots a British soldier hiding in the bushes. He quickly darts off screen as if to prepare a surprise attack. The camera zooms in on the hiding soldier. He's looking around in fear because he has seen first hand what is going on. He hear's echos of the roar throughout the area. Each time he hears one he cringes. He then hears the low growl, like a cat about to pounce on prey. When he turns around he sees the zombie starting at him. As the creature starts to attack, the soldier pulls out his handgun and shoots as the zombie grabs his arm and bites, he fires off one round into the zombie's head. It releases its bite, falls to the ground,and within seconds, a dark oozing substance leaks out.

The bitten soldier runs in the opposite direction of the howls and growls. He is grabbing his arm as he runs.

In the trenches, we see Soldier 1 laying motionless . The view starts to slowly rotate, all the while keeping the soldier's face in focus. All you hear is a heartbeat in the background slowing down as if to depict that transition to death is near. The soldier takes his last breath, the last beat occurs...after a few seconds, changes start to occur in his face. The camera pans out slowly to show the soldier's muscles in his arms are growing. His face starts to make the transition, his skin darkens. The muscle that was ripped out by another zombie starts to repair itself. It repairs the muscle and skin but its not proportionate. You can see his uniform starting to rip in places where his body mass has grown. After the transition completes, his eyes start to light up. The new creature then partially sits up and lets out a big roar.


Thanks for reading my blog! If you like it, spread the word so that others may enjoy it as well! If you want to see my Crime Stories episode, click on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deRGFM85QlM&feature=share&list=FLW_ysQc1TyveEuziclG_Ahw

Glenn

The President is a father too....

Its with a heavy heart and a tear in my eye that I write this post to you today. To say that the shooting attack that occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary school is horrific is an understatement. It goes beyond anything that I can even comprehend. And this shooting followed another shooting spree (which could have been worse in the end) in Portland Oregon. To say that they were lucky only to lose three people is macabre. Both suspects were in their early 20's.

My main focus today is not on the shooter but on the people that are effected by this....which is all of us...and especially the parents. Those of us, as parents, can relate to the feelings of fear when we imagine what we would do if our children were hurt or even killed. I know it freaks me out. Those thoughts come to me when I see things like people driving their cars with their kids jumping around in the back seats without seatbelts...you know, just like in the '70s. I immediately try to think of something else because its something that is beyond my control and that all I can do is make sure my child is safe...to the best of my ability. But I could never think of a scenario where I would drop my son off at school and drive off thinking about where I am going next not knowing that the guy that just walked past my car was getting ready to shoot everyone. And that is the underlining meaning behind how shocked we all are. No one ever thinks that someone is going to walk into our kid's school and do what that man did yesterday. And I do say never! When my son was in kindergarten, I was more concerned with him climbing on the monkey bars and falling off and hurting himself......but never anything like what that man did yesterday....NEVER!!

I feel very connected to the US for many reasons. I have family that live there....an aunt and my cousins, my mom and grandmother were from the US. My grandfather was in the US Airforce during WW2 and helped wire up the Pentagon....and when things like this happen, my heart sinks because I have ties to that great country. When President Obama addressed the nation....when he shed tears, so did I. I can only imagine what was going through his mind....he made me want to hug my son just to make sure that I knew he was safe. And then I hear some media  reports that claim that his stance on gun control has been more lapse during his tenure as President.....and then that made me think....WHAT?????

Gun control...why is it only discussed when massive amounts of innocent people get shot in public places during peace time? President Reagon was shot on my birthday.   I live in Canada....owning a gun is not a right, but a priviledge. Now I am not saying our country is totally innocent. We've had mass shootings before, like the shooting spree by a man in Montreal at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1989, killing 14 women. Now that incident, as tragic as it is, and the distance of time that it occurred should attest to the fact that gun control works. Make it harder for people to own guns.

In the United States, the 2nd amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms. It was enacted on December 15, 1791. Now, if my history lessons stuck, I do not remember hearing about semi/fully automatic weapons being available to the common man back then. As a matter of fact, I think the only style of guns available at that time were single shot muskets...cumbersome to reload. In the order to kill lots of people, either the victims had to stand in one spot so that the shooter could reload or a whole bunch of shooters could band together and shoot lots of people. I don't think the American forefathers had any premonition that one person could kill 26 people in a very short period of time. The 2nd amendment was created during a time when the country was in its beginning stages and that they needed to band together to protect their land and country. It was meant to bring together people that loved their country and were willing to join forces (create militias) to uphold their sovereignty. Well, I think that amendment is outdated and now needs to be amended to suit the times, and technology of weapons available. There are fully equipped police forces and a state of the art armed force to protect the country. The right to bear arms should be either amended to read the "priviledge" to bear arms...or even the right to "bare" arms...the right to wear sleeveless shirts. They should limit the power of the NRA and tell Ted Nugent to quit telling people that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Guess what? He's right! A couple of loaded handguns sitting on the coffee table are not going to sprout legs and walk to a school and shoot innocent children and adults. A gun will not sprout legs and walk into a shopping mall and announce its the shooter and proceed to kill people. But the fact is that the guns were "AVAILABLE" to a human being who then gave the guns the ability to kill a huge amount of people...that is the underlining factor. If there was tighter control on these machines that expel projectiles at mind boggling speeds, perhaps these tragic events would not occur.

I love America not only because of my ties through family, but because I like what your country represents. One day I may live there when my acting career gets to that point. I feel your pain and support you through this tragic time. I shed a tear for those precious lives lost yesterday and I encourage everyone to light a candle and share a moment of silence with your family members.

Let us move forward and support each other.......have a safe and joyous weekend my friends...

Glenn

Coffee pots make the world go 'round....

Good morning! I say that because it is always morning somewhere.....

What a week this has been! I started it being sicker than sick and I am ending it agonizingly contemplating getting into my car and going on a coffee run...

And then you say "Glenn! Just make a pot!" Easier said than done once you realize why I am even catorgizing this as an effort.

I'm gonna back this up a bit as any good story deserves a lead in. As many of you might know, I live in Saskatchewan Canada. Now, to most Canadians, Saskatchewan will invoke images of cold. We are one of the coldest places in Canada during the winter. When people say Canadians are friendly people, its not because we are just plain nice people....lets face it, if we were mean, awful people, then no one would want to cuddle with us to keep us warm. Now before I start sounding like Gollum, let me elaborate. It is freaken cold here! We have to plug our cars in to stop them from freezing! Lets just say, that the person that invented heated seats is a hero and should win the Nobel Peace prize. I think that every morning when I am on my way to my day job.

Now, over a week ago, I was assisting the Police College doing some scenario training for their students. I played a bad guy that stabs his wife and runs into a house to evade police. Its a fun scenario to play out. Now, to really appreciate what an actor goes through (not always rosy) let me set the scene: It was blowing snow and cold as &$%*#@!! The wind was blowing so hard I could hear the hum from the wind blowing through my ears...the same sound you get when you blow air over the mouth of a glass bottle. Get my drift? (No pun intended) Anyways, the scenario starts outside, I make a stabbing motion and then run my ass into the house. I do this up to 8 times in a morning. Out in the cold, into warmth...struggle and fight the police....wait for debrief of the students, then its on to the next group.....8 times. Not good for the lungs and body....but alot of fun!

I woke up two days later and was sicker than sick. Chest, sinus, and body aches everywhere! I was like this for 4 days. I couldn't even go to work. Then on the 5th day, I sat up and I could breathe! And I said to myself, and very sarcastically I might add, "Great....I have to go to work." And so I proceeded to get prepared to go to IT land. Now lets get this into perspective....I wasn't doing The Carlton. (Note: If you didn't get this reference, Google it and laugh) I would say that my movements mimicked a zombie actor from the Walking Dead.

Now, half the battle was getting upright. I did it like a boss....and slowly made my way to the kitchen. Coffee was the primary goal amidst the clouded "I'm sick" judgement. I filled the pot full of water, poured it into the machine and set the glass pot at the edge of my counter. This is where it gets good. I thought to myself "Maybe I should move the pot because it might fall off the edge and break." Two seconds later I reached over to pull out the good old coffee can and started scooping cof..SMASH..fee. All I could do was sit and stare at my now shattered coffee pot sitting on the floor. Now, I am sure if you could see my face you would see the little boy that just had his favorite toy taken away because he was bad.....I was devasted. I contemplated calling in sick again because obviously I wasn't in the "decision/troubleshootting" frame of mind. I mean come on, I told myself I shouldn't do it but my body took over and did it anyways.....and couple that with a billion dollar IT network at my finger tips, what kind of disaster could that conjure up. Long story short, I went to work (I love heated car seats), did my job and came home.

Now, here I am 4 days later, no coffee pot and cold weather outside to contend with. Lets just say, that while writing this blog, I got dressed, started my car, and with heated seats, I drove to Timmies, went through drive through and came home. Now I am contemplating going out again to actually buy a new coffee pot......wish me luck!

Have a great week everyone!

G.