Hey everyone. Just giving you a quick heads up about a new feature at Sketchy Details. I’ve teamed up with the fine folks at CentUp for a new service. Basically, if you like what you read here, you have the option of donating a few cents at the bottom of the post. Half of it goes to a charity of your choice through CentUp; the other half goes to me. Check out their site, sign up for an account, and start sharing the love with your favorite sites and charities.

Thank you for joining me today. There are a few issues that need to be addressed as to the state of Sketchy Details.

First and foremost, I would like to extend a sincere apology for my inconsistent posting these past few weeks. I am being pulled in many directions right now in the real world and have struggled to find the time to consistently produce new content.

You see, there are many things falling together all at once. For starters, I've been tasked with producing a website for my family's charity fund that has been a great struggle. I have asked for months for a list of necessities–such as a mission statement, or proper title–to be provided so I can begin preliminary designs; I received them last night. This is a matter of immediate family communication as my parents have insisted for months I never gave them a document (dated November on the computer) before the last time we discuss it. The organization is on edge about gaining a web presence. I'm honored to be able to use my skills to honor my cousin's memory, but it's frustrating to work with less-than-web-savvy people on this kind of project. Someone suggested just setting up a Google Site and being done with it; the group deserves better and I can easily provide it.

Second is the apex of a three year battle with my current employing school over my salary. The first year, I was hired and promised almost three times as much as I wound up being paid; the director of the drama department supplemented my income in a great way that helped pay off the debts I accumulated bringing their equipment up to date for modern educational theater. The second year, I was promised a substantial pay increase from the Board of Education, only to have most of the paycheck stolen in the chaos surrounding the director's untimely passing right before the show. Pay I was promised for working on their musical, theater festival, Thespian Society induction ceremony, and cabaret fund-raiser was slashed or completely denied. This year, I was promised the position of music director by the principal, vice principal, and numerous Board of Education officials. However, the principal worked behind my back over the summer to hire new people to fill my position and attempted to string me along to assist in transitioning to a new director without pay. Instead, the new director, who wanted me as the music director, has been forced to hire me as a rehearsal accompanist. I was promised the same pay I received last year, but the Board of Education just approved a motion to pay me less than $4/hour for showing up every day and basically acting as the music director. I'm still teaching all the leads their songs, working out new arrangements for the chorus and orchestra, figuring out all the cuts, and collaborating with the director on what music she wants where. I am currently working on finding out how the communication fell out to see an 60% pay cut from last year. Everyone, from the director to the Board of Education officials who will speak to me, insist that I will be paid what I was promised; they just all have a different idea as to what that amount is. I have turned down other work because I feel an obligation to my students who are still struggling with the tragedy of losing their beloved director last year. If it was not for that, I would have been working a much better job. It's a total mess, a constant stress, and it has made me ill.

Third, a corollary: that production is still happening in less than a month and I have to go to rehearsal. If nothing else, the show will be a key part of my resume as I pursue music direction work elsewhere as it's the first time in five years I've been able to get my fingers into a standard, rather than rock/pop/jukebox, show.

Fourth, I'm being given the runaround by a lot of different people and organizations as I attempt to find my next job. If you follow my Twitter, you're well-versed in the Rent non-communication drama. What you don't know are the five summer camps, three educational theater groups, four music schools, and nine local theater/music groups that are promising to get back to me or calling me in for second, third, or fourth interviews about upcoming work. I swear it would be easier to hook on the streets for a few weeks and start my own theater company.

That's not even accounting for school, major family drama, my usual vocal coaching/arranging/transposing work, last minute fill-in gigs, and my non-blog web/writing obligations.

What it comes down to is this: by March, I should be able to return to a six day a week blog posting schedule. Until then, please keep in mind that I have not abandoned this blog and am sincerely sorry for being so inconsistent with maintenance.

Thank you for your understanding.

I always forget that professors rarely keep students the full session on the first day back unless they really hate themselves. As such, I left my notes on a handful of recent film viewings at home. For at least one of them, Shrooms, twenty five minutes would be ample time to long hand, edit, type, edit, and post the review. Even if it wasn't, I would have had at least another twenty minutes to type and edit after the next class.

As it stands, I'll get a full post up later today. Much later. As in, class till 1, review material for rehearsal till 2, rehearsal till 5:30. So, 7ish?

I'm in day 4 of my effort to clean out my bedroom. It's a rather small bedroom, so it's not a matter of climbing on ladders to dust of chandeliers and replace burned out light bulbs. No, it's a matter of unhealthy obsessions.

You see, I kind of became addicted to acquiring books, DVDs, and CDs when I was at NYU. I would have professors tell me to include "X" book/DVD/CD in a paper or suffer a bad grade. At first, I would argue that said book/DVD/CD was not available through the school library, but they wouldn't budge. So, I had to start buying what I couldn't borrow or steal. A lot of professors just assumed that all NYU students were rich. I was not, I'm still not, and I doubt I ever will be. Aside from the near-cripping debt, I find myself neck deep in stacks of books, DVDs, and CDs I've never read/watched/heard, let alone opened in some cases.

That's where The Chopping Block comes in.

The Chopping Block is an exciting new feature on the blog. Right now, I've pared the collection I have in my room by more than half. The portion I'm keeping is currently being organized and crammed into every bookshelf, wall shelf, desk shelf, nook, and cranny I have in the room. The other half is up for grabs very soon.

I will try to make this a weekly feature. It will work like this: I will force myself to watch a DVD, listen to a CD, or read a book I never watched, heard, or read before that is just taking up precious space in my room. I will review it for the site. If I don't like it, it's Up For Grabs. That means someone reading this blog has the opportunity to claim the DVD/CD/book for their own before I have to dispose of it by other means. All you'll need to do to get it is e-mail me what item you want and your shipping info; I'll take care of the rest.

I would like a little more interactivity with this feature, so I would ask whoever gets the condemned DVD/CD/book try to write a short review of it that I can post on the site. It's not required and if you don't want to, that's fine. I just think it would be fun to have another perspective on the media object I chose not to keep.

There are more conditions: if I find the DVD/CD/book interesting and would consider using it for a future article, it goes on The Waiting List. The Waiting List gives me six months to get what I need from the DVD/CD/Book before I'm forced to put it Up For Grabs.

If I like the DVD/CD/book, it's Reprieved. That means I keep it. I don't think it will happen that often as I assume there's a reason I haven't opened many of these items.

So that's the new feature for the New Year. I'll be setting up a page within the blog for The Chopping Block that hopefully explains this in a clearer way.

It's a very hectic time for me right now.

1) It's Thanksgiving this week. That may not seem like much, but I have to prepare desserts for a Thanksgiving tomorrow and a Thanksgiving Thursday. My brother is most likely getting stuck in NYC on Thanksgiving Day, so we're having an early Thanksgiving for the family tomorrow. Then Thursday is the actual Thanksgiving with other family. Maybe I wouldn't be in such a mood over it if my pumpking pie actually set properly or the lemon merengue pie didn't turn into an oil slick. At least the pumpkin muffins turned out perfect: nicely domed, moist, and delicious.

2) I'm finally getting the sheet music for my next job. Sure, I would have greatly appreciated having the music more than 6 days before I have to show up to play for meetings, auditions, and rehearsals, but this is a school that faced massive changes by way of death, retirements, firings, and quittings in a very short period, so I can't hold a grudge. I can be mad that I was bumped from music director so a physics teacher could have that title, but I can't be mad over the music. They just finished their fall production yesterday and were stopped every step of the way by admins. Copying things for the musical was the least of their worries. Technically, I can't even enter the building during school hours until I'm fingerprinted on 3 December. Now that there's a new drama teacher, no one is trusted. That's why sets were still being painted Friday afternoon.

However, there are some interesting developments happening right now that are also eating into my time. Something good might come out of the Piranhas screening tomorrow night. We'll see. Knowing my luck, this will be the film (not The Road or Nine) that requires a signed NDA to get in, like box office dynamite Take the Lead and Reno 911!: Miami did in the past. Something better might come of a lead a parent gave me at the show Friday night. I'm not holding my breath on that one, but again, we'll see.

So, maybe that Precious review will overcome the obstacle of a weekend migraine and actually appear on this site this week somehow. I hope. Then again, it might slip away like Inglourious Basterds or Where the Wild Things Are.