Comic-Con International starts next week and I’m thrilled to attend. This is my first time heading down and I’m looking to make some connections and hear about a lot of new projects.
Specifically I’m looking for projects that are floundering. There are a million reasons why projects don’t click and I’d like to see what’s going on with yours.
Whatever reason, please get in contact dan@portnoymediagroup.com – Let’s see what we can make happen!
If you’ll be at Comic-Con, I’d love to meet up in person and if not please shoot me an email dan@portnoymediagroup.com
I don’t know how to start this… The following story is paraphrased.
So I’m having a drink with 2 buds at my house. The guys head out at 10:45 and I start the nightly ritual of locking doors, drawing curtains, etc. Check my email one last time and head to bed. I’ve recently just purchased some bedding and let me tell you the experience is glorious!
Just before I sleep I usually try to avoid being schooled by the vocabulary conscious contacts on Word with Friends. I check the phone clock, it’s 11:22. My housing scenario is not common. I live on the top floor of a business complex. The running joke among friends is that if the zombie apocalypse happens – they’re running to my house. It can be a fortress. There are rumors that the building was once a tuberculosis sanitarium and that it was multiple buildings before an architect blended them. If you take the stairs to my place, it’s closer to an MC Escher painting.
I hear some walking on the 3rd floor which is also not uncommon. The office of Chronicle Project are right underneath me and it’s not a strange thing to hear post production work happening or the collaboration of minds as I drift off. So as the walking keeps moving up to my level my ears perk. The only reason to come to the top floor is to see me. So much so, that most days when I’m home, the doors are wide open and I’m enjoying the breeze and the gorgeous Pasadena weather.
Amidst trying to solve word problems I see a light around my office door. My office is next to my bedroom and there’s a gap around the door jam due to the older construction. At first I think someone must be lost, I try to think the best of people so a break in the last outcome is what I’m imagining.
…and that’s when they started messing with the windows.
Even now I’m curious as to what’s happening but I’m in disbelief that someone is trying to enter my residence.
…and then a hand came in through the window and flipped the deadbolt.
Now I’ve had a Louisville Slugger next to my bed for most of my life. Originally because I love baseball and then later because I’m not a fan of guns but thought if personal protection were ever an issue, I’d be covered. The current iteration was a small 3 ft wooden bat with a flat end and it’s designed to do some damage. Growing up, I’d rehearse scenarios of what I’d do if certain things happen. Every time I moved to a new place I’d go over what I’d do if there was a fire in the house, a grease fire on the stove, an earthquake, and home invasion was of course one of the scenarios I would run through. So once I heard the deadbolt flip I was out of bed and the bat was in hand.
He jacked the window in about 10 seconds and swung the door open and took two steps inside. I had to assess the situation.
Did he have a weapon? How big was he? Is this how I’m going out?
The man looked around my office (which was in some desperate need of organization) and I finally got a good look at him. About 5’9″, medium build.. and I thought to myself, “Blitz him!”
I turned on the light and yelled in as deep a voice I could muster, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” as I closed the gap between us and was ready to crush a 400ft fastball over the centerfield wall.
I expected surprise, I expected him to run but what happened freaked me out much more.
He turned calmly and backed out of my office, hands raised, while saying, “I’m sorry, I thought this was my home. I’m in the wrong place.”
(yeah, it’s crazy, right?)
That didn’t compute. I got closer and kept on yelling, “Who are you? What do you want?”
He grabbed his bag and walked down the stairs all while apologizing.
(huh?)
I closed the door and locked it and immediately thought of the conversation I’d be having with my landlord about these windows. The thought about if I should call the cops or not. Grabbed my phone and dialed 911.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I’ve just had my place broken into.” Immediately my thoughts of the ample amounts of cop drama shows I’ve watched way too much of raced through my mind. I rattled off a description including any noticeable tattoos and what he’s wearing.
Pasadena Police were at my door within 3 minutes. I hang up with 911 and start to give the run down of the scenario. They get a call, additional Pasadena PD have made an arrest to man bearing that description 2 blocks away. the officer asks if I could ID the man. I agree and jump in the back of the squad car.
It’s wild that they officers were so quick to protect who I was and talked me through all the steps.
Positive ID made. They caught the right guy and loaded him in another cruiser.
We head back to my house and that’s when the forensics team shows up. Sadly it was not Marg Helgenberger but a guy to print my door. They police finish up with taking my statement, some photos and making a sketch of my place.
In the midst of all the action I text my buddy Derek. He had just left an hour prior and got back in his car and stuck with me while the hive of activity happened at my house.
It wasn’t until the police left that I started thinking about how many ways that could’ve gone.
Big thanks to the Pasadena Police Department for the quick response and to Derek for sticking around.
As of this AM, a good conversation with my landlord about getting some different windows. Not sure what they’ll be doing but I’m upgrading my bat.
At the end of every year I like to talk about giving. Here’s a few organizations that I’ve worked with this year that would really benefit from your hard earned dollars.
Union Rescue Mission (URM)
They’re looking to raise 750K to move all of the women and children in their downtown Skid Row facility out to Hope Gardens – a special safe location that allows moms and kids to take the next step to healing, hope and moving from a place homelessness. I recently spent a night on the street outside URM and I’ll never be able to forget that experience. Skid Row is no place for children.
Here’s there latest video about Hope Gardens
Eden Reforestation Projects
Eden is a phenomenal organization. They run really lean here in the states so that they can use as much money to plant trees and put entire villages to work. A donation of $10 plants 100 trees and gives a job to someone who desperately wants it. This summer they were planting a million trees per month and 2011 they are looking to double the amount of trees they planted in 2010.
Check out their video for the Eden League, their monthly giving program.
Check out the Eden League – Click Here
Child S.H.A.R.E.
Child S.H.A.R.E. supports churches and families to provide loving homes for kids that are part of the foster care/adoption system. They’ve got a track record of permanent placement that 300% higher than the state alone. I didn’t realize that kids in the system can have experienced more Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by the time they are 18 than Iraq war veterans. Another terrible reality is that they often move yearly and own virtually nothing.
More info on their site – www.childshare.org
Thank you for giving to these organizations – I know they appreciate it. Merry Christmas!
Meet Kiera, she just had her picture taken this past Saturday as part of Help Portrait.
This short film is part of the Stories from Skid Row series and I just love it. It cracks me up.
Kiera lives at Union Rescue mission with her Mom and Dad. Since spending the night on Skid Row last month with Andy Bales, Richard Riordan and EDAR.org creator Peter Samuelson. I’m not looking at this issue the same. Please donate to URM this month and help families like Kiera’s have a fighting chance to a better life.
Let me know what your favorite part is.
I’m 50% the way through his 4 day seminar on Story. I thought you might like to experience a taste of what I am. Here’s Robert McKee talking about setting.
