It’s finally here! Here’s episode three of my puppet webseries This Ends Badly.
The production values keep improving, and we keep learning a lot. One big takeaway recently was how to streamline scheduling so that we can produce quality episodes faster. So stay tuned for more This Ends Badly sooner than you think! Thanks for watching.
To get caught up, here’s episode one, and episode two.
We’re hard at work on Episode 2 of This Ends Badly! It’s titled “From Bad to Worse” and people familiar with the classic 2014 post The Date With Myself will recognize a particular sequence.
In the meantime, please enjoy this short, “How To Get Ready for a Date”! Thanks to Colt Schafer and Hannah Brady for their help making this.
It’s Pride Month, so here is a super helpful tutorial on how to get ready to celebrate it:
So a busy day turns into a busy week, and then a busy week turns into two, into three. And then you realize that you’ve forgotten to tell your readers that you’re taking your usual December off to recharge and focus on friends and work, and that you’ll be back in January and that there are really great things in the works for the BLCKSMTH blog. So then you finally do tell them this, a couple days before the New Year.
A sincere Happy New Year from Ned and I, and it’s my wish that 2017 is a better one than this year. Onward and upward!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEyiUw1ujSJ/?taken-by=blcksmth&hl=en
“What? Another webseries announcement?” A few years ago I came up with the idea of pulling some of the dating horror stories from the blog and making them into an original series. It would take place in three cities! It would involve a cast of thousands! Well, then reality hit as I did the math and realized that this was a really ambitious project for my first time out of the gate. I’m still in love with the idea of How To Save Your Own Life, and it’ll always be percolating in the back of my mind until I have the resources to execute it properly.
In the meantime, I’m thrilled to present “This Ends Badly”! Continue reading
As I do every year, I’m taking December off to reflect on the year. I lost at love this year, but gained a new horizon to chase. BLCKSMTH will be back in January with some amazing projects lined up (haha j/k just more dumb pics and heartbreak). Happy holidays, and hold the ones you love close for me, please.
I was happy to direct this 4-minute short for the Shorty Shorts Film Festival in Portland, but I was even more thrilled to work with this talented, generous cast (credited at the end of the short). Thanks much to Gula Delgatto for including my short, and Donovan Edwards, Ace Hotel Portland, and Pepe Le Moko for donating their resources and locations. Hope you like it!
Think you’ve had the worst date ever? Compare it to ours:
#yesallSantas (from l. to r. Michael James Schneider, Santa Claus)
It’s been a banner year for the BLCKSMTH blog. As usual, I’ve taken December off, but there are some awesome things in store coming up very soon. Thanks as always for reading, and Happy Damn New Year!
Photo by Chase Person (from l to r, Jennie Kay, Michael James Schneider, Nick Mattos, Wayne Bund, Chase Person, Summer Olsson, Logan Lynn)
Two years ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, I left my job to take a year-long “artistic sabbatical”. I felt a creative itch that was brought about by working with my LA family at Sacred Fools Theater Company. A few months into that year, I went through some shit. I came out on the other side more determined than ever to create a life that was artistically fulfilling, and more than anything true and authentic to myself. I visited Portland for the first time in February of 2013, and instantly fell in love with it, thanks to my good friend and tour guide Summer Olsson. And then a funny thing happened: Continue reading
photo by Kevin Truong
I wrote a short piece for The Gay Men Project on that really comfortable, easy and natural awkward and uncomfortable time I came out to my parents, back in Ye Olden Tymes of 1991. I also had a photo shoot in one of my favorite places, Tyron Creek Park. Kevin’s a pretty damn talented photographer, to be able to make even me look good. Check out the piece here.
“Joyeux Noel”
Wow. What a year 2013 has been for the BLCKSMTH blog, and for me personally. I really appreciate you reading about my boring journey, and I look forward to a pretty crazy new year. See you in 2014!
“Metallic Aftertaste”, photo by Summer Olsson
Life is weird. Choices often take you in directions you never would have considered before, and lead you to go places and meet people you otherwise might not have. This month’s soundtrack is inspired by the strange serendipity I have experienced recently, and the awesome new friends I made. It’s a little more pop-y and mainstream than my other soundtracks. Deal.
When you wake up the next day and think, “I’m getting too old for this shit”, you’re doing it right. I had a night like that a few weeks ago in Seattle:
photo by Summer Olsson, digital artistry by Tucker Cullinan
Do what you love. Be brave. Take a chance.
These are all things I’ve talked about often on this blog, since my decision to take an artistic sabbatical and share the journey with others. Recently, I met someone else who took a similar leap: Michelle Lesniak-Franklin, winner of Season 11 of Project Runway (yup, it was her I was writing about at the end of this previous post). You’ll remember her personal style and razor-sharp wit, and probably her obsession with wolves, too.
I met the Portland native at her studio last week to chat, and she was just as funny, tough, and candid as she appeared to be on the show. She was also game for a photo shoot in Portland’s Japanese Gardens, inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic, “Princess Mononoke”.
Here’s Part 2 of the interview, click here for Part 1.
BLCKSMTH: We share an obsession for the periodic table of elements. My personal token of strength is the “Fe” symbol for Iron, and yours seems to be “Au” for Gold. When did the transition happen from the name of the brand “Michelle is well” to “Au”?
Michelle Lesniak-Franklin: I got advice from a friend and investor about the name “Michelle Is Well”, that it sounds like a hospital update. “Oh, we went to the hospital to visit Michelle, how is she?” “She’s doing great, Michelle is…well.” I never loved it either, I thought it sounded really juvenile, but was something that just stuck.
I like to be smart, and articulate, and slightly geeky. And so the periodic table…you know I have a little bit of a science background, it just stuck with me. And I wanted it to be Au, to represent a golden moment, a golden piece of clothing that will stay in your closet until the end of time. You know it’s geek chic, but there’s also something tough and hard about gold. Continue reading
(l. to r.) Michael James Schneider, Michelle Lesniak Franklin. Photo and mask construction by Summer Olsson, digital artistry by Tucker Cullinan.
Do what you love. Be brave. Take a chance.
These are all things I’ve talked about often on this blog, since my decision to take an artistic sabbatical and share the journey with others. Recently, I met someone else who took a similar leap: Michelle Lesniak-Franklin, winner of Season 11 of Project Runway (yup, it was her I was writing about at the end of this previous post). You’ll remember her personal style and razor-sharp wit, and probably her obsession with wolves, too.
I met the Portland native at her studio this week to chat, and she was just as funny, tough, and candid as she appeared to be on the show. She was also game for a photo shoot in Portland’s Japanese Gardens, inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic, “Princess Mononoke”.
BLCKSMTH: You were excited when I brought up the “Princess Mononoke” concept of the photo shoot, are you a fan of Miyazaki?
Michelle Lesniak-Franklin: I am, definitely!
Explain a little bit of the wolf obsession, please.
At the time of being on the show, you’re alone during filming, and you don’t have your friends and family there. You don’t have your support system for weeks and weeks, and you’re cut off from the world. I felt, too, that my garments weren’t being received very well. Not having the fashion background, it started making me think, “Oh, I’m not good at this, no one will like my aesthetic, it’s not supposed to be out there in the world.” It started getting me down, and I felt like “You can’t be in this dark space, think of a power animal, put yourself into an animal that can survive through all odds.” And it was the wolf. And I ended up being pretty dangerous for the other people. Continue reading
photo by Summer Olsson, duplication by Tucker Cullinan
Between touring and writing/recording his music, Aiden James probably wishes there was a few more of him to go around! He’s a Philly-based, emerging singer/songwriter who headlined Portland Pride a couple weeks ago. His story kind of inspired me, since I’m a little obsessed with connecting with people who have made the choice to leave their day job for creative pursuits. I got a chance to hang with him a bit after his gig, and he was charming, gregarious, and transparent. The fact that he was down for a fun photo shoot was icing on the cake. Here’s an interview with the guy; expect big things from him coming up:
BLCKSMTH: What did you do before what you do now? AJ: Find a way to do what I’m doing now.
What was the job you hated the most? High school … (pause for seriousness)
I was never trapped behind a desk or a slave to the man. That’s not my story. It’s nothing like Dolly Parton in 9 To 5. I’ve been involved with music, even during the early parts of my life. I was a karate instructor for a large chunk of my adolescence, a barista (while I worked the open mic circuit and small coffee house gigs, taught guitar, and then released my first album). Then later down the line… Continue reading
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Have you ever discovered a secret world that was right under your nose, maybe even right in your neighborhood? It could be a speakeasy that shouldn’t be there, a great band that no one knows about (yet), or a person who creates breathtaking art that very few people have seen. I’m a little obsessed with finding those in Portland lately…one of my favorites in Los Angeles is The Museum of Jurassic Technology, check it out if you’re there.
In the meantime, here’s my soundtrack while sleuthing around Portland, looking for hidden worlds and new experiences. Shoot me an email at mkschndr@gmail.com if you know of any I should check out (or! Use my email to SPAM THE SHIT OUTTA ME).
And if you like these, check out the soundtracks for April and February.
So much right with this it’s scary:
Portland in April
Discovering, relishing, interviewing, meeting, embracing. Loving this city. Making my decision deliberately, carefully, gingerly. I have a playlist, much like Alt-J during my February visit, that is the soundtrack to my life this visit. Mostly old stuff, some new. Hope you dig these.
View of Portland from the Steel Bridge
Who reading this hasn’t had a labor of love, a creative project that they’ve been thinking about for months, or years, or their whole life? Well, designing (in Part 1 of this series), then creating the model (in Part 2 of this series) for the set of the West Coast premiere of Robert Kauzlaric’s masterful stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, directed by Scott Leggett, was that project for me. And this week, that dream got even better when I connected with Mr. Kauzlaric, and asked him a few questions about his writing process, Neil Gaiman’s fanbase, and what role staging plays in his imagination when he’s writing.
After the break, check out our chat, a great “teaser” video with some of the people who helped bring this production to life, and a first look at the finished set!
Michael James Schneider, in London Below
Gizmodo.com gave me an honorable mention today (that honestly, as you can see, I kinda begged for. No shame) on their site today. If you can’t link to the article, here’s the original Vine. Note to self: Mike, you gotta learn to edit yourself. For f’s sake…
Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty damn late to the party, but this band is my (and Summer’s) personal soundtrack when exploring Portland. The band, an English indie-rock quartet, was formed in 2007, and their debut was released here in the states in September. Most of the tracks on their album, An Awesome Wave, are great soundtracks when you have just vanquished your enemy and you are walking (in slow motion) away from the massive fireball.
Here’s a milder one, set in a modern interpretation of Raphael’s “The School Of Athens” (yes I found this out from the comments).
(Click through for more from Alt-J) Continue reading
The good folks over at Boing Boing curated some bizarre Christmas videos last week. This is by far my favorite, from 1963.
No matter what you celebrate, I hope you have a Christmas filled with joy, family, and peace. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back in the New Year!
Ok, ok, so this is a little late, but better late than never. I went from feeling a couple of weeks ago like I didn’t want to decorate at all this year, to going full-out (full disclosure: my mom convinced me to do it. I’m glad she insisted)! Here’s how I decorated at the last minute, without it looking last-minute. If you haven’t seen what my place looks like the rest of the year, here’s a link to the Apartment Therapy tour from earlier this year.
FIlter: Hefe
The rest of the pics are after the jump! Continue reading
Last night, I was watching a movie. (Okay, it was “Beaches”, a favorite from my high school days. Don’t judge). But all of a sudden, I heard a sweeping, loud, wet noise, and as I paused the movie and jumped up I realized it was a sudden rainstorm. I haven’t experienced a rainstorm that came on that quickly and forcefully since I lived in New Mexico. I went to the porch, reached my hand out, closed my eyes, and grabbed the rain. It was a sacred moment for me. Then I went inside and finished the movie (natch). And then I went to my desk and started on my novel again.
Oh, yeah, I started a novel. I’ve told maybe enough people to count on one hand. And I’ve given some chapters to read, to even fewer. But now you know, too. I stopped writing a couple of weeks ago; I had lost it. But I found it again, and it’s pretty great.
I thought of this song during the rainstorm, and then played it a few times while writing. It’s from 2007, by Great Northern, an LA-based band. You probably know their song “Home”. That’s great, but this one’s better.
Sometimes you can’t force inspiration, you have to be a leaf on the wind of it. Or pull it right out of a rainstorm.
(Lyrics are after the break)