One of the BrevityTV writers just posted this blog entry over at our myspace page. It made me chuckle, so I thought I’d reprint it here.

10 Little-Known Facts about BrevityTV.com
Current mood: Ruling

1. BrevityTV.com has access to 29 letters. That’s three more than other Enlglish-utilizing sketch comedy groups.

2. BrevityTV.com has never eaten mud, not even for a dollar.

3. Our sketches can be used as a porridge magnet in times when porridge is scarce.

4. BrevityTV.com rocks out with our cocks in. Because we don’t want to end up on the sex-offender registry.

5. BrevityTV.com can turn into a hawk, but it rarely does. BrevityTV.com considers shapeshifting showy.

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Drive, vote, graduate, drink, graduate some more, rent a car without an extra fee.  After that, there’s marriage, kids, retirement, but the milestones are more individualized and less age-related.

Today, however, I hit one that is definitely age-related.  This morning I found my first grey hair.  It was in my beard, extra long, and while a case might have been made for it just being very blond, the realist must insist on grey.

No problem.  I am ready to stop being confused for someone in his twenties.  Having started to lose my hair when I was 18, I’ve (had to) become very calm about aging.  So it’s not a milestone that stresses me out the way it would other people.  Of course, I’ll certainly hide it from any producers potentially interested in hiring me as a comedy writer.  Among that particular group, I’m happy to be confused for someone in his twenties.

Now I’ll just wait for the next milestone.  Like my hip shattering or something.

I’ve been feeling this weird sensation in my lower left abdomen lately. Always happy to substitute a web site for consultation with a trained professional, I described my symptoms to WebMD. The closest match seems to be “Irritable Bowel Syndrome.” While I’m not impressed by the lack of details of why or what the condition actually is, I suppose it was comforting at least to know that someone (drug companies, I suspect?) has given my mild discomfort a name. And at last I can stop fearing I have tapeworms.

Unfortunately, there is not much listed in the way of treatment for IBS, and the only real suggestions were to reduce stress and avoid caffeine. So it’s sad to hear there’s nothing I can do about it. Believe me, if I could just make stress go away, I would. All this evening I had a strange sensation in my forehead where all the muscles were sore from a combination of tension and lack of sleep. I’ve ground away one side of rear left molars. I’ve tried using a mouth guard, but that just gives me something to chomp down on, and I’ve nearly chewed through it after a week.

All of which is strange, because I’m remarkably unstressed. Though it hasn’t launched yet, BrevityTV is humming along, starting to resemble the idea I had in my head when I started it. And when you get pretty shots like the one below from our shoot this morning, what’s to stress about?

“In the city that never sleeps, he’s the cop  who never dies.”  The tag line sums the show right up.  It’s all you really need to know, and if you want to know much more, you’re really out of luck.  There is very little explanation of WHY a shaman cursed/blessed John Amsterdam to live immortal until he finds his soulmate (although it’s probably important that the shaman is female) but we mostly don’t care anyway.

Right off the bat, New Amsterdam observes magnificent economy of screen time in building character.  We meet Detective Amsterdam, hundreds of years old, all angsty about his immortality.  Rapid-fire character development shows us he’s a homicide detective, a ladies’ man, an irascible partner, a recovered alcoholic, an enabler for an old friend who knows his secret, a nude swimmer, an amateur photographer.  It’s a complicated mix that doesn’t quite add up into a compelling protagonist yet, but full credit to the pilot script for trying, in a genre that more often yields the opposite problem.

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At the risk of posting two fantasy role-playing entries in a row, I have to admit to having recently discovered and loved the web series The Guild. Seven “webisodes” long so far, The Guild stars and is written and produced by Felicia Day, whose subtle suffering in performance is on par with a Jason Bateman or a Ricky Gervais. Her facial expressions deliver much of the series’ simmering humor.

Besides having been featured in season 7 of Buffy, Felicia’s face is familiar from the current Cheetos commercials in which the protagonist ruins a cranky woman’s laundry with fiery hot cheetos. I find myself, like the character Zaboo in the series, wanting to stalk her. I mean, she’s cute, a ridiculously talented actor who crafts sharp writing, and when building her own creative outlet chooses to tell stories about gaming nerds?! How hot is that?