2006 ROUND-UP

Blogging is a strange business for me. It’s a way for family and friends to keep up with my doings, so there’s usually a personal quotient to what I write – and I’ve never been all that comfortable blowing my own trumpet (I’d rather get someone else to do it for me).

Then there’s always the possibility that a perfect stranger will happen upon The Scratching Post, wondering “who does this geezer think he is?” So to all the strangers out there, please forgive the self-indulgentness of my year-end review. It’s a tradition, okay?

2006 was a whirlwind year in which I wrapped principal photography on my first feature film and got hooked on MySpace, Lost and toasted rye bread.

Also this year, Folly Beach musician Rick Huff died in a tragic accident. I listen to his witty music often; at the age of 60, he had produced two CDs – Come On Down and Cheaper Than Therapy. He is sorely missed.


Back in JANUARY I didn’t see so much of my son Sam. I was deep into filming For Liberty at Fort King George, GA, with action scenes courtesy of the mighty Jim Sawgrass playing a Catawba Native, complete with screams high-pitched enough to curdle milk, blood, cream and my producer’s hair.

FEBRUARY gave me a chance to visit the big Book Fest in Columbia. I was disappointed, partly because I attended a really lame book reading that numbed my wits quicker than a VH1 special and also because I’d got the event a bit mixed up with the SC Writer’s Conference.

MARCH and APRIL were packed full of filming, teaching for the Actors’ Theatre of SC and gathering short movies together for their Folly Felder Film Festival.

MAY heralded Theatre/verv’s cool adaptation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, performed at The Dark Room in downtown Charleston. I grabbed as much glory as I could in a last-minute role, and almost ended up reviewing the show for the City Paper. That would have been awkward. You can imagine my rave remarks about a bit player called Nick Smith.

In JUNE, the third Folly Felder Film Fest gave me a chance to screen some great movies, including One Step Forward, Two Steps Back by Simon Harvey. He was a member of Kneehigh Theatre, who stormed Spoleto with Tristan and Yseult. I enjoyed hanging out with the British actors in Folly, but the bastards haven’t so much as replied to my emails since.

I also visited North Carolina for the first time, climbing a Smokey Mountain and catching fireflies with my son. Back in Charleston, I was invited to attend an Emerging Arts Leaders Meeting at the Gibbes, where new Executive Director Todd Smith unveiled his Now! show. It was very different from the museum of art’s traditional stuff, and a bold move on Todd’s part to slip it in so soon after he took over. I smelled a scoop that, as it happened, I sat on until my CP editor wrote a preview of the show.

JULY was spent editing The Siege of Charleston, a documentary covering a massive reenactment at Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation. I cut it together on Final Cut Pro and my word of advice to any editors out there is, if you’re thinking of using that software for a professional project: don’t. It sucks.

AUGUST gave me my second chance of the year to take a break – I thought. I visited Edisto Beach, SC, where the Actors’ Theatre held sway. It was a wonderful couple of days’ experience with memories to cherish, mostly of meeting, thinking and talking about For Liberty. Ah well. Who needs relaxation anyway?

This was also the month when I first worked for Creative Spark, a children’s development center in Mt. Pleasant. I had a great time there because the kids (in their tweens and early teens) were interested in acting. They loved it! Only one parent complained, about the theological ramifications of including a scene from Labyrinth in our workshops (it’s got goblins in it!).

On a sadder note, another musician passed away that month. Maynard Ferguson was a great jazz musician who amazed me in my youth by achieving the impossible – turning The Empire Strikes Back score into an entertaining jazz bash.

This year more than ever I felt emotionally involved in the tragedies that the people around me had suffered, none more so than September 11th. Maybe it was because it was the 5th anniversary, or the movie and TV coverage that got to me. I think it was the realization that my friends were still reeling from the attack. It’s easy to be objective when you’re far away in Europe, but here in the US, people still care. That’s important.

Touchstone visited Charleston to film a pilot for a TV show called Army Wives, so I hooked up with them in the Extras Casting department. The show has subsequently been picked up (not because of my contribution, sadly) for Lifetime and the series will be shot here.

Meanwhile Sam started First Grade, and my wife Ros shot a snazzy documentary about local artist Lese Corrigan. But where would I show it?


By OCTOBER, as far as the press was concerned, I’d wrapped For Liberty (as I write this, we’re planning a few pick-up shots). I also filmed a local Jones Ford Commercial, where I risked typecasting as a goofy nerd (I don’t know why they picked me to play him).

NOVEMBER provided me with the opportunity to screen Ros’ doc at the Gibbes, along with a group of other great films from directors like Donna Hurt and Ron Mangravite. Happily, I’ve been invited to do another film night next year. Unhappily, it takes a hell of a lot of work to get the films together, secure permission to screen them and publicize the events. But I’m not worrying about that quite yet.

DECEMBER marked my fourth year as a Santa Claus for the City of Charleston; contributed to a US art show for the first time; gave me a chance to meet the talented California-born abstract artist Patrick Pelletier and catch a glimpse of Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson at a Christmas do. I was also cheered up by the news that my fourth book, Undead On Arrival, was heading for the typesetters. That’s a sweet note to end on, isn’t it? So I’ll shut up. Happy New Year, everybody.