This morning I drove through the heaviest fog and the worst morning commute that the bay bridge has seen in over a year. Basically, the opposite of a summer beach party. And yet in today’s post, we will celebrate the spirit of 10,000 teens on 5,000 beach blankets with one of the FIRST ORIGINAL SONGS from PianoFight’s own musical love child, Das Haus Band. DHB has long held the torch of post-minimalist avant-surf-rock for PianoFight, and the Bay Area at large, by playing surf rock and surf pop tunes from the American 50′s and 60′s. But, at their upcoming show at Oakland’s Stork Club, on Dec 16th, Das Haus Band will be unveiling not one, not two, but THREE completely original surf tunes. The following is JUST A TASTE of one of them from last Sunday night’s rehearsal.

-Duncan

Summer is Here (Ready to go)

TICKETS ~ SCHEDULE ~ TICKETS ~ SCHEDULE ~ TICKETS

Hi Folks!

First and foremost, Happy FORKING Holidays! It’s been a minute since we last emailed and because a lot’s happened (and we got this super awesome picture) we figured we’d email everybody some well wishes this holidays season and give a quick update on what’s been up.

PianoFight’s choose-your-own-adventure play FORKING II: A Merry FORKING! Christmas by Daniel Heath opens Friday, Dec. 2nd and runs through Dec. 30th at Stage Werx. Going into our third year of performing this great show, we finally did the math and it turns out there are 362,880 possible paths through the play – crazy right? Anyway, the cheapest deal on tickets is if you buy before the run starts – $17 per ticket if purchased before Dec. 2. If that’s too soon for you don’t worry, you can still get a $17 ticket if you buy a group of 6 or more at any point in the run. We’d love to see you and we’ll have the cider hot and the beer cold whenever you come by.
FORKING Tickets — FORKING Info

Also, we totz signed a lease on our new space! There’s a great breakdown of everything, penned by PF Executive Director Dan Williams here, and a pretty righteous video of footage from the night we signed it here (thanks Andy!), but basically we’ve got our grubby paws on 8,000 square feet of prime real estate in downtown San Francisco. We’ll send out more info as it happens and thanks to everyone for all the support thus far.

We’ve also done some fatty short videos! Working with Mbarrier Productions, PianoFight’s Mission Control recently entered this video in Dorrito’s “Crash the Superbowl” contest and a few of the writers from Monday Night ForePlays (Nicole Hammersla, Rachel Rockwood and Meredith Terry) penned some short spots for Benefit Cosmetics.

And in the full-fledged short-film department, Low Shoulders wrapped its shooting and is now in post production and a piece that premiered in the April Monday night ForePlays show, “Ketheron’s Bucket Mending and Hymen Emporium” by Nicole Hammersla, was turned into a short film by Scary Cow Productions and won awards for Best Writing and Best Original Music Score at their recent film festival.

Also, I still have not got a haircut.

And that’s about it! As I said above, we’d love to see you down at FORKING II: A Merry FORKING! Christmas – this December, saving Christmas is up to you.

Happy FORKING Holidays!

-R

Actual footage from the actual night we actually signed the lease. Presented on a night some nights after we actually signed the actual lease; we signed the lease at 144 Taylor. We signed the lease. We are so happy & grateful that we have signed the lease at 144 Taylor. Happy. 144 Taylor. Signed the lease.

Love Sincerely,

Andy

&

DL

-Late Night Snack-

Special thanks to Rob Ready, Kate Jones, Alex Boyd, Sara Staley, and just thanks to Dan Williams.

-NetherYonder4LiFe-

PianoFighter Nina Harada chronicles her journey of pursuing a career as an actor in Los Angeles. Follow her journey on her blog The Scene Partner.

I’ve been so busy this past month or so that I’ve hardly had time to write a proper blog post. I think I’ve even skipped a few weeks. And though I’m busy with good artsy stuff, it is not an excuse to put all the other things on hold. The things I’ve been kinda sorta saying to myself I’d think about after the new year– because what better excuse than the New Year to buckle down and get things done? But I know myself, I have to just DO. Too much time is wasted in the waiting for the “next time” to do the things on my list. So, slowly but surely, over the past few weeks I’ve been making a list and checking it twice, of what I want to prepare BEFORE 2012 arrives.

1. Renew Showfax: I know, shame on me that I even let it expire in the first place. But I don’t have it on auto-renew because, well, I’m poor. And I waited to renew because I was so busy that I wasn’t submitting anyway. Figured I’d save myself a few bucks. However, the longer I didn’t renew, the longer I’d have an excuse to not submit and therefore not audition and therefore not book more things to keep me busy.

Read more »

PianoFight is executive-producing a short narrative film called Low Shoulders. Find out more at www.lowshoulders.com.

Low Shoulders is in post-production. In the meantime, I’ve compressed this Denis Johnson novel, Nobody Move, into its constituent notable elements. Like Low Shoulders, Nobody Move has narratives of pursuit and escape. And crime. And pulp. Here goes:

In the middle of fancy new churches, all glass and swooping curves, you’d see oil rigs with their heads going up and down. Gambol suddenly tosses his white hat, then seems to lose consciousness. A man in the movie theater grins and jerks as he follows the action. I know a vet in Madrona. Ruthless neon on the wet streets like busted candy. The Guess What Motel. He’d assumed all logs were fake. Luntz gambles 80 bucks and makes back 65. Anita says, I can do anything I want. The Time Out Lounge. Wind thudded into the car. Capra sits in a flat-back chair. “You want to sit down?” You are what we call a hefty blonde. Luntz’s hands shake when he tries to touch Anita’s bare shoulders with his fingers. You’re cute enough, but you got a sissy body. Luntz dries the sweat between Anita’s breasts with the corner of the bedsheet. He comes upstairs with burgers, fries, soft drinks and vodka. Gambol tells Mary he’s going to come in her face. Using his cane, Gambol breaks the reverse light of a parked Wonder Bread truck. Gambol blacks out the reflectors of his jogging shoes with Magic Marker. Gambol puts bandaids on each of his ten fingers. Ford with novelty death’s heads for locks. Dead wasps litter the threshold. Gambol drinks milk from the refrigerator. Luntz hits Sally with a spade. Anita thinks she sees fireflies coming from the shower head. The chalk person has no legs below the knees. Gambol uses Luntz’s shirt to wrap the shotgun. Anita breaks the judge’s colostomy bag on the judge.

-Evan

Play nice:  therapboard.com