Back in '89

Yeah, it looks like some good weather is finally showing up. It will be great to go outside again to shoot some footage and have a few laughs.

We got kicked out of the Sportsman Show a couple of weeks ago while shooting footage. It’s almost impossible to shoot stuff indoors anymore. Event organizers and security people are unbelievably hyper-sensitive about shooting video these days. Too many kids out there making their own Jackass and Tom Green videos, I guess! Which begs the question, “Isn’t that what you are doing, JR?”

I’m just doing the kind of stuff I’ve always done with my friends. There’s no question that after I saw The Tom Green Show on The Comedy Network, I realized for the first time that network television was about to change forever and that guys like me might actually be able to put what we thought was funny on TV for people to see!

What I failed to realize was that from that point on, I would spend all my time fighting my own instincts and doing everything I could to not be like Tom Green. Not being yourself is always a bad idea, but not if being yourself just gets you compared to someone else in an industry where being original is all that matters!

Yesterday I met with one of Canada’s most respected television producers about what I’ve been doing these days and what it is that I want to do in television if I was given my own show again. I guess I had better start figuring that out, and fast!

Here’s a little footage shot back in 1989. Check it out, click here! We didn’t really know what we were doing back then either, other than being stupid and video taping people’s reactions to our stupidity, which was kind of funny. What’s really crazy about this footage is that some of you weren’t even born when we were shooting it!

That’s really F’n crazy! At least to me it is!

Later guys,

JR

Scary Movies

Sorry that I didn’t have more time to make too much of a blog today guys, but today is the only day I have this week to get stuff done around here! I have a gabillion meetings set up for this week and I have a ton of preparation to do for them.

Tuesday morning I’m meeting with Michelle from the Canadian Filmmakers Festival, which is cool because I’ve never met her before (she seems very nice over the phone!). I’ve been invited to attend their festival and I’m anxious to speak to her about the new idea I have.

While working on Chris Nash’s student film, I started thinking that maybe I’ll try to do one of these films a month for the next 12 months and then feature them all on a DVD or something like that. One of the cool things about having fans who are interested in some of the stuff you do is that it actually allows you to do stuff you might not have otherwise had the opportunity to do at all.

I don’t think I’ll do too many more slasher movies though. This was a favour to Chris Nash! I don’t even watch those movies, even! I really don’t – they scare me and I don’t like being scared. The last scary movie I watched was Scary Movie and half the jokes were lost on me because I haven’t seen any of those movies. Demons and stuff like that are scary. Here’s some video of a demon describing his scene in this movie I’m in, that I might not ever watch (click here).

I can tell you how the mailman dies though!

Later,

JR

Funny Bunny!

I saw a little bunny hopping around in the backyard this morning, which was kind of cool because Easter Sunday is this weekend. I thought maybe I could go out and catch the little guy, then let him go free on Sunday, shoot some video of it and make an interesting new Easter Sunday blog.

I’m totally into the whole indy movie thing these days! I’ve been completely inspired by all the new people I’ve been meeting lately, who are making all these independent low-budget films!

So anyways, I was on my way into the backyard when I sunk about 200 feet into the snow. After digging myself out, I went to the mall to see if the travel agency there had any cheap flights to Florida. My parents are still down there and it would be great to take off for the weekend and visit them. I can’t believe how much snow fell last night, it’s supposed to be spring now! A couple days in the sun would be awesome right now.

It doesn’t look like there are any cheap flights, so I’m S.O.L., I guess. Something funny happened at the mall though! I do, however think it’s a good idea to keep these blogs relatively short, otherwise I’ll ramble on forever here. If I get into a ‘funny thing that happened at the mall today’ story, none of you will have any time to check out more of the video footage I shot on location at the movie shoot.

As busy as this week has been for me, I’ve had lots of time to shoot video of myself while on location shooting this movie with Chris Nash. There’s not much else to do while you sit around for hours, waiting to shoot a scene.

Click here and you will see what I mean!

I hope none of you thought I was really planning on catching that cute little bunny this morning. The truth is that I thought it might just be funny watching me trying to catch him. He was long gone by the time I actually got out there this morning (LOL)!

Vlog you later!

JR

Thanks, Dogboy

Last week I mentioned that Sonic, as he’s known on the message board, was the first person to email me about making a song up about him and that I would have it on my blog here by the middle of this week.

Well, I’ve been crazy-busy this week, as you all know if you’ve been checking out my blogs lately. It sucks, but I just haven’t had the time to get in to record anything, so instead of leaving Sonic hanging for another week, I asked Dogboy to quickly lay something down for me.

He reluctantly agreed to and by clicking here, you can all check it out.

Next week I’ll make up a real song for you Sonic, and continue recording songs for the rest of you that have been emailing me. Keep em coming!!!

I've also received a few emails from people who have been looking for a Shane The Cameraman Cunningham update. Shane hasn't made a blog in a while! Maybe some of you thought that Shane was just a kick-ass camera man and without the show on the air, he's decided to take off for Hawaii again or something like that.

No way, he's been way too busy doing a bunch of cool stuff and his band is starting to get really popular as well! They just played last night! Click here - I'll make him do a blog and get him to tell you all about it!

This is like two blogs in one - what great value and only available here on JRDIGS.com

Come back soon,

JR

Returning The Favour

I met Chris Nash a while ago at a party Bruce McDonald was having after the screening of his latest film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bruce McDonald is best known for his movie Hard Core Logo, which is a “Quentin Tarantino Presents” kind of thing. Bruce is a big shot in the Canadian film scene.

Chris Nash is an aspiring filmmaker currently in film school, who kicks ass at creating original music that I’ve actually used several times over this past year since I met him.

When Chris called me to ask if I would do a little acting in the film he is making, I was happy to be able to return the favour. He’s always been amazing at recording new music for me when I’ve needed it and has never expected anything in return for it.

Check out his website at http://www.nashensmith.com and click here if you would like to see a video blog thingy that I shot on location at the shoot for the movie.

Goodbye from Hollywood North, where it’s still freezing cold out!

JR

Tuna

Hey guys, I thought I would make a quick little blog here before I take off tonight, because I probably won't have time to make another one until next week sometime.

It's cool to see how many emails I'm getting from people who want songs written about them. Sonic was the first one to email me, so you can start spreading the word, sonic dude. I'll make something up and have it on the site here by the middle of next week!

Does anyone like tuna in their Kraft Dinner? It's more like a meal that way, you know. I'm about to make some and have a coke. I always drink coke with KD and Chinese food!

Friday, we are shooting more Dog Boy footage and on Sunday I begin acting in another independent film. I'm a crazy-in-the-head mailman who gets to summon demons up from hell!

Hey, here's a couple of pictures I was sent a few days ago from the set of the movie I just finished acting in. Check them out:

I really gotta fly! It's going to be a busy 4 or 5 days for me coming up here and oh ya, I haven't filled you all in yet on what's happening with my truck. I'll do it next week, okay! Oh crap! If you leave the noodles in the water for more than 7 minutes, you're screwed. I've got about 20 seconds to get to the kitchen.

Later,

JR

Video Blogs

Adding these little video clips to my blogs is definitely making this way more interesting for me.

This is the second blog I’ve made this week already and it’s only Wednesday! I hope all of you who were emailing me about making more than two blogs a month are cool with these video blogs I’m making. From posts I’ve read on the message board and emails I’ve received, it sounds like people are actually liking them more than boring old, written-out blogs.

One post that I read said that video blogs make it feel more like I’m actually talking to each one of you as individuals.

Well, maybe I am!

Click here if you like Vlogs!

Sideways on Saturday Morning

…so my truck starts to fishtail a little and I have to kick it over to the right shoulder before I start sliding sideways into the car coming the opposite way! There’s tons of snow on the ground and when I hit the gravel on the right shoulder, all hell breaks loose.

Now I’m sliding back across the road towards the other lane again. The car I missed isn’t an issue anymore, but I’m almost going sideways down the road now and that’s never a good sign. Somehow, I managed to stop the truck from spinning into a 360, only to realize I’m suddenly heading back to the right hand shoulder again!

I’ve driven on this road lots of times, so there’s one thing I know for sure at this point; there’s a huge ditch on the right hand side of the road, and I’m going to be rolling into it in about three seconds…

Click here for the conclusion…

Susanne

After a day of chasing Tom Green around Toronto to get him to do a cameo for us in the new series we’re putting together right now, it’s nice to be safe and warm inside today. I’m trying to catch up on the emails I’ve let pile up on me and just a few minutes ago, I was inspired enough by one to write this song. Here it is…

What if?

Yup, I’m back into The Shins again and I have probably listened to the CD 800 times over the last couple of days. I only took a couple of CDs with me to the cottage this past weekend and The Shins are what I kept listening to, over and over again, while I memorize my lines for the scene I’m shooting later this week. There’s a rehearsal tonight and the final day of shooting is on Friday. It’s just a short film, but it’s still cool to have been asked to do it.

“You want to jump and dance but you sat on your hands and lost your only chance, go back to your hotel and get your feet on the ground and stop floating around”
(lyrics from a Shins song that keeps playing in my head)


I’ve done my share of floating around over the past ten years, and I think about it way too much. Just lately, I’ve been thinking I better start making damn sure I get my feet good and planted in the next few months, because I’m going to need all the traction I can get to pull out of where I’m at these days. Where’s that you may be wondering? No where in particular, that’s where. That’s the problem.

On my way up to the cottage Saturday, I stopped to get gas and grab a coffee. The kid pouring the coffee looked up at me and said, “You’re JR DIGS!”, as he raised his hand up, assuming I was still cool enough to know I’m supposed to high-five him. “That’s awesome!” he kind of yelled out, as I laughed and thought to myself, “This is awesome! It’s awesome that this kid seems so pleased to have met me. Wow!”

A few days earlier, I was at The Keg with a good friend of mine and a bartender came over to our table with a couple of beers and asked for an autograph. Brian thought it was pretty cool that some dude wanted my autograph and I thought it was great that we got a couple free beers. It was very generous of the guy and very much appreciated!

I hope I’m able to continue on this little journey that I started a few years ago, I really do. Somewhere along the line it looks like I’ve picked up more than a few fans and there are definitely still some corporate sponsors out there, interested in reaching that 18-34 demographic that we always tapped into so well with the show. It’s just that I haven't seem to have figured out how to properly pitch anything to any network executives or film studios. Maybe it really is all about luck and timing and all these moments floating around, wanting to jump and dance while you sat on your hands.

Check out this little bit of video I shot like a million years ago (click here to watch it). I always used to tell people I was shooting stuff for a cable access show, but I didn’t actually have a cable access show. I guess I always figured I was going to put some sort of show together, but never got around to doing it…who knows anymore. That was a million years ago now!

High five, everyone!

JR