Thankful

It's fun being here in Los Angeles and all and I actually really like this town, I think I just like cities in general as I'm kind of starting to obsess on New York now, but then I obsessed on L.A. for ten years before I moved, who knows when I'd move to New York. How about this marker: After unprecedented success. Cool.

Anyway, this whole experiment in tempting fate and getting out of my comfort zone, shaking things up a bit, and trying to actually get a job that I like in a field that I have a degree in really started with a kind offer from a friend. I have a lot of friends, I'm very thankful for them, and lucky to have so many.



Bart Kias and I are friends from way back. We were both in Mass Communications and saw each other frequently in the hallowed halls of Williams Hall as we tried to put together two different careers, Bart doing his duty working for Miami's Public Radio Station, WMSR, and the TV station WMUB, and me pretending I had actually made it into film school, shooting shorts in the field, stealing equipment, and scamming independent studies from inebriated teachers (to this day having coffee and a beer is called The Andy Marko Special after my independent study teacher who gave me 2 credit hours to write a superhero screenplay). Bart did standup, which I hated, and I did improv which he thought was for hipster doofuses. My first impression of Bart was during a Q&A with the head of Late Night Programming in our Freshman Comm. class. Bart stood up and asked him "why Later with Bob Costas exists?" Who's the dick? I thought. We were brought together do do WMUB's sketch comedy show Pocket Change Theatre who's writing staff consisted of myself (sketch), Matt Larsen (sketch), Becky Eldridge (sketch), Bart (standup), Brian Murray (standup), and Jeff Robinson (standup). The standup guys sat on one side of the table opposite the sketch guys and we just threw potshots at each other over the legitimacy of the mediums, you know, because that's important or something. Its was College pretension at it's finest.



Somehow Bart and I ended up getting along, I took over as producer on PCT and featured Bart heavily in all the lead roles for season 2. I also featured Bart in all my Senior films. In F, my masterpiece, Bart played a comically sweaty psychotic student who stalks and tries to kill the teacher (Todd Kolloff) that gave him an F. I followed this up with an experiment featuring Bart and Todd again called Raw Footage based on the What If of "What if you only saw what took place between "cut" and "action" as opposed to the opposite. Not content to just make curriculum films, I kept up a healthy amount of non-credit filmmaking with my favorite collaborator, Jim McWilliams and brought Bart into Jim and I's masterpiece, The Pan Piper about the world's most popular Pan Flutist who's dedicated fanbase dies when a cigarette ignites an auditorium full of the polyester-wearing fans. I'll get the highlights of these up on Schadenfreude.net at some point.



My Senior year was the most fun you can possibly have, living with with Roberto, Fremodada, Larry S., and Leah R. Bart lived a couple blocks away, and when we weren't creating "yard art" (creating art out of what was left on the front lawn after a party), we engaged in our favorite past time "get kicked out of a party you weren't invited to." We'd see a house party, walk in, sit down, and start pointing at people and making fun of them. Our collaborator on some of these missions was Richardson Seng, who would later start Cherry Bomb DVD in Chicago. It amazes me that I still know everyone referenced above. We also watched a lot of Steven Segal films while drinking 40's of Malt Liquour, don't ask me why.

And then I didn't see Bart for ten years.



When I first moved to Chicago we collaborated on a television pilot that would be the Siskel & Ebert of undistributed indie films (still a very good idea), but that was it. Over the last decade I talked to Bart at least once a year about my frustration at how green the grass was in L.A. while decrying the greenness of grass in Chicago, and thankfully never moved. Then, all of a sudden, the radio show was over, my job at Strata crumbling, and I felt like I had accomplished enough in Chicago to justify trying something new. I called Bart for the usual talk, which Bart was tired of having, but once again he and Martha, his girlfriend of many years, offered me their guest room to get on my feet.





I couldn't have made the move without their help and promise to be out by December 20th. It is very weird to see Bart every day, from not at all for ten years to every day. We get along just as we always have, two people who are right about everything.

It is Thanksgiving and I'm very thankful to my many many many friends who have helped me out over the years, Bart is just the latest in a long line who's most prominent members include the four other creators of this site. I think of all the friends I have here and all the friends I have in Chicago, plus all the friends back in Ohio and all the friends I haven't talked to in a while but would not miss a beat if I saw them again and I'm awed. Is there anybody with more friends than me? If there were such a contest certainly I would come in the top ten. Thanks guys, seriously, for everything. And when you factor in my family and that I have not one but two great Dad's, not one but two great Mom's, plus my Sister. And I write all this while working what I personally feel is the greatest television show ever. I wonder why I would ever want more in life. Shit, here's another credit card bill, gotta go.



And readers. Thank you, as well, for reading my ramblings for two years and giving me a reason to keep my tool sharp in between larger projects. It's only gonna get more interesting from here.