Samantha Everts

the week before last I worked about 60 hours, something I never plan on doing again, in theory.  I got through the ENTIRE BOOK, Marty McFly over the two day period.  I went a little loopy though, not gonna lie.

Got a lot of editing done though. >>

editting time

Sun in an empty room...

That’s industrial strength tea right there folks.  Somethings never change with the church, the fact that a spoon can stand right up in it will never change.

I’m also becoming an expert at making the vegan delite buffet meal- i.e. bun stuffed with salad.  yeaaah.

Oddly enough the conference was right across the street from an apt my grandparents lived in, which brought up all sorts of memories.  They were very classy folks.  My grandfather would drive his sporty convertable to ‘The Club.’

oh, I forgot I was selling Jesus. display next to me.

and when there are people in the room what do I listen to???

I always picture liv tyler in Stealing Beauty when i listen to this song

honestly, rocking out to angry girl music and editing sex scenes at a church conference was pretty hilarious.  I had a conversation with my stepfather involving burlesque, short films, shows, drinking and my cat which if overheard by the church ladies would paint me as a sinner.  And I like it!

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big brainzzzz?

Hello hello y’all, fear not, vegan zombies don’t want your brainzzzzz they simply demand grainzzz… GRAINZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

So this was the first year I’d been able to participate in the Ottawa Zombie Walk.  It’s not a protest, but the idea behind it is close to a Flash Mob.  Finding myself all dressed up covered in fake blood and shouting at the top of my lungs on the steps of Parliament without carrying a political placard I have to admit was a little bizarre… but So much fun.

I actually raced from a family event that day so I could be there on time to march through the Rideau Centre a la Dawn of the Dead style.  When my family asked, ‘Where are you going?’  I turned to them honestly point-blank style, ‘I have to go be a zombie now.  bye!’  not a regular conversation you’d have.  Same with texts with my friend reading, ‘We need to find blood!’

I didn’t have a chance to go to the pharmacy nor did I want to spend money on red paint so I started looking in my cupboards.  This is what I found.

makings of zombie blood...

Yes, so that would be Ketchup, BBQ sauce, chai tea, paprika and flour.  I found actually that squishing strawberries was one of the most affective ways to making it.  That soupy concoction on the left looks good, hey?

After a little research on the internet I demolished an old dress shirt.  It was surprisingly therapeutic and brought on this new feeling of childish glee I hadn’t felt in a long time.  I ripped it up, slashed holes in it, frayed the edges

final costume result- see that handprint?!

and then came the fun part.  I drag tea bags and potting soil all over it then went to town painting my hand with pasta sauce.  Truthfully, I’m convinced I was the best smelling zombie there.

I can tell you, flagging down a cab was hilarious.  When we finally found one he was off duty so when I raced up to him looking like this >> the cabbie screamed ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!’  walking around with blood dripping from your neck isn’t socially acceptable I guess.  And then the rest of the brigade arrived. 

Now for gratuitous zombie pics…

where we joined in- intense looking zombies, oddly enough waiting for traffic lights

photo by ming wu

morezombies!

zombie friends!

my zombie thumb got in the way, but look, ma, zombies!

photo by ming wu

oh and on parliament there were many zombies in agreement that there were ‘no brainzzz!’  Though there was zombie blood on its steps.

And that’s about it.  It was a HOOT running around the market dressed up like this.  tourists were into it and we got to freak out a bunch of kids (not meanly of course) but just yelling and screaming and walking drunk-like was a blast, and weirdly cathartic.  Don’t know if I’ll do it next year, but it was definitely fun!  Me and the other 600 odd zombies think so.

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So I ended up dressed as Dorothy for an event with the radio station the other day.  The photo is too funny not to post.

I also had my commercial radio debut via a screaming competition – we were opening a Halloween theme store.  The first five listeners to come in and scream better than me won prizes.  I still rocked it.

On another note, I am in the process of re-writing my resume to fit in band publicity and representation.

…and I saw my favourite band ever last night.

Got guestlist status too thanks to friends at the station.  Kind of bizarre seeing them in the building I spend 4 days a week in.  They were magical.

I’ve been listening to Stars non-stop since.

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interviewing The Fully Down in 2003 -Quebec

So I went to my parent’s place the other night and found my first novel (all handwritten, no title) from when I was 16. It’s all in different notebooks and is huge! The interesting thing is how much my style has changed since, though oddly enough I seem to be fascinated by love triangles as a theme. 

I’m much more formalized in my style of writing (thematics, structures, build-up). It made me realize the impact of my education and simply how being versed in a wide variety of literature helps with the overall product. So yeah, it’s cool. Not that my old book is bad, it’s just night and day difference.

Past articles in American Music Press Spring 2007 – published America only

And that’s a little bit of my history.

Cheers!

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Awake at Dawn Productions 2010

Hey guys

So first off, apologies for not updating more often. Since the initial post and admitted intention of working on the project, ‘I Wanna Work For the CBC’, life has thrown me some unexpected curveballs.

Since February I have:

- Changed careers
- Moved to a new apartment in an amazing part of town
- Experienced family trauma/sickness
- Post-poned schooling (again)
- Ended a serious relationship
- Adopted a ninja

So as you can tell, there has been some pretty dramatic changes, but truthfully they’ve all made me a stronger person. I haven’t been this happy in a really long time. The job I was ‘fired’ from honestly was a hilarious experience and you’ll enjoy reading about it based on the characters I worked with, (Rick-Mercer, Man-with-the-glass-eye, and Don Cherry all make appearances).

With my new work situation, in counseling, I have a lot of time to write in the afternoons, and I’ve taken advantage of it. I’m hard at work on my second book project of the year, tentatively entitled ‘Marty McFly’. Since shit hit the fan a while back, chasing people for real career advice wasn’t exactly my ideal, so of course I turned to writing fiction.

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INITIALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2010 on old site!

This week hasn’t been as productive in terms of actual writing and the week before I was bogged down with illness not unlike the Swine Flu, though not actually the Swine Flu.

The big news is- I started to conduct my first interviews! I’ve been in touch with some rather important people and the first to make a meeting was award winning and best-selling author, Mark Frutkin. (www.markfrutkin.com) Of course, with my luck, my voice recorder happen to die the morning of the interview, so there was a frantic dash to schtooples (thanks douglas coupland) to rescue it.

Mark was an excellent interview and has the most fascinating story as to how he became a writer. He had some very encouraging words for the book project and told me it undoubtedly should be submitted for major publication upon completion, though apparently I should be talking to publishers now just to peek their interest. Hello ego-boost!

I’ve said it before, but if it weren’t for this project, I would be seriously depressed. I’m currently in a secretarial type job that is most definitely not my calling. In listening to Mark talk about his own career, I became convinced that I am in fact taking all the right steps in my own writing career. Huzzah!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of American filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson (www.keverson.net) His work, a unique mixture of documentarian and montage shorts has been featured in innumberable film festivals around the world. I’m eager to talk to him more for the book, which he sounded interested in!

It’s funny, the more people I talk to about the book, the more I’m becoming dedicated towards the project. (and if I was to not do it, everyone would be asking, ‘what happened!?’)

In my own personal life, I finally bit the bullet and bought more boring muted suits for my ever conservative job circuit. I am starting another new job this week as a counselling centre intake worker. I’ve never done anything like this before in my life, but in the name of the book, I’m eager to drudge on.

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