Merry Christmas from the Gang!

Things are moving along here in Los Angeles, but next week we're all headed back to our respective homes for the holidays.

This evening, however, we spent a good deal of time setting up a monopod to get a nice Christmas photo. After four tries, we finally got it right. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.




HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Wifi in the sky!

Hello. You probably wouldn't believe it, but I am currently 36,000 feet in the air flying back to Los Angeles courtesy of American Airlines and Gogoinflight.com's WiFi service. Yes, I'm online and in the sky. Pretty freakin' awesome. I've already made two TURBULENCE references to Steve on iChat.



Only $13 for the entire 6 hour flight (but of course, laptop batteries don't last that long). It sure beats the inflight entertainment of FRED CLAUS. I can at least catch up my movie news, buy/sell stocks, and send some emails. Sweet.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving break.

hello seth, goodbye seth

Last week, I went to the airport to pick up everyone's favorite Henry - MySpace star Seth Kirschner.

Seth was visiting LA for various reasons (well, friends and business... two reason...) and we made sure to show him a good time.

By that, I mean, we watched "Swingers" then said, "Let's go to all of the places in 'Swingers.'"

This meant the Dresden, home of the scene in "Swingers" where Marty and Elayne sing "Stayin' Alive."

Here we are, with our friend Abbey...




(In the dark, I feel Seth and I look a lot alike. This is probably why he played a fake version of me.)



And here's Marty and Elayne...





The shots are dark because the Dresden is dark. But the Dresden is also AWESOME. We're planning on making it a regular hangout. I recommend it to everyone.

We bid farewell to Seth on Sunday, but had a great time hanging out with our friend from Astoria.

Thanksgiving is almost upon us. Patrick and Angel left yesterday and Brian leaves tomorrow morning. Happy Bird Day everyone!

from plushgun to cal state...

On Sunday night, we were invited by our good pal Dan Ingala (AKA: PLUSHGUN!) to the club Cinespace, where he was performing a show AND premiering his new music video for "Just Impolite." The show was great, as usual. Everyone must see Plushgun live. It's spectacular.

Then, yesterday, we were invited by Joe Ansolabehere to speak to his short film writing class at Cal State Fullerton. We had a great time discussing the making of "We Need Girlfriends," then went out to a local sports bar where we hung out with Joe and some of his students. They were all really big fans of the show and we were honored to be there.

A very special guest is coming to our apartment today. I'm picking him (or her?) up at LAX at 3:05. Then I'm showing her (or him?) around Los Angeles. More on that later!

P.S. According to the message boards, many a folk want to know what's going on with the WNG TV Series. Alas, we have no new news at this time. It's continuing to work its way through the CBS development process. Hopefully we'll have some news to report soon!

idiots organize dvds

After receiving our stuff yesterday, we set forth on what would be the greatest challenge of our move in...

ORGANIZING OUR MASSIVE DVD COLLECTIONS.

As you can imagine, this was quite a chore. It all started with a late night trip to Ikea, where we purchased three of their "FARK" shelves. Brian, Angel and Patrick quickly put them together, which resulted in Patrick building one the wrong way. Oh well. But once this space was cleared up, we spread our DVDs across the floor...





We quickly realized we had a lot of doubles, and even triples. For instance, we had three copies of the 16 disc "Superman: The Ultimate Collection." We also had triples of the entire run of "Arrested Development," "Predator," "Galaxy Quest," "The 40 Year Old Virgin," "Mallrats," "Die Hard," "Pleasantville," and many, many, many more, including "Big Trouble in Little China"...




We decided we'd only put one of each DVD on the shelves, and our doubles would go in our respective rooms. But the biggest challenge came when we arrived at one of our many quadruples. We even shot a little video to show the dilemma...



4 Indiana Jones, Not Indiana Jones 4 from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.


Finally, after hours and hours of setup, we organized our DVDs, wrapping up somewhere around 2:30 in the morning. Our apartment finally looked clean...








We did it!

our shit is FINALLY here

As you may remember from our earlier blogs, on October 21st we handed our boxes and boxes of shit over to a moving company. Today, finally, our shit came. We were happy campers...




We've been through such a journey these past couple of weeks, that I almost forgot what I had even brought with me from New York. As I unpacked the boxes and boxes of my shit, I realized how few useful things I packed. For instance, Brian and Angel had boxes and boxes of dishes and clothes. I had a few bowls and some spoons crammed in a bag with VHS tapes, and one small bin of clothing, then a bunch of boxes filled with comic books, VHS and DVDs. Angel described my room as the kids room. It was hard to deny when I opened up a box to find this...




Of course, Angel shouldn't have been making fun of me for my childish play things. Because he quickly opened up a box to find this monstrosity...


He's Doing it For Her from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Last night, we went to an advanced screening of the horror film "Trick 'r Treat." In our brief time in California, we've found that there are tons of advanced and test screenings, and they're super easy to get into.

So, last night we saw Trick 'r Treat. Patrick and I loved it. Brian and Angel liked it. But that doesn't matter. What matters is what happens afterwards. As we were leaving the theater, talking about the movie, we were stopped by a guy that said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm a big fan of the show." He knew who we all were and what we did on the show and was incredibly nice. While we've been recognized in New York before, it felt great to be recognized in this new town.

Sir, you made our night.

we own the night

Last week, Clark, one of our WNG: TV producers invited to a Halloween party in Hollywood. Since we'd just pulled into town, we thought it would be a great way to relax and meet people. So, on Friday, after a meeting with our agents, we headed to a nearby costume shop and picked up whatever remained on the day of Halloween. The pickings were slim, but Brian managed to find a toga, Patrick a muscle suit, and Angel a prisoners costume. I had my Robin Halloween costume packed, because I never leave home without it.

We made the drive over to West Hollywood from our North Hollywood apartment. The GPS told us it would take sixteen minutes. It took us over an hour. It was so bad that at one point we saw two guys dressed up as Fred and Shaggy walking down the street. A couple of miles up the road, as we were caught in gridlock, Fred and Shaggy walked past us again. 

As we arrived at the party location, we were surprised to find that the valets were no longer parking guests' cars because the streets were overcrowded. That left us to find our own spots. This proved difficult. We circled the streets, looking for spots, and coming up empty. There were thousands of people in costume walking the streets of Los Angels. At one point I saw a female Robin running down the street with a female Batgirl. Brian, Patrick and Angel encouraged me to get out of the car and run after her, but I can't imagine anything weirder than me in a Robin costume chasing a female Robin down the street. The circling continued...

After about an hour and a half of this, we decided there was no other option but to give up. We sadly drove back towards home. Then Angel remembered that our friend Karen had told him about another Halloween party in Burbank at Sardos, a bar best known for hosting Porn Star Karaoke every Monday night. (Self explanatory, right?) Karen said the bar would be packed. We pulled into the parking lot of Sardos and were surprised to find not many people in the parking lot. When we walked into the bar, we were surprised to find that, unlike us, most of the people in there weren't in costume. Angel texted Karen to find out where she was. It turns out the party was the PREVIOUS NIGHT. We ordered our beers and sat in the bar in defeat. We clearly did not own our first Hollywood party. In the parking lot of Sardos, we took this sad little photo...

price gauging!

Yesterday morning at 6AM, we were lead into our new apartment by the building manager. Now, there are some discrepancies in this new apartment. First of all, not all the rooms are the same size. One is clearly bigger, and it has its own bathroom with a shower, a tub and two sinks. There were two smaller rooms that share a bathroom. And one room that was medium sized, but has its own bathroom. So, we decided, in the name of fairness, to duke it out for the rooms we wanted by price gauging with each other. It got intense, as evidenced by this video...

Buying Patrick Out from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Finally, the rent on the smallest room went down cheap enough that I couldn't pass it up. But before I officially accepted it, I had to give it a brief once over...

Steve Goes Cheap from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Brian got the second smallest room, and then it was down to Patrick and Angel, duking it out over the price of the largest room. It got intense. So intense that we didn't know if the friendship was going to survive. 

Finally, Angel started to bend on the possibility of staying in the second largest room. But first, he had to determine if the room was big enough for him to sleep in. He made his determination in his own, Rod-esque way.

Brian Spoons Angel and Vice Versa from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

Finally, it was decided. Patrick was getting the biggest room, then Angel, then Brian, then me.

After a hearty Denny's breakfast, we headed over to Ikea to buy the proper furnishing to furnish our room. This ended up being quite the adventure. More on that tomorrow - After we've finished putting everything together.

leased

We found an apartment! We'll be living in a lovely four bedroom in North Hollywood, California. In celebration of this, I'm posting some photos from Vegas. I wish I could tell you more stories, but remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

First, I took a photo with this ridiculous statue of Siegfried and Roy, which was way too good to pass up.


Then, we saw this ad for Entertainer of the Year - DANNY GANS. Which of course made us ask the question, WHO THE HELL IS DANNY GANS?

Finally, we met up with our old New York friend, current Las Vegas showgirl, JENNY LEE!!

It was a great time.

And tomorrow morning, at 6:30AM, we move into our new place in North Hollywood. Things are looking up for the Ragtaggers!

welcome to la!

Yesterday, we went apartment hunting. We saw many great places, in areas like Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Silverlake. But one of these places stuck out.

It was a four bedroom for 1800 bucks. This is, of course, dirt cheap. When we arrived at the building, the woman in charge volunteered to give us a tour. While walking us around, she took us into the elevator. She started saying that the other elevator had some problems and it got stuck in between floors. Then she jokingly said, "Can you imagine that, how horrible it would be to be stuck in an elevator with two good looking young men."

TWO. GOOD. LOOKING. YOUNG. MEN.

This, of course, meant that two of us were good looking, and two of us were not. It was an odd thing to say. Why didn't she just say a few? Or a couple? Why did she specify TWO?

The entire day we argued who she meant by the two attractive young men. We figured Patrick Cohen was one of them. Then I immediately took myself out of the running. So it was down to Angel and Brian. Brian swears she was looking at him when she said it. Angel swears she must've meant him. The arguments continued. Please weigh in on the comments. Who are the two attractive ones?

We went into a Jamba Juice to discuss the apartments we saw. Patrick parked his car outside and was continuously worrying about if his car was in a legal spot. Turns out, it wasn't. Want to know how we knew? Because Patrick went outside to find his car being towed...



He managed to stop it just in time, but he ended up with a $300 ticket that we agreed to split four ways.

Welcome to Los Angeles. Population, Two Attractive Guys, Two Schlubs.

from the town of bedrock...

On the drive from Arizona to Nevada, we made a discovery out in the middle of the desert that was too good to pass up, even though we were on a time crunch. We saw this...



It was a camp ground made up to look like BEDROCK. We were blown away by how cool, and odd, this was. So, we quickly entered the main office and found out you could take your own tour of Bedrock for only four bucks. We plopped down our money and headed inside.

And for some reason, we took more photos in Bedrock than we did at any other time on our trip. More than the Grand Canyon, even! We're idiots. But we're well documented idiots. I've included some of my favorite photos below, but this is just the tip of the proverbial iceburg.

Say hello to Brian Amyrock, Steven Tsapelastone, Pat-rock Cohen and... uh... Angel Acevedo.

















As you can see, this Bedrock is a little old, and kind of falling apart, but that didn't stop us from fully, 100%, completely enjoying ourselves. We even slid down the dinosaur slide...


Dino Slide from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.

hello LA....

Hey everyone,

Well, this evening, around 6PM, we finally made it into Los Angeles. We're currently staying with our friends Ritchie and Jess and we'll be apartment hunting all day tomorrow. I'll put up the Bedrock photos soon, as well as the photos from Las Vegas. And hey, I'll probably keep updating this thing as we set ourselves up in Los Angeles. But for now, I am tired, and must sleep.

they don't call it the grand canyon for nothing...

After leaving Four Corners yesterday, we made sure to pose in front of the Welcome to New Mexico signs. It looked like this...




Our terrain had changed once again, from the cornfields of Iowa, to the flatlands of Nebraska, to the mountains of Colorado, to the Arizona desert. Now, this entire trip, Brian, Angel and Patrick have been giving me a hard time because I'm not impressed by nature. For instance, when we were driving through the Colorado Rockies, Patrick said, "Isn't that amazing?" and I said, "Meh, it's just a bunch of rocks." But, for some reason, the desert really took my breath away. Observe the pictures...








We pulled over to a nearby abandoned gas station to get more photos, when suddenly a tiny little cat approached us and followed us back to the car. It was cute...




The cat quickly hid underneath the car, blocking our path. We obviously didn't want to kill the cat. But Angel, thinking quickly, reached into his car and pulled out some beef jerky to lure the cat out with. It worked and we moved on to the Grand Canyon.

Again, it was absolutely wonderful. We posed for so many photos...







While climbing up the tower to get a better view, Patrick saw a rock formation in the distance. Patrick, a HUGE Superman fan, that has modeled his life after the character said, "I bet I could go out there and climb that."



I thought this was crazy. After all, that rock formation was way, way out there, and ridiculously dangerous to climb. I mean, it did overlook THE GRAND CANYON. Soon thereafter, Angel joined in and said, "I would try to climb that." Brian and I both agreed that we wouldn't try to climb it, but we moved on and forgot about the rock formation. Until this happened...



It's a guy... CLIMBING THE VERY ROCK FORMATION THAT PATRICK WANTED TO CLIMB. We stood there in awe, chatting with our fellow tourists about it, wondering if he would be able to do it, AND/OR get back down. I was convinced he was going to fall off the rocks and die. But he managed to reach the top...




We burst into applause and he raised his hands in victory. The best part is this guy was so nonchalant about it. He was the epitome of calm and cool.

After Grand Canyon, we ate lunch at a Wendy's in Arizona. As we were leaving, we saw a man on line that looked vaguely familiar. Guess who it was?

THE GUY THAT CLIMBED THE ROCK FORMATION.

For some reason though, we didn't talk to him or get a picture. We were idiots. This guy was our hero and we let him go.

But in the parking lot, in Arizona, in McCain country, we saw this...



It was a packed day, and there's STILL more to come. Remember...