My Website

For over four years I've been using my Mac Home Page for my website. I've been meaning to build my own website, but it wasn't until recently that I took a couple of online html/creating web pages courses so I could learn to do it myself.

I still have a lot of work to do, but I did finally create a new -- and temporary -- home page. You will see this new very basic page when you go to www.houseofhugsprod.com. (Before this URL would direct you to my Mac home page. ) Now, I will re-do this page as I used the most basic html to create it and would rather use style sheets to build my whole site. I just wanted to put up something for now.

You will also see that since we're getting free hosting, that it has that banner stuff on top of the page. Of course this is not very pretty, but, well, that's what it has to be at this moment.

Note that this page does have a link to bring you to my old/current website at http://homepage.mac.com/joycehepburnsdaugh/Personal5.html

Happy at Home now online

Sandwich's Zele a Hit in Mall Cop & more...

I'm always happy when anyone who acted in one of my films moves on and up to bigger and better things.

Zele Avradopolous, who played Claudia, the pushy HR woman in I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich is getting quite a name for herself as the feisty Victoria's Secret shopper in Paul Blart: Mall Cop who beats up Kevin James' character.

As we know, there have been a lot more Hollywood films done in the Boston area and that often provides local actors opportunities to get supporting and day player roles. So while, Zele may not be the first local actor to get an opportunity in a major feature film, she seems to be making more of a stir than the other have, after all, I haven't known of any other local actors having a Boston Globe article written only about them! I was quite excited to this article on Zele in last Saturday's paper. Be sure to check it out!

Note that the article also mentions Zele's organizing business, ZOrganize. Ahh, if I ever make more money I may need to hire her. I'm sure she's great at this, after all, she had a very professional and organized approach to working on Sandwich. When I worked with Zele I found her to be very honest and communicative -- and also a lot of fun!

And for the "more" part of this post, I was tickled today to receive a Google alert linking to an article in a Cook County (Illlinois) paper that mentioned Eddie's Winning Date among six football themed films to watch to gear up for the big game on Sunday. Bob Bong mentioned Eddie's in today's Southtown Star alongside major films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Eddie's has played in a two film festivals in Illinois -- Lake County Film Festival and Route 66 Film Festival, so I assume that's how Mr. Bong knows about it.

So, please check it out! The article does say that I also starred in the film as well as write and direct it. I sent an email to correct the part about my starring in it. The only acting I did in Eddie's was a one line voice over. Actually, it was only two words.

Anyway, it was just nice to have this mention in a newspaper article. After all Eddie's Winning Date was making it's major festival run about three years ago, although it did have screenings going up until last April. So when someone else brings it up somewhere, you feel like you breathed enough life into it to give it its own.

So thanks to Bob Bong and congratulations to Zele for her success in Mall Cop!

A Little "Jimmy's" on a Snowy Day

Here is Jimmy's House of Hugs. This one goes back several years now. I thought I'd finally post it and share it with you.

Click here to see the post I wrote about the film.

With the Angels

I wanted to take a moment to help promote a new web series, With the Angels, that my friend and star of Happy at Home, Sean Vincent Biggins, is in.

Here's the description of the show (taken from its youtube page):

Former Lonelygirl15 writer Mary Feuer tells the fish-out-of-water story of Taffy Simpson, a small-town Arkansas girl swimming in the freak-infested waters of Venice, California.

The series stars Jamie Tisdale as Taffy, whom I find absolutely adorable. Usually I find that actors portraying southern characters come off as fake and one dimensional but I find Tisdale's performance very honest and real. Sean plays Trey, a Hollywood writer who is a neighbor of Taffy's. Sean, well, he's always a pro.

If you don't have much of an attention span, well, these episodes are anywhere from under a minute to seven and a half minutes. I hope you'll check them out!

The 80s

The Pointer Sisters - New Music - More Music Videos

Jeremy and I finally saw "American Psycho" last night. We loved the movie, but after watching some of the DVD special features, we were annoyed by the message that the 80s were run by selfish, shallow people who made money doing nothing. It represented more how East Village artists viewed the 80s than how it really was. I think people who were clubbing in New York in the 80s don't necessarily have (and actually, most likely don't) a more objective point of view than the rest of America.

I'm just tired of people thinking that money is bad and that anyone who has it didn't earn it. Sure, some people are born rich, were handed down money and can be downright spoiled, but most people who have money actually worked for it. And if they didn't earn it themselves, as long as it wasn't obtained legally or unethically, well, then, it's none of my business. Look, I don't have much money, myself, but I can't be bothered being jealous of rich people. Spending energy hating them doesn't make my own bank account any bigger. Instead, my husband and I are just plugging away trying to fulfill our own dreams, doing what we can to earn our own money, and not looking for other people to be forced to give it to us.

I think this mentality is actually what has helped me make all my films. I never thought that anyone owed me anything in getting my films done. Now, I've looked at other people who have been handed money to get their films made and I think, well, if they can get the money from someone else, good for them. (The only thing that bothers me is if someone pretends that they funded it all on their own.) It's not their problem that I've had to fund my films on my own and have yet to afford a high end production. But I've been fortunate to have a husband who has helped me in many ways as well as have many other people who have stepped up to contribute their talents as well. Not to mention that Dad bought lunch for the cast and crew when we filmed I Just Want to Eat My Sandwich. Whatever people want to help me with, I just make sure that I do my best to make them happy in return, so that they feel good in helping me out!

My point is, I took on my films as my complete responsibility, and that whatever other people did to help me out was a gift, which drove me to do the right thing by everyone and make sure that they saw a return in the work they put in for me.

But back to the 80s -- in this decade of "greed", charitable contributions including corporate giving, were way up. So with more money, more donations to charity are made -- hmmmm. Oh, maybe I've giving away some of my political beliefs, but this is just a little food for thought, folks... (Keep in mind, I didn't always think this way.)

Now, at the time, I really didn't have much awareness of anything outside my world, because, for most of it I was a teenager, spending most of my thoughts on boys, theater, school, and dancing to the latest songs by Madonna, Kool and the Gang and the Pointer Sisters.

I was a total dancing fool. And "Dare Me" was one of my favorite songs. So when I came across the video on the MTV website, I just had to post it.

Hey, the 80s were fun. Really. OK, whatever your views are, I just hope that you'll play the video and do a little dance for me -- or for you.

Happy Halloween

Here are a few pictures from Halloween in 1977.

Mom and youngest bro, Stephen.

My middle brother, Michael.

Bill and me.

Happy Halloween. All I can think of is this upcoming election. Dare I risk revealing a political belief and say what scares me most this year? Because I tell you, the potential results of this upcoming election frighten me.

Eh, I'm too scared to reveal myself. Maybe someday.