Joshua Zamrycki's Weblog

I have had my email address at Yahoo forever. My user name is joshzam. I have recently considered changing my email account to Google and getting a gmail email address. I've also considered investing in Android and moving my entire life over to Google, but that's another story.

Anyway, the only reason I hadn't made the switch as of yet is the same reason why I still have a bank account at the extortionate La Caixa - I'm lazy. So I decided to just do it. I applied for a gmail account with the same username - joshzam. But it was already taken!

I thought that I had maybe already opened the account myself one night at some ungodly hour and, like when I ordered business cards for myself online last week at 3am, I didn't remember ever doing it. I tried all my passwords and I couldn't log in. I guess it wasn't mine. So whose was it?

I sent an email to this gmail account simply saying, "Do I know you?". Two weeks later, I receive this reply:

Haha... I dont think so. Very curious, uh?

Josué.

His name is Josué Zamora and he's got my gmail address!

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Oh my god. This is one of the best things I've seen in a long time. Keep in mind that this comes right after I saw two of the most amazing political internet videos I've seen all campaign (but not the best). Anyway, this one beats them all.

I couldn't explain it better than Cracked:

The American Original:
In 1966, the Walt Disney Company released a 26-minute short about A.A. Milnes famous bear searching for honey. An icon and merchandising empire was born.

The Foreign Rip-Off:
In 1969, Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm released an 11-minute short about A.A. Milnes famous medved searching for med.

Why It's Better:
Where do we begin? First off, the Soviet Winnie is way more macho - the Ruskie version replaces the American Winnie's foppish lilt with some hard, incomprehensible Cyrillic barking. He could be screaming about honey. He could also be screaming about Ivan Drago. Who knows? All we can surmise is that this cartoon was probably animated at gunpoint in a gulag somewhere.

Also, the crudely drawn marker backgrounds remind us of Worker and Parasite from The Simpsons.

This is especially wonderful after being forced to watch the American Original almost every day for the past four months. The Soviet version is so close to the original that I actually understood most of it. I now know how to say "Tut tut, it looks like rain" in Russian!

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fall has fallen upon us so I'd better clear out all of the summer photos still lying around waiting to be shared.

And video!

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today marked the first time that Emily has told us about a dream that she had. Jan was there when Emily woke from her afternoon nap and immediately started telling her all about it. Something about a spider doing all sorts of interesting things and a birthday cake that mommy had just made for her. Surprisingly, It seemed like she had grasped the concept of dreaming. A very strange milestone.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 1:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was a full-time actor, I would go to castings, network, send out my headshot, cv, and voice reels, and actively look for more work. That's what actors do. But now that I have a "real job", I don't do any of that anymore - now I just take the jobs that find me.

Here's just a few of the jobs that have found me recently:

Asha

I get to play a sweet little nerdy hypochondriac named Roc in this charming cartoon for 8 year-olds. Still in production, I think we've just finished the first half of the season.

Paintball

Probably the most challenging acting job I've ever done. All my dialog was in aggressive, in-your-face, at the top of your lungs Polish. Very difficult to memorize and execute under pressure. And then I got beat up and stabbed in the stomach three times. This one should be in the cinemas in the next year.

Sincopats

I get to play a cheeky street-wise teenage rapper named Cop in this slick cartoon series. It's in the Cannes Animation Festival at the moment. Let's hope it finds a buyer.

HP videos

I recently shot my second video for HP. Check it out in the "How-to videos" section of this web page. No involuntary arm swinging this time!

Les Veus del Pamano

I just filmed my first day (of two) for this Catalan TV movie. I get to play a Jewish refugee who escapes from Poland and hides with his family in the Spanish Pyrenees during the time of Franco. Though the film is in Catalan, my lines are evenly distributed between Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish. I've gotta let my hair grow until my next day of shooting in November. A good friend of mine was cast as my wife and the two actors who play my kids are a hoot. Bonus!

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I watched the first season of Heroes and I liked it. I never thought it was great. The production values were always very high, but the acting was poor, the characters were trite, and the writing was often painfully bad. But I kept coming back for more. Like junk food. The premise had me hooked and I recognized all of the amazing potential inherent in the basic idea. And in the end, I guess I enjoyed it. Up until the last episode. That really sucked.

I watched the second season and felt my brain atrophy while my hopes of an amazing turnaround were crushed by uninteresting tangents, weak and useless characters, and again some of the worst writing on television. But I kept coming back. I masochistically stuck it out through the whole season. Right to the bitter and convoluted end.

I just watched the first two episodes of the third season. I will not be watching any more Heroes. I feel myself getting tense and angry at the abysmal writing. There really is no excuse! It really bothers me. So I'm done. I've got a few months until Lost starts up again so, as soon as I finish the sixth season of Sopranos, I think I'll finally see what all the hype over Firefly was all about...

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here's a little note to all you cat burglars in Barcelona: we're going to Florida in December!

Not for the Chanukah/Christmas/whatever end of the month. No, we're bucking the trend and heading over for the beginning, before all the good December is used up. That's right, we'll be flying into Miami on December 3rd and then we fly out on the 13th. That's 10 full days of sultry Sunshine State shenanigans!

Here's a spreadsheet I created to help find the best deal on flights:

Let's see who'll be the first person to guess with which company I booked our flight (bonus points for figuring out the color codes).

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

After a wonderful round of auditions (and the subsequent necessary call-backs), I finally cast my next play and rehearsals promptly began the next day. That was a little over a week ago. I am currently freaking out over the realization that we only have about 12 more rehearsals before we open on November 22. That's cutting it a little close. With only four more rehearsals, I would be sooo much more relaxed. Oh well, it'll be fine. It'll have to be.

I've got a 3-phase plan of attack to get this show up on its feet. Phase 1 started last week with the blocking (very easy for the scenes that take place in a car). Phase 2 starts in two weeks and will see the actors completely off book and that's when we can really find out who these people are and why the heck they're doing what they're doing. Phase 3 is where we run the show over and over and over again, working out the kinks and fine-tuning the intricacies, and will play out during the final two weeks of rehearsals. Thank goodness I have such a great cast to work with (it really makes all the difference in the world). There will be a few familiar faces on the stage along with a few fresh ones. All equally insane. Just how I like them.

You can find more information about the new show and crew at our recently updated web site (thanks, Derek!). Tickets go on sale in another three weeks. Three weeks?! Jeez, the actors don't even know their lines yet! I haven't designed the tickets or flyers yet! We haven't thought about the costumes or built the scenery yet! No, it's OK. It'll have to be.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been over a month since we returned home from our trip to Italy this summer. Such a good trip! I told you all about it in a previous post, but I never got around to posting the photos and videos. And for that I am sorry. It all sounded so picturesque, didn't it? It was.

Thank you a million times over, Chris and Fede and Sammy! It was so nice spending time with you and really getting to know your family and your new home. You are amazing hosts.

Here are some photos:
Browse through them here
Or sit back and enjoy a slideshow here

And here are some videos (of Emily dancing):

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 1:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)