KRISPY KREME RULES!
Donut lovers in the south bay can rejoice because Krispy Kreme has opened a store at the Rengstorff Shopping Center in Mountain View, just off the #101 freeway. Yum.

ED'S YEAR-END SCHEDULE
I'll soon be making an around-the-world trip! Yes! My itinerary includes speaking and teaching at Animation 2000 in Singapore Oct. 26 - Nov. 3rd (see the cool web site at: www.animation.org.sg) after which I'm scheduled to teach a 3-day Acting for Animators workshop in Frankfurt, Germany. (for info, contact Jens Kavitz at JT-Kirk@t-online.de)Then I'll be flying down to Rome, Italy for some r&r with my wife before returning to San Francisco and my Bay Area classes on Nov. 19th. (Note to current students: Don't worry, I'll make certain you have plenty to keep you busy while I'm away! And of course tuition payments are suspended when class is not in session.)

ARTICLE ABOUT ACTING FOR ANIMATORS IN "3-D DIRECT NEWSLETTER "
Many thanks to multi-talented PAT JOHNSON for including me in her marvelous article about acting for animators. Check it out: http://www.3dgate.com/community/000828/0828pjohnson.html

PLAN AHEAD FOR NOVEMBER Film Demo WorkshopES
The Film Demo Workshopes in San Francisco are going great! Everybody is rehearsing scenes that will ultimately be taped on digital video, edited and transferred to VHS for demo reels. They're also working on dynamic audition technique for movies and TV and will soon get hands-on with the editing process itself. It is a full and exciting agenda, no kidding.

Director Gregory Burke and I are going to start two new Film Demo Workshopes in November. A Tuesday night class will begin November 21st and a Wednesday night class on November 22nd. We'll get in four or five sessions before we break for the holidays and will resume after New Year's. Tuition is $575, class is limited to ten students. To reserve a space, you must make a deposit of $100. For more info, contact me at edhhooks@best.com, or give a call.

THE FLOW OF TIME AND MONEY....It is my good fortune to attract students who are frequently super-stars in parallel orbits. One such fellow is Lloyd Watts. That would be Doctor Lloyd Watts, as in Ph.D. He's CEO of Applied Neurosystems Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup that builds computers based on the human brain. No, seriously, that's what he does. Lloyd, who is currently working with me in the Palo Alto scene study workshop, announced recently that he is himself offering a seminar entitled "The Flow of Time and Money" on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 7:45pm at the Hyatt Rickeys hotel in Palo Alto. This seminar uses easy-to-understand pictures to explain what wealth is, to illustrate the relationship between time and money, and shows how to break out of the middle-class traps. All this wisdom costs a paltry $15, and maybe it will make you rich. I'd be there myself if I wasn't teaching that night. For more information, please see http://www.lloydwatts.com/wealth.shtml .

SPECIAL NOTE ON COMMERCIALS WORKSHOPS
Due to my upcoming travel plans, there is a longer gap than usual between scheduled commercials classes. The good news is that there is still plenty of space remaining in the upcoing Sept. 23-24 class, and I'd love it if you'd join me. Plenty of camera time, personal feedback and career guidance. See you there!

UPCOMING CLASSES
Commercials Workshop -- Sept. 23-24, Dec. 2-3
Scene Study (San Francisco) -- Mon, 7-10:30pm, ongoing
Scene Study (Palo Alto) -- Thurs, 6:30-10pm, ongoing
Acting for Animators -- Saturday, July 22
Film Demo Workshop #1- Tues, Nov. 21st, 7-10:30
Film Demo Workshop #2- Wed. Nov. 22nd, 7-10:30

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
TAKU HIRAI (s.stdy & comml -'00) shot his first commercial, for Mazda MPV. JIMMY FREEMAN (all classes - '99) booked an episode of "Nash Bridges". STEPHEN MCHENRY (s.stdy - '00) appears in the Western Stage production SUMMER STOCK, by Sy Gomberg, music and lyrics by Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, and Y.A. Harburg. Fri, Sat & Sun Sept 1-17. JEFFREY DEAN (f/tv-'00) shot an industrial for Gallo and is in three independent films, "Never Night", "Sweet November" and "Borderline". FRED OCHS (comml - '98) is in the Marin Shakespeare production of "Merchant of "Venice, currently running. SARA BETTS (f/tv - '00) is featured in an indie film entitled "Enamoured" and has been cast in "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" for the Palo Alto Players. ANNIESCOTT ROGERS (s.stdy - '95-'96) is in three indie films, "Enamored", "Pink Eye" and "Above the Noise." JAMES ANN FARRELL (s.stdy - '00) landed two indie films, "Exposing Naked Space" and "Divisadero". RAY RENATI (s.stdy - '99) is playing Captain Brice in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" from Sept. 21 to Oct. 21 at Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos. PHIL SHERIDAN (f/tv - '97) is a grumpy old man in "1061 Knapsack" co-produced by Copious Films & Steakhouse Productions. JOHN MCMULLEN (comml -'00) plays a TV producer in a show entitled....ahem...."TV Sucks My Ass", running through Sept. 15th at The Eighth Street Studio in Berkeley. He says it is about liposuction. Call (510) 464-4468 for reservations! JEANETTE HARRISON (f/tv- '99) stars as Rosalind in "As You Like It", playing through Labor Day at Mill Valley's Old Mill Park. She also recently shot a two-person short, "Zingaroo" and recorded a v/o for Muse Productions, an Internet entertainment content provider. ROCKY LA ROCHELLE (f/tv - '00 is in two indie features, "Enamored and "Negative Exposure." JAXY BOYD (all classes - '94-'97) recorded v/o tags on an industrial for Wal-Mart and did a radio spot for Chevy's. AWELE (comml-'00) performs her one-woman show, "The Black Women Did It" at the AfroSolo Arts Festival 2000 on Thursday, August 24 at 8 pm and Sunday August 27 at 7 pm, $16, Theater Artaud, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco, 415/621-7797. T.J.PIERCE (s.stdy-'00) will appear in Multi Ethnic Theatre's "Twelve Angry Jurors" at the Next Stage, Gough at Bush St, opening at the end of October for a 4-week run.

CRAFT NOTES #1
"Digital Actors vs. Human Actors"

A rumor about Al Pacino's next movie flew through the Internet last week. The word was that his next leading lady would be 100% computer generated. As it turns out, the creation of a virtual woman is part of the plot of the movie, but the producers are not going to create a digital leading lady to play opposite Pacino himself.

Even if a producer wanted to cast a computer-generated actress, it would be impracticable to do so. In the first place, the technology to create a believable virtual human is not here yet - nor is it likely to ever be; in the second place, even if it were here, it would cost much more to create a digital woman than it would to hire the real deal. Digital technology can be used to create background extras for big crowd scenes ("Titanic", "Gladiator") but lead performers do not need to fear losing roles to 3-D people.

The reason that computer-generated actors will not replace human actors can be found in Aristotle's "Poetics." There, he speaks of mimesis, the way we humans copy the behavior of one another. Mimesis is fundamental to drama and all of acting. Actors copy the behavior of their characters, and the audience relates. When we recognize the behavior of a character on stage as similar to our own, we feel psychologically visible. In life, babies learn to wave bye-bye by copying mom. A novice tennis player learns to play better by watching and copying the stance and racket techniques of a pro. Mimesis is fundamental to human life. Regardless of how technically excellent computer art may become, humans will never relate to computer-generated characters in the same way they relate to human actors. There necessarily is an extra mental step involved when you watch animation. It is not so easy to suspend disbelief and give yourself over to the pull of empathy.

CRAFT NOTES #2
San Francisco Arts Emergency

Big trouble is brewing in the San Francisco arts community. Internet prosperity is forcing up rents, and the computer industry is squeezing art and artists out. Studio space for dance and theater companies is disappearing rapidly. If something isn't done soon, we will start noticing the evacuation of artists to other cities. This is a very serious situation for those who care about the arts. The cost per foot of commercial space in San Francisco has risen from $2 per foot to $4.50 per foot in the past year or so. In the South Bay, where I live, office space is going for $12 per foot, and residential apartment vacancies are .03 percent as of a month ago.

If current trends continue even for the next two or three years, I worry that we will begin to witness a local decline in the availability of quality arts training and in the numbers of theater/dance productions. The cyber age is a wonderful thing, it's true, but if the arts disappear, all the new wealth in the world will not save this culture from ruin. Money alone should not be the highest value of a civilized society.

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