who dat? contest.

(yo stee. i know
who dat?)


last game:

writer/director
amy heckerling

first correct answer:

jim graham


worse before better


I know. I know. I'm sorry. I've been off work since Wednesday. I shot part of this film I'm working on Thursday and Friday. All day. No time to write. No computer. Just locked on a one-room set doing the climax of the film over and over and over. Film acting is quite tiring. It's nothing like theatre, which can indeed be tiring but in a much different way. With six actors in this scene for nine pages of straight talky-talky, getting coverage of everyone for the whole scene without casting shadows and blah blah blah took forever. Thursday crawled by -- after numerous "holds" for airplanes and loud crows outside and lawnmowers; we got through it though, thank god. Or so I thought... So, I showed up Friday, getting no sleep the night before because I'm an idiot and had stuff to do, and the director sat us all down: we had lost the entire previous day due to a sound problem. No shit. All footage worthless. I thought I was going to kill myself. It was a stupid error but not so stupid that we couldn't chalk it up to bad luck (in other words -- it was preventable but no one was really to blame for causing it). But regardless, there's no better way to demoralize a whole cast and we felt it as we struggled to get it up for recreating the entire day's shots, plus Friday's planned shots, in ten hours. We finished, but with only creative uses of angles (as two of us couldn't come back the next day -- they therefore had to shoot all of my stuff and every single shot in which I might be in the background first, before they lost me. Frankly, I'm still a bit tired thinking about the project and had a long talk with the director, and my friend, today about just exactly what this little side project we're doing is for and how to make sure it's good and fun. During the course of that conversation we realized that we've been "working" together for so long now, that we rarely just hang out and talk as friends, even though we're very close. Ironically, I'd just realized that with another of my best friends from my comedy group who I almost only talk business with. The work is all great and despite not being able to keep my eyes open today, I'm very happy with where things are headed. However, I miss having down time and hang-out time. All work and no play...

Saturday night we closed out the second of our three shows. Again, we had a full house and everything went swimmingly. (Except for bruising or fracturing a rib during a death scene - I'm in a lot of pain today.) I'm having a lot of fun with these shows this time around. Part of it has to do with how tight they are as opposed to the looser quality of past shows. We also have a lot less conflict than before - conflict being a normal part of getting a group of funny (read: insecure) people together. After the show I went up and met a friend at a bar near my house. It was almost 1:30am but I went anyway, really wanting to see her. It's odd how some people can make you alternately extremely happy and then extremely annoyed and miserable. This person has that ability. Right now we're in the "happy" phase, but I'm on edge, waiting for the miserable and annoyed part to start again.

Sunday night after rehearsal and watching the new show Ed, (which was quite good; it was also weird to find myself with the time to watch a full hour show), I went and met two of the other MBTV writers for drinks. Both very cool chicks. And though I'm paying in terms of tiredness right now, I'm glad I went and got to meet them. It's good to know good people. Yes it is.

So this space is going to be extremely sporadic (if anything) again for the next week. Why? Well, here's what's happening: I clean the house and work on Road Rules tonight. Pamie arrives tomorrow and I take work off and we spend two days trying to find her an apartment. (There will probably be video games and drinking and movies and drinking and coffee and maybe food and more drinking in there as well...) Then I leave her in charge of the cat and head to visit my sister in Wisconsin for a few days. What was going to be a two-week vacation to both New York for fun and to see my sister, de-evolved into five days at my sister's (no NYC), because of my rehearsal schedule. Now, my comedy script having made it to the finals at the Austin Film Festival, this is what happens: I fly to Wisconsin, the next day I bus down to Chicago, fly to Austin. Rent a car. Spend most of Friday at the AFF meeting people and going to panels, alone. (My sole Austin friend will be in my apartment back in LA, remember?) Saturday we have the awards luncheon, then I hopefully spend the rest of that day meeting with people about my script(s), then Sunday morning ungodly early I fly back up to Chicago, and bus back to Madison by lunch time. I extended my trip by one day at the end (they only let you change the return trip, which makes no fucking sense to me) so I get to spend three days with my sister before coming back to my hopefully still alive cat and standing apartment. If Pamela finds a place early, I guess she's going to head back to Austin (to, well, starting packing), which would be fantastic because we could then hang in Texas. (A wonderful friend will take over the cat duties if that happens.) Otherwise, it's me and my rental car, a 6-pack of Shiners, and Motel 6, baby! I'm actually kind of excited to go. I loved Austin and obviously this is a cool reason to have to go. The head of the competition has been calling me and he read and really likes the script, so it'll be nice to meet him. I actually wish I could go for longer as there are tons of great panels and I get in free (as opposed to paying 700 bucks to get in.) All this travel and work-missing will bankrupt me, of course. The aftermath won't be fun.

Not only is the Austin jaunt making my vacation less vacation-y, the trip is filled with work, from recaps to preparing for our third show to rewrites I have to do on various things. Plus, software issues have forced me to begin typing out scripts into a newer program by hand. Sucks harder than you can imagine. Just sucks.

I'm glad to hear everyone had a good time at JournalCon. I would have loved to meet everyone and share beers and gossip. Maybe next year.

Speaking of "maybe next year," my fucking A's and Giants both made me so excited and then devastated in the course of one week. They were both beaten in the first round of the playoffs by the New York teams. Fucking hell. New York, you bitch.



COUCH WATCH:
DAY 22.

STATUS:
STILL ON CURB
(Tragedy! Someone stole the middle cushion today! Couch will never be taken now. Oh, the humanity!)

The Anna Nicole Smith Happy Song Corner

 
 
I'm in the sky tonight. There I can keep by your side. Watching the wide world riot and hiding out. I'll be coming home next year. Into the sun we climb. Climbing our wings will burn white. Everyone strapped in tight, we'll ride it out. I'll be coming home next year. Come on get on get on. Take it till life runs out. No one can find us now, living with our heads underground. Into the night we shine. Lighting the way we glide by. Catch me if I get too high, when I come down. I'll be coming home next year. I'm in the sky tonight. There I can keep by your side. Watching the whole world wind around and round. I'll be coming home next year. I'll be coming home next year. Everything's alright up here, when I come down. I'll be coming home next year. Say good-bye... speaking of which. Y'all, you know what hard work it is being rich? It is. It is. Why just today I went to Target to buy some bulk popcorn and beef jerky, and all I had was a hundred dollar bill. The girl looked at me like I was insane. She did. She did. And then she said she couldn't accept that large a demoninanation. Damn that President Lingkin, or whoever the hell is on that fucker.
 
  home   back   index   next   howl