Long time, no write. Why? Because I was too busy doing nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. My week off was pretty packed for an invalid.
Saturday (Christmas) I ventured out to Dom's sister's house for festivities. I was still pretty whipped at that point and spent most of the day in her guest bed with a migraine. After sleeping for approximately 20 hours, I woke up Sunday feeling fairly refreshed and Vicodin free. That night, I was visited by the lovely Keely girls and their spouses.
Monday and Tuesday night we had meetings for the movie.
Wednesday was my party day. I went out to the Comet that evening with Jacob, Andrew, Sherwood and my old friends from Tacoma, DJ and Robert. We sang karaoke and I drank what is probably more cider than a person recovering from surgery should. I sang “Say It Ain't So” by Weezer for the first time and it got a pretty good response. I also did my old standard “November Rain”. Andrew sang an AWESOME version of “Double Vision” by Foreigner. We took LOADS of fun pictures which can be seen here. It was really good to see DJ (who goes by Danny now, but I can't bring myself to call him that) and Robert!
After things started to get weird at the Comet, (annoying girls and boys singing dumb songs…5 people singing a solo song at a time) Jacob, DJ and I took a drive in Robert's Grandpamobile. After a brief stint at Dick's, we drove through Volunteer Park and were amazed by the incredible view of the space needle which was almost COMPLETELY obscured by a thick fog. It very much resembled a spaceship taking off (or at least what I imagine one would look like). Very cool. So Robert parked and DJ and I got out to get a closer look. We walked down toward the fenced-in reservoir and were only there a matter of minutes before we heard this young, funny voice shout “Hey you kids, what are you doing down there!” We turned to see a bright flashlight shining at us. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. But DJ said “I think he's serious”. That's when I realised that a young rookie cop on park patrol had found us. “Come up here and take your hands out of your pockets” he demanded. “What were you doing down there?” I said we were just looking at the view, which is true. Did he NOT see the view? It was amazing. “Do you see the flashing lights?” I didn't. “Do you have any ID?” he asked. I told him it was in the car. Then a bull-dyke cop, also very young, shouted at us “Do you realise that you are trespassing? You could go to jail for this”. I apologized and said that we didn't know. I asked if they needed to see my ID. The woman responded “No, we just need you to leave”. So we did.
When we got in the car, Jacob told me their side of the story. They had just seen a group of kids bolt, when the cops pulled up and surrounded Robert's car. Jacob began to look for his seatbelt. One of the cops shouted “Guy in the back, stop reaching”. (HA!) Then they looked at Jacob's ID and asked if anyone else in the car was from California. (?) All we wanted to do was look at the view! It totally slipped our minds that the park is off limits and that a delinquent location like Volunteer would be teeming with rookie cops. This was my first brush with the police (besides running away from busted parties in college) and I declare it to be…HILARIOUS.
Friday we had our makeup test and snow test. The makeup test went well. The snow test didn't. Our “snow” looked like Styrofoam. (Which I suppose isn't surprising since it IS styrofoam). We are getting “smaller” snow so hopefully that will look better.
We also partied like it was 2005 at the Brunswick’s New Years Eve party. It was so much fun, it almost made me forget that I spent Friday afternoon in the emergency room with a UTI. I would have gone to the clinic but they were all closed on account of it being New Years Eve. And, of course, my insurance is making me pay my ass' weight in gold for it. I won't go into how much my insurance (Healthnet) sucks. Let's just say that they make me pay for everything and cover very little. Meanwhile, if I were a man on this plan and I wanted Rogaine, I would only have to pay my $15 copay.
Saturday and Sunday were mellow, as I rested up to come back to the big pile of work waiting for me here at the office.
And that brings us up to date. This week will be very busy both with work and the movie. We are shooting in less than two weeks!!! And now, back to the grindstone!
out from the foot
work smart not hard w/automated home bus. babel
WEEKEND RECAP
Friday I rode down to Portland with the office crew for the annual X-mas party (which I missed last year to see Return of the King with the gang). I didn’t think it would be TOO bad. I was just annoyed that I was going to get back to Seattle so late. See, everyone else decided to stay down in the PTLD for the weekend, so I booked a train to get back.
We got to the restaurant and I was IMMEDIATELY handed a glass of champagne so I thought things might be ok. We received our bonus checks (mine was a nice little chunk, but sadly, it’s already spent because the hotel in London charged my credit card IN ADVANCE for our stay. Stupid online budget hotel bookers!). We also each got these letterman’s jackets with our names and the company logo on them. They were obviously EXTREMELY expensive. However, I (nor anyone else in the office, I don’t think) would NEVER wear them. For one thing, the cut is just all wrong. They are also made of HEAVY wool and leather and mine is GIGANTIC on me. I was somewhat offended because the Lil D. (who is of small build) got an extra small jacket and I got a normal one (which was too big for me). Now, I know I don’t weigh 80 pounds like booty-less Lil D. But I am not the heffer that they apparently took me for. So even though I don’t intend on wearing the jacket, I was still offended.
Anywho, we got our lunches (which everyone around me agreed were pretty bland for an upscale establishment). The waitress was very nice, however, and made sure my champagne glass was full at all times.
We did our White Elephant exchange. It seems like these days, most offices try to make the gifts nice anyway. But not our office. Most of the gifts were pretty bad. (i.e. an empty Starbuck’s card, a HIDEOUS and somewhat disturbing Halloween ornament which involved a bare-bottomed witch, and the “Charles Schwab’s Guide to Getting out of Debt”). I picked the witch ornament first but them swapped for a ceramic elephant mug.
Around 3:00, people were pretty drunk and talking of hitting the strip club. I was taken to the train station to make my 4:00 departure. Upon arrival, I discovered that my train was hideously delayed. So much so that they recommended I be put on the 6:15 train, rather than wait for my train to arrive. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. I was lugging around this stupid, heavy Letterman jacket, a ceramic elephant mug and a beer I stole from the party, all of which were quite heavy. I wandered a few blocks and found a coffee shop. I drank some caffeine and tried to sober up. While I waited, I read the Portland free weekly (who’s name escapes me) which is EERILY (and not unintentionally, I’m sure) similar to the layout of The Stranger. Turns out Stephen Humphrey, the I heart Television guy, is the editor their. They also feature movie reviews by Sean Nelson and Bradley Steinbacher. They have a “last days” type column and an I Anonymous, as well as Strange Love and…a recommendations page!! I wonder how much Portland likes being the smaller, less pretentious twin brother to Seattle.
Back at the train station, my train departed at 6:30. By this time, my drunkenness was gone and I was just tired and cranky. I was crankier still when I found out the movie on the train was The Princess Diaries 2. I watched it anyway, of course, and made faces or horror to no one as the dialog became more and more ridiculous. The things that John Rhyse Davies had to do and say were truly horrifying. But, like a gruesome train wreck, I could not tear my eyes away from the carnage. When it was over, there were still TWO HOURS left of my journey. I spent them listening to Patton Oswalt’s two hour, inebriated rant on CD, which only made me more irritable because, hilarious though he is, I was tired and vulnerable and therefore got swept up into his drunken rage. By the time my train arrived in Seattle, I was ready to fight anybody that looked at me crossways.
Now, I know that travel by train is romantic. This is true in Europe where the trains run on time (and frequently) and the scenery is lovely. But I now OFFICIALLY HATE Amtrack. As far as I’m concerned, trains are just another of countless things that the Americans stole from Europe and ruined.
Saturday
Since my Friday rant is long and bitter, I will try and run though the rest of the weekend quickly. Saturday morning, we had a makeup meeting. I think it went well. Our guys seem to know what they’re doing and are as excited about decapitations as we are. Unfortunately, poor Faye, who is usually just as bloodthirsty as the best of them, was having trouble this day. She has been deathly ill and was still ailing pretty badly on Saturday. You know a girl is sick when she can’t even enjoy pictures of people with horrific face wounds!
Saturday night, Dom and I met Ryan at the Nite Lite. We rocked the juke box, ate disgustingly greasy food, and saturated our hair and clothing with cigarette smoke. It was a terrific time! The only downside was that Gene was meant to meet us and, by the cruelty of fate, it didn’t happen. You see, when you enter the Nite Lite, you can go right, into the frat boy and loud music den, or left into the quiet bar fly and pool table room. We choose to go left. Gene went right, didn’t see us, and then TRIED to go left. A very surly bouncer told him “There’s nothing over there” and Gene left. I don’t know what his problem was, but I hope the frat boys give that bouncer and EXTRA hard time next Saturday.
Sunday
Yoga (last one till after surgery), housecleaning, and then off to the Smithinghams Holiday Party. There was food, drink and delightful company. We walked through the Griswaldian Spectacle that is Candy Cane Lane, pet a sleepy puppy, and tended to the wounds of a drunk girl who’s head met a tree it didn’t like. In short, a wild success!
was something unprecedented, unnatural
Last night I felt pretty awful (probably from eating too much cookie dough as I did some holiday baking), but I forced myself to go to yoga anyway, as I don't know how long I will be out of commission after surgery. I am really glad I did. I've never been a competitive person as far as sports are concerned. Probably because I was never GOOD at any sports. (Or any physical activity, really. Having gimpy knees will do that to you). But I have to say that I LOVE it when these skinny girls in skimpy little bikinis show up to yoga for the first time and just DIE. Yesterday there were two such girls in class. They were struggling through the standing positions and they had to lie down for most of the second half. Our teacher came over to make sure they were ok. Meanwhile, even though I was pretty nauseous, my balance was in top form and they were actually looking at me to see how to do the positions. It didn't hurt that the teacher gave me several compliments on my form. I was eating it up with a spoon. Take that, skinny girls who were probably picked first in gym class! I felt so tough! So I'm telling you, Bikram Yoga is THE “sport” for gimps.
And now, as promised, I have a link to the second batch of pictures from the fundraiser. Click for the kind of excessiveness that only a drunk photographer can produce. I apologize for the fact that most of the pictures are of me. Jacob was pretty hammered and was taking pictures of whatever was in front of him. That happened to be me and Andrew's friend Chris. I've even edited out a good number of them. So when you're getting sick of my drunk face, remember…it could have been worse.
Countdown to Operation Deflation: 11 days.
that the cat's Browning
Gonna go BACK IN TYME!!
Since I have time to blog now when nothing is happening, I am going to talk about last week when stuff was happening but I didn't have time to blog. So there. Now…let's see how much of last week I remember.
So I spent most of last week hurriedly dressing up the Old Red Hook Brewery for the fundraiser with the very capable and wonderful crew of Snow Day. Meep led us all with her amazing x-mas decorating skills and hundreds of lights purchased from Target. In the end, I think we made that stink-hole look pretty kick-ass!
Friday I left work early to first go to my “pre-op” appointment and then to do last minute prep at brewery. I went in to my appointment a little nervous and left feeling a lot better about the surgery. Not that I was having doubts about it. Just that surgery is always stressful, even if you know it will help you. (And I consider myself somewhat of a surgery veteran, whatwith the two knee surgeries and that hardcore oral surgery it took to get my wisdom teeth out). They assured me that they wouldn't overdo the anesthesia which is comforting because last time I got General Anesthesia, I took to it VERY badly. They also told me that what I'm having done (liposuction instead of the choppy chop type) is a lot easier to recover from and won't hurt as bad. The downside to that is that I only get 30 Vicodin. So I guess we won't be having those Vicodin parties. But who am I to complain about less pain? The one thing they told me that was somewhat disappointing was that I wouldn't notice results right away. In fact, I will probably be BIGGER for as long as a MONTH due to the swelling. So I guess I have to postpone that major bra shopping trip. I can't wait to see what kind of a freak of nature I will look like with EVEN BIGGER breasts. Probably something like this:
I do have stories from the fundraiser itself but I'm hoping I'll be able to let the pictures do the talking. I should get the rest of them sometime this weekend.
“LOST” SPOILER ALERT:
They ALMOST got me last night. It was the last episode before sweeps so I knew there had to be a big cliff hanger. I remember reading that (for some reason) Charlie, Jack and Kate were all safe from being killed off this season, but that ONE main character WOULD die before season's end. So when I watched Jack beat the crap out of Charlie's lifeless body for what must have been 5 minutes (which converts to at least half an hour in TV land time), I thought Charlie was gone and I began to wonder if I would even watch the show anymore after that. I would still have Sayid (Rowr!) but Dominic Monaghan was the whole reason I started watching to begin with. Furthermore, I can't take much more trauma of people killing off my favorite characters. (I'm looking at you, Joss!) And then Jack REALLY starting hitting Charlie and he woke up in a gasping coughing fit. So now poor Charlie is TOTALLY traumatized because his new girlfriend has been kidnapped, his chest is extremely bruised and he probably has some brain damage from being dead that long. (Which is why he can only speak in short sentences). :)
I can't wait till after sweeps!!!
later a sweating silver
I’m back!
For those of you that don’t know, I was in Phoenix for 2 days on my very first business trip. I was being trained for my day job. They were all very nice there and they fed me silly on good food. I also got to stay in the Ritz Carlton (and realised that I MUCH prefer staying in a mid-low budget hotel. They may have nice mattresses in the Ritz but they charge you for EVERYTHING. For $200 a night, I want some free tea or coffee, at least. A bottle of water was $5!). But at least now I know I’m not missing anything when I live it up at the Days Inn for $60/night.
I haven’t flown in a long time. (Well, not a LONG time…but long for me). And now I have an unshakable feeling every time I get on an airplane that I am about to be stuck on a mysterious island with these people. Of course, I would probably actually have to fly over WATER (and/or the Bermuda triangle) to crash on an island. Unfortunately, on my island, there probably wouldn’t be so many delicious and enigmatic characters. OR an Iron Giant. Damn you, TV for giving me such high expectations about freak accidents!
I am very tired. Of COURSE when I arrived back there was a giant pile of work on my desk. And guess what, I’m not doing any of it right now! Ha!
Work is boring. On to other topics.
The good news: The fundraiser was a BLAST! Thank you for everyone that helped and attended and partied their hearts out. I was pretty stressed for about half the evening and then the wine on an empty stomach kicked in. By the end of the night, I was plowed and having a grand ‘ol time. There are SOME pictures here. You can definitely see the before and after of drunkenness for me and Faye. Of course, the BEST pictures (I wager) are on Jacob’s camera and I can’t wait for him to get back from Germany so that I can see them! Among them are a giant group picture with Zombie Santa and a plastered (yet surprisingly coherent) Gene!
The bad news: We only raised HALF of our MINIMUM budget. So now we are going to have to pester our friends, family and strangers (in other words: EVERYONE) to donate so that we can even THINK about shooting the movie in January. I’m a little scared because it’s not like any of US have that kind of money laying around in case we can’t raise it elsewhere. I suppose severe credit card debt is an option, but I wanted to save that for the feature.
I wish I had time to go into more detail about the drunken revelry of the fundraiser, but now I really DO need to get to work. So you’ll just have to glean a story from the pictures. I’ll update when I get the juicy ones from Jacob. Until then, rock on, you hard rock zombies!
missing leg wrapped in
Auditions for Snow Day all weekend. Not done yet. Callbacks tonight. Decisions must be made by tomorrow morning. Can't speak/write in complete sentences. So very tired.
Don't cry daddy
Ok. After two days of paralysis, I'm back. And here's what I've decided: Despite the fact that a horribly evil man has once again taken leadership of this country, I still (perhaps naively) feel that if things get REALLY bad (I mean REALLY) there are enough of us liberals out there that we we can band together and just mother-effing RIOT in the streets. I don't know what that will do, if anything. But I'm still pretty proud of what we did during the W.T.O. And even if THAT doesn't help repair ANY of the damage that Bushy is going to do in this country during his regime, we can at least be confident in the fact that there will probably be a whole lot of good rock music made that is political as hell. It can be just like the sixties! Only this time the Bob Dylans and the Phil Ochs's will have electric guitars (and not in that crappy way)! And maybe the liberals will smell a little bit better!
I'm just trying to see the bright side here, people. There HAS to be one…hasn't there?
In other news, we are going to Bellingham this weekend because two of my shorts (as well as Slavka's short from the 6SFP) are going to be in the Projections Film Festival! This is actually kind of a big deal because this festival gets a fair amount of exposure and important people go to it. (Not as many as SIFF, of course…but STILL). So I'm excited. I'm also excited about this bar up in Bellingham that is a mexican restaurant/karaoke bar. Those of you from Tacoma might remember the beloved El Toro which boasted the same features and was the stomping ground for a lot of our misspent college days. I have tremendously fond memories of El Toro and was utterly devastated when I stumbled upon its smoldering remains one sunny summer day. Anywhosel, I am hoping that this La Pinata will be at least 1/10 the fun that El Toro was. (Or at least that they will have free chips and salsa. {{{Homer Simpson noise}}}. I will be aided in this mission by the charismatic , the lovely , the superfun and the moustachy Dan.
I'll regail you will tails upon my return! In the meantime, happy Friday!
I'm gonna go listen to folk music and get riled up!
PS: I just want to say that Dominic Monaghan is a fine actor and Charlie is the only character on “Lost” thus far that has elicited an emotional response from me. And I'm not just talking about “down there”.
bubble bath 49 dissidents
WEEKEND RECAP (To forget about life for a while)
Friday
Had a quiet evening in at Faye's house wherein we watched Martin (George Romero's fun vampire effort) and ate delicious pumpkin pie. Ale and Pie is always a good idea, even if, as Americans, we get it slightly wrong.
Saturday
We had some interviews at Vita for SDBSD ( update later today). Found some more good folks. Then we putzed around and began to get ready for the party. Dom dressed as Ash, Faye and I were Beavis and Butthead, Jacob was Patrick Bateman (of COURSE) and Sherrard was Donnie Darko. And OH, the party! We arrived around 9:00 and began singing straight away. I sang a bunch of songs I've never sung before including “Science Fiction/Double Feature” (from Rocky Horror)with Gene, “More Than Words” with and “Feed Me” (from Little Shop of Horrors) with ! I especially enjoyed singing the showtunes because I have always wanted to be talented enough to be in a musical and beer gives me the delusions that I am!
Costume highlights as Courtney Love and Andrew as Stanz from Ghostbusters! Hopefully, Dom will upload the pictures soon!
Around 4am I became vaguely aware that I was really tired. We gathered up the troops and headed home.
SundayIt's a good thing we had that extra hour of sleep because, well, let's just say my old bones aren't as resilient as they used to be. I spend almost ALL of Sunday completely wrecked. Sherrard was kind enough to bring me some gatorade, which helped a bit, but mostly, I couldn't get up off the couch. I was out of my pajamas for all of an hour when I went to the grocery store. Yikes! I feel pretty guilty about not making it to yoga, especially since I've only been making it once a week anyway. I'M TOO BUSY!!! I plan to MAKE time to go twice a week 6 weeks prior to my surgery though because who knows when I will be able to get back in there after that. I'll be damned if I turn back into cookie dough! I'll be damned. Because everyone will want to eat my delicious cookie limbs.
I'm off to find other ways to distract myself for the next several hours.
archipelago chore
Yesterday I stayed home from work because I had been up most of Monday night with pretty awful stomach pains. I won't go into the gross details, but I will say that it was related to IBS. Which sucks my ass.
I always hate going to work after being absent because there is usually a HUGE inconsiderate pile of work waiting for me on my desk. Today was no exception. Gurgle.
However, Halloween is fast approaching and that makes me happy.
Last night I went to the Women In Film Festival which screened “Terry”. I felt a bit awkward because it was very much a festival full of “empowering women” type films and/or “socially important” films. I just like to make silly movies. Hmm. But it was still nice for more strangers to see “Terry” and people did laugh in the appropriate places. Even though the sound system was awful.
I still feel kinda crappy today. I doubt it's related to the other night, but I've just been feeling pretty run down lately. I need some good solid time off. And unfortunately, the next time I will have extended holiday, I will be doped up and in pain from surgery. Not exactly my idea of a good time. (Well, the in-pain part, anyway). It will all be worth it though (hopefully), as my back pain has been increasing since the cold weather started.
I feel like such a genetic mess sometimes. Maybe someday I'll make a socially important film about it. :)
In the meantime, very exciting things are happening with “Snow Day”. I will update the blog very soon!
now i cant stop manor birdwatch peacock
Last night Dom and I watched a bit of the last debates before our production meeting. I guess someone told Bushy not to yell because his voice was a lot more calm this time. He's still a raving lunatic though. They finally addressed the gay marriage question. I had forgotten that Kerry is actually AGAINST it. However, he truly believes that the government should STAY OUT of it. Bushy, on the other hand, said something like “I believe everyone in America should be treated equally. Except for the homos”. Kerry brought up Cheney's daughter. I wonder if being the lesbian daughter if Dick Cheney makes it hard to get dates. You certainly can never bring your girlfriend home to meet the parents.
They also talked about abortion again. Kerry had the BEST response that I have ever heard a Christian give as to why Roe V. Wade should not be overturned. He paraphrased Kennedy saying:
“Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own. I think that's the test of public service.”
(I found a transcription of the debates. My liberal, stoner brain couldn't remember something like that verbatim).
This morning on the radio, they announced that there is less than TWO WEEKS till the elections. Just typing that literally makes me shiver. I am terrified. I need someone to hold me.
In less anxious news, our production meeting last night was great. We brought two new people on board who are just as excited about the project as we are. Best of all, they know LOADS of talented people. Whoever says that Seattle isn't a filmmaking community (The Stranger, I'm looking at you) can suck it. Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day is going to be AWESOME. At the very least, this project is gonna be a whole hell of a lot of fun. As is our upcoming Holiday Zombie Carnival. Stay tuned for more details about that! Also, eventually, my filmmaking rants will be on the Tangent Productions production blog, so that I have more room in this space to talk about how retarded Lost is. (Even though I can't stop watching it. I blame the beguiling ears of Dominic Monaghan).
One more quick plug:
Tonight, “Terry” is playing at the NW Film Forum Local Sightings fest. It's free and easy, babies. So come on out and watch it.
Effed by the Wind 