Okay, that's a lazy title, but I'm a bit Parkered out at the moment. It's actually been overcast, cold, and rainy the past couple of days, which makes me just want to sleep (there's a reason I live where it's hot and sunny).

Anyway, I actually had a pretty good Christmas. I don't officially celebrate the holiday, but I inevitably get roped into something by other people. This year I had Christmas dinner with my uncle Alex, his girlfriend Linda, and my uncle's sister-in-law Louise. It was very laid back and lacked the pretense that most people go out of their way to get stressed out about.

I was the youngest one there by 40 years, but I had a great time. Sam says I seem to gravitate to older people. I usually end up hanging out with them at parties. She says I'm an old person at heart. I don't know, maybe I am, but my uncle is truly a kid at heart and one of the nicest persons I know - very laughing Buddha. He can just light up a room. I'm really glad to know him. I really like Linda as well, she's really smart and funny (and makes great authentic saurkraut). It was also great to meet Louise for the first time, she's a very kind person. I didn't feel like I was hanging out with "old" people, just people who had accumulated more stories than average.

Oh yes, before I forget, I posted another physics article, this time on absolute zero.

Have I said how much I hate, no, despise the holidays? Thought I would mention it again. Supposedly the holidays are about "family" yet everyone and their mother is out on the road, in the car alone, yakking on a cell phone, ignoring other drivers, specifically me. Or, they're rustling around stores, asking stupid questions, yakking on cell phones, and stepping on the toes of strangers, specifically my toes (I was just trying to get everyday supplies). Every year this ridiculous consumption orgy gets more puerile; it seems like everyone stops using the part of their brains that control impulses. Rrrrrr. Go home and pay attention to your "loved" ones. They'll remember it more than the cheap plastic crap you've bought them.

Anyway, haven't blogged for a bit. I think about 3, maybe 4 people read it on any regular basis, so no big loss there. However, I do apologize. I was trying to work my way up to blogging everyday and just got out of the habit. Because -drumroll- Matt shaved his beard. Yes, Matt Bullock, my friend who is acting in the short film I'm making, shaved his beard. He had a full beard on our first day of shooting, looking rather a little like Fidel Castro (he even had a military cap to round out the look). We couldn't get everything the first day, and both he and Monica agreed to film another day. We all had a fantastic time filming, so I thought everything would be roses. In the meantime, on a drunken dare, his buddies convinced him to shave the epic Castro beard.

At first I thought it was kind of funny, then it sunk in that he had probably just sunk the project entirely - we didn't have enough time to reshoot the entire thing, due to scheduling conflicts. I got steadily angrier, and not just at him, but at everyone who had ever broken a promise to me. I'm really independent and I avoid relying on other people for many reasons - all those broken promises. It's a little embarrassing now - this happens to everybody of course, but I ended up getting into a funk, which actually deepened to depression for about a week. I haven't had the heart to blog or strike out and do much of anything.

The first couple of days I didn't want anything to do with the film ever again. I was so annoyed and sad. I kept remembering the documentary about Terry Gilliam filming the disaster that could have been "Don Quixote". When I first saw it, I thought Gilliam was being a big baby about everything falling apart, but after the shaving incident, I completely sympathized (like my project was any comparison).

But then I focused my anger on creating a solution. My mantra of late, afterall, is the Everett interpretation (aka pick-a-path). I kept thinking of ways I could still pull something out of the ordeal. I got optimistic again. The whole point of this was not to produce some fabulous work of art, but rather just get some experience putting together a film - writing, directing, shooting, editing, composing, recording, etc. Monica wasn't devastated, but I know she was disappointed. She's a founding partner of a small independent production company called Wooden Weasel, teaches drama to kids, and wants to get into set design, so she is actually pretty serious about the whole film thing. So, Monica and I ended up filming some more stuff, some a bit off-script. This leads off to an anecdote.

On Wednesday, we filmed a scene where she was up on a hill and entangled with ribbons (standing in for typewriter ribbon). Before we shot, I told her what I wanted her to do, and then I said "With any luck, some wind will pick up and catch the ribbons." When I started filming, she started acting, then, eerily, the wind picked up gently and billowed the ribbons in precisely the way I imagined, then the wind stopped just before I cut. It was an unbelievably thrilling moment. I think Monica might have been a bit creeped out. I knew then that I had made the right decision to continue.

I know I haven't blogged for awhile, but one thing has consumed me above all else, primarily because I want to get it finished before I go to Hawaii. "The Typist", the short film I'm making.

Today we had our first day of shooting, and it was like herding cats (possibly worse, possibly ferrets). I formally wrote the script last Friday, typed it up Sunday along with character sheets (I don't know if there is a formal term for that - but it's descriptive enough that you get the idea). I wanted to give the actors a couple of days with their lines - but no-go. I tracked down Matt on Tuesday, and Monica Tuesday evening. Neither actually attempted to memorize anything. Erm. Lesson: Give actors plenty of time with the script (but have a cattle prod handy).

I have to give Monica a lot of slack, she got her wisdom teeth out on Friday, and has been hopped up on percacet ever since. Actually, I have to give both a lot of slack for agreeing to do this. Needless to say, we spent the better part of 4 hours rehearsing.

We got through 5 pages of dialog, all of the dialog actually, plus the murder scene. Either Matt or Monica suggested that the skateboard be used as the murder weapon, and it really worked out well with the ribbons (it just has to be slo-mo, with Monica's hair flailing, backlit by the setting sun. It's beautiful). There's no gore, but it is sort of poetic (too many Spaghetti westerns in early childhood I guess).

Unfortunately, we'll have to shoot the remaining scenes on another day, probably Sunday (when there will be hordes of people at the park).

Matt, who I don't think has any acting experience (I didn't ask, I was just estatic someone volunteered), has a natural talent - which was a nice surprise. He is very self-conscious though, he didn't want to look at any of the footage. Monica was concerned about her chipmunk-cheeks (from her tooth extractions). I just think that it adds to the character's funkiness.

There were a couple of other hiccups. The typewriter didn't have a ribbon - which ended up being okay since we didn't get around to shooting those scenes. Monica got into a minor fender-bender on her way over to the location. It wasn't any big deal (and it was the fault of the elderly couple who backed there car into hers at a stoplight for who knows what reason). It ended up making her late and cranky. During one scene, a couple of skaters decided to hang out right were we were and talk loudly. They started asking us all sort of questions about the filming. I told them it was going to be on YouTube, and weirdly, they instantly thought I was the coolest thing they had seen all week. Then I got asked "What school do you go to?" which is hilarious. I can't believe I still look so young that I could pass for a high-schooler. I should have said something smarmy, but I just laughed and said I was 30.

I also wanted to mention (my thoughts are a little addled since I'm completely sunburned and exhausted, and I now have a weird rash on my back that is combination sunburn/friction burn where I carried my gear pack), that both actors are practically chain smokers. We had to stop every five minutes so they could take a smoke break. Ermmm. I should have just had them chain smoking throughout the film. It would have made it funnier.

What else...Oh yeah, there was this strange transition. Both Monica and Matt were kind of skeptical at the beginning of the day, and they both hated the "skaterboy" joke. But by the end, they were both gung-ho for another day. They really got into it! It was amazing. I think even if the film turns out as complete crap, just that reaction, that other people were able to enjoy my creative endeavors, that made it all worth it because I've never had that before. It made me think that, wow, this is what I should be doing more of.

Okay, one last thing. I was kind of on an emotional rollercoaster. At the beginning of the day, I was nervewracked, almost as bad as I was in LA when I went see the special screening of "A Dog's Breakfast". I didn't throw up though - it wasn't quite that bad, but close. As we got going, it subsided and eventually went away. But I kept second guessing myself (I wouldn't let it show though, I knew I needed to keep the rails on the train). It felt like this was the litmus test - would I be Orson Welles or Ed Wood? Probably somewhere inbetween; that's not hard to do since it's basically inifinty to zero. That just sounds lame. I'm going to bed now. Pictures soon! (Hopefully). I just heard this fantastic squirrelly violin sound on a PBS special that's playing on TV, I wonder if I can mimic something for the soundtrack. I need a theremin. Okay, NEED TO GO To BED. Seriously.