You R On Your Own

I have returned from my momentary lapse of reason. I was gripped by a need to try and control something that I have no control over. While SAG continues to cannibalize itself and hold the rest of us hostage - I no longer give a shit. I am now going to be ALL ABOUT ME. So suck it Rosenberg and the other remaining power mad freaks who are determined never to work in this town again. I LOVE actors. Truly love them and have always been their advocate but this is utter stupidity. I don't make any declarations here of what I hope happens to them. I don't have a horse in that race - even though the old me would. All I want to do is make movies and I don't care how that happens. I'll make them in Poland, I'll make them in Nigeria, I'll make them in Russia. Anywhere I have the opportunity to be involved in making a movie...I'll go. I don't care if there's anyone recognizable in them, or if they get U.S. distribution. FUCK THAT. That is all. Good Day....I SAID Good Day!!

BANGING THE DRUM

OMG! The Screen Actors Guild's continued fiddling while Rome burns is beyond frustrating. To strike or not to strike isn't even the issue anymore. JUST MAKE A DECISION!

Day after day I hear from more good people, who have given their blood sweat and tears to production - telling me they are going broke, losing homes, unable to care for their families. No one is caring for those families. No one is establishing a fund for the thousands of crew members who are slowly withering away while the pomposity that is SAG's leadership continues to sit on the throne and pontificate.

So, I've taken things into my own hands and started the below petition which will be sent to Governor Schwarzenegger in an effort to compel him to step in and mediate the current SAG stalemate. And for all those of us who find it easier to blog or post our frustrations than actually showing up for a picket line or demonstration, contacting the Governor can be done from the coziness of your easy chair. Simple, effective, can make a big statement if we get it together.

Please take 30 seconds to sign the petition. Additionally, I recommend emailing and/or calling the Governor's office regarding this dire situation in California.

http://www.petitiononline.com/SAG90210/petiti on.html


http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact - to contact Governor Schwarzenegger

I don't care if you think I'm a Crackpot!

It worked. Whatever you want to chalk it up to.... but I'd say, to ignore the correlation between my recent trip down Fungi Lane and this new burst of writing is foolhardy. I have written 25 pages since my last post! That's really all I've got right now. Just in case anyone is paying attention. And would appreciate an update. And is too shy or lazy to post a comment. And btw, below is the definition of Mushroom from the Roget's Thesaurus website:

Main Entry:	mushroom
Part of Speech:	verb
Definition:	sprout; grow quickly
Synonyms:	augment, blow up, boom, burgeon, burst, detonate, expand, explode, flourish, go off, grow, grow rapidly, increase, luxuriate, proliferate, shoot up, spread, spring up

Spiritual VEETAVITAVEGAMIN

I'm not gonna lie.

Here I sat on December 30, 2008. I've been back from New York for a month and haven't really written. Oh, I've written a couple of blog posts - not particularly inspired - I've opened the script I started before I left in September. Written maybe 7 pages total. But I gotta tell you it's been a slog. I thought I'd come back and just churn out a draft before January 1.

I've done it before. I have the discipline, I have the drive, I have the desire...

NORMALLY.

But it seemed my 'get up and go' got up and went. I'm in urgent need of a transfusion, a large dose of Veetavitavegamin.

I need help. I'm like a dying Tinkerbell and I just need Peter Pan to rally the troops and BELIEVE in me so that I can do what I need and want to do. I need a SIGN, a blessing, a miracle. I want to have one of those writing experiences we hear about. Like when Kevin Williamson went to Palm Springs for a "sleepless weekend" and came out with Scream. I want one of those experiences where it's like I'm channeling...where the words just pour out of me through my fingers onto the keys and into my laptop. Where I don't eat, drink, sleep or pee for a week and come out looking like the Bride of Frankenstein holding a fucking script that SELLS!

Well, Cats and Kittens, it seems like I got my sign. Not exactly the fever dream explosion that results in a finished script...BUT a sure sign. Where did it come from?


My New Year's Eve Magic Mushroom Trip. I've done them before but not with a specific quest. All I can say is that it put everything into perspective. Everything. I can't imagine what more I could have learned if my Ego hadn't kept pulling me back to "reality". Our Ego is very invested in keeping us from connecting with our spirit. Spirit knows that EVERYTHING is possible. I mean it. Ego keeps us in line with rules and fear and "the way it is". It does this to protect us. It is the babysitter of the Spirit and trust me your Ego wants to shake your Spirit like a bad Nanny would. Spirit's purpose here on earth is to experience physical form.

We are all literally playing "The Game of Life." Scoff if you must. I've had this thought at various moments, unassisted by any drug but it was made clear to me last night. Thus Ego's stranglehold on us. Ego is playing Life to the death...Spirit is playing to increase it's score. Reincarnation is a player's re-entry into the game. I don't know which is worse. Going through an entire life never awakening - thinking that this life, this incarnation is the only one we've got. OR, waking up half way through and realizing you have been playing in a trance. Image waking up half way through The Amazing Race and realizing IT'S A RACE.

What last night's experience gave me was a calming, an understanding that refocused me on to the thrill of creating rather than the outcome. Again, I'm not gonna lie. I want that successful outcome. But now I can create without the paralyzing fear of failure.

I'm not being very articulate about the actual experience, I know. But that's private. The messages were profound and I don't feel like sharing them right now. All I can say is that I'm ready to do whatever it takes to 'Be Calm and Carry On.' I'll leave you with this succinct quote from Bill Hicks. If you don't know who he is, there's tons of his stuff on youtube. Or go to billhicks.com

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather.”

I'm going off to work on my script now. I'll keep you posted...















P.S. - My mind just boggled at the thought of the multitudes of people who are so disconnected from their Spirit that they're not even playing THIS game of Life. They're playing 'Second Life'....playing a game within a game. Now that's a trip!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's play!

A Festivus for the Rest of US...

For those of you whom the Christmas Spirit has eluded as well, here's a little video that will warm the cockles of your Grinch sized heart. And before you complain, it's only 12 seconds long!




I wish you an expansion of heart, mind and soul in the coming year.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na...I'm gonna start a fight!

Ugh... Now I've had all the fight beaten out of me by my blogger dashboard.

I came on all fired up to write a post about annoying people who get invited to screen a soon to be nominated film BEFORE it opens and then critique it before the lights even come back up.

So I sign on - which takes five minutes because somehow I'm mysteriously signed out and can't remember which password I used for this account. Then I start furiously typing the new post, only to look up and see that it's all written in Hindi...

I have had one too many nogs and bowls to try and figure out any kind of technical shenanigans but that doesn't stop me. But of course by the time I DO figure it out much of my ire has cooled. But not completely...

First of all, bitches, I wouldn't have invited you! Someone else did. But instead of getting that it's a Festivus miracle to be in my company AND get to watch a movie that most people won't get to see until December 25th, you have to force your "professional opinion" on us.

Just because you:

a. directed a Lifetime movie in Saskatchewan in 1989.

b. cut trailers for Disney.

or

c. do audio post for "Dora the Explorer ".

does not mean that anyone cares what you thought of the movie/tv series/infomercial or ice show etc. There's a reason they keep you locked in a windowless labyrinth. You are boring.

But I fucking digress. And now I've completely lost interest and am about to eat some Snickerdoodle dough.

FYI, below is what comes up when you google Snickerdoodle:

Snickerdoodle Cake!

Chrisitan Snickerdoodle Soy Candles!

Snickerdoodle French Toast!

Ugly-Cute Snickerdoodle Puppy!

Snickerdoodle Cupcake!

Snickdoodle Pussy!

Ho fucking Ho Ho!

Is It Live Or Is It Memorex?

Well, I'm back. In Los Angeles. Home. But it feels weird. Like I just woke out of a coma and have amnesia. Some things are very familiar. My apartment. I was very happy to see my apartment. Especially my kitchen. It was visceral. It's not that I cook a lot. I don't know, it just looked really nice and fancy to me...But my car seemed very alien to me. I wasn't convinced that it really was my car. But....it is. I digress. I really believe I'm suffering from some bizarre version of Stockholm Syndrome. Either that or I have a schoolgirl crush on the city of New York. Making a movie is an intense experience. Making a movie on location is more intense. Making a movie on location in New York is uber intense. At least this one was. There were no easy days. There were dragons to be slayed daily and some of them mortally wounded us. But we were a rag tag band of warriors who hunkered down, shoulders together, honor bound to finish. And finish we did. We lost people along the way. Some too weak in character to continue. Awed by the daunting challenge early on, they fell away with excuses. Other's left to join more profitable ventures. Others were fired...There were only a handful of us who were emotionally connected to the project. But again, I digress. After all of this intense, isolated experience, you are suddenly released. Spit out. Pushed back through the looking glass. You go back to what you knew, and it's so far removed from all that you've gone through. You know that you'll most likely never see any of the people you stood shoulder to shoulder with on the front lines - every day, again. Stockholm Syndrome. Now here's the remainder of my Blackberry Pearl cellphone snapshots. Their flaws make them all the more adorable to me. Ugh. I'll be back to normal soon but for now New York still has my heart in it's hands...














This Double Decker tour bus became home to us several times. There's no more exciting way to see the city. Not the regular tour mind you but with a camera crew on top and barely clearing low hanging traffic signals at 40 miles an hour...














This is a kitchy part of Times Square that took on a special magical quality when seen from atop the bus at 6AM when the streets were still relatively empty and quiet. A nice giant cup of hot cocoa on a chilly morning. Ack! I know...














The front of the Ed Sullivan Theater, home of the David Letterman Show. When I took this picture I had no idea that this location would later become the scene of one very vigorous verbal ass raping handed out by the Mayor's Office due to a major fuck up...All I can say is I wasn't up to giving the brave John McCain "thumbs up" on the way back to my cell...














The front yard of a home in Queens we used for one small scene. The statuary is awesome! It was very soothing somehow...and somehow the perfect segue to the next picture...














On the way to scouting a potential location in Brooklyn, I passed this intriguing establishment. I wonder if it's a hot tub club like the once swinging, now defunct Splash in LA? Since they were closed, I didn't get to ask. But the whole thing kind of rolls off the tongue, don't you think? "Liquid Love, A sophisticated meeting place" The imagination runs wild, while covering it's eyes and screaming "EWWWWWWWWWWWW!"














Which leads me to this. This nifty, recently remodeled bathroom was in the corridor outside a tiny Russian Bookstore we shot in. There was only one sink. While using it I pondered sitting across from someone...a coworker? A friend? In a private home maybe it would be some av ant guard way of keeping a couple connected. Can't you imagine a couple spending quality time here in the morning or in the evening? Downloading each other's days? There's just enough room between the two toilets to put a room service cart...I don't know why I think of these things...














This is a Dust Monkey. It's actually a puppet and it's covering a can of Pledge. Which led me to believe the homeowners were using the puppet to dust with. Anyway, some people are afraid of puppets and were freaked out by this...














This is Olenka, our script supervisor. Don' let her sweet innocent smile fool you...She was in on the Dust Monkey shenanigans...














Our line producer prays to be put out of his misery...














This is the rooftop of the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City, Brooklyn. We came thisclose to shooting this as our nightclub but then rain was forecast. This is an amazing hotel, albeit in the middle of nowhere. But if you are in town to work at either Silver Cup Studios, Steiner Studios or Kaufman Astoria Studios and you need to put people up nearby - this would be the place. It's upscale and affordable. The rooms are twice the size of any hotel in Manhattan and it's at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge which makes it minutes away from the city. I would totally stay there. Anyway, the roof top lounge is really cool looking and at night the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline is breathtaking. If you're looking for a place to host an event or a location to shoot, Eddie - the GM, is great to work with and very accommodating. I needed new towels for my apartment and had no time to shop and Eddie gave me two fluffy white hotel towels that I will treasure...














Neptune Ave., Brooklyn

This and the next few pictures depict what became an ongoing obsession with McDonald's. This was punctuated with shouts of "There's one! Oooh, that's a good one!" and me whipping out my Blackberry Pearl to try and get a picture before we had passed it. I'm obviously slow on the draw because they are everywhere and I only have four pictures...














Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn...














Union Square, NYC...














11th Ave., NYC...














This is taken from the ladies room at 230 5th, the hip nightclub we shot in (instead of the Ravel Hotel) until the sun came up. At dawn, the city could have been from any era. Looking out, in that light you could imagine being back at the turn of the 19th century...














This is our director with two of our leading men. On our very last day. In Brooklyn, at the Old Fulton Road dead end. Right by the River Cafe. A very memorable and dramatic location for us. Grimaldi's, the best pizza place in NYC is right up the street. I had the pleasure of eating one slice of their pizza before the wolverines otherwise known as non union extras descended on it...


















This is what the city looked like, out my living room window the day before I left. Why do our crushes always have to look so damn appealing when we are about to leave? So that is it. My cell phone retrospective is over. I've been back exactly one week and had several crappy restaurant meals. Seriously, you have to look very hard to find bad food in New York. WTF LA? Right now, I need LA to do something brilliant to remind me of why I returned to it. Is that asking too much? Could you at least not be on fire? And now, I'm off to nurse my broken heart and drown my sorrows...


BTW, this hat is stolen.