If you drive an SUV, you do not drive a “compact.” Park accordingly.
If you drive an SUV, you do no…
February 8th, 2010Yesterday’s shoot included: Ma…
February 7th, 2010Yesterday’s shoot included: Many shots being purchased for and forced upon me, threats of violence… and full-frontal male nudity (not me).
Boozing with Andrew Mudd: T-24:33 and counting.
February 5th, 2010I think it’s safe to say that I enjoy a drink, now and again.
I also think it’s safe to say that I enjoy making television shows and movies. “So,” says Random, one evening a mere two weeks ago. “Should we do a show where you go to bars and drink?”
“Yes, we should. Absolutely,” say I.
And that’s where I find myself today. Preparing for a shoot tomorrow that involves me being entertaining on-camera whilst drinking. There’s never been anything in my life that I wanted to work more than this show: Me, being paid to travel around the country and drink. It really is a drunkard’s dream come true.
Without going into the whole pitch, the show involves me visiting bars and interacting with the patrons and bartenders. As far as these shows go, this is pretty short notice. It was only this morning that I secured the final location for us to shoot in. And I don’t have any dialogue scripted. This is going to be entirely ad lib on my part. And largely ad hoc on the crew’s part.
This probably can serve as a good lesson for new filmmakers: Don’t do what we’re doing. Instead: Plan, plan, plan. Planning is your friend and savior. Do not run off and do a shoot without a firm idea of exactly what you’re going to be doing. Write an outline. Then, write a script. And shoot to the script. Your life — especially the part of your life you spend at an editing console — will be much easier for it.
Shooting tomorrow. Luckily the…
February 5th, 2010Shooting tomorrow. Luckily the shooting involves shots, so I may be okay on this one.
The Politics of Gerbils
February 1st, 2010For the past three and a half years, I’ve had gerbils. This results from my old Seattle apartment being pet-free. I wanted something to cuddle and enjoy, so I got gerbils. For a time — a short time — I had two. Two boys: Jack and Ennis. It turns out that I was only half correct. Eight healthy babies and a name change (Ennis to Enid) later, I had ten. Then sixteen. Then more. Some of the offspring were relatively unusual colors (albino, honey, partial albino, etc.), but most were the standard dark brown ticked.
All told, Jack and Enid — and their progeny — made something like two dozen gerbils, over the course of about two and a half years. Some were given away, but the majority of them stayed with me.
A few nights ago, the last of my female gerbils died. I knew it wasn’t long for her for a number of reasons, not the least of which was her age. Moreover, her friend/sister/aunt/roommate/I’m-not-sure-what had died a few weeks ago, and gerbils don’t do well on their own. They’re social animals. She’d also had a stroke a few months ago. They can carry on for quite some time after a stroke, but a stroke pretty obviously shortens their life.
When she died, that left me with three boys. Two are the standard brown, one is albino. The two brown guys dislike the albino. And honestly, I can understand why. The albino gerbils (in my experience, anyhow) tend to be nippier and less friendly. They’ve bickered in the past, once to the point of bloodying the albino. And the other night, they did so again. For the past two nights, instead of getting to cuddle in the ger-pile, the albino has slept on the exercise wheel, all by himself. It’s the saddest thing you have ever seen. The two brown boys, huddled up with one another, and the albino, with blood stains on his fur, excluded and eating his lunch alone on the playground.
So I’ve separated them. I’ve arranged their tanks such that they share a common wall, so they can have maximum security prison-style visits. But, unfortunately, I think the two brown boys are going to kill the albino if I leave them together.
There’s probably an Israel/Palestine joke to be made here, but that’s not really a funny situation, so I won’t.
Betsy: “I like osteo… I mean…
January 31st, 2010Betsy: “I like osteo… I mean Sally Field.”
The last of my lady gerbils di…
January 30th, 2010The last of my lady gerbils died last night. Just the three boys left.
If you’re using nested tables …
January 28th, 2010If you’re using nested tables for layout in 2010? You should be publicly shamed until you learn differently.
I have a Netflix BluRay player…
January 27th, 2010I have a Netflix BluRay player. And it’s awesome. I never get anything cool, so this is pretty cool.
On Blenders and Indecisiveness
January 27th, 2010The blade assembly of our two-ish year old blender got broken at some point in the last two months. Most likely, I would assume, in the move. The dome-shaped plastic bit that holds the blade at the top has a big crack in it. So liquids just seep out the bottom of the jar. Not so good for blending. Now, we have a two food processors — both a regular ol’ Cuisinart and a teeny-tiny KitchenAid (for the way it’s made), so I’ve been getting by. But I wanted to make salsa Mexicana the other night and as I limped through the task with the tiny KitchenAid processor, I decided that salsa Mexicana is a blender job. So today, in between waiting for clients to email me, talking to Lamont on the phone and staring at the wall, I decided to order a new blade.
“How can I help you?” asks the operator. I explain my situation to him and he says that sure, he can order one of those. A few moments later he informs me that it will be $18.70.
“Well,” I say, “that seems a bit steep since we only paid about $30 for the blender. So why don’t I think about it and call you guys back.”
“Would you like me to see if I can get it at a cheaper price?”
“Well… yeah. Sure.” And I go on hold for a few minutes. He returns and informs me that he can get the blade for $16.50. “Eh, let me talk to my girlfriend and see what she says,” I say.
“Oh. Wait. I just got another chat from my supervisor. I can give it to you for $13.01.”
“Does that include shipping?” I ask.
So the moral of the story is that haggling can often get you a better price, even in places that you wouldn’t really think there was any sort of price flexibility. Hemming and/or hawing in lieu of haggling may also work. And in ten to fourteen business days? My ass is going to have a working blender again. USA!