All in a Week's Time

I haven't posted since my days battling the stock market crash and the allergies I endured from the Dust Bowl. It's been a week. Where have I been? Living; relaxing and waiting for a sign. A sign to foretell what? I don't know, I only work here.

House of Black Wings; it has been determined; has a mere two weekends left of principle photography. It's only one week more than was originally scheduled, so that seems like quite a feat. I will be doing one final scene as actor this Saturday; as well as the duties of crew and Slate Girl. Then Sunday; and some final shots the weekend after. Once completed; freedom...and a much needed haircut.

Strangely enough, it looks as if the first scene I shot (as actor) will be on the short list of re-shoots. You know the scene; the one where I was clawing violently at a brick wall; the one where I had my hideous bout of actor neurosis. Seems that director David was not pleased w/ how it turned out either; if for different reasons than mine. He felt that my character might not be as far gone as I put out there that first time. Also, in the big fight scene from a few weeks back; we needed to reshoot for some continuity issues anyway. So after all of my whining and self doubt, I get another shot at it. Looks like it will happen after the new year. All is well in this world of mine.

This last long holiday weekend was a beaut. Wednesday night, the other half and I built a $200 grocery bill; in anticipation of the time we would have sitting on our asses @ home. Thursday we got up to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and to do some final cleaning and prep for our holiday guest; friend Clare. She is the same Clare that is working her fanny off as DP/costumer/set designer (the list goes on and on) for House of Black Wings. I found out she was free that day; so we had her over. She made some wonderful pumpkin curry soup; I made my patented turkey chili. We ate, drank, and relaxed the day away. I forced Ms. Clare to watch my previous feature film; The Intervention. The other half has seen it too many times; so he took a nap downstairs. I figured since she is a filmmaker, it couldn't hurt to have her see some of my best work and a piece I am extremely proud of. Future possibilities of working under her. Hell, why not? We also watched Far From Heaven and The Others; both films that Clare had not seen. We also threw a 3 hour game of Trivial Pursuit in there for good holiday measure. The other half won; damn him! Clare was here for 12 hours; and I believe a good time was had by all. I was quite impressed w/ the other half. Although he was whinier than usual; he wasn't as bad a host as he sometimes can be. It was also nice to get to know Clare a bit more; than we are ever able to under the gun of filmmaking. Kudos to all!

Friday; the other half and I went shopping in Boystown; buying a few DVD's; and allowing me to pick up a CD copy of the Xanadu soundtrack. The other half and I watched it last week (him for the first time ever). I was dying to find the CD, so I snatched it up the first chance I got. I've been listening to it almost non-stop for the past 5 days. The other half is not pleased. Nor are my co-workers @ the office. To hell w/ them all, I say!

That evening, we watched Thank You For Smoking. It was a treat; very funny; and gave me a bit of shirtless Aaron Eckhart. Great ensemble cast! Following that, we watched Hellbent. It's touted as the first gay slasher film. It was your typical stalk-n-slash nonsense, but had some really scary moments, and a very likeable, cute cast. The characters were also worth rooting for; and there were some very sexy bits between the cast. What I liked most, was that it was clearly a low budget film, and gave me hope that House of Black Wings could be comparable in quality. That made me happy. A super fun film; and it was gay! Also worth noting; is that the characters were all gay; but the deaths were not necessarily gay-bashing. They seemed to be in the wrong place @ the wrong time.

Saturday; the other half and I made our way to the casino. Neither of us walked away w/ any serious dough; or even ahead for that matter, but we had a good time, and got another taste of the fabulous buffet (as if we hadn't eaten enough crap over the past days!). We returned home to watch the remake of The Omen. Not bad, not good. It was worth seeing, and had a couple of scream out loud boo! moments, but won't be something I'll think about; say from here on out.

Sunday was all about sitting; eating and watching movies. We started w/ the animated film; Monster House (easily the best film of the weekend; at least of the one's we hadn't seen), and then moved on to An American Haunting. Dreadful; avoid at all costs. Supposedly based on a true story; it boasted heavy hitters; Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland; but even their brilliance could not help this sad, sad attempt. Admittedly, it had a couple of good boo! moments (apparently a theme this weekend), but overall; meh.

On The Amazing Race; the Blondes/Barbies were saved from the chopping block. Damn; and good. They're fun; even if they are underhanded.