I haven’t been getting much sleep of late. I blame my dogs who, for reasons unknown, have taken to waking up a full hour before my alarm. And if they’re awake, you can be damn sure they want me awake. Rather than barking or biting however (Maximus is particularly adept at locating that fleshy area just behind the elbow for gnawing purposes), they’ve adopted more subtle means – walking around, wrestling with each other (La dee da. Just minding our own business. Oh, sorry. Did we wake you?). I ignored them. Until Bubba took a stroll across my forehead this morning. Annoyed but determined, I shoved him aside and rolled over to face Jelly. Who sneezed in my face. That did it! I was up! Hopefully, I’ll have better luck tomorrow.
- Patrick Gilmore as the pondering Dale Volker.
- Johnny Z. keeps an eye on Ivon.
- Director Ivon Bartok and Brian J. Smith (Lt. Matthew Scott).
As I was snapping pics of a suited-up Peter and Haig, Lawren and Ashleigh abandoned the darkened confines of the production offices to take in the action on Stage 4. Lawren snapped some pics of his own while Ashleigh sat back and offered Ivon unsolicited advice on his shot selection.
- “Uh, you sure you want to stay wide on this one?”
When they were setting up for the next shot, I told Lawren and Ashleigh about my close call the other day. As I was heading back to the car after a return visit to Greek Fest, I tripped on the curb and almost stumbled into oncoming traffic, catching myself in the nick of time. As you can imagine, it was a terrifying ordeal and I was sure my good friends at work would empathize. Well, this was Ashleigh’s reaction –
Then, reading my disaproving look, she tried to cover by claiming that sometimes, in moments of extreme anxiety or sorrow, people break into laughter as a coping mechanism. I almost bought it until she suggested that, to avoid future accidents, I might want to invest in a walker – then proceeded to do an imitation of me using said walker…
As they finished shooting the Scott/Brody/Riley/Volker scene, David Blue arrived on set for his first scene. He too came armed with a camera and, as he was snapping pics, I asked him about the photos I recently posted of him. He said he didn’t like them, but I was sure he signed off on them. As it turned out, yes, he signed off on them, but he generally hates pics of himself – especially the kind you can click on and enlarge. So, I snapped a pic of him, got him to sign off, and am posting it here in all its unclickable and unenlargable glory.
Kerry dropped by from post and it was a downright party atmosphere – until Lawren started to complain about how hungry he was and, hey, is that Greek Festival still going on? Well, even though it was a little after 11:00 a.m., we decided to head out for an early lunch – and brought Brian along for the ride, promising to return him in time for his ADR session.
- Kerry watches them shoot while Ashleigh wonders how she keeps her hair so sheeny and bodiful.
We got to the festival only to be told that they wouldn’t start serving food until noon – but Kerry managed to sweet talk her way through official channels and, in no time at all, we were enjoying the sunshine and chowing down on gyros for Brian, pork souvlaki for Kerry, lamb dinners for Lawren and I, the vegeterian platter for Ashleigh which, I believe, was made up of the various sides served with the real meals, and double loukoumaes and baklava for everyone!
- An anxious Brian wonders where the hell we’ve whisked him away to. Poised to dial 911. And pick up his gryo.
- Ashleigh suffers the disgrace of “the vegetarian section”.
- Kerry chows down on loukoumades.
- “Finish your salad or no baklava!”
We OD’d on Loukoumades. Brian had four and insisted he couldn’t have another in spite of my insistence that he wasn’t getting enough sugar in his diet. Lawren imagined he’d be so wired that he’d be speeding through his dialogue at first and then, once the sugar crash hit, snoozing through the rest of his session. Kerry and Brian headed off, leaving Lawren to polish off the baklava and Ashleigh to enlighten me on the subtle nuances of the Joey character from Full House, evidently a show she watched a lot of…
- …It….
- Out!
It now supplants “DY-NO-MIIIITE!” as my catchphrase.
So, we went back to the Bridge and said our goodbyes. I ran into my writing partner Paul and chatted with him. “See you Friday!”he said as he headed off toward his motorcycle, referring to the fact that we would be catching the same flight to Montreal later in the week. But Friday? I thought we were flying out Saturday. Well, good thing I ran into him because, it turns out, I AM flying out Friday.
Headed home and then Fondy and I went downtown where enjoyed some JapaDog (Vancouver’s premiere Japanese hot dog stand)
- JapaDog is hopping!
– and then purchased tickets to UP! Yes, that’s right. For the first time in recent memory, I actually went to a movie theater. Normally, I’d just wait for the DVD to come out but I made an exception for this movie because: a) Carl can’t stop talking about it and b) I wanted the whole kooky 3D experience. Anyway, loved the movie and certainly hope it gets a Best Picture nomination when the time comes. If it doesn’t, expect a tirade from either Baron Destructo or Cookie Monster.
I’d said my goodbyes at work and was walking around downtown when who do I see walking toward us but Ashleigh. Of course she has spotted me and is doing one of those “I’m going to make like I don’t see him by pretending I’m texting” but sees me smiling and standing in wait and so, realizing she won’t be able to avoid me, looks up and smiles: “Oh, hi!”. I introduce her as “Ashleigh who works with me.” and for some bizarre reason she hears “Ashleigh who worships me.”. Well, after getting that cleared up, I wished her all the best for her trip. She and her beau will be trekking across Europe. Since they’ll be hitting the Czech Republic, I strongly urged her to watch Hostel before going but she has steadfastly refused to follow my advice. I, of course, was just trying to be helpful. Anyway, I said goodbye for the second time that day and insisted she not bring me back anything…unless she saw something that screamed “Joe”. She promised she wouldn’t and headed off.
I wonder what she’ll bring me back?
Today, it was Ivon Bartok’s turn to step into the director’s chair and call the shots on a full slate of kino scenes. When I rolled in this morning, he was overseeing a funny sequence involving Scott (Brian J. Smith), Sgt. Riley (Haig Sutherland), Brody (Peter Kelamis), and Volker (Patrick Gilmore).
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