Cankar Sore

Today was an uneventful day . We were short staffed at the visitor information center but it was really slow. Our unilingual cleaning lady (Spanish -Solamente) was trying to teach my bi-lingiual co-worker (her language of origin is Japanese, but she's pretty good at English) Spanish and I was the interpretor. A co-worker once described my command of Spanish as sort of like listening to the Lone Ranger speaking to Tonto. . . no transitive verbs. "You-Go -Here. Red Line -Freedon. 2 and a half mile. 3 hours" That 's me telling someone about the Freedom Trail in a language not my own. My enterprising co-worker started typing up the Spanish into English words. Pretty impressive , if you ask me. Of course you didn't . . . . but you're reading this blog. Shall I continue ? . . . . .
Our manager came in late and had to leave early because of meetings. We held it down. It was raining most of the day and then the sun come out for about an hour and then it got really freakin' windy and cold.
During the course of the day , I broke the hot water handle on the water machine. And I have a cankar sore. I used to get them from eating tomatoes and oranges when I was a kid. I can't remember the last time I had one.
It was a pretty low-key day. I had a salad for dinner and did some laundry and some filing. Everything seems to be under control . That is all. Carry on . ..

2 Tires

It snowed on Sunday. It wasn't a big accumulation , but it was a lot more than the tv guys said we were going to have. It was beautiful to look at in the Common. I wasn't worried about driving home in it. It was still snowing when I left work. By the time I got near my exit , I was following behind a sand truck. Not because I thought it offered protection from the ice but because the truck was going just fast enough to be in front of me but not slow enough for me to pass without missing my exit. Consequently, my little SAAB looked like it had been dunked in a salt cellar. I didn't realize how bad it looked until I got to work yesterday and one of the guys I work with wanted to know if I had been up north skiing or down the Cape where they got a foot of snow. No, I was just driving too closely behind a sanding truck.
So, my number one goal today was to take it to a car wash. Which I did . I don't think I was hooked into the conveyor belt correctly because when I got out of the car wash my left rear tire was flat . Dead flat. I don't think it was like that when I went in. It was undriveable. It was clean, but I couldn't drive it. Coincidentally, there is a garage a half a block away from said car wash.Oh, and surprise, they happened to have my correct tire size in stock. No, I couldn't use the spare because the spare is flat from the last time I got a flat tire. Actually, that tire was ripped from driving on it. They also noticed that one of the other tires was bald. I prefer my men bald, not the tires. So, I replaced that tire, too. $202.18 later, paid half n' half- atm and post dated check, my car was once again driveable. Clean and driveable. Fixed too late to get to the first job of the day .
It probably wasn't just the car wash, the tired needed replacing sooner rather than later, and I suppose I should be greatful that it happened near a garage and not on the highway . Or if I was going 65 miles an hour on the highway and it blew out . I'm trying to look on the bright side . .. . .

The Open Call

So . . . I went to he open call for the next Scorsese film that will be filming here in Boston. It was a fairly typical , widley advertised, open call. When I got there , there had to have been at least 2,000 people in line ahead of me. I knew that there was a SAG line somewhere, very far away from where I was standing. I kept scanning the line for people I knew to be in the union. Generally , I focused on people going up or down the stairs parrallel to the vast unwashed on the other side of the stairs. Sure enough, my buddy Steve, went purposefully by me. I called his name and he knew what the SAG people needed to do . We breezed up the staircase and promptly got into a shorter line off to the side , composed of card carrying union members. Of course, here, I started to recognize faces.
We had to fill out a form and then we waited. Steve went to the bath room and when he came back , I went to the bathroom. When I came back , the good looking guy behind me went to the bath room. We waited some more, I'd say we waited for about a half hour.
We were waiting to be led into a hall that was set up with about 500 hundred chairs. The union people got led in first and got to sit in the first couple of rows and then every body else could come in until all the seats were filled. We got a little opening speech from the owner of the casting company and then his assistant explained what they were looking for and then the owner spoke to us again and told us that he would also be casting the extras for a couple of other films that are coming in the future. Though he seemed like a nice man , I couldn't help but wonder if he had muscled out the local casting companies. My buddy Steve told me that apparently , the local companies didn't want the job. Okay then, I feel better . Nobody local is getting screwed by some slick willy.
After the little speeches, we lined up and got polaroided and handed in our headshots. The actual business of the event didn't take very long . The waiting was for the processing of the non-union people from the previous group. Honestly , I wouldn't have gone that early in the day , but my boss wanted me back for the afternoon. It would have been a whole lot quicker if I could have gone in the middle of the process. By then they would have gotten through the bulk of the people and gotten into a groove of processing.
I heard from the good looking guys standing behind me that Scorsese was in town actually doing call-backs at some hotel. So, while we were lined up to hopefully be chosen. Somewhere across town, some local kids were possibly get a break at the big time. What a great time to be living in Boston !!!!
After work on Saturday , I went to my friend Angelynn's house and we scanned my headshot into the computer and on to my website. It's a horrible picture, but it's all I've got right now. So, go look at it . Remember . . . .. it's not pretty .

Cul-Chah

Those of you who have spent time on the east coast and are familiar with the indigenous peoples (2nd and 3rd generation Boston Irish) that's how the word "Culture" sounds when it is spoken after someone's cousin has gone to the Musuen of Fine Arts and it wasn't on a school field trip. For the purposes of this blog , that would be me. Since I haven't been in class in a few years now, except for the occasional acting class, I'm all graduated. However, I went to the MFA last night to view the last of the Napoleon exhibit. Yeah . . .. I had a free ticket. I've had that ticket since it opened a couple of months ago. I even have a second ticket that someone I work with couldn't use and gave to me .So, if you know me and think you want to go between now and Sunday , when it closes, let me know. I have it in my wallet. Come get it, it's yours for the taking. . .. the ticket that is.
So, I fit it in after work. I hopped on the Green line and made it there in 15 minutes. I'm not a Francophile, but I love seeing fine craftsmanship in all it's varying forms. Man, Napolen knew how to live ! He had a lot of rugs and furniture and gigantic paintings of himself. These paintings had to have been at least twice his size ! He adopted a lot of Roman imagery . He had a lot of bees and the letter "N" woven into his fabric and carved on his furniture. He was married twice ( I didn't know that !). His sister was "Flirty" ( I think maybe a polite word for "Slutty"). There was a cup that was shaped like her breast . You could buy a copy of it for a couple thousand dollars. No lie, it was available for sale in the gift store where the exhibit dumps you out.
The womens fashions were simple, embroidered and floor length. They even had some stuff from the beheaded monarchs-Louis 14 and Marie Antoinette. There were a lot of plates and cups and beautifully carved gold, silver and brass. It was a lovely and brief exhibit. In the corridors going to and from the special exhibit rooms are other pieces of art including shoes. Famous shoes. I was particularly fascinated by a pair of shoes worn by Marilyn Munroe. She had small feet , for those of you wondering at home . There were also a pair of Manolo Blanik Mary Janes, beautiful shoes, for those of you who could care less.
Also in my week of culture, I saw 3 movies. I saw Cassandras Dream- a Woody Allen film starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrel. Ahhh, it was okay , but it didn't really do it for me. I finally saw all of Charlie Wilson's War, very good , glad I saw the whole thing. Phillip Seymour Hoffman did a great job in that role and totally deserves that nomination. On Wed. a group of people from work went to see Cloverfield, the latest bid from J.J. Abrams. I think it was a great idea, a sort of Godzilla invades New York/Blair Witch project in a post 911 world. Though I did genuinely scream a couple of times , I didn't think it was all that great . I think it 's a good teenager first date type of film . My friends liked it , but , it was cheesey . If you know it's cheesey going into it, you'll have a fine time . Get pop corn.
SO , that's the latest from me. It's been cold here. The Patriots won their division and going on to the Super Bowl. I 'm going to an open call for the next Martin Scorsese film that's going to be shooting in Boston. I hope I got what it takes to be an extra on that film. That's it. See ya.

Snowing

It started snowing last night around midnight. It kept snowing until aroun 2 o'clock this afternoon. I'd say we got a bout a foot of snow. Because there was a snow emergency in the town I would have worked in today, they told me not to bother coming in. Yee-Hah !!! I got a day off !
Of course, I spent most of the day glued to the tv watching the reports about the snow falling in different parts of my state. Yes, it was truly beautiful to look at out the window, but I wanted to hear about the conditions in neighboring towns. Nothing of real consequence was reported. There are power outages in the southern part of the state. Basically , it was traditional Nor'Easter. Windy and constant snow. Also, there was some thunder. Unusual for a typical New England snow storm.
I did get out about 3 times to shovel. I got the front walk and the driveway shoveled. It's not dry to the concrete, but it's not piled up. I also sanded the sidewalk and the garage.
The type of snow would have made it great to go sledding. We still have a taboggen in the cellar that my Dad got for us one Christmas. However, I wouldn't go sledding by myself lest I scare the children and I don't tink any of my housebound neighbors would appreciate the novelty. When I was a kid there were tons of people I could have called to action. Today , it was just me.
I would have thought I would have got a lot more done on an unexpected day off. Nope, I finished a Vogue and I'm halfway through the December Vanity Fair. It took me until now to even turn on the computer. I did take a nap and I've been in my sweats all day.
And that's what I did on my snow day.

Waiting

I'm still waiting for the last paychecks from my work on that movie. I called ny union office to find out what was going on . You know what it was ? They were closed for the holiday. That's why it's taking almost a month for me to get paid. Not a real good excuse for me , since when I don't work , I don't get paid. Apparently even when I do work I don't get paid. Ahhh . .. fudge.
The weather here is downright balmy. It's 50 degrees out ! IN january !
I 'm really not getting anywhere fast today. I have 2 jobs to get to and I still haven't made my lunch yet. Boy, I lead an exciting life.
I did get some reading done. I finished "I Killed" about comics on the road. It's really just a collection of war stories, mostly from the 80's (Back when I was touring). I really enjoyed it . Also, I finished Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up", I really enjoyed that . Though he doesn't really get into his personal life - but I did enjoy him talking about the early days and how his act evolved and how he felt about it. It's a short book , but it's a good read.
Okay, this is not great writing. I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things. Warm up my digits and get this Motha' going !

Head. . It's Not What You Think

Sorry it's been so long since I posted but I have been very busy and sleep has been my default energy mode. I worked on a movie filming in Boston and one of the stars was Christopher Walken and through a weird twist of fate , I ended up holding his head in my hands. He looked up at me and said "Watch the hair". It was only a couple of days later that I realized he was joking with me . I thought he was telling me not to mess his hair.