#2161: Tuesday, October 2: An old friend, a day on the set

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Post 2161
- 7 years and 274 days since I started this blog -

  

On a tractor at the Gentle Barn

Journal
(written 10/3/18)

I'm trying something new. I'll be linking this post to its associated photo album on Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: 8-1/2 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical crisis and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling, except for the occasional food shot when I've eaten something interesting. And that's where we find ourselves now.

I had a long day - tiring but wonderful. It began with lunch (breakfast for me, and an early one - trust me. I keep hooker's hours these days).

I've known my friend Marty (he likes to be called Martin, but that isn't really how I know him) since 1961 (or '62 - I can't calculate what age I was in 7th grade)>

We had the same homeroom, the same class schedule. He was a star athlete with a great sense of humor. I was a geeky kid trying to act older than I was, because I was a year younger than my classmates. We hung together in school, not so much out.

We went to Bayside High School together. Then, we didn't have many of the same classes, but we still liked each other, we were still friends. When I wrote the Senior Show, I asked him to help. We had a great time with that. Senior show was a fantastic class-cutting excuse, and I was, in high school, deeply committed to cutting out of school.

He went to the University of Arizona on a baseball scholarship, and we lost touch until Facebook reconnected us, some forty years later. When he moved to California, we had a reunion on one of my visits. We've tried to get together when I'm in LA ever since.

It is things like that that somewhat justify Facebook for me.

He lives on the beach North of LA, but today he had some business in Burbank which made lunch very convenient. What do you do with a homeboy you get to see only once a year, or less? You talk about a lot of stuff. More stuff than even a long lunch can cover.

You talk about stuff you've done. You talk a little philosophy. You laugh. You talk a little politics - because you can talk about anything with a guy who had a locker next to yours from age eleven to thirteen. And, of course, you talk about mutual friends, including trying to remember which friends are mutual, and do the 'where are they now thing'. At this time of life, that brings some somber moments.

But not too many, and you don't dwell on that.

After a couple of hours (not enough), Marty has to go, and I'm off to a movie set in downtown LA where a video is being shot. Alex is acting in it, and he wrote (co-wrote) the script, too.

I can't say anything about the content, and I have to be careful about which pictures I post, so as not to give away any details before the release. I can say it is a Bat In the Sun production, in the Super Power Beat Down series. The director/producer/cowriter, Aaron Schoenke has worked with Alex many times in the past, and they have more stuff coming up. Bat In the Sun has a YouTube channel with more than two million subscribers. The subject matter is (mostly) comic book, tv and movie superheroes.

Aaron's father, Sean, is on the set, since he's a BITS producer, too. He's also a musician. We hit it off, and I'm hoping to see him again (jam, maybe?) this visit. Somewhere, there's a fathers and sons pic: Alex, me, Sean and Aaron.

Aaron and Sean Schoenke

The set is supposed to be Arkham (Gotham's Asylum for the Criminally Insane), and it is really dank and creepy. Steampunk, for sure - Victorian gothic. I get there at about three in the afternoon, but the cast and crew have been there since nine in the morning. Alex's last scene doesn't happen until ten pm.

Between takes on the set - Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane

Although there's a bit of waiting around time, the set is light, energetic and friendly. There's story-telling, joking, singing, dancing between takes. All the crew are incredibly efficient. Seeing this group work together as an ensemble is really inspiring. I love it! It's a different kind of music.

I spend most of my time trying to take everything in and stay out of the (fuckin') way. I'm fairly successful at that. I'm also taking pics and videos for Alex. There's a set photographer (great guy, great sense of humor), but Alex won't have access to his photos until after the video is released, if ever.

As each actor completes their scenes and gets ready to leave, their work is acknowledged by the rest of the cast and crew with applause. I like that.

Me and Alex on the set.

Seeing a diverse group like this at work, everyone dedicated to the project's success, supportive of everyone else, everyone contributing to a happy set, is, to me, an uplifting experience. The parallels to making music aren't lost on me (my interior monolog is always finding connections to making music), and it is another level of goodness.

As I said, it's after ten o'clock when Alex finishes his last scene - which marks the end of this day's shooting. Everybody applauds, hugs all around. We're exhausted - especially Alex. I go home and fall asleep almost before I can get my socks off.

Another great day in El Lay. Grateful scarcely covers it.

Food Comment

Not today, LOL.

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