on the East Coast around here lately. Last night a production crew was shooting some new episodes of a TV series across the street. You know it’s going to be happening because they put little signs on the trees. “No Parking. TV Production between the hours of 3pm and 12.” or something like that. It doesn’t bother me, I don’t park in the street, but it would probably piss off the people who do. Everyone’s always excited when the TV or movie crews are in the street. They made a movie in the house next door the year before last. It hasn’t been released yet. It’s called “The Adults” in case you want to look it up. They asked if this house would be available, but it’s not something I need. I’m filming stuff here all the time anyway. I’ve got my own fucking Hollywood thanks. I know what this production is, but I’m not going to say the name of it. It’s probably something I wouldn’t watch, I’m pretty sure.
All this time and effort and sometimes it’s just unwatchable garbage.
Last week I bought a small hand held device that I guess, for want of a better word, you could call a police scanner. It’s perfectly legal and quite useful if everything goes to hell, phones don’t work and the internet is down. It would have been great a couple of months ago when the car crash happened. I still don’t know exactly what occurred or who was involved. If I’d had this thing, I could have listened in to what was going on. I just now turned it on and there is some chatter on one of the channels. I was listening to it last night. It took a few minutes to work out what it was, because there were a lot of people talking at once.
Then I realized it was the film crew in the house across the road. Two guys who sounded like stage hands, were chatting conspiratorially about the books in the bookshelf, while in the background you could hear the director calling for a rehearsal of the scene and then finally, “action”. It was amusing for about 20 minutes. Today someone is talking about batteries and how some of them “really fucking suck”. I know I’m eavesdropping on these cats, but there’s nothing I can gain from it. It’s not like I have any idea of what the story line is going to be. They’re shooting outside in the street today. If I look out the window I could probably watch the whole thing.
Also, I wanted to I could probably troll them later by hitting the talk button, and make it sound like they’re in a haunted house, but I’m not five years old any more. I’ve got better things to do than listen to this anyway. I’m happy that this thing that I bought actually works. Will I have to use it if the SHTF? I don’t know. be prepared, that’s my motto. Expect that it will, and hope that it doesn’t. It sounds like they’re shooting a scene now. I have to turn this off, it’s too distracting.
When I first arrived in New York I did some extra work. I forget what the production was, but it went on and on until about 2 o’clock in the morning. I left before it was over, it was so fucking boring. I didn’t bother to hang around to get paid even. I was continually upsetting the other extras, by doing stuff that was verboten. Talking or whatever. I was absolutely unsuited for the job. I did a bit of that kind of work in San Francisco, although it morphed into some speaking parts eventually. I was very well known in Japan for about a week. I didn’t feel like starting at the bottom again in NY, besides as I said before, I have better things to do.
David Carradine could have been me, but no.
It’s funny, because the week I was leaving SF for NY, the agency called and asked if I would be available to be a stand in for David Carradine for a movie that was going to be shot out in the country there. That would have been a step up in my movie career, and who knows what it would have led to? Perhaps nothing. I’ll never know. David Carradine isn’t making any more movies now either. I forget what the movie was called. Ultimately, it’s not really going to work for me unless I’m the star. Fuck being an extra or a stand-in even. I would have loved to be in any Russ Meyer movie, but it was before my time. Most actors aren’t that bright really. The smart ones keep their politics to themselves. I should do the same. Happy Friday.