Adventures in Pennsyltucky

[My high school BFF Lauren during our adventure to the Poconos Snake & Animal Farm. She jumped on the curb that was painted like a snake and said, "Look, I'm the Virgin Mary!" This is Lauren's brain. This is Lauren's brain after 12 years of Catholic school. Any questions?]

"Home again, home again, jiggity jog..." My Mom used to always say that whenever we would get back from a trip. She probably still does. I have absolutely no idea where it came from or what it means. And I am not sure if it sprang to my mind now because I am back home in Baltimore, or because I just visited my Mom in the town I grew up in in PA. That's P-A. That's how people in Pennsylvania say "Pennsylvania". P.A. I have no idea how that came about either. I can't imagine telling anyone that I live in M-D!

"Pennsyltucky," as far as I know, used to refer to the semi-backwoods swath of land between the civilizations of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But now I think it pretty much refers to the whole state. I do love Pennsylvania, most of it is very beautiful, and in most areas the people are fairly friendly, non-pretentious, and family-oriented. There is always a cookie table at weddings there, and it is the only place I have ever seen pierogies on a Chinese Buffet. But it seems to have evolved - well, maybe, "morphed," is a better word - from a through and through Blue State (very liberal, very blue collar) to a Red State thinly veiled as a Blue State. God help us if coal mines and/or the Pittsburgh Steelers ever cease to exist. All hope will then be lost.

But, I hate talking politics, so that is all I will say on the matter. Just scares me a bit, that's all. A lot of times when people find out I am from the Pittsburgh area but currently live in Baltimore, they will say that Pittsburgh reminds them a lot of Baltimore. There are a lot of similarities, I concur. But Baltimore is much more progressive. I know people in Pennsylvania who honestly believe that they don't know any homosexuals. It would be sad if it weren't so funny, and vice-versa.

I drove over 1,000 miles between last Thursday and Sunday, and though I was hoping that time on the road would help me clarify a few things in my head, it only muddled them up a bit more. Particularly it made me question whether I really WANT to go on this road trip I have been talking about so incessantly. My drive home yesterday was lovely, but driving roundtrip from my Mom's to the Poconos in dreary, overcast conditions just made me bored and sleepy.

I did have a great time with Lauren, my BFF from high school who still lives in the area. I stole her away from her husband and kids for the weekend, and our stack of mini-adventures included visiting the Poconos Snake & Animal Farm, Dingmans Ferry waterfalls, shopping in a cute little town called Milford, dining there at Bar Louis for their sushi pizza that I often dream about, and feeding pretzels to the scrawny deer in Mikey's front yard. Less exciting, but somehow more adventurous, than the real monkeys at the Poconos Snake & Animal Farm, was our search for the Ghost Monkeys of the Poconos at a place simply called The Candle Shoppe.

Lauren is the one who told me about the ghost monkeys, and knowing her as long as I have, it sounded to me like a typical Lauren-ism, where maybe she had blended two (or three, or more) stories together in her head and had unwittingly invented the whole thing. But, no, the Ghost Monkeys are real! Or, at least, there is really a story about Ghost Monkeys. We found the Candle Shoppe, about 20 miles from Mikey's cabin. Animal Planet had filmed an episode of "A Haunting" there last year about the Ghost Monkeys, and the shop(pe) has cleverly taken full advantage of it. Among the hundreds and hundreds of different double-scented candles you can find a particular one termed "Monkey Breath," as well as loads of t-shirts and stuffed monkeys. It's brilliant, really. A candle shop(pe) that kids beg their parents to take them to! They are even starting tours of the haunted basement after Memorial Day. Between Lauren and myself, we spent about $100 on gifts, and I will be taking Mikey there after the tours start, for sure!

So that was fun. But, alas, I didn't find the easy answers I was hoping for. I have found myself using the word, "alas," far too often lately.

I have a couple meetings lined up this week about working on some features this summer, and until these pan out, or don't, I can't figure out where I will be living or what I will be doing. IN the immortal words of Soul II Soul, it is, "back to life, back to reality," whatever that means. I did see some amazing places in PA that I would love to film in, I will tell you about them in my next post. I need to go do one of the many packing-related things I am procrastinating about right this very minute, though. It is good to be home. I just kind of wish I knew where home is going to be a month from now.

Back to Basics

[Me and my best friend from high school, Lauren, on our last adventure to the Football Hall of Fame, August 2009]

Man, I am wiped out. In the past 35 days, I have been on the set ten days on "Lamplight," including an overnight trip to Bethany Beach, 1 day on "The Rosens," 6 days on "Rock Creek," in D.C. (so add 3 hours of commuting time to each of those days), taught my Pre-Production class at the Creative Alliance, hosted the April Cinelounge meeting also at Creative Alliance, had two yard sales, read and reviewed a feature-length script for Michelle, and had a meeting with my friend Jen Swartout about a short she wants to do. And probably some other stuff I am forgetting. Good thing I am unemployed at the moment. Who has time for a job?

Have several meetings lined up in the next couple days, hopefully one or two that might lead to some paying gigs this summer. Baltimore does not seem quite ready to let me go yet. To make matters better/worse/more complicated, I keep meeting/working with cool people on the set that make me want to stay in the area so I can work on projects with them.

Of course, "Lamplight," as I have already told you, has been a blast, and we are not quite through yet. Have another day on the set with Jason Koch and the like on Tuesday, and another trip to the beach next month when Johnny Alonso is back in town. Jason and another person I met on his set, Mauricio Osorio, were kind enough to volunteer to work a few days in D.C. on my friend Mark Aguirre's project, "Rock Creek". It was great on those days to have someone with me on the long, irritating drive to and from D.C. I can't believe people do that commute every day! We saw so many car accidents, and Thursday night when Jason was with me we had to drive back in a torrential downpour. Jason and I have become great friends and we talk all the time now, and already have talked about working on several new projects together in the next few months. It has been fun getting to know Mauricio better also. He has had footage for a fantastic documentary in the can for several years now, and I am lighting a fire under him to get it finished. I am hoping he'll have a short or a trailer ready for the May Cinelounge, I'll tell you more about that as it comes together, but I am very anxious to see him finish it, I think it is going to be beautiful.

On the set of "Rock Creek," I have met even more folks that I want to work with again, namely Rob Benica (DP), Chip Burden (sound), and Jae Shim (grip/PA). Mark (writer/director) really challenged himself and the crew with this piece, we had a lot of locations, including federal parks, which are always a pain because you have no choice but to do things by the book, and some scenes that take place at Christmas so there was loads of set dressing. By our last day of shooting (though we have one pick-up day to go) on Friday, we were all getting a bit punchy, and since the actors had to do wardrobe and make-up in a separate location, it was more hurry-up-and-wait than usual. Most of the day we were in Rock Creek Park, which was lovely, if chilly, so sometimes it was myself and four guys sitting in Rob's car waiting for Mark to get back with the actors. Peppered in with the usual movie talk (comparing favorite flicks and arguing about best/worst films ever), the guys exchanged anecdotes about masturbation and who their first wet dream was about. Most of the time I enjoy being the only (or one of the few) women on a crew. Sometimes, not so much.

I wasn't really offended, though I stopped them before we got to that point. They are good guys and we had fun. At the beginning of the day, Rob told me that my job was to remind him to put the polarizing lens on the camera before we started shooting. Since I am not really a camera person, and I was likely to forget this, I wrote it on the palm of my hand. Somehow this turned into a "thing". Every once in awhile I would flash the palm of my hand at Rob, and he would shout out, "POLARIZEEEEER!!!" in this high-pitched voice. Just one of those stupid-funny things that evolve on a set when you need to distract and entertain yourselves, especially when things get stressful. It even made Mark laugh after the park police came by and kicked us out after threatening to arrest us because our permit had expired.

I am a little frustrated because of the three projects I have been working on, none of them is quite wrapped, and I really want to put them all to bed and move on. "Rock Creek," has a day left, "Lamplight" has 2 or 3 short days, and "The Rosens," probably has a solid 4 or 5 days of shooting to get everything in the can. Pile on top of that that I have to move at the end of the month and have had no time to myself or time to really pack because I've been so busy on these projects, and I am a bit stressed out. But, relief is on the way. Thursday I am heading to Pennsyltucky to visit my Mom and to drop off some things at her place that she is going to store for me, and then I am kidnapping one of my best friends, Lauren, to go up to Mikey's cabin for the weekend. I need to take some things up to Mikey's for storage also, but mostly I just need some distance from my life so I can get some perspective on everything. I am feeling a bit muddled at the moment.

Right now it is looking like, once I vacate my apartment at the end of the month, I am going to stay at the cabin for about 6 weeks, but come back to Baltimore several times to finish up some projects and to spend my birthday with my friends. I'm still in Baltimore the first week of May, though, as I will be hosting Cinelounge again so I am crashing at my friend Elizabeth's for a few days. I don't know if I am going to hang around for the Maryland Film Festival or not. I want to and I should, but I guess I will play that by ear. I am anxious to get to the cabin and clear my head. This weekend there with Lauren will dust away some of the cobwebs, but it is also about catching up with her and having fun, giving her a break from her daily responsibilities of house/husband/kids, not time totally to myself, which I will very much be in need of by next month.

It seems I will be working on a one-day shoot with my friend Jen Swartout around June 6, and my friend Ronnie Goodwin from Glasgow will be in NYC on June 2, with his short titled, "Shooter," in a film festival up there, so I want to go to NYC again to catch him there (I am going to NYC this month also, to see Bentley's piece in a group exhibit called "Dead or Alive" at the Museum of Art & Design). But I think New York is going to have to wait a little longer for me. After Jen's shoot, I am still determined to take my cross-country road trip. Depending on if/when the paying gigs this summer start will determine how long the trip will be and when I need to return to Charm City. I am hoping that they will carry me through September, then at the end of that month I am going back to the Outer Banks for a week with the same friends I traveled with last year. Last night I handed my friend Alvina the $500 I made from my yard sales, so that even if I am living in a cardboard box by then, I am going on vacation at the end of September!

So long story short, absolutely nothing is in stone, and I am not really worried about it. I am looking forward to having all my wordly belongings packed up in a POD and spirited away, and only having my dogs and a couple suitcases of clothing to worry about. Right now I am feeling every ounce of my possessions weighing on my shoulders. I just want them to be away from me so I can concentrate on what will truly make me happy. I am always pretty happy, but I feel like I am about to experience a sense of freedom that I have never fully felt before, and I am anxious to get on with it. I am also very much looking forward to my weekend at my dear friend Mikey's cabin in the Poconos with my dear friend Lauren. Like I've said before, it is a good reminder to me that if you love someone and they love you, geography doesn't mean a thing. C'est vrai.