When Will The Music Stop?

On the set of Sea-Doo - Cape Town, South Africa. Having fun with Photoshop and Jeremy Irons. Definition of my invented word Dream'mare - noun - a present tense word of living a dream and a nightmare concurrently. Way different from rags to riches to rags again which is sequential. In early 2006, I was shooting a web film called Harbour Towne for Sea-Doo. We shot on the Sony backlot and Lake Puddingstone in San Dimas. Prior to that film for Sea-Doo, we shot one in Cape Town, South Africa. The agency begged me to please produce Harbour Towne and I finally agreed, most likely because they appealed to my ego. So, on a support boat in Lake Puddingstone was me, the client, 2 agency creative types and Karen, our scripty and an awesomely cool person. We got bored and played all types of games, and just like two dudes throwing a football an ever increasing distance, we continued to push further and further into more risqué games. Stuff like Dirty Sanchez and who had sex with someone your m...

Blogging at my desk This week Mari and I lost someone we loved and respected. Roberta lived in Paris but we met her in Portugal through our friend Virpi, whom is a dear friend of ours and Roberta's best friend since college. They attended Oklahoma State University together. That always seemed oddly funny to me. Virpi and Roberta stayed at our home a few years back when Virpi's daughter and Roberta's goddaughter, Meeri, graduated film school here in LA. Meeri is like our adopted daughter. She spent every holiday with us while in school. I could go on and on about the person Roberta was, but Virpi's other daughter, Sirri, summed her up in one phrase, "A lover of life and champion of dreams". God speed to all who loved her. With the passing of Roberta, it moved up in the rotation a writing that was planned a few weeks from now. This is something personal to me although we have all experienced death. Someone does not have to die to experience a type of death, whic...

(L to R) Gavin, Tom, Roman & Anton - 2016 Let's start off talking about a guy named Tom. A really good guy and one of my closest friends. He has done anything I have asked of him and even things I haven't asked. He'll cook for us, wash the dishes, picks up cards and gifts for me to give to Mari, and so much more. We spend most of the yearly holidays with Tom. When his folks come to town for the winter months, his mom cooks for me and makes all my favorite meals from my NY childhood. He, as well as his parents, made very generous donations towards caregiving. In January 2020, Mari was overseas and I was pretty okay staying on my own at that point, or so we thought. One night at  2am I got out of bed, headed to the bathroom, and I fell pretty hard. After spending all of my energy trying to get up on my own, I eventually peed all over myself and the hardwood floor between the bedroom and bathroom. Defeated, depleted and embarrassed, I finally called Tom for help. He showed...

Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Searching for the truth? Look no further than any movie starring Gene Hackman, the greatest actor of all time. The French Connection, Unforgiven, Crimson Tide, Hoosiers, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Firm and of course Lex Luther in Superman. I believe he is the character in every damn movie. Should I be basing what I perceive as the truth on a man pretending to be other people? The answer is a resounding NO and YES. C'mon, I love movies and love being entertained and I do learn from them. Sometimes I learn about filmmaking and other times about the subject matter. Circling back to my conflicting NO and YES answer and the fine line I am straddling. To be clear, I'm not psychotic, I know movies are make believe and told from the perspective of the director, writers and actors. However, there is a flip side for me and I'm guessing many others. Consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously, I spent a huge part of my life being anyone but me....