Thursday, March 20, 2014

Pardon Me While I Stagger Around the Place for a Bit...


So there's this about it...

I've dealt with loss before, when my brother Bryan's ride ended in 2000. I know that, at least that first week, it was hard to see the world carry on like everything was normal, when my world had stopped. I mean, "screeching brakes, slam head-on into the wall" kind of stopped.  I remember getting soooo mad that first week or two, whenever I heard someone laugh, or turned on the news and heard typical news stories, signifying that life was proceeding as normal for the rest of the world. I figured, if my world came to a halt, why didn't it come to a halt for everyone else? It seemed disrespectful... hurtful, almost...

Nevermind... Look, just take a moment and look at that picture I posted at the top of the post. Can you imagine actually being there right now? How amazing would that be? I wish I was there right now, instead of sitting on my lazy behind, in front of my computer, watching Breaking Bad on one screen -- a show I don't even like -- writing a new blog post on the other monitor, just to bump Laythe's face down a post, so he doesn't look at me every time I pull up my blog...

Where was I?

OK, yeah, time to force some usual goofy Daveness and pretend everything is ok in the world. Because, hey, life goes on, right? It has to go on. If the world stopped every time someone "lost" a loved-one, then the world would never be in motion. Nothing would get done. "'Tis true, 'tis common; 'tis common 'tis true..."

But, hey, you didn't come here to be made to feel guilty, or depressed, right? You wanted to be cheered up, right? "Hey, Dave, entertain me! Cheer me up! Post funny stuff, take my mind off my day-to-day nonsense! Don't depress me with talk of death and loss... I get enough of that on my own, thank you..."

So, yeah, here you go...


An otter reaching for an ice cream sandwich. There, now all is well in the world again!

I can only assume this week has woken up things in me that have been dormant for a while... things Bryan-related that have never really been put to rest... well, cool, here they are again. Tonight I win the award for Post Most Likely To Generate Extreme Levels of Awkwardness! Or maybe the Post Most Likely To Alienate Any Lingering Blog Readers Who Have Popped In Here for a Laugh or Two to Take Their Minds Off Things For A While...

How's this..?



A bulldog pup rolling down a hill! How funny and/or cute is that?! That's what I'm talking about! That's what you came here for! Actually, that's what I came here for, too... I think I need to watch that clip several times...

And this...

Cat dance... Go kitty! Go kitty! 

OK, fine, I'll let it go now. Well, not really, but I'll stop plastering my angst all over this post, and lock it back up where no one can see it. Heck, you've likely browsed away by now in any case. I know I would have.

Look, here's a 6-minute single-take shot from the HBO show True Detective. From a "craft" standpoint, this clip amazes me. I've seen single-take shots that have been primarily dialog before, and trust me, that's impressive enough... but this shot is 99% action... the amount of work that went into staging this shot is staggering to me.

WARNING: Look, just mute the audio, ok? There's not much dialog, but what there is is primarily profane in nature, and hey, I'm a nice Christian boy, so it goes against my image to come across promoting anything "yucky", like F Words...



Can you imagine the preparation that went into staging that scene. McConaughey is amazing to me. This is "His Time"... he's doing great work across the board of late. Can't wait to catch the show.

I did see two spots where they could, conceivably, have spliced shots together. Specifically, the helicopter shot and the "laundry on the wash line" shot... actually, also the shot where the camera goes into the room with the gang bangers prepping weapons...

Still, amazing film making, if you ask me, which you didn't...

Had our first cast read-through tonight, with everyone that's in Episode One of the web series. We're about three weeks away from filming, if things go according to (the latest) plan. I tell you, it's a surreal thing to sit in a room full of actors, listening to them all read words I've written for them all. I was almost afraid to allow myself to feel proud, to enjoy it. Plus, I embarrassed myself a bit by laughing at all my jokes I'd written... hey, I think they're funny, what can I say?

And I need a good laugh lately.

For everything there is a time and a season and blah blah... LOOK OUT! FLYING SQUIRREL!

"Tower to Squirrel Airlines... Cleared for landing on runway 3..."

So let's see to what lengths I'll reach in order to find something else to talk about here.... hmm....

Oh! I got my oil changed yesterday.

That's it. I've officially reached the bottom.

Nowhere to go from here but up!

Adios for now.

Dave the All Over the Place

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