Monday, August 25, 2008

Um...Hrmmmm....Uh....Oh, Yeah.

I told you I'd be starting to get up pretty early starting today. This is probably the last morning I'll get to sleep 'til 5. It sucks.

No, this isn't a video. Sorry. But this counts as talking first thing in the morning with too little coffee in my system. Not much to tell you, but I'm living up to my bloggerly duties by posting anything.

Today starts the Tech Scouts. There's nothing like spending 13 hours riding a bus all over town. A bus which I have to tell how to get from point A to point B to point C...without getting on any parkways because the bus is too big to fit under some of the overpasses.

Yesterday, we looked at a location and the director loved it. Too bad it replaced a location we already had instead of being the one major set we don't have at all yet. We looked at a choice for the one we're missing and it doesn't work. Oh, and there's the swimming pool. We've had a fairly spectacular pool since the first week the director got to NY. I got an email last night telling me that the scene in the pool is being switched to a scene at a gym. Instead of Jake teaching Leah to swim, I guess Jake will be showing her the joys of the treadmill. I don't know. I do know that gyms are not easy to close down for filming...and it's not just about paying them enough. People who workout like to do it every day; every day at the same time. Apparently it annoys them if their gym is closed one day when they show up for their sweatfest. Blech!

Anyway, it may not be video but these are my incoherent early ramblings. I have to get in the shower in a few minutes and get my ass into the city. My wish for all of you in my own time zone and all of the time zones to my west is that you're all still comfy in bed and will remain oblivious to all of this for a few more hours.

I'll let you know how it went tonight. In the meantime, talk among yourselves.

Oh, BTW (posted later before the scout begins),

Yesterday's driver:

-Couldn't find the Queens Mid-town tunnel.
-Drove over a few of the lane dividers in the tunnel.
-Admitted late in the day that he really didn't know his way around NYC very well.
-Admitted later in the day that he'd never driven a 15-passenger van before.

Needless to say, we won't be seeing him again.

26 comments:

Jim Wright said...

Hey, I can drive a 15-passenger bus, hell I can drive a 40-ton military tractor/tailer rig, and I've got a commericial driver's license.

Also,
-I couldn't find the Queens Mid-town tunnel, with both hands and a pack of bloodhounds.
-I can, if necessary, drive over a few of the lane dividers in the tunnel, and over other cars, pedestrians, bicycle messengers, and baby carriages without second thought.
-I will admit up front that I really don't know my way around NYC very well - or at all, actually.

Additional driving skills:
- I can talk on my cell phone, while looking in the back seat and "steering" with my knee.
- I know a wide variety of internationally recognized hand gestures and verbal greetings.
- I am capable of offering unsolicited advice on a wide variety of subjects that I know absolutely nothing about.
- I can drive with my hi-beams on at all times, or turn signals, you choice.

So, you know, if you're looking for a replacement driver, I'm available.

Anonymous said...

I don't know where the tunnel is either, & would be happy to drive over lane dividers, & swerve into the other lanes if needed. I also would be terrified to drive in NYC, which would add to the excitement of the trip, & could not drive a bus! Wouldn't that be cool?
I can take out a mail box, destroy the side view mirror, & put long scrapes in the side of the bus while I try to plug my cell phone into the car charger while driving @ 50 mph. Like Jim, I can talk on the phone (not hands free, that's for sissies) while rooting around in the back seat or on the floor of the passenger side for something unimportant that I just HAVE to have right then.
I'm good @ obscene hand gestures @ a lot of fuck you's too, fuck is my favorite word.
Sorry, I don't apply makeup while driving though.

Anonymous said...

I got you beat. I've got my CDL and drive an RV about the size of a 50 passenger bus. Living in Seattle, I can drive with my cell phone to my ear, a latte in my left hand and a cigerette in my right while reading the sports section. The horn on my truck doesn't work so I can do all of the above and flip off others with the best of them.

I know where the mid-town is but get lost in the Bronx and Queens but I do know manhatten well. Also, I've got nothing else to do.

Nathan, send me a ticket and I'll be right there. BTW, my day-rate is a little than it was in Seattle.

Tracy said...

Oh yeah, forgot the cigarette too. That's during the mailbox incident too. I chain smoke while driving, so you'd have the benefit of coughing through the haze of smoke.

MWT said...

Oh yeah?? Well, I can do all that while passing people in the leftmost lane by swerving all the way over to the rightmost lane and then all the way back again! In the middle of intersections!

AND! I have no idea where Queens is, let alone any tunnels in it!!

Oh, and incidentally I think I went to bed at 5...

Jim Wright said...

Oh, so it's an audition is it?

Well, OK then. Let me add a few things to the old resume:

- I can take the van out the night before - supposedly to get it washed - but in reality I'll be taking some of the cast and crew "downtown." After drinking for hours, we'll forget where we parked the damn thing, get arrested, and have you come bail us out in the morning, before work. And we'll tell the producers we cleared it with you before hand, in fact it was all your idea.
- I also can drive, smoke, and mix four packets of raw sugar into a double expresso latte while text messaging pictures of various cast members in compromising situations (possibly from the road trip the night before) to local paparazzi.
- And speaking of the paparazzi, I'd be more than willing to make shit up and talk to them while you're inside scouting locations.

I got mad skillz, Nathan, just saying. I work for cheap. Seriously, man, you need me.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm done. I can't top that last one. I bow down to Jim's superior NYC bus driving skills.

Tracy said...

I'm out. You win Jim, I can't top it. I wanna come along though, ok?

Tracy said...

I'm out. You win Jim. I wanna come along though, ok?

Jim Wright said...

Tracy, deal, you'll be the "Safety Officer."

Tracy said...

ruh roh, we're really in trouble now!

MWT said...

Yeah okay, I'm out too.

Can I come along too?

Anonymous said...

I'll provide security

Random Michelle K said...

I would just like to point out that for once, this was not my fault.

Anonymous said...

Okay, with all that said, how'd your new driver do today? See Nathan, you need us. We may not do any better but we'll definitely be more fun.

BTW, what was that cute little blonde's, on Nice Package, name? She was supervising producer or something like that. Blonde, 5'2", about a buck soaking wet.

Nathan said...

Today we had a real bus with a real live professional driver. No excitement at all...just the way it's supposed to be.

And I honestly don't remember that producer's name. Just so you know, though, the hand out Associate Producer credits like popcorn on a show like that. The kid in charge of bagels gets an Associate Producer credit.

Tracy said...

Mark & mwt, yes, come on along, it'll be a blast.
Nathan, Jim started it! It's all his fault. :P
Oh how boring. Our trip would have been so much more fun.

Nathan said...

In the vanishingly small chance that some of you don't read Jim's blog, he asked for that.

No, really!

Anonymous said...

I suck at driving, I don't like driving, so I'm not a volunteer.

I'm damn good at peanut gallery though!

Random Michelle K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Geez, what'd you guys expect. It would be like leaving Jim, Tracy and me at a bar, going out for half an hour and coming back to find the cops breaking up a fight. Tables overturned, mirrors broken, bloody noses, etc. We really don't mean for it to happen, it just does.

Tracy said...

hehehe Trouble just follows us wherever we go. I'm ready when you are.
God, I'm glad I found this blog. I love it here.

Jim Wright said...

You don't find this blog, it, like trouble finds you.

Random Michelle K said...

Which explains your presence here Jim.

Tracy said...

I was a good girl before I came here. Honest, I swear! Pure as the new fallen snow.

Jim Wright said...

I do what I can, Michelle, I do what I can.