Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers.

I know I used this topic title before but it works so well for the posting. I do put the posting up at the end of the weekend and it does contain a review of what I did over the last couple of days. I think the "Weekend Update" will become a regular feature of the Balancing Checkbooks weblog.

Mostly on Friday night, I slept. I had an early wake-up so I could make the 6:30 AM Saturday call for the student film I was playing an extra in.

I made it to the location in good time for my close-up. Actually, there was no close up. That was fine with me. I had seriously bloodshot eyes from waking up at 4:00 AM. That, plus driving into the rising sun did not make things any better for me.

It seems that there is a lot of standing around in movie making. One of the big activities among the crew was betting on who would show up on time and who would not. I'm not sure who was the big winner in the betting pool.

My role was that of an older mall walker. The Big Guy had suggested I dress somewhat extremely to accentuate the older person caricature. I ended up in pink shirt and gray sweatpants. I affected a limp and walked with a cane to look more authentic. For the record, I do not have a limp and I do not need a cane. It is an antique cane that was my great grandfaher's I think. After I finished my appearance, I drove home.

While we were killing time, I did find out that the Big Guy missed out on a shooting session on Friday that featured Vanessa, the better of the two actresses in the film. The sound guy for the film said she was wearing booty shorts in the scenes.

After I asked the Big Guy what booty shorts were, I said, "Ahhhh...too bad I missed those scenes as well." Vanessa is majorly hot according to the almost all male crew.

I would tend to agree with them. I am older but not so old that I do not appreciate an attractive female of any age.

When I finished my breakfast at home, I checked my email. I had one from my friend Mad Max. Mad Max has been an Internet friend since the mid-1990s. We met on a film bulletin board that was run by Empire, an English film and entertainment magazine.

The Big Guy and I were the only regular Americans in the bulletin board. We both got booted off the board for a week for unBritish comments. I think it was the Big Guy's comment that "you [the UK] would all be speaking German now if it wasn't for us," in response to some cheap shot comment about the film Independence Day.

For the record, the Big Guy and I are both proud to be Americans.

More to the point, Mad Max and some of his friends have organized a web site, http://www.foureightfours.co.uk that is devoted to the cinema and film criticism. I visited the site and it looks interesting. So, here is a big Southern California shout out to Mad Max.

I watched Kurosawa's late masterpiece Kagamusha after my lunch on Saturday. This is a brilliant samurai film that ranks in my mind as being one of the very best if not the best. The thing that made the film even more enjoyable for me was that I had a good understanding of the historical context. The film takes place just before the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate in about 1600. Kagamusha also takes place at the same time as my current Korean historical drama serial, The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin.

Saturday was going to the theater with the Girl Friend night. She picked up the tab for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Bistro 45, in Pasadena. We went there because the theater is in Pasadena, convenient as well. Bistro 45 is one of those California French fusion restaurants. the food was really good and filing. The Girl Friend surprised me by picking up part of her dessert and eating with her fingers. She is usually so proper.

Moving on the play.

We saw the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt. It won the Prize just this month. It is a one act play with only four characters. It revolves around a nun who is a middle school principal. The nun suspects the priest is involved with an improper relationship with one of the eighth grade boys. All she has to do is confirm her doubts.

Set in the early 1960s, the nun faces a dauntless task and is forced to enlist the aid of a very young and innocent nun. The nun is successful in the end but loses the battle to the Church when the priest is transferred to another school and parish.

The play is well worth seeing and it does raise some serious questions about how the Church has handled this problem and the problem's imapct on others invloved with it.

I was starting to drag from lack of sleep when I took the Girl Friend back to her house. By now, I had been up for almost twenty hours. The Girl Friend wanted to talk about serious questions that I had [a] no knowledge of and [b] no interest in discussing.

This was not what she had in mind. She also did not plan on me going home as early as I did.

Oh well, life happens.

And, I was really tired when I got home around 1:00 AM. I slept until almost 9:00 and felt much better for the extra hour or two in bed.

Sunday was a day for blobbing around. I wrote a couple of letters today and did some reading. I also spoke with the Big Guy. He called to tell me he had received his grade in his "New Asian Cinema" class mid-term examination. He was one of six students that received A's; about 20 students failed the mid-term. Dad was very pleased.

Oh yes, for the record, I do write letters.

I don't write with a fountain pen anymore because my handwriting is getting on the unreadable side now. Sometimes even I have trouble reading what I have written. Now, I just print it out and mail it in the snail mail.

I know that sounds so 20th Century but it is something I do when I want to make a clear impression of the recipient of the letter. Hopefully for me, I will make a favorable impression.

I trust you , gentle readers, had a good weekend. It was a wonderful Southern California weekend at the beach where I live; warm and sunny and breezy.

Someone has to live at the beach and that might as well be me.

Be well and stay happy.