Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Ok, so after a wonderfully decadent and super happy fun long weekend in San Antonio with Brandon, Tito Joel, et al, and having returned to kind of a rough past 18 hours, now I got the best phone call I could've gotten today: S GOT HIRED ON WITH THE SHERIFF'S RESERVES!!!!!!!!!!!!

He called me a little while ago and said he had some stupendous news and was I ready. I was thinking: his mom's gonna send us some money, he doesn't have to have his wisdom teeth worked on after all, he got a raise at work, etc. Then to drop this on me! Excellent. Relieved. Excited. Ready to plan! What does this mean?!? What happens now?!? What are we drinking to celebrate?!? Well, first things first is he will not be able to make our counseling session tonight so he can go borrow a Smith & Wesson M&P holster from his cadet friend, and then they are going shooting b/c S has been ordered to appear at the academy this Friday in order to qualify at the range. Meanwhile I am to research where to buy our own S&W M&P holster. And it looks like they are going to place S in the Marine Division, which is of course, where I got my illustrious start! Best of all, I am now going to make S one of the stars of my documentary!

Busy week so far and ahead and it's only Tuesday. I had to run down to the convention center today to shlep a bunch of shit for our exhibit booth. In fact I had to do it twice b/c on my first trip I forgot a bunch of stuff b/c my head is still not functioning at maximum capacity, probably due to too many margaritas drunk in San Antone.

Speaking of the margaritas in San Antone, what can I say about the trip but... applause! Bravo! Not bad, not bad at all. Even though Brandon was not able to come pick me up until after 11pm on Thursday night, we both agreed it was fun driving to S.A. together in the froggy windy night, 40's music on satellite radio as our background music, discussing philosophy and bonding over silly hat pictures taken at 2am.

Friday lunch was the best, as we enjoyed margaritas and chicken enchiladas with a creamy white wine sauce with his friend Jase, Tito J., and my dear friend L. who happened to be in S.A. that day as well. Fun was had by all, pictures were taken, and drinks were drunk. Then Tito J. had to get back to work and L. had to drive home to Austin while Jase and Brandon agreed to be good sports and accompany me to the Museum of Art so I could see the Ry Cooder Chavez Ravine exhibit. Fun! Friday night was dinner with all kinds of friends at Maggiano's. Yum! Late Friday night Tito Joel and I were back at his fabulous downtown apartment for a Rock Band/American Idol party with various comers and go'ers who knew they were no match for us. (At least, until Tito J. got on the drums.)

Saturday Tito Joel and I attempted to go for a run in beautiful Brackenridge park. Hey, at least we were out there. Saturday lunch was back with everyone at Chris Madrid's, famous for the frijole-and-frito-topped burger. Slobber. Also good margaritas. Saturday afternoon was spent at one of my favorite places on earth, the Buckhorn Museum! Good beer! Fun photos! Texas Ranger Museum next door! Guns! Stuffed, dead animals that are happy to see you! Etc.

Saturday night dinner was at Chauma Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse with all friends again and the less said about this place the better b/c I will start to weep thinking of all the things I could not eat there b/c I was full after about only 45 minutes of nonstop eating. The Most Incredible Meal in my recent memory was capped off by the Most Expensive Drink I have ever drunk: orange citrus Grand Marnier in a snifter glass and on fire! ($25 American Dollars. Each.) Brandon, Tito J. and I indulged. Brandon paid the whole dinner bill and for that, Tito J. and I repaid him the next day, which I will describe shortly. Saturday late night activities were Karaoke at a dive bar where we gawked at lesbians, avoided too-long conversations with bikers, and slurped Corona beers!

Sunday late morning found Tito J. and me again attemping to do a run at the park. My now 5-lb.-heavier ass slowed me down significantly. Sunday afternoon consisted of Tito J., Brandon and me sitting on a Riverwalk restaurant patio waving at the tourists float by on their river boat rides. There may have been a margarita or 2 in arm's length as well. My jeans were now way too tight and Brandon took a picture for the record. We met Brandon's friends for dinner at a sushi restaurant and in the parking lot is where we presented Brandon with his gift: one of San Antonio's institutional items, the 3-lb. cinnamon roll! Fortunately it fit safely in the car's childseat.

Sunday night is when Brandon and I bid adieu to his friends by going to their house and eating their cheesecake and then taking Jase out on the town apparently waaaaayyy too late at night. Beer, Kamikaze's, Rum and Cokes, etc. Late Monday morning Brandon and I headed back to Houston approximately 5 min. after Tito J. We made future plans to take the trip I've been wanting to take for the past 11 years: Savannah, GA! Last night I dried my post-vacation letdown tears the only way I knew how: hacking a chunk off my own 3-lb. cinnamon roll and putting it in the oven where it became the perfect cap to my most sass-tisfying weekend in a long time.

SERENITY NOW

...as J2 would say. So approximately one and a half hours from now I was supposed to be in a rental car with Brandon, driving west as fast as possible, shooting the shit and playing my music as loud as he would let me. Instead, in approximately one and a half hours, I will be leaving Job #2 and going to pick up a pizza to take home while S and I watch American Idol and wait for Brandon's new flight to arrive to Houston by 9:45 p.m. if we're lucky. Why do bad vacation starts happen to the people that needs vacations the most? I.e., me?

Oh well. At least Brandon is living it up in a Memphis airport bar with margaritas and I will get to watch Stevie Wonder on Idol. And the San Antonio margaritas will be that much more tasty and appreciated.

My Genetic Code, huh?

So last night at the NALIP meeting my dad, who is the chairperson or something of this organization, called me out and announced that I am following in my genetic code and going to be a filmmaker. He gave me this cool article written by Robert Rodriguez entitled, "The 10-minute Guide to Filmmaking" or something like that and it was fun reading it. I kind of want to buy a camcorder and start filming everything now, you know, for the record. I've checked craigslist and now just need to decide if I want to spend the $. Well, I do, but should I?

Meanwhile I've got a friend who has totally spit the bit. What do you do when you think your friend's gone nuts? Keep your distance? Report her to the authorities? I am a little stressed by this situation b/c I am also tired of listening to her constant gibberish, which has been going on for several days now. I might call one of her family members tonight and express my concern. I am worried about her, though.

Did some more work on my doc script today. My professional filmmaker/cameraman friend B.B. is still in Austin and I am impatient to meet with him b/c I think he'll have some good suggestions. I am planning on going to the academy on an upcoming Thursday to do some more sussing out and get some more ideas, now that I am freed up by no longer working on Thursday nights at Job #2. Next week is out though, due to the TLA Convention being in Houston and I will be a busy librarian that week indeed, including having 2 evening social events!

Day "Off"

I had decided awhile back I needed a day "off" so I took one today. However, there was still work to be done and I did some: headed downtown to the Reserves office so I could dig through our files and archives for the purpose of doing research for my documentary. The Reserve secretary showed me where all the files are, including some secret ones in a secret office I didn't even know we had, and let me go to town! The Chief was also at the office and I chatted with him for a bit. I told him how literally everybody is telling me nothing but "hell yes" when I tell them about the documentary and the things I'll need and he said if I get any resistance anywhere to let him know! But that will not happen, it looks like.

This back office the Reserves have is so cool. There's a great big huge conference table in there, a fridge, bathroom, comfy chairs, everything! I kicked off my shoes and made myself at home, opening up boxes and boxes of files, making notes for myself of things that I might want to use in the film, scanning privileged doc's, etc.! It was pretty fun.

Now I'm at Job #2 for a little while and next I will go to the local NALIP meeting at 7, where pater familias should also be; he recommended I show up for networking. Why the hell not. I admit I do need to get back to work on my doc; more ideas have presented themselves to me even before today, and I want to add to my script. I haven't touched the thing in a couple of weeks which is fine, b/c it's been kind of marinating in my mind, but now I need to get back to crackin' on it.

Social life note: I have gotten lots of emails from friendly fellows who, while are not gay, at least seem like they might be worthy candidates for my new late-night going-out BFF position. I've had a couple of phone conversations and even "hired" one guy on probationary status, but then he totally let me down on Sat. night b/c he had to go pick up his mom at the border and she, being a typical Mexican woman like me, kept him waiting for over an hour. I found one gay dude but he looks like a short Seth Rogan. S and others tell me I shouldn't focus on looks so much and I know they have a point. I don't know if I'll have time to meet any of these boys for a quick sangria before I leave this Thurs. for the San Antonio road trip with Brandon, but I'm in no hurry now that Saturday night is past and I ended up not going to see the Iguanas after all. As I put on my Facebook status on Sunday, at least I'm well rested now!

Bummed, Bored, Bewildered

Not feelin' at the top of me game these days. I think I have some sort of infection and it's bringing me down. I'm still not sleeping well. My ankle pain is going on 3 months now. I may have to end up going to the Iguanas BY MYSELF AGAIN tomorrow night b/c this guy I met who I thought was cool is acting like a pussy about going "downtown" even though the Continental Club is in MIDTOWN. Give me a break... I'm so bored with this New BFF search. Maybe it's like falling in love and how that doesn't happen unless you are not actively looking for it? I need a new place to go running as the park by our house is also boring me to tears! Bitch, moan, wail.

Tomorrow: working an early patrol shift (9-5ish) with another Reserve. Tomorrow night, MAYBE going to see The Iguanas. Sunday: cleaning house, spending time with S. Maybe getting some work done on my documentary like I need to!

2 Benadryl @ 3:30 AM: Bad idea

So I woke up at 3:29 am and was itching due to dry skin and nerves. I've just got soooo much on my mind these days (I know, what else is new). I should focus on my documentary but I keep getting distracted by things like my social life. Things between S and me are actually great. He even brought home roses and a cute silver necklace for me the other night. We've got a counseling session tonight and we are going to learn about "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" and how to implement it in our daily lives. So I guess if it's not one thing obsessing me it's another and here we go again.

So I took 2 Benadryl, thinking it would kick in and the itching would stop and I'd be dead asleep in 1/2 an hour. No such luck, as I watched first The Fresh Prince, then Roseanne on Nick at Night. Finally I forced myself to turn the tv off and go to sleep. When the alarm went off at 7:20 am though, my body was having none of it! I went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 8:15. Oh well! Guess I won't be doing THAT again!

I am having no luck finding a pretty nelly to be BFF's with. A couple of my friends have indicated my standards are too high b/c I want a guy that looks like Ricky Martin and not Jack Black! My lesbian friends are no help at all but I am not surprised. I did "meet" this straight guy on a platonic friends website who seems like he may have promise. He's even graduated the same police academy that S did! We had a 20-minute conversation last night and I told S all about him. Dude even said he would go with me to the Iguanas on Sat. night, so we'll see.

I REALLY NEED A VACATION. One week until San Antonio with Brandon, Tito J., and our delicious friend Marga-rita!!!!!!!!!!!

No Time for Blog, Dr. Jones

I am feeling discouraged today. I had a hella busy weekend and have had no time to work on my documentary in days. Well, I have done minor things related to my documentary, like going to my dad's documentary screening last Friday night, going to the Academy on Monday night to announce my filming intentions to the academy staff (they are all behind me 100% and told me I have "carte blanche" up there!!!) and check out the new meat I mean suss out the new cadets, and I should be receiving Capturing the Friedmans from Netflix soon in the mail!

But I'm really feeling down about the fact that I don't have any more adventurous friends that are willing to go out and explore with me on Saturday night at midnight. I love and adore my friends--all of them!--but now that they are all getting married, pregnant, what have you they just seem to have lost their senses of adventure and spur-of-the-momentness. S of course, does not mind if I go out and have my fun, b/c that leaves him at home to spend quality time with his PS2 and XBox360. He also likes it when I go out b/c he says it puts me in a great mood--true.

I decided that I need to find a gay, pretty boy to be my new BFF since chances are he won't be getting married anytime soon and "desert" me. But they are proving hard to find!!! My avenues to find such a character are limited, unfortunately.

I want someone to go see The Iguanas with me this Sat. night. The last time they came I just went by myself and I'm tired of doing that. Shit, I may have to just meet some of those boring old straights if I can't find the right gay play mate.

Busy Weekend Comin'

And here we go! Today: leave work early at 4, meet li'l bro over "slider burgers" so we can discuss my script. Then Job #2 for a couple of hours. Tonight: public screening of my dad's old news film, followed by lively discussion!

Sat. morning: our first Saturday Board Meeting of the High-spanic Health Coalition and hopefully the slackers that whine about weekday meetings will show their lazy asses up. Noon: Job #1 to teach a PubMed class and hopefully the slackers that whine etc etc. as above. Then, a bachelorette party! Sure it's a year late, but who cares?!

Sunday: I better do a patrol shift or else. Not sure what time that will happen but it better happen. Early would be better so I have the rest of the day to fart around with S and work on my documentary.

Documentary Filmmaker Attracts Drama!

Well, I didn't get to call my new friend in Connecticut last night b/c my girlfriend needed me to come and help her get her car away from her no-good loser jerk car mechanic/guy friend. She got into a physical fight with his employee and although she got hurt and bruised up pretty badly, the cops wrote them both tickets for "public affray", or as we cops call it, mutual combat. I have to say, after I heard the story I agreed that it sounded like a mutual combat type of situation. The most common type of this situation that we usually encounter is a bar fight. Anyway, I had to call the mechanic jerk to tell him that I would be coming by to get her car so he better leave it out where I could get to it. Then I had to go over there and meet her while we waited for her future son-in-law to bring his truck so he could hitch the car up and drive it away. What a mess! As DH says, girls always like the bad boys. I had told her to dump this loser as a friend 2 years ago and now it finally looks like it's happening. Some people have to learn the hard way.

I am finally starting to think that I better try and learn something about cameras, and lighting, and sound, and editing, and camera shots, and "cinema verite" and shit like that. This is the technical side of filmmaking and I know zilch. This is where my brother and father will come in and help, but I need to learn some of the technical terms so that I can express myself to them. My dad says I also need to start saying things when I conversate like "Cut to the chase scene."

Some people (Mudflap) are making the most ridiculous suggestions for my film! He has NO IDEA what art is! He wants me to put the most BORING aspects of what the Reserves do in the film and I keep having to tell him that is NOT INTERESTING to people! Then again, his favorite movie of all time is "50 First Dates" so why am I not surprised???

But I'm pretty pleased today b/c I called our Reserve office and was told by all means I could come down there and for purposes of my documentary research, dig through the years of documents, archives, and photographs and papers that are not even organized! I reminded them that as a librarian, this kind of thing is right up my alley. I'm even considering offering to organize it all for us, if I can find the time.

Things Are Moving Right Along

So today I got sent some lovely B&W photos from one of my many librarian pals (God bless them, so many librarians tend to be Ultra Nerds Galore On Wheels, but damn they are as resourceful as they are covered with cat hair!!!) and these photos--of old timey Texas trains, train stations, train tracks, etc.--just might have one that could very well work on my "production company" letterhead. I just have to see how it looks on a Word doc when I have time to play with it tomorrow. But I like this one photo b/c it's also dated "1911", a date that has a special place in my heart b/c it's the year my beloved grandmother Julia was born as well as being my favorite kind of gun, "Old Slabsides", the legendary 1911 .45! Ha!

I also found a good book via the public library on Netlibrary which means I can read it online. It's an actual "how to" book on making documentaries and lord knows I need all the help I can get.

Finally today I made 2 connections: one of them is a guy in Connecticut who is also making an actual documentary about Reserves! But his is more of a technical, educational type film whereas mine is a real human interest film (as least, that's how I am thinking of it). Using my librarian/detective skills--and the 2 are not mutually exclusive--I searched high and low for his contact info and found it finally after much Googleing. I sent him off an email, said a quick prayer, and lo and behold he emailed me back, sending me his phone # so we can have a nice chat about our respective projects! Should be interesting! Bonus: He's also a Reserve! The other connection I made is with a nice young lady out in LaLa Land who works in the film industry. I don't know how valuable that connection will be, especially since she's never made a documentary before but it's always nice to meet more like-minded individuals. Am I on the fast track to becoming one of those film/media types?????????

Poor S. At night he wants me to watch "Heroes" and "24" and wrestling with him and I just want to do more research on documentaries and work on my script, etc.! I've gotta be careful not to let my newest obsession overtake me, as they are wont to do. I learned almost too late in life to make sure family comes first. Even though that's extremely difficult if, to paraphrase the words of a flying Wallenda, you are always impatient to be on the wire again.

Duped! By a Mockumentary

Or whatever the hell it was. That JCVD is not a documentary! I could only tolerate 5 min. of it before turning it off. But I finished watching The Thin Blue Line last night. Fascinating! And now I'm taking a quick blog break from working on my script. I happily just got an email from our Chief agreeing to let me film him for my script scene, "The Modern Reserves." Instead of boring narration talking about all that we do it will be MUCH better having the Chief's talking head talking about it! Less narration, more talking heads! Interspersed with my other shots.

I'm getting kind of sad, though, which is the other reason I needed a break from my script. I tightened up the portion where my script talks about the 2 Reserves who have been killed in the line of duty (1978 and 1979--the 70's were a really bad decade for cops overall everywhere) and it started getting to me, especially in light of having just watched Blue Line. I am actually dedicating my film to those 2, plus my fallen cadet classmate--I thought that would be a nice touch, as well as help get my film much support locally. But I started to feel all teary-eyed thinking about them. Also goes to show I must be PMS-y!

One thing I need to do ASAP is find a train and take a cool picture of it. This is for my production company letterhead, ha ha. My "production company" is called 2:10 Train Productions and I need to get releases out to all my "talent" and my musician friends so they can sign away their life stories and all rights to me, but it should be on letterhead so I have to create some with a personalized train logo. Will the kiddie Hermann Park train be too hokey?

Beer for Breakfast: the Sign of a Good Weekend

So since we had our car window smashed and GPS stolen, and since S was driving me crazy wanting another GPS I found a brand new one on Craigslist for $90. I haggled her down to $80 which was much better than the $140 Target wanted for them--on sale! But me and the baby had to drive out to freakin' Baytown on Sat. morning in order to pick it up. After that we went to visit Ma and Popo, who was asleep. He seems to be sleeping a lot more these days. After all, he is 93.

After that I had an appt. to meet Rozzie's manager at Cactus Records where an in-store performance was also going to occur. I thought it was at noon but it was at 1, so me and the baby got there a little early. We were just wandering around the store when I saw none other than Alejandro Escovedo walking around the store too, looking like new money and minding his own business!!! Whoa. I was tickled to see him, and even though he doesn't know me I waved to him and smiled and he did the same back to me! Then I saw one of my "music friends" Sandy, go over to him and give him a hug. I wanted to say hi to her so I made my way over near them and hung around a minute. Sandy left him and came to me and we began chatting about what we always talk about: local concerts, music scenes, new CD's. Alejandro came over to us after a bit and I told him how great he looked and that he was always in my and my family's prayers! We formally introduced ourselves and somehow it got mentioned that I'm a bass player and trying to make a documentary. Then my crazy friend and former band leader Mitch showed up and verified to Alejandro that as a bass player I "rock"! Alejandro asked if I was going to come see his next show in Austin but I said I didn't know, that I don't get out much anymore and nodded toward the baby, who was sitting on my feet, as my excuse. Alejandro said he has a 6-yr old too! (Then again, he's got 7 kids!)

Rozzie's manager showed up and gave me Rozz's 2nd CD. I asked him about standard remuneration for song usage in films/documentaries and he didn't have much to say about that. I mean, Rozz told me I could use his stuff for free but I personally would want to give something, if possible...? Anyway, the baby and I made our way to the other side of the store and passed by Alejandro again who was standing talking to someone. As I passed he said, "That's my new bass player!" I turned and told him he better not even joke like that b/c I will stalk him! I am serious... it may not take much for me to run away on the road with him!!!

Finally, I had my first meal of the day: free St. Arnold's beer, which Cactus always serves at the in-store's! This cute li'l gal and her band got up and played for us. The baby seemed to like it; as I told her, that girl was the same age as "Hanny Montanny." After the show I was in a GREAT mood and took the baby to Chick FilA so she could run around. I was also happy the baby had gotten all blues and greens on her conduct report, so I got her an ice cream cone to boot! We were having a wonderful day!!!

Yesterday I got the brilliant idea to further extend the baby's good-behavior rewards and take her to the rodeo carnival, which she always asks about as we drive by every year. Unfortunately this is the only weekend in the whole month of March that we are going to have her with us b/c Spring Break interferes with our normal 3rd weekend (we have to trade Spring Breaks with the whore and we had the baby last year). So I thought we should take advantage of the carnival while we could and S agreed with me! As we walked up to buy carnival tickets there was a man giving away for free 3 rodeo tickets! AWESOME!!! I immediately snatched them up and those were like gold, man, b/c those damn Jonas Bros. were the concert that day and it was SRO! I was really just glad to get inside the Reliant Arena b/c I love to walk around the shopping and look at stuff, also b/c it would be fun to take the baby to the petting zoo and to see at least some of the rodeo.

Sadly, after much carnival time, rides, and games (baby and S winning 2 stuffed Batman dolls) and just a tiny bit of rodeo time we had to leave early in order to take the baby back. What a shame!!! We didn't even get to see the calf scramble, my favorite part. But it was a great day and a great weekend. Last night I finally got down on paper the beginnings of my budget and shooting schedule so it was even a little productive although I am going through reading withdrawal since I no longer have time to do any book reading.

The documentary Stranded that my bro and I saw on Friday night was really great. It made me realize even more so that my script has too much narration and I am now wondering if I can get away with having no narration at all? I'll possibly need more interviews, meaning more Reserves. On Sat. night I also tried to watch The Thin Blue Line but I fell asleep after 20 min. or so b/c I was pretty exhausted the past few nights. It is heralded as being one of the great documentaries of all time but it sure is heavy on the reenactments, which I don't especially get off on. I'm such a documentary snob!

The meeting on Friday with pater familias was productive. I hope I will be able to work with him b/c I value his opinions and his experience. While slightly more intimidated now that I have learned more, making a documentary is just one more thing that I will learn how to do in my long line of things learned and still to learn!

The Documentary Cometh

New to-do list:

1. Revise script: insert my new ideas, remove even more of the narration.
2. Revise budget draft!
   
3. Draft shooting schedule!
   
4. Re-write treatment for possible financing purposes.
   
5. Research additional Reserve to feature in the film.
   
6. Finish listening to Rozzie's 2nd CD to see if I indeed prefer to use any music from that CD as opposed to his 1st one.
   
7. Continue to watch documentaries for inspiration, formatting ideas. BTW, no brag but I've seen 10 of the 25 on this list!

Had an awesome weekend though it was flawed for being even shorter than usual, Daylight Savings Time notwithstanding. I was just scheduled to within an inch of my life again; I try not to have my weekends be like that at all but this weekend was just FULL. Lots of fun, though. But I passed out tired on my bed in my clothes on both Friday night and Saturday night.

I Am Obsessed with my Documentary

It is all I can think about! Well, I am also obsessed with Taj Mahal but that is nothing new. Last night I got the final "Yes!" from my final choice of "talent"--the Assistant Chief himself has agreed to be in my documentary! Now I just need one more Reserve for my street patrol scene. I want it to be someone who is interesting and has a good visual "day job." Too bad I cannot feature myself b/c I have those requirements, plus the good looks! Oh well. The Lt. and Asst. Chief have promised to help me think of someone else.

I think I have also identified the final song for my remaining scene that needed musical accompaniment. It will also come from one of my dear friends' repertoire. So that's done! My meeting with my father has been rescheduled tomorrow from 11:30am to 2pm. He says he and his girlfriend, who is a bona fide film and media professional, have reviewed my script and she had lots of comments. Good! I want my documentary script to be up there with the best of them!

I received a slight arrow to the heart yesterday however. The 100 Club told me they cannot contribute any funding toward my film project. I was sad but not totally surprised, just a little bit. My dad says that's ok though, b/c he and his girlfriend have lots of ideas for funding. I don't know enough yet about the filmmaking process to be intimidated, but I have learned enough so far in the past 2 weeks that I have begun to realize that I may not be able to get the kind of funding to make a slick, Hollywood-type movie. However, hopefully I can raise the kind of money that will at least allow me to tell my story in a classy, semi-professional way.

I've got a good crew so far, though! Now it numbers 4, plus my brother. That should be plenty! I am so thrilled to have good friends behind me. I say that now b/c they have offered to help but I do expect them to be good to their word and show up on shoot day!

Working from home tomorrow. Weekend with the baby. Going to watch some documentaries. Baytown Racetrack on Saturday night. Going to see Ma and Popo. SLEEPING LATE! Reading, if possible. Obsessing over my script!

Documentary Talent - Progress!

So last night and today, in addition to Mudflap, who has no choice in participating in my documentary b/c I said so, I got "Yes"'s from 2 of my chosen Reserves that I want to feature in my film! I got another "Possibly yes" from a third one who has to check with her husband b/c I want to feature them both since they are a married couple who are both Reserves and that is quite interesting, in my opinion. But they all said they were extremely flattered to be asked and they loved my documentary idea, which is just what I was hoping they'd say!

On the musical soundtrack front, I got a perfect score of 3 "Yes"'s from my dear, chosen musician friends, so yay! I didn't even have to bring up the dead bodies! I still need one more song for one scene, but I have lots more leads on where to look for one.

What really made my night was my brother said YES! he's IN!!! I am so relieved. Reason being is I trust him waaaayy more than my father and I feel my brother and I together will be strong enough to stand up to him if necessary. I hate to be having to think like this, but oh well.

Next steps!:

1. Get yes's from remaining "talent" choices. Still waiting on one return phone call, need to identify another Reserve for my street patrol scene.
   
2. Pre-production meeting on Friday with pater familias. Not sure li'l bro can attend, wish he would but that's ok if he can't.
3. Create budget draft.
4. Create shooting schedule.
   
5. Go see Stranded documentary on Friday night.
6. Constant script revisions.
7. Write proposal draft for fundraising.
   
8. Find song for specific scene.
9. Me and Mudflap attend next Reserve class orientation on the evening of Monday 3/16 so I can suss out the new cadets and see which of them I may want to feature in my film.
   

And probably a bunch of other things I don't even know about yet! Feeling excited! Exhilarated! And probably out of my damn mind! Worth it!

Documentary Music - Progress?

It looks like I may have found some good music on my dear musician friends' various CD's. All morning I've been listening to tracks. It has been fun to open these CD's that I have not opened in years since they were first gifted to me along with accompanying sentimental inscriptions: "To Adela, with love", "To Adela, where would I be without you?", "To Adela, thanks for letting me sweat in your bed!", etc. Next step: to contact said musician friends and beg them to let me use their tracks in my film! Also remind them that I know where the bodies are buried, if necessary. I will be making the first phone call tonight.

Last night I had a really long phone conversation with my friend, B.B. He is a longtime professional cameraman, having worked at PBS and other esteemed places. I met him through my father and B.B. and I became friends b/c we also have the same taste in music and are always at the same concerts. Sometimes he makes me dance with him, even though I suck at that fancy swing dancing with turns and stuff. Anyway, he has also made some documentary shorts and he talked my ear off giving me some words of wisdom and perspective. I asked him how much he would charge me to be my cameraman if it turns out I absolutely cannot work with my father and my brother ditches on me, and he gave me a price for my budget which I am working on drafting today. We had a really nice talk and I got a lot of insight into the scriptwriting/documentary process. In fact, I think I need to revise my script further b/c I think I may have way too much narration, but I figured constant revisions would be happening anyway.

He also hipped me to a documentary he saw recently and that now I am dying to go see! It's playing this Friday night and I will go alone, if I have to. Especially since I also read the book and saw the movie this story was based on. I am documentary-mad these days and I also lucked out b/c S brought home the Jean-Claude Van Damme documentary, JCVD, for us to watch, too!

I Am A Screenwriter

At least, I'm trying to convince myself that I am! I finished my first draft of my script on Saturday. There were some holes where some additional research needed to go, but I got all the scenes out of my head and onto paper! I even outlined how I want the opening and closing credits to roll. I have very specific ideas b/c the documentary is already playing in my head, and I just have to get it out.

After I finished the script draft I began thinking of budget details and song choices for the brief musical sequences. I found the perfect Taj Mahal songs I wanted to use and was so happy, smiling, listening along to the songs, picturing just where I wanted to fit them in until I began to have an uneasy feeling about the whole thing. A phone call to my father confirmed my fear, that most likely Columbia Records or Sony Records or whoever would like nothing more than to charge me $25,000 in order to use a 45-second clip of a Taj Mahal song. Sob! HOWEVER...everyone knows my attitude of making Gatorade out of the Gators that life throws at me. I decided yesterday to instead focus on my local musician friends, of whom there are hundreds--and some of them even owe me favors--and identify some songs already written and recorded!

Today back at work where I have Internet, I found an Excel template online for a documentary budget. Now I just have to fill it in with my specifics and Lord knows I'm the Queen of Budgeting. I also got on MySpace and listened to several of my favorite musician friends' songs, which they all have posted on their MySpace pages. That has not been very productive b/c they only post like 4-5 songs so I need to do further research and perhaps attend some live shows in order to find the perfect songs. For example, I need a soft, poignant number, perhaps on acoustic guitar or piano. And I need a rockin' number for a specific scene and I want to end the documentary with an upbeat, up-tempo blues number (get it? Blues!) while the final credits roll.

Today I also fleshed out more of my script and filled in the holes of my research. Good job, librarian Adela! The script is really coming together and I sent the first draft to my father and brother. Unfortunately my brother is not sure he's in on the project and he is trying to decide what to do. Fortunately I got some more crew members in the form of friends who have volunteered and I am going to hold them to their word!

One of them is G. and she and I went to the House of Blues on Friday night. We saw our mutual friend play with his band in the restaurant portion and she shot lots of pictures with a really nice camera. I might use her to shoot still photos of the documentary process when she is not busy being a grip or whatever it is that movie crew members do. I managed to sleep in late on Saturday, 'til 11:30. I got a lot done that day before going to pick up Mudflap for a night of patrol on the 11-7 shift. There were some aggravating things that were going on, and I'm not even talking about the criminals but rather our fellow cops, but I was glad to be out and I was also glad to be doing all the driving since we were using my district's patrol car and were working under my unit number. I drove 90 MPH whenever I could so I could practice being an aggressive deputy.

Nothing much was going on and by 3am we just decided to lie in wait at a blinking red light to catch California rollers. But at 5am a total idiot Puerto Rican knucklehead ran his Mazda into a tree and so we got the chance to jack with him a little bit. We were actually going to arrest him and cuffed him and threw in the backseat, especially after we found a piece of straw that held a white residue in his pocket. However, we ended up having to let the idiot go home with his brother since neither of us had a drug testing kit on us--one of the downsides of being a Reserve [I will not be mentioning this in my documentary!] is that we just aren't as well-equipped as "real" deputies. But before we let him go I had a lot of fun repeatedly screaming at him to "SHUT UP!!!" in Spanish b/c he kept whining and moaning in the backseat. Pendejo! Later a narcotics unit drove by and gave us a whole mess of drug testing kits, including Meth! I took the little straw home and will test the residue when I get a chance, just for fun. I was too tired to do it yesterday since Mudflap and I didn't get done 'til 9am and I didn't get home 'til almost 10am at which point I fell asleep 'til 4pm.

The suspense of waiting for the Chief and Sheriff to get back to me is killin' me. I am working really hard on this project and now I am committed to seeing it to fruition. The creative process for me is quite easy though. I'll be meeting with my dad on Friday for a pre-production meeting. After I draft a budget and find the perfect songs, I'll work on a shooting schedule. Now I'm thinking I may want to be done with this film by next Spring so I can enter it at film festivals! What a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal--see Jim Collins) that is! Dare I dream???