Toilet Humor

This is a friend of mine from back in film school.

Sports

It would be an understatement to say that I'm no fan of watching sports, in fact I am pretty much diametrically opposed to any activity that requires 'group participation'. The fact that some people memorize statistics and players and all that, really just baffles me and kind of creeps me out. (No offense to you sports fanatics)

With that it mind, I found myself recently at a spring training game between the Braves and Dodgers. My friends/crew (Dan and Jmac) thought it would be a great way to celebrate the last day of work on the movie "Baitshop" and I must admit that once you add in the beer, soda, hot dogs, giant pretzels and camaraderie it was a fun afternoon. But as for memorizing stats and players, that is strictly for weirdo sports fanatics and I want nothing to do with all that.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get in line for the next big sci fi movie, it opens in only 3 months and I want to be first in line.

Lake Eola @ sunset

"Baitshop" Art Department

"Baitshop" the movie just wrapped up a whirlwind four week shoot in Orlando, Florida. Here is a sneak peek at the crack art department team.

Top row from left is myself Mr. Kane (lead), Kate Forrey (set dresser),
Vera Mills (Set Decorator), Alice Wymer (Coordinator),
Kevin Pierce (Production Designer), Jeff McDonald (set dresser)

Bottom row from left is Dimitri Molimis (Art Department PA),
Ron Wilson (Set Dec Driver) and Dan Buckley (set dresser).

Christmas Mea Culpa

Every year we choose a theme for our holiday decorations and as you can see this year was red and white. The real theme however turned out to be Thomas the tank engine. Despite our best efforts to keep corporatized characters at bay, we succumbed to a few carefully vetted examples. So far we have exposed Finn to Thomas the tank engine, Yo Gabba Gabba and Elmo. Here is where I begin my justification process. . .

Thomas the tank engine seems to teach solid values while maintaining a sense of fun and innocence, and more importantly it contains no toy commercials. Plus, as a dad, I have this genetically built in desire to share trains and manly stuff with finn. Next up is Yo Gabba Gabba a crazy new show created by a couple o' L.A. type dads and features a who's who of retro and hip artists and musicians. The music is solid (most of the time) and we dig the fact that the show is so weird that if freaks out a lot of normal parents. Last and least we have Elmo (hangs head in shame), to be fair, Elmo is part of Sesame Street which carries a lot of weight since both C and I grew up with Jim Hensons crazy creations. Unfortunately, Elmo has become a huge mass media icon to every numbskull parent out there and that really doesn't appeal to us. I know we may be fooling ourselves but we sort of have this self image as trend setters or at the very least 'indie' parents. Unfortunately for us, the moment Finn caught a glance of that happy, bright red face and heard that high pitched voice he was sucked in as were we, by proxy.

So, yes it was a very Thomas the tank engine holiday and Finn had a blast playing with his new trains. We'll keep fighting the good fight, trying to minimize his exposure or interest in mass media crap. I think we are realizing that you have to pick your battles with this stuff. We get a kick out of him enjoying the trains and knowing all their names so we can deal with it. After all he hasn't said "McDonalds" or "Mickey Mouse" yet and I guess that counts for something.

Retro Bathroom

Our friend Vanessa wrote a little article about us on her cool Populuxe blog. Check out the article and other nifty bits here . . .