Winter Vacation - Day Six

Even though I got to bed at two last night, I set my cell phone alarm for 9:00am because this was the best day Jeremy had to shoot footage for the Chinese Movie. Molly was at work all day, and no other commitments. We got up and Jer came over to pick us up.

First, we went to the Franklin Public Library. Now, I am obligated to mention that sometime while Ben Franklin was still alive, they named this town after him. He was so flattered that he donated a collection of 160 books to the town. It was with those books that the first public library in America was started. They still have the books, on display, in the library.

The library is a decent enough looking granite, cube-like building near the center of town. Other than it's monlithic stature, there isn't much to say about from the outside. Inside, this place is spectacular. It's one of the nicest libraries I have ever been in, including the Boston Public Library and libraries at various universities. It is all wood-paneled with a great room with a huge fireplace, leather chairs, three stories high with murals around the whole room.

I actually asked, and was granted, permission to shoot. We headed up to the third floor to get some privacy, shot some scenes in the stacks, improvised a dolly from a library cart, shot some more, found some books on Chinese culture, and shot some more. Then, in looking for a good spot to shoot a first person interview segment, we stumbled onto this back hallway with a magnificent staircase and did it there. This was all for scene 2 of the movie.

Angie was hungry. Jeremy was hungry. Me, when I'm working, I can go all day without eating, as I did Tuesday. However, I must yeild to these little ones. So we had breakfast at James' Roadside Cafe. "Creative American Cuisine" they call it. I had a fancy omelet.

From there it was back downtown and a quick change (I can't say what, it's a suprise homage) to shoot scene 4, the movie theatre scene. We went into the Cinema Zeotrope, and, again, I took the bull by the horns, asked for the Manager, and for a few minutes to shoot scenes in an empty theater. No problem.

Another change, and out to the streets to shoot scene 3, location scouting. We roamed about and went in and out of local businesses with Jeremy looking for cool angles. We finally settled into a laundromat, which should be a familiar location to those that have seen the Cleary "Time Is My Crisis" video. There is just something about laudromats. They are bursting with untapped potential. So, we decided to use this laudromat to shoot Jeremy's film within the film, the abstract, metaphorical, voice-overed, subtitled masterwork. We'll probably shoot that on Saturday or Sunday.

We went back to BMH, busted out the guitar and practiced our Zeitgeist Gallery setlist. Definitely some loose ends that need to be fixed up.

We lost track of time, and had to rush out to meet Micah at Stop and Shop. We escorted him back to BMH and helped him settle in, and unload his drum kit and other gear into the basement. We got ready for the meeting early, and got dinner with mom and Darrell at Friendly's (no ice cream this time). Off to the meeting, and trying to stay awake after so many long days.

When we got back home, we converted the storage room to a practice room, and quietly (mom is in bed by eight, nine max) practiced quite a few songs with Micah on drums. He's taking us to new dimensions, he's really amazing! His anticipation and intuition are unmatched. I want to stuff him in a bag and drag him back to Phoenix with me.

Now, we heard that JAG's flight was delayed, with an expected arrival time of 1:30am, as if the original arrival at midnight wasn't bad enough. We got in the car and head out a little early to check out AS220 on the way, but took a wrong turn, and, frustrated, jumped right back on the highway and made it to the airport. There a little early, I shot footage for Chinese Movie scene 5, and confused a lot of people as to why exactly I was shooting their luggage.

We hit massive fog on the roads on the way home, and, desite this, we headed past our normal exit in search of late night sustainance for JAG. We got really goofy on the way, could barely see, and had to settle on McD's. Two double cheeseburgers always sounds like a good idea when you're ordering it, but anyway.

Here I am, it's 3:53am, just going to bed, and I already have my alarm set for 10:00am. Ugh! At least I have more than half of the movie shot, and three quarters of a band together and practicing. It's progress!