Teddy wants you to come play with him...NOW! |
Summer colds suck. I thought I had escaped it after last month several of my friends came down with it. But my luck didn't hold out. Prolly was all the airplane travel that did me in.
Last Friday both Chris (My production assistant) and I started coming down with it. Mine was mostly sinus and a pretty nasty chest cold. No fever but zero energy.
That evening a bunch of us from work went over to see the Fantastic Four movie. I dunno if it was cuz I was sick, but I sure didn't enjoy it.
The audience, surprisingly, applauded at the end. I dunno. Some of the editing and continuity was so amateur that Kattie and Chris and I took turns guffawing at the blatant mistakes, bad acting, and poor editing. Some special effects shined (Human Torch action) while other effects were downright laughable (Mr. Fantastic stretching during the bridge scene- haven't seen blue screen “edge glow” in about 15 years.)
Ya know, as a society we have grown up. We expect more from our comic book characters in movies. “Unhand her before I unleash the full fury of my might!” read well 30 years ago in a more innocent time, but really, that kind of dialog just doesn't play well today.
Dr. Doom had too much makeup, Jessica Alba writhed her way through her role with spotty bad acting, and Mr. Fantastic just had the worst lines to deliver that I don't think any amount of acting could have saved his role.
There were several redeeming roles though. Chris Evans literally saved and stole every scene. He was the only one acting and really enjoying the role. Course it helped that he was half-naked in every scene. That boy is smokin' hot with or without CGI flames!
Ben Grimm- The Thing's character was fleshed out too, though the scene where his wife or girlfriend suddenly appears on the bridge and leaves her ring on the ground is so blatantly bad acted, directed and edited, that I thought I was watching a children's movie.
Some roles needed a little explaining. My fellow movie goers had never read the comics, and couldn't understand why some blind girl was suddenly attracted to Ben Grimm. Leaving out the detail that she sculptures clay and rock, left them wondering what the appeal was.
They did get the camaraderie and rival banter between the Thing and the Human Torch correct. The two were constantly at each other in the books, and both actors really turned in a great performance to bring that to the screen.
I dunno. I might go see it again, just to watch Chris Evan's joyously take on his Johnny Storm role, but the rest was pretty disappointing to me.
Anyway, by the time the movie was over I had a full on chest cold, and was glad to be on my way home where I could cough up a lung and not disturb anyone.
Over that following weekend, I just kind of took it easy. Riiiiiiiight.
Mark was being pulled in several directions as he started other projects. He showed up and was desperate to get the garage finished over the weekend so I could get started shooting again, but also so he could move on to other pressing projects.
One thing that slowed us down, was the guy who installed my tile mentioned that the company he installs for was going out of business, and they were inviting employees to come down and just take a warehouse of tile.
Mark knew I wanted to tile my back patio, and he figured he could load up his truck and trailer and re-sell the tile to other customers. So he spent Friday loading up on literally tons and tons of tiles.
He picked some out for me, and I had to go over and off load about 30 boxes from his trailer in to the back of mine. We also used my truck to move his trailer to their back alley so he could have some day laborers off load the rest into a storage area. My truck bottomed out in the backend. I thought it was gonna do a wheelie! But it had no trouble hauling all that weight.
So I got back home and slowly and sniffly moved all the tile to my back patio. Free Stuff! Now all I have to do is buy the grout and setting stuff and have someone install it! The color matches a little too closely my furniture, but it will make the backyard look more complete. My next project is to get some rock back there. It's a lot of dirt, and Kitty! likes to dig it up and kick the dirt up onto the patio.
Moving the tile was not real good on the 'ole tendonitis in the arm, and moving wheel barrows full of rock won't help either, but it's got to be done.
Been going to physical therapy twice a week. The lower arm is getting better, mostly from the e-stim, but the upper arm is still in bad shape. Will likely go a handful more times, otherwise I am giving up.
Ok, back to the garage studio conversion.
Mark and Mike came over on Sunday to finish off a lot of the detail work. Mark was pretty much in Hurry Mode, and there were a lot of details I knew I could take care of myself. I had him finish all the things I couldn't do myself, and sent them on their way.
I love how my Washer and Dryer are setup, and the cabinet space helps me store all the camera equipment. I had meant to put a TV/DVD on the counter, but we ended up putting cabinets above it, so there was no room. So I have a small monitor and computer there so I can play vids for the models.
Yeah, crown molding seems extravagant, but it's actually cheaper. The house is 35 years old, and nothing is level. Trying to get the ceiling and walls perfectly lined up in the corners wasn't gonna happen. So the cheap crown molding hides the fact the walls and ceilings just don't quite meet properly.
Ben came over and we touched up paint, cleaned the floors, and started moving my equipment back in the studio.
The room is now air-conditioned, and Mark built special pipes that run around the garage door rails. I have a bunch of black backdrops that we clipped to it, and now you can't even tell the room is a garage. I use my fabric backdrops for half the shoot, then pull them aside so I can do cool black backdrop photos. It's so slick!
By Sunday night I was feeling pretty wore out and cough-like, but happy the studio was officially "finished!"
It was kind of sad to see Mark and his dog Teddy leave. Teddy and Sleeper would come over while Mark was working on the garage, and Kitty! would have someone to visit with.
Teddy is not exactly “Cute” but he is so affectionate and his Quasimodo looks have a certain charm. I totally fell for him. He's adorable!
Though he is a little too obsessive about playing fetch with all his toys.
And you don't want to get too close or that tongue will get ya!
I had video and photoshoots down at the office on Monday and Tuesday, and I tell ya, it's pretty difficult not to cough when you are filming a solo video. Thankfully they went quickly and the rest of the week none of the other shoots happened, so I could recuperate without the stress of filming. By Friday my cough was under control and I had my energy back.
Ben has been super busy finding me models. He has such a great way about him, and he seems to know everyone.
One thing I am finding though, is a lot of the guys won't do nude stuff. I still want to get them in so that maybe a few will convert over to full nudes, but so far, a lot of the gay guys are too worried about what their friends will say.
One good thing though, a lot of these guys have said “No.” to other photographers and even SeanCody.com, but Ben has really sold them on my work. These guys are all eager to work for me, and after hearing how many times they have been approached, I am doubly thankful and glad that Ben landed these guys.
I ran down to Home Depot on Friday afternoon to get some clamps to hang fabric in the studio. On my way back, a fire broke out on Mission Gorge road. Traffic slowed a little bit, and I pulled off into a parking lot at a safe distance to watch the firefighters try to put out the blaze.
It was cool to watch the helicopters fly over to the nearby San Diego River to refill their water tanks then quickly fly back to try and douse the flames. I didn't stay long, as the fire looked like it was just gonna run it's course, and hopefully would not reach the nearby business and houses.
I do have Cowles Mtn. about two houses away from me, and it is getting pretty dry up there. So I guess I will need to worry and hope that it doesn't catch fire this summer. We had all that rain, and there is a ton of growth that is now ready to combust.
I got back from the Homo Depot and got my studio completely ready for the first shoot
First up for shooting was Griffin. He works at one of the local clubs, and lives with a couple hot friends. He was fun to work with, and we went down to the beach to shoot some Stock images. We did some implied nudity stuff, but sadly, no nudes.
Next up was his roommate Reno. Reno gets asked to do modeling often, and with Ben and Griffin's persuasion, he finally committed to working with me.
Reno did some nice implied shots, and there are some amazing photos of him. So no nudes on him either, and actually that's why I am only showing fully-clothed shots of them in the journal…I gotta save the good but not necessarily nakie stuff for their galleries.
Ben also found three other super hot guys to work with. One of them should hopefully be a full nude thang. I am hoping a few of the guys will feel comfortable enough to come back and do some nude shots, but I am not too hopeful.
Kattie has a new roommate, and he also came in for some non-nude photos. I seem to be getting lots of positive vibes and referrals, but not able to score those all important money shots.
I will keep at it though.
On Saturday I was finally feeling more myself. Still hacking up a lot of lung gook, but wanted to get some exercise. I took my bike down to Hillcrest and Ben and I went for a strenuous but not too taxing ride down to Ocean Beach. The ride back up the hill to Mission Hills had me gasping and I did get pretty good side cramps, so my lungs aren't clear enough to get me that all important oxygen, but boy, it felt good to be out!
I went for another ride on Sunday, and did a bit better. Progress! I love a cold that sticks to a normal timeline!
Well, that's about it. Hopefully I will have some more shoots coming up to show off here!
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