Titan tips over.

Bud has fallen. Twice. He is in the hospital living out act three of the existential comedy. Is the best case scenario that we live long enough to be made utterly miserable at every turn? Strange indignities and the ceaseless decline of skills? We asked him to stop driving after the first fall. We suppose that the second fall was not in direct response to the loss of his American right to the road.

Hopelessness has a way of creeping up on me. Sad that this photo, the first time Bud met Tom was the first picture of him I found. Tom is early in act one of the same play.

Fuck.

Back to the Old Testament: Casino for the Older, Uglier and more Crippled

Again, I find myself at a casino. Again I question my motives. Am I hastening the apocolypse or just promoting harmless gaming? The casino in question is the "old Casino" down the road from the new, mega-giagantic casino. The clientele are, if possible, older and more malformed than the other casino. Because of this, the gulf between the patrons and the tall, perfect and beautiful models seems so much more unattainable and the dissonance more noticeable.

One chain smoking woman of about seventy laughed when she saw the models. She told me that if they wanted to sell fantasy they should show someone winning.

One frustrating thing is I don't really do audio on these jobs, it's more staying out of the way and providing scratch tracks. It isn't terribly satisfying way to do your job. I also move lights and c-stands with the cool kids in the clique but I never really feel a part of them anymore.




My camera battery died but there was a slot machine titled "Prophecy" and that seemed strangely at home in this place.

I wonder about the DP, who is an eminently moral man. How does he justify working on these spots.

UPDATE:
I no longer will do casino spots. I feel good about this. I ask my kids to make moral choices regarding their behavior and their values. I should do the same for myself.

Insurance :Unexpectedly Interesting.

Two short days for a national life insurance company. The in house shoot was a truly nice guy and frankly and unexpectedly, the President of said insurance company was really an interesting and down to earth guy. They had a small meeting of a group from all levels of the company to chart a new path for changing a 100 year old company back to a more agile, up to date entity. There is of course much cynicism on my part about this sort of thing but I was impressed by their candor and genuine enthusiasm starting from their president on down. It was actually sort of inspiring.

Microsoft Talking Head

Also deleted photo, but it was particularly boring because it was of my cart. Nothing new here. Quick day. Had pot roast for dinner. Here too is a random image with no connection whatsoever.

More More Talking Heads (with ersatz teleprompter)

Another day of hospital administrators with ties speaking in monotone. This time with a crudely rigged paper cue card teleprompter. It worked fine and every one was happy. Short day. Ate a mediocre burrito following the shoot. Sadly I deleted the photos before I could upload them. Bad Jim. Here is a random image