Three Days of Ray

I guess I only work with Sugar Ray Woodhouse these days. Wednesday was dental supply talking head in Seatac. Thursday was B-roll (without audio- I was an ornament at best) for an document signing internet company. Today, Talking heads for a cruise line. All with Mr. Magic: Ray Woodshed.

Better to build a TARDIS, than curse the darkness....

Some times require bold measures and  valiant sacrifice. These are those times:  my family stands ready.  We built a TARDIS.  We put it in the local mini-park in the middle of the night. You have to do something to ward off  the creeping plague of the Daleks.

http://westseattleblog.com/2012/08/seen-around-west-seattle-sign-of-a-wedding-plus-dr-who-in-pigeon-point

Into the land of the Richest man in the World, Unemployed Timber Workers and the Empty Dwelling of the Retired.

 We shot Bill Gates before I left for my tour of Washington . He is actually just a normal human. He is fun to listen to when he is talking about things he is interested in. He looks and sounds a little bored when he is doing the required retirement video testimonial. His office is nice but not too nice, as befits a man who will gladly take the juvenile snickers about helping to design a new toilet for the third world if it helps to get it done. I didn't think I would, but I kind of admire him. He is in this photo with Barbara and Joseph, in the far room in the heat of a thousand suns....

The McDonalds in Aberdeen WA has huge photos of Kurt Cobain. I am sure that someplace in his will is stipulated that he was to adorn the wall of the corporate feeding silo in his hometown after his death. I spent a day shooting McDonalds employees who, partially through the kindness not of the clown, but the local franchise owner are going to college with matching 401K like funds to a continuing education program. It was a good thing, a pilot program that should be expanded. The owner was a nice person but pushes a scary product. Everyone entering their stores were fat or on the road to be. It was eye opening. We then went to Chelhalis, which in comparison to Aberdeen, which has a Butte MT feeling of being down on it's luck to the point of starting to eat itself alive, Chehalis seemed downright yuppie.  Good food and nice downtown. If we had looked I am sure we could have found meth labs and rednecks. We shot interviews in an empty apartment in a retirement home. It was a stark time warp into the 1980's.

My one complaint: on the road with a crew, sharing rooms sucks. Sometimes you just want your own motel room. I mean, I would take a bullet for Sugar Ray but I don't want to share a bed with the guy.

On 8 months of Vegetarianism.

I don't know exactly why I gave up eating meat. It wasn't animal rights (though I like animals) and it wasn't entirely that meat is inherently unhealthy (it is at some level) or that I am committed to some geopolitical sustainability issue (actually that's pretty close to it) all I know is I did give up meat in early January 2012.

I feel fine. On the whole, I don't miss meat, though at BBQs I get sort of nostalgic for a greasy ol' hamburger or a piece of chicken. The only thing I have really had a craving for has been a big nasty, sloppy Gyro for some reason. Mostly being a vegetarian is just inconvenient.  Green vegetables are still as uninteresting as they were when I was snarfing down dead cow. I would have thought that I would have had a rainbow induced hippy revelation, and become entranced with bok choy but it hasn't happened. You have to think ahead and roast peppers for sandwiches, cut up stuff and have it available. There is an endless preparation of eggplant cutlets and peanut sauce for veggies on rice. It's sort of disheartening for a lazy subsistence chef that just wants to eat to get it over with and move on. Since Laurie and the boys are still eating meat, I still have to cook it, and then have something to approximate food for myself. There has been no remarkable weight loss or sudden burst of energy or any amazing transformation in my life. It's okay. I intend to at least go a year for a trial. I need to cut out bread, sugar and add exercise to make this work. As of now that looks daunting.