Wednesday Night, 9:02 PM, July 30th...2008

Here I sit. Outside I can hear the caw caw caw of seagulls what seems like once every 3-4 minutes -- as if it's on some kind of a loop.

We wrapped at 6pm, but Rattler had meetings for a full hour afterwards, so Marco and I sat as he spoke with 2nd Unit (2nd Unit includes another director, another AD, a whole other crew for the shots that will be in the movie, but they will be moments and segments that don't include the 1st team of actors -- and can therefore be farmed out to another crew...)

Today we shot in the Archives, and the day started out rainy. Picked Marco up with the mix cd blasting outside of a coffee roaster on Davie near his place -- and after he handed me a fab americano...we sped to work. He showed me a shortcut off Highway One to the studio which gave us just an extra couple minutes, but every minute counts. I was able to grab a turkey sausage as I ran through the catering tent and made my way to the trailer. Dropped my bags, grabbed the charged walkie and turned it on and up, plugged in my computer (ethernet cord, printer cord, charger) put out Rattler's napkin, his 4 vitamins, his water, turned on the espresso machine, prepped the plates that Marco would soon outfit with the breakfast choice of egg, bacon, potato and toast. My cousin Amber said reading my blog reminded her of waitressing -- and it's true. Coming in each morning is like prepping for one long shift. Where you're weeded from beginning to end.

It's hard to describe the feeling of preoccupation that pervades most days. At any one time, I am usually ticking 3-4 things off my list (responding to an email, writing an email, printing something, downloading something to be viewed, waiting to pass a message to someone from Rattler, waiting to pass various messages to him, checking both his and my own voicemails, etc.) I am a social person and also an actress, so I manage to keep most of the preoccupation under wraps. But my ability to do this is definitely greater at the start of the day, with the help of caffeine and the residual endorphin high of my morning workout. By 4 or 5pm, it's almost hard to not be in a bad mood. There is a general feeling of exasperation, of exhaustion.

Which is why this entry must be short. I have to sleep. I will say Corky's close-ups were so funny today that Kelly, our sound guy, laughed out loud. Also -- the drama with the production office continued to soap opera degrees. Fed ex boxes have become the equivalent of some sort of black market item, and we, the directors' assistants, are suspected of using them for purposes other than pure shipping. Marco and I have Hedayat, who continously comes to our rescue. Thankfully.

I did manage to recite certain lines from DIRTY DANCING today. I don't know how it came up -- but somehow Ashley and I were talking about Dirty Dancing. Now I remember. Ashley said to me: "nobody puts baby in the corner!" And I said: "That's right. No one does," - as if I was Baby. Then I shocked her by doing LISA's "Well you can Whacka while you Wanna, you can Whacka while I walk away..." dance (remember Baby's older sister LISA who does the horrible talent show dance and sings off-key?" Ashley about lost it and called a friend during one of the takes so I could sing it into the cell phone. Then, for a good hour or so -- i was trying to brainstorm other DIRTY DANCING lines. Jessica Dunne and I watched that movie at least 100 times in 5th and 6th grade...but all I could think about was the lake scene when he holds her up in the white wife beater t-shirt and white jeans and he's shirtless...or the first dance lesson when she keeps stepping on his toes and he uses both his fingers and points to his eyes and says "don't look down, look right here..."

Now get this. Right before lunch, Rattler asks me to bring the Bela Lugosi DVD to Chris Guest in his trailer. I radio Rhonda (3rd AD in charge of talent) but Rhonda is already escorting someone somewhere. "Oh," Rhonda says to me, "his trailer is the one right across from Shawn's -- go right in." So I make my way around to the line of trailers and rap lightly on the door that's already ajar. "Christopher?" I say. No answer. I step up, thinking he's left for lunch and I'll simply leave the DVD on the table or in plain sight. And when I walk in, I notice 3 things. #1: there is an ashtray and the smell of cigarettes is heavy in the air. #2 There is a faux fireplace flickering the semblance of a log lit fire. #3 Dirty Dancing is playing on the TV above the fake crackle and pop of the fire. I am slightly panicked at this point because Corky doesn't smoke (or does he??!!) so I begin to radio Rhonda to ask once again WHICH trailer I'm supposed to be targeting. She directs me OUT of the FRENCH movie star's trailer and I make my way down the lane and rap again on another door -- this time the right one. Chris comes out and makes his way to Hank's to presumably watch the classic flick.

It's only later that I think "that's weird that DIRTY DANCING was playing on the French Movie Star's TV..." so later in the day I ask Ashley: "did you bring up Dirty Dancing earlier because Alain requested to see it?" and then I told her about my discovery. She said; "No way. But look at that. We manifested that together."

Aha. Another believer of THE SECRET, and not even an LA native!

And you can Whacka all you wanna
You can whacka while I walk away
Away...
Away...
Away!

Am posting a video. Will see how this goes...and then aim to get more as a featured segment for all future posts.