Weblag

It's been way too long since I last blogged.  Really, it's because not that much has happened.  I know that seems unlikely -- how can a dazzling, sought-after Angeleno like myself not have some hilarious movie-star encounter to relate?  Several potential lawsuits prevent me from commenting on my recent celebrity encounters.  You understand.

Last weekend, Ellen and I went back to North Reading MA to help celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday.  He's in pretty good shape for an old man, still getting around with no problem if a little more slowly, and in very chipper spirits.  One highlight was after the serving of the birthday cake: sister Lee Anne brought his old trumpet out of the basement, still in its old case that looked like it had survived the Battle of the Bulge.  Dad gamely grabbed it and played a few notes, then a tune or two.  A little rusty, but he can still play.  Later he was heard alone in the basement, picking out a few old tunes.

Also of note was a trip into Boston featuring me, Ellen, my brother Bill and his 7-year-old daughter Tatiana.  We followed a bit of the Freedom Trail to Fanueil Hall and Paul Revere's house, punctuated by a quite dramatic thunder-and-lightning storm, during which we beat a hasty retreat into a North End watering hole for an adult beverage.  (Tati had to settle for an Arnold Palmer.)  Then on to a delicious early dinner at a North End Italian restaurant, for which Bill sprung.  Thanks Bill!

Now back in Los Angeles, looking for a job.  Ellen's waiting to hear on a job at Disney.  Later in August, I have a second interview for a job at an effects house that wants to make movies.

Yesterday I went to see "Man on Wire," the documentary on Phillippe Petit, a slightly crazy French wirewalker who in 1974 snuck into the World Trade Center, strung a wire between the twin towers and wirewalked 100+ stories up.  I loved the movie.  The Petit himself, and the coterie of assistants and acolytes who helped him, are all a little nutty and fun.  And I hadn't expected to be so struck by the beauty of a man on a wire between the late, lamented towers.  (In the past he had also wire-walked between the towers at Notre Dame, also a stunningly beautiful image.)  I had heard about this story because Robert Zemeckis is planning to make a feature film about his WTC adventure, which I think is a great idea.  It's like a heist movie in the way that they had to meticulously plan for the attempt, and then of course it went wrong and went right in unpredictable ways.  Really fun, I recommend the documentary.

That's all for now!