Once Upon A Time There Was A Song...

I came in sort of last minute on this film project about two months ago.  A young filmmaker working on an ambitious project for her final thesis had lost her gospel singer and was going into production in 4 days.  Miguel came home telling me of the tale and asking if I'd be interested.  The first question was: Does she know what I look like?  Not to be crude.  I have no wavering thoughts of whether I sing from the soul but (as I've been told quite often) I don't look like I sound.  Sometimes that works in my favor...Sometimes not so much.  I was at one point a member of  a pretty well respected gospel choir but you never know.  Anyway, we met the next day.  She wanted me to sing this Lauryn Hill song...Post Mis-education.

I Gotta Find Peace of Mind.  And no joke...I did.  It's a bitch of  a song.  It was recorded live on  Miss Hill's MTV unplugged show.  I think half of it was written on the fly cause it's basically all  over the place but I'm always up for a challenge...Well, most of the time.  

Here's the timeline: Saturday I spoke with director  on the phone.  Sunday we met in Central Park for about 10 minutes to work it all out. Monday we recorded the track.  Tuesday we shot...Or was it Wednesday.  Let me just say this director was fighting against every possible case of Murphy's Law imaginable.  The weather never behaved, she lost her set designer, her first singer and her location but she never lost her cool.  A good sign.  We shot the scenes.  I've never worked with playback...A video's on my list of to do's for 2009.  We shot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn overlooking the Manhattan skyline.  It was all gray and moody and gorgeous.  When we got there there was another shoot going on...Wouldn't you know. It was a photo shoot for a band I didn't recognize but they too had a permit so we waited.  Cue comment about director maintaining her cool again.  We shot into the night.  I was expecting to be there till at least 3am...I was wrapped by 1ish (not bad).  I got a call to do a few reshoots the following Sunday.  Gotta love digital!  And saw the film last week.  Now as a filmmaker myself I am accustomed to being in the drivers seat.  Meaning I often get to have some say in what gets left in the "that shot makes my ass look fat" trash bin on the desktop of the computer that houses Final Cut.  But in this case my  job was to showed up, say my lines and don't bump into the furniture.  Well, really my job was to get myself to Greenpoint, sing my song and don't fall into the east river.  The rest was out of my hands and in quite a few others. 

I got lucky.  The crew was tight and on it.  Enthusiastic and supportive.  The Polish food for craft service was delish and the film was beautiful.  I did, in truth, ask beforehand if she was talented and was assured she was but again when you're there to be a part of a story the nature of film is you don't always know what story is until later.  This story...Woohoo...Was very touching.  About a man dealing with his childhood as a man is one to do, without mercy.  And about a boy having a childhood in a world most men couldn't deal with.  My song (Lauryn's song but me singing) opened the film and it was lovely.  The lyrics are this: 

He says it's impossible, but I know it's possible, he says it's  improbable but I know it's tangeable.  He says it's not grabable but I know it's have-able.  Cause anything is possible.  Oh anything is possible. Cause anything is possible.

I think that's right.  Anything is possible!  

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you imagined." that's Thoreau but same principle.

The screening was last week.  It was wonderful! I'm going to get a copy and put it up on my website so check back for it.  Cheers to Alliah Fafin and her lovely film Once Upon A Time There Was a Boy!!!!!  

Incidently, after the screening a gentleman came up to me and said.

"Was that YOU singing?"  :-) I told you.  It happens every time.

I'm going to have a cookie now...

My train ride...

I leave the house in a fine mood, I walk towards the station...Still in my right mind, the guy handing out the AM paper says: Good Morning Beautiful.  Have a wonderful day. I come back with: Thank you.  You too.  Or Enjoy! Or a big smile and a wave if he says it while I'm still visible.  I hit the first set of stairs and I'm still myself.  Sane. Granted, I'm not so much of a morning person so it's not the best time to get me chatty (I'm normally pretty chatty) if it's a morning trip but even still I'm not the: fuck you type of morning person.  More like the: humph type.  Anyway, I get to that first set of stairs going down and I'm basically still me.  Then I hit the second steps.  At this point people are starting to spill away from the narrow line that they form since the first set of steps are pretty narrow.  This is where mommies (and daddies for the sake of feminism and mr mom's) start to maneuver with strollers diagonally down a not so diagonal path.  It's where old people pull their canes out and decide they want to have conversations with their spouses who are now walking next to them using the same cane.  And where generally ditzy under age thinkers start chatting it up with their friends on their cellphones trying not to go too far underground or they'll lose them. Can you hear me now? But I'm nimble.  I make it through that set.  I even make it past the moron tourist who's just figuring out how to use their unlimited ride metro-card.  And they are always having so much fun with it when they slide it wrong.  

Once I step over the turista and make it through the turnstile something goes terribly wrong and I get evil.  Granted, I'm a little evil.  Not the kind that likes to see little kids cry but I do find myself seeing things in my minds eye periodically that wouldn't constitute me being such a nice chick.  But humor me for a minute because I think maybe this would make the pope spit.  The final set of  stairs that take me to the downtown train I'm on the majority of the time is at least 14 feet wide (not long, wide) with ample space for 5 people min. to comfortably charge down and catch their ride. But almost everyday someone is on it wrong.  And they're usually strolling down.  And it's usually some couple in the beginning of their couple-dom and they're holding hands with the other arm out to the side like their Kate and Leonardo in the Titanic.  Usually they look like they've been at it all night and they are so relaxed that this is as fast as they could ever move.  And these same folks varying in shape, size and age all do inevitably the same thing.  They make me miss the train.  And what's worse...They don't seem to care!  I mean it's NY.  Everyone's in a hurry and if you're not...Don't rub it in by strolling.  IT'S JUST RUDE!!!

I just finished a home movie double feature...

Out of Sight, when George Clooney was still hot (wait he's still, still hot!) and when J Lo was latina (I know she technically still is but it had to be said).  

What a sexy movie!  Their chemistry was amazing!  Also, Don Cheadle's in it.  I LOVE Don Cheadle!  He could make the phone book sound interesting...Especially if he did a different accent for each letter.  I'd pay $10.50 for that.

Then I saw Shooter....Staring Marky Mark...I'm mean Dirk Digler...I mean Vincent Chase...Wait...Mark Wahlberg....That's what I mean.  I know I jest but I also like the guy. He was hot in his Calvin's and the dude can act pretty well.  Unfortunately the flick was less than riveting with some seriously bad expository writing and too much f-ing violence.  I felt like I was watching Commando except the guy who looked like Freddie Mercury with a beer gut in chain mail was replaced by Danny Glover???  Now that's just upsetting.

My suggestion: Avoid this one.  Even free over pasta delivered to your door on a rainy night it's two hours of your life you'll never get back.

Try again...

It's been a while but the whole blog thing is pulling me back in...Well actually I'm a big fan of a captive audience so what the hell.  This is my new blog!

So the last three songs I heard were...Love On The Rocks/Neil Diamond, The Angel of Death/Hank Williams and I'd Like To/Corrine Bailey Ray (thought I was 104 years old for a second, didn't you?).  Seriously, listen to Neil's lyrics...Genius!

How I'm feeling right now...Shitty.  I wish they'd put labels on hard cider bottles that say "Warning: You're a an idiot if you drink this shit.  It'll make you violently ill and hung over for a full 24 if it passes your lips."   And that was from one! 

What I'm wishing right now... That I had dual citizenship in an exotic, yet english speaking, warm climate (but not from global warming) country...Or Spain.  I could live with brushing up on my spanish while enjoying daily siesta's and manchego cheese.

Love your guts...Whoever you are!

C~