SUPER BOWL / OSCARS BLOG FEB 2017
man what a super bowl! i have NFL Game Pass so i was able to watch it (although
i slept through my 2am alarm and watched it on replay!). i am such a Pats fan and
they looked so terrible, and they were down 28-3, so i nearly turned off the game!
it was such rubbish! they stunk! but then they made 16 plays they HAD to make and
they did! and they won! best super bowl ever! one of the best games ever! and Brady &
Belichick are best ever. 31 unanswered points. major comeback or epic fold.
PRESENT STAT
so i am still in africa, in the western cape province in a country that should be called South
of Africa as it is unto itself a first world country. and i am living in the center of city centre of
cape town called the CBD or City Bowl District, and i have a weekend cottage in
stanford about 2 hours out of town towards Durban (or up the coast off the N2.)
i have agents and i am acting and doing voiceover work and i dabble in filmmaking
and screenwriting and i teach an 8-week boot camp master class to act in TV & Film.
i booked 4 days on an international film for the USA called The Kissing Booth, and i
booked a well paying Citroen car commerical shot in stellenbsoch. life is good.
it's pushing mid-feb...
and the shooting season here is halfway over and it's been terribly slow. last year i was
way busier, but hopefully it'll pick up and i'll be busier soon with more work. the goal
is to try and not use my SAG pension and be self-sustainable off work here to pay all
my bills. not too successful at that so far, but a gig here and there helps the cause.
2 drawbacks are the pay is low and slow...you don't get paid for 90-100 days sometimes.
plus they treat talent like cattle. we're people! we need pampering! at least a loo!
but hey, i was o-v-e-r in L-A and if you don't like the work conditions here, leave!
to make dollar one in show biz is a miracle anyway! so enjoy the work! be thankful
i have it! (just booked a VO gig whilst blogging! chuffed! blessed!)
i've been in africa now since Oct 2011 and in ZA since june 2014. so i'm going on 3
years here in ZA. my present work permit expires in sept. need to win my appeal asap!
or at least in the foreseeable future! please home affairs!?!?!
A ROOMMATE?
and now i have a roommate. kinda weird at 61 living as a single bachelor for 40 years
to have a roommate again, but it works for now. he's a photographer and in the biz,
is a friend, and was in a jam from a spoiled relationship with a girl he was close to
proposing to and it's temporary for now but will probably last a while. perhaps a long while.
he's very cool, we get along, and i'm in the country 10-15 days a month at the cottage,
so, it helps sharing the rent. and ideally it can workout so i can keep flat #905 in town and
keep my cottage and have a city crib to crash whenever i need some urban stimulus.
i'm not quite sure i'm ready to retire out here 24/7 at the minute, so having Jean Pierre
could be a very cool arrangement. we're both in flux a bit and we'll see where we are
end of june and whether to renew the lease or not. home affairs is still dragging its feet on
my appeal for a permanent residency permit, but immigration is always an ex-pat issue
that rarely goes away. it's the common denominator for all of us living overseas. but hopefully
mine will get sorted with a positive result. otherwise, hmmmm, Plan B is what again???
CHRISTMAS & New Years
most of my december was running around kitting out the cottage with beds and curtains
and tables and chairs, etc etc etc. wanted it ready for company asap and mission
accomplished. spent christmas in ole Betty's Bay with the Hofmyer family (4 siblings =
72 at the sit down dinner!) and then Lorella (LoJ) finally flew in from Nairobi for 10 days!
so great to see my old assistant who is now more like daughter status. and we shopped til
we dropped! such fun! some theatre, movies, nice restuarants, the cottage, town, just lots
of fun! she's actually getting some work with her Filmic prod company in Kenya so that is terrific!
very hard to make it in kenya! go LoJ! her third trip to cape town! poa sana! we had a new years eve
party in my flat and took the city bus all week and saw it all and had a ball. i miss her already!
CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
so the idea to walk the camino 800kms across spain this september is still a go. the only glitch
is my ZA visa/permit status. hopefully all resolved by then. otherwise, it expires in sept and Plan B will take
me out of the country until i get things sorted. never a dull moment folks. but the Camino
pilgrimage beckons and i am chuffed to go for a long walk across northern spain. been training in
cape town, around table mountain and up Lion's Head. lots of new trails i'm discovering. always good to
start the morning with a 2 hour trek!
spain will be roughly 42 days of constant walking, although i imagine i'll take sundays off.
that will be such an experience. they say the first third is mainly
physical, the next third mental, and the last third is emotional/spiritual. i've read lots of books on it.
maybe i'll write a book. IDK, just wanna get hiking! get walking! see where the pilgrimage takes me!
and feel all the feelings and think all the thoughts. and process your life for a good 40 days un-interrupted.
go rent The Way. a good film about it.
MY OSCAR PICKS
tough oscar season to call but my take is LA LA Land has good chance of sweeping as folks just want a
happy movie for a change! i bought the soundtrack and it is fab! big bands are back and the drummer on
that soundtrack cooks! amazing recording! highly recommend!
for me Lion checks all the boxes for what a Best Picture should be. incredible film.
i enjoyed Manchester by the Sea, but an Oscar? and is Mel due again for best director?? IDK!
here are my picks, such as they are. a mix of who i think should win and who i think will win.
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLe
EMMA STONE
La La Land
ZOOTOPIA
Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
(very tough category)
LION
Greig Fraser
or could be LA LA. all good noms!
LA LA LAND
Damien Chazelle
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety and Hébert Peck
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
THE SALESMAN
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
SUICIDE SQUAD
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
LA LA LAND
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
CITY OF STARS
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
BEST PICTURE
LA LA LAND
Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt, Producers
PRODUCTION DESIGN
LA LA LAND
Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
SOUND EDITING
HACKSAW RIDGE
Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
SOUND MIXING
LA LA LAND
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
VISUAL EFFECTS
DOCTOR STRANGE
Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
HIDDEN FIGURES
Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
HELL OR HIGH WATER
Written by Taylor Sheridan
SO WHAT'S NEXT?
so...it's february, and time to make hay while the sun shines and bring home some bacon.
i found a new venue for my Master Class and i love teaching and shooting and lighting and
directing every week and i love my students, especially my hand picked Level Two students.
like my brother always reminds me...Make art - teach art. that's when i'm happiest.
the master class is getting zero traction and it's a mission to get sign-ups every time,
but it's okay. i have 8 students. it's enough to make a pretend set and let me feel like a
director. so i have 7 weeks left of that. chuffed!
i have the Kissing Booth movie to finish shooting in march. i have my health (except for a
badly strained calf muscle from weekend volleyball), and i'm still waiting for the female
equivalent of my knight in shining armor. which is what exactly? a damsel in
distress??? i tried that one already with disastrous results. so.....how about a damsel in
shining armor??? (think milla jovovich as joan of arc. she'll do.)
in the meantime i have weekends at the cottage where i get to bbq and entertain. the
weather is smashing. the country is stunning plus there's a hottie german widow in the
village i'm meant to meet. and i get to swim my reservoir with my fellow stanfordians
MWF mornings. so, all in all, i'd have to say i have it amazingly great! am so blessed to be
here, to have found my way to cape town/western cape after never ever considering it an
option. life has some bizarre twists! how in the world did i get here? how long will i stay here?
God's ways remain a mystery!
now for some pics! (warning...due to some program
glitches many of the pics have no caption or are duplicated.
sorry! i can't correct it! i tried! keep calm & carry on!)
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