let's pretend

i spent thursday afternoon in bed, by turns either napping restlessly or learning about old english. so many rules!

eventually i got up and readied myself for taekwondo - only scrapper and i made it, but we worked hard. i discovered - or rediscovered - that i have trouble with my adductors (verified by the guy sitting next to me) and that trouble comes in the form of being unable to balance when spinning or even perform a basic roundhouse correctly. something changed a while back, and whatever it is i need to unlearn it.

while we were there and killing ourselves, our partners in crime rocked up at the climbing wall and we were convinced to pack up and join them. that required a quick stop by my place to pick up my climbing shoes and hear that chc has found a gay soul-mate, and a stop by the supermarket to pick up energy bars and orange juice (and frozen meat for a bag lady who i almost never give anything to).

and fizzers.

the girl in pink was very distracting. watching her do pull-ups, or sitting on the wall in the splits...

i managed to conquer the first route i chose - a blue that's been frustrating all of us for a while. once i reached the top, i blew up a blue balloon and attempted to attach it, but failed... the evening was full of beer and whining, but was overall a great idea.

i was broken afterwards - which is what made it a perfectly rational idea to go to scrapper's and join the guys for a game of vampire the masquerade.

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i haven't seen the dean's kid in more than two months: i've been trying to keep in touch but he's been too busy to do his own project. his father called me up while i was snacking post-climb to inform me that he hasn't made any progress and he's got no more than a couple of days to hand in a finished product.

you know, when i warn someone that the timing might be tight - and he expresses his understanding - then i don't really feel sorry for them when the shit hits the fan. sorry.

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the scene we played out was amazing - i have a lot to learn, especially about thinking quickly, but i'm definitely off to a good start. flat on my back in a dark alley with a car flying over me, ready to throw two scorpion's touched daggers at the guy who might still have his sniper rifle trained on me was a bit thrilling.

i got home and into bed a little before 6am, with a belly ache, an itchy beard and very sore legs. i woke up not much more than four hours later, with all the aforementioned symptoms alive and kicking. i tried to trim my pseudo-beard to a regular hasn't-shaved, but the contrast was so sharp that i was convinced that i'd gone and fucked it up. i called up the director to warn him that i may have damaged his scene... but there wasn't much we could do about it. at least i'd only shaved the area beneath my chin.

it took chc and i so long to leave the apartment that we ended up with only about fifteen minutes for breakfast at bar gurion; plenty of time, though, to discuss dzogchen - let's just say that i'm not a particularly big fan as yet - i'm always suspicious of "secret languages".

breakfast was good, but not amazing - not helped by my being in such a hurry. i didn't even finish my coffee :/

i was hoping to make the pride parade, which caused so many traffic problems that it took forever to get into jaffa. i never expected a short film to demand twelve hours of takes, retakes and lighting changes. the experience was enlightening. [ugh.]

moments:
none of the pairs of replacement pants that the director had brought were close to my size.

he hadn't noticed my piercings on sunday, and was not only surprised but upset as well... my helix is too new to remove.

"cut! ... cut! didn't you hear me?" - i kinda got stuck into a scene and it took a while to register that we were done :P

not returning the little girl's giant smile was trying. working with children isn't easy - it was very difficult for her to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.

getting her to stop eating between breakfast takes was nigh impossible; eventually we ran out of food :P

the breakfast scene had me reading a newspaper: i managed to find two pages, back to back, that were eerily appropriate for the movie. the more takes we did, the more excited the director became with the effect :)

when my wife choked me, i didn't have to act. at one stage i was concerned that she might actually kill me :(

between takes, i sat bored and was handed somebody's iphone with a game in progress. i got so into it that i didn't hear the little girl's sister screaming at me to give it back :$

in the final scene i hug my daughter: when the director was satisfied with the take he didn't call for the end of the scene because he was fascinated by the effect the hug had on her - there are daddy issues up the wazoo (single parent family). i don't know how wise that was, but it was certainly awkward to be filmed hugging someone, knowing that we were done but unable to move without direction.

the only scene the little girl enjoyed involved her shaving me with fake blood - watching her fingering off bits of bloody shaving foam with a big smile on her face was extremely creepy.

bright lights are hot. i was a bit dehydrated by the end of the day. the final shot had me tied to a chair... and i actually started falling asleep :P

prior to the final shooting i took our discussions down a decidedly political path, prompting one of the guys to claim that he would never produce anything with a political edge. i wished him luck with that: in a way, everything's political. it's practically impossible to create something entertaining that has no values, and anything that's purely entertaining is of itself the exercising of a right to enjoy ourselves - which has become a political point of contention.

after a fun and animated discussion with the cameraman on the way back (snowboarding), i was surprised to say goodbye in a manner that struck me as being decidedly final.

i walked into my apartment with the music excessively loud, everything a mess and my whole system ready to crash. at first i was enthusiastic about the idea of going partying with chc, but i soon realized that it wouldn't be much fun the way i was feeling and i decided to call it a night.

a quick shower, and straight to sleep.

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i slept wonderfully until around 9am, at which point it turned into the usual restless exhaustion. it took me a while to realize that there was no point in fighting it, and i got up and headed to coffeeholic for an excellent breakfast. now that i've spent all this time online and in the sun, i think it's time to return home, hang up the washing and get back under the covers.

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thanks, mum - these pictures of the world cup are incredible!