good lord

joel and paul have their own special way of saying good-bye at the end of a show.


nice.

g. xo

window shot....

...or the martini depending on where you are. when they're about to set-up the last shot of the night on a film set, it's the 'window shot' or the 'martini'...more often refered to as the window. and for those who care...it refers to the way they used to pay film workers. at the end of the week or sometimes the end of the day, the workers would go to a window on their way out of work that day and get paid for their time worked, thus when that shot was done, you'd head to the window to get paid. ole'.
speaking of burritos, we headed down to the topanga-roo last night for some margs and mexican snacks. don bull, donna, shauna, the garbs, corie and myself..we ate like champs and don, for one, was very excited as he finally got to try the chili relleno/chicken burrito el presidente. he was given the hand the last time he tried to order it...but last night was his night to shine. he may have let a little go in his pants over the whole thing...and who could blame him?
it was a good hoss-down by all.
(uh-oh....i can hear joel talking to jim - the boss, on the floor and he just asked if i could come in monday and work...damn, so close...)

see ya monday...i think.

g. xo

shauna and donna...hey that...


the girl i love and that guy...


don sleeps with his hands like this...


don loves the fancy burrito...


garbs loves the topanga.


corie loves beer.

and corie sleeps like this.


don and donna fight next to their new honda element.


look at that guy.


donna likes smoking.

good on ya...

corie just e.mailed me this...


good on ya kids..

g. xo

and another thing...

shauna sent me this...




nice.

g. xo

you can go home again

as much as i think the days of the big trade being made, especially on trade deadline day, there's still some good stuff. i especially love when a good player gets traded to a shitty team, when that player is an asshole and deserves to be on a shitty team, that has no hope for a playoff run, for the rest of the season. and then there's stuff like today's announcement that darren mccarty was returning to the red wings fold. i love that guy. he's been attempting a comeback and now will play the rest of the season with the wings. nice.

welcome back.

g. xo

and the oscar goes to...

...for the worst movie of 2008 thus far....vantage point.


we saw this last night...do not, i repeat, do not go and see this movie.

there ya go.

g. xo

yup. make mine crispy.

g. xo

the word on scott.

here's a portion of an e.mail i received yesterday. a follow-up to the scott harding story i mentioned a couple of days ago.
.........

Scott is in the Intensive Care Unit at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, a victim of a car crash Friday February 15th in which he was a passenger of a car service, returning home from a late night mixing session to finish a new record. Another car came at high speed and crashed broadside into his car. The accident occurred a short distance from his home. His condition is serious, with fractures of his clavicle, rib, shoulder blade, and back. The full extent to which he will recover is not yet certain, but we have high hopes. He will need time, patience, and extended care to recover. Part of the doctor's stabilizing efforts at this early stage will be an operation on his back, expected to occur sometime this week. His spirits are good, and he's able to fully participate and decide on all decisions regarding his health and welfare. He is receiving the best in medical care and treatment, and all his friends and family have mobilized to aid his healing as best we can, with round the clock coverage in his room by one or more close friends at all times. Heesok Chang, a longtime friend of Scott's, has been attending Scott's side with emotional support, shepherding visitors, and updating Scott's folks in Vancouver. Tom Camuso, Scott's business partner and close friend, and his wife Kim have been co-ordinating many of the hospital, police, and email/telephone networking efforts of friends and family to make sure Scott is never left alone, and that all folks are kept informed. Leif and Kathy Arntzen, also longtime friends, have been been working on obtaining additional medical advice, securing legal representation, and co-ordinating with Tom and Heesok to strategize Scott's overall welfare. Other close friends are aligning themselves to various roles and tasks as they become necessary. Every avenue of health, legal, and social concern is being worked on by a devoted team of friends and family.

Unfortunately Scott, like most dedicated musicians, does not have a health care plan, lived modestly, and cannot afford the luxuries of extensive bank accounts full of savings for those rainy days that always come one day. While there are already several great ideas afoot to raise funds through benefit concerts on both coasts, this will take time to organize and put into motion. The short term need to raise cash to handle his affairs is real, and now would be as good a time as any to send any size donation you can manage to establish some cash flow to be used on Scott's behalf. Legal resolution of insurance settlements will take a long time, and there is no way to know what the long term financial picture will look like. In the meantime there is rent due, mixing console payments to be made, a myriad of bills to pay to keep creditors at bay etc, not to mention medical and legal bills that will start to come in. Kim Danyluk (Tom's wife) has set up a special account to handle Scott's finances for his short term financial needs.

Please make your checks payable to "Scott Harding c/o Tom Camuso", and send them to:

Kim Danyluk
6066 54th Street
Maspeth, NY 11378

Thank you for your support.

spike hits town, layla goes 4th ave and the salt mine crew get reduced..

busy, kind of. we're really gearing down here - trying to get shit put in its place, rentals returned and all the while having little sleep-ins and long lunches along the way. yesterday we all headed to the cannery for lunch on boc and joel's dime. i'm not crazy about the big lunches or big dinners for that matter but it was fine...maybe i've had too much seafood over my life but it really, with the exception of sushi, does very little for me anymore. afterwards i came back to the shop to clean-up the lawn order room and some paperwork while the rest - or at least most, of the boys and katherine went onward and upward to drink a few more beverages. some even did a drop-by by our place at 10:30 and asked if they could come up and visit...um...nope...there were a few soreheads here today...
spike was in town this week as well and was very busy for most of her trip, more business less pleasure, but we did manage to have dinner with her at lolita's on davie street...it was good...i like the food there. afterwards we walked mishi home and then walked the rest of the way to chinatown where spike was staying. spike's on of my friends that i have a relationship with that can pick-up wherever we left off last time. she's heading back to arizona and is thinking of buying a place down there - a three bedroom place for 165,000....ok, you can stop throwing up now.
before dinner the garbs, andy and i went to the new 49th parallel coffee shop on west 4th ave where layla now holds court. katherine walked in and found us there...she was getting her car detailed down the street so it seemed like a good place to stop in - but then she found us there...the coffee there is pretty good and they have nice colored cups. and layla's there...and she's a good egg...

ok..i need to make a birthday card now.

i love you.

g. xo

garbs gets down at 49th


spike at lolita's


andy and k. at 49th coffee.


k. gets down garbs-style.


garbs and layla.


mishi at lolita's


more of the garb's style salute from katherine.


back alley in chinatown.


nice blue cups.


c. and k. at lolita's.


c. at lolita's.


a good cup of coffee at 49th.

green is the color...

...of my...

here are a couple of pics from life in the salt mine. for you. now.

g. xo

peas please.

driving around...

here are a few pics from today's action...including stevie's new ride. a 1959 american rambler. nice.

g. xo

i like cranes. i'm not sure why.



stevie's new ride.

whatda ya think barry?...

i had to do a little drop-by at dr. neil's this morning to have him have a look at my nutsack to make sure everything was healing the way it should be...today was doctor in the full hugo boss suit and student in white lab coat day. dr. neil asked me if i would mind if barry (i think his name was) was in on the examination of my boys. no problem, the more the merrier. so after dr. scrotum had a feel of my balls, old neil was encouraged to have himself a little feel. he was nervous - and who can blame him? not me. and in the end, i'm all good...healing up like a good little camper. thanks neil. thanks barry.
yesterday i also received in the mail the new novel by willy vlautin, singer and frontman for richmond fontaine, northline. i had to order it from england as it doesn't come out here until may sometime as well, the first edition comes with a cd of music by willy and paul brenard. nice. and speaking of willy's novel, i can't remember who i lent my copy of 'motel life' to...if anyone out there has my copy...let me know.

good times.

g. xo

up for air

day 101.
it's finally come and truth be told it should have ended a few days ago but they needed some more action packed footage. i guess. the days at the salt mine of this project are coming to a close. i have to admit it's always weird at the end of a show, everyone goes their separate ways, goes to new shows, on vacation, some to never be seen again - thankfully sometimes, and sometimes it's a drag when people leave and never come back. we spend a lot of time here with each other and while, for the most part, we like and love each other, by the end of a long show you're ready to part ways, at least for a while. i know for me this show was split into three very distinct parts. the beginning where it was all new and the set-up was casual and easy going, work nonetheless but familiar. then came the stress of the first days on set, certain people stressing much more than was required at such an early part of the show therefore sending others into a tizzy as well. this second part of the show was very hard for me. one driver - the best there is by a long shot but still too much work for one man. he and i tried to get it all done and most of the time made it happen but we did falter a few times and i took those failures quite hard. but we made it through. during this tough time we gained another driver, hardip, who proved to be a godsend. while no paul, he was and is a great driver. he made our lives that much better and we got more shit done every day because of him.
we lost hardip after xmas...and had to see life once again without him.
the last portion has been tough as well but with the light at the end of the tunnel starting to get bigger it was easier to take. more action taking place in one location and less scrambling to service two and three locations was easier on us as a team.
today is the last day of principle shooting and i welcome it. by the end of next week i'll be packing up my shit and heading home to sleep. and then sleep some more. i will be fixing my mowers, driving around, hanging out with shauna, eating burritos, hanging out at coffee shops and hanging out with shauna.
ok. good.


the other day shauna and i took stella over to west van, home of the stores that all close at 9 pm or earlier, and let her run around the park near whole foods. we had snacks at whole foods and also ran into krista and corbin while waking stella. it was a beautiful day and hopefully there will be more of those once i'm done here at the salt mine.
on a sad note, i found out last night that an old friend of mine, but really more of an acquaintence through the music scene years ago - scott harding, who lives in NYC, and works as a sound engineer and is a great musician himself was injured in a car accident when his cab was t-boned on his way home friday night. he was hurt quite badly and i just wanted to let people know who may know him here. he was a fixture in the music scene here when i was first working at citr and cutting my teeth in world of vancouver punk rock. two of his most memorable vancouver projects were rhythm mission and the jazzmanian devils. god bless you scott. i will get more details about this as i get them.

there's a little about it here.

g. xo

i broke my leg skateboarding ....

....in 1976.

check this out.

it's good.

g. xo

you're in good hands with dr. dick

sure...i've been calling him dr. neil but really, he's dr. dick. but i guess that's actually not right, because he's not really dealing with your dick at all, he's more like dr. ballsack or senor scrotum...he's good though (4500 procedures a month between vasectomy and circumcision), anyway ya look at it. he's like a machine. quick bedside manner, trying to distract you as he goes to work on your jingus, pulling ut the jamgus..that sort of thin..."what do you do for fun?" is the first question and it goes from there...my first answer was not, "i go and get a snip job on a friday morning, then head to urban fare for some bags of frozen peas.." so all done...seems fine and i'm back at work making more movie magic.

more details soon....or not.

g. xo

not a good start to the day...

ok...so today i go under the knife. sure, they say it's non-scalpel but don't believe it for a second. they have to get in there somehow so there'll be some cutting involved. i wouldn't say i'm nervous but i would say i'm not exactly crazy about having my junk hanging out and a nurse taking control of my jiblits. we'll see how it goes.
on the way to work this morning i got, what is, my third speeding ticket in the last eight months. i'm having bad luck in that dept. and yopu'd think i'd learn - slow down near the PNE...or maybe i'm that dog that just keep getting hit with the newspaper over and over but i still tear up the sneakers....i dunno. anyhow, happy vasectomy day to me.
a friend of mine's nad swelled up to the size of a orange so i'm kinda hoping and saying a prayer to the big guy, tom, that that doesn't happen to me.
10:40 a.m. - set your clocks now.
last night we had some of the kids over for a valentine's/garn's vasectomy party and it went very well...although i did decide that i needed to fix the garbage disposal near the end of the party...not the best time to do that...so i didn't fix it but i kinda reacted badly (not in a huge way) to not being able to perform my handiwork...so i'd like to give a big shoutout and apology to my wonderful girlfriend who really , with the help of ang, put together a great spread of food that barely fit on our living room table. good work...i love you. the food was great and it was nice to have a few friends over, the first time since shauna moved in that we've had people over in any sort of group. it was good.
the food was great and if that's my last meal - you know people do expire under the knife - then i'm satisfied.
see you on the other side...

more later after my date with dr. neil.

g. xo

nice hair...

mishi gets ready to hoss-down on some snacks.


shauna gets a drink after all her hard work.

snacks.



em and ang.


ang loves the snacks.


more good hair.

em and joey check out the globe.