Last Week's Update: Bruce Willis, Arkansas, Aunt Rainey, and Dodging Gustav
Shreveport, La - I sat down today to write an update of what I've been up to and I suddenly realized how unbelievably busy I have been, which is funny considering I don't have a full time job. Here in Shreveport the film industry runs in cycles and ebbs, and this summer has been very slooooooooow. I, as have many other people I know in the industry, have been patiently waiting out the figurative drought.
In the meantime, I have been playing the piano two nights a week up at Superior's Steakhouse. Last Wednesday, I was standing in front of the restaurant chatting with the valet guy about how the "rich" people in Shreveport who blow $40 on a steak are possibly the worse tippers on the face of the planet. As we were wallowing in our disdain for the snobby rich people we call customers, a van pulled up and one of the people I worked with/for on The Year One got out of the van. A guy in a ballcap introduced himself to me and after he had passed I realized it was none other than Bruce Willis, who I'm guessing isn't a bad tipper.
More importantly, when someone like Bruce Willis is in town it means work is on the way. Word about stuff like this spreads through our underground network of local film industry workers like wildfire. I don't think the people form Los Angeles are even aware of how connected all the locals are with information. It's not the resistance movement of World War II, but it definitely helps us all get work.
Aside from Bruce Willis sighting, Donna and I have managed to squeeze in a camping trip to the Ouchita National Forest in Arkansas (which is amazing.) Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon. We spent three days camping primitively...and I loved it. We camped on the banks of Caney Creek just around the corner from Little Missouri Falls.
We also made it to Dallas last weekend in a trip that was truncated by Hurricane Gustav. We first made it by to visit my great Aunt Rainey, a woman who in part raised my mother after her mother died when my mother was a day old.
I think I will write about Aunt Rainey in my next blog because she is way too funny for one paragraph. Just to give you a taste of what you'll read, she is ninety years old and when we got to dinner at the community retirement home where she lives...she ordered a martini. More on that later.
After that we went and visited some of my family in McKinney. Unfortunately, I had to skip the traditional Labor Day 5k I run in to get back to Shreveport. At that time, we were uncertain of the weather situation and Donna had some friends and family staying in her apartment, so we thought it best to get back.
AND (I told you a it was a lot) I have been in communication with my best friend Jonathan Avitia who rode out the hurricane in Baton Rouge and had some pretty amazing stories about the situation down there. According to him, hundreds of giant oak trees are down as well as power lines and navigating around is like something from a war zone. There are no straight paths and you have to constantly be aware of buzzing power lines and debris that might damage your car. He uses his GPS to calculate alternate route after alternate route. I informed him that here in Shreveport I had a pine cone fall on my truck...but it was a BIG pine cone, at least two inches in diameter.
That's all for now. As soon as possible I will write about my meeting with Aunt Rainey.
That's the story of my life...
In the meantime, I have been playing the piano two nights a week up at Superior's Steakhouse. Last Wednesday, I was standing in front of the restaurant chatting with the valet guy about how the "rich" people in Shreveport who blow $40 on a steak are possibly the worse tippers on the face of the planet. As we were wallowing in our disdain for the snobby rich people we call customers, a van pulled up and one of the people I worked with/for on The Year One got out of the van. A guy in a ballcap introduced himself to me and after he had passed I realized it was none other than Bruce Willis, who I'm guessing isn't a bad tipper.
More importantly, when someone like Bruce Willis is in town it means work is on the way. Word about stuff like this spreads through our underground network of local film industry workers like wildfire. I don't think the people form Los Angeles are even aware of how connected all the locals are with information. It's not the resistance movement of World War II, but it definitely helps us all get work.
Aside from Bruce Willis sighting, Donna and I have managed to squeeze in a camping trip to the Ouchita National Forest in Arkansas (which is amazing.) Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon. We spent three days camping primitively...and I loved it. We camped on the banks of Caney Creek just around the corner from Little Missouri Falls.
We also made it to Dallas last weekend in a trip that was truncated by Hurricane Gustav. We first made it by to visit my great Aunt Rainey, a woman who in part raised my mother after her mother died when my mother was a day old.
I think I will write about Aunt Rainey in my next blog because she is way too funny for one paragraph. Just to give you a taste of what you'll read, she is ninety years old and when we got to dinner at the community retirement home where she lives...she ordered a martini. More on that later.
After that we went and visited some of my family in McKinney. Unfortunately, I had to skip the traditional Labor Day 5k I run in to get back to Shreveport. At that time, we were uncertain of the weather situation and Donna had some friends and family staying in her apartment, so we thought it best to get back.
AND (I told you a it was a lot) I have been in communication with my best friend Jonathan Avitia who rode out the hurricane in Baton Rouge and had some pretty amazing stories about the situation down there. According to him, hundreds of giant oak trees are down as well as power lines and navigating around is like something from a war zone. There are no straight paths and you have to constantly be aware of buzzing power lines and debris that might damage your car. He uses his GPS to calculate alternate route after alternate route. I informed him that here in Shreveport I had a pine cone fall on my truck...but it was a BIG pine cone, at least two inches in diameter.
That's all for now. As soon as possible I will write about my meeting with Aunt Rainey.
That's the story of my life...
posted by Winston A. Hall at 10:11 AM
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