i am sposed to be editing right now but i dont get paid by the hour so the only one i am ripping off is myself sucker.
last wek was my birthday and i was working a night shoot for tires for a superbowl commercial. working on your birthday sucks especially at night in the freezing malibu canyons in the pouring rain (it never rains in Los Angeles WTF?) at four am i was standing on the side of the country back road waiting to go up the street. I am standing under my golf umbrella ella ella but my feet are soaking wet my cigarette is wet and you have to pinch it together at the filter to hold it together.
i am alone
in the dark
wet
freezing in the cold on my birthday.
i was super stoned so i am getting all scared cuz i can hear animal noises off int eh woods but its kinda hard to hear exactly b/c of the rain noise. it sounds like a large cat "mewing". I am jumpy to begin with but we were shooting at the place where they filmed that crystal lake movie with the guy with the mask and chainsaw.. so i am feeling a little bit scared.
it is at this time in my life on my birthday that i reflect on the past year of my life. wet, cold, alone ,in the dark, scared...alone
i keep feeling like i should give up on my career as a photographer. it is a lonley job. no other profession would have me out at four am in the dark in the rain alone. i am waitign by the roadside for about half an hour.
the process trailer and camera car's headlights crest teh hillside at the end of the raod where is am stadning and i am finally allowed to walk up to the film set. the commercial is starring alice cooper and a work out guru named Richard Simmons. in the freezing winter night his outfitis the dolphin shorts and mini tank top.. The guy is genuine. he like came out of his motorhome singing showtunes and cleared everyone's dinner plates from the lunchbox. he has this real need to "connect" with EVERYONE.
He shouts his lines in the commercial at the car as it drives by him on the smokey mountain top. take after take after take after take, he keeps shouting:
"I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
at a point in my life when i feel so alone and confused, god steps in and sends a messenger to me in the form of Richard Simmons.
weird.
i got one present this year. It came from an amazing gorgeous inernational model that i do not even know that well??? She bought me a waaaaaay too expensive bottle of Cristal. I had mentioned cristal once and she remembered.. that gift means a lot more to me than i let on b/c i luv her even more now than ever...sucker