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The Cover-up Continues

Please read this entry on the Huffington Post about our friend Steve Heller who done a good deed and may now do time. Steve Heller is your average joe actor who had the opportunity to call it as he saw it and make a little attempt to keep this country and its elections in line.
What a time we live in, Mr. President, with your own deep pockets full of felons, making sure you are where you are...

We Are Not Devo

After a long week of dogs pulling me this way and that I'm pretty tired and crickly by Friday and need a big drink and a sofa. So I'm sitting on my friend's sofa with a paper cup full of wine complaining about my fear of a reoccuring groin injury when I see a pogo stick leaning against her wall. I tell her and the kids in ear shot that I was a master pogo-er in my day. Yeah, sure, Nora. Sure, sure. No, really. So I grab it and the two eight-year-olds, a three-year-old and a thirteen-year-old follow me outside. After a slight memory lapse of how to get on the thing, I mounted that pogo stick and didn't stop pogo-ing for the next five minutes, not even with an eight-year-old literally trying to push me off. Remembering that pogo dancing to the Fleshtones and B-52's was quite a work-out, I finally got off the thing with my legs and upper body numb and my heart racing. If it weren't so ridiculous looking, I'd consider getting one. Maybe I could start the next big work-out craze. Hmmmm. My friend said I was crazy and that I was going to be mighty sore this morning. Truly no more sore than after a week of dogs pulling me this way and that.
Getting up now.
Ouch.
Where's that 600 milligram Motrin she gave me?

DW Production Diary

I have an idea to ask my neighbor Joanna if she'll throw me a bone (ha) and do a stunt for the movie. THE STUNT. I know a lot of union members wouldn't do a non-union production, but shit - it's a stunt - how would they know? The stunt itself wouldn't even show any people, it would just be a roll with the camera in hand. Piece of cake for her.

Starting next shoot on DW tape "F", which means I've shot approximately five and a half hours of video (two tapes were partly used previous to DW). All the easy stuff is done, now I must outline the intricacies, schedule the interviews and the stunt and write the narration. And get a new computer.
Nora T. Wood
February 24, 2006

DW Production Diary

Holiday traffic made getting around town much easier, but that meant our morning location was too crowded with people off work and children out of school to be able to steal shots. It was okay because the crew seemed unfocused.

Later in the afternoon I went to check on one of the locations and nearly got myself thrown in the hoosegow. Maybe because of the holiday the Locations Manager got confused and left the security system on and I walk in and alarms start screeching and the phones start ringing....I called the LM, the alarm company called the LM AND the cops, but the LM got it squared away before the guns arrived. Thank You!

Just another manic Monday at DW Prods.
Nora T. Wood
February 20, 2006

The LA Weekly gets it right and wrong...

The profile on Brian Flemming says he's a "bachelor in West Hollywood who just started driving..." Well, the rest of the article is pretty much right on.

Please Stand Up

THIS is Taylor Negron's table after the most recent Sit 'n Spin...

THIS is Taylor Negron....

THIS is NOT Taylor Negron! And that is what is wrong with MySpace.com. It's the biggest at what it does, and it is great for connecting to people, especially for musicians, but it also means anyone can be someone they are not and not only create a persona, but steal someone else's.

THIS is also the REAL Taylor Negron.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I am as bitter in my sleep as I ...

I was dreaming this morning that I was being picked up by Celeste to go have a drink. For whatever reason I was skeptical when she showed up not only late, but with some woman I didn't know. Then they insisted that we go to "The Market" in Beverly Hills. I thought, Great - how much is the taxi going to cost me when I have to take one back over the hill when Celeste decides to stay late and party with some guys she just met. Then we were at "The Market" which had tables on the sidewalk but we were at a table in the doorway of literally, a market, like a storefront Korean convenience store. When I ordered a Citron, rocks, I was told that they had four kinds, all of which I had never heard of and three of which I couldn't pronounce, two of them Russian and one called Paper from Georgia. I chose Paper. Then the woman I didn't know was trying to order a drink, pointing to the one on the menu which looked to be a vodka drink swimming with olives but she wanted it in a different glass and was trying to explain it to the waiter who didn't know what she was talking about. I was so frustrated I woke up. And I had to pee really bad.

Happy Valentine's Day

Heard on the Outlaw Country station on Sirius Satellite:

"True love is being comfortable with hating the one you love."

Hollywood Intersections

Very excited about next week's line-up at Sit-n-Spin which includes Ron Zimmerman, Gary Shapiro, Wayne Federman and Taylor Negron. Could be the best spin ever or a train wreck, either way, not to be missed. What I hope to miss are overheard conversations like this snippet in last week's audience:

"I can't picture Sunset & Fairfax. "
"Do you miss Fullerton?"

And any conversations with anyone concerning NOT talking about TIGHT CIRCLES. Funny - last night at The Casting Office I talked to a Tight Circler about Tight Circles and we said the words Tight Circle at least a dozen times. Tight circle, tight circle, tight circle. Got Tight Circle?

DW PRoduction Diary

Production has been slightly halted this week due to visitors from out-of-town taking precedence. (The luxury of low budget and flexible crew.) However, en route to a rehearsal there was ANOTHER altercation between some of the actors. I am pondering firing one of the lesser important ones. She was, after all at fault and is really defiant about it. I just didn't have time to take action, but I'll have to talk to her mother about it. You know what they say - never work with children or animals!
Nora T. Wood
February 10, 2006

DW Production Diary

Today's shoot got cut short. I wasn't even going to do any shooting today but my friend and colleague Paula was available and one of my actors became available. That opportunity alone I had to take advantage of as he is such a huge star so I'll take him when I can get him. (He's SO fucking handsome!)

Anyway, Paula wound up getting in an altercation with a couple of the extras and suffice it to say - ended up in the emergency room. Dammit! It could have been worse of course, but it definitely put a damper on the day and on our nerves.

Extras are such a pain in the ass and of course this would be so much easier somewhere far from the jungle, but you've got to use what you have!

Made sure Paula made it to the hospital, made sure big name star was safe then went to Circuit City for more DV tape and a backup battery.
Nora T. Wood
February 4, 2006

Ostrasized And Loving It

Another night with the sit 'n spinners...fun debauchery but that's not my story.
After the theater we go on to the usual place for a drink and a howdy. I am standing there with my boyfriend talking to a gal who obviously knows some of the people I know so I tell her that I'm Nora, he's David. We shake hands and she tells me she is Michelle or Melissa or one of those names I keep hearing everywhere including my apartment building amongst the neighbors who are driving me insane...

She:
That was good stuff tonight.
Me:
Yes it was, it seemed that every story was either gay, macho or girly.

"Yeah, hey, I think I know you, what's your last name?"
"Murphy"
"Huh, are you, yeah, you're on the TC, right?

I look at her for a second, calculating TC and think - is it the new lingo for "The Computer"? It's a blonde moment, but I figure that's what the kids are calling all the myspaces and xangas and whatever for short these days.

She:
The log.
Me:
Yeah, I have the blog. Yeah.

"Uh...The TC, you know, the thing we don't utter in public."
"Uh...."
"The women...the network..."
"Oh! The tight circle! Yeah! I was on the..."
"THE THING WE DON"T MENTION THE NAME OF IN PUBLIC!"
"You don't mention the tight circle in public?"
"Uh, okay, I'm going to go now...uh, yeah, see ya."

And she left us there standing in her swirling tight dust. Wow! That IS TIGHT! I had to hightail it straight to my friend Jonathan who was on the Hollywood Hellhouse Tight Circle with me - along with about 200 other people, several of whom were there last night and none of whom ever told me that we don't utter the words Tight Circle in public especially, apparently amongst people who may be on one with you!

Jonathan was just as amused and ambivilant as I was. I guess we all learned something from actually getting OFF The Computer and socializing with people face-to-face.
But then - look where that got me.

DW Production Diary

During some down time, I was hanging around with Charlie, one of my actors, and damned if he didn't bust off part of the A-number-one prop/wardrobe piece. It still works (but I've got to remember to keep these guys in check.) I was so shocked that I had to laugh, but now I've got to get the piece to the Wardrobe Department and see if they can fix - oh wait - I AM the wardrobe department!

The rest of the day went great. Got some of the footage that I really needed - I think. Very frustrated that I can't get it all into the computer immediately and look at it. The plan now, without the hard drive space, is to just shoot everything and then when ready get the very very latest version of the Mac with all the fixins and load it up! My friend, the indie director says I can capture footage on my external, but I tried and it just wasn't happening. No speed, it was like watching live-action Clutch Cargo.

Nora T. Wood
February 1, 2006