Want to Live and Work in America?

Click here to read a great little article on "How to Be an Illegal Alien in the United States" by Mimi a New York Village Voice writer. Funny, and too real at the same time I think. Can you imagine working for "tips only" so as to remain unknown to the authorities? In comparison to her stories related here, Meg and I's woes are quite trivial, being well-educated Canadians who both qualify for temporary work visas in The United States under NAFTA. Aside from the rather cold, neurotic, machoistic and unwelcome reception that you seem to always receive from the border guards who process your visa, coming into The United States qualified to work is relatively painless for us. You just have to be patient and put up with the crap at the border. After that, it is pretty smooth. However, there are times that most definitely confirm in your own mind your status as "a foreigner" here.

Over the past few days Meg and I have struggled to secure accommodations in Los Angeles. This has largely been due to two things: a) higher cost than we anticipated and b) complications with the "status" of our American credit. Although I have worked in The United States legally before, and I have a United States Social Security Number, a bank account, and legal employer now, I don't yet have an American credit card. So the long and short of it is that because I don't have a track record of established debt shouldering ability people are very hesitant to rent you an apartment. They think that you either won't be able to pay regularly or are a risk in that you might take off home at any time. I got Rhythm and Hues to write a letter confirming my work status and wrote up a work history and that eventually got us approved for a place, but we had to pay what I would call a "prejudiced deposit." It not that we have bad credit, we just don't have any, and they flatly refused to look at our Canadian credit history. It was touch and go for a while there, but it looks like we're in the clear now.

Spending any amount of time living and working as a foreigner, not just passing through on holiday where you don't have to deal with the realities of life, really expands your tolerance for immigrants I think. If you're never forced to see things as the foreigner, you never will. Still, our experience in the prosperous north pales in comparison to the experience of our supposed "partners in NAFTA" the Mexicans who have to deal with whackos like this: click here!

Ben Reeves at Oakville Galleries

Click here for details of Ben Reeves' new show at Oakville Galleries. There is similar work here to the work I mentioned was on show at Equinox in Vancouver, but there is additional information about the work via a curatorial piece that is worth a read if you are interested in decifering the dense layers of meaning in Ben's work. You could also just marvel at his drawings and make up your own mind what he's on about!

The Parastone Mouseion Collection

It seems like ages ago that Neil sent me this great link to a collection of models and figurines derived from famous works of art. I have just gotten around to it today as I wait for my first shot on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to arrive. Waiting for animation... What else is new!? I think that the Jheronimus Bosch and Pieter Breugel The Elder collections are of particular interest. I always thought it would be amazing to try to faithfully interpret the paintings of Mr. Bosch into 3D animations... A long time "personal project" idea that I have never found the time for... Ah yes, the illusive personal project time. Mysterious and nebulous as a cloud. I remember reading a couple of art books about Bosch and Breugel on the bus in Vancouver as I traveled back and forth to The Vancouver Film School, and that was back in 1996! When I was just learning 3D animation. Personal projects. My own personal fantasma.

California Wild Flowers

Click here to see some amazing photos of California Wild Flowers. Also, here's a link to the California government's website for the area known as the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. This year there has been so much rain in Southern California it is either the most, or second most, rainfall on record in the Los Angeles area. As a result, abnormally large numbers of poppy seeds were washed to the surface. Now that spring is arriving in Southern California they're bringing on a big show! Meg and I are going to try to head out there this weekend to snap some photos.

My First California Earthquake!

This afternoon I was sitting at work trying to wrap my head around the rendering pipeline when I could have sworn a rhinosaurus walked by just outside the door. Little did I know I had just experienced my first California earthquake!

I've Been Hasselhoffed! For Real!

Yesterday, Megcita and I went for our first "beach ride" on the bikes. We road out north from Marina Del Rey through Santa Monica and hooked up with the paved beach riding path that goes all along the beach which was packed with folks out skate boarding, roller blading and riding bikes of all sorts. We battled a wicked (and apparently rare) head wind for 15 kms north and a little hill ride up one of the canyons leading to Sunset Blvd. It was nice, although a bit of a "couch ride" do to all the "moving targets" on the path.

As we made our way back to the Marina I noticed a couple of dudes on bikes standing and chatting to a rather tall swarthy bloke. Being tall myself, I tend to notice other tall people in a crowd. I am not sure why, maybe it is just that I am used to always "looking down on folks" that I notice when I am not. Anyway, as I road by... I look over my shoulder and right at the Bay Watch champion himself: David Hasselhoff! I was hilarious! I had to turn back and ride by again, just to be sure, and there he was just crackin' bull with a couple of dudes on the beach. I nodded and said, "hey Dave, wassup?" as I went by and he pointed at me and said, no kidding, "yo, buddy, how're yah doin?"

Add to this the fact that Meg and I had a coffee sitting next to Jean-Claude Van Damme, walked past Don Cheedle and Chris Penn, and I guess you could say we have had a real Hollywood first week in Los Angeles. Although the debate about the ills of Hollywood rages on...

My first week at Rhythm and Hues

Well, it is only my first week at Rhythm & Hues, but I thought that I would jot down a first impression. The studio seems amazing... Much better than I was thinking it would be! I think I forgot what these California studios are like! The is an absolutely obvious "positive vibe" amongst the people working here. You can just feel it in the way people walk around the place. Lots of smiles and happy faces. Maybe I missed the goofball buffet and acid punch, but it all seems very sincere as well. There seems to be a lot of depth here. A huge knowledge base that allows things to "just go well." The pipeline really feels like it has evolved on an ongoing basis each and every week. I get the feeling that once you learn the tools, you can do some great work here.

What I didn't realize when I applied here is that R&H is a nearly completely proprietary studio. They have their own software written on the premises for nearly everything, with the notable exception that Massive crowd simulation software is being used in house, and that 90% of the modeling tasks are completed in Maya. But everything else in the pipeline, including the main 3D software, the renderer, the compositing software, and tons of the usual "widgets" that production requires are all written in house. This is a direct result of the company being founded by software developers from the early days of computer graphics when you "had to" build the software yourself. Thus, I have two weeks of classroom style training that will get me up to speed. It is actually a pretty cool process, because although the basic flow of work is very similar to what I have seen elsewhere, things appear fresh and interesting as a result of seeing "similar problems solved in a way that is unique to the studio." We are literally walking through the entire production process picking up a first look at the tools everyone uses along the way. I am totally impressed as this is the first studio I have ever worked at that has had such a thorough and well run orientation.

However, I have to say that the most interesting thing I have seen yet at R&H is that the head of the studio, a fellow named John Hughes, has his huge personal collection of art work hanging in the halls! It is an unbelievable assortment of production art, paintings, prints, original cels and animation sheets, etc. A really nice environment is created by just being surrounded by this work that is there just to inspire and breed creativity. Usually, you only have work from the show you are working on - concept designs, and story boards, and so forth. But this is something completely different. It is a way of overtly saying our work in feature film visual effects is part of the greater art community and the processes are not so different. I love it!

And last but not least, the food. Every day there is a catered lunch of healthy food. I am totally impressed. The salads are free and the chocolate bars are behind glass and cost you! Just like it should be! Not only that, but there is s "serve yourself" espresso machine! I am in heaven! Need I even mention how cool some of the shots are looking so far?

I am wearing green underpants!

From one pseudo-Irishman to the world: Happy Saint Patrick's Day people! I learned a while ago that the Gaelic spelling of Walsh is actually (strange though it may seem) Breathnach or Brannagh. In Gaelic, this means "Irish Foreigner" or "Welsh Irishman." I guess this is why the majority of the Walshes in Ireland are from the south - places like Millstreet, near Macroom, where my family originated. The south was the place that the Welsh came ashore to trade and what not and the folks attempting an invasion of jolly ole England staged their plans. I believe there were Spanish sailors who became permanent Irishmen when they were washed ashore at some point. I read How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and I highly recommend it, though it seems I can't remember much now! Yeesh! Walsh is something like the fourth most popular last name in Ireland. The Smith or Brown of Ireland. Click here for a nice big picture of the Walsh family crest! Cheers, and drink up lads!

Getting Settled? Not really...

Hey guess what? It is like 20 degrees here today! It is so weird to get up in the morning and it feels like early summer in Vancouver and we are still in March. Meg and I are trying to get settled into life here in La Ciudad De Los Angeles (so far I have refused to pronounce the "G" without a Spanish "JEH" accent!) So much to do... finding a nice two bedroom apartment pretty close to the studio and in a nice neighbourhood is going to be difficult and more expensive than I thought! Meg and I have seen a couple that are great - in the "Miami Vice" style circa 1983! But as I said, expensive. It seems that whomever promised me that LA prices were cheaper than SF was not really in possession of all the information because as far as I can tell right now things are much the same here as there. Okay, maybe a few percentage points less, but overall, not too much different. Especially seeing as we will probably not venture out of the Santa Monica and Venice Beach areas. I don't doubt that we will find something nice, I just think it will cost us a few hundred bucks a month more than we thought! We are actually waiting to hear about a flat. It is a largely "perfect" place. If we get it, which depends on a secondary credit check because we are Canadians, it will be equidistant between Santa Monica and Venice Beach in a neighbourhood called Ocean Park. There is tons of shopping and amenities nearby in walking distance and I will be almost exactly 10kms away from the studio (less than 30mins by bike). I can ride almost the entire way on bikes only path. The apartment is in an older building that is heritage and has been redone - we will have new bathroom and kitchen! With a view of the ocean! Pretty ideal! Anyway, wish us luck -- we should know by today or tomorrow. Meg has made some in-roads into teaching opportunities and with some patience and luck I think there will be tons of opportunity for her, and she is happy about that! although not looking forward "having her hands tied" with respect to getting through the credentialing process. She has seen some posts for summer classes in Spanish at a posh school in Santa Monica even! Now, in the meantime, she is looking for sub/short term which apparently doesn't take much to get going... she will have to spend some serious study time as the exams she needs to pass are kinda tough. Personally, I can't imagine having to pass grade 12 algebra again!

The Ultimate Grudge Match: Walshman Versus Renderman!

Well, the Pixar interview went pretty well I think, and the feedback seemed to be all positive. There were some tense moments afterwards waiting to hear if they were going to offer me a job straight away. When they called later in the day as they said they would, it turned out they were not prepared to make an immediate offer, which I completely understand. The whole interview arrangement was pretty rushed. I don't imagine that Pixar hurries into anything, let alone a contract with Donnie Walsho! So, I said thanks for the interview, and that I looked forward to the next step in the process. That is a face to face interview apparently. They said they would like to set that up for later in the year! So, understandably I am excited about that!

Sunday, the day before the interview, I headed to The Kino Cafe just to collect my thoughts. I just needed some time to myself to let a little stream of consciousness run out. At times I find this really helps and this case was no exception! I wrote something like ten pages of long hand notes on my thoughts about my work, film in general, also as it applies to lighting in particular, computer graphics, why I do what I do, why working at Pixar would appeal to me... all the things that randomly popped into my head when contemplating probably the biggest interview of my career. I felt a lot better after that, a lot more together and calm, and I hope that came across in the interview.

The interview was really interesting and engaging as one would expect. What I didn't expect was how much interest they showed in my pre-film work experience. So many questions relating to doing things on a smaller scale, without support of a major pipeline. How had I progressed to the stage of my career that I am at now, why had I succeeded in certain situations, etc. That really threw me off guard. I was expecting that they would be much more interested in my recent higher profile work.

What was amazing was listening to two lead lighters talk about what they expected from the lighting team at Pixar and how creative the job can be. They are trying more and more to remove the technical hurdles and really just get lighters to focus on the art. Something that live action lighters have been doing for years.

Overall, I left the interview feeling like I really had a great goal to shoot for and had passed the first crucial test on the way to "one of those jobs people talk about." What a blast. Here's hoping I hear from them later in the year!

Stop The Presses!

Last Friday was the craziest day I have had in recent memory. In the morning, I woke early to head out and coach the The University of British Columbia Novice Men's Rowing Crew. I rushed back home to meet the moving company people who were arriving to prepare all our stuff for the trip south of the border. That was hectic, but fine and went according to plan. So in the afternoon Meg and I went out to see the accountant (again) and the car insurance people and generally run some errands that we had to tie up before leaving for California. When I got back in the late afternoon, I was expecting an email from Rhythm and Hues about the hotel arrangements. What I found was a request for and interview from Pixar Animation Studios!

Meg says I let out some sort of primordial scream and then I just sat there staring at the screen. What did this mean? What kind of flukey timing is this? I was stunned! and I didn't really know what to do. I had thought that my application was "borderline at best," as I guess all those applying to Pixar for the first time do, and that I would for sure need to reapply again after more work "before I was good enough." I guess not. My joy at receiving a request for interview with arguably the greatest animation studio in history, which I think I rightly regard as an accomplishment in itself, was completely overcome by what I would describe as professional dread about the fact that I had sincerely verbally agreed to start at Rhythm and Hues in just a week's time and had in fact just received my TN Visa application that afternoon! That feeling of "oh man, these people will hate me, even though it was not my fault" was all consuming. I felt an immediate professional obligation to let them know I might not be showing up to work on monday, but I was handcuffed by the weekend and the fact that I didn't have an offer from Pixar yet!

Well, eventually I collected my thoughts and said well I had better call Pixar and see what's up! I was thinking it could be just a pre-interview, or an opportunity they had coming up in future. But no, when I got on the phone, sure enough the opportunity was immediate and they wanted to interview on monday. I was dumbfounded, but got my act together and told them I could interview immediately on monday morning. I hung up the phone and said to Meg, "god, I need to get drunk!" and went out to The Kino Cafe! It surely was a crazy day. Well, we'll see how it goes!

Ben Reeves at The Equinox

Click here to see some of Ben Reeves' recent work shown at the Equinox gallery in Vancouver. Meg and I stopped in recently to check out some of Ben's painterly affairs, and as usual, we were blown away by his tremendous creativity and determination to produce inspiring works of art. He has pulled off yet another stunner. When you walk into the gallery you see what appear to be faint abstract grey fields on white backgrounds. But as you approach the works you realize that you are looking at relief drawings of... Paintings. Thus the title of the show : Drawing Painting. Ben has literally drafted in accurate relief each and every brush stroke as though the painting that he was drawing was in fact a still life. He has with graphite and charcoal described in the drawings the complex patterning of brush strokes that effectively build the paintings up from the blank canvas. The works are at once abstract and respresentational and it is this curious dialogue that I think Ben is interested in. If all paintings are in fact "built by brush strokes" which taken on their own, one by one, are completely abstract, then at what point is any work more abstract than representational? Or vice versa? It takes some time of viewing to make any sense of this dialogue, but your patience is certainly rewarded. I really liked the show, but that's not saying much, as Ben is definitely preaching to the converted with me! I whole heartedly encourage you to go see the show! If anything, you will simply marvel at Ben's mental fortitude to have stuck with a project that must have required some painstaking hours of near meditative concentration.

Coach Walsh

This week I have been helping The University of British Columbia Men's Rowing Coach, Mike "Fierce" Pearce drill the current crop of top University athletes in the program. Actually, I was trying to give the Novice Men's Crew a helping hand just prior to the spring racing season. I really enjoyed the three mornings I was on the water this week and experienced a healthy dose of nostalgia for the old days when I was super-keen and super-fit! Such fun to see a new crop of dudes out there training like mad and trying to get going fast. It was however, a classic novice rowing shmazzle! The first practice the guys showed up with only 7 rowers, not the requisite 8. What this means is that the boat is always lop sided and difficult to row. So, as a result we sent the remainder of the practice doing "drills." Really annoying if you are new to rowing and just want to get going and pull hard man! The next practice we had a full crew, but before we could get going we managed to knock the fin off (the rudder on a crew shell) and bust a rigger (the thing that holds the oar in place) during some sloppy rowing. So what did that mean? More drills. The guys were learning an essential lesson: show up with all the dudes and don't break the boat, otherwise rowing can really suck! Finally friday rolled around and we had a great "pre-race" practice. The dudes went out there and did their level best to make like Mercury motors and haul ass. All the effort had little to no effect on hull speed, but hey, that never stopped The Walshman! Thanks to Mike for letting me get involved and "give a little back" to the program. With the prospect of the new U.B.C. crew shell house being built this year, it has certainly given me pause to think about all I gained in body and mind from my formative years on the crew. It is a relationship based on pure love of the sport that brought me so much and I hope to continue it for some time to come!

Going Wild At The Kino Cafe!

Last night we had a great outing at the Kino Cafe on Cambie Street in Vancouver. Meg and I had invited a random group of friends to come to meet us at the cafe for some "bebidas, musica y charla." The Kino Cafe is a special spot in the context of Vancouver I think because in my experience it is a rare room with all the atmosphere of a great cafe in Madrid, Barcelona, or any little Spanish town for that matter! Just transported half way around the world! Its simple low stage offers live music, it has a casual tapas menu, and drinks or coffee, dinner or desert attitude. I love the place, and especially on "Flamenco Nights" when it is packed with poeple and local purveyors of the craft take to the little stage. Last night was exceptional. A solo male vocalist, a single guitar and a single stunning and talented female dancer. They lit up the room with three impassioned sets of songs and some seriously heart warming stomping. Some of the folks who had not been there before went nuts for it and it was great to see. It was just amazing to see a sampling of people for all corners of our lives meeting together and having an amazing, fun and casual time. Although at one point, as my buddy Jeremy Mesana craftily pointed out "it looks like freakin' high school in here man! All the hot chick teachers are sitting together chatting while us chump computer nerds are stuck in the corner talking about work!" After that, he slide over to the "girl's side" and said in a sly voice "I try to pretend I am interested in what these nerds are talking about, but I am actually bored out of my mind..." What a jerk! Buckley showed up sick and left drunk and before he realised one of the hot chick teachers had the hots for him! You snooze, you lose Bucko! Miko stayed out far past his "father of two" bedtime and looked none the worse for it! Bucket (et entourage) showed up, thus completely dashing all hopes that THE G would grace us with his presense. Those two are like oil and vinegar. Bucket and Mesana insisted that we should close the place down, but after a couple of shots Bucket was slurring his words and mumbling "I gotta go home man, look at me, I am old! I should be in bed!" We had no choice but to agree! Thanks to everybody who showed up and made the night enjoyable! Here's hoping we do it again sometime soon!

Walshman V.5.1 Released

Just a note to say that The Walshman has released a new version. This one is a slight upgrade from the last version and includes parameters for advanced realization of lions, witches and wardrobes as well as the possibility of large scale mythic warfare! So version up people!

VFX SOUP Website

A special "gracias amigo" goes out to THE SUPER G for hooking me up for a chat with local Vancouver visual effects celebrity Mark Breakspear, who is currently toiling as a Visual Effects Supervisor at Rainmaker. Mark put me onto his website called VFX SOUP where he hosts an informal forum all about our ridiculous obsession! There are some excellent resources there and I encourage you to drop in and take a look! Okay, okay, I am a total geek... come on! It's OSCAR night! Gimme a break!

Los Brasilenos Versus Les Quebecois

Last night I met some of my old friends from my days at Mainframe Entertainment. Animation directors Andrew "The Monkey" Duncan and George Samilski, production designer Casey Kwan, and Uber Technical Director Steve "Grapes" Sauers. The occasion was that Mr. Sauers was visiting Vancouver from San Francisco (where he does some dodgey work for some dude named Lucas) and George thought that it might be a good idea to meet at this Brasilian place called "Samba." I knew something was up with the place when I arrived ahead of the other guys and took a seat at the bar. I was greeted by three gorgeous women with over-the-top carnival outfits featuring all the feathers and what not. Let's just say that there was a whole lot of shaking going on!!! They were accompanied by this cheesey DJ with a thin felt marker mustache and eye-liner. He was saying things like "here's one for all you beach mommas ready to strut your stuff!!!" And then he played this crazy samba music so loud you could hear it on the moon! When the boys showed up we dug into the salad bar and all-you-can-eat Brasilian meat barbeque. Basically what happens is the waiters come around with huge skewers with all manner of grilled meats. Organic beef, ostrich, lamb, venison, etc. You name it, they had it! I kept wondering what my Brasilian friends Andre "El Camaro" De Souza and Roberto "The Hunk 'O Burnin' Love" Hradec would think of the place. I decided they'd love it! how could they not! So we proceeded to geek out talking all about "the good old days" at Mainframe, and pig out on Brasilian barbeque! When we left I couldn't help yelling "falou tchau!" at the tops of my lungs! Later on, I met up with Megcita and her friends Carmen and Silvana at a Quebecois Cafe called La Zidanie where they were soaking up a little live music and Maudite. In fact, by the time I got there they were looking like they'd had a healthy sampling of all manner of the fine Quebecois ales that they have available at the cafe. Not to mention a helping of "poutine!" Fortunately for me, I didn't arrive too late for the desert! Tarte du sucre and crepes avec le sirop d'erable and coffee. Amazing! I was thinking that this was what I should have mentioned as an answer to that frequent question while I was in Europe: but, what is Canadian food anyway? Adding to the amazing atmosphere were a couple of crazy Quebecois improvisational musicians who were playing some great tunes on an acoustic guitar and totally rocking the house! As we left I thought to myself that this kind of night was a great example of what is so amazing about Vancouver. Where else in the world can you pig out on Brasilian barbeque and follow up with tarte du sucre?

Los Angeles Bound

So looks like we are going to have to brush up on our Californian! Watz crackin yo? We ain't kickin like dat no mo! Pho sho!

We are off to Los Angeles and I am going to work at Rhythm and Hues. I picked up a lighting technical director gig on "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe." I am really excited since it is a nice project (one of the big three Christmas films for 2005 along with the fourth Harry Potter film and Peter Jackson's take on King Kong), and it will take me through to the end of October at least. The people at R+H told me that they would be busy right the way through to May 2006. So, it looks like a grand opportunity to take advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer. With luck, we will score a pad somewhat near the beach and within bicycle commuting distance to and from work. Pretty cool, given the "drive-a-holic" culture down there.

I was really hoping that we'd land in San Francisco this year, but it looks as though we will have to delay that for a little while. I just think that Meg and I are more San Francisco type people (to say nothing of the fact that we are very Vancouver type people!). I am much more enamorate of the hippie-geek style of San Francisco than the Hollywood-smaltz of Los Angeles. That being said, I know that we will find the best of what Los Angeles has to offer. I am still pretty disappointed that I got not so much as a whisper in the wind from the San Francisco studios. I sincerely hope that this will change with the ILM move getting settled, even though it may mean less jobs, perhaps they will be more stable ones. Perhaps 2004/5 will go down in the visual effects industry in San Francisco as "the malaise before the move."

Meg is excited too. Especially about somehow getting herself some quality exposure to the Latino community in some way - teaching English, continuing to work doing translations, or even perhaps teaching Spanish in the school system. She has been talking about wanting to watch "Stand and Deliver." I am sure we will both enjoy the weather, and the lifestyle for a while, but I am sure we will miss the north in a year's time and move when opportunity strikes! Not too mention our friends and family in Vancouver and Victoria. At least we will only be a few hours away by plane! Anyone interested in a visit and some time on the beach?

The Night of the Egg Shaped Latrines

There was one night in particular during my last few weeks in Soho that was absolutely surrealistic. Well, it didn't begin that way, but it certainly ended that way! It was a the "Leaving Do" for Christoph Mattheisen my friend and fellow computer graphics world traveller from Germany who was leaving The Moving Picture Company for some down time in Germany and parts unknown after that. Anyway, it began as most leaving do's do with the consumption of alcoholic beverages and much chatter at a pub called "The Market Place" near Oxford Circus. Things were fairly normal there -- the French were snobbishly frowning on the food, the English were slobberingly smashed, the Italians were sitting in a corner by themselves gawking at a hot waitress until she figured out they, like her, were Italian and came over and said something in Italian that made them all go white, and the Spanish were wondering why their Italian cousins were such mama's boys... Normal pub stuff, you know the deal, until... Andre "El Camaro" De Souza and his devilish little Swedish/Chinese buddy Jafe showed up with two Japanese clients from Glassworks Studio. Then things got a little whacko... By this time, the place was shutting down, mi hermanita Eli was getting a little tipsy and becoming beligerant by spontaneously yelling things like "those phackin' Italian ffffaggots!" and Andre was having some strange Indian dude threaten him for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and the Italians were beconing distraught about the next day's football match in the park and so I thought "right, time for the bus..." when at this exact moment Andre (having extricated himself from the weird little Indian guy who was now threatening the gigantic bouncers on the door with physical violence) says to me "Walshman, we're goin' ta posh it up mate. Come on." What ensued was a delightfully disorganized drunken stumble to a posh Regent Street after hours club. What none of us realised at the time was that we were following the crazy Japonese guys! Don't ask me how, but somehow they managed to not only get us into this posh after hours club but straight to the back of the club and directly into a UFO-shaped VIP room. The kind of clientel in this room ranged from a Lenny Kravitz look-alike to a woman who insisted on showing the whole room her ass while asking in a thick accent "it's good isn't it?" Meanwhile, I remember seeing Andre attempting to buy a drink from a midget waiter in this sunken bar while a weird "skater boy" rubbed shoulders with him. I decided to take a back seat to the festivities and found myself having a decidedly "Lost in Translation" Bill Murray-esque moment with one of the Japonese dudes. An then, Eli walks over and starts speaking fluent Japonese to the guy! I couldn't believe it! The next moment Andre was being accused of "not being Brasilian" by some egregiously tall black woman from Brixton - he is from Sao Paulo and just stood there staring up at her with a blank expression on his face. Sooner or later the place started to shut down while some booze-hound yelled at the midget waiter "I must have more booze!" As we headed out of the club I decided to take a leek and followed the directions to the loo only to find myself in a room full of human-sized glowing eggs. It took me a minute to figure out that these were the washrooms! Thankfully the night ended with a nice walk through Soho to Bar Italia on Frith Street and there we found ourselves in an abundance of fine cafes and panini after Andre produced a 20 quid note and proclaimed "this here is some faggot quids I got for my smile." Apparently, the skater boy had taken a shine to him and slipped him a bill. We all agreed the goodies at Bar Italia were worth it.

Lo Siento Gente Estaba Incomunicado!

Sorry for not posting anything too relevant or interesting recently. Not to say that ever happens here, but... My life has been blowing by like a gail force wind these days. I have bearly been aware of the relevance of time. Which in and of itself is both a good and a bad thing. I am back in Vancouver after 6 final frantic few weeks in London finishing up my work for The Moving Picture Company on Sir Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven." It feels great to be back in Vancouver largely because the weather has been so stunning. Perfect February weather! Cold at night, down to minus 5 degrees at times, and warm and sunny in the day, up to 12 degrees. I have been out for a road ride nearly every day since coming home. This is what can be so great about Vancouver. I realise now that the past 6 weeks was a tough time emotionally for me since I was away from Megcita for much longer than we had planned, and it was not at all an ideal end to our time in Europe - with her here in Vancouver and me stuck at a desk in Soho. But, I was enthusiastic about going back to Soho to finsh the project and in the long run I think I will be glad that I did. I had a great time seeing some of my work finalised (well, sort of, a couple of my shots were still in compositing when I left!), and I had some fun times outside of work. I suppose I was lucky in that the time went by very quickly due to being so busy, and it did give me a chance to say a proper farewell to friends and colleagues that I did not have before Christmas (including a Gilliam-esque short film lampoon of my working life at MPC which was a hoot to do!). A highlight had to be the last two weeks spent living in Brixton with Jordi and Eli, my Spanish friends from Barcelona who were so gracious and kind for putting up "pobrecito yo!" It was quite hilarious to learn that my aquaintence from Madrid Luisma Lavin (who is coinsidentally also a friend of Jordi and Eli) was also visiting for a few days while he applied for work in London. This lead to some very fun times with Eli, Luisma, and also Pablo El Tufarisimo who was back from Argentina to work at The Peerless Camera Company, and of course his chica bonita Noe. There was a couple of very fun nights "charlando sobre Noe's bebidas fuertes!" at Bradley's Spanish Bar. All in all I am very gald to be back home of the west coast of Canada, and getting in touch with friends and family here. Not to mention my lovely wife who seems a bit of a stranger given recent events. Time to put an end to that! I am sure I will miss Soho in some funny ways, and of course I instantly miss all of the people who made living and working there worth it!