Back to the future...

I can see that I haven't posted very much on this account lately. Too much work! The new deal now is: "Oz: The Great and Powerful." Thirty-two days on set since October 1!

"Oz: The Great and Powerful"

Alas, I can't say much (if anything), about it, and it doesn't make its premiere until March 8, 2013. That's more than one year from now! I think I can say that I'm a member of a select group of background actors who have their own make-up artists, and these make-up artists are the very best in the world.

My own artist is Howard Berger, who won an Academy Award for "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)." When he's super busy, I've been with Bob Kurtzman, Craig Reardon, Mike Mills, Ozzy Alvarez, David Dupuis, Toni G, Jonathan Shrover, Mark Landon and Greg Funk. They're all the best of the best!

The cast is terrific. Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, James Franco--and more. And there will be Munchkins!

Wish I could post a pic of my character, but I don't even have one. This is one tight set. You will love it, though.

The set is in Michigan, north of Detroit. Can't wait to get back!

School and Fun

My own life is a bit dull. The acting gigs are great, but i'm still usually just background. "Real" actors and crew sometimes think of us as set furniture. So every once and again, I'll copy pages from the blogs of my wife and children. My wife, Joanne, is in Kenya now. She's an AAC whiz (augmentative speech for those who lack vocal capacity--and even some who cannot do signing). She is in Kenya to share her knowledge. Here is a recent post:

Tuesday was Sapling Trust day. One of the Sapling Trust teachers had asked me to come and observe her class of three young children with autism. I spent quite a bit of time with her, gave her a few basic suggestions for encouraging communication, but concluded that what would be the most beneficial would be to have an assistant to help manage the wide variety of behaviors.

I then spent nearly an hour with a deaf 21-year-old artist/computer geek who was having a bit of a problem finding the drawing program that wold allow him to open a file he had created. I offered a few suggestions and from then on he was always 3-4 steps ahead of me. Using his flash drive, he was able to transfer the program to the appropriate user area, complete the required registration, re-install it, and open his file to show me a his rendering of an apartment complex. He also enjoys drawing cars and copying and designing commercial logos.

In Eunice's class, the morning's focus was on singing about action words - washing and wiping in particular. Each child got a chance to "wash" a towel in a basin of soapy water. The lesson became even more functional after a large amount of water was spilled on the floor, and we began singing about the teacher washing and wiping the floor.

I walked a couple of long blocks to a busier intersection where I could hail a tuk-tuk to take me to the Nakumatt Nyali , where I exchanged about $40 in Tanzanian currency into Kenyan shillings and met Stephanie. We walked to her house, had a lunch of rice and curry, and caught a matatu to Haller Park.

Haller Park is a green urban sanctuary. There are trails, snake exhibits, a 3:00 PM giraffe feeding one can participate in, crocodile and hippo feedings to watch (check out the monkeys sneaking in for their share) and a huge whale made entirely from discarded flip-flops.

Back at the house, Stephanie's mother shared home remedies that have been passed down in her family - I'm looking forward to trying the the one for sleep.

Another calming walk on the beach. The views were even more breathtaking today. We were able to walk way out because of the neap tide. Neap tides are particularly weak tides that occur twice a month - during the first and 3rd quarter moons - when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other. The sun cancels out much of the moon's gravitational pull, resulting in smaller differences between high and low tides (Thank you wiki answers!).

Looking back toward land

Jack, the neighbor's dog, accompanied us on all
our beach ramblings.

Back at the house, we washed the sand off our feet and left our flip-flops outside to dry.

Big Mistake.

When Stephanie's parents were ready to leave for town, only one flip-flop could be found. The usual canine suspects were rounded up and the sand pits were surveyed, but no flip-flop could be found.

I did several small buckets full of laundry at the Poly. Everything dried quickly with the help of the powerful ceiling fan, except for the final load of three items (2 needed the next day), which I had pinned up just before storm - and power outage - hit at 2:15 AM. 

Have I mentioned that Mombasa is hot? The kind of hot where sweat pours down your face after just a minute or two outside? The kind of hot where being inside without a fan almost constitutes abuse? Luckily the rain brought an immediate drop in temperature, so the absence of the fan was tolerable.

You can read more here: AAC in East Africa