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Here it was, the day where much like Saint Patrick's Day, everyone wants to co-opt a bit of another culture to get in on the fun of the festivities. But, unlike wearing green, there doesn't seem to be any official color people wear on Bastille Day. Maybe that's just because people running around in blue, white, and red, looks a lot like a latent 4th of July celebrant. The drinking still goes hand in hand with Bastille though, as it seems to be the case with any national holiday.       There's more history to it than I want to sum up here, so read about it on Wikipedia. Suffice to say, there is a lot of history behind it. This gets a little lost the food and drink celebration you see at all the local restaurants, like Cafe Bastille, Plouf, Cafe Claude, Le Central, and Cafe de la Presse. Who cares though? I'd much rather be sipping wine and eating French food for a holiday than getting fat and ultimately hungover on Bud at the typical 4th of July celebration.       Really though, the biggest hotspot is at Belden Place. Traditionally, this has been the nexus of the celebration and it's pretty funny, since there are only two French restaurants there, but Cafe Bastille was one of the originals and the reason the fun started. This year however was muchmore subdued. There were still tons and tons of people there, but it wasn't the crazy drunken mess that it has been in years past. I've heard (although have yet to verify) that there was a cost issue in getting the outdoor permits for the drinks and the owners of the restaurants on Belden saw little need to do it as the people who went there just got drunk, trashed the place, and added little to the atmosphere other than people. It was probably a good call. Had I been dining there on Friday, I would have had a good time. As it was, I was just passing through and checking out the scene like many folks. It still is the spot for Bastille-ocity though. I haven't heard so much French spoken in one place since the last time I was in Paris.       There were some other spots where the celebrations spilled over as well. Any restaurant that claimed to be the least bit French had their colors out for the day. Cafe Claude on Claude Lane was a good crowd. While not the throngs of people you see on Belden, it was still quite busy. Cafe de la Presse further up Bush (and pictured) was also pretty jumping. But the one place that gave me the biggest laugh was the Irish Bank Pub. They were also doing the whole Bastille thing. Pretty ridiculous, but I suppose it's about time they got back at everyone for stealing their holiday in the first place. Poor French. They're such an easy target.

Look, I'm not saying that George W. Bush is evil at his core or anything, but I can't ignore this shot which was taken in Germany. You see, babies are a lot like animals in that they can sense the true nature of a person. Ever seen a dog growl at the guy bringing your mail? That's because they're bringing you bills which are inherently evil and dogs know this; they're very smart. I think the kid in this shot is on to something. Something big. Something none of the rest of us, except for Steven Colbert truly have the ability to admit. Er, wait, maybe some of us do, but we all live in the la de da "blue states". Way to go reverse diaspora...

I was going to actually wait until tomorrow as I'm hoping to get some good pics of Bastille Day goings at at Belden Place today, but a thought popped in to my head and that is stupid questions.       I've no idea why we ask so many of these. You know what I mean. We start doing them as kids with, "Are we there yet?" No, of course you aren't or you wouldn't be asking.       For some reason I've suddenly become more aware of this and it's at the front of my mind right now because the group in the office I'm doing some onsite contract work for is moving to another floor in the building. All kinds of dumb things are popping in to my head like, "Who am I sitting by?", "Where am I sitting?", "Can I have that bobblehead?" These questions are stupid. They've already been decided. I have no choice in them. So why ask them? I guess because we humans (or maybe just me) don't deal well with uncertainty.       Anyways, that's my thought for the day. Hopefully saucy pictures tomorrow.

All right, I've been bitching about that, trying to sleep off this and while I tend to ramble here and there about things, you might be wondering as to why I'm focusing so much on film-related things as of late.       Yes, it's true I just helped out my bud on his shoot for his short, "Postal", but that's not the reason. That was just to help, since Paul has been such a big help to me over the years on my shoots, which is the real reason for all of this; I'm shooting another film.       This one is called Flamenco_Singer and it's well... about a Flamenco singer and a woman who attempts to date him. Really it's just an exercise in how much dating in San Francisco drives me crazy. I suppose I'm lucky in that I can focus it in to a creative endeavor with a tangible result while others just go out drinking. I'm certainly not above drinking away my woes, but I tend to like to have something capable of being typed on in front of me for the duration.       So, here I am. I've got my script. I'm casting in a week and a half and shooting in about three. It should go quite well. It better go well. This will be the fourth freakin' short I've shot. They've definitely gotten progressively better, so that's always cool like (being drunk at) school.       My thing is that if I don't have something to send in to Sundance to get rejected each year, I'm really not doing film.

Sorry, no. I don't mean all actors and I don't mean completely lazy. I just wanted a flashy title to grab your attention and it probably did, since that's an offensive thing to say about a large group of people. But, in some ways, it is true. Let me delve deeper though.       I've done many castings at this point and it amazes me how so many of the actors who turn up can't read simple directions, like, "do not email me your headshot" or "the audition will be from 6-9PM on Tuesday" and I'll get a headshot via email with a request for an audition time on Wednesday. At first I thought this was just a fluke and mail that was sent to the wrong person, but it kept happening again and again. In fact, the emailing headshot problem got so difficult to deal with and so hard to manage, that I don't do anything via email and just use Cinefuse to manage all of it. It's made life a lot easier.       But, beyond not following directions, I'll get actors who will tell me that they will want me to take a headshot of them or that I need to go to this friend who knows this guy who once got the cat out of a tree for an old lady who really thinks that they can act. These people just don't get the fact that there are so many people out there trying to make it as an actor that yes, I can be a prick as a director and choose not to deal with this. I've tried to accomodate as much as I can over the years, but in reality, it gets harder and harder to do as time goes on because people seem to be getting lazier and lazier when it comes to acting.       There is even the group that will just show up to an audition and for some reason think that they can just act out of the blue and you're going to love them so much that you'll cast them. Like they woke up out of bed that morning and decided they'd be an actor. These folks need to learn two things. One is that this is a waste of both their time and your's. The second thing is that nearly no one who has made it was just discovered like that. Most people bust their asses for years and then finally get lucky by being in the right combination of things. I mean, Naomi Watts was living out of her damned car before things came together for her and Harrison Ford was worked as a carpenter. That's paying your dues and nothing has changed that makes that any less of a fact today than it ever has been.       Now, let me qualify this with the fact that there are many people I know who are simply awesome. They don't complain when a shoot runs over. They show up on time. They know their lines. They are great folks overall, but most importantly they can act. This isn't something that just happened to them overnight. They've worked on it. They've had their ups and downs with it too. They know the breaks. When other actors meet these people, they should learn from them and not see them as competition.       I only wish there were more of these folks and that they didn't all move down to LA at some point after I've met them in NorCal, because finding a good group of actors is one of the hardest things there is in filmmaking, but once you've found them, you're golden.

Man, I want out, now. I want an out like a light, sleep like the dead, don't wake til I say, night of sleep. Why is the Hudin so tired? Two words: movie shoot.       Over last weekend, I helped my bud, Paul Kramer through his massive short film undertaking. Help might be the wrong word, since I tend to direct and have trouble shutting up on things when it's another director's project, but I guess at the very least, I helped him schlep equipment around and that's worth something. Oh yeah, I also did stills for the shoot, which you can view in the photos section. Like duh, er cher.       I know that everyone runs around thinking that film shoots are glamorous and this dream life, but they're freakin' tough. I don't care who you are and what planet you might be doing them on, the amount of intense work that goes in to them can only be compared to what it must be like to get a NASA space shuttle off the ground. Although, given all the problems the space folks have been having, I think that we in film put in more effort.       Besides all the people involved from crew to cast and the equipment needed, there are just so many unknowns. For instance, a key crew member's back went out. The weather was far more sunny for the shoot than we wanted. Things ran waaaay longer than planned and this bumped in to the next day. The list goes on and on. Rarely, if ever is this list full of things that are anyones fault. It's just the movie shoot hitting the fan and it happens a lot. You can't predict it and that's what grinds you down.       I can tell you one thing though, after a 16 hour shoot, sleep is probably better than any possible drug you could ever buy.

Ah, the headshot. That must-have, required, absolute thing for every actor. Man do these things suck.       When it comes to the men actually, they're not that bad, just usually way out of date. Guys don't seem to want to update their pic if they've gained a bit of weight or lost a lot of hair. It's understandable, but it's not helpful. If the role you want to cast requires a guy about 25 and the guy who walks in is obviously 35, you have a problem.       For the women, it's awful. I have yet to ever see a women who looks anywhere near what her headshot looks like. The problem is that they always get so incredibly made up for the shots. Yes you need to look good, but as with the men, if you don't look like you, then the picture serves little function and once again, you have a problem.       The worst for both genders as the "fuzzy" shots where they've either put a diffuser on the lens or mucked with it in Photoshop later to blend out fine (or not so fine) lines and wrinkles.       All of this culminates in to lost time. If someone walks in the door that looks nothing like picture you were sent it wastes your time and it wastes their's because you're obviously not going to be casting them. Yeah, some of them think they can play any age for some reason, but this is not the case. It all gets summed up in The Simpsons (like everything) where Homer asks Mel Gibson how old he is, to which Gibson responds something like, "Well, I been told I can play 25 to 50." Therein is the rub of the actor.

You're sitting there this Saturday and thinking, "Oh but Michael, you're such a photography goober now. Why aren't there any fireworks shots?" Okay, maybe you're not thinking that, but you should. It's a good question. Afterall, I did haul myself out to the top of Russian Hill in the frigid San Francisco summer to see the explosions. Of course, after I took a couple of shots, I realized what I figured would be the case in that you need to keep the shutter open for a very long time to capture stuff when it's that dark and there's no way I can hold the camera still enough for long enough. So, no tripod equaled crap shots. There might be one or two in there that were good, but it doesn't look like it.       On another note, I've realized that at no point in my existence have I ever been drunk enough to truly appreciate fireworks. You've really seen all there is in fireworks if you've seen one good display. Even though they tossed in some exploding cat whiskers last Tuesday, fireworks is fireworks. We look up, go "Aaaah..." and that's about it. So, I think the lesson to be learned in all of this is that I need to drink more.

Because of the bits on YouTube yesterday, I started prowling around some of the links, especially for those Star Trek spoofs. These took me to a site I have just started to read about called, G4TV.       From what I can gather, G4TV is a video game site that seems to be turning in to a video delivery site. But, it's not just any video delivery site. It's all about getting videos for your Video iPod. Despite widespread adoption of the iPod at large, the Video iPod hasn't garnered near as many users. Sure, they're selling them like crazy, but not all of us want to watch video on a tiny little screen. I'm a gadget fiend and I'm not pushed to give up my green iPod Mini and move in to the video world. Now, if the rumors are true about Apple developing a new video iPod that turns the screen long-wise, then we might be talking. Until then, I'm fine as are a lot of people.       I bring this up because G4TV is attempting to ply a commodity to a very limited market. It is true that this market will grow in some way, but I wonder if they're in the game just a little too early. It seems a lot like Quokka which has long been dead, but was a broadband sports website. That site being launch in 2002 would have been good. Launched in 1999 (I think...), it was bad.       Few of us had broadband back then and those that did, didn't have the fastest of speeds. Quokka met the common fate known to so many former Web 1.0 companies and died out. Of course, it's unfortunate because now, it probably would have done quite well. ESPN seems to hold that share quite well today. No doubt they learned a bit from Quokka.       So, I wonder if the same fate is going to befall G4TV? I think the only thing that's different is that they are plying to an affluent, techno market where many already have the delivery device. It still seems a bit too ahead of the curve though. Now, if they're being backed by a larger group like the lovely pan-omni-megopoly, News Corporation, they might be able to sail along for awhile and seize the market. They'll have to be quick adopters of multiple technologies though, as I see the iPod's share of the market going down over the next year (cheaper and just as good devices integrated with Windows are coming out in a big way) and commiting yourself to a singular platform like this is dangerous to say the least.

I waste far too much of my day on YouTube, the place to post your videos and watch loads of others. I'm not sure what the world was like before we had this, but really, I don't want to remember. I've even put some of my own stuff up there and I plan to integrate it in to this site somehow for showing videos.       A couple of gems I came by recently are Star Trek based. Specifically, Star Trek Cribs and Star Trek Coffee House. These are genius. Watch them and have a ray of sunshine brighten your day.       I mean, it's okay that I blob out on here, since I don't watch TV, right? Right? Kinda weird? Antisocial? Screw You!