...and mustard

My sister has been asking for the mustard and here it finally is!


It got so very busy and somehow I haven't been up to Clintondale in over a month. Apparently is was very hot the last time I was here. This picture of cold cucumber dill soup has been hanging around my desktop since then. 

And I must have become temporarily possessed by a housewife from the 50's because there is also a picture of home baked WHITE BREAD lingering on the desktop. Hmmmm...

The recipe is Julia Childs' and I will link rather than write it out!

I managed to have only 2 days off between then and now and those were spent trying to relax in the city. Where we also have a life and a home. Sometimes we forget and then a day off there seems like a vacation. We go to the movies - Tree of Life finally. Pure flippin poetry! (The bad reviews of this movie are amazing entertainment though. Stories of people walking out during the birth of the world sequence... Either you are a fundamentalist idiot with blinders or you hate beautiful things (????). But on the other hand non spiritualists also hate this movie for being too preachy... Make up your minds, people. Or let's just all agree on the fact that you were bored and YOU DIDN'T get it! EVERYTHING is in there. Love, loss, redemption, forgiveness... and almost without saying a word. Go on Mr. Malick. Go on.) And eat Korean BBQ. And quiche and baguette and Croque Monsieur at a happenstance French joint in the Lower East Side, La French Diner. And get a haircut. By a kinda scary but sweet hairdresser named Honey, who was from Yemen. She could talk!!!





But she could also cut hair! I LOVE IT!!!


So quickly - what HAVE I been doing with my time? When I last left here I had just come back from an awesome crazy cool week in Schenectady. What, you say? That is not possible. Well, if you are working on Derek Cianfrance's new movie you will say differently. Not a dull moment, ladies and gents. It's Ryan Gosling's playground and he will surprise you!

This is me in ONE of the moving vehicles from that week. An ATV with the camera rigged on it that was going VERY FAST through the woods following a stunt motorcycle. Sometimes. I love my job.

Then off to Wisconsin for more B roll for Alex Gibney's new project.

Somewhere in the middle I shot a dance film with my friend Rich. He's a choreographer with a lot of great vision and we had 2 intense days of shooting. 

Screen capture from our Central Park day. Amy and Andrea are our talented dancers!

Then some futuristic madness about robots taking over the world for the Discovery Channel. This lovely photo of our minimal crew was taken by Amie LeeKing.

Then I quit coffee and I feel like a million bucks.

AND THEN. Out of the blue, my good friend Kate hooked me up with my dream job. I am doing stills on an untitled movie starring Guy Pearce (who needs NO introduction in my book) and Amy Ryan. (We know her as Beadie from the Wire, but you may know her as Holly Flax from The Office, either way she's flippin dynamite!). At the helm is director Drake Doremus, who's last film Like Crazy did muy bueno at this year's Sundance. Check out the trailer! It doesn't feel like a job to have to take pictures of Guy Pearce all day long but it is. And it's mine! 


12 days in to the movie we had already filmed through an earthquake and now here is IRENE! There was just no filming through Irene. She was going to put us all on hold. I feel bad of course, but on the hush hush I couldn't be more thrilled about a 3 day weekend. While I've been cuckoooo crazy with work James has been finishing up the bedroom and bathroom and this weekend it's finally here!!! Power or no power.

We came up yesterday morning, both mega mega tired, but before sleep - prepare for the worst. James hooked up the genny and I went food shopping. We filled up water buckets and got the flash lights out. Secretly we are wishing for a power outage. We haven't used that genny yet (since we bought it in the winter storm of 2010) and playing cards by candle light and eating PB and J's sounds aaaaaaaallright in my book. 

Woke up Sunday morning and the downpour IS ON! I checked the basement and there is minimal wetness right now. I'm sorry to say our neighbors are not as lucky. And I shouldn't speak too soon, the rain is showing NO SIGN of slowing down. So far the wind, which is our worst enemy with all of our old trees, has not been so bad yet.

The first fatality. There goes my flip flop.

Truck passing by Tom's house on Maple Ave.

The project with burying our power lines is done, the landscaping is another story (I'm just gonna say that Irene will turn our yard in to the greatest most spectacular mud wrestling field in the Hudson Valley. Come on over!!!)  but talk about superb timing! We've sat and watched our trees sway over the lines in the tiniest gusts and Irene will have no mercy when it comes to old gran daddy Sugar Maple. 

Brave little bugger in the rain!

I fell off the wagon this morning and had a cup of coffee so now the only real hurricane is me and here I go. MOVING DAY!!! 


To be continued...