Zombies, zombies and more zombies. This time its from the master! George A Romero's Land of the Dead has a website and trailer online. On opening weekend you will find me sitting in a very dark theatre. I don't care if it's the only sunny day this summer, i'm unavailable that day. Woohoo!

The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster. Yep. Darth Vader even has his own blog now.

Finally, I know that I joked about this hand holding thing with Bush and Prince Abdullah yesterday, but after what I just saw on the news I'm considering changing my post. I won't change it but I have to talk about this. I saw the photo and immediately saw the humour, but also, I understand that males holding hands is a culturally acceptable thing in the Middle East (and other places in the world). It's a sign of friendship and familiarity, like shaking hands or hugging here. Also I'm impressed that George Bush would be considerate enough of someone else's culture to actually go against his own.

What I don't like is the 'average american's' reactions that we're seeing. People are outraged. For such a 'free' and 'tolerant' society that sounds exactly the opposote. 'Hey pardner, if it ain't American it ain't right'. Different bad? Get over it... You're not the only country in the friggin' world.

CBC Arts: Bush signs bill allowing sanitized DVDs
You have got to be kidding me. This smacks of Farenheit 451. My bet is that we'll see a five minute version of Fast Times at Ridgemont High for sale at Amazon before long. Yikes! Is it just me or does the Bush administration not quite get the whole seperation of church and state thing? What's next? Burkhas at beauty pageants? I think its really the Taliban running things.

Carol suffered through censorship to the extreme when she lived in Saudi Arabia. Imagine magazines with pages torn out or people's parts covered up with black marker. She saw it. She also had to watch movies and TV shows that had been cleansed. Some were so chopped up they didn't make any sense at all. The Gary Shandling Show was 6 minutes long for one episode. Carol said when they came back to Canada on vacation she saw the whole episode, she realized it had been cut up due to Gary Shandling's dancing with a naked mannequin torso. Although wierd, i'm not sure that's censor worthy. The censor's appear to be more sexually fucked up than those they accuse. Ironic that.

Carol also told me that even her Archie comics had balck marker over Betty and Veronica's bare arms and legs. They're cartoons for shit's sake.

Oh how we love 'the religious right'. Thanks for looking out for our interests. I'm far too stupid to be able to determine what I should and should not see. Sheesh.

I have to say it... Fags! Not that there's anything wrong with that. Carol pointed this out today. Comedy gold. She's always on the lookout for anything remotely Saudi related. Let the flaming begin. Hey I said flaming... hahahahaha These two look like something out of a 'goofy powerful men who love other powerful men with beards wearing man dresses' calendar. Probably what you'll see when you turn the page to May this year. The caption: "Here we have US President George W Bush (Cuddles) and Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz (Pooky Bear) of Saudi Arabia. They fell in love in springtime and love walks in the woods. A picnic with goat eyeballs, chilled monkey brains and near beer caps a perfect day"

CBC Sports: Bertuzzi not yet reinstated by NHL
The whole decision is "under advisement" with the ultra-evil Sesame Street count lookalike and NHL Chair, Gary Bettman. Under advisement? Come on. Make a a friggin' decision already. We've been deprived of hockey for over a year and want to see at least some of our favourite players. Let Bertuzzi play. I can't think of a better way to ease him back into elite play than at the international level where, if he acts like a knuckledragging bonehead again, he'd be shunned by the entire country. It's okay to embarrass the city, just don't make Canada look bad.

Another year has gone by and I took care of the taxes and netfiled today. We're getting money back again this year. That's good. we need it.

What a gas I had on Daingerfield. We had four awesome days shooting the pilot for Michael's show. I can't wait to see the finished product after post production. Jason, the director, said it would take roughly a month. We laughed a lot (and in all the right places) throughout the entire process. Even though we were only together as a team for 4 days, it had the feel of a family at the end. We all got along famously, which isn't the way things always go. When things gel like that it does show in the work, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the show gets picked up quickly.

I actually had a line in the show. It was the first spoken line in the whole thing other than Michael's voiceover. I was playing a casting director reading a line to Michael in a bathing suit on a couch with two fully dressed women. My line: "How's the problem with the diarreah?" Can you beat that? LMAO! I guess as well as my 2nd Assistant Director credit I'll probably get an acting credit as "Casting Director - Diarreah". LOL!

One really cool thing was Michael telling me that he really appreciated my energy and sense of humour, and that he felt I added a lot to the shoot. I told him that it wasn't welcome everywhere and I appreciated his compliments. He also told me that when the show gets picked up he would bring me back to play a character in it! I can't wait to work with him and everyone else again. Hard work, but fun work. Actually it really didn't seem like work that much at all.

Here's the trailer for Undead. We've seen it and it's good. I know it doesn't come out until July 1, but it's been out in Australia for two years. A great flick.

It's Earthday.

Don't forget to go to the gas station three or four times in your Hummer today. When you're done there go to a fast food joint that has styrofoam containers, over eat and throw the litter out the window as you barrel down the highway on the way to nowhere.

Ensure also that you smoke a cigarette and throw it out the window of your gas guzzling SUV into some dry underbrush to start a forest fire.

Trees. Who needs 'em? They only block your view of the beautiful concrete buildings.

Finally, find as many old hairspray cans as possible and just spray everywhere to celebrate. Hooray for Earthday!

How to Survive a Zombie Attack || kuro5hin.org

Just in case you needed to know, and everyone does.

Coming soon... more on Zone 63. hint hint

I think I'll start watching Deadwood, just so I can count the number of times the word 'fuck' is said. Just like this guy.

Being a fan (and a Nova Scotian) I scored 10 out 10 on this Trailer Park Boys quiz.

For scoring perfect I got this message:
Nice job. Let's get drunk and eat chicken fingers. (The good kind.)

Well there you go. It's a German Pope.

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

30% Yankee

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Dixie

I was exhausted after long days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I tell you what though. I've been having a blast. The cast and crew oin the show are great. Especially the people I've been working really closely with. Michael Daingerfield, the writer/producer/star and I hit it off well. Being 2nd AD I had to hang out with him a lot. We spent most of Sunday laughing our asses off doing impressions and other insanity. He said he appreciated the energy that I brought to the set. Finally a place that I fit. He even wanted me in one of the 'audition waiting room' scenes. That was fun too. I also did some 'shadow acting' keeping the shadows in a long hallway active during a shot.

Another bit of fun was doing walla for the hallway scenes. 'Walla' is film sound slang for the sound of a group of people talking. Group walla is when a number of actors create background crowd sounds in a studio against edited picture. We were saying all kinds of crazy things. I was talking about a fetish for smearing peanut butter on cats.

John Penhall is going to be 1st AD again this weekend. He stepped off set a few times on Saturday and Sunday meaning I was on as 1st AD and got to run the show for a few takes. I didn't feel as unsure of myself as on Gang of Love. I've done it a few times now. This group especially is very encouraging. The DOP Kim Miles and Director Jason Bourque have been patient and helpful. Kim said, "The show's yours, Mike. Call it like you stole it." Nice!

There's a new Pope. No word on who yet, but there is one. Whatever that means...

I just got done with my work for the day. Had an interesting production meeting this morning at Remy Kozak's place (Co-Producer and Prodcution Manager). I spent the afternoon with John Penhall, the first AD on the shoot this weekend. John seems like a pretty cool guy. Weird but he worked on Bloodhounds 2. That MOW is the one I got invited on set as a guest of the director, Stuart Cooper, who was staying at Viva Tower at the time. I got to site with him while they shot scense in a restaurant with Nia Peeples and Corbin Bernsen. Corbin Bernsen was in a really shitty mood and was assholey to eveyone around him. Der! Anyway, I digress, I'm learning lots from John already. I'm like a sponge taking it all in. Next weekend 1st AD is Aibi Okundaye. I'm looking forward to working with him too.

We worked on call sheets for the next two days and then I took the train home and made phone calls to crew for their call times, then emailed directions and call sheets to cast and crew. I'm bagged. It's bedtime. I have to be on set downtown at 7:30 am. Funnily enough tomorrow's location is my old agent's office, Kirk Talent. Bad memories. Ugh. Auditions after a night of being a security shlub watching cars in a parking lot. "Oh what a feeling!" ARGH!

Here I sit in the Blenz Coffee shop on Hamilton Street in Yaletown. I paid the 10 bucks to Fatport for 24 hours of access to the WiFi here at the shop. Why am I here you ask? I have a production meeting for the TV pilot I'm working on as 2nd AD this weekend and next at the production office here on Davie Street. The show is called Daingerfield. Yes the spelling is right and there's no relation to Rodney the now deceased comic who could 'get no respect at all'. The show stars it's writer and producer Michael Daingerfield. The story is loosely based on his life as an actor trying to make a go of it here in Hollywood North. I didn't blog at all yesterday as I was reading the script and going over the 1st AD's cast and crew lists One Liners (Used by everyone to remember how the scenes relate), DooD report (Day out of Days - A chart of days of work for each actor on a project) and Call Sheets (Used to let cast and crew their timings and scenes for the next day). As this production has 42 actors (not including background extras) the logistics involved in having everyone in the right place at the right time could be crazy making, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

Today we have to go over the creators' vision for the project and get everyone straight on roles timing and locations. I'm really looking forward to this. It's exciting to get involved at this level. There's lots of work ahead but fun all the same. Any script that has the word diarrhea in a joke on the first page is good in my books. :)

Not exactly a turbo Ninja but I bet it goes as fast. Thanks to Carol and Fiona for this little gem.

CBC News: Third trial finds Kelly Ellard guilty of murder
Finally.

CBC News: Ontario won't charge Homolka in sister's death
She's just about to get out. I wonder what will happen with her. There's a lot of hate in this country for this woman.

Man to wife: Honey, how long has this man been living in our closet?

The subjects came off our house sale on Saturday so now it's official. Thanks to our awesome real estate agent, Shirley Nelson, we're no longer home owners. To hell with the Joneses we're the Brownes and we'll blaze our own trails. We don't want to play the game just because it's what you're 'supposed to do'. That's not very creative at all.

I feel a bit relieved, but will be more so when we find a new place to rent. As we suspected there aren't a ton of places that allow dogs as far as I can see and it will take some searching to find the right place. Moosh is an older dog and not a problem at all, but that doesn't help when it comes to renting. Landlords don't tend to bend the rules just because you have a 'good dog'.

We have some criteria for a new place. Here the list of things we want:

• dogs welcome


• no in house basement suites - condo apartments or townhouses only


• not on ground floor (not 100% firm on this)


• lots of natural light - better for plants and people


• soundproofing or concrete building


• two bedrooms or one bedroom and a den


• as many utilities included as possible


• dishwasher - hand washing sucks ass


• prefer in suite laundry but shared is acceptable


• few to no kids in building (especially directly adjacent)


• in Vancouver city proper close to the action


• ample parking (prefer secured)


• non-smoking (cigarettes and drugs)


• reasonable price

If any of you know of a place or places like this feel free to send suggestions to me at mikebrowne[at]gmail.com

What a day. Not much blogging. I've been too busy to think about it. I stayed up late to watch the Pope's funeral. Not because I'm Catholic, just because it was fascinating to see the regal trappings of a very popular figure's send off. It was cool to see that many people gathered together in one place peacefully to celebrate one person's life.

We had our house inspection which went 'fine' so I was out for most of the day to let them do their thing. The subjects should come off as of tomorrow if there's nothing unforeseen in the meantime. My fingers and toes are all crossed. I'm not sure how I'm able to type.

I got a phone call asking me to work as 2nd AD on a TV pilot being filmed here starting next weekend. If all goes well and it gets picked up I may have a gig for the entire series. How cool is that? I'm excited.

Finally, it's 11 years since Kurt Cobain was found after he did himself in with a shotgun blast to the head. We still miss you Kurt. Too bad you joined that 'stupid club'.

Sesame Street: 25 Of My Favorite Memories from Progressive Boink

From IMDb Pro:

In a move that could lead to DreamWorks jumping into the specialty film market, the studio has picked up North American rights to Perfume, the period serial-killer drama based on Patrick Sueskind's international best-seller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which Tom Tykwer is to direct. The acquisition was jointly announced Wednesday by Martin Moskowicz, president of production at Constantin Film, which is producing the project, and Rick Sands, the new president and chief operating officer of DreamWorks. Said Sands in a statement: "The acquisition of 'Perfume' illustrates a new direction for DreamWorks: We will be actively pursuing interesting projects throughout the world and thus bringing the works of talented international directors, actors and writers to American audiences." - By Scott Roxborough and Gregg Kilday

I've read Patrick Süskind's Perfume. It is worth checking out if you haven't heard of it. Kurt Cobain, late frontman of Nirvana, was, according to himself in an interview with MuchMusic, obsessed with this book. He wrote a song called Scentless Apprentice about the book's main character, the alienated Grenouille, a man born completely without a bodily scent. The song can be heard on their last studio album, In Utero.

Interesting that Tom Twyker, director of one of my favourite flicks, Run Lola Run, has signed on to direct. This is a real departure for Dreamworks who typically stick with the tried and true Hollywood formula films. Perhaps we'll get to see some real money thrown at truly interesting stories told from other perspectives than those from the 'lower 48'. Sounds promising.

Applied for EI today. Geez that's humiliating. I didn't think I'd ever have to do something like this again. What a yucky feeling. I went into the office to apply, but I didn't have to. I was told to come home and do it here over the web. I'm glad I went in though. I got the displeasure of hearing some other gentleman screeching at the nice lady at the reception desk. He didn't have his permanent residency card and was howling at this woman like it was her fault. Eek! After he left (we were he only two who wanted to see reception) I told her I wouldn't be that difficult. We both had a good laugh. I still didn't feel so hot about even being there.

I'm still pretty stunned, and my pride's kicking up quite a stink, that I have to even apply for EI. Hell I thought I was doing a great job where I was. It felt too easy somedays. I guess 'work' has to be hard and you have to spend a lot of time to get things done to appear productive in some people's eyes, even when you're handily completing tasks that month's before you had no idea you could do. How someone could begrudge needing a little direction when new to something is beyond me, but that's the way it is I guess. I thought admitting to the need for and asking for help was really a strong person's thing to do. Perhaps not everyone sees it that way.

More reason to get the hell out of here. Thanks Gracie.

If I ever want to drive here to Nova Scotia I don't really need directions. I'd just hop on the number one and head East. Not according to the directions feature on Google maps. To go from our place here in Maple Ridge BC to Ma and Pa Browne's house in Bridgewater NS we apparenlty need to go through the US. Perhaps it's quicker. I'm not sure why that would be any fatser at all, but here are the directions. I guess I'd get to miss the Prairies. Hmmm... maybe not such bad directions after all.

I just finished a script for a teaser trailer for a film I'm writing called 'Zone 63'. I'm still writing the full screenplay and I plan on using the trailer to help me get funding for the rest of the movie. The teaser is like most, just a snapshot of the bigger picture. I want to shoot it as soon as I can. I have a MiniDV camera, now the script and the will to do it. All I need now is a rainy day in the woods and an actor to kill off. I'm sure I can find those things here in Vancouver. If I can't find somone else to act in it I'll do it myself. I would love do the Hitchock/Peter Jackson/Shyamalan thing and show up in bit parts in all my films. Perhaps my own death will be my trademark.

Once I'm done with all the post production, editing, adding sound and titles, I'll share a link to it here. I've already reserved the domain name zone63.com, although there's nothing on the site yet. Once I have all the copyright stuff squared away I'll let everyone in on the storyline. All the posts on this subject will be in the Zone 63 category on my blog so you can isolate them from my usual crap.

It's cool that it's finally happening. I've realized lately that the only thing truly holding me back at all is myself. the cool part of that revelation is that it opens up the door to limitless possibilities. Who knows where we'll land, but if some of the really bad films I've seen can get made then so can mine.

I just wanna make movies.

Baby steps...

Canadians may need 'laser visa' to cross U.S. border. Traveling from Canada to the US is about to get a little more complicated. I thought we were friends. Oh well, guess we're evil too.

This stunt coordinator turned singer seems to have his heart in the right place. But I'm not sure Dennis Madalone should be singing at all. To put this as bluntly as I possibly can without pulling punches - this sucks! His website is awfully cheesy too. Moosh's ears started to bleed upon first hearing. I think the animal cruelty folks will be around to remove Moosh from an auditorily abusive situation. The video is just as bad but Moosh isn't interested in that and frankly, neither am I ecept from that 'car crash' perspective.

He can't be serious... Can he? Perhaps one too many 'high falls', extended periods with out oxygen during stunt 'burns' or years of cranial abuse due to stair tumbles has rattled this guy to the point where he believes he can sing. To each his own I guess. Maybe he'll make a lot of money for charity. My bet is it won't come for being a talented singer. William Hung, eat your heart out.

I do. I'm looking like Grizzly Adams of late. I hate shaving as I'm constantly slashing my old mug to bits. I guess you're supposed to use the razor up and down not side to side. Who knew? Anyway, here's a great article on getting the perfect shave.

We sold the house on Friday. Four days to sell at full asking price. Holy smokes I like real estate investing. Not everything gives you 34% more than you paid after only 4 years. Call me 'the Mike' (as in Trump). I want to buy more just for investment's sake.

The subjects come off on Saturday and we close June 30 to be out by July 2. Look out downtown Vancouver. Here we come. Looks like we'll be hitting up craigslist a lot in our quest for a two bedroom place that takes dogs. Wish us luck for that one too. The good vibes are working great so far. Thanks!

Good bye to JP2. Who's next?

Carol and I went to see Frank Miller's Sin City last night. I was curious to see whether or not the Hollywood treatment of such unflinching stories would be bold and accurate or completely watered down to please the censors. I was hopeful that with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's help Frank Miller maintain his vision for the stories while making the leap from the pages of his pulpy graphic novels and comics to the big screen.

There were no punches pulled in the making of this movie.

The beginning of the film reminded me of Blade Runner's bleakness. Nice. I could just see Harrison Ford as Deckard on the next roof over. As BR is one of my favourite films I was hooked in pretty quickly. Sin City is a visually stunning, gorgeously shot black and white film with splashes of colour thrown in, just like the graphic novels. Not one shot of this movie appeared untouched by computer and a lot of the film's scenery and action was shot on green screen and rendered later on. This gave the film that comic book feel the stories so beg for.

The acting was great. Some people are born to play certain parts. Mickey Rourke for example was perfectly amazing as Marv the ugly anti-heroic ex-con on a quest to avenge a death. The rest of the talent in the film were on their games as well. All were cast exactly where they belong and did a bang up (literally) job. We were pleasantly surprised by the usually ditzy Britanny Murphy.

This movie is one of the most violent I've ever seen and I have seen some very violent films. Though not as disturbing as Irreversible, but still extremely violent. It earned it's 18A rating. One reviewer said he found the film rather 'misogenistic' in it's treatment of females and lacking a 'moral center'. This reviewer missed the point entirely. It's a pulp graphic novel not Shakespeare. Get over it boob. Not every film has to have redemption and happiness as it's denouement. Where's the artistic freedom in that? More of this please. Audiences need a change from the 'riding happily off into the sunset' shit we usually see from Hollywood.

Well done Mr's Miller, Rodriguez and Tarantino. We loved it. Two big grins from Carol and I. We're glad we paid to see this one on the big screen.

No jokes. No stupid pranks. Just a post from little old me letting you all know I'm still alive. I hope that no one busted you too badly today.

The house isn't even on the market officially and we've had a viewing already with two more scheduled for tonight. We won't be around much this weekend but hopefully we'll have some good news. Apparently the market is very hot in our price range. Here's hoping.

What else is up? Terry Schiavo is finally at rest (but her family isn't) and the Pope is soon to follow. I guess his convalescing hasn't been going so well. Odd how the church never really gives it's followers the whole truth until they can't avoid it any longer.