Mike Browne’s Blog

That actually looks a lot like me. You can create your own WeeMee if you like. Just head on over to my profile on the site. After you’re done you can use your WeeMee as your icon on a variety of blogs and other Web 2.0 sites. Fun.

“IRWINDALE, Calif. — Eddie Griffin crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo worth $1.5 million into a concrete barrier while practicing at a racetrack Monday, destroying the car but escaping uninjured.

The comedian was practicing for a charity race to promote his upcoming film, "Redline," when he drove too fast around a curve at the Irwindale Speedway. Video footage showed the red sports car screeching before it ricocheted off the barrier with heavy damage to its front.

"Undercover Brother’s good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can’t drive," Griffin, referring to one his past films, said after the accident.

The film’s publicist, Wendy Zocks, said Griffin was “doing OK.”

[more at source: ESPN.com]

When we were in L.A. last we saw Eddie Griffin on Sunset Blvd in the passenger seat of a convertible. Note that I said ‘passenger seat’. I guess his friends have known for years not to let him drive.

So we might be moving. We’ll be okay:

[source shoutwire]

Bob Marley’s music always cheers me up, and no I am not smoking anything.

[source black20]

Bergman thought Hitler was "charismatic" when he saw him speak

Legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman has revealed that he was a great admirer of Adolf Hitler, only losing his enthusiasm for Nazism after the horrors of the concentration camps were uncovered.

“When the doors to the concentration camps were thrown open, at first I did not want to believe my eyes.”

“When the truth came out it was a hideous shock for me. In a brutal and violent way I was suddenly ripped of my innocence.”

[more at source BBC News]

I’m too depressed to blog much today. The home we love is being sold. We’re still not sure what’s happening. All we know is the house is for sale and we very probably have to vacate the premises. We don’t know when or where we’re going or how we’re going to manage. We thought we would be here until at least after the Olympics, but that’s changed. Having a decision about our security made for us is one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever been through.

I haven’t been working much and our finances are in tatters. I’ve never quite bounced back after losing my job at that place. It feels like being run over by a gigantic snowball that’s been following me for the two years since I left that gig. That said, this feels worse than losing a job.

This is the last thing we need right now. I spent the afternoon curled up in a ball on the floor with my dog. Thank goodness for her, she kept me company. Carol’s upset too, but neither of us seem to be losing it at the same time, so we’ve been able to be there for each other.

I have a horrendous emotional hangover. My stomach hurts and so does my head.

All of us are very upset, Bennett and Moosh too. I’m not sure if it’s the stress, but Moosh’s health has taken a turn for the worse. It appears her vestibular disease is back and she is having trouble walking again. Her timing is impeccable. Ugh. We have to find a place not only that will handle us and all our stuff but a sick old dog too, which is extremely hard to come by, and within our very limited budget. I just feel sick every time I think about it.

People are saying things like buy the house. My response is, “with what?” We’re broker than broke and owe more than we can pay already.

I’m very afraid of what’s looming. We don’t have parents in the province so we can’t ask for help like moving in for a while. We’re running out of options, I don’t know what we’re going to do.

This has been the darkest day I can remember in the last 15 years. Help had better be around the corner. I’m not sure how much more either of us can take.

I was in Harrison BC overnight on Tuesday put up in the Executive Inn by Circle Productions so I could get up and work as 2nd AD on a commercial at the Hemlock Valley Resort in the morning. The ad was for Coca-Cola® Snow Mountain which is under construction at the Stone Mountain amusement park in Georgia. We had a great time in the snow with actors and extras building snowmen, having snowball fights, roasting marshmallows and tubing. There was even an appearance by the Coca-Cola polar bear on a tube.

I was drenched from being out in the snow and tired from dragging my out of shape ass up and down the tubing hill at least 15 times, but I had a great time.

I met a relative, who was working as an actor on the shoot. His title? “Ethnic Father”. Here’s Alistair Browne:

Alistair was hilarious. What a friendly guy! We yacked a lot. He grew up in the U.K. so has a British accent and has lots of family in the Carribean. We ended up calling each other cousin all day. I’ve worked with his wife before. She was in Mind Games, an MoW I worked on last year. He’s a great guy. Stay in touch Alistair.

I also met a PA named Justin who had some interesting tattoos. I was amazed when he showed me. He let me take photos.

Here’s his left arm:

It’s going to be entirely dedicated to the films of Stanley Kubrick. The above is a creepy rendition of Jack Nicholson in The Shining holding his axe. On the other side of his arm is Dave from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it’s not quite done so he asked me to hold off. The plan is to have tattoos of symbols from all of Kubrick’s films down to his wrist including a large Lolita on his forearm. He mention that the tattooing in his underarm for The Shining really hurt. I bet.

Here’s a shot of his right arm:

This arm is all about Star Wars. Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Bespin’s Cloud City, storm troopers and Han Solo encased in carbonite have made the cut so far because, “Empire is the tits!” according to Justin. from Return of the Jedi will grace the inside of his forearm from elbow to wrist as he continues.

I’ve actually considered tattoos of pop culture stuff I like a few times, but am too much of a chicken to go ahead with it. Justin appears not to have the same concerns as I do.

“Calvert DeForest, the roly-poly character actor with the black-framed glasses and seemingly clueless delivery who developed a cult following as Larry "Bud" Melman on "Late Night with David Letterman" in the 1980s, has died. He was 85.”

[more at source Los Angeles Times]

Goodbye Larry Bud Melman. You were one funny dude.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

— Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1999), 9-10.

[source americanstate.org]