Mike Browne’s Blog

Here’s the post I promised about my set visit to the Masters of Horror (not a lot in the IMDb post) project being shot here in Vancouver. I can’t think of a more inspirational way to start a week than a visit to the set of legendary horror film director Dario Argento who just happens to be one of my heroes in the horror genre. He is the second director of thirteen to be filming his episode of MOH, called Jenifer written by and starring Steven Weber of Wings sitcom fame. What a day! Watching this great director do his thing was nothing short of amazing. I kept grinning to myself with this weird sense of glee even though there was a hideously disfigured woman about to be cleavered by a madman just feet away. I think even Mr Argento noticed my enthusiasm for the proceedings. We were only feet apart while I was on set. I even had a headset to listen to the dialogue while viewing the monitor. I couldn’t have been more in the thick of things had I tried.

Here’s another picture taken with my ultra shitty camera phone showing Mr Argento at work:

The woman standing directly behind him was his translator as Mr Argento speaks very limited English and, of course, needs to be understood. She shadowed him where ever he went.

The scenes I watched being shot were underneath the Port Mann Bridge so it was a short drive. One of the shots was a high wide shot of a cop car and some of the action from a ‘cherry picker’ style crane. Here’s another shitty picture:

The focus puller on the crane was terrified of heights and secretly (until now) crapping his pants.

The friend I have on set gave me two scripts to read so I could see what a one hour horror TV episode reads like. I was also told that if I were to write something it would be given to Mick Garris, the producer and one of the writer/directors on the show to read. Apparently there are no firm scripts yet for a few directors namely Brad Anderson, Rob Zombie and my ultimate hero, George A Romero! I’m not going to get my hopes up, but I’m going to write one for fun. Each epsiode is going to take ten days to shoot so they’re here until November 9th according to the script progress report I was given. You never know what might happen. As I’m beginning to see, if I’m open to it absolutely anything is possible.

I’m also going to see if I can swing a few more visits for the various other directors. Including the ones I’ve already mentioned I’m hoping to either meet or watch in action Don Coscarelli (Phantasm), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), John Carpenter (Halloween), Larry Cohen (writer of Phone Booth), Joe Dante (Gremlins and Rock and Roll High School), Roger Corman (Little Shop of Horrors and many more films) and Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

What a cool life I’m having.

Some words of wisdom from Treasure Island writer Robert Louis Stevenson kick things off:

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”

and this bit of positivity from Shakti Gawain:

“What I’m actually saying is that we need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.”

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. It’s more for me than it is for you but sharing it makes me feel a little less like a hermit. No, I haven’t started peeing in milk boxes or wearing kleenex boxes on my feet – yet.

To all the spamming type scumbags,
As someone who used to work in an industry known for it’s spam and underhanded tactics (I’ve felt their vile sting) it’s probably karma that my site would be thus targeted by dirtbags looking to peddle their penis enlarging pills, casinos and swampland real estate. So until I can come up with an alternative to the stupid assed Nucleus system’s way of handling spam there won’t be a way to comment. However, if you feel strongly about making a comment on a particular post just use the contact me link on the left. Thanks and sorry to all those honest folks who want to post and who’s comments may have gone the way of the dodo bird in my mass deletion ragefest, but I’ve just spent an hour deleting spam and I can’t do this every day.

UPDATE: Back already. Now when commenting you need to enter the numbers and letters on a radomly generated image. It works for me so far. Anyone who needs the plugin for their Nucleus CMS can get it right here.

I got a letter in February about my search for my birth parents from the Adoption Disclosure Services Program in NS. The are ”ready to begin the search” for my birth mother. They requested I send a letter for my birth mother describing myself and my family – like a non-identifying biography. They also want a snapshot of me to have ready for my birth mother if the are “fortunate enough to find her”.

I’ve been waffling on this, mostly because I don’t know if a) I can handle being ‘rejected’ (all perceived) by this person again b) I’m afraid of what I might find out and c) What will become of me once I have this information that I’ve never had before?

I have in recent weeks received a number of emails regarding my being adopted and my search. One email I got from Karin in the US who happened to be born on exactly the same day in the same year as me sharing her positive experience with an adoption reunion from only the day before.

“Hello Mike. This is the universe calling. It’s time you did something with this.”

On the upside it’s not taking three years as I shared on my blog for them to get to my case. Even though it took more than a year I’m still amazed. Along those lines I recieved a note from Lori, a community services researcher for the NDP in Nova Scotia. She said she wants my case to be raised in the Nova Scotia legislature highlighting the understaffing at the Adoption Disclosure Services Program in NS and perhaps have me speak to the press about it as well.

Wow! Who knew that people would find something on my blog to further a cause. I just thought I was spewing junk.

I’m not sure that the press would be the right idea as I don’t want to publicly humiliate my birth family and jeopardize the possiblity of a happy and private reunion. I don’t know their situation and am not prepared to hurt them in anyway just to find out what I desire to know. Who knows if the people in my birth family’s lives even know I exist. It’s not up to me to expose something that might be a deep dark family secret. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

So yes, I’ll write the bio and send the picture, but I don’t think I need the hooplah. I will share it here if I can. That might be enough for now.

Check out De-Animator at Kontraband. It’s a cool flash game that allows you you practice your zombie hunting skills. Thanks to everyone who has sent me links to this.

Check out ols-master. It’s a rather long flash movie about the evolving information construct. But is worth the download and the time. I feel like George Orwell. Get out the tinfoil for God’s sake.

Thanks to Etrigan for the link.

I’ve been invited to the set of Masters of Horror, a series of 13 one hour films buy legendary horror film directors, now filming here in Vancouver. Seems some of the networking I’ve been doing is paying off well. A visit to Masters of Horror is like a dream come true for a horror movie film buff and writer/producer like me. These are the big guns in the genre. I know John Landis’ shoot is done but the rest of the directors are just as cool to me. It could be a fun day. I’ll share more later.

Here’s a picture I found of two farmers ‘helping’ a goat blow out the candles on your birthday cake. Thanks for being a loyal blog reader. Gracias. (Shit I missed Cinco de Mayo)

How to fold a fitted sheet
Finally, there’s a method to folding a fitted sheet rather than just balling it up and cramming it into the closet. The internet is good for something other than pr0n.