A lot going on as always here in Hollywood, and much of it pretty much the same as the last time I posted. Can't believe this is the first time I have had a few minutes -- while G watches West Wing -- since the last update a week ago.

All is well on the home front even if, with my zany, zany, zany schedule and G starting her job this week with its own zany 6 am - 2:30 pm schedule, G and I are two ships passing in the night these days. The baby continues to grow and G is feeling generally pretty OK, getting as much rest and exercise and nutrition as she can. We have been doing very little other than eat and sleep, and sometimes even together. But in a couple of months it will be break time, then a few more months of school, the summer break with a baby!

There was also, last Wednesday, a huge-ass Geek Squad party held in a vacant wing of the Arclight complex on Sunset. All kinds of cheesy D-list stars were there. Kato Kaelin, David Spade. Carrot Top and Louie Anderson were there, too; if only Gallagher had shown up we would have had a veritable trifecta of shitty, shitty comedy. (Carrot Top wears more makeup than Tammy Faye Bakker, by the by.) The set for the party was cool -- all the computer set props from "War Games" were laid out with giant projection screens flashing goofy Geek Squad stuff all around. Free cocktails, and a lacklustre set by the B-52s. Fun to see some of the Geek Squad guys though -- although a few too many free cocktails and some late night fun meant a rought boot camp (see below).

Last week was another heavy-duty week at school, with our first group shoots ("boot camp" to us AFI-ers) of sample scenes from our productions. Basically, for our first year there are three production cycles. There are 28 directors & screenwriters & producers and thus 28 films per cycle. There are 14 editors who work on two films per cycle -- so we editors will edit 3 20-30 minute films by the end of term next May. Essentially, we'll have edited a feature's worth of pictures, which is pretty damned cool. Anyway, step one is "boot camp," which is a rapid acculturation and education period. For we editors, even moreso, as we have so much technical stuff to absorb just to get up to speed on the top-shelf Avid systems at the school. After most of our fellow students have stumbled home complaining of weariness from a long day of classes, we editors labor late into the night, leaving more often than not at 11:00 long after everyone else has gone home. (So quit yer bitchin', screenwriters!).

One of the first things we did was split into teams for shooting, everyone jockeying around their schedules and the stories that interest them. I was fortunate to get attached to two of the most interesting stories, both of which have really good and collaborative and artistically-minded-but-practical directors. The cinematographers, producers, production designers etc. are also not only extremely nice but extremely positive about working and learning together and with and from each other.

The shoots last Thursday went very well (my massive hangover notwithstanding) and we all enjoyed them. Then it was into the editing room for me all day on Friday and Saturday, Friday with Adam and Saturday with Anu, my two directors. And what a pleasure it was to work with people with strong ideas who were so nice and so open to input and willing to give me honest feedback.

Considering what we had to work with (shooting a graveyard scene written for night in blazing Caliornia sunshine next to a playground; shooting a trailer-park bedroom scene in a leafy glade), I think just about everyone's project came out like Citizen Kane. Some wer stronger than others but all had something to recommend them. I felt our two pieces were among the best and I am VERY excited about our actual "real" productions starting soon.

But for now, it's more seminars and all-night studio sessions. (Most enjoyable if a little fatiguing.)

Sandra (right) and Brian (left) prepare the camera in this truly crappy cell-phone snapshot.

Anu was the director for the second shoot in the afternoon and perhaps unwisely volunteered to crew sound on the first, which meant she spent her morning laden with gear twice her weight. Jeanie, the screenwriter of the first shoot, and Adam, the director, are nearby).

Our bootcamp site was one of the toughest, located right by the main entrance to campus with loads of traffic noise and a schoolyard full of exhilirated Catholic schoolgirls directly adjacent.

Wow. Well an awful lot has gone on since my last actual post. So much that makes even the trip to Shakey's pale into insignificance.

First let me say that an incredible schedule at school has been the main reason for the lack of updates. Last week was about an 80-hour week at school, and that is no exaggeration. This is not a complaint. Far from it. It is genuinely an exhilirating, if hugely demanding and challenging, experience. Honestly, I have not had to push myself so hard to be good at something, ever. And I am enjoying the effort.

However, it leaves little time for catching up with folks, or even for sleeping, let alone exercising, running errands, etc. This afternoon I hav a little window of time so I thought I would get a post in -- it will in no way do justice to everything that has been going on. I am going to revert to audio posts for a while, which are easier for me to get to when I have a few minutes on campus.

Obviously the big news is that G is pregnant. This comes as a surprise tyo us every bit as much as anyone. A pleasant one to be sure -- but an overwhelming one as well. In the space of two months, so much chanmged it is incredible. We moved 2000 miles to a place we barely knew, I started this truly life-changing and gigantically demanding program at school, G found herself a new job, we bought a car, and then, hello! Baby on the way!

The night we tested for pregnancy, I will never forget. We went through 2 tests, and were so sure that there had to be some mistake that I actually drove to the store for more tests, all of which confirmed the initial test. When we regained consciousness and stopped hyperventilating, you can imagine how our minds were racing. Still, it seemed a kind of vague concept until we went to the doctor's office and actually saw the tiny little heart beating. The doctor played th heartbeat for us. "It sounds like Pac-Man!" I instantly exclaimed. The Doc was nonplussed by my reaction, can't imagine why. ("So we're going to laugh our way through this, are we?" he asked Genevieve later.) We like our Doc -- he is no bullshit, nice enough but not too nice, too touchy-feely about anything, and also highly recommended by others.

So I posted the pic below, of our first ultrasound. When I first saw this on the screen, this little tadpole wriggling about with a teeny little heart beating, I mean, it took me five minutes fo find my eyes on the floor and screw them back into my head. That's when it really became something real and solid to both of us, I think.

So, things are progressing. Blessedly, G has not had much in the way of sickness, a touch of tummyache now and again, although she has been feeling very tired. She is getting along fine though, and we are both very excited. G starts her new job on Monday next, which I think will be good for her -- I have been at school most nights until 11 and I have been leaving the house usually before she has gotten out of bed, so we've seen little of each other, and she's been home alone an awful lot. It will be tough as she gets through the end of this first trimester to adapt to work but if anyone can do it, she can.

Meanwhile, at school, my God, the enormous download of knowledge regarding Avid systems and editing in general has been profound. I have never had to learn so much, so quickly, and enjoyed it. Well, msotly. Yesterday I had a very tough day in the editing room and really was kind of hard on myself. Didn't really relax until quite late at night. There are two sides to this work; one is heavily technical and involves knowing an awful lot about a very powerful system. The other is aesthetic, and sometimes it has been really, really hard to apply aesthetics to the practice projects we have been given when learning to master the systems is such a challenge. However, repetition is the master of skill, and soon enough the technical aspects will seem like old hat and the aesthetics will come to the fore. Sometimes at the moment it feels like I'm in a tizzy, and I do not react well to being in a tizzy. The mosvaluable lessons in a craft education involve identifying bad habits that inhibit, and I have found two major, major bad habits in the last two projects. It is time to come to grips with them: this week, we deal with out first actual footage from our projects. The year breaks down into three production cycles; the class is broken into 15 groups along disciplinary lines (producers, directors, editors and so on) and every group makes a short film. There are half as many editors as directors, so we cut two pictures per "cycle." This week is "boot camp," a kind of practice for our first cycle, using a scene each from the first cycle projects. My Friday and Staurday will be full days of editing these scenes, one picture's one day and the other's the next. I am going to apply the lessons I have learned in our classroom and lab practice with an eye toward overcoming my bad habits. (In fact, as soon as I post this I am organizing my notes and cheat sheets to give me a clearer set of guidelines than the frantic scribbles in my notebook). Wish me luck!

Hvane't seen too many pictures; haven't had the time. Saw a screening of Sky Captain at school before it opened, with the producer, Jon Avnet, on hand to answer our questions; a week later Michael Mann brought Collateral to our campus and had a Q&A as well. It is most cool to be able to talk to these filmmakers in a small group setting. So far they have been excellent, even if I wasn't that crazy about the flicks. (Sky Captain was a disappointment for me -- the visuals are great, there is a lot to like about it, but the pacing betrays the wafer-thin story to a fault.)

Did go to a ball game at Dodger Stadium. Had a great time watching an exciting victory by the Dodgers who have a hell of a team. The stadium is cool, definitely old school in a kind of neat, retro-futuristic kind of way. Something seemed starge about it and I couldn't nail it down until I realized -- it is entirely outdoors, even the concourses. A much different feel from Wrigley or Fenway.

So in short, the baby factor is huge, G is hanging tough and in good spirits, starts work Monday, & I am insanely busy with school and also loving it insanely -- far exceeding my expectations. I will try to update more often -- I will have a slightly more sane schedule next week and also will go back to doing more audio posts. If you want to know about anything in particular or want to see pics of something, let me know.

Watch this space.

Thomas Wolfe was right . . . you can't go home again.

Well, at least you can't go to Shakey's again.

When I was a kid a trip to Shakey's Pizza was the big thing. There was a Shakey's in Latham, New York that was a regular birthday-party destination, and also a before or after-movie spot when I'd go to see movies at the giant Latham Towne theatre, an old Hellman Theatre, great big screen, fancy lobby, the whole deal. (That's where I saw Jaws 13 times as a kid.)

(An aside: Bad enough the Shakey's disappointed us, but looking up these old Albany theatres that have long since been demolished or turned into car dealerships is hugely bumming me out. Anybody remember The Hellman? The Towne? The Madison, which was the stupid Norma Jean micro-plex and now is gonna be torn down by a stupid CVS? (If anyone has a spare half a mil, it's for sale.) These are the theatres which literally shaped my youth -- those gigantic screens . . . I think mine is the last generation to regularly enjoy the cinema as it is meant to be enjoyed).

Anyway, going to Shakey's was fun back then because a) they had a little bench that kids could stand on to look into the kitchen and watch the pizza being hand-tossed and made before your eyes and b) they would show silent movies on some nights, lots of Laurel & Hardy and Little Rascals, with, if memory serves, a player piano going in the background. It wasn't the best pizza in the world, but it was damned good; and you could watch someone fling it in the air, which was nice.

Well, when we moved out here in July, I was astounded to find the place absolutely crawling with Shakey's Pizza establishments. There is, it seems, one on every block.

So it was with considerable excitement that G and I visited a local Shakey's this evening for dinner. On entry I saw that all was not well: first off, it was far too bright. The Shakey's Pizza Parlor of my youth had a kind of dimly lit, decrepit wood-and-brick charm that lent at least a semblance of authenticity to the second, prosaic half of their name, "& Ye Public House." I think that translated to, "don't worry, Dad -- we sell beer."

This Shakey's was disturbingly shiny and had been, at some point, remodeled from a brick-walled Ye Public House into a beige-walled Ye Cafeteria House. Utterly charmless. First of all, there was no neat little ledge to stand on to watch your pizza being made. In fact, I don't think this pizza is hand tossed at all; the crust seemed prepared in advance. Watching someone remove a prepared pizza crust from a refrigerator is considerably less exciting than the thrilling spectacle of seeing someone repeatedly fling a whirling disc of dough heavenward.

To further disappoint me, instead of silent movies with player piano accompaniment a la the Shakey's of yore, there was an assortment of lame, weatherbeaten arcade games of bygone days, incongruous posters of sporting figures, and about 6 TVs turned to sports networks. So instead of kids being absorbed in a silent film, they are hypnotized by a bunch of lame clanging, banging and flashing. There was very little "Ye," in short.

The pizza was adequate but it did not live up to my memories.

On the whole the place gave the impression of what a Chuck E. Cheese would look like if Mr. Cheese had hit the bottle for a while.

I did a little research when I got home -- yes, I actually wasted some of my time on this -- and found that Shakey's is a California chain. No mention of the Latham Shakey's is to be found. They have branched out to the Philippines, however, at which locations they offer the ominously-named "Rice Surprise" as one of their entrees.

Well, anyway.

There has been so much going on in the last 7 days that I scarcely have time to get into details. School is just the single most incredible thing I have ever done. I mean it is tremendously challenging, invigorating, stimulating, fun, cool, scary, more exciting and demanding than I imagined, and I imagined quite a bit. More than I thought by far. It is also the first time I have been undertaking a professional/career direction which is 100% heart and soul something I believe in all the way. It is a heady feeling! The people at school are marvelous; there's always one or two folks with their heads up their asses, but virtually everyone I've met has been 150% smart, comitted, talented . . .

The first week consisted of a lot of orientation meetings and longgggg editing classes, culminating in a screening for the whole school of the materials all our fellow students sent in with their applications. A jaw-dropping experience (as well as nerve-jangling). There are some talented folks in this school, across a broad spectrum. I was just knocked out by so many folks' stuff, that I felt mine was pitifully inadequate. But later, at a party afterwards, several people told me how much they enjoyed it. And hey, it got me into school, same as them. And we're all in it totgether now.

The schedule for the first week for us editors was insane -- pretty much 9 am - 11 pm every day. And it will go on being crazy for the next 2.5 years, so bear with me.

Meanwhile G got a job, to our profound delight and relief. We also (in a not entirely unrelated way) bought a car for me this weekend, a Honda Element as pictured below. The website has some cool views of the car. For the price point, the space and features can't be beat. It looks cool (I think) and has a kickass stereo. A couple of friends have them and have been most pleased, as am I.

And that's just the beginning. So much has gone down this last week that it is too much for me to summarize in an update. This week the schedule is still nuts but a little more human, so updates -- and phone calls, if I haven't been in touch -- will be forthcoming.

"There is great disorder under heaven, and the situation is excellent."