my life, my art

one of the things that i love about mississippi is the pride we take in our artistic endeavors. i attended a workshop that the mississippi arts commission put on at the mississippi crafts center. it was a great day and i learned a lot about starting an arts-based business. i learned a lot, saw a few people i knew, met some new folks and am proud of myself for still supporting my artistic self.

there were potters, ceramic makers, bakers, musicians, writers, painters, filmmakers, dancers, actors - there are so many options as an artist. it's great that in our state, we have so many options and such a rich cultural heritage from which to choose a discipline. i look forward to delving in deeper, finding my niche and getting started. there are a few different things i want to do, but i can't tell all my secrets at the moment! hee hee

there are still a few more workshops left...the rest are on the coast, but there's been a great deal of success with them, so it will continue! yay!

odds and ends from the deep

the deep south, that is.

so many things have happened during the past month...and i continue to wonder why i feel the need to write things on a blog on the internet. it's not very safe. yes, it is current proof that i do exist...however, do people really need to read about your life? why are we compelled to do this? does it help us convince ourselves that, in this day and age of complete and overwhelming media and perhaps a feeling of smallness in such a big world that's closing in around us, we need to make sure to touch others, that someone out there is listening, because life seems so big we neglect to make connections with the physical people around us? who knows.

i have a new article in the jackson free press, which i think turned out really well. they cut it down from how i originally wrote it and i liked it better.

i have a CD review on the magic numbers to write and another story on a local band, both due by wednesday. should be pretty easy.

for some reason, i'm going blank with the CD review. i am going to read some to give myself a general idea how i should set it up.

from time to time, you reach a point in your life where you have to make important decisions about where the journey is going to take you...or if you will follow its lead. i call it my 'watershed' point - after an indigo girls song of the same name:

"up on the watershed/standing at the fork in the road/you can stand there and agonize/'till your agony's your heaviest load/you'll never fly as the crow flies/get used to a country mile/when you're learning to face/the path at your pace/every choice is worth your while."

so here i sit in jackson, mississippi, trying to figure out where my life highway is going to take me. is it back home? to another city? where? i've got to be out of my apartment at the end of august---which is good and not good. the price is good, the issues i've had here, not good. and then there are other things to consider. however that may be, i have faith that the Lord will continue to give me hints about where i should go and what decisions need to be made.

ever since i moved here almost 3 years ago, things began to fall into place. it was a domino effect that i had no control over, both frustrating and mostly awe-inspiring. for the first time in my life i knew i was in the right place.

*sigh* we'll see what happens! i will continue to trust Him and know that the plan for my life is in His hands...i will follow where it leads and accept what i have to do to get there and make it happen.

highway 61 gig

had my gig tonight at the hwy 61 coffee shop. there was a small crowd, but it went really well. it was comfortable and if i do say so myself, my voice was dead-on tonight.

my mom came into town to see me play and so she was as happy as a clam. i also got her to harmonize on one of the songs with me, which she loved. it was a lot of fun.

whenever she's in town, we always have breakfast at broadstreet...so i've got to jump in bed. it's been a long night. we drove back and went to walgreen's to pick up a prescription and they were out of stock. sooooo...we had to drive to another 24 hr walgreen's that had it...in clinton (30 minutes away)!

i'm beat!! zzzzzzzzz..............

last weekend of filming

with a bittersweet sigh and sad sniff i have to say this is, as far as i can tell, our last weekend of filming.

today couldn't have worked out better as far as getting our last scenes lined up and ready to go. it's been tricky because finding a location has been extremely frustrating! is finding a diner rocket science???

there are four crucial locales in my script:

a cemetery

a river

a gravel road

that came complete with rusty cotton trailers

and a field with cows

and, last but not least, a diner.

i was tipped off to a great location,

so we added a railroad tracks sequence

and lazarus spotted the railroad bridge over hwy 51

that he loved so we incorporated that, too.

the diner came to us at the eleventh hour, no less! (don't have a picture of it yet)

i was about to have a nervous breakdown. of all the places i'd looked into, there was some sort of hang-up...more like BS.

the first place i wanted to use would have been perfect however, they wanted to charge me an insane amount of money to pay two people to be there the whole day AND take out special event insurance for one (1) day. what?!?! i told her, ummm...yeah, remember i said this is a STUDENT PROJECT. student project = NO $$$$

moron.

another location was being persnickity about the whole thing and said would get back to us...we were like yeah, you do realize we need to film on SATURDAY (and this was tuesday). ugh! anyway, blah blah blah. there were other locations that weren't exactly right but might have just 'had to do' no matter what. sooo...

last night i called the guy who helped us get our nifty vintage car - our 1963 mercury meteor. just had to throw that in there! i heart that freakin' car.

he gave me the name and number of a guy in memphis who really wanted to encourage filmmakers to use his location.

i didn't know if he would be willing to help us out, especially on such short notice, but low and behold, he was more than happy to help! what a relief.

it was good news to both me and to lazarus, my director.

the owner was very excited about us filming there and had no problem with our being there for a good part of the day saturday to get everything done. i can't possibly say what a heavy weight lifted from my conscious after having put this in order!! he even said he would help throw our wrap party there as well. a place called alex's tavern. great vibe to it *and* it has a jukebox!!!

that's a plus because we needed a jukebox in the scene in a most terrible way. so technically, my diner is now going to be a bar. but that's ok. at this point, i'm not caring too much.

he was so excited that i asked him and he's got everything ready for us to shoot on saturday morning. we also need to film the pay phone scene, which we'll do in midtown memphis somewhere. the weather is looking good both saturday and sunday so everything will *fingers crossed* be working in our favor.

then on sunday, we're going back to the cemetery to finish up that scene and then back to the gravel road to wrap up the final car scenes.

lazarus and i still have to ride around and get establishing shots but other than that, we'll be done. how surreal!

i also talked to my last music publisher today regarding one last-minute song add, so it looks like that's in the bag. need to find out who's owns the master recording and i'll be good to go.

so now i need to finish up mundane things like laundry and cleaning up the place. have to prep the kitties for my weekend away. i know they'll be glad when mama is back home again to stay for a while and give them some lovin'. poor things. they miss me.

i'm tired but i'm not tired. i want to rest but don't give a flying flip about sleeping. all i've been doing is living and breathing this film. i am going to be so sorry for having this stinky attitude tomorrow.

mopeds, french kisses, old friends & le sacre couer

over the weekend i spoke to an old friend of mine who jogged my brain about so many childhood memories and also mentioned 'amélie.' it definitely lent a 'cosmetric' quality to the overall experience (i don't think he'll mind if i borrow his word for a minute).

it not only reignited my ongoing love affair with france but it got the little hamster in my head running like mad on his squeaky wheel. my life has certainly come full circle lately: bringing me back to hernando, reconnecting with old friends, dusting off some old dreams and watching other aspirations turn into realities. it reminded me that i need not short-change myself in life or in any other respect---especially relationships, whether if be a friendship or otherwise.

and because i need the moment of escape...

i am going to take a moment to daydream of a parisian love affair of my own.

so...

here's to sexy roman noses,

kisses along the banks of the seine,

family-owned pâtisseries et les cartes postales.

i look up and across the table and he is watching me. we smile knowingly at each other and share a cigarette while people pass us by along the sidewalk. briefly we wonder where they might be going; but what truly matters is we both know this is exactly where we're supposed to be.

and hopefully a pigeon from above will not ruin the moment.