chase the light

Off to Europa! First London for the week, then the train to Paris, then on to Berlin where we’ll be in the middle of the World Cup, and then to Amsterdam for the last bit. Spent today packing and staying mellow as the flight out is late tonight and arrives in London on Sunday.

Jill finished Superman last week so she wanted to tag along on the European Tour of 2006. So, she’s along but we already had the first hiccup at the airport where she almost didn’t get on because the flight is oversold. They were telling her maybe another airline or the British Airways flight tomorrow at 3:00. Yikes. All’s good though. She got a seat and we’re now in the terminal waiting for our very delayed plane. The other near disaster was as I was running out of the house I decided to use the restroom real quick and went back in to discover my passport sitting on the bathroom floor. THAT WOULD NOT HAVE MADE CHRIS A HAPPY TRAVELER! My bladder had a divine intervention.

There was a little meeting of the Ghosties crew at the [Saints & Sinners Lounge] Tuesday night. Lots of Martinis were had by all. In fact I think I doubled my entire lifetime intake of Martinis that night. Not a big Martini drinker so round about 4 in the morning I was a hurting puppy. In fact crawling out of bed and bringing my pillow and a blanket into the bathroom crossed my mind. Just in case.

We had a couple nice surprises show up. Director [Mark Steven Johnson] showed up and hung out ALL night. Not the usual “Hey, here I am, thanks for the work!” and then leave face time. It was the “Hey, you guys kick ass!! Let’s party all night!!” type of face time. Then Nicolas Cage showed up! Awesome! Just chillin’ with the Cage at a bar. That was cool and kinda surreal. Ha ha!

Above left is [Kevin Mack], Visual Effects Supervisor and extroardinarily nice guy. Kevin won an Academy Award for “What Dreams May Come” and also supervised “Big Fish” (one of my favorites), “A Beautiful Mind”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, and “Fight Club”. It was a reeeeally a great experience to work with him. [Mark Steven Johnson], the director, is on the right. I love finishing big projects, it’s nothing but parties for like a month.

Music to sway by. Calexico are sooo good! I’ve been having the hardest time seeing them as they’ve come through town a couple times while I’ve been away or I just couldn’t make it, etc. So finally! The name is taken from a small border town in California, and it’s Mexican side counterpart is called Mexicali. I also get to sneak in a Neko Case reference right here because Calexico was her backing band for the Blacklisted album and they toured together in support of that album. It’s a little known fact that I love Neko. Ok it’s really a widely known fact actually. I lurve her. If you like Calexico you’ll love the Blacklisted album by Neko. Ok, done with Neko. Neko, Neko, Neko. Neko’s also on David Letterman tonight. Neko, Neko, Neko.

Anyway, great to hear the stuff off of “Feast of Wire”. Sunken Waltz, Quattro and Black Heart were stellar. There was time when “Feast of Wire” played on my iPod for probably a month straight. I was so into that album. I thought the opening band Black Heart Procession were going to be really good as I liked the first couple sings but then it got really rather boring. One too many songs with a saw in it. Yeah, you know with the bow and a saw where it sounds like a cheesy UFO from a B-Movie. I liked their vibe I just didn’t think their songs were up to snuff.

Ready for my complaints… ($5 bucks says Ticketmaster is involved with my complaint somehow) Since the show wasn’t sold out I went to The Music Box a little before 8:00 to get a ticket from the box office. (Insert your own Ticketmaster story rant here). Here’s the scam, the price is $18 dollars, but on the day of show it’s $20. So you can never actually get a ticket for $18. Through Ticketmaster it’s $18 + $2 Building Facility Charge? + $7.60 Convenience charge – $27.60!!! Argh! So what’s with jacking up the price of the show at the box office? Lame-O Music Box. Then there’s the security. Not rough at all, but the front of the stage is maybe 25 feet wide and there were 5 security guards! That’s one for every 5 feet! Calexico’s a completely mellow band and having 5 huge security guards facing you and scanning the crowd is reeeeeally distracting and a bit of a buzz kill. They’re also really strict with cameras but I palmed my little point and shoot with my wallet and keys as security patted me down. Ha ha… too easy.

A little bit of the vibe with the mp3 above. It’s a lot more traditional sounding than their material so it’s not really representative of their actual work. Also, if you like free music a really great live Calexico concert is available courtesy of the band and archive.org. [Calexico Live in Sweden] Ok, I’m done. Calexico cool. Love ’em. The Music Box… kinda annoying.

Horse racing! Always bet on the Irish horse. They always kick our California horses asses. You’d never know gambling’s illegal in California. Somebody should probably tell the Indian casinos, lotteries and race tracks. I arrived too late to bet on the first race but I was on fire for the next seven! Aw yeah, steak dinner for me! So here’s my new absurd rule in horse picking… if it’s a turf race and the horse has the word “turf” in his name. Bet on him. Like Turf Flyer. Good name, pick him. Asphalt Flyer, um no, not so good.

Imageworks was sponsoring two races (not sure what you have to do to do that) so they allowed 10 of us to go down trackside for the two races and watch the ponies. It’s like thunder when they come flying by throwing dirt clods around with their hooves. So amazing. We had about 100 people show up but I only knew about a 1/4 of them. I bought a $45 ticket with the intention of putting $5 on each race but for some reason I wasn’t thinking and forgot I’d already missed a race and that there was only 8 races total. So I split the last $20 on two races and won one of them. This is why I don’t go to Vegas. I would be homeless from stupid bets.

Also on Friday nights in the summer they have a band play after the races. It’s usually a third tier band that hasn’t really had a hit in awhile, or only had one hit. The Motels, Berlin, The Fixx, Sugar Ray, Baha Men, Fishbone, etc. Tonight was “The English Beat” or “General Public” or “Dave Wakeling, the guy with the funny looking guitar and strange dance move.” “Save it For Later” indeed. It was boring so I left since they probably weren’t going to play that song until the end of the set. And I wanted my steak dinner! As I went down some steps out of sight of the concert some security guard yelled at me saying “Hey you have camera, what’s the name of this band?” Well, yeah I know the name of the band but it’s not because I’m carrying a camera! Funny odd.

Oh then… I have my camera around my neck and a different security stops me and says they don’t allow photographs. ! ? Huh? Four and a 1/2 hours after carrying around this giant white lens and I’m on my way out you tell me? Ha ha ha! Ok, buddy, I’ll put it away. Thanks for heads up! He even thanked me for putting it away. Funny odd again.

So, there ya go, cameras are not officially allowed at Hollywood Park, but if you’re carrying around a large SLR, down by the track, and mixing with the jockeys I wouldn’t really worry about it. Mmmmm…. steak dinner.

This morning I had to get up at 6:00 to get to Hanalei Bay by 6:45. The catamaran trip around to Na Pali is on. It was cancelled on Wednesday because of a boat problem. The night before I charged all my batteries and got packed to check out of the hotel bright and early. Slept terrible knowing what time I had to get up but I was able to grab my stuff and hit the road on time. I was the first one at the check in counter and she gave my a dry bag to put my stuff in. As I went back to the car to grab my underwater camera I realized I had left the battery charging in the wall back in my room. Crap.

There was just no time to drive all the way back and get it so I had to go without it. We took a little outrigger canoe out to the catamaran and as we were waiting for the second group to arrive there were 4 or 5 sea turtles popping their heads out of the water all around us. We took off and the trip was amazing. Gorgeous coastline and we ducked in and out of some caves on the way down.

After Kalaulau Bay we stopped for lunch and to do a bit of snorkleing. So, right now either it was going to be cool not having my camera battery because the reef is lame or I was going to be completely heartbroken. I hopped in the water and started swimming around and honestly it wasn’t all that amazing. Some fish here and there but overall not any better than Tunnels Beach. Until… SON OF A BITCH!! I head out off of the reef into about 30 feet of water and there swimming underneath me are 3 sea turtles. Not just swimming by but hanging out and gliding around being bitchin’ turtles. I dive down to one and swim up right next to him and pet him on the head. He looks at me and just hangs out and continues gliding around. I hang out with the turtles for about 45 minutes just swimming with them and watching them hang around. I notice a pattern though that they have to come up for air every once in awhile. So instead of divng down to them I just wait at the surface as they swim up right next to me and poke their heads out of the water for air. Amazing. The water was totally glassy and clear for about 100 feet so the visibility was perfect. And there I am without my camera. So sad. Just a memory, but one I’ll never forget.

After lunch we headed back to Hanalei, but first we stopped near a beach to pick up a Hawaiian guy who lives on the beach along the Na Pali coast He does so illegally but he just keeps going back each time he gets booted off. He was funny and told some stories abut the area. After getting off the boat I repacked my packs and grabbed a final Shave Ice at Wishing Well and headed to the airport.

Returned the car. Got on the delayed flight. Sat next to some honeymooners from Georgia who couldn’t be a day over 19. The flight seemed waaaay long. Touched down about midnight. Got a cabbie who somehow misunderstood me saying “Can I get some change?” with “Keep the change.” Selective hearing. I vastly overtipped him but whatever. Got home about 2am. The end.

Slower and slower I get… just sat around today waiting for the sunset I suppose. Did some laundry inbetween lunch and dinner and drove along the coast up to Hanalei Bay as the clouds looked like they were going to put on a good show. Lot’s of people gathered down on the beach with a few bonfires. Nice. Sunrise? Sunset? I’m a sunset person since I grew up on the west coast. Who’s awake for a sunrise anyway? Definitely not the people I hang out with. The only time I see the sun rise is if I’m still up. Tommorrow’s a big day and have to get up at 6:00am… ah crap speaking of sunrises.

Today I was also able to book a hotel for the Amsterdam leg of the upcoming European tour. How’s that for a rock star attitude?! Living life for the moment right now… booking another vacation while on vacation! Ahhhh… La Dolce Vita! It’ll be back to reality come August. All the hotels and train tickets are in place now so it’s just wait for Jill to finish her project and we’re off…

Suffering from a few mosquito bites tonight but not nearly like I did in Fiji. I had to drive down to the town of Hanapepe today to catch the helicopter flight around the island. There’s a small airstrip down there that they operate the tours from. The difference with this company is that they fly with the doors off! So not only is it really loud it’s also very windy and cold. But they also land at a waterfall for a little picnic and a swim. So that was worth it. We flew out and up though Waimea canyon then turned back south and then west and headed up along the Na Pali coast which was crazy beautiful. The ocean was like a lake today and looked emerald green next to the tan beaches.

After the coast we headed inland and landed at the waterfall. I’d like to say it was like the helicopter landing in Jurassic Park but we didn’t land right at the base. We had to walk about 30 yards through the trees. But yeah, like I’m complaining! I tried to swim underneath the falls but it’s a lot of water coming down right on top of you so it’s hard to breathe. The current is also really pushing you away from the impact spot so it’s pretty funny trying to approach it. I tried to come in from side walls of the canyon but it still pretty difficult. I got underneath the falls once and took in a mouth full of water! Ack! The attempt can be seen in the video although it’s pretty obvious it’s total chaos underneath a waterfall. Anyway, went back to shore and had lunch and chilled out enjoying the view.

We finished with the waterfall a little early so the pilot took us on a short side trip. We took off back up through the trees and headed over to check an area that has a ton of waterfalls. If it wasn’t to windy we’d go in and it turned out to be fine. One of falls was the Jurassic Park waterfall which looked oddly small even with more water flowing down it than in the movie. The whole flight the pilot would do “S” shaped banked turns to get views from each side of the helicopter. It is waaaay strange to be on the inside part of turn looking straight down a few thousand feet without a door on. Seriously, I kept checking my seatbelt and holding the strap above me. Total girly man! Hey it’s high enough to hit terminal velocity so I’m holding that handstrap damnit.

I suck at relaxing, but today I finally slowed down a bit. Hung out at a couple beaches and did a little snorkeling. Low low key. First went to beach called Tunnels up in Hanalei and snorkled around in the very shallow reef. I’m not sure if the tide was or what but is was like swimming in a water fountain. It made for some very warm water which was great. It actually felt colder to get out of the water. The weather is actually getting cooler as in it was probably in the upper seventies. Bascially I just swam around and chased fish for a few hours. Good stuff. Not the best reef, but plenty to see. The underwater camera works amazingly well. First time I’ve ever used it.

Then I headed down to Anini beach which I really liked. I had this one beach all to myself for about and hour. Then a sun kissed curly haired girl showed up. Pretty. The name of the beach used to be called Wanini until someone supposedly shot the “W” off the sign a long time ago and the name Anini just stuck around. That’s pretty much island mentality summed up. I could shoot the Chr off my name and just go by Is. That’d be cool.

Nice and sunny today so I headed over to a place called Queen’s Bath. It’s a lava shelf that has created a pool for swimming. Next to it though was the real show. There was a green sea turtle just hanging out and eating off the sides of the walls of an inlet. The surge would come in and he would ride it up to the ledge and sometimes he’d get caught on the ledge and flip over. It was total Xtreme Turtleing. I got some vid of it. Turtles rule.

The hike down to Queen’s Bath was pretty steep and I was carrying a lot. Then you have to walk out on the black lava rocks and it’s all hot and uneven and I’m kindy whiney when I don’t know how far something is. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? But it was worth it. Pretty cool out of the way spot.

Today’s goal was to tour around Waimea Canyon. Basically a mini Grand Canyon. Left about 8 this morning and it’s now 6pm so it was a 10 hour day and I’m beat and need some food. The ride up was really winding and if you’re driving it’s not a lot of fun. You can’t exactly look out the windows because the next hairpin turn is only 30 feet away. After a few stops to check out the sights I ended up at the end of the road which looks out over the Na Pali coast. I got out of the car and hiked a couple miles up to the top of the mountain and got a gorgeous view of Kalalau Beach. Which is only accessible by foot or kayak. From the viewpoint you can look east to Mt. Wai’ ale’ ale which is the wettest spot on earth. Averaging 440 inches a rain a year. Um, crap that’s like 36 feet of rain. Crazy wet. Above is the view of Waipo’o Falls in Waimea canyon. I was getting a little loopy after hiking in the hot sun and I stopped at a little park area that had a small cafe and ate the second worst chili dog I’ve ever had. They really only had three things on the menu, a pork sandwich, a greek salad and a chili dog. Why is there a greek salad on the menu on top of a mountain in the middle of the south pacific? After heading back in to the town of Waimea I stopped at the highly recommended Jo Jo’s for some shave ice. About the only place you can get shave ice is in the islands as its a local concoction. A little like a snow cone but with ice cream in the middle.

After sitting out on the bench watching people drive by and eating my shave ice I headed home. I stopped of at a little shop north of the hotel and bought a little ukulele from a guy there. He was cool and we chatted for about an hour about ukulele’s. He played some songs and showed me some chords then I picked one out and was on my way. I made him pose with a ukulele which he was more than happy to do. Now it’s just me and my uke sitting in my room playing David Bowie songs.

After getting a huge amount of sleep I got up and headed down to the south coast. First stop was Tip Top Cafe for some macadamia nut and banana pancakes. Can you say best thing ever? Ok, maybe not better than pizza or a toasted sesame bagel with whipped cream cheese but still… I got to Hanapepe and booked a helicopter flight to this hidden waterfall for Thursday. You can swim underneath the falls and everything so that should be a treat.

I also hit a blow hole called “Spouting Horn” which probably everyone that has every come to Kauai has probably seen. It’s a hole in the lava shelf that shoots water as a wave crashes into an old lava flow. The most interesting thing is the hole near it that blows air rather than water. It makes a huge whooshing sound and then the other hole spits a huge column of water. Pretty cool. I shot some cool video of it and the sound hole. About dinner time I was so hungry I stopped of at the market to pick up some stuff but the lure of chinese food next door was too much for me. So, chinese for dinner. Now I’m tired and occasionally falling asleep as I write this. The head’s bobbing something fierce.

Kauai! Flew out this morning on an uneventful flight. A good thing. The people next to me were from Texas and we chatted a bit before I went into iPod land for the rest of the flight.

So here’s a travelers wet dream. I get off the plane and the weather is FREAKIN’ SPECTACULAR! 80 degrees and just the slightest bit of humidity. Pretty much non-existant. Flying into Kauai is awesome if you’re on the left side of the plane as you get some beautiful views of the rocky coastline coming in for landing. We deboard the plane and here’s where it gets incredible. I make my way out the the baggage claim and the the beltway starts up and the first bag that tumbles out of the ramp. Mine! What the…?!? That NEVER happens! My eyes almost roll back in my head from excitement! I run over and grab it an head over to the car rental counter which is empty because all the rest of the suckers are still waiting for their bags! Heh heh!

Then the shuttle takes me over to pick up the car and a guy comes around the corner and yells to me “do you need a compact?” Yeah! He had just pulled it out of the car wash and it was all clean and gassed up. I hop in and roll down the windows and I’m on my way. It’s so nice out I can drive around with the windows down without the air conditioner. Not the usual muggy South Pacific island kinda thing to do.

Anyway, I get to the hotel and the lobby is empty and the woman at the counter tells me even though I’m early for check-in my room is ready and off I go. So from touchdown to unpacking my bags in my hotel room is 45 minutes.

After I got settled I headed over to Wailua Falls which is about a 10 minute drive and hung out a little bit. I then headed up the coast a little and just got an idea of the distances of the island. Fairly small island actually, but a trip over to the west coast will take a few day trips.

I’m so hearting you right now Kauai. If you were a girl at a bar I’d be buying you a drink.

Well it’s over. [Ghost Rider] wrapped for me today and now it’s holiday time. It’s going to seem like a distant memory when this comes out next February but it’ll be cool to see it after so long because I’ll have forgotten most of it. The [HD trailers] were released on Apple’s website this week and it will also be running on the front of X-Men: The Last Stand. The shot is from the trailer which is way better than the original teaser that came out months ago.

Next up is Beowulf. Which I am soooo happy to be working on!

I really need to go pack for vacation. I leave in 10 hours. Zoiks.

Nicolas Cage stopped by today to say hello to the Ghost Rider crew. He was filming in the area today and so swung by afterwards and watched a few sequences of the movie with us. His wife was with him and he talked a bit about loving what we were doing with the effects. Then I shot the crew photo with him. Of course I DIDN’T GET TO BE IN IT because I was too busy shooting it. Damnit, sometimes I hate being “the photographer”. Ha! Then it got all rushed for time and.. oh well.

Back in 1987 or so also I met him when he was trying to get his film “Vampire’s Kiss” a distribution deal. He screened it at my college where his father August Coppola was the Dean of Creative Arts. It had been finished for awhile but not released, and it sat on the shelf for another year or two before MGM gave it a go. I remember him getting asked about the cockroach scene a lot. It’s funny to separate the actor from the crazy roles he’s done. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Valley Girl, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Birdy, Peggy Sue Got Married, Moonstuck, RAISING ARIZONA!, Wild at Heart, Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Adaptation, etc. He’s cool, in that kinda crazy way.

Caught up with my pal Riz Story and the band Anyone [LINK] at The Viper Room tonight. He decided to celebrate his birthday tonight by playing a gig at The Viper Room. I’ve known him since we were five and officially he’s not my brother, but he might as well be. Being a musician’s cool because you can just say, hey I want to gather my friends, play some music, etc. Then you book a club Friday night on the Strip and all’s good. I can’t exactly do that. I can’t gather my friends around a computer and whip out some visual effects for them and expect to have an all night raging party. Oh well.

Beforehand I met up with my Show-Bro Matt down the street at The Coffee Bean then went back to the club a little after 11pm. I love the Coffee Bean on Sunset Blvd. A little fire pit out front and tons of action going by on the street. Great place to kill some time before a show. A group of school chums were all there waiting for me at club so I got to hang out a bit with them. They were all paying very close attention to Denise, one of our school mate’s younger sister, who had now, eh hem, “grown up” quite a bit since we all last saw her. Hilarious. The boys had no shame! These are the word’s that came out of my mouth, “You’re Dave’s LITTLE sister? Oh yeah… I remember you. Holy crap.” Ha! OK, well… that wasn’t very eloquent.

Anyway, I’ve slowly warmed to The Viper Room over the years. Mellow door people, lots of parking in the area, things to do beforehand and in and out privileges without having to be stuck inside the club all night. It’s also finally lost it’s stigma as that place owned by Johnny Depp and also the place that River Phoenix flopped around outside of when he died of a drug overdose. Oh River, we hardly knew ye. Now the Viper Room is a decent small club with no real attitude or celeb connection. Viper Room hint: Their seven dollar bottles of beer will keep you sober, so you can hit the liquor store next door beforehand. Or just get drunk at home and take a cab. Or just stay at home because I’m out having a good time and if you’re slurring and talking nonsense you might annoy me anyway.

I always find it interesting when I come across a picture of someone’s desk and get to see where that person spends their time creating. This is the current state of my my Fun Zone. Funny thing is that a lot of this will look horribly dated and be worth nothing in 10 years. If even that long. You used what…? What’s an iPod? You had to carry it with you…? Movies aren’t just beamed into your head? Hmmm… I just made myself sad. Ha!

The guitars will be here though! I’ve already had the acoustic for 20 years so it’ll probably be in some other photo in another 20 years. On that note, my new black MacBook arrived today! Still contemplating a name for it… I’m thinkin’ Zorro. I already have Zippy as my home system so I might as well stick with the Z’s.

Celebs Being Normal Sighting of the Week: Wednesday night I wanted to run over to the Apple store to see the new black MacBook. Mine was due to arrive the next day. The store was closing at 9pm and I got out of there and walked over to the bookstore. As I was headed up the escalator I heard a familiar voice and looked down and asking a clerk about some magazines was Dominic Monaghan. Oh, hey a hobbit. Then a little glance to his right… Evangeline Lilly. Then I got thinking, hey Lost starts at 9 on Wednesday nights. They’re out shopping while the show is on! I’d probably do that too. I download the shows to my iPod so I can go out on Wednesdays. And if you really want to know Evangeline ended up looking at movies and picked up “Carnal Knowledge”, not sure if she bought it though and Dominic was looking at film books. I was too so I almost pulled the “Hey Dom, I worked at Weta on Lord of the Rings thing” but I didn’t really care that much and got bored and went home.

Culver City is where hot rodding and customizing cars got it’s start. There used to be a speedway in the city starting back in 1924. It was eventually demolished to make way for the movie studios. Um, which is now Sony Pictures where I reside 10 hours a day. George Barris sponsers a car show every year and it’s pretty convenient since I can walk out of the office right into the middle of it. I’m all for bringing the entertainment to my doorstep. Some of the hot rods were for sale. One was 52K. Yow! And that’s without air conditioning or a radio.

Since we were working today, Saturday, we got BBQ and ice cream for lunch. Except the caterer was so late I bailed on it and went to the car show instead. I liked the dancers more than the cars really. Something kind of odd dancing in the middle of an intersection but it was cool. I like the 50’s hot rod look of the girls. The show was much bigger than last year but didn’t have any of the George Barris movie cars on display. Kinda burnt out, worked all day.

Coming up… Tommorow off and then two more weeks on the show. Then I’m off to Kauai at the end of the month! Just sittin’ on the beach drinkin’ things with umbrellas in them! And the occasional swing from a vine into a pool below a waterfall. Awww yeeeah…. Then Jill finishes Superman and we’re off to Europe til July. Fly into London, a little road trip around England to see some old stuff and meet up with James in London and Charlotte in Plymouth who I hung out with in Fiji, maybe Wales too, Chunnel it to Paris to eat come French stuff for a bit and then up to Amsterdam for some, well, we’ll see, over to Berlin to look at German stuff, and then up to Copenhagen to look at legos, danishes, and controversial religious cartoons. I think a little relaxation and some sight seeing is in order after the grueling long haul of Ghost Rider. The first real trailer for Ghost Rider is going to be on the front of X-Men 3.

Main Street, Downtown Los Angeles [LINK].

Santa Monica Pier Carousel [LINK].