chase the light

Today at work my supervisor came by my office to give me a little box and said Happy Holidays from Bob. As in Bob Z?? Cool. I doubt I’ll ever meet him and wonder if he personally chose these gifts, but still. I’m not sure if he [LINK] actually goes by Bob Z., or if they just call him that to differentiate him from some other Bob. Anyway, he sent gifts to the whole crew which I thought was nice. Most of the time you never even hear from the director, but on animated projects you tend to work more closely with them. It’s all fun and stuff working on a Holiday film right now as it’s perfect to get in the mood. Come Spring and Summer it ain’t gonna be so cool. Then it should come back full circle once we get close to the release date next year. What was the gift? A silvery mirror frame with the Polar Express teaser [LINK] image in it. Bob Z. gave us frames!

All this week I was planning on going to this big behemoth party on the lot. Suddenly I got in the hot seat at work, so I did the good worker bee thing and decided to stick it out to make someone look good tomorrow. Even though I really wanted to go pawty. Round about 5:00 everyone left me behind like bad soldiers, so F ’em, I’m going too. Screw making someone look good.

Damn, it’s things like these that make me realize this is one big ass company . They put a carousel smack dab in the middle of stage 16, carnival games, gambling, alcohol, and lots of ginger bread men. The cool thing about a studio party is they can raid the prop shop and decorate it with pieces from sets. And whoa, some of the girls from work were all decked out and lookin’ way good. Get people out of their cubes and they start to look like real human beings. Meanwhile, the guys came in their usual street/cube clothes. That always cracks me up. Working in an office breeds slothness in guys. All in all, pretty good. Didn’t touch food though. Too full from all the sweet crap everybody’s bringing into work. Good fun. Check out the sights and sounds [VIDEO LINK].

So, blah, blah, blah Saddam was captured. I went to this Festivus 2.0 [LINK] party Saturday night. Which just kicked ass. Way bigger than last years Festivus 1.0. Lots of people I knew and Jay [LINK] had it catered by the Double Dutch Dinette [LINK] in Culver City. Which also kicked ass because he could actually mingle around and enjoy the party. Like a boner though I forgot my camera, which wasn’t so bad because I could hang out and enjoy the party. The food was excellent and as soon as I finished eating something, one of the caterers was there to take my plate. That’s a nice touch. Anyway, back to my first tangent. After the regular dinner I started in on the desserts, such as the strawberry short cake thing, the chocolate short cake thing, the brownies, almond brittle, cookies, etc. So by the time the night was done I was completely high on sugar. I could have probably over turned a car with the amount that was flowing through me. Needless to say I didn’t get to sleep until about 3:00am. Which is not good thing when you wake up at 4:00am from a dream that you’re in Iraq running around a battlefield in an intense firefight. You’d think I would dream of being some hero or something and damning the torpedoes by hurling grenades and shit. Nope, I wasn’t fighting. I was just running around like some chicken shit trying to get the hell out of there. It was like I was in Halo [LINK], but without a gun. What a pussy boy. See, WAY too much sugar. Anyway, I’m drifiting in and out and hear something about Saddam being captured and realize I’ve fallen asleep on the couch with the TV on and a live press conference is on about his capture. Probably the reason I’m dreaming of some nightmarish vacation in Iraq. The first thing I can think of in my haze is, man, Fidel Castro sure has put on the weight. I wake up a little more then thought, shit, this means four more years of George Dubya. Well, that, and is my Iraqi dollar with Saddam’s face on it completely useless now, or worth more? At 4:00 in the morning, somehow money was a priority.

Being across the street from one of the largest shopping destinations in L.A. has its pluses and minuses. During the year it’s a blessing as the Farmer’s Market, Barnes and Nobles, Whole Foods, and the Pacific Theaters are all within walking distance and quite manageable. But, before the last belch of some skanky relative’s Thanksgiving stuffing reaches your nose, it turns into an all out maddening chaos. The Farmer’s Market becomes a grey haired gladiator brawl, the 14 screen theater makes you appreciate the 200 seat art house showing “Harold and Maude”, the book store turns into a study hall for University kids cramming for finals, and the Whole Foods grocery store looks like the food relief deliveries in Somalia. From now until Jan. 2nd I will only leave the house for work and emergency purposes. Oh, and “Return of the King next week. I did venture out to see the Mr. Bubble “snow fall” [LINK] at The Grove tonight. Every night at 7:00pm they shoot fake snow in the form of small bubbles from the rooftops to create a wintery holiday vibe. Which is only applicable if you’re from a fairly northern hemisphere country. Santa was there taking orders from the kiddies. “Buddy the elf, what’s your favorite color?” [VIDEO LINK].

After a 10 hour day, nothing makes the pain go away faster than some quality time in the Hot Tub. So I run home, see if my house was broken into, greet the neighbors cats, see which bills are now past due, jump into my ultra flash Kirra board shorts, quickly walk down to the pool in the currently mid 40 degree temps, show my i.d. and I usually join the other water warriors for the daily recap. No one was there when I arrived. So I sat with my own thoughts until the supposedly long ago former Playboy model showed up. Not sure what her story is but she’s one bitter pill. Of the three things she responded to; Thanksgiving sucks it’s just another day, she hates all things Disney, the pool area’s blue & white flags look really stupid, and she has every right to stay until 10:00pm without feeling rushed to get out of the pool. Um, ok. Not even a “Sure was nice out today”. She’s a whole lotta fun. You’d think the hot tub would make her happy. Most of the time when I go out there I feel like Eddie Murphy [VIDEO LINK]. My robe is white though. Man, I love a good Hot Tubbin’.

Oh Baby… a little turkey, a little mashed po tay to, some capiscum [LINK] with carrots, some sweet corn, and a little award winning Chateau St. Jean to wash it down. Get in me belly. I was joined in the festivities by seven lovely ladies I brought back from the Czech Republic. Of course they were in the form of matrioshka nesting dolls [LINK], but still. After a noon day Thanksgiving lunch and a viewing of “The Haunted Mansion” [LINK] with the parents, I figured I go home, cook up a late dinner and catch a “good” movie. So after my “typical American” dinner that included mashed potatos, what else should I go see but a movie about an Irish family moving to America. “In America” [LINK]. If at least one of those two girls [LINK] in the film isn’t a hugely famous actress in the future I’d be very surprised. Great movie, but a border guard doesn’t say “Welcome to America”, they say “Welcome to The United States”. They don’t say “Welcome to Europe” when you go to France. Jus’ sayin’.

I put in an Amazon order recently for a set of DVD’s [LINK]. It’s a series of compilation discs of three different music video directors. Well they came in yesterday and were sitting in my office. I particularly got a lot of mileage out of this one from some of my more naive friends [LINK]. One even said, “And you can buy this on Amazon?”. “Oh, yes, I’ve been quite busy working with Madonna, Bjork, and Aphex Twins outside of my day job.” Of course those in the know, know that the other Chris Cunningham is quite the amazing video director. The bastard. Hence the whole reason I use my full name Christian for screen credits. That and I’m really shallow and vain because my full name is pretty long and therefore much bigger than everybody’s else’s. Like a John Hancock of screen credits because it’s easier to find after 2000 names have rolled by. After watching the disc, that Bjork video for “All Is Full Of Love” really is a thing of beauty [LINK]. Twice now, at different companies, I’ve been introduced to people who have stalled for a second when they heard my name and sheepishly asked are you THE Chris Cunningham. Um, sadly, no. I’ll forever be THE OTHER Chris Cunningham.

The weekend before I left for holiday I actually purchased another of Jett Jackson’s [LINK] paintings. She was showing some work at a show in Beverly Hills and I was hoping she’d still have this one painting that I really liked.

I went the first day of the show to check and someone had given her a bid on it. They said they’d go home and come back at 3:00 if they decide they wanted it. So I came along at about 2:00 and asked her if it was sold and she said she’d had a bid in on it but that if I could beat it by a $100 I could take it right then. She wanted me to have it anyway since I’d already bought a painting from her before and was a known quantity. I told her I’d take it but I’d have to run home and get my checkbook, because if I take my checkbook to an art show I’ll start writing checks until the sun comes up. I’d have lots of art but no roof over my head. I came back with the check and asked her if she could hold onto the painting until I get back from holiday. She was glad to do that because she was having a hard time selling anything at the show because at that point there were people interested but so few actual buyers. She hoped once something had a sold sign on it people would start making decisions. So right after she put a sold sign on mine she said everybody suddenly went nuts and bought enough paintings for her to live off of for the next 6 months. Nice. There were even a few who said they were disappointed because they had wanted mine. Buyers really succumb to peer pressure. They’re a childish lot.

Anyway, tonight I went to pick up the painting. She lives at the Santa Fe Art Colony [LINK] and I got to check out her studio. It was so amazing. What a great place, but what a scary ass part of town to live. They have an open house in May that is supposed to be really great. Frankly I get a much better vibe out of this place than most of the hacks over at the Brewery [LINK]. Below is the painting on the easel surrounded by some of her other work. She’s a bit of a surrealist in a Dali/Picasso sorta way, and I think a touch of art deco via Tamara de Lempicka [LINK]. It’s called “Random Muse-ing”, and the woman has all sorts of little things floating about in her head. (hi darling)

I still love the first one I bought because it also has the same sorta melancholy feeling [LINK]. Although it’s a wee bit sadder. You can click on the pics to get the details. Damn, that’s one beautiful painting. All the cool people think so.

Now that Haunted Mansion has gone the way of ghosts I’m on “The Polar Express” [LINK]. It’s teaser trailer is being released into theaters and should be showing before “Return Of The King”, “Love Actually”, “Looney Tunes”, and “Peter Pan”. Not all prints will have it, so be warned. There’s a couple pics from the quicktime trailer below. Also the Shrek 2 trailer is beautiful [LINK]. Three huge, all CG films next year. “Polar Express” [LINK], “Shrek 2” [LINK], and “The Incredibles” [LINK] from Pixar.

I can’t believe how much losing your luggage sucks. Especially when a whole cd of images from your digital camera is in it and you’ve already erased the card and filled it up again. I also can’t tell you how grateful you feel that there’s a website called My Lost Bag [LINK]. My bag was only eight hours behind me on a 1 hour flight to Ireland. I’m lame and hugged it when it arrived.

I was happy to be leaving London today to hopefully recover from this sickness with some warmth. A few days in Barcelona should cure my ills. I arrived around 6:00pm and Alex was there at the airport. So good to see him and we headed up to the city for some xurros and hot xocolate. On the ride in I even got to teach Alex about MontJuic. Even though he lives in the city he didn’t know where the name came from. Mountain of Jews! There’s a Jewish cemetery there. Cool, I know something! It’s way handy to cruise around the city with someone who lives there. Where to park, which streets to turn on, where the killer hot xocolate is, etc. After we grabbed some xurros and xocolate in the Barrio Gotic [VIDEO LINK] area we headed up Las Ramblas to Placa De Catalunya. Some guy was fast asleep on a car while the city went on around him. It’s always fun to revisit a city you’ve been to before because you’re much more comfortable. No more figuring out the subway system, deciphering the accents, or learning restaurant eccentricities. Alex did a little shopping at a store he likes and then we headed off to his house in Mira-sol. We stopped at a little roadside setup where some guys were selling these little roasted nut kinda things. Alex picked up a newspaper full of them a brought them to the house. Maria showed up a few minutes behind us and had bought some of them too! Can’t quite remember what they were called, but they tasted a bit like potatos. Alex? Help me out with the name? It was good to hang out and chat about things like no time had passed. We even watched “Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles” late into the night. We laughed at all the silly L.A. moments in it. Probably more than we should have for such a horrid film.

Last day in London and I don’t even want to move. Thought I’d just lay low and try and get a little better. I did have to go out to the University Of London to find out where the show is. That was going to drain me so I tried and be mellow about it. I got lost way too many times on the way there and became totally frustrated. That didn’t help my mood one bit. 16 Horsepower [LINK] [LINK] is pretty much the reason I added the London portion to my trip. They rarely do tours in the States, but seem to tour the Netherlands and England quite frequently. So I was just going to stiff lip it and try and enjoy myself. After I found the place I went back to the hotel and tried to sleep. No help to what sounded like English Footballer fans as I laid there tossing and turning. About 6:00pm I went into slow motion and made my way across town to the University. It was freezing ass cold and I waited in line for a bit and then made my way upstairs to the club. I could die right now. I got some food at the grill and ate in the corner of the cafeteria away from the club section. This was the single worst chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Can’t this country put a decent meal together? Everything I’ve ever eaten in London completely blows. Even today at lunch when I went to Nando’s, it sucked. We use to frequent one of those in New Zealand and it was tasty good. I wish I could turn off my stomach while here. Anyway, I didn’t watch the opening band as they made the Cowboy Junkies seem like a speed metal band. 16 Horsepower came on was just awesome. [Quicktime 6.0/iTunes alert ahead] There’s nothing better than when David Eugene Edwards starts playing the opening bars of “Harm’s Way” [LINK] and “American Wheeze” [LINK] on that Patek Concertina. They’re just too good. I’ve lost track of how many times of seen them. At least 10 off the top of my head. After the show I ran down stairs to get to the bathroom first and passed the band running the other way to get out of the club before the fans. Elvis has left the building. I just nodded and said great show. Sick as a dog I made way home. I was willing to call my joke of a hotel home at this point. Tomorrow I’m off the Barcelona. Maybe I can recover there with a little help from a nice sleep at Alex and Maria’s.

For a lack of anything better to do I decided to go out and see what had become of the Millennium Dome. Well, nothing had become of the Millennium Dome actually. How sad, the giant tent like structure is still sitting along the Thames but there’s nothing but weeds growing up around it. On a day layover in London a couple years ago a friend and I went and it was a really great thing that was showcasing… I’m not sure really what it was showcasing now that I think about it, but it was a lot of fun. Peter Gabriel had composed the music for the Cirque Du Soleil acrobat like show and all sorta of things were flying around. Now it’s dead. It ended up being a bad idea going out there today as I was quickly coming down the one of the most frightening colds I’ve ever had. I was in a bad way by the time I got back to hotel. It hit me so quick.

Unfortunately I had already purchased a ticket for Les Miserables tonight. I’ve seen the show like 5 times but thought I’d see if I liked the London version better. Nope. In fact it was the worst version I’ve seen. The staging was up there, but the key roles were pretty weak. The scary thing is that this one show has been playing here since 1985. 18 years and with over 7500 shows under its belt. That’s half of my lifetime. That’s nuts. No wonder it feels a bit long in the tooth. It’s closing in March and moving down the street to the Queens Theater so that the theater can do its long overdue renovations. I’m soooo sick.

Tonight’s show? “Hot Hot Heat” [LINK] at the London Astoria!! Man, I love this band. Do yourself a favor and get into them. Did my usual morning visit to see the venue where the show is going to be. Then I headed out for some sight seeing. I went back to Abbey Road Studios. There’s even a live cam set up [LINK]. I go out there everytime. I don’t know why. Maybe just to read the new graffiti or just soak in the area. The funny thing is later I was to find out that Paul McCartney and his wife had their baby the night before I went out to the studios. You pass the hospital on they why to the studios which is a short 5 minute walk from St. John’s Wood station. She was kept there a few days so it’s highly probable Paul was there the next morning as I walked by. A mere 30 or so feet to the front door.

After that I hopped the train across the city to the south bank and walked over to the “London Eye” and back up to Trafalgar Square where they’ve done something with all the pigeons. I kind of miss those flying rats, dirty as they are. It was pretty much raining this whole time, which sucked. Got back to the nightmare hotel and grabbed a bite to eat before heading over to the Astoria. All the sightseeing paled in comparison to the show tonight. Quite possibly the most going off show I’ve ever seen. The crowd was near rioting with joy. I got in line and I was definitely one of the older guys there, but I made up for that in lack of acne. The only downside of the show is the smoking. God Lord, you could choke a horse in that place. There was a thick grey cloud blanketing the club the whole night. It made the lights look cool, but it was disgusting and after the show I almost dry heaved a few times. It was that NASTY. The show was great though. Crowd surfers galore and the whole place bouncing in unison was amazing. I thought the floor would cave in. Good fun, but ack, cough, cough.

Got up this morning and had to get over to Shepherd’s Bush to find the Empire theater for tonight’s concert, Daniel Lanois [LINK]. I didn’t even have a street name so when I got off the Tube I asked a guy at McDonald’s and he pointed across the park at these two tall buildings. He said it was on the other side of the buildings. Ok, easy enough. One hour later I’m still walking around Shepherd’s Bush and finally ask someone else. Where’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire? Oh, it’s on this street a few blocks down, just keep going. Oh, ok. I finally get there and I realize that across the park I can see the McDonald’s where the first guy gave me horribly misguided directions. At least I knew where I was going now. Better to be lost here in the daylight than later tonight.

Hopped a train back to Kensington and went to the Serpentine Gallery to see the John Currin exhibit. Here’s a little info [LINK]. It was great and I walked through Hyde Park to the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall. Then took the train back to Piccadilly and grabbed dinner. After a little shopping and some rest I hopped back over to the Shepherd’s Bush area a little early in case there was a line. Not to bad, and for about 45 minutes the lined up crowd was entertained by the two local homeless guys who preceded to berate everybody who walked by. Seriously, the drunkest people I’ve ever seen. It was all non-threatening until they started in with the line and I was the subject of attention for about 10 minutes. Finally the police came and took care of the situation as it was starting to escalate and get unruly. Finally the concert started and Daniel Lanois came out and put in an awesome set. Since I got there early, I was able to watch the show from the front of the stage. I placed myself right by his steel guitar so I could watch him play it close up. It worked out perfectly especially for the encore when Bono came out and joined him onstage for a drunken version of “Falling At Your Feet”. Bono was so out of it he couldn’t even sing the song even when given the lyrics written out on a sheet a paper. After the song was over Daniel said, “That kids got a future”. Then Bono left the stage and Daniel said, “He’s gonna kill me later”. Well, after that drunken display I would have too. I didn’t bring my camera tonight but some guy up in the balcony did [LINK]. You can even see my head in one of the shots. Me below the red star, Bono below the white star. Great to see the show after having met him back in May [LINK].

Said my goodbyes to Ireland this morning and onto London. I’m really starting to hate London more each time I go. Between Heathrow airport and the flu and virus toxic zone known as the Underground, I can think of many other places I’d rather be. I am here for concerts though, so that’s good. After taking the Piccadilly line into Piccadilly Circus, easy, I tried checking into the hotel. The line for doing this wound through the lobby and out the front door. All around the lobby were notes posted apologizing for the recent evacuation because of the fire alarm. Great. After about 45 minutes I got my key to my crappy room. The bathrooms and showers are down the hall and you have to call them when you want to take a shower. All this for the wonderful price of $100 a night. I was pretty beat so I thought I’d try to take a little nap. About 20 minutes into laying down and just about to fade off, the mother f’in #%#&$ #&*% fire alarm goes off! See for yourself. [VIDEO LINK] The Regent Palace Hotel… never ever ever ever stay there. This is really going to suck as I’m here for the next 5 nights and so far is the noisiest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. I’m already entertaining the idea that I’ll never stay in London again.

Yesterday I drove down from Northern Ireland via Belfast and got lost along the way. I ended up in the town of Monaghan by accident and started looking for a place to stay. I was out of luck because this weekend just happened to be a bank holiday so all the hotels were booked. Amanda at work had given me her parents number in case of an emergency. They live in Monaghan, but it was now 11:00pm and I thought it might give them a fright if I just showed up out of the blue. “Um, hi… yeah..” I went over it in my head a few times before I resigned myself to the inevitable. So I trekked on all the way down to Dublin, hoping and praying there was a room near the airport. Fortunately there was a room at the hotel I’d being staying at during my layover flight to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. The other thing this would let me do is have today to drive down to Waterford as a day trip. The trip down was nice and somewhere along the side of the road was a gypsy like camp of trailers. Straight out of the movie Snatch.

Once I got down to Waterford, which I thought was quite nice, I didn’t really have much time so I went to the Waterford Crystal factory and took a tour and picked up a few gifts. I’m not a big crystal fan but it was interesting. I bought a couple of Irish Coffee glasses for myself even though I don’t drink coffee. I had all the stuff shipped, but not after talking to this incredibly beautiful sales woman Jacinda for more than an hour. The typical red hair and blue eyes thing is really working on me at this point. I get it now. Sometimes I forget how fascinated people are by Hollywood stuff, and trying to explain what I do and how it fits into all of that can make conversations really easy. You field a lot of questions such as, “Are people in L.A. that shallow?” Yes. “Do you see stars walking around all the time?” On the way back, I got lost once again. I’ve got it figured it out. I get lost only when it’s beautiful out. I’m to busy to be bothered with maps at that point. I had a few hours to get to Dublin and caught the sunset on my way out of Waterford.

Crack me the hell up. Well, I made it. I wasn’t sure I was going to make all the way up to Northern Ireland and even the northern coast at that. But here I am standing before what I consider the greatest album cover in rock history. Don’t think I don’t know I’m a total loser for doing this but I loved every minute of those two hours I was out there trying to find “the” spot. When I was a kid I swear I’d unfold my House Of The Holy record sleeve and look at those kids crawling up this rocky monolith and listen to that music for hours on end. It was other worldy and took me places. I was in musical geek heaven today. Unfortunately I didn’t have as wide a lens as they did, but you can still open both images and see the similar landmarks. What nobody tells you is that they printed the album cover backwards, which would have shaved off probably an hour of time searching for it. So I flipped my photo for ease of use. This would definitely be a great Geocache.

Ah, some nice sleep. I actually feel like I want to stay here another night after that noisy ass hotel in Dublin. I got an early start today which was good and bad. Good because I had a lot of driving to do, but bad because it was like planet Pluto cold outside. All of the fields around had frost on them and the sun looked amazing as it was raking across all of the ice. I had to find my way down to Liscanoor to see if some ferries were running. I suspected they weren’t but thought I’d give it shot. They weren’t, but that did allow me to take a beautiful drive through the hills on the way to the cliffs. I even passed through Lisdoonvarna which is home to the famous matchmaking festival.

After a couple hour drive I finally arrived at the Cliffs. Damn. Those things are some big cliffs. The sun of course was working against me photo wise but they were still amazingly beautiful. After an hour or so at the cliffs I needed to hit the road so I could get up to Clifden and the Connemarra in the late afternoon. At the end of the day I pulled into the town of Sligo exhausted and beat from the days driving. The first hotel I passed I stopped at and thank God they had rooms. If I had to search out a hotel right then I would been a wreck. I was more mentally tired than physically tired, so I wasn’t really sleepy yet. So what better thing is there to do when you’re mentally tired but go to the circus! As I was driving into town “Tom Duffy’s Circus” was across the street from the hotel.

It was about 8:15 when I finally got over there. I walked up to the ticket counter and saw that the show had started at 7:30. I asked if I could still go in, but he said I missed the lions and tigers. I figured most of the show was going to be a huge animal exploitation fest anyway. So the less I saw of that the more I could probably enjoy the whole camp factor. I said I was cool with going in late because I had nothing to do. For God’s sake I’m the north west corner of Ireland on a Friday night going to a circus. Of course I have nothing to do. He sold me the cheapest ticket yet still gave me a grandstand seat.

Ok, I’ll never do this again, as I was seriously the oldest person there without a kid. Everyone seemed to enjoy the show though. Animal taunting and all. Man, those poor alligators. All they did was cart them out, throw them into the ring, and rap their noses with sticks so they would open their mouths in defense. Then the circus performers would throw their hands up in the air like some great feat had been done. Everyone clapped except me, who sat horrified in the darkness of the last row. God bless Cirque Du Soleil that only exploits little russian gymnasts and asian girls who throw around yo-yo’s and stuff. At least they could quit if they want. Anyway, I’ve never been to a traditional circus before and it was exactly the David Lynch house of horrors experience I expected it to be.