With the passing of a legend...

A collective sigh of relief from the FCC?

A Show of Celebrities who should killl themselves to play me

Off the Road #3

Fins of a windfarm turbine being delivered to Iowa.

Two days after getting home from L.A. we all piled back in the minivan and drove to Minnesota! Another two days of road tripping except much noisier. We tried to stop every few hours to give the kids a break but by the end of the day, they'd be bouncing off the walls. We got one night in MN and then drove another 4 hours to Fargo, ND for the family reunion!

Oy! Another hotel, more eating out than ever and some first meetings with Bren's family including a cousin she'd never met due to being given up for adoption 40+ years ago. Bren and her sister got the ball rolling and anonymously dropped vital information in Cory's path and he followed the trail straight to his mom.

That was neat. After the family get-together, we came back to a cold and dreary MN and got our vacation underway. The kids all had a ball together and Bren and I got some alone time. A Double Feature of Indy and IronMan is hard to beat. IronMan - Awesome. Indy - Um, yeah, about that...
Indy meets Area 51, replace Nazis who can't shoot with Russians who can't shoot. Kype some scenes from The Mummy 2, tack on the happy ending wedding and you've got a franchise that will never die. Shia LeBeouf ain't no Marlon Brando. More like the Disney version of a West Side Story Jet. Without the dancing. Lucky bastard. He's like Will Smith showing up in every major summer blockbuster 14 years ago. Bren loved it.

Anyway, we also did the MN Zoo and took the kids fishing. Ginny was so proud. Even landed a couple small mouth bass that were keepable and took them home for dinner. Even let her drive the boat around. Big day for V.

Finally, Daddy got a little fun time too going out with Bill and shooting guns! Bill had a whole stockpile of ammo he had to get rid of so we packed up his arsenal and hit out for the range. Handguns: 357 Magnum, 380 snubnose, a 22 and a glock 9 (my favorite). Rifles: a 22, a 30.06, a 30.30 and a 12 gauge shotgun that beat the shit out of my shoulder. I thought I was holding it wrong but Bill's shoulder was pretty bruised too. Plenty of spent targets and shell casings. I haven't held a gun much less shot for about 20 years but memories of Boy Scout camp came back and I managed to save some face.


Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to make that trip again for a long time. I hope we can go again next year. Or sooner if I'm employed.

Off the Road #2

Road-tripping cross-country is a unique experience. Everyone should do it at least once. I do enjoy a long haul when it's just me and the road. Me and the wife and three kids and the road is about as close to hell you can get without adding a roadside breakdown. My biggest fear was a tire blowing out crossing the desert with nothing in sight for miles. Made my way following Route 66/I-40 back east. Ran the whole way sans A/C so's to keep the engine Hamsters happy. First major stop: The Meteor Crater outside Flagstaff, AZ.

Click for Panoramic

I had always wanted to see this for myself since Starman. Proof there are rocks in outer space and they intend to destroy us.

Me and the Rock. No relation to Dwayne Johnson.

Next day, next stop was at the Famous Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX. I almost missed it until I spotted a group of cars and campers parked alongside a field. Then I noticed the path with the cars nosediving into the Texas prairie. One fast exit later:

The majority of the trip was pretty non-eventful with a few scattered bright spots like the Route 66 Casino, The Arizona Forests with shuttle service to the Grand Canyon, that giant mesa sitting on top of Albuquerque, NM, and the rock-caves on the NM border.

It was good to get home. Even took a quick trip around UNT and got a look at all the new expansions in the past 15 years. If there was a parking lot space then it's covered with a building now. The Flying Tomato and Jim's Diner are gone. A big empty waiting for a brand-new soulless CVS or something else banal. Some new spots on the strip but obviously a page has turned.

Off the Road #1

From my flight to L.A. - The circle in the dirt is the Meteor Crater outside Flagstaff, AZ.

So I'm Back in Dallas after a whirlwind tour of the Northern and Southwestern states. Home again to try to remotely convince the studios that they were stupid to let me go and we'll just see if I decide to come back again. Hmph!

The decision was made to pack it in after a clean sweep of strike outs at the major studios in L.A. Pixar was the last holdout. It was an honor to be nominated. A phone interview with Patrick Lin and a couple DP's isn't too shabby but it doesn't really work on a resume: Special Skills - nearly talked my way into the biggest CG studio on the planet.

Took the opportunity to hook up with the guys from Imagi. Everybody had something good going on and they were very supportive. Adam's trying to land us on Tron2. Chuck is having way too much fun at my job on Tinkerbell. Josh is making inroads at my job at Dreamworks. Funny story, I got a call from Meredith at DWA saying 'Don't call us, we'll call you'. Apparently, all those submissions to Creative Heads and shout-outs actually go somewhere and I managed to piss off the hiring chick. Hey, if they didn't want submissions, they should stop posting open positions.

Next was the crew screening of Kung-Fu Panda. Awesome! That was a bittersweet capper to my first stab at Tinseltown. All that great work up on screen and not much to show for it. The crew was happy to see me and expressed sympathy for the situation. They'd all love to have me back but it sounds like it is totally out of their hands. Hope I get a poster.