I’m saying that sarcastically of course.  Since we arrived in California last Thursday night it has been raining raining and raining some more.  In fact, we saw on the local news last night that this is the most rain southern California has gotten in decades!   Good timing on our part.  🙂

Meanwhile… HELLO my long lost blog friends.  I think this is the longest I’ve gone without blogging thus far and though it’s nice to have a little break I’m excited to reconnect!  It’s always a challenge blogging from the road.  You need to find the time and you need to find the internet connection, which is sometimes more difficult than you anticipate.

Even though I haven’t been blogging, I’ve been keeping up with my daily photos so let’s start with my photos from last week.

Photo 249 out of 365 – “‘Under My Umbrella’ Recreated”

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on a shoot with Adam’s company Bodega.  My title was Assistant Camera, so my main responsibility was to make sure that Mark – the Director of Photography (DP) – had everything he needed to get the job done.  I kept track of the different lenses and switched them out for him when he needed, kept them clean, helped with his tripod, etc.  In the shot featured above, the team is recreating the “Under My Umbrella” shot I took months ago…

It was super cool seeing this shot come to life!  And as you can see, it was a crazy setup.  We had a kiddie pool in Mark’s bathroom and a sort of rainmaker machine to simulate the raindrops.   It was a fascinating inside look at movie magic.  You really can create almost anything if you have the imagination to envision it and the team to make it happen.  Awesome.

And here is Mark on day two of the shoot – DP in action!

 

Photo 250 out of 365 – “DP Mark”

 

The shoot went swimmingly and Thursday we packed our bags and headed out of town for California!  We arrived in LA on Thursday night and headed to our hotel at the W on Hollywood Blvd. at around nine o’clock, tired and starving!  So now begins my rant about the W and fancier hotels in general…

I booked two nights for us at the W because I have a Starwood Amex card and I’ve racked up a bunch of points.  With this card I can pay half in points – so our stay was only supposed to be ninety dollars per night plus points.  A sweet deal!  Meanwhile, it amazes me how these more expensive hotels charge you for every little thing.  It’s so NOT classy!  The internet was fifteen dollars per day – we protested by not getting internet – ridiculous!  The parking was nearly forty dollars per day.  They had big beautiful bottles of water scattered throughout the room and each was labeled with a NINE DOLLAR price tag.  Are you kidding?  This ruined the experience for me and I decided I’m getting rid of my Starwood card and getting a new card.  Currently I’m at a Residence Inn getting free internet, free parking and free breakfast.  Why are the expensive hotels so CHEAP?  I don’t get it.

Anyway – the room was snazzy – definitely more style over substance – but the bed was super comfortable and that’s the most important thing.  Here is a shot of the mini bar I took on Thursday night before I passed out.

 

Photo 251 out of 365 – “W Mini Bar”

 

 

On Friday we drove around and explored the Hollywood Hills – my favorite thing to do is drive around and look at all the huge houses – those roads in the hills are crazy!   We drove through Beverly Hills and along Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon and saw a peek of the Hollywood sign.  And then Adam had a meeting at Warner Brothers with one of the jurors we met at the Bahamas Film Festival.  It was an extremely positive meeting and we’re hoping it might lead to some exciting developments but it’s too soon to tell – so stay tuned!

My photo from Friday gives you a good idea of the beautiful California weather we’re enjoying this week:

 

Photo 252 out of 365 – “Sunny California”

 

On Saturday we visited our friend Marti Jo who has the most beautiful apartment in the Los Feliz area of LA.  It’s one of those places that has so many little special touches – ornamental cabinets built into the wall, beautiful crown molding decorated with gold leaf, cute little nooks – and it’s HUGE and rent-stabilized!  Makes a New Yorker living in a mini one-bedroom rather jealous!  Here is a photo of her little vanity room off her bedroom.

 

Photo 253 out of 365 – “Marti Jo’s Vanity”

 

After brunch with Marti Jo we were off again – this time for Coronado, where our friends Sean and Christy were getting married on Sunday.

That is where I’ll leave you for now – as I have not gone through my photos from the wedding yet and I have to go jump in the shower!  It’s so funny, Adam and I have become little old people on this trip.  We’ve been going to bed at like ten o’clock at night and waking up all early.  I sort of like it.  We’re going to try to keep that going when we get back to New York, but we’ve still got another five days in rainy California before we head back to the east coast!  I’ll try to blog again soon.  Hope everyone is staying warm!