Purgatory, USA Starts Shooting

We started shooting the first episode of Purgatory, USA this evening. Here are some screen captures from the opening scene.

DC starts off the series
by talking to the camera

Dea as Mickey

DC as Nicole

We'll post more over at the Sonlight Pictures Blog as the shooting continues.

My Son's Concerns

Since it's summer my son has been asking to stay up late each night. We've kinda settled at 12:30 a.m. as a good summer bed time.

The other night his best friend was spending the night. Gabe comes into the room and asks me what time he has to go to bed. I respond "Let's stick with the 12:30 mode." I thought for a moment and said "You know what? It's a sleep over. Let's make it 1:00 a.m."

Gabe looks at me with completely serious 11 year old eyes and says "But what about my increased risk of heart disease?"

WHAT????

I burst into laughter... so hard I was crying. Through my tears I asked, "what are you talking about?"

He said "I saw a news program and they said if you don't get enough sleep it can increase your risk of heart disease."

I said, "Gabe, you're eleven! Don't worry about it!"

We had a great, hearty laugh and he went on to enjoy his sleepover.

The funny things kids say!

How To Annoy Your Wife - Part 1

So, the whole Fox thing has been pretty interesting, weird and cool. And, in typical male fashion I have been able to parlay that experience into an opportunity to annoy my wife.

A little background first... whenever my birthday comes around my wife is very kind and offers me just about anything I want. She'll cook or get me a gift or whatever. She's very selfless.

It occurred to me a few years ago that such kindness should be extended... so I decided to lengthen my "special day" from a single birth day to what I liberally call "my birthday weekend." Depending on what day my birthday falls this "weekend" could be anywhere from three to five days! Going forward, whenever I would ask for something I would use my excessively humble-sounding voice and state my request as part of "my birthday weekend."

"Honey, can you hand me the remote on my birthday weekend?"

"Honey, can you play with my hair on my birthday weekend?

"Honey, I think you should vacuum my car on my birthday weekend."

This annoyed my wife to no end.

And that annoyance made me happy.

I don't know why. It must be genetic. For example, a few years ago my mother and father were at my brother Charles' house. As my parents were about to leave it started to rain slightly. My mother sprinted... okay, she was 80 kabillion years old then, so it wasn't so much a sprint as it was an effective "dash!" Anyway, she dashed to the car. My dad, cane in hand, looks to me under the dry porch roof and smiles saying "Watch this. I'm gonna drive your mother nuts."

And, in what was slow even for him, which was as close to being motionless and yet, scientifically, actually still include motion, my father walked toward the car in the rain. Step by slow, excruciating step.

After a minute, my Mom popped her dampening head out of the car and said "Chizzle! Hurry up!" My father responded with innocent tones with "Oh, I'm coming!" He turned back to me and winked.

At that moment I realized the sick, sad enjoyment I get from frustrating my wife was going to last until I too was 80 kabillion years old. It was inevitable.

Flash forward to this week. The whole Fox News Real American thing has been a trip and, funny enough, it turned out that I was on almost every single one of their promos! All but one, I think. So, realizing this was another annoyance opportunity I came into the living room to my wife and said "Seeing as I'm in almost every promo for Fox, representing real Americans, I think it's fair to say that I speak for all Americans."

She looked at me with a knowing, great suspicion.

"So..." I continued "America wants to know what's for dinner?"

She couldn't help but laugh... however she also knew that was only the first of 80 kabillion times she was going to hear from "America."

Last night, after three solid days of America wanting things, she was really, really annoyed. I said "America is not happy with your attitude. America thinks you should give your husband a kiss."

My wife responded "I wanna punch America in the face!"

And, like my father before me, I felt a small sense of glee inside.

Sick, probably. Sad, absolutely. Yes, it may be many things, but I can tell you this...

America thinks it's funny.