I didn't take this one; a friend did. But I thought you all needed to see it too.

Was Tony Soprano in town?

Our new mechanic called me this morning to follow up..."just making sure the car is working okay and you had no problems over the weekend."

Roger Clark, NY1's resident surrealist. Reporting on the baseball excitement this morning, he brought along some of his own childhood Mets memorabilia. "Pat...right here, this is a program from...Pat?..."

NY1: We report, you decide, Roger does his own thing.

Arrived at my office this afternoon to find the front doors completely surrounded by paparazzi. Turns out Jessica Simpson was in the building.

Why???????

QUOTE

------ Law Office, P.C. puts the family first by providing the following services:

* Divorce (contested & uncontested)
* Legal Separations
* Annulments

I received a “Cabela's for Women” catalog in the mail yesterday (Bean's or someone must have sold them my address). I leafed through it quickly for a little comic relief (camo-print silk negligée, anyone?) and came across an item cheerily touted: The Annadonia Sweater! Hey, how would you pronounce that? “Anhedonia” maybe? Yeah. Gotta get me one of those.

Ah, ma petite chou, is this your employment goal? La Premiere Famille Disintegree!

I am so jealous! The regular Cabela catalog is hard to get twice. You don't order from the first one you get, they don't send another. Where else can you buy a life size turkey decoy for your front porch?

I wish Jos. A. Bank would follow Cabela's lead. I've been getting their catalog for years. I wrote to tell them that I usually buy at the Salvation Army, but they don't seem to care.

I am being filmed by a crew, in my home, for a segment on a syndicated show called In Wine Country. They are here for a day and half for a three minute segemet. I was told to block out the day for them but they've just left for lunch for an hour. What am I to do? Check my email and MF, of course.
Part of this is a cooking demo and we have to shoot and reshoot with different hands and at different angles. It is very surreal. "Let's get a shot of you turning up the flame." At one point they turned to me and told me to be quiet so they could get "nats". Turns out this means "natural sounds". I have to say it isn't easy because when the camera starts I need to be "on" again. But I think of little Liza Minnelli and all the woes she's been through and yet she remains a STAR through and through. I want people to think of me and say, "What a trouper!"
Anyway, one of the more surreal days of my life.
I hope they don't pry and discover my cocaine problem.

Congratulations, Steve! When will it air?

They think in December. I hadbn't heard of it but I guess it's on NBC affliliates.

So I was about to post a link to Cabela's (which I happened upon in looking for fly fishing information), and this thread popped up in the search. What was so surreal was the last post before mine just now.

You can have mine.

No, really.

I just KNEW you'd find a place in showbiz! Congratulations!

I am on their mailing list, but I don't think they have figured out I'm a girl since I've only ever ordered fly rods and wading boots.

Suzanne, not sure what info you need on the fly fishing front but I'd be happy to help if I can...

Fly

No comment.

Maybe they have no budget for Foley?

I did something similar with our own grantk last week but you never said you needed "nats". I would have misunderstood and thought you were saying "Nads" and were requesting a back waxing and I'm sorry but I would have said no.

I thought we were pretty together, don't you?

Today was surreal and it continues tomorrow. A cute moment was when they had the boys threshing the beans by hitting them with a baseball bat in a pillowcase. After we finished the 8 year old went up to the cameraman told him, "That's a wrap!"

It'll be interesting to compare the footage. How big was the crew? Including the producer/director (same person?). How much lighting did they do? Tripod or handheld? I bet the camera was a lot bigger. And what kind of mic, lav or boom? I didn't even think to get "nats." I told you sound wasn't my forte.

It was big deal today but we were more efficient and had more fun.

Grant and I filmed a short cooking demo and I'll let you know when I get it up on my website. The raw footage is great and Grant is an excellent cinematographer and the the video looks like film. So alive! Of course he had an opportunity to film a thing of rare beauty and nuance, namely me, so we can't give him all the credit.

Today I did take a peak at what they had done and that key light takes years off an old face!

Ha! Wait til we catch the real you in HD!

Were you wearing makeup? What color eye shadow? If you did the kohl thing, I bet you looked JUST LIKE Liza!!!

Where is Louis B Mayer when you need him?








I see you decided to solve your bad mood by taking it out on an innocent! Try gin, dear.

Actually with my natural peaches and cream complexion, make up is like gilding a lilly.

Okay, fine, I'll bring the lights next time. And lots of diffusion. We can do that high key Hollywood in the 40s glamour look, how's that?

Maybe you fit their demographic.

What's a "follow spot"? I heard about those and I think I'd like one. And a "key grip". That sounds like something I'd need on one of these "shoots". And don't get me started on your idea of "craft services". Grantk, you are very talented but when you deal with a rare talent such as mine, you need to nuture it and it make it thrive, not take put it through an obstacle course just to do its job. I'm sorry, but I had to say it.

Do I still get to be the galmour girl in a fancy dress and too much makeup who asks dumb questions and practically creams over the finished product?

Didn't know you had a thing for Teamsters*, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. When you get a big kitchen and do live demos in front of your adoring crowds you can have a follow spot. Next time I'll stop at Costco on the way up and buy you oreos and fritos, okay? I knew that tv shoot was going to go to your head.



*yes, I know grips are IATSE, not Teamsters, but IATSE isn't funny.

I'm so looking forward to shooting your screen test.

Rancho -- do you know about this? Just edit down the tape.

The other day I'm walking across Hill Street, downtown, as is a short, older man lunging forward to beat the light. I see he's carrying this little canvas cube, maybe 10" on a side. It's basically black and white. Then I notice that the cube which I'm assuming holds a lunch or some snack is covered in black and white block letters repeatedly spelling out "Fauchon." Is he an unlikely gourmet? Did he get it at a garage sale or thrift store?

So, I'm out in the boonies yesterday and by default I find myself in a Starbucks. One of the baristas is trying to describe some new coffee drink the store is pushing to a prospective customer. Finally, she just pours him a small sample and advises that she's probably not the best person to ask because, "I really don't drink coffee."

In the Jungle habitat area of the Bronx Zoo this morning. Birds fly around freely, and one bird lunged at a child menacingly and then flew at the child and and landed on his head and pecked him while we were standing there. Yet the group next to them found it so funny ha ha, that they started to throw things at the bird and were surprised when the bird dove at one of them and pecked aggressively on his head.

Shhh. You're gonna scare Maurice. I wanna see a photo of him in St. Mark's covered with pigeons.

wilfrid posting on the weekend and late at night on weekdays.

So I take my 4 year old to a restaurant. OK, Victor's. There's Hal Fishman and Marta Waller in the adjoining booth. Anyway, she's jonesing for a cookie. But she's not supposed to eat so many sweets. She tells me it's OK, we'll just wrap the cookie in a napkin and she'll hold it behind her back. Mommy will never see it. I tell her mommy will immediately ask to see what she's got in her hands. Here's what the kid comes up with: "I'll tell her I lost my hand."
What? Where do kids get this stuff? Are cookies the new crack?

Reading here why someone is posting at 3 AM on another board.

Midwestern accents. Overheard a woman talking about crapping something down. Took a couple of minutes to realize she was talking about shortening (cropping) a paper.

Ay ay ay. I have to pack real clothes this weekend.

Spotted in Union Square: A small, elderly, rather elegant black man in a brown pin-stripe three piece suit and dreadlocks carrying a copy of Science.

I'm so glad that wasn't last weekend's forecast. After a record number of rainy Saturday mornings, last Saturday – the final day of the Farmer's Market for the season – was stellar: warm, brilliantly sunny, lovely. Did my best sales of the season!

The Times thinks Cerne Abbas is on the coast.

I don't remember and am too lazy to check if I already posted this.

I'm the face of my school's advertizing campaign. Last semester a woman and a photographer showed up to my cinematography class wanting to take promo pics for the college. No one told me about that in advance, but I let them anyway. Luckily I was dressed somewhat appropriately but hadn't shaved.

Now a photo of me with a camera on a tripod in front of the kids is blown up huge and displayed prominently at all the board meetings. No, I'm not getting paid extra. I was getting stared at at the beginning of the semester and didn't know why. It was kinda creepy but then a few people mentioned the photo. I forgot about it until the dean's secretary asked me today if I'd seen it. I haven't. You'd think they'd give me a copy. But if I'd known they were going to use it, I probably wouldn't have let them shoot.

Hot!

Slovenly's the new hot?

World weary. That's hot!

Tuesday evening, the phone rang and caller ID showed a name and number (a 212) I didn't recognize, so I didn't answer, and the caller left no message. Last evening, the same name and number called, so I answered out of curiosity. A man's voice said “Good evening, I'm trying to contact the person known online as GG Mora?”.

You can imagine the shitstorm of possibilities that flashed through my brain. I asked what this was in regard to. The man went on to explain that he was doing some genealogical research for a friend. He had gotten as far back as the man's great-great-great grandfather, a Charles Mettam, who had been an architect in Manhattan during the late 19th century, and he (the caller) had reason to believe that this “GG Mora” may be able to provide more information.

Indeed, I am descended from the same Charles Mettam. So I confessed to being GG Mora and asked how on earth he had pieced together that I was a Mettam (my maiden name), of the same tribe, and how had he gone about locating me?

In Googling for information for Charles Mettam, this gentleman had come across a post of mine on a food website (Mouthfuls) in which I had referred to my great-great-great grandfather, the architect Charles Mettam. He noted my location (displayed with my stats in every post) and from there the rest was easy.

I talked with this man for about half an hour, bit by bit confirming his research. Now, there must be hundreds of descendants of this Charles Mettam spread around the country, if not the world (5 generations out, by my calculation), right? As it happens, the friend for whom this man is doing the research is my second cousin once removed. His mother was my father's cousin. I don't believe I've ever met him – his mother's name was only vaguely familiar, but her sister's name closed the deal. She was at my father's funeral 6 years ago.