When you’ve been to Las Vegas oh, “umpteenth times” like I have, you don’t really think of slot machines and black jack tables existing beyond the western border. But visiting casinos without the fun parks, roller coaster rides or headlining entertainment acts? Uh, you just have to really enjoy gambling for the sake of gambling, which I do not. Nevertheless, Hawaii people have a strange addiction to Las Vegas and my family is no exception to the lures of Sin City. For me, Las Vegas stands for that half-way mark where I can spend time with my visiting “gambler” family without having to cross the Pacific (more…)
magazine
Filming ‘MTV’s True Life’ and it’s Go-Go Lives
It’s about an hour and 45 min drive from my apartment in New York City to “Philly”. Our shoot is in the South Street district, the southern part of Phildelphia in a neighborhood characterized by a lot of 3-story residential apt buildings streets and cute nookish bars and restaurants.. Cozy and quaint, the neighborhoods in this area seem reminiscent of college towns or the West Village in NYC. Our shoot location is a 5 min drive from our Marriott Courtyard hotel in the City Center (aka “downtown”) district which rings of Liberty Bell architecture and Americana statues. The downtown “nut” streets like Walnut and Chestnut have a string of fusion restaurants ranging anywhere from creative, healthy, popular and fast food. There is everything from vegetarian wrap and smoothie joints, to contemporary Thai, Philly steakhouses and Dunkin Donuts. I am not without my vegetarian food options here ( if you can find street parking and can manage ultra tight east coast parallel parking!).I am on a shoot for a MTV True Life Presents show about women and their breasts. The girl we’re shooting here is a Go-Go dancer so the peek into her life supplements for my lack of sightseeing Philadelphia proper. Sometimes, working as a camera person can be glamorous work with travel perks and sometimes, its WORK where my touristing turns solely into sightseeing into other peoples’ private lives. This shoot is the latter and while my crazy boot camp shoot schedule has currently disappointed my expectations to actually sightsee/experience Philadelphia, there is still the “privilege” of gaining access into windows I would not normally think to scrutinize. (more…)
Iowa: Cedar Rapids & Suriving Last-Minute Business Travel
My day began at 5:30A when my XYZ Car service picked me up at my apt to shuttle me off to La Guardia airport to meet up with my D.P. and catch a flight to Cedar Falls, Iowa for a last minute 2-day shoot for MTV’s Engaged & Underage.
Rule #1- It is NEVER advised to schedule someone on a connecting flight with only 1/2 hr leeway to get to their gate.
a) you never know how far the airport terminal of your connecting flight will be &
b) have to allow for possible delays and weather
(*especially if you’re traveling during winter!)
The connecting airport- Chicago O’Hare. CHI-O’Hare is an airport which I’ve frequented through several touchdowns and generally like. It won me over several years back with its self-cleaning plastic rotating toilet seat covers (to make me feel like they have my sanitation concerns at heart), but my one rant is that this is a big airport and the terminals can be a hike…even if your connecting flight is on the SAME airlines carrier. Hauling camera equipment on your back while running a mile to your gate with your overnight rolling duffle, because your plane got delayed in taxi due to “snow & ice” weather conditions, is not a cheerful start to getting to your shoot. Carriers these days, have gotten to touting haughty attitudes to customers and some will close their doors 10 minutes earlier than the ticketed departure (with the reprimand that you were supposed to have gotten there 2 hrs earlier!) Needless to say, we missed our flight and had to take the next one out. (more…)
Review: “Best Western Longbranch Hotel” (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
“Climbing the ladder with a sense of humor”
The Best Western’s Longbranch Hotel in Cedar Rapids, has all the humor of an Atlantic City casino sporting a wild west theme. Built around 1968, its owner- inspired by the television series, Gunsmoke- decided to design the hotel’s face to look like Kitty’s Long Branch Saloon.
The hotel interior has a slightly dated and dungeon look, yet attempts to hold the standard offered by higher ranked neighboring competitors (ie. a room refrigerator, coffee maker, sofa chair, work desk and cable TV). It offers FREE Wi-fi, as well as a guest computer in (more…)
Louisiana: Houma
Monday, Dec 1, 2008: Houma, LA
Am here experiencing the Louisianna Bayou for the very first time. I think this warrants a blog as being a country of its own. I am here on a casting shoot for a reality show and I’m here for all of 4 days. I haven’t seen a croc yet nor have i been able to go on a swamp tour, but I have had a bucket of spicy crab and potatoes with southwestern style chipotle sauce. And I’ve been to Blue Bayou enough to know now that it is somewhere real, nothing about it is visibly Blue and it came before the song.
I asked someone where’s the Bayou. They laughed at me and said, I was in it. Houses buried deep in the swamps, guarded by crocodiles was my fantasy, but its a tad bit more modern than that. For now, its swampy marshes that weave through farmlands and occasionally residential areas or it exists as roadside marshes. Perhaps my mythical version of the bayou does exist somewhere but takes a bit longer and more concentration to find. While Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Wendy’s all erase the notice of crocodiles slithering in swamps, I find other culturally fascinating things that set it apart from the rest of the USA.
Is that marbles in your mouth ?
I heard someone speak Cajun the other day. I think. It was a phenomenon to be experienced. Its as if a radio signal picked up every language in the world, scrambled them together and spit them out. Could not pick a single word out. I’m pretty good about languages and recognizing them/picking out words from my basic vocabulary- german, french, spanish, japanese, hindi, etc … But Cajun is a mixture of Anglo and French spoken with a particular accent of Southern Po-dunk Pidgin. For those that speak normal english, there doesn’t seem to be a hint of “TH” in anything. (ie. “Dey were goin’ wid dem” -but try recognizing the words when they’re spoken very quickly…”Dy w’gon widdm”. Now mix some southeren Po-dunk pidgin french in there and see how far you get!)
men with long toy sticks;
I visited the house of the girl, S., i’m casting for MTV’s Engaged & Underage. I met her father and found he had 5 rifles. (… and this number began to gradually grow the more I expressed an interest in them.) To those who don’t know better, like myself, there is an art to hunting with rifles. Some of these rifles hold 3-5 shots in them and the length of the rifle and barrel size designate what kind of animal can be shot. But don’t let the length of a rifle fool you- it still takes a pretty long rifle (around 2′ ) to kill something as small as a rabbit or squirrel. And if you think that only men go for game, women and 18 yr old girls do too.
What do kids do for fun out here in the Bayou?
Other than huntin? Tubing. (my convo with S.):
S: My dad has a swamp boat an’ we tie our rubber tube to it ‘n have d’ boat pull us round through d’ waders. Its fun but ‘times it can be scary, ‘specially when you’re geddun pulled an’ ya see de crocs chasin ya! Last time I went was a close call. I could see de crocs comin at me an’ I was like… ‘Hurry up- pull me up quick!’
Me: There are crocodiles in the waters you go tubing in?
S: Oh yeah, lot of ‘em, all d’ time…
Me: You think its fun to be pulled in a rubber tube through crocrodile- infested waters?
S: S’no different than how you surf wid the sharks in Hawaii.
Me: Yeah but if we hear there are sharks we don’t go into the waters.
dead animals
for the count of 4 days, i’ve seen at least 8-10 road kill, which stands in my traveling experience as a pretty high death count for crossing a road with fur on. Owls, rabbits, cats,…and maimed carcasses paint my intermittent driving
The name for friendly
At a tattoo parlor shooting a scene where S. has just gotten a piercing (nothing wild- just 2 piercings to the cartillage on her ear… which by the way, looked so painful it wiped out any thoughts of getting them done in the future). As we’re leaving, her piercer says to us, “Take it easy, boo”.
My ear did a double-take “whuh”? Boo?… Later on while I was in Target asking for directions, when one of the cashiers helping me with directions told me “Good luck with finding it, boo”. There was the Boo again! No, its not Halloween and who’s Boo? The cashier was kind enough to explain it to me– I’m Boo. This is just a local way of being casual and friendly in the same way a Hawaii person would say , “Hey, take it easy, brah” That’s solves the mysterious boo.
Asian friendly
I look predominantly Asian and I do brake for stereotypical racial expectations whenever I hear the word “South.” When I found out that I was traveling to the Bayou area, I was excited but also a bit reluctant. I keep thinking somewhere, I’m going to get strung up to a tree! But perhaps they’re already broken in in Louisianna- I didn’t feel any strange curiousity or stares for my appearance. Just open friendliness. I am pleased to say– No rope burns yet.
Accommodations
Review: “Le Parc Suites: Elegance West Hollywood style” (West Hollywood, CA)
Le Parc Suites, West Hollywood is everything you want L.A. boutique hotel to be, minus the pretension. Ease, Style and Luxury is how I would describe it. As a live-in/work apartment was the equivalent to a small condo-sized apartment with all the amenities. Kitchen, dining area, living and outdoor patio. The hotel has a rooftop pool & cabana, tennis court and a wonderful view of the Hollywood Hills. The hotel is conveniently located in West Hollywood and is tucked away in a quiet, clean and safe neighborhood for those who want a little privacy.
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