Thingkin about what letters shuld be here. Try to think enough about the order. Dang. I think the problem is that I am suppressing the urge to write Hiakus. A subconcious denial of cogniscience. I should have had the lobster.
OK, it's tomorrow. Still in Clovis, just can't seem to leave for some reason. The big city is calling, Albuquerque. A bastion of American culture and bad directions. A city praised in song and legend. Al B's Turkey. Gonna have to make it there tomorrow, I suppose. Clovis is just too...too...here. I'm trying the Jerry Seeger method of killing time in strange towns. I'm in a bar writing. So far, it's not so bad. They serve a decent sized beer here, and have free ketchup. What more could you want? Don't answer that.
It looks like another storm is coming in. Could be a biggie. I was watching it progress across the US, leaving lots of snow in its wake. I hope that trend continues, and the mountains of Northern NM get a large dose of the freshy fresh. Hmm, I am looking forward to when this movie is all over. It has been one of the toughest. The topic of conversation last night while sipping drinks celebrating that we have survived Clovis, was "Is this the worst film you have ever worked on?" Most people have one that was worse. Mine was "Young Arthur." Man, that one almost killed me. Lots of running up and down castles. My neck is still messed up. But that's a whole different storey. At least the film is still going. There are those who are even willing to believe that we will actually finish the movie. We shall see. We shall see. Just the fact that we have finished this week gives hope. It was one hell of a week. We started with the most dreaded day, Cotton Picking Day, where we had over 100 extras and 25 cast all picking cotton in a field that was chemically treated so that the cotton would burst. (Note: Cotton plants actually have flowers that are quite beautiful in their pastel pinks and yellows.) From there we went to the downtown sequence where we turned downtown Portales into 1964 Oklahoma, complete with 40 vintage cars and a bus. Of course, there were the 70 extras and 20 cast as well (oh, and a marching band). Then we had an easy day. Over five pages of dialogue out in the middle of a ranch north west of Clovis. Bruce Dern's big day. Followed by a company move into town where we found that I had made a pretty big mistake and didn't have the extras we needed for the scene. The next day was the first of shooting the State Finals. Several hundred extras, and 30 cast. Whew. We did that for three days (over 800 extras on Saturday, plus Clovis High had a home football game to contend with). And now we move on. 30 cast almost every day. I'm glad we have a good team, otherwise we'd be in the line down at the soup kitchen by now.
So now it’s Monday afternoon in Clovis. The rain is starting to fall, and the thunder’s rumbles are adding some base to the country pumping out of the juke box. Didn’t make it to the Buddy Holly museum. Didn’t make it to see Billy the Kid’s grave. Didn’t get any bananas in tail pipes. Didn’t get into Texas. Just got the job done. Dang. Clovis
…pL
