The early people who settled Zambia were probably of San descent, as in other areas of Southern Africa. Between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D., Bantu speaking tribes moved south and dominated the area that is now Zambia. Currently, Zambia’s 73 tribes have 286 chiefs, 54 senior chiefs and five paramount chiefs: Kalonga Gawa Undi and Mpezeni of Eastern Province, Chitimukulu of the Northern Province’s Bemba people, The Litunga of Lozi in Western Province and Mwata Kazembe of the Lunda people of Luapula province. Thus, Kalonga Gawa Undi and Mpezeni advantage Eastern Province with two paramount chiefs!

We were on our way to a V-Day luncheon, an extraordinary event founded by Eve Ensler. V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. Held on February 11, it was attended by Ensler and Charlize Theron, Jane Fonda, Gabourey Sidibe, Rosario Dawson, Dermot Mulroney, Jehan Agrama, Donna Dietch and dozens more film and feminist glitterati. Two extraordinary producers, Midge Sanborn and Sarah Pillsbury, were seated at our table. (They produced DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, RIVER’S EDGE and HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT.) We chatted about Facebook and the challenges of getting a film made in the current market. Tough. So tough.

And, yet, as hard as it is to get a film made, I was in the middle of working on a film for POWER UP. And it was definitely requiring everyone’s “A” game. The film was written by Angela Robinson and directed by her partner, Alex Kondracke. Based on the super successful web series sponsored by Showtime, it starred Lisa Rieffel, Michelle Lombardo, Gabby Christian, Mandy Musgrave, Kate French, Rose Rollins, Clementine Ford, Megan Cavanagh, Jessica Chaffin and Michael O’Connell.

The film takes place in one epic night. It’s about everything that happens to Tyler and Daisy (Lombardo and Rieffel) as they try to get to a “battle of the bands” style competition. They are waylaid by Daisy’s sister, Colby, who has her sights set on hooking up with Misty, the girl of her dreams. The night spins wildly out of control. So, like SUPERBAD, the film takes place in one night. What that meant for our crew is that the film was shot mostly at night. Call times tended to be around 4 or 5pm. We wrapped around 4 or 5am. By the end of the production, mostly everyone was sporting a vampire-like paleness.

It didn’t take long to figure out this was no rinky-dink, college-indie-production.

Even though this was a SAG ultra-low-budget film, it was totally “A” game. Throughout the production, we were moving a 5-ton truck full of gear and a cube truck full of expendables, gear and craft service supplies. The 5-ton towed our generator into position so the Grip & Electric crew could provide stable power to all teams. We had two Panavision cameras, therefore, obviously, two camera crews. We also used a steadicam crew on several of the “club” locations and a crane crew on one amazing traffic sequence. Since the film is a musical, we had great audio guys who had to capture and mix sound AND provide sync playback. We had to have a transportation coordinator just to move everything into place. With this sort of filmmaking, you can’t just change direction on a dime. You’re moving TONS of equipment and nearly a hundred people a day into position.

Some of our more extraordinary moments had to do with our street scenes. We used a process trailer on two days and a tow-dolly on two days. Four of our 28 days were moving … literally. A process trailer has the “picture vehicle” with the cast up on a trailer that is being towed around the streets of Hollywood. It’s a wide setup that requires four (4)! motorcycle cops with you at all times. The tow dolly has the front wheels of the picture vehicle strapped in and towed behind the camera truck. It’s a narrower setup that only requires two (2) officers. It’s like a half-off sale. The tow dolly days were in the Arts District of LA … bright lights and sparkly night skies. I can hardly wait to see it on the big screen. Definitely going to see everybody on their game.

As silly as it may sound, one of the MOST exciting things that has happened recently, (hallelujah, PTL) Alec got a car. Jenny Fulle, his boss, was parting with an old GREEN Hyundai Accent and Alec scooped it up. He named the car El Moco (that’s Spanish for “booger”) and we’re both loving it. I have my car back (so I can do meetings now and get to the library and take care of all of the essentials of life) and he can go hang with his friends on the weekends and go on location without feeling guilty. Free at last, Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I am free at last. Who knew freedom would come in the form of a large green moco?

When we first moved, Alec got hired on at Sony Pictures and need a car … since he’d spent three years in Manhattan, he didn’t have a car. Mass transportation is so easy and useful in NYC. So, we decided he would use my car until we figured something out. Fifteen weeks later, the problem solved itself. Since I didn’t have transportation, I took a lot of freelance web work. It seemed clever. Work from home. So, in addition to completing UNDERTOW, a stage play, refining ANNE AND MARY, a screenplay, I’ve been building lots of websites. Some are database CMS sites, others are flash and a few are the vanilla HTML. Here is a sample of what I’ve been working on:

• Itty Bitty Titty Committee
• A Marine Story
• GIRLTRASH! ALL NIGHT LONG
• Reminesse
• Transportation Safety Technologies, Inc.
• Stepping Stone Garden
• POWER UP Films (mostly transfer support)

On Friday I met with three fabulous filmmakers: Nicole Conn, Marina Rice Bader and Jane Clark … and took on the website for their new film Elena Undone. I read the script this evening and I’m really looking forward to supporting them in bringing this wonderful story to the screen. Marina is a wonderful photographer; Nicole is the director of CLAIRE OF THE MOON, LITTLE MAN and CYNARA; Jane is a director and producer. More to come.

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
British Prime Minister

During the week, in addition to all of the screenwriting and research we’ve been doing, we’ve also been working on the Transportation Safety Technologies, Inc. website for automotive safety engineer and testing specialist Mark Arndt. The site isn’t finished yet but it’s coming along nicely. It’s a very reliable engineer-blue-and-gray theme with a splash of orange and red.

Last week, I pretty much finished a Flash business site for my nephew who recently relocated to Wisconsin. Chris does painting, hence, Bowe Painting reflects that with a lot of photos and color. I am sure you can tell where this is all going.

Tonight, I looked at my site and started to think, “This site is just too dang white.”

So, as soon as I finish the Flash site for Jenny and Marc for their VFX company, The Creative Cartel (which I’m really anxious to finish this weekend), build the commerce site for Terry and Kay for their newest venture (to be announced soon), finish revising the blog and site for the film, A MARINE STORY, help Pam rebuild the Reminesse site and revise the GREENing Productions site, I’ll get right on the redesign for my site. Like the cobbler’s children who go without shoes, web designers’ sites are always the last for the make-over.

Production started Monday on PRIEST, the film Alec is working on. His insane working schedule just got crazier. Last night he came home totally sunburned and clucking like a chicken. Apparently there were animal wranglers and chickens on set yesterday.

According to Fangoria and The Hollywood Reporter, Karl Urban has taken the lead villain’s role in PRIEST. He’ll take on the vampire-battling priest played by Paul Bettany, a sheriff portrayed by TWILIGHT’s Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q’s warrior priestess in the postapocalyptic scenario.

Directed by Scott Stewart from a script by Cory Goodman, PRIEST casts Urban as Black Hat. The New Zealand-born actor, recently seen as Dr. McCoy in STAR TREK. PRIEST is targeting an August 13, 2010 release date.

The most exciting thing last week was Alec getting a job at Sony (on the Visual Effects Production Staff, on the Sony lot!) working on the film PRIEST. According to the internet, the film was introduced and discussed at Comicon this last week. According to the website, they unveiled the poster which features Paul Bettany. Very cool poster. Back to the story of Alec. He interviewed on Monday and got a call on Tuesday. He started on Wednesday and he loves it, loves it, loves it. He works with the super talented, super amazing Jenny Fulle. He will learn soooo much. It’s looking like it will be about a one-year production position which extends from pre-production through production AND post production. What an education! What an opportunity! What a lucky guy! The funniest thing (in my opinion) is that his Sony ID has his photograph, his name and the film he’s working on … so his ID says, “Alec Hart, Priest” … this is hysterical for everyone who knows Alec.

Earlier today, I started to wonder how I came to be a resident of HELL on Earth. More importantly, I started to wonder why I had stayed so long. Surely other people have these thoughts about where they live. Surely I am not unique in this sort of reverie … this locational puzzlement.

I have started a novel several times. (Thus far), it always has the same title: ACCIDENT OF BIRTH. Years ago, I drove trial exhibits across country simply for the opportunity to see America. As I drove through small town after small town, I would marvel at the lives these people led. How many of the residents were living here because they loved it? How many remained simply because they had nowhere else they wanted to be and, because of this accident of birth, stayed?

In my case, when I was getting ready to move, I called everyone I knew to ask about employment and cost of living. The answers from Phoenix were the best in the nation (at the time). So, I came. I stayed. And, annually, I melted.

This evening, I learned that very few heart attacks are caused by prescription (or other) drug abuse while cardiac arrests (especially if there is no underlying coronary disease) are more likely to be caused by drugs (prescription or illicit) or chronic conditions like Anorexia. Several family acquaintances are coming forward to talk about Jackson’s effort on and desire for a wildly successful “comeback tour” which was supposed to start on July 13th. Staying in a rented house, Jackson had been reported to be working incessantly on the show. In a variety of interviews, people would say he was like Anna Nicole Smith, a casualty to fame, incessant drive and self-serving sycophants. IMHO, Anna Nicole Smith didn’t have the talent, stature or global impact that Michael Jackson did. So, perhaps Michael Jackson is this generation’s Elvis Presley.

I remember Elvis before he was fat; I remember when Elvis was all talent and sass and music. His voice blared from radios everywhere. We watched him on television, in movies and on concerts. And then he was obscenely famous. He became more isolated. The only people who were allowed near “The King” were the doctors and handlers who gave him whatever he wanted, whatever would keep him going, regardless of the consequences for his health. I saw a photo on the Daily Mail of Jackson on his 50th birthday (left) and was stunned at how emaciated he appeared in the photo. Frail. It was shocking. Lisa Marie Presley must have some interesting karma to have been touched by both of these remarkably talented, remarkably charmed, remarkably doomed men. Of course, this is the moment for the caveats … the official cause of death is yet to be determined, yet to be announced regarding Michael Jackson. At this point, it’s a collective web experience of the unexpected, premature passing of one of this generation’s most amazing musical talents.

There were, at the same time, things I abhorred about Facebook. I couldn’t really cover things in depth as I could on my blog. There were these things called Notes and another thing called Pages that let me write more about things I found interesting … but those things didn’t really get into the main flow of the conversation. There were sidelined and overlooked quite easily. So, if I found something related to film production or web production or wanted to discuss a new technique, I’d return to my blog. It was as media-rich or user friendly but it did have substance.

Recently, I discovered two things that are the BEST plug-ins and features ever. First, there’s a fabulous WordPress plugin called FOTOBOOK that was written by Aaron Harp. It’s a self-installing wonder that pulls my Facebook albums directly into my blog. Effortlessly. Efficiently. It’s just wonderful. AND, I also discovered that Facebook let’s me pull my BlogPosts directly into my Notes (which are then published into the general conversation). I still have to go back and forth between the blog and Facebook but, now, both venues are doing double duty so I’m getting better quality with less effort. If you look in the sidebars, you’ll see my photo albums (including my recent research trips to New England). There’s also a RANDOM photo feature that changes every time someone visits. Just something to keep it fresh. Now, I’m working on RSS feeds AND looking for a way to manage video. If anyone has suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Remember, I’m Mac-based.

If you know of a FOTOBOOK-style plugin that pulls video in from Facebook as effortlessly as stills my life is perfect … however briefly.

Eleven hours later, the 25-year-old man was found — unconscious. The Sheriff had been trying to get the city to release funds so they could get the cell phone turned on when word came in that he had been located. So, Verizon won’t face a wrongful death lawsuit (because Lord knows that would cost far more than $20 to defend that). I can only hope that the Court of Public Opinion punishes Verizon appropriately. When did life become so cheap?

If you are a Verizon subscriber, be sure to keep your account up to date. If you’re not a Verizon subscriber, perhaps you should think twice about it. Original article.