Long Lost Weekend

An unplanned 4-day weekend spent trapped inside. The view outside the windows from where we are isn't so bad. It didn't even seem to rain too hard. DirecTV satellite signal remained pretty consistent. A large swath of the city had its power knocked out but, thankfully, miraculously, despite a few heart-stopping flickers, our electricity has remained on.

Sound of sirens outside. Waiting on word of the MTA returning service. Flooding and the corrosive aftermath of salt water have to be dealt with down there.

We've been fortunate where we are but it's not been a picnic being locked in here.

Hoping the trains get back to running soon but it's hard to see at this point.

Is it safe? I'm going to step outside and see what's left of civilization...

Goddammit, it's a Perfect Storm

So... it looks like I've got an impromptu long weekend... trapped in The Tomb.

All thanks to what is being hyped as the perfect storm of the millennium. FRANKENSTORM 2012. An alignment of meteorological horrors so giddily nutrageous that Roland Emmerich was overheard saying, "That seems excessive."

Hurricane Sandy threatens to deliver the goods that Hurricane Irene didn't. Rain, snow, fire, locusts, candy with razor blades in them, needles covered with venereal diseases, possessed little girls stabbing crucifixes into their virgin cookahs. Winds that will break the speed of light.

Sunday night. Trains are shut down. With no word on when they'll be running again.

Our office—in the industrial wilderness of Maspeth, Queens—is officially closed on Monday. Thing is, I don't think this storm is supposed to really start singing until sometime Monday night.

Impromptu 3-day weekend, I can deal with. Act of "god" and all that. If this turns into a 4-day weekend, the financial loss is going to sting a little further.

But I'm really hoping we don't lose power, or television, or the internet. Then, being stuck in The Tomb would be a really righteous nightmare.

Lord of darkness, hear our prayers.

United States of Whatever

Eat Bulaga!?

New York Comic-Con was in full swing this weekend. The largest pop-culture event on the East Coast. Of course, I was trying to save money so what did I do instead...? I went deep into Queens and watched the Filipino Channel for hours.

Here's a question you probably weren't asking:

What is "EAT BULAGA!"?

It's an extremely popular noon-time variety show that has been airing in the Philippines since 1979. I don't understand the language and despite watching hours of it on Saturday afternoon, I had no fucking idea what was going on.

The show seemed to have at least a dozen hosts but the main ones, for a stretch of it at least, seemed to be Julia Clarete and Ryan Agoncillo. There seemed to be a high school dance competition, followed by a word guessing game, followed by shitloads more dancing, followed by unfathomable amounts of singing. Seriously, "Eat Bulaga!" makes GLEE look like a sober courtroom drama. "Eat Bulaga!" makes GLEE look like THE SHIELD.

All right, but what the fuck does "Eat Bulaga!" mean...?

Let's turn to EAT BULAGA!'s Wikipedia entry:

Eat represents lunchtime while Bulaga (which means "surprise" in English) represents their plan to fill the show with lots of big surprises. The title is also a play on two children's games: Eat is the transliteration of It! from the game Tag while Bulaga refers to Peek-a-boo!. Because of this, the slogan "Hangga't May Bata, May Eat Bulaga!" ("While There Are Children, There will be Eat Bulaga!") was coined...

Satisfied?

These are my people. Which is why I've chosen a career writing horror movies.

Persistence of Vision

When you can't afford to replace things, that's when they break down. (Because there is no god.) Alas, some things need to be replaced no matter what, which is why I now have a Droid 4. Looking forward to upgrading to a Droid 6 in two years.

Second week of October 2012 begins and the radio silence is heartbreaking. WINTER'S COMING— don't they know that?! We need a sale. We need a setup at a studio. We need a plan for the future.

We need a sign that something's happening. That we're not going to remain stuck in this fucking holding pattern until the end of days.

I know this works out eventually. Because I will never stop fighting to get this career off the ground. I CAN'T STOP.

But I need something right now. I need something before Thanksgiving drops like an H-bomb.

Another First Day

Day one of my second movie accounting gig. Should keep me busy into the new year. Commute will be a bitch. File it under "you gotta do what you gotta do".

Clock has started for that end-of-year run. If I don't have a deal being negotiated before Thanksgiving, I'll have to wait for the new year before things pick up in the industry again. How I've grown to dread Thanksgiving and the extended holiday-nap that the entertainment industry takes. October. I've grown to dread Octobers.