When we were kids, my dad would frequently tell us that "money don't grow on trees", so I was glad when my cell quietly chirped the morning of Wednesday the 19th (Happy 41st to Dee!). Mr. Westerman was calling to ask if I was working that day, and did I want to make $200. About 90 minutes later, I was driving to Montara State Beach to work as a Production Assistant on a single day video shoot for some pharmaceutical company. That's yours truly in the background of the photo in red, sweeping sand along with Westerman. Beautiful beach. But boy was it cold (brrrrr!!!). Those stepping stones don't look so formidable in the photo, but they were heavy. After completion of the shoot, we had to drag them across the sand, six-at-a-time, atop a furny (moving blanket), then about seven of us daisy-chained them up some very steep stairs, before they were put back into the moving van.

Muchos gracias a Jihyun for sending me the pic.

Friday, November 14, 2008
With Mutabaruka at the San Francisco Green Festival.

Election Day 2008!

my mom and i casting our votes in Pittsburg, California.

PA's, grips, camera crew and director setting up a shot.

Yours truly with the insuperable Mr. Michael Westerman.

Art Director, Dylan Kahn

On October 17, 18 & 20, I worked on a shoot for a Honda car commercial at Lafayette Square Park in downtown Oakland.

The job was fun (and hard work!). We laid a lot of sod (Saturday turned out to be "Sod Day"), and hung too many Christmas lights in that big tree in the photograph. Turned out none of the lights showed up in the shoot, and the ones that did, particularly those we painstakingly wrapped around the trunk of the tree, did show, but apparently so much so, that the lady from the agency requested we take'em down!

Had the pleasure to work with a great group of Los Angeles fellas, especially our very cool and funny Art Director, Mr. Dylan Kahn (pictured above), who apparently was diggin' the scene to such an extent he had to git down wit one-ah dose Oaktown tees.

Muchas gracias a Tina Tamale for taking and forwarding the photo with Michael. If you happen to find yourself in downtown Oakland with a grumbling tummy, be sure to check out La Borinqueña Mex-icatessen & Specialty Shop.

And that's a wrap!

The PA Squad (l-r) Hiawatha, Yasmine, David, and Joshua.

On Saturday, September 20th, I had the opportunity to work in Corte Madera as a production assistant for Tom Donald Films. We were shooting a promotion I am not at liberty to divulge after signing an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). Arrived at an empty house at 6:45am, and by about 9am, the place was jam packed with people and equipment. It was a lot of fun. A great group of folk. I learned how to install floorboard, and that the term "C47" is production-speak for "clothespin". I was also able to participate in the shoot as the slate handler (and let me tell you, actors work hard. The two actresses did about 50 takes, as well as a lot of sitting and waiting). The house we shot in was beautiful. Gorgeous weather. And the catered food (breakfast and lunch!) was sumptuous.

The Rocinha Favela Tour On Friday, February 1, I participated in a tour of the Rocinha Favela with a Rio de Janeiro organization called Be A Local. I met a small SUV at the bottom of the street of the hostel, and drove about 20 minutes with 6 others to the bottom of the favela which rises up the Rio hillside. Each of us then hopped on the back of a motorcycle taxi (we guys were explicitly instructed not to put our arms around the drivers' body - this was OK (of course) for the women! - but instead, but to hold on to the seat handles), which zoomed us up a crowded street which wound up to about midpoint of the hill. After disembarking the motorcycles, we were given a brief history of Rocinha by our tour guide and instructed not to take photos of any kids holding guns (they turned out to be automatic rifles!), and to be careful to avoid walking into the middle of a gunfight should one break out between the cops and the gangsters (I'm not kidding, these were actual instructions). Then we walked into Rocinha. "Favela" means "slum" in Portuguese. Rocinha is home to about 300,000 people, making it not only the largest favela in Rio, but the most populous in all of Central and South America . Rocinha had quite an effect on me and made me reassess my idea of "wealth" & "poverty". To witness the dignity and spirit of the people in Rocinha, particularly the children, I considered one of the most valuable experiences of my visit to Brazil. The following are some photos from inside Rocinha favela:

These boys put on quite a concert for us playing a very rhythmically sophisticated composition on cans and scrap metal (the tall boy with the white cap and black shirt lead the ensemble playing a small, but very loud hand drum similar to a tambourine without the medal discs).

Notice the dwellings are made of brick and mortar.

Most have no windows.

These two photos are taken from the top of Rocinha.

Muito obrigado! to Sivan Gefen for sending me these pics.

Walking through the turnstile to enter the Sambodromo.

Rio de Janeiro: in the Sambodromo, Sunday night, February 3, 2008.

The famous samba school Sao Clemente is in the background.

Back to Cali
On February 6th, I flew from Rio to Miami Beach, and from there to St. Petersburg, Florida to visit the Salvador Dali Museum.

In St. Petersburg I took the Greyhound Bus to Orlando to visit my friend Mr. Bryan Zell. We rode roller coasters at Universal Studios Orlando and did some fine dining and partying at the Bob Marley - A Tribute to Freedom Restaurant.

On February 22nd I flew from Orlando to Oakland.

Rio de Janeiro

A new person joined our dorm this evening. Her name is Nafir (spl???) from Israel & she´s just completed her army duty there. She is traveling solo & arrived in Rio today after 4 hectic days of flying & lay-overs including Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Sao Paulo & Rio. I told her I was from California. She said she didn´t like Los Angeles very much & was surprised to discover that many people there didn´t have passports, nor had ever been outside of the county. She said in Israel, a high school graduate is required to join the army - 2 years for young women, 3 years for young men. After completion of army duty, she said, a person is expected to travel for 3 months to 2 years before returning to civilian life to enter college, or to gain employment.

This afternoon, i saw a guy jogging along Copacabana beach balancing a full liter plastic bottle of Coca-Cola on his head!

Rio de Janeiro

i have met many Europeans as i have traveled, & what fascinates me about them is how much they travel. i think i already mentioned the 23-year old on the boat to Panama that quit his job so he could travel for many months throughout Asia. There was a young woman Camille that i met at the hostel in Olinda who has traveled for 10 months in Asia & is currently traveling in South America for an indefinite period of time. There is the young fellow in my dorm from Wales. He & his buddy, "sick" of their jobs, quit their jobs, took their savings & booked in advance an intinerary that includes all prepaid airfare, deposits on all hotels & hostels, safaris in Africa, & travel around the world for the next 18-months! Another fellow in my dorm, John from Amsterdam, 2-years my junior, has quit his job on at least 2 occasions & consummated two 10-month traveling stints including Africa & Asia. He says in Europe, the reputation of Americans is that we work too much. When I said something to him about "2 weeks per year time off for vacation", he shrugged, chuckled & said it´s funny, because he says that to Europeans, "America" symbolizes "freedom", yet what Americans do with this freedom is work.

Rio de Janiero, Brazil

"What would u attempt to do

if u knew

u could not fail?"

i am happy to report i am writing to you from Rio de Janiero. i arrived this morning via a quiet 20 hour bus ride from Porto Seguro. i´ve just checked into the Rio Backpackers hostel in Copacabana.

Olinda, Brasil

Hobbled into Olinda yesterday after a short 20 minute or so bus ride from Recife. i say "hobbled" because i caught Moctezuma´s Revenge on the Amazon River Ferry (8 days ago, get my drift?), since yesterday i started experiencing the symptoms of a cold i probably the little kid sitting next to me on the lonnnnnggggg bus ride from Belem to Recife who kept sneezing on me & my iPod, & somewhere i mysteriously tweaked my right ankle. that said, my timing apparently is good in getting to Olinda, because they have 2 Carnaval celebrations, & the 1st 3-day celebration starts tonight @ 8pm! How i ended up in Olinda is a result of meeting a musician when i came across the border from Venezuela. He noticed my cornet case & i told him i was headed to Carvanal in Bahia & hoped to play my instrument in the celebration. he said the music in Bahia was more guitar based & suggested i check out Olinda, where the music centered around brass instrumentation, & there was a chance i could join one of the orchestras. Also, on the last day on the Amazon Star i met a French couple, & the husband asked his wife to speak with me because she spoke english. i told her my plan to visit Olinda. She said Olinda was beautiful & she recommended a place to stay there, the Pousada d'Olinda.

The Pousada d'Olinda is lovely. It is similar to a hostel. I have a 4 bed (2 bunks) dorm, that i now share with a fellow who speaks english (!), a young college student from Maine named Eric who just arrived this morning. The pousada includes complimentary breakfast with fresh fruit & fruit juice, & they have excellent buffet-style lunch & dinner (fresh vegetables, yay!!!), for $5,99 reals (about $3.75US). There's also a small swimming pool & hammocks.

Last night i got to sit in the 2nd trumpet chair in one of the Carnaval orchestras. The orchestra had 8 trumpet players, about 10 saxophone players, 8 to 10 trombone playesrs, tuba, & a bunch of drummers. They play a music style called frevo, a fast paced, booming, thundering music. According to the women who told me about the rehearsal, this style of music originated in Olinda 100 years ago. The horn lines were like Charlie Parker solos! Either it was the room acoustics, or everyone was playing at fff (triple fortissimo aka "very loud"). i woke up this morning thinking i had lost some hearing in my left ear (seems like it´s cleared up now). After the rehearsal water break, & i returned to my chair i was sure to put in my earplugs.

Recife, Brasil
From Manaus, i took a 5 day trip up the Amazon River on a ferry called The Amazon Star. The Amazon is a huge river, supposedly the largest in the world. This means that there is a section we came to where u could see land on the left side of the boat, but off in the distance to the right, there was just the horizon which made it seem like we were on the ocean. the trip included 3 meals a day - banana or slice of watermelon, bun, & coffee, for breakfast; rice, noodles, beans, stewmeat, & water, buffet style for lunch & dinner. brazilenos are also fond of smothering their food with manioc meal. Manioc meal looks like crude cornmeal, but is a lot tougher to chew.

In spite of the kind & generous email advice of Mr. Volker Poelzl, whom i contacted prior to initiating this project, & having read his article "Travel in South America by Boat", i still managed to get into a bit of a mix-up. It goes like this: firstly i speak essentially no Portuguese, and understand even less. on Monday, i bought a 1st Class ticket for the boat. the ticket was for a departure time of 12 noon, and the agent even wrote down on paper to make sure i understood "12:00pm". Mr. Poelzl´s article mentioned the necessity of a hammock. in front of the ferry terminal were over 50 vender booths. i surveyed all of them & not a one was selling hammocks. i also didn´t notice anyone getting off any of the ferries with a hammock. so the next day, i go through my phrase book, & thought i figured out how to write out the question in Portuguese "Do I need a hammock on the boat?". i return to one of the ticket agents, slip the note under the window, she reads it, then looks up at me absolutely puzzled. so i say "hede?" ("hammock" in Portuguese), & after exchanging gesticulations & facial expressions & bad Portuguese on my part & minimal english on hers, & after she smiled, & raised her arm to make one final gesture, i interpreted this to mean "Dude, no worries. U have a 1st Class ticket. This includes a hammock, or maybe even your own private cabin." (WRONG!!!) So, like i said, my ticket says the ferry leaves at noon. Wednesday, i get to the terminal & board the boat about 11:15am. get checked in, go upstairs to the First Class area, & low & behold, there they were, hammocks
! so i found one i liked, set my backpack & cornet in the designated area for luggage, & swung in my hammock ´til noon, then 1, then 2, then 3... Now, all this time there are people boarding the ferry, & setting up their hammocks. To the left of me were 2 vacant hammocks, & to the right of me 1 vacant hammock. At about 15 minutes after 3, a guy enters my area, with apparently his wife & 2 kids "claiming" (as i´m surmising from his Portuguese that i do not understand), that he bought all 4 of these hammocks, that they belong to him & i need to leave. so one of the ferry employees comes over, escorts me off the boat, and about 15 steps off the boat is a guy sellling hammocks. i buy one (turns out it was too small), return to the boat to the hammock deck & set mine up. i return to the guy, and say "desculpa" ("sorry"), & we shake hands. so, this means that, although the ticket agent emphatically insisted i understand the boat departed at noon, & even though my ticket was written with departure time of 12 noon, this guy & his family knew the boat was not leaving until at least 3:15pm, & not only that, got to the boat before me, to set their hammocks. Go figure.

arrived here in Recife Monday evening after a 20 hour bus ride from Belem.
I am now a short bus ride from Salvador & am trying to arrange lodging in Salvador before i get there.

i am currently at the "Shopping Recife", a huge mall, including restaurants with waiters in white jackets.