Extra Extra Read All About It

Okay,okay I am finally updating my blog. Anyways I have been an extra for films a few times now. The first one was for my friend Mike Collins who wasn't my friend at the time. The film was "Tragedy of Romance" in 1998 and it took place in the Cedar City area including on campus. The film is the story of a young man's struggle to find himself and find love for his abusive father. I played a student which wasn't that hard at all since I was a student. You can see me very well in a classroom scene. That was the first time I realized how long it took to film not only a movie but just a single scene. I had a lot of fun and eventually became best friends with the director.

The second time was an independent film titled "Number 9" for a director named Dustin"Spanky"Ward. Once again I got the work from my friend Mike. The scene I was an extra in was actually a newscast. I was a Sheriff's Deputy who found the body of a woman, a victim of one Ted Bundy who was a predominant serial killer who frequented the Salt lake area. It was also fun although I received many mosquito bites. That one took place in 2002.

Fast forward 6 years to my latest extra work. I got the work after a referral from my agent at the time at Broadway Film and Talent Management in Salt Lake. Not only was this a big time filming but I got paid for it as well. I played the role of an FBI agent for a TNT webisode series titled "Blank Slate". It stars Eric Stoltz ("Some Kind of Wonderful") Clancy Brown ("Shawshank Redemption") and Lisa Brenner ("The Patriot") and produced by Dean Devlin ("Independence Day"). I had a lot of fun with this one and meet Eric and Clancy who seem like pretty good guys. I haven't seen it because it hasn't aired yet but you will be able to see it according to this schedule on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between Law and Order next month

Tues – September 9 duringLAW & ORDER @ 8p & 9p2 Blank Slate episodes will run in 8p L&O (breaks 3 & 4); 3 will run in 9p L&O (breaks 2, 3 & 4)Wednesday – September 10LAW & ORDER @ 8p & 9p2 Blank Slate episodes will run in 8p L&O (breaks 3 & 4); 3 will run in 9p L&O (breaks 2, 3 & 4)Week of 9/15Tuesday, September 16LAW & ORDER @ 8p & 9p2 Blank Slate episodes will run in 8p L&O (breaks 3 & 4); 3 will run in 9p L&O (breaks 2, 3 & 4)Wednesday, September 17LAW & ORDER @ 8p & 9p2 Blank Slate episodes will run in 8p L&O (breaks 3 & 4); 3 will run in 9p L&O (breaks 2, 3 & 4)

Now we are to my latest extra work which was yesterday. The film is a feature length titled"National Lampoon's Legend of Awesomest Maximus". It seems like a parody of "Gladiator" and "Troy" along the same lines of "Meet the Spartans". Anyways I played a Greek soldier and had a kicka** costume. The location was at Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. I've added photos to show what the area is like. I mean this is a brutal location. My call time was 8 am so I had to leave home at about 6:30 am just to get up there. Well I got there and was told that I was going to be a Sicilian soldier which has a costume like this one. But then one of the film people (I don't know what he did for the film) came up to me and told me that myself and another guy were going to need to change over to Greek Soldiers so we could play two goofball type soldiers. I thought that was cool and the Greek costume looked better anyways. After changing I got sunblock slathered all over my head, arms, legs, neck etc and then bronzer was placed over that. Then after I had help with the costume people adjusting my outfit and putting my sandals and leggings on I headed over to get my sword and shield. We were out the sun for quite a while and it was cool having Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210 "Steve") say "Don't worry guys I have your back" and him running right by me towards a gargantuan type guy named Ginormous. So being a featured extra I may be in the film. I was to open my eyes as wide as I could and the other guy crossed his eyes. The camera was focused right on me and it was so cool so much attention was being given to me. Well the day was going well till about 5 pm when I started to get dizzy. My feet were already hurting because of the sandals standing on a dry lakebed most of the day. Well I called it quits and walked back to the tent and started shaking badly. I ended up getting heat exhaustion for probably the 2nd time in my life and almost passed out. The medic on scene dumped bottles of water on me and put a cool rag on my neck to get my temp down. Luckily I was able to walk off the set instead of carried and drove home without any problems. It was an amazing day and next time I don't think I will do extra work like that in 90 degree plus weather on a dry sandy lakebed.

(Myself and Nate acting like the soldiers we should be)

(What our shields and swords looked like)

(One of two chariots on set)

(Two actors from the film.One is Will Sasso (MAD TV), the big one plays Ginormous,the guy in the middle is an extra)

The Simmmppsssoooooons

So do you remember that old school video game for the Simpsons? My brothers and I back in the day would go down to this Casino called the Cattle Baron in Henderson,NV. It is called the Joker's Wild now. I remember it would be hot as Hades as we walked down there just to play this video game. We walked down Pabco Road listening to the buzzing cicadas. We would walk into the coolness of the air conditioned casino and make our way to their pathetic arcade. We chocked quareters in that thing trying to get further. Unfortunately disappointed after running out of money we made our way home.
Last night my brothers and I went to a cheap arcade in Orem called Nickelcade. It has all these old school arcade games and they only cost a nickel to play, or 2 or 3 or 4 depending on the game. Well we discovered that Simpsons arcade game and put nickel after nickel into it and in the end we were victorious in beating it with nickels to spare. It was good times

Living the Apartment Life once again

So just to update everyone, we are no longer managing the Amenity Inn hellhole oops I mean heckhole. We had too many differences with the owner Jerry Chang. His English sucks and he doesn't comprehend anything you tell him. He is also very very dishonest. I advise anybody staying there let alone managing the place. We are probably the longest a manager has stayed.The managers after us only stayed 3 weeks. Anyways we are very happy not to be interupted every night by an infernal doorbell at 2,3 or 4 in the morning. We are living it up at some apartments just south of the motel called the Wimbledon Apartments. We have a spacious 2 bedrooms/ 1 bathroom. We love it. I am still a hard working Best Buy guy. But I am no longer in the Media department. It all started about 3 weeks ago when one of the main managers pulled me into a room and asked me if I would be willing to move to Loss Prevention as a favor to him. It paid more and I had a better chance of getting a fulltime position so I couldn't say no. I miss helping people find DVD's but thats all I miss from that position. Now I make sure everything and everyone is kosher at the store. I have access to our cameras making sure we don't have people making 5 finger discounts in the store. I also happily greet people and thank them for coming to the store. it's pretty cool. I also now am wearing a yellow shirt instead of a blue one.Thats about it. We have been watching Prison Break,which is an awesome show. I highly recommend it. Smell ya later

Death at Amenity Inn

Well it appears that we have had our first death occur under our management of the motel. One of our regulars Thomas Sullivan age 48 passed away to the spirit world sometime last night. Fortunately it wasn't me who found him. I was in the middle of watching my DVR recording of the new "Ten Commandments" miniseries that aired on ABC this week, when our phone machine beeped, which means that either someones phone calls were up or someone dialed 911. I heard the sirens and realized that it was the later and that it had come from our cordless front office phone which Jerry,the owner,had. I went upstairs and the poilce gave me a hard time until I told them I was the manager, which then they told me that Tom had passed. Jerry called Leon, the new helper/handyman now that Bruno, the small little Hispanic guy was no longer in his services. He told him that there was something wrong with Tom because he wasn't waking up. Leon went up to his room and tried waking him up, but when he tried grabbing his jaw to shake him he noticed that rigor mortis had already set in because he was stiff. He also saw his arm and it was dark purple and had three dark stripes going diagnolly down his arm so it was probably a stroke or heart attack. He was a heavy drinker and smoker and his so called numerous friends he had in his room all the time didn't help either. He was a real nice guy and was homeless always begging on the streets of downtown Provo. He had a kind heart and will be missed. The cops investigated the room and brought his body down in a bodybag and put it in the coroner's truck and that was the end. The day went just like normal as if it hadnt happened. We don't know where his family is and if they will find out about his untimely death. I also have an update on the other guy. Apparently when they got him to the hospital he was already brain dead so there was no hope for him. Not the best day here by a long shot

Next Time on Rescue 911

Have you seen that old television reality series called "Rescue 911"? It was on when I was a teenager and ran from 1989-1996. It had William Shatner as the host and he would saw in his distinct voice " Next on Rescue (pause) 911" and talk about some 911 call which they would in turn re-enact on screen. It was good in it's day. Well yesterday I felt like I was part of the show when we had a real emergency situation happen at our beloved Amenity Inn motel. It all started about 5:15 pm when I got a phone call from Bruno our nice little mexican helper. He said "I think you should call 911 or an ambulance because I think this guy is dead". Well knowing how Bruno talks without thinking or checking first I said "Why do you think he is dead?". He said "Because he isn't breathing or moving at all" Well I asked him what room he was in and he said "206". So I go up the stairs to the second floor of our motel and walk to the room. Jerry,the owner, and Bruno were both in there and I saw the guy sprawled on his stomach on the floor. It alarmed me a bit and Jerry told me to call 911. Well I called 911 and told them the guy was not breathing and Bruno couldn't feel a pulse. The dispatcher asked me how he was laying down and she told me to turn him over on his back which I relayed to who was helping out. As the were trying to turn him over vomit came out of his mouth. We saw the Vodka bottle nearby and now realized what probably happened. As soon as the paramedics got there they immediately turned him on his back and I saw his face for the first time and it was dark purple and bloated. I had never seen anything like it in my life. The commenced doing CPR on the guy for like 15 minutes and must have gotten some pulse because he came out with one of those things on his finger on the stretcher. His face had regained color as well so that was a good sign although he still wasn't conscious. So that was a pretty scary experience. To close off the day Kelly and I watched Flightplan we rented from Netflix which was a pretty good movie

Collateral

Sometimes we collect collateral from guests to let them have a room like watches ( which tend to be el cheapos),jewelry, even a digital camera. I just got done watching the film "Collateral" with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx for the first time. I felt it was a good thriller with alot of tense sequences. Basically the film is about this cabbie Max (Foxx) who happens to be at the right place at the wrong time and picks up a fare,Vincent(Cruise),who looks like an atypical businessman, who is on the job as a hitman,unbeknownst to Max, taking out his contracts all in one night. They say that cab drivers is one of the most dangerous jobs and I can see why that is. Both Foxx and Cruise have good chemistry onscreen as they play this kind of pyschological game of cat and mouse leading to a climax that you might of seen coming if you paid close enough attention but still startled me. It was interesting seeing Cruise play a baddie for once. One of the best lines in the film is when Max says "You killed him?" talking about his first hit after he fell on his cab. Vincent replies " No the bullets and the fall killed him". The movie is rated R for a couple uses of the F bomb and some violence which wasn't too bad at least not as bad as Michael Mann's movie "Heat",which was another good one in my opinion.
Speaking of violence we had another incident here the other night. Apparently one of our less sober older guests tried to take a swing at one of our other guests and this guest and four of his buddies commenced knocking down and kicking the crap out of this older gentleman to a pulp. So our guest,and housekeeper,in 107 comes down telling me to call the cops. The excitement never ends here.

It's St Pattys Day. I want me pot o gold

Well it is St. Patricks Day. I love this day because I can wear my favorite color as well as everybody else.Well it has been another eventful week here at Amenity Inn. We only had one arrest and one ambulance here which is pretty good considering where we are at. Yesterday was the most eventful day. One of our guests who has been causing problems by yelling,kicking his door, and getting into fights, apparently "fell down" and as a result blood was gushing out of his nose. Another regular was helping him by giving him a large rag that ended up more red than the white it was. Anyhoo the police came because I wanted him off the property and another guest was drunk (the boyfriend or husband of the guest trying to help him) and ended up trying to get in a fight with a cop and got arrested. So once again the fun never stops here. Of course the cops know me and my wife very well with the amount of reports they have had to file. As well as the number of times I have had to leave my name when calling the police or 911. More adventures to follow