I am writing a medical memoir which speaks to salvage and possibility in the face of adversity. I also publish to several blogs that address issues of healthcare, personal advocacy and newfound possibility in the company of Medical Service Dogs.
- On the road.
The book is called “Word of Dog”. It’s about a Border collie that rescued me.
You could say we rescued each-other. Either way we didn’t know what the hell we were doing at the time being that we were both crazy, clueless and living a fairly marginal (free-market dumpster diving) lifestyle.
Paint belongs ON the canvas.
I am a film producer-writer who has spent the last four years on a nonfiction memoir about the nefarious adventures of life with a medical service dog that has more on the ball than the one being serviced.
Writing a book, especially one in which telling the truth seems to be a major requirement is a daunting challenge for someone like me, who likes to embellish, dramatize, whine, fantasize and otherwise make things up as I go along.
That’s what twenty years of working in the film industry will do to you. I have made or collaborated on over forty films and multi media projects, most of which you never heard of, or ever will. My favorite works were multi projector giant screen shows meant for singular events.
I also worked on a few features, as one of the countless minions without which this or that “major motion picture” never would have been finished. For example: I held a fire hose atop a four story scissors jack, gushing forth an emotional and unforgettable performance onto the extras below. I distinguished myself on that occasion by being the first person not to blow themselves over within a single twelve hour shift.
I have been a painter, a set dresser and decorator, a fill in emergency four in the morning do what I’m told (word for word) screenwriter on the set after the current screenwriter in that position locked themselves in the bathroom and would not come out. Or were they just banned from the set? It was so long ago.
My favorite film job was also my first time on a feature. I was only hired because I had a class C truck driver’s license, but I was convinced I’d finally made it to the big time. Eventually I was given more responsibility, like going down to Levitz and clearing out their entire furniture inventory to replace “that horrific-get it out of my sight!” disastrous house-full of 16th century Gothic hardware with A MODERN GOTHEM setting the director had actually called for. It was Halloween night and everyone (but me) partied through the entire shoot which was held in a decrepit mansion lit up like the London Blitz.
I had to move furniture all night… Out with the suit of armor, in with the crystal skull end-tables, etc. I had a perfect safety record until then, but the next day, while backing up my 16 wheeler semi in an alley way I cut a brand new 1989 Volkswagen Camper-van in half. I was already late for the set, so all I could do was leave a note on the owner’s windshield. “Sorry. My mistake”
So. When the final accounting was done; All the many and various miracles I had wrought, all the bad back sacrifices I had made were overshadowed by this mysterious twenty thousand dollar claim for a brand new VW camper.
“Well, You just try backing up a semi in the pearl district at rush hour after not having slept for 36 hours driving hither and yon loading and unloading all this goth shit,” was my excuse. I was cordially thanked and fired. There are no excuses in the film world. Only “Thank-you and you are fired.”
Ever the optimist, I am naive enough to believe that the writing profession will be different. At least there is the possibility I can still lie and make a living at it. Otherwise I guess I will have to fall back onto teaching others how to lie for a living, which honestly, I might be good at. Either way. Writing. Filmmaking. Its ALL ABOUT telling stories isn’t it?
- I trust in the Word of Dog. They have an inside line.
