Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas!

It's been a quiet night with Sir Knavely.

He does so love our little chess games.

                        *     *     *

INT. HEATHROW AIRPORT - ARRIVALS GATE - DAY

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the Arrivals Gate at Heathrow Airport. 

General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed - but I don't see that. 

Seems to me that love is everywhere. 

Often it's not particularly dignified, or newsworthy - but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.

                                                                        - from Love Actually

                        *     *     *

Tonight seems a good time to break out It's A Wonderful Life.  I've seen it so many times during this time of the year. 

How can you not be moved by that story?

                        *     *     *

Tomorrow at 2 AM, I'll be leaving for Phoenix, where I'll be spending two days with Glendon and Deb Yoder and their kids.

Kind of adopting myself out, as my friend Alice puts it.  It's only a six-hour drive, since by driving at night I avoid the stop 'n go traffic patterns.

                        *     *     *

I'm taking care of my two neighbor cats, Jasmine and Chloe.  Their mistress Sarah (my neighbor) is spending time with her parents, and can't be with them.

Hey, what are neighbors for, anyway?  Especially a neighbor who writes about his cat in his blog.  As if it's a real live person.

They're beautiful and smart.  Then again, they are cats.

                        *     *     *

Yesterday, Allesandra, my art designer, storyboarded the script of The Discount Kid with me.  Today I created a shooting script, listing the shots, one by one.  I think this script is going to move fast.

I'm varying wide angle shots with extreme closeups.

My art designer has a brilliant sense of comedic timing.  She definitely contributed to the finished product.

Nice to work with talented people.

                        *     *     *

Time to get some sleep.  But before I do, I'd like to finish this Merry Christmas greeting as I began it, through the words of writer/director Richard Curtis (and voiced by Hugh Grant):

Before the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate and revenge - they were all messages of love.

If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion you'll find that love actually is all around...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas Steven!  Enjoy your visit in Phoenix.  Hi to Sir K and the neighbor-cats.

Anonymous said...

Goosebumps on that last part, S. Great holiday entry--Merry Christmas to you. I look forward to reading about Phoenix--will there be pictures?
;)

Anonymous said...

Hello, Steven - nice to meet you!  I enjoyed my visit here and am looking forward to the next.  Travel safe.
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/dawngepfer/endlesslaundrylistofthingsundone