October, 2006
We see the light at the end of the tunnel, I just finished episode 10 fine edit last night at 2:00 am, I am currently on the plane heading to Vegas to shoot the pilot of my next TV series which is going to feature Ted McIntyre and his MTT team in a TV series that is devoted to speed! I am hoping for a Discover channel broadcast license, we shall see!
This month has been nuts, getting all the episodes edited in time for me to come to Vegas was killer…but we did it. Andrew is now prepping the show to be on lined, it looks incredible when up-rezed to high def. Andrew and I pulled another 3 day straight awake and working session, hard on the body admittedly, and we also pulled another work till 1:00 am, then drive all night adventure, this time to Mt Katadhan, our friends from PEI DMayne and Jacob joined Tidby, Claudine and I to trek the highest peak in Maine. We got to Baxter State park at 6:00 am and immediately started to climb. I’ve climbed Washington before with Jessica and that was insane, but Katadhan was actually harder, I was surprised. We went up a trail called Aboll …it was so steep, and some points we where actually scaling bolders and angles that usually would require harnesses and ropes…we made it after a few hours to the top. We certainly where not alone though, there where about 20 other people up there at the peak beside the knife’s edge who had just completed the 6 month hike of the Appalachian trail, starting in Georgia, ending at Katadhan..what an accomplishment…6 MONTHS!!! I was proud of all the climber’s accomplishment, champagne was flowing that morning. Andrew brought his hula hoop all the way up the mountain so the both of us did some peak top hula tricks and left it up there as a gift to the next hula hikers. We also got shots of Gnomer on top of the pinnacle. Gnomer is a little garden gnome that used to follow Grand Theft Bus from coast to coast and always end up in different cities with different travelers. Gnomer ended up in my possession a few years back when I had an after party in my motor home, Eloise, a friend and GTB fan was in possession of Gnomer at the time and she left it in the motor home by mistake, so I had the little guy for a couple years until a room mate of mine Swanny gnome-napped him and took him across the country again while they shot the TV series “Antiques Road Show” (another Saint John production). Anyhow after that trip I got Gnomer back, but then Dave Mayne stops by on his way out west and picks him up for another coast to coast adventure. We got shots of him on top of the mountain with another traveling gnome..whats the chances there would be 2 gnomes and a Hula Hoop at the top of Kathadan at the same time!
I received a few weeks ago an email from a TV producer from Italy named Federica. She works for a pretty large documentary / TV production company in Torrino Italy. She wanted to come to Canada for 2 months to brush up on her English skills and to also work with fellow producers, so I said “come on over!” in true Maritime hospitality tradition! So she arrived last weekend on Friday night the night the Slip played in Saint John. The Slip are one of my all time favorite bands. Anyhow the poor girl was so jetlagged that she couldn’t see the Slip, but the next night she really got to experience Maritime culture, we through one of our biggest parties ever in the backyard…we had 3 bands, DJs, lights, everything all outside on a clear and crisp October evening. The bands played until the cops came around 5:00 am. It was quite a party, I'm guessing 300 people showed up. Welcome Federica to Saint John!
It is now Oct 28th and as mentioned earlier I’m flying to Las Vegas. Ill be shooting this pilot episode all week. But first thing is first..Vegoose! The ultimate music festival with a line up that blows my mind.
Halloween - November
VEGOOSE & MTT at SEMA
I checked into my room at the “Uncomfort Inn” on Paradise Rd, it was grimy, stale air, lingering smell of cigarette smoke, and to make it that much more luxurious, jumbo jets fly right across the roof of my room as they come to land at the Las Vegas airport. Right across the street however is the Hard Rock Hotel, it’s not hard to pretend to be a guest and hang out in the hot tubs and lounge on the beach chairs!
I rent my vehicle and head into the desert here the Vegoose Music Festival is happening, what a venue! The Desert Mountains raise high above the main stage. The shakedown in the parking lot brings me back to the old days when I used to follow Phish and other bands throughout the lands...its funny how it was such a huge part of my life no so long ago, but it still holds plenty of nostalgia, and being there alone was a real trip. People in the lot selling everything from Dead tie dies to burritos, to hemp jewellery to my favorite…wheat grass and beer! After hanging in the lot for a bit I entered the grounds and had a great weekend seeing Damian Marley, Jim Jones, Tom Petty, Medeski Martin & Wood, Galactic, Widespread Panic, Phil and friends, Trey Anistasio, String Cheese…the list goes on and on. The late night shows where fantastic and I met some real cool folks. Doing a festival by yourself is fun because you have all the freedom to see whatever show you want, but I was wanting to enjoy the experience with friends, so I met some! I met a group of people from Calgary who I have since visited and have become great friends with; also I met a guy from Ottawa who was a lot of fun to cruise around with. There are good people everywhere. .
After the 2 day festival wrapped up I picked Alistair up at the airport, he has agreed to be my director of photography for my shoot at the SEMA trade show with MTT. Did I mention what I was doing here in Vegas yet? To be honest I haven’t read my own blog in so long…It is actually March 4th 2007 now and Im on the plane again to Hawaii to shoot some footage for a documentary about Coaching…but I’ll get to that later, right now I need to dig back a few months…I apologize for the lack of detail in the following entries, but that’s what procrastination does! ƒยบ
After shooting MTT’s segment about the fastest motorcycle for Planet Luxury, I had kept in touch with them and eventually came to a decision to shoot a pilot episode for a show all about them, kind of a West Coast Choppers thing, only way faster! So MTT signed up for a booth at this year’s SEMA event…this is the world’s most important automotive market trade show…everyone is there from Ford to GM, to Rolls Royce and every other brand you can imagine. MTT rolls in with their turbine jet powered F 150 pick up, 2 jet superbikes, and their latest adventure, the jet powered Mini Cooper! Ha…this thing is hilarious, so stock looking from the outside; you would never know that packed in the backseat is a 400 HP helicopter engine.
MTT literally stole the show. Cursing the Vegas strip each night shooting flames into the air didn’t hurt! The whole city was talking about the jet powered vehicles. This was great marketing for MTT, and it made for great television, I interviewed the team throughout the week at the market and I filmed enough material to put together a pilot episode. The episode is pretty cool; I am still trying to find an interested broadcaster. I hope to raise enough money to go to Cannes France in April to MIPCOM, there I will try to sell my ideas. The Vegas trip costed a lot of money, and was a risk to shoot on spec but Im confident that I will eventually get something back from the investment.
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