Thank you HBO for my fifteen minuets of fame. Anyone who knows me also knows calamity and adventure trails behind me like squares of toilet paper stuck to the sole of a shoe. This unplanned experience grew legs of its own the instant I sent HBO my selfie photos that I spontaneously decided to take at 3:30am. It fell into place quickly leaving me no time to ruminate over the variables that come with the package deal. 9am a full tank of gas and Im off. Did I mention the full winter ensemble I was wearing, wool hat, scarf, gloves, socks, flannel shirt and winter jacket and since they highlighted to wear layers under the flannel was a white T-shirt. Im already sweating. The Thruway was backed up, I couldnt believe that I only added getting lost time, not traffic time. OK the line slowly moved now I faced twenty toll booths all ez pass and I saw two cash lanes all the way on the right. Had my five dollar bill in hand pulled into the toll booth, theres no attendant. I waited about fifteen seconds thinking a window might appear, and then realizing there was only one cash lane to my right. Dead stopped and cars behind me, I looked to the attendant in the booth next to me and shrugged my shoulders, now what? He waves his hands to just go without paying, and I did. A lit cigarette dangling from my lips with an inch of ash, dollar store reading glasses placed over my vintage cat eye prescription sunglasses to be able to see the directions on the seat, now Im off. The road seemed very long in between exit signs that gave me the familiar sinking feeling of being lost. By the time I pulled into the shopping center where the last transfer van was getting ready to leave, driving the actors to the site, I traveled on every highway New York State has pavement on. The Palisades Pkwy, NYS Thruway, 87 North, Taconic, Sprain Brook, Saw Mill Expressway, and three tolls. Oh, average speed 80, I never drive that speed, I never take my car over 60. I was driving for my life. The meeting room was overflowing with hundreds of people waiting while selected organizers with a short fuse yelled out instructions and commands, while we filled out the paperwork. Then they called you by number, first stop wardrobe then makeup and then hair. Pretty cool watching behind the scenes chaos turn into order. Props were handed out like large and small American flags and protest signs. Heading the screaming mob was a chilling row of three full size wooden hanging gallows, rope noose and life size stuffed men hanging in suits. Each heavy hard to control gallows were pushed by two male protesters. The director walked through the crowd, took myself with two men, and positioned us front row directly behind the pushed gallows. The three of us gave thumbs up to each other. Then we were instructed to repeat racial chants while we marched using the exact words spoken by protesters almost thirty years ago, surreal. Besides being part of an event so much greater than you, and meeting actors from all lifestyles as eccentric as you, or that every scene your in is cut during editing, one more piece of magic unfolded. I havent been to my parents house since 1980, thirty four years ago followed by twenty five years of absolutely no communication (a story for another time) so I really didnt know where they lived or what the house looked like or the color either. But I knew they lived on that street. I walked the street a dozen times looking for a number on the house they lived in but couldnt find it. Finally at the end of the day I asked a woman, a neighbor on the street where the house with that number was. The very house we were in front of all day was my parents house. What are the odds of my parents buying a house in Yonkers forty years ago? The last time I was there thirty four years ago. A fluke I submitted my bio on the last night possible to HBO as an extra and accepted and filming directly in front of their house, its extraordinary. I finally rang their bell, never give up. You cant change the world, just change the moment
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:14:52 +0000
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