Lovers Weekend in the Ouachita Mountains

We had a beautiful three day Memorial Day weekend in the Ouachita Mountains. It felt so good to get away from it all. We love the Fleetwood E-2!

The Killer Inside Me

No...not me! We are on the set of the movie which is filming here in Oklahoma. Here is the imdb link to "The Killer Inside Me". More details and photos coming soon.

Link to Ryan's new on-line portfolio

We're still working on Ryan's on-line film and television portfolio, but here is the link.

http://www.ryanbustfilm.blogspot.com/

A Dull but Overdue Post - Back in Austin for Friday Night Lights season 3

I'm tired tonight, but here is the jist of what's going on with us.

After spending five months in New Orleans while Ryan did back to back movies there, we came back to Austin (late July) so that he could work on the third season of Friday Night Lights. Here we are in mid-october and the show will wrap up for the season around mid-December. We'll head off to Florida for a week or so and then up to Wisconsin to see my Mom and Stepdad. Then we'll be off to Louisiana again so that Ryan can do a film or two before FNL starts again for a fourth season (fingers crossed).

We bought a cool little camper called the Fleetwood Evolution E2. It's really adorable. It has a toy hauler on the front so that we can haul the bikes. A shower, potty, fridge, indoor stove, outdoor stove, hot water heater, air conditioner, furnace, everything is included in this thing. It's built to go off-road. Fun! We are looking forward to hauling it all over the country to see the sites in our off time. We'll also use it sometimes when we work on location. We might be doing a film in Traverse County Michigan in the summer and it would be really great to have there. We sure could have used this while filming in Marfa!

Keeping it short and boring for now. But that's the news from here, folks!

Photos from West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee Parishes

Ahhhh...sweet green Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi in the Springtime. I can smell the sweet olive and the lemon blossoms just thinking about it! How we love it!!!! Here are some photos I took with my cell phone while we were in West Feliciana (St. Francisville) and Pointe Coupee (New Roads) Parishes in Louisiana. Many of them were taken at our friend Chris's house.

We moved to the Gorgeous Garden District in wonderful New Orleans!

It's been a long time since we've posted anything. The last time we posted, we were waiting for a start date on "The Tree of Life". We opted not to wait any longer for a start date on that and opted instead for New Orleans!!! The writer's strike was hell for those of us non-writers who work in the business. It cost us over $30,000! However, the strike did end and all in all it was a pretty good year. "There Will be Blood" was nominated for several Oscars, including one for Production Design. It won at least one, Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, the other(s) I can't remember. I guess I should, huh. Anyway,that was exciting. Everybody who works in this business dreams of being part of that and Ryan has now, so yay! Then, we chose to move to wonderful, gorgeous New Orleans which was a fabulous move! We are hooked!!!! As usual, we are very, very happy and very much in love with one another and with our lives. We feel very lucky.

Last year, we fell in love with New Orleans and Louisiana in general, when we went there to worked on the pilot episode of K-Ville for FOX. After the pilot, we went to this beautiful little town called St. Francisville in West Feliciana Parish so that Ryan could work on a Horror movie (yikes!). After that, we returned to Austin for the second season of Friday Night Lights. We couldn't wait to get back to NOLA. In March we moved there and got the prettiest little apartment in a historic building in the Garden District. It would be difficult to describe the natural beauty, architecture and culture of this wonderful city. Most of the press is dedicated to New Orleans problems, but believe me, there is still so much to see, do and hear (Jazz) in this wonderful city! What a wonderful mixture of cultures has influenced New Orleans food, music, architecture and way of life. It really feels like home to us. We almost wonder if we lived there together in a past life. Anyway, Ryan has done two movies in New Orleans in the last three months. One is about Chess Records, the record company founded by Leonard and Phil Chess which became one of the major blues labels of the 50's and 60's. Artists who were recorded and produced on the Chess Records label include Muddy Waters, Chuck Barry, Bo Diddley and Willie Dixon, among others. The other one is a Lifetime movie, starring Harry Connick Jr. and produced by Renee Zellweger. It's called "Living Proof", at least that is the working title and it was created to bring awareness to the fight against breast cancer, specifically, the work of one Dr. Salamon. I guess that's spelled right.

At the moment, we are in Austin, working on Season 3 of Friday Night Lights. After that, we may take a trip up to Traverse City, Michigan to work on a kid's movie based on "The Great Escape", which I have never seen. For the most part, however, we plan to work in New Orleans and Louisiana in general. The State of Louisiana has been very aggressive in attracting film productions and according to our union local, IATSE 478, we are expecting 40 more already. Texas just has not been competitive. So they are losing many of their very qualified film professionals to the states that are!

I am adding a few pictures of our little place in the Garden District. It's small, about 800 square feet and shotgun style. But it is really beautiful and in the most gorgeous neighborhood where everything. I mean everything you need or want is within walking distance. The streets are tree lined and smell of plants and blossoms all the time. The houses are spectacular in their charm and beauty. I love the way that New Orleans has preserved those fabulous structures. I love living in a building that has so much history. I love New Orleans!

Weird Dream #1

Last night I dreamed that I went to the doctor and he told me that my blood was 90% fat!

The laziest blogger ever!

I am the laziest blogger ever! If I had any readership at all, I would apologize profusely for never writing anything.....remotely interesting. But I don't! I don't really know which is the cause and which is the effect. Do I have no readership because I never post anything....remotely interesting? Or do I never post because I have no readers? I dunno. But I do know that I like reading blogs much better than I like writing them. Strange because in person I never shut up!

I feel like I should update this blog a little now...because I told my non-readers that I would. So here goes.

Ryan and I spent the Spring in New Orleans where he worked on the pilot for K-Ville, a FOX network series. That got picked up for season one, but so did Friday Night Lights, which he worked on last season here in Austin. So we had a choice of which one to work on. But backing up a little, we finished the pilot for K-Ville and then we went to St. Francisville, LA to film a horror movie. What a CUTE little historic mainstreet town on the Mississippi that was! We fell in love with it's southern charm and wonderful people! We made such good friends with some of the locals there. Hello Chris...Heather...Bob E! Hello to the West Feliciana Parish Air Force! We rode the ferry across to New Roads and got stuffed fat on Two, Two and Two! That's two oysters orleans...two oysters bienville...and two oysters rockafeller! Mmmm, mmmmm....go to MaMama's if you ever go there. So after St. Francisville, we came back to Austin for the second season of Friday Night Lights. That was in June. So here we are in December. By the way...WE GOT MARRIED! Even though Tony Parker from the Spurs is an arch enemy to Ryan's favorite team...the Dallas Mavericks...we got married on 7/07/07 just like Tony and Eva. We heard is was good luck so we just went to a friend with the power to hook us up. So anyway, after Friday Night Lights ends...R. will probably work on something else briefly and then start a film here in Austin called "Tree of Life". It's set to star Sean Penn and Heath Ledger. That film will take us months into 2008 and if FNL gets a third season then we might go almost directly into that. If not, we will either stay here for what ever comes up, go back to LA, or go somewhere else entirely. We did buy a little condo here in downtown Austin so that we have a homebase that is pretty much self sufficient if we need to be away for an extended time.

So there it is people...or nobody. Sorry about the bad grammar and such. I just really do not care these days. I feel very liberated that I have come to a place where I truly do not care what anybody thinks. I'm a good girl and those who love me will let me come as I am! Ahhhhhhh yeah!