Archive for July, 2008
I’m a little slow on the uptake, as many of you can attest to. So while I’d seen some road barriers around West Liberty and Ashley downtown the past few days, I didn’t pay them much mind. Unlike most of this town, I was unaware that a movie crew was in town to take advantage of Michigan’s hefty tax credits for filmmakers. Until this morning, when I was made late to a doctor’s appointment because they were shooting a fiery car crash scene and they had perky, attractive young production assistants preventing locals from accessing a couple of blocks.
You can’t really see anything in these photos because they were taken with my phone camera, the lens of which is, apparently, grimy and smudgy. But right down there was where the car was on fire. The movie in question is called Youth in Revolt and it stars Arrested Development’s cutie-pie Michael Cera, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta , Jean Smart and Fred Willard. Despite rumors of the first two being spotted in town, the production claims none of the stars were in town for filming this scene, that it was only stunt folk.
For those keeping track of such things, the aforementioned Michigan tax credit — largely spearheaded by Michigan resident Jeff Daniels — is bringing quite a bit of movie biz to the state. Drew Barrymore’s production company has set up shop in Ypsilanti (Ann Arbor’s neighboring township) for the Barrymore-directed flick Whip It!, which started filming here in July and is slated to continue through September. (Curiously, it stars Cera’s Juno cast mate Ellen Page.)
We’re SO Hollywood!
July 31st, 2008
I love it when my old St. Louis neighborhood makes national news. This time it appears to be a standoff between a gunman and police and it’s already resulted in one firefighter dead and two police officers injured.
Nice.
When I saw the headline on MSNBC.com, I was thinking it was probably my next door neighbor. The same one who, when he saw some people break into our house while the renters were on vacation, decided that instead of calling the police, he’d grab his gun and enter the house and threaten to blow their fucking heads off.
Fortunately, it’s not. It’s a good three blocks or so away. Fantastic. This should really help ratchet up the neighborhood’s reputation when we finally get our house on the market.
July 21st, 2008
I just realized, to my great surprise, that I hadn’t actually written a new post in nearly three weeks. I know; I’m a terrible blogger. It’s just that I’ve been spending most of my mental energy doing something that’s also surprising: writing. My work’s coming along painfully slowly, but progress is being made in between bouts of writer’s block and self-doubt (although those may be the same things.)
On the jay front, the nest has been empty for some days now. The babies ventured out from one branch to another, then on to the next nearest tree, then the next. For a few days we could still find them in the morning by following the cacophony of squawking and wing flapping when the parents brought them food. And we can hear and see the parents in the neighborhood sometimes, but the kiddies have graduated to higher branches and have moved on.
Sigh. Would I be the world’s biggest dope if I said it was a little sad?
July 13th, 2008
Literally within a handful of days the baby blue jays went from looking like baby pterodactyls with see-through craniums to looking like baby, well, birds. Complete with downy fluff and the emergence of blue feathers. Amazing. Over the past few days, I’ve kept a close eye on their progress. (Too close, at times, including the time I pulled a chair over and stood on it, peering into the nest and was dive-bombed by one of the parental blue jays, who made actual contact with my hair. Message received.)
A couple of days ago, the most advanced of the bunch was tottering on the edge of the nest. Another followed suit and in the past 48 hours they’ve all tried their hand at flying. I watched them as they took their first tentative steps, hopping from one branch to another, unsteady and wobbling into branches. I watched as they practiced flapping their wings, sometimes comically as if they didn’t have much control, getting them tangled up in leaves and if I’d been close enough I’m sure I would have seen their little birdy-cheeks turn bright red.
By Tuesday afternoon, all four had ventured out to varying degrees and to varying degrees of comfort. (Pictured at top is the early adapter, who was so exhausted by his/her progress that he/she fell asleep right on the branch, hanging upside down like that.) By yesterday afternoon, two of them had made it into branches on nearby trees. By this afternoon? Can’t spot a one of them. No one’s in the nest. No one’s in the nearby trees unless they’ve made it to the highest-up branches.
Judging by the calendar, the babies are about two weeks old and are probably on schedule for fledging. I’m sure that, even if they do return to the nest tonight, it won’t be long before the whole family is gone for good. And I know it’s their thing. I mean, I know it’s what they’re meant to do. But it doesn’t mean that I won’t miss watching them.
On the other hand, I won’t miss being dive-bombed on my own back deck, either. So have at it, nature!
July 3rd, 2008