Warming My Heart

Check out the stove. Back to the dollar store. Buy a cheap wooden bureau, add the pipe made from that lamp I was talking about earlier, piece of towel dowel on the top, invert the draws of the bureau and cut out the grate from the bottom one, lots and lots of hot glue and add a base. Felt on the bottom to make it quiet and there you have it. Such joy I have never known before.

Really Happy With This One

A puppeteer and a junkman...they are the same thing. When one practices this art, one my trash pick. It is not noble looking when you are doing it but boy, the results can be fantastic. Got my theatre that way.

And this prop was made with junk. First some junk from the dollar store. A picture frame which I put tin foil in to make the mirror behind the bar. Will paint if of course. The some various useless wooden things that I took apart and put back together for the bar itself.

Then the best is for last. I was walking about three months ago down my street. I found a lamp that I was going to use for lighting. I saved the pieces instead of throwing them out, as I was advised by she who does not like the junkman. Well, I think I did good, when I needed the footrail for the bar, there they were. Ever see an excited old man before.

Sad Hill...Just Plain Scary

Sad Hill is the cemetary that Tuco and Blondie come upon looking for the grave of Arch Stanton. Then Angel arrives and the Trio Of Gold plays down to the final shots. You must see that shootout. It is one of the best end of a movie fight scenes ever. This one of course, then the Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson showdown in Once Upon In The West and then of course the end of the third film of the the Samurai Trilogy (1956). Curious aren’t you.

Genuine Article

I am really excited about this shadow puppet. That...my friends (if I have any out there) is the exact silhouette of the horseman in the opening credits of the film GBU (minus the hat of course). It is due to the wonders of modern science and computer. One play the DVD, takes a snap shot of a piece of the film using cool applications, invert it so it can be cut out, pasted onto a cereal box and then cut out again, placed on a long match stick and BINGO. ART!

The Servant Must Have Been Bummed

I remember reading some W. Somerset Maugham and coming across this in the introduction. I thought later that it was surely meant to be found and to be included in this epic production. So there you go. And remember this is a Québecois Spaghetti Western. Too bad you didn't convert to metric in 1984...huh.





"The Appointment in Samarra"
as retold by W. Somerset Maugham in 1933

The speaker is Death

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

A Shadow Of The Man I Was

Just a shadow of a glimpse of things to come. Here are some props for the transitions. Is it sunrise or sunset?

New Construction Pictures

This is the campfire prop for the opening of the first scene where Everyman is resting. It will have a backdrop of the desert, a horse and a cactus. Wanna Bet?
This is just some highly technical stuff. I could explain it to you but I would confuse myself. Lets leave it at...it works...ok...good.
This is a shot from above the backstage. Why? Because everyone seems to do one of these shots.
This is the new shadow screen. Will be used for the transitions between scenes. It will have sides and something to drap down to hide the puppeteer...thats me.

Lastly we have the view from the backstage of the new highly technical lamp with homemade >barndoors>. Really boss.