The Road To Now - Part 1

It's almost hard to believe that it's been more than three years since Cat and I decided to head west. When we made the decision, it was because we believed it was time for a life change. Events seem to have borne that out, coming full circle for me in some ways, then changing around again. We 'got out of Dodge' pretty quickly, or at least I did. When I flew to CA in January 2004 to interview with ILM, I wasn't quite ready for the idea that they'd ask for me to get here two weeks later. I was able to stall things until the first of February, but it was all pretty quick. I packed what I could, finished all the little construction projects around the house (advice: don't put that stuff off - we asked ourselves why on earth we waited so long, having gotten the house to where we liked it just in time to move out!) hit the road, and promptly missed my plane to CA. The next couple of trips back and forth really tested my patience for the TSA at Newark airport and their "travel delay" service.

I shortly found myself living in a not-so-nice hotel on the outskirts of San Rafael, commuting a scant three miles to work. Having traded in my hour-and-a-half each way commute, I was feeling pretty giddy. First order of business was finding a place for Cathy and I to live. I started apartment hunting over lunchtime and on the weekends. I wouldn't have my truck for a while so I was getting around in a rental car, and I've got to say that having the gps navigator in the car was the about the best thing someone can have when apartment hunting. When Cathy came for a visit in late February, I had a few places lined up and we decided on a townhouse in Sausalito, on the edge of the Marin headlands. Almost completely ideal, it had year round very moderate temperatures, a quiet neighborhood and a killer view where you could see the "steam train" of fog rolling across the bay, Alcatraz island, the Tiburon peninsula and the Sausalito houseboat marina. Unfortunately, there was also highway 101 cutting right across the hill below the place. On my first night in the empty apartment on a borrowed air mattress (lighting by Ikea) I completely cleared the bed, thinking that there was a military invasion in the living room. Turns out that the sound of cops using their p.a. systems to address speeders they'd pulled off at the Sausalito exit carried right up the hill, as if by magic. The occasional intrusion of the fuzz and the constant sounds of traffic white noise became background to life over the next couple years. I finally got a box of stuff from back east and I was off and running in the new place.


After two months had gone by, I travelled back east to help Cathy with the big move out of our house. New Jersey seemed pretty dismal after winter in CA. We finished packing everything, including Term the cat, dropped our cars off for shipping and said final goodbyes. Term started the big travel day howling in his carrier (specially airplane sized to fit under the seat) which caused us some alarm, wondering if we were about to be hated by a plane full of people. No need to worry. Since we couldn't send Term through the xray in his carrier, I had to carry him through by hand. He got one look at more people than he'd ever seen in his life and promptly shut up for the next 3 weeks. Not an exaggeration. Thanks to another insanely long wait in that security line, though, we got bumped off another flight (with the plane still visible through the window) Term demonstrated that cats are much better travel companions than dogs, at least in some respects, as he managed to "hold his water" for the next 10 or so hours. After his usual tense break-in period in our new place he settled in and embraced two regular perches, on the wall by our steps where he could look out over the balcony, and also in my basement study where he could keep an eye on the wildlife.

On the buzzard perch

Keeping tabs on the neighbors

ILM at Kerner Blvd in San Rafael was a really enjoyable experience for me. I got to jump in and experience the tail end of the culture of the "old days" before the company hit its PSW (post-Star Wars) era. I met a couple of my personal heroes and gained some new ones. The first movie, as an animation lead, was "Son of the Mask" Not an especially impressive first outing, but lots of fun. I dodged the downsizing bullet by making a move into the digital matte department to work for several months on the last Star Wars movie. Probably this time, more than any, felt like "making a movie" as opposed to "going to work!" There's still a little of that old school effects magic in matte painting. I can't post the shots, because of contractual issues, but the 2 big ones are the establishing shots for the Coruscant Opera, which is a big spherical building on the end of a long "arm." Shot 1 is a wide shot showing the entertainment district, shot 2 shows Annakin running up a long staircase into the building. After that brief time (3 shots! 6+ months!) I was back to the animation department for most of my time. All of my ILM work is listed in my IMDB profile. After Cathy had been here for a few months, we decided that it was time for her to go back to work. She hit the streets looking for a job, even working through some temp agencies. After a few weeks, she found employment with an advertising agency called Chrisad. Their business is establishing marketing plans for dental practices and putting together direct mailings (You may have gotten one of their cards, it features local images and flowers, apparently a big plus in marketing) She started out handling accounts receivable for them and has since become a supervisor, and comes home with lots of stories about tangling with dentist "characters" on the telephone.

Skywalker Ranch Main House on the fourth of July


They let me play with the Oscars

Cathy by Lake Ewok

Cathy and I visit a buddy at Pixar on a Saturday afternoon

Cathy and I got involved with local theater quickly after we arrived here. I responded to an email from a co-worker about purchasing tickets to a local production of "The Secret Garden." Within a week or so, my status changed from spectator to light board operator, then to scenic painter. After a bit more time passed, it wound up landing on Stage Manager. Enter Simon Eves (my co-worker) and the San Anselmo Town Players into our life. A lovely bunch of people with a theater workshop with an open involvement policy - for better and for worse! Anyone who wants to participate can. After auditions, anyone that hasn't been cast into a named role is welcomed into the ensemble. Lots of fun to participate, very much a sense of "let's put on a show!" I'm sorry to say that Simon and his lovely family have since relocated back to their native England and the Town Players have since ceased to exist. But while it was around, I got my feet re-wet in doing some performing, dooming myself forever.

After a little time off from theater, while I was in a big push at work, I returned to stage manage for a production of Pippin. After this, I decided to audition for Carousel. I was cast as bad guy Jigger Craigin. It's tough to break old habits, because I also agreed to take on the set design and poster design for the production. A very large load to carry, but I was having a ball. The director asked me to make myself look a little less clean cut for the role, so I grew out my hair and a full beard. Toward the end of production, someone took this photo of me and I decided I looked olllld. The day after we wrapped, I had my hair cut and shaved off the beard and also the goatee I'd worn for the past 10 years or so. Cathy couldn't stop staring for a while. It definitely gave me a younger looking face.

That Jigger Craigin look.

Carousel graduation scene

Carousel wharf

After Carousel wrapped up, we took a trip up north to Bodega Bay, home of Hitchcock's "The Birds." Lots of fun, it also demonstrated that it's not always warm in in Northern California in the summertime! A bit later, we discovered that it's surprisingly difficult to get to the Caribbean from the west coast, so we made our first trip to Mexico, travelling with my sister and brother-in-law, Kim and Troy. We stayed in Tulum, just at the lower reach of the Mayan Riviera. Troy rented a car so we had some mobility. We also had some unbelievable humidity, but a great time with the beach and exploring local ruins and the town.

The cliffs at Bodega Bay

Long way down at the cliffs at Bodega Bay

Cathy and I at the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. And why did we leave the pool, again?

I auditioned for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and was cast as Judah, which meant I got to sing "Benjamin Calypso" We performed the show outdoors under the stars in San Anselmo Park. It was super lowbrow but tons of fun. (but then, that describes every production of Joseph, doesn't it?) After this, I pursued and won the lead in South Pacific, playing Emile DeBeque (man, why don't they write proper baritone leads any more?) This was a huge role for me, with a lot of singing - including two major solo numbers: "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine." My partner on stage, Carri, is an incredibly accomplished singer so I was more than a little worried about going toe-to-toe. Fortunately, she introduced me to her voice teacher, Peter Maleitzke. We hit it off and I'm still studying with him. Fortunately, South Pacific had a very long rehearsal period and I was able to work with him for 2 months before we opened. I'm happy to say I was able to surprise a lot of people (including myself!)

South Pacific publicity photo

Rehearsal "This Nearly Was Mine"

"Some Enchanted Evening" Reprise

Dancing with Nellie - "I'm in Love With A Wonderful Guy" reprise

My voice teacher Peter and his dog Bella, who usually hangs around during lessons

Singing in a group lesson

Our explorations took us to Lake Tahoe with friends for a weekend. Excellent weekend away, just eating, sleeping, a little time in the casinos and some more time in the hot tub! The elevation was a difficult adjustment. I tried to go running and found myself sucking wind only a few hundred yards into my run. We also made the first ever trip to Hawaii for both of us, choosing to visit Lanaii, formerly the Dole Pineapple plantation. Since Dole moved its business out of the US, Lanaii has become very quiet. It's mostly residential, has one sleepy little town and 3 hotels. We got used to riding into town for our meals. Things were so quiet that the server would usually chat with us (and on one occasion joined us) We rented a jeep one day and went exploring. We were there during the rainy season, so we didn't get to see everything we wanted to - we were warned that if we tried for certain destinations, we'd likely get bogged down and would be paying for the extraction ourselves.

Cathy in Hawaii

With friends Alison, Cathy, Carol and Simon at Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

It was also toward the end of 2005 that we started to think about buying a house. This is always an adventure in Marin county, as the high personal incomes and limited availability have conspired to make the market very expensive. Everything that fell into what we were thinking sounded like a 'comfortable bracket' was generally falling down, had some kind of mortal wound, was out in the sticks, or was an ideal size for our cat Term (if he didn't bring room mates.) The insane early-oughts housing market wasn't helping. In the two years that we waited to purchase, the median value in the county shot up by $200K. Insane. After a 5 month search, 4 rejected offers, and a place that we backed out of during escrow - the overall tilt of the house didn't please us too much - we finally found a place that had been sitting on the market for a couple of months. It's a good solid house, but after serving as a rental for 15 years, it was suffering from a charm deficit. Some spirited wrangling with the owners followed, and as of mid-June, we had ourselves a house. We rolled up our sleeves and tore into it. Naturally, a killer heat wave rolled into town at about the same time. When we'd leave the house at night and head back to Sausalito, the temperature rolling back by 20 degrees as we drove, we questioned what we'd got ourselves into. Houses up here in temperate Northern California are not built quite as tight as we were accustomed to back east and air conditioning is definitely not ubiquitous. Nevertheless, we completed renovations that included recarpeting, replacing and refinishing hardwood floors, new base mouldings, laying new ceramic tile, a bathroom vanity, windows and a complete repainting.

The new house

Yes, it's as hot as it looks replacing a floor in the family room

That's all for this installment. In the next one, I'll bring things up to date by filling in 2006-2007, which includes my last days at ILM, mountain climbing, bigger and bigger acting jobs, a return to parts south and more travels around the bay area.