UPDATED: Houston and Paul Wall
Update 06/25/08
Video footage is up over at the movie blog:
IHTSBIH Blog
I just got back from Houston and a treacherous drive through Texas and northern Louisiana. I am plopped on the couch listening to some Pepper trying to relax. It was a successful day, no doubt, but also a stressful one.
I roused my ass up around 9 this morning and prepped my still and video camera. As soon as that was done Tucker handed me the keys to his car. Yesterday he informed me that he had come to realization that a man of his "station" in life deserves a driver, so the 4 hour drive to Houston would be on me. A quick word on driving in the South for those who have not done it- IT BLOWS.
The freeway signage looks like it was put together by monkeys on crack. Freeways sneak up on you like nobody's business and most of them don't make any fucking sense. (i.e. a sign will point left, but if you should, like an idiot, go left you will end up on the wrong goddamn highway). As if that wasn't bad enough ,Houston's freeways involve, in order- gigantic ass frontage roads with their own on ramp systems parallel to the goddamn highway, shitty signage and here's a new one FREEWAY U-TURNS. So, given that Tucker is the worst backseat passenger ever, not exactly a stress-free environment. Whatever. Nils and I had fun making fun of the backass country we traveled through. No joke there was a front yard that included the following: a school bus, tractor, taxi, and assorted lawnmowers. Awesome.
Anyway, after getting to Houston, we kicked it at a Chili's for a while. Tucker had explained to us that Paul had his own time schedule which was sort of "Paul time." So the Chili's excursion turned into a Chuck E Cheese excursion, which required the three of us (Nils, Tucker, myself) to cross a highway. On foot. Exciting. Oddly enough, as we were walking, Tucker was recognized by some chick flying past us in a car. Go figure. Speaking of women, some Houston chick (I hesitate to use the word "whore," it's just so mean) was texting Tucker the ENTIRE time we were in the area. The girl had reservations about hooking up at Paul Wall's place. Not hooking up with Tucker mind you, just not at Paul's place. Classy gal.
Moving on. I managed to navigate us to Paul's place and I quickly got my camera package together and headed in. Of course on the first day of video shooting I fucked up immediately by saying "Hello" to Paul and putting the camera down, missing a key shot. Big mistake not getting Tucker's entrance on film and he was vocal in letting me know about it. Normally I come down pretty hard on myself for an error like that, but in this case- meeting Paul Wall was pretty fucking cool. Even a "dumbshit" assistant is allowed to get starstruck on occasion.
(Someone asked me why we didn't just re-shoot a fake entrance- answer: I DESPISE reality TV and am doing my damndest to not do ANY sort of reality bullcrap shooting. I missed the shot and that's that.)
It turns out we weren't actually at Paul's house, we were instead at the house of his manager where Paul lays down all of his vocals. I shut up and proceeded to follow Tucker and Nils upstairs to Paul's recording area. Here's something unreal- Paul's recording room is RIGHT next to a bathroom. I'm not even kidding. Literally, you step out of the recording room and stare at a toilet. I'll try to pull some stills from our video, pretty hilarious. Anyway, Paul laid down some vocals for a song I can't talk about, suffice to say it fit RIGHT in with the movie and is more than appropriate. The song will definitely be in rotation in my iTunes. After recording the song and some discussion between Nils, Tucker and Paul we headed out.
All in all I said maybe two words to Paul, but he couldn't have been a nicer guy. Tucker of course introduced me as "he doesn't matter," so I doubt Paul has any impression of me whatsoever. But, as I was leaving Paul grabbed my shoulder and gave me a nice smile. Something he didn't have to do and after a stressful day, it was a nice boost and indicative of the kind of guy Paul is.
A special photo below for anyone who reads Tucker's stories. I'm not going to describe it, but you guys can guess all you want. Video and more stills later this week (Tucker has an embargo until Thursday or Friday).
Video footage is up over at the movie blog:
IHTSBIH Blog
I just got back from Houston and a treacherous drive through Texas and northern Louisiana. I am plopped on the couch listening to some Pepper trying to relax. It was a successful day, no doubt, but also a stressful one.
I roused my ass up around 9 this morning and prepped my still and video camera. As soon as that was done Tucker handed me the keys to his car. Yesterday he informed me that he had come to realization that a man of his "station" in life deserves a driver, so the 4 hour drive to Houston would be on me. A quick word on driving in the South for those who have not done it- IT BLOWS.
The freeway signage looks like it was put together by monkeys on crack. Freeways sneak up on you like nobody's business and most of them don't make any fucking sense. (i.e. a sign will point left, but if you should, like an idiot, go left you will end up on the wrong goddamn highway). As if that wasn't bad enough ,Houston's freeways involve, in order- gigantic ass frontage roads with their own on ramp systems parallel to the goddamn highway, shitty signage and here's a new one FREEWAY U-TURNS. So, given that Tucker is the worst backseat passenger ever, not exactly a stress-free environment. Whatever. Nils and I had fun making fun of the backass country we traveled through. No joke there was a front yard that included the following: a school bus, tractor, taxi, and assorted lawnmowers. Awesome.
Anyway, after getting to Houston, we kicked it at a Chili's for a while. Tucker had explained to us that Paul had his own time schedule which was sort of "Paul time." So the Chili's excursion turned into a Chuck E Cheese excursion, which required the three of us (Nils, Tucker, myself) to cross a highway. On foot. Exciting. Oddly enough, as we were walking, Tucker was recognized by some chick flying past us in a car. Go figure. Speaking of women, some Houston chick (I hesitate to use the word "whore," it's just so mean) was texting Tucker the ENTIRE time we were in the area. The girl had reservations about hooking up at Paul Wall's place. Not hooking up with Tucker mind you, just not at Paul's place. Classy gal.
Moving on. I managed to navigate us to Paul's place and I quickly got my camera package together and headed in. Of course on the first day of video shooting I fucked up immediately by saying "Hello" to Paul and putting the camera down, missing a key shot. Big mistake not getting Tucker's entrance on film and he was vocal in letting me know about it. Normally I come down pretty hard on myself for an error like that, but in this case- meeting Paul Wall was pretty fucking cool. Even a "dumbshit" assistant is allowed to get starstruck on occasion.
(Someone asked me why we didn't just re-shoot a fake entrance- answer: I DESPISE reality TV and am doing my damndest to not do ANY sort of reality bullcrap shooting. I missed the shot and that's that.)
It turns out we weren't actually at Paul's house, we were instead at the house of his manager where Paul lays down all of his vocals. I shut up and proceeded to follow Tucker and Nils upstairs to Paul's recording area. Here's something unreal- Paul's recording room is RIGHT next to a bathroom. I'm not even kidding. Literally, you step out of the recording room and stare at a toilet. I'll try to pull some stills from our video, pretty hilarious. Anyway, Paul laid down some vocals for a song I can't talk about, suffice to say it fit RIGHT in with the movie and is more than appropriate. The song will definitely be in rotation in my iTunes. After recording the song and some discussion between Nils, Tucker and Paul we headed out.
All in all I said maybe two words to Paul, but he couldn't have been a nicer guy. Tucker of course introduced me as "he doesn't matter," so I doubt Paul has any impression of me whatsoever. But, as I was leaving Paul grabbed my shoulder and gave me a nice smile. Something he didn't have to do and after a stressful day, it was a nice boost and indicative of the kind of guy Paul is.
A special photo below for anyone who reads Tucker's stories. I'm not going to describe it, but you guys can guess all you want. Video and more stills later this week (Tucker has an embargo until Thursday or Friday).
posted by greg at 9:07 PM
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