I miss her

DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE


Had my first day of Risk Reduction class. Actually wasn't that bad. A lot of characters. There's this one, older Jewish guy with a thick grey beard and a yarmulke. Dude is in complete denial. Says he got busted for "dope." Says he was at a party and asked someone if they wanted to catch a buzz with him. Apparently they turned around and called the cops. Everytime a question is asked about alcohol, he speaks up saying he doesn't know how to answer it since he doesn't drink. What's more is that he thinks his whole situation is a government conspiracy.

I am grateful for being in this situation.

MERCENARY WORDSMITH

Okay, so don't hate me, but I needed a little extra cash for the holidays so I took on, as an independent contractor, a research paper for someone at Emory.

15 pages/$300...not too bad, right? plus it's on hip hop and marketing so...

I miss writing so I decided to do some work on the side. Frankly, the paper turned out amazingly well. If you'd like to read a copy, please let me know.

Just killing time in the ATL

ATL JOJA...WHADDA WE DO FOR YA

Got to Atlanta today to finish what has become a 2 year process in regards to my run-in back in January 04.

I will be splitting my time between Suchin's ghetto bunk bed in his basement and Dara's bed. It will be nice to see some Emory/Atlanta friends, but I by no means want to be in Atlanta right now.

Today/tomorrow I guess I will just be hanging out. Sat/Sun will be spent in risk reduction class along with Mon/Tues night.

Since two of my good friends--Wil May and Graham--live with my archnemesis, Scooter, much of my time will spent making sure I don't run into him.

REEL ATTRACTION: Local film industry hopes generous new incentives will lure business here

By JON CHESTOThe Patriot Ledger
It didn’t take long for the first e-mail to land in Sam Weisman’s inbox. Weisman, a director who lives in Newton, said he heard from a top film executive at Warner Bros. on Tuesday.
Apparently, the exec previously had problems with shooting movies in Massachusetts. But a new package of tax incentives, signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney on the day before Thanksgiving, prompted him to reconsider.
‘‘He e-mailed me ... and said, ‘Congratulations. Let’s go make a movie,’’’ said Weisman, one of the last directors to film a major motion picture here - in his case, it was ‘‘What’s the Worst That Could Happen?’’ in 2000-.
Weisman is one of many industry insiders in the Boston area who expect e-mails like that one will represent just the beginning of a surge of interest in making movies in the Bay State.
Most states already offer some incentives to lure film crews to shoot within their borders. However, the size
and extent of the Bay State’s new film package - which provides up to $7 million in tax credits for a single production - makes it among the five most generous states in the country.
Other film-friendly states include Louisiana, Georgia, New York and Rhode Island. This is the first year that the Ocean State has offered the tax credits, and it already has seen the start of a TV series - Showtime’s ‘‘Brotherhood’’ - and commitments from two major studio films, ‘‘Hard Luck’’ starring Wesley Snipes and Disney’s ‘‘Underdog.’’
Massachusetts, meanwhile, has only had two major studio flicks fully shot here during the past seven years, according to Chris O’Donnell, the business manager for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 481 in Woburn. They were Weisman’s movie and Clint Eastwood’s ‘‘Mystic River,’’ in 2002.
Sure, many other recent movies have featured local settings. Wellesley College had a starring role alongside Julia Roberts in ‘‘Mona Lisa Smile’’ and Fenway Park co-starred in ‘‘Fever Pitch’’ with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Earlier this year, Martin Scorsese shot scenes in Boston and Quincy for his upcoming crime drama, ‘‘The Departed.’’
But, in most cases, crews shot the bulk of the films in less expensive places. For example, despite the New England roots of ‘‘Fever Pitch’’ directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, their movie was largely filmed in Toronto.
Movie makers have long been charmed by Massachusetts’ varied locations - its farmland, rolling hills, vast stretches of coastline and historic cityscapes. But the high costs associated with filming here has, more often than not, chased away big-studio business to Canada and other locales.
A federal probe into the Charlestown-based Teamsters Local 25 and stories of that union’s disruptions on movie sets also deterred studio execs. Industry insiders say that reputation has steadily faded as several years have passed without any notable incidents. But the stigma is certainly not completely gone.
Another blow came in 2002 when the state’s film office budget was eliminated. The film bureau’s executive director, Robin Dawson, has since been running it as a nonprofit with a shoestring budget. But observers say the office - despite Dawson’s connections and knowhow - lacks the clout it had as a state agency.
During the past few years, many states started to mimic Canada by coming up with their own tax packages. Louisiana led the way, putting generous incentives in place in mid-2002. That state’s film office boasts that in the following three years, Louisiana has seen more than $900 million worth of productions.
In recent years, the balance started to shift away from Canada with the proliferation of lucrative tax breaks among the states and a more favorable currency exchange rate in the U.S.
Momentum began to build behind a program for major tax credits in Massachusetts last year following the news that Scorsese’s ‘‘The Departed’’ would be largely shot in New York City - even though it is set in Boston.
Rep. Thomas O’Brien, a Democrat from Kingston, filed a bill on Beacon Hill a year ago that served as the basis for the legislation that eventually ended up on Romney’s desk last month. O’Brien credits actors Chris and Marianne Cooper, who live in Kingston, for drawing his attention to the need for the state to do something.
It probably didn’t hurt that the Coopers joined ‘‘The Departed’’ executive producer G. Mac Brown at a State House hearing this summer to urge lawmakers to pass tax credit legislation. Cambridge native Matt Damon - who co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘‘The Departed’’ - also made a public plea for state-backed incentives.
Meanwhile, industry leaders in the area teamed up to lobby behind the scenes for legislation by forming the Massachusetts Production Coalition.
The generosity of the tax package that the Legislature eventually created has drawn some criticism, however. A state Department of Revenue analysis showed that the state would have lost nearly $50 million in tax credits had a previous version of the legislation been in place in 2002, the year ‘‘Mystic River’’ was shot.
Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the film industry’s jobs are largely freelance and don’t provide the permanent base that many other sectors offer.
‘‘We may get more films made here than otherwise,’’ Widmer said. ‘‘But the cost in lost tax revenues doesn’t justify it. There would be a lot better uses of this money to stimulate economic development activity.’’
But supporters say the incentives could lay the groundwork for a more permanent network of film jobs in the region. Plus, advocates say the state is only giving back a portion of what would represent new tax revenues; most of the production companies are expected to sell their tax credits to help defray their movies’ budgets.
‘‘This is revenue that wouldn’t be here,’’ said Dawson, of the Massachusetts Film Bureau. ‘‘We have to receive a dollar first before we give anything back.’’
Besides, Dawson said, the movies also act as effective marketing tools for the state. ‘‘There’s no stronger advertising medium than through a feature film or a television series,’’ she said.
The tax breaks in Massachusetts also apply to television commercials - a key selling point for producers like Mark Hankey, founder of the Picture Park production company in Boston.
‘‘Massachusetts is an attractive place to shoot but it’s always been an expensive place to shoot,’’ Hankey said. ‘‘Hopefully, (the tax breaks) will take the cost problem out of the picture.’’
Word of the legislation’s passage is already starting to circulate outside of New England. Weisman, the director, said a copy of Romney’s press release announcing the tax breaks was e-mailed to a number of Hollywood executives.
And Grafton Nunes, dean of Emerson College’s School of the Arts, said he heard about it from a film producer while in London over the Thanksgiving weekend. That producer, Nunes said, was already lining up plans for a production in Boston.
‘‘It’s a wonderful city for locations, and producers have always recognized that, (but before now) the bottom line was better elsewhere because of the tax credits,’’ Nunes said. ‘‘People are just looking for a chance to shoot here.’’
Jon Chesto may be reached at jchesto@ledger.com.
Copyright 2005 The Patriot LedgerTransmitted Saturday, December 03, 2005

FYI: This is my dad.

Laura didn't make 'Landing' reunion

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan December 5, 2005
Constance McCashin had a terrific love life as Laura on ''Knots Landing." First, she was married to Richard, the unscrupulous lawyer played by John Pleshette. Then she had a lesbian affair with Lisa Hartman's hubba-hubba character Cathy. And, finally, before succumbing to a brain tumor 10 television seasons later, she settled down with William Devane's villanous Gregory Sumner. McCashin lives in Newton now with her husband, director Sam Weisman, and long ago got out of the acting biz. But we figured she'd show up on Friday's heavily hyped ''Knots Landing" reunion. We were wrong. ''[Producer] Henry Winkler called me on my cell while I was getting my hair blown out at a salon on Newbury Street," McCashin told us yesterday. ''He asked me to be on the show, but I declined." A psychotherapist at Brandeis these days, McCashin actually didn't decline, she just asked for more dough than Winkler was willing to pay. ''I said, 'Pay for my daughter's first year at Wesleyan,' " McCashin said, laughing. ''A lot of people tune into these things just to see who got fat, and if I'm going to be scrutinized like that, it's got to be worth my while."

Constance McCashin is my mom FYI.

DON'T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE

Bedbug boom blamed on increased foreign travel
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAYFri Dec 2, 7:16 AM ET
Bedbugs, the houseguests nobody wants, are back in growing numbers across the USA, and booting them from your bunk can be a lengthy, costly process.
Sixty years after near-eradication, the little bloodsuckers are infesting homes and hotels from New York to San Diego. Why the outbreak? Increased world travel and changing pest-control practices.
"The bugs had become a myth," says Richard Cooper, an entomologist who runs a family pest control firm in Lawrenceville, N.J. "They were the monster in the closet. People don't believe they're real."
They're real, all right. If they've gained a toehold - or wherever they find bare skin to bite - they won't leave your house unless you unleash an all-out effort.
"If you don't manage them, they'll manage you," says Richard Pollack, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The re-emergence of bedbugs appears to have begun in the late 1990s. Cooper saw his first one in a motel in 1999.
That prompted him to start collecting reports from colleagues. From June 2000 until May 2001, Cooper surveyed exterminators in the Northeast, Florida and California. None reported more than 22 bedbug calls. In 2004-05, bedbug complaints jumped to 335 in the Northeast, 285 in Florida and 240 in California.
"Now, we're out there dealing with bedbugs every day of the week, all day long," Cooper says.
Cindy Mannes of the National Pest Management Association says the pest control comany Orkin has had bedbug reports this year in every state except seven: Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Wyoming.
You might expect that the vermin would be found in cut-rate flophouses. You'd be wrong. The Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York, where a one-bedroom suite fetches $950 a night, was sued by a bedbug "bitee" in 2003. The suit was settled, says spokesman Howard Rubenstein, and the hotel has not had a problem since.
In San Diego, Herb Field, an entomologist with Lloyd Pest Control, has treated everything from small condos to rescue missions.
"Five years ago, we might have had a dozen calls for bedbugs a year," he says. "Now we get that many in a week."
Pest control companies blame the bedbug boom on increased foreign travel, Mannes says. The bugs are more common abroad, and they'll happily hitch a ride in a suitcase. The 46 million travelers landing in the USA in 2004 were an increase of almost 12% from 2003, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.
Bedbugs are hardy, too, capable of surviving a year between meals. Those meals consist entirely of blood. Fortunately, they don't appear to spread disease, Pollack says.
There's speculation that the industry trend away from spraying pesticides on baseboards has been a boon for bedbugs, he says. The practice has mostly been discontinued in favor of more targeted, less-toxic alternatives.
Whatever the reason, you may not realize you're living with bedbugs until your home is infested.
"If you wake up at 2 a.m. and something's sucking on your ankle, that's a pretty good sign," Pollack says. "But people generally don't see that, and they don't feel feeding. They're stealthy."
Bedbugs had been feasting on Brian Kayen for some time before he discovered his West Orange, N.J., apartment was infested a year ago.
At first, he thought his laundry detergent had caused him to break out in red welts. Kayen, 26, lived on the second floor of a three-family building, and the bedbugs apparently had entered a neighbor's home on secondhand furniture.
"I'd get up in the middle of the night and flip the lights on looking for them," he says. Despite four visits by an exterminator, the bedbugs refused eviction. It was Kayen who moved to a new place.
Killing them is tough work, Cooper says. For starters, they're hard to find. They come out only at night, they're translucent until they fill up with blood, and hatchlings are so small they can pass through a stitch-hole in a mattress. Even as full-grown adults, they're only a quarter of an inch long, and their flat bodies allow them to slip into tiny cracks in furniture.
Pollack says a good exterminator will spend at least a half-hour examining furniture, baseboards and mattresses. Several follow-up visits are required, too.
"It can cost thousands of dollars to get rid of them," he says.
Getting rid of them can require pesticides, powerful vacuums and sealing mattresses with impervious covers, Cooper says.
To avoid bringing bedbugs into your home, Pollack says, avoid secondhand furniture.
He says, "You might be getting friends along with that mattress, bed frame or dresser."