Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Pass the pork


Confusion is setting in.

Relax, this is not a health issue and hopefully not an indicator of things to come. It simply occurred to me the other day that I've had my memory wires crossed. 

For years I told the the story of the 600 lbs. pig that arrived on set and attributed this weird incident to Director Tony Kaye, a man with whom I have had some general unpleasantness.

But it turns out, the arrival of the oversized swine at the end of the day, while filming a spot for Sony PlayStation, was the handiwork of Director Doug Liman -- perhaps best know for Swingers. For reasons that still elude me, Doug thought it would be fun to have a humongus hog on the set as we were shooting artillery at various objects, to mimic the actions of Tiny Tank. 

I suppose the confusion is not all that mysterious. Both directors are on the quirky side. Doug brought pigs to the set. Tony refused to talk on the telephone and would not speak directly with creative people, the same folks who mistakenly hired him to shoot their spots.

In general I was always leery of commercial directors. Many of whom harbor a Diva complex. Years ago, I heard tale of a German director, who prior to working with any ad agency would supply a 19 page memo of "riders" that had to be addressed before he deemed the project worthy of his precious time. The "No Green M&M's" Phenomena taken to extremes.

On the other hand, I've had the good fortune of working with many talented, congenial and accessible normal people (directors) like Chris Smith, Rick Lemoine, Bryan Buckley, just to name a few that come to my increasingly addled mind.

I'm now an hour into writing this post and I've already forgotten my original point.

Ah yes...Pigs.

And my pet peeve of the day.

I knew it would come full circle.

As many of you know I write quite a bit about our former president, who I, and many others, including Liz Cheney, Mary Trump, and 81 million Americans, consider an existential threat to America and hence the world.

And in writing about him, I've been known to illustrate my point with some colorful language. And because I have run out of adjectives that sufficiently encapsulate his boorish behavior, have often compared him to one of our pinkish porcine friends.

This, often elicits a response, that in addition to being pedestrian, is enough to make me want to pull my hair out, you know, if I had any left.

"Oh Rich, that's an insult the pigs."

Yeah, ok, duly noted. Thanks for uselessly chiming in.




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