Anne at the Getty Art Museum

Last night, Anne was checking our home voicemail and found a message for Dan. It was from the bank, their credit card security department. Oh boy, I thought another scammed card to deal with. She called Dan, who was already well aware of the situation. Last Sunday, they had called him about some suspicious activity with his credit card. In the interim they had also clamped down on his debit card too. Dan worked with the bank and was eventually able to straighten things out. In the bank’s defense, LA really is a den of iniquity when it comes to fraud.

What precipitated this banking paranoia were some charges that Dan made when his car broke down. His thirteen year old Ford Focus is beginning to show its age. Opening the hood, he found coolant everywhere. One of his radiator hoses had busted wide open. He hoofed it nine blocks to the nearest gas station and bought a gallon of coolant. Returning to the car, he duct-taped the hose together and was able to nurse the car to the station. They fixed him up, but not without first raising the ire of the bank.

With crisis at least temporarily averted, there was time for some catching up. Dan has been busy. He has settled into his librarian job at Otis College of Art and Design. The school is gearing up for its annual fashion show and this is helping to keep Dan busy too. He will be covering for others, while they participate in the show and in the meantime he also runs preparatory errands for the show. He went to a Burbank costume supply house to fetch Kate Hudson’s costume, from the Rolling Stone magazine inspired movie, Almost Famous.

Next month, Dan will begin working on his second movie. This, like the first one is a student film. The difference is that this one will be made at USC, the most prestigious film school in town. He will be the set construction coordinator. The picture, VIMANA, will be a science fiction/Bollywood send-up. A 50’ by 50’ soundstage will be the movie set and will become transformed into an Indian Space Agency starship on a mission to the exo-planet Gliese. Here is a link to the movie’s already fully funded Kick Starter site. You’ll find a promotional video there, along with more background on this film.

Dan also had some news about his first film, Ode to Blood. He worked on this project earlier this year. Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is extremely happy with the way this movie turned out and plans on entering this film in the Academy Award’s short live-action category. Normally, these movies are entered in a student film category.

In addition to all of these activities, Dan continues to work through his backlog of furniture commissions and continues scouting for more customers. Recently, Dan was contacted by a curator from the Torrance Art Museum. They asked for a meeting. Maybe they want to sponsor a show? Torrance is a small museum in southwest LA that specializes in modern and contemporary art.