Both my accountants used to play softball in Blagoevgrad when they were younger. They had a small baseball league as well, if I recall--probably due to the proximity to the American University there.
I noted that there was an article in the Sofia Echo a couple weeks ago about some Americans who were starting a Little League for kids here in Bulgaria, called B.A.L.L.
Exerpt:

"Currently BALL is only one step away from becoming registered as an official Bulgarian club but he does not expect any kind of "official" funding. "We are not looking for that," Roussin said. "We are looking to be non-profit and self sufficient raising money through sponsors."
The biggest benefit from registering BALL as an official club is that it would give the Sofia, Blagoevgrad and Dupnitsa [three cities in Bulgaria--jkrank] chapters of the Little League the opportunity to send teams to the European regional championships in Poland and the Little League World Series."

So I got offered a job as a third-base coach yesterday.

More on that later.

So yeah, Pythons vs. Boa actually did pretty darn well, the 'exit polls' were good, although the midget dominatrix didn't 'play' as well as we were hoping. Still, you can't have everything. People are rejoicing in New York and L.A. and Sofia. Nobody called for my head.

And another one of the films that we did back in '02 premiered on RTL--called Post Impact (kinda a Day Before The Day After Tomorrow genre flick)--got a 20 share I hear during Primetime, beating everything else the Germans had to offer in that time slot.
Post-Impact: you know, meteors, ice ages, Dean Cain, crazy post-apocalyptic Berliners.
I wasn't actually--how you say--"featured" in that movie. But I'm glad they were were able to put something together without my oozing charisma flailing about in front of the camera. Yeah.

Apparently, Pythons vs. Boa debuted on the SciFi channel, but I wasn't paying attention.

So far we have confirmation that:
1. David Hewlitt and Jaime Bergman can act (I thought so too).
2. Jkrank, however, can't act.
3. I'm not fat.

Awaiting Angie's review when it re-airs.

UPDATE: Apparently, more and more people started tuning in as time went on. And we got a congrats email from SciFi. It did well.

I've been browsing today, instead of getting my fill of sunshine and fresh air.

Just wanted to mention this blog:

Farm Accident Digest

Had me bustin' up all morning. 20th of this month's entries are especially good.

But, fresh air beckons, so I'm outta here.

I hear one of the families--or maybe many--who had lost son(s) during the 9/11 attacks were heckling Guiliani, blaming their sons' death on his 'incompetence' and 'lies.'

Funny, I thought they died because they either:
1. Went into that burning hell without thought to themselves.
2. Went back into that burning hell without thought to themselves.

They besmirch their sons' own heroism and honor by making Guiliani the cause. And they know better.

Cold comfort, but those who gave their lives are immortalized in my heart--and countless millions of Americans--for their courage. Forgive me: what men would give to be remembered like that!

Guiliani remarked: "I knew that that would happen...I attribute it to the stress and the trauma that they're going through."
At least someone in that chamber had some class.

'...has this report.'

Violin music cued. Slow fade into black and white. Archive footage. A mass of children, rail thin and sickly, all looking plaintively at the camera from behind a fence.

Jews.

Another shot, panning, of Jewish adults behind fence. German guards.

This takes four seconds, approximately. Violin fades into background.

'I was just following orders,' the reporter leads (very well) as if it were the final line in a monologue, not the beginning.

Shot of nameless death camp.

[approximate line of reporter, as I was in shock at this point] 'The Nazi prison guards used this same defense for why they systematically killed their innocent Jewish prisoners.'

Pics of the wrists of a girl, clothing pulled back, showing the number inked into her skin. Possibly one other shot of suffering.

[approx] 'Of course, this is no comparison between the abuses in Iraq with the NAZI treatment [sic] of the Jews. However, the excuses are the same.'

Quicker cuts. Film of Nazi's [marching?]. Banners fluttering in grayscale. [Adolf Hitler?]

Reporter mentions something about the international trials of the NAZI death camp guards, with archive of those proceedings.

CUT TO:

Jungle. [Snare Drums?]

'Flash forward 30 years. Vietnam. Mai-Lai. Colonel William Powell is accused of...'

Television switches off. Remote put back in holder. Continue with elliptical trainer. Best workout I've ever had, at a suprisingly high kph.

Ah...fortunately, they weren't comparing some of the worst atrocities in history with the Abu Gharib affair...after all, he said he wasn't.

Fortunately.

Well, just finished watching the 3-part finale, Starcrossed, of the Justice League on the Cartoon Network, which is huge if you're a certified geek.

Apparently, it hasn't even aired in the US. A shame, because the 2nd part and the 3rd part are as good as the 1st part. And the first part was great.

One word: bittersweet. Frankly, I was a bit surprised it was a cartoon at all.

Hey, it's Americana, and I like it.

Well, the name of the movie is a problem, so I told Steven Furst that my intrepid readers had a few offerings--some of them pretty good--and he asked that they be sent over.

So:
Melanie
Jonathan
Val
Angie
Sam
Eddie
(not you, Mojo, that title's taken)
thanks for the input!
When I discover the result of this totally unofficial contest, I'll see if I can sort out a small prize. I have something in mind.
And yes, we're desperate.

Another of the new "Tour of Bulgaria" series. Somebody wants to do a film in a place that could double for Iraqi desert.
Somebody said, "Melnik could work."
Somebody was wrong, incidentally.

As we came around the bend, the white houses, red rooftops emerged, placed in a small valley, itself created by a massive chisel Zeus used on the surrounding hills.

It's a beautiful land, and so green! The pics really don't do it justice. This is from the other end of the valley. In the north, hours away, is Sofia, undoubtedly being doused by rain. This is 20 miles from Greece.

Normally, I don't take pics of simple landscape, but it's breathtaking.

Oh, and the wine is great.

This is the entrance to a cave. Inside, barrels. Seats. Glasses. Bottles.
The gentlemen in charge of this cave was pissed off at me, and not because I took a photo, but because I left without tasting his wine.
I came back! With friends!
I think the real scandal is that when I returned I entered with several bottles of wine from a competitor's cave. The guy gave me stinkeye for some time, only relinquishing the gruff and unhelpful attitude when we bought 12 bottles of his juice--which were great. He had three types: one sweet, one woody, one smooth. I bought one of each, as an alterate strategy for actually coming to a decision. He corked 'em right there. One bottle of wine: approximately $1.50.
He recommended we drink it right away, as there are no preservatives.
Like we need motivation for such things.
He tried to sell us on his rakia, but one sniff of the fumes gave me a headache. I can't imagine what drinking it could have done to me.

Went back into town and had an early dinner at one of the restaurants, of which we were spoiled for choice. Were about to go to one, but it had--along with the Bulgarian flag, a blood-colored flag of Che Guevara fluttering in the window.
Went next door, and the wine was, again, great. In fact, by this time we had had too much wine, no food, and were baking under the sun, so we sat around in the shade for a couple hours, and finally left as the sun was dashing below the cliffs.

It's not Iraq, which means our location will probably be near the beaches, or areas surrounding. Not that I mind that.

Next movie, incidentally, is called, Manticore.

Went to Plovdiv for a bit of R&R;, and to take photos for some possible locations to shoot a possible movie that might possibly come.

A small square within the older area of town. Plovdiv's old. It was apparently built during the time of Phillip II of Macedonia about a zillion years ago, and called Filipopolis. I'm serious!

There are lots of old ruins and former churches and such. They are not well taken care of. On a good note, you can wander around the ruins freely. The views are really good, as Plovdiv was built around seven hills.

Looks nice, but I'll bet it's hell in the winter time, when the slick sheets of ice form on the cobbles and make life a series of abrupt drops.

Here is a small toursity shop just above a bed and breakfast. I caught the cat purchasing some rose oil. I noticed there didn't seem to be a stray dog problem, unlike Sofia. +1 point for Plovdiv.

This guy gawked at me as I took his picture. As we flipped the car around, the guy approached and asked me why I took the picture. He seemed irritated.

Pushed a week for the production, but some music videos are have come in to shoot at the studio.

Power plant of some sort. Couldn't get into it (even mentioning that we were Americans didn't help).

Went to Pernik yesterday, as we were trying to find some new locations for shooting some of the upcoming movies.

One need not even dress this. This is of an iron smelting plant interior.
Yes, it's an operating iron smelting plant.

Decided to head off on a location shoot of Plovdiv later in the week.

Visitors to the main page.

Thanks all.

Speaking of fun--well, speaking now of fun--if you haven't heard about it/read it already, check out the IRON BLOG.

Like Iron Chef, but with more blood in the stew. Four bloggers from opposing spectrums draw metaphorical ginsu knives and debate the issues of the day. And it's entertaining. The first rebuttal is up, and Rosemary, our Republican, does a fine job smashing her challenger into bits with a verbal meat tenderizer!!!--er, providing a suitable and profound discourse on said challenger's errors.

What are you doing here, chop-chop!

Sofia's film industry is getting busier, production by production, and this summer looks to be pretty hectic and competitive, as far as film production goes in Sofia.

Another production company has arrived, taken over our old studio, and is doing two films here with Bruce Campbell. Actually, we did production services for this production company last year (for Raptor Island.)

Our CGI director here met their director, a guy named Josh Becker, who has a web site, Josh Becker, Directing From The Edge. I was a huge Xena fan, and I remember the episodes. I'd like to meet him now.

Inadvertently hilarious stuff there, like "George W. Bush: Liar (essay)" and "Religion is Evil (essay)" and "The Misuse of Presidential Power (essay)." There's some good stuff on George W. Bush: Liar, but the Misuse of Presidential Power is remarkable.

Exerpts:

"The single most important power and responsibility given to the President of the United States is the ability to immediately call up the troops and send them to war, bypassing Congress or a popular vote, just in case we are threatened by imminent attack, like say, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. George Bush, Jr. misused the greatest of his powers by lying to the American public and saying we were under threat of imminent attack when we in fact were not. That is the worst thing a president can do, and is in fact a crime -- misuse of public funds, and lots of 'em."

"Goddamn it! Why am I seemingly the only one totally outraged by this heinous criminal behavior by our president? There was no threat of imminent attack!!! That was a lie!!!"

"Because the Bush administration told us, "The United States of America is under threat of imminent attack," and that was flatly not true."

"This is not hyperbole: I honestly believe that this was the worst misuse of presidential power in the entire history of the United States. I have also come to believe that George Bush, Jr. is the single worst, most irresponsible president this country has ever had in 227 years...We the American public have been lied to, taken advantage of, and our presently having our hard-earned money stolen right out of our pockets by the ersatz President of the United States who didn't actually win the election."

There's is something I don't get--if I may have a Peter Falk moment--something that just doesn't add up (like Gore's votes, or the higher balance in my savings account). I just can't jibe it to his later quote from 'Liar:'

"Worse still, the actual best intelligence being offered right before our "pre-emptive strike" on Iraq was coming from the U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and his people, who were already completely disputing the government's indisputable facts."

Okay, so what's the spin on 'pre-emptive?' It's a pretty easy research job to find that Bush never used the words 'imminent threat," unless Google is now the metaphorical doors to the VRWC headquarters ('if you search Google, Google searches you...thanks to John Ashcroft!' or some such). It's been rehashed so many times it rivals the 'Bush stole the election' in the edifices of that all-seeing VRWC mythos. But I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But it certainly sounds like he knows in 'Liar' that our strike was pre-emptive, and pre-emptive to something. This makes 'Liar' an especially ironic essay, considering the staggering words he uses in his non-hyperbole above, and has not corrected.

"And if you don't give a shit about who runs your country or what they're doing to you, then you deserve to have Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, or George Bush, Jr. as your fascist dictator."

Still. Xena. That makes up for a helluva lot.

Hi Everybody!
We finished principal photography today... it's hard to believe it's been a month! This has been such a great group of people. We've had such a great time, I now speak some (very little) Bulgarian-- and I think we've made a pretty entertaining film, too:)

If any of you ever want to make an action film, these are definitely the guys to do it with. It's been an adventure, from all the stunts and rain to the hanging industrial sized hook that really hit me on the head, for real (when you see the movie, and I recoil in shock-- it's REAL). Okay, so the hook was padded, I just managed to... miss the padding. (?) Okay, so I'm sort of new to this whole "action film" thing. But don't get me wrong-- I had a BLAST!! And a night of icing it, and you'd never know!

So there's a little clean "dirt", right? You know, I had imagined I'd have more free time on set to keep up with little anecdotes from the movie... I guess I just had too many lines to learn. And I seem to need ALOT of sleep while I'm working, especially when I'm working every day. And I was under the weather for a few days last week, too.

What else can I share with you guys?

Hm... Steven the director was GREAT to work with, very open to actor input, which you almost never get on network television programming. I think it may also have something to do with the fact that we're all the way out here in Bulgaria. Like, the Sci-Fi channel people aren't actually HERE keeping an eye on us, so we can take more creative liberties? Not sure, but I know it's been very liberating!

Chris Pratt, my co-star, was a goof in the most wonderful way. He's like one of those eternally child-like guys who reminds you how to just relax and have fun. Good for someone like me, who tends to take things too seriously more often than not!

Didn't have much to do with David Keith, the other co-star. He was the "bad guy" of the film. We only had 2 scenes together. But what I can tell you is, he's a professional, and played his role VERY well. Condescending, manipulative. All good bad guy stuff. :)

Hey, and now I've done my first action/adventure movie!! (Oh by the way, it's NOT going to be called "Death Cloud." They're working on a title-- if any of you have any good ideas for a title, PLEASE post them so Jeff can pass it along. Remember, this is a movie about how a Nanotechnology experiment gone wrong, where the nanoparticles get into the weather system and start wreaking havoc with cities below. My co-star and I get to "save the world"! The best title I could come up with is "Black Sky" or maybe "Forecast: Destruction")

So I fly back in a day and a half, just enough time to do some souvenir shopping and pack up my little hotel room. I'll definitely miss this!! But of course it will be nice to get back to LA and see my very patient boyfriend:)

For those of you who expressed an interest in acting, know that even though there's little to no job security-- while working, you can always count on variety, and adventure!

Alright, time for me to sign off. I'll probably still visit the site while I'm in LA though, so feel free to send comments.

Till next time!
-Danica

This month's Webalizer made this second most visits on the site since it started, with an 842/day average (tops).

Again, glad you're enjoying it, and thanks. And thanks to the commenters who--when they're not picking on me--have some truly entertaining and often deep observations to add.

What are they thinking?

Yet another entry by Petya that is worth reading, her latest regarding an inane drug law put into place here in Bulgaria.

Which reminds me. I promised a reader to put a link to Bulgarian blogs I frequent--I haven't forgotton--so I must take care of that shortly.