Hi there! Just to set the scene I'll tell you that I'm at a park located somewhere in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. It's mid September, and we're setting up for another video shoot. Ronn and Jef, whose work we've now finished with the morning shoot shot, have gone home with the rest of the day off. They'll be out gallivanting around and then prettying themselves up for the annual Derry's , friends of ours from Excalibur Leather - wine & dinner party. Depending on how long this shoot goes, I'm just hoping that I'll get to go.
Another day, another entry.
These next two weeks will be extremely busy for us, and that is why this journal entry is so hit and miss. The video shoot I was speaking of went very well with only minor bumps, bruises, and a wrenched ankle to speak of. It was an outside shoot - as I'm sure you've already deduced - involving a trampoline, some mattresses, and a lot of chutzpah from yours truly.
Today we're in the studio laying down vocal tracks for the music video segment. We've just finished, so now we get to play "hurry-up and wait" while we sit around the two hours or so it's going to take before the next video segment is set up. Food is definitely the next order of business!
Currently the boyz are hammering away at their computers, eking out more Tortuga goodies for you to enjoy. We three kinks are ever-diligent in keeping the machine that is Tortuga Twins, Inc., well lubed, flowing, and growing, and all for your divine pleasure. No, no, really , you're welcome.
Lisa just showed up. She's our make-up artist/hair stylist for the day. Well, not ours specifically. She's actually here to "touch up" the female talent. Lisa is a very good friend of ours who began her relationship with the Tortugas as a Granny for the Big, Bad Wolf show. She's a beautiful and statuesque redhead with hair that cascades around her like droplets of burned gold. The effect is most alluring - trust me.
Our director is here now, and all that is missing is the camera crew, the female talent, and all the other elements that are needed for a video shoot.
Time has passed and the female talents have arrived. We've been running our lines for this next voice-over. It's for the video segment that we're shooting tonight. The lines are extremely cheesy (done ala 70's porn), and it sure has been fun watching the girls try to say them with a straight face.
I'm busy transcribing all that I've written to the typewriter while the girls are getting made up for the shoot tonight. Jef is sitting next to me trying to upgrade an outdated laptop in order to accept the new $300 gadget that he purchased earlier today. Fear not, Jef is a wiz when it comes to computy stuff, and besides, he has what we like to call "Jef luck" going for him.
"Jef luck" is a supernatural phenomenon that bends the will of the known universe to work in Jef's favor. It is a marvel to watch and blessing to be a part of. It is something that usually works only for Jef, but lately it's been rubbing off on the rest of us. If you ever get the chance, saddle up close to him sometime and rub your hand counterclockwise on his butt, it might just rub off on you. Hell, it works for us.
Ronn's sitting to my right reading USA TODAY. We are all patrons of this newspaper, and it makes the most sense for us to read as we are always sojourning in too many different places to become attached to any one locale's paper. We're getting ready to leave the studio for the night's location shoot. It belongs to Eva's (the director's) parents. I'm not sure whether she has told them what we're doing, and I can't get a straight enough answer about it out of her. It might be funny to have them waltz in while we're in the middle of everything. Then again, maybe not.
Okay, here's my apology for all the lost time I'm leaving you with. It is now many weeks later (mid October to be exact), with all that was happening then now in the past and but a memory. We are finally able to sit back, relax, and take a moment to transcribe a little on all that has been going on since all the way back in the last paragraph.
We are currently performing at the Carolina Renaissance Festival, with the last two weeks in between being spent (for me) in Pennsylvania, visiting my good jousting buddy Eric Michael from Impact Productions, and then in Louisiana where I was doing some Tortuga setup with the boyz - and no we didn't make it into the New Orleans French Quarter, dammit. This week we are taking a much needed holiday and spending time with our close friends in Florida. Thursday we are going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando . It has become an annual event for us, and it is something that we have been looking forward to for a long time. Just think,the Tortugas and their friends let loose at night in a theme park where there is plenty of alcohol and costumed Halloween critters running about. Spooky, huh?
Just so's you know, all of the video shoots in Minnesota went really well. Now it is up to 3rd Hemisphere Productions to finish what they started and turn the video that they have "in the can" into the finished beautiful product that we will all see at Tortugapalooza next year.
Well, that's all for this time. It's Monday night, and that means that there is a football game coming on. Have a good one, you crazy Tortuga fans, and I'll be seeing you somewhere's down the road. Ciao!
