Blades, Blood and a Monster Under the Bed

Tuesday was an interesting day. I had fair warning of it from Joe Z. at least, on Monday. Production was going to sacrifice a bull in order to bless the taping of the third season of 'CM'. Yup. Sacrifice a bull. We got to work and there it was, ignorantly standing there, tied to a tree. Everyone was waiting for Joe to arrive to start the, er, 'festivities'. I suddenly remembered that I had some very important work that needed attending to right away. Chris stayed to watch and took pictures. I guess that's one more life experience that Chris is richer by. I don't feel a great loss. I know myself and from what Chris said, I would have had a rough time of it (it took the bull 10 minutes to die). Well, I hope all the hoopla worked, and we get our stuff soon. Yessiree. Would be nice to do make-up with, oh, I dunno, a makeup kit.
I spent the better part of yesterday under a hospital bed; it's a scene where a man who's committed suicide is placed in a bed and his wounds continue to bleed profusely. The actor was hooked up to tubing and I was 'attached' to the tubing with syringes, pumping the blood. Because the shot was pretty wide, there really wasn't any place for me to hide save under the bed, so I hung out there for a couple of hours. It wasn't so uncomfortable except for the fact that I really really really had to use the restroom and I was laying flat on my bladder..! Actually, most of the crew forgot that I was under the bed and I scared the crap out of a few of them when I crawled out, covered in blood splatter. :)

Despite the awkward language barrier, I'm really enjoying the crew here. Egyptian people, and Cairenes in particular, have a terrific sense of humour and love picking on each other. They're pretty sarcastic- just my type of folks! I feel right at home!
I think (one of) the hardest things about living in Egypt is the taboo of publicly displayed affection. Chris and I are very affectionate and it's difficult to remember that anything more than linked arms or hand-holding is staunchly looked-down upon. Even a shared kiss between a married couple is a no-no.

Lights, Camera...Action??

Soooo. We're on our second day of shooting. NO MATERIALS. NONE. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH. Everything is still tied up in customs somewhere. They've probably decided that Chris and I are threats to national security and they're tracking our every move right now.

FORTUNATELY, Kevin, the makeup artist before us left a few things with his local assistant, Ibrahim; a partial Kryolan greasepaint palette, some spirit gum, an Illustrator palette and a bit of liquid latex. Definitely better than nothing!

Our first day on set was like every other first day on set- lots of kinks to work out and an attempt to coordinated every one's 'rhythms'. We're almost there on day two. The feeling on set is pretty laid back. It's nice not having to oversee both the beauty and the effects departments. While our work is an integral part of the show, there is an element of subtlety that the show's director and producers wanted to maintain. Also, showing a great deal of graphic images on television is a relatively new concept here in Egypt and the Middle East. For example, one of the characters is supposed to have overdosed on her medication and she has been repeatedly vomiting on herself. We dressed her nightgown with 'prop yak' (tinted latex and chunks of bread) accordingly. Waaayyy to much they told us. For some reason, the audience here will have an easier time with blood than they will vomit. Huh. Well there you go.

Speaking of what they can and cannot show on tv, it's interesting to see how they censor televised movies from the U.S.. I was watching 'Van Wylder 2' (there. was. absolutely. nothing. on.) and they cut all and any kissing scene, even the most innocent peck on the cheek. Left in all the swearing though. When this show ("Critical Moments") will air in Saudia Arabia, they censor it so that you never see a woman exposing any more flesh than her hands and face.

When we first got to Cairo, I was really self-concious about not having my head covered. One of the crew members (a Cairene- born and raised- as is 90% of the crew) assured me that it didn't matter because I was from the west and they don't expect that level of modesty from us. I didn't know whether to be reassured or somewhat offended... Actually, you see alot of women without headcoverings. Egypt is very liberal- relatively speaking. Relative that is to the rest of the Islamic-dominated countries. I actually like the way things are here. There's something to be said for modesty. Walking around Burbank and bearing in mind what I expected the 'dress code' to be in Egypt, I was, sorry to say, a bit ashamed to see what some, ahem, "young ladies" were wearing. I saw one girl who was wearing shorts smaller that some boyshort undies I have.
Anywho, who am I to judge? Opinions are a different matter- and you know what they say opinions are like...

"Saturday Night Fever"

I know you're not supposed to 'drunk dial', but can you 'tipsy blog'? We just got in from a typical 'thursday' night [Egypt's version of Saturday night- they have Fridays off] with one of our producers, Rob. I've had two 'Stellas' (no, not Stella Artois, just 'Stella', one of Egypt's national beers) and I'm well into the beginings of 'the spins', watching a boxing moving with Barbara Streisand- the name escapes me right now. I smell like an ashstray. I wonder what the life-expectancy is here? I've never gotten all my minerals all in one breath.
A small word on the traffic here; there are no lanes, no traffic signals, no use of the indicator (turn signal), etc. The most used part of the car is the horn- unlike L.A., it's not used in anger; it's more of a warning. Like, "hey, I see you there. Can you see me coming?". Here, you assume that no one is going to know what they're doing so everyone is extra curteous and cautious. No one gets angry(much), no road rage. I have seen very few accidents, and our driver says they are few and far in between. The traffic is tough, and the worst tie-ups are caused by stopped traffic because a Minister is passing through with their entourage. I don't know if their system would work everywhere, but it seems to work here.

One week

One week in and we still don't have our stuff. Eeeesh. Production assures us that our kits and supplies are in London. Great. How about our stuff being in Cairo? I know they can't do anything about it, but shooting starts on Saturday and things look grim. We have gelatine and fake blood. I've worked with less. :)
Chris is just getting over a little stomach bug. I think it was lunch from the other day: smoked herring or 'ringa'. I had some too- definitely an acquired taste. Chris hasn't been acquiring a taste for anything these past two days. One of the medical consultants, Dr. Khaled, took a look at him this afternoon and gave him a little something for the nausea and to clear out his system. He seems to be fine. "Pharoah's Curse" they call it [aka "Montezuma's Revenge" in Mexico]. I haven't had any problems yet. Yet. Must be all my mom's cooking growing up; I'm impervious to pretty much anything by now. Hah hah. (love you, Maman!)
Walked around Zamalek last night. Got lost, got found. Not really all that lost if you're exploring. We just had a little trouble finding our way back to the apartment. Wouldn't have been too big of a deal otherwise, but as Chris put it, the herring was 'trying to swim free'... Our neighbourhood is really nice. Beautiful architecture, lots of tree-lined streets. It was fun exploring a new place. Notwithstanding, we are definitely going to buy a map today.

Ya'kul & Yashrab

So I've just come up from the lobby cafe, 'Cafe Cornish'. I've been wanting for a while now to try something you can only get out in these parts: Turkish Coffee. Yah, yah, I know, I'm in Egypt, not Turkey, but Egypt was occupied by the Ottoman Turks for a while. They don't call it "Turkish coffee" here, but " 'awah ", and you can get it either bitter, medium or very sweet. As it was the first time I was having it, the waiter suggested I try it 'medium'. It came in a small esspresso-like cup, poured out of a small brass ewer. I took a sip- thick-ish, but not entirely unpleasant and not remotely bitter. The jolt, however? As I sit here, I'm having to type and retype lines because of the jitters. I may have found something wayyyyy more potent than Redbull, Monster or even Redline. Whhhheeeeee!!! Chris is just shaking his head.
There's lots of great food & drink here. Every morning since we've been here at the hotel, we've been lucky to be able to try a variety of local dishes. My favorite so far is 'fuul'- topped with onions, tomatoes, parsley and a sprinkling of spicy dry herb mix. It's stewed broad bean and the only thing I can liken it too is refried beans. Fuul is eaten typically with 'eesh baladi- a whole-wheat pita bread. There is also fiTiir, a puff-pastry used like pizza dough and topped with sweet stuff or savory. The 'regular' coffee is awesome too- when they set down the cup, I couldn't quite put my finger on the smell until Chris mentioned what it tasted a bit like; dark chocolate- yummy! The juices are so much more than that: actually, to best describe the consistency and flavour, imagine pulverizing a mango/strawberry/honeydew/guava/orange/(whatever) and put it in a glass. Oh My God. Delicious. Speaking of delicious, Chris and I had a chance to sample some local desserts too. A couple of my favorites were Kunaafa, a shredded-wheat type pastry soaked in a honey syrup and a semolina cake (also soaked in honey syrup), topped with crushed pistachios (I removed those before eating). Another popular one is called Umm 'Ali, (lit. 'Mother of Ali) a rich bread pudding with coconut, cream and nuts (eaten anytime of the day).
There are still so many dishes I have yet to try. My next epicurian adventure will be Kushari, a mix of lentils, beans, noodles and onions, topped with a spicy tomato sauce. Rob, one of our producers, says it's delicious, filling and very cheap! Now that will have our own kitchen too, I'm looking forward to making some dishes too. It will be interesting to see how they turn out...!

Time to Get to Work

We got to have a tour of the studios yesterday. What a great set-up! FX has its own make-up room and the studio lot is beautiful all around. It's been around for 80 + years. They even have guard dogs. There's a pool, though both the producer Rob and the DP Pete have advised us NOT to swim in it unless we want to catch something more than a cold. The building is massive yet very unassuming from the outside. There's these sort of 'gophers/waiters' that bring you snacks and drinks- crafty comes to you! Don't get me wrong, I don't think this will be a total walk in the park; I've taken a look at the next 5 scripts and we have a huge workload, and if we run out of something, it's not like we can send a P.A. to just run out to Cinema Secrets to pick something up.
We were assigned a driver (" sawwaa' "), Sa'eed. He's very quiet; we figure he's either very shy or not comfortable with English. It'll be weird having a personal driver to take us anywhere we want to go, whenever we want to go. Notwithstanding, it'll be great because there's NO WAY I could ever drive in this city. I can barely function as a pedestrian. Still, I feel a little awkward just requesting to go places and having him either wait or come back for me. Chris makes a good point; wages are pretty low here and Sa'eed is getting paid very well by the studios. Sa'eed told us he's available to take us anywhere, any time of our choosing; we feel very lucky and priviledged.
Production also showed us our apartment yesterday (it's all happening so fast!). We're in Zamalek, a district on an island smack in the middle of the Nile, connected to the rest of central Cairo by two bridges. It seems to be one of the nicer areas to be in (according to most tour books - and production, of course); a lot of ex-pats are living out there. We're #37 on the 8th Floor on Sharia (street/road) 26 July. The elevator is a nightmare: nothing more than a steel phonebooth with no door (you can watch the concrete of each floor pass by). The apartment itself is very nice- 2 bedrooms, a big living room, new-ish bathroom, all fully furnished. Sa'eed too Chris and I to the local shopping center to get sheets and towels. Things are pretty cheap here, save certain toiletteries found in the pharmacies- they're comprable with Western prices.
Part of me is fully ready for this adventure and I can easily see myself shopping in the neighbourhood, becoming 'local'. Then the other part of me that is somewhat freaked-out is wondering if I'm just a bit self-delusional. I think I'm going to side with that first part.

Chris and I have arrived safe and sound in Cairo. This place is gorgeous! We're in the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel, overlooking the Nile. We are absolutely spent! What a long day(s) of travel. We had a layover in Frankfurt for 12 hours, but we were set up at the Sheraton which is attached to the airport and slept for the better part of the layover. We did however have a couple of Paulaner Heifeweisens and Chris had some bratwursts and sauerkraut.
We arrived into Cairo around 3am and were met at the airport by someone from the hotel who arranged travelers visas for us and got our bags. I really don't know how we could have managed on our own. There's a distinct moment where you can feel the sliver of panic work itself into you as you realize you are soooo out of place.
Chris and I walked around downtown Cairo today. Friday is equivilant to the west's Sunday, so 'there wasn't that much traffic' on the roads. Ha! There are no real crosswalks, no one obeys traffic signals, and crossing the street is like playing "Frogger"- I being the frog. The architecture is wonderfully varied, ranging over a large span of historical periods. It is noisy, it is dirty, but it's no worse Chris says than New York in places. Actually, the drivers here make me think of L.A..
The day runs long here. Businesses don't open til 9 or 10 and restaurants are open til 4am in some places. Dinner isn't usually served until 10pm.
Anywho, we're going to the studios tomorrow to check out our digs.