Holy moley, it's a blog.

God, I think I just remembered why I could never keep a diary growing up. Nothing is ever interesting enough to write about, and then when something interesting actually happens, I'm too busy being interested in it to write about it. Flaky, Johnson, just flaky.

Anyway, bloggy blog blogging.

Filming has been... Interesting... ish.... lately. Well, when I say "interesting," I mean "oh my god, oh my god, I'm going to stab someone." But it just wouldn't be a movie if there weren't crazy complications.

In other, not-very-tenuously related news, Vincent (my directing buddy) has recently taken up still photography and has graciously asked me to be a part of his new artistic venture. The guy has talent oozing out of his ears. No, really, I've seen it. It's kinda gross.

Yesterday was our first photoshoot together and it went swimmingly, in spite of some wicked sunburn issues the awesome model, Renee, had going on.



I can't wait to get more shoots going. It's terribly satisfying to put in a day's work and know you got something cool out of it.

As for personal life stuff, I've been going to a lot of concerts, dealing with what can only be rather sarcastically called "my day job," and generally seeing Star Trek too many times for my own good. I'm also having a hard time with my eyes lately. Probably due to my prescription being three years old. Headaches abound.

Well, better late than never...

Months after the fact and one fixed laptop later, finally I'm able to throw out some pictures from my trip to Frisco. I am nothing if not punctual.

Our first photographic stop (which was actually the second day of the trip) is the City of the Dead, Colma, famed for having more dead residents than living ones. They're totally justified in claiming this because the second you get there, all you can see in the hills for miles are rows and rows of grave stones.



Of the 18 cemeteries (17 for the interment of humans and one for pets), our hands down favorite was the Italian cemetery.





It was honestly one of the most beautiful places I'd ever been. I'm such a sucker for moss...







I became slightly obsessed with this particular statue. Even the landscape around it seemed to be set up to feature it.



If you stood under the little tree in front of the mausoleum it sat upon and looked up, the inner branches formed a perfect circle around the statue. It kind of freaked me out. In the best way.

After that came the most terrifying drive of my life and a full blown weeping panic attack as we nearly died in a rental car on a one lane mountain road where the only house for miles had graying stuffed animals nailed menacingly to its garden fence. So I won't get into that...

The next day we did the Hearst Castle thing, which was neat, but the best part of the whole trip for me was Nitt Wit Ridge. It's about fifteen minutes away from Hearst, tucked away in a little neighborhood in Cambria.



The place was built by the town garbage man (who's life story I'm shocked isn't a movie) who didn't always make it to the dump with the things he'd collected that week.



I took a ton of pictures of the house, but they just don't do it justice. It was a bit like a fairytale staring a slightly crazy toilet humor enthusiast. If someone else doesn't write that script, I might have to.



I was sure I had taken photos at Hearst Castle, but they are nowhere to be found on my memory card. Shame too, because our tour guide was one of those people who sometimes show up in your life that you're sure could never really exist outside of books. He was like a hippie Einstein with a lisp and a gray ponytail named, of all things, Wayne.

I also have no pictures from Solvang, sadly, because by that point I was really ready to be home and all the little wooden shoes in the world couldn't hold that much whimsy for me.

There has been a lot going on with me lately, including a film that I'm excited about and job related problems that I'm far less excited about. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a bit more about each in the not too distant future.

But for now: Welcome to the world, Jackson Lee Carr!

Yes, that's right, my sister had her second baby. I'm super stoked for them and can't wait to meet the little guy.

If this trend of boys keeps going, my siblings and I will be able to start up our own baseball team with the next generation of Johnson/Carrs.

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Edit: You can see some of the make-up I did for a silent film Vincent shot last Monday here. Please ignore my apparent inability to smile like a normal person.

Coming to you live from Ye Olde Desktop

My laptop is currently M.I.A., due to it really being quite broken and handed to my Father with the request of "Oh my god, please fix this or I will cry a bunch."

My laptop. With all my vacation photos on it. Basically why I haven't posted anything about San Francisco since I've been home. That and, holy crap, work. As soon as my laptop is back, I'll slap together a Frisco post, complete with lovely pictures of roadside attractions and Italian cemeteries.

I've started sewing a dress, which may have been slightly ill-advised, but what I've managed to finish so far looks pretty Not Bad, so I may work a little on that today. I have a meeting with Vincent the Director this evening to talk about reshoots and projects for 2009. I haven't seen him in months, so it'll be good to sit down for coffee with him. He's a cool dude.

I just finished reading Choke by Chuck Palahniuk in, oh, two sittings, and I did love it, even if I feel a little like I just got out of a really screwed up, really intense relationship that turned into a total mindf**k right at the end, but I kinda miss it... But a seriously good book. Can't wait to see if they can pull it off in the movie. If nothing else, Sam Rockwell. Can't go wrong there. For serious.

Now I'm jumping back into Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, which I had been reading when Choke hijacked my attention and wouldn't let it go. It's just the sort of book to bring you back to some sense of sanity after a book like Choke. Both books also have a whole Jesus/How Does One Go About Being The Savior, Anyway? thing going on, which seems to be a nice little theme for my reading in September. Totally accidental, though it may be.

The next book on my priorities list comes out next week. That's right, NEW NEIL GAIMAN. I've only been waiting for this book for two years. The excitement borders on ridiculous.

Anyway, brushing my teeth probably wouldn't be a bad idea right about now. And maybe finding some breakfast in my foodless house. Yes, I think that's where I'll start.

Miniature Landscapes of Awesome

I have become strangely fixated on terrariums. They combine my love of weird glass jars, green things, and being too lazy to care for anything living into one perfect package. And they're pretty and look all Mad Scientisty, too! I am also suddenly immensely depressed that my house has no suitable windows for the planting of terrariums. Damn you, windows and your... Bothersome lack of ledges or nearby flat surfaces! The universe foils my enthusiasm once again with its inconvenience.



On a related note, my hair remains annoyingly uncut. At the top of my mental To Do list for the day was "For The Love Of God, Get Someone To Remove Some Of This Damn Hair From My Head." I got up at a reasonable hour (for me on my day off, at least), I got dressed, I had a mild panic attack at the thought of letting the people at the salon see how bad I've let my hair get since the last time they saw me, told myself that I was being ridiculous because it's their job to see people with bad hair and make it better, did my make-up, and headed to the salon... Only to find that they were closed. On a Wednesday. What the hell? So I have to work my twelve hour day tomorrow with my big bad hair of shame. Curse you, universe. You win again.

Dum dee dum dee dum dee. Writin’ a Book.

When you’re writing a book with your best friend, sometimes you go to check your email, see things like this, and find yourself suddenly giddy:

Here's my updated parts, including a new bit at the end. We're at 7 pages all together now. Wahoo!

I hope you liked it. I haven't really read it over a million times like I usually do. Just thought I'd send it as is.

I don’t know if it’s the feeling of accomplishment, or the implication that Sarah and I are extremely neurotic, or the fact that a meager seven pages is embarrassingly exciting to the both of us, or the thought of Sarah actually saying “Wahoo,” but that email makes me smile.

Anyway, I should probably be writing that and not this, so I’m going to go do that… And not get sucked into the abyss of Youtube.

Sometimes I wonder how anyone ever grows up at all.

I don't have a lot of time because I need to get up early for work tomorrow, but I felt the need to say this:

I spent the whole day reading Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me by Martin Millar.



I've been a fan of Millar for a while and am super jazzed that his books are being republished. Good Fairies of New York was fantastic and Sarah and I have bought Lonely Werewolf Girl for I think about five people now. That being said, my expectations for Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me were that it would be fun and lovely, like the rest of his work.

It surpassed all of my expectations. The book is weirdly moving and sort of perfect, if music meant a lot to you as a kid.

It's not a book about Led Zeppelin. I know it's in the title and they're all over the book, but it really could have been about any band. It's a book about being 14, being a geek, being patheticly in love, and turning to music because it's the one thing at that age that doesn't disappoint.

I won't go on and on. It's sweet, funny, honest, sad, and not at all angsty. It has dragons, Atlantis, a zeppelin filled with the ghosts of dead rock stars, and it means a whole lot to me. I don't know why Martin Millar isn't a rock star to everyone, but he is to me.

It's my new favorite book.

Buy it. It's worth it. And a far better use of time than those Twilight books I know everyone's so damn fond of.

Also... It's short, so why not! You can't argue with that.

It may not be pretty, but it's here!