Sunday, September 12, 2010

The West Coast and The Ghost


If you have a car don't even finish reading my post. Go on line and buy 'The Ghost PRO' radar detector. It is so good that it almost feels unfair. It makes it all but impossible to get a ticket. You just drive. When it beeps you calmly slow down (no more panic breaking) and by the time you even see the cop your doing the speed limit. It just reads further and faster than all types of police radar. And, it has a built in radar scrambler that prevents police radar from locking in on you for an extra few seconds. It is without question the best money you can spend if your going to do any type of long drive...

Speaking of long drives, I just got in to LA. I left Miami at about 8pm on Thursday night and made it to Santa Clarita Saturday night. My total drive time was 37 hours (plus two 5 hour motel stops) and my average speed (including gas and food stops) was 73mph. My back and but are a bit tired but the drive was actually easy and kind of fun.

My new home until December 21st is Santa Clarita studios. I'm doing 'A' camera / Steadicam on ABC's 'Make it or break it'. It's a 15 week shoot (ten x 7 day episodes). We shoot 5 in and 2 out and my new place is less than 2 miles from the stage, good stuff.

I was reminded of something when I drove across the border of Arizona into California. In Miami (or any other city in the US save maybe NY) I could pretty much read a book, watch a movie and eat a burrito all while driving ten times better than everybody else on the road... Not so in Cali. They definitely kick it up a notch in LA. They drive faster and better. They actually think about where they are going, travel in the correct lane, signal when appropriate, give right of way and most importantly, they don't travel in the passing lane. If you took ten Miami drivers and dropped them into the middle of an LA expressway you would instantly cause a 50 car pile up. Miami drivers just don't have the chops. It felt good to actually have to work to stay ahead of the pack.

6:30 am call tomorrow on the stage. Looking forward to it.