That is so gay

I don't know what it is about Brokeback Mountain, but it has really found a niche in on-set slang. The two pictures I've worked on most recently have featured strong male/male relationships (best friends in one, brothers in the other). And every time there's a "moment" between the two male characters, somebody mutters "....brokeback mountain.....". Once, the two brothers were hugging, and it was a tearful reunion, and they were hugging for a loooong time but the director wasn't calling cut so we were all waiting until he got what he was looking for, when suddenly our bearded brother with the Middle Eastern accent goes, "What is this, some kind of Brokeback Mountain shit?" and everyone cracks up.

Brokeback Mountain also gets invoked when somebody asks for a man-maker, which is what you call an apple box when you use it to make somebody taller. (An apple box can also become a grip-to-ground connector when you sit on it, and is a knitting-posture-enhancing height.)

I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain. I'm not a fan of Ang Lee, not the Wedding Banquet or the Ice Storm or the Hulk or Crouching Tiger. I appreciate that he works in many different genres, but I'll stick with William Wyler. Or, you know, Anthony Mann. Or lots of other directors who are multi-trick ponies who know how to pace things better and how to use a camera better.

But I guess when there's a sort of lesbian undertone to things, nobody goes "....the children's hour....". Or when somebody embarks on a destructive vendetta, you don't hear "...winchester '73....".

Congratulations...it's a sock!

2 weeks on set and all I got is this lousy sock. Unfortunately lousy. But the next one will be less lousy, and the one after that may even be lacy. Or a jaywalker.

I would be farther along with this whole sock thang if not for two factors:
1) night exteriors
2) heel/ankle trouble
3) I can't count to 3

It's hard to knit outside at 4 a.m. in February. For one thing, it's dark, 10,000 watt lights notwithstanding. Video village, where I hang out, is usually kept somewhat shaded -- real nice on a hot day, not so nice at night -- for easy viewing of the monitor. And even in LA, it's cold. When you've been sitting still since 1 a.m., it's cold. And your knitting fingers freeze up.

Then there were the long dark nights of the soul (or in this case, ankle) wherein I couldn't get the first couple of rounds of ankle pattern right (you'll laugh when you see it). And this was after five attempts at a short-row heel, so I was feeling understandably angsty about the whole thing. The sock looked like ass, and I still couldn't get it, so the sock was exiled for a few days.

Then my fingers started to itch again, and the DP kept asking me how I was coming on the other four toes, so I picked it up again and began the Firefighter's Sock ankle pattern. This is how you're supposed to do it:
Round 1 - *k1 p1*
Round 2 - *k3 p3*

Easy, unless you can't count to three:
Round 1 - *k1 p1*
Round 2 - *k3, p2, k3, [Wait, there's four stitches left, and I'm only supposed to p3...okay, let's count...yep, there's 12 total on my needles like there should be...CRIKEY, I PURLED TWO!!!] tink, tink, tink, p1, k3*

Sigh. I don't think I'm ready for jaywalkers yet.