Pause...

Wow - a much needed day off from production today!  Well, for me anyways.  Poor crew - they're still at it feverishly...I figured I'd throw in a blog on my off day as I haven't really been able to sit at a computer for more than 15 minutes in the last couple weeks ever since we started going at it!  5:45/6:00am wake ups and not returning till up to 10pm. 

I can't decide what I can or can't say, but after I opened the local Shanghai Daily today and read this article, I guess some things I thought couldn't be talked about are fair game now.  If it's in the press, it's on!

As the article alludes to, we are going all over the place.  And folks, I mean ALL over!  I wake up everyday and realize how ridiculously lucky I am to be a part of this whole thing.  Hosting this thing is great, but the opportunity this has afforded me to see parts of Shanghai I would have otherwise never gone too....that's the best part of all!  Yep, we went to the Shanghai Film Studio where everywhere it looked like 1930's Shanghai.  Unreal.  Maybe the most surreal point of this whole thing happened then when, at one point, we were shooting a segment right smack in the middle of a set that was shooting a TV series.  I'm kind of still not sure how that happened, but it was nuts.  All around us were these extras in 30's attire, rickshaws, and old cars moving down a busy street and we sat there in the midst of it all talking about that day's episode.  You kinda had to be there to understand.  I was wondering if we'd get into anyone's shot.  Finally, after about 30 minutes of shooting, some official looking person came over and instructed us to move.  I could only keep thinking that if this were to happen on a set in the States...well, it just never would.  It really is true folks, anything can happen here in China.

Shanghai, circa 1930 Yes, as the article also says, we hit a Formula 1 race track.  I didn't get to gun it in an F1 car, but just being on a track like that was, well....to think: I USED SIT MY BUM IN A CUBICLE AT AIG!!!  (I found it hilarious that the building down on Wall Street I used to walk in and out of everyday took down their big ass logo from the front in an effort to "rebrand."  Right.  In an effort to not get eggs and things thrown at it everyday is more like it.)

There are 20 districts that comprise Shanghai and we are hitting half of them as part of this show.  I dare say I've seen more to this place than the average local person now.  Normally, one never leaves the comforts of the central Puxi area where all the hotels, bars, clubs, etc. are and here I was yesterday wandering the grounds of a 4,000 year old temple when a monk on an iPhone walked by me.  I almost feel bad saying this, but I love my life!

They don't pay me to say this, but I really think we have a great show on our hands here.  There have been your normal bumps and bruises (and man, have there been bruises) of producing a reality show, but as we've been moving along, it's really starting to feel like something.  Our crew is outstanding and despite our sleepless days, we really are having fun.  I know I'm having the time of my life!  Our shooters who follow the contestants are all using HVX 200 cameras while there is one P2HD getting coverage and a master high-def camera that my friend in the know promises me will make it all look crisply outstanding.  I get a glimpse of some footage every once in awhile and from what I'm seeing of the challenges, contestants, and venues we've hit, it's lookin' hot to trot!  (Did I just use that phrase?  And speaking of trot, I'm bummed I missed my Hall & Oates Dancin With the Stars experience on Tuesday night's episode.  If anyone has a copy and can send it to me through the web somehow...)

Shooters' gear... I'm learning so much about Shanghai through this experience that I gotta admit...I am falling in love with this town.  The amazing food, the ancient history, the modern art galleries, the internationalnessof it all.  (I was waxing poetic to friends about how only here in Shanghai are you able to so easily make friends with people from all over the world and bond with them - life in the States seems so dry by comparison.)  I can't peep yet how the future will go, but suddenly situating myself from this side of the world - especially now as things Stateside appear to be dead - seems within reach.  I wish I could bring certain people and things from the US over here to be with me (March Madness and Starbucks' White Chocolate Mochas to start), but really, I got nothing to complain about.

They say you never know what can happen in life.  Right now, literally, I am living by that phrase virtually every moment.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?