The Blue Grotto.

What a great name – The Blue Grotto.  It would make a great title for a book, if only I wrote books.  I’d never been to the Mediterranean before my time in Malta, and one of the things that still sticks with me till this day was the sensation of floating while you were swimming due to the concentration of salt in the water.  The water was warm and you didn’t have to even paddle while you were in it.  Pretty much every free moment I had from working on the movie, I spent on, in or around that water.   It was something else.

]]> http://www.suckatashproductions.com/blog/2010/04/malta-pt-2/feed/ 0 http://www.suckatashproductions.com/blog/2010/04/malta-pt-1/ http://www.suckatashproductions.com/blog/2010/04/malta-pt-1/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:29:50 +0000 suff http://www.suckatashproductions.com/blog/?p=2837

VALLETTA, Malta — In spite of the cloud of volcanic ash drifting south from Iceland, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in this Catholic nation on Saturday evening in his first foreign trip since a sexual abuse crisis began engulfing the Roman Catholic Church.  Benedict’s visit — commemorating the 1,950th anniversary of the shipwreck of St. Paul on Malta… – NY Times

Reading this the other day, got me thinking of my lone trip to the Mediterranean, and specifically to the little island country of Malta.  Thought I’d post some pics this week from that adventure back in the summer of ‘05, and the above seemed eerily appropriate given all of the recent criticism of the Catholic Church and the many calls for the Pope’s head on a pillow.

“You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés.”

- Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises

I don’t know this girl, but I happened to be walking past as her friend was taking her picture with Mozart, and I just couldn’t resist taking one as well.  Plus, there’s that dude in the red t-shirt checking out the whole affair, which is the cherry on top of this bizarre sundae.

“From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.”

- Franz Kafka

Back in the summer of ‘05, I was oversees working on the film, Munich.  Ironically, I got to visit several countries in Europe that year, but of course, not Germany.  The closest I got was the daytrip I took to Vienna.  I took the early morning train from Budapest and spent the day walking around, taking in the sights and sounds of the Austrian capital.  Having studied German for two years in college, I was determined to use as little English as possible on the trip, which meant that it turned out to be a pretty quiet day.

I couldn’t help but snap a pic of this “small” cafe; an idyllic looking European cityscape if there ever was one.  I also couldn’t help but patronize the cafe and order a refreshing Austrian lager (by pointing at the menu).

Here’s a shot from the music video shoot I directed with Duke Special on Monday.  Somehow, we found ourselves filming in Saint Olave Church, a medieval cathedral and one of the few buildings in the city that survived the Great Fire of London in 1666.  Definitely an interesting location to film a music video, and we actually shot two songs there, both off the recently released Mother Courage and Her Children record.

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

- Samuel Johnson

“Just for the record,
The weather today is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of:
A. Indifference or
B. Disinterest in what the critics say ”

- Panic At the Disco