A you've got to be kidding me day

What a great day it was. I just feel so encouraged by all your prayers and support. I feel like Im finally back on track, like Im myself again. When I say myself, I mean the happy-go-lucky optimist. Work was pretty incredible today. I totally feel God’s favor upon me. I finished writing a script on the History of Bahrain Seaports and its pretty darn good. Writing has been and always will be my primary passion. Its amazing. As I was doing my research on Bahrain, their history goes back 7000 years to the dawn of time practically. The first known civilizations (other than Biblical), Mesopotamia or Sumerai to the North and the Indus Valley (West India) to the East were the two corners of the earth at one time. They met in the middle to trade goods…they met in Bahrain. So even though this is a tiny country it still had a big impact on the world. Even as recently as the Gulf Wars here…The US navy base played a strategic role. I also learned that Bahrain was the first country in the Middle East to discover oil. I could go on… But I had never heard of Bahrain before I got here. Now I have a chance to help tell the world about them. To change the perception that Arabs are dangerous people instead telling them about their rich history and culture. Just as soon as I finished Khalifa called me to a meeting with the Ministry of Labor. We had applied for special visas for photographers, and videographers for people from the Phillipines and India. The minister said, why don’t you hire locals? Khalifa said…because they aren’t trained. Then Khalifa said, we would hire them if they were trained. So he invited me to the meeting and said…we have a man from Hollywood that can train them. The minister looked at me and said write me a proposal, I’ll get the money. So apparently we might be starting a school to train filmmakers here. It’s a natural outgrowth from the acting school. I could do this. Not sure how…but I can do this.

So for this History of Bahrain Seaports, we have to find ships that are from 7000 BC, 2000 BC, 600 AD, 1500 AD and 1900 AD. I figured we’ll use sketch and computer animation for some…our archive doesn’t go back that far. Then the rest we’d have to improvise. I was interviewing a guy for one of our sales positions, and we were talking about the sea port documentary. He said he heard on the radio that there were some old dhows (boats) that were to look like they were from the 16^th century in Bahrain for an exhibition for one day, tomorrow. Imagine that…that is a divine appointment my friends. So I called my friend at the radio station (he’s one of my improv actors) and he hooked me up with all the information. So after 7 phone calls one leading to the other to the other. I got the details and permission to shoot the boats tomorrow in the sea before they leave. If I were to set this shoot up myself it probably would run somewhere around $30,000, now here because of my good timing/fortune, im getting it for free. That’s what GM does. But its nothing Im doing. Its just the favor of the Lord. This sort of Deuteronomy 28 good fortune has been happening to me my entire career. Like when we did an Eva Peron biography, the footage from the U.S. was $0.75 per second and we needed like 20 minutes and I flew down to Buenos Aires and licensed the same footage for $0.02 seconds. (remember that?). Or the time I was doing the Elvis Biography, I shot an interview in Sun Studios (Where Elvis recorded his first record) we did it for $50. My producer friend Richard Bluth was there two weeks later, the same guy in the same studio charged him $2000. That is the favor of the Lord. I’ll take it. Im glad God is on my team.

But what made me feel really good was the improv practice. I wanted to go over the games with the actors/comedians. It’s a volunteer thing for them, they are doing it for fun. So I told them that practice was purely voluntary. They even requested it. I had all but one performer show up. It was pretty special. We have such a team assembled. They really trust me as their director/leader. One of our actors, Sam, said I was in a store and somebody I didn’t know approached me and said…”Hey didn’t you do that comedy thing.” Then I got another call from Bahrain TV wanting to audition Yousif, the guy that won last week. Yet another guy who was at the show, he’s a corporate event planner. He thought our show was fantastic. So he wanted me to give him a budget to see how much it would be to take the show on the road. These guys might get discovered because of me. If you want to see video clip highlights for the show they are on this facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=87840463020&ref=ts

Feel free to join the group if you like. There is something special going on here. Thanks for all your patience with me. Im just a flawed person trying to do the right thing. Hopefully someday…I’ll get my family back too. Then all my dreams really will have come true.