The Voices in Frank's Head

I was walking downtown the other day when I saw a certain face that looked kind of familiar. I soon realized why this person seemed so familiar, I had seen him a television a couple hundred times -- it was Geoffrey Fieger . A part of me wanted to say something to the man, but he was gone before I could figure out what. Of course, after he was gone, a tiny part of me wanted to plug my documentary to him since he's now chair of the Michigan Film Advisory Commission. Oh, well -- maybe next time.

It's odd how simple tasks can get very complicated. Today, for example, I left to get a haircut. I don't really have that much hair to begin with, but what I have left was starting to flop around more than John Kerry's stance on the Iraq war. Anyway, I'm on my way to the barbershop when I get a call on my cell phone. It's a certain aquaintance of mine who works for the City. She says that she's faxing something over to me but, as she put it so dramatically, "it didn't come from me." My curiosity gets the best of me so I turn the car around and head back. I pick up the fax, still warm. It's a letter from Amru Meah, director of Detroit's Buildings & Safety Department, to the City Council. He has declared the old Madison-Lennox Hotel to be threat to public safety and wants to tear it down expeditiously - without the usual procedures and oversight that normally comes with demolishing a historic structure. I'm still not

Now is one of the parts of filmmaking that I hate. I've put out a couple of last minute proposals that, if they're accepted soon, will enable me to make my documentary and get it done -- and done right -- in time to submit for Sundance 2005. I've done everything to best of my ability. Now I just have to wait a few more hours to find out if my best is good enough. I hate this part. Waiting truly sucks.