Atop the Fourth Blog: Day 1

Resting comfortable in the hotel room in Minneapolis after the first day of shooting "Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie," Needless to say I got plenty of rest last night after the long trip. Originally I was supposed to leave via train on Friday morning at 8:37am. But when I called Amtrak after I got home from the Midnight Screenings on Thursday night, the train to Chicago was cancelled. I was to get off in Chicago, and then catch a connecting train to St. Paul. There weren't really any other alternatives. The next train wasn't going to St. Paul until the 21st, which would have made me way late for the movie, and if I took a bus to Chicago, it would have put me there 15 minutes after the St. Paul train took off. Needless to say I was frantically trying to get ahold of Lewis, but it was late at night and the poor guy was asleep. I was totally going into "gotta find an alternative to flying mode." So I found a driver company, and arranged for a car to pick me up and take me to Chicago Union Station. But it turns out, the company I called was a Chicago based company. For some reason I was under the impression they were local. By the time they would have gotten to Springfield, I wouldn't have been able to catch the train in Chicago. So that plan didn't work. Luckily Lewis got in touch with me in the morning, and Dodger was driving to Minneapolis, and happened to be around the area, so I was able to hitch a ride with her. It was about an 8 hour drive, with a pit stop at Taco Bell of course. I tried the new chicken items they have there. The Mango BBQ Chickstar was quite awesome, plus I had the spicy ranch chicken griller was good too. Although, word of warning on that spicy chicken griller. It's not terribly spicy going down, but the fire hole that will hit you later...oh my god...oh my god. That hit me at dinner that night when Lewis took us out to eat at Tony Roma's in the Mall of America. That was my first time being there, and on my off day from the movie, I may have to go ride some roller coasters. Though something quite awkward happened directly behind me when we stood in front of the restaurant in the mall. A dude got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend, and, well, it didn't quite go so well as she turned and ran away. Damn! And I thought I had a bad month! So that was certainly something that happened. This is my first time to Minnesota, and it was also my first time to Wisconsin too, which we drove through. Hot damn there's a lot of cheese there. Cheese in the soda containers, cheese next to the restroom at the gas station, plus restaurant signs that simply say "Cheese." They keep it very simple there, it was next to another building with a sign that just simply said "Adult." Keepin it short and simple. Today was a pretty easy day of filming for me. I only had a line to say, plus I did a reaction shot to an explosion. But I got to do all of it while looking badass with a shotgun. When I asked Lewis what the rating of the movie would probably be, he mentioned most likely a PG-13; which thinking about it, would be the first time I was in any movie under an R. But wait wait, not so fast, Nash does have a scene where he says "fuck" a lot, so we're safe. It's an R for language. Most of the time today I hung out in the green room and messed around on the laptop and shot the shit with my friends. It's wonderful being here with the folks I love, some of whom I rarely get to see anymore, and I pretty much cherish anytime I get to get out of town. Our hotel is right next to a Culver's, which we had for dinner. Something tells me we may be eating a lot of Culver's over the next 9 days. I've been taking pictures throughout the shooting, and posting them to twitter and facebook as well; and I'll keep this blog going to at the end of the nights. Tomorrow is my off day, which means there will most likely Tequila and Bonetti to be watched.