Lowell Stories

Hey, here's the link to our winning entry for Lowell Stories!

I think it's funny that half of the four stories involve dogs. But only one movie star dog.

Winners!

So there was this little contest called "Lowell Stories" put on by the City of Lowell folks, so I submitted a story about our brush with fame getting Carter into the Fighter. I just found out today that we were one of three runner ups in the contest -- winning a $50 gift certificate to the Lowell restaurant of our choice! Carter's fame continues to yield dividends. He's going to be mad when he finds out it's a people restaurant, not a dog restaurant. Oops.

Anyway, our story and photo will appear sometime soon on the Lowell 175th Anniversary Celebration website. I'll post a link when the story is up!

The media empire continues to expand!

It's Here!

I got an early Christmas present today, brought by my friendly UPS delivery man:
I can't quite believe it. It's done. It's here. It can be there: link to Amazon for the purchase



Cheers!

He's a STAR!

I realize that this blog is now in danger of being the all-Carter-all-the-time blog with nothing about our house. But the truth is, our dog is famous. Much more famous than any of us or our house will ever be, so we need to talk about our dog.

Tonight, we got a babysitter and went to see The Fighter here in Lowell. For those of you who do not live in Lowell, New York, or LA, you cannot see The Fighter yet. But here in Lowell, we're special.

The movie was pretty great. The boxing scenes were hard (for me) to watch. It was very fun to see all the local sites and know where every scene was happening, including the fact that Charlene's house, which another character claims is on Stevens Street is actually in our neighborhood, far from Stevens Street. When you come to visit us, we can take you on a tour of The Fighter's Lowell. And, of course, you can meet its major -- in fact only -- canine star, Carter.

Carter's scenes were great. There are two of them, and in one of them, Christian Bale yells "Is that a cocker spaniel?!" at him. Christian Bale has talked about my dog.

Carter is kind of a big deal.

When we returned home, giddy and pleased, we asked the babysitter how things had gone. She got a worried look and said "everything was OK, but there was one thing.....Carter got up on the table and got the banana bread."

Well, who are we to deny a major star his banana bread when we went off to the movie -- his movie -- without him.

Further updates when the dog press junket begins.

Update: I just googled "The Fighter" Wahlberg spaniel to see if there were any mentions of Carter in the reviews of the movie so far.

O.M.G.

Here's one: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/12/10/the-fighter-review/ where you will find this:

It's also funny in very random moments, like when Dicky turns to a passerby who's gawking at his argument with Charlene and says, "Hey, what kind of dog is that? Is that a cocker spaniel?"

And then there are multiple sites that include quotes from the movie, and this is what they say in the little blurbs under discussion of The Fighter:

Related Quotes

1. Hey, what kind of dog is that? Is that a cocker spaniel?
   SOURCE: Cinematical 2 days ago

I'm telling you, just keep checking in on "Is that a cocker spaniel?" in the next few weeks....it's going to be the "whaaazup" of 2010.

Update: Jake just asked me "didn't they ask you what kind of dog he was?" -- I did -- and he followed: "so you co-wrote that scene." YES! Also, Jake totally co-directed with Russell, as Carter needed some coaxing to do that thing he does.

Lesson Learned: Pop Culture Trumps Parenting

I've been (foolishly) proud of Lucy's musical ear. She's very good at picking out tunes and recognizing her favorites. I'm always (again foolishly) proud when she yells out "that's Wilco!" or "I want Jonathan Richman!" from the backseat. We fell like virtuous hipster parents when this happens. We beam with delight as she sings along to Magnetic Fields songs we sing to her as lullabies.

So I was rather shocked by today's conversation with Lucy:

While driving home from school, we were listening (naturally) to NPR, which had a story on "The Making of a Hit Song," featuring samples. Suddenly, from the backseat, I hear:

"That's Justin Beiber! Mom! That's Justin Beiber!"

And she proceeded to sing along to lyrics that mostly seemed to feature the word "baby" in various inflections.

I am not lying when I say that I don't know a Justin Beiber song. I am vaguely aware of his existence, and the fact that he's some sort of pop music phenom (perhaps from American Idol? I don't actually know). It's not that I dislike him, I'm just not hooked up to that particular line of contemporary popular music culture. I had no idea that she knew that such a thing as "Justin Beiber" existed, let alone that she could recognize one of his songs. Apparently, they have learned about Justin Beiber -- where else? -- at school. They regularly have dance parties (of which I totally approve) and apparently, one of her teachers is a fan.

Pop culture, you have won. We surrender.

As promised, pictures with Santa

I mentioned the other day that Carter got his photo taken with Santa. Since he's famous now, I'll bet this photo will sell like hotcakes!
Happy Holidays!

NEWS FLASH! Carter is IN THE MOVIE!

I just got word that yes, indeed, it is true, OUR DOG, CARTER STEPHEN BRIDGE, APPEARS IN THE MOVIE THE FIGHTER AND CHRISTIAN BALE TALKS ABOUT HIM!!!

The scene made it in!!! Carter is famous!!!

We have not yet seen the film but our friend who has a movie reviewer friend has confirmed it.

More updates once we actually see it, but we had to let you know.

HOORAY!

My Creation(s)

My book is done. I have just (immediately preceding the posting of this entry) submitted the final final final proof of the book, and it will be in the production line tomorrow. This is cause for celebration, which I will be doing tonight by going to see Sufjan Stevens at the Orpheum in Boston. I'm so excited.

But perhaps more importantly, and certainly more amusingly, I must tell you of my favorite latest Conversation with Lucy (TM). We've been reading a lot of Halloween-themed books to her lately (her choice, though certainly we have quite a stock of options) and a current favorite is one about the Littlest Pumpkin, wherein, on the final page, there is a picture of a giant Jack-o-Lantern surrounded by three kids in Halloween costumes.

When we get to the page (as part of her ever-widening stalling routine) she asks "What are their costumes?" which is now just what we do at the end of the book, every time.

Last night, I dutifully told her "there's a witch, a clown, and a Frankenstein."

Last night, Lucy replied: "No, Mommy, that's a Frankenstein's Monster."

Seriously, I could not be more proud. I go over this ALL THE TIME in my Gothic novel/horror story classes, about how Frankenstein is the name of a person, and he created a monster, so really, the guy with the green head is "Frankenstein's monster," NOT "Frankenstein." I can't believe I even tried to get away with not giving her the correct name this time. I stand corrected. And glowing (green?) with pride.

Update on the Media Empire

I should have included this info in last night's Halloween post, but I ran out of time with all the trick-or-treat tending.

My faithful readers will remember that two summers ago, I was interviewed for a PBS special on haunted places in New England (specifically my research on local witches). It aired last fall locally, but I've recently heard from the producer that the thing now has national distribution and that it was one of the top 5 shows distributed by American Public Television this fall. It even won some awards, including an Aurora Award, a Communicator Award, and a Telly Award. Whoa! It's also apparently a top-selling DVD on PBS's website. I had to laugh, though, because the only user review it currently has is very bad; the reviewer is disturbed by all the paranormal/pseudoscientist stuff. I am proud to lay claim to the title of the "voice of reason & skepticism" on the program.

Anyway, suddenly I'm hearing from a bunch of colleagues and students about how they saw me on TV this weekend. Apparently they're blanketing the airwaves with this stuff, and in fact, it was the show that was on just before the latest Mystery series, which, by the way is AWESOME. It is a new, updated Sherlock Holmes and it rules. Two of the three episodes have aired, but you should totally go watch it.

So I'm enjoying my temporary star turn, knowing full well that I am about to be trumped by my dog. The Fighter drops December 10th. That happens to be my last day of classes here. It would seem there are many reasons to get a babysitter that night!

Changes Afoot

I told Lucy we gave away our TV. I realize that this might be seen as cruel. We did in fact give away our TV -- or more appropriately, we returned it to our kind friends who gave it to us. This is because we are getting a new TV! We have not yet told Lucy this part, but she definitely knows something is up.

For the past couple of years, this cabinet has been the keeper of our television:


But this cabinet is rather large and bulky. While I like the fact that it keeps the TV & media out of sight when we're not watching it, it does take up a lot of space in this room. In the corner opposite this cabinet (both literally in the room and in the figurative sense of the opposing contender for media storage) is this built-in cabinet:

We have often thought that it would be nice if this could be our media center. It would completely re-orient the room. There are shelves on top (obviously) but there's also a neat little cabinet down below, which, sadly, has been blocked by the couch for all these years because of the current media/seating configuration.

Can you guess what's coming next? Well, you'll just have to wait. I'll update as we accomplish the transition -- it may be a couple of days. Stay tuned....

On creating our own monster

The other day, we had an unexpected exchange with Lucy in the car. We had some music on that we thought she would like, when she suddenly announced

"I want the jokes."

What could she possibly mean?

We pressed and asked, and she kept insisting "I want the jokes." Could it possibly be that she wanted to listen to the radio show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me,"* which we often listen to at home and in the car? So we said, incredulously, "Do you want 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'?" and she said "YES!"

We have created a monster. An NPR-listening monster. We actually put on a Wait Wait podcast, and it did seem like that was indeed what she wanted to listen to. Yikes. Today on the way home from school she demanded "I want Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! with the jokes." Wow.

*For those of you who don't know (and it's hard to imagine that you know us and don't know this) Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a weekend show on NPR that features a news quiz. They bring on several funny people who tell jokes and ask questions about the news. It is hilarious, in an NPR-kinda way. It is definitely a geek fest.

UPDATE: I followed the advice of our good friend, fellow-NPR-geek, and commenter, Christy, and sent a little e-mail to the Wait Wait team. I just heard back this morning, and they asked if they could re-tell our story on their blog, and include a picture of Lucy. Whoa! Lucy's gonna be famous! NPR-famous, but, well, what else matters? Thanks, Christy! I'll post a link if this actually happens!

UPDATE: This just in: Lucy is officially famous:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/06/07/127537913/listener-mailbag-i-want-the-jokes?ft=1&f=112176971

Welcome to visitors who have come to us via the Wait Wait Don't Blog Me, and special thanks to NPR producer Ian Chillag for reading and responding to fan mail!

I'm gonna be on television....

I just realized that some of our readers might not know about my upcoming TV appearance, because I neglected to write about it on the blog before now. I find it very hard to believe that I failed to blog/brag about this, but I guess I had a few other things going on back when this all started, and then I kind of forgot about it until today. So now, here's the story.

In June, I got a call from a guy who works for the PBS affiliate in Western Massachusetts, WGBY. He was developing a program on "Haunted New England," telling tales of spooky scary stories from the area. He found out about my witchcraft research and asked if I would serve as an "expert." Well sure, why not?

The crew (a producer and a cameraman) showed up on June 17th and transformed our dining room into a TV studio. Somewhere, there are pictures of this, but I can't find them now. I talked about my witch research and he asked me some questions about haunted stories in the area. It was a fun afternoon, and very strange experience to see how TV gets made. Who knew that setting up lighting was so involved? They had to black out all our windows (and there are a lot of them). There were also some sound issues, in particular our fuzzy family member (Carter) had to be asked to leave the room because the jingle of his collar kept showing up on the sound. (I thought it could have stayed there as a ghostly echo.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun and both the producer and the cameraman were great.

So today I got the call from the producer, and it's going to be airing tomorrow for the first time. Wow! It will be on WGBY out in Western Massachusetts, which sadly, we don't get, so I won't get to cringe (yet).

Here's a link to the trailer for the show (I'm not in this):
http://www.wgby.org/hauntednewengland/index.html

The producer told me that my specific witchcraft stories didn't make it into the TV-length version, but they do appear on the DVD. He also said that I DO appear in the TV version as what he called "the voice of reason." I found this hilarious. I found it all the more hilarious after I watched the trailer above, which is clearly lacking in such a voice.

The show should air on our local PBS station, WGBH Boston, sometime in December (for people who like to celebrate their Halloween a little bit later). Also, I'm supposed to be getting copies of both the DVD and TV versions once they're available. So for those of you looking to complete your media portfolio of 83 Durant stars, you'll want to get your hands on this. This shouldn't be too hard; I think WGBY is actually going to use the DVD as a pledge premium. Yes, dear reader, I will be used to strongarm viewers during a pledge drive. Awesome!

I hope to post again soon, but in case I am neglectful, have a Happy Halloween!

Printing in Process

I'm printing out my book. It's very exciting. It's going to take a while. So while I'm waiting, I thought I'd post this update. No, I will not post the text of my book, as my publisher might get a bit upset. But up there above you can see a word cloud here based on it. You too can make a Word Cloud from anything you're writing.

I'm relieved to be getting this off my plate, although my plate is still pretty full. Now that this is done, I need to catch up on all the grading I've been putting off. I'm afraid my freshmen writing portfolios have been neglected and are now perhaps breeding with my American Lit students' papers. Who knows what horror they will create.

But thanks for your support, dear readers. We'll keep you posted on late-breaking news.

This just in: Carter got a haircut today! Film at 11.

On Set, Again

So we thought our adventures in Lowell-Hollywood were over, but apparently, there were other plans. Apparently, David Russell (the director) was thinking about Carter last night. Seriously. There was, apparently, at some point, discussion of Carter amongst the people working on the movie. So much so, that they decided they wanted to use him in another scene, to provide comic relief. Seriously people, I am not making this up.

At 10:30 this morning, I got a call from Tim, a PA on the set. He asked if I was available to bring Carter over. I said that Jake could bring him, and he replied, "well, they want you." Huh? No, this would not be a re-do of the previous scene, but instead, this would be an entirely new scene from the film, and they thought they would like to have ME walking the dog down the street. They needed me immediately. What could I say?

I said yes. I grabbed some clothes and the dog, and Jake gave me a ride over. It was all hurry hurry hurry, and then...the waiting. Today's scene was a lot more involved (stunts and whatnot) and things got very delayed. Everyone seemed a lot more testy today, and there seemed to be some problems. I was taken to wardrobe two different times, and had to change into and out of the same costume three times. Insane. Finally, after several hours of sitting around, I was told that I was too young -- they basically wanted it to seem that the female dog walker was the wife of the previous dog walker (the priest who walked Carter yesterday) and I really wasn't going to cut it. But they still very much needed Carter

At that point, Jake took over, and he's over there now. I haven't heard from him yet, but I'm sure he'll fill us all in when the shooting is over. Apparently this is the last day to shoot at this particular location, so this should be our last film set report. We'll keep you posted about our next publicity tour.

And now for something completely different

Today was an unusual day here at 83 Durant. Some of you may know that recently, some movies have been filmed in Lowell. A while back, Ricky Gervais and a whole bunch of other actors we love (Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Martin Star, Jeffrey Tambor) were in town to film The Invention of Lying. There was all kinds of craziness around town, and we saw the film trucks and lighting equipment at times. We talked about walking downtown and trying to get ourselves into a scene, but never did it. I did, however, go to the post-strike warehouse sale, where they sold all of the props and set dressings from the movie. Some of you may recall that I bought some pillows, a lamp, and a dress and a sweater. You may recall that I refer to this sweater as my "Tina Fey sweater" because I like to imagine that Fey wore it during the movie. Though I know it's far more likely that an extra wore it, still, it was a nice dream. Soon, we will get to watch the movie and see who (if anyone) is wearing the sweater. Also, it looks like it will be pretty funny.

But until now, aside from my Tina Fey sweater, the movie industry had sadly ignored the lovely residents of 83 Durant. Hard to believe, I know. You've seen the Flickr pictures and videos of Lucy and our dog. There's tons of potential there. Finally, it seems that we've been noticed.

A movie called The Fighter is currently being filmed in Lowell. There's a lot of info about the filming at this site. We knew it was going on, and that movie is about local boxing legend Mickey Ward (played by Mark Wahlberg) and his brother, also a boxer, Dickie Elklund (played by Christian Bale). But we didn't think much about it. Until today.

Yesterday, while we were walking by the reservoir, we noticed all kinds of signs and way too many cars, and lots of big trucks. We asked this young guy, who looked somehow official (he had a name badge on) what was going on, and he said "construction." Whatever. He was totally lying. We walked up and realized that they were filming right up the street. Cool! But we didn't stick around.

This morning, the same dude who told us it was "construction" looked at me and said, "hey, do you want to be in a movie with your dog?" Surely he was joking. He wasn't. He was talking a mile a minute to both me and to the people at the other end of the ear piece he was wearing. He asked me to get into his car with him and go to the set, and I said, uh, ok. Yes, I got in a car with a complete stranger who lied to me the day before, and who was now claiming that I could bring my dog and be in a movie. Hrm.

The guy is super excited. He pulls up at the top of the street where they're shooting (it's like two blocks from where he told me to get into the car) and insists to other dudes with similar name badges that Carter is THE dog. There is some back-and-forth among these guys (they're called, as I learned, PA's), who it seems, have some sort of bet going on the dogs that, from what I understand, involves $5 and a steak dinner. He gets the go-ahead, and tells me that he's taking me to wardrobe. Wardrobe! Seriously. Keep in mind, please, that I was out to walk the dog. I had not brushed my hair. I actually had not even brushed my teeth. I had no plans to be in a movie.

The wardrobe place was in a series of trailers set up in the parking lot of the local elementary school, the same elementary school, in fact, where we go to vote. Waiting for the wardrobe folks, I met another woman with a couple of dogs, and we were both looked over by someone I assume to be a costume/wardrobe person, who thought the other woman's outfit (tank top and shorts) was fine, but said that my capri pants and slides had to go. I was a bit mortified, until I realized that the reason was that the movie is set in 1990, so my clothes would mark me as way too fashion forward. I was asked to wear a short blue jean skirt and some blue cloth ballet flats. The other woman had to trade in her flip flops for an AMAZING pair of white vintage Reebok high-tops, the kind with laces at the bottom and velcro at the top. NICE. Then they drove us back to the set.

I should note that through all this, Carter was with me. He was amazing. He got a bit barky at a few of the other dogs, but he was great, hopping into and out of vans, and generally have a fine time being fawned over. Also, while hanging at the wardrobe place, I borrowed a PA's iphone to call Jake and let him know that I had not been kidnapped, but that I was going to be in a movie. He was surprised, to say the least.

Next, a bunch of us local folks -- maybe 8 or so people -- waited with our dogs at the top of the street where the filming was happening. At this point, the general sense was that somehow, they were going to use all of these dogs. That seemed pretty weird, but I have no idea how movies are made, and thought, well, maybe we each just parade down the street while they film, and whatever one of us gets into the scene gets in. That is not how movies are made, as I now know. In any case, there was a lot of excitement among the dogs and the dog owners. We saw a friend of ours who we walk dogs with, and she was trying to get me to take her dog, Ginger, with us. I would have, but Carter was getting to be a bit anxious, so I worried, but then a PA grabbed her and had Ginger join the gang. Hooray!

Finally, after much milling about (movies are a whole lot of "hurry up and wait") we were told to walk in a line down to the set, which was in a large house with a huge front porch. We walked down in a somewhat orderly fashion, about 8 people (I think) and 10 or so dogs (at least 2 women had 2 dogs each). We stood there, not really knowing what was going on, but sensing that something was up. I heard the word "Spaniel," then I saw the PAs looking upset and saying, "you mean all of them?" and then realized through various half-heard responses that in fact, only one dog was going to be in the movie, and all the rest would be sent home.

And more importantly, I realized that the one dog who was going to be in the movie was the spaniel. Carter.

O. M. G.

They sent all the rest of the dogs back up the street, and the PA's informed me that they didn't know there was only going to be one dog, and they all congratulated me, and then asked if I could stick around until about 3 or so. Many of you know that in fact, I had no business hanging out on a film set all day, and that by all rights, I should have been in front of this very computer, working on my book. But how often does a chance like this come up? I said yes, I could totally stay for the day. Then they asked whether Carter would walk with someone other than me, and if I was willing to let him walk with someone other than me, and basically, they said, the director has a friend he wants to feature as the dog walker, so would it be OK with me if I wasn't in the film, but my dog was? Yes. Totally fine. But could I please change out of my weird 1990s wardrobe? Sure....eventually. OK, let's go.

And immediately the star treatment began. Carter being the star. They actually called him "the talent." I kid you not. What does he need? Here's some water. He's so sweet.....and on and on and on. I have to say, everyone was so incredibly nice. I really couldn't believe it. There were something like 8 or 10 different PAs who would come by and ask if we needed anything, and make sure everything was fine. It was really interesting to be hanging around the set, watching SO many people working on every detail.

Next, we met the dog walker, a local priest who is a friend of the director, and then the priest and I were brought over to talk with David O. Russell, the director. He explained the movie and the scene to both of us, and talked about what we should do, and was really very nice. His attention was mostly focused on the priest, which is totally understandable, but he was very nice to Carter, and I learned that it was Russell himself who had picked out Carter from the line-up on the street. Wow.

I signed some papers saying I wouldn't disclose all the secret details of the movie, so I won't go into the details of the scene, but it involved Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Mark Wahlberg. So I sat and watched the three of them (most of the scene was Bale and Adams) do their scene over and over again, with the technical crew setting up all kinds of different angles and equipment and whatnot. It was amazing. Every so often, Carter was called upon to do his thing, and he did it very very well. He was incredibly well behaved. Occasionally, he had a hard time walking away from me, so they kept moving me to the opposite end of the set so that he would walk towards me.

I don't want to give anything away here, but at one point, Christian Bale (well, his character) NOTICES Carter and TALKS ABOUT HIM. In the movie. Or at least, in the filming of the movie, who knows what will happen once things are cut.

We worked on the scene until about 3:30, then there was a lunch break, which involved being shuttled back to the elementary school and eating a really very good meal in the gym. I was sitting with a bunch of guys who were there because their cars are being used in the movie. Wow. Everyone fussed over the Carter and offered him food, and was having a grand time of it.

Then we went back to the set to do a few more takes, and we were out of there around 5pm. It was a long, hot day of sitting around in the sun, waiting to be told to wait somewhere else. Carter had many admirers, and Amy Adams actually walked across the street to come over, say hi, and ask questions about Carter. She gave him some love and was really very very nice. The thing that struck me about all of the stars was how very SMALL and very normal they seemed. Bale has apparently lost a lot of weight for the role, but really, all of them, just seemed so much more normal and human-scale than we see on the screen or TV or tabloids or whatever. Also, they weren't all glammed up, since the movie is supposed to have these gritty characters from real-life Lowell. In fact, when the actors started rehearsing the scene on the porch, I actually thought (and actually said to someone else) "those must be the stand-ins for the actors" because these people did not look like famous people. I felt a bit silly when I realized that the weird skinny looking dude was not just some random stand-in, but was, in fact, Christian Bale. He was Batman. And now he looks like this.

Carter is actually going to be paid for his work, too. I had to fill out paperwork for him, so he'll be showing some bling once his check rolls in, I'm sure. We had a long, exhausting day, but it was incredibly exciting. I never could have imagined something like this happening, but there it is.

Special thanks to Jake and my Mom for taking care of Lucy and everything else so that I could go hang out all day.