Caddo Lake

Bored in Shreveport

I was asked where I lived so the clerk could fill out the info needed for a return at Radio Shack this afternoon.

Clerk #2 was leaning on the counter next to him checking out her nails and intermittently staring at a fistful of split ends:

clerk #2: "you're from L.A.?"

me: "yes"

clerk #2: "are you here visiting?"

me: "yes"

clerk #2: "its boring isn't it?"

me: "yes"

clerk #2: "I know...........we're bored to"

Shreveport, Louisiana.

Candlewood Suites, Shreveport, Louisiana

So I hope not to offend anyone with my comments about Shreveport, but then I'm also pretty sure that no-one who lives in Shreveport will be reading this blog.

I have been on location to quite a few places in the last 17 years. Some have been amazingly fantastic (Kauai), some have been less than stellar (Shreveport,) some have had an unexpected twist and turned out better than one could have hoped (Detroit...no really!).

In between the Good, the Bad and the Ugly have been stops in Japan, South Korea, Chile, Budapest, Canada and Mexico. Sometimes you stay in The Four Seasons and sometimes you get stuck in a Motel 6. No matter where you stay, you settle in for the long or short haul, get familiar with your surroundings and try and make a home out of 300 square feet of hotel room (that you are probably sharing with a dog or two).

One of the first things you have to find is a laundromat or preferably a place to drop off your laundry, unless you get lucky and you are staying in an 'extended stay' hotel , these usually have a laundry room for guests. I am staying at the Candlewood Suites right now - my room has a mini kitchen and amazingly a decent bath tub that you can actually soak in - in fact I hit the jackpot (given my limited resources for entertainment) I can actually soak in the tub and see the TV in the bedroom!

Being in a hotel with a dog or dogs, you also have to take into consideration that you will at some point be walking the dog. So close proximity to an exit and preferably being on the ground floor is always a bonus. Also a bonus, a safe neighborhood to walk in.

I am in this hotel room for nine weeks. Nine weeks. Grocery shopping for the mini kitchen means you have to buy all the little things that you need - mayonnaise, salt and pepper, dish soap etc., I just hope I use it all before I leave...Shreveport has a limited number of grocery stores, or should I say decent grocery stores. However the one I did find had an international section with a lot of English products including chocolate! Go figure. One of my favorite foods from England is Branston Pickle, generally eaten with a slab of cheese and some crusty french bread, often referred to as a "Ploughmans Lunch" served in pubs, maybe swilled down with a warm pint of beer. However, in a hotel room in Shreveport it is simply eaten with a fork straight from the jar.

Smith

Smith

Smith is the Hero dog on the movie I am working on. The hero dog is what we call the dog that is the main dog out of multiple dogs that all double one another. His brother Jones will double him, but Smith will do the majority of the work - he has a better work ethic and has more training than Jones. Jones is kinda lazy - ha ha. He would rather be the dog that sleeps on the porch. Gran Torino would have been a good job for him.

Two Wild and Crazy Guys

Smith & Jones

When I first found out that I was coming to Shreveport to work on a movie with two very high energy (read:crazy) Labradors, I thought "Oh no!" not those two in my hotel room!

I was in a for a huge surprise.

What I thought was going to be a challenging experience with dogs that could rival "Marley" ended up being the complete opposite.

They ended up being the zen dogs.

All they do is sleep. Which is great, its just I've never seen them sleep this much. Don't get me wrong, give them an inch and they will for sure take a mile, but as long as I'm not standing in the middle of my hotel room swinging around a rope toy, they will continue to sleep. And that my friend is a good thing.