Bizarre Wednesday

June 27, 2008 at 8:52 AM

Which reminded me. I had a lesson to reschedule with a piano student who had taken on a second job; Wednesday would no longer work. Dusting the flour from my fingers, I picked up the summer camp kitchen's phone and dialed the number she’d given me. A man answered and politely asked me to use a different number, if I had one. Explaining who I was, I apologised--this was the only number I had. “Oh, so you play piano?” Suddenly, he was interested. I braced myself for another wedding gig request. He mentioned something about recording equipment, needing musicians... Discovery Channel... Wait a second, did you say Discovery Channel? Could you repeat that? Who are you, anyway?

As it turns out, this man is on assignment as an “extreme photographer” filming a documentary in Alaska, and he wants to send me some guitar samples to see what I think about accompanying on the piano for some of the background music. Of course, I casually agreed and spelled out my email address. Did I mention that I also play violin?

And this is how I landed an audition to play background music for a Discovery Channel documentary, right there between breakfast and the peanut butter bars. By the way, I can’t think of how many times I’ve sat and heckled the background music for those shows. Ripoff artists, horribly trite and predictable, cheesier than grilled cheese and tomato soup, but less tasty. What was it I always said? “I could do better than that!” Well, now here’s my chance to prove it.

So now you’re probably wondering about the subject matter of this "extreme" documentary. Or perhaps you’ve already guessed, by my previous tales about life on the Kenai Peninsula. Yes, it’s... The Alaskan Brown Bear! Sheesh, you could’ve just filmed me screaming at them in my pj’s the other night if you wanted some good extreme footage. Snore. Bore. I can’t wait to come up with some good brown bear music now.

What a strange turn of events. Well, we don't call it Bizarre Wednesday for nothing.

Which reminds me...

From Tom Holzman
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 1:13 PM

How cool! Good for you. Have fun becoming a tv star.

From Ray Randall
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 5:56 PM

Best of luck. We can, ahem, bearly wait. Ok, ok, so I took liberties with the spelling.
Hope it works out for you.

From Rosalind Porter
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 7:42 PM

How seriously cool is that!? I was actually watching a series on tv over here last week about a load of guys dumped in the middle of the Alaskan snow and told to fend for themselves... the bit where the bear appeared looking for lunch was most entertaining.

I think you'll be great at this - hope it goes well!

From E. Smith
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 9:17 PM

Wow, exciting! I hope it works out for you!

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on June 27, 2008 at 11:39 PM

Ain't no such job as extreme photographer. If he wants you to deposit a check and send part of the money somewhere, don't do it ;)

From Emily Grossman
Posted on June 28, 2008 at 2:37 AM

My bad, the correct term would have been "high risk photographer". Go ahead, google it. :)

The word "extreme" is so extremely overused, anyway, isn't it? I'm going to go do some extreme walking around the lake now. I'll take my camera and my 44, just in case.

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on June 28, 2008 at 7:43 AM

They don't know how to make anything that isn't x-treme anymore. It'll be bears chasing guys riding skateboards on the handrails at the mall. The music will be that nasty fuzz guitar from beer commercials. The camera will have a jump cut twice a second and will be tilted 45 degrees most of the time.

From Jon O'Brien
Posted on June 29, 2008 at 3:15 AM

It's crocs over here, not bears (unless you count Koalas). I was going to borrow a 44 from the station owner on my last trip but the laws here are too tricky now. So it had to be a block splitter when I was down by the water, instead (which was next to useless).

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on June 29, 2008 at 10:34 PM

Greetings,
you dion`t know
`Brown bear in the rain,
falalalala x2
It looks like a sugar in a plum....`
Cheers,
Buri

From Ruth Kuefler
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 3:32 AM

Wow, that's awesome Emily! Keep us posted on this. :)

From Royce Faina
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Man! What a Gig!!! Am I ever jealous! Congradulations Emily!!!!!!

From Tom Steele
Posted on June 30, 2008 at 3:23 PM

Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.