Enter Jesko

Jesko arrived from Berlin last week, bristling with anarchic energy after a long transatlantic flight. Here is a screen capture from my brother Bob, who Skyped me about 10 minutes after Jesko blew in like a Teutonic tornado.

As it turns out, we have been hired to work on a pitch for a major international brand together at Sid Lee (the agency) , and so are spending a lot of time in one another's company, dealing with matters apart from just IN THE COOLER. In fact, it looks like we may also be working together on at least one upcoming event as well, this one in Abu Dhabi in December (for Circo de Bakuza.) It's fun to be off the screen and face to face (or at least side by side.)

IN THE COOLER is, nevertheless, bubbling on the front burner. We will be meeting various members of the cast this week. This past Saturday night, we went to see a cabaret show performance by Shana of les Sept Doigts de la Main, at the Scena in Montreal's Old Port (lousy room, but they put on a good show. Faon Shane is devastating as always in her chain act.)

The MC at the cabaret was a veteran clown: René Bazinet. (He created and performed the roles Jesko ended up playing in SALTIMBANCO for 8 years. As I told Jesko, now I know where he copped his moves.) René and I had met, briefly, at the Paris airport last year, while we were transitioning from different points in Europe to Montreal. He has a captivating world-weary attitude combined with a charming sense of humour and compelling physicality that, for me, recalls both Buster Keaton and Fred Astaire at once. Jesko suggested him as a cast member, and, to my delight, he's agreed to be in our film.

Tonight, I search for a cooler to shoot in. I have a new client who owns an iconic, storied Montreal restaurant, and has offered his. I will take photos.

Jacob returns from New York, where he is producing a shoot for Cirque du Soleil and Sid Lee, in a day or two, and then we nail down our technicians. A little more than two weeks out, and we are just about good to go.

So you see how life and art and the business of creativity that is artful but something less than art continue to sineously interwine. It's not hard, this. It's like breathing.