When we shoot night exteriors in big cities, it's customary to have a cop dedicated to the set. The officer's role is to make sure nothing negative occurs between the film unit and the neigborhood. They also do some traffic control. When you shoot in dicey neigborhoods, it's reassuring to have those guys around, becasue a film shoot draws people like moths to a light, and I've seen it happen where street types begin harrassing crew members.

Last night we were shooting on Sutton St. in the greenpoint section of brooklyn. All day we'd heard forecasts of rain. sleet and hail. This made me very anxious, as I know night exteriors to be risky enough, without the water/electricity relationship, or the high winds/grip problematic (shit blows around). I'd just added a last light to a shot of an old car parked at the curb, when this cop with a thick rockaway accent says to me: "Get that light out of the street! You gotta keep a twelve foot fire lane open here."
I was rushing back to the monitor to see how our shot looked, and i stopped in my tracks, sighed, and winced.
"Sir," I said, looking at the cop finally. "You are quite seriously hampering my creative process."
I'd meant it as a joke. He didn't take it too well.
"Get your damn light outta the street." He said menacingly, "or I'll really give you something to worry about."

The funnist set-cop I've ever encountered was in L.A. We had this crusty old guy from the motorcycle division. The scene we were shooting was too sisters having the big hash out of their lives, the night before one was to get married. We were shooting on melbourne St. in Los Feliz, but it was supposed to play for Providence, Rhode Island.
As the camera rolled, these two lousy, primadonna actresses did their sisterly argument - screaming stuff like: "MOM AND DAD ALWAYS LOVED YOU MORE THAN ME! THAT'S WHY I STUDIED SO HARD AND BECAME A BIG CORPORATE LAWYER."

When the A.D. called cut, I could see other crew memebers laughing and holding their noses. The burly grey-hairedcop leaned to me and said: "Hmm. I think I'm smelling an academy on that one."

How funny. How weird.

I must have stepped into one of those emotional air pockets tonight. A really nice day off ended with a late dinner at the diner up the street, and I run into my cousin martha, and she's like a stranger. I noticed her inside talking to my friends while I was outside on the telephone. When I came in to say hello

"Hey, how's it going?" I said, leaning forward to kiss her.
She kissed me back, and then put her hand on my right shoulder and began to sort of push and pull me back and forth by my sweater.
"I know - you're here." She said. "I saw you outside."
I hesitated as she push/pulled me, trying to register what it meant. She stared at me without any trace of smile.
"Are you high?" I asked, finally.

Anyway, weirder things have been known to happen. I asked Terry about it as we walked back to the house. He just stared straight ahead.
"I ain't getting in the middle of any of your family's shit." He said, shaking his head with a cynical frown.

I must have seriously missed something while I was outside on the phone. This is probably not such a big deal but there are other weird thing afoot.

I don't really know where I belong. Usually I try HOPE that it's the same place as where I am. There's so much potential for things to go wrong, or people to radically turn against you (I mean "Me" - I just say: "You" - it's a weird usage thing in American English).

There's a weird wind blowing through new York tonight. Perhaps the rain brought something. Whether this whole story turns into a dream or a terrible nightmare will have nothing to do with me.