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RADIATION
The radiation department is spooky with WARNING and DO NOT ENTER signs everywhere, strange buzzing sounds, rotating red lights in hallways, and weird-lookin’ staff walking around with heavy rubber gloves (just kiddin’ about weird-lookin’).
You lie on a gurney facing a gigantic machine with a huge lens that looks right out of the Twilight Zone. It rotates around the room, makes scary, loud knocking sounds, and it looks like…well, it looks like Robby the Robot in the 1956 cult classic Forbidden Planet! Remember the robot with the bubble head?
It gets worse. The techs put goggles on you and tell you to keep your eyes shut tight no matter what! NO MATTER WHAT? And they assure you that if you have any problems, you can just yell (YELL?) in the direction of the microphone and they’ll hear you from where they’ll be, which is 10 MILES AWAY! Behind very thick lead walls! That’s how it goes down, ask anyone who’s done full-body radiation. The process feels like bad sci-fi from the ’50s.
And one last thing: When you’re done with your 20-minute zap, you turn over so they can zap your other side, just like steak on a grill. Medium well-done, please!
Category Archives: Book Lovers
Every Month is Cancer Awareness Month
(Blog Update 1/12/2012: SHARE YOUR STORY. I’ve received so many emails from folks who wish to share their experiences as cancer patients or caregivers that I chose this blog page I had written about Cancer Awareness Months to offer a … Continue reading
Spielberg’s AMBLIN’ to Cameron’s XENOGENESIS: The Promise of Short Films
Everyone knows there is almost no commercial market for short films…so why make them? Every film regardless of its running length is a big investment in time, hassle, people, money, and dreams. The first film I made as a student … Continue reading
Cinematic Magic: IRIS
Magic! Movies have always been a magical world for me since I was a kid growing up in Egypt watching Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies and The Ten Commandments which blew my mind. The magic continued when on my … Continue reading
Remembering Bubba
“Yo Bubba, can we try that again…except this time try not to kill the guy!” I remember giving that direction to Bubba Smith on the set of Blue Thunder in 1984. I was teasing him about rough-housing a stuntman bad … Continue reading
Cowboys & Aliens & Smurfs?
When I heard about the Cowboys & Aliens project, my first thought was “Wow, what a pitch that must have been!” Talk about a high concept title and certainly an unusually daring idea. So imagine being a fly on the … Continue reading
Film Scams and Aroma-Scope!
Raising indie financing for movies is so very difficult and time consuming. It took me 3 years to raise $1,250,000 for my first feature RETRIBUTION and I outline that journey in my memoir. I was amazed to read that scammers … Continue reading
Save Our Great Resource: TEACHERS!
Yeah, I know every federal, state, and city is trying to cut expenditures and limit the gigantic amount of waste our “fatty nation” is funding, but we should never sacrifice our teacher pool in the process. In Los Angeles alone, … Continue reading
Kismet: Spielberg & JJ & SUPER-8
One of the great thrills about filmmaking are the industry folks you look up to, the ones who inspire you, the ones whose next films you can’t wait to see, the ones you hope to meet and get to know. … Continue reading
Welcome All Visitors
Hello and welcome to my blog. This memoir – Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot – is unconventional because it deals with diverse topics from the wild and crazy behind-the-scenes stories of a Hollywood filmmaking career to finding and celebrating true … Continue reading
