I had forgotten that the hair/makeup trailer is such a crossroads until my cousin Phillip flew back to L.A. with me from Dallas. Raising three daughters — he separated from their mother because he "always had his eyes open for what might be around the corner" — and orphaned at the age of 14, he's a devoted father, saving for his three daughters' futures. He gets up in the morning at 5:30 am, seven days a week, to take a bus to his job at a milk plant. He'd like to buy a house one day where all his girls can have their own rooms — "Even after they're grown they can live with their dad." He stresses education and is ever-protective of his girls — always gives them the practical advice, like, "Don't let the boys talk you out of your panties." Phillip has muscle-bound arms and the sweet smile of a teenager that belies the fact that he is about to hit 40. He takes two weeks off every year but never really goes anywhere. Wanting to do something for himself for a change...
read more
We wrapped shooting in April. We then had two-and-a-half months off. We actors go our separate ways to discover ourselves in different roles.Michael Irby headed off to New Orleans to shoot a jazz movie featuring Wynton Marsalis. Demore Barnes went back home to Canada and worked on his own film project. Abby Brammell traveled to Bangkok, where her tattooed blues-singing husband was making his acting premiere in a Sylvester Stallone movie.I returned to Dallas to start a home-renovation project. My aunt Virginia currently lives in the atomic ranch-style house as I go back and forth to L.A. I'm moving in another aunt who has a disabled daughter by the end of the year and wanted to make the home wheelchair accessible — ramps, wider doors, a new bathroom — so I find a contractor who says they can knock the job out in three weeks. In my mind I tack on a couple of extra weeks, thinking I'll still have plenty of time to sit on a beach in Tahiti during the remaining hiatus and "rene...
read more
I've been traveling the last week and a half from L.A. to Dallas to Atlanta and back. Still working off little sleep, I find myself daydreaming. I used to walk and talk in my sleep when I was a child. Would wake up and find myself out of my bed, down the stairs in the living room on my rocking horse, or other places. I've done it a couple of times as an adult, had conversations with friends on the phone that I don't recall and waking up in a different room. I wake up slightly disconnected for the rest of the day. Having roamed while asleep, I then dream while I'm awake. I associate travel with dreaming. Fall into a reverie on trains and planes. When I come to, I'm in another city, another time zone, and sometimes feeling that no time or space has passed at all.I was in Atlanta last Tuesday when CBS aired The Unit's double-header evening of "Sub-Conscious" and "Johnny B Good." "Sub-Conscious," written by Daniel Voll, explores the dreams of unit wife Kim Brown (played by Audrey Marie ...
read more
"Silver Star," the episode of The Unit [Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET, on CBS] that airs Dec. 12, has Jonas and Molly going home to Jonas' parents. The occasion is Jonas' father finally being awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions in Korea. While at the family gathering, Jonas' nephew — a soldier recently returned from combat and suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder — acts cowardly in beating his pregnant wife. Jonas steps in with some rough justice and tough love. In the process, he shares his dad's story, taking us back to the hero who did not receive a hero's welcome, as Jonas' father, a colored man in uniform, travels with his son down south in the US of A, 1952. At the TOC, Mac tries to help a mysterious passenger (Ed O'Neill) on a private jet in restricted airspace, who is trying to land the plane after the pilot dies at the control board.The JumpThis past month, Michael Irby, Robert Patrick and Scott Foley jumped with the U.S. Army parachute team, Tthe Gold...
read more
