I HATE THE TREO!

For all of you out there that hate the Palm Treo because it is the most fucked up phone ever, you will get some joy out of this post. After spending over $1,500 on replacing my Treo over the past year because no cell company covers PDAs .....and the Treo is a severely problematic PDA! Between the phone doing what I call "farting," you know, when the Treo just locks up randomly and gives you that most annoying "bump" noise when you try to do anything with it and then the phone's screen so easily breaking from a simple drop on the floor I just got tired. One time I was at LAX waiting for Chi Chi to come through security to catch our flight to Miami and my Treo kept farting in combination with general crap service at American's terminal in LAX, I did my fit of rage slam down of the Treo and the screen broke. Chi Chi was frantically calling me and after several dropped calls we finally found each other. And then one time I was shooting a scene (Collin and Robert Brankov.....outdoors) and I sat on and broke my Treo. Needless to say, I finally gave up on the piece of shit and opted for the BlackJack (I had to get over all the Beyonce ads for it and just trust it is a businessman's phone and not something used just for downloading Beyonce's latest hits to play at the gym during a work out).

Day trip to Timisoara

After a few days of Mr. Pam, Rich and I constantly working we all agreed to finally go out and about. I had already planned a trip to look for a country house to film at and go on to Monte Negro and return through Kosovo, but we all decided we had too much work to do so we had to cut that trip and do something that would take less time and effort.

I suggested a quick trip to Timisoara, Romania, and Mr. Pam and Rich thought "cool!" So we took off to the North-East part of Serbia which happens to be very pretty with amazing little towns with really old buildings that look like the American Old West! At the border the Serbians harassed us a bit (something to do with my video camera) but they left me alone finally (I'm sure the border agent called us "dirty Americans" or something, I just could not tell what adjective he used...I just know his tone of voice was nasty and "Americani" followed it!).



The drive through Romania was equally as amazing, but very different from Serbia. First, the architecture is a world of difference and I could understand many of the street signs because Romanian is a Latin language and similar to Spanish in many ways. We arrived into Timisoara on its ugly industrial side, but then we happened upon the very beautiful downtown with amazing architecture and streetcars. i parked the car and we stumbled upon the main square where we ate a great tasting, but cheap meal. We then walked down to a very interesting church (I think it is Orthodox) and then got back in the car and started our drive back to Serbia.





On the way home we saw what looked like a carnival so we stopped and check it out and what an experience! The carnival was run by Gypsies and they were playing amazing music and selling local items and toys. We hung out a bit and then decided we better get going because it started turning dark and I hate driving in foreign countries at night. We finally got back around 10pm and we all ordered room service and went to bed early.

Day at Sex i Grad on the Ada

After a long night out and Mr. Pam catching up on some sleep too, we all decided to head out to Belgrade's waterfront where everyone goes on the weekend in Summer to stroll and cruise. After eating we met up with some friends at Sex i Grad and relaxed until sunset.





Glamor Pig (aka Super Pam) decided to pay for our drinks...FABULOUS!



Mr. Pam says good evening from Belgrade!

SERBIA Part 2

After a great cruise and a little vacation, Rich and I took back off to Belgrade to finish my movie there. Our camerawoman Mr. Pam got stuck in Chicago with bad weather so she did not arrive into Belgrade until very late at night and of course she was jet-lagged. So, Rich and I went out to check out Belgrade's gay scene but were drawn into a park by loud music. Rich and I walked into this big concert in the park series and hung out for a bit drinking and dancing.




After the party in the park Rich and I went back to a small gay bar where this blond thin guy started picking up on me and then I took advantage of his kindness and Rich and I bugged him to show us where the big gay club was. We arrived around 2:30am and stayed until 6am dancing to Serbian Folk-Pop....I loved the music!

The Rest of Italy....a little vacation

After picking up a rental car at the port of Rome and dropping Roman off at the airport Rich and I continued back down to Sorrento to take in a few days of personal time before heading to Serbia to finish shooting that movie.

When we checked into the hotel I notice a piece of luggage missing: my video camera for business! I was thinking back to when I left the ship and remembered that I did not have it then so I must have left it under the bed in my cabin. Since it was the weekend, the cruise line’s help desk was not open so there was no way for them to help so I went to the website to see where the ship was docking next and noticed it would be in Monaco the next day. The following day after changing hotels I called the Port of Monaco and a wonderful woman contacted the ship for me and it was confirmed

that they had my precious cargo, but they wanted to send it to the corporate office lost and found instead of shipping it to me in Italy from their next port which was to be Livorno, Italy! I made an executive decision to fly to Pisa and rush the ship and insist they give it back to me, but flights were too expensive and there were no nonstops. After a ton of searching the net for a decent airfare I decided to look at train tickets. I found the train was direct from Naples to Livorno and took about 5 hours so I made the decision to take the train the next morning. Driving was just not an option since we had already booked a non-refundable hotel and really wanted to spend more time in Naples in addition to the drive taking about 7 hours.

The next morning I woke up early and took a commuter train from Sorrento to Naples and then the big train from Naples to Livorno. I slept a lot along the way and the time seemed to go pretty fast. I decided to walk to the port since it looked close on the map. However, I first went to the wrong port so I had to turn around and go to the next port when it started raining. By the time I arrived at the ship I was soaked and the person that was to have my camera had just “stepped out.” 5 minutes later here she pulled up with my baby all safe! I thanked the staff (some of them recognized me and asked where the rest of the previous passengers were…LOL), took the ship’s shuttle into town then a bus to the train and 5 hours later Rich picked me up at the station in Naples.

The following day Rich and I went to Ponpeii which is truly amazing but very hot and dusty! I also stopped in to get my hair cut which was a very interesting experience. Italians LOVE to chitty chat and they so desperately wanted to do the same with me and the hair cut took about 20 minutes longer than it should of, but it was a great experience nonetheless. The next day we drove back Rome and relaxed a bit. I went to go meet a “friend” and drove all through RomeRome trying to find the apartment. which was a crazy experience, but I saw a lot of

The next morning we took off for Belgrade on our favorite airline: JAT Airways…LOL. Our camerawoman extraordinaire was going to very late since she called me at 3am Rome time to let me know her flight was severely delayed. I took a nap while Rich worked and then we went to go get Pam from the airport sans luggage. YEAH! Mr. Pam made it to Serbia safe but extremely exhausted!

RSVP Cruise Day 9: Salerno

Since we had so much fun in Dubrovnik with Diane, Michael, Randy and James I decided I would take a shot at a group effort in Salerno. We all wanted to head to Capri, but getting 6 people to be at the same place and same time would be hard and Randy was late so the rest took off while Rich and I waited for Randy. After a short bus ride into town and walking about 1 mile to the port we somehow caught up to the rest of the guys even though we were about 40 minutes behind them. We dumped the Capri trip for a Positano trip because the boat already left and Capri is much further than Rich thought.

I fell asleep on the boat ride that first docked in at Almafi before it continued onto Positano. When we finally arrived we only had 2 ½ hours to putz around and have lunch…so that’s just what we did! After lunch and gelato we boarded the boat and I fell asleep again. We barely made the last bus back to the boat and then spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. Since this was our last night basically the ship started shutting down. At 9pm, when normally there would be a ton of people floating around, I could not find one person anywhere. Eventually I just retired to my room and prepare for the arrival into Rome’s port the next morning.

RSVP Cruise Day 8: Malta

After a day on the open sea relaxing and a kind of late night partying it up on the back deck, we pulled into Malta early in the morning. When I opened my curtains I was completely amazed by how beautiful Malta is. I learned my lesson with Corfu and decided to reserve a car so we could drive around the island a bit. So Roman Rich and I headed for a taxi to get to the rental agency with our laundry (it was so expensive on the boat) and our laptops for a bit of work.

When we arrived at the car rental agency we drove immediately to drop off our laundry and then go to the internet café just blocks apart. Rich and I finished our work quickly, but Roman wanted to stay and finish his work so Rich and I drove off into the Maltese landscape. With Rich as my navigator I took off up the hills towards a town where the JAT Airways office is (don’t ask…well, yeah, I have to fly a model to Belgrade and needed to buy the ticket…JAT still does not have e-ticket ability!) We found the city but the oddest thing is that I parked the car in the main square so I could find the JAT office by foot and guess what? I parked right in front of the bloody office! LOL! We went through a store, then up some stair and into the office where the JAT woman only accepted cash payment so I ran to the ATM, got the money and finished the transaction…back in the car and on the road to a nice beach!

Ok, so this is going to sound really odd, but hey, I am human and also a strange person! For the LONGEST time I have always wanted to go to “Popeye Village” in Malta (http://www.popeyemalta.com). I knew if I ever went to Malta I would go to Popeye Village but since we did not have much time and I did do my homework in advance I thought my dream would never come true…… But then a sign appeared! A sign on the side of a random road on our way to the beach that said…..POPEYE VILLAGE 5 KM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH! Rich flipped a nut at me and said no “no way!” But I insisted and we went…wooo hooo! After a quick romp at the village we went to hop in the water. After about 1 hour splashing around we had to head back to get our laundry and then to see the beautiful for city of Valetta, the capital, before returning to the ship.

After picking up our freshly cleaned and folded clothes we headed to Valetta that totally reminded me of Beirut! We walked around a bit and then drove back to the port where we found the gay bar! We stopped in and talked to the bartender that gave us great info regarding coming back to film my “Malta” movie!!! Oh yeah! After dropping off the car in front of the ship rich went off to sleep and I went to the back deck again for a really cool 70’s party!