Don't mind me. I just live and work here.

The series 3 of the Umbrella Academy that Netflix promised me for my birthday isn't there yet, but the page still says it is coming today. 

Luckily yesterday gave me another Netflix story. One of their shows was filming at Abbey Mills. Mick the site manager has told me that it was something called Treason. The cast and crew are listed on IMDB at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16450274/fullcredits/ in case anyone is interested. 

I went and had a gander when they were setting up. I had no idea filming was so elaborate a business. I saw a lorry forklift crane, a cherry picker, a huge generator truck etc. all round the site.

When I went back later for more nosey parkering, I was astonished to find that all they seemed to be doing was filming a scene in the MED Cafe adjacent to the William Morris, and that all these gigantic external rigs and the scores of technicians seemed to be concerned with little else other than getting the lighting right inside it. Part of the pub seemed to be converted into the actors wardrobe, there were loads and loads of people milling about. I was amazed.

It certainly gave me a new respect for what Simon Crane (Ollie's brother) does for a living. If it took all this palaver just to film a few actors in character having a chat over a cappuccino, imagine what is involved in helming an action scene in a huge Hollywood movie.

It makes me start to wonder if real workaday human beans such as myself are being reduced to extras as the whole world is becoming a film set. Take this from outside Phil and Rachel's in Cardiff earlier this month

Finite to fail, but Infinite to venture.

Gunfire and car stunts filmed on Newport Road for Mark Wahlberg's movie. The road was closed from midnight on Sunday until early this morning for "gunfire, police cars in a ram raid and an Aston Martin sports car flipping over the central reservation."

Simon Crane, who I met a couple of months ago, is the second unit director on Antoine Fuqua’s ‘Infinite’ so it will have been him behind the megaphone in Cardiff for the last couple of days.

Nigel Tufnel: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know .....
Myself: Coincidence? None dare call it a conspiracy......

tell me if I am repeating myself

As two evil sisters prepare to conquer the land; two renegades - Eric the Huntsman - who previously aided Snow White in defeating Ravenna, and his forbidden lover, Sara set out to stop them. In this April 8 release, second unit director Simon Crane (Icons passim) takes care of the action scenes. He certainly gets some interesting gigs.

The undiscovered country from whose Bourne. Geddit!?

The world and his wife got a first look at the new Jason Bourne movie during the Super Bowl. Second unit director Simon Crane (Icons passim) takes care of the action scenes. He certainly gets some interesting gigs.

I’ve read you had a struggle with booze and all that.

ANTHONY HOPKINS TALKS TO BRAD PITT ABOUT MOVIES, MORTALITY, AND MISTAKES

I have been laughing to myself about my great fortune in meeting both Simon Crane (Brad Pitt's pal) and Peter Gill (ditto Anthony Hopkins) in the same three month period. Further chuckling about the idea that the Cardiff-born bard of working class love and loss, and Hollywood's go-to action maestro are nominally in the same business.

Any road, Tony H and Brad P talking to each other (Photography Buck Ellison, Stylist Mel Ottenberg) in Interview magazine gives me a chance to share it and for us to enjoy it together.

The Voice in my head

The New Ninja Bomber, having come over all poorly, had to be collected yesterday lunchtime, so I decided to work from home for the afternoon while he convalesced.

On presenting myself at the school office to pick him up I was astonished when the lady working there outed herself as a reader of this blog. She initially stumbled upon it while googling "Surrey Strings" and coming across my references.

"I hope you won't feel that I'm stalking you", she said before broaching the topic, which seems like a strange thing to say but is exactly what I felt after learning so much about Simon Crane from the Internet Movie DataBase after his sister mentioned him in passing. (I remember feeling that I might appear to be some sort of freak if I started demonstrating an encyclopedic knowledge of his career to members of his family even if all it took was two minutes on the internet to acquire the information.)

It seems like these scribblings inexorably become more and more significant a part of the face that I present to the world. There are strange and new privacy barriers to be negotiated. Interesting but not a little scary.

Uncle Simon is your brother?!

Five Latest Angelina Jolie Stories That Are Fake News

3. This week, NW claimed Jolie was developing a romance with a 20-something “boy toy.” The publication identified the purported beau as Oscar Crane, who worked on both By The Sea and First They Killed My Daughter. That professional relationship had now “progressed to a much more personal level,” the tabloid alleged, suggesting a “romance could soon be [in] the cards.” But the tabloid showed it was clueless by featuring a picture not of Oscar, but his brother Oliver. The siblings, along with their father, are longtime family friends of Jolie, Gossip Cop learned. That was just part of key information that was missing from the error-filled article. Jolie has a working relationship and family-focused friendship with the Cranes, not one that has anything to do with her love life.

Ollie - Oscar and Oliver's aunt - told me about this last night. Eleven and a half years on from "you mean Uncle Simon is your brother?!" A gift that keeps on giving.