-Twenty two things that happened

-hopped out of bed
-hopped on a plane

-sat on the run way for an hour before we took off
-sat on a chair and took still photo's of me for the opening titles of the show

-hopped back into a cab and then back on a plane and then off again
-hopped in my car and headed straight up north

-got out of my car and into the lake
-got out of the lake and onto the dock

-had a nice cold beer
-had a chance to cool down and chill out a bit

-got a whiff of the steaks on the BBQ
-got another beer to drink

-hopped into my canoe so I could paddle out to see the sunset
-hopped out of the boat,onto the dock,up to the deck for a latenight steak dinner

-got invited by Marty at the cottage next to us,to go out for a late night cruise
-got a bottle of wine and away I went

-twenty five foot pontoon boats are great to cruise the lake on
-twenty five foot pontoon boats cost about twenty five thousand dollars

-sixteen foot canoes remind me of being young and at camp for the summer
-sixteen foot canoes cost alot less than twenty five thousand dollars

-I like my canoe
-I like being at the cottage

St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream.

I know,I know,it's been a week since my last post and I appreciate all the emails reminding me that I need to update my blog and let you guys know about what has been going on lately.

I just read my last post because I almost didn't believe it's been a week since I have been here and while I was reading, I have to admit that I kind of had to laugh at myself.I'm sitting here sucken back a bottle of red which is exactly what I was doing while making my last post. It's not like I drink all the time now,but it does seem to allow me to type faster.

That's not true but who cares,at least I am kickin back for the night and spending some time here with all you guys. Now where should I start.How do I catch you guys up on the last week of my life.

The weekend seems like it was so long ago that I can barely remember what happened and on Monday night I was half baked enough not to remember to much about the beginning of the week either. No that's also not true!

Monday night I ended up getting tickets to go see The Counting Crows and I learned something about myself. Although this is one of my favourite bands, I passed on an opportunity to go back stage and meet the band after the show so that I could go hang out on the lawn under the stars and just enjoy myself listening to the music.

I ended up having to go up to the lawn by myself but it was pretty cool and I'm glad I did.I guess I will never be some dude who is willing to sacrifice something real so that I can pretend to be all cool and act like I was hanging out back stage and hanging out with rockstars and stuff.

Maybe that's what happens to people like me who have taken the long,bumpy,shit ass road to a place where they finally catch some lucky breaks and get on a little bit of a roll.Or maybe it was just nice to hang out by myself amongst a bunch of strangers all having a great time on a nice summer night!

Or maybe I'm starting to get a bit loaded here and I should pack it in before I get all philasophical instead of just telling you guys what I have been up to lately. Or,maybe I have simply been buried in my edit suite for the last three days and haven't done anything interesting enough to talk about.

I did go and see Clerks 2 last night.It wasn't bad! I'm not sure what I expected but dude was funny in it! Anyways,I am going to go watch some tv for a few minutes and then I gotta crash and get to the airport first thing in the morning.

Did you guys know that good entertainment lawyers charge over $400 an hour?

Have a great night everyone and a nice weekend as well in case I don't get back on here for a few more days.Hopefully I will get up to the cottage this weekend but that is still a little up in the air at this point.

Later guys. Any interesting websites I should be checking out these days?

BOTTOMS UP!

Today was a scheduled travel day/night off/return some emails to people/sleep in day after another 16+ hours of shooting that ended at around 2:00am. We shot this episode in the city of Guelph and ended up on the front page of the local newspaper today which was kind of cool!

The picture and story about us being in their city shooting this episode actaully covered most of the front page and some of page two as well so it was either a really slow news day in Quelph or they thought it was a pretty big deal that we were there. Either way, it's awesome that such a big deal was made out of us being there and I appreciate the interest from the radio stations in near by Kitchener who I ended up doing live interviews with over the coarse of the day.

Click Here to check out the front page story in the Quelph Mercury.

We are shooting episodes in chucks of three with one day off between each day of shooting and a week and a half or so off between each crazy ass chuck of the series that we shoot. It's pretty insane shooting these shows because it's all on the fly and completely unscripted. For years I have been shooting stuff on the fly like this but never with a crew of a dozen people and never for 16+ hours at a time!

I would like to think that the insanity of it all isn't affecting me to much but I don't think the kids sitting behind us in the movie theatre tonight would agree with that.

I had the night off and I just wanted to chill out so my girlfriend and I went to see Clerks 2. Turns out that it doesn't start playing until Friday so we ended up going to see the Adam Sandler movie. Ever since I met him in person and he was amazingly cool to me,I have become a much bigger fan of his. Anyways, we settled into are seats and listened to these kids talking to eachother all through the trailers and the beginning of the movie all the way up until the Lord of The Rings dude appeared on the screen. It sucks when people talk and are disrespectful to others around them in a movie theatre but usually I will turn around and quietly ask them to be quiet and then say thanks.Not this time!

When Bilbo or whatever his name is appreared on the screen, all these kids started asking eachother if it was Rudy.Anyone who has seen the movie "Rudy" which is a good one by the way knows that dude on the screen is Rudy, but these kids just didn't know for sure. Not until I turned around and pretty much screamed "yes it's Rudy,now shut up and watch the movie"!

I have never ever, ever done that before and after a couple minute I felt really bad for yelling like that. It did shut them up though and I ended up kind of liking the movie as well. Adam Sandler does a bad job at crying on screen but other than that,he made another typical Adam Sandler movie. It was kinda funny,touching and entertaining enough to say maybe you guys should go see it if you haven't. If you hate Adam Sandler movies than you probably won't like it but trust me when I tell you that in person,he is a great guy and if you ever meet him,you will probably like his movies way more.

Needless to say,the intensity of my schedule this summer might actually be affecting me a little bit. On Friday my bigshot new entertainment lawyer dude wants me to Fly to Montreal for the Just For Laughs festival. Him and everyone else in the industry are in Montreal movin and shakin and doing all the stuff that the suits in this industry do. He wants to introduce me to some people and see if he can set up some meetings with some of the Networks from the good old US of A! Just for Laughs is still the meca for the comedy side of the entertainment world and it would probably be a good idea for me to hop on a plane in the morning but I also need to get some sleep and just chill for a couple days.

I have a week and a half before I have to hit the road again to shoot three more episodes of "BE REAL with JR DIGS" and in this week and a half I need to get two new episodes of "IN THE CAN with JR DIGS" put together and delivered.The short films have already been shot but I'm still independently producing this series and pretty much working on everything by myself still which means I have a lot of editing to do over the next ten days.

I'll figure out what I'm going to do in the morning because while I have been sitting here blogging at you guys,I have been drinking some really great red wine. Before it gets too late,I think I'll pour Vic and I a couple more glass's and head down stairs to watch the last couple episodes of Entourage that I have missed.

Cheers everyone!

Two bucks and Tons of Laughs!

I have the day off today and we are shooting all three of the episodes of "BE REAL with JR DIGS" this week in Southern Ontario so I slide home for the day.

The crew and I are shacked up aboout an hour away from where I live so a large coffee and a little Madison and AlT Nation on the radio got me home in no time.I have been asked by the producers of the series not to mention in my blog which cities we are actually shooting in so that people don't think they might be able to track us down in an effort to have me make a reality television star out of them.

The entire concept of the series is based on the fact that everything that happens while we are shooting these episodes is unscripted and completely random. I begin each new episode in a different city walking down the street randomly talking and meeting people I have never met before. My plan is to find some random person and make a reality television show about a day in their life. I'm looking for someone to turn into a reality Tv Star! Once I find someone that I think you guys would want to see featured in a reality Tv show, we follow them around for the rest of the day and that's when the majic happens. It doesn't matter if their day seems boring at times,I'll make it exciting somehow, you can count on it. It's a reality Tv show,what's reality got to do with anything! I gotta make a star out of this person not to mention keeping you guys entertained each week.

We are back at it again on Monday morning and we usually keep shoooting until the wee hours of the morning. Last night after we rapped the crew and I went for something to eat and a few of us had a couple beers. A couple people had more than a few and ended up in a power wash coin operated car wash at 3:00am getting hosed down and waxed with the pressure hose!

Ok, so I was the guy with his finger on the trigger and was lambasting one of the camera guys with the pressure wash and wax but Shane "the Newf" who is one of the grips on the crew was also in on tricking this unnamed camera guy into the bay at the car wash.

According to "Newf" it was the best $2 he has ever spent!

Big things are brewing....

This afternoon I met with all the folks in charge of brewing and selling you guys all the beer you have been drinking this summer and it sounds like there is something really big brewing for your old pal Digs this fall guys.Stay tuned....

I think that tonight we might go sit on the patio at KOI in Hess village and have some dinner.They always treat me great there and it's a nice street side patio.It will have to be an early night because I have to be up early on Saturday morning to hit the road again for another week.I managed to get Steve hired on the production to join me and the crew on the road shooting tons of footage for the new website I was telling you guys about for the series.Steve in case you don't know is my volunteer camera guy who shoots all the behind the scenes stuff for "IN THE CAN with JR DIGS"

When I got home a little while ago,I found out that there has been a screw up at the network with regards to tonights episode. The much anticipated "Teen Wolf 3" short film by my buddy Shane Cunningham will not be aired tonight.

Turns out that for some reason the episode was put into the system and scheduled to air this weekend but not for tonight but on Sunday night on MenTV. Maybe this is some twisted ploy to get more people watching MenTV Sunday nights,I don't know but this sucks and there isn't anything I can do about it! The episode will be aired again next Friday night Nationally on CH!

What really sucks is that last Friday nights episode which was part 1 of this "Teen Wolf" two parter pulled better ratings than we have had all spring and summer so far.Tons of people watched the show and have been looking forward to seeing part 2 and the movie! Now people have to wait another entire week!

If any of you haven't seen part 1,it is being aired again in Ontario on CH at 12:30am on Saturday night.Check it out and make sure to tune in next Friday night to see Shanes latest movie. I'm not too sure what episode has been scheduled to air tonight and at this point,I don't even care.It's not "Teen Wolf 3" and that's the episode I delivered this week.

And so the saga continues....

Home Sweet Home!

It's nice to be home for a few days before I head back on the road for another week shooting more episodes of "BE REAL with JR DIGS".

I haven't really talked all that much about the first three episodes we shot mostly because a new website is being created for the show that will include blogs by everyone on the crew.I have a dozen people on the crew with me shooting the series this summer. They are all super cool and I think it will be interesting for viewers of the show to read their blogs and get to know them all better as each one of us talk about each new episode and what happened while shooting it,in the days leading up to the episode airing.

Now it's time for me to go watch the episodes of Entourage that I missed seeing over the last couple weeks before I crash for the night.It's nice to be home! It's nice to be able to take my dog for a walk in the morning and to wake up to my girlfriend making way to much noise as she get's ready for work half pissed that I don't have to get up as early as she does.

Later guys.

BIG FUZZY HATS

I woke up at around 9:30am this morning to the sound of a marching band. I quick put a ball cap on, went down stairs to grab a coffee and followed the big fuzzy hat guys and the pipers up to parliament hill to see where it was exactly they were going.

Apparently this changing of the guard ritual happens every single morning.On Friday morning when I came out of my hotel on my way to the production office to meet up with the crew to go shoot are first episode,almost on cue,this same marching band went rolling on by. I just stood there and took it all in and I guess I was hoping it had all been set up just for me as some sort of welcome to the awesome world of big budget network television.

As I have quickly come to realize,the marching band wasn't sent to play for me at all and after another sixteen and a half hour day of shooting,it's clear that all this network television stuff is going to be a lot of work!
It looks as though I will have most of today to myself to relax and maybe even be a bit of a tourist here in Ottawa before we pack up and hit the road again on Tuesday morning to shoot are third episode of "BE REAL with JR DIGS"

We will be shooting a total of thirteen episodes over the next couple of months and it sounds like the series will be on the air by the middle of September.

How weird is this...

I just got back from spending the afternoon with the stylist that was hired to take me shopping for new cloths to wear while shooting this new series. Apparently my wardrobe which mostly consist of stuff I have been wearing for the last few years is getting out of date and I needed to find some new stuff to wear for the show.

I guess it's a good idea to buy some new cloths once in a while but my closets are full of stuff I still have from when I use to own my own skate shops.I haven't bought anything new to wear in years.I like all my old cloths and it's not like the piles of cloths I have are filled with holes or anything like that.

I had a good time this afternoon though.Jennifer was very cool and it was hilarious to go from store to store with an actual stylist who has been hired to help me shop.We went into le chateau and one of the dudes working there knew who I was. We ended up buying a couple of shirts there but not before the dude pitched me on four or five idea's he had for my show. I think I even heard Jennifer laughing as the dude continued pitching me idea's as I was changing in the change room. After four hours of shopping I left Jennifer to finish buying some other stuff she wanted to get. As hilarious,as weird and as much fun as it was to hang out with her for the afternoon,I had to get back here to my hotel and have a beer on the street side patio and relax.

We finished shooting at around 2:00am which made for a sixteen hour day and we are back at it again on Sunday. They have me shacked up here in a swanky downtown Ottawa hotel and I'll probably stay in tonight and enjoy the good life. I need to be well rested and recharged before Sunday morning when we head out to shoot are second episode for the series.

The production company and producer of this series is based here in Ottawa so we planned to shoot the first episode right here in Ottawa. Sunday we are traveling to a little tourist town a couple hours away and I'm not sure where we are shooting the third episode on Tuesday but it will be within driving distance from Ottawa.

The next three episodes will be shot in a different region of the country but I don't think that has been determined as of yet. On Wednesday I fly back to Toronto and will be spending the rest of the week shooting yet another short film for In The Can with JR DIGS and then on Saturday I will be flying out again to shoot three more episodes of "Be Real with JR DIGS".

Lot of stop happening "with JR DIGS" these days hey guys. Keep spreading the word and I'll touch base with you guys again soon.

The movie of my life...

I was sitting directly in line with the wing of the plane,looking out the window when a sort of movie started playing in my head. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep over the last couple of days but as the plane took off, my head filled up with all these images and the movie of my life started playing in my brain.

The opening titles swooped in as "a new beginning" or something like that as the wing tilted and we shot up into the sky. Down below was what seemed like a lifetime of memories and five years of getting to where I am now with a shot at starting all over again.The sky was clear and perfect as the sunshine glimmered off the shiny silver wing but it didn't last long. Soon the wing was cutting into some puffy white clouds and before the next scene played out in my head, the white wisky clouds turned a touch grey. Seconds later everything turned almost black,you couldn't see a thing as this movie in my head became clearer than ever.

Things will probably never be easy on this trek I am on. If the last five years have taught me anything,its that I should start getting use to the ups and downs of the entertainment industry and expect way more downs than ups. As the plane rose above the clouds, I put my shuffle on and listened to some music that my sister had loaded into it for me. As the music started playing, we transitioned in and out of happy feeling puffy white clouds to even darker clouds than before where you couldn't see a thing.I'm not sure who it was I was listening to at one point but it was perfect sound track music.

I guess I was pretty much asleep when the air waitress tapped my shoulder and told me to take out my earphones.I was back to reality and ready to get this new chapter of my life rolling. The movie of my life was over in my head and it was time to start living it. I'm definitely on a roll these days and things are looking better than they ever have before.The sky is clear,the opening music is kicking and it feels like I am on my way.That being said,I know that sometime down the road,things will more than likey get tough again and I will need to keep hangin in there. On the other side of every dark patch there will be another clear spot.The clear spot will turn to white puffy clouds and there might be more dark clouds after that and that's just the way it is I guess. All I know for sure is that most of those dark clouds are behind me right know and it's smooth sailing as far as I can see so for now I'm just going to enjoy the ride and see where it takes me.

Glad to have you guys tagging along with me.

Crunch Time....

What up?

We have been Slam Jammin away here since 8:30am Tuesday morning trying to get a couple new episodes put together so that I can deliver them both to the Network before I take off on Thursday.This weeks show has to be delivered by noon on Wednesday and I won't be around to deliver next weeks episode so I have to have it delivered before I Fly out on Thursday morning.

I got a hair cut Tuesday afternoon which is about the only break I have taken since we started cutting these shows Tuesday morning. Aaron has been a total trooper to hang in here with me in the edit suite and Steve stopped by to pitch in and get the website updated before I take off.

These two guys are the best. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the sacrifices they have been making over the last while to help me keep things rolling around here. The dream is still alive in a large part to Aaron and Steve. All the behind the scenes footage you see each week in the episodes is shot by Steve but I had no idea he could figure out how to update my website which has been dead and out of date ever since my web guy fell off the face of the earth a few months ago!

One of the cool things that I hope will happen now that I am all hooked up at the network is that I will eventually get some network money and budgets to work with on future projects. Finally I will have the opportunity to take care of guys like Steve and Aaron who have stuck with me and have been so very loyal and supportive.

I doubt that I will have any extra wads of cash kicking around for you guys in the next couple of months but now that Steve is cleaning up my site and my computer,I suspect I won't keep losing emails that have been sent to. If I haven't returned your email over the last few weeks it's because I keep losing emails.It's tough to bounce an email back to someone after you put it in a folder and two hours later it's not there any more. I hate computers almost as much as I hate typing away on this crappy key board.

I should get back to work anyways.Later.

My LOngWeekend with a NiNJa!

I hope everyone is having a great long weekend and had a happy fun filled Canada Day.

I would love to say that I am on my laptop right now blogging at you from the dock at the cottage but I wasn't able to get up north this weekend. On Friday I was sent the shooting schedule for this new series the Network has given me. It's my first Network deal and although it took me five years to get it, everything is now happening at hyper speed.Production of the series is kicking into gear immediately and this Thursday I'm off to are first location to shoot the first episode. The crew and I will be hoping from one city to the next for an entire week before I get to Fly home for a couple of days to get back to shooting another short film for "iN tHe Can" with JR DIGS which will rap up at the end of this summer.

The production schedule for this new TvTropolis series will eat up most of my summer so I had no choice but to spend this long weekend getting another new short film shot and in the can! It would have been nice to be at the cottage and have one last long weekend off before the madness sets in this summer but what are you going to do. The short film I shot with Winston Hacking over the last couple days turned out really good and I think it will be pretty funny. The film is called "Suburban Ninja" and as soon as I get enough time to edit the behind the scenes stuff for the episode,I will get it on the air. Looks like I will have five or six new episodes in a row for you guys to see this summer.Most of them have already been delivered to the network in an effort to keep things on track as I bop around the Country shooting this new Network series that is scheduled to go on the air in September sometime.

When Global decided to create this new station called TVTropolis, they also decided that a few original series needed to be produced which is how this all came about. There are alot of new people in charge at Global now which ended up being a really really reallllly good thing for me because they seem to get the potential of what I have been doing on Tv for the last bunch of years. A few months after the big shake up a Global I was called in to meet some people,a few weeks later I was hooked up with an amazing producer the network wanted to work with and now here I am. Working my ass off on a Holiday monday and planning out the next couple days of my life before I take off on a brand new adventure later this week.

I'm glad you guys are coming along for the ride.