I realized I’ve never told the story on my blog about the coolest thing that happened this summer. It was a great summer – 2 lovely weddings, the video launch, San Diego trip, Matt’s renewed famousness…but the absolute most unexpected thing was our trip to Skywalker Ranch to visit with Rick McCallum, the producer of Star Wars. The Ranch is gorgeous and we did meet George, briefly.
The highlight was watching the video in their private screening room. Holy Moly.
This is us, in front of Ewok Lake, bored.
Matt is making an ad for Visa and I am his companion for the next 17 days through Asia. We plan to go to Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Vietnam, Bali. We were going to go to Ankor Wat but apparently Cambodia is too dangerous right now.
I met up with Matt in LA around 9:30pm and although I hadn’t slept much the night before (so excited!) I really wanted to see the sites in LA. Matt had rented a convertible and a GPS so we decided to go for a road trip.
In just 3 short hours we went from the airport out to Santa Monica Pier, up to Malibu, across the hills of Northern LA to what we thought was Mulholland Drive (turns out it was a dirt road with a nice view of the valley), back to the real Mulholland Drive, then through the city hitting Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westwood, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd and then to the hotel.
The flight to Tokyo the next day was different from any flight I’ve ever taken. Since this trip is being paid for and scheduled by someone else we are flying First Class directly from Seattle to Tokyo.
We watched the stock market crash while eating breakfast in the first class lounge before boarding the flight.
Kenny G sat in front of us on the flight. The Director of Photography for the project was flying with us and started chatting with him before he knew who he was. He happened to mentioned that Matt was famous and KG turned around and said,
“You’re famous?”
Matt was busy unloading his supplies for the long flight.
He turned around, “Hi…aren’t you Kenny G?”
“Yes I am. Who are you?”
“Well, I made this video on the internet. It got popular. I’m dancing in all these countries and…”
“That’s you???”
Kenny G loves the video. He’s also incredibly nice.
This is what our seats looked like:
It is a very good way to do a 12 hour flight. Sleeper seats, tons of room, great food. I could get used to this.
It was early evening when we arrived in Tokyo. We were greeted by about 12 people from the production company and the ad agency. Met the Director, Producers, etc. 2 hr drive to the city in bad traffic plus a collision with a taxi cab meant that we were totally exhausted by the time we arrived at the super swanky hotel. Fell asleep at 7pm which meant waking up at 5am.
Oh jetlag, you sure are fun.
Saw the sun rise over Tokyo.
Since we had a couple hrs before our call we hopped on the train and went Shinjuku, the skyscraper district, to wander around.
The fashion in Japan is amazing, even on Sunday.
Style is a BIG thing and everyone is wearing short shorts/skirts, tall boots and furry hats. Every dog has an outfit too.
The shoot was pretty disorganized.
We went to Harajuku – an area known for crazy outfits and big crowds. It was a lot of standing around before they decided to give us 2 hours off while they found the location they wanted. No problem!
We wandered around, looked at the shops, got some lunch and explored Yoyogi park. Matt showed me where the amateur rockbands perform in the park and the place he danced with the crowd in Tokyo for the video.
After that we did the shoot - Matt dancing in front of a big crowd. They hired a couple of girls to dance with him.
We weren’t really sure if the guy in the middle was the manager or dad.
There was some confusion about the next shot so more standing around until we changed location to Shibuya. Then they sent us on our way for 3 hrs. Shibuya is a bright, loud shopping area known for giant stores (electronics, toys, clothes, crafts, etc) and a HUGE crosswalk.
I’m beginning to realize that eating in Asia is tough for me. I’m allergic to shellfish and they put it in everything without telling you. They use baby shrimp as a condiment.
Few restaurants have English menus and few waiters speak English. No accidents yet but I’m carrying my epi-pen with me everywhere just in case.
This is was the Shibuya shot - look familiar?
This is one of the producers talking to Matt. This is all you need to know about Mel.
As soon as Matt was dancing people started recognizing him.
“Hey, it’s Matt!”
“That’s the dancing guy from the video!”
“Can I take a picture with you?”
There was even a guy Matt used to work with at Pandemic in Australia who happened to be crossing during one of the takes.
I think the famousness surprised the crew.
After the shoot the jetlag was hitting us again so when the rest of the crew went out, Matt had some drinks at the hotel with Daisuke (a friend he met when he did the Japan show) and I went to bed.
The next morning we were greeted by the very hung over crew and we all flew to Singapore. Since we couldn’t get visas for India in time they are going to Dehli for a couple days while we go strait to Shanghai to wait for them.
What exhasting excitement! Miss you and love you.
Posted by: Ed | October 17, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I guess we just have to count on you to update us on where the hell is your matt.
and by the way... is that a RING???
:)
Luchy
Posted by: Luchy | October 22, 2008 at 08:47 AM