long distance move

Last weekend we helped our fabulous friends, Shannon and Dave move. They have a fabulous baby boy named Niko who sometimes likes to dress up like Elivs.

He is such a trooper what with all the hiking, traveling, dressing up, partying, moving, etc... really. great. kid. And he really digs me.

His dad, Dave and Mark carried most of the big/heavy stuff the looooonnnggg way from the top of the street where they were living in an apartment building that is scheduled to be demolished this Spring, to just below the top of the street where they now live in a fabulous house with only one set of neighbors who also happen to be their fabulous, San Francisco-throwback-hippie- type landlords.

There is a good sized yard where there were chickens until, sadly, the fox got them a few weeks before the move. Perhaps again in the future. They have a fabulous wood stove that has the cutest little warming drawer for the bread Shannon will be baking. And light! Lots of windows and lots of light!

Mark, ever the Eagle Scout, made a fabulous fire that we enjoyed for most of the evening while we drank v. difficult-to-open Prosecco, (thankfully no one lost an eye, though the men did complain of sore palms and biceps - note to self: buy them one of those sissy flappy-wing-type openers so this does not happen again when I am v. thirsty...) and lots of red wine along with a fabulous 'thrown together' meal of wheat pasta with black olives and sundried tomatoes, fresh parmesan cheese and olive oil. (This is after hours of snacking on cheese, nuts and dried fruits).

I had to laugh and ran and got the camera as Dave and Mark carried Niko's fully made and ready-to-nap-in crib from point A to point B. I don't think anyone counted the steps from point A to point B, but I'd venture to guess that is less than 50.

The only thing cuter than the boys and the crib was what I failed to get a photo of or even witness personally (as I was not there to help then): Shannon, with Niko strapped to her front, loaded down with bags and boxes, trying not to smash the baby going from point A to point B. I think Niko will appreciate his new digs even more as he helped move.

Here's to lots more fabulous times by the fire at Niko's place.

p.s. I know I said (wrote) fabulous 8 (9) times.

drum roll please ...

The film I (not alone, I assure you ...) produced and starred in, Straight Forward was picked up for distribution by Echelon Studios and the trailer can now be seen at several sites including YouTube.com, Spike.com and IMDB.com, MySpace, BullitFilm and photobucket.

Please go to one or all sites and watch and vote/rate/comment if you would ... the more traffic we get, the more interest from other sales outlets and the faster we will be able to pay the people who worked on the film for free and the few brave souls that invested (thank you mom and thank you dad!)

I'll be sure to let everyone know when they can add it to their Netflix cue!

Thank you for your support!

A v. Zurich Thanksgiving

We had the most fabulous Thanksgiving here in Zurich. Upstairs neighbors and friends, Sarah and Lukas co-hosted an 'upstairs/downstairs' party with us on Thursday night.

Our friends (below) Shannon and Dave and baby Niko (sleeping) and James (right) sans his fabulous bride, Lorna - who was working - were our guests and Sarah and Lukas had Gregory (a dance teacher) and Suzie (singer/teacher) from the school where Sarah teaches as well as Elizabeth (conductor/singer/music teacher) and a lovely guy from PEI who works at the University with Lukas. (There goes that memory again ... )

It didn't take long for the men to all realize they have a common love/thread/vocation/job/knowledge - science and math .... (I stayed far away) They are all now planning on having a boys night out and we women are thrilled as they all work too much and need it. Gregory stayed with the women during this time as he is well-versed in musical theatre and we needed someone to sing the male parts of all the songs we kept thinking of ...

We had appetizers at our place downstairs - leek and celeriac soup, cheese, fruits, nuts and bread with Prosecco and wine - then headed upstairs to their place for the main meal at their giant dining room table where we proceeded to stuff ourselves all the traditional American goodness, the we rolled ourselves back downstairs for homemade pumpkin pie and apple tart, coffee, tea and for some, more wine!

Sarah and I had a blast decorating and cooking all day. I was v. thankful that Sarah wanted to use my Grandmother's cherished Currier and Ives dishes as well as the napkins and runners I had made for our wedding. It's great to pull that stuff out and spend a few moments with the great memories they evoke. I made evergreen boughs and bought some fresh Mistletoe, which I don't know that I have ever seen in this pure, beautiful form.

Mark has been dubbed 'supreme turkey carver and gravy maker', a talent I had already witnessed in the states, but one which I was still impressed with this time around and was even more proud as he garnered an audience as he carved.

Sarah ordered 2 6kg organic, fresh turkeys and while that sounded like a good idea at the time, I think next time we may go smaller or fewer ... though they were delicious and it was actually quite fun creating our own new way of stuffing, seasoning and sewing them up.

We had my favorite meal of Thanksgiving sandwiches (soft bread, full-fat mayo, white meat turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and salt and pepper - Mark actually asked as I was making mine if I wanted lettuce!!@#$%^%$ silly boy .... lettuce?) * Friday and the next day (I caught Mark making a sneaky sandwich of ham and cheese ... he pleaded that he needed a turkey break) and we still had a giant pile of meat in the fridge so I found a great recipe for turkey frame soup with wheat pasta and made that yesterday.

*which leads me to the fact that Sarah asked about making a salad for Thanksgiving and while I would never begrudge anyone their salad and I even have been known to love the stuff myself, I have a rule about no salad on Thanksgiving .... I mean where would you put it? Both on the table and on one's plate and even in one's belly for that matter ... Why waste that prime stuffing belly space with healthy lettuce? I guess because we never had it growing up on Thanksgiving it's become a tradition that I now espouse and one which I can't see myself straying from anytime soon ....

Sarah came down and ate said soup with us last night and we also polished off the remnants of the pie and tart. But there was still soup left ... so guess what I just ate for lunch.?! ... yup. But that is IT - I am officially turkey-ed out.

(Suzie (L) Elizabeth (C) and Gregory (R)

i see (more) dead people

So, for the 1st time EVER, I am not making my Halloween costume this year.

After some discussion, a few not-so-great ideas (middle-aged Barbie and Ken, Jim and Tammy-Faye Bakker, Gilligan and Ginger - again ...) and what I know was (is) my sweet husband's attempt at curtailing, containing and completely stopping (good luck with that ...) my making things and leaving what I like to call 'creative clutter' all over the apartment, we went to a costume shop not too far from our apartment to check out some other options ...

I'm not telling exactly what we ended up with, though I do promise photos after the party ... here are a few pix to sate you in the mean time .. notice Elvis' tie and my swell rubber rain boots!
We had fun playing dress up - (don't fret, neither of us donned anything risque or potentially embarrassing to any of the other shop's customers)

I left the final decision to M., as I was (am?) still a bit uneasy about paying to rent a costume - but know that it made (makes) him less stressed in the end, and that - of course - makes the hausfrau less stressed as well!

As we walked back to the bus stop, we realized it was v. near a new favorite place of ours (though I try to avoid it, as nothing there is on the current 'healthy/cleansing' diet ...). The Pie Shop is adorable and yummy. A true British fix right in Zurich. I took my mom when she was here and Mark and I have gone a few times for their Ploughman's Lunch.

Last night for the first time, they were not sold out of Shepherd's Pie and that made M. v. happy, which - of course - made me happy ... (see, I'm learning how this whole marriage thing works ...) so we got the grosse (large) one - still tiny compared to US standards - darn, I should have taken a photo ... it's about the size of a tiny UNO's personal pizza - like 5" I think - anyway ... we couldn't leave without getting some of their yummy chocolate chip cookies as well. Choc. chip cookies are not easy to find here and these are the flat, chewy, made with Crisco kind of cookies (I think) .. and that purchase actually made my husband SMILE! yes!

Next time I promise to take pix. Needless to say, it was a happy night full of pie, cookies, salad (for me...) the season 2 finale of Mad Men, me finishing knitting my shawl - finally made something for me!) and getting to sleep before midnight ... lovely.

dead celebrity mannequins and more broken glass

While running errands with my fabulous upstairs neighbor, Sarah for her upcoming show - (she is a modern dancer from Canada who studied in NYC for years and she is performing with a opera singer in a show they've created about strong women characters through music and dance - it's really great) - I came upon a men's clothing store with these familiar-looking mannequins:

It made me sad, as it was just days after Paul Newman died and it was unmistakeably him ... but it wasn't as though the mannequin makers suddenly made this to honor his passing, I mean they must have had this for years ... and what about Luciano Pavarotti? He died in 2007 and here he is, as robust and big-bellied as ever, smiling and ready to sing. Next to Pavarotti was a mannequin that looked like Gerard Depardieu, and he's still alive, so there went my theory that this was a tribute window ... It was really odd. I mean, someone went to a lot of trouble and effort to create these characters and use them in this non-chain men's clothing store. There were no signs or labels or anything ... just Paul, Luciano, Gerard and some guy we could not identify (maybe I'll try to find the store again and take a photo of the other mannequin in hopes that one of my astute readers might be able to identify him ...)

And as for the broken glass, I guess I'll share the photos, though they are far from thrilling ... (on the left - the remnants of a sexy-looking memo and magnetic board for the kitchen - it matched the stainless steel and was not from the BrockiHaus so not really cheap, per se ... and it fell off the small counter it was leaning on after only one day! All I ever got to write on it was, "Welcome home, handsome!" Guess that's better than a grocery list ... on the right was a little IKEA lamp I got for the second guest room when my mom was here. Not really enough to be a reading lamp, but just enough to illuminate your way to and from the loo without the overhead lights on ... because we use my laptop as a tv to watch shows from itunes, etc... I constantly have to unplug my speakers and camera and microphone from my 'office' where I try to work during the day and schlep the power cord and laptop to the guest bedroom where we currently reside until we figure out what kind of bed we'd like in our room that still only serves as a dressing/ironing/dirty laundry room - needless to say - in my haste one day to get the 'media system' set up for us to watch the latest episode of MadMen, I tripped on the cord to the 15CHF lamp and shattered it. Brilliant.)

I keep telling myself to be happy that they were not mirrors ... but really - 3 big (well, one really big, one medium and one small) glass breaks in a matter of a month? Does that add up to a mirror? I hope not. ... All I know is that I am not buying anything breakable anytime soon and if I do, it is being hung correctly immediately ....

Lastly - I am putting the finishing touches on my new website and blog, which will be www.kristenvermilyea.com. This blog will forward to it when it's ready, not to worry ...

6 days, 16 films

I spent much of last week watching films at the 4th Zurich Film Festival. I was fortunate to receive 'industry accreditation' so I got a pass (which I still had to pay for, though not as much as I would have had I not claimed to have been an actress, writer, producer, former film festival chair, lion tamer, fake tanner, fledgling cartographer and inventor of the Internet.

This is the list of films I watched: (the entire list can be found here) (Also - I'm only making a few comments here but that is really not enough ... if you are interested in hearing more, please send me a note and I'll tell all ... or perhaps I'll make my friend Matthew Newton, over at CinemaGoulash review them all...)

Brides of Allah - Doc - well done, about women who are now in prison for having attempted to be or have been involved with suicide bombing...scary stuff
My Life Inside - Doc - well-presented and heart-breaking story... not only about someone accused of a crime, but the larger story of how much of a fair trial can a poor Mexican get in a rich, white Texas town? - made me want to be a law student and work on the case, kind of..
Blindness - feature - interesting concept, but I would not encourage anyone to run out to the theatres and see it (stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo)
Mr. Rakowski - Doc - lots of moving stuff, but can seem a bit as though the son funded this film as therapy to attempt to connect with his distant father and at times feels as though the audience is being manipulated
The Art Star and The Sudanese Twins - Doc - heavy and entertaining on many levels - worth seeing if only to witness the narcissism of the lead character juxtaposed with her apparent desire to help others ... hard to explain - would need to talk about this one ...
Kurtzfilmprogramm Sam Spiegel School (short films from the Sam Spiegel Film School in Israel) - really fabulous series of shorts from Israel.
Boy of Pigs - feature - interesting concept - well-cast, acted and shot. Good script. I think it's worth seeing - many aspects have been done/seen previously, but the combination of story lines works. Met the writer, the producer and director at fest - all 1st timers and it's really a cinderella story of how they made the film ... or at least that's what they are telling us .. I am terribly envious of Gretchen Mol who gets to play a dream part ...
Dunya & Desie - feature - cute girl road trip film - well-done and acted. Based on a popular TV series
Blood Appears (left about 45 mins through) - I didn't get it and didn't really want to
Sweet Mud - feature - autobiographical - about young boy growing up on a Kibbutz in Israel. Many lovely moments and well-worth watching.
Sell Out! - feature - I loved this despite the crazy and oft-times all over the place story line and need for editing ... totally unlike anything you've ever seen - I still have some of the songs in my head and people were quoting from the film around the festival tent - in an 'Office Space' kind of way ...sort of
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - Doc. - well-done and interesting - learned things I had not known about the director and the case brought against him
A Thousand Oceans- feature - interesting concept about death and after death experiences, but a bit too 'film-school-like' for me. Needed to go farther and be much, much edgier
The Man Who Loved Ynvge - feature - I loved this one too - for many reasons, one of the main ones being the soundtrack - all my favorite 80's tunes - I was rockin' out in the packed theater both times. Great story and v. well acted.
The Hurt Locker - feature - v. good war epic from a new perspective. worth seeing
The Wackness - feature - worth seeing if only for Ben Kingsley's not-typical-for-him-to-play-character ... v. amusing

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I went to a party one night and met Stephen Nemeth almost as soon as I walked in the door, "This is great ice!" I heard him say to the bartender. I had to agree. Crushed, but not to a mush, to a v. small cube ... perfect. Then we began to talk about how ice in Europe is harder to come by than in the states and that was followed by an inquisition by him of me regarding my 'pedigree'. When I told him I was from NH, he asked, "Do you know Paul Hodes?" Well of course I know Paul. Doesn't everyone? But truly - I had the pleasure of knowing him before he was a 'big shot' politician. We used to have lunch every year or so when I was home from NYC and visiting NH. My film business partners and I even consulted with him on a few film projects - needless to say, it was a v. odd but v. cool coincidence.

Turns out that Mr. Nemeth is a fan of NH. He knows Governor Lynch and Paul and is up on all the latest with the state. He is also v. involved in the Democratic party ... so we talked a little Obama-talk and moved on to the festival, etc...

One of the 'paparazzi' that was at the party snapped this shot of us. Notice Stephen is far better at hiding his drink for photos than I am. (Note to self - put the drink down ...)

So, I met some great people and now have a few more resources and connections both in Zurich and in the 'industry' ... now I just need to learn German, finish writing those scripts, finish recording my voice over demo, loose 20 lbs., revamp my website, start my own film festival, make a documentary, get a better haircut and start getting up before noon ...

Harbaughs do the Alps

How could we not have done this sooner?! Amazing.

We took a series of trains and trams (not the Zurich kind of trams - the ones that hang from wires and are suspended over giant gorges, etc...) on Saturday and arrived in Murren mid-afternoon.

We skipped the last leg of the train ride and opted to hike the last bit, which took about an hour and a half. It was really glorious - just what you'd expect to see when hiking in the Alps.

And the weather was gorgeous - we couldn't have asked for better.

We checked into our great little hotel with fabulous views, drank some wine on the balcony and marveled at the Eiger and Jungfrau.

Sunday morning after a swell breakfast at the hotel, Mark and I left our traveling companions, Shannon, Dave and baby Niko and headed to the v. top of the Schilthorn, famous for being featured in the James Bond Film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'

We watched paragliders take off and float and circle above the clouds. We even discussed the fact that we might someday be persuaded to try it (tandem with an experienced sort, of course).

The views are unbelievable. Looking down the mountain I could imagine it covered with (more) snow and told Mark that now would be a good time to note where the rocks were, so that when we come back this winter to ski, we can be prepared ...

After a few 'mouth agape with wonder' hours, we headed back down. (We missed 2 trams and were cranky for about 5 minutes but then I pulled out a little notebook and we wrote down a list of more adventures we want to go on and that kept us quiet for the duration...)

We met back up with Shannon, Dave and Niko at the deck on our hotel for a little lunch before our trip back to Zurich.

We cannot wait to go back and can't believe it took us this long to go. Thank you to Shannon for planning this fabulous trip and for officially and in a big way, introducing us to the Alps!

Oh, and this is my favorite sign of the weekend and one which, to anyone who knows me, could prove extra funny. They actually are warning you, at the top of this steep, steep mountain (an ALP, for god sakes) not to wear stilettos. I love it. (For those who care, I was wearing running sneakers and am getting hiking boots just like Shannon's as soon as we can find them ...)