Blog Archives

May Be Gone

5/31/2015

Facebook Posts from the Work Front

Work is what has been taking up most of my time of late. Which is why so many of my other endeavors and aspirations have taken a back seat. However because of the highly secretive and sensitive nature of my business, I can't disclose much of what I do so many hours of the day.

But here are a few of the posts that I can share. Maybe it gives a glimpse into the fabulous world of set decorating Barbershop 3

Jon Danniells
May 28 at 3:03am · Atlanta, GA ·
Burning the midnight oil and a candle at both ends
Jon Danniells

May 27 at 1:02pm ·
Quick bite, and then back to work, which is literally upstairs
— at Sidebar: Downtown's Neighborhood Bar.Jon Danniells

May 13 at 12:58pm ·
Today's lunch, in the car in between stops to answer texts and emails, various locations, prop houses and shops; oh yes the glamor of working in the film business; hurray for hump dayJon Danniells

May 5 at 11:58pm ·
Almost midnight, still at the office...burning the midnight oil as it were. Back to work around 6 am at stage, so I can get crew going and make it to a 7;30 prod. meeting. Ah the glamor of the film business

A Hot Date Night

Cindy and I had a night out without Skye, she was hiking the Appalachian Trail. So we walk down the belt line to see some of my circus and burner friends, the ones that like to play with fire.

New Toys From Yesteryear

I have been collecting lots of old school style training gear, specializing in grip training.

One DVD I have been trying to get my hands on for years now is Slim the Hammerman, which about a famous Strongman who's speciality is well you can probably guess by the name.

Hopefully now that my job should be getting a bit more sane, I'll be able to play with my new toys and start becoming a regular at the local food scene and see my family more.

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A Weekend of Acronyms and Stairs

5/31/2015

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TGIF, NYC, T2T, 1WTC to Name a Few
For those not in the know, that would be; Thank God(or goodness)It's Friday, New York City, Tower to Tower, 1 World Trade Center.

Jon Danniells
May 15 at 7:27pm ·
So excited; I haven't been back since driving out of the city on 9-10-2001. A quick trip to run up the stairs of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere; and then back to ATL and on the job Monday 5:30 am

— traveling to New York, New York from Atlanta International Airport-Delta Airlines.

It was a whirlwind tour, to be sure.
Things went a little wacky on the set, so I got out later than expected, barely got to the airport on time. When I did get to the City, I had one of the worst taxi drivers ever. He ended up with my phone for the entire trip in order to navigate to where I was staying in Rockaway.

After that it was smooth sailing, except for getting lost a whole bunch which was actually fun and part of the adventure.

The Tourist

One thing I realized on this trip was how little time I've actually spent in New York City.

I love it every time I go. I always thought I would end up living there. And who knows?

But at this point I am still a visitor in this wonderful and amazing city.

Jon Danniells
May 16 at 1:46pm ·
On my way to pick up my race packet, doing touristy things along the way

— at Times Square NYC.

Times Square is absolutely bonkers. Shameless advertisements and capitalism on steroids. The Revlon ad was rather clever and suckered me in as well. I mean come on, how often do you get to be up on the Megatron in the center of the city that never sleeps.

That's me taking a picture of, well me, made it into the heart until it kept closing in.

On a Mission

I actually did have an agenda. I had to pick up my race-packet which was just outside of Times Square and then I had to figure out how long it would take me to get back the following day and which route I needed to take.

I still managed to have a lot of fun along the way.

Bank of Bikes; Citibank Style

I thought about working all the way down to the Freedom Tower, but I didn't have the time, not to mention, I was going to be climbing to the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and I hadn't trained, I'd barely had any rest in fact, so it would probably make more sense to conserve my energy.

And then I came upon this new-fangled bike rental....

Oh, me likey.

While I'm no fan of Citibank, I actually can stand that corporation, I'm trying not to cut off my nose to spite myself while not becoming too much of a hypocrite.

I think I'll be OK with this....

Jon Danniells
May 16 at 4:01pm ·
Trying out this bike system

— at Union Square Park.

Jon Danniells at 280 Broadway
May 16 at 4:17pm ·
I love being able to rent a bike and head down this crazy street

Parades, Farmers Market, These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Along with what you would expect to find in one's travels in our most cosmopolitan of cities, I came across a couple of diversions that were right up my alley.

A parade, I still have no idea what it was about and an amazing farmer's market.

Keeping It 100

After my touristy adventures and overall silliness, I finally arrived at Ground Zero.

And it hit me hard.

Why I was here after all.

I'm not patriotic by a long shot.

I'm very anti-military.

I think that the events of 9/11 while overwhelming and tragic, have been exploited and twisted.

But being there.

Remembering driving out the day before and then watching less than 12 hours later, in disbelief as the towers fell before our eyes.

There is no denying the event changed the course of world history.

Jon Danniells
May 16 at 4:43pm ·
Running to the top of this tomorrow morning

— at One World Trade Center.

A Long Way Home

Jon Danniells
May 16 at 8:38pm · Brooklyn, NY ·
A little lost...

Jon Danniells
May 16 at 9:02pm ·
Just a little mix-up between Rockaway Parkway and Rockaway Beach; they happen to be in opposite directions; learning my way around Brooklyn and it's lovely public transportation system

— at Kings Hwy. And Flatbush Ave.

I took subways and buses, tried to get a cab, the folks I was staying with were on their way to come rescue me, but I eventually figured it out and got back to where I was staying.

And the next day made it back to the 1 WTC in record time.

Following in the Steps of Heroes

I left before 6 am and still missed the opening ceremonies but made it with plenty of time to spare for my wave of the race.

Emotions ran the gamut, seeing people with shirts commemorating their loved ones, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons, friends that were lost on that day.

It definitely made it real.

And then of course there was the reality of running up 90 flights of stairs without having trained and being dog-tired.

That actually ended up being the easy part.

I knew how to climb most efficiently, using the hand-rails, switching up sides when possible, pacing myself, etc.

I made it to the top in around 22 minutes, pretty much exactly the time I thought I would clock in at.

The views were amazing.

And then it was time to go and head back to Atlanta and the life I am living now.

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Stoopid Cancer

5/31/2015

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Cancer Survivor
It's been several years since what could have been a life-threatening melanoma was cut out of my leg, messing up one of my tattoos and forever making me a "high-risk" skin cancer patient.

I have to go in every 6 months to get checked and inevitably something is found. Most of the time its just a bunch of minor, pre-cancerous but not the "bad" kind that get frozen off. It stings a bit and leaves red marks and sometimes scabbing, but that's about it.

However, they also sometimes find things that "are a cause for concern, but not alarm". And that usually involves some cutting. So far it's always been at the clinic I go to and they can throw on a butterfly stitch and I'm on my way.

But...
Not this time.

Here I am on my third day at work. I was a sight to behold.

I had the surgery in the morning and was back to the grind before noon.

As they say, that's going to leave a mark.

Cancer is a monster.

It's been mostly an inconvenience for me as far as things go.

But I have had several friends pass far before their time.

Fuck You Cancer

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Inman Park Festival & Parade 2015

5/31/2015

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It Didn't Rain on Our Parade

Rain had been forecast and it did indeed rain a few hours before the parade, but luckily it didn't rain during the event.
However the cloudy skies stayed behind to provide a little relief from the sun.Thank goodness because I was in full Pirate garb and was already soaking wet from sweat just from the walk over.

I immediately decided to ditch the long sleeve shirt, you could barely see it anyway. At the end of the parade I would end up ditching the long coat as well.

It was Skye and mine's best costumes to date. Our shopping spree the previous weekend at the Ren Faire definielty helped us with complete our funk pirate attire.

Skye had marched in the Inman Park parade the year before. I was in working in New Orleans, so this year was my first go at it.

And I had a blast.

I danced to the funky music the pirate ship was playing having a great time. Although by the end I had a good blister going on from my brand new pirate boots. The good thing was that they were pretty comfortable otherwise and I could dance, play and get funky in them.

Skye helped lead our little crew with her hooping skills.

It was great fun hanging out with my Funk Pirate/ Circus Combustus family.

We didn't really do much at the festival even though it goes on for 2 days and is literally a stone's throw away.

The Captain and some of the crew

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Cinco por Mayo

5/31/2015

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Five Posts for May...All Today

Okay, the Cinco por Mayo was a bit of a stretch, and even though I'm from California, a city where Cinco de Mayo is huge, I am not a fan or a celebrator of that "holiday". Plus today's series of posts will include stuff from April. So there's that as well, however back to the Mexican Fourth of July

For starters, most people have no idea what that date actually means to historically. A lot of people call it Mexico's Fourth of July. Close, but it's not really that, not even close.

It actually refers to one battle, which is an interesting one and depending on one's politics, can be seen as important and/or influential for a variety of reasons, but I think I'll leave the nuances of that for another post....or not....but here is one take:

The Battle of Puebla was important for at least two reasons. First, although considerably outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army. "This battle was significant in that the 4,000 Mexican soldiers were greatly outnumbered by the well-equipped French army of 8,000 that had not been defeated for almost 50 years." Second, since the Battle of Puebla, no country in the Americas has subsequently been invaded by any other European military force.

If I did celebrate that funky/funny day it might be at one of my favorite haunts here in Atlanta, Bone Garden Cantina.

And on that note; here goes 1 of 5 posts for today, the last day of May.

Este es Numero Uno

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2B2B--Too Busy, Too Blog

5/30/2015

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Where Does the Time Go?

I was looking back at the last time I posted a blog entry. I would have guessed it was maybe three weeks ago at latest.
Nope; it's been exactly six weeks and a goodly amount of stuff has happened in that time.

I finished one job and went straight onto another one.

My physical fitness plans continue to have high aspirations and fall short.

May was going to be my yoga month; yoga everyday for 30 days straight. I did four days in a row and was in heaven and haven't been able to practice or rather haven't made the time to practice since breaking that commitment 3 weeks ago.

I did manage to get to New York and run to the top of the Freedom Tour.

Skye and I also got dressed up to march in a local parade with the Funk Pirates.

I am prepping and planning on going out to Burning Man again although I still need a ticket.

In lieu of actually working out and getting in shape, I continue to collect interesting training equipment, literature, and DVDS.

I managed to somehow destroy yet another iPhone and have "upgraded" to the iPhone 6 plus.

And I have been working ridiculous hours once again.

But I think that things are changing and I'll be able to get ahold of the reigns and get myself back on track....

Again.

With that, I'm going to post another promissory spot.

Lots of fun photos and tales to come.

I promise.

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May Be Gone

A Weekend of Acronyms and Stairs

Stoopid Cancer

Fuck You Cancer

Inman Park Festival & Parade 2015

Cinco por Mayo

Este es Numero Uno

2B2B--Too Busy, Too Blog

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