
My first blog was called "Where in the World is Jon?"
I thought I I would be traveling more.
When I started Jon-of-All-Trades, I thought it would be in part to supplement my income.
Now" Where in the World is Jon?" is a question that I am asking myself more often than not, and as far as "trades" go, well, those supplemental plans are a little lagging behind and the travels are full steam ahead. And my "career" has certainly taken the back seat for the last decade or so.
It would seem that I certainly got things backwards, kind of like the naming of Greenland and Iceland.
Lately though my working, specifically in the "trade" I fell into as a set dresser, has come full circle, except now I'm working less in Hollywood and more in the "New Hollywood of the South", Atlanta, Georgia.
I've got a Georgia driver's license after having a California one for the last 28 years and I am a member of Atlanta's IATSE local. FYI, I still have my local 44 card, wouldn't give that up, being vested and all. Just another 20 years until retirement.
Yikes.
Now I find myself working as a lead person again, after having decided I would never lead again. I became a decorator and sold all my equipment. I burned the ships. That was around 15 years ago.
I have identified with this clip in the past, but perhaps now more than ever.

Oh The Places You'll Go
When I look back at my "career", I feel incredibly fortunate and quite lucky.
Many, many, wonderful stories and experiences.
It has been a journey to say the least.
When I was working on "GI Jane", one of my co-workers told his friend, who didn't know me, that we were working together.
"You're working with Jon Danniells? He's a dinosaur, he's been doing this forever."
My friend laughed, "Dude, he's younger than you are." I was probably 32 at the time and had already been doing it for around 14 years.
And lo and behold here I am still moving furniture.
I joked once that it was "functional fitness"
"Yeah but it gives you a troll body."
He then went on about how furniture moving gave you hunched shoulders and limited range of movement in the shoulders, along with thick hips and thighs.
That did explain some things.....

The first project I did in Atlanta was practically a fluke and I almost didn't do it.
But I did end up decorating the pilot for the TV show "Revolution", I ended up seeing all parts of the city that I never would have been able to if I wasn't working in film.
Jon-of-All-Trades
They both work.