Sunday, November 13, 2022

Sunday Music: Deacon Blues


Steely Dan's Top 20 hit form their 1977 album Aja.
 


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OT but wondered if you'd seen this.
Adam Baldwin says Alec could and should have checked that the revolver was empty for rehearsal, and that, given it was rehearsal, it should have been empty, per SAG safety bulletin. And he says even if it *wasn't* rehearsal, it would have been simple for Alec to verify that the primers were duds, and he (Adam) wouldn't have considered not checking. He's not exactly a know-nothing Fudd, eh? Is he wrong? Video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OY2GIJw0XtM

Aesop said...

He's talking out of his ass, and quite simply full of shit. And I say this as someone with more time on production sets than he has.
Actors fucking with weapon props gets them cautioned the first time, then officially grieved, and then fired. Period. When the weapons handler walks off the set, and takes their toys with them because actors think they're anything but actors, the day is a wrap, and the actor gets told to fuck off with their nonsense, or they'll be fired.

Seen it happen.

You can read the safety bulletins yourself (as could anyone, including the PropTart who broke virtually every single rule in them on Rust) on the CSATF web site:
https://www.csatf.org/production-affairs-safety/safety-bulletins/

They are the safety bible on every set. There's a reason guns and ammunition are #1 and #2 on that list: they're written in blood.
Actors may be allowed to look (it's a privilege, not a requirement), not touch and finger-fuck.

Actors playing with weapons is how Jon-Eric Hexum cancelled his own show in 1984.
The weapons handler and their assistant by rule and custom are the subject-matter weapons experts. Actors act, and leave the props the hell alone. Including Adam Baldwin. Period.

And if he knew WTF he was talking about, he'd know the gun was supposed to be loaded for the rehearsal with dummy rounds that would look exactly like real rounds, from muzzle on, or through the loading gate, so had either Baldwin inspected the loads, they wouldn't have known shit from Shineola, nor dummy rounds from live rounds.

Anybody who doesn't know that fact from the outset isn't tall enough for the discussion.

1) There shouldn't have been any live rounds in the same zip code, let alone on a working set. Ever.
2) Actual live rounds should be "conspicuously marked" (usually a colored strip marked onto the primer end, and typically red), for easy spotting by the weapons handler(s). These were not.
3) Blank loads usually have a different color marking (blue, green, etc.) also on the primer end. Theirs weren't.
4) Dummy rounds should fool anyone by appearance and weight (the powder is usually replaced with sand), to look exactly like your live rounds do in the real world, Which is the whole point on camera. That way you can load real-looking dummy rounds all day long, and point them at anyone, including the camera lens, and nothing will ever go bang in a million years. This is why more pepole die from rattlesnake bites in any single year, than have been accidentally shot on movie sets in the last 50 years.

Violating all those rules solely and entirely by the paid-for weapons handler, who was an incompetent and criminally negligent killer, is why two people on Rust were shot, and one died. And if it had been Adam Baldwin doing the same rehearsal, with that level of criminal negligence in play, he would have had the same outcome as Alec.

He's talking out his ass, and I'd tell him that to his face.
He's a conservative actor, who's played with a lot of prop guns in his day; he is literally not an on-set weapons handling and safety expert.
He's been safe all these years because he was never working with someone as criminally negligent and flat-out incompetent with weapons, and doing her job, as Hannah Gutierrez Reed was.
For which he should thank his agent, and a merciful deity.

John Wilder said...

Ummm, I like the song.

RandyGC said...

Another classic. One of my all time favorites, always in the top 2 or 3 (depending on my mood).

I want this played at my funeral.

It's one of the few songs I turn up and stop and listen every time it comes on the air or in the play list rotations. So many levels that you hear something new just about every time.

Thanks Aesop