Lost in Translation

I can never figure it out.

I'm certainly not Scarlett Johansen - the young photographer's wife - left alone and adrift in the big city.

And I'm not Bill Murray - the aging actor, shooting a product he doesn't care for - hanging out in hotel bars....

Oh yeah... wait a minute... I do have the aging part down...

All I have to say is - thank God for Veronica Mars and bootlegs from China...

Almost done with Season three now. Still trying to figure out what the CW has against great characters and smart writing. It does make me smile - even when I've been locked up in my apartment all day.

It's Saturday here. I've been here almost a week.

We've been revising the old show. The one that was supposed to be done. But it's not.

I actually sat and counted how many levels of approvals I have to pass per show.

Three managers in San Francisco
One manager in Los Angeles
Three managers in Shanghai
Two lawyers in Los Angeles
Two lawyers in Beijing
One Commercial regulating agency in Beijing
Every single TV station we air on.

That's right. Different than America - every TV station has a right to edit content as they see fit. And they all have different internal regulations. So we get to do a new cut for EACH AND EVERY ONE.

We're getting closer to the end of the food chain.

We've passed the first 5 steps. We should have a new cut for the regulating agency this week. We shall see.

In the meantime - the new show is sort of festering. Doing nothing. Like me.

I did go play ball last night - against my better judgement. My knee has really been acting up. Getting old and my body is turning against me. But there were a lot of people. More than have ever been there. It turns out we had enough to field two teams - so I only played every other quarter - and my knee did fine. It hung in there enough to let me walk back home.

It was so nice not be stuck in an editing suite all day that I did myself one better and stayed in the apartment all day watching my own TV. How's that for living it up in the big city?

I'm coming up on my one year anniversery of traveling back and forth to China. Sigh.

My family does come here this week. Should be exciting. Even though I work all day - it will be such a great experience for the kids. Something new and something they'll always remember. I hope.

Tonight - I am breaking my self imposed exile from the real world.

A club within walking distance of the hotel is hosting Howie B - who produced for Bjork, U2, Massive Attack and Garbage. While I am not the club going type that I once was - it will at least be diverting. And it gets me out of the house...

But first... another episode of Veronica Mars...