Bang Bang Galore!
A Filmmaker’s BLOGELLA
Written by Steve Rosenberg
Blog #4 ( My apartment)
I live in a tiny room situated on the rooftop of Mio’s building three- story apartment building. Nestled behind three rows of low hanging colourful laundry, the room I now call home provides me with isolation and safety for my equipment. My camera is my baby and dictates many of my daily decisions. I check the lock and am happy to see that it needs a three- revolution turn to close properly. The windows are a concern, because unlike the rest of the building, there are no bars on them.
My bedroom has dreary cream- coloured walls and four small bunk beds with no sheets or bedding. The room is lit by a one thousand watts of florescent tube lighting and when the squawking fan is not in full flight, there is a musky mildew odour that is hard to escape. The perimeter of ceilings with its patches of brown mould resembles broken eggshells that tempt me to scratch away the flakes.
Yes, my place is dismal, but I have a private bathroom adjoining the room and it is just one flight of stairs up from the main hub of action, the dream factory that takes place around Mio’s long mahogany kitchen table. On most nights, there are four of us eating together, smacking our lips to spicy Indian curry dishes with a Japanese twist.
Tak, the Japanese volunteer who has a degree in musical composition is Mio’s roommate and he usually prepares dinner. Tak, short for Takashi arrived here from Tokyo, less than one year ago and spends most of his days composing bland pop arrangements for Born Free musicals.
He believes the Beatles to be the root of all modern music. In addition to being calorie light in his musical tastes, at thirty- three, he is awkward in his own body and compensates by being agreeable to a fault.
I usually stroll into their apartment at 9:00 pm to say a quick hello and before long I am privy to John and Mio’s nightly roundtable dinner discussions. It is nice to see a couple so passionate about their work, planning, dreaming, and strategizing how they will put their little school on the map. We smile, we laugh and volley around anecdotes about the Born Free students. Tak is blissfully quiet, until the spotlight is shined on him with kudos coming from all of us for his delectable meal. He is bashful, but enjoys the attention.
At some point, the daily gossip residue is silenced and John introduces another vision, another big project that requires more planning and discussion. While John and Mio debate their merits of this new idea, I am growing weary from the endless details and I disappear into the kitchen and wash plates. The time is now 11:00 pm and both John and Mio are now seated behind their computers in separate rooms, bouncing out emails and shouting through walls for detail clarifications.
They are a dynamic intergenerational couple. John is fifty and Mio is not yet thirty. They live separately but spend all their time together. I am dying to hear why they have not married, but so far, there is very little space for personal conversation. It’s a refreshing change from some of the navel- gazers, myself included who cannot think beyond their own personal problems. John and Mio are modern day saints.
