And we're off like a merry go-round!

In a few short hours a la 1AM, we will be embarking to Sana'a Yemen!

It is hard to believe that a week has gone by here in Cairo. I will miss the city and the friends I have made. Though the permission to shoot in the streets was never granted by the government, we re-worked the script so that the entire scene would take place at Giza.

For the many who have visited Giza, this is the pyramids. Quite a fantastic place. Though I went out there three times, twice scouting and once to shoot, I never made it into the actual grounds. I guess this will have to wait for a honeymoon or silver anniversary or something.

The shoot went something like this: pulled an all nighter with my humble and talented assistant Seyedhamidreza, running an equipment check with a few pepsi colas and lots of laughs, packed up and closed our eyes for about 30 minutes around 4:30 AM, took the required showers, and got picked up quarter to six. There are about five people on the Cairo streets at this hour. We meet with the Egyptian producer/assistant director, Salma Siad, the two actors Mo7ammad Riabe and A7med Tarek and headed out to the site.

Of course, arriving at the coolest time of the day (say 25 degress instead of 40+ when we went location scouting - for you Americans out there, that's more than 110), we weren't the only ones. I now know where all the Misrans where - getting saddled up next to us!

The mini-plateau we had chosen to scout two days before was of course inhabited, if only briefly, by half of Cairo! To top it off, as per the documentary aspect of the film, the pollution/fog of Cairo completely hid the pyramids. Though we were quite close, we could barely make out a single one. We asked the guide when they would be visible - around 11AM! That of course would mean hanging out while the sun went from hot to crispy fried to get our shots. It was quite the surprise to say the least. The guide would take the horses back and come get us in a few hours. We got the shoots, we got the acting, we got the Cairo scene!

We went out for an early lunch (people don't eat here until around 2 if not the main meal between 4-6 PM) which was quite delicious, had the daily required shisha and a tea, and than I had to sleep. Unfortunately I'm not 19 anymore, though still plenty young.

Speaking of nineteen year olds, take our actors and assistant director. They are not from the lower class and probably somewhere between the middle and upper class - yet, in my many travels they are the most informed teenagers I have met. I'm not talking informed about sex, drugs and rock and roll - but informed about life - politics, geography, history, literature, arts, and the like. Though I wouldn't know, it would seem quite possible that when you compare a typical nineteen year old from Europe and even further down the extreme, an American, versus one from a society such as Egypt, you have night and day. While living in Spain, it was a daily occurance for a nineteen year old to drink ALOT, get on his scouter with a pal and pop a wheelie down the entire street. In the States, if you're nineteen, most likely you're dreaming about getting busy if you already aren't, trying to get to the next party or playing some video game - not necessary the activities that make you a smarter person. In Cairo, you're reading, you're searching the web for info, you're talking with your friends, your doing whatever you can in the search of information, that is most likely being restricted by the government. Each film has to go through the censors. Yeah, you got music videos with sexy women, but not doing it on the screen a la whatever those pop singers names are. You have honor and you have family.

So SHR and I went for a celebratory meal last night - our last supper in Cairo together after bunking for a week. A nice place right on the Nile with some live music. I like to try the typical foods of a country while I'm visiting, and well, they eat pigeon here, so why not? I was told this is not the NYC kind, but these birds are raised to be eaten. Small, delicate, bones and all. It was a dimly lit joint so seeing one inch in front of your eyes was not happening. Okay, using a knife wasn't either, so pick the little birdie up in my hands and comp, comp away. I tore something off, and realized that it was the little guys head. So cute with his slicked back hair and eyes that must have melted on the grill. I was wondering what beeked me! Brought back quite vividly the memories from Cuba! Needless to say, I recoiled, discreetly placed the severed head in my napkin, and took a few deep breaths trying to find whatever meat a pigeon may have.

Got the insert shots we needed today in the new Cairo park, which is a wonder, recorded the third call to prayer from the minerat of a mosque that is being renovated, went to another mosque, and now getting ready to head to Yemen.

The nerves are creeping up my back to my fore arm as I type. Not because you can buy a machine gun or even a tank in the swap meet as I've been told, but because I'm settled here in Cairo, a BIG city, and Yemen, is perhaps the oldest city I will ever have been to: for those that keep track of time, its 500 years older than the day Jesus died and 1900 years older than the mosque we visted today.

For those we have never heard a call to prayer in Islamic Cairo, it is one of the most beautiful things on Earth. Singing, praying, chanting coming from, I don't know 50 or 100 mosques within a few small blocks: there's mosques right next to other mosques. For those on the West Coast, picture a strip mall, and instead of the Walgreen's next to the Albertson's, its a mosque next to a mosque; and for those on the East Coast, instead of a Starbuck's every 1/4 block, its a mosque singing next another singing mosque. We climbed the minerat three days before, and we just had to return to get the moment the chanting starts recorded on tape.