By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Hospital, Schmospital
Luka’s back in the hospital for a five-day video EEG, which means that I am also in the hospital for the duration. They caught some good seizure spikes back in June when we did the overnight stay (“good” here meaning: we were glad the EEG caught them, so that his neurologist has some info to work with), but he did not have any of his hallucinations or yucky headaches on that stay.
So this time we’re in for a longer stretch, in the hopes that they will be able to catch him having hallucinatory activity, and/or a headache, while he’s hooked up. We’re trying to figure out if the hallucinations are “aura” activity that’s preceding (warning of) impending seizure activity, or if they are migraine-related as he has had some pretty debilitating headaches over the past year or so.
At least we have a decent view from Luka’s room. And having been through this before, we are prepared for our time embedded in the peds seizure disorder unit: Luka has two brand-new birthday LEGO sets to work on, all his drawing supplies, a couple card games (UNO and Slamwich) and a spandy-new Rubik’s Cube that I bought because he’s good with puzzles and has been wanting to learn to solve the Cube since he saw a friend do it at the school talent show last spring. Also, video games and DVDs.
As for me, when I’m not keeping Luka busy and distracted so he doesn’t mess with the 27 electrodes super-glued to his scalp, I plan to use this time to catch up on a couple DVDs I brought with me; An indie called Missing Pieces, which I watched part of last week, but need to start over from the beginning and watch again. It has a fairly complicated plot, and I kept getting distracted by the cinematography. I also brought Go Fish, which we found while unpacking some boxes that had been stored in the garage. Score! Go Fish is one of the earlier films produced by Christine Vachon, and for some reason I haven’t ever seen it, so this is a good time to check it out. Then I have a short to check out, and a whole list of Mubi.com stuff I’ve been meaning to catch up on.
And then there’s TIFF, which will be here before we know it. Need to get my previews written up for that, pronto. And I have a column on indie auteurs that I started feverishly working on late last night when some ideas rose to the surface of my brain just as I needed to be going to sleep. And I have a couple side projects I’m working in my spare time as well. So, lots to do to keep us distracted, and hopefully our time embedded in the hospital will fly by.
Meanwhile, though, if you’re an indie filmmaker who’s made a short that you think is definitely a cut about average as far as story, acting and production value (especially if you have a URL where I can see it), drop me a line and let me know. I can’t promise to watch every short film that comes my way, but the ones that seem most compelling, I will check out, and the ones that really impress me in some way, I’ll write about here. Thanks, folks.
Good luck, Luka!!!