SO IT BEGINS:

Here I sit in an odiferous internet cafe in downtown Budapest, Hungary .... that smell of cologne and body odor .... mmmmm

I arrived here Thursday May 17th to begin my 6 month stay for the production of "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army". I am very excited to be reprising one of my favorite characters, Abe Sapien the blue fishman. Along with him, I am also tackling a couple of other heavily made-up characters: The Chamberlain, a doorkeeper for the King of the alternate world, and The Angel Of Death, kind of self explanatory, but not to be feared, as she (yes, she) is SUCH a cool moment in the film that will leave you wondering when you might see her again in films to come.

So far, all we are doing for a couple of weeks is fittings and light rehearsals. So the rest of my time has been spent walking about the city like a zombie, watching fountains with music playing in my walkman like a zombie, a little reading with a cafe latte in front of me, sleeping more than should be allowed, and basically drooling on myself while staring at my hotel room walls..... like a zombie. Heaven I tell you, especially after the non-stop press and events schedule over the last 5 months.


LANGUAGE BARRIER:

This is one of those rare moments when I don't mind telling you what a great mime I am. I wish you could have seen my performance as I acted out becoming a regular at this net cafe to get the cheaper hourly rate. Arms a flappin', face a goin', acting like I was coming in the door again on different days, dear me I was good. And yes, I got my pre-paid 10 hour card, bless that little confused lady's heart.


TECHNO BARRIER:

They've put me up at possibly the swankiest hotel I've ever been in ever, The Boscolo New York Palace Hotel. Anything with "Palace" in the title should give you a clue. And my junior suite is where the prince might stay .... absolutely lovely, gold swirly things, chandelier things, and a bathroom I could bowl in (yeah, that's how a classy fellow would describe it). So something as simple as a TV remote shouldn't have thrown me, right? Wanting to get a jump on my Euro-MTV, and all kinds of shows dubbed in Hungarian, I sat there pressing the power button. Nothing. Again. Nothing. This went on for around 6 minutes until I called the front desk, telling them I had a defective remote. When the nice little maintenence man showed up with his tool box, he took the remote, pressed something and the TV came on immediately. What? Apparently, ANY button turns it on EXCEPT the power button .... no no, THAT is reserved for turning the power OFF. So had I ventured out and pressed, say, ANY other button on the remote, the TV would have turned on ..... without standing in front of a man with a tool box and a mocking grin on his face. Next, I'll be calling the front desk because I can't wipe myself.


I'll be in touch when I can, and you can always keep tabs on me at my official website run by the lovely Webmaster Helen in Scotland:

http://thedougjonesexperience.com/

ALSO!! "PAN'S LABYRINTH" NOW ON DVD EVERYWHERE!!!!!

There's Hungarian Love!!!! ---- Your Dougie