What a whirlwind month! I have had so much fun. Ever since I “surrendered,” doors have been opening left and right; I am so grateful and you don’t even know… 🙂

And to think, the cherry on top comes tomorrow when I get to be in a commercial with my own daughter. I am more excited about that than anything else that I have done. We are going to have so much fun together!

I have to say, though that Friday was a pretty cool day also. It started off going to set to shoot my scene for CSI: Miami; I didn’t know that it was the #1 show in the world! Who woulda thought? I got to go into my trailer and it was nice. TV, DVD, Radio, Microwave, shower… 🙂 Got dressed, hair and makeup and then it was time to rehearse.

I was playing a prison guard so we were shooting in a jail like setting. I was to transport a prisoner from his cell to be executed. He had been in prison for a while and we had gotten to know each other a little so it was sad that he was going to have to go to the chair. My job was ala Tom Hanks in The Green Mile. Well, we get ready to rehearse and lo and behold, The Dead Zone himself Anthony Michael Hall was my prisoner. I smiled because I have to admit that I am a fan.

I don’t get star struck so it was just admiration. I honestly didn’t recognize him at first, but after a couple rehearsals I did. I was to shoot 4 scenes so we rehearsed for nearly an hour. The reason we rehearsed for so long was because one of the scenes was going to be tricky to shoot based on how it was written. We had to do some “trickeration” with the scene to make it work.

One of the things we had to do was to get into a scuffle with one another in the cell. We didn’t know what type of scuffle. We tried to mark it but it just became its own deal, very organic and a lot of fun. For me, it was like when I got to manhandle George Clooney on the set of Three Kings.

Now, I cannot give away too much with this blog because the episode hasn’t aired yet. Let’s just say that I had a lot of fun, received a lot of praise, had a lot of laughs and lost a lot of skin on my arm, lol. We got a little off balance on one of the last shots of the day and my arm got caught underneath Anthony Michael. When I got up I could see some of my arm skin on the concrete wall. There was blood running down my arm, man! And, my thought was… “This is cool!” My other thought was, “Do I get hazard pay for this?” 🙂

They cleaned it up, put a liquid band-aid on it and we finished the rest of the shots with that part of my arm out of site. Hope it looks good when it airs. Anthony Michael, if you’re reading this you’re a cool cat. Had a lot of fun and enjoyed the conversations with you. Sorry guys, I didn’t get pics because I forgot to charge my camera. I guess you’ll just have to wait for the episode to air. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and keep sending those positive vibes and prayers this way so 2010 and beyond can just build on the foundation that December 2009 has started. 🙂

Now, I’m about to prepare to eat strawberry ice cream all day tomorrow with my girls 🙂

As I walked into the AMC theater this morning, I could sense something was in the air. I heard a father kidding his little son about movies. His kid was all excited to go see a film. His dad was naming every film but the film the little kid wanted to see: The Princess and the Frog. This little white kid, his father, mother and two bigger sisters all clamoring to go see “The Princess.”

Now you all should know me by now, I’m not big on labels and I think everyone could keep their culture without throwing race into everything and still be perfectly fine (just my humble opinion). Yet, when I saw this and then walked into the theater and saw children of EVERY race, with their parents to see “The Princess….” When I saw my children, especially my youngest with eyes glued to the screen and smiling… when I heard the clapping of EVERYONE in the theater after the film was complete, I had a thought…could this film change the world?

There have not been very many films and images of blacks to come out of Hollywood relative the films that perpetuate stereotypes. Sure, this film had a few, sure there was that black magic stuff, sure the father died and wasn’t a big part of the film, or was he? The story was about the daughter and her dream, a dream that was inspired by her father.

I enjoyed the film very much and my girls were overjoyed. The imagery and the celebration of the culture, the love story, the girl that looked like them and the many millions that will see it and fall in love with a young girl who doesn’t look just like them…the merchandise that will be sold with the likeness of a brown, hope filled, smiling and beautiful young lady to people that she doesn’t look like…

Could this film change the world? Could this film plant the seed of tolerance, hope and belief in the minds of this young generation? Time will tell…

Happy Holidays 🙂

Tank Jones