Monday, April 10

Industrial Light and Magic Chicken Farm

I've been away from the digital world for the past week. We are producing a new series about the parables of Jesus. Our facilities in the next town over are small, so any construction of sets has to be done at the "Nave" (nah-vay). Oddly enough, every storage area in Spain is called a nave. This particular space we use is located on a huge chicken farm that fell out of use long ago.



The place is a huge compound of buildings that can only be reached by passing through the green gate with the holy saint of agriculture on one of the tiled posts. The saint is wearing a brown robe and has a bald spot on top of his head and looks very sad that many chickens died here. Or maybe he is mournfully happy that many Spaniards ate their fill of poultry.



Immediatly on the left is the home of the compound's caretaker. Sometimes he shouts happy things at me when I drive by. I don't understand everything he says. As well as the tiny dog that you can see in the dirt, he has alot of animals, including sheep with big bells that wander around the whole place. Sheep like to stare.



After driving about half a kilometer around the plowed fields and many whitewashed structures you pass the guard dog nearest our building. He is always tied-up. I think he gets off the leash at night and has the run of the place with the other 15 dogs. I make kissy sounds at him when I drive by and I don't think he believes that Volkswagens should be able to make kissy sounds so he dismisses me.



This is the front of our nave. The green door is the only door and it is nearly impossible to open the bolts because they are made of rusty iron and have been repainted too many times. I always bust a knuckle trying to lean and pull on the thing while turning the iron ring that serves as a handle. The floor of the nave is tiled and there are many vents in back. We think this was a chicken-processing area.



This is my work space when I'm constructing sets "old style" with hammers and paint. I've had to paint pillars and columns to look heavy, wall "flats" to look worthy of a palace and wooden boxes to give the illusion of marble slabs. These slabs are the base-pieces for the throne that one of Herod's next-of-kin uses to give orders to his servants. This Parables of Jesus program deserves more than a chicken-farm and me with a bucket of paint. The first series is already being broadcast in at least 11 countries and beamed into Muslim areas via satellite. However, I am very grateful for the quiet times I've had at the chicken farm this week. Imagining and creating marbled patterns, resting a short bit while the first coats of paint dry, eating room-temperature spaghetti out of my plastic dish and listening to the birds exclaim that the green door is open!

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