A Walk on the Moon

Four days on Route 66 brought Marla, Oliver (above) and me to Wilmette, Illinois and 17 degree weather. Highlights of the trip: Jason, at the Mexican restaurant in Amarillo Texas who threw out the menu and custom-made burittos exactly the way we wanted. Guy near Flagstaff who works a 70-hour week and refused to take $10 at the gas statio where he re-filled the motor oil. Dwayne, here in Wilmette, who accomodated a last-minute booking at 2 30 in the morning at this extended stay hotel where I took the picture above. Details to come.

Morning Dog Walk in Laurel Canyon

Here's my morning dog walk with Oliver in Studio City, Dec. 25 2020. I turn right and go down Laurel Canyon Boulevard past the "LaurelWood" bus stop, where Erik the homeless guy used to hang out, and walk by the house formerly owned by bug-eyed actor Marty Feldman. It's now home to Mark "Flanny" Flannigan, from Dublin, who went to Harvard, moved to L.A. and started alternative comedy hotspot Largo. He seemingly knows everybody and one of his best friends Conan O'Brien, now broadcasts his show from Largo.

Then we come to the rental house formerly rented by the British DP who shot WestWorld and his cute family. Up the hill I pass the ranch house belonging to composer Megan, who's working on a musical about a Jewish woman who smuggled thousands of kids out of Poland. Next door lives Aaron, the 80-something lawyer with red hair who remembers wiping off seats for baseball fans back in the depression and sticking out his hand for a nickel. The batboy. His wife Millie, a brash New Yorker always dressed to the nines. Their son Ethan, a genius repairman of video games.

A bit further is the "hippie shack" owned by a law professor from University of San Francisco. Then a forested hollow. Here's where I often run into Tommy, an adorable border collie, and his owner Neil Clark, who seems to know pretty much everything from how to unlock a locked electronic gate and the best time to pick apples to the fact that the guy in the red sports car who just whizzed past us is William Shatner, who lives at the top of the hill

Reversing course I pass the judge's house, who told me my late dog Huck looked so formidable he would fit right in sitting next to him in court.

Now I approach the landmark "Hobbit House." Formerly owned by Jane Fonda and "My Name is Earl" sidekick Ethan Suplee, it's made of cobblestones and Middle Earth type roofing. According to Neil, the compound kept expanding to accomdate orphaned children, which is why it's such a sprawling jumble.

Downhll to the tree-lined "Bucolic Stretch." Behind the gate on the left, Frick and Frack lurk, waiting to bark their brains out. Officially known as Dudley and Eddie, the smaller dog plays the alpha role. "Eddie runs the show," his owner once told me.

A hip hop producer reportedly lives in the white modernst mansion next door but never comes out when I'm walking. Patton Oswald lives beyond the Bucolic Stretch in a contemporary house, so I'm told (by Neil), although I've never run into him.

Somewhere along the way I often see Alex and her little Charlie dog. Living in a fairy tale-like glade is bulldog Baxter and John, the crew chief for "Big Brother," and his Emmy-nominated costume designer wife Jodie Stern ("Watchmen"). I might run into Irena, the Iranian expatriate who voted for Trump and whose husband Jerry used to regale me at the Dona Pegita bus stop with a litany of health-related misadventures. Tromping back up hill, I might pass Meg and her tiny dog Ridley, who live in the ranch house formerly occupied by the Palestinian character actor (see below) and his family. Then. . . home.

Auteur Yes, Autistic, No

In the can't judge a book by its cover department, auteur or autistic division: Many mornings I try to strike up a conversation with a shy, shambling guy with glasses, who walks two small dogs. I always imagined he was about 26 and recovering from a nervous breakdown so he had moved back into his parents' house to regroup. So today I run into a woman walking the two small dogs, Zoe and Bella, and I say "Oh, usually I see an... interesting young man walking these dogs instead." Oh that's my son, she says. Turns out he's 16 genius auteur/actor who loves Shakespeare, got rave reviews for playing "Bottom" in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, that he's been directed by Spike Lee in a TV pilot written by Tom "Homicide" Fontana, uses a typewriter for his screenplays to emulatehis idol Woody Allen, that he wants to go to film school at NYU, super-focused, and his dad is an actor-==producer whose movie just won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. So... That's L.A. for ya.

Beautiful Afghan Hound Huck: Rest In Peace

Our dear boy Huck died February 24, 2013. He was a beautiful, soulful Afghan Hound. Huck went quickly. Sunday morning, he had trouble standing up. By midnight, as the Oscars played on TV, Huck breathed his last breath. Marla and I loved him so.

Greetings From Laurel Canyon

Now ensconced in Laurel Canyon, after noisy neighbors drove us out of the Tijunga Village home. Cars roar by pretty much non-stop on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, but my giant picture window where I'm typing this faces out onto a gorgeous glade - - dragon flies, lizards, bouganvilla, and even a bubbling brook make themselves at home on this hillside property. And the birds. They cast some kind of weird hypnotic spell every morning making it harad to snap out of it, go in the house and do the daily writing gigs.

Leaving Studio City?

I'm going to miss this neighborhood and all the characters, but there's too much noise coming from next door so it looks like Marla Huck and I will be moving by April 1. Stay tuned for updates

Super Duper Cinema

I've seen the future of movies, maybe, and it's mighty impressive. On Thursday I went to RED Cinema in Hollywood and they filmed me tossing an orange, hurling water, stuff like that. They shot it at 48 frames per second. Normally, it would be 24 frames a second. Twice as crisp! I'll be writing up a full report for Wired.com in next few days.

Radio Chit Chat

I did a radio commentary for Canadian Broadcasting Company on Wednesday, ranting about Andy Serkis getting snubbed for an Oscar just because he uses "performance capture" technology. Tomorrow Friday, I drive to a Pasadena radio station to record a phone interview with the host of Day Six. Like pretty much everything in life, it's harder than it looks , or sounds - - to read from a script and make it sound conversational. More I did it, the better it sounded. Good producer helped me getting out of my writer head and more into performance mode. The thing airs Saturday Jan. 28, worldwide.

My Dog Huck: International Superstar

Talk about universal appeal: My dog Huck has it. This week an elderly couple from Russia (guessing from their accents) praised the pooch. The little Iranian boy who picks trash with his grandfather every week took a break from his chores when he saw us walking up Tujunga Avenue and cheeped "I like your dog." He's a neighborhood fixture. It's the first time I've seen him smile. The Mexican construction workers eating breakfast burritos in front of a taco truck paused as we (he) strolled by and nodded their heads in approval. The haggard Ukranian nanny in the purple leisure suit and bloodshot eyes tells the baby in her carriage "doggie, hi doggie, bye bye doggie!"

Huck was a scrawny, paranoid desert runaway when Marla and I first found him in San Dimas, California.

Now he's the perfect gentleman. Our very own Oliver Twist.

Cast of Neighborhood Characters

Each time I walk Huck the wonder dog through my stretch of Studio City, we run into familiar faces that have no name.

In no particular order, my neighborhood cast of recurring characters include:

The Gypsy. He packs and unpacks stuff from his pick up truck all through the night, lets his pitbull run free, and gets into a screaming match with his bleach blonde girlfriend at least once a month.

Mensch and Grinch. Middle-aged couple speed walks down the street. Man (Mensch) always says "hi." I always say "good morning" back. Grim woman (Grinch) plows straight ahead.

Barry. This pitbull gets walked every morning by a 12-year old girl dressed invariably in shorts and tee-shirt. I don't know her name but wonder why, at 10 in the morning in November, she's not in school.

The Gay Astronomer. Friendly real estate broker has a beautiful house with an observatory on top.

The Artists. Shirtless and drunk, they throw loud parties nearly every weekend. When I complain about the noise, the hipsters stagger over in their buzzcuts and promise to make cookies, explaining that we should all get along because they are Artists.

The Mayor. My wife Marla chats up so many people about their gardens or dogs during her twice-a-day strolls that it's like she's campaigning for office.

Then there's all the semi-famous TV character actors, but that's another post.

Mixed Bag

Okay, this week I wrote stoires about pygmies in Africa, Christian Brothers pedophilia and the freaky sound effects of monster movie the Thing. I interviewed the showrunners from Lost about their new fairytale series Once Upon a Time. I got up early in the morning to do my first Skype interview (with Swedish director of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). helped Marla pick out spooky photographs for her AOL / Studio City Patch gardening column. I read a book about Darth Vader. I listened to a 12-string guitar track by my Chicago pal J.D. Dragus, who's emailing me contributions to use in my song There Will Never Be Another You. Whew.

Mix Master Lee Popa Gets Busy

Excited to be working with Lee Popa on new songs. We both worked the Chicago club circuit a while back, me as band leader, Lee doing sound for the top clubs. Then he put togther his own anarchy-blues-punk band Slammin Watusis. He's engineered or produced tons of bands including Ministry and White Zombie. Now he's going to mix a few of my songs so they sound radio-ready.

August Song-A-Palooza

Progressing on Idolizer, recording vocals at Amp Rehearsal in North Hollywood last couple of Sundays, and best of all, working with the great mixer/sound engineer/guitarist Lee Popa to do a mix on one of the tunes, All Fall Down. Aiming toward late fall release to get the whole thing mixed, mastered and released.

They Just Keep Coming On by Hugh Hart

Album-in-Progress

I'm working my way through a new album's worth of songs. Most of the recording I do on my MacBook with a keyboard I got at Guitar Center. I use Logic Pro, which my tech wizard Tommy kindly installed when I bought the computer from him.

But I need to sing somewhere i can caterwaul without disturbing neighbors.

I spent two Sunday afternoons July 3 and July 10 up the street at Amp Rehesarsal Studios in North Hollywood. There, I locked myself in a basement room with my trusty Shure 57 microphone and sang All Fall Down, Come Out Swinging, Soul Embrace, Set For Life, Too Many Tears, You Never Crack and Lost and Found.

Next step: I'm excited to bring in Lee Pope, ex-Chicago mixer / guitarist / wild man, to mix at least one of the tracks. Stay tuned!

House of Imaginary Hits

With graphic designer Sean Hartter, I've launched House of Imaginary Hits. Sean designed the "album" cover art for songs pulled from the Hugh archives. Check it out at http://www.hughhart.com/music/hits

Remote Recording

Fun experiment in virtual recording now in progress: I've sent Wedge guitarist J.D. Dragus an .mp3 of "I Owe Everything To You,: a country ditty his voice would be perfect for. I also sent the "Owe" audio file - - piano, bass + drums - - to brilliant multi-instrumentalist John Rice. They both live in Chicago and I'm here in Los Angeles. Rice yesterday emailed me his guitar and mandolin tracks, which I imported into an expanded version of the song, which I've now emailed to J.D., which he will now take to his friend John Carpenter's Thunderclap Studios to sing to. Pretty wild. Like Rice says, "No messy relationship stuff and the coffee's really good."

Reptilian Brain: The Movie

For the sequel to Unemployment Polka, I drew on a bunch of sound and image sources. Credits + specs for Reptilian Brain YouTube music video:

Most of the images come from Machinima filmmaker Lowe Runo, who posted clips on the copyright-free Prelinger Archives.

Beast From 20,000 Fathoms also makes a cameo appearance.

Female vocals by Jesse Maltin and the excellent Vikki Gurdas. were excerpted from my Wrecking Ball musical.

Robot vocals filtered through Final Draft "speech" tool.

Harmonica and other stuff by me.

Recorded on Garageband and mixed on LogicPro laptop recording software.

Video was stitched together on Apple's iMovie editor.

Badly translated movie review

Going through old stuff, I decided to Google-translate my review notes for the opening scene of a 2010 action movie from English to Spanish to Swedish to Swahili and back again:
Eyes guys playing cards
When the walkie talkies comes near we hear: "attack abortion"
They are trying to save the Spanish-speaking children on the bus. Bad guy has a knife in the throat of children
Guys eye children from the bus.
Yellow fire catches up to Bush School, which crashes into mountain.
Losers and the children walked through the jungle and get on the helicopter.
One of the children has a teddy bear.
Jet fires on helicopter. Crashes. "Cobra One - Kill! Teddy bear on fire."
People lose their identity

p.s., It's The Losers

French director words of wisdom

Just got off the phone with renown French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier. He used to work for a tyrant director and says he likes to take the opposite approach. "I am the boss. I don't need to prove I'm the boss." Yes.

A Winter's Song

Busy winter, I've recorded 13 new songs in various stages of completion. Some are for my new record Idolizer coming out in the spring. My classmate Jim Ferguson wrote lyrics for a few of the tunes, which we had the excellent Vikki Gurdas sing in late January. Another song, I've sent to former bandmate J.D. Dragus for guitar contributions, and I'm messing around with the "Machinima" images for a robot dance tune called Reptilian Brain.

Also collaborating with Lonnie Gordon, the great Bronx-born L.A.-by-way-of-London soul singer, pictured above,

Whee!