Now done with the car trailer, I dispatch Jeff to take it back to David. Sure felt good to unload the deuce and have it back. Would be nice to take it for a drive up Mullholland, the weather is nice... But I don't have the time. This week I must prepare for the MONK scene, coming up around the corner, this Saturday.

MONK

Monk is an old timer I met at Teddy's cafe about two years ago. He is adorable and a darling man, and welcomed me with open arms to his car meet, oftentimes inviting me to join his table and introducing me to all his car friends. Always a sparkle in his eye, Monk likes to burn out with his original three window 1932 blue coupe, as he pulls out of the meet. Monk has seen it all, done it all. He was there at the first SCTA dry lake meet. He has dragraced, street raced and terrorized his neighborhood plenty in his young days... He is a Johnny Callaway. When I show up at the meet, Monk smiles and gives me a big hug : "Hi Frenchy!!"  (Frenchy, that's what he likes to call me)... Having been adopted by Monk meant hearing a lot of cool stories from the old days... One of which will become part of my story line.

Monk is such a colourful character that I decided to depict him in the film. I wrote a very nice MONK scene and I am really looking forward to filming it now, finally... For the last two years, Monk has been kept abreast of the film progress, and I usually will share with him any photos, screengrabs and whatever else I can bring with me to Teddy's Cafe on a Thursday night.

Monk's eyes sparkle when he looks at the screengrabs... Brings back a lot of memories... He is very supportive of my effort and even brought his coupe to one of my night shoot, to help out, despite his frail health. Ah you should have seen Monk that night, looking at all my actors, dressed period correct to 1953 and all the hotrods parked there... He was sooo happy... Sooo happy...

I am really looking forward to going to Teddy's cafe tomorrow to talk to him about his scene and see whether he would like to try out and do a cameo part in the film. In case his acting chops fail him, I have already lined up a professional actor to depict him.. But I hope he might be able to pull it off, cause nothing beats the "real thing"... I really look forward to showing him my new teasers,too in my i-phone. He's gonna love those!

I miss going to Teddy's cafe and I miss Monk. It's been a while... I have been so busy filming seems I never have the time to do mid week car meets anymore...

THE PHONE CALL

The phone rings. I pick up. It's Jim Miller.

"I am calling you because I wanted you to know that Monk passed away  a few days ago."

The news hits me hard. real hard. I believe in life after death, but it is still hard to part. i didn;t know Monk all that well nor for all that long but I must have really loved him because losing him really hurts. Now walking around for the rest of the day with a hole in my heart, I grieve. A splitting headache is tearing my head in two...

As I went to bed that night, I prayed and cried...

Goodbye my sweet friend. Teddy's cafe will never be the same without you. I'm gonna miss you terribly...

Love always,

"Frenchy"

Below: the real MONK, on my set that night, the last time I saw him...