Big day? Heat required.

So it's a big day for me today. Off-topic, but I'm directing a music video for HBO tonight, and I'm in charge of a lot of people at a sketchy location. The pressure is on, but I'm feeling good about it.

Needless to say, I'm going to find a heat today. No question about it. Luckily, we're shooting near the oft-touted Finnish Baths in Sherman Oaks (they aren't paying me to plug them all the time on this blog...yet). So trust that I'm going to find a heat before the shoot. And probably five or six after we wrap. Next week is going to be all about heat.

But there are big events in ones life before which a heat MUST be scheduled. A brief list:

Wedding

Quite obvious, but very necessary. Before my wedding, my groomsmen and I hit the now defunct Division Street Baths in Chicago. A memory I'll never loose.

Birth O'Child

For men only, of course. And while our first child is still about four months away, I know that in the week or so before it's due to arrive, I'm going to take my last heat as a solely independent man of the world. And after that kid comes, it will look forward to a lifetime of heat.

Loss/Gain of a Job

Troubled times in the economy, out there. A lot of folks transitioning what they're doing for dough. But all good sweatsmen know it's not what you do for a living that defines who you are. This becomes ever more clear as all the liquid in you body comes out through your skin. So if you find you're losing touch with that reality, I'll meet you in the schvitz.

Death in the Family

I think I might have already written about this, but I can't tell you what a relief it was to see Tony D when I went back earlier in the year to clean out my old man's apartment after his sudden death. I took the train down to the city, the snow was coming down as though it wanted to white out the world and never see it again. I felt like a jazz man in 1933 heading to Kansas City in the middle of winter to play a gig for $5. And I get off the train, just emotionally exhausted and beaten, and there's Tony D with a cup of joe and a jazz cigarette and wheels to take us to the Chicago Sweat Lodge. Two hours in that hot heaven and all was right with the world again.

So today, I think I'm going in on the Gain of a Job reason. Because directing is the gain of a job, and I need a clear head for it, and where else am I going to find a clear head but in the heat.

See you there. I'll be the guy in the shopka.