Los Al a No Go?

June 29 - What a day! Orlando still hasn't gotten back to me. He usually
responds right away. I've left him three messages in 2 weeks and
he hasn't responded. This makes me worried - I think WienerSchnitzel's
PR goons might have put the squeeze on the track and we are
now persona non grata - just like in NYC.

This is without a doubt the most surreal point in my life. Not
in a million years would I ever have believed you if you'd told
me at this point in my life I would be reduced to fighting
battles in order to complete a movie about wiener dog racing.
That people would actively try and obstruct me over the film
as well!!

I realized last night that I need to get clearance from the actors in the Miller
Lite commercial - from '93!!! Trying to find these guys is like
a needle in a haystack. I called SAG and asked if they have any way
of finding out who they are - nope. I then called Miller
Brewing (snake eyes again), and finally my contact at Leo
Burnett Agency's archives - Ilana Pergam. She is the person
who found the initial advertisement for me - buried deep in
the archives. At first she wasn't hopeful but then I got an
email:

Dear Shane, My contact in Broadcast Business thinks
he may have located the box containing records on the Miller
Lite "Wiener Dog Winternationals" spot from 1993. It is
currently at an off-site warehouse and will have to be
located and delivered to me. I'll look through it to try to
find what you need.

Wish me luck!
All the best,
Ilana

How's that for luck!!! Less than 5 hours after I start looking
I might have located them! Cool!

Final bit of good news - Dr. Don Catlin, the top dog of USADA
and Olympic anti-doping agreed to an interview with me! Cool! We're going to
talk about the doping controversy that's developing in my story,
as well as doping in sports (phyisiological and psychological
components). I'm really excited. This is the guy who cracked
the Balco steroid case wide open.

Pornographic minds?

A couple of days ago I decided to put up a new section of our website as a place for people to send post their dachshund pictures and bios. Being the comedian, I decided to name the section "Show Us Your Wiener". Kinda cute. The following morning I awoke to 3 unsubscribes in my mailbox - people requesting to be taken off my list. This was very odd, especially since we've never lost anyone from our mailing list before, so 3 in one day was bizarre.

As I opened each email I was treated to 3 gems like "I was under the assumption that this was a family oriented project. I am saddened and dismayed that you felt you had to stoop to sexual inuendo in order to attract an audience. Please remove me from your mailing list."

Huh?

Are people really that anal retentive that they are offended by a little tongue in cheek? Okay maybe a lot of tongue in cheek, but still... I don't know how these people can navigate the Internet without going off their rocker there's so much overt sexual content out there. I must get a dozen spams a week that are so graphic they'd make Larry Flynt blush. I don't unsubscribe from the net! I move on. I am not going to water down my project to be some vanilla pap to please everyone. So to the three people who were so offended by "Show us your wiener", don't let the door hit you on the ass.

On second thought, please do.

Shane

Hounds, Hounds, Everywhere

Filmed one of the last segments for Wiener today. Charles Baris, international dachshund breed judge, and head of the Knickerbocker Dachshund Club, was up in San Juan Capistrano. We last met at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in NYC last year, and he was great on camera. At the time he refused to comment on the double dapple "scandal", and told me to ask him again in a year. Well, it's a year, so we headed up to get his stance on film once and for all.

We're so close to finished that I can taste it...

Deep In The Heart of Texas

For the past few days we've been in Buda, Texas for the world's largest 2-day wiener dog race, sponsored by the local Lion's club. We wanted to meet up with America's winningest Wiener, Sammy, from Florida, as well as Texas heavyweight and 3-time Buda champ Copper.

Copper becomes four time Buda Champ

As expected, both made it to the final race, with Copper winning in a convincing manner. Over 500 dogs lined up at the line in the largest wiener race in America. We got tons of great footage - now the challenge is in compressing two days down to five minutes. Ugh.