Tattoo – The Film

Amazing as it might seem, Viacom recently bought the film rights to my book, A Tattoo on my Brain: A Neurologist’s Personal Battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. Production of a planned 40-minute documentary is already underway. For the last few days, our house has been converted into a movie set with cameras, lights and sound booms seemingly everywhere.

While most of the shooting was in our house, we did make a run to my favorite coffee shop in Portland, Sterling Coffee. I go there almost daily to get lattes for Lois and me. One of the baristas has a new, beautiful tattoo of an olive branch winding down her entire right arm. She and the owner of the shop allowed us to film there as she described the symbolism of her tattoo and her Greek heritage.  I really hope that that scene makes the final cut because the tattoo metaphor is central to my book.

Yesterday we drove to Beacon Rock in the Columbia River Gorge.  Beacon Rock is truly my favorite place in the world. While having lunch near the boat dock at the base of the Rock, a bald eagle circled overhead, seemingly blessing the expedition.

We climbed the 840 ft to the top more slowly than usual due to retakes, lens changes, and  going back and forth on the switchbacks testing different shooting angles, but we eventually made it to the top. So what could be next in this incredible journey?  Tattoo: The Musical?