액땜 (Ak Ddem)

So today, I was cruising around town with my DP Jack, hitting up camera houses for quotes. We decided to have lunch at the California Chicken Cafe on Melrose, and I was looking for parking around the block  when... as I was making a right turn around the corner, I bumped a car that was, to my chagrin, rudely parked in a legal, designated, metered spot in a neat, orderly fashion.

I was still aching from nearly 8 hours of casting the previous day, and we had an early appointment at a camera house which gave us a quote that was almost triple our camera budget, so of course this had to happen.  Just as I was admiring how the film's budget was magically growing and growing everyday, I find yet another way to creatively spend money.

Jack and I waited until the car's meter ran out and the owner returned. Luckily, the owner was gracious enough about the whole thing and didn't give me any grief other than picking up my insurance information. 

액땜 (Ak Ddem) is a Korean word that means exorcism or driving away devils.  When one says, "think of it as if you had an ak ddem," it means "to bear a mishap as the price for forestalling a misfortune of a great degree."

So I'm willing to think of it as that.  I told Jack that this is a sign of good luck for our film.  Jack described it as a christening for a bon voyage. My producer Mike made fun of me for contributing to the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers.