I met Rocky Collins many moons ago on the set of a movie called Polyester, the film which saw the confluence of Divine, Tab Hunter, Stiv Bators, Edith Massey, and the technological wonder of Odorama: pretty cutting edge to have a movie you could actually smell, when today movies can only figuratively stink. Rocky was living in a tumble-down mansion in Pikesville, and I was sleeping on the floor of the house being used as the set for the movie. We both continued to work in the Baltimore market for a while, but eventually I heeded the call: “Go west, young man.”

Around the time I moved to L.A., Rocky moved to NYC and founded Elevator Pictures.  He was always a great editor, but soon moved into writer/ producer/ director mode.  His indie feature film Pants On Fire won the Audience Award for Best Writer at the L.A. Film Fest, and he’s been nominated for Writer’s Guild Awards, once for the NOVA feature doc, Bioterror, and again for his work on The American Experience.

So naturally he moved to L.A., where he continued to develop projects and author high-end cable docs. He often worked with Lone Wolf Documentary Group, an excellent documentary company based in Rocky’s home state of Maine. As we went through our respective marriage/ career/ whatever insanities, we found time to develop the occasional feature film idea, or at least have a drink once in a while.

So but anyway, cut to some years later. Wife with child, I move back East.  Rocky is among the friends I regret leaving behind in L.A. I pick up with Baltimore friends and start writing, working on movie projects, all the stuff I’ve always done, only now with a whole lot more space.  Another year goes by and lo and behold, Rocky moves his family back to Maine to take on V.P. duties at Lone Wolf.  Maine is closer than L.A., but still too far for me to drive up on a casual visit.

But then, the unthinkable happens. Discovery Communications hires Rocky as an Exec Producer for their Science Channel, and move him and his family to Silver Spring, MD. (Okay, it’s not Baltimore, but close enough!)

The Science Channel is stacked with cool shows like Dark Matters (hosted by the great John Noble), which digs into twisted-but-true weird science. Dark Matters explores zombie cucumbers, genetic tinkerers attempting to create an ape-man army, mad doctors and head transplants, governments and mind control, and other fun stuff from the history of bizarre experiments.  And they keep the science honest.

We’ve gone full circle, geographically and in some other ways, unless of course one of us moves to South America or something.