November 23, 1994

           Starting the grunt-stomp. Tripping over people to get something done on schedule. We are going to try something never heard of in Venezuela: rent a video camera. All the local stores want to sell new, imagine that—and there are no imported bargains.
           The yellow pages (paginas amarillas) show several places that rent audition space (sala de edicion). I’ll begin on Sabana Grande.

           No luck, but a couple of leads—one of them out in Altamira, still worth a chance. It should give a strong impression of the system [in Venezuela] that it is so difficult to rent anything.

           [Author's note 2019: grunt-stomping is my term for having to step on people who get in your way whenever you try to get something done. It's the reason you see old newsreels of the British in India walking through crowd swinging a big stick. He probably had to meet a deadline.]