Alright - I confess...

...for years I have been deliberately freaking out total strangers in hotel rooms. No - not like that, you perv - read on...

Being on the road producing and directing Insomniac for nearly three years I found myself in hotel rooms alot. I first struck upon my evil scheme while filming in Boise, Idaho when, after having a shower, I drew a smiley face in the steamy bathroom mirror.

It would have ended there except when I took another shower the next morning the smiley face came back in the steam on the mirror.

"Hmmm..." I thought - in a post-modernish kinda way. "What an interesting form of communication THAT could be."

I began to conduct tests - finding the optimum kind of steam (leave the door open, set the AC around 65 or lower and take a very hot shower - not too long or the water condenses and gets beady and hard to write in) and testing to see if images would still come back even after the hotel maid had cleaned the glass (it does, more faintly, but it comes back - though I have found that the more dilligent the cleaning the more it obscures the original image.)

If you can't see it coming, my plot was quite obvious: to leave messages for guests who would be in the room after I left.

My first message was a simple "You missed a spot." left on the mirror in Boise.

Over time, depending on my mood, other messages have included:
- "Redrum"
- "We're watching you - The Management."
- "Please return towels to the towel rack"
- "Hey Phil!" (A long shot - but imagine if it WAS a Phil!)
- "Bow down before Satan"
- "Checkout time is 1PM AND THIS MEANS YOU!"
- "Your wife called while you were in the shower."
- "Horny gay-male seeks playpal - ring room 406" (This one may have been too cruel as the subject would have to assume that this anonymous horny guy had actually been in their bathroom.)
- "Smile - you are on a new reality TV Show"

and

- "Thimk".

I've never, for obvious legal reasons, been able to be on the scene for the reaction to these messages and, in a way, that suits me fine. I like to imagine that people with a sense of humor get a laugh and that the humorless ones get a fright - which the humorless generally deserve.

So next time you're in a hotel - express yourself!

Comments

[constance]

i like your blog too... ;)

[Mitchissmo]

But.... what about the cleaning crew? They might be a Nick art buzz kill.

[hinty]

How about a hastily scribbled

HEL

with only part of the P ending in a finger and then a handprint trailing down and off the bottom of the mirror...

[Sarah]

Oh, that's cheered me up! & It's gave me an idea for my next hotel visit...which will be next month actually!
How about: -
"This shower will explode in 5,4,3..."
Lame...haha! I have a month to think of some better ones.