2007 holiday letter

Here's a copy the Christmas letter we sent out this year. If you didn't get one, it's either on its way, it got lost in the mail, or we just don't know you well enough. Anyway, this makes for an easy blog entry. Happy holidays, my dear readers. -Jeff

We had a good year, one that was notably less hectic because it didn't involve picking up and moving to a new state for once. Yes, we were able to settle in and enjoy life in Wilmington, and, as usual, we had the opportunities to take a few trips as well. This year we visited Philly, New York City, D.C., Boston, Miami Beach, Chesapeake Bay, Acadia National Park in Maine, Honduras (Raia only), and, of course, sweet home Minnesota. Our position here on the east coast has been the perfect jumping off point for exploring this part of the country, and we're getting some great photos out of the deal!

Jeff has been busy working for [a small software company we don't name in the blog] and has been excited to witness the the company taking off – it has doubled in size since he started and has been signing some big-named clients. He also started his own mini-business, Moon Lake Multimedia, this year. Since he knows very little about how to actually run a business, he's been focusing on the work for now, specifically by shooting and editing short videos for a local magazine's website. The monthly gig has provided Jeff with some valuable practice in the art of videography and the chance to purchase some increasingly professional equipment.

R continues to work at the DuPont central research facility in an ethylene co-polymer semi-works facility. She likes the small team and varied challenges the job presents each day. In early 2008 she will be moving on to a new, undetermined assignment, so change is in the air! In her spare time she has been taking graduate courses at the University of Delaware towards a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, starting with a challenging math course and now a fluid mechanics course. She also practices yoga and coaches an all-girl Lego robotics team on Saturdays.

This year we enjoyed visits from Jeff's parents and our good friend L. If any of you would like to drop in and take a whirlwind tour of the surrounding area our door is always open, despite a chilly draft in the winter :-)

That's it from us. We hope this note finds you well. Have a holly, jolly Christmas!

A new era begins, as soon as I have some free time

Check out the beautiful piece of electronics above. I don't entirely know how to use the thing yet, but I think it's going to produce some fantastic results. If I can be standing behind it when that happens, all the better.

There are way too many things happening this month. December and May are the two months out of the year that never seem to slow down. They are a constant rush of one thing after another. Right now our highest priorities include finishing up our shopping and getting the holiday letter out the door. There have also been a few surprises recently thrown into the mix, like having to sit in an auto shop for four hours on Saturday only to discover I have to drop the car off during the week for an appointment anyway. Maybe I should have bought a new car instead of the new camera. No way -- I love my car (even though I think R secretly wants to trade it in) and I absolutely love the camera! I want to shout it from mountain tops.

We did have time to go out for a nice dinner at 821 Market on Saturday. I've also been slipping in a few minutes of "wasting" time on my computer here and there too; I'm going to be slowly and carefully posting some more clips from the self-proclaimed infamous "Cottage Cheese" video in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for those. Oh yeah, we also watched a couple of movies over the weekend: Superbad, which was super-better-than-I-would-have-guessed, and an interesting, smaller film called Sleuth, which was playing at Theater N. While we're on the topic of entertainment, R and I will be attending a play on Thursday called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). It sounds like a fun show.

Work has been hectic again too. I still have a remaining, unscheduled vacation day for this year, but I'm not even sure if I'll be able to use it because there are so many things to do before my scheduled vacation begins. There will be some fun events coming up before the holiday too, like a company happy hour and a team dinner in Philly, so I guess work isn't all bad.

My purchasing of this camera is truly a turning point for me. I've got some big ideas and lofty ambitions. Most likely my projects will be stretched out over so much time that my passion for them fades a bit before they are complete, but I'm excited to be able to continue contributing my part to the vast digital wasteland that is the Internet, now, possibly, with an improved aesthetic. I've said it before: I want to make something memorable, even if it's only memorable for me. This new camera reignites my passion.

Honduras holiday special

We have a special guest writer on Jeblog today. My wife, R, is taking the reins to record the details about her recent trip to Honduras. Enjoy the read! -Jeff

Early Thanksgiving morning Jeff dropped me off at the Philly airport to begin my long day of travel to Honduras. I arrived in San Pedro Sula that afternoon, cleared customs with no problems and waited for luggage that seemed to be last off the plane. C met me at the airport and together we took Tela Express bus to Tela on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. We arrived after dark following a slow, long ride in the rain on an old, crowded bus. A good conversation with C made the time fly by. We checked into hotel Maya Vista at the top of a hill in Tela. We enjoyed a shrimp dinner at the hotel restaurant with nice ambiance, candles, friendly staff. We hit the hay early in the Azul room of the hotel, excited to see the rest of the town in the morning.

Bright and early we walked to the top of the hotel to check out the view and get the lay of the land. A beautiful view of the ocean and surronding area awaited. The hotel is on top of a hill and is a very tall hotel with many layers, balconies and hammocks to view the ocean from. We walked into Tela and bought some rambutans (or lychees) to eat on the street near the town square. Tela is a busy city with lots of people, cars, trucks and buses about. After some shopping at a small department store we found a tour company that offered guided tours of the national parks and forests the next day. We signed up for a kayak tour of Punto Izopo National park. In the afternoon we took a cab out of the city to the nearby lush and rainforest-y Lancetilla Botanical Gardens (complete with rain and mosquitos). It was a nice walk in the fresh air with lots of beautiful plants. We ate pizza for dinner and went on a long walk across the bridge to see Tela Neuva and then had an early night in.

Early the next morning we met out tour guide, Melvin, and our four travel companions; a couple from Idaho, a Brit and an Aussi. We all piled into a small pick-up truck and travelled down a long, muddy dirt road through a Garifuna village and to the park. Being the rainy season, the road stopped at a river where we were ferried two at a time across by a woman in a dugout canoe. We hiked for 20 minutes down the rest of the road to the river (Rio Platano) and carried the kayaks for the last 100 meters. During the 1-2 hour tour we saw howler monkeys, birds (the Bujaja) and some alligators. Then we had lunch of shrimp, beans, rice and salad at the Guarifuna village on the beach under palm frond huts. We lounged on the beach and waded in the surf until it was time to head back into town on the long, winding mud road. Back at the hotel we showered, changed and headed out to dinner at El Presidente restaurant with a fellow teacher A, her mother and brother who were also staying at the Maya Vista. A good meal with some good people.

The next morning we took the 7:00am Tela Express back to San Pedro Sula. We had baleadas at the main bus terminal and hopped on another bus to La Entrada. The bus was stopped by the police along the way, who zeroed in on the Gringas to ask for passports and that's when I realized I had left mine in Tela in the hotel safe! C finessed the policia and we continued on our way. Once in La Entrada we borrowed a friendly bus driver's cell phone (C's battery was dead) and worked with the Maya Vista to determine the best option was to send the passport to the Hedman Alas main terminal in San Perdo Sula for pick up on Tuesday morning. The ride from La Entrada to Copan, while the shortest distance traveled that day, took the longest with lots of stops to drop off/ pick up more passengers. We arrived in Copan Ruinas that afternoon and went to C's apartment to freshen up before going out to the Mayan ruins. The ruins were impressive, a slice of history. There were many enormas Cieba trees there, the national tree of Honduras and a soul recharger according to Mayan tradition. A lovely walk around the ruins in the cooler mountain air of the Copan region. C cooked a nice spaghetti dinner with the fellow teachers who live upstairs that we enjoyed together. A walk to a nearby ice-cream store for desert topped off a lovely evening in Copan Ruinas. It is a beautiful town in the mountains with cobble stone streets, and many restaurants, cafes, hotels and places that cater to the gringo tourists that flock to the area to see the impressive ruins outside of town.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed off to school. I was a helper in C's second grade class at the Mayatan School. The children were full of energy and excited to show Miss R things they had found on a nature hike. They were able to practice their English skills on me and I was impressed with their enthusiasm. They were learning about how to add three numbers, the verb "to have" and different animal habitats. I met some of the other teachers C works with, they were all very friendly, some from the US and some native Spanish speakers too. The school is very open with two or so classrooms in each building separated by open grassy-courtyard areas. There were flowers around the edges of the buildings and C's building is up on a small hill overlooking the rest of the school. The children ate lunch at a small cafeteria that served baleadas and other foods I did not recognize but looked tasty. After school that day C and I took the motorcycle to the hot springs, about 27km outside of town along a mountain road into the forest. The hot springs were divided into a two parts, one was more expensive than the other, and we chose the spendy option, which was beautiful! We were first led on a tour of the expansive grounds and all 20 or so different soaking options. There were multiple huts with chairs and tables to enjoy a picnic and two swinging bridges, many stepping stone crossings, terraced pools with paths through the jungle leading to each area. We found a pool suitably cool for the baby and stayed there until it got dark. I tried out one additional pool that was much hotter but did not seem to have a bottom (that I could find any way!). Then it was back to Copan in the dark, out for dinner at a local place where they (sometimes) carry the food (or drinks) on their heads and then home to bed.

I had a very early wake-up call, at 4:00am to catch the Hedman Alas bus back to San Pedro Sula to claim my passport and catch a plane back to the U.S. The bus ride was uneventful (I slept) and I arrived in San Pedro by 8:30am. Thank goodness my passport was there, as specified and I was able to buy an ticket to the airport from the terminal. I did not have C with me, so communication was difficult as I speak little to no Spanish but I managed. I got to the airport about 5 hours early and spend time there before flying back to Miami and then to Philly, arriving back in Delaware at 2:30am. And I did make it work the next day! I had a good trip and was glad to be home.

For more pictures of the trip, go here.

Bud Light Film Crew #12

http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

I probably should have cut this month's video shorter, but since it's going to be the last one I do for a while, I wanted to make it a little extra mega. So ends a full year of Bud Light videos; my next project will be to compile them on a DVD and shelf 'em. I'd like to say the videos improved a great deal over the course of the year, but honestly I think the first one remains one of the best. #4 is probably my favorite, however, just because of the sheer energy and craziness of the St. Patrick's day party that we managed to capture. #6 is easily the worst of the collection, but I blame that on the fact that I didn't personally shoot it (I'm pretty arrogant when it comes to this stuff, aren't I?). #8 and #11 are solid videos, especially in their revised/extended forms (now available on YouTube). Speaking of YouTube, #3 is the most watched of my videos on that site, with 1,155 views, probably because it comes up on searches for the Rock/Paper/Scissors Bud Light commercial that aired during last year's SuperBowl. We don't have a way of counting the number of video views on the Out & About website, but the guys there tell me the Bud Light page is relatively popular.

I'm looking forward to having a few months off from the monthly assignment. My new camera is in the mail! I'm going to need some time to learn how to use it. I'm also going to be switching to a newer version of Adobe Premiere for editing, and there might be a learning curve attached to that as well. All in all, my palette will be expanding in 2008. There will hopefully be some opportunities for commercial work, so that I can finish paying for this camera, but what I'm really looking forward to is doing something more creative -- something that tells a story, something that is, maybe, nice to look at.

T'giving

Hello, friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving 2007 to you. This was a rather unusual one for me as it is the first one I've spent alone. But please don't feel sorry for me. It was my own choice, and I don't have any regrets. I did get to see my lovely wife for a little bit this morning when I drove her to airport (at 3:30 am!). As I alluded in my last entry, she is visiting her sister, who is five months pregnant and living in the country of Honduras. R and I are looking forward to becoming an aunt and uncle to this new person when he or she arrives. It was sweet of R to make the trip down there to check in on her sis and to hand-deliver a big pregnancy care package. She's also hoping to find some time for the beach and to possibly see some Mayan ruins. R is adventurous like that. I'm more the type who likes to relax at home... as if you didn't know that already. The idea of eating my mom's turkey dinner today was appealing too, but I just couldn't deal with the hassle of travel right now. We'll be in Minnesota for a week at the end of December, and I'm sure I'll eat enough then to make up for missing this one.

My meal today was a steak off the grill, a salad, a potato, and some cranberries (see, I got into the spirit). I also enjoyed a jog, some editing time, and a movie. I've got a series of movies lined up for the next few nights that know R doesn't mind missing. Tonight, it was the ultra-bloody 300. Tomorrow, it's the widely-considered-scariest-movie-of-all-time, The Exorcist, which I somehow never managed to see up until this point of my life. And finally, on Saturday, I'm thinking it's gonna be Fire Walk With Me because I'm jonesing for some Twin Peaks but holding out until Christmas for the new DVD box set. Plus, it's going to sound killer on our new sound system.

Speaking of electronics, I am dedicating some effort this week to purchasing a new video camera. This is not an easy task for me since the camera I want is worth more than the current value of my car. All of the money I made from my video work during the last year (14 paid gigs in total) amounts to a little over half the cost. Not only that: buying a camera will end up snowballing into a bunch of other expenses -- a new case, a new wide-angle lens, an extra battery, etc -- all of which are of a professional grade and thus more expensive than I am used to. If I keep up the video work, a new camera should eventually pay for itself, but I still have to wonder if this particular one is more than I need right now. Am I ready to make the jump to HD, even though my current computer won't even be capable of editing it? (I'll have to shoot in standard definition mode until I upgrade -- oh yeah, there's another thing to buy, a new computer.) Even in standard definition though, with 3 CCDs, this camera will shoot better looking footage than I'm shooting now. It's like the difference between using a point-and-shoot versus an SLR in the world of still cameras. The harsh reality of the situation is, if I want to be taken seriously as a videographer, the Sony Handycam I've been using has got to go (or at least become my backup).

I should be thinking about gift ideas for everybody else, not myself. I can't believe the Christmas season is already here. I'm dreading the crowds this year; mall traffic is especially horrendous in Delaware. The lack of sales tax here draws people from all of the neighboring states. I'll make it my goal to do as much shopping as possible online.

Man, this is more than I was planning to write. I guess being alone today has left me loquacious. I have to remember the week is not done yet -- I need to work tomorrow. Time for bedo.

Another awesomely average weekend

The weekend has come and gone. This was another one spent in and around the area. Maybe you aren't interested in reading about an average weekend, so skip this if you want. I personally like to have a record of this stuff, and for that reason I will continue.

On Friday night we attended a surprise 30th birthday party for a friend, Chris, who you might know from his appearances as a host of four of the Bud Light videos. The party was a good time. I spent part of it shooting video that I will be editing down as a gift for the dude. Chris has done a lot for me upon moving to Wilmington, including getting me the connections I have with Out & About magazine. He does IT work for a few different companies and organizations around town, so he might throw me some additional web video work in the future. I look forward to the opportunities.

After Frisbee on Saturday, R and I drove up to Philly to visit Calumet Photographic, where I drooled over the video camera I've had my eye on, and Ikea, where we picked up some shelves and things for the house. We also went to a unique Mexican restaurant called Xochitl (pronounced so-cheet), which, as the name implies, didn't serve your typical tacos and burritos -- R ate cactus and I had steak. We followed dinner up with Blades of Glory on DVD at home, with sleep grabbing us about half way through.

On Sunday we spent a good chunk of time assembling our new shelves and re-organizing the living room. R also made some butternut squash soup that was really tasty, especially on the cool fall day that it was. Before we knew it, night was upon us. I've always had a love-hate relationship with Sunday nights: I enjoy our typical frozen pizza dinner when we get each other caught up from our respective phone calls to the 'rents, but I hate to see the weekend end as another long week looms. Oh well, at least I don't need to deal with Sunday night homework anymore. R, however, is not so lucky. Did I ever mention she's taking graduate courses in engineering at the University of Delaware? That's keeping her busy.

Coming up soon on Jeblog:

• R visits her pregnant sister in Honduras, leaving me to my own devices for six days.
• The first segment in a possible series of late-night written ramblings called "Zomething Different."
• The final Bud Light Film Crew video before I take at least few months off from them. And it's going to be about dodgeball.
• Plans for new video work I will doing during the aforementioned few months off.
• A 2007 year-in-review post.
• More weekend recaps.

With the lid off

A good friend / former roommate visited us over the weekend. He was in Tennessee for work and decided to take the 8-hour drive on over to Wilmington to kill some time when he had a few extra days. On Saturday night we went out to the Iron Hill for dinner and drinks, and on Sunday we showed him around Philly, with stops at the usual historic tourist sites. There was time for a little Super Nintendo in there too. We've been known to like to battle it out Mario-style once in a while. It was a good weekend. Meeting new people gets old; I enjoyed seeing a familiar face and having a history with somebody again. R gets along with the guy too since we all roomed together at one point post-college. I'm glad he made the trip over. Here's to you, L.

Bud Light Film Crew #11 - Censored

The shoot for the November video was our wildest one yet. It took place at the tailgating event before a University of Delaware football game, and the college kids there were wasted. There were times when they erupted into melee, spraying beer everywhere, throwing full cans in the air, dousing their friends. One gentleman took his pants off and attempted to get on camera. Everybody was willing to chug a beer... for a free beer. Unfortunately (and understandably), Bud Light and the university do not want to be associated with over-consumption, so my first cut, which included some of the craziness (but purposely not all of it), was rejected. I had to remove 20 seconds, perhaps the heart of the video, in order to appease the censors. That was painful for me. I have decided to restore some of the footage in the version that will be on my compilation DVD and possibly on YouTube after a while. Watch out for it. Until then, you can see the censored version here:

http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

Now's the time on Sprockets when we dance

There you have it -- we dressed as Sprockets this year. And there's our 3rd annual "mimic the pumpkin" photo too. In case it's not obvious, we carved a :-) smiley face into it. I guess the nose should have been skinnier. Anyway, the Halloween loop was a lot of fun last Saturday night. A few random people at the bar were able to identify our costumes without any hints, but most just didn't have the knowledge of past pop culture to figure it out. I mean, who doesn't know who Dieter is? My favorite costumes of the night: Teen Wolf and Dwight Schrute.

Gotta run. I'd like to watch a scary movie tonight, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen. Time is running short. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Spoon, man

R and I went into Philly last Friday night to eat dinner at a great neighborhood Italian restaurant and to see the band Spoon in concert. It may have been due to the opening act getting stuck in traffic and not showing up to perform, but the show started off a bit stiff and cold. However, by the time Spoon's font man, Britt Daniel, unraveled a freaked out, distorted guitar solo in "My Mathematical Mind," I believe the crowd was officially won over. The guy can wail, both on guitar and vocally. He can't be accused of lacking passion either. I never really took the time to get into Elvis Costello, but I have a feeling this is what he was like at the height of his powers. Spoon's timing was spot on. They have a way of performing such tight, punchy pop songs that each seem like more of a feat than some overly long, "epic" jam that another band might pull to waste 10 minutes of concert time. Spoon are masters of restraint and minimalism. Never heard of this band? I suggest starting with Girls Can Tell or Kill the Moonlight, but you really can't go wrong with any of their albums (with the possible exception of the less polished Telephono).

The other band I'm really digging right now is The National. I've only heard their latest album, Boxer, but it is currently blowing me away. I'm quite sure this is going to be my favorite album of 2007. Each song on it is chill-inducing and absolutely gripping. By the time a song is done I'm anxious listen to it again, yet I'm too thrilled by the next song to actually go back until I'm through the whole album. The lead singer's vivid descriptions, enhanced by the haunting textures and moods of the music make for a very visual listen. In fact this is the first set of new music I've heard in a while that makes me want to take out the camera and shoot a music video, probably one that takes place in the middle of the night. It's very inspiring like that.

More about the weekend: On Saturday night we attended a Halloween party thrown by a coworker of R's. Do you want to know what we dressed up as? If you can wait until next week, I'll post a photo. On Sunday afternoon we took a fun bike ride. R and I usually try to find paved trails to bike on, but it didn't happen this time. We were with two other couples and they took us biking on what was essentially a hiking trail. It was pretty rough riding, but we didn't mind the challenge for a change.

I'm in Madison once again this week for work. My first two times out here I was so hyped up on adrenaline that I barely slept. This time the work isn't as demanding and the newness and excitement of business travel is wearing off. So now it just feels more like work--work without the promise of going back to the comfort of home and eating dinner with my wife. It's also torture to not be able to edit the latest Bud Light video while I'm here. I still need to put a lot of time into it before the month ends. So far the highlight of this week has been our dinner out at Ruth's Chris Steak House (a national chain, but a good one) last night. I had the filet, and it was cooked to absolute perfection -- totally worth the two hour wait to get our food. Wow, it was good.

Commercial break, Lynch-style

I thought you might like to see this new commercial directed by David Lynch. It's only airing in Europe, but thanks to YouTube we can all enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOGNyV9ngMk

While we're at it, here's another favorite from a few years ago. It congures up Eraserhead imagery while advertising for the Playstation 2. Well done, if I do say so myself. And I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msMehuZo3x8

And here's an oldie -- a public service annoucement from the talented Mr. Lynch. They don't make 'em like this anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSWv90msTUc

Finally, check out the trailer for the new Twin Peaks DVD collection coming out soon. This must be where pies go when they die.
http://www.movieweb.com/dvd/news/86/23686.php

Wilmington weekend

On Friday I received an annual review at work and it turned out to be the most positive of my career so far. I'm glad they seem to appreciate the effort I have been putting in. They gave me a raise too, which felt well deserved under the circumstances. I don't think they could ever pay me enough to make it worth missing out on time with my wife and my hobbies, but a little extra money doesn’t hurt anything either. We celebrated on Friday night with drinks and sushi. Afterwards we watched Ordinary People on DVD, which I liked quite a bit.

On Saturday morning, R went to her weekly Lego League session and I played some Ultimate Frisbee at Rockford Park. I'm hoping to make the game a fixture in my Saturday schedule, at least on weekends when we are in town. There’s nothing quite like running until you drop to make you feel better about being alive.

In the afternoon we attended the wedding of local filmmaker Gordon D. and his bride Cindy. I worked with the two of them during Gordon's movie shoot last summer, and the four of us have subsequently become occasional dinner partners and decent friends. The wedding was a good time. I was able to reunite with some of the film crew and hear of the some recent success stories (e.g. our key grip is now working behind the scenes of HBO's The Wire). We met some interesting new people too. It was an artistic, creative crowd. I tend to get along better with people like that -- people who think about things other than baseball or the ever-so-popular football -- so it worked out pretty well.

Sunday was relaxing, yet productive around the house. There's not much else to say about Sunday other than it capped a nice weekend. It's the normal, well balanced weekends like this one that I like best.

Man overboard!

As a reward for the extra work my team has been putting into a recent project, my company gave nine of us the afternoon off last Thursday to take a boat ride down to Chesapeake City, MD (via the Delaware River and C&D canal). We got there around mid-afternoon and proceeded to eat fresh crabs and drink beer at The Tap Room for 3 hours. It was a little before sunset when we pushed off for the ride home. That's when the day got interesting -- our boat stalled when we were about a third of the way back, and it didn't start again. A thick fog rolled in just as the sun sank, completely engulfing us. The next thing we knew we were surrounded on three sides by blackness. On the fourth was a river dredger the length of a cruise ship that was slowly swinging back and forth, to deepen the canal. It provided hazy light as we drifted dangerously closer to it before our anchor finally took effect in the 50-feet deep water. Once secure, we tried to arrange for a tow, hoping for one that would bring us all the way back to the landing from which we left. Over two hours of bobbing in place later the Coast Guard found us, with a little help from their GPS. They had called off our towboat because of the extremely poor visibility and brought us to the nearest landing themselves with only a computer screen to show them where to go. On the dock, as were waving good-bye and thanking the Coast Guard, one still-intoxicated member from our group started flailing his arms and reaching out to nothing as he fell backward into the water. "Man overboard!" yelled someone from the Coast Guard crew. Don't worry, folks, it turned out to be only three feet of water into which he was submerged. But that didn't stop everybody from panicking at first. The ex-lifeguard (current software quality assurance analyst) with us was ready to jump into the water to save the guy. Instead he dropped to his stomach and reached an arm out with a shout of "DOUG, I GOT YOU!!" Yes, it was easily the most hilarious moment of the day.

A crowded mini-van ride later we were returned to our cars in Port of Wilmington. We all managed to survive the reward trip. The technical problems and tardiness of our delivery were actually well representative of the project for which we were being rewarded. I didn't expect anything less.

Bud Light Film Crew #10

I was in Madison for work again last week, which kept me from posting a blog entry (sorry, diehard readers) and made it more difficult to finish this month's video in time. But it did get done and posted: http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

This one is notable for bringing Kim back as a host. You may remember her as the extremely intoxicated girl from our St. Patrick's day video, who showed up again briefly, and even more funnily, in last month's outtakes reel. I hardly recognized her when we met for the latest shoot. She was completely sober this time and determined to redeem herself in the eyes of the friends who discovered video #4 online and gave her a hard time about it. In all honesty, the drunk Kim brought more humor and playfulness to the job than the sober one. But no offense to her; she did some fine, if more conventional, work here.

It's funny--the film "crew" seems to be shrinking. For this video, it consisted of me and the two hosts. Don't get me wrong, I like having the freedom to do what I want with the video, but I do miss having somebody there to help line up interviews, corral our very social hosts, and generate ideas for questions and lines. I usually keep my eye in the camera's viewfinder the whole time, and that takes up enough of my attention to not be able to prepare the content, especially since we make it up as we go. The raw footage for this month's video was lacking in both content and technical accomplishment as a result of trying to focus on both (or neither). Some months we have a surplus of good stuff to use in the final cut; this time I had to stretch what we had and hide some of the problems behind the editing. In the end, the video turned out better than I expected, but it's not our finest work.

I've been questioning the future of the BLFC lately. We'll definitely finish out the year, but is the magazine going to want to continue these into 2008? In some ways it would be a relief to be done with them. I would appreciate the extra time to work on my own personal projects (I still want to make that one web video that changes the world of web video forever). But I also hate to close the door on such a fun gig, especially when I'm on the verge of buying a new video camera and will want the chance to show off what it can do. Maybe I should lobby to replace the Bud Light work with CityLife News Team videos. I put one of those together earlier this year but was unable to commit to doing them regularly. Agreeing to a year of these videos would be a good opportunity to gain more professional experience. Then there's always the possibility of me giving full-time videography a shot, in which case I would want all the work I could get. I'd probably need a video gig for every day of the month. We'll have to see what transpires in the coming months.

The absolute other end of Interstate 95

Her eyes all swimming pool blue
Dumb bells on a diving board
Baby's always attracted to the things she's afraid of
Big girl with the sweet tooth
Watches the skinny girl in the photo shoot
Freshmen squeaky clean
She tastes of chlorine
-U2, “Miami”
The company I work for is known, at least among themselves, for working hard and for playing hard. This weekend we played hard in Miami Beach. They flew 180 of us down there (with a relatively small charge for guests), put us up at a spectacular resort on the ocean for three nights, and treated us to good food and way more drinks than we needed. It was a whirlwind weekend and all-around great time. One highlight was on Saturday when we participated in an intense 3-hour scavenger hunt around the area. My team of six was so close to winning the $5,000 grand prize that it wasn't even funny. We've been kicking ourselves for losing it ever since.

Otherwise, company moral is up. It's amazing what a little beach time can do.

New England expedition

Beantown:
Hoofing it:
Rugged terrain:
Heading up Cadillac Mountain:
Hazy sunset: Finally getting the chance to watch the Inland Empire DVD:
R and I returned home on Saturday from a week of exploring the upper east coast. It was an adventurous vacation--impeccably planned by R--and a success for a multitude of reasons but particularly, at least for me, because I felt completely refreshed and renewed. Yes, the circles under my eyes had disappeared (but have since come back due to a harsh re-entry to the grind).

Our trip began with a drive up to Boston where we spent three nights at a bed & breakfast in the city's South End, a neighborhood known for its selection of excellent restaurants. Be assured we made use of this fact by consuming three memorable dinners while we were there. Luckily we also did a lot of walking to counter the calorie intake.

On our first full day in town we walked the Freedom Trail, which led us to a bunch of historic sites from the Revolutionary War (e.g. Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's house, churches, cemeteries, naval ships, etc). For those interested in not-so-distant American history, we also came across the bar from Cheers : ). That afternoon, we made our way through both the Harvard and MIT campuses, with a stop at a Havud bah for a drink in between. There was mental energy in the air, or maybe it was only enthusiasm over the Red Sox game airing on the TV.

Our second full day was spent seeing Boston by water. We took a harbor tour on a boat with stops at a few islands to see an old fort, some modern art exhibits, and some great views of the city. On our way back we dropped by the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum for some additional culture. To be honest, I didn't connect with the museum. The art seemed murky and repetitive. Maybe the collection was too focused on a time and style I'm not into. Or maybe my feet were too sore by then to really give it a chance.

Boston is a cool city. It seems more realistically livable than NYC, but it's crackling with character all the same. Definitely worth visting.

The next day we headed north--way north--to Acadia National Park in Maine. We had a blast there as well. Again, there was a lot of walking involved. We basically hiked for two days with a day of bicycling (on rentals) in between. It's an amazing park because it contains these mountains right along the coast, making for some beautiful vistas and rugged terrain.

There were probably a lot of people in the park, but for some reason it seemed really easy to escape the crowds and get out on a hiking trail on our own. We'd also build a fire at night and it would blacken out the rest of the campground. The park was the perfect place to spend some quality time together, just the two of us. We drank red wine and ate s'mores that fueled some crazy dreams during extra long nights of sleep.

Our good eating continued into the camping trip too. One night we went out for some very large, very fresh lobsters. The other nights we cooked at the campsite--salmon cakes with asparagus, chicken sausages with zucchini and squash, not to mention some killer blueberry pancakes for breakfast on two mornings. R might also want me to mention that she started each of our six campfires with only one match each. She's a pro.

Getting away from a computer screen, breathing fresh air, and seeing the stars again was a treat. Ah, I miss the vacation. Good thing we have another one coming up REALLY soon. Details next week.

Bud Light Film Crew #9

Check out the September video when you get the chance: http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

You'll see we didn't shoot anything new for this one. It's a collection of unused material from the previous videos. That might sound like a lazy way out, but it actually ended up being more work than usual because I had over five hours of footage to sift through. Technically I could have started compiling something like this months ago, but we didn't decide to do it until it became too late to plan another shoot. Plus, I got so busy with my day job that the only time to edit I had was late at night when I finally put my other work away, and by then I was in a daze from staring at a computer monitor for way too long. So this might be another video that I continue to tweak when I can devote more time and attention to it.

Take me out to the UST alumni event

We attended a Baltimore Orioles game on Sunday when they played against the Twins. Our alma mater had an east coast alumni meet-up in a suite at the stadium. We didn't know anybody in this group, but at least we all had one thing in common with them. Anyway, the Twins won and we got to eat a bunch of ball park food. We also took a walk through Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which I hadn't seen before despite its relative proximity to us.

Speaking of good eats, we had some people over on Saturday night to make mini-pizzas on our grill. The 'za turned out well. I recommend giving it a shot. You just throw some rolled out dough on the grill, flip it, and then load it up with sauce, a pile of veggies, and cheese. Yum.

That's about all I have time for. More to come soon!

Four pillows too many

I'm in Madison, Wisconsin this week for work. The expensed meals and drinks out are nice, but the long hours are a killer. When they pull you away from your family and the usual distractions found around home there is no longer an excuse to not work ALL THE TIME, except of course when we are eating dinner. My coworkers made it their goal to make me gain 20 pounds this week. Having a beer belly is a company policy.

IE anticipation all over again

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, David Lynch's Inland Empire comes out on DVD tomorrow. I need a second viewing before I can form a clear opinion on this one. It's such an irregular monstrosity; all I could do during my first viewing was soak up the overall tone. I haven't completely decided if it's a masterpiece or an incoherent mess (but I'm obviously leaning toward the former). More important, perhaps, is the question of whether or not Lynch is repeating himself, as there are some uncanny similarities between this and some of his other films.

First there was Lost Highway -- an extremely dark film about infidelity, jealousy, and guilt. Then Mulholland Dr. came into being. It starts out brighter but eventually spirals into blackness with themes of unrequited love, jealousy, and guilt. Now IE arrives. Like its siblings, it is dark, it takes place in LA (the city of dreams), and it uses a very similar identity-swapping device to capture its themes from multiple perspectives. There are also recurring motifs among the three films: red curtains; mysterious women who are distinctly blond or brunette; and sinister, metaphysical beings.

It makes me wonder, is Lynch’s latest release the cap to a trilogy? Is it a summation of all of his prior work (FYI: I once thought the same thing of Mulholland Dr.)? Or is he just running out of ideas? Honestly, I doubt that. Even if you remove all of the elements that IE has in common with the other films, there are still enough unique ideas and images to fill a movie. I believe he packed it full of allusions to his own work (and not just LH and MD) for a purpose. He wants to take everything we think we figured out about the worlds he has previously created and spin it wildly about, splattering it on the walls. Just when you think things couldn't get any weirder, Lynch manages to defy expectations again. He also inserted self-references to reward close watching (and rewatching) by fans. Why is there a man sawing through a log during the closing credits other than to wink at Twin Peaks?

That's not to say this is responsible filmmaking. In fact, it's way overindulgent at times. Lynch was probably given too much freedom on this project. I have begun to appreciate tight editing and restraint in filmmaking. Yet I don’t watch Lynch for what he withholds. When I watch his work, I want as much of it as possible. I care more about atmosphere than logic and reality. Lynch leads with feelings and moods. His movies have all these ideas just floating around in the air. They never quite settle into place; if they did, then there'd be nothing left to discover, nothing to think about while you lay awake in bed (not because you can't sleep but because you don't want to), no reason to buy the DVD when it becomes available.

I may not find the opportunity to watch a three hour movie or the 75 minutes of deleted scenes any time too soon., but I'll be stopping at Best Buy on my way home from work tomorrow because I'm anxious to simply hold it in my hands.

Cape Cantaloupe

We took our bikes down to the beach on Saturday. We parked the car at Cape Henlopen (or, as I call it, Cape Cantaloupe) and biked the trail into Rehoboth with a stop at the outlet mall along the way for some shopping and frozen yogurt. To complete our loop and to fulfill the promise of adventure, we found ourselves on a trail on the way back where bikes are prohibited by law, probably for our own good. We ended up pushing them through a bug-ridden marsh and then, further on, trudging up and down over some major sand dunes for much further than we expected. Upon our successful return to the cape we hit the beach where an immense crowd was slowly being condensed due to a rising tide. The waves were the biggest I have ever boogied. It's a rare case when I back down and have to swim under a wave rather than take it head on, but it happened quite a bit on Saturday. I was still pounded and thrashed repeatedly. After that we drove—the car this time—back to Rehoboth and ate some terrific seafood at Café Zeus. It was a fun, active day. Our training for New Zealand has officially begun.

Recent DVDs watched, with ratings:
Gattaca - 4.5/5
Zodiac - 3.5/5
The Last King of Scotland - 3.5/5
Little Children - 3.5/5
The Queen - 3/5
Shaun of the Dead - 3/5
Derailed – 2.5/5
Deja Vu - 2/5

Good old New Zealand

We've been talking about it for a long time, but a few weeks ago we finally put our money where are mouths are. We purchased tickets to New Zealand! For two weeks in February 2008 we will be hiking, biking, and kayaking (okay, and driving) all around the south island. Until then we are going to be in training because that sounds like quite a work out. One thing is for sure: we need to have a working camera before this trip.

Buzzzzzzzz...

...like a bee, a busy one. Last week was nuts. I put in over 70 hours of work at the office. One day I showed up at 8:15am and didn't leave until 1:30am. Then I drove home and worked some more. The next night, it felt early leaving at 10:30pm. Further complicating things, there was a lot going on at home. R was attending a local conference for a few days and they put her up the swanky Hotel DuPont, despite it being only a few miles from our house. I didn't want to pass up the chance to stay in the 5-star, luxury accommodations, so I joined her there for two nights. There were other surprises last week too, like coming home from work to all of the fire alarms in the house going off at the same time for no reason at all. Then there was the unfortunate news about R's grandpa, as well as the (unrelated) bridge collapse in Minneapolis, both of which weighed heavy on our hearts and minds. With a little finangling, we were able to get R home to Minnesota for the funeral on Friday. I'm glad she was able to attend and say good-bye. I remained here, working away. By Saturday evening I was beyond tired of staring at a computer screen and my body was begging for a bike ride. Hitting the trail (or shoulder of the road, as it was) never felt so good. The cold beer afterwards, too, was appreciated more than usual.

Things have settled down this week, although work is volatile enough to change that in an instant.

Bud Light Film Crew #8

The August video is up: http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

The Starboard is a fun place to shoot. The people actually like us there. That's the biggest difference between this video and the last one--during the shooting of the previous video, we'd walk into the bar and everyone would shout "Miller Lite rules" or yell at me to shut my camera light off or put their hand over my lens. Maybe it's all in the timing; we need to get to the bar after everyone loosens up but before they get so sloppy drunk they forget all their manners. Unless we decide we want to explore the darkness of human nature in a future video, we need to get that right. We did at the Starboard, both times we shot there. It also helps that our host Jeff Reed is some kind of local celebrity at this place. He was in his element.

The strength of this video is the vibrant color we gained from shooting in daylight for the first time. The weakness is that it could use some tightening up in the editing. No matter how much time I have to work on these things, they always seem to get rushed out the door at the last minute.

One more thing... I was unable to use any of the 20 minutes of beer pong footage I shot. Apparently Bud Light doesn’t want to be associated with the game. I'm not sure why. Maybe they chose rock, paper, scissors as their drinking game and Coors got beer pong. All I know is I was forced to leave out some dynamic shots that would have added some action to the video. Maybe they'll make it into the director's cut.

Leslie, 1916 - 2007

R's grandpa died on Monday night at his home in Sartell, MN. He lived a long time and led a good life, but it's still hard to say good-bye, especially for those close to him, such as the women pictured above. R and I were lucky enough to visit him over our 4th of July vacation, and R was able to talk to him on the phone just last Sunday.

Grandpa O. was a Navy veteran; he was an excellent speller; he liked to sing in a barber shop quartet; he gave the benediction at our wedding reception. He was much more than that too. We are sorry to see him go but happy to have had him in our lives for as long as we did.

Come dance this silence down through the morning

Wilmington doesn't draw many big name musical acts. If you want to see a concert around here, it's generally accepted that you need to drive into Philly do so. That's all fine and good--you can't beat the selection offered there--but once in a while it's nice to get from home to the venue in 15 minutes, even if it means your options are somewhat limited. Sunday night we attended an outdoor concert that would have been totally awesome 10+ years ago but was still pretty dang good now. It included the likes of Collective Soul, Live, and Counting Crows. Each of these bands is still putting out music today, but it's an understatement to say it gets less play than their music did in the 90s. They pretty much stuck to the hits on Sunday. There were a few cases where I thought to myself Oh yeah, I forgot all about this song. So I enjoyed the show. And at least we didn't feel like the oldest people in the audience this time.

We were able to stand quite close to the stage, and I would have had a great photo for you, but we are having some difficulties with our camera these days. The thing has been turning on and off with a mind of its own, quickly wearing down the batteries. We might be in the market for a new one soon. If anybody has any recommendations for a decent camera, let me know. I'm feeling lost without one.

Minnesota dreamin'

This photo comes courtesy of my mother-in-law. She took it during our recent visit to Minnesota. I think she really captured the essence of the trip : )

We were on the go again last weekend. We drove down to Virginia for a reunion with R's extended family and spent Saturday night in a hotel there. It was a good time.

It turns out I'm not feeling particularly wordy tonight. I might see about going downstairs and falling asleep on the couch.

Minnesota eating tour 2007

Two weeks ago I had my busiest, most stressful week of the year. Last week I had my most laid-back and relaxing one. Together, they balanced out to an average two-week period that I need to get you caught up on. Time is a factor as I write this, so forgive me if it gets a little sloppy.

The cause of my stress was, of course, my job. I was expecting a busy week, but I never saw the extent of the overtime hours and flat out mental exertion coming. At 5:30 on Monday evening, my boss gave me a week's worth of work to do... and he needed it done that night. Well, getting it done that night was impossible, but I did finish by Wednesday evening after working on it for pretty much two days straight, taking breaks only for dinner, commuting, and a few hours of sleep. I was telling myself I would take it easy for the rest of the week, but Thursday and Friday were frantic, full days of work as well.

Needless to say I needed a vacation. It started out strong with a four-course dinner at the grand opening of a Wilmington restaurant called The Exchange. We met some friends from Out & About magazine there and had a great meal of gazpacho, salad, steak (salmon for R), and a French toast dessert. I had a beer with the first course and a glass of wine specially paired with each of the others. What a way to end a tough week. I recommend the place.

We got home late that night, packed for our trip, and slept for three hours before catching a flight out of Philly. We were in Duluth by early afternoon. My parents picked us up and took us to their place on the Range. That night we attended my 10-year high school reunion. I enjoyed seeing my old classmates again, some of whom I hadn't seen in the full 10 years. It was as interesting as expected, but I was more than happy to leave at the end of the night. We went back to my parents' and crashed into bed like a train off the tracks.

The next day we ate a turkey dinner with my grandparents and also stopped by my cousin's house to see his and his wife's new baby. That night and the next day we hung out with my parents and ate some more -- my parents' famous South Americans, dinner at the Wandering Pines, fresh walleye prepared by my talented mom, and various other snacks and desserts. The weather was poor, but we still managed to play some ladder ball, go for a pontoon boat ride, and soak in the hot tub. The relaxing had begun.

On Monday night we headed west for my father-in-law's house, where we woke up on all three mornings to massive breakfasts. There was also a wild rice meatloaf dinner comsumed at Itasca State Park's Douglas Lodge that was quite memorable. It was a good visit. I was able to relive my youth with my cool 11-year-old brother-in-law by taking the Super Mario World by storm. The two of us also took a spin on a carnival ride called The Orbiter on the night of the 4th that had me hanging on tighter than I like to admit. The rides were set up in Bemidji, the town we visited to see some fireworks. Our time with R's pop, bro, and sis also included a mosquito-y hike to a fire tower, an afternoon at the beach, and many fierce games of croquet.

The third leg of our trip was spent at R's mom and step dad's house. By this time in the week, the weather was perfect, and we made use of it on the lake, swimming and sailing. The eating continued as well -- think shrimp, grilled steaks, good beer, and tons of summery finger food. We made a trip down to Sartell to visit R's grandparents (and eat a pizza) and also spent an afternoon back on the lake with R's extended family. Good times and good people.

We spent our last night in Duluth catching up with my older brother and his wife. He was nice enough to wake up at 3:30 on Sunday morning to drive us to the airport. The return trip was pleasantly uneventful. It felt really good to get back here early enough on Sunday to do the laundry, buy groceries, and even take an afternoon nap before beginning another busy week.

Recurring themes of the vacation: food, relaxation, and family (like, but not quite like, the loons above). Thanks to all of our accomodating hosts!

Bud Light Film Crew #7

Sorry I'm a little late with posting this month's video. I've been vacationing in Minnesota for the last week. We'll be back on Sunday. I'll try to report about the trip some time after that.

The lighting in the video looks better this time. However, there are still some problems with the overall flow... I also had to stretch my cover shots rather thin... and I was a bit rushed when I made the graphics... but I'm not going to write about those things because R wants me to remain positive on here. Let's just say the video is a fine addition to my catalogue. At least this time I can take credit for all of the mistakes since I was able to do the shooting and editing myself. I must say, I continue to get quite a kick out of working on these things.

I need to get back to my vacation. Check out the video here:
http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

Shiver me timbers

Once in a while it's fun to go against one's better judgement and make a trip to the movie theater to see a summer blockbuster the way it's meant to be seen. Despite hearing the mixed reviews and not being all that crazy about the other films in the series, we found ourselves at the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie on Saturday night. It was R's pick, but I was fine with the choice. I figured I owed it to myself to see one of these movies on the big screen after having seen the second one on 13-inch television in the woods over our Christmas vacation last year. When it comes down to it, I'm a sucker for a good action movie. This one delivered in that respect, although the action seemed highly condensed into the last 40 minutes or so. Until that point I was shaken by the difficultly I had in following what was going on. I even caught myself nodding off a few times, which, I will say, rarely happens to me in a theater that I spent $10 getting into. I consider it more an indication of me not getting enough sleep last week, and my plot-following problems were probably related to me nodding off a few times during the second installment, which I can justify because, again, I saw it on that 13-inch screen! In case I need to further justify my light slumber, I could also place some blame on the wine that had been consumed at a BYOB restaurant before the movie on Saturday and before/during the one we saw over Christmas. My joke to R was that seeing a trippy Pirates movie in 2007 with a wine buzz is akin to seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey while high in the late 1960s, at least from what I hear. Anyway, I digress. When the movie ended, I didn't think I liked it much. Yet, for some reason, I woke up this morning wanting more. Many of the visuals from the movie were stuck in my head. I started to appreciate the wealth of ideas, the spilling over of story, the ragged wardrobe contrasting with the colorful settings, the coarse pirates of kids' daydreams seeking out adventure for adventure's sake. Maybe it just takes time for an adult to give in to the fun and to stop thinking so much. I went out for a roller-blade ride this afternoon during which my head was filled with thoughts of my childhood: of how we used to assume the Gilbert cemetery was haunted, of how one time I tried to ride my skateboard down the steep road to "the pit" and got going so fast the deck shook until I was thrown into a water-filled ditch half way down, of how we used to camp out in our back yards so we could explore the neighborhood in the middle of the night. If I have a point, it is that the Pirates movies are movies I would have loved as a kid. And it upsets me now to think I could fall asleep during them.

Nerdy and numb

As if I'm not nerdy enough already, I began writing some pulp science fiction the other day. It's one of those projects I'm starting that I'll probably never finish. I just like planting a plot idea once in a while and seeing where it goes without getting hung up on the details. If I were really brave, I'd post chapters on this blog as I write them. But, yeah, no.

Helping fuel this nerd complex of mine, R and I went to a barbeque at one of her coworkers' home on Saturday night, and I realized that I'm really out of touch with drinking games (or, more likely, was never in touch with them in the first place). Apparently beer pong can be played without paddles. And how about this game called Thumper? What do the neighbors think of the rowdy group sitting out on the deck pounding on a table and yelling obscenities? I think it's pretty well accepted here on the east coast. It just sounds like a day at the office. The neighbors probably aren't home anyway -- they're probably all at the office.

You know what? They aren't kidding when they say soda can rot your teeth. A few years ago my dentist told me as long as I don't drastically change my diet I should never have a cavity in my life. I used to drink maybe one soda a month. Since beginning work with my new company, where the soda flows freely, I switched to about one can per week. Apparently that slight change in diet was enough to give me my first two cavities. Strangely enough, I started flossing regularly in the last six months as well as using the, supposedly, best electric toothbrush on the market (the Oral-B Triumph). Maybe it was too little too late, but those precautions were taken to work on my gums -- I wasn't even concerned about cavities. Anyway, good-bye, perfect teeth. I'm done with soda, by the way.

Two weeks ago we went to the Greek festival, last week it was the Italian festival, and this week we'll likely drop by the jazz festival. It's that time of year in Wilmington, I guess.

I hope this day finds you well. Farewell for now.

Taking the show on the road

We spent the weekend a couple of hours south of Wilmington in Dewey Beach, DE, a small town notorious for its wild summer bar scene. You may have witnessed a bit of the madness in the April Bud Light video, which took place at the most popular bar there, the Starboard. We did a double shoot in Dewey this weekend, capturing more drunken craziness that you will have the opportunity to see in July and August.

On Saturday night we followed a team of professional surfers around to a series of bars where they greeted their fans and signed surf boards (although, to be honest, hardly anybody knew who the surfers were). During mid-day Sunday we revisited the Starboard for what they appropriately call "Suicide Sunday." I've never seen so many people intoxicated at 1:00 in the afternoon (but the 4th of July in my hometown has come close). It was difficult to get any intelligible interviews, but I still think the August video is going to look great. It was our first day-lit shoot so that should at least distinguish it from anything else we've done.

It was a good weekend. R and I got some beach time, went out for some excellent Japanese food, and had a free place to spend the night only a few blocks from the water. Now we're home -- work is off to a busy start, and I need to set aside some time to edit.

Top 5 in music

They say the music you listen to between the ages 17-20 is the music that you compare everything else to for the rest of your life, and nothing else ever quite stacks up against it. This must be true because my lists appear rather out-dated. It's not that I think everything was so much better in the past. There's been a lot of new music released in the last few years that I absolutely love (e.g. Spoon, M. Ward). I just haven't had the chance to connect with it on the same level as the albums/songs listed below. When I was in high school, buying/receiving a new album was a big event, and I played the heck out of each one. These days I feel over exposed to a flood of new music and probably don't give one album/song a chance to develop so many associated memories. But who knows -- maybe 10 years from now bands like The Decemberists or Sufjan Stevens will become my nostalgic favorites.

I could write an essay about each of these. I'm limiting myself to about one sentence for each just to keep this under control.

Favorite albums:

1) Achtung Baby by U2 - Simply put, a perfect album then and now; a complete reinvention for the band and for what music could mean to me.

2) Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins - The inspiration for almost everything creative I did during high school.

3) The Joshua Tree by U2 - Reminds me of driving up the north shore with my dad, driving home from the last day of school, driving down to Mobile to be with R, driving...

4) OK Computer by Radiohead - I started with an obsession over The Bends, but this is the one complex enough to keep me returning to it regularly after all these years.

5) Funeral by The Arcade Fire - A relative newcomer that brings the nostalgia with it.

Honorable mention: Disintegration by The Cure - This album is probably the most representative of my favorite style of music: downbeat, atmospheric, electronically tinged.

Favorite songs:

1) "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak - Too self-serious and dated? Or an atmospheric masterpiece? You know where I stand.

2) "One" by U2 - I love a lot of obscure U2 songs too, but just because this one is well known doesn't make it any less powerful.

3) "1979" by The Smashing Pumpkins - Ah, the freedom of youth -- my favorite topic.

4) "Falling" by Julee Cruise - Memories of Twin Peaks blend into my own.

5) "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones - This may surprise some people because I'm no more than a casual Stones fan, but this song just blows me away every time (I feel similar about Aerosmith's "Dream On").

Honorable mention: "Human Wheels" by John Mellencamp - Dark and poetic; an underrated gem.

Favorite concerts:

1) Mason Jennings, 2001 @ UST. This was practically a private concert for us and maybe 20 other people in the basement of a building at St. Thomas. The next year we were sardines.

2) Neko Case, 2006 @ Winnipeg Folk Festival. The perfect soundtrack to the storm that rose and then fell during the show, revealing a full moon.

3) U2, 1997 @ Metrodome. Eventually, I had this entire concert memorized, including the onstage banter and every electronic touch added to the songs.

4) The Smashing Pumpkins, 1998 @ The Hennipen Ave Block Party. The music was better when I saw them two years earlier in the Target Center, but making a day a trip out of this one with two good buddies in pursuit of adventure makes it a favorite of mine.

5) Damien Rice, 2004 @ Historic State Theatre, MN - This one is on the list for the music.

Honorable mention: Andy Stochanksy, 2002 @ UST. An opening act that, in my opinion, stole the show (from the headlining Matt Nathanson).

Mini folk fest

Pictured above is Hoots & Hellmouth, my favorite of the bands we saw/heard perform on Saturday at the Appel Farms Arts & Music Festival in southern New Jersey. These guys know how to make you want to stomp your feet. Another band we saw, although they were probably more interesting in concept and novelty than they were entertaining, was Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra. This was an 18-piece big band ensemble that performed only--you guessed it--songs from Bjork's catalogue. Even though I was waiting to hear it, I didn't even recognize the reinterpreted version of "Army of Me" until about 2 minutes into the song. Anyway, it was a fun day of laying out in the sun and listening to some music, even if it wasn't quite a substitute for the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which we will be missing this year : (

Bud Light Film Crew #6 - editing only

Remember last month when I was upset with the opening shot in BLFC #5 and I promised softer lighting in the next video? You can forget all about that. This month's video looks like it's on fire, and not in a good way.

I didn't shoot this one. I had other plans that night and was not at the shoot. I just attempted to edit the footage I was given, some of which was too dark, most of which was too bright, and about a third of which had no audio.

No offense to the guy who did shoot it. He accidentally had the exposure on the camera opened all the way up. I should have verified that the auto setting was turned on before lending him the camera.

We had originally tried to reschedule the shoot so I could be there. We got together the night before (a Tuesday) and shot 10 minutes of footage at a nearly empty bar in Trolley Square before realizing it wasn't going to work. Our idea was to profile a bartender on his last night of work, but everything we tried fell flat. The lesson learned: If we're going to shoot during the week, it needs to be done in the college town of Newark. That's the only place in Delaware with life after 9pm.

I'm not posting a link this month. If you do want to check it out despite my warning, you probably know how to find it on your own (hint: the link is the same every month).

Next month the film crew returns to the beach. We're going to shoot the July and August videos on back-to-back days over one weekend. Expect good things.

Afternoon in the museum

We are feeling a little New Yorked out after making another day trip to the city on Sunday. An old friend of R's and her husband were vacationing there, so we met up with them as well as some other mutual friends from the area. Our first stop was the American Museum of Natural History. A big, interesting place it is. Due to time constraints we had to take an abbreviated tour, but I can see how the place could take days to explore.

Oh yeah -- we had a star sighting at the museum. We saw this guy. You may have seen him in Roseanne or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Okay, so maybe calling him a star is stretching it, but he was famous enough for me to recognize his face and voice while I loosely trailed him through the dinosaur exhibit.

From there we worked our way through Central Park and relaxed on some shaded lawn. The weather was just barely on the hot side of perfect. We watched a roller-skate dance party, ate some ice cream sandwiches, and paid our respects at Strawberry Fields for the third time.

Following that, four of us went out for an awesome dinner at a restaurant on Houston named Jane. I highly recommend this place, especially if you happen to know one of the servers. My steak was already reasonably priced, but with all the freebies (champagne, calamari, cheese gnocchi, dessert wine, banana brulée) from our friend who waits/tends there, we made out like bandits -- stuffed bandits. Holy cow that was some good food.

We finished the night by meeting up with the rest of the group again for some Sapporo at a Japanese restaurant in the East Village... and then we made the late night trip home. It was quite a day. Recounting it now reminds me of why R and I were so worn out on Monday.

At least we're getting to the point now where we've seen the major touristy things in NYC already, so now when we go we can just enjoy it and not have to worry about checking things off our list. I also slacked off on the picture taking this time, so I don't have anything worth sharing. Sorry about that. Maybe next time.

Lost in thought

The season 3 finale of Lost aired last night, and it did not disappoint. Anyone frustrated about the loose ends and new questions presented should have known not to expect a neat resolution. The series is 60% complete. Ending it now would be like trying to end The Lord of the Rings trilogy with The Two Towers. More time is needed to finish the story. Watching this show requires extreme patience; there's a lot of waiting involved. In the end, I believe the completed series will be landmark achievement, the archetype for all serial television to follow. I am enjoying following it every step of the way.

That said, I'm glad the TV season is over. I get a little more caught up in it than I like to admit. Now I'll have the chance to do other things, like watch TV on DVD. I'm only partially kidding. No, I think it would be good for us to get out more. I'm definitely a homebody -- the less stuff I'm required to do, the better. I can keep myself busy enough when there's nothing on my schedule. R, however, likes having lots to do. If we focused on my preferred lifestyle for a good chunk of the winter, then it seems fair to focus on R's for at least the summer. I do have fun when we go out and do things; I'm just not motivated to do the planning. I feel guilty for leaving it all up to R. I'll try to work on this.

For the record, my theory for the next season of Lost is that the castaways will in fact be rescued. They will go home in the next episode! But upon returning, everyone's life will turn sour (a la Jack's flash-forward) because the rescue wasn't meant to happen. Some "course correction" will end up bringing them back to the island--similar to how Charlie was meant to die and it inevitably happened despite the earlier attempts at changing his future. Season 4 will be all about how the group gets back to the island so they can fulfill their destiny, which will be explored in the remaining two seasons. That's my take at the moment. There's not much evidence to go on, so the best anybody can do is guess.

Currently

Watching: Pan's Labyrinth
Reading: Lolita
Listening: Sky Blue Sky by Wilco
Feeling: Enthusiastic!
Realizing: Watermelon smoothies closely resemble watermelon juice
Dinking: Watermelon smoothie
Eating (well, yesterday): Epic turkey/carrot/zucchini burgers
Considering: Advice from a fortune cookie -- "You can't steal second base and keep one foot on first."

Birthday girl

TGIF

This was a rare week where I actually became less tired as the week went on. That's not to say I'm not tired now; it just means I was really tired when the week started. I'm talking about the falling-asleep-during-Heroes kind of tired. (That would never happen during Lost, by the way. Did any of you watch it this week? What a daring episode. A complex show gets even more complex... and creepy. Only three more years to go before the resolution.)

On Thursday evening I video taped an event for the Society of Women Engineers, courtesy of the obvious connection through my wife. I need to work on the editing this weekend, but there's not a whole lot of editing involved. It's basically an intro tacked on to the beginning of a 45 minute key note speech. I would have preferred to make a 2-3 minute, web-friendly news package complete with interviews and a voice over, but sometimes you have to record an entire speech I guess. This one will be going on DVD only, so don't sit on the edge of your seat waiting for a link.

It should be a low-key weekend. Tomorrow we're going out for dinner and to see The Lives of Others at Theater N. Also, I need to do some shopping for a certain birthday girl (May 16th - give her a call). Other than that we'll probably just get caught up on cleaning, laundry, and sleep to prepare for another week.

P.S. When is the last time you watched Sprockets? Now that's an ant farm of a different color.

Parents weekend

R, dad, and mom hoofing it to the capitol:
Mom and dad looking upon Lady Liberty from the ferry: R and I enjoying the pagentry of antique carriages:
My parents flew out here for the weekend to visit us and see some sights on the east coast. What a whirlwind weekend it was! We explored DC on Friday, New York City on Saturday, and the greater Wilmington area on Sunday, which included an afternoon at the annual Point-to-Point festival. It's a good thing my parents are still in good shape because we covered a lot of ground on foot. I'm beat... but I can't complain. Everything worked out so well -- the weather, the timing, the whole works. The best part, however, was just having the chance to see them again and to catch up in person.

Bud Light Film Crew #5

See it at the usual place: www.BudLightFilmCrew.com

I'm upset about the opening shot. By the time I roll into the close up, Chris' face is way washed out. The camera light I have been using on these shoots restricts me from getting too close and too far from the talent. In this case I obviously got too close. And there was nothing I could do about it in post-production. The funny thing is, I've had a new light with a blue-tinted filter that would help diffuse it (and cool off the color temperature), but I haven't been able to use it yet. I bought it back in March, but it has been sitting in my closet since then because up until yesterday I didn't have an adapter needed between the light and battery pack. The backordered item finally came in, so next month I'm promising better, softer lighting.

Then there's the other thing... the guys from Bud Light noticed a Miller Lite poster in one shot on a wall behind the drummer. I've had to cover up logos for other beer brands before (hopefully you haven't noticed), but this one was particularly tricky because the logo is behind the drummer's moving arms/sticks. Unless he happened to be shot in front of a blue screen, there's no way I could insert something behind him. Cutting the shot wasn't an option either. It anchors the second half of the video because it's one of two shots where the band member you see is actually playing the music you hear. So what I ended up doing was place a few squiggly lines over the poster. They are over the arms/sticks too, but the lines are thin enough so that they are not very noticeable. It's the best I could do on short notice.

The video isn't as much of a stand out as last month's, but I like it. It's another one that came together fast. I went with my gut feel on the editing rather than stressing over every frame and second-guessing each cut. What it loses to roughness, it gains from the carefree, less-calculated vibe it has running through it. I think we really captured the essence of rock 'n' roll here. Maybe this is a step toward me making more impressionistic Bud Light videos. Wait, isn't that an oxymoron?

Anniversary #2

R and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in St. Michaels, MD, a small town on Chesapeake Bay, over the weekend. We spent two nights in a bed & breakfast, biked a 20-mile loop, ate a romantic dinner in a gourmet restaurant, and went for a sail in a 121-year-old skipjack. On the boat, we dredged some oysters from the bottom of the bay, opened them up (shucked 'em, if you prefer), and ate them right there. They don't get any more fresh than that... not that they actually tasted good or anything.

We had an excellent time. I enjoyed getting away from the usual distractions around the house and being able to focus on my lovely wife. It has been a wonderful first two years of marriage. We continue to grow closer and appreciate each other's company. I will limit the mushiness to that.