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?