All that you can't leave behind, part 2

This is the season of the guest. Last weekend we had R's dad and little brother (pictured with the pirate) staying with us. My time with them was cut short, but we did hang out Friday night and all day Saturday. Activities included grilling some kebobs, hoofing it all around Santa Barbara, and hearing Threadspinner (pictured below) play at Cold Spring Tavern, a favorite venue on the side of a hill. After I jetted away, R took our guests on a whale watching tour. Word is they saw some dolphins but no whales, and as the result of a "you WILL see a whale" guarantee they received some vouchers for another chance on another day. I think we'll use them with our next set of guests (arriving in another week), so this time I'll get to come along. Expect photos. Anyway, last weekend's guests have departed. Now they are heading toward the Grand Canyon before curving back home to Minnesota. Safe travels, guys. It was good to see you.

Our Santa Barbara 2009 gallery continues to grow. You can keep up here.

I'm still in the midst of my hotel stay near the Philly airport. This business trip is different from the others I've taken. I'm not ordering scotch or eating indulgent steak dinners this time. Part of it is because I'm traveling alone. Another part of it is the fact I've been working for a more conservative company since the acquisition last summer, and to be honest I'm not sure all of their travel policies, so I'm playing it safe. Plus, in these harsh economic times, there's no need for frivolous spending, even if I feel the company owes it to me (for reasons not commented on here). Maybe I should be thankful I have a job, one that allows me to work out of my home 98% of the time.

Being back among my coworkers for the first time in eight months has been an unexpected pleasure. I had almost forgotten about some of the folks I don't work directly with anymore, and I'm sure they had begun to forget about me. I think it's important to maintain those connections. For a good stretch there I was spending more time with these people than I would with my wife. There's a camaraderie that grows out of that shared history, and it doesn't always translate over the phone or instant messenger very well. It's also the kind of thing that you don't appreciate until you've left and returned to it, if only for a few days.

You may have noticed, the title of this two-part blog entry is the name of a U2 album from a few years ago. They've been on my mind again as the release date of their new album, No Line on the Horizon, nears. It's been available for illegal download for over a week, but I'm holding out for the ritual of purchasing a hard copy on the release date and placing my full attention on it during the initial spin. I did cheat slightly, however, by previewing the album a few times (it's streaming legally on MySpace) because I frankly couldn't stop myself after hearing it could be their best work since Achtung Baby. I'll try to write some sort of analysis/reflection when the timing is right, but for now let me say there are some real gems on it. I think I'm going to be playing it A LOT.

All that you can't leave behind, part 1

Q was here! R's good friend from our time out east (and actress in my latest video) paid us a short visit last week. R gave her the whirlwind tour of SB on Wednesday. When my work day ended we drove up to Solvang where we did a wine tasting and later went out for sushi at Arigato. She left after lunch the next day. It was a quick visit, but I'm glad she made it. She was able to see SB at its sunny best, and R was able to catch up with a close friend, one of the people she misses most from Delaware.

Speaking of the east coast, I am in Philadelphia for business Sunday through Thursday of this week. I knew it was coming: Sooner or later somebody was going to ask me to return to the office, ripping me away from my own personal paradise of working from home, a home in my favorite town in the world no less. But I can deal with four days of commuting and freezing. I don't expect anybody to feel sorry for me, especially you Minnesotans.

That's my office building, snapped on the way in this morning.

The reason for my Pennsylvanian visit is to kick off a new project for a client that once employed me in St. Paul. I'm renewed and excited by the prospect of working with them again. I wouldn't be put off by a future business trip to Minnesota to see some old friends still working there (Terry, this includes you). Plus, if I could extend such a trip over a weekend, giving myself time to drive up to Duluth and meet my new niece, that would be even better. Her baptism was on Sunday, and I'm bummed I missed it.

There's more to write, including news of more visitors, but I will save it for next time. Right now I'm beat from a long day and an odd mix of the familiar and the new.

"Fake Empire" (finally)

There's something immensely satisfying in seeing something that only existed in my head become a physical reality that can be shared with others. Usually, it starts with just a few specific visualizations. In the case of "Fake Empire" it was an image of a couple meeting under a street light and of them dancing together in a living room in the middle of the night. Then there's a point when imagination and the reality of the situation start feeding off of each other. You pick out the faces and places and some of the imaginary details are lost but the details of reality are gained. Then the actual shoot happens. This is the shortest stage in the process and when it's over, you have the footage you have and you need to make it work. Sometimes the throw-away shot becomes a happy accident while the pre-planned, calculated shot gets tossed away (or used reluctantly) because it's too stiff or not properly lit. Editing is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with one major difference: there's more than one way the pieces can fit together. There are so many choices that need to be made. For a guy who has the same thing for lunch every day only to avoid having to make a decision at the fridge, this can be a difficult process.

The video has been done for a while now. I've been sitting on it, wondering how I can perfect it as to avoid regret each time I watch it. But I'm realizing that's not possible. Reality is not perfect. My skills with video are far from perfect. I'm still learning and this is just another step along the way. Rather than continuing to make little tweaks (and later reversing half of them anyway), my time would be better spent starting the next project.

Without any further ado, here's the best I could do at materializing what I see in head when I hear the wonderful song "Fake Empire" by The National:



Thanks a bunch to S & Q for their outstanding acting. I'm so happy I was able to convince them to star in this thing. The couple is remaining anonymous because Q is a school teacher and didn't want her students stumbling across the video online. Understandable, considering some of the plot "hints" within.

New Zealand: one year later

[Photo by Christine]

[Photo by Don]

[Photo by Karen]

[Photo by Karen]

I've been thinking a lot about our trip to New Zealand lately, probably because this month marks our first anniversary of being there (here's the post from then). Among other things, it was an adventure that inspired us to do more exploring of the outdoors. As a result, we camped more in 2008 than any other year in our lives (if you exclude R's summer as a camp counselor), and we are planning to get out even more in 2009. Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Big Sur are on the list... and that is just this spring. The goal is to try more overnight hikes as well. We're gearing up so that we can carry everything we need for a couple of days on our backs, leaving the car and associated crowded campgrounds behind. California is a good place to attempt it.

Speaking of CA, the trip to NZ was what first seeded the idea of living here in our heads. I remember talking to my dad afterwards and telling him how we were "California dreamin'." This was even before transfering here for R's job was a known possibility. A number of the people in our travel group were from CA and spoke highly of the place. One of them, from Pasadena, was in charge of hiring some engineers for his company. R checked into it at the time. That opportunity didn't work out, but when we she was up for re-assignment in the spring and luck placed Santa Barbara on the list of potential locations, we pushed for it. It meant leaving some great friends, giving up my membership in the Delaware Independent Filmmakers club, and having to spend a lot more money to buy a smaller house... but I, for one, have not regret the decision, as you I'm sure you can tell. In fact you're probably tired of reading how much I love it here.

The photos above were not included in our original gallery from the NZ trip. They were taken by other people in our group and were sent to us after our own photos were organized. So I'm posting a few of them now for an alternate perspective of an amazing country. If you ever have the chance to see the place for yourself, I highly recommend going for it.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all

Just wanted to drop a note to say I hope you're enjoying the day whether you're with a loved one, with a friend, or on your own. R (pictured here in her "Love an Engineer" shirt) and I hiked up to a waterfall earlier this afternoon and are now getting ready for a dinner out. After that, we're going to drink some special Valentine wine that R's mom bought for us and watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona on DVD. It should be a low-key evening, but a good one nevertheless. I sure do love an engineer!

When it rains it pours

Cold and rain in Santa Barbara? Are you kidding me? Believe it or not we had a bad streak of weather... and it unfortunately coincided with my in-laws' five-day visit. Being from Minnesota, these are folks who really appreciate the sun, so I feel bad that it rained continuously for their first two days here and sporadically thereafter until they left. A sunny vacation was just not in their cards this time.

But there's more to life than weather and we still enjoyed the company! Over the weekend we managed to go for a hike, tour wine country, get out on a sailboat, and share some good meals together. Take a look at my photos from the happenings posted in this gallery.

There was one other thing that added complication to the weekend: my job. Everything I mentioned above seemed to collide with what ended up being my busiest weekend of work in probably a year. Throw in a laptop issue and some angry clients, and you've got yourself a perfect storm -- a regular clash of my personal and professional lives. I just hope my work didn't interfere with our guests' stay too much. It definitely put me on edge, but I'm hoping I didn't transmit too many bad vibes.

Things are falling back into a more serene routine now. We've got three more sets of visitors lined up during the next month, so let's see if the weather can work with us a little better from now on. It's been such a good pal in the past.

The red carpet

Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, Josh Brolin, Mickey Rourke – these are some of the celebrities we saw on the red carpet (and on stage) during this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival. R and I have been volunteering at and around the entrance to the biggest theater in town during the last couple of weeks. As a guy who is enthralled by Hollywood filmmaking and the entertainment industry in general, I really enjoyed having this glimpse into the realm of fame and experiencing first-hand the charisma of stars who are followed by a near-constant glow of flashbulbs.

As R put it, it was like watching TV without the editing. Stripped of that editing, you really get the chance to see the stars for who they really are. Eastwood was incredibly sharp during his on-stage interview/retrospective and shared some fascinating tidbits about acting and directing... and both at the same time. Cruz's interview was slightly less insightful, but she came across as very down-to-earth yet, of course, amazingly attractive. For some reason I liked the Rourke tribute best. The guy proves that you can become famous on talent alone. He was the least star-like of anybody: he misspoke a few times, disappeared from the stage whenever clips of his work were played (and didn't always make it back in time), and generally didn't appear comfortable with his fame. But the film clips they showed demonstrated an enormous talent for acting. See him in The Pledge or Sin City for an example, not the mention The Wrestler, for which I guarantee he wins the Oscar.

The volunteer work involved a lot of standing around but was pretty low stress and served to give us an up-close look at the ongoings. One night we tore tickets at the main entrance to the theater. Another night I functioned as a security guard (yeah, intimidating me), stopping patrons and people wanting a look from coming through a side entrance. It was funny to hear some of the reasons why people thought they should be let in, e.g. “I just had knee surgery; you can’t make me walk all the way around to the front.” The occasional VIP would laugh at me when I tried to stop him and say something like “Haha -- I’m in charge of this festival,” as he kept on walking. As an unpaid volunteer without proper training, I tended to give folks like that the benefit of the doubt and let them pass.

The unfortunate part of being a volunteer is that we were not allowed to carry a camera, so my photos from the events are limited. The picture above was taken on a night off as we were passing by the theater on our way to the bar. The guy there was about half way done replacing David Fincher (whose interview I missed) with Mickey Rourke on the marquee. On my last night of volunteering I did some pre-production set up, which meant I had time to go home and change out of my volunteer shirt and grab a camera before the tribute to Mr. Rourke started. There are a few pics from that event in this gallery, but I'll bring the one below to your attention. Do you recognize this childhood hero of mine?