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.