The owls are not what they seem

Friday night I watched Twin Peaks. Saturday night I lived it. It was a good Halloween weekend. There are a few more photos at the bottom of our Santa Barbara gallery. Check 'em out.

R had to work until late on Friday night, so I stayed home to man the door. We had purchased six bags of candy in anticipation of hordes of kids ringing our bell. Our grand total of trick-or-treaters: zero. (I've been eating candy steadily since then, hoping to put a dent in the supply, but there's no noticeable reduction yet.) I didn’t let the night go to waste. I worked on editing my music video, which is really exciting me right now, and I watched the episode of Twin Peaks where they bury Laura Palmer. That certainly helped me get in the spirit of the holiday and inspired to dress up like special agent Dale Cooper. R had the better costume though. I'm so proud of my little Log Lady.

On Saturday night, after our impromptu photo shoot, we attended a Halloween party at the Scooby gang's house. It turned out we didn't know anybody other than Shaggy, and nobody recognized who we were dressed as, making the costumes feel like a bit of a miscalculation (18 years ago we would have been a big hit). These are some of the downsides to being new in town, but you have to start somewhere. Each time we see these people we’ll likely be more and more comfortable around them. I'm proud of us for putting ourselves out there and working on new friendships. It would be a lot easier to stay in every night.

Sunday probably worked out better overall. First we volunteered at a function raising money for the food bank. R helped people pick out ceramic bowls and I emptied trash cans. I'd further explain the scenario, but it's not that interesting. Afterwards we attended a birthday BBQ for one of R’s coworkers. We have hung out with this group two or three times now, so we’re starting to get to the point where we can relax and open up around them some more. They seem like fun, cool people… and I’m not just saying that because they might be reading this blog.

How has the Twitter stream been working out for you? Did you see that we went to a David Sedaris reading two Saturdays ago? Or how about that I noticed my first earthquake? I’m still looking for the best way of fitting these communication tools together without repeating myself too much. I probably had a bunch more to say about recent happenings, but the fun of Twitter lies in the art of brevity. Let's see how it goes.

Okay, I better get out and vote. The web has been abuzz about the election today that it makes me feel like I’m the last person in the country to hit the polls. Today feels like a historic day. I want to be a part of this.

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.

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

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.

A night in New York

The city was hopping this weekend, and we faced the hustle and bustle head on. We sardined it in Rockefeller Center, browsed the window displays on 5th Avenue, caught a glimpse of Alec Baldwin on the street while eating dinner, and spent the night at our accommodating friend Ben's place in the East Village. Oh, and there was one other thing...

David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (he prefers it typed in all capital letters) was playing in one theater in the entire city, and we were there Saturday night. It should come as no surprise to anybody that I liked the film. It is bizarre and uncompromised, beautiful and haunting. Only time will tell how I rank it among Lynch's other work. I remember finishing my first viewings of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive with a similar feeling. His movies leave me in awe, yet somehow unsatisfied. They come close to making sense but purposely do not. That's what leaves me wanting more. I'm anxious to see IE again--to literally feel it projected on the screen (the volume was so high, the entire theater vibrated to the opening shot of a needle grinding on a record), to refresh my fading memory of the hallucinatory visions, to try to figure it all out.

A lot could be said about the movie--a lot has already been said--but I'm not going to go into detail here. There are plenty of reviews online that discuss it at length, if you're interested. Try to see it for yourself when it gets a wider distribution, and then let's discuss it over a cup of coffee or a Heineken.

This means I'm pumped

INLAND EMPIRE. NEW YORK CITY. THIS WEEKEND.

Some blabbering and links

The weekend flew by as always. It was off to a poor start on Friday night when I got stuck at work until 11:00pm--such is the life of an IT professional, I guess. On Saturday we raked and mowed the yard, which actually didn't take that long because, hey, we don't have a very big yard (and I'm perfectly fine with that for now). We also picked up a Christmas tree, did some browsing at the shipyard shops, enjoyed a nice dinner at Toscana, and watched Nacho Libre on DVD, which I liked more than I expected. On Sunday we did the usual chores around the house and had some time to relax. I took inventory of some of my older videos and realized I have a lot I want to post online. From the Cottage Cheese files alone, I could go on for quite a while. As a matter of fact, you can expect to see another clip posted here by the end of the week. Hopefully, I should say. Before I commit to anything I should let you know that I will be shooting the first video in the "Bud Light Film Crew" series this Wednesday night. I'll have about a week to do the editing, which is not a lot of time for something like that, but I think I've cleared my schedule enough to get it done. I am a little nervous about shooting something I don't have complete control over. It has been a while since I covered any sort of live event, like the upcoming Best Bartender Contest. This will be more simliar to my Campus Scope work than anything I shot in my own house with me as the only actor (i.e. probably any video of mine that you have seen). It will be nice to shoot something without me in it for once. I should have a lot more freedom if I can remain behind the camera. Okay, I'm blabbering. I wonder if anybody even read this whole paragraph.

I got a kick out this--the two commercials I was paid to help with last summer have finally been posted online. If you look really close, you can see part of me in both of them. Here's a hint: you can probably identify me best by my watch. The rest of me is laying on the cutting room floor somewhere. Oh well, my primary responsibility was to assist with the lighting. If you want to see the results of an 18-hour day of work, go to this website and click on the links in the left column called "Thanks, Mom" and "Thanks, Dad."

Lastly, the trailer for Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE appears to be online, albeit on YouTube and in really poor quality. Regardless, the trailer is absolutely fantastic. Watch it here. I was just thinking how all trailers look the same these days. You've seen them--any preview for an action movie or thriller builds to a climax of extremely quick shots... then the title, set to some dramatic music, comes in before the one final blurt of a demon child or an explosion with some dude hanging off a cliff... you get the idea. Lynch's trailer has nine shots in it, yet he manages to lay on the dread and build anticipation masterfully. I'm so going to love this movie.

Well, that's the news from this corner of Wilmington. My life may not be interesting, but I'm going to write about it anyway.