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.