long time, no "e"

Hello, all! Well, how the heck are ya? Sorry it's been so long since I've last posted. It's partly due to "sacred excrement, I've got a lot to do!" and partly just that I haven't posted. La!

I've been doin' a crapload, though. First, let me introduce you to "The Hornman," my 22 minute documentary on the life and times of Bill Nemoyten (my father-in-law), the Hornman.



Any of you editing geeks out there know that this took me some time. (quick aside - OMG! I just saw the first full X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer. Frickity-dickin' awesome. Hugh Jackman gets to carry the whole movie. Yes!!! Okay. back to the previously scheduled, and all that.) This was the first time I've had this much footage to wade through - around 14 hours. All my previous projects were around 2 hours of footage and, for the most part, the story was already written for me. Wedding's, parties, vacations - stuff like that. Mostly chronological. But this one, I really had to get a story together. What's the theme? What's the central part of his life? And, almost more importantly, what's the central part of the film? What's the story? I think I figured it out. But I'll let you be the judge. Enjoy!

I also got laid off a few weeks before my last post. I probably posted about it, but I'm not sure. Anyway, still looking for a job. However, I recently got recruited for a position. It's by no means a sure thing, but it seems like it's right up my alley, and hey: when the recruiter heard about the job, she said to herself, "I know who's perfect for this. Ian!" So, I'm definitely on their radar. I've been through two rounds of interviews already, and I'll hear about the third next week. Regardless of whether or not I get the job, I'm getting a terrific arsenal together of interview pieces - written and in person. It's good. (For now, I'm going to play the details of the job a little close to the vest. I'll let you know more after I know more. ;)

What else? I went to Toronto for a weekend. THAT was fun. Got to hang out with my Dad and his sister, which I very rarely get to do. They're lovely people, and family, and we're all pretty good communicators and have most of our family crap out of the way by now, so it was just easy and fun. I even got to geek out for my aunt, who's the only other mac-geek in the family. I showed her context-sensitive help, which she'd never known about before. She's a person without a lot of time, and she hates wasting it, so this was a good piece of information for her. I also got just the right amount of cold, snow, slush and ice. And a couple great shots of Toronto, especially down by the water. And a lovely afternoon with my Dad in a bar called Fitzgeralds.

A really nice time, and it reminded me how much I love to travel. I really, really do. I'm a total homebody, so it's very easy for me to stay at home and just enjoy its environs. But once I'm out and about, and meeting new people and seeing new things, I'm totally diggin' it. Then I like to go home again, too. I appreciate it more then, for sure. And my sweetie and my kitties. Yay!

We premiered "The Hornman" at Bill's 80th birthday party, and the crowd loved it. Some of them chanted my name at the end! ;) Yay. I gotta say, that was nice. But nicest was the hug I got from Bill after. He really, really liked it. And that feels great.

Allright. I'm at Ritual Roasters in the Valencia. I'm starting to get shpilchus in my tuchus, so I think I'm going to jet. Stop by my favorite bookstores (Dog Eared for used, and Borderlands for every other little thing), and then home. At 5pm, got a phone meeting with a potential web client - this is like our 3rd or 4th meeting, and I think it's going to go through. We'll see. And then, maybe dinner and Xbox 360 with a friend! yay!

I'll leave you with another gem. This is a little show I wrote for a performance back in early '05. Some of you have seen it, some of you haven't. I think you'll like it. ;) It's a little thing I like to call: "Air Guitar - To the Future!"

Ciao!

repo! the genetic whatera?

Tony Head, there, as the repo man.

Went to see Repo! The Genetic Opera last night. Saw it at the local art house theater, with kinda crappy seats and not so great sound.

However, the sound was not the biggest problem for this film. Which frikkin' bummed me - I wanted to emerge from the theater, soaked in blood and internal-organ tissue, transformed, transmogrified, wearing six inch naughty-nurse boots and enough kohl around my eyes to spackle the space station.

That ain't what I got. The acting was good, the singing was good, the concept was brilliant and it looked great. But a lot of the camera angles and blocking were awkward, a bunch of the music was either okay or just wrong (about 10 minutes of it rocked like crazy, and I was dancing in my chair), and most of the lyrics sucked. And the story was weak, ultimately, and confusing. There was a lot of exposition that they thought was necessary because there was too much going on for the audience to really understand. And I think they were right. But as is most often the case, and was the case here, exposition = lame.

Anthony Stewart Head was the repo man, and he put some good chops into it; mainly into the singing. The man's got pipes. But there wasn't much chance for acting range, here. Really, for any of the characters. Paul Sorvino, Alex Vega and even Paris Hilton were quite good in their roles, but there wasn't much for any of them to do. There was a cool 17-year-old rebellion scene that Vega got to play, but other than that (and a totally bitchin' moment in the final opera scene for Hilton which I won't reveal here - but it was frickin' perfect), there just wasn't much range. One stand out for me was Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag. Normally, I hate her with a fiery passion; she's just so powerfully boring. But she actually did some acting here, and since it wasn't all about her, she fit in. How amazing is that? Also, very cool moment with her projector eyeballs.

So, all in all, a disappointment. I'll probably end up owning the DVD with all the juicy extras, but I don't think I'll be paying more money to see it in the theater.

Enter at your own risk! 

------------------------------------

what a database!

blogs are public databases of many people's innermost feelings. and thoughts.

anyone with internet could access that data anytime they want. heck, they could access the copy of the daily snapshot of each and every blog on the internet...for a month.

on one blue ray.

cheese hammer! hammer of cheese!

sponges in stories

dawn dishwashing liquid has a new ad campaign. in it, sponges are characters - hmmm, notably male characters. a noir detective, and - a latin lover? they have one-sided dialogue, where the sponge speaks, punctuated by suggestive statements about dawn dishwashing liquid. 

i think they're trying to get the men to do the dishes.

oh. no. that's stupid.

they're trying to make doing the dishes more sexy for the women. so they'll do it more.

gearhead bob

i was just looking at what i could clear off my hard drive so i could load more raw vid onto it for a movie i'm working on (yay for my new external 7200rpm pocket drive coming next week!), and i found this little gem. i was prepping for a wedding i shot a couple of weeks ago, and was testing out the lights i'd just bought (for some words and a picture about that, please see the entry of 10/9/08).

i was tired. really, really tired.

ahem. and "heh." ;)

i voted!

it was pretty easy, and kinda fun. i'd never been to the inside of city hall before, and damn, that place is a palace!

i went in past the guards at the front and through their metal detection devices (i couldn't get the ac/dc and steve vai out of my head, so i kept setting off the alarm. finally they had me sing a few bars of "hells bells" and let me through). then i got caught by the rotunda. wow. just wow. i didn't know there were any places like this in the city. visually beautiful, and the acoustics were insane. there were at least two, maybe three queer couples getting married. one was this femme/butch pairing of cute-as-can-be punk dykes. so sweet!

i escaped the beauty and headed downstairs to the elections department. there was a line of like 75 people already! according to one of the workers, it had been on and off busy ever since the doors opened for early voting a few weeks ago. these ladies (for it was all ladies, as far as i could see. and one gay man, maybe. don't know if he worked there.) were definitely earning their paychecks. (the art you see on the walls? more on that later.)

i had to fill out a form that said i promised not to get a ballot anywhere else, and then stood in line for 20-30 minutes. maybe not even that long. i wasn't feeling all that well, so it may have felt longer than it actually was. there was no pushing and shoving, and no grumbling that i heard. we were all excited to be there and excited to get the thing done and make sure our vote got counted; the earlier, the better.

at the head of the line, i was shown to the front desk, where after a quick i.d. check (did my signature on the form match what they had in their db? if not, they'd check other i.d.), i got my ballot. this ballot is, evidently, identical to the ones that are mailed to folks who are doing the mail-in ballot thing.

i looked up, and behind the woman helping me, there was an open door. through that door, carefully arranged on tables and chairs and the floor, were box after box after box of ballots. the door was heavy wood, and the room was under a grand stairway, so it looked like some kind of cement lean-to; a bunker, a vault. i felt like i was seeing something secret. ;)

and then i went to one of the plastic, fold-out polling places and voted. it was totally awesome.

okay, to the art in the halls. i was in line, and didn't really feel like talking to my fellow enfranchised (as i said earlier, i wasn't feeling very well). but i'm kinda a.d.d., and i'm not super fond of having nothing to engage my senses (preferably, more than one sense at a time).

so i start looking at the art. the show is called "insights, 2008: an exhibition of works by artists who are blind or visually impaired," and is a joint project of the lighthouse for the blind and the san francisco arts commission gallery. wow! it's running through december 12, and you can get there through the grove or polk street entrances to city hall. this is the 19th year!

some of the art was really cool and some - well, none of it sucked, in my opinion. but that wasn't the coolest part. check out the painting here. i think it was the most interesting piece in the show, if not the most beautiful. it's called "all american little miss," and it's by mari newman of minneapolis, minnesota. in her artist statement, she says that she's legally blind, but can see colors, and that she "can't distinguis dullness or dull colors very easily," and she finds "mundane things boring." nice!

so, just below the painting, in the center, you may be able to make out a little icon that looks like a computer speaker icon. what you may not be able to see is that right beside it is a number in a box. well, that number is "36." and if you dial the following phone number - 415 226-2583 - and key in "36#," a pleasant woman's voice, strong but not strident, will read to you a description, in english, of the painting. for "all american little miss," this description is as follows: "crayon and poster paint. 28 by 22 inches. at the top of the image stand three little pigs in identical poses and dresses. the three pigs look alike, but one is dark brown, one is medium brown, and one is dark pink. the three dresses are full, short skirts, white collar, cuffs and black tie at the neck. one is purple, one is green, and one is blue. each pig is wearing black and white striped leggings and black shoes. behind the three little pigs is a red, checked, gingham table-cloth pattern. in the bottom half of the painting is an american flag, with 24 white stars on a blue field. the shape of the flag looks like a slice of bread. the stripes look like slices of bacon, in red with strips of yellow on the edges. behind the flag is a background of extremely tiny dots in blue, green, purple, yellow and white."

from eyes to mind, we go to ears to mind. but it's one more step removed. the work of art "is." the words describing the work of art "are," as well, but they aren't the art itself. which means that it's at least one step removed, even if we could replace the ears for the eyes in a one-to-one relationship. also, although descriptive, i certainly wouldn't classify the above description as very artful, although i did like the flag as bacon and bread. just sop up that grease and dig on in! very american. ;) (hah! i just realized that it actually looks just like bacon! that wasn't artistic license on the part of the descriptor. heh. shows how much i was paying attention. d'oh! oh! which points up something else - the description of it caused me to go back and look at the picture of the painting again - and so i saw - literally and figuratively - the painting more clearly because of the description. neat!)

you can read about the exhibit at www.lighthouse-sf.org. they have artist statements, and about 5 mp3s which are a few of the artists talking about their own work. they also have an online gallery, so one can see the works.

all in all, quite a successful trip.

mcpalin - one hundred billion swerved!

okay. some of you may have heard about sara palin not saying that abortion clinic bombers are domestic terrorists. bill ayers is a domestic terrorist, but not abortion clinic bombers. when asked by brian williams on nbc, she gave a great sigh, and then dodged the question. she even turned it around by asking if williams was asking her if she regretted classifying bill ayers as a terrorist. 

uh, no, governor, he asked you a direct question. a "yes" or "no" answer would do.

there were a few other interesting things in this interview, however, that i've heard nothing about, as of yet:

brian williams: (to palin) "governor, what is an elite? who is a member of the elite?"

sarah palin, after another exasperated sigh, gave this answer: "oh, I guess just anyone who thinks they're better than anyone else." okay, governor. you, then. because you certainly think you're better than barack obama. oh, and you think you're better than me, too. 

palin then went on to say, "john mccain and i are so committed to serving every american. hard working, middle class americans..." hmmm. when last i looked, that wasn't every american. there's a crapload of americans right now living below the poverty line. are you serving them? and we already know you're serving the rich.

then the senator had to pipe up. referring to "elitists," he said: "i know where a lot of 'em live." and here's where it gets good: 

williams: "and where's that?"

mccain: "well, in our nation's capitol and new york city. i've seen it. i've lived there. i know the town." (emphasis mine) errr, okay, senator. well, how does that not make you an elite yourself?

he returns to the terrorist question then, and says that ayers' act was not one of "spontaneity." okay, sure, but an abortion clinic bomber is just passing by, and he happens to have a molotov cocktail in his pocket and is suddenly come over with an act of passion, and he lights and tosses the thing. he didn't think about, or plan it beforehand at all. suuuuuure. 

besides, premeditation and passion don't differentiate between the destruction on the other end, senator. 

there's more good stuff there. you can see the full clip at

www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/10/24/video-nbc-mccainpalin-interview-is-abortion-clinic-bomber-a-terrorist

have obama and biden had similar gaffes or outright inconsistencies in interviews or speeches from one second to the next? perhaps. but if so, i'm voting for them, so i'd rather not put that stuff up on my blog. if you've got some, and you want to point them out, please feel free to comment. 

in fact, all comments are welcome. i'll read 'em. thanks.

voting early!

i'm going to vote early, and i'm really excited about it! all i have to do is go down to city hall here in sf, and vote. i had no idea it was so easy, and this will clear one more person out of the way for the hordes that will descend on election day.

as i'm sure you all know...this one's real important, people! please vote. thanks.

a cool one

i'm sitting here at home, feeling the cool. It's been 80 around here, and dangit, that's just not what I moved here for. today, the fog has finally moved back into my neighborhood, and it is blessed relief.

i'm working on the business plan for my new vid biz (www.foolishtreefilms.com). it's actually kind of fun. i'm using the one page business plan, by jim horan. it's laid out in a workbook format. it's really quite simple, and i'm burnin' right through it.

listening to joe satriani's newer piece, "professor satchafunkilus." it's pretty good. it's no steve vai or john petrucci, but it sure beats a poke in the head with a petrified salami. and that's literal; no metaphor there. just to be clear.

i should be finding out this coming week if my company is going to have another massive spate of layoffs. better to know than not know.

praise fog!

i live in the sticks

So, I went out earlier to try and suck off some free wifi, bandwidth vampire that I am, and get away from the pounding of jackhammers and basketballs and obsessive "Rock Band" players. I trekked through the neighborhood - it was 7:30. I went to 4 cafes, but the only on - on a Friday - that was still open at 8pm (and only open until 9pm) was the one that charged for wifi! Plus, although they make a mean chicken-pesto sandwich, I just wasn't in the mood for what they had.

However, I did have a lovely walk in the neighborhood. The night was gorgeous, and so were some of the women on the street! Ocean Ave. out in the Ingleside is really startin' to hop. I like it. There were heels and hot outfits, and people wanting to look their best. It means the neighborhood means something to them. That's cool. 

There's King's cafe, down on the corner in the same building as the non-profit publisher and the mediation center; the building used to be a Masonic Temple years ago. They've got the free wifi and the chillin' seats, but they close at 7:30! So, I walked 7 blocks back, and went to Java Jitters, pretty much right across from the fire station. They close at eight, but were stoked to hear me ask about their every-other weekly open mic, "Verbose Overdose." The next one is two weeks from now; they're skipping Halloween - who's going to come? 

But I also like living in the sticks. It's - well, not much quieter out here, but a little. And even though I can't find free wifi and caffeine at the same time, at least I can walk around, meet my neighbors, and come home to that stuff. 

(the picture here can be seen on flickr, at farm1.static.flickr.com/237/450295823_8da4fd5b5f.jpg?v=0)

truth?

I'm not sure I believe there is truth anymore. Certainly not in electoral politics. That being said, please watch this video. The GOP attacks on ACORN and their efforts to suppress the vote...I'm not sure what else to say.

uber-political jellyfish sacrifice selves for cleaner energy protest!

Yesterday, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear (pronounced, "Nuke-U-Ler") Power Plant was brought down to 25% capacity output by a massive influx of - you guessed it - moon jellyfish.

What were they trying to accomplish? Destruction on a massive scale? Did they know, as they undulated their bodies against the mesh of the underwater grates that they were merely banging their metaphorical heads against the wall? They were each, evidently, about the size of a human head, so perhaps they did. 

Although I'm not certain how I feel about the role of nuclear power in our energy future (or present), I am saddened by the need these innocent invertebrates seem to have felt to take this drastic action to put forth their, certainly well thought out, political agenda.

Poor, poor jellyfish. Evidently they had to be scraped off the grill. Bugs on the highway of life. 

(See the article at www.newtimesslo.com/news/1211/suicidal-jellyfish-jam-diablo-canyon/#)

supernatural sounds

this weekend, i attended a wonderful musical event. it was the "Animals and the Arts" benefit for Pets Unlimited (http://www.petsunlimited.com/). they're a no-kill animal shelter and special needs veternary center. they'll patch up cats and dogs that many other shelters would euthanize, and they'll keep the critters until they find good homes. our first kitty, Missie, was there for a year and a half before we adopted her, and our second kitty, Dennis, had a horrible leg injury. they had to take the leg, but he's happy and healthy now, and full of plenty of mischief. please check out their website, and if you can and feel so inclined, support them in any way you can. they're good people.

so. i'm at this show. and there were 30 odd classical musicians, a few operatic soloists, and quite an empresario showman conductor. i mean, these guys were world class.

and so was the clarinet soloist. holy *&%^. i can't remember the last time i've heard tones that sweet. which isn't strictly true. i was, until recently, working with a superb jazz clarinetist, and he's got some hellaciously sweet tones. but this was classical, and it is different. also, it was in the Herbst Theater on Van Ness, and the acoustics are crazy good there.

but i could tell that the operatic singing was coming from the bodies of the singers. the clarinet...it was like the sound came from the entire stage area, from the floor to the ceiling. it was amazing. it gave me shivvers and brought tears to my eyes. i loved it. and it gave me a new way to look at the instrument i've recently picked up.

although i'm not playing at all right now. focusing primarily on my video business (http://www.foolishtreefilms.com/) and secondarily on my writing (i'm way behind on my "story a month" thing). clarinet will, for now, have to wait.

and on the video note, something to look forward to: watch this space in the next week or so. i will embed my new documentary short film, "goats." it's about how the city of San Francisco hires goatherders and goats to trim the verge, as it were, in certain places. wow!

don't mind if I do

So, I'm on my way back from the gym this morning. I've got my headphones on, listening to Benny Goodman (or Artie Shaw - I don't know them both well enough to know the difference yet) on my iPod, and reading "Bad Money," about how we got into this crazy fiscal mess in the first place. I'm pretty engrossed (so to speak).

Well, I feel one coming on, and it's the open air, and the breeze is blowing, so I let it rip.

In the next second, a scream erupts from behind me (a bloody-murder kind of scream), and this woman makes a wide berth to my left. She's muttering at me and giving me dirty looks. Well, she scared me, maybe more than I scared/offended her. I said, "I'm sorry - but it's just a fart." She muttered more things, and then I took off my headphones and called up the sidewalk to her, where she was speeding along. "Look, I'm sorry, but it's just a fart. It's a bodily function. We all have them."

Then she said, "You have no shame!"

And I said, "You're right. Not about this anyway. It's a bodily imperative. It makes no sense to be ashamed of it." And she gave me a wide berth, and I stalked off.

Now, this is just funny. I certainly shouldn't have gotten so upset, but then again, neither should she. It's a fart!

But it does point up the fact that I'm kinda more tense than I have any real need - or use - to be. I've got plenty of "right" to be - just look around you. But still, I'd like something that silly to not only not get to me so, but to actively make me laugh.

Ha! ;0)

more light!

Had my wedding gig last night (the one for which I bought the lighting equipment). It was really, really fun. I know the brides, and they are lovely, fabulous folks. It was a beautiful ceremony, and there was good energy all around. (And good cake!)

The lights were a big hit! There were a few photographers there as well, and the lead was thrilled that I'd brought some stationary, consistent lights. He didn't want to shoot with flash during the ceremony as it would distract. I just used the two 1000W halogen tripods. Each was off to the side, angled down at full power so the light would bounce up and not glare in the ladies' eyes. We could have used one more set of lights down the middle, but there you go. Learning for next time.

I realized something strange and interesting last night too, about a difference between video and photography that I never noticed:

video: I shoot motion, and therefore, must remain, for the most part, fairly still, or the audience will have a hard time keeping up.

photography: They shoot stills, so (other than at the moment of the shot) they can bop around quite a bit in between. 

I felt like a strange statue/flower, while these water bugs/small mammals bounced around me. However, for both of us, the actual moment of the shot is still. Only, for photogs, it's a quick moment plucked out of the time stream, and then on to the next. Whereas, I am recording the river of it, the motion.

At the moment of recording, we must be still, while the machine does the work.

When I used to do a lot more sketching, one of the things I'd like to do is to go like mad for 30-120 seconds, hardly looking at the paper, while the subject moved, talked, ignored me. Sometimes the drawings were nearly unintelligible, but that was cool. Other times, they seemed to capture the person in their fullness. Or in a kind of fullness. 

They move, I move, all is movement, personally and relatively.

And last night was moving. To be part of such a lovely thing, for two such lovely women...it means a lot to me. Yay!

whack-sanity

Everything's going local. I don't think we can help it. Please, get to know your neighbors, regardless of race, ideas, ideals, sex (or sexiness) or levels of whackiness. Be with each other now, so when it's required (because there's not enough gas and hardly anyone has horses - or the know-how to work with them), you can be with each other then. 

So much of the world is already insane. Let's be good to those we know, and let's know as much and as many as we can within our immediate circle. It's already wider than we think, and richer.

Rock on, everyone!

light

So, I'm starting this video bizyness (www.foolishtreefilms.com). I've done vid on and off since high school, and I'm no stranger to it. That being said, there's a heck of a lot I don't know about it; a heck of a lot to learn. Well, on Saturday, I'm filming my first outdoor, low-light event. I've messed with all the controls on my camera. I'll do a bunch of goodness in post. But nothing beats lighting the thing properly from the beginning.

Sure. Okay. Great. Errrr...that means I need lights. Like, now. So, I went shopping. I hit OSH, Home Depot, and Peir 1, for tripod mounted halogens, clip lights and a chinese lantern (in that order). Pier 1 was a bust, but the other two were good.

But before that, I decided to check craigslist for lighting. Better to get it used than new, if I can. Especially right now, fer cripes sake. I saw one promising lead for an 18" fixture, "old-style."

Cute, huh? It looked just like the sort of thing I was looking for, and the ad said it had an attachment for tripods. Excellent! Oh, and it was $5! Double excellent. So, it said to call "X."

(Quick aside: there's this awesome bookstore in the Mission on Valencia near 19th called Borderlands Books. They're a specialty store for fantasy, sci-fi and horror. www.borderlands-books.com. They have sweet, helpful, knowledgeable people and a wonderful selection. I was also in a writer's group, not affiliated with the store, that met in the back. I left the group about 6 months ago.)

Well, I only know one person named "X," and she's the manager of the above mentioned store. But I didn't twig to the number, and I called it. "Borderlands Books," came the voice on the other end of the phone. Oh! Holy crap! How cool! It turns out the lighting unit was owned (not any more - I own it now!) by the owner of the store. They said they'd hold it for me, and I could come by later that night, no problem. So I did. I looked at the unit, and besides being retro-cool (it must be 40 years old), it works like a dream. No surprise; this guy keeps his stuff in top condition. I'm very excited to try it out.

So, I'm chatting at the front with one of the long-time employees, who I haven't seen in a while because, well, my leaving the writing group was kinda awkward. And I think I just didn't want to be around the store because of the associations. So we're chatting, and I hear some folks talking in the back. I look over - and it's the writer's group!

Wow. Well, I'm stoked for them that it's still going; that's cool. And...I had to use the john. And the group was between me and there. And I decided that it was totally silly for me not to go. So I did. I spoke to them briefly on the way there and back, and realized something wonderful. I am really glad not to be in the group any more. They're good people, but it didn't work for me in a major way, and it had been time to leave, and leave I did. Yay! And now, I feel ready to hang out at my favorite bookstore in the whole world again. And that is a really good thing.

So, in my quest for light last night, I was enlightened, and I lightened my own load. Which is great, considering there's enough heaviness right now, and I'm finishing this entry up at 4:20 in the morning because I couldn't sleep, what with all that's going on.

But you know what? Good is happening too. My video biz is starting up with a whoosh, my short stories are getting better, and my general creativity is higher. I'm beginning to exhibit more "insufferable positivity." (for a good read on this topic, please visit lifepurposeworks.blogspot.com and read the Sept. 30th entry. Check it out - she's my best friend!) Not that I'm blind - just positive.

Light is good. So is darkness. They make shadow. A place for resting, and for greys. And a place to do whatcha want to, away from prying eyes.

Here's to shadow.

Update: This morning, I told one of my co-workers about it, and he pointed out that, if I so chose, I could see these "coinkeydinks" as the universe directly supporting my creating my video biz.

I so choose. ;)

The Waters of the John

Saw the filthy god at the Castro tonight. He left us with this definition of success: "I can buy any book I want and not look at the price, and I never have to be around assholes." He told us what "blossoms" are, and then told us "I wish I didn't know that." He told us to get all dragged up and go to major politicians' houses and shout fashion insults at their wives. He told us a story about someone he'd met in a bar in Baltimore who, when asked by Waters what he did for a living, said, "Can I be truthful?" "Sure." "I sell deer meat for crack."

He told us to use humor as a weapon of choice against the insanity of the world around us.

We got told. And I liked it. 

good, good, goodman

i just recently took up the clarinet. it's pretty fun, and i like it for a number of reasons. but that's not what today's entry is about.

today's entry is about taking one of my walks up around Monterrey avenue north of the ingleside district here in san francisco. i came upon a man who was loading some things into his suv from his garage. hanging on a nail therein was a mirrored picture of a young man in a suit holding a hollow-body electric guitar. on it were the words, "Edward Coven - guitarist for the legendary Benny Goodman!" now, if you're of a certain age, or if you know anything about the clarinet, then you know the name Benny Goodman. he was the leader of a big band that popularized swing music and played for decades. 

and he was a mean mother f*^&er on that clarinet. he could play, play, play. fast and loud and precise. mmmm, mmm.

anyway, Edward Coven turned out to be this guy's father. he told me the story that his father approached Goodman at the San Francisco world's fair. Goodman wouldn't give him an audition, but Edward made sure that Goodman knew that he was playing that night at a local jazz club. Goodman showed, and Edward got the gig. 

neat, huh?

filmic possibilities...

just a quick note. as some of you know, i'm angling to make money as a video shooter/editor/producer. well, this saturday and the previous sunday, i had a total of 3 people interested in my work and in possibly paying me for it. now, i know that interest is a long way from a contract (and even farther from actually getting paid), but these three folks are a bajillion percent more than i've had interested in such a way before. it's very exciting!

plus, i'm doing some vid of my clarinet teacher tonight, and i have an event to shoot on the 11th. yay! no money yet, but that's okay. i'm havin' fun.

new...art?

Yeah, I think it's art. Three balls. Three balls! Not there in the morning, I come home, and there's three balls on the corner. Mosaic balls with oranges and yellows and mirrory bits, and they're huge. Huge balls on the corner. 

One ball. What do you think God thinks of this?

They're called "Sun Spheres." I love public art. And pagan symbols right under the nose (cross) of Christian ones!

And I also got an invite to a Unitarian pagan "interest group." Is it for folks who are interested in pagans? Or interesting pagans? Or pagans interested in other things? Shoes? Procedural dramas? The public re-enactment of painful moments in kabuki white-face while dancing on stylized wooden sculptures of cats? 

Will we ever know? Or understand?

yahoo news and bias

the warp and weft and the way
it was left...
or right.

i noticed something the other day. i have a yahoo account, and so i often come to the yahoo home page. i also (somewhat) often read yahoo news.

well, this time i decided to go looking for news about Obama. there's been precious little lately; it all seems to be about pitbull-pig-lipstick woman. ooooh, she's so proud of herself. hell, i would be too, i guess.

anyway, i looked, and the first article i found was about the fundraiser he held last night, where babs sang for a bunch of celebrities. made $9M! the article I read was yesterday, before the event. it spoke about babs singing at the event. however, it was phrased in the following manner: "was to have sang," "was to have appeared." although nowhere in the article did it say that she was not going to perform, or that the event had been called off, the verb tense clearly indicated that she "was to have sang," but now was not. oh, no! something's wrong with Obabma!

then, i noticed another article that was referring to former president Clinton. i don't remember exactly what was being discussed, but the line i remember was this: "blah, blah, blah, during Clinton's impeachment." Not "during the failed impeachment," not even "during the impeachment proceedings held against Clinton," but "during Clinton's impeachment." there are young people out there who were ten when all that was going on, and who are now of voting age. what do they know? according to yahoo news, they know that Clinton was impeached.

who wants to vote for the party that spawned a recently impeached president?

gah. just, gah. and interesting and telling.

understanding my limitations

So, I was thinking of working the Dickens Christmas Fair this year. It's a seriously fun party that I've been to many times, and I've thought of working it many times. But I just have too much else going on at the moment. 

That, as they say, is that.

Gonna play clarinet soon. Yay. It cheers me up.

bitchin' evenin' in the valencia

last night, had a faboo evening with a work friend who's now just a friend. it was the kind of evening that really shows me that life can work. it can. not always, perhaps. but a fair sight more than i think most of us are used to. 

lovely happenstances, and cool people. i love nights like that!