Stranger Storytelling

I'm sorry but I really don't get the fascination with Stranger Things. I think it was just an algorithmic assessment of what we should all like and find novel from the 80's slapped together in a terribly shoddy storyline with an obnoxiously screaming Winona Ryder...made by a couple of guys that had only just been born at the time it was set. We didn't say douchebag, we didn't chill in cars, we didn't have cordless phones in poor homes in the Midwest just yet, fellas.  Shame on you, Netflix. Do your research and stop marketing this kind of quasi-storytelling. But smooth move using a Stephen King font and almost making it look like its his name in the intro. Clearly it's working. (For some.)

Now go back and pay rights to Stand By Me, E.T., Stephen King, Stephanie Powers (that mom!?)...the list, I'm sure was generated for you before this even began.

Stirring Around Our Workspace

I do this often. Stir the furniture in our apartment...I think it drives Mariela crazy. But it's how I was raised. My granny still moves her furniture around every few months. I just thought that's what normal people do! So I've taken it to the next level...and modified most of our furniture to add wheels. It's quite handy.  I think the needing to stir comes from our Native American roots. We can't move the tribe, so we shift stuff around. It gives a new feeling to a familiar place. Makes sense.  But she also kept a large knife stuck in the door because we lived around really scary people--within our house and the neighborhood.  So I've modified her model by using a magnetic knife rack by the door--but it holds keys, wallets, little dyke tools, camera remotes...etc. etc.

The latest stirring episode is because I've been frustrated with my photography lately. But I'm chalking it up to a few things: 1) I haven't really found my place here yet. Like a job or community involvements, but I know that will happen. Spring is in full bloom in Northern California and it's magnificent. 2) I'm used to photographing dingy urban stuff--usually weird & dark. Exactly the opposite of here. It's bright and sunny all the time and  much more suburban. I know that riding my bike on daily missions will kick me over into the groove again. And that will happen when I find my place/job, too. I just have to be patient and diligent with my own projects in the meantime.

The biggest projects we have going now:

• pilot script
• creating 2D puppet animations for storytelling
• editing our cross-country move to Cali video

I've been hard at work on a video for my family that is finally complete! Mariela and I learned so many new effects and techniques, but the content is personal, but maybe I'll do a rough cut of some of the footage to share here. The time lapse of the family cottage is pretty terrific--if I do say so myself.  I had stayed up so late the night before--drinking wine at the dining hall, an unexpected nap, and then more ukulele playing and singing with the fam. But it was 4am and the sun was a'comin. I scurried to gather my gear and ran out to argue with my new time lapse settings in Magic Lantern. I got it. It's beautiful. It's quiet and serene. All the colony kids and vacationers fast asleep...I even managed to get the sun rising over the colony pool. Luckily, I had the forethought to get the cottage first and move downhill for the pool. So maybe a short cut to come soon.

We had a terrific weekend and really didn't get anything done on our projects, but sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the sunshine.  So we joined some new friends at Half Moon Bay for a fun day at the beach. I'm just still so stunned that the OCEAN is that close!  Luckily, my midwestern hickness is wearing off and I haven't referred to the Pacific Ocean as a LAKE in quite a while now. ;-)

Is My Blogger Broken?

I kinda hate writing again. I liked blogging for my previous job, but it just never felt like my voice. So, I have to ask, is MY blogger broken? Perhaps with Google trying to kill RSS--they are in fact sabotaging the little people on the Internets. The geeks, present company included, that setup their bedroom as a radio/tv station 8 yrs ago--a station/podcast that they could only dream of having in 6th grade, will be crushed by the lack of readership that comes from RSS publishing.  But I'm not one to get my panties in a bunch over the latest internet sensations.  I know that those of us with real stories & real skills will always have a place at the table.

In related news, scriptwriting is brutal. We're hard at work to finish our pilot script for a web series. However, our planned web series is about lesbians--but it's not a lesbian web series, per say. Yet some of the scenes absolutely must be graphic! Ha--it's hard to pitch the pilot without including the graphic parts in the first episode, yet it doesn't quite fit. Eh, if we have to produce it ourselves, we'll do what we want (animation if need be--and you'll all be glad for the graphic parts). It's the age old dilemma. If you let others in...they will likely take it OVER. But with the help of others, our stories can finally be shared.

Lastly, my iPhone is dead all the time now. If you know me, in real life--please don't hesitate to email me your phone/text messages. Yes, it's true that you can also continue texting--but only if you have an iPhone--cuz I'm an Apple whore like that. (I can still gettem' on my iPad.) And I'm no longer participating in the stalking pleasures of Facebook. People don't really share. They come to gawk. I'm not tryin to hide--I've always been right here. But when ignorance starts filling my day (people posting racist images, tormentors of my past showing up in "likes," then of course my judging of everyone else's lack of judgement, and all the other dumb drama) I just have to walk away. Sometimes you just need a break--to really see what it was doing to you.

And then it reminds me why I liked blogging in the first place!  I don't give a shit if someone clicks a like button, most of the time without even reading what I'm saying.  This is a place that I'm free to be me.  I can post what I want.  I don't have ads for ridiculous crap in my face. And further, the content I share can actually be reviewed, saved for scripts, or produced in one of our videos.  When I put stuff on Facebook...it might as well be added to a consumer database of what I like to do and then just immediately deleted.  Ain't nobody gonna go back and deal with FB's weird, controlling ways of showing you even your own content!

So I'm back to the bloggin board...where it's beautiful, ad-free, and just what I want it to be.

P.S. Happy Birthday M.C. I still think about you all the time. I read through some of our final stories together this weekend--you always knew how to laugh.  And you always believed in me.  I'll never forget that.