Sicilian love

I'm not Sicilian. I know a few. They're, all of them, wonderful. One lived here at our house for a year. Vincenzo. Even though I grew up making pizza at the restaurant my family owned, I hadn't really had pizza.

This past week, my father-in-law landed himself in the hospital, four + hour drive from here. So after getting Melinda on her way to see him, possibly for the last time, I began to take stock of what there was to feed the kids.

Ever since Vincenzo, or Vice' (pronounced "Vee-shay") showed me the secret to making margarita pizza, I've built memories for myself and others through the thin crust, the tomato sauce with garlic and oregano, fresh tomatoes and the mozzarella cheese with fresh basil.

I'd been telling my wife for weeks that it would be good to go see her dad. Sometimes I have these premonitions, or maybe I'm just a pessimist and think the end is near far too often. The day before we got the call from the hospital I was pressing again telling her, "I think you really should go see him, he's not been well". Then her brother called.

Meals are always around when there's trouble it seems. Most families have experienced meals brought in by others when there's an illness or death. And maybe that's why I decided on the pizza. I've love watching someone sink into the melted mozzarella and fresh tomatoes, basil and olive oil and seeing the change come over them. It's comfort food. It's Sicilian love. And now it's a memory I often cherish. Perhaps the most satisfying phone call I've received was from a friend who only had a month to live, as it turned out. She'd called to request the pizza "once more before I die"... Around a month later the cancer took her. I will never forget eating with her.

Food sometimes has a way of turning around a lost or failing relationship. And maybe the memory of the pizza or the broiled salted asparagus, the curried shrimp or blended piña colada is enough to begin to recall what was lost. Perhaps the connection that was made once can be made again and a little good food can bring everyone back to their senses.

For my kids, I just wanted to make another memory, because their memories are just as important as what I told my wife about connecting with her dad and brothers. Those to whom we say "I love you" are high priority. So I went beyond the margarita pizza and added mushrooms and grilled chicken. I want them to remember it beyond dessert. They heated the leftovers up the next morning for breakfast, actually. Very satisfying as their chef.

Hopefully my father in law will be ok, of course we all wish he wasn't dealing with nurses and IV's. Most likely the food is nutritious but ... well let's just say if he gets out of there alive he'll probably not have fond memories of the onion broth they call soup.

Here's a picture of the pizza I served up the other night. Margarita pizza is easy to make. Hit me with an email if you'd like the recipe.

Ciao!

Louigie

Nothing is changed, everything is different.

And suddenly the whole world was different.

It wasn't the first time something like this happened to me. It's sort of like waking up after a long day of international travel - the kind of to-the-bone-exhausting travel where a twenty hour flight and a few hours in a hotel leaves me literally lost when I wake up that first morning. Instantly... the whole world is different.

Today, I received an email with a Word doc attachment, a strategy white paper it was. I printed it out and began scanning for words that might make me want to read it. So, upon reaching the bottom of the first of four pages, I, no kidding, put my finger on the last paragraph and swiped upward. Nothing happened, it was paper!!!

I up-swiped a printed document. My brain woke up in a foreign place. To make things worse, my first reaction when the toner didn't move was, "what the heck....?" As if I should reboot the recycled printer paper.

I've been rewired. It actually took a few seconds for me to laugh about it. I recently wrote something out with a ball-point pen and after reversing the "i-before-e" thing for the thousandth time, I was perturbed that the note didn't spell check itself and auto-correct. I thought about backspacing and deleting. I've reached out and touched a TV screen to make a DVD play. I caught myself on the way to the radio dial in the car to bookmark a song that was playing on FM.

My devices are defining me. On the rare occasion that I take a check, I "deposit" it with my phone's camera. Recently I left a meeting that I'd navigated to with a mobile GPS. It occurred to me that if my phone battery sputtered out during the meeting, I would have been utterly lost due to my fly-by-wire arrival. I honestly had no clue where I was; getting there was a mixture of staying on the road while my phone literally talked me in to the meeting to within two minutes and six feet of perfect accuracy.

My tablet tells me how to dress for the weather it's constantly watching and proudly boasting about. At dinner the other night an argument broke out over how a 5-star restaurant's menu would list a gourmet recipe for rabbit. When Wikipedia and Google both fell down on the job, my demand for instant truth drove me to an old school technology - I called my dad on the phone and texted my brother to get the answer.

My expectation that everything I ever watched on television as a kid is only two clicks away on YouTube was absolutely crushed when I couldn't find "Pope Brad" from Michael Nesmith's collection of short, whacky films. What's the world coming to???

I used to think these little glowing screens and lick-able icons were a marvel of usefulness. The truth is, I can't get them out of my head. The real disappointment earlier tonight wasn't that my paper wouldn't swipe, it was that I'd forgotten momentarily how to turn a page. So in this new world in which I find myself, nothing is changed really... but everything is different.

 -- END --

Its a jungle in there

"I am not your slave" I said to the dog that stood whining outside my front door. Which wasn't true. The ridiculous mix between jack-russell terrier and bijan frieze only has to whimper near the door and somebody, a human, stops what they are doing and let's the dog in or out. Maybe the thought of the dog relieving itself on the carpet is enough to keep me on a short leash.  The animal is only outside in the cold for three minutes before its clawing and crying at the door again. Annoying, sharp cries, they are. High pitched and shaking for added effect. The dog has me trained. I am in fact its slave.

The cat I didn't want was trying t get into the dishwasher.  I stepped on it by accident for the tenth time in its already decrementing nine lives. In all, its a fine cat, except that it's never satisfied. The assigned bowl of cat food isn't empty, the cat just wants the scraps of the dishwasher. This house is too small to be a zoo. 

One of the 27 chickens was lost today. An escape that cost my daughter several hours of her elective Saturday looking for it. I perceive it as a waste of time, but when you're 12, what could be more fun than trying to recover a recalcitrant bird. The thing flew into the brambles which drove the yellow lab nearly into a frenzy as every gene in its body went into retriever mode. At last notice, it's still lost and will probably freeze through the night. 

The lab is a piece of work as well. She has a condition. The unfairness of it won't leave me alone. The disease sends her into convulsions when she runs too hard. I think there is even a name for it. Exercise Induced Collapse. Looks like a seizure to me. Recently, she fell into some bushes all locked up and eyes rolled back, and a stick punctured her scalp. That was a six hundred dollar cure at the vet, including the anesthesia and the drain tubes that remained for many weeks. 

We have special needs pets. One of the chickens when not even a day out of the egg, had been left for dead by the hen that brooded over it. I think it actually did die, but Mei An gave it mouth to beak resuscitation and it has lived ever since. It too has seizures. Just when you think it dead, its eyes blink and it's back to wandering in search of bugs. The cat is orally fixated with a strong ongoing nursing preference for polar fleece. 

We feed them on their terms. We let them in or out at their whim, I considered cutting a doggie door into one of the doors but I just can't bring myself to actually act on the notion of a private entrance for the throng of sub-human life forms that clutter my halls. Instead I numb my mind to the gross interruptions that are meant to be here for my pleasure. Slave or indentured servant ... either one is a notch or two down from where I thought I'd be. 

Books are magical

Why haven't I been reading every day of my life?

I never really read anything but textbook assignments all the way through school. And when I did read something, my lack of patience and undiagnosed A.D.D. was what kept me more interested in movies, I suppose, than committing to reading an actual book. But lately, I've been reading again. And I'm starting to get panicky if I don't have that time at the end of the day to escape into a book.

I just finished two books by Orson Scott Card. The first one, Pastwatch, is subtitled "The redemption of Christopher Columbus". Card is most well known for the Ender's Game series, which I read a few years back. He's such a good writer that it doesn't matter the topic, he nails the reader page after page. This latest one, Enchantment, is a different spin on the story of Sleeping Beauty. Card had to really do his homework on the book as it is steeped in the scholarly character, Ivan, who is one of the few speakers of a dead Slavic language allegedly spoken by the cursed beauty and her community. Ivan gets to experience a scholar's dream by entering the fairy tale and coming face to face with the likes of Baba Yaga, history's most infamous witch.

I'm reminded again that fiction is the only thing that connects me to reality. I just can't read non-fiction for long, which is why I think, I was such a lousy student. I was buried, like most students, in non-fiction textbooks. Which is like eating predigested nutrition bars for every meal. After a while it seems to make more sense to skip a lot of meals rather than submit yourself to "what's good for you".

It's a nice feeling to have this escape into reality though. It's a great place to be able to find food and drink for the soul. I have a much better understanding of Orson Scott Card's research to reproduce a version of what "could" have been the pre-Russian village of Taina. The thought that a king ruled alongside his people, leading them both into war as well as leading them into harvest and laboring at their side to prepare to have food through the harsh winters.

And that's the point of fiction I suppose. Coming into the election, it's interesting to note the differences of a courageous leader that takes to the battlefield wearing his own sword, and one that spends most of his last elected year trying to convince the people that he's worthy of another four years. This is a non-partisan comment, for all elected officials on either side of the proverbial aisle makes the same mistake. I found the idea in fiction though, not by observing this or that incorruptible contemporary government or system. The power of mythology is really the narrative we need most in these alien days.

History has a way... they say, of repeating itself. May it be the case. I hope I live to see the day when the power of an influential person in my life is not forced upon me because I'm one of the voting masses. Rather would it come by intimacy and my own inability to resist the winsome and honorable courage of someone that wants to do the right thing. It's never simple, and often fraught with mistakes, fairy tales do have a way of glamorizing the ideal. A good story well told, however takes us through the journey of that hero in the best of times and the worst of times.

As Baba Yaga cannibalizes her victims and plucks out their eyes to make potions and spells, it's clear that there is nothing tantalizing about evil. Yet evils we must endure. We are all in a story... many stories actually. We, all of us have the rights and responsibilities to live them the best we can, and to rise above our own mundane textbook lives. I for one, will be picking up more fiction so that the truth of the stories I'm living have some bearing. Non-fiction is meant for instruction manuals and recipes at dinnertime. May the rest be myths and legends to encourage whomever comes after us to continue to do the rightest things they can. Complete with mistakes and setbacks. There is magic in the book itself, because the story has the power to conjure and seduce the mind. A most dangerous, and welcome companion for whatever's left of my own journey to the end.

Surviving

"It's the small things", she said, "that I'm thankful for. When I'm pruning or digging in my garden, I realize it's a gift."

Most people look at digging in the garden or pruning as a task. Catch them on a good day and they might tell you it's a nice break from the routine of the daily grind. But when you've been through something that nearly took your life, it is the small things that you're thankful for.

It was good to see my friend yesterday, it has been too long. I remember visiting her in the same trauma center I'd been taken to after my accident nearly seven years ago. The bleeding in her brain had caused so much immediate damage that it didn't look like she'd recover. But there she stood yesterday looking better than ever.

Before something traumatic happened to me, it' was as though bad things only happen to other people. During the recovery, as lucidity returned in whatever fashion it's going to, it still seemed like the person I'd become was somebody I'd heard a story about. It couldn't be me, of course, who was laying here with all these tubes hanging out of me. Now, too long after the pain to remember all of the details, it's clear that it was me all along. And on a good day, as I've said many times, I'm thankful for the little things.

So often, I've heard it said, that people of faith spend so much time worrying about life after death that they don't live life before death. It's a funny preoccupation when you stop and think about it. Those believers are not alone either. It's possible to worry so much about life as it is, that you don't experience life at all. I think it's true, in the small things you'll find what's worth being thankful for.

As I said goodbye after talking with her, my co-survivor said, "hey, keep writing in your blog. I read that even though you write infrequently". I do know I miss writing, and maybe I can get back to it more. It's a small thing really, to just write a little about the things one guy sees along the way. But the gift tends to give itself over and over, doesn't it. A small encouragement. "hey, keep writing..." The small thing I'm thankful for today is that my friend is still with us... and that I'm part of the "us" that is here to notice. And that's not a given. Hopefully those I love don't have to taste near death to experience wide-awake life on their way to that final day they press through that thin barrier between here and "there".

Northern Wake is a GO

Northern Wake fans... I just wanted to let you know that filming is a go for the trailer to the film that will begin full production in 2013. You were part of the first Kickstarter fundraising push that grabbed the attention of several hundred interested backers. I travel this week to Alaska and Maui with DP John Northrup of Asheville, NC to shoot our first footage and complete a trailer to raise the remaining funding for future production.

 FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS You can follow our filming progress in two places... www.northernwake.com and on the films Facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/northern.wake. in fact, please hit that page and tell your friends about it... liking it is your option, but you know how it goes, social network popularity being what it is can only help.

HERE'S HOW I DID IT
I secured funding from the National Marine Sanctuary program and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. That sparked the interest of NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources in Juneau who have become incredibly supportive of the film's success.  Also, an Australian company that has developed devices that might just alert whales to the presence of fishing gear, Fumunda, soon to be Future Oceans, along with the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia have stepped forward with funding. The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, home to the film's narrator Ed Lyman also stepped forward to fund our production.

CONSIDER BACKING THE FILM
These backers have provided enough to travel and film the trailer... but we are far from funded. Please follow the link to the Northern Wake website and click on the DONATE button to support the upcoming production.

WANT TO BE IN THE CREDITS?
Associate Producer: Back the film at $1,000 and you will make the end credits as Associate Producer
Co-Producer: Back the film at $10,000 and you will share the opening and end credits as Co-Producer
Executive Producer: Back the film at $25,000 or more and you will share opening and end credits as Executive Producer

Stay tuned for other rewards that will be listed on www.northernwake.com and on the Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/northern.wake

Please feel free to comment or drop a line to me on our Facebook page. Thanks for your interest in Northern Wake.

Lou Douros, Producer
 www.loudouros.com
 www.northenwake.com
http://www.facebook.com/northern.wake

NEW WEBSITE FOR NORTHERN WAKE

I've just updated the Northern Wake website. You can still find it at www.northernwake.com, but now it no longer points to the kickstarter page.

I've now made contact with the International Fund for Animal Welfare and hoping for an introduction to Sony to see if they're interested in our deploying their new helmet cam (a competitor to the entrenched GoPro).

They'd be a good sponsor/partner.

More as it develops.

Northern Wake

Quick update... We're in a holding pattern at the moment. I've received some funding for pre-production (National Marine Sanctuary Foundation). I have a constant flow of interest and it takes time to shop any project, especially right now. I'm looking for corporate sponsorship at the moment. There are a few foundations and NGO's that are looking at the project as well. I remain hopeful. It may be that we don't go into full production until next summer. I'm still optimistic that there could be some footage that comes from the cameras that are in place up in Alaska with rescue teams there. 

I will continue to post here as it unfolds.

National Ocean Week 2012

I just returned from National Ocean Week in Washington, DC. While I was there, I had the opportunity to speak on a panel at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation sponsored event. I received lots of compliments after the session, which may just mean the audience was intensely polite. In any case, several people asked for the outline and references from the talk, so I'm publishing it here. This is approximately what I said...

CHOW Film Panel 2012

Lou Douros

1.  Introductory Remarks

10 years ago, the 11 month old girl my wife and I adopted from China could not speak English. Mei An eventually learned to say her name, but it came out as “na”. The word “milk” came out “nunk” and her word for cup was “chup”. So when she would say, “Na nunk chup”, it meant “Mei An wants milk in a cup”.

We later adopted a 2 ½ year old boy from Taiwan. Tynan had a language, but his version of Taiwanese was not useful … AT ALL. But he did learn that “Na nunk chup” meant he got milk. He adapted, why? Because he REALLY WANTED MILK. He learned the language because it mattered.

Today, “more than 50% of all content consumed on the internet is video content”. In addition, according to YouTube reports, in the time I’ve been talking, 48 hours of video content has been uploaded.

Film (and online video) has become its own sort of language, or at least the primitive beginnings of a language. I say primitive because if the predictions are correct, three things are about to make us fluent, not in English, nor Mandarin, nor Spanish… but fluent in video.

• Massive increase in IP traffic

• Massive increase in mobile devices and their capabilities

• Massive increase in IP delivered VIDEO content

Cisco, only a few days ago, released a forecast[i] for 2011 – 2016.

Here are some of their predictions:

INCREASE IN IP TRAFFIC

In 2016, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross global IP networks every 3 minutes.

Global IP networks will deliver 12.5 petabytes every 5 minutes in 2016. (A Petabyte is 1 Million GB, or 1,000 TB).

INCREASED MOBILE

Globally, mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold between 2011 and 2016.

Mobile data traffic will reach 10.8 exabytes per month by 2016. (1 Exabyte = 1 Billion GB or 1 Million TB)

ALSO… Google has recently predicted[ii] that 1 billion people will use a mobile phone as their primary tool to access the internet in 2012.

INCREASED VIDEO

By 2016, it could take over 6 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month.

Every second, 1.2 million minutes of video content will cross the network in 2016.

Video-on-demand traffic will triple by 2016. The equivalent of 4 billion DVDs per month.

Last November, Cisco predicted that in three years, 90% of all internet traffic will be video.

The point is this. If you want to make your point, you better learn to speak the right language. If online video is the language, then documentary is something like an dialect. As with any language, there needs to be structure, rules and standards… and the structure of film is STORY.

2.  Love the story. Passion.

Something special happens when we start to care about stories.

A few years back, Mark DiOrio and Mara Kerr became deeply interested in the humpback whales that migrated between Alaska and Hawaii and gotten entangled in marine debris. Mara was especially touched by the effort to free them. In short, she started to care. The more she knew about it, the more passionate she became, and that fueled her already deep involvement in the ocean as an author. And that’s when Mark and Mara shared their contagious passion with me.

>> VIDEO CLIP 1 <<  (1:11) 

So that provided the setting for the film. Classic story has a setting, a hero or protagonist, and a journey. And that’s what resonates with us.

“In The Wake Of Giants” was not a film about whales. I spent most of my 30 year career telling the stories of missionaries and NGO’s in developing countries. What I learned in that time was to tease out who is who. Our humpbacks are the damsels in distress. Our hero, in this case Ed Lyman, who represents the Marine Sanctuary Program and the whole network of rescuers who took us on a journey.

>> VIDEO CLIP 3 << (1:15)

So… the journey, it’s pretty clear that what’s at stake in this case is the life of a whale. This is the kind of thing that connected with Mara in the first place. You’re pulling for the whale and the rescuers there to rescue it. You get the feeling that they whale and the rescuers are working together to meet the task. And this story had the reward built in, as they make the cut and the whale is freed.

A couple things about style.

 • MUSICAL SCORE I insisted that we score the film. We had no budget so I recruited my son Blaise, a talented but untested composer. Music played a key role in moving the story forward… why? Because our audience is musically literate. We had to respect our audience. They’re fluent. Blaise and I collaborated heavily on moving the story both visually and musically.

• CREATING WONDER  Even a 5 year old is video literate. I recently watched a three year old navigate an iPad to Netflix to find her favorite kid’s program… Good story has a sense of wonder, (that’s done by asking the right questions), and highly disciplined editing.

• SEDUCTION  Shortly into our 90 day process of making ITWOG, it occurred to me that my job was not to close the gap between the audience and the ocean… but to narrow the gap. The true test of persuasion is if you can get your enemy to do a double-take. If a whaler could say, “I disagree with you, but cool film…” I’ve narrowed the gap.

There is a difference between a lecture and a story. I believe we need to lecture less and seduce more.

3.  Invest in Film

There used to be patrons of the arts. The Medici’s funded the art of the day because it made them powerful and the desire to be a powerful force in Italian culture. To own art was to own the message. That’s not so different is it? Do you want people to care about the ocean? They have to fall in love with it, and I believe that’s done through story.

If you believe what Cisco is predicting is even close… you better start reserving part of your budget for making your work relevant to today’s viewers. Today we search for our content, but increasingly… our content has a way of finding us. YouTube reports that the vast majority of videos watched are not a direct result of a search. We watch what is recommended to us.

Bob Talbot said to me recently… “At my age it’s more important to be effective than to be right.” Another way to say that is… pay attention to how people are wired, LOVE the story you want to tell and tell it in a way that seduces them to narrow the gap between them and the ocean. Believe it or not, you will not save the oceans. You know who will? The billions of people who don’t see their connection to it. Film can connect people and the sea.

Ocean managers… grant writers… researchers… even corporate investors, the newest and most prolific language is evolving all around you. It’s time to step forward in a meaningful way and put funds into film… Develop a trusting relationship with a filmmaker who is fluent in story… when they become passionate about your work, others will begin to care about the ocean. Wouldn’t it be disappointing if, by 2016 your only meaningful message was… “na nunk chup”

---

[i] http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html

[ii] http://googlemobileads.blogspot.com/2012/02/consumers-love-their-smartphones-now.html

KICKSTARTER PROJECT ALERT

OK, OK, I've heard enough. Probably 10 people have told me to try making a film from funding at Kickstarter.com. I've looked it over, and am going to give it a try. If you're reading this and want to be included in the intensive network effort involved in raising funds through this innovative crowd-funding concept, write me and let me know...

You've got my email address... it's listed here in the blog and if you even write a comment, I'll get notified.

Oh, the film... the sequel to In The Wake Of Giants. It's based in the other end of the migration for the whales in Maui. It's called.... NORTHERN WAKE.

Hope this works!

More to come....

Schools close for the threat of snow...

Snow days aren't what they used to be. When I was a kid in Michigan, of course we lived for the days the radio would report closures and we'd stay home from school. Back in those days there was actually snow on the ground. Lot's of snow. It was Michigan, after all.

Today, there was some drizzly rain, and my kids were thanking God for closing school for the day. Literally, God got the credit from them.

You can say it's global warming or climate change (or whatever it's called) that is messing up the snow days. I don't think so. I'm chalking it up to trigger-happy school administrators who fear a lawsuit coming from slush-related head injury. Whatever it is, my kids get out of school for the dumbest things these days. "Collaboration" days is another one. I was thinking about that while I was sitting here at Starbucks. Imagine what would happen to business if Starbucks employees took "collaboration" days... or mornings.... Like right around the time teachers were driving to their jobs. "I'm sorry sir, we can't serve you coffee right now, it's a collaboration morning, and we Starbucks employees need time to talk among ourselves." Well, teachers would just go to another coffee place, Pete's say, and get coffee there. Haha, I guess we can't really apply capitalist agendas to the business of education, now can we? Well, unless it's when you're talking about a union - something designed to protect employees from wicked capitalists... hmmm.

That's kinda how it goes in our schools now. Someone had this idea... if teachers just took more time to talk among themselves, they wouldn't have to go out for beers to do it on their own time. Nor would they have to wait all the way to the 10 weeks of summer they have off... every day.

OK I really do have a LOT of respect for teachers. I would NOT want their jobs. They have the hardest jobs on the planet, if you ask me. At least public teachers in the United States, anyway. It's not even the administrator's fault for closing schools for the threat of flurries.

It's ... ok, well, my fault. And anyone who sits by and allows freeloading, lawsuit-happy citizens to extract money for the most irresponsible reasons.  After all, an accident on the way to school could be the fault of mother nature, whom you could never win a suit against, so it would be the transportation department who should have plowed earlier. Or the bus company that didn't train drivers to chain up. Or the chain manufacturer who didn't make it easier.

Of course the district can close and get off the list of deep-pockets. And since I chalked it up to lawsuits, I guess I get to draw this conclusion. Wonder what would happen if I chalked it up to half priced lift tickets for teachers mid-week at the ski areas.... ohhhhh wait a minute...... I'm going to have to go check that out. Back soon.........

Talk about anticlimactic!

So sorry to disappoint the reader. But perhaps balance has been restored to the universe. This is what happened in my hotel bathroom while I was out today.... hope you're ready for this.

Free Hotel, Pt. 2

OK, so I was hoping my little Critter Cam experiment was going to turn up some really big theft of prescription medicine, netting me a free night's stay at the Sheraton. So far, I'm disappointed. Yesterday, by the way, my camera's battery died before they got in there to clean.

But today... I had two cameras going. I remembered that my tablet has a time lapse capability too. So... you can see here that these housekeeping women are honest and oblivious to the possibility that they could sell my Norco on the street for like $25 / pill. Of course it wouldn't do much for the whole Tampa drug community.... I traded the Norco for Tylenol.

Maybe tomorrow will be the jackpot!

How to get a free night's stay in a hotel...

I stayed at a Marriott hotel in Savannah, GA a few months back. It was a very nice place, in fact, no complaints about the posh Neuvo-Asian decor, or the two bathrooms. 

My accident from 2006 has left very few ongoing issues for me, except one. I have some chronic pain in my left side that tends to flair from exhaustion, stress and lack of sleep. All of which are possibilities when I travel... with or without Nuevo-Asian decor. So, I carry a bottle of Norco, an interesting blend of Hydrocodone and Tylenol. (since Tylenol alone doesn't seem to cut it for me these days). 

The first day I was in Savannah, I left the room, with the "Do Not Disturb" sign up... and came back about three hours later, in need of a little pain reduction. That's when I discovered that a lot of my Norco had vanished. 

The hotel manager scanned the door swipes and discovered that sure enough, someone from housekeeping had come into the room at exactly the same time my Norco grew legs. (They issue, he told me, a new key to each housekeeping staff, every day). Coincidence? I don't think so. But even now, the manager claims the person flatly denied any such thing, (never mind that he/she entered in spite of the DND sign!!!) ... and, "well, it's your word against theirs". Hmmmm. In the end I think Marriott credited my rewards account (after three phone calls and two emails) with 5,000 points or something. I think that can be used to upgrade to bigger towels the next time I stay at a Marriott.

So today, I am in Tampa FL. I don't want to miss an opportunity to get more reward points from Sheraton so... I set up a Contour camera on a 3-second time lapse interval just before I left the room today. And... the results are, well let's say, INTERESTING. It would be silly for me to write it out, when I've got some pretty good footage.

Have a look at the video and see for yourself that there is just something about prescriptions that make a person stop and well... wonder, I suppose, about the street value of little white pills.

I will continue my little game while I stay here and see what evolves. Is it just me, or does this woman spend just a little too much time on an activity that shouldn't take ANY time at all. When I do the math on the time intervals, she spends around 15 seconds just reading the label! 

Makes you wonder.... well... it makes ME wonder anyway, how many free nights I'll get from Sheraton if I actually succeed in documenting it. 

Sweet dreams.....

Here's a large, High Resolution version of the video if you have a fast connection: Tampa Sheraton

This is why I love engineers!

Jonathan Palmer is the son of John and Sandy Palmer. Ok, so that may not mean a whole lot, unless you're in the business of building SUPER high resolution X-Y Plotters that don't just draw.... they CUT. That's right. Autometrix is the name of the company John and Sandy started about 20 years ago. Though Sandy is not writing software or out there with the mechanical/electrical engineers designing the next cool thing in making it easy to cut perfect patterns, as John says, she DID start that company... And I'd wager, she's been a big part of why it's still here.

But all that is merely setting for the birth, some I dunno, 24 years ago??? of Jonathan Palmer. He's the mechanical engineer who contacted me to produce their videos to address the badmouthing that's been coming from their envious competition. It was great fun!!!

So that picture you see up there... What you're looking at is what happens when you show up in a room of visionary engineers and say... "hey, you know, I've always wondered how hard it would be to build a.... {     }" It's no sooner that you've filled in that blank than you have them scribbling out on a napkin and firing up the drill press.

Autometrix, I must admit, has it all. Starting with a great group of people. Committed and focused, these are the people who change the world. John, for example, took an idea he'd had 20 years ago as a sailing enthusiast, and built a table that would make it easy to cut sails, very precisely and repeatedly. We're talking huge spinnakers and other big honkin' slabs of fabric meant to move a few tons through the water.

The company went through the typical growing pains and now with 500 Autometrix cutters in the world, their customers make the most ingenious things out of textiles, and alien materials... like composites, things that require something like a kajillion of an inch tolerance on their patterns. Aerospace, and hockey sticks, bullet-proof vests and bicycle rims (that look like massive frisbees, weigh a couple ounces, can take the Tour de France like its a short commute, and of course costs a couple thousand bucks for a set of wheels)... these are all industries that require unbelievable and delicate, or as John says, "perfect patterns".

Jonathan and I were thinking through how we'd approach some of these competitor objections. So we did what any smart defendant would do, we invited a few others to the party. Their customer service genius, Chris, Teri from marketing, and then Abe... or Joel... one of the two or both maybe? Identical twins who have built and serviced these machines since they were wee lads, identical twins, they. And I swear one of those guys really should grow his hair out so the rest of us don't keep going, "Hey...." And of course John Palmer, who loses sleep over the thought of sloppy patterns.

Here is an apparently typical thing one of their competitor's salesmen will say, "Oh that Autometrix machine is lightweight. And everyone knows that what you really want is a big burly WWII era tank-like thing to move a 2 ounce blade through nylon jacket material...." Uhhhh. Great thinking guys! Their tables (hey this is MY blog, I don't mind nameing them... the companies are Eastman and Gerber), are responsible for a 2 degree shift on the Earth's axes. Because like "everyone knows", to get the space shuttle into space, or for Greg Lamond to win the Tour, or to keep a Prius on the road, what you really want is big iron beams and huge motors to grind them along... NOT.

So there I was with this elegant lightweight machine that wears down fewer parts since there's no INERTIA (OK the more I think of Eastman and Gerber salesmen, the more I think they should go back to whatever sleazy thing they were doing before trying to convince good old fashioned entrepreneurs and textile giants that a fat man doing pull ups can compete with a zero-body-fat trained athlete. I should point out that is a "metaphor" in case one of their engineers is out Googling their name and this blog shows up....)

I had this thought... What if we put something really heavy on that carbon fiber beam. (It's 4"x4", by 72" long). I was thinking maybe like a Smart Car. Then Jonathan goes, "let me do some numbers, but I bet we can drive a truck on one of those." I love it when he talks like that. Well, to make a long story short, we did drive a Toyota truck onto the beam. And as if that wasn't enough, Teri invited her buddy with a very patriotic Hummer over to give it a try. We did that too, and the beam only bowed a quarter inch, and sprung back to its original shape. Just in case they started objecting that the beam was really made of steel and we painted it to look like composite.... we had two kids, brothers about 4 and 6 years old, carry the thing out after the Hummer had its way with it.

Oh yeah, the picture... So Autometrix machines move all that lightweight stuff as smoothly and effortlessly as possible. I mentioned it to Jonathan.... "I've always wondered how hard it would be to build a camera slider...." It worked. Jonathan, only a  few hours later had a single rail slider mounted to a carbon fiber beam on the smoothest rollers I've ever seen. Later he said he's got ideas to make it even smoother. Sheesh. I shot more than half of the video using my Canon 60D without a crew I might add, and moved that slider all over the place. The picture above shows it next to the rack they threw together to support the victim-beam and my camera mounted on a combination of spare parts they built to my specs. I am not kidding when I say it rivaled what some over-priced, hand-wringing craftsman was selling this year at NAB after three years of development. I had around 8' of motion and my cheap little tripod head got me level even when I clamped the rail between two step ladders.

Good old American innovation. Oh, and I haven't heard yet, but the video was debuted at a tradeshow that started yesterday. I'm sure the competition is now out there saying something like, "We meant... that ... the Autometrix machines can't cut a LOT of fabric, because it's so light... ummmm weight....."  Maybe if we're lucky, they'll start to pontificate on the trouble with American politics as a diversion to the truth about their antiquated and massive contribution to the spare parts industries around their hulks. Who knows maybe they'll solve American politics.

Just in case they take a shot at durability over time... the other video I shipped off showed a relic of one of the first Autometrix machines that has been running for 15 years without downtime.  The "Old Driller" has cut thousands of holes on the lexan vaccuum table-top installed on every Autometrix machine (and not a few Eastman and Gerber machine's I hear, by the way). That single old dog of a plotter head has done the most thankless job in the house, with only the usual change over of consumables that wear at half the speed of the competition. Things like pinions and gears. It sort of reminded me of Pixar's Wall-E as it chugged along humming it's little tune from days gone by. I hope these guys keep coming up with new smack about Autometrix. It's very fun to see what the brilliant engineers are willing to do to prove a point.

We've actually got a bag of great stuff we're going to do when the gang comes back from the trade show. In all, it was a good week, hard work. In the end we got three short videos out in record time, and a longer version almost complete even now. But that's what we do, right? Small budget... no problem, no time.... no problem..... high enough quality to kick butt at the biggest trade show in textiles.... DONE!!!

Every producer needs at least one client who is willing to write the rules when the competition has worked so hard to break the last ones!



Dandelion

Chaney Janssen painted a picture of a dandelion just about to go to seed, for our friend, Lori Leaman, back when she was having some bout or other with chemotherapy. The painting hung in sight of her bed where this past week, she breathed her last.

I was sitting at the table with Lori's husband, Scott and some others when the topic came up of the printed programs for her services. I had this idea in church today of backlighting a dandelion over black (sometimes called, 'shooting in limbo"), but I didn't know what I'd use it for. I just thought that it was just cool and symbolic, this idea of Chaney's.

A seed goes to soil, it becomes a lovely flower, then as it struggles against the death throes finally the flower, now fully mature lets fly with the seeds... that this is what Chaney meant... this spreading of love not by words nor actions alone, but by one's giving of his or her life. As she goes, Lori has started those seeds of faith, and courage, and fear and passion and love over again in the lives of those left behind.

It's how we'll all go in one way or another. And as we do, if we're well-lived, we'll be blown to the four winds, our small offerings of our selves. Of course the other way to look at this picture is as the part of a greater community. Ancient (and some not-so-ancient) Christians considered it the cloud of witnesses. I had the chance to talk with Lori a month ago about that. I apologized. I told her, "I'm sorry, you're about to see me as one of those in the 'cloud', and I'm going to say right now, I'm sorry. You're going to be so disappointed in me...." Of course she denied that she'd be able to see anything. Someone joked about not wanting to be seen by a cloud of witnesses. The word witnesses, I argued, means they can observe something... of course, the counter argument was made, "a cloud means maybe they can't see all that well..." So perhaps that's the saving grace... if it's more like a "tule fog" of witnesses, maybe Lori won't see what a jerk I can be. Still not a bad idea to think a little about Chaney's painting... and what it is we all have the opportunity and responsibility to sow well.... Seeds.

So I'm sharing this picture with you and the story behind it. I loved making it. And I thought of the many things that come into my thoughts through the lens and through the physical world around me that tell the story of God's love for us. That tell the story of struggle, and hope, and joy and life and death and life again.

Cordell Bank

Abord the Fulmar while filming at Cordell Bank

There's this place out there off the coast of northern California. I have hardly met a person who's known where it is. "North of the Farallones" is usually what I say, but not many people have been out there either. Usually, they equate it with great white sharks. I guess that's fair, I'm pretty sure it's breeding territory out there. 

Well, this past week, along the quest to develop out a film on Cordell Bank, I met with Dr. Bob Schmieder. Not many people have ever heard of him either. Yet. The amazing thing about Dr. Bob is that he's the one largely responsible for the place being protected... a National Marine Sanctuary. more to be said about that alone, but for now it's enough to say he's put a lot on the line to make sure that an otherwise little known ecosystem will remain rich with marine life. Since you can't get there without a boat, the idea for the film is to make this spectacular place more accessible to the rest of us.

Last October I accompanied three teams of NOAA tech divers. They were some of the first divers to visit the underwater mountain that is the "bank" perched on the edge of the continental shelf. That is, one of the first since Bob began leading divers out there in the late 1970's. We were surrounded most of the time by pods of Humpback whales, Blue whales, black footed albatross, dolphins and lots and lots of krill.

This story keeps unfolding and getting more and more interesting. Marine biologist and filmmaker, David McGuire and I are working together with Dr. Bob to bring an amazing story of sacrifice and commitment to the surface, along with some great underwater footage. Stay tuned, it'll be worth the wait. The footage from the deep water dives, 100' to 200' is pretty spectacular.

We're in story development at the moment and will be looking for funding. PBS Natural Heroes, the program airing In the Wake of Giants, has already said they want the film for next season. Could be a great ride!

Couple of days down the tube.

Like I needed to be parked in Vallejo for two days. Driving across the causeway from 101, I finally gave into the steam that was rising off the hood of the car.

I waited for the thing to cool down and refilled the radiator with water from a nearby ditch.

Now its getting a radiator flush and new cap. Something that took all day and two nights at the lovely Ramada Inn.

Such a thrilling life.

On a music video shoot with some of my favorite production people.... about to start shooting. Gtg.....

The blog has changed.

OK, so there's a time for everything and it's time to get my web presence up and running. So. That means what was "Hold Fast" all these years is now a new blog name, and it's hosted at a new site...

The new blog name is "North Yuke". I know sounds like a submarine destination or something, right? Well that's because... it sort of is. When Dusty was a young lad, he came up with the place. It would be where he'd go in his submarine when he grew up and GOT a submarine.... well so, I liked the thought that it's not really a place, actually, but a place you'd journey to, if you had the means to do it... a sort of almost place. And that's what my life seems like these days. A journey for sure. I'm not certain where it will actually take me. Who does, though, I mean really.

So if you go to www.northyuke.com you'll find there is this blog and it's on another site. It's really part of www.blatsnapper.com. That's the new site where I'll host all my work related stuff. Again... there was Dusty and his older brother made him mad one day. So Dusty screamed at the top of his lungs, redfaced at Blaise (who was then going by Danny...) ... "You ..... Fartfelly blatsnapper". Well that was the end of the argument or annoyance, because everyone in the house was on the floor laughing.

Dusty always had a way with words.

So there it is. Blatsnapper, a word nobody really knows what it means other than something you shout when you're frustrated, and North Yuke, a place you're going to, but doesn't, as far as anybody can tell you, exists. Sound like an adventure? I guess that's the point. some of those adventures are pretty frustrating.

I'll try to write more often. I promise.

Lou