Category Video

Entries 54 Total Description

Forget about 24 frames.

November in Montana

Nov 18, ’10 3:17 AM

What a difference a day makes!

It was a real shock to touchdown in Great Falls on a runway swept with ribbons of dry snow. My mom and dad and (who else?) my beautiful nephew Bannack all braved the icy mountain pass between Helena and Great Falls, passing a 5 semi-truck pile up along the way, to greet me!

They had bad news though, the road home was closed until the trucks were removed and the plows had a chance to clear the snow away. So we had some time to catch up.

My first concern though was to insure that the massive quantities of hot sauce I had haphazardly packed had not all burst in transit. Fortunately they had not, but I got a polite little note from the TSA informing me that they HAD searched the bag and found nothing alarming. Looking only for bombs they left my precious pugua alone.

The road home

We got on the road and got as far as Wolf Creek where we waited, delicious Montana beers in hand, for news of the road opening. The snow kept falling though so we settled in and had a greasy bar lunch at the Frenchman and Me. Just as our orders were up we got news the accident was cleared away and the plows were running.

We rolled into Helena a little after 6PM and met with Sara at the Blackfoot for a few rounds and stories. Then to her and Chris’ place (Chris, unfortunately, is in Bozeman until the weekend) for pizza, unpacking and betel nut!

Despite the weather it feels good to be home!

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Sail Boat

Nov 6, ’10 2:03 PM

I had a friend in New Zealand who for her 21st birthday sailed with her dad from Wellington to the coast of India. When she came home she had incredible stories about their time at sea. Including having fish jump in their boat after their food spoiled and what you do when you out of fresh water days before reaching land.

Not long after I came home from New Zealand I read the great (and copyright free) tail of Joshua Slocum and the sloop Spray, in which he completed the first solo circumnavigation in history. It’s an old but exciting story:

I had resolved on a voyage around the world… A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.

From Sailing Alone Around the World

HOLD FAST

This trailer is for a great travelogue/documentary of some intrepid young sailors who take to the sea in the cheapest boat they could find. They are self proclaimed maniac sailors of the Anarchist Yacht Club so, as there should be, there’s some salty language. It makes me want to jump in the nearest sailboat and sail into the sunset.

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Typhoon Purple

Oct 21, ’10 1:31 PM

Last night the sky over Garapan filled with dusty purple clouds that washed the streets with a paintbox hue unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was as if the air itself had grabbed hold of one end of the spectrum and squeezed out this royal shade.

backstage at a sunset

This strange sky is thanks to a very large weather system, Typhoon Juan (A.K.A. Typhoon Megi). It passed us by but rolled right over the Philippines and now it’s grinding toward Southern China. Thankfully here on Saipan we saw only a little eddy thrown off by the main storm. We had dark skies yesterday, some rain, a little thunder and lightning, and these magical purple clouds.

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How I Feel Every Morning

Sep 28, ’10 12:43 AM

EDIT: This post deserves a little more explanation.

Certain mornings I feel compelled do a little dance to shake off sleep. The fella in the video is a much more accomplished and coordinated dancer than I am but the commitment to goofiness he demonstrates herein is the common thread. Try a morning dance some day, right after you get out of bed. You’re morning routine made less routine. (Just don’t pull anything.)

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The Projectionist

Sep 17, ’10 3:53 AM

Here’s a short film my good friend Gene Alexander put together way back when I was living on Aotearoa, that other island. Gene and I worked together at the Paramount, a great movie theater downtown Wellington. We filmed this over a few weekends and off-work evenings. Unfortunately I  was in Helena before the project was done, that left Gene and his editor without much to work with. “It reads more like a trailer,” Gene wrote in an e-mail to me.

I hope you enjoy the show!

Those Old Machines

Watching this again brought me right back to my last weeks in Wellington. The projectors at the Paramount were so much fun to work with. We we’re the only theater in town that could run reel to reel, so just like the old days you had to watch for the “cigarette burns” to que to for a changeover. (I never heard another projectionist call them cigarette burns, always “que dots” or “changeovers”.) A changeover takes place when you fire up the second projector just as the reel of film on the first runs out. The projectionist’s goal is making as smooth a transition as possible, no gaps, no overlaps.

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