Slap shoot

Tonight I was asked to fill in to run the camera at a hockey game. I figured, "hey, why not?"

So I drove to the Yale rink, and met up with Vince Cerrillo, the hockey announcer.

The camera was set up about 8 feet up, so it would have an unobstructed view of the ice. They stacked up two pairs of milk crates, so I had to tape the entire game standing on top of this rickety setup.

The two teams were Notre Dame (Fairfield) and Trumbull. I played football against Trumbull about 30 years ago, when I was a tackle at Milford High School (Class of '77). I remember (vaguely) one time after a play ended I was on the ground, and some gutless bastard kicked me in my helmet. Rang my bells something fierce.

I was dizzy as hell for the next 10 minutes. I was playing both offense and defense, so I couldn't take a break...I almost threw up on the field.

I never forget about that. So when Notre Dame beat Trumbull in the overtime period tonight, I was happy. Even though it was hockey, not football.

Fuckers.

It's pretty damned difficult shooting a hockey game with a single camera! By the 3rd period my neck was killing me, my back was sore, and my feet were tired from balancing on the milk crates. The overtime didn't help.

But it was cool...and I'll get to see it on Public Access in a week, so I'll post an update about how it looks.

St. Paddy's Parade in Milford

We had awesome weather for the parade last weekend. L to R: Joyce, her sister Jean, with daughter Jackie and husband John.

We were located at a kind of bottleneck for the parade, so the bands often had to stop and we got to hear them play an entire song. John is a long time friend, so we sat there making fun of the parade. We were joking about how the kids were behaving, and we got an idea for a "Toddler Obedience School", where we'd get Gunnery Sargeant Hartman from "Full Metal Jacket" to discipline the children.

We imagined him standing with his hand out in front of him, yelling "Now lean forward and choke yourself!" to a little 3 year-old. Of course we were laughing like maniacs.

Fortunately, the wind was light, so all the children watching weren't traumatized. I've worn a kilt once before, and I developed a real understanding of what the gals go through daily while wearing skirts. One little gust, and everyone sees your "twig and berries" (as Austin Powers would say).

I guess that's why they call it a "stiff" breeze!

LOL! ROFL!!! WTF!!!!! OMG!!!!!11!!1!ELEVEN!1!!1!!!...

...I'm just too funny sometimes.

From The "Maybe We Should Have Told The Cops" Department

Being something of a filmmaker (I like to kid myself), I'm aware of the millions of tiny details that have to be addressed when shooting a film. Such as coordinating the schedules, budget, locations, equipment, etc. But whenever you shoot on location (even if you have a permit), it's a good idea to let the local authorities know what you're doing.

Especially when you're filming at a commercial airport.

And especially when your actors are posing as terrorists with assault rifles attempting to hijack a Lear jet. Read on...

Sikorsky Airport
"Police Steal Scene During Movie Shoot"
Cruisers storm Sikorsky airport after pilot spots men with rifles
by DIRK PERREFORT - Connecticut Post, March 12, 2006

STRATFORD — Police with lights blazing and sirens blaring descended on Sikorsky Memorial Airport Saturday after reports of a dozen armed men of "Middle Eastern origin" on the tarmac.

What authorities found instead was the crew of a low-budget independent film called "Soldier in the Shadows." Crew members were dressed in dark-colored clothing and carrying large black rifles. The political thriller is shot in a post 9-11 world that involves a former Delta Force operative searching for an Arabic terrorist in New York City.

Stamford resident Kit Redding, who is co-producing the feature film with Umo and David Olivera, said they were shooting one of the last scenes at the airport around noon when police in about six cruisers burst onto the tarmac.

"The scene involved an Arab extremist who is trying to get away in a Lear jet with some important information," Redding said.

The film crew began shooting at the airport on Friday and wrapped up Saturday. Kurt Sendlein, superintendent of operations for the airport, said it was an embarrassing miscommunication that resulted in the response by both the Stratford and Bridgeport police departments.

He said a pilot who saw several armed men of Middle Eastern descent near the planes contacted the control tower. The tower personnel, however, failed to tell the pilot about the movie and the pilot then called 911.

"The pilot did what he was supposed to do," Sendlein said. "He saw something that was suspicious and he contacted the authorities. Unfortunately, we had a breakdown in communication. It was more of an embarrassment than anything."

Right. The kind of embarrassment that can get you killed if the cops happen to show up in the middle of an action scene.

The article states that a similar situation occurred earlier in the shoot while filming on a rooftop in lower Manhattan. The cops burst down the door with guns drawn.

Sheesh! You'd think after THAT they'd figure it out. But nope, no way. Maybe they think their movie would get a lot of publicity if a couple actors got blown away during the shoot. (Trust me, there's directors out there who would drool over notoriety like that!)

Thirty years ago, when I was shooting a high-school film (Jesus H. Christ, has it really been that long?), we had our actors running all over downtown with fake guns drawn, and nobody blinked an eye. These days, living in this post-9/11 world, I'd have to be clinically insane to try something like that.

Then again...if it would get me on the news...hmmmmmm.

"The Office" (NBC)

The tradition of NBC having good sitcoms on Thursday night has been revived, with the addition of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to it's lineup.

Steve Carell ("The 40 Year-Old Virgin" and former "The Daily Show" correspondent) heads a fine ensemble cast in this show about, well, an office. Apparently this show was adapted from a BBC sitcom with the same name.

The unusual way the show is taped looks something like a documentary, but without any narration or (to me, anyway) point. The characters are viewed in an almost voyeuristic way, and have frequent pauses of self-consciousness that brings the viewer into the moment in an uncomfortable way. Which is half the fun of this show; awkward moments and embarrassing situations abound.

Not only is the writing superb, but Carell is joined by a solid group of actors featuring Rainn Wilson, B.J. Novak, Jenna Fischer, and John Krasinski, who each week bring depth and humanity to the chaos.

Check it out.

The Independent Spirit Awards

Yesterday was the Independent Spirit Awards, indy-film's answer to the Academy Awards.

Sarah Silverman, a lovely and spectacularly crude comic, hosted the awards with just the right amount of snark and filth (a somewhat difficult act to pull off). She discussed how the Independent Spirit Awards recognize the work of struggling artists, "such as Ang Lee and George Clooney".

She proceeded to describe how her vagina "smells like a mountain breeze." Then the AMC network bleeped a full 8 seconds of her followup joke...it must have been a good one.

She pointed out a bunch of actors in the audience, then went "Oh my god, there's Felicity Huffman...I'm such a big fan of his."

Best Supporting Actress - The simply adorable Amy Adams, "Junebug"
Best Screenplay - Dan Futterman, "Capote"
Best Documentary - "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"
Best First Feature - "Grand Canyon"...er, no, I mean "Crash"; I'm always confusing them.
Best Female Lead - Felicity Huffman, "Transamerica"; her performance justified the recognition...she's a creepily convincing pre-op tranny.

Kevin Smith presented for Best Director, and he didn't fail to deliver laughs:

"I know we're here to honor the nominees, but I'd like to give a shout out to our host, Sarah Silverman...'cause finally, there's an award show host you'd wanna fuck!" (huge laugh)

"Kinda like Jon Stewart...I could see myself getting all Heath Ledger on him," (spits in his hand) "you know, that kinda thing."

He then went on to recall his last appearance at the awards, eight years ago when he won for "Chasing Amy", and how that night he boned his future wife for the very first time. Call him what you will, but Smith's a romantic at heart.

Ang Lee won for Brokeback Mountain, and Lee graciously accepted the award from Smith with the remark, "Now that's a director!"

Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor for "Capote", although it had to be a close call between him, David Straighthorn ("Good Night and Good Luck") and Heath Ledger ("Brokeback Mountain").

Best Feature was (no surprise) "Brokeback Mountain", which has been mislabeled as the "gay cowboy" movie; it's much more accurately described as a tragic love story...

...between homos.

Next up: The Academy Awards!

OSCARS UPDATE: I totally knew "March of the Penguins" would beat "Murderball" for Best Documentary. See my post from December 16th about that. "March of the Penguins" was cute and heartwarming, but c'mon, it's only about BIRDS! "Murderball" is about people who have overcome staggering disabilities to reclaim their self worth. "March..." was good and all, but it was made by French people.

French people made "Irreversable" too. If you've never seen it, take my advice, DON'T! Sick bastards. That's a movie I wish I'd never seen. Who knows, maybe they tortured the penguins to death as soon as the cameras were turned off.

Actually, I have nothing against the French. It's just kind of funny how pissed off they get when you make fun of them.

Philip Seymour Hoffman snagged Best Actor, "Crash" was arguably the Best Picture, Reese Witherspoon was a dark horse yet won Best Actress, Ang Lee deservedly got Best Director, Rachel Weisz won a Supporting Oscar for "The Constant Gardener", although her character could have technically been catagorized as a starring role, and George Clooney, who clearly was having a good time tonight, won Best Supporting Actor for his work in "Syriana".

He commented when he won his award early in the evening, "I guess now I'm out of the running for best director."

Cold plus precipitation equals...

...more snow.

Not as much as last time, but enough to run my snow blower. It works great! Look at how it plastered the snow on my neighbor's fence...

For some reason, the snow plow drivers go like bastards when they pass my house. EVERY time I shovel the walk, they go flying be and bury the sidewalk again.

So I cleaned it for the third time just now. Even though the streets are clean, it's a foregone conclusion they'll drive by one more time, just to bust balls.

Bastards.

UPDATE: Funny how the snow goes away when the sun hits it. The photos below are about 5 hours later; the sidewalk is clean, and the snow melted off the neighbor's fence. The driveway is on the north side of the house, so it didn't get as much sun; hence the thin layer of stubborn snow.

Working with images

I know I can be a little behind the times. For instance, I use an amazingly limited photo editor program called LView. The old Windows 95 version, not the latest and greatest. If I don't treat it carefully, it triggers that old "Program Not Responding" error that XP users find so endearing.

There are some image filters though, and by adjusting the HSV controls, you can change the Hue, color Saturation, and color Volume of the image. And get some cool results, like the photo below.

I'm going to use this effect to create unique backgrounds for my videos. Should be fun.

Creating music on my PC

One of the most important tasks in making movies is finding soundtrack music. There are several options available:

- Hire a composer/band to record original music
- Pay a licensing fee for commerical songs
- Buy a CD of royalty-free music
- Find public domain/non-copyright/Creative Commons music
- Purchase and install "virtual studio" software

The first two options are too expensive. Royalty-free CDs aren't cheap either, and the selection on any particular disk is limited. I've used public domain music in my videos, but again, they're limited and certain licensing rules may prohibit a "for-profit" situation.

I'm currently working with the last option. "FL Studio 6" is the most complete virtual studio currently available. You'll be creating .wav, .mp3 or midi songs or loops only minutes after launching it. There are so many cool features available it's going to take weeks just to discover them all.

The program is very useful for creating instrumental riffs for background soundtrack music. The ability to create something like a 30-second snippet of music as background for an action scene is really useful. And the tone and mood of the music can be subtly tweaked for maximum effect.

I'm still learning how to use it, but eventually I'll create some .wav samples and post them online. I realize that I'll never be a Mozart, but with a program like FL Studio 6, at least there's a chance I'll eventually advance to somewhere between "absolute hack" and "earnest beginner".

One thing I've learned is to always set realistic goals.

Two great TV shows

One is soon to start it's new season, and one may be gone for good.

First, HBO's "The Sopranos" will begin it's sixth (and final?) season next month. This is one of my favorite shows. The writers so far have done a pretty good job, although there have been some unresolved loose ends from prior seasons. If this is the last season, you can pretty much count on a lot of wiseguys getting wacked; including T. himself. You just know there can't be a happy ending to this series.

And then there's "Arrested Development", the oddball sitcom that recently finished it's third (and probably last) season. Which is a shame, because the writers of this show were pretty much given free reign to be as wacky and outrageous as possible. Perhaps the show never gained a popular audience because of the frenetic pace of the jokes. And the fact that there's so much going on at any particular time that the typical American viewer (who's used to being spoon-fed the plot and having the jokes all but diagrammed for them) can't keep track.

There's some talk of the show moving from Fox to Showtime, but it's a longshot. Fox has already passed on renewing, so we may have seen the last of "Arrested Development". At least there's the DVD box sets of season's one and two available, and almost certainly we'll see season three sometime soon.

Chewey's got a blog!

Our favorite wookie has got his very own blog now. And from the looks of things, he's been keeping busy since the final Star Wars episode.

Read about his latest adventures at:

http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/.

It DOES help if you can read and understand wookie.

David Lynch's weather report

The major works of director David Lynch are well known: The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, etc. He's earned awards and recognition for a long list of projects.

Here's one you might not be aware of:

The David Lynch Daily Weather Report.

On most mornings (L.A. time) you can click on that link and get a video reading of the current weather in the Los Angeles area, videocast from what appears to be Lynch's breakfast nook. He usually has a cup of coffee in front of him, and if it's a nice day you can see the sun streaming in from his skylight.

Click on the link for the weather report, and if you happen to live in greater L.A. you'll know if you'll need to take an umbrella with you today.

And if you're wondering about the weather here, just about all the snow from last week has melted due to sunny and mild weather, but temps are back down into the 40's. No new snow expected for the immediate future. My snow blower is still working fine as far as I know.

Just so you know...

...my snow blower is fixed!

I can imagine how worried you all must have been, so here's a photo of it back in action.


Got it fixed just around the corner from my house, so I was able to walk it over there. Bruce did a bang-up job, too. If you're in the Milford (CT) area and need any snow or lawn equipment repaired, call B&B Power Equipment, at 203-874-6748.

Of course, we're probably not going to get any more snow this year now that it's working perfectly, but such is life.

Winter wonderland

.

Now that the driveway and sidewalks ("footpaths" for you foreigners) are cleared and the sun is shining, I've officially gone back to liking winter again.

But please, no more snow until I get my snow blower fixed!

Buried alive!

So...

How's the weather, you ask?

Does THIS answer your question?

Usually I enjoy a good blizzard...except, of course, when my Sears Craftsman 5HP Snow Thrower decides to take a nap. And no amount of pleading, cajoling, or threatening will wake it up.

YESTERDAY
Above is our humble home, just 20 hours ago...

TODAY
That's Joyce out there, shoveling. We're up to maybe 14" or so, and we're getting about 1-2" per hour. I expect this to be over by 6PM, and we'll have a total of maybe 18-20" on the ground.

Like I said, I usually like snow. Except when I'm forced to actually pick it up and move it somewhere else...

Then, not so much.

Midweek ski trip

.
We just got back from Vermont, where Joyce and I took a couple days off from work to ski.

Here's Joyce at the top of Killington. It was cold; only about 5 above that day. And that's Fahrenheit, fella'! None of that European centigrade crap here...it's AMERICAN degrees, or NOTHING for me!

This is me, just a few moments later. It's still cold. Can ya tell? What happened to my gloves, anyway?

Joyce is enjoying a lunchtime beer in the sweltering heat of the summit lodge. Yeah, it was warm enough in there to require a beer, even though it was frigid outside. Plus, they had a fresh-grilled hotdog platter, with two dogs and a large order of fries, for $8.95. I've eaten at dozens of ski lodges, and believe me, this was a phenomenol deal. It was enough for the two of us (plus 11 bucks for the brews).

The view from the lodge was amazing, but the batteries on my digital camera crapped out just then, so you'll have to take my word for it. Or you can go there yourself and see. Either way, I don't care. Just so you know.

The next day, a little sore from our woeful lack of physical fitness, we hobbled over to Pico Mountain. It wasn't much warmer, but we got a couple inches of snow the previous night so we enjoyed a bit of powder skiing. Pico has some great steep, flat runs, where you can really get the wind roaring in your ears. If your ears weren't completely covered, that is. Because mine were. But I knew the wind WOULD have been roaring, if I could hear it.

We're home now, and after two days of wicked awesome skiing we both have some extremely sore leg muscles. A little while ago I was sitting here in the den and was able to determine that Joyce was walking down the stairs, because I could here her going, "Ow...ow...ow...ow...ow..." etc. I'm similarly afflicted, but a bit of scotch to wash down my Advils, and I'm feeling better.

Apparently a massive Nor'easter is careening up the coast, and all the local TV stations are predicting a blizzard! Not a chance of snow, or even a winter storm, but a BLIZZARD. It should hit later this evening. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow night, send out a search and rescue team. And make sure they have a reasonable supply of beer with them.

Because, you know, we might be snowed in.

Boardwalk

.

This picture was taken last weekend at Silver Sands beach. I like the way the boardwalk looks like it goes nowhere, with the clouds layered above.

Whenever I carry my digital camera with me these days I try to take pictures of anything that looks interesting, because it helps me see what the scene would look like in video. The human eye can be deceiving at times.

When I get back from a walk, I look at the images and see what I can use for future projects. This way I'm compiling a library of potential shots.

Warning: Political Content

.

I know I said that I wanted to keep my personal politics out of this blog as much as humanly possible, but I just read an article on "FireDogLake" that I feel compelled to link to. Because it states everything I feel about the current state of the Bush administration in a very straightforward manner. Click ON THIS LINK to read it.

Then, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Because I'd honestly like to hear the opinions of the (few) people who read this blog. And maybe it'll open some eyes to what's really going on. Don't forget to visit firedoglake often for more fascinating observations.

And now, back to our (ir-)regularly scheduled blog.

I promise.

Mid-winter funk

.
Lately the blues seem to have taken hold...not that I have anything to be gloomy about. Things are quite good actually. It must be a case of the winter doldrums. Summer seems like it's a million years away...plus, I survived another birthday. They don't seem to cheer me like they did back in my youth...or in my early 40's, for that matter.

Anyway, here's what I've been up to. I've been researching a couple of documentary ideas recently. Probably one of them will be another "rail trail" doc. Those are fun to do, because I get to mix history and present day when telling the story. And I've been listening to some public domain/creative commons music from Archive.org. It's fun...you gotta love the Internet! As I get farther along with my doc ideas I'll post some details.

This is what I should be doing right now. Skiing with Joyce. But I can't. Because there isn't any snow. We just finished the third warmest January in history here in Connecticut. Damn, it's February and I still haven't been able to do any cross country skiing. Next week we're going to bite the bullet and drive to Vermont for some downhill; hope we get some cooler weather by then. At least, no rain please.

Today is Groundhog Day. Following tradition, George W. Bush pulled his head out of his ass long enough to see his shadow. That means three more years of criminally inept leadership. Tough luck, kiddies!

Sorry about that...it's just that I'm so pissed at Lieberman for not putting up more of a fight to keep Bush from seating that rotten little fascist Alito on the Supreme Court. What's it going to take to get reliable leadership back? Aaarrgghh!

"Coming to a computer near you!"

.

A discussion yesterday with John Ecay (Sound View technical director) led to some potentially great news. They're in the process of installing a video storage, archival, and streaming video server with MPEG-4 compression. That means in the near future it'll be possible to get on-demand streaming video of ALL of Sound View's programming.

This may include "Table For Two", "Grandma's Kitchen", "Air Line Rail Trail", and anything else I come up with for broadcast. Coupled with my in-progress website, I'll be able to post links that will stream my shows to your computer.

How cool is that?

There's no firm date for when it'll be fully implemented, but I'd imagine in the next several weeks/months. As soon as I can get my shows up on the server, I'll post links.

FutureDV.Com is open for business!

.
Well, in a manner of speaking...

You see, yesterday I registered the domain name "futuredv.com" with Godaddy.com for a measly eleven bucks. What that got me was the domain name for a year, plus privacy (so when the NSA comes looking for me, they'll have to work an extra one-millionth of a second to track me down), and "domain redirection".

Redirection is when you just have a "parked" domain, which is a non-existant web page, and if someone goes to it, they are magically transported to a web site of your choice. Which, in this case, is right here.

Go ahead, try it. Type in "www.futuredv.com" and see where it'll get ya! Right Here, that's where! LOL!!! ROFL!!! WFT?!??!!!!!11!!!on3

Um, please ignore that silliness...

Oh, and today's my birthday. I know, BFD... Sorry there's no graphic in this post...apparently Blogger is having some trouble with the photo loading function. Nothin' but boring text for you today!

My favorite movies of 2005

Here's my countdown list of my five favorite movies of last year...read it and weep:

5. "A History of Violence" - Interesting flick. Aragorn seems to be just as good at killing here as he was in "Lord of the Rings"...although automatic weapons DO make it easier. Ed Harris and Maria Bello (who's a good actor and yet again had trouble with her clothes staying on) co-star, but William Hurt had an awful turn as a mob boss. The movie was good enough to survive it.

4. "Good Night and Good Luck" - I doubt that George Clooney chose to do this political history right now by coincidence. David Strathairn was the perfect choice for Edward R. Murrow, and the stellar supporting cast rounded out this movie. Some of the actual footage of McCarthy's witch hunt could have been cut down a bit, but overall it worked to good effect. Patricia Clarkson is good in anything she does, even small supporting roles.

3. "Walk The Line" - Wah-keen Feenicks (my spelling) and Reese('s a cute piece) Witherspoon both turned in Golden Globe-winning performances. Mr. Phoenix (my spelling again) only whispered a couple times in the movie, so I was actually able to understand him. And who knew he could sing? Then again, Johnny Cash is probably the easiest singer to imitate.

2. "The Constant Gardener" - Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz starred in this wonderful movie. Troubling and sad, yes, but ultimately hopeful. It contained perhaps the best movei line of the year, when Fiennes objected to taking Weisz to Africa on the grounds that they don't know each other very well, and she replies "You can learn me." That was a nice bit of dialogue there.

And my favorite of the year:

1. "Junebug" - Possibly the most underrated movie of the year. Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz and Alessandro Nivola have a wonderful chemistry in this study of Southern manners and mannerisms. Even through the sad parts, I didn't want this one to end.

(Hoo boy, after reading the above paragraph, I feel just like Robert De Niro did when he said in "Analyze This", "...slap a pair of tits on me and I'm a woman!")

And here's a guilty pleasure:

"Just Friends" - Ryan Reynolds ("Van Wilder" himself...don't worry, the "fat" makeup is gone 10 minutes in) and Amy Smart in a wacky Roger Kumble ("Cruel Intentions", "The Sweetest Thing") directed comedy. Anna Faris KILLED as the ditzy, clueless pop star. Any time she was on the screen, I was laughing.

And little things were funny, like a huge bouncer throwing Reynolds out of a bar in a heap and yelling, "...and STAY out", and then muttering "I always wanted to say that" had me guffawing.

OK, maybe it's not that funny in print. Go watch it.

That's my list. Any comments?

Projects in development

Next week, Ant and I are going to meet with Harry the glassworker and discuss the documentary. We'll talk about how to approach the subject; how best to tape it; and if it's going to be feasible to produce an instructional video for potential sale.

Last week I showed my "Rail Trail" doc to some friends. They all seemed to enjoy it, especially the pacing and the music. After that, we watched a commercially produced video that was given to a friend as a gift.

We viewed it, and only a minute into it everybody started making comments about how boring it was. The subject (a boat tour of some local islands) should have been interesting, but there wasn't any audio whatsoever other than sparse narration. Apparently they used the exact script they recite on the boat while touring the islands, but when devoid of the simplist natural sounds or music it sounded completely dry and clinical.

I don't think "clinical" is a word that should pop into your head when viewing a movie about scenic islands and boating. Everyone commented upon the major difference between the two videos. Even though it's kind of sad to see someone pawning off such poorly executed work, it does encourage me to think that if they can sell something like that, all I need to do is work hard enough and I'll be able to successfully market my own work.

Anyway, besides the glass working doc, I'm going to shoot another "greenway" type doc when the weather warms up a bit. There's some interesting trails located nearby, only 20 minutes away. That'll make it easier to shoot additional footage as needed, as opposed to the "Rail Trail" shoot, which was a three-hour round trip from our home.

Yeah, although I'm reasonably committed to my art, I'm not going to waste a half-day driving and $30 of gas to shoot some filler video for my 13-minute documentary short.

After all, there's plenty of good subjects a lot closer to home.

A movie that would be fun to make

Boy, did they have fun in the 50's or what? Ed Wood is a favorite of mine...how can't you enjoy "Plan 9 from Outer Space"? Some movies look great just from the poster; check it out:


I haven't seen this movie, but the poster is awesome. It tells a story in itself; a story of mutant spiders, desolate mountains, and gals with really large bosoms.

Gotta keep this in mind if I ever need to make a movie poster.

Things that suck

It's been a while since I posted a crazed rant, so here goes. Strap in, kiddies!

I drive a lot for work. It's usually no problem, and I drive all over Connecticut, SE New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Traffic usually moves well, except for one little road that goes through Fairfield County. And I'd like to know just one thing...


What the FUCK is the problem with the Merritt Parkway? Everbody hits Bridgeport and suddenly SLOWS DOWN TO 15MPH. Then they stop. Forever, it seems.

Yes, it sucks.

And it's January. That's usually enough reason to piss me off, but I made a New Year's resolution to try to not complain about the weather. Besides, it's been unusually mild this winter, so I'll shut up about that.

But in a couple weeks I have a birthday. Forty-fucking-SEVEN! Jeesus...who'da thunk I'd even LIVE this long? I went back and looked at my birthday blog post from last year, and I have to admit I'm somewhat grumpier this year...I think I'd better work on that.

Finally, I received the digital camera I ordered. From Walmart Online. Yeah, it came the same week that news of their rampant institutional racism hit the media. They decided it was a good idea to offer suggestions for "similar products" if you wanted to buy the DVD of the TV series "Planet of the Apes".

While a reasonable person might think it's good to associate movies like "King Kong", "Might Joe Young", even "Gorillas In The Mist" with "Planet..." But apparently they thought it was appropriate to associate it with a show about Martin Luther King, along with biographies of Dorothy Dandridge and Jack Johnson. For fuck's sake, what is WRONG with these idiots?

In the interest of fairness, Walmart executives insist the associations were completely accidental, and they apologized profusely for the "mistake". Yeah, sure.

I guess Walmart has seen the last of my bidness. That'll learn 'em!



Thank you. Good luck and good night.

Happy "Oh Six"! And more stuff...

.
Yay! It's 2006!


I'm thrilled to announce that for two years in a row, I've managed to not get the year wrong any time I've had to write the date. You know, like when you write a check later this month, and you'll put "05" on the date instead of "06"...well, I made it through a second consecutive year without fucking it up.

Go ahead and laugh...I guarantee you'll think of me the first time you screw up the date. THEN we'll see who laughs...Ah-ha-ha-ha!

Other news...I decided that my next project is going to be a documentary about glass art, specifically marble making. My friend Harry Kravet (Harry's Web Site) is the artist, and we're talking about maybe making an instructional DVD about marbles.

That we can sell. And make money. Hopefully.


This is one of Harry's creations. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fun, and Anthony is interested in the project too. We'll start pre-production sometime later this month. Although technically speaking, we're already IN pre-, since we're discussing the project, and I've already been researching the subject. But for the sake of argument, I'll consider it officially pre- when we all sit down and hash out an outline and detail our objectives.

Not that any of that really matters. I'm just killing some time before we go to a New Year's Day party...yes, that's New Year's DAY. We did the big thing in downtown Milford last night, capped by fireworks at midnight and another 2 hours partying with friends at their downtown apartment. Today is a yearly New Year's DAY party...it's always fun to see who's got the hangovers.

Hope you all have a great 2006!