What I am reading : “Lush Life: By Richard Price
What I am watching: A New Zealand Childhood
What I am listening to: The whir of the scanner

Holiday Onslaught

I have been inundated with video transfer this holiday season. We have been snowed in with 7 year old twins and that has added a new dimension to the work at home dynamic, to say the least. The snow daze looks as if will continue into the kids holiday break extending it to three weeks. I am in my bunker of a video studio dodging the flak of the skirmishes outside my door. Not entirely successful I might add, I have the scars to prove it.

Some observations on home movies. There is a theme that runs through our lives documented in our home videos. Decades of summer water skiing videos (I mean hours), dance recitals, the endless opening of presents at Christmas and birthdays. The table setting at Thanksgiving and Uncle Leo talking with his mouth full. I too am guilty of this complete lack of imagination when it comes to home movies. I vow to change this and document more of a cinema verite of everyday life and the way we live and the times we live in. Not just some forgotten gifts on Christmas morning, something rich, deep poingant and fulfilling that will be a revelation to those who transfer my home movies onto some future format, 3D, holograms?
Enjoy the pictures of my kids playing in the leaves

Paul Newman

I have been trying to come up with something deep and poignant to say about Paul Newman. What he means to me as a film guy, as a guy, as a little boy, as a man, as a human being. I didn't know him, just his work and how that work communicated with me.
My friends and I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid conservatively 30 times in the theater, no tape no disk, just film. We imitated action and dialogue ad nauseum. Cool Hand Luke was a revelation, probably to this day colors my aversion to authority. "What we have here is a failure to communicate..." Man, I keep running a film obituary in my head over and over. I have a stack of Paul Newman moves I can't seem to bring myself to watch quite yet, Hud, The Hustler, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Color of Money,has any actor had the balls to recreate a character like Fast Eddie and improve on it?. I have watched these films countless times and yet I still revel in the freshness and authenticity of Newman's performances. If you haven't seen Nobody's Fool, do so, that is how a true artist grows.
Like I said, I didn't know him, but the work will be with me always. I am happy for that.

Life By Misadventure

Growing up in the Deep South you are not aware of the dark underbelly of the gentilly of social graces. What lurks beneath the surface is sometimes banal and sometimes unspeakable. I don’t want to go into specifics in this forum but suffice to say the hulking truth can be devastating. I have decided that this gothic southern stereotype should be personified and exhibited in a visually creative form. I choose this form of expression out of the shock and disbelief of revelation. It is fitting that the post K upheaval should churn the muddy waters of the past and discolor a superficially idyllic memory. Mine. Watch this space.

Home Video Studio -
Portland, OR

My Little Girl

Recently I was editing a video that contained a sappy country song (Tim McGraw, "My Little Girl").  My daughter Ruby who is 7 heard the song and started to cry.  Apparently she equated this tune about a little girl growing up  and leaving her father to get married with my eminent demise.  She doesn't want me to die. I have news little girl neither do I.  But I will.  I became a dad later than most. Barring catastrophic disease or accident I could still dance with her at her wedding and bounce my grandchildren on my withered lap.  It's my intention.

The remarkable physical transformation children undergo as the grow is matched only by the metamorphosis of their minds.

What I am reading : The World That Made New Orleans - From Spanish Silver to Congo Square

What I am watching : My children grow really fast

What I am listening to: The Flaming Lips

Home Video Studio -
Portland, OR

You can't fight in here....

Today I have lost my blogginity.  Join me  as I lay bare my inner most musings on life, business and the state of the union.  I will share photos, videos, links of interest to only myself and intermittent ramblings. I will mix business with pleasure, pain with joy and success with failure.

I am a film and video editor and I have started a new post production company, Home Video Studio in Portland, Oregon.  Check out some ancient history in the Internet Movie Database.

I am learning the business of business and incorporating my creative side. (upper left kinda in the back) We encourage responses to the content and welcome any thoughts or concerns. Feel free to vent, complain, critique, question, and ridicule.

What I am thinking about today...

I am born and raised in New Orleans, and as we approach the third anniversary of the flood I watch the approaching Gustav and the dreaded cone of error. Ironic timing by the powers that be whoever they may be.  Three years ago I watched, helpless and in horror as a major American city was destroyed by our own ineptitude.  It could happen again soon. View history repeat itself.  I recently visited my old neighborhood, what remains anyway, via Google maps 1343 Gardena Drive 70122.  I think all of you out there in blog land should visit too.  

So as the summer ends and the political season heats up I immerse myself in family, my new business and impending doom out of my reach.  Be advised that all communication will not be so dire.

What I am reading : Clapton: An Autobigraphy

What I am watching:  Obama and Pre season NFL

What I am listening to: Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood