New Year's Potpourri!

Again, I wonder if I should be editing this stuff. Some of this is just boring, some of it is too specifically related to the time period to mean anything. It went up Friday, January 05, 2007

Inspired by Erik, I'm doing a digest blog. Pretty much just catching up. I know you've been wondering what's up with me, so... here.

Deadline for the Rollergirls video this month. I'm putting it together. It's going to kick ass. You should all order one. Maybe I'll get them to put a pre-order form on the site, give you a chance.

Just back from Reno, spent the week between Christmas and New Year's with the inlaws, including Lisa's brother and family -- three kids (well, two and a baby), wife, dog. Good folks. But their boy is slightly older than ours, and not an appreciated influence. Lots of fighting, in a fraternal way, meaning that while they like each other a lot, they hate each other, too. He'd go into fits of rage, lots of rudeness we're having to clean up now that we're home. We got in a little later than we'd planned, our flight delayed. Touched down on the runway at midnight, New Year's Eve. We saw fireworks going off from above. Not as cool as you might think. They look so huge from below, but very tiny from above. The boy had finally passed out, after a week of chocolate and cousins. We looked at him, so peaceful, and I remarked that he's a great kid, and I'm so glad we don't have more than one. Lisa said she hoped nothing happened to her brother and sister-in-law. Seemed like a nonsequitor to me, but I said yeah, that'd be horrible, and she gave it a moment for the realization to hit. Oh, crap. Are we signed up to take those kids if their parents were gone? She nodded. I'm going to require those two to take separate cars and planes from this point out.

I skiied in Reno. Or, as the knowledgable say (in Goofy cartoons and probably nowhere else), "shiied." As my expectations were dependent entirely upon James Bond movies, I'll admit they were not met. But it was fun. When it wasn't miserable. I'm still suffering. I entered into the exercise with a dread fear of being rent groin to sternum, and so tended to keep my knees together. That was not the right thing to do. One has to spread one's legs quite a bit to stop (until one learns the right way to do it). Feel the wind on your crotch. And so I was battling my preservation instinct all the way down the mountain. Twice. (And, really, shouldn't ones "preservation instinct" be left in the lodge next to the shoes and wallet before one embarks on throwing oneself down a snowy mountainside?) My technique for stopping tended to be "agony of defeat" pinwheeling falls, snow and skis and poles flying everywhere. My left groin still reminds me, a week later, that I need to get limber. Who's for Hot Body Yoga?

Ate very well in Reno, though. We went to an Indian restaurant, first time in way too long. I get Thai now and then, but when you really want the curry experience, you gots to go Indian. And this place was incredible. Seriously, I filled myself nigh unto bursting and was tempted to find a feather and go back. I know, Freddy and Shari, I know, but you need to give it another chance.

My other significant 2006 deadline, the soccer video, is also coming to an end. The Air Force colonel who contracted me to do this has gotten orders for Honduras, so we need to get it done. Only, he's the talent, and he's the one who's been dragging. Now we have only a few days left, and the weather hasn't beem favorable. In fact, we tried shooting the other day, two days before Christmas. He's out there in his soccer shorts, trying to speak his lines, frozen rain coming down sideways. I finally had to call it, not out of any concern for his well-being (indeed, although I rather like the guy, I was enjoying his predicament), but because I could see his breath. Maybe it's getting done this weekend.

My script for Short Ends was greeted by producer Matthew Jasso with nothing less than rapture. He called it the first script for one of these things that he thought in advance might make a good movie. It is a reflection of his respect for it that he omitted the phrase "except for mine." It's not an omission he makes often. I like the script. Wes (the first-time director) and I met this week, he had some good suggestions, I rewrote, and it came out a lot creepier. I hope it comes out well. There's a meeting on Sunday for anyone who wants to work on a movie. Ruta Maya, downtown, 3pm. I'll be there, if I'm not shooting soccer video.

Is it me, or has Sam Lerma departed MySpace for parts unknown? The weight of newborn responsibility might've caught up with him. I hope instead that he's given up the time-drain that is MySpace so that he can devote more of his life to making movies. We'll miss you.

But as that left a hole in my Top Eight, I decided to shuffle. See if you can figure out my theme for this week.

I've also added a new song, Henry Mancini's theme for "Experiment in Terror." Mancini is one of the few film-scorers who I'll listen to without the picture. That's not just because he scored so many awful films (seriously, did we think Blake Edwards was good for so long because of the music?) but because Hank was a serious jazz man. I just ordered the first season of "Peter Gunn" on DVD because of the music.

Been reading the collected Joe Kubert Tarzan. It's amazing story-telling. Beautiful, detailed art, sometimes goes pages without dialogue. It reads like "Prince Valiant" without the grandmother smel