Rest In Peace, Grasshopper.

Yesterday I returned to Taughannock Falls in Trumansburg, and walked around its surrounding trail. As I was walking, I got thinking: "When was the last time I went camping?" I used to go camping all the time when I was little. I'd love to spend a couple of nights with nature and the woods again. I might try to do that this summer. Meanwhile, here are two pictures of the falls:

Today I had my first electrolysis appointment. Boy, did that hurt! But after years of tweezing, waxing, shaving, bleaching, I'm ready to do away with it once and for all. The needle itself feels like a pinch. Initially, I felt more pain from the tweezing (when she was doing my chin), but the upper lip is a very sensitive area, and I squirmed through the last part.

I'm wrapping up the DVD and going to start coordinating new interviews soon. I'm also planning on finishing up the High Falls Panels this week.

Meanwhile, David Carradine died.

Being of a certain generation, I've only seen him in Kill Bill, but being a follower of popular culture, I've always been aware of his reputation.

His death was (and is) a shock, but I can't say that I'm surprised he died the way he did. My first real exposure to Carradine was a 1998 People Magazine article which documented a lot of his wild past. (Later, I found out the article was written to repair damage done by an article printed in People's Australian counterpart, WHO.) That article isn't online, but here's another article that explains a little bit. Another item was also posted at The Smoking Gun recently. With that being said, I hope his family does have an opportunity to investigate what happened.

I'm considering joining Twitter. I've been following other people's Twitters for awhile now, and I need to group them together. Dunno if I'm going to Twitter myself.

Odds and Ends: 5/26/09

For the longest time, I prided myself on not watching Jon and Kate Equals Trainwreck. But since I've now invested myself emotionally in their problems, I had to watch the season premiere of their show last night. What I already know of the show I've seen on The Soup, but basically Kate spent the episode whining about the tabloids and about Jon being away. A highlight for me was Kate talking about having to go to Party City "By. Myself." Quelle horreur, Kate! I feel more for the kids than for anyone. Having free things thrown at you is not a way to grow up.

Right now, I'm working on the Lesley Stahl panel, as well as making more edits to the movie. After the Lesley Stahl panel, I'm going to put off transcribing more panels until the movie is done...which is not that far off. I doubt anyone who reads The Film Panel Notetaker is too anxious about the follow-up on High Falls.

Finally, I'm re-designing the blog to suit my summer endeavors. Can't say when the new design will be up yet, but it's based on an old design I started on earlier this year.

Mo' Editing

I did more editing of the movie this afternoon. I kinda procrastinated throughout the morning, but as I reminded myself: each day I work on it brings me a day closer to having it done. I really hope I've done the last edits on the movie itself, and hopefully I can move on to cutting the interviews. Remember when the audio kept dropping out? I decided to cut out the audio altogether, and just overlap the archive footage with the interviews. I think I've actually improved the movie by doing it. But I'll know for sure when I watch it again tomorrow.

Also, I got this in the mail today. I'm sure the "referral" that they describe in the letter came from my Teen Vogue subscription (which I subscribed to, until very recently). Either way, I think it's funny that they would send this to me, because I'm way beyond their demographic, age-wise.

Water Under The Bridge

This morning, I typed up a letter to the manager who fired me. I don't know whether I'm going to send it or not--the letter concerns some things I've recently heard about some of my former co-workers. I got thinking, though. Maybe I need to go away for awhile, perhaps for good. I need to let some water flow under the bridge.

I've been thinking about new ways to make money. As I mentioned a few days ago, I sent e-mails to some local car dealerships. One of them actually replied, and told me they were taking cars to Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca all the time, and put my cell phone on file. I might try for a few more dealerships.

I'll be resuming editing the movie tomorrow. I'm not too excited, but I know I have to finish this.

Tweaking It

Today I continued working on Are You From Bingo?. For whatever reason, the audio seemed to drop out when the archive footage appeared. I've been tweaking it, but then there are hisses. Oh, well. At least you can hear it now.

I've also made a hard decision. It turns out that the software I would use to make the actual DVD (Adobe Encore) isn't available on its own, and I don't know if I really want to take the time and learn new software. I'm still planning on putting it up via CreateSpace, but it won't be as elaborate as I thought.

I'm going to create a YouTube channel to upload what I've already shot, plus I'll probably be doing more interviews eventually, and I don't think I could cram all of it onto the DVD anyway.

It might go up to 90 degrees tomorrow. Yikes!

Aftermath

Needing to put some distance from the events of this past weekend, I decided to work on my final panel from SXSW. It's a panel on Stanley Kubrick featuring Jan Harlan and Elvis Mitchell.

I'm still continuing to follow the story of the shootings, and on the Today show, they had the gunman's sister. I think his sister shed some light his deportment, and even what drove him to do it:

“He didn’t share any of his thoughts and feelings, and he kept all of his frustration inside and didn’t want to share with anybody else in the family.”

I'm going to watch the footage tomorrow. There's only about 90 minutes all together, but whether or not I watch it all tomorrow depends on how my battery holds up. Then I'm going to start dumping the footage onto the hard drive and editing it.

Yeah, Baby!

Today was spent writing up questions and packing as I watched a Snapped marathon. It took me two days to write questions for two people; it took me two hours to write up questions for the remaining three.

I've been in a real Austin Powers mood lately, and I do not know why. I think it's more of a reflection of my state of mind than anything else. I spent the better part of my Junior and Senior years of high school really obsessed with that movie. In fact, my senior year, I dressed up as Austin Powers for Halloween. I used to own a VHS of a widescreen version of the movie, but I have no idea where that went. I've never bought the DVD, but I may have to soon if I'm going to satiate my urge to watch it. Of course, I can rent it from Netflix as well.

For now, here's a song from the movie, "Call Me". This isn't the version in the movie, but I like this version better. (With that being said, the Mike Flowers version isn't bad.) Off to Binghamton tomorrow!

Disappointments & Tribulations

It's 35 degrees and very, very windy, so I spent today hibernating. Hopefully, it'll be the last time I'll have to do that for awhile, since it's going to be in the 50s tomorrow.

I scheduled one more interview today for the DVD. I'm particularly excited about this interviewee, since I got more responses about him than anyone else I interviewed, and frankly, of all the interviewees, I had the most fun interviewing him. It will be my first interview after I get to Binghamton Friday Morning. I literally just got off the phone with the mayor's office, and I have that interview set for 2:30.

Later, I got a message in my inbox from someone who had solicited me to do website design for them saying that she decided to "go forward with another designer". It's disappointing, of course. Between this, and the "cease-and-desist" letter I recieved last week, I'm thinking that maybe now isn't the time to be too preoccupied with entreprenurial endeavors. It takes up a lot of energy. There are web languages and programs that I would have to learn to gain enough confidence to pursue design work. I will continue to look for work, though.

Earlier this year, I had Brian obtain a press pass for me for this year's Tribeca--that was before I knew I was going to SXSW. For awhile, I had been leaning toward no, because of SXSW and needing to see how unemployment would work out. But now as the date looms closer, I'm giving serious thought to going. If I go, I'll only go for the weekend--leave on a Thursday, return Sunday or Monday. I'll see where I'm at with the DVD, the job search, and I have the Neko Case concert coming up that week, too before I make any final decision. It would sure be nice to jump back into the festival circuit before long...

What Now?

I still have two more panels to do for The Film Panel Notetaker. I'm going to work on picking my memory for the Haynes/Linklater panel, but other than that, transcribing panels is taking a backseat this week. I'll be leaving for Binghamton Friday morning, and will be doing new interviews as well as their monthly "art walk". I am also working on a new interview for TFPN as well.

Lately I've been giving a lot of thought about relocating to New York to look for work. Right now, my main concern is working on the DVD. If I can score some type of temp work, that would be great, too. But I'd like to go somewhere else for awhile, and I'm not really keen on returning to Ithaca, especially not after SXSW. Also, it would be really nice to take another UCB class. If there's a time to make that sort of change, it's now, while I still have the safety net of unemployment.