Mid June

A lot happened this month. Here’s a few photos.

McKinley Marie Wise was born on June 12 and her parents ceremonially cut her arm off with blurry scissors. Traditions are a crazy thing.

On our way to OBX we watched a WVU campfire on rte. 35. West Virginny isn’t lying when they warn/welcome you of their wildness. The trucker lived so it’s ok to make jokes.

We made it to the beach and my hair did funny things.

Look to the right and you’ll see a sad flower girl who got her flowers stolen by a double-fisting, smiley-faced charlatan.  

This bartender was super nice.

Jason (bottom left) just DDT’d the ring bearer.

“Steve, what do flies wear on their feet?” I ask.

“I don’t know, Brad.” Steve smiles.

“Shoos.” I say.

Leah attempts to remind Lola that she should stop eating sand. The previous night, Lola celebrated Liz and Steve’s wedding by getting drunk on sand punch. She must’ve imbibed about four pounds worth. At least that’s how much the next day’s sand turds seemed to weigh.

Miss Jackson and Leah play kites.

Lola waits for Leah to look away so she can eat more sand.

The hound doesn’t quite understand fetch.

But she tries hard.

Every day is trash day in OBX. This smelly stroll makes you appreciate the sea air when you make it to the beach. That’s a metaphor I think.

I don’t have any photos of the 13.5 hour drive home. We almost gave the hound to the hills of West Virginia. She travelled about as well as a five-month old terrorist can travel. Rolling into the ‘Nati and getting a pizza from Sorento’s at 9:30pm was sweet. And garlicky. Mama Sorrento isn’t stingy with the garlic.

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Bike Ride

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Just a lil bike ride in downtown Madeira. Super cool event that my uncle helped organize.

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Art

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Cincinnati Digital Film Camp

VCC is holding a 5-day film camp designed for high school students to young adults who are interested in film and video production. You will experience the filmmaking process from script-to-screen. Each team member will have the opportunity to write, direct, produce, shoot, edit, and act in their own short film. Click on the link below for more info and to register by June 27. I know and collaborate with the leaders of the camp and can say with 900% confidence that it'll be a great five days. Check it out!

Digital Film Camp 2010

OBX

I have a hypothesis. I think a human brain can only handle a certain amount of beauty. So if you live a few blocks from the beach you spend your days watching the sun rise up from the waves every morning. You skip smooth discs of sea glass out toward the dolphins you've named Skip and Louise. Your feet are strong and worn from the miles you've put in up and down the sandy coast. Twelve hours after sunrise you walk to a restaurant and watch the sunset while enjoying raw, slimey stuff and umbrella-protected drinks. Day after day you wear a life that midwesterners can only try on for a week or two every year. Your brain is maxed out with beauty. So you buy insane things and decorate your house with them. You have no clue how ugly the sparkly starfish candles and pelican bookends are because your brain is full of seeing real starfish play hide and seek with real pelicans. The part of your CPU that discerns interior beauty has been fried by nature. You do all
you can to recreate the outdoors in your indoors but you inadvertantly create catastrophic unnatural disasters. It's not your fault. Unless my hypothesis is wrong. Then it's totally your fault and you should stop it.

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Hasta Pasta

Limes Confuse the Hound

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NEW OK-GO

When life kicks me in the lemons these guys seem to show up and turn my bruised, downunders into a lemon shake-up. This time they did it with a deceptively cool, slow/stop-motion video that requires a close look to appreciate its complexity.

RIP BBJ

Listen to this first one (song starts at :43) and watch the second one on mute. RIP BBJ. You faced a formidable foe in lightning and lost in a glorious way. From beginning to end, you had a weird and memorable run. I will restrain from saying anything more.

Radar Detector

Countless genius inventions on this catchy little vid.

Courage

Cowardly Lion: "What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?"

Dorothy & Gang: "Courage!"

Cowardly Lion: "You can say that again!"

My friend and colleague, Isaac Stambaugh, just finished production on a 90-minute feature film that he wrote, directed and produced. He did it (actual shooting) in roughly eight days and with a budget that couldn't even buy him a 1990 Honda Civic. On paper, what he accomplished makes no sense. If you were to tell him before he started that he's insane, doomed and downright silly, you would've been justified in saying so. Nobody can make a feature film from script-start to finished-production in a month for the money he had. But he did it. He had the courage to take a risk. He had the courage to disprove a lonnnnnnnnnng list of reasons to not even start. Then he had the courage to continue disproving the new lists that popped up at every stage of his process. And believe me, those lists were justified in content and encyclopedic in length. He didn't have money, time, staff or resources. I will say again for emphasis sake that he seriously had next to no money, time, staff or resources. All he had was courage to take a step and keep stepping. And now, as a result, he has a finished dream that makes naysayers and sayers alike shake their heads in wonder-filled admiration. I hope courage is contagious. I need some of what Isaac's got.

Wacky Wednesday

Barry

Hate me all you want you, teabaggers, but I love this guy.

Newsies + Gaga

Humbled

Sometimes, special moments catch you off guard and remind you just how generous human beings can be. Fuller and I were humbled last night when we saw this on our way to Olives in Clifton.

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POV Experiment: story three

Selfishly, I'm enjoying this little experiment. But I feel I should warn you that more so than the others, this next one is really only interesting if you know the characters.

Here's my point of view: We camped in Sedona, AZ after a day of hiking the red rocks. When we got to the site and set up camp we needed firewood. Instead of buying it for like $3 we decided to march into the forest and find a batch of logs the campsite manager said existed. He told us the electric company downed a mess of trees as they cleared the way for a new line. The campsite manager was being a jerk I think. The logs were literally over the river/creek, thru the woods and up a monster hill. And they were the size of bass drums. And they were half granite. So we ended up throwing the half ton logs back down the hill, hauled them over the creek and up to our site. It was easily the most exhausting day of my life

Here's another:

Gordon's roommates were missing. Absent on their own accord. They were off getting wood or something. Gordon didn't pay attention. He was busy thinking. He sat there looking at trees and rocks, but really he was ruminating. About the internet. His concerned look was unrelated to his AWOL buddies. Gordon was nervous the internet missed him. He knew he couldn't gain access in the lousy wilderness. He thought about his mouse. He smiled as he imagined its strong, ergonomic back that carried him thru the caves and canyons of the world wide web. He dreamed of his monitor. Its warm glow heating his soul at night. He thought about his ethernet. A river of adventure that swept him away on daily adventures thru the rapids of gossip and news and....? For a moment, Gordon sits up. Could he send his internet a postcard? Some kind of brief explanation? No, he realizes. That would be insulting. The internet hates paper and the USPS. He will have to wait. He decides that when he gets home he'll create an e-card and beg forgiveness for his lack of commitment the past week. That's all he can do. He continues to sit, waiting for his roommates to get back from whatever pointless task they're gone doing.

Oh, Joby

This video seriously might be the greatest thing to ever happen to the internet. My cousin Ryan found it and I've watched it at least 20 times since he posted it back in April. I can't get enough.