The Say Good Bye Time

On Thursday afternoon, I had CBC radio on during the Tapestry time slot. It's not something I listen to on a regular basis as I would not characterize myself as being religious, but Mary Hynes happened to be interviewing Canadian artist and naturalist Robert Bateman as part of an episode called Art and Soul. Towards the end of the interview, he made a comment about how we are changing the world  - and not for the better, and focused on shopping malls. It made me think back on all the places I have seen torn down for the sake of 'progress'. Such as the above little barn I photographed a couple of years ago that has now been flattened. Here is part of what he said:

I call that the instant pudding world... we have been busily destroying our natural heritage and human heritage with a vengeance since the 1950s. So I would say that if you love to say good bye, then you are living in the best time of the history of the planet, because this is 'say good-bye time'. And it is intensifying. But it's not being replaced with nothing, it's being replaced with instant pudding... It's sweet, smooth, slick, extremely convenient. You have nothing to do with the ingredients.... even if you read the labels you don't know what they are going to do with your system. And I am using this as a metaphor for subways, plazas and throughways, of course, which is what I call instant pudding. It's all manufactured by somebody somewhere else who doesn't know you. And I think it is a deadly thing that is spreading over the planet. And so things like shopping malls are spiffy and brand new and convenient and automated and heartless and not human at all.

So, as we say adieu to 2010 and roll into 2011, take time to reflect on the things that have become part of your past. And don't be so quick to replace the next thing in your present with 'instant pudding.'

Mike

Crossed Arms

From a couple of years ago. Detail shots of Corey in the summer sometime after she had her piercings done. I went with her that day, and that was interesting to watch the process. She was a awesome dealing with it. She still is awesome too.

RebelHoliday

Mike

No Future

That pretty much sums it up, and goes nicely with yesterday's post on Kevin Smith's rant .


Mike

Chasing Dreams

Writer/Producer/Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Zack and Miri, Fanboys...) and @thatkevinsmith on Twitter, had an absolutely epic Twitter rant/monologue over about an hour this afternoon. To save on scrolling upwards in tiny chunks, and for my own readability later, I put it down in a more user friendly format. But either way, the media isn’t the message. His message on dreams, believing in yourself and making stuff happen was:

When you read a story about this deal happening or this film being announced, the wheels of whatever it is tend to turn v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

And that's fair: we ARE talking about millions of dollars being spent on some dopey, make-pretend bullshit. Point is, when you read the story about it online, that's our information-currency culture feeding on theoretical news. The ink's not dry on that deal yet. It's all ideas at this point - the absolute BEST state of being in the movie biz. Ideas cost NOTHING & require ZERO risk. And yet, oddly, the LEAST amount of time's usually spent in the idea stage before a small fortune is dumped on a whimsy that's still half-baked. Case in point: CopOut.

When I was brought in, there was talk of spending $70mil on a Will Ferrell/MarkyMark version of A COUPLE OF DICKS (the pre-COP title). Then WB didn't wanna pay the actors' full quotes, so off go they go to do the over-$70mil+ OTHER GUYS. WB then made WAY less expensive deals with Bruce & Tracy, I cut my salary by over 80%, and we were off to the races with what became a $32mil flick. Which is why, hate on it all you must, but (as per 2 high-level studio sources & 1 of our producers)#CopOut turned a profit already. It did what it was designed to do. All of that came from Jeff Robinov's idea stage. The idea that the movie could go on without Will & Mark resulted in #CopOut . And while some may harp about whether the flick was their cup of tea or not, the people who paid to have it made were content we all hadn't wasted money.

The idea stage of the process has always been a years-out kinda thing. I'll talk about a project that'll sometimes take years to happen. That's because the idea itself is WILLING the film into existence. RedState was like that: I first talked to @JoeUtichi about it in London, over three years back. I knew then that it wasn't gonna happen easily, so I "threw my hat over the wall", so to speak, and FORCED myself to make it happen. Over 3 years to get to the point where the cheapest movie I've ever made since CHASING AMY became more than just chatter; it became a reality. Sometimes, you gotta believe FOR everybody else - and sometimes, you do it by yourself for a long time.

Then, if you're lucky, someone like @TheJonGordon starts believing with you - first theoretically, then in practice. And two people believing is the start of a congregation. You build a congregation of believers and you try to build a cathedral. Sometimes, it's just a church. Sometimes, it's a chapel. Folks who don't build churches will try to tell you how you're doing it wrong, even as your steeple breaks the clouds. Don't listen.

But before all of that, you gotta start with the idea - and not just the idea for the story/movie/novel/installation/song/podcast/whatever. You gotta start with the idea that you can do this - something that's not normally done by everybody else. Since it's not second nature to take leaps of faith, you have to SMotivate yourself. Even invent language, if you have to. Embrace a reasonable amount of unreasonability.

But nobody else can believe in you if you don't believe in what you're doing. I've willed almost all of stuff I've done into existence, and if I can do that, ANYBODY can do that. So start your chatter: talk about what you're going to do. Don't pursue a role, LIVE that role. Like my sister told me, back when I confessed I wanted to be a filmmaker. "Then BE a filmmaker," she said. "That's what I'm saying: I wanna be."

And that's when she gave me the million dollar advice: "No - BE a filmmaker. You say you wanna be; just BE a filmmaker. Think every thought AS a filmmaker. Don't pine for it or pursue it; BE it. You ARE a filmmaker; you just haven't made a film yet." And it sounded artsy-fartsy as fuck, but it was CRAZY useful advice. A slacker hit the sheets that night, but the CLERKS-guy got out of bed the following morning. So plant the seeds early & take as much time as it requires to will your goals into existence. Keep a few going, you'll never get bored.

Expect moments of discouragement, but don't wallow in them. Remember that if an ass-hat like KevinSmith can succeed at something like film or life, then what the fuck is stopping YOU from doing the same. I was not 'to the manor born'. This shit was not manifest, nor was it ever offered.

And just remember that, when you read about some deal or project, sometimes, that's just some bluffy motherfucker trying to change his or her game by willing some shit into existence. Only guy I ever heard of who got an amazing life literally handed to him was Hal Jordan. Don't wait for a dying alien to give you a magic ring: just do it yourself, Slappy. We can't all be Superman, but we sure as shit can train hard, and with loads of practice, we can elevate our simple, non-Kryptonian selves to be the Batman. And who the fuck doesn't wanna be Batman?

Batman has an impeccable moral compass. He's clever & mysterious. And when fucktards get sassy, he punches them in the face. Plus, that car.

Ideas cost nothing yet have the potential to yield inexplicably long careers & happy lives. So go ahead: dream a l'il dream. #SMonologueOff

Mike

Soccer Field in Winter #2

Same location as that in Soccer Field in Winter #1, but from a different angle. I thought a more Holga-like post worked here.

Soccer Field in Winter #1

Trackless crisp white snow on the edge of a soccer field in winter.

Blake Edwards has died

Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Pink Panther, The Party, 10…) dies at 88. Obit at the Globe and Mail

He was a 10.

Mike

s'truth

Not my words, but yep. It's the truth. Just need to find a way to keep doing it.

Mike

Walking through the very snowy woods

When you are conned (OK not too much convincing...) into hiking for a couple of hours in a forested area after a major snow storm - and have to regularly trail blaze and bush crash through higher than knee deep snow, you had better get at least a couple of pics out of it. :)

This last one was at the end when we had made it back onto what resembled a trail. :)

Mike

The centre of a ball

A ball is constantly changing, rolling, acting. This is human life. Human beings never stop acting. Whatever you are doing  - sitting, sleeping, even standing still - you are still acting. Without action, you do not exist. It is just like a ball that is constantly going here and there, or standing still in according to circumstances. When a slope comes, the ball rolls down the hill. It acts, but even thought it appears to be moving, the centre is always still. We call this stillness samadhi (single pointed focus, as on the breath).

 - Zen Master Dainin Katagiri, in Returning to Silence, comparing the meditative mind to the dynamic but still centre of a ball.

I was trying to think about that when my legs had fallen asleep so bad during zazen today that I couldn't even stand when I was done. I just rolled onto my side and laughed. I shook it out and eventually I could stand. Was pretty funny.  I was told that laughing is extremely Zen. Especially at your self when things don't go as planned. So I guess meditation works. :)

Mike

Snow at night, long exposure delight?

It was the first heavy snow today. I thought of a couple of things to shoot and finally settled on this. A long exposure.  Over at Written Inc., Carmi's theme of the week is night images, so I thought I would combine the two and do one at night.

I borrowed the nearby pool that I shot Jaclyn in during the summer (here and here), and after a bit of experimenting, I ended up with an 85 second exposure on Bulb, triggered with remote, at f8.0, 24mm, manually focused before hand. To achieve the ghostly effect, I walked out and sat down after it had exposed for about 30 seconds, remained still, then quickly walked back out of the frame. This was my second take. Only light was from a weak street light.

The temp was -5C, wind chill -12C. Not overly cold, but cold enough that I was glad that I had those mittens that have finger holes to access camera controls. Touching the cold steel on the tripod was not pleasant. :)

Mike

Miss Shirey at the South Pole

Some of you might have noticed recent tweets from me about Antarctica. Earlier today I saw a news post on this unlikely looking biofuel powered tri ski vehicle expedition reaching the South Pole yesterday. They didn't have any photos posted and so I started to look for tweeters down there who might have pics of it. I couldn't find any, but one person I did find is Katey Shirey, an American teacher from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington , Virginia. She is down there now participating in one of the summertime TREC education work visits to the polar regions. Her month long visit - which is nearly over, is to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station and in particular the IceCube Neutrino telescope located there. She is tweeting and posting journal entries - primarily for her students, that include some really interesting images and several videos from around the pole.