My Kid Landmarks

Since Google Earth has improved it's technology, I thought it was time to revisit my old neighborhood in New Hyde Park, New York - This is where I lived until I was eleven, and we moved to California.  Here's a key to some of my own personal walking tour:

a - This is it...home base!  Though our street was flat, our house had to be the flattest.  Once we had a flash flood and our house was the only one that flooded. I remember looking down into our basement, and discovering that books float.

b - Ridder's Pond.  During that same flash flood, the pond overflowed, and we ended up with a snapping turtle in our backyard.

c - This is where the bus stop to Wickshire School used to be, before it moved across the street.

d - This is the new bus stop.  I don't know why it moved, but we thought it was unfair that we had to deal with the inconvenience of crossing the street.

e - My lemonade stand was usually located here.  I didn't build it into a multi-billion dollar empire.

f - My friend Larry lived here.  He sometimes was my partner in the lemonade business. We usually parted ways over financial issues.

g - I got into a huge screaming argument with Chris on this corner. I don't remember why, exactly, but we ended up yelling "What a friend YOU are!" at each other as we walked away from each other.

h - This is where Chris lived, and where he went when our argument was over.  Notice that we lived over the fence from each other. We built the fence to keep out his St. Bernard, Nard.

i - My Stingray bike was stolen from a bike rack located right here. Larry swore up and down he saw bigger kids with it, and they through it into some flood control channel.  We never turned up any evidence.

j - There's a little police way-station located here.  I remember when they built it.  I thought they build it to catch me.

k - As a kid, I didn't even know this existed.  I still don't know what it is.

My Pal Al

I am very excited to announce that I have recovered one of my long-lost documentary classics.
As a documentary filmmaker, I am sometimes given the opportunity to develop close personal relationships with powerful people. In this documentary, shot at the 2000 Democratic Convention, observe Al Gore and I as we ponder his candidacy.

Evil Plots

I was standing in line at a Fry's Electronics Store today, listening to a conversation just ahead of me about the causes of the worldwide economic meltdown.   The two parties ahead of me - one, an older couple, and the other a guy somewhere in his 20's - were convinced that the crisis was a planned event.  Apparently, in their view, this was all a great manipulation to move us to a One World Goverment.  They see the coordinated efforts of international governments as the precursor to the creation of a true World Bank.  They recalled George Bush Sr.'s pronouncements of a New World Order.  The younger guy reminded his new friends that it's easy to manipulate people when they're down (in other words, while we're all poor and desperate).

I'm always fascinated with theories that involve massive plots that would need to involve legions of co-conspirators.  Usually, these are the same people furious at our ineffective government.  Yet, somehow, that ineffective government excels in only two areas - creating intricate secret plots and keeping thousands of co-conspirators quiet.  Apparently, our government brilliantly conceived a faked moon landing, and staged 9/11, both with a level of secrecy that has disposed of the uncertainty of human beings, and an extra dose of complexity (after all , why simply implode the World Trade Center when we could fly planes into the buildings) simply for good measure.

I suspect we'll see a dramatic rise in paranoia over the next several months as the financial crisis continues to develop.  The greatest danger isn't financial - it's desperation.

Sarah, Sarah

I came across this interesting tidbit of information.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., writing on his blog on the "Huffington Post" website, comments on a writer quoted by Sarah Palin in her acceptance speech to emphasize the importance of so-called "small town values." It turns out the author quoted isn't exactly a symbol of virtue.

One has to wonder what Palin's values are, if this is the sort of author she reads....

Final Weeks

We're in the final weeks of the presidential campaign - perhaps one of the most interesting campaigns in recent history.

I find it fascinating how people can see entirely different people in the same candidates, depending on whom they support.  Sarah Palin, of course, is the ultimate example.  During her interview on CBS News, Katie Couric asked Palin what newspapers she reads.  She couldn't clearly answer:

Palin's answer, to me, seems nothing short of bizarre.  It's really a simple question.  One or two titles would have sufficed.  She couldn't - or wouldn't answer.  

Others have complained that the media is engaged in a hatchet job on Palin - it's hard to see how such a "soft" question could be construed as confrontative or even manipulative.  

Palin did better than expected during the Vice Presidential Debate with Joe Biden - but that's a situation that reflects, for both candidates, a week or longer of cramming for the big night. 

It's the little things that count.

Early Connection

There are some kids that I was friends with very early in my life.  By early, I mean kindergarten or first grade or so, but not much beyond.

I remember attending the birthday of one of my friends in the basement of his house, where his mother sang "I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly - I don't why she smallowed a fly - perhaps she'll die."  I think they moved to Texas shortly thereafter.  I don't remember much - or even anything- about the boy himself.   I think he's in a class picture I have from nursery school.  I guess I must have thought His mom was cool.  If I knew what cool was.  

Crossroads

After nearly a decade of crisis after crisis in this country, beginning with 9-11, we're at a crossroads. The current financial disaster still feels distant - but there's chilling agreement across the political abyss that our economy is  headed for disaster without dramatic action.  Even with the  action, which requires the government spending perhaps a trillion dollars, the final impact on all of our lives remains uncertain.

What seems more certain, however, is that we are living through a critical moment in history - a convergence of events and political energy probably unequalled since 1968.   In some uncanny ways, 1968 and 2008 share a crisis atmosphere.  An unpopular war.  An unpopular President.  A sense of polarization in society.  And, finally, a visionary call for change.   In 2008, we have a chance for what kids would call a "do-over."  

Maybe this time, we'll get it right.

Stuff I'm Stuffing My Brain With

I tend to read (and listen to audiobooks) in clusters - that is, I simultaneous read and listen to two or three books at a time.  

This time around, I'm enjoy three books that are directly related to ongoing interests of mine.

In my car, I'm listening to an audiobook of "The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America," a recent book tracing the violently abbreviated Presidential campaign of RFK.  It's actually surpisingly relevant 40 years later, considering all of the issues we're facing today - it also reveals the beginning of an evolution in race relations in this country that has culminated with Barack Obama's candidacy.  Some of Obama's campaign style, in fact, is inspired by Robert Kennedy.

Yes, I'm also reading actual books!  

"The Real Oliver Twist - Robert Blincoe: A Life That Illuminates A Violent Age" is an historical biography of a workhouse child turned human rights activist whose story may have inspired Charles Dickens to write Oliver Twist.  The truth about workhouse children - the ill-treated young  slaves that drove the industrial revolution - is even more brutal then Dickens portrayed in his book, which was meant as social commentary.

Finally, I'm reading "Devil May Care," the newest James Bond novel.  Author Sabastian Folkes is the latest in a succession of estate-approved authors to adapt Ian Fleming's immortal British Spy.

All in all, it's a good selection this time around.  Something for every occassion, as it were....

PIrate Princess

My friends Kim Turney and Lynette Privatsky are in the midst of launching their new web series, "The Perils of the Pirate Princess." It's a lively, entertaining, engaging - and addictive new take on web entertainment! Take a look at PiratePrincessProductions.com

Web entertainment is still in its infancy - there's no set formula on how to make it work (read: to make money), but there's a lot of opportunity for independent artists to make an impact - this is something that feeds the public's appetite for pirates.  It's niche marketing - watch and see what happens! 

And while you're there, go to " The Scuttlebutt" - the site forum - and tell 'em Captain Bligh sent you!

I finally know who I am.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2008/01/18/zac-efron-richard-samuels/

How I Waste Time

Here are the top websites I use most frequently, in no particular order:

The "Latest Polls" page of Real Clear Politics lists, day by day, the latest local and national polls related to the Presidential election.  It's almost a masochistic exercise - the polls move up and down slowly, and we have almost two months to go - but, I'm addicted.

Facebook - Yes, I am one of the 100,000,000 million with a Facebook.  It's all about social networking - but that's a term changes as the sites evolve.  What's it do for me? I dunno!  

Linked In - This is a site that's more of a business-oriented networking site - it's more about professionals keeping up with each other.  I visit here less often, but its useful to keep track of my professional colleagues.

I also check CNN.com on a regular basis - and I look at the New York Times daily - on my Iphone.  That's a whole different category.  I also check in with Apple.com - the site that supports my computers, Iphone and Ipod - and helps explain how they all work together.  

Finally - yes, I admit it - I like to browse YouTube - I like to think of it as America's Funniest Home Videos - unleashed!  Plus, I can also get it on my Iphone!

I'm Back!

I've decided to resume this incredible blog once again.  I just can't seem to get all my thoughts into the status line in Facebook!

Closing Time

When I was a small boy, I would become uneasy at times when I was out shopping with my parents at a department store and an announcement came over the public address system that the store would be closing in fifteen minutes.  I thought that if we didn't hurry out, we might be trapped in the store all night.  I would have run to the entrance if my parents had let me.  In my child's world of absolutes, closing meant that employees and customers alike would be gone at the moment of closing time, and the gates would clang shut.  I couldn't quite grasp why my parents seemed utterly unconcerned at the developing crisis.  They took their time and sauntered through the store as if they had all the time in the world.  I imagined being in the center of the store, the lights going out, and being trapped in complete darkness without food or water.   As every little kid knows, the darkness hides very scary things.  Turn out the light, and instantly,  you're surrounded by horrible creatures of the night.

The Web Widens

I see that my friend, Josh Morgan, has responded (Jacob's Café: Maintaining Connections) to my post on Saturday, which in turn was inspired by his earlier posts.  We're exploring the nature of communication  - the real development of a virtual town square where people interact and learn from one another.  Our own interaction, in itself, provides an example of how small the world will become.  We're hardly as prolific as some - the blogging community is huge - we're a tiny corner, but I'm fascinated as much with the discussion we've initiated as the fact that we're communicating on an intellectual level that would have been unlikely to have evolved in any other way.  In his recent post, Josh writes about the evolution of social networking technology to make interaction automatic - he'll be alerted to my latest post as soon as it's activated.  He doesn't have to seek it out - it will come to him.  

The evolution of social networking means that friends and associates can stay in touch passively. Even if we get caught up in the sweep of our own personal histories, there will soon be no such thing as "losing touch."  Personal connections could endure with  little or no effort, ready to be reactivated by a simple "Facebook" or "MySpace" comment, or a comment on a blog. 

The Most Important Lunch Ever

A Chinese investment fund manager will be paying 2.1 million dollars for lunch with billionaire Warren Buffet, after winning a charity auction on Ebay this Friday evening. One wonders what the two will talk about, but as Warren Buffet is probably the most successful investment fund manager of all time, they undoubtedly will speak the same language, business-wise.

The more intriguing question is: what would any of the rest of us do with the opportunity to spend a casual lunch with one of the wealthiest individuals in the world? Would we ask for advice? A grant? A loan? An investment in our future? Money? Perhaps some would simply talk about common interests, current affairs, favorite movies, philosophy or questions of faith.  All of the above?

How do we prepare for the opportunity of a lifetime?  Do we study his history - read biography after biography so as to make the most out of the opportunity? Do we create a business proposal? Rehearse the opportunity with friends?  Rehearse in front of a mirror? On the other hand, do we simply reject the idea of undue preparation and present ourselves as we are and simply enjoy lunch with another human being?

Finally, I'm sure some would turn down the opportunity outright, unimpressed and unmoved by accomplishments and power.

What would I do?  I would think that the key to making the most of an opportunity like this is to recognize first that individual like Warren Buffet is first and foremost another human being, albiet an individual with particular abilities and talents that have worked well for him.  Learning about the so-called rich and powerful is fascinating not because of their wealth, but how they learned to improve on their circumstances.  For me, that's the primary fascination I have with power and leadership.  

America's foremost and probably most successful capitalist, Andrew Carnegie, became, in today's dollars, perhaps the wealthiest individual of all time, beginning as a nearly penniless boy and dying as a philanthropist without compare, whose impact is still felt nearly one hundred year after his death.  There were no guidebooks to wealth and fortune as there are today.  He did it by learning from experience.

What would I want to gain from a lunch with a Warren Buffet-type individual?  I wouldn't be interested in how he reached his level of accomplishment - the nuts-and-bolts of extraordinary success vary from individual to individual.  

I think I would ask, without further clarification, "Why are you who you are?" 

Brief Witness

Every once in a while, I've been witness to brief slices of a larger drama.  I might be driving by a particular situation, or overhear a conversation in a restaurant.  I could pass someone on the street talking passionately into a cell phone.  

When I was in junior high school, I remember having a brief glimpse of a drama unfolding at a side street as my mother drove me home.  Two kids were engaged in a fight in the middle of the street, their bikes laying on the ground.  One boy was in a head-lock, while the other kid pounded on his face while the small crowd around them watched.  I barely had time to register the scene before we were gone - perhaps no more than ten seconds had gone by.  I didn't know the kids, and I certainly didn't know how the fight progressed.  Did the kid pounding the other kid get in trouble? Was he the aggressor.  Or did the other kid start the fight and pick the wrong kid to bully?  Did anyone get in trouble? Do either of them remember the confrontation today?

A few years back, my niece and I were traveling on the freeway and massed through an interchange that was rapidly backing up.  We reached the reason for the back-up - a violent automobile crash.  In the ten seconds the accident was in our view, I remember but one detail - a woman's arm hanging weakly from a car window.  Was she dead?  Or unconscious and not yet attended to? Was she responsible for the accident? Was she a victim of someone else, perhaps a drunk driver?  How did her injury or death effect the world around her?  And what are the consequences of that horrible incident to which I had the briefest connection?

Or are these connections as brief as they look?  As social networking sites sometimes show us, we're more interconnected then we think.  My friend Andrew Tarr has a birthday gala a few months back.  I've known Andrew for several years.  He spent his childhood in New Jersey and Vermont.  I spent mine in New York and California.  We're a few years apart in age.  Yet, at his party, a friend of his approached me.  He'd been researching some memories from his childhood - places he and I had in common, and which led him to my blog.  That's where he discovered that Andrew Tarr was a mutual friend.  As it turns out, this individual not only grew up in my neighborhood, but on my street.  He'd been probably a dozen or more houses down the road and around a curve, but we'd been there at the same time.  He was a couple of years younger, however, so naturally, in kid law, I wouldn't have been friends with him. Yet, we shared the same place memories, we knew some of the local vendors who served the neighborhood (the guy who our parents hired to wax the floors, or the guy who drove the Good Humor ice cream truck).  We probably crossed paths numerous times.  If it had been him engaged in that street fight I witnessed, I would never know that we were connected.  

In smaller towns and simpler times, everyone knew one another, and were interconnected.  Perhaps we don't know our neighbors as much anymore - but the connections, now intricately woven and mostly hidden, still exist - just below the surface.

Mysterious Places to Go When You're a Kid

When I was a kid  - nine or ten years old - the world was still small.  While the world at large is full of mystery, as a kid, the very street on which you live holds mysterious as thrilling as the pyramids:

Exploring some else's basement was exciting.   My friend across the street a basement lined with cabinets along one wall and no dividers. I could climb in the cabinet door at one end and crawl all the way through to the opposite wall and emerge eight cabinet doors later.  I never questioned why the entire length of the cabinets was empty.  His dad's World War 2 uniform was down there as well.

Exploring your OWN basement was the best!  Our basement never ceased to be fascinating to me.  It held the remnants of past decades of family history - objects that were ancient to me even then!  Half of our basement was of normal height - but the rest was half-height, under which much of the older artifacts were shoved.  It was a dark, mysterious place into which I rarely ventured - even as I spent endless hours with my train layout in the other side of the basement.

When we moved to California, we had no basement - but we did have a garage crammed  to the rafters with boxes of mystery.  Just ask my niece and nephew. As they grew up, they eargerly accompanied me on expeditions into the increasingly shuttered garage to see what we could find from the dark recesses of family history.

Today, much of what was in that basement in New York, and then the garage and house in Tarzana is now crammed into a rarely-visited space at a storage facility in Valencia - just about the side of a small garage.  In a way, that storage facility is an entire complex of mystery garages...

Freshi

If you've been reading my Freshi Blog, you know what lately we've been running a filmmaking camp this week in Puerto Rico. One of our exciting innovations has been a live video connect between kids at the camp and kids and instructors at our offices in Burbank.  On Tuesday, the kids viewed and took part in a stunt demonstration held in our office, and on Wednesday two students in our Burbank office took part in a half-hour video discussion with a young filmmaker in Puerto Rico about a collaborative film they'll work on together (see a clip here).  It's an exciting development in our effort to create a worldwide, vibrant community of young filmmakers interacting directly in ways never before possible.  It's going to be very exciting to watch this happen.

Salad Kid

There was this one kid at Wickshire Elementary School that was just about the only kid who liked to eat salads.  Unfortunately, most lunches served at Wickshire included side salads,  Rather than waste all that food, the salad kid started accepting salads from the kids at his lunch table...that expanded to  the surrounding tables...and beyond!  It got to the point where the kid that liked salad had a tower of little plastic salad bowls reaching into the air above his table....leaning precariously as he nibbled his way down.  

As for me, I never bought lunch at school.  My mom packed my lunch.  She knew better then to pack a salad.  I was anti-veggies all the way though school.  

Revolution

Throughout the "information revolution" (a term which we don't hear much anymore - but an era which we're still experiencing), we've seen a world which is becoming more and more interconnected.  It's not just email and visiting websites anymore.  Social networking sites are coming up with ever-more creative ways of keeping us interacting with one another (the "applications" in Facebook, for example). We communicate in ways we wouldn't have anticipated just a few short years ago.  Having easily accessible email on cell phones is heading toward a standard feature. Communicating through video is widespred (live or through services like "YouTube"

When I was a kid, I communicated with my friends either face to face or on the phone. No email. No Myspace. No multiplayer games (well, not computer-based, anyway).  And when my family moved across the country, my childhood friends and I drifted apart.  Eleven year-olds don't generally write a lot of letters.  You found out about your friends and their interests by spending time with them, and visiting with them. Kids still do that, but they find out much more much faster through their online connection.   If a kid today moves away from his hometown, he'll tend to stay in touch much longer.

Our communications technology continues to develop at an amazing pace, and the kids that are growing up with computers today will have an entirely different experience than kids growing up with computers only ten years ago.  There's a tendency by some to see the world becoming more impersonal as a result of these new forms of communication.  I don't agree.  As these technologies develop, along with the necessary safeguards and customs that will better protect the vulnerable, more people will tend to see the net as offering viable and acceptable extensions of one's social life.  Anyone who spends a good deal of time online understands that already.

We're still in the early stages of the "revolution."  Who we are and how we interact is evolving and changing constantly, changing the very nature of community - locally, nationally and internationally.  As the telegraph and telephone was responsible for dramatic changes in the way we live, information technology is doing the same.  And we've got a long way to go...

Kid Cool

There was an ongoing competition in 2nd grade relating to who would walk down to the lunch room next to the cool kid when the teacher led us there in pairs. Why was he cool?  Because he was a little older then us, and so qualified for the cub scouts before the rest of us.  That same kid also earned his 2nd grade cool qualifications because he owned a pet duck.

There were other ways to be considered cool.  There was the kid who could reverse his eyelids (gross is cool).  I learned in first grade how cool pop culture was when I brought to school a stack of 8x10 photos from the "Batman" movie that my dad had brought home.  I took out the photos - and instantly had a crowd around me!  Cool.  If I had been asked about what was cool about some of my friends, I would have mentioned one kid's St. Bernard, another kid's gas-powered RC Car (okay, that's still cool), another kid who had shown me his dads World War 2 uniform deep in the basement, and another kid who had been in the audience on the most popular kid's TV show in the New York area ("Wonderama" - yes, that was very cool).

Cool, though, wasn't a set concept.  If you weren't within a year or so in age, you wouldn't be considered cool.  A kid about four years younger then the rest of us whose father was a movie producer - uncool.  If he were our age - cool.  Of course, how easily one defined coolness changed and became more difficult with age.  In junior high school, another kid whose father was producer of a popular TV show was sometimes seen as uncool just because of that fact.  At that age, eyelid reversing would have been extremely uncool.  RC Cars would still be cool, though.

Reunion

I had my mini-reunion with Jay Elliot, whom I referred to in the last blog entry.  We have agreed that a DVD release would be a good idea.  I have an idea that I might include him in the "behind the scenes" video my nephew and I shot a few years back. 

Of course, now I have to get around to doing it -   in addition to Freshi, the two television series I'm producing for the City of LA, my "Indian/American" documentary, and various other "lesser" projects and activities.  There's 24 hours in a day - no problem!  I think I still have an open hour somewhere around 2am.

First Film

I'm the guy on the left, directing my first film.   That kid in the middle with the hat was my friend, Jay - though the magic of Facebook, we recently got back in touch after many years. We're going to get together one of these days.

My dad shot some film of my shoot that day; this is a frame from that reel.

Golf

As if I  had free time to spare, I've somehow found the time to take up golf.  Over the last couple of weekends, my friends Andrew Tarr and Patrick Rhody have taken a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon to wander about and hit little balls with metal sticks.  I've tried it a couple of times before, but since this time I'm evenly matched with two equally skilled opponents, I've had time to ponder this odd little sport.

I'm likely to take some intruction soon.  Stay tuned.

Hitting balls with metal sticks.  What have I gotten myself into?

One Last Pic

I had to include just one more pic from my March shoot - two of the boys from my documentary.  A great photo.  All these pictures, by the way, are courtesy of my friend, David Guerrero, who has been helping me from the beginning in shooting this documentary.

India

For Freshi Films, I've just created a video summarizing our "Freshi Planet" worldwide filmmaking program.  You can see it on my "other" blog, freshifilms.blogspot.com.

Between Freshi's international program, and my own Indian project, I expect to be returning sometime in the near future.   Visiting India isn't for everyone - some Americans might find the overall environment overwhelming.  Poverty and desperation exist side-by-side with incredible beauty.  By comparison, we tend to live an antiseptic life here in America.  But for those who can adjust to the difficulties of living and traveling in India (at least between Delhi and Agra, the two cities I visited), the rewards are unforgettable.  

I did jump in!

In response to yesterday's comment, here are two pictures: The first is from the same event yesteray, and the second features Lynette Privatsky, Dave Guerrero, and myself following a shoot at a "Holi" event the same weekend as the other photo.

New Photo from "Indian / American" Project

My good friend Dave Guerrero just supplied me with his latest collection of photos from my current documentary.  Here's one taken during "Holi," an Hindu holiday that some have described to me as a rite of spring  (there are quite a number of descriptions I've been given, but we'll leave it at that for now).

A Shameless, Shameless Plug

(Photo courtesy Lidskin Creative)

If you like album rock, you will love Twirl, a Sacramento-based radio program hosted by an old college friend of mine, Mike Lidskin.  Put simply in the show's slogan:  "The finest music from the rock era."  You can listen live every Saturday, 4-6 pm (western time).  Go to the website:  www.twirlradio.com, for more information.   While you're there, check out the "Twirlcasts" for highlights from past episodes.  I highly recommend a Twirlcast "comedy nugget" entitled "2006 write-in gubernatorial candidate Greg Baldwin's plan for a better California.'  It's a classic moment in comedy history, if you ask me.  And not just because my best buddy from college and my nephew are involved.  Really. I swear.

Opening Weekend

I read last week that the opening weekend for the latest installment of the "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise brought in half a billion dollars. Even taking into account the greater cost of a game, it's another dramatic example of the splintering of the entertainment industry.  I don't think video games are the future, but they are just one of a huge selection of choices we have.  

Once, we had movies, television, radio, books, newspapers and records.  Today, add IPODS and other MP3 players, video game consules, video-on-demand services, and other video delivery systems (I rarely watch scheduled programming these days), the Internet...I'm sure you could name another half-dozen new-technology services. For the entrepreneur who can create content that crosses between these services, the opportunities are exciting.   More exciting?  This is all in it's infancy.  Ten years from the now, the entertainment industry as we know it will unrecognizeable. 

Indian / American

Here's a photo from "Indian  / American," the documentary I mentioned a couple of posts back.  This weekend, we'll be shooting the kids' year-end recital. It will also mark the end of principal photography on the documentary, which I've been shooting since last November.

Current Audiobook

I'm currently listening to:  Red Land Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz, a look at routine life in ancient Egypt - at least that of the privileged classes (lower classes simply didn't have the literacy or luxury of recording their lives for posterity).  The single most interesting aspect of a book like this is as a reminder of how, across time and cultures,human beings are closely related. Its one of the great pleasures of documentary filmmaking in particular - to see a real kinship with people anywhere in the world.

It's Been a While (Again!)

It's been a while since I've posted here - but for good reason!

First, I've launched a blog for Freshi Films, the company for which I serve as Director of Production.  Check freshifilms.blogspot.com to learn about everything that's going on at Freshi, and to see some of the programming we've been creating over the past two years.  The company is really gearing up, and we're approaching a very exciting period in the company's history.

I'm also about to conclude photography on my documentary, "Indian/American" which profiles a group of American-born Indian kids who are learning about their heritage through "Bollywood" style dance.  Look for excerpts here as I move into the editing stage.

VICTORY

My search for Yoohoo has ended where it began - at my local Yoohoo dealer.  According to them, Yoohoo was having a bottling issue.  As you can see, I am now well-stocked, and so I can report success in my ongoing battle to solve important social issues.

Currently Reading / Listening

At home, I'm reading "Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness," a biography the legendary reclusive billionaire. My interest in rediscovering Hughes developed after watching the movie, "Hoax," the true story of how author Clifford Irving tried to fool the publishing world in 1971 with a fake "autobiography" of Howard Hughes.  In reality, he had absolutely no connection with Hughes, a fact which was made clear through a telephone press conference with Hughes himself, the last time he made any sort of public "appearance" (he died in 1976).  After seeing "Hoax," I took another look at the Hughes biopic, "Aviator," and then decided to see out more information.  I also happen to know someone who was a contract actress with Hughes in the 1950's, and has a memories of Hughes that are quite in contrast with the generally accepted image of a severely disturbed man - an image, we sometimes forget, that was forged in the last few years of his life.

This book, published a few years after his death, explores Hughes' life from his family background to his bizarre ending.  I'll be curious to follow this book up with a more recent biography that might include further insights  and research gathered over the last thirty years.

In my car, I'm listening to an audio book, "Andrew Carnegie," a portrait of the 19th and early 20th Century industrialist and philanthropist that had a major impact in those two areas that is still felt today.  He began life in a small Scottish industrial town and ultimately became one of the wealthiest men of his time.  He was also as far as you can get from the emotionally crippled Howard Hughes.  It's an interesting exercise to read/listen to both biographies simultaneously. I ordered the Carnegie book as a direct reaction to reading about Hughes - I find these massively successful people fascinating in their individuality.

Yoo-Hoo!

On February 20th, I received a response from the folks at Yoo-Hoo.

I have been given a list of ten stores within a dozen miles of here that might carry the Yoo-Hoo I desire - the closest only minutes away.  

I shall report back on my quest. Perhaps with multi-media accompaniment.

I implore you to stay calm during this critical time.

Yoo-Hoo: The Conspiracy

Yoo-Hoo is a chocolate drink from my childhood. It's not chocolate milk or soda - it's in it's own special category.  It's mainly popular Back East - but you could find bottles of it at supermarkets or deli's, if you searched a bit. I don't think there's any food or drink I associate so closely with my New York childhood.  I remember drinking it on the beach on many a hot, humid summer. To some people, it's an acquired taste, but to me, it's an elixir.

I'm not sure why, but Yoo-Hoo seems to disappearing from Western shelves - it's now available only in those little drink boxes.  Bad marketing, I guess.  OR, maybe there's a run on the California inventory. Perhaps a California multi-millionaire with New York roots is buying up the stock, hoarding it for his own use.  I'll begin an investigation into some possible candidates.

I've been checking supermarket store shelves - but I've only found those boxes, in the local Ralphs.  There's something going on here - something sinister.

I've just sent an email to Yoo-Hoo.  

I'll report back with the results.

Parallel Worlds and Alternative Universes?

I was at a gathering a few weeks back hosted by one of my sometime collaborators. We've known each other for seven years or so, and have worked together in various ways - writing, editing, or co-directing projects.  As it turned out, one of his friends, by pure chance, has a connection with me that goes back decades.

At one of my friend's larger gatherings, one of his friends came up to me and asked me if I'd grown up in New Hyde Park, on Long Island, and went to Wickshire School.   I answered yes to every one of his questions, but strange as it may seem, it wasn't anyone I knew directly - but very likely, someone who lived a life parallel to mine as we were growing up.  A year younger, he lived probably 20 houses down the block and around the corner in my old neighborhood in New York.  We knew some of the same people - he even remembered Julie, our legendary ice cream man - and the nice guy who polished floors all over the neighborhood - we all knew when we were very young.  

We went to the same elementary school - but when you're a young kid, sometimes kids that are even a year younger than you are kids with whom you generally wouldn't waste time.  So, we lived lives that were very close - we probably sat near each other on the school bus, and we apparently shared some of the same teachers - but we never knew each other.  Nevertheless - we shared an experience - we shared a place, and we shared a time. We just operated in slightly different dimensions.

Social Networking II

Once you start with several sites, it becomes a challenge - there are people who look at my website, others who look at MySpace, others at Facebook, and now a growing list on Linkedin.com. 

Linkedin.com seems to be the flavor of the day for professional networking - a friend turned me on to that site a few days ago, and numerous other colleagues from other sources have also sent me invitations since then.  I have to admit some curiousity about this site - I'll be curious to see what it provides (and, like any other network - what I can use it for) as time goes on.   

Of course, the danger is that we'll spend more time managing our networks...then actually using them!

Branding

I read an article in the New York Times the other day entitled, "Creating Brand You."  It, in turn, discussed an article in the current issue of Psychology Today in which Psychologist Judith Sills suggests "becoming your own brand," explaining that "it is the professional identity that you create in the minds of others."

Your image - or, as the CIA dubs it, your "legend," is the first impression most people will have about you.  Taking control of that image is crucial if you're serious about achieving goals.  Taking control of your image, in turn, directly reflects how focused you are on your goals. 

Sills writes of three approaches that will work will if you want to be come a brand - I believe they come hand in hand with achieving goals:

-Speaking Professionally (conferences, events that provide visibility)

-Make your presence known at meetings (our industry thrives on creative input)

-Be consistent (a universal need across all forms of employment!)

All of these approaches reflect your public face - and your ability to reach the goals you set for yourself.  

If you don't know who you are, how will anyone else know?

Social Networking to Infinity and Beyond!

Join MySpace, they said. 

No, go to Facebook. Everyone's moving over there, now.

Hey, did you hear about LinkedIn?  Like Facebook, but designed for professionals.

Each has profile.

A blog. You can see how often THIS has been updated!  

Requires Maintenance.

THEN I have my website.

And now, my new Mac Front-End for my website (web.mac.com/richsamuels).

I have my profile on Kiva.org - check it out, it's cool.  But I have to keep an eye on that little profile, too.

I have my corporate profile with Freshi Films, LLC.

Soon, I'll be working full time just maintaining my Brand!

Indian Connections

I just looked at the visitor log for my blog, and noticed that I had a visitor a few weeks back from "Gurgaon, Haryana, India" That happens to be an area I'm familiar with - it's the area I visited back in the summer of 2006 with my Freshi group.  It was a fantastic experience - I even hear occassionally from some of the young filmmakers we taught (one of which is apparently checking up on me!).    I found that the teens we worked with in India were excited, curious and optimistic about their country's progress.   They have a pride in their own country that kids in America would recognize.

My interest in India continues. The documentary I'm currently shooting is the story of a group of Indian boys, born in America, who are being taught "Bollywood-style" dancing as part of their parent's efforts to maintain their connection to Indian culture.  It's not so much a story of Indians, but of what it means to be an American in the 21st Century.  

Information Age: Part Two

I recently heard about a website called Kiva.org - it's a site through which individuals can loan small amounts of money to small start up ventures in third world countries.  By small, I mean VERY small - people selling coal in a small village in Uganda - or a scooter taxi service.  You don't make money - you simply make a small (about $25) loan, applied toward a specific amount, which is likely to be paid back  - and so change lives in a very real way.  Kiva's has had so much publicity lately that all of the current businesses have already been fully funded.  "Investors" can also correspond with the entrepreneurs if they wish.  It's one of the few opportunities for individuals in the western world to make a real, meaningful connection to individuals in the "third world."  It's worth a look.

The Dorkiness Factor

When I was a kid, I had a favorite jacket - I knew it was spring when I could transition from my winter coat to my bright blue New York Mets jacket.  I probably wore it longer then necessary into summer just just to make sure I got the most out of it.   I don't think I ever had as much of an attachment to a jacket as I did when I was ten years old.   In fact, I can't remember any other jacket throughout my childhood.  I think I've always had the idea in the back of my mind that I'll get another jacket like that one day....

I also remember wanting what I called a "Lost In Space" shirt - mainly, a shirt with a V-neck.  Judging from some photos, I appear to have succeeded in fulfilling my desire.

I did have some ill-fated flirtations with various items - like a notorious month or so in junior high school with a pair of brown boots.  I consider that one of my "what was I thinking?" moments.  I don't even think it was possible to walk normally, but I insisted on my precious boots - until I woke up one morning and discovered the dorkiness factor.  I never put them on again - to the great relief of my friends, I suspect.   The middle school mind works in mysterious ways.

Information Age: Part One

There was an editorial in the New York Times this morning that called attention to the fact that 2008 is the 40th anniversary of the notorious year, 1968, which was filled with political upheaval, a collapse of US efforts in Vietnam, assassinations, and, well, some pretty good music in spite of it all.

Of course, celebrating the anniversary of a year in general is a bit odd.  After all, we might as well celebrate the first anniversary of 2007, the tenth anniversary of 1998, and so on. Of course, the journalist's point was that 1968, and in particular the meteoric rise and violent fall of Bobby Kennedy, was a tragic turning point in the fortunes of this country. Still, mourning over a now-distant moment in history overshadows the opportunities that our own age - or perhaps the near future - provide.

As wired as we are in the western world, the rest of the world is still in the infancy of the information age - a large majority of the world's population still lives shrouded in a nearly medieval control over information.  It's still possible in 2007 to keep a population isolated through ignorance.  The reasons are sometimes political (North Korea being a prime example) and sometimes economic (a newly high-tech India nevertheless struggles to educate and connect its huge population).

Of course, the temptation is to look at our own country and wonder why the wired world hasn't helped our political system - as we sit mired in crisis after crisis. We have wider access to information than ever before - but perhaps we as a people need to learn to employ the power of information more effectively.   The process continues and evolves as individuals and organizations learn to use technology to educate, inform and change the world. 

Ends of the Years

I'm just been contemplating how many news years-eves I can recall - or which I could best recall.  

I can't specifically remember any new years eves as a kid, though I know I stayed up with the family and watched (in black-and-white) the ball drop in Times Square.

I do remember where I was on New Years Eve, 1999 - I was freezing down in San Pedro, by the Korean Bell, a gift from South Korea to the City of Los Angeles., that sits on the coast.  I was helping out as a cameraman on a live broadcast to South Korea.  It was freezing, I had a cold - it was miserable!  But we had a little excitement when our power generators went out ten minutes before midnight, not only leaving all of the crew in the dark, but all of the guests as well (a crowd of dignitaries were to ring in the new year en masse using the large bell. It turns out the production crew was providing all of the light for the event as well.  Just in time, all the power was restored and the show went on as scheduled.

I've been to numerous New Years Eve parties over the years, but the truth is that most are the same sort of thing - I'm not one for drunken all-out parties, and many of the others I've gone to are otherwise uneventful - hardly worth risking the drunk drivers out on the roads!

As for Times Square, I can't help but marvel at those people who brave a cold December day in New York City to stand around Times Square for most of the day waiting for the big moment - which is over in perhaps ten or fifteen minutes (though I have to admit there is some excitement in just "being there."

The other thought that almost always occurs to me is the transitory nature of new years eve - the fact that it happens in waves throughout the day, from one side of the world to the other - while you're celebrating, people in Australia have already moved on with their lives.  Being in California, we're just about at the end of the process - like so many other live programs, we see Times Square on a three-hour delay.  Since we don't have any great televised New Year celebration, we're stuck with leftovers...

Around the World with Freshi

Aboard the Cruise ship Golden Princess on December 18, 2007..

End of the Year - Time for a New Blog.

Actually, a lot has happened since the last posting - most recently being my journey aboard the Princess Cruise Ship Golden Princess.  I can't go into detail on why I was there - but it was for business!  I swear!  No, really!

 

Like my trip to India in '06, I hadn't ever considered taking a cruise, but I loved the experience.  I was also very impressed with how well the entire operation ran - 2600 passengers experienced nothing but a stress-free, high-quality environment.  The only time I saw stressed out people was in the final couple of hours before passengers returned to the real world.  It's inevitable, I suppose.  The Princess Cruise tag line is "escape completely,"  but it's not a permanent escape.

But it sure was fun....

Great in '08!!

I didn't have an imaginary friend as a kid - but I did have an imaginary Presidential Candidate. Jim Great was running for President on a platform that solely emphasized his Greatness. How could you not vote for a Great President?

Plans

When I was about eight or nine years old, I went through a period when I thought I wanted to be an architect. Actually, looking back on it, I suppose I was more interested in being an urban planner.

My single greatest achievement? I spent hours and hours creating a cross section of a vast underground city, consisting of sheet upon sheet of taped-together notebook paper. I don't remember too many details, but I remember the feeling of achievement as the plans extended further and further underground. It looked pretty cool as a cross-section. I tried to make a city that was livable, fun and futuristic.

Sunlight and claustrophobia didn't enter my thoughts. Not to mention fresh air- or the very thought of living your life hundreds of feet below the surface...

I wonder what a city would look like if it were designed by kids. Somehow, I think it would be a very scary place...

What Ever Happened to Ben? (Part Three)

The Ben Era

No sooner had I established my friendship with The Shuffleboard Kid that I became acquainted with Ben. I don't know just where and how we met, but we managed to find each other - two kids of the same age seeking an ally in our two week stay in an alien land (i.e. Miami).

Naturally, finding a friend of the same age under these circumstances is like hitting the jackpot. It didn't matter what we actually had in common - we were perfectly in tune in our fight against boredom. While Shuffleboard Kid was happy to find a friend, Ben and I were happy to find comrades.

There were just a few opportunities to establish a friendship, and even fewer responsibilities to maintain it. We could play at the beach of course - naturally, the primary form of entertainment at a beach-front hotel. The beach provided the backdrop for my only record of Ben - a movie of him goofing off for the camera and writing his name in the sand. If Shuffleboard Kid had come down to the beach, I suspect he would still have a name today.

Ben stood by me during the Bingo Incident. Our hotel had a bingo night, and Ben and I decided to join in. After all, there were prizes involved! Mostly, they were pens and pencils and paper wieghts, but that didn't matter. Winning the Prize was important - not the prize itself. We sat down, hoping to win some prizes.

That evening, I was to experience one of my most successful winning streaks, before or since. The Bingo Gods seemed to smile upon me as I won game after game after game. The Game Official (probably some cabana boy), checked each bingo card closer than the last - but my wins were real. Ben and I were giddy with excitement, while old ladies grumbled around the room. I won more prizes than I could handle, and began to hand some over to Ben, whose Bingo cards were sadly devoid of winning numbers. It seemed as if I couldn't be stopped. If I was in Vegas, I would have brought down the house. This wasn't Vegas, however.

The grumbles grew louder, and we grew happier, and the Bingo Gods grew more generous. Then, without warning, I was told to leave. I had won too much. I had to give other people a chance, they told me. WON TOO MUCH? I WAS TOO LUCKY? We were outraged! In this case, that meant it was my turn to grumble, and Ben's turn to grumble right along with me. I am convinced that I will one day have the chance to continue my interrupted streak of good luck, but as yet my efforts to summon the Bingo Gods have failed during my trips to Las Vegas.

Shuffleboard Kid, with an earlier bedtime, wasn't around for the Bingo Incident. As friendships unfold in the much-slower non-vacation world, we drifted apart. Sure, I would see him around the hotel over the next few days, but didn't spend that much time together - not like in the old days earlier in the week.

The unique character of a holiday vacation was always that everyone was there on the same general schedule. Most schools took off the last two weeks of the year, and so most families planned their vacations accordingly. When it was time to go home, we all parted. Nobody was left behind. We ALL moved away.

Ben, and Shuffleboard Kid and I became fast friends, and they were the first of many friends I would leave behind the following summer when my family moved across the country to California. Ben and I vowed to stay in touch - we had been through the Boredom War together - and survived With Something To Do. I guess you could say we're veterans. We might not have been fighting for freedom or our lives, but for the most important value in our lives at that single moment in time: Keeping Ourselves Entertained.

So....what ever happened to Ben? Until recently, I thought that we had attempted to write one another, but I didn't pursue the relationship when I realized how poor his writing skills were. My nephew, however, found a passage in a diary I was required to keep in my sixth grade class (in California) declaring, in bold letters, I GOT A LETTER FROM BEN! Unfortunately, that's all I wrote. Until I find that missing letter, the nature of our post-Miami friendship will have to remain a mystery.

With my nephew's help, I recently thought I found Ben on MySpace. He didn't respond to my odd little inquiry, so I can't be sure that particular east coast businessman is actually him. Of course, if it was him, we really wouldn't have all that much to talk about, anyway. Two Weeks. As an adult, that's practically an instant.

What Ever Happened to Ben? (Part Two)

The Shuffleboard Kid

The suggestion that one year in a dog's life is equivalent to seven in a human's is probably appropriate to kids and adults, as well. Summer can be an eternity to a kid - and two weeks nearly so. While an adult is almost immediately counting down the days when his vacation will end, the kid is generally thinking of the time at hand. Two weeks is an impossibly long time to contemplate.

Survival mode for a kid on vacation almost always means the challenge to Not Be Bored - particularly when the adults are off relaxing by the pool or entertaining themselves with a cup of coffee. Many kids out to dinner with their parents have formed brief alliances with mortal enemies caught in the same situation. They might remain enemies in school, but here in adultland, they only had each other, and put aside their differences rather than Be Bored.

At ten, age really matters. Generally, you hang out with kids your age or older - almost NEVER younger kids, lest you be considered One Of Them. On this vacation those concerns didn't apply.

I was checking out the shuffleboard courts (do they even exist anymore?) when I came across a boy I only remember at The Shuffleboard Kid. He was about seven or eight - an impossibly large age gap at home - and was playing with his mom. I was invited to play, which I suppose was her convenient excuse to beat a hasty retreat, for soon just the Kid and I were playing shuffleboard - and so forming a fast friendship based solely on Nothing Better To Do.

About the only thing I remember with certainty about The Shuffleboard Kid was that he was a bit sensitive - particularly, it seems, about animals. In fact, if he's an animal activist today, I might have witnessed the beginning of his lifelong quest. The Kid and I attended the hotel's sixteen milimeter screening of the original "Doctor Dolittle," which featured Rex Harrison as an 18th century vegetarian vetenarian who also, by the way, talked to the animals. At first, the screening almost didn't happen. Hotel staff couldn't figure out how to adjust the wide-angle lens on the projector to allow the film to project in its corrrect widescreen mode. I'm proud to say that my dad, the film executive, saved the evening by showing them how it was done, and thus making the screening possible.

After the film, Shuffleboard Kid was in tears. Why couldn't we treat animals like people? It just wasn't right! He seemed deeply hurt by the lack of what today I might call Equal Access For Animals. I thought it was really a major over-reaction, but I stood by my friend, tried to reason with him a bit, but generally just shrugged and hoped he would get it out of his system. It reminded me that he was, after all, Just A Little Kid.

For the first couple of days, The Shuffleboard Kid was my Best and Only Vacation Friend. His standing was about to be challenged.

Ben was on the scene.

Part Three: The Ben Era

What Ever Happened to Ben? (Part One)

When I was ten, my family took a trip to Miami, Florida for the winder holiday - a two week vacation at a (then) typical Miami Beach hotel - multistory, some scheduled activities, and the beach right behind the hotel property. This was before today's "revitalized" Miami Beach, with (I'm told) glitzy hotels, night life, and lots of Cuban atmosphere. There might have been a lot going on, but for a ten year old kid, what counted in Miami Beach was the place where I spent most of my time - the hotel. I think a kid in Vegas might feel the same thing - plenty of lights and activity - but what does it mean to him?

Looking back on it, this vacation was actually one of the more activity-filled trips we took. We visited plenty of local attractions, including Parrot Jungle (where about four heavy parrots balanced on my scrawny arms for a photo), Lion Country Safari, where (I think) I saw the dolphins who performed in the TV show, Flipper (before computer graphics spared such animals a good deal of online work). We didn't get to visit the just opened Disney World (my dad didn't want to fight the traffic), but we did visit Kennedy Space Center - though it was late in the day and only the gift shop was open- I sitll have the Apollo 15 cap we purchased there.

At the hotel, however, there was a entirely new set of adventures. This was in the days before video arcades, wireless internet, or widescreen televisions. The list of activities, in my ten year old's perception, included the ocean, the pool, the shuffleboard court, the nightly bingo games, and a movie night (where they rolled out a sixteen milimeter projector). An adult - or older kid, like my teenage sister - would look at the situation as dire, but at ten, I accepted reality and went about seeing how I could fit into my new, semi-independent limitied-to-two-weeks world.

Part Two: The Shuffleboard Kid

Back By Popular Demand!

Okay, maybe it depends how you define popular - let's say popular in the world of people who read my blog. I'm going to resume my blogorific experience....

It's been an eventful few months - from my work with FreshiFilms, LLC (where I serve as Director of Production), to my move to Valencia (about 2o miles north of my previous home), and numerous projects of all sizes and types - it's been a hectic time. I'll touch on some of these activities over the next few weeks.

I've a got a few newly-discovered childhood stories to share - and others to enhance. My move uncovered some forgotten artifacts from my kid years, which I'll review here in my own personal anthropological expedition (say that three times, fast), as well as exploring some ongoing mysteries.

The first of those mysteries: Whatever Happened to Ben?

Useless Luck

Today, on 7/7/07, I made a purchase that added up to $7.77.

So, where's my luck?

If I'm to believe all the superstitions about three 7's, then this should indicate that good luck is coming my way...

Or perhaps my luck was that the salad and water I purchased for $7.77 was contaminated. With all the contaminated food floating around, I'll take what I can get!

Freshiflix.com

FreshiFilmWorx, the worldwide filmmaking consortium I work with, is about to initiate it's annual film camp. Here's a look at last year's camp, straight from the Freshiflix.com website for young filmmakers....

World of Warcraft

After experimenting with World of Warcraft for a couple of months, I ultimately cancelled the account. It was interesting to explore the "massive multiplayer" environment, but even with an enormous 3D world to explore, and numerous ways to interact with other players (and computer generated characters), that world becomes a repetitive excercise in endless quests and battles against enemies. For kids with time to spare, I can see how engaging it might be, but without that time, it's just an endless time-sucking monster.

My friend Andrew Tarr (with whom I created "What Ever Happened to Andy Tark"), writes a blog about Second Life, which is another take on the massive multiplayer world. I might try that shortly - Second Life is an attempt to expand these alternative online worlds to reach a wider audience. It's not so much a game as it is a world largely generated by users - including retail vendors hoping to be on the ground floor of a new marketing bonanza.

Ultimately, I think that all of these worlds will increase in popularity in a massive way when individuals can virtually enter highly defined environments, and "wander" in a fully immersive world, walking and talking with users around the world. There was a time when such a concept was pure science fiction (as in the film "Total Recall," but technology is moving ahead so rapidly, I suspect such an world can't be that far ahead.

Time Flies!

I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted an entry here - life has been hectic lately.

Here's few random, unrelated bits:

1 - I'm restarting my filmmaking workshop at Pacific Lodge Boys' Home, which I had to sideline early last year when my father was sick. We have a new camera, and a Final Cut editing system - I'm looking forward to seeing where the program goes this time around. Volunteering at PL has been one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had.

2 - I bought a 3 inch-long remote control helicopter at Fry's Electronics - and it actually works! Seeing it on display, with it's cheap-import-toy style packaging, I more then expected it NOT to meet expectations. It works! Here is someone's demonstration on YouTube of the little guy....Well worth the $24.99.

3 - I have absolutely no news to report about Paris Hilton, but I thought I would mention her here to see how many searches turn up my site.

Associations

I was reminded today about the association certain sensations have with a particular person, time or place. The smell of a cigar will always remind me of my father, the smell of a pipe (exceeding rare today) reminds me of one particular uncle. Yoohoo, a chocolate drink popular mostly in the eastern United States, recalls childhood days spent at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York. Chlorine reminds me of the New Hyde Park public pool. The Good Humor chocolate bar that's called the chocolate eclair reminds me of when I could buy it off of the Good Humor ice cream truck that passed through our neighborhood every summer day. Likewise, freshly cut grass reminds me of my old neighborhood.

I also remember certain food landmarks, for lack of a better word, the represented my childhood culinary preferences (hmmm, sounds important, doesn't it?). My McDonald's order was always a double cheeseburger, chocolate shake and french fries (health food? What's that?). At the International House of Pancakes (now known simply as IHOP), I would almost always order silver dollar pancakes. Many times, my dinner would include a particular desert - a sweet, heated item called a "honey bun." My grandmother would make a great dessert consisting of a stack of graham crackers covered in chocolate pudding.

I know someone who eats the same food at the same restaurant every day. I suppose he has his reasons, but I like to revisit my fondest food memories occasionly.

Special Meanings of the Commonplace

I'm currently in Rocklin, a community north of Sacramento that began as a way station for prospectors making their way to San Francisco (no gold was ever found here). It then became a major source of granite for foundations, graveside memorials, etc. (hence the name, Rocklin).

When you take history down to the level of the individual, even the most mundane sites become intriguing. Quite a while ago in this blog, I attempted to map out my travels in my old home town - literally my "stomping ground," as the saying goes. Commonplace landmarks take on special meaning: the lamp-post where we waited for the school bus, the intersection where an informal bike race began between the neighborhood kids, or the curbside where I set up my lemonade stand. Overlay with that the memories of the generations and residents that followed, and each of those locations take on multiple meanings, each special to the individuals involved, but unknown to anyone else.

In any old western town, buildings and landmarks with histories that go back well over one hundred years likely have special meanings to many, many generations of residents, most long gone.

Schools in particular hold simulaneous memories from countless generations. A particular tree, a particular locker,a corner of the lunch area, or the PE field. To passerby, any school is bland and generic - to those who attended, the special meanings of the commonplace are everywhere: the place where you and your friends met during lunch; the place where you had that fight, the fence you used to climb; or the classroom you hated. To those who preceded you, and those who followed, the meanings are different, but just as vivid: where you met at lunch may have been a place they knew to avoid; where you had that fight might have been the site of a school prank; the fence you used to climb might have been totally unknown to another generation as a means of escape; and the classroom you hated might have once been the classroom where someone else's life changed forever.

Live in a house or apartment where others have lived before, and you're living in the faint echoes of their own lives.

YouTube Pays

Coincidentally with my recent entry, YouTube has announced that it will reward the top several dozen most viewed Youtubers with financial rewards (the specifics weren't revealed). As I suggested, it is rapidly becoming profitable (for a few lucky, quirky people) to just live their lives - or at least create an illusion of reality that's entertaining enough to draw a large following.

At some point - and perhaps it's already here - major media will attempt to take part in this new form of entertainment. While many media outlets already broadcast excerpts from their programs on YouTube, and some other content meant to supplement media on other platforms, I expect that they will attempt (or are attempting) to create their own YouTube characters.

The trick, though, is not creating a feeling in the audience of being fooled and deceived. If, for example, a character is created that proves to lead ultimately into an upcoming television sitcom, will viewers tune in to the show, or resent the manipulation? Would a Daxflame (see earlier blog) sitcom fly?

Flavors of LA

I had the opportunity recently to shoot an episode of "Flavors of LA," in which Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti introduces the viewing audience to communities across Los Angeles through visits to a variety of restaurants in selected council districts.

Los Angeles is such a international city - but I wonder how few people really have the opportunity to experience the international selection of restaurants - from Cuban to Lebanese to Indian to Salvadoran - almost any fare around the world is represented here. For example, we were treated to a fantastic meal at Maroush, a Lebanese restaurant. For the purposes of the show, the restaurant prepared many of their signature dishes, providing us with a real introduction to Lebanese fare. I believe, at times, we miss the chance to explore establisments and foods like these strictly out of unfamiliarity - the same reason, I suppose, many Americans avoid international travel.

Fear of the unknown, whether we're talking about international food or culture, leads both to ignorance and arrogance.

DaxFlame

One of the most discussed channels on YouTube is by an individual called Daxflame. While there's an ongoing debate as to whether this individual is "real" or an actor, Daxflame is ostensibly a fifteen year old, excitable, socially inept high school student. His apparent view of the world has been described by his viewers as somewhat autistic, while others claim he appears to have Asperger Syndrome, which exhibits some of the same symptoms. Still others, on the basis of the angst-ridden world he relates in each video, are convinced that no acutal person can be living his soap opera., and that he must be a talented actor. All agree, based on the comments left, that his videos are funny, entertaining, and lots of fun. With well over one million total views and over 18,000 subscribers, he's one of the Stars of YouTube.

Real of not, Dax hints at the development of an entirely new form of entertainment in which the viewers, through their messages and videos, interact with the central "character," creating an ever-widening world. Search for DaxFlame on Google, and you'll find that he's the subject of debate and discussion in groups all over the world. Search on YouTube, and you'll find videos about Dax. Some are direct responses to Dax's own videos, while others are extensive investigations into Dax's true origin. Still others are Dax inspired - imitiating or emulating his videos.

Characters on YouTube, real or not, have a much more intimate connection with their audience. Their 3 or 5 or 10 minute videos seem personal and unedited. The most popular people on Youtube aren't slick, well rehearsed or even particularly articulate. They feel real. Their connection is more personal.

This isn't "reality television," as conventional programming has defined it. Audience-based programming, perhaps?

McDonalds Aint Not Doin Nothin Good

In the event that you missed his comment to my recent blog about illiteracy on McDonalds receipts, my friend Stephen, with whom I visited the McDonalds in question has an interesting update.

Stephen brought the receipt in question to the attention of the manager of the McDonalds. The manager looked at the receipt, crumbled it up, and threw it away.

Stephen's father reports that he came across the same badly written blurb at another McDonalds, which suggests that the cash registers receive programming from a central location - corporate headquarters, perhaps? It's frightening to think that someone with such a poor grasp of the language wields such responsibility. I hope McDonalds is more careful when placing individuals in positions related to food safety.

Stephen also sent an email to McDonalds corporate headquarters. A form letter apologized for his poor experience, and referred his complaint back to the local McDonalds - the same establishment with the paper-crumbling manager.

Since receipts are the single greatest source of literary contact that McDonalds has with the public, I suppose they reflect McDonalds' respect for its customers.

Or Lack Thereof.

LIVE ON THE NET!

The newest rage on the World Wide Web these days is going LIVE. It's now possible for anyone with a high-speed connection and a decent webcam to broadcast life for all the world to see. At the moment, the center of all this activity seems to be stickam.com, which features hundreds of people from all over the world broadcasting live. Usually, the result is a rambling, stream-of-consciousness rant - sort of a video blog unrestrained. Live netcasting on this scale is still fairly new, however, so the look of this organic network is still developing.

On Justin.tv, a San Francisco-area tech/geek in his early 20's is netcasting 24/7, through a wireless webcam mounted on his hat. He claims he'll keep it up for the foreseeable future, but his audience is beginning to cause trouble - calling in fake emergencies to the police and fire departments, and causing so much havoc in his apartment complex that he could be evicted. It seems that going live sometimes means leaving yourself at the mercy of the entire world. In the meantime, check in and see Justin have breakfast, work, go to parties, use the bathroom (discreetly), and live a life as random and usually bland as anyone else.

Most people, both male and female, are far more limited in their netcasts. A good number of them are netcasting as the logical extension of their YouTube presence. Take, for example, Brandon3773 (his name on both YouTube and Stickam) Brandon is a thirteen year old from Texas who specializes in random commentary on the world around him (lots and lots of random commentary - 417 videos at last count), and holds court some nights on Stickam, responding to other live netcasters and text chatters on any sort of subject that comes to mind, and keeping the pervs and other freaks out of his world. Topics on a recent night included updates on his new website, behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the making of his YouTube videos, and a response to a question about why a kid from Lubbock, Texas doesn't have more of a Texan accent. He's just a typical thirteen year old kid. He's not edgy or extreme. I wouldn't even call him hilarious. He's just being a regular 21st Century kid - building a brand of his own.

After all, success is not only about a good resume, but also about selling a good product - yourself. With sites like YouTube and Stickam, it's possible to make yourself famous on the net. Just what you can do with that fame remains to be seen. Justin already has several sponsors. Brandon has 512 subscribers, and over 51,000 views. If those numbers continue to grow, he could be just the ticket for corporate sponsorship. Just by being a regular kid. Cool.

Childhood. Sponsored by Coke?

Driving By

In Los Angeles, nothing remains the same for too long. Most of the local landmarks from my childhood are long gone.

The Topanga Theater, my childhood theater of choice in the West San Fernando Valley, closed perhaps ten years ago. It had once been a single theatre, had already split into two by the time I began attending films there, and later was further split into four tiny theaters, which made the venue useless. It was to be torn down and replaced with a huge, modern multiplex, but neighborhood opposition forced Pacific Theaters to move that concept a mile or so north, replacing a drive-in movie theater that had also gone from one to two to four screens. Today, after a couple of years as a furniture store, it stands empty. I will always remember it as the place where I saw the original "Poseidon Adventure" about 15 times (using my dad's pass, which required only that I paid tax), and the scene of countless movie previews.

Several miniature golf courses in the area were long ago destroyed as land grew in value, as was a branch of the Malibu Grand Prix kart racing track and arcade, a very popular destination for kids at one time. It's now an auto dealership.

The massive Westfield Topanga mall was once known as Topanga Plaza, and featured an ice-skating rink, which was later converted into a food court. When the mall was overhauled in the last couple of years, the food court itself was deconstructed, and the space where it existed, which until then retained the shape of the old rink, was completely removed as the mall more then doubled in size. That very spot is now just another wing of the mall.

True, there are some parks in the area that have vastly improved since those days, and forms of entertainment have changed dramatically - there's not a lack of things to do - and a mall is still a mall, just bigger and more "upscale," but the business of recreation, aside from movie theaters, has shifted to the personal rather then the social. We didn't have video game systems, movie rental houses (or cable TV), or the internet.

Not only did land become more expensive in Los Angeles, but kids drifted away to more convenient recreational activities as time moved on.

Super Rabbit and Friends

I've had a long history of creating cartoon characters. Early on, I posted some of my more recent cartoons, but this little hobby actually began in kindergarten, when I created a character I dubbed, "Super Rabbit." I really don't remember what he looked like, but I vividly remember my teacher's laugh when i asked her how to spell it....

A few years later, when I was about ten or so, i created my own cartoon Presidential candidate, Jim Great. He came complete with campaign materials - posters and the like.

At eleven or twelve, I created a series of comic books about my newest super hero - Super Spider. It wasn't long before I introduced his sidekick, Wonder Worm.

I would endure a comic drought of perhaps eight or nine years, until I created a new series of characters and comics, beginning with James Castigon, an innocent teenager browsing through the discount record bin at his local record store when he discovers an album featuring HIM - singing a series of songs about his entire life. From that comic came a whole new series of characters, from Freddy Fetus to Melvin Egghead, and featuring the likes of Sem and Craven, "Pops" Castigon (James' father), and five evil characters: Flem, Marty, Pace, Stickle and Crude. The cartoons were circulated amongst my group of friends, and Freddy Fetus acheived cult status within that group - he became, for lack of a better word, the symbol of our generation.

Or was that Super Rabbit?

Kid Rumor Mill

As a kid, there were several rumors i unquestionably believed:

1) I was told there was this one kid who blew off his face with fireworks and now lived secluded in the bedroom above his garage. I know he lived there because my friend pointed it out. I was also accussed of being a friend of the kid-without-a-face - but my real friends helped quash THAT rumor.

2) At day camp, there was an abandoned, fenced-off shed way back at the far edges of the property. Rumor had it that an evil guy lived there - and he had captured a kid who had come too close. Of course, I turned down the dare to hop the fence and inspect the shed.

3) My friend across the street swore that if you cut the skin between your fingers you would die. Needless to say, I was very careful.

4) Without a doubt, my older cousins had the entire Major Matt Mason action figure (an astronaut figure that was my favorite toy for a time) set, including all the cool accessories, the other action figures in the series, and the space station playset. Not only did they have all this, but they were hiding it right this second behind the locked door to my aunt and uncle's bedroom and they were NOT going to let me see it.

What Ever Happened to Andy Tark?

The World Permiere!

This is a film that Andrew Tarr and I created, based (loosely) on his quirkly childhood adventures, and featuring a great cast of actors working in a "controlled improvisation." I'll explain more in future blogs.

Fast Food Will Rot Your Mind.

I think this Glendale McDonalds needs a new person programming the cash register - perhaps someone with a greater knowledge of the English language (read the ad at the top). I wasn't aware you could pack that many errors into one phrase.

I'm also puzzled as to what a burger with a three-to-one pound ratio would look like (The "Argus Burgers" are actually 1/3 pound).

I guess company standards at McDonalds don't include certain communication skills.

Freshi This, Freshi That

In addition to "How to Make Movies," the Freshi brand extends in several directions: a website (freshiflix.com), a quarterly magazine ("Rated FreshiFriendly"), and an after school filmmaking program (Freshiflimworx.com) that is in the process of spreading worldwide. Freshi has created a series of packages designed to allow schools and other educational interests to bring filmmaking to kids and teens everywhere. It's been selling like crazy- the packages are shipping across the country and beyond.

Just look at Youtube - kids are deeply into filmmaking - and they're starving for information on how to do it right. For me, everything's come full circle from the days when I was a young (11 year-old) filmmaker. I would have given everything to have a video camera (with sound!!!) like so many kids have today...

How to Make Movies

One of my current projects "FreshiReel: How to Make Movies," a television program for kids and teens about the basics of filmmaking.. We've just shot the pilot, which I directed and edited (I produced and wrote with Suzanne Shoemaker of Freshifilms, LLC) I consider the program a television version of "Super-8 Filmmaker" magazine, which was popular when I was a kid - though even that wasn't aimed directly at kids. There are more young filmmakers out there today then ever before - and they can do more then ever before. The "Fresh-i" brand serves that constituency though an afterschool program that is franchised worldwide, a website (freshiflix.com - currently in beta mode), and efforts like this television show. I'm involved with Freshi in several ways, which I'll be exploring in near future.

Childhood Property

When I was a kid, there were certain items that had special value to me:

First on the list was my blue New York Mets jacket - this was the jacket that I looked forward to wearing every spring and fall (in New York, I had my "spring jackets" and the much heavier "winter jackets," sort of the personal equivelant of installing screen doors in the spring, another traditon for cooler climates.

When I was very young, one of my greatest desires was to get what I called a "Lost in Space" shirt - really, a shirt with a v-neck like the characters in the tv series wore. I thought it was unbelieveably futuristic.

That also brings to mind an incident at an event - maybe a circus - where my father and I passed by a vendor selling a wide variety of novelty hats. I mentioned to my father my desire to have what I called an "F-Troop" hat (F-Troop being television series taking place in civil war/frontier days). To my horror, by father actually returned to the vendor and asked if he had any "F-Troop hats - to which I died of humiliation.

I've mentioned in earlier blogs some of the toys that have had special value: my air bazooka, my suction-cup dart pistol (this resembled, to me, a dart gun used in the James Bond movie, "Diamonds are Forever," and, of course, my greatest pride and joy, my Stingray bike.

I tend to think, despite technology, most kids today will later relate to much the same type of items - clothing they were practically known by, and toys that could take hours, days and months of wear and tear. Video game systems, cell phones, ipods and other technology are cool - but tranistory, and ultimately will likely inspire no more fondness then I might have for an old televsion set or radio.

Kes

As I wrote a couple of entries back, I ordered the soundtrack to the film, "Kes," a beautiful film with a beautiful score created by John Cameron, and performed by his quartet. The score is simple and uncluttered - and of an uncluttered, classic style rarely heard in today's films. In a film about childhood, the theme is centered on the flute, an instrument that seems to embody the innocence of childhood, and has been used for similar purpose in other scores - but never as appropriately as in this film. Perhaps, if that had been a well-budgeted studio film, the score would have been orchestral - and to less effect. That's what I find exciting about independent films - creating beautiful work despite - and as a benefit of - having few resources.

You can find more information - and some other notes on the score, at:
http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=8488rm5q3q&ref=browse.php&refQ=kwfilter%3Dkes%26amp%3Bincl_oos%3D1%26amp%3Bincl_cs%3D1

Long Lost

My nephew and I had a bit of fun the other day searching out my old friends and such on the internet. As he was growing up, he heard a number of stories of my adventures with my childhood friends, and saw a number of old home movies. Somehow, we started off on a quest to see how many of those old friends had a Myspace page.

So far, I've been to reconnect with an old college-era friend that just recently established a page (in fact, there was practically nothing there yet). We also found what may be a Myspace page belonging to someone who I was friends with for all of 2 weeks in December, 1971. We were on a family vacation to Miami Beach, and I started hanging out with another kid my age. He (and another, younger kid) spent a great deal of time during those two weeks - I even have home movies showing him writing his name in the sand. He was with me when the hotel management kicked me out of the nightly bingo game after I won probably a dozen consecutive games. Once the vacation was over, we parted company, exchanged a total of one letter (from him to me), and never had contact again.

Out of pure curiousity we searched out his name on Myspace - and came out with several hits - including one from the same general place and age. Time will tell if this is the same guy.

Hit or miss, it looks as if we are rapidly entering an age where we never quite can leave our past behind.