Snow expected by morning, followed by ice.
Took a walk through the back field in a light mist. Deer hunters are out.
The old dog is almost deaf, and can’t see me if I’m more than twenty feet away; but his nose still works, and he enjoys it.
Yankee Point ~ Video
Sailing season is all but over here, for this year. This morning there was ice covering the puddles. Fourth day in a row this week. We’ve had the wood stove on high since Thanksgiving, and have not ventured far from it.
It’s nice now to have the clips from this trip to work with, and relive it a bit.
Looking back through my files, I see there are several trips that never got posted – been a busy year. Looks like I’ll have material to carry well into winter, when clips of hot summer days on the water will be very welcome.
Commercial Success
Speaking of video, my animator/filmmaker friend Jonah Tobias is currently moving steadily up the ranks of a video-mercial contest. He and a handful of local photographer, under-employed actor, and writer friends threw this together in a mad caffeinated marathon of movie-making over a few days. He wanted Terri to be an extra in it, but she couldn’t take time away from a mad dash to a deadline of her own. (More of which, later.)
Jonah’s first break into the almost-big-time was doing all the animation for the independent documentary Supersize Me (link to trailer). The film won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
He does the stage and A/V graphics for many of the TED events, and for several years has done all the concert animation graphics for Tim McGraw’s live shows.
These projects are the tropical islands between which he must swim, like all freelancers, through a barren ocean of no-work. Life jackets and bits of flotsam that keep you afloat take the form of commercial work, things you hang onto just to keep from going under. He has an impressive list of clients for everything from pharmaceutical info-graphics to environmental advocacy.
Anyway, this new adrenaline project is a crowd-sourced commercial contest for Doritos (interesting junk-food connection we’ll let slide). The top couple of winners get their commercial aired during the upcoming Super Bowl. Oh, and that’s Jonah in the commercial as the mad scientist:
If you are so inclined, give it a view and a rating. Send the link to friends. If he wins, he gets to go the big game. I don’t think he cares for football, so that will be an entertaining twist. Almost torture for him, entertaining for me.
Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
As someone inured and enamored with words, I have followed John Koenig’s blog Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows since it’s early days.
He just posted his first video “definition” and it’s really, really well done.
If you’re a word person, enjoy:
Sonder | The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows from John Koenig on Vimeo.
Sound is Time Tangible
Justin Boyd: Sound and Time from Walley Films on Vimeo.
Justin Boyd, Department Chair of Sculpture and Integrated Media at Southwest School of Art, shares his connection with sound and how he uses it to create original works of art. Inspired by his sensitivity to sound at a very young age, Boyd has been recording and working with sound and music since the mid 90s. Boyd actively captures field recordings for integration of sound with found objects. This documentary was produced in association with Southwest School of Art. Learn more about their BFA program at http://www.swschool.org.
Sound seems one of the few ways to experience time. A semi-conscious, second tier sense, drifting along the margins – shadow, not light. The soundtrack to our film, as it were.
Like most semi-conscious senses, it’s tapped directly into memory. I remember the squeak and bang of the screen door of my grandmother’s house, always the same one-two rhythm.
I remember the sound of our mothers calling us home for dinner in the evenings, when I and my buddies were out fooling around in the twilight up in the mountains of the Carolinas. It was like a call to prayer at dusk. Each of us was tuned to a different call, but we knew them all.
I remember the metallic chimes of the ice cream truck, three blocks away.
Crows.
Whippoorwills. And Quail.
Fiddle music, long after dark.
Cat’s Paws
Steve Earley in Spartina
A long time ago, when I asked why puffs of wind coursing across the water were called “cat’s paws,” I was told it’s because the wind makes patterns on the surface shaped like a cat’s paw. Sounded reasonable.
Well, obviously, this is wrong. And clearly an explanation made up by someone who never set foot on a sailboat once their whole life.
MASCF 2013 ~ Race Day and Sunday Sailing
Video from the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival
clips from the race and sailing with the girls on Sunday
Wrapping up posts from the festival with clips shot during the race on Saturday. We were late leaving the dock, and wind was very light, so we were about 100 yards back when the starting gun went off. No worries, had no intension of competing; just wanted to be in position to take good pictures.
There was a little more wind on Sunday, though most folks cleared out early. Too bad, as it was a fine day to be on the water. Emily took the tiller again, and got her first taste of what it feels like when a puff comes along and makes things more exciting. I think she was hooked.
When we got back to the dock, which was all but cleared out, there was a smartly dressed couple waiting for us. Robert Benic and his girlfriend Tania had driven out from DC hoping to see some Melonseeds. Robert began building one back in Spring of 2012, and is now working on framing and interior, and doing a great job. It’s his first boat build, ever. We really enjoyed talking with them, and they got to see the boats in person they had come to know on the web.
On Saturday, we met a father and son who had been building a Melonseed together, and are on the downhill side of the project, and very excited to finish. They, too, had come out to see some in person. They had come to know all the other builder resources on the web, just as I did, and knew Aeon and Caesura now, too. It was fun for them to see the boats in real life. You could see that seeing the boats in the water, in use, was recharging their desire to finish, already imagining themselves in the boat sailing. It’s what keeps you going.
One of the really nice things about sharing is you get so much back. All the builders who helped me through my project are still well-known to me, and some are now good friends. It’s a very supportive group, and it’s nice to be able to pass that same spirit along to others, and share in their challenges and enthusiasm again. That sense of accomplishment when you finally work through a problem is really rewarding. No doubt they’ll do the same for others that come behind.
Great seeing everyone. Next year.