Where the hell have I been?

Wow, well, finally came out of the editing room last Tuesday. Nearly completed work on Long Time Gone, the second of my two first cycle projects. Throughout the grueling postproduction schedule I was sick as a dog with some kind of hideous flu/bronchitis thing. Adding to this was the horrible lack of ventilation in the hot editing rooms so I was not going to get any better, especially with the 15-hour days involved. (I'm feeling much better now. Felt almost 100% before spending Saturday in the rain -- see below -- and would say I'm about 90-95% now.)

So it wasn't as much fun as it usually is, and the project presented several challenges, which we addressed as well as we possibly could. I need to make some minor adjustments tomorrow before screening the show in front of the whole class on Thursday. But the production cycle is done until right after Christmas break, so my schedule is very open until the week before Christmas when we have a flurry of classes in After Effects and other postproduction tools. I am going to do some work training myself in advance to be well up to speed before we dive in in class.

Not much happened outside of editing since my last post until Thanksgiving. Wednedsday was spent shopping, and for the big day I made a nice, herb-roasted turkey, some cheddar mashed potatoes, andouille-cornbread stuffing, broccoli casserole, butternut squash soup with sage, and a small salad of arugula with cranberry vinaigrette. Quite lovely and relaxing although I was still horribly hacking and coughing.

Friday was all about staying home and chilling. We rented Spielberg's The Terminal, which was OK. Some kind of surprising gaps in the story, for me. A pleasant enough picture, but nothing too special, and sadly seasoned with trademark Spielberg schmaltz from time to time.

Saturday was a gigantic parking lot tailgate show courtesy of Joey O'Brien, so stupendous it gets its own section (see below). Sunday, G caught up on home stuff and I went to see the magnificent Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm at the Egyptian Theatre. I had only seen Lawrence on DVD and in a frankly shitty 70mm presentation back in Chicago, with a dodgy projector and bad sound. The full glory of this film can only be enjoyed seeing it as I did yesterday, in crystal-clear, gigantic 70mm with a pristine sound system. I noticed many things I hadn't before. Really a delight from start to finish. As I left the Hollywood Christmas Parade was winding its way down Hollywood Boulevard. I marveled for a few moments at the passing B-list celebrities and, of course, Mr. Claus himself (the Godzilla float, complete with roars and smoke gushing from his maw, was a gas), but even more so at the people huddling in their scarves, hats and mittens over hot chocolate in the positively balmy mid-50's temperatures.