Yes another posting, at long last.

I can't believe it has been almost two months since my last post. But it is a fine indicator of my schedule and how crazy life has been. Soon, it will get even crazier: if all goes according to plan, by this time next week, little Jack Sheehan will have joined us.

I figured I should break all the goings-on down contextually, so here's the run-down.

Baby News
Well, needless to say Genevieve is pretty tired of carrying around an enormous infant in her tummy. It must be said that she has in almost no way fit the stereotype of the pregant woman. She has really been a trouper and an inspiration, getting up for work every day at 4 am despite all manner of back and leg pain, etc. etc., I mean, just unbelievable. The only classic "pregnant woman behavior" has been the food cravings, for things like donuts which she does not ordinarily care for, but which mysteriously are desired every Sunday morning just when I am at my least motivated to leave the house.

The other craving is for cake, which makes us think the genetics skew heavily toward the OTHER J. Robert Sheehan, my dad, whose taste for cake is legendary. An aside: I am fairly certain that Dad has cakes of various vintages stashed around the house as a precautionary measure against some kind of national cake crisis. I remember one time, after a party that featured as its centerpiece a massive sheet cake, Dad had kept it for weeks, nibbling away at it with his coffee long after any normal human would fancy a bite. The last chunks lingered in the fridge for some time until mom, when Dad's back was turned, thrust the stale confection into my hands. "Quick! Take it!" she exclaimed, her eyes darting around like a hunted animal's. "Maybe he'll never know it's gone." I smuggled it out of the house, disposing of it discreetly and Dad was noe the wiser (as far as we know). Anyway, it is odd that G craves cake so much and talks of it so often.

Anyway, she has been great, and she has been the lucky recipient of three baby showers, one featuring our friend Gabi who flew in from Chicago bearing presents from our friends there, who were very generous. It was a big surprise for Genevieve who is a real pain in the ass to try to surprise and usually doesn't take well to it. G's parents were in town for a visit as well, so we had a lovely time with a view of the sea at the beautiful Loews Santa Monica hotel's Ocean and Vine restaurant.

G's coworkers also arranged a little work-shower for her, which was nice. Then, to top it all off, we had a kind of long-distance shower with my Mom and her friends. They sent us all kinds of stuff all wrapped up, and I made a video of us opening the gifts and sent it back to Mom in time for the party. Everyone was SO GENEROUS. Expeically given our student/one-income status we are so immensely grateful and fortunate to have so many good and generous people as friends.

So you're probably wondering, what's the deal with the baby? Well, today we had an ultrasound session with the fabulous Beverly Hills baby doctor Dr. Katz. He and his partners are the baby doctors for Weird Al Yankovic and Shaquille O'Neal, if the baby photos and holiday greetings decorating the hallway's bulletin boards are any indication. He is a real cool cat. We are in good hands; I figure if we weren't, Shaq would have beat the shit out him, or Weird Al would have played the accordion at him until he shot himself. Anyhow, Dr. Katz wrote G her official "get out of work free" note so she doesn't have to hump into the office every day, hallelujah! A long time coming. Second, in his opinion the baby is ready to go early in a big way, so we will in all likelihood be heading to the hospital calmly and coolly Monday evening to induce labor and bring Jack into the world next Tuesday April 19.

We've been working hard making room for him, stashing away at a storage facility a lot of furniture, books and dvds we won't need for our last few months in this small 1-bedroom apartment. (Even as I type this I am dumping CDs into iTunes so the CDs can be stored away). We cleared out a closet that was home to all our Christmas stuff. It has now become the baby zone, full of Pampers, etc. We've moved some furniture around in the bedroom (with my classmate Chris' help) to make room for Jack's basinet, which is actually the same basinet ALL the Sheehan children and cousins have slept in including yours truly, 41 years ago.

The car seats are installed, the papasan chair assembled. So with the exception of a few boxes and a little housecleaning . . . all is in readiness. I cannot WAIT to see his little face!

Rest assured I will nauseate you all with many many pictures and audio updates on the night of the birth. If all goes as I plan, you SHOULD be able to check this page all night long for audio posts and pictures as well. And of course, that will only be the beginning of a virtual avalanche of Jack-related media for you to enjoy in the months and years to come.

School Update
More kudos to G are necessary because for the last few months I have hardly been home at all because of school. I mean, literally, since about mid-Feburary I have been at school almost every single day, seven days a week, from 8 am until 11 pm. Truly, I have never worked so hard in my life as I did the last couple of months. Basically, I have four 20-minute films to act as editor on this term (as the other 13 editors do), and my strategy was to clear the schedule as much as humanly possible before the baby's arrival.

This meant taking the unusual step of doing three projects back to back and just busting my balls beyond all measure for two months plus. Meanwhile my poor little pregnant wife is home alone most of the time, though I have done my best to administer foot rubs, back rubs etc when I have been able.

Now, finally, I am at a lull, with only one more 2-week editing project awaiting me at the end of May, and so I have had some time to do more foot and back-rubbing. I have an effects project due as well, which I need to do some shooting for (and a hell of a lot of work at home), but apart from those two major commitments, my major school work, save for class attendance, is largely complete. (Not to donwplay those projects -- they will be huge amounts of work).

I don't want to seem as if I am complaining even a tiny bit. Overall I have learned SO MUCH about filmmaking and cinema in general, it's unbelievable, such a giant learning experience, I can hardly even express it. Every day you learn how much more you have to learn -- it's very humbling. And so worth it -- so far -- now let's see if I can get some summer work.

Other stuff
Haven't been to the theatres much to see films -- been too busy, and there's not much to see, this being a fallow period for releases. Saw Sin City, and did not like it. Admired the technique of the flick, but like all Frank Miller's comic art, Sin City was perfectly fine, indeed, fantastic as a graphic novel, and what they did was basically transliterate the graphic novel frame by frame to the screen, admirably and eye-poppingly to be sure, but leaving me to say, what's the point? Hard-boiled dialogue which sings on the page sounds campy and corny on the screen; things which work so well in 2-D space -- little graphic conceits -- just call attention to themselves and their contrived nature on a 40-foot screen. Extreme violence, which works fine rendered in static 2-D drawings, nauseates when blasted into the senses in full (very literal) motion.

I was reminded -- after my interest in the visual trickery wore off about 15 minutes in -- of Hitchcock's response to Truffaut when Truffaut pressed him on the subject of adapting "Crime and Punishment," which Hitch had been approached to do many times. He had always refused; in his view, the story was was already in its perfect form; to tell the same story would require the use of every word and descriptive device employed by Dostoyevsky; so why bother? That's precisely what happens with Sin City: the literal transfer of every image and every word kills the emotion and interest in the characters, leaving us with much to admire in terms of technical execution, but little to be excited about. In fact, I was bored, just bored, waiting for it to finally end.

At school, got to meet Charlie Kaufman, who won the Oscar this year for his screenplay for Eternal Sunschine of the Spotless Mind. He kindly autographed my copy of the script. Geroge Lucas came to school too, and was surprisingly stinging on the subject of Hollywood in general, and gave the impression he was really pretty sick and tired of Star Wars.

Let's see. I'm sure there's other stuff but it is late and I can't remember it. I am going to stop iTunes-ing and blogging for now and hit the hay. Got some computer work to do for a friend's firm tomorrow -- need the cash -- and then class all day. Now that the school schedule is cooling off I will be posting more often... so enjoy. I'll have baby shower and related pics online tomorrow or Thursday for your enjoyment. Until then . . .