It has begun

Off to school to start editing my cycle 2 project. Lovely dinner last night with G at a french steakhouse at the Grove to say "au revoir" to seeing each other for the next few weeks. Watched some more Tinker, Tailor. Alarms this morning were rude.

Backtracking . . .

Wednesday was a fairly good day. Got a little irritated with myself for sleeping late, but my film cutting starts today and that is the last day I will have to sleep in for a while. Christpher Guest was our seminar participant Wednesday afternoon and was savagely, drily funny, especially acerbic on the attitude of some films students who have "no sense of humor about what they're doing." About a quarter of the audience laughed and the rest kind of looked at each other as if to say, does he mean us?

Thursday, let's see . . . well, Thursday was the kind of day that is payback for Tuesday, which was a nearly perfect day. On Tuesday, the weather was pleasant, I woke early and felt fine, exercised, worked at my own pace to catch up on things and do some work, gently, got many things done and felt very good about my day. Thursday, slept too late, it was gloomy and rainy, and it was one of those days when every little thing poses difficulties. The days where there are big crises are somehow easier to manage -- because your system, swing into overdrive/survival mode and you get through it somehow, relaxing with a feeling of real accomlishment later on. The days when the little things, one after another, don't work -- either through random chance or because you're just not all there and screw things up bit by bit -- where one aggravation stacks atop another -- well those days are far worse. Stymied, pissed off and exhausted, you feel like you have accomplished nothing! Well, Thursday was one of those days. Went to my new doctor who instantly became my ex-doctor. I felt like I was in 1960's Poland in this guy's office. Got a needed prescription, mumbled some agreements to show up later for a blood test, and fled. I instantly swore to get a new doctor. Then I was going to drive to Burbanl to return a computer part, but the traffic was abominable, so I settled for getting a much-needed haircut in Larchmont, a lovely area where we hope to find a place to live (among others) this summer after Jack arrives.

Friday on the other hand was a rather good day. Kind of wasted my morning but managed to turn the day around in a big way at school. Had a fruitful meeting with the Dean and all the editors, and then a one-on-one with my area's dean where we discussed many issues from the personal (what happens if a baby crisis emerges?) to the academic (the recent tuition increase at school). Felt very positive about things. Went out for a nice tapas/paella dinner with the lovely wife, returned home and watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, newly arrived from Netflix and much aniticpated, which is just a great piece of filmmaking, an incredible job of transitioning a great and complex novel faithfully to the screen, and possibly the best TV miniseries ever. Stayed up way too late watching three episodes, then to bed. Had the good news via email before going to sleep at like 3:30 in the morning that I am more or less definitely teamed with one of the two groups I need to work with in our third production cycle (to allow me to work and be around for the baby), this after a grousing rant about the teaming process to a pal from school earlier.

Exercised 4 times this week for half an hour -- 3 walks in the canyon, a grueling uphill trek, each one a little further than the last, and one stationary bike ride on the day it rained. Short of my target of five but rather good.

Overall, the reminder this week was: things run in cycles, up and down, up and down. Best just to feel where one' s place is in the cycle and just let it be rather than struggling against it.

Slept very late this morning, and was eventually needled into rising by my oh so dear little wife. We went for a walk in the canyon where the grim realities of uphill treks while pregnant were made known to her. Came home, and now I am going to shower and depart for Burbank and my computer part return, stopping for brunch along the way. Later it's off to school to begin setting up my project, which I begin actually editing tomorrow.

Back to the Blog

Can't believe how longit has been since I updated this. The usual excuses -- back to school and all. A needed computer upgrade/replacement sidelined all things online for a while, too.

As I type this it is 7:30 am and there is a fire alarm shrieking in the hallway. Not to worry -- there isn't a fire. The thing has been on the fritz for a while, and out cheesy landlord hasn't fixed it. So now it has finally given up the ghost and is chirping like an enormous, very cross cricket.

I haven't had a whole hell of a lot to report, but here's a rundown of the most interesting things:

Baby: G quite suddenly "popped" out and actually looked, well, classically pregnant. It's quite something -- generally you don't realize steady, incremental changes in the appearance of someone you see all the time, but in this case, it definitely felt like it was almost overnight -- voila! there is obviously a baby there. The doctor reports all is proceeding exactly as it should wihout cause for even the mildest concern. Little Jack is constantly moving about. He seems to respond most to bass vibrations -- for example, music or a movie with a heavy low end gets him wiggling around. The other night G and I decided to try something. She laid on the bed and I pressed my ear against the lower part of her tummy. I started humming at the deepest tone I could. Well, Jack immediately responded! I could feel a little amr or foot kicking at me from in there! I sprang back delighted. We tried it again and again and every time, as soon as I hummed for a second, there was a little kick or push. It was very fun and exciting. We tried this again last night withsimilar, but less spectacular results -- he ahd been kicking away already for quite a while, G said. Perhaps he was just tuckered out.

Apartment: we were debating moving from this apartment to a larger one before Jack's arrival -- I felt we should stay put, G felt otherwise -- but the debate was rendered moot by the usurious fees our building would charge us to break our lease. So we are staying put in West Hollywood for now.

School: will be a challenge. I will be cutting four films this term as well as writing, directing, producing, and editing a fourth 3-minute special effects piece. There are classes on top of the production/editing schedule but fortunately not a lot of them, so I'll be able to help out at home when I'm not in school. Decided to try a lot harder to stay on a healthy diet while editing. Last cycle I fell too easily into a habit of fast food breakfasts and such -- the schedule is quite brutal and demanding and yu tend to grab what you can, when you can. So I am trying to do some better planning to make sure diet and exercise don't get short shrift.

Speaking of which -- have got back on a few bandwagons -- the daily exercise, low fat/portion control, and no smoking ones, to be precise. Never perfect, but giving it an honest shot.

Odds & ends: one of the more exciting thing I got to do over the last month was visit the Walt Disney Studios. Longtime readers will know what an admirer I am of Walt and his many works. This month there was a screening section for members of ASIFA, the international animated film association so its members (like me) can view clips from all the films nominated for the Annie Awards, the animation equivalent of the Oscars. I joined ASIFA when we moved out here, so I got to go. It was a 7:00 screening. I parked the car and walked onto the lot, and I couldn't really believe it. Here were the ink & paint and special effects buildings, the bungalow moved from the studio's old Hyperion Drive location, the street sign with Mickey Mouse pointing your way down Dopey Drive at the main intersection on the campus -- all these things I had only seen in books or sneaked a glance at through the studio gates, I was just strolling along, taking in with a great sense of delight. The screening was in the Frank Wells building, where the Disney Archives are, which is across from the Team Disney buisling which integrates the Seven Dwarfs, on whose backs the studio as it is know today was founded, into the arhcitecture in an amusing fashion.


The Team Disney building.



The Hyperion Bungalow

I left the screening a little early and got "lost" on the back lot, where sets and soundstages for Disney and ABC movies and shows were in various states of use, marvelling that I was walking around 100% alone, at night, down the "streets" of this studio lot, this incredibly progressive (for its time) production environment where Walt spent so much of his time. It was quite a treat. Those interested can find out all about the studios and see more cool pictures by visiting this link.

Other news: built a new computer to save money. My old machine was 5 years old this year, and due to fail in addition to not being able to adequately run programs I need to use for my line of work. I also needed a laptop for school, and needed to get a Mac so i could teach myself Final Cut Pro, so I built my own P4 3Ghz with a gig of RAM and 200 gig of SATA storage and purchased a medium-level iBook G4 at an educational discount. Rather pleased, we struck a good balance between savings and effciency. I tend to be very parsimonious woth such things -- I really don't like spending top dollar for new and unproven technology, so I usually save money and get something just behind the te curve a tiny bit. I have an advantage in having the technical know-how to push something aslong for more years than one would expect.

Both are great machines. I have never been one of these Mac vs. PC zealots. They each have their strengths. However, for elegance of design, both hardware and software, you really have to hand it to Apple. The only problem is, people often end up spending thousands more than they need to buying something just because it looks cool. That said, the new sub-$500 MacMinis are a good idea for the entry-level user.

Whew. Well that's all for now. Will try to be better about this next month. Hvae to go for my morning walk now . . .

A pleasant day yesterday. It started out very rainy -- LA has been receiving a record number of rainy days this year, quite to our chagrin -- but then cleared for a while, just in time for me to do some post-lunch shopping. I was looking for a particular Timbuk2 bag, and so I spent the afternoon walking around in Westwood (without success), which was quite enjoyable given the sunny conditions, and then driving to Santa Monica and finally locating my bag at the Apple Store, of all places, on the Third Street Promenade.

Today, it's gloomy again. Some work for school: going to campus to work on a special effects assignment, then reviewing scripts and making notes for the two productions I will be working on beginning end of January. But first, some exercsie: a big goal is to lose some serious weight before the baby comes.

Mouse, meet Mouse.

Genevieve's sisters Megan (aka "Mouse," above) and Elizabeth are in town. They flew in Tuesday night; we took them to the Chinese Theatre, where we saw the modestly entertaining Lemony Snicket flick, which alas is burdened by Jim Carrey's non-stop ad-libbing which tends to be tiresome after a while. But at least the Chinese is always worth a visit even if the film is naff. Wednesday we went to, you guessed it, Disneyland!

The girls had never been to a Disney facility before so it was all new to them. We had planned on spending New Year's Eve there but the crowds and threats of rain from the weatherman, combined with beautiful sunny weather on Wednesday, forced us to change our plans.Despite the massive holiday crowds we managed to go on almost all of the "E-ticket" rides like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and California Screamin'. Megan told Minnie Mouse that she "loves her work."
G and the girls slept in the car as I drove home. Just as I arrived home it started raining and it poured rain all New Year's Eve morning -- so we were wise to change our plans.

New Year's Eve was a mellow affair. We were all tired from our Disney trip so we mostly watched movies, ate snacks and Chinese food, and stayed up late playing Trivial Pursuit. Today we rose late and went over to Santa Monica for brunch and to show the girls the sights, taking a scenic trip through Rodeo Drive and some truly ostentatious Beverly Hills mansions on our way home. Home for the evening, and G is baking cookies while the girls play Xbox.