Hello again

Last day of this truncated (for me) school week. Editing my last project starts next weekend, and between now and then my brother and then my sister and their respective, awesome spousal units will be swinging through town for quick visits to meet Jack. Can't wait!

Had some awesome time with Jack this morning before breakfast.

Today, some very well-done films by my classmates at school, pictures I really enjoyed without having to cut them slack because they're "only cycle projects." Very strong work on both, not without their flaws, but if you factor in the "only cycle projects" idea they're friggin' masterpieces.

This weekend will be filled with work, work I am going to start in on right now, actually. Have to try some animated titles for my next project, work on my special effetcs project, write some letters and apply for jobs, and apply for fellowships and internships. All of which is very time-consuming,

Meet us at Jack-Jack's blog

For the next several days at least, all the action will be taking place at Jack-Jack Attack.

iTunes is done!

11,000 songs later, I'm finally done with my iTuens project! Now some tidying, a few small things to get ready for our hospital stay, and a film to take my mind off things. G is playing Toontown and soon will be asleep.... resting up for tomorrow's big, blessed event!

Last-minute details . . .

This morning began with a trip to the doggie hospital for Boris. He suddenly began acting strangely sluggish and lost his appetite late Saturday, and usually his appetite is voracious. We feared various things for the worst, and the timing naturally could not be worse -- we couldn't leave him at home alone with an unknown illness, but obviously we have to be at the hsopital. So a visit to our very nive vet sorted things out. She ran some blood tests, checked his heart etc. -- he is after all a very old dog -- and fortunately all those tests were passed with flying colors.

The vet believes he has some kind of intestinal virus, and the latest word from the doggie hospital is that after receiving some fluids, nutrients and medication via an IV this afternoon, Boris is chowing down on a variety of foodstuffs and perking up. We're going to board him at the hospital as a precaution while we are in the hospital, which will be from 10 am Tuesday morning until, probably, Thursday afternoon. Check Jack's blog for all the updates!

Meanwhile -- some laundering, some housecleaning, finishing the dreaded iTunes project and schlepping a last box or two over to the storage facility. Then, maybe, watching a movie tonight in the last moments of peace and quiet we'll likely see in many moons . . .

Oof.

It's 3 am on Monday. I am just getting to like, the last 20 discs that need to be entered into iTunes. We have something like 11,000 songs on the music server now. Still needs some organizing -- the Dead shows, a lot of them went in with only the date and the name of the band -- but the key thing is NO MORE CDs unless I need a pristine source for something or other. Eventually the full-on iPod will come, but until then I am going to set up a routine backup job for the music library.... I will not go through this hassle again!

Tonight was a great struggle to get dinner. Was making some simple pasta until I discovered I had grabbed the wrong sauce at the market and it was full of huge chunks of olives, anchovies, and other items G and I find repulsive. So we decided to order Chinese food from Kung Pao Kitty, yes that is their real name, our fave Chinese place. Well, after an hour and no food, I gave a call, and was assured they were merely busy and my order was en route. A full 45 minutes later there was still no food -- we live about a 2-minute drive away -- and I called to find out that the driver did not have the apartment or phone numbers, so he just left. This despite the fact that he DID have a name, and the directory on the front of the building quite clearly lists my name and buzzes my apartment.

So we just said to hell with it, and demanded a refund. I buzzed around the corner to Greco's to get some slices. No slices, some are cooking, says the pizza guy. Fuck it, I said, I'll just order a pizza: extra cheese and sausage. Right, says the man, extra cheese and mushrooms. (We ABHOR mushrooms.) No no, I corrected the fellow. Sausage. Oh, he says. I have to correct him one more time and then I walk over to one of the shitty Holywood Blvd. souvenir shops to kill a few minutes while my pizza cooks. (It's now like 10:10). I return 15 minutes later and halfway through the baking process, my pizza man is removing the pizza from the oven to apply the extra cheese. And he then proceeds to take massive handsful of mushrooms and spread them over the pizza pie. "That's not mine, is it?" I ask. Of course it is. Oops. He needs to make a whole new pizza now. So in short, roughly three hours wasted just trying to get meal.

So aside from that -- and a nice breakfast at EatWell in Silverlake, and a stop at Circuit City to pick up a couple of things, an uneventful Sunday filled with CD cataloging, personal planning, and some general Jack preparations.

Boris remains sluggish today. Hasn't touched his food. He seems alert, and totally responsive, just physically sluggish. We are going to try to get him in to the vet's tomorrow. We'll be away for a few days, for the most part, with the baby at the hospital, so it is important to check him out. He is an old, old dog and if he did catch something -- like maybe when he was at the groomer's the other day -- it will take him a little longer to bounce back. But he is not, right now, his usual peppy, happy self.

Played some Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, last round of that I will be likely to get in for a while. Tomorrow night we are off the the hospital. I MUST sleep now.

Lucky bastard

A fine example of how I am the luckiest man in the world, and should not forget it. I mean, look at this beautiful woman, and then look at me. Res ipsa loquitor.

Tired again

You're sick of reading that headline, I'll bet. Rose this am to the usual symphony of garbage trucks and horn-honking idiots.... HAVE to move somewhere quieter especially with Jack coming!

Ate breakfast and then beelined down south on the Santa Ana freeway to a friend's wedding, a quick stop at Disneyland along the way -- the intention was to stop by for a few minutes, pick up a few props and shoot a few moments of video for my special effects project; all I came away with was the props because the combination of crowds and an Annual Pass blackout day I had not known about kept me out of the parks.

G had wanted to go to the wedding but her near-birth state and incredible discomfort forbade it. It was a nice reception and it was good to see Isaac and Julie. The family and all their friends were having a good time when I left around 7:30 for the 45-minute drive home.

Back home, G really wanted to see the Bridget Jones sequel, so it was off to Blockbuster for me; I returned home and moved on to the last boxload of CDs to into iTunes -- all my old Dead shows, it will take a while to catalog all of them. While I was doing that, on the advice of my friend Joey O I visited www.archive.org and found literally thousands of Dead, Allmans, etc. concerts, soundboards, there for the taking and with the permission of the artists. Oh hallelujah! I instantly set about downloading a number of shows I had been looking for for years -- my first Dead show in 82 (!), a Hampton show, a Toronto show at which I nearly went crazy . . . I mean it is the greatest thing. Go there at once. I am now going to bed. The last frontier of CDs will have to wait for tomorrow.

Boris has been acting real slow, sluggish and off his feed this evening. He has done this before and snapped out of it, but as he is 15 years old, we tend to worry about him. My guess is he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Sleep.

Sleepy.

Tonight G and I had a cheap dinner out at Miceli's, and I went to see The Empire Strikes Back on the giant screen at the Egyptian Theatre down the street from our apartment. I am not real fond of the odd and uncomfortable seating at the Egyptian, but I like a lot of their programming and their presentation of the material is always absolutely top shelf, and tonight's screening, enthusiastically attended by colorful nerds of all varieties, was no exception. A real treat to see an old favorite, easily the finest of the Star Wars series, in such a setting.

Walked home, enjoying the crazy people/tourist mix that is Friday night on Hollywood Blvd. G was going to go to the movie but she was tired, so I came home and set her up with a foot bath and continued on with the near-complete CDs-to-iTunes project. One more box of CDs and one more 42-count sleeve and then it's all in there!

Phew. Done enough today. It seems like this morning's workshop at school took place 100 years ago. I cleared my baby-related absences with my teachers, or I think I have anyway -- I am sure they'll let me know if I haven't!

Jack-Jack Attack!

In advance of Jack's arrival I have started a new blog devoted exclusively to his adventures! You can access it by clicking the link at right or entering http://jackjackattack.blogspot.com in your browser.

Photos, audio updates, and probably video will be posted there -- a lot over the next week; some over the weekend of baby showers and what-have-you. Got to run for now. Stay in touch.

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 . . .