Classic Weirdo

My imagination functions much better
when I don't have to speak to people.
Patricia Highsmith

The great thing about getting older (and older and older - will I ever be old enough?) is that you can finally let your weird frizzy curly hair DOWN and be yourself, weird as you wanna be!

It is so liberating to do as one pleases and stop apologizing for it. OK, I am lying, I did spill someone's drink the other night and apologized profusely for it.

But in general, I can get up when I please, go to bed when I please, work when I please, look as I please, and do as I please. No excuses, no reprimands, no apologies. It feels good to be an old weirdo.

How weird are you? As suspected, I am the Classic Weirdo. No surprise there.

I'll bet author Patricia Highsmith is a classic weirdo as well, I dig her weirdo habits:

I have no television - I hate it.

I listen to the BBC World Service starting at 2 in the morning until 4.
I switch off the light and listen in bed.

I prefer to live in the country where it's quiet.
Woody Allen movies there are dubbed into Italian.

I don't set the alarm to get up. I get up when I feel like it.

- Patricia Highsmith

The Man That Got Away

Thanks to Junk Thief of the Immaculate Taste, I have a new obsession and her name is Mina Mazzini. This was already one of my favorite torch songs thanks to Miss Garland in A Star is Born but Mina knocks this ditty outta the park - CHILLS:



We must not forget Miss Judy:



Damn this song just gets better every time I hear it. I used to belt it while walking Sheila in Mountain View Cemetery. I am sure the dead people didn't mind much. They know the score. This shit is classic. SHIVERS.

Me Likey

Too much to blog about lately and no time to download pics and what not. In the meantime, here is some Crawford and Goma fun as documented by the Amazing Sachie (Part 1 and PArt 2) who taught me how to make spring rolls this weekend.

Here is some delicious POP from MGMT, MMMMM:



And here is my new favorite band playing on Letterman in capes!



Back to work!

New Stucks and DBC on VCAM

Ok, they are late. I guess it is almost mid-January but honestly, I do not even know if anyone watches these things so does it even matter?

New Stuck in VTs playing on VCAM (dig the pink lipstick and yellow scarf?):

Stuck in Vermont
VCAM, Channel 15
Mondays @ 8:30pm
Tuesdays @ 9:30am

Playing in January:
December Episodes 57-60

The Nutcracker, Molly in NYC, Eva blabs about 2007, Drums & Dragons, PLUS Wishes for 2008 and an excerpt from False 45th 2007 Year End Survey.

The Deadbeat Club
VCAM, Channel 15
Fridays @ 11:30pm
Sundays @ 9:00pm

DBC22, January 2006
I have no idea what this episode was about. Watch and see. I wish I had cable.

And you know something odd, the New York Times has a page for me? Apparently I have worked with Christopher Lloyd and Liam Neeson, ok. Weird.

VT Fancy Felines are Stuck in VT

VT Fancy Felines [61]

I love me some alien space kitties.
"We are not here to harm you."
"Bring us all your milk cartons, stat!"
"Then brush us till your hand go numb!"
"My nose iz a blak hole sukin my face in, HELPZ!"
Meet Champion Dreamz Raspberry Rose of Cozycreek (AKA DOLLY)
Iris the cutie pie who attends the cat show every year!!
Sachie and Molly - BLOGGIN CAT LADIES RULE!!!
Sachie and Dolly fall in LURVE!
You gotta read Sachie's blog cause she has the BEST cat show coverage in town!
Plus, she went two days in a row like a real die hard!

GO CATS GO!

Killer Kitty Montage

I am pretty behind these days. Got a long, always growing list of things to shoot and edit. Can't really keep on top of it all. I didn't need to make this montage but I HAD TO.

The Stucks have to be pretty short and I couldn't bear to waste this supreme cat show kitty footage or this delicious Smittens song.

Together, it makes me SMILE every time. Like a big gulp of Kitty Tonic!!! SWALLOW!




Or watch it on YouTube!

Drums, Dragons & AT-ATs are Stuck in VT

Drums & Dragons Parade [60]

As you can probably tell from these pictures, I was SO HAPPY to see the AT-AT walker (All Terrain Armored Transport from Star Wars) in the parade. I wish I could have interviewed its makers.

Watching that clunky AT-AT lumber down Church St, I was brought back to a Christmas many years ago when I was SO excited/nervous to find out what my sister got me. I was positive it was an AT-AT when I really wanted the Millennium Falcon. The anticipation was killing me (it is so hard to believe that Christmas ever meant so much).

Luckily, my sister did good and bought me the Falcon which I still have today but I do not know where. Still, I will always love the AT-ATs and their stop-mo movements (oddly, I used to work for Phil Tippett who was one of their animators!).

Watching one careen down Church St and cut a path through mobs of people made me imagine that at any moment those terrifying guns might start spraying laser bursts all over the place and the blood and gore would be spectacular.

Despite the cold and the crowds, I was genuinely happy to dance around with colorful, fantastical, drum beating Burlingtonians on First Night.

Also, this vlog was shot on the last day of 2007 which means that technically, I made 60 episodes of Stuck in Vermont in 2007. That is a nice number if you ask me.

Add it to the 40+ other Seven Days videos I made in 2007 and that brings my total to 100 videos in 2007 (roughly two/week). This is 1/10th of the videos The New York Times produced in 2007.

Oh yeah baby. Baby steps.

Happy New Year Vermont!

New Year's Resolutions

I made no resolutions for the New Year.
The habit of making plans, of criticizing,
sanctioning and molding my life,
is too much of a daily event for me.
Anaïs Nin

I agree with Anais, I spend all year making plans and To Do Lists so the New Year is really no different. But for kicks here are some things I would like to do in 2008:

Make more connections with other vloggers and video journalists
Improve my technical vlogging skills
Learn new software like Flash, Motion and Photoshop
Spend less time at the computer (directly contradicts all of the above)
Dance more and get in shape
Go to yoga more often
Bathe more frequently
Meditate
Sleep regularly
Cook more
Finish unpacking
Start fixing up the house: paint, replace front porch carpet, fix the chimney, mortar, etc
Spend more time with family and friends
Do nice things for nice people
Keep in better touch with far off pals and their kids

Most importantly, in 2008 I would like to NOT FORGET TO BREATHE

I just made this video of other people's wishes for 2008:

Are You LinkedIn?

I joined another social networking site but this one is for professionals! Urm, that's ME!? If you are also lurking there, be my friend/contact please and we can talk about, uhm, professional things like Britney's latest meltdown.

I am having fun tracking down old workmates and school chums and seeing what they are up to. The weirdest one so far is this guy I went to college with who works at Pixar and has recommendations from about 4 people I know from completely different places in California. Pixar seems to employ almost everyone I have ever known.

Is that just a little weird? Small, small, weirdly, small (VFX) world.

Return of The Deadbeat Club

The Deadbeat Club is back SUCKER! Lock up your children, shield your eyes, nail down your silver - this is not for the faint of heart!

No not a new episode of DBC (she says while laughing nervously like someone about to have an editing-induced nervous breakdown because her G5 has not gone to sleep for 2 days straight) BUT you can watch some DBC on blip.tv. That's right, getting kicked off YouTube did not kill us, deadbeats are resilient like that.

So far I am posting the DBC Vlogs that I made towards the end of 2006. Ironically, I was just fiddling around with vlogging after a stint with The Deadbeat Club on cable access and lo and behold, in 2007 I got a JOB vlogging!? Miracles DO happen.

I remember being very sad/lost at that time but depression must lead to productivity because I made SEVENTEEN DBC Vlogs before YouTube pulled the plug on my channel due to copyright infringement.

Some of my favorites are the vlogs about being an Office Monkey, the tasty music of Scott Walker and the wholeness of Regina Spektor. Other vague subjects covered are love, apples, a fireplace, fireworks, the holidays, snow, mix tapes, junk shops, Montreal and dating. I wish I had more time to do personal vlogs like this again but I am NOT complaining!

Over time I will start to upload the entire Deadbeat Club catalogue. I think Blip has no size constraints so perhaps I can post entire episodes? The vlogs look a little washed out but oh well, that is The Deadbeat Club for you.

And I promise to someday make a fresh DBC, but first, monkeys must fly out of my butt! No seriously, I will. It is on my list and that is only 3 pages long and I am crossing videos off it one by one...

Regis gets Deep

Thanks to VCAM's blog for pointing out this video gem. The sad thing is, I can almost relate to poor Regis. I feel like a vapid knucklehead most of the time too. And who doesn't feel like a bit of fluff next to Amy Goodman?

My favorite part of the clip is towards the end when they are asking, "Does PBS have a radio station?" Is it possible that they have NEVER heard NPR before?? Classic.

More Cats and Artists

Eva and Crawford Doodle Pip (above)

Back by popular demand! More cats and the artists
(or zombies as the case may be) who love them!

Even better, here are Cats in Art through the ages,
more kitties in art and famous people who love cats!

Sassy lil' devils!

Picasso (upper right) loved his cats,
he even painted some cracked-out felines (below).

Pierre Bonnard loved to paint cats (above)
as well as art dealers like Ambroise Vollard who also liked cats (below).
Hemingway's (below) cats are polydactyl
which means they have extra toes.
People continue to breed them and they live in a home/museum!
Renoir loved to paint cats (below) and little girls.
Raymond Chandler (below) loved mysteries and kitties.
Sachie Tani and Goma (below) are FAMOUS!!

Super HOT Undead Molly (below) lives
with two furry fancy vocal felines (above).
Colette always had cats and dogs and male and female lovers and husbands and wives.
She lived life to the very fullest.

Happy New Year Chump

As much as I hate shoveling my driveway over and over again, I am loving all this beautiful white fresh snow. Our daily walk in Centennial Woods is that much prettier with every snowfall.

New Year's Eve was spent tromping through a winter wonderland and being thankful for all 2007 brought and the simple fact that WE LIVE IN VERMONT! There are more winter wood pics on Facebook.

Smittens and Goma

Saturday all the cool kids (and cats) in town headed to the Barnes Elementary School library for the Smittens music video shoot!

Goma brought his massive posse, his agent, hairdresser, make up artist, bodyguard, press agent and handler. Sachie, the amazing comic artist and Goma Mama, details the day in her AWESOME blog, My Cat Goma.

The Smittens brought many costume changes and lots of pep considering they played The Monkey the night before and had to head to Montpelier to play the Langdon right after the shoot wrapped! What professionals!

Colin had a fresh haircut and spawned a tiny, striped sweater-wearing clone. Max took off his shoes and shared hard boiled eggs. Dana wore lipstick and gave Colin a good smack. David brought nifty noir clothes and made the magic happen. Holly let a gang of hoodlums bang on her drums.
Esse, also known as, "Watch Your Back Dakota Fanning" arrived clad in her librarian attire which is fitting because her mom Emer is studying to become a librarian in real life!
Esse is one of those can-do kind of kids, she does her own make-up, cuts her own bangs, co-directed the video with me and took charge of the set design.

After shooting various set ups and trashing the library, the kids started showing up. I expected about 10 kids but NO, we had over 30 children!! At first nobody was interested in dancing so I had to jump around like a jelly bean to get them in the mood.

After 3 takes of bouncing children, we were pretty much SPENT! The Smittens handed out pins to the masses.

Thanks to everyone who showed up to our Smittens Dance Party: Lawrence Barnes Elementary School and their Principal Paula Bowen and her family who let us in the building and helped us clean up! And thanks especially to the Barnes librarian who will have to put all our books away!

Look out for the video coming to the internets real soon!