Well, here we are the night before my wife and I become parents. One of my friends named it “Bodie-eve”. Very appropriate. And as I’ve talked to friends and relatives today the same question has been asked by everyone.
Are You Ready?
And there’s really only one answer.
Los Angeles doesn’t just have an obsession with youth, it actually pro-longs youth. I see pictures of people in their early thirties from somewhere in the Midwest and always marvel that they look older than people around me in their early forties.
Elsewhere is seems that couples in their twenties are dealing with their second house and second child, and out here men in their forties rent apartments on Sunset and date mid-twenties models.
I find myself influenced by both. I’ve never been the nightlife kind of guy, and I’ve been happily married for more than a decade. But we still rent our home (not for lack of home ownership interest, but for lack of affordable options) and the majority of our friends are childless dream-chasers like ourselves.
Yet in the last year… things have changed.
I got inspired this week with a tiny little story idea. Too small to go anywhere else, but bigger than my average post here. Yet since it blends with the tone of my other musings, here you go… It’s a bit of slow burn, but if you get half way I suspect you’ll want to finish… Click to continue »
I’m a child of 80s pop culture. Those were my defining years. And I’m a story teller and filmmaker, so the films from that era shaped me.
And the iconic films of the 80s were mostly made by one man, John Hughes. He died suddenly today, and in the outpouring of news articles and facebook updates I find myself once again reflecting on how much I hate our response to those who have died.
Here’s a man who shaped a decade of comedy filmmaking. And he shaped a generation of filmgoers. Yet in recent years his work has been discounted as out of date, while gross-out work like Judd Apatow and Will Ferrell has been heralded as the way comedy should be done. Click to continue »
Forty years ago today a man first set foot on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong left a boot print and uttered his immortal “One small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind.” And here I am, suddenly struck by how much this anniversary celebration spotlights where America is and isn’t in 2009. Click to continue »
I’m suddenly awash in blog topics, but this felt like something I should write the minute I felt inspired. No, inspired is wrong. Challenged is a better word.
I attend a gathering of Christians in the entertainment industry – an odd group who are way too liberal for “Christians” as most people think of them, and way too grounded / conservative / stupid (depending upon the person judging) for the rest of Hollywood.
I generally get something out of it, but tonight the speaker touched on something profound. Or, more specifically, profoundly sad: Click to continue »
GM used to be the biggest company in the US, and one of the most successful in the world. Now they’ve filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming “Government Motors” with 60% owned by Uncle Sam. Hopefully they will emerge soon and stronger. And since much has already been written about this fall, both supportive and damning, I find myself a bit nostalgic about my first love affair with the American car. Click to continue »
My wife and I went and saw “UP” on opening day. In 3-D no less. And I won’t fill this entry with all the reasons why Pixar is in a class by themselves, or why they are able to avoid the story stupidity and low-brow mimicry of typical studios. Suffice to say… they know how to tell a good story.
When it was over I found myself not just thinking about “Up” or Pixar, but my personal connection to movies. More specifically… why films can make me cry. Click to continue »
When I moved to Los Angeles I had my share of nay-sayers. Some folks in influential or mentor-type roles really questioned my thinking. I was 23 years old and “following a dream”. One in particular asked me “How long do you intend to do this?”
Wanting terms and conditions. A quantifiable plan. Milestones.
I responded “How long is a dream worth chasing?” That shut them up. They had no answer for that, and I don’t think they’d ever even thought of the question.
Now, thirteen years later I don’t have an answer for it either. How long is a dream worth chasing? I find that to be the lingering query of my existence. If forced to answer I would quickly say “as long as I have breath…”
But reality does dawn… even on us dreamers. Click to continue »
If you ever liked photography. Get a Digital SLR. The ability to take a picture, see if it worked, and fire again is invaluable.
I’ve decided to embrace the enormous world of FLICKR. And now I’m finding myself even more schooled.
More pictures are loaded than before, and comments are easy. Thanks for looking.
