Friends with Fellini

Okay, so, I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’m pretty sure I have my film collaborators in place. I am SO excited!

How about I just do not reveal exactly who they are at this time? I won’t name names (last names), but they come as a team, and they are probably the most creative people I could ever ask for! I can NOT believe they are going to help ME! 

To what extent, I do not know yet, but we certainly have plenty of time to figure that out.

But I just have to say, I don’t know if my favorite part about this is the fact that these guys (I say guys, but one is male, Jonathan, and the other is a very lovely female, Susan, – both of whom I absolutely LOVE), are a couple of the most creative artists I have ever known, or if it’s the fact that I am also getting to do the musical score on this, or if it’s the fact that I have known Jonathan since I was 15 years old!

Yup! 15!

And he’s probably THE most talented musician I have ever known.

Okay, I swear, I am not just saying that in passing, or to blow smoke up anyone’s ass, or anything of the sort. He doesn’t even read this thing by the way (he’s too damn busy, nor do I think he even knows I have a blog for this project), I have just been thinking about this long and hard.

From the time I met this guy – I mean, I was just a kid at the time, and none of us knew back then who we’d become, or how good we were, how under wraps our ambitions truly were, but all of us; all the little musicians in our network, we were all very focused. Quietly competitive. It’s so interesting to me now. Man, this blog post is about to get long.

A few of us, I say “us,” but I was not at all in the class where Jonathan was in. I was only trying to master my main instrument for the most part (drums). I was also trying to write music, however, only by ear. I knew some guitar. I knew some basics. I wrote a few “tunes.” I was very insecure about them though. Terribly insecure as a matter of fact, as my brother was basically a musical prodigy on the guitar, and it was difficult to tune, or even strum my little flamenco guitar within 10 feet of him without feeling like an idiot flounder. Not fun to grow up around that.

But then I met a boy who would become my very first boyfriend, and he was a musical genius. A dark, tormented and tortured genius. We had a really intense relationship. I mean, we were 15 or 16 and it lasted a couple of years. Sometimes we were like Siamese twins, and other times we (I) needed to get far away from each other because of all the dark intensity.

But anyway — what the hell are the odds of another 15/16 year-old phenomenon living four doors down the street from him? 

 

Now you’re going to think that I just call anyone a genius, right? Like I’m totally easily impressed? Well, you are very wrong. It takes a LOT to impress me in both music and film (and comedy too, for that matter!). No, this was a FREAK coincidence! That’s why this is a story. Two 16 year-old musical wonders living on the same flippin block!

When my boyfriend introduced me to Jonathan, I was like, what the hell? Is everyone more talented than me? At that time, I just thought I was a total nincompoop musician. I mean, look who I had around me. If you only knew. You’ll have to read my book eventually, but I grew up with some of the greatest musicians around. And that’s what made me a great drummer. I just had no idea I was any good!

Growing up in a sea of masterminds gives you a pretty skewed barometer to gauge your own abilities as a player. I am pretty sure that’s what happened to me, and so, I practiced my ass off and I got to be a pretty good drummer. But that’s not exactly what I was meaning to talk about. Although – I like to talk about ME at any chance I get as you all must know by now…

My point was that Jonathan was a genius when I met him at 15, and he only got better all these years. We are no longer kids. Ha!

Well, Jonathan. he also had one of the first Apple computers known to man. This was way back when my brother had a Tandy from Radio Shack, and as geeky as it seemed to be, both (more so Jonathan) were already creating animations. I was a computer geek too, but I really didn’t come on the scene until Windows 3.1 – just being honest. I didn’t get onto the internet until 1994. Still, that was before you.

He was also playing with film as well as music. I just can’t tell you what an all around talented guy he is. But his music… Jesus Christ! He’s a brilliant composer. And it’s not that he can’t write classical – he can (he went to Berkeley and all that crap), but I mean he is a brilliant composer of contemporary songs that will blow your underwear off! He’s magical. That’s the only way I can describe his music. Magical.

So now, he, and his just-as-talented partner Susan are going to be working with me, and assisting me on my little film? Crazy!

I just can’t believe it!

Now, I started writing this blog post with the intention of telling all about my “issues” about my Sony handicam (because there’s a very, VERY hardcore story that goes along with why I have had this camera for so long and have not used it. I have had it since 2007 and it’s been sitting in my camera bag because I have emotional issues around it – and so I haven’t been exploring film/video as I had planned to in 2007  — the way I wanted to… but that is another story for another time IF I even want to or if it is even appropriate to get into. It’s pretty heavy.

Anyhow, thanks for reading! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

I’ll add pics in a few.

Where it’s At

Hello loyal believers in me!

How is everyone? I have had a death in the family, and so I have had a small blip in keeping you updated, but I’m sure you understand. For me, working through it is the best way for me to cope. Everyone is different when it comes this stuff. How do you deal with such things? 

I just thought I’d put out an update on where everything is at so far, but remember, or, please be advised, keep in mind, etc., etc, that we are (I am) still at the starting gate. That doesn’t mean, however, that inquiring minds don’t wish to know, right?

My Joshua Tree trip is just around the corner! I am leaving on April 25th. As a matter of fact, I just picked up my Sony TRV 900 Handicam from Harry’s Camera today. Actually, that’s not true. I picked up a loaner. Mine is still being worked on! Apparently the parts that were ordered were faulty and now they are waiting for new, non-faulty ones to come in. They just won’t be here in time. In the meantime they gave me the exact same model on loan. What can’t cha do?

Other hurdles: the Dan stickers! I was so very excited yesterday when I found out they arrived at Sticky Ricks. If the traffic wasn’t  poopy, I would’ve driven 100 MPH to get there. However, when I showed up and we unpacked the stickers from the box, we noticed that Dan was not the color he was supposed to be. Something terribly wrong happened to his ink and he was too green! Poor Dan looked like he had nausea! Now he has to be reprinted. Other than that, I have to say, these stickers KICK ASS!

Talk about things that are supposed to be green — the bracelets! Those are in production and I got to see a “proof” picture. They look super cool. They say “Exodus” on one part of the band, yet turn them just a little bit, and they say Exodus again – in HEBREW! How cool is that! If you want to know what that will look like, just check out the top left edge of  the website.

I’d like to publicly thank Mark Strunin, the President of Temple Beth Israel, for helping me translate Exodus into Hebrew properly – and for the free mini Hebrew lesson in general. I never knew that the “Exodus” in the Torah’s literal translation was “Names.” Did you? Well, you probably did. If you’re Jewish, you probably went to Hebrew school as a kid. Unfortunately, I missed out on that, but I’ve heard that learning languages are much easier to learn when you’re a kid. At least I like to tell myself that while I am learning Hebrew and Spanish because both have a way of not sinking into my mushy skull.

Anyway, the Exodus that is written in Hebrew in the Torah (Names) did not communicate what I wanted it to for the purpose of this project, so now it does say “Exodus,” meaning: The Leaving. I hope that makes sense. Does it? Good.

I’ve also been working on the layout for the Dan’s 10 Commandments (for a Better Life and Hygiene) book. It’s still in its baby stages though, but it’s getting there. It’s written! That’s something. And I am always working on this website. This one you’re on right now. It will always be expanding. I will always be rewriting it as well.

Other things are rolling, of course. Like I have said before, I don’t like wasting time, and I don’t. I work on stuff every day. I’ve finally come to grips to admitting that I’m a workaholic. Admitting to it is a step in the right direction, I suppose, but beyond that seems hopeless. I really can’t imagine going a day without working. Maybe that is why this trip will be so very healing for me. It will force me to slow down, meditate, and do some self-reflection, but since it is for work, I am willing to do it. In a sense, I am tricking myself into relaxing! That probably sounds like the schemes of a lazy person, but if you only knew how badly I work myself into the ground, you’d understand.

You know, now that I’m typing this, I can see clearer what this is. Ha! Maybe I have been plotting this project for a long time in order to change my entire working process because I physically can’t carry on the way I used to, and I’m doing it all this way because I can’t admit it to myself any other way. I’m thinking this because I did something pretty similar almost 20 years ago when I could not play music professionally anymore.

Ooookay. That’s going to be a whole ‘nother blog post!

Back to the subject at hand.

My Carol Es un Monographie de Lignes books are almost finished! They are being bound right now, and then, we are talking maybe a week or so. I mean, not long. I’m so close! Can you believe it? I can’t! All that, thanks to Bill Roberts of Bottle of Smoke Press! Once that is done, I will be starting on the colored pencil drawings for the ones that are being rewarded to my magnificent Exodus donors!

monographie

Speaking of which, please – everyone – send in your mailing addresses! Especially yous that are getting a postcard from Joshua Tree because I will be mailing those from the desert!

I just scored some classic JTree postcards from the 1930s through the 1960s on eBay! Sometimes, I love eBay.

vintagepcw

Lastly, I know how premature this is, but I actually made my first quick sketch for the project. I know I’m not even out there (in the desert) yet, but I couldn’t get this image out of my mind. Not only that, but I know more are coming because once I did it, it wasn’t quite right and I know that feeling I get when I try to match the imagery in my brain – as foggy as it is – a kind of obsession begins to percolate. I want to draw it over and over, maybe paint it, maybe paint it a lot… I’m not saying this is going to get to that point. I have absolutely no idea! It’s just a little sketch right now. A sketch with the feeling of making at least another, at least until I capture what I want.

firstsketchw

What do I want? To isolate a rock with different shadows from other rocks hitting it near the top. I want those shadows to look like curving shards, and if I can’t find a rock like that, I will find one that almost looks like it, and invent the rest. I want those shard-shaped shadows to get colored in, in red, oranges and yellows, and dammit, it just has to be right, and it has to be over a “yud” in the upper right hand corner of the canvas with a fragile, scaffolding holding the yud up in place, done crudely in light pencil.

I think I should go now and give you all a new update as I move further along. I’ll try not to wait so long and leave things pile up, that way I’ll make shorter blog posts. Wait…me, make a short blog post? You’ve gotta be kidding, right?