Working on my own films has fallen by the wayside of late (though I am trying to expand my pulp serial into a feature length script). However, I recently did some work-for-hire taping for Decatur eLife Magazine, an online video, uh, magazine. I shot an hour of footage at the Decatur Cultural Arts Master Plan Public Input Session (quite a mouthful) which was then wonderfully edited (along with stuff I didn’t shoot) into a segment about the city’s process of getting a handle on the arts scene here. I’ve shot for them before, but this is the first time I’ve seen what I shot actually turn up in a published piece and you can watch it online right here.
They also have a great piece up (that I didn’t work on) about homelessness in Decatur. You should go watch that too.
Nothing new on the making side. On the watching side though I finally saw Inglorious Basterds last weekend. I quite enjoyed it, particularly that, given the setting, the usual pop culture chatter was restricted to early German cinema. And thankfully, Mike Meyers managed to restrain himself from hamming it up.
magic (and now magick too)
I’m still exploring my renewed interest in magic and determining if I’m more interesting in actually performing tricks or just academic study. Whichever direction, I’m still trying to pick up little tricks. On that front my interest is still more in looking for tricks I can perform with little to no prep and as few props as possible.
The latest issue of Genii appeared in my mailbox a few days back and I’ve been really digging it. The majority is devoted to a tribute to an old magic ‘zine called The Jinx that ran from the 20s through the 30s. Hadn’t ever heard of it before, but judging from the content put together for this new “issue”, it’s now high on my list of items to track down.
As for the other field of magic (the supernatural kind, which I’ll go ahead and refer to as magick to keep them straight), I’ve started looking back into that again recently. What started as a bit of research for a story I’m working on is slowly becoming a full fledged pursuit. I’ve just recently worked my way through Promethea as a way to get a bit of an overview of the topic (an idea spawned from attending Damien Williams’ DragonCon presentation [video may be online by now, but I don't have the link]). I would appreciate any recommendations on another good primer/magick 101 tome. From some seeking I’ve done, I’m considering Crowley’s Magick Without Tears as a possible next step, but know that some of you probably have a ready answer.
technology
The Monday after MMS went live on the iPhone, I contacted AT&T tech support (via online chat) to see why I still couldn’t send messages. After having me reset my phone and various other pointless time wasters (if I have to turn off WiFi to send a message, your system is broken), I was told their system is still overloaded and I should try again the next day. Now, it’s a week later and I still can’t send.
I’ve seen numerous reports online from people like me who once had an original iPhone and still had a block somewhere on their account. I mentioned that to the unhelpful tech support person, but he said my account looked fine which is clearly not the case. Despite having been with AT&T Wireless since it was originally AT&T Wireless (pre-sale to Cingular and back when getting a pre-paid phone got you an 800 number instead of a local one), given the questionable network and service, if Apple ditches them next year, I’m going to leave too.
life
is life. Which is to say a mix of work and not-work.
writing
I’ve been working recently with my beloved fianceé Rosie on a story she came up with via a dream and the mood of a Bruce Springsteen song. She plotted it out and now I’m in the process of constructing it. Out of all the stories I’ve been working on (read: researching *cough*dicking around*cough*) lately, this is the first one that’s gotten me excited enough to actually start spilling ink. Indeed, it’s flowing like it used to back when I considered myself more a writer than a filmmaker. It certainly helps too that I’ve just finished off Promethea. Alan Moore’s reverence for language really helped me rediscover my own love of words and my trust in them.
Also, given that my current creative focus is more on writing than making movies, I’m switching out “movies” for “writing” in the sub-head/focus of this site. No that doesn’t mean much of anything to anyone, but just a bit of notation for myself. Any future blogging about movies will be done via the Wacko Productions site (and then reposted here, either in full or in the daily digest).