At Last as sung by Etta James

Print by Hannah Whitaker via Amy Stein's Blog

Well, there is good news...but I already got in trouble for announcing it on my film's website, so I can't really say here. Suffice it to say, the film will be playing at a domestic festival and not the Bakersfield Women's Festival of 90 Minute Docs That Took 7 Years to Make. A real festival.

And now the freak out begins. It's little more than a month away and I haven't had my hair cut in over a year nor a decent eyebrow waxing in weeks. And oh, not to mention how green I feel. Press already contacted us about screeners and stills and our director's statement and we are just feeling a little unprepared and a lot overwhelmed.

But the absolute most anxiety-provoking thought–the one which keeps we awake at night–is which version of the film to show. We finished cutting our 86 min version back in November but recently started cutting our hour-length version for broadcast. And well, now that some time has passed and I've seen it with audiences, I can certainly see a few places to cut. But it doesn't give me much time to sit with it. The festival wants to know, pretty much yesterday, how long the film is. And then we have to send them about 50 copies of it. And then-

Sigh. Yawn. Freak out.

And repeat.

What's in a name?

The above title will most likely have little to do with this post, but as you may or may not know, once some tidy phrase or keen groupings of words comes into my brain, it becomes quite hard for me to let go of them. So there is lays. A question that rolls off the tongue quite nicely and begs an answer for which we will nonetheless be unrequited during the remainder of this post.

Onward!

A night of drinking, movie watching, and sentence boggle. A night of politics, film ideas, and poorly remembered video game playing. A rainy night, not unpleasant, which has left my head only slightly spinning and my obsessions, for the time being, quietly laid to rest. A night, a bar, a few friends. OK, I think you get the point.

A. Short film idea (in the documentary category): the history of bathroom graffiti. Who do you know who actually admits to writing this stuff? What compels them? What comes first: the idea of what to write or the compulsion to just leave your mark? Where does this legacy come from and can we claim hieroglyphics as it's ancestor?

B. Short film idea (in the scripted category): people trying to recall and tell jokes in a social setting. Some people just have this knack, most of the rest of us don't. In 4o minutes, three of us could only remember one punch line (it had to do with Arafat), two witty rejoinders (Beef Stroganoff and you can see your house from here, respectively) and a myriad of beginnings (Salvidor Dali and Pablo Picasso are walking on the beach...) You get the idea.

C. Something much harder to pinpoint here. Going to a bar alone and whether or not it can indeed be an enjoyable enterprise. That it is much easier to love a dog than your fellow human. Persepolis was equally lovely and underwhelming. Obama is not quite what we want him to be. Will Google soon rule the universe? And birthdays. Not everyone necessarily wants to celebrate them.

The dreams I have been having

1. Dream that I got a ticket for driving 95 MPH in a 45 MPH zone
2. Dream that I was petting an eagle and when it flew away left a feather in my hand
3. Dream that I was in a slasher film–the kind where I was a counselor at a summer camp in the woods
4. Dream that I mispronounced my own name...repeatedly
5. Dream that I was trying to read The Biography of Diane Arbus, but I couldn't make out any of the letters
6. Dream that I was flirting and then having sex with my fourth grade teacher
7. Dream that I put the baby in the broiler
8. Dream that I was underwater and breathing
9. Dream that I was late for my finals [ed.note: Casey has been out of school for at least a decade]
10. Dream that I was running through the snow

Anywhere but here

Wendy Small Photograms, Globe Fruit, Young Shoots

Casey is lifting her head up
Casey is fighting the blues
Casey thinks no one like her film
Casey thinks her boyfriend can be pretty sweet when he tries
Casey barely has enough time to walk her dog
Casey is headachey
Casey is trying to change her mood
Casey knows the cold is now behind us
Casey has to work today...but on a friend's film
Casey would like to hire someone to clean the house...she's heard of such things before
Casey wishes there was somewhere else

What we are doing

photo by Zoe Strauss

1. We are appreciating our readers. All three of them!
2. We are remembering our friend, Cayce, who has been gone now for a year
3. We are voting!
4. We are starting to play too much Scrabulous
5. We are trying to get up early and go running with limited success
6. We are keeping our fingers crossed as the gods decide where our film will land
7. We are listening to podcasts of Fresh Air at warp speed
8. We are public transporting (?) and loving it
9. We are watching Jon Stewart again
10. We are getting along with the boyfriend but trying to ignore Valentine's Day

we are becoming again and it feels good like spring

My poor bunny

We had a harrowing New Year's in the snow. It was beautiful and we did go snowshoeing, but an SUV ran over my dog. Literally. Over. I guess I should be thankful it was an SUV as my dog did not get crushed by any tires nor impacted by a bumper. But he did get thrown to the ground and rolled around and as you can see, got pretty fucked up, including a big fat black eye. I guess, we'll have to wait and see.

I can't really say much more, except that I feel really guilty (he should have been on a leash) and really thankful (I saw it all happen and thought for sure he was a goner) and really pissed (the SUV never stopped despite the fact that I was screaming my head off on the side of the road).

There's a big storm that came in last night. It's got all of us a little down after the rush of escaping death. Everyone is feeling all mopey and gloomy. Recovery can't be easy.

Santa baby

Watch me here
...resurrected from last Christmas.

Dudes!

There are some things that are just always running through my head. Like corny things I almost can't help from saying and even cornier things I can't stop myself from writing. Like: no one writes to the colonel when, well, no one writes me. Or can't stop til you get enough when I am running around the house looking for my keys or glasses. There are more. Just stick around and you're bound to hear the music. There, didya catch that? That was just one of them: hear the music. Works well pretty much anywhere. Of course, put em on the glass remains a perennial favorito.

Nothing more except I totally promised to write more often. Because I have all this writing to do, you see. Grant applications, press releases, pleas to be accepted into various higher learning institutions as a, gulp, professor. I even had to write a letter of recommendation for a good friend. And yes, a treatment for a new film idea in the works.

But mostly I need a job. Sort of. Part-time. Until someone recognizes my brilliance and hands over the Genius fellow. Anyone looking to hire an editor out there? And no, I am not interested in editing your Survivor reel for trade. Sorry.

So my advice. To me? Keep up the good fight (there another one!) Keep on keeping on. Wait, shit, no, make it stoppppppppp!
Don't
stop
til
you
get
enough...

The world according to wonder woman

What the hell happened here? Not only have I not gone running for over a week, but I haven't posted in god-knows-how-long? I think I will blame the weather. It's fucking cold! I mean, not cold by Montana standards, but cold to me. Like stay-in-your-covers-for-as-long-as-possible cold. Like arguing about whose turn it is to top off the quickly loosing any warmth mugs o' coffee. Like letting the dog sleep in bed with you EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. The cold sure brings on some bad habits, particularly when it comes to me.

In other news we had our first public screening of THE FILM last Wednesday. 3 out of 4 of the girls tat are in the film were there, the young woman that wrote our title song performed beforehand, and we had a short with everyone Q & A afterward. One of the girls from the film, R, kept to her decision to never watch that fucking film again, but hung around dutifully for the Q & A. R also decided to have a bake sale beforehand wherein she made 120 bucks. We can always count on R to provide some comic relief and she didn't fail to deliver that night: when asked during he Q & A what she thought of the film she quickly replied that she hated it. I can understand. Only 3 years from when we stopped filming, it's still totally embarrassing to all of them.

In closing, we have a new obsession (besides the roots of chicha album that has been playing constantly around the house): Wonder Woman. I'm not really into superhero comics, but she makes for an intriguing story, historically speaking. Created in the early 40's by a sort of huckster psychologist who was best known for inventing and promoting the polygraph and less known for having two wives and siring two kids from each while they all lived together. Wonder Woman was his first, last and only comic book creation. In this creation he played out many of the themes he had already tried and failed to promote in his various psychology tomes: that women were inherently more honest than men, that women could one day rule the world with their power to dominate men sexually, and if men simply submitted to the love of women, the world would be a better place.

Indeed.

I will always love you as sung by Dolly Parton

James Deavin from the series The Games We Play

No mames

Desiree Holman, Masks (Conduits of Fantasy) 1

The Online

Brendan Lott, Oil on Canvas
What Are My Motives, Are They Selfless Enough,
Are They Righteous, Righteous Enough?

It is day two of the online of my documentary in what we estimate to be a 6-day painstakingly tedious process of color correction and tweaking of shots to a price tag of you-don't-even-want-to-know. Let's just say, had we not needed to go through this process in order to deliver our film back to the people who helped pay for it, I would be the owner of fairly new, fuel-efficient compact car.

So here we are, waiting to hear the results of who got into Sundance cuz we are pretty sure we didn't, filing our rejection letters as fast as we are sending out applications, and making everyone in the film look better than they actually did–or at least, better than how my camera captured them. I get to catch up on crossword puzzles and emails, while sitting in a dark room all day, wondering about what might happen next. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I am looking forward to attending a few festivals, like maybe those in Italy, France or Hawaii. You know, the kind that offer air travel, hotels, and happy hours. It's not the primary nor even close to the tertiary reason I got myself into this kind of mess (making films, that is), but I could use a little reward for all the energy spent right about now. I mean, it hasn't even played to an audience of more than 2 yet.

But back to reality. I suppose I should sign up for that loan deferment again. At least I made it a couple years this time. I've postponed looking for a new place to live til after the holidays, and I have a couple editing jobs in line through December. I keep thinking now would be the time to write that Great American Screenplay that's been cluttering up my desktop for a few years, but I can't seem to bear to open it to see where I left of.

All that to say, it's not a bad time for me. And if you know anything about me, you should know that I always sound more negative than I really feel. I generally like this time of year. I am not as stressed as I usually am. I don't have everything riding on the success of the film anymore. And the BF and I have been getting along, in our small, small space, despite the fact that we have both been working from home together. And for the record, while I was the one who whose brilliant idea was to rent the abysmally art school-y Fur, he was the one who paid for both of us to see The Mist. Haven't heard of it? Yeah, exactly.

The ice film done-ith!

Camille Seaman, Tabular Iceberg, East Greenland 2006

Well, almost-ith.

For the last seven weeks I have been about ice. Call me the Snow Queen, call me Snow White, just don't call me Ishmael. I came on to the ice film as an editor a year after shooting in Norway completed, and a week after someone else finished assembling the scenes. Not a bad way to start a documentary and a real treat–after having just edited a film that took two years in post and probably logged in at about 350 hours of tape–to be on a film where the estimate for completion topped out at a mere 6 weeks. Of course, turns out they underestimated, but it wasn't like, by a year or anything. No, that would just be the underestimate on my own film.

So two films are done-ith and I am out-of-a-job-ith. There are a couple weeks left tidying up things here and there. Maybe a week or two of paid work, but that's it. And while I do get to enter a whole new phase with the distribution of my own film–one that means the rejection letters will be piling up faster than I can burn them–the time has arrived for me to move on. Just not yet sure to what.

My Master Plan had been to be spending this year traveling from art residency to art residency, amidst a flurry of film festival travel, oh, but if it weren't for those pesky rejection letters! Plan B offered the option to start teaching again and putting that degree to some use, but here we are mid November with the academic year well into motion. Plan C, well, we are coming up with Plan C right as we speak. One hopes one doesn't have to go to Plan: No Way in Hell, and start editing for television again.

My boyfriend's advice is to just spend less money. But I've got a dog to feed and house. And PPO health care with exorbitant rates and even higher deductibles. And a student loan the size of a median house in Manhattan. And. And. And. Just when I thought I had the time to finally start going to therapy again.

So here's to something new. Something wild. Something blue.

Ice, Ice Baby

photo of ice guitar, lit on fire from the ice music documentary I am currently editing. Only the strings and the head and tuning pegs weren't ice. Click to enlarge.

And they said it couldn't be done.

Why Loaf Man is not a good screen name...

list via to-do list

...but Mario Plimp is.

As I sit here and write this, I am checking off my own list of notes from the first rough cut screening of the ice music documentary I am editing. Note to self: try to do notes before too much time elapses as aforementioned list usually scrawled in completely unintelligible writing.

Tiny tumbleweeds

Laura Nix, Abandoned Car, from the Accidentally Kansas series via Amy Stein

My birthday is almost here. I will be 37. If you add those numbers together that equals ten. A nice even number. I hope this year is more even than odd.

P.S. I am not going to Amsterdam.

The Good, the Bad, and the Blue

Melanie Pullen, Blue (Water Series)

The Good:

My birthday is coming up. My boyfriend is coming down. And I was invited to Amsterdam. I haven't been to Europe since I was underaged.

The Bad:

Despite our best efforts, my boyfriend's son has decided to go through with his enlistment. Even though he is Native American, Mexican, Arabic and Columbian. Even though it looks like the Marines are coming back with more injuries than anyone else in the Armed Forces. Even though I am pretty sure he knows that the war in Iraq (and soon to be Iran) is not only a losing one, but quite questionable morally. And even though we offered him a place to stay and about a bizillion alternatives.

It's hard to imagine what he might be thinking...but then again, it's not hard at all. I know, having lived on the Rez for the past number of years, that he probably took one look around and saw how little opportunities there were available to him. I know that he thinks it will save him from the Meth addiction that runs so rampant in that community. I know that he desperately wants to become a man: in the eyes of his family, his girlfriend, the greater culture. I know that it became important to him not to drop out of his enlistment, like he dropped out of going to college. But it breaks my heart even to understand it a little. I mean, he only graduated from high school a few months ago.

Welcome to America.

The Blue:

I don't know what more to say here. I think I've covered the blue already. I remain optimistic about the year–after all, I finished a film, I fell in love, I found a dog. But, for the people around me it hasn't been that kind of a break out year. A friend, father and husband killed himself. My film partner is separating from her husband after 20 years. Same film partner's brother is dying from a long history of drug addiction despite the short span (36 years) of his life.

I wish I had more to offer today. Something funny or at least mildly amusing. But I guess none of it is really good nor bad. And it doesn't always make me blue.

It's just life.

And I carry it with me. Just like my boyfriend's son. Just like you.

The Iceman Cometh

Justin Quinnell's In-Mouth Pinhole Photography

I've been in the process of moving over my old blog to this one-one painstaking entry at a time. The writing used to be so much better! Jeesh. Lo siento. It used to be up a little higher on ye ol' priority list. But for whatever reason I persist over here. Only now with a much lower readership (thanks for the comments Mom!)

But today just consider yourself lucky. I am sick and under deadline and yet I still manage to squeak in a post. For you? It's the least I can do. The weather back home is horrendous. The leak in our roof is still not fixed and the dog snores loud as ever. It's great to be back! Too bad I have to leave again on Sunday!

In other major news we are adopting a son! Technically, he's 18, but that doesn't mean he as any other place to call home. Actually, it's not really as adoption, since technically speaking the adoptee is my boyfriend's son. But it's pretty new to all of us involved. I shouldn't be joking. I should really stop kidding now, because it would really piss my boyfriend off if I made light of this situation.

It turns out, he had enlisted in the Marines (the son, not the boyfriend) and so my boyfriend begged him to come stay with us instead. I mean, what would you do right? Let the poor kid get his leg shot off, just because he didn't get it together to go to college? You would do the same, no matter how small the apartment, no matter how tight the funds, no matter how tenuous the relationship, no matter, no matter, I mean right?

Well, we'll see. For now the son is staying at Grandma's until I leave this weekend to go back south to finish up the ice film. And for the record, the son–while a bit overwhelmed and a lot undermotivated–is a sweet, charming young man–not unlike his father. I handed him Junot Diaz' The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which he devoured in two days and which made me feel pretty right on considering that I had just met him. We pulled out some 20 more books for him to graze and I am eager to hear the reports back.

So here's to our wondrous new lives, with all the surprises they may bring: to the son, that he may not join the military; to the father, that he may get to know his son; to me, that I may survive with all wits intact; and to all us, that our dreams not be deferred too much longer.

To leave you with a quote which I was hoping would tidily wrap all things up from headline to finish line, but which only further exemplifies the enigma that is life (and this post):

What's it matter if the truth is that their favoring breeze has the stink of nickel whiskey on its breath, and their sea is a growler of lager and ale, and their ships are long since looted and scuttled and sunk on the bottom? To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It's irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.

-Eugene Ionesco, The Iceman Cometh

Tell me

Alessandra Sanguinetti, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams

Has it really been 3 weeks already? My time is about up here in this sunny town. I ate lots of Pinkberry, I saw a few films, a made plans to co-write screenplays, I drank coffee, I did yoga, I ran through the park, I saw one show, I watched bad television.

And, oh yeah, I worked my ass off. But now the holiday is over. I go back home, I finish up the film (and you thought it was done!), I look for more work, I apply to festivals. The cycle continues.

But while I was here I enjoyed completely not being in charge. Tell me what to do! Please! I look forward to stumbling on a new project.

But not anytime soon.

This about sums things up

photo by Eliot Shepard

Trees and gum.

I can't say much more at the moment. Think about blowing a bubble. Or accidentally swallowing your gum. That's where I am right now. Somewhere in between those two places. I wish I could say more, but I'd just be complaining.

The evenings are long when you can't sleep. And lonely when you are 400 miles from home.

Short history of the earth

Kim Keever, from Short History of the Earth

Ironically, I am here in the city where the sun gazes down on it's inhabitants cheerfully 365 days of the year to edit a film about ice. It's odd to be back in a place that changes so little. Buried in a stuffy little edit room, scouring through snowy vistas of alpine ski-resorts, shots of blocks of ice gathered from hundreds-year old glaciers, and people bundled up in fancy Gortex parkas, there was a moment yesterday where I actually felt a chill. And then I stood up, realized I hadn't put the fan on all day, and that my pants wet with sweat were sticking to my chair.

I know. Gross.

But that's not all. Besides being sunny, this town has an enormous capacity for consumption. Last night under the full moon and the warm Santa Anas, I walked with my friend, the struggling writer who lives with his family, through a part of town that while being quite lovely and walkable was nothing more than an elongated mall. Shops and shops lined this promenade, all of which remained open til nearly ten. Walking beyond the shops, the blocks than stretched into rows and rows of restaurants, large and windowed, waiters standing by to greet the guests that would never come. Did these places ever fill up? So much space! So little occupancy! I felt sad for all of us: for the businesses that couldn't fill their seats, for the customers who–judging by the amount of restaurants open for business, had never had to cook a meal–and for me, realizing that we as a society would never be cured of this kind of relentless consumption.

I know, I know. Speak for yourself. We aren't all like that all the time. Most of us can't afford to be. And I myself was there for a dining experience with a friend whom I hadn't seem in a while at a small inconspicuous bistro where the corkage was cheap, and his uncle supplied the wine.

And I know, I know, that same city where I live has the exact same problems. I just know the right places to avoid that don't remind me quite as blatantly of my consumerism, visit only the areas I feel comfortable in, all the while trying to support the local Mom and Pops. But I guess I am saying that it makes me sad to find myself caught up in the same mindset (I have a wedding to attend this weekend and had to shop for a dress, than shoes to go with a dress, than underwear to wear with the dress, a small bag to go with the dress). It makes me sad that this if often the easiest thing to do. To buy thoughtlessly, wherever the cheapest shit is available, no matter the unfair labor practices behind the manufacturing, the toxins released into the environment, or the lead-in-the-paint of the actual on-the-shelf object.

And it makes me sad looking around at all these shops and restaurants, at all the people out for the evening enjoying themselves through purchase, that once we behave like this, and once we have taken it all for granted, we will never be able to act differently.

View of artist's studio set-up