Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Today, I received an email ‘reminding’ me of an upcoming short story contest at Hamline. I am not really a short story writer, though I have written a handful of them in the past 20 years. For some reason, I do much better in the world of non-fiction; it’s like I have a point to make and the quickest, most effective way to say it is to use non-fiction.
Anyway, I’m gonna try to submit a story for this contest. The thing is, the winner gets an iPad, and I pretty much enter every contest in which the winnings feature an iPad.
Now just to think of an idea…
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Do you know how I first became interested in making short films? Well, I’ll tell you anyway.
Back in early 1992, I was enrolled in a videography class at Rosemount High School. This was one of the easiest classes I ever took anywhere. For one thing, there were no assignments or tests. Most of the class was taken up watching videos, or just watching whatever was on TV. On the first day, our teacher, Mr. Smith, showed us how to use a video camera, and he briefly explained the film editing equipment that was in the back of the room. But there was no compulsion to ever use any of this stuff, and most students didn’t.
I, on the other hand, loved using the camera, because it gave me license to go wander the halls “looking for footage.” I showed the teacher what I filmed and he seemed to think this was worthy of an A. Later, when he said students were free to borrow the camera for the weekends, I signed up to bring the camera home over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, the Presidents’ Day weekend, and even the weekend at the end of the semester. In fact, I was the only student who took the camera home.
So, in January, I filmed a bunch of short clips and lin-sync videos and called it “Oddities and Ends.” In February, I did much the same thing, and called it “Mr. Zimmerman’s Neighborhood,” and in March I made the final installment of the trilogy and called it “The Importance of Being Weird.” I called the whole trilogy “Explorations in Videotaping.”
Anyway, that was 19 years ago. My friends Ryan and Rhett Sutter, Chad Astleford, and Andy and Tim Kimball helped with all of these, graciously contributing to all three installments. Also of great help was my sister, and here is a video that she and I (along with another friend, Joel Gabrielson) created 19 years ago today:
Friday, 18 February 2011
Have I mentioned how busy it’s been at work lately?
I was supposed to pick Owen up from school today. He asked me a few days ago if I would pick him up, and I said I would do so on Friday. Well, I had to call Jennifer this afternoon and tell her there was no way I’d be able to get out of work on time to pick him up. Too bad. I told him I’d make it up to him next week.
In other news: a brochure arrived in the mail today from the Science Museum, advertising their summer classes for kids. One class they’re gonna hold is an “Egypt” class in which students get to protest against Hosni Mubarak. Just kidding. Actually, they get to learn about when Egypt actually had a stable government under the Pharoahs. They get to explore some Egyptian artifacts (King Tut’s exhibit is at the museum now through the summer) and learn about how the pyramids were made and how Egypt managed to have such an advanced culture (hint: the same way America did it: slaves).
Anyway, I think Owen would really really love this class, but…it’s $95. Yikes! I wish education wasn’t so expensive. I keep telling Owen he can be whatever he wants to be and do whatever he wants to do as long as he has rich parents, but I don’t think he gets the joke.
I think I’ll just sell some of my ancient 1980s treasures for cold cash and try to pay for the class that way.