(click the picture above for
the high definition
video - but also click
YouTube
for me!)
From now on I will be
posting all of The Journey videos on YouTube as their
compatibility with all computers is unmatched. However I
will continue to host my own since you never know what
may happen - and having to recompress, relink and
reupload several hundred videos because YouTube suddenly
has a limit or some shit, that's a fuggin' nightmare. So
for high def, hit the video links, but also hit
YouTube.
10:58 PM,
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007:
Yes,
my eyes have always been 2 sizes too big.
:-)
This
was gonna be a locked entry. This was
going to be a hate-filled,
scream-at-the-world rant during a time
when I literally can't turn a corner
without getting hit.
Literally.
From
getting in an accident and
being too trusting trying to
help someone avoid their
insurance, to dealing with
computer people who won't fix
my computer that crashes every
10 minutes unless I take
it apart and put a floor fan
on it, to dealing with a
harddrive recovery place so
hell bent on bankrupting you
for one friggin' file, to
hearing excuses from people
that have owend me hundreds of
dollars since March, to
dealing with banks and credit
card companies who fee you
incorrectly and make you chase
them down to correct it, to
ongoing negotiations with your
employer about something you
wouldn't even believe if I
told you... it's been a
trying couple of weeks
for me.
All
coming to a head yesterday with me almost
losing it as I was basically told, "Sorry,
you're out $1500 - thanks for trusting
us." So what do I do when I'm
spinning that hard? I go back in time and
start a project of loading old VHS footage
to remaster digitally and
save...
...and suddenly I
don't have a care in the world. I'm 9 years old making
a video with my dad, now being able to re-edit how we
always wanted to. The sights, the sounds, I am
completely at ease. I have a script to write tonight
for a shoot tomorrow but I'm happily putting it off to
gaze into 1985. It's actually therapeutic. It's like
comfort food. For someone like me, being able to throw
in a tape and "be there" is the most comforting
feeling I've ever known.
And then of course
you have the video in question. Ha. Entitled "What to
do on a Saturday Afternoon" it was literally just
that. My dad had visitation rights with me from 2pm -
6pm every other Saturday and we always tried to do one
special thing (like there was time to do more - lol).
Usually seeing a movie, but this day, February 9th,
1985, "Papa" as I called him then had a relative's
camera and we decided to make a movie.
Of course with no
editing equipment you're left with the old "2
VCR" trick and for this we barely even used that.
He would just stop the camera, tell me what to do next
- start it up again, repeat x40. What you end up with
is a 17 minute video about a little boy stealing his
father's car to go get a coney. Now my dad did have
some musical gear, so he was able to add music and
voice to it - for '85, and to a 9 year old kid, it was
the coolest thing ever.
Now I of
course archived the original just for the giggle of
how endearingly amateur it was...but had to edit it
properly simply for both of us. We would've had a
blast with equipment 20 years later. Hilariously, with
just normal obvious editing - 17 minutes becomes
5
1/2.
I even tried to
keep a lot of the abrupt cuts so it still feels like
the old bit, but the 6 minute extended
"eating-a-coney" scene had to be trimmed.
:-)
But how amazing is
this when you look back on it? Talk about an obvious
influence in my life. It was a creative outlet that
just filled my imagination with possibilities.
I wanted my own video camera so friggin' bad I
can't even begin to tell you. My dad didn't have his
own until 1989 and since I only saw him sporadically,
there just wasn't a lot of access. I finally got my
own in 1995 (the day I met Michael Jordan) and never
looked back obviously...
...and now it's
all this. I'm just shaking my head at how much
influence you can have on a child at an early age. We
did several movies like this, then he helped me make
highlight reels of Michael Jordan in the early 90s -
and eventually we did a full 30 minute
feature called "Slick Tracy". It was so bonding
for me and he obviously realized I had a passion for
it. All I ever wanted to do was make more stuff. From
movies and then eventually songs. I guess it was just
always in me to create constantly.
But pops - I have
to tip my hat to ya. As Donna said watching this: "You
are clearly your father's son", and it really didn't
hit me this hard until I was editing this
together. I'm so remaking this with my kid someday.
Christ it'll be over 30 years later. Bleh. That really
makes my head spin...
...but thankfully
it's about heartwarming things and not the firestorm I
walk into the second I end this entry. We all
have our therapeutic comforts in life, luckily this
won't kill me.
