Time Lapse at a Slower Speed

My grandmother, Elizabeth L. Temple, passed away two nights ago at the Health and Rehab Center (terminal care) in Springfield, Vermont late Sunday night. Her funeral will be held next Wednesday in Rhode Island since that is where she lived for fifty-five years before moving in with my mother in Charlestown, New Hampshire ten years ago. My grandmother, whom my brother and I call Buffie (originating from her name Elizabeth), was born in 1920, the same year that women won the right to vote. She was an intricate part of my family's dynamic. She was the strength and backbone to many family turmoils. She was active in politics and forward thinking. The funeral will be held at The Church of Transfiguration in Edgewood, Rhode Island and the burial will be in St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket, RI. Among the scripture that will be read at the funeral I will be reading a passage from Bertrand Russell, one of my grandmother's favorite modern philosophers, to honor her intellect.

I will be returning to NYC later next week. I will be hosting the monthly storytelling series I curate called The Bodega Monthly at The Bodega Wine Bar in Brooklyn August 7.  I will resume production on Tools of the Trade by mid/late August.

Rest in absolute peace and wisdom Buffie.

Back in NYC

I made it back from SF in four days. I decided to hitch in Ohio because my ride share driver was a little nutty and I needed my own space. It only took me two rides to get into NY. I rode with the second ride all the way to Ithaca, NY where I jumped on the last Greyhound bus heading into the city late last night. I arrived in Ridgewood very early this morning.

Today I have been in a bit of a daze. I guess it's a little like when someone comes back from a great vacation, but my "vacation" was dangerously close to a different lifestyle and one I have lived before. I have figured out one thing, however, that I need to travel. I received a great contact yesterday from Ron, my ride to Ithaca. He has a friend who has traveled around Europe and Asia and heads a media program in New Mexico. I'm going to send his friend an email and hopefully I will receive some advice and/or connections about traveling and filmmaking in Europe and Asia as I really want to film abroad. However, even though I am not there I have noticed a lot of people from Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Indonesia are reading my blog (from my stats breakdown-one of many blog features). I gave the blog address to a few friends of mine who are touring musicians in Europe (which they may have passed on to other people) and I also passed out cards on the plane headed for Amsterdam before the mechanical failures occurred. I would like to thank those abroad for taking the time and interest to read my narratives. It means a lot, especially since I am not there myself.

In other news (and news more breaking and important than mine):

Congrats to the people in the new country of South Sudan! 

Tools of the Trade Production to Resume in Mid/Late August

I am in the little town of Dixon, about an hour east of San Francisco, California. Last night I caught the Green Tortoise bus to Eugene, OR for the Oregon Country Fair. Thirty minutes after boarding the bus I received confirmation on a ride to Chicago (courtesy of Ride share on Craigslist). The driver, Wade, may also be going all the way to Rhode Island. I only need to give him $100 for Chicago and maybe $150 for Rhode Island. This is a good catch, too good to pass up, so when the Green Tortoise made its first pit stop just an hour from the city in the small town of Dixon, I hoped off. The driver and the people on the bus were awesome. I interviewed the most non-technological 15 year old I have ever met during this one hour ride. Her name is Alma and she likes swords and wishes the world could be like it was in the Middle Ages. I guess the fair draws people from every walk of life. It was an interesting hour to say the least.

After leaving the bus (and the driver, clad in a straw hat, was nice enough to give me all of my money back, of course, I made him keep a few bucks for a coffee or something) I found a nice field (part field, part abandoned lot) in the town to camp in last night. I woke this morning to a million small white flowers covering the ground. The sun was bright, but not stifling. Wade will be picking me up here in Dixon, since it's on the route, later today. I should be in Chicago by Monday and NYC by the middle of next week.

I am planning on going to New Hampshire for four or five days after a few nights in NY to visit with my mother and grandmother. I will then return to NY more permanently and begin planning another film tour through the southern portion of the US and/or making another attempt at filming in Europe. Everything depends on how much money I can raise (and make) toward my documentary and how my family's situation looks. Hopefully Ben and Gina, owners of The Bodega Wine Bar, will let me fill in some shifts in the meantime (that is if Kevin and Marvin will give me a few of their shifts).

This month has definitely been an interesting experiment in hobo filmmaking. I feel good about the material, interviews and conversations, I have been able to gather thus far, and I will continue to load, transcribe, and make initial edits while in NY and NH. Thanks to everyone for reading this (I will continue to blog about Tools of the Trade production), everyone who let me interview them, everyone who gave me a ride during my California/Arizona hitchhiking ventures, and special thanks to Erica Russo for being my backer on Kickstarter. Hopefully a few more people will come around.

To everyone in NY (if you're reading this that is) I will see you soon.


p.s. I am currently uploading a video segment, one resembling a documentary film trailer, to my Kickstarter project. Check it out, it includes some of the material I've gathered while being on the road. Update: It might take all day to load on Kickstarter...

I always thought NASA was over funded, but it's crazy that today marked the last space shuttle trip ever...no more little boys and girls can grow up saying they want to be an astronaut...

Facebook Headquarters

I left Tucson yesterday morning (I could no longer withstand the heat) and flew (by flying I mean hitchhiking but getting rides really, really fast and for long distances) to California. I made it to Ventura (west of LA) last night and made it to the Facebook Headquarters today (which is actually just south of SF and not in LA like I originally thought-haha). Of course I couldn't talk to anyone on staff, that was to be expected (despite my many emails requesting an interview), but something else is going on there; the staff isn't even allowed to discuss Facebook without prior consent by PR and all of the security guards have ear phones and walkie talkies. It's really high tech security. Makes one wonder how involved in Facebook is the government? I mean, Obama has even visited the headquarters...

I will upload a clip of footage from there very soon as well as compare my experience there with my experience at Ad Busters Media Foundation. I will also be heading back east very soon as well.

Stay tuned.

July 4, 2011 and Mass Mind Control

There are still fires on the Arizona/Mexican boarder, members of the Food Not Bombs organization  were arrested during a community feeding in Orlando, Florida, and in Las Vegas 60% of homes have been foreclosed on. Today is a day where most Americans are either throwing a party or attending one. Many will spend time with friends and family and watch fireworks, either on TV or in person. As I sit in Revolutionary Grounds Coffeehouse and Bookstore in the hot, hot, hot city of Tuscan, Arizona (by the way, Tuscan, Bisbee, and Flagstaff are the little blue pockets in the great big red state of Arizona) I start to think about the reason for celebration.

Today marks the 235th anniversary of the constitution. What does that mean? Barbecues? Beer? Isn't this a day that could be better spent mobilizing? Of course not, on top of all the thousands of distractions and gimmicks of American consumer culture (not to mention the indoctrinated way of celebrating American independence) lays a major player: Facebook.

This is one theory I have yet to discuss in this blog or in the film: Facebook's equivalency to Hollywood and the rise of the platform in a time of crisis.

Hollywood reached its Golden Age in The Great Depression of the 1920s. Instead of mass rioting, unemployed and depressed persons saved their nickels and dimes for a picture show at a local cinema to help them forget about their problems for a few hours. This is understandable, sure, we all need entertainment and distraction. The danger comes when this distraction overpowers the problems that are creating the need for distraction in the first place. Today, Hollywood, despite the consumer's ability to download and/or pirate a movie rather easily, is still near the top of the America food chain, and will only be overshadowed by America's next top player: Facebook (enterprise).

Enter 2011: A time where unemployment is at 9.1% (roughly half of the unemployment in the Great Depression) and homes continue to be foreclosed on (last year 11% of home sales in Texas were from foreclosures) what is there to celebrate? Why aren't we rioting in the street? The answer may lay in that small device you keep on in your pocket.

Facebook is the new Hollywood. Just as distracting, addicting, and consuming, except that an iphone or Android is portable whereas a Hollywood movie (aside form watching it on said device) is not. I could have named this article "The Fourth of July: We're All Being Duped!" or "The Fourth of July Riots!" But the sad truth is a lot of people don't mind being duped and have no desire to riot. Generally, we're happy to accept our new toys with a privilege and arrogance common to Americans.

It is true, however, that Facebook has been a tool for mobilization, but more so in other countries than in the US where it was created. Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, is now richer than the founders of Google, and all that revenue is in the advertising. People, especially those who run businesses, like to tell me that they use it because it's free, monetarily free maybe, but the use and participation in Facebook comes at a personal price as seen in targeted advertising. Still, most people are under the assumption that Facebook is a free network of communication, aside from the dangers I've listed so far, online communication seems to be replacing offline communication. A friend of mine who I was conversing with the other day pulled out his phone while we were talking. I made a comment and he said, "But you're smoking a cigarette. You're doing something while we're talking. It's the same thing." This brought a lot of my research in the last few months home: people have gotten so accustomed to a portable internet device, and the constant "news feed" of Facebook that reading something online is now comparable with smoking a cigarette. True, both substances can kill you in different ways, and also true that both substances can create physical and mental barriers between people. The most interesting insight to be gained from this moment came when speaking with Joy, owner of Revolutionary Grounds, when it became obvious that I have been smoking so long that I am unaware of the effects, I guess the same goes for the miniature computer, especially to those growing up with it.

Lastly, Facebook maintains and perpetuates the myths of the American Dream by promoting the ability to descend into a narcissistic, self-involved, and apathetic world where concern is placed on oneself and ones "loved ones" (which, as computer technologist Jaron Lanier points out in his 'circle of empathy ' theory, may also include a computer). Naturally, this does not apply to everyone, but checking your Facebook every minute or so, even when in conversation with another person (a real person) is not only rude, but scary: why are Americans more eager to engage in an online world than an offline one? Why do we want constant communication anyway, especially when most of our discussions revolve around the mundane and only reach so far as our Facebook"friends?"  Why aren't we rioting for our jobs back? Why are we still letting big cat, CEO's take our money? Why are we giving the top 1% of Americans the little we've got left? America, we've been doped and I will not celebrate this Fourth of July when there is still so much more work to be done.

Tucson, Arizona and Tools of the Trade filming

Tucson, Arizona has to be one of the worst places to arrive after a failed trip to Europe: between the 115 degree weather, the aridness of the desert, and the improbability of finding any gig makes this part of desert quite useless to me, except for the fact that my very good friend Dan (from my childhood and who is a Masters/PhD candidate at The University of Arizona ) lives here and has an apartment where I can regroup. I am planning on staying here until my skin is brown (I give it five days max in this volatile sun) and when my plane ticket refund comes in (with US Airways that could be weeks). When I've got my brown skin (I should say red peeling skin instead) and my money back I will buy another car and continue filming across the southern portion of the US. I am currently working on booking interviews with people in the South.

It took me two days to hitch here from Sacramento. For the most part, my rides were great and we shared engaging conversation. I even filmed a short segment with one of my rides. There are a few people in town here who I will be filming as well. I'm still a little sad regarding Europe, but I'm adamant about planning another trip for later this summer. I don't know when I will return to NY. The road life is dangerously addicting and I feel very far away from the city. I miss it more now, however, especially since I am in an area with so little moisture and such little green save for the cacti and short, wispy desert trees.

I would like to share one specific hitchhiking experience: I got a ride from Palm Springs into Blythe with a girl and a guy in their early 20's who organize raves out in the desert. They were only driving as far as Indio, the next town from Palm Springs in the Southern California desert. When I told them I was headed to Tuscan, a five hour drive, they offered to drive me if I payed for the gas. Apparently neither of them had to work that day and they didn't have too much going on. Gas would be around $100 because I would have to leave them with enough to get back. That was more than I wanted to spend so instead I asked if they would mind driving me to Blythe, a town on the California/Arizona boarder which is also the next real town after Indio (FYI: It is roughly a two hour drive from Indigo to Blythe). They said sure and this trip would only cost me one tank of gas. At an average of $3.35 a gallon, gas is really cheap in the desert (considering the national average). I filled their tank for $35 (they were on absolute empty) and we headed down the road. In Blythe, they dropped me at a gas station across from the I-10 east ramp. Literally, one minute after getting out of their car and crossing the highway to the ramp, I was face to face with ride share Dan; the Canadian guy I gave a ride to from Vancouver to Portland a week ago!

These are the best moments on the road: the perfect meeting of time and place (and in this case, even interstate exit). He pulled out his camera to take a photo. I hope I get to see these pictures one day because the first photo of us was in my old car as we were making our way towards Portland wearing sweaters and now there's this picture of us with both of our backpacks on in the 106 degree sun. He was headed west, on his way back to LA from a short trip to Phoenix and I, of course, was headed east to Tucson. We had about two hours max of daylight left and both of us wanted to get as far as we could before dark. Needless to say, our encounter, as amazing as it was, was short lived. He turned up the street to the I-10 west ramp and I crossed to the I-10 east ramp. I couldn't see him from where I was so I hope he got a ride pretty fast because the sun, even at 7pm, was murderous. It is also unfortunate that my ride took off  before Dan and I spotted each other because they were headed back towards LA. Dan, if you're reading this that was incredible! Be safe and lots of love!

I am posting a clip of the wind and grass from South Dakota because I am in the desert and like to think about this...

...Although, it would probably be best for me to forget it and instead just slather on the sunscreen and wear a straw hat so I'm prepared to sit back and embrace the heat. I mean, it's like living in a sweat lodge, which is a place to sweat out the body's toxins. I might be healthier (except of course for the skin cancer I'll accrue in a few years) and I might start the agonizing process of quitting smoking when my pouch of tobacco is gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_CpPv-LooA