category: TMI

i generally only take showers in the morning. even if i workout in the middle of the day, i'll wait until the next morning. yes, i'm a dirty girl.

but today, with all the sun and the fact that i was in the gym after work, i took a shower as soon as i got home.

and, man, does it feel good. showering in the morning is not usually something to be enjoyed slowly because i'm often already late for work. but the shower this evening was just luxurious and calming: no rushing, just relaxing.

obviously, the picture above is not my shower but i rather like the colour palette of it.

parental units

don't have much to report so i'll throw up a photo of my parents.
can you feel the love?

. . / . . .

also, a friend tonight made a great observation about a nerdy guy we both know. she said how his nerdiness is exacerbated by the fact that he tucks his sweater into his pants. how can you argue with that?

bad idea

i'm waiting for rob to finish washing the dinner dishes and i'm slightly tipsy. blogging is probably a bad idea at this point. or it could be a great idea.

tomorrow is rob's birthday. it'll be a bonanza birthday with 2 food outings (brunch at provence marinaside and dinner at rare), 1 movie viewing (the shooter) and some gifts.

but the day will start with me going to canadian tire to get a new battery for my brother's rav4 which i discovered was dead as i tried to leave work. thank god a co-worker was walking out just as i was walking back into the building. he jump started the rav4 and i drove home. after turning off the ignition in the dryness of the underground parking, i couldn't turn it back on.

i'm so glad that there's a canadian tire just 2 blocks away from where i live. tres convenient.

in other news, rob finally finished his 5 consecutive days of evening shifts which meant we could go back to logging the ladyhawk doc footage. last night we logged for 4 hours. tonight we'll do another 4 hours.

but tomorrow we rest so rob can be spoiled and drink heavily. let's hope the credit card will hold out.

sorry

i know that no one will think my nephew is as cute as i think he is. except for his parents, of course. and i get so bored when other people talk about their kids.

BUT.
i just can't help it.

here's my nephew, ethan, playing with my cellphone. i'm going to miss him immensely when my brother and his wife move to calgary next month.

half nelson

in another decision in defiance of all the footage logging we have to do, rob and i watched "half nelson" on thursday night.

this indie film was released only last year and the short synopsis says:
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young inner-city junior high school teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm.

i remember avoiding this film last year because the story didn't interest me. but rob had the movie in the dvd player on thursday and starting playing it.

the first image i saw grabbed me right away. the cinematography was just amazing, human, humble, and emotive. the acting was natural and believable. i consumed scene after scene and didn't want it to stop. it will now go on my top 10.

the last time i felt this way about a film was The Return (not the horror movie but the russian drama from 2003).

this was a first feature film by the directors/editors/writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. i've been reading up on them and the movie was indie but they still did the 'ole shoot a short and shop the script around to find funding scenario.

rob and i discussed this whole funding scenario and then yesterday rob came across a podcast by joe swanberg who said having a super small crew (like 2 people) gives you the freedom to shoot what you want in a short period of time. i need to listen to this podcast but it's really revitalized rob in a huge way.

anyways, back to Half Nelson. watch it.
www.halfnelsonthefilm.com

bitch bitch

first day back at work and it was brutal.

spent about 1.5 hours in the morning attending an employee focus group commenting on corporate values. sounds boring but it was actually cathartic to attend a company sanctioned bitching session.

anyways, enough about that.

. / . / . / .
instead of watching zodiac as a reward for completing the logging of the doc footage, we sucumbed to just needing to watch it. so, last night we watched it at metrotown.

my take on it: there were some very good parts with loads of talented actors but the whole was disappointing. cinetography was great. dialogue was fantastic. but i found myself wanting more; more backstory, more room to breathe in scenes. i'm hoping the dvd will have the director's cut that will satisfy me.

progress

in the progress of writing details for each and every film clip of the 40 hours of footage. each tape is 1 hour in length so it should take 1 hour, right? well... the first tape took us 1 hour 40 minutes to catalogue. but we're getting faster and faster and it only took us 40 minutes to log the last tape.

of course, being the formatting nickpicky person that I am, I'm constantly thinking about changing the headings, etc.

also, rob and i have decided to forgo all earthly pleasures until we finish logging all 40 hours of the footage we have so far. this means no watching Zodiac either. i was surprised when rob announced this arrangement since i'm usually the one that sets these rewards to get us thru a labourous project.

although we hardly consider this work since we derive many pleasures just from going thru the footage.

FYI all the stills i've posted so far were taken on my little digital camera. you'll all have to wait for the doc to see how delicious it all looks.

life stuff

the back of my throat has that not-quite-sore-but-somethings-going-on-there feeling to it. lots of people at work are super sick.... oh shit. i hate that. that inane office talk crap and i just fell right into it.

snap out of it!

:::::: ::: :
in other news, the woman "doing my job" had to fly home this past monday for a 'family matter' and i had to go back to my old desk. it felt a little weird, something akin to seeing that condo you used to live in with your ex-husband for 9 years. (you've all been there, right?) it's that unsatisfying mix of familiarity and regret.

but i digress. so the job is easy (as is most administrative jobs) and i miss my desk against the window but there's all her STUFF spewed all over MY desk. we got lip gloss, a tea bag in the shape of a pyramid, hair clips, a doll, and post-its with writing that's NOT MINE.

i felt a big uneasy and decided to clean up the desk a bit. couldn't help myself. i noticed that she was keeping paperwork from 2006 and i tossed it, believing that she was keeping it for me and therefore i could decide to trash it.

this is bad behaviour on my part, actually. i'm sure i'll piss her off.

..................
and my prodigal mother returned from taiwan this past monday as well. we had dinner together this past tuesday night at Chen Shanghai on Park Road in Richmond. okay, people, pay attention: this place has the all time best xiao long bao (XLB) in the lower mainland. i shit you not. so much good dumpling broth goodness that you could see it thru the wrapper.

anyways, so my mom is back which means she needs her car back. so we have delicious XLB and i hand her the keys. then, my brother drives rob and i back home. luckily, my brother and his family are going to hong kong tomorrow and they are lending me their rav4 until they return in early april.

i'm so lucky. yes, i am.

a time for resting

man am i beat. after arriving back wednesday night and then going to work at 8am the next morning, i was drained and couldn't help rob (and ken t) with filming "the mix sessions" at the hive studios in burquitlam. i had more pep on friday night but i let rob and ken keep on filming.

then, saturday night was ladyhawk's first concert show on their 30+ city tour. there were 4 of us: ken, kimm, rob and i. we each wielded a camera, two 1 hour tapes and extra batteries. we got there super early at 5:30pm and waited until 7pm when the band finally showed up. but, really, we needed the time to setup and scope out the place.

it was pretty cool watching kimm and ken find their sweet spots for filming. they both came up with awesome framing and composed shots. rob and i are pretty lucky to have them as friends.

the show was fantastic. after filming the songs be recorded in the traditional method (bed tracks, vocals, percussion, etc) in kelowna, it was pure joy to hear them let loose their energy and commitment to the songs. they were very loud and amazing to watch.

we got home around 11pm and didn't hit the pillows until about midnight.

poor rob had to work the next day (sunday) as i stayed home doing laundry and cleaning up. it was so nice to move very little.

what's next? a 1 minute podcast that's supposed to be a teaser for ladyhawk's current tour. we've decided that this must be done by this friday.

return from kel own a

we arrived exhausted and post-snow-blizzard-terrified by 8:30pm yesterday. and since we can't get enough of our own footage, we (along with ken t) watched a whole lot of it immediately and until after midnight.

then we started planning the coverage for the ladyhawk show this saturday at the plaza on granville.

ok. so let me be blunt.
our footage is gorgeous.
full of taupes, blues and greens.
it's very gus van sant "last days"

after saturday our next priority is putting together a podcast to generate interest in ladyhawk's upcoming 30+ city tour. the podcast should be completed by late next week.

and.
just for the record, i am so excited. i don't even care that we have no promises for any compensation. if jajaguwar (ladyhawk's label) wants to pay us for it, then great. if not, then we'll figure out another another way, maybe even self-distribute.

we'll see.