Candidate for King County Sheriff

A fine day. Campaign ad for Sheriff. He seemed like a nice guy. His family was nice. The crew (Rick and Vince) was nice.  I felt crappy. I came home and the family was in a particularly bitchy mood. Maybe the sheriff  will adopt me.

Probably not.

Edgar Martinez is quiet but very cool

I used to do videos for a motivational speaker, guru. Sadly, he grew old and died. One of his acolyte was legendary and beloved Seattle Mariner, two time A.L. batting champion and all around mensch, Edgar Martinez. We shot at his house, a large but not ostentatious house in Bellevue. It was like old home week- Geoff "Been there" Dunlap, Paully Crampton and Johnny the Boot, and working for the old chain gang: Victory Studios. 

Edgar is no Lou Tice but did fine teaching kids about batting and about "self talk" and "affirmations".  I never felt bad about anything in these videos: they were obviously helpful and common sense. Two days of shooting. Edgar gave us signed baseballs when we were done. Bill Gates never gave us baseballs, then again BG never hit .347 in a season  where he had to bat against Pedro Martinez either.

Awesome electron microscope: More proof humans can be cool

Major, gigantic health care equipment corporation that sells huge, gigantic electron microscopes to research facilities. They are finding all kinds of interesting stuff that help humans.

Maybe we can move forward as a species.

Talking head with Australian research professor. She was great.

3 jobs: Children, Homelessness and Sales reps for Life saving

Saturday and Sunday: Committee for Children- Anti bullying videos at Midway Elementary School in Des Moines. I am always jealous of nice suburban schools. This one was beautiful and very clean and frankly looked like a very nice school and I came to find out it is one of the roughest schools in the area but they have a great program.  CFC jobs always make me feel like civilization is intact.

Monday: Gates foundation- 13 interviews on white screen (looked like Apple commercials) about homelessness. Also made me feel like humanity is at least trying.

Tuesday: 13 quickie interviews spread over a whole day of international sales reps for live saving difibulaters. It was cool to see people excited about selling stuff that actually saves people's lives: it's not a hair dryer or a set of Ginsu Steak Knives, it's emergency medical gear that makes a difference in the world and these guys knew it and were proud of it. Plus, I got to work with the amazing Johnny the Boot, which is always amusing.

Art Tip

Don't put antlers on invading aliens. It makes them look stupid, and would be very impractical for any space traveling species.

I am Thomas Hart Benton, and I approve this message.

Five years late: I get an iPhone

Big fucking deal.

They are free now.

You can return to your lives.

4th most powerful woman in the world reads a teleprompter.

It is a huge foundation that does loads and loads of good work. They are nice people. The security was unbelievable. Airlock doors that need to be shut before the opposite side can be opened. Tank trap level bunker gates on the loading dock. Inside people are solving world hunger, disease and poverty, but they are concerned about zombie apocalypse.  Melinda Gates can read off a teleprompter like a pro. It was quick but the room had echo and maybe a little RF interference. Otherwise it was a fine day. This is the producer in the eyepiece of the camera.  On the left is the DP. It was not his best side.

I came home and worked on  a painting that includes antlers.

Hippy Feminists cleanse the Pallete

After the semi-shame of "the Bachelor", the following day I did a background piece for two people who were going on the "the Jeff Probst" show. They were a retired couple, Harvey Sadis and his partner (they don't like calling each other husband and wife) Harriet Coe. He was a elementary school teacher and she had been an attorney and a judge. Back in 1972, instead of getting married, they entered into a contract that expressly stated their expectations for their partnership and their lives together. It was sort of like a super pre-nuptupal agreement. It was a cause celeb and was hailed in MS. Magazine and made the wire service. They were really interesting people and very inspirational. Their house was a funky throw back to the 70's but obviously lived in by people who live lives of great thoughts and actions. They themselves were fit and very smart and were just the type of people I hope Laurie and I are when we are that age. I really liked hearing the unabashed feminist and unapologetic progressive liberal statements come from them. It was just the right tonic to the sad program of the day before.

Harvey turned out to be the cousin of Stephen Sadis, a friend for whom I worked a few years back, and he also knew Andrew Tsao, a UW drama professor who was a friend in the distant 1980s.

A  terrible picture of Rick's hair loss and Harriet.

Circus comes to town and demands our daughters

A couple of years ago, I did two days of location shooting for "the Bachelor": a strange reality game show that is a fever dream of the 1960's Frank Sinatra rat pack- one eligible hunk gets to to pick from 25 jaw droppingly beautiful women in an orgy of sleaze and market based sex capitalism. In the end, he is more or less expected to marry the "winner", there by confirming the sanctity of marriage (because obviously, could gay people be expected to turn the search for love into such a vaudevillian Benny Hill carnival?).  That shoot was a follow up to a previous season bachelor and his chosen vestal virgin who were getting married in a spectacular TV wedding.  The "bachelor", who seemed fairly normal, told us on the crew, in abject candor, that he was aware that he had bartered some of his personal life off as entertainment for regular people. To his credit, he did suggest that instead of ABC spending all the money on his wedding that they build a hospital in Central America and they get married on the beach- his betrothed blanched at the idea. Also, on that shoot, we watched how reality TV is rehearsed and done in multiple takes, dialogue is suggested and famously, after one interview answer, the producer said to the bride: "that was great, could you do it again, only cry this time?"  She obliged, eagerly. The sausage we prepare, never seemed less appetizing.

The Bachelor called again this week. It was background story on one of the commodity women for this season. This time there was less pressure and only one producer, who was both very pleasant and very competent. (which is another interesting irony in this business- some of the most decent people participate in making  some of the most bitter sleaze). We went to a very modest house in the north end, met a really nice middle aged couple and their daughter Katherine was of course, stunning. Half Filipino , half  Italian,( she reminded me of a little of Laurie at age 26, who was / is likewise gorgeous, funny and smart) she told us she thought that she was the token non-blonde. The interview was fine, she seemed both too intelligent, too funny, and less needy of her 15 minutes of fame  to be seriously signed on for the fairy tale matchmaking of soft core porn reality show. She answered all the questions in the manner of some one who knows what will make it to the final cut. She expressed real enthusiasm about the potential for marrying the "bachelor", who was a particularly hunky underwear model, runner up from the spin off show "The Bachelorette"- which obviously turns the table- one woman- 25 sides of beef.  It seemed fake, or I hoped it was. I liked her mom, who seemed very level headed, skeptical but supportive and teaches Special Ed at Roosevelt HS,( and knows my friend Karl Ruff).  I gave Katherine a ride to the next location (where the producer had her doing "Monkees" like lock down effects shots that were hard to watch, they were so sad.) and she impressed me that she was just doing it because it was weird and would be fun to talk about at cocktail parties in the future. We took the ferry and did the stock "approach to Seattle from the water shots" and they actually had her ride a fucking unicycle in shorts (cue the clown music) at Kerry park like the talent competition for the most surreal Miss America contest ever.  People were actually getting married in the park at the time, the irony against the charade of courtship and marriage of this show, which I am sure was one of God's most excellent jokes. I couldn't help thinking about my friends like Rick and Ray, with pretty, intelligent teenaged daughters, and how they would feel offering them up to the volcano

Starting a new painting.

I haven't been painting for the last couple of months and have started a new painting. (this is NOT it)  It's hard to start again. I get very afraid to commit to it, so spend several days doing sloppy backgrounds or roughing in areas and purposely not doing anything important. This is the worst part of it, where you get great ideas but you have zero confidence that they are achievable. I wish it were as simple as running up to the studio and painting for 20 minutes at a time and shazam COOL ART THINGIE!!!!,  but it's not. Sometimes that's all I can do, 20 minutes because that's the time I have, because dinner needs to be made or the lawn mowed or Tom wants to play badminton (his present passion).

First world problem.  More embassies are burning today. I have a bad feeling.

The FUTURIST

As the cold or flu began to bloom, I was employed to provide audio services for a major stock photo content provider for their company meeting with THE FUTURIST Thomas Frey. It was interesting and most everything he spoke about seems likely,  but also, some seemed far fetched and/ or sort of obvious. He seemed very thoughtful and provoked some interesting questions. One man finally suggested that the privacy concerns were pretty overwhelming and a couple of people though that the constant barrage of information technologies might be too much for the human brain to withstand.

It was again, strangely scheduled: it took 45 minutes to set up and then we took a 2 hour lunch (Shangai Garden- vegetarian stuff- excellent food) and then wandered up to the Wing Luke Museum.  It was an event and I was abandoned by the PA providers and left to handle the inevitable grotesque audio feedback the event wireless made whenever some one strayed in front of a speaker. I hate doing audio for events because things go bad.

Voice Over recording at Gates, then home to begin sickness.

Title says all. Random photo is not meant to be connected to said events. Today I work at Getty Images on  something. My life is a whirlwind of mundane activity. Embassies burn, the world enflamed, I have a cold.

More work. Papa's got a brand new bag. And I still think my wife is hot.

More Bill Gates. (see his coffee table) More stuff for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation archives (strangely scheduled: we had a 4 hour lunch that Joseph and I actually could eat at the Market and visit the Seattle Art Museum between interviews). I have a new audio bag which is awesome and I feel like a ninja wearing it.

Blah blah blah.

 Tom likes his school so far. Dealing with new kid stuff: nobody to hang out with at recess, etc.  Ned's school is very frustrating: his Chinese class has no teacher and ten more kids than desks while they sit for an hour and do not do anything. I wrote a nasty note to the principal and expect one in return. I love public education but hate the mediocrity. I wish I could send the kids to private school but I am unsuccessful, so I am stuck.


Oh, and I still think Laurie is hot, even when drinking hot liquids.

The tempest of old age and decline

The Machine that holds Bud tied this world is breaking down.  For many years he has cheated death, gracelessly avoided the pitfalls of old age while veering near the edge, but always returning.  Once during his last heart surgery the surgeon came out and gave the family the "We did all we could for him" speech, only to have him to the Doctor's surprise, recover fully later. The last few years have been full of close calls and hospital trips. Overnight and week long stays.  Late night calls from ERs asking for his healthcare directive paperwork and panicked drives to Eastside hospital rooms in the middle of the night, trying fruitlessly to talk to everyone, on a cell phone cradled like a violin. Tonight it happened again. He has been getting progressively weaker the last few weeks, so much so, we have been talking about more care and wheelchairs. It's too much for my mom to take care of him now- she's 89 and he is 90. Today my sister called and told me it had been a tough day and he had been unable to walk, and after being helped to the men's room at a restaurant, had become confused and lost inside, forgetting what he was there for or how to exit. This man was a powerful decision maker all his adult life: it is predictably hard to watch him swirl on the edge like this. I am waiting to talk to the ER nurse tonight at 11PM. At  midnight they admitted him to the hospital.

Tomorrow is Tom's first day of school and a new bus ride and he is nervous. I am going to take him to the bus stop and wait with him. A huge milestone for him in some ways, as this is the advanced placement school across town. And all I can think of is Bud, as he was when he was my little league coach, and how what is happening now, would never have seemed possible then. I think of what I must look like to Tom as we will wait for  the bus; the grown up who is steady and always there. I see a future Tom or Ned racing to our sides at some hospital ER and it all just seems like a very poorly designed, infinitely repeated carnival ride.  I am dizzy. When will I forget how to exit the men's room, forever changing my kid's image of me from strong parent to wandering, befuddled shell?

On! Into Canada : A Lethargic Trip to The North

The family took a small vacation to the frigid northlands. We rode cool ferries! We stayed in expensive hotels! We saw the little frozen Singapore of the North. It was a nap in a semi foreign country. We saw belugas at the uber expensive Vancouver Aquarium! It was nice to see Amy and William Azaroff and their son Ivan: they are wonderful people.

The hotel we stayed at, in Sooke Harbor on Vancouver Island was new and very strange. It was as if the people who built it had seen a photo of a nice hotel and took it to Home Depot and asked them to build it. They had it all right, but everything was slightly off; from the swimming pool that it took an elevator and four doors to get to ( even to just see) to the hidden elevators and the flat screen TV in the bathroom.

I am frightened to think of what " Mr. Lube Kid's Camp" might be.




Vancouver was interesting. It once was like visiting Everett. Now it is truly a real city and has a vibrant downtown and insane real estate prices. It really does share a lot with Singapore in that regard.

For the record: I do not vacation well. I never know what I should be doing and nobody in our family ever truly wants to do a damn thing. For myself, I just wander around and try to get through it. The family follows my lead, some times we follow Laurie and it all can become sort of muddled. We are pretty awful travelers.