Sedona, Part 5

Sedona, Part 5

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This is the one that's difficult for me to watch, where he discusses my sister's death and his brother's death.

Visiting Grandma

Visiting Grandma

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Walt's mother has been in a convalescent hospital for a few weeks, following her release from the regular hospital for treatment of a fractured coccyx. We stopped by to have a visit with her on Sunday and then went to a birthday brunch at a local cafe. (It was Walt's birthday that day, mine the previous week, his sister's the week before that.) This video may be more of interest to folks in the family than to anybody else.

SaysYou

SaysYou

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We flew to LA for a taping of the radio show, "Says You" (one of the panelists is a familiar face to bloggers: Tony Kahn). I don't know if I could officially do any videotaping, but I got braver as the evening progressed.

When Walt was 50

When Walt was 50

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I'm taking a break from the Sedona videos because February 26 is Walt's (my husband) birthday. He will be 66, but when he was 50, I threw him the birthday party to end all birthday parties. I dubbed the VHS tape today and decided to put part of it onto a video to remind him of what a good day it had been.

The thing was a roast. There were more than 100 people at the theatre where it was held. There was lots of music and I was so pleased with how it all turned out.

Sedona, Part 4

Sedona, Part 4

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Paul and Audra leave Sedona and head for Los Angeles, where Paul discovers something surprising about his spirituality.

Sedona, Part 3

Sedona, Part 3

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In this segment, Paul discusses the residents of Sedona and his examination of the famous vortexes.

Sedona, Part 2

Sedona, Part 2

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In this video, Paul explains how he came to decide to go to Sedona--and how he almost died on the way.

Sedona, Arizona 1

Sedona, Arizona 1

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In 1996, after David died, Paul put on his first monologue show, "Morbid Self-Attention," where he charged his friends to come to the theatre and listen to him talk about is favorite subject:  himself and what he had been feeling since David's death.

There were other monologue shows and the last was Sedona, Arizona, Paul's search for spirituality.  There are mixed feelings among the family about these shows, but the one thing that is undeniable--the kid knew how to reach an audience.  There was a lot of Spalding Gray in him.

Sedona had wonderful response from everyone who saw it.  It is funny, sad, emotional, powerful.  You laugh one minute and cry another. 

The response to Sedona was so positive that Paul decided to film it and try to market it.  He did the show for an audience and filmed it and the plan was to add music in between the various segments of the show.   In fact, the morning of his death, he had called band members to set up a recording session to work on the music for the show.

Well, Paul never had a chance to try to market Sedona, Arizona but now that I have it on DVD, I decided to post it on the Internet.   There are 8 different segments and I'm going to post one segment a day.  I think the first one is the weakest, the 5th one is the most emotional.  But the whole thing is still very good and each segment runs from 5 to 10 minutes in length. 

So today, I'm posting Sedona, Arizona, Part 1, in which Paul discusses barbershops and introduces his search for spirituality.

Test DVD movie

Test DVD movie

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We now have a DVD burner and I have burned my first VHS tape onto DVD (I'm so excited!). I'm testing a program for ripping that DVD into .avi format. Since it's a trial program, I could only get a 5 minutes worth of film and the first 2 minutes was not what I wanted to use. So here is about 2 minutes worth of the band Lawsuit at a club in San Francisco on St. Patrick's day in 1996.

Test DVD movie

Test DVD movie

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We now have a DVD burner and I have burned my first VHS tape onto DVD (I'm so excited!). I'm testing a program for ripping that DVD into .avi format. Since it's a trial program, I could only get a 5 minutes worth of film and the first 2 minutes was not what I wanted to use. So here is about 2 minutes worth of the band Lawsuit at a club in San Francisco on St. Patrick's day in 1996.

Birthday Cards

Birthday Cards

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I've discovered that you can have your card and recycle it too. As with our Christmas cards, I've also made a slide show out of the greetings I received for my birthday.

Wildlife Refuge

Wildlife Refuge
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I stopped at a new overlook at a wildlife preserve the other day. I didn't see any wildlife, but the day was so beautiful--the skies blue, the clouds dramatic, the air clear. I had to take a panorama shot .

Biking in Australia

Biking in Australia
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Shortly before I left Australia in 2003, I went biking with friends along the Indian Ocean. It was a wonderful day!

My Mother's Dove

My Mother's Dove
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There is a bird who keeps building a nest in a hanging basket on my mother's front porch. (This is a very short video)

Birthday Celebration #1

Birthday Celebration #1

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My birthday is in 2 days, and today my mother took me to lunch.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

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"We all deserve the freedom to marry."

 
or do we? 

Valentine Cake

Valentine Cake

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I was asked to make a Valentine cake, so I decided to videotape the process. Understand that I used to do this semi-professionally and was a LOT more professional than this!

The Internet Community

InternetCommunity
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The Internet is a strange and wonderful place.

First Signs of Spring

Spring
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It was such a beautiful day yesterday, I went out to see where Spring was beginning to spring.

Find-it

Find-it
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Sheila and I have a new game, but she seems to be determined to write her own rules for it.

Fears of your Life

Fears of your Life
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Writing isn't as dull an activity as you might think.

Trip to New Norcia

Trip to New Norcia
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Well, this video is a test. The program I generally use for slide shows (Pictures to EXE) now allows you to save your slide show in .avi format. The quality of the photos seems to be better than creating a slide show in Windows Movie Maker.

This is a trip we took to New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, now an historic place. It was spring in Australia and all the canola fields were in bloom. A beautiful day!

The Audition

Rehearsal
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I don't expect anybody will find this interesting except me, but I was going through some old video yesterday and came across this clip of Paul rehearsing for a movie or TV audition. (It looks like it might have been for a commercial)

Was he ever that young...?

No More Fosters

No More Fosters
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We were going to foster a new dog, Molly. Sheila went out of her way to make friends and it was all going well, but at the end, Sheila ended up attacking Kimba again, so I've had to decide not to take any more foster dogs while Kimba is still alive.

I just happened to be videotaping, so was able to get the attack on Kimba on tape (though it ends very abruptly, since I had to drop the camera to go after Sheila!)

Music for this is called "Bump as You Go," written by Ned about his dog, Bert, who died suddenly on Christmas Day, while Ned and Marta were in Hawaii.

KingsPark

KingsPark
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I'm sorry that I didn't realize, 3 years ago, when I went to Australia, that I would eventually get into video. It frustrates me to have so little of that trip recorded on video. But this is a snippet of Kings Park, overlooking Perth.

ProductTesting

ProductTesting
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I took it as a challenge. Peggy said she had used one of those new silicone baking pans for muffins and that it was a huge mess. I decided I had to try it out for myself. You. Are. There.

Happy birthday, David

Happy birthday, David
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Another birthday montage. David's birthday is 2/4. He would have been 34.

"The Drawer"

"The Drawer"
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Everyone has one. A junk drawer. Today I decided to see what was in mine.

AVtest

AVtest
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I now have a little AIPTEK DV4500, a "toy camera," (thank you) which saves to SD cards and uses AA batteries. It also fits in my pocket. It's more convenient to use, but not quite as good quality as the other one, but it sure is more convenient, and easier to film myself with the camera held at arm's length. This is a "nothing" movie--just a test to see how it all works and check the quality. It was a gray day, so not really a good test of the color quality