Paul discusses his marriage and human cruelty to helpless creatures.
(This is the second to the last in this series)
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.
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.
I started this three years ago. We get so many photo cards at Christmas. Just like all of you, we watch our friends' kids grow up in our mailbox each year.
I'll tell you--I'm wondering what kind of audience I have out there. This is the caption I put on this photo: I finally have gone through some of the video I made at Thanksgiving and have put together another couple of videos. This one is the conversation and preparation that went on pre-dinner. See what Ned and his grandmother are chatting about--you'll be very surprised (she's not such a sweet old lady!)
I suppose I'm a couple of weeks early for an "end of the year" retrospective, but I got this idea today for what I wanted to do and ended up working on it so intensely that it was 1 p.m. before I even looked up. I had skipped lunch and didn't remember anything about any morning television.
One thing about living in California, we do have our "western" history. Old Sacramento, a special area set aside on the outskirts of Sacramento itself, has been maintained as a national historic monument, and kept looking much as it did when it was the last outpost before miners went up into the hills to search for gold. 
Years ago, Walt's uncle Ernie came to visit us at Thanksgiving time. While he was here, he took the boys on his knee and shared with them the secret of the "Baur Mashed Potatoes," which include adding an egg and making sure to leave in lumps.
I didn't much like my grandmother (my father's mother). When I was born, the first grandchild, she insisted on being called "Nannie" because she thought "grandma" made her sound too old.
You start out filming one thing and it ends up being quite another. I started out filming a report on the Christmas letters that I've written throughout the years. In the end, it turns a bit melancholy, but I guess that is to be expected.
Any day now, there is going to be a family who wants to adopt Latte. All I want for Christmas is a permanent home for Latte!
Well, after the angst, the sweat, the frustration, the certainty that it would never get done, it did, of course, come off just fine.
My boss, the entertainment editor of the newspaper (in the photo) gives my favorite kind of Christmas party--no stress, interesting people, fun things to do, and an amazingly decorated house. This video is mostly of the house decorations. Watch and be amazed yourself.
Second entry for today. Tomorrow is the day that my cousins and their spouses (9 people in all) will be here for a holiday meal. I've been talking about this for weeks, about getting the house cleaned up for them. This video was taken yesterday afternoon, midway through the clean-up. It's now 4 p.m. Friday and I'm still working--with lots more to do.
We went to San Francisco by train. Amtrak really has a good deal, where it takes you down to Emeryville, across the bay from SF and then buses you to where you want to go in the City. I love the space on the train.
I've always loved San Francisco at Christmastime. The fancy windows at the Emporium, the decorations on the streets, the feeling of Christmas. Feels like walking out of a Christmas carol.
Sometimes life isn't fair.
Well, there was a challenge issued by the guys who run Kitchen Arts, who invited people to submit videos demonstrating gadgets in their kitchen.
My great grandfather, Josiah Kirkpatrick, was apparently quite a guy, as my mother explains in this video from Thanksgiving. I was happy to have a video record of her talking about him. I don't know if my kids will appreciate it after I'm gone--but it makes me feel good (and now I know more about him as well!)
OK. This is a long video. No question about it. And if you didn't like Tom's story about the San Francisco airport, you won't enjoy this.
Latte doesn't know that Kimba doesn't like dogs. And that Kimba doesn't like to play. And that Kimba is a grumpy old lady. So Latte is this big bumbling puppy who tries to get Kimba to play.
