Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Bottles of Chance


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I've posted videos of this song before, but they were captures off of the TV screen; this is one that is ripped direction from the DVD and is better quality (also a different performance)

Monday, April 10, 2006

Boom Boom Boom


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How about a change of pace. Every June, Sacramento's Taiko Dan drummers perform here in Davis. I caught a snippet of their performance last year. Very exciting performers.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Videoblogging Week #7: Time to Say Goodbye


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The four older puppies have moved on. Sigh.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Videoblogging Week #6: Atmospheric Phenomenon


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I managed to catch a strange atmospheric phenomenon on video. I don't know that it has received nation-wide coverage.


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Friday, April 07, 2006

Videoblogging Week #5: Feeding Frenzy


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Now we have 7 puppies, four 7 week olds and three 2 week olds, who need to be bottle fed. The older puppies go crazy when I'm feeding the younger ones.


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Thursday, April 06, 2006

Videoblogging Week #4: Go Away Kid, You Bother Me


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The puppies haven't quite figured out that Sheila and Kimba aren't as eager to play as the puppies are.

Background music for this is Kettleman's Lustige Streiche, written by my daughter, Jeri. I used this in a dog video some time ago and as with that video, this one, too, seems almost to have been edited with the piece of music in mind (tho it wasn't).

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Videoblogging Week #3: Bird Carnage


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Was Alfred Hitchcock directing this film?

A "moment of zen."


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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Videoblogging Week #2: The Battery


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People suggested that the problem with my camera was that the battery was exhausted, so today the new battery finally arrived.


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Monday, April 03, 2006

It's Videoblogging Week! - #1


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This is Day #1 of Videoblogging Week...and an e-mail I received led me to make this video.


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Sunday, April 02, 2006

Pops Concert


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Another segment from the Davis High School Pops Concert 1986. Paul and his friend Paul singing a duet from The Music Man, and the Jazz Choir's finale, "One" from A Chorus Line.

The Jazz Choir was an award-winning chorus. It's surprising how many of these kids went on to perform professionally.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Xena


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Xena had been the runt of the litter of 11 and had been attacked by her siblings, which was why the litter was split up (which is how I happened to have Fudge, Curly, Greta and Blackie). So today, Ashley decided Xena was doing well enough to return to some of the litter and gave her to me. (I named her Xena, because I figure she was kind of a "warrior princess.") I tried working her in with the others, but ultimately I could see that it was not going to be good for Xena and I told Ashley to come and pick her back up again. But I kept this record of what it was like.

It's obviously "survival of the fittest" even in the puppy world.

Friday, March 31, 2006

What I Did For Love


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Not only do we have talented children, but talented in-laws as well. This is Ned's wife, from 1986 singing "What I Did for Love" at the high school Pops Concert. She later went on to be the trombone player in Lawsuit and the sultry chanteuse whose rendition of "Fever" was always one of the high points of any show.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

The Infamous Shoe Caper


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My kids always made movies with plot lines. Not necessarily GOOD plot lines, but plot lines nonetheless. "The Infamous Shoe Caper" was made when my youngest son (who would be 33 today) was still in high school.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Rainy Day Play


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It rained very hard today, so the puppies had to play inside. They loved it. I'm not so sure about me, however!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Searching for Josiah


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My mother, my cousin and I went on a search for the schoolhouse where my great-grandfather taught. We visited the tiny "museum" in Inverness (California), the compound where my grandparents and several of my aunts lived, and my mother reminisces.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!


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Here is the first video of our new foster puppies, 6 week old labs mixed with something or other. Meet Fudge, Greta, Curly, and Blackie.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

The Last Day


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We had a mini night on the town, then got stuff organized and I took Lynn to the airport. This video is interesting for the confession of a bartender I happened to catch on film!

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Hyatt Regency Hotel


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We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Embarcadero in San Francisco (where they filmed parts of "High Anxiety.") Lynn was most excited about having a space to iron. Go figure.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Therapy


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There are all kinds of "therapy." For us, we went for "shop therapy" and "MQA" (Massive Quantities of Alcohol)...Actually MQA is a misnomer...we're older now, so it was more like "massive quantities of aqua...but still fun anyway.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Lunch with a Princess


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I'm back!

I had a wonderful time with my friend, both here and in San Francisco.  This is the first of a 2 or 3 videos about our time together.

This particular video is our lunch with our former co-workers--midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners, clerical people.  Only two still work in the same office and we hadn't seen each other en masse in years.  It was a fabulous afternoon.

(I'm just sorry I didn't get the conversation about vibrators, but I was laughing too hard) 

 

Friday, March 17, 2006

Taking a break

It had been my intent to continue posting videos while my friend Lynn was here, only taking a break for the days that we would be in San Francisco, but I'm discovering that it's more fun to visit than to work on a video, so I'm taking a break for a few days. I will be back on Thursday, after I return from SF.

I don't kid myself that more than a couple of people will even notice, but I didn't want to disappear without an explanation.

So this is the last entry until the 23rd, when I get back home again. I'm having too much fun to actually write about it or make a video!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The Princess


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My friend Lynn arrives from Texas today. She's always said that she wants to be a princess, so I'm planning this visit as if she is.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Dandy


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Very brief movie of a very sick puppy.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A message home


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This may be a funny video only to me. Ndangi from Zaire had lived with us for awhile and learned English here. Now Victor, his cousin, was living with us and learning English. He was making a video to send home to his family and wanted to introduce them to David, who speaks no French. This video just makes me smile. It's short.

Monday, March 13, 2006

The Dysfunctionettes


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In another lifetime, I worked in an ob/gyn clinic, where we had parties for the usual holiday events. My friend Lynn and I were in charge of the entertainment. This is a song I wrote the lyrics to for our Christmas party.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Devil Dog III and IV


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The puppies did grow and as they got older they got into show biz. They soon starred in their own short feature.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Frolicking


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Last video of "puppy week." The puppies frolick on the golf course.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Meeting Teddy


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At Easter time, the puppies went to the family dinner and met Teddy, a Cairn terrier.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Yogi's balls


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Yogi discoveres ben wa balls.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Bath Day


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When you are housebreaking puppies, there is a lot of stuff to clean up. They step in all sorts of things. So it's time for the puppies' first bath.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Puppies come home


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Yogi and BooBoo having been chosen, now they come home and learn about their new surroundings.

Monday, March 06, 2006

It's Puppy Week!!


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It's the start of Pug Puppy Week. My son Ned and his wife Marta have two pugs, Yogi and BooBoo. The dogs are pretty old now, and Yogi is literally on his last legs, but in going through old videos this weekend, I found lots of footage of the two little guys as puppies -- choosing them from among all the other available puppies, bringing them home, and the first weeks in Ned & Marta's house. The videos were so darn cute that I decided to devote a week to Yogi and BooBoo. This first video is making the puppy selection.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Little Friend of Mine


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This was one of the first videos I posted here, but I had recorded it off of the TV screen and the quality was very bad. Now that I can dub from VHS to DVD and then record from that, I have made a better copy. It seems appropriate to close the "Paul videos" with this recording of the song that he wrote for David's memorial service.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

New Puppies!


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The SPCA is going through a population explosion and ended up with FORTY-FOUR puppies that needed temporary foster homes, so I ended up taking four lab/retriever mix puppies. It's supposed to be only for overnight. They are very cute...but exhausting!

Friday, March 03, 2006

Sedona, Part 8


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Finally, here is the "last act" of Sedona, Arizona, where Paul wraps it all up and talks about what happened at the show he put on in Sedona.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Sedona, Part 7


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Paul discusses his marriage and human cruelty to helpless creatures.

(This is the second to the last in this series) 

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Sedona, Part 6


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Paul discusses his life after David's death, his relationship with lesbians, and God's answer to a prayer

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

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.

Monday, February 27, 2006

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.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

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.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

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.

Friday, February 24, 2006

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.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Sedona, Part 3


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

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

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.

Monday, February 20, 2006

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


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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.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

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.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

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 .

Friday, February 17, 2006

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!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

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)

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Birthday Celebration #1


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

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Valentine's Day


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"We all deserve the freedom to marry."

 
or do we? 

Monday, February 13, 2006

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!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

The Internet Community


InternetCommunity
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The Internet is a strange and wonderful place.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

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.

Friday, February 10, 2006

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.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Fears of your Life


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

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

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!

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

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...?

Monday, February 06, 2006

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.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

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.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

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.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Happy birthday, David


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

Thursday, February 02, 2006

"The Drawer"


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

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

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