So, this last weekend (July 12-14) I produced a short film for the 48 Hour Film Project with my friends Marcus, Heath, and Chuck. What an experience. I had done this last year as a part of the DivX team and learned a lot. Much of which I brought forward this year. The most important thing I learned last year is to have people understand their role in the project, and keep people focused on that role. As well as keep people from trying to other people’s roles. Overall, I think the project came out good, it could have been better but we made a few mistakes and some bad calls on scheduling. I think we were over ambitious and tried to make it bigger than it needed to be. Additionally we didn’t get enough actors lined up and when it came down it I ended up playing the lead. (I have no acting experience, none, nada). Fortunately Pearl is experienced and worked with me so I could pull it off (Man that was a tiring day).

The event started out with a big gathering up in Sorrento Valley where we would draw our genre and receive our three vital components to the film, character, line of dialog & prop. We met Tyler, Kirk & Pearl there as well as running into some fellow DivX people and Marcus’ sister-in-law who was also competing. Basically none of the groups can leave until everyone has their genre to keep it on an even playing field. They called our group up to start drawing genres and Marcus idled his way up there. We were the second to pull our genre and we got……….Road Movie! Gah! I had road movie last year! Ah well, its something we can work with. The other components were Alex/Alice Gromm a County Employee, A Spoon, and the line “Keep that thing away from me”. With that information we hopped in the cars and headed back to the house. Read More »

Last weekend Alison and I went Moto Camping. Basically, we took the motorcycles out with camping gear and went for a ride along with finding a nice place to camp. Sunday evening we rode up to my Mom’s with all our stuff and had a nice evening. My bike is the pack horse of the two. Basically, we fit everything we needed for 4 days (with exception of food) on my bike and Alison’s tank bag. Tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp stove, books, small cooler, and various other sundry items. I had picked out this place called Silverwood Lake as it was up in the mountains and a lake. I assumed it would be like Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear Lake. Bad assumption. It was pretty much like being at the river. Hot. Our first stop after my Mom’s was to Bill Mayers Saddles. I bought a new 1200GS and wanted a good seat for it. The stock seat was nothing less than a medieval torture device and does not belong on a motorcycle. This time I went with Leather and boy does it make a difference. It takes more to care for the saddle, but its comfort level is far superior to vinyl. I’ll post some pictures up later.

Around 2 PM we wrapped up and went upon our merry way. It was pretty warm but as we went towards Valencia it became brutally hot. I would guess it was at least 105, then you combine the heat coming off the bikes it gets even hotter. Our original route would have taken us through some scenic mountain roads but due to the heat we figured we’d just take the shortest route across the 138 to the mountains. Our only point of relief from the heat was when we went through Wrightwood. It cooled down quite a bit but as soon as we came off the mountain it was hot again. We arrived before the sun went down so after setting up the tent, I left Alison to finish setting up camp and I shot into town on the BMW to get some food and campfire for the weekend. I followed the 138 up to Crestline from Silverwood Lake. If you follow the 138 out of Crestline heading north, you’ll see the super twisty road that I rode through. Very fun, very exciting after dark. One thing they always tell you, never go shopping hungry. I ended up with a full shopping cart, a bundle of firewood and a new small cooler. People in the parking lot were saying “Dude, there’s no way all that is going in your bike.” I proved them wrong. everything but the firewood and cooler fit in my bags, and I strapped the firewood and cooler onto the luggage rack on the back. And I was off and away!

We met some new people, Chris and Valerie. Very cool couple with their kids. They were up from Santee with some friends. Definitely great neighbors to have while camping. There was some small wildlife in the area. Frogs making noises in the trees at night, psychotic squirrels assaulting your campsite and making maniacal laughter in the night, and lots of small birds of many colors in the area. The next two days we hung out, kayaked, walked around, napped, and I read Call of the Wild by Jack London (In one sitting Tuesday afternoon). If you haven’t read that book, I highly recommend it. Its a classic, and a short read. Its about a dog, but really its about life and the challenges you go through. The biggest thing that hit me was Buck’s transformation from a house dog, to a truly living animal. Something to ponder about your own existance sometimes. You can choose to exist, or you can choose to live.

The ride home we went through Idyllwild for lunch. It was even hotter on Wednesday. Lunch was nice, we met a guy from Hawaii who was working out of La Quinta and figured it would be cooler up in the mountains rather than down in the desert. He was right. After a good lunch at the bbq place in the center of town we hit the road to home. I think it must have been 110 out there Wednesday. We cut the scenic route short and cut over to Temecula to take the 15 home. I think that both of us were starting to get heat exhaustion. I was still feeling off the next day.

Until my next adventure! CIAO!