Held Hostage

PHOTO: Stock shot of jet taking off from tarmac...

I arrived in Dallas Tuesday to help celebrate my Dad's retirement. Nice party, good food, etc. We have had a good time hanging out (my sister and brother are here too, so it's a strange-but-nice family dynamic again.

For some reason (okay, it's some wiring deal on a ton of their planes), American keeps canceling my flight out of Dallas. It's like Hotel California; I've entered, but I can never leave. Yesterday morning, I got a call at 6:45 am (mind you that's 4:45 am pacific time, which I'm still on btw) from the AA flight info computer, giving me the news of my first cancellation. Nice.

I'm not complaining. Yesterday afternoon, my Dad gave me one of his old sets of golf clubs... that's cool. I haven't been on the links in 10 years, but I'll probably venture out to embarrass myself soon with my new weapons.

This morning, while checking my gate info online, I noticed that the flight was again canceled. No rude early morning call this time. Man, am I glad I didn't head to DFW and fight through it there.

The hard part is being away from the family. My wife is holding down the fort (and is perfectly capable of doing so, make no mistake) but I wasn't mentally prepared to be away from home this long - or work for that matter, but that's another thread.

Right now, I'm on the phone (er, on ever-hold) with American to see about getting a lottery seat on the next flight out. Holding breath... okay I breathed... holding... okay forget it, I'm just going to be over here waiting... tapping foot... mmm, easier.

Okay, the real person from the airline finally picked up and put me on another plane headed out this evening. Can I assume that the wiring on this plane is a-ok? Another day of work missed. I wonder if this flight is going to really go out, or is this just another tease?

For now I'm just blogging on my Dad's PC, which means I am not sure how to use it for the picture I wanted for this entry. That's okay, I don't care. Soon enough I'll be home to the Macs in the studio.

You can use whatever mental imagery you want for the implied photo above. (though, I do prefer you to conjure a working plane coming in for a perfect landing... on time... you get the picture)

The Passing of a Legend

One of my heroes just died. Charlton Heston passed away at age 84 this past evening. He was most definitely one of the few remaining true stars of the silver screen - a group of people that has almost completely left us. He had class, high morals, and he was even married to the same woman (Lydia) for 64 years.

His acting accomplishments are well documented, but I have to say that I believe it takes a larger-than-life man to play the roles of Judah Ben Hur (for which he won an Oscar), Moses and John the Baptist. The man that can pull off all of those roles in one lifetime without it going completely to his head deserves everyone's respect.


Some of my favorites of his other roles include: George Taylor in "Planet of the Apes", Stewart Graff in "Earthquake", Capt. Matthew Garth in "Midway" and Robert Neville in "The Omega Man" - a movie that Will Smith just remade entitled "I Am Legend". He also had the small but important role of Henry Hooker in one of my all-time favorite westerns, "Tombstone".

He was a man's man, not just because of the roles he played, but because of what he stood for. He was an Air Force veteran, a social activist in his latter years, and in 2003, he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this nation's highest civilian honor.

As I said, there aren't many genuine Hollywood stars left. I am however thankful he came along to fill the need Hollywood had for a true hero.

Charlton Heston has left an opening for the next genuine Hollywood hero. Who can possibly fill it?

New Projects Now Out on DVD

Last fall and early winter, I mixed a couple of indie features (one documentary and one drama-mentary), and they have finally come out on the market.

Morristown is a feature-length drama/documentary based on a ballet school in a small town of the same name. We had several sound challenges, but overall I think it came out sounding very good. (And myself being someone with a limited eye for dance, I think there's some great stuff of that sort in there too.) Check it out at: morristownthemovie.com. (no imdb page as of yet)

The Sophisticated Misfit is a documentary that follows the life and art of Los Angeles based artist Josh Agle (aka: Shag). He has a remarkable style that is often imitated, though never really equaled. (That's his work above.) See about getting the movie HERE. I have fallen into his fan-base, though unfortunately, I'll probably never have the opportunity to get one of his original pieces.

This film also had challenges in the production sound, but we got it dialed in pretty well, and I think the content of both of these movies makes up for any of the sound flaws. The filmmakers, Christo Garcia (Morristown) and Mark Chervinsky (Sophisticated Misfit) are now film partners, so they are collaborating on their projects. They make a good team.

He Is Risen

He has resurrected me too.

The Awareness Test

You may be surprised:

Sound Effects Doing Their Job

This is a great example of sound effects telling the story. The animation for Simon's Cat is excellent, but it's the sound that makes me laugh. Never underestimate the power of a quality soundtrack.

Drumming For A Lifetime, pt. 10

It's self explanatory, and it's beautiful.