In the morning I be busy with the family, cats and dogs. then cooking for company. I may very well not be near the computer all day…so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
The following is a little holiday video I put together about ten years ago:
Syrup
Sapping season has ended. It was an on and off experience this year, and procuction was down by about a third. But it is my most beloved late winter activity. I especially enjoy adding the product to ice cream, baked beans, and just about anything else yo can think of!
Here is a video I made years ago that sums up the whole process:
Trained
I was suspicious the other day when I found the books on training pets open on the floor. My wife said she had not been reading them. So I put them back on the shelf.
Then, the other day, while it stormed, I provided a warm lap for overwhelmed cats until the birds came to the feeder. Shortly afterward, I comforted the dog, who did not want to go into the sleety snow. I also gave the cats enough catnip that they got pleasantly tipsy.
In short, I provided hugs and warm security to the demanding little brats who complained that breakfast was late, the treats were inadequate, and the woodstove was not hot enough. I noticed fewer purrs, rubs, and licks. Frankly, I missed my treats.
Talking with my wife, I laughed about them training us. They let us know when we do poorly and reward us when we perform our tricks.
Every week, there is a TV show, YouTube video, or TikTok about the best or worst pets. That’s the people’s perspective. The animals have their take on things, and I suspect it’s not about best or worst. It’s about whether you are trainable or hopelessly incompetent. Our “pets” goal is to get us to give them the Greenie treats on time, get the litter box changed promptly, open the door, or get that wood stove going. We get points for prompt feeding times. And when we do good, we get “good boy” head bumps, rubs, and licks.
They assume that I can be trained.
Signs of spring?
March is a notoriously traitorous month in New England. A few years ago, I put this video together about the first signs of spring in April. This year, we seem to be heading towards an early spring. And I wonder if we’ll be seeing these April scenes before the end of March
TV
My company supported a television production and media literacy program for about fourteen years at our local middle school. I’d trot across the quadrangle of town buildings twice a week to the school. We had a “hot set” studio ( a backdrop, temporary lights, and movable equipment to make it look like we shot in a real studio). The idea was to give the kids a film school environment.
During the years I taught, I discovered the seventh and eighth graders could indeed crank out some outstanding products. As they matured, I hired some for paid internships and videographer jobs.
Almost anyone can master the basics of running a camcorder. It’s the lighting and audio that can trip us up. Lighting that is too light, shaded, dark, or muddled confuses the eyes. Audio imperfections – crackles, hums, or extraneous noise are distractions. Both lighting and audio are hard to teach and harder to master. Why? The issues can be very subtle. When you edit the recording -in the background someone mutters. Or that a beam of light makes it appear that the person you are interviewing has horns. It’s easier to fix problems like those before you shoot. Sometimes, there is no solution you can afford in post-production.
That’s why in a class of ten students, three ran around. Two checked for bad ambient sound, lighting issues, and other things that can ruin a shot. The grips and gaffers would do their thing. The director reviewed the script. And the talent would check their hair – no budget for makeup. One year, a lighting specialist from an actual production company stopped by to see what his nephew was up to. Everything was running in a way he recognized as professional, albeit with simpler equipment and kids doing the work.
Motivations? They were in charge in class; I provided instruction, tools, and advice. It was a class where most of the projects were theirs to select – beauty pageant, soap opera, campaign ads, nasty oppositional smear ads, Or a madcap dollar chase through the school. For many years, we had a partnership with an English teacher. The scripts were written in English class and recorded in TV production.
The final payoff for the class was that all their “products” were used on our cable channels; they walked away at the end of the year able to say that they were TV professionals.
Strandbeest
Imagine giant creatures being propelled along the strand by wind power. Their many legs move in response to the power of the wind. These are Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest. At one reach, a bit risible, and at another, a meditation on how evolution might go under other circumstances. I had seen video clips of Jansen’s creations online for several years and wondered what their actual scale and construction were like.
My opportunity to see strandbeest in person came when the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, hosted an exhibit of Jansen’s strandbeest. Strandbeest are large articulated constructions, almost too large to be contained in an exhibit area. Jansen designed them to move about on the beach powered by the wind. In a museum setting, people provide the energy to move them about.
Periodically I like to watch the clips I recorded at the exhibit and the construction details. I enjoy thinking about what might happen if a herd of strandbeest suddenly appeared on a Massachusetts beach one day, moving in the wind and striding about.
Straandbeest from Lou Carreras on Vimeo.
Panic? I imagine the scene from a horrible 1950s Sci-Fi movie as beachgoers scramble to leave the beach, hauling little children in their wake and abandoning tubs of beer and food…screaming. Hmmm, I’ve been watching too many old movies, I guess.
On the Job
Do you enjoy your job?
It’s one of my favorite brags. I am not retired. I run a small access television organization full-time and am not retired. Yes, I do not labor as hard as I once did at other jobs, but I still supervise my small crew, handle technology upgrades and ensure the station automation is working. And yes, I do enjoy my job.
However, whenever I check in for lab work or visit a specialist, they all assume that being seventy-six, I am retired. So I make a point of having it changed to employed. But the next time I visit, it’s back to retired. It’s like I should know my place in the scheme of things, cease all toil, and do what is bureaucratically convenient.
Just today, our Town’s annual census form was returned to us; we had forgotten to sign it. But what was this? My employment status had been changed by the infamous “powers that be” from employed to retired. So I crossed out the handwritten notation with my note – ” employed!!!!”
I may not be retired at seventy-six, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a cranky old cuss when I want to be: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Play Time
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
I am a gadget fan, but despite being a fair craftsman, I never inherited the mechanical skills for taking things apart and putting them together that my father possessed. But I love to watch them whirr, turn and do something on the tabletop. I am continuously tempted by mechanical toys meant for my cat or dog – it’s a toss-up as to who is most entertained by them.
The other night I was having a conversation with one of my sons. He’d found a website with numerous kits for gizmos. Whatchamacallits. and gadgets. We spent a half-hour touring the site and appreciating the goodies on sale there.
I recalled Tom Paxton’s song The Marvelous Toy this morning.
The song sums it up so well:
Attack of the clone kittens
When he had time to sire this bunch I don’t know. But they seem to be identical to the “cute” Gray Menace, my cat from 1969 until he ascended to cat heaven in the mid ’80’s.
Shot in 1980 these adorable kittens haven’t come into the menace part of their inheritance, yet, just the cuteness stuff. But like their ancestor Clancy AKA the Gray Menace soon the desire for O negative blood will appear and mayhem ensue.
If I need a remembrance of what he looked like when young and still innocent I just have to watch this commercial
Enriched
I learned early on to always beware the quiet one. In any group of students, there was usually one that stood out by not standing out. They were never the ones to initiate a ruction, fight, or quarrel. Nobody was likely to finger them in a lineup and say, ” that’s the one officer!”
Growing up, this person tended to be me. I was held back in school several times as the family moved from Washinton Heights to Long Island to another place on Long Island and back to Washington Heights. Being perpetually behind someone’s curriculum eight ball made it hard for me to catch up and excel. Also, being the new kid, I attracted attention that I did not want. So I hid.
I was encouraged to teach a media and television production workshop to seventh and eighth-graders about seventeen years ago. Several times a week, I’d truck a pile of video equipment into a middle school to encourage the kids to produce TV.
It was supposed to be part of an “enriched education” project. I would get the best students. But, remembering the quiet ones, I insisted that only students who were interested and voluntarily signed up would be allowed in the program. I’d been thrust into too many “it’ll be good for you” situations. On a practical level, I didn’t want to be facing a bunch of sullen draftees eager to topple another shibboleth of education..
From the outset, I created the program to be a holistic, hands-on experience; there were classes but balanced with playing with the toys. The toys were professional camcorders, tripods, sliders, and even a small jib crane. Rather than some reduced feature computer editing software, they learned to use the current professional editing suite on an iMac computer. I was pretty amazed at how thorough an education in the area the students could absorb. Editing and lighting seemed to be where my quiet ones landed. The more unruly loved scriptwriting and acting.
After fourteen years, the program ended; it had been a terrific run. Every student departed with, at minimum, a good understanding of how modern media got created. Several students went on to film and video programs at college, became Youtube creators and musicians.
Through them, I had the opportunity to play with areas of television that were beyond my documentarian roots. For example, the students produced great commercials, did the video for an entire fictitious political campaign, and delved into creating a soap opera.
Working with me all the way were the quiet students who mastered editing, lighting, and storyboarding. Much like any professional team, you need a mix of personalities and aptitudes to be successful.
You must be logged in to post a comment.