Date Unknown

I know that it has been years since I have posted here but I decided that I should give it ago again. Now with there being so many avenues for photos and videos it doesn't make any sense to post any of that here anymore. This was something that I struggle with for a while, "What the hell do I post here". Finally sitting down and thinking about it today it became a little clearer. And now, a poem that I wrote at some time, although I apparently didn't date it, which I almost always do:

Date Unknown

I have been told
That for a better life,
of meaning, of things
its wise to meet, make friends
But to do so depends 
on malleability, on the soul.
When you get to my age,
made is made and not to 
be undone. Maybe finding
friends would seem more favorable.

Why live in a world of such turmoil 
and American dream about other sides?
A decision in need of revision.
Dreams are just dreams, and it seems
we'll never make up our minds.

Maps for Travelers goes Hollywood

This is where I was able to spend my Sunday morning as I was asked to be a stage hand for Sib Delicious who was hired by the band Maps for Travelers during their early morning (10:00AM) performance. Okay, that doesn't sound that early, but for rockers (and myself) whom didn't sleep much that night before this was a bit extreme. Which I suppose is the point?

Checking the levels of our handy work.

Checking levels again

This is the moment before the show starts, where the band plays about half a song for a final sound check. We finished with 15 minutes to spare.

I believe this is called The Calm...

Before the Storm

This is what a 10:00 AM rock set looks like

This is Sib Delicious, one of the best PA producers in the metro

But he's also a down to earth dude, I mean, look at him.

Sib working through a song, constantly checking levels.

Multi-instrument rockers, I know that is generally the case, but a trumpet?! Your argument is irrelevant.

All packed up and ready to go, but not before check a glimpse of pit row.

This was my first time out to Nascar. It is vastly different from any other sporting (like the one across the street! Hey-0) arena in the metro. To try to sum it up in a sentence, I would say that it is the most chillaxed group of 120,000 people I have ever been a part of.

New Venture Film Photography

This is the from the first two rolls that I captured.  I got some light leak somewhere, but I am thinking I can get it fixed.  I am 29 and have only been doing film for about 10 years and photography for about 5, so it's safe to say that I don't have much experience with film cameras. One of the great things that my fiance is bringing into the relationship is a Hasselblad medium format film camera. So I have been tinkering around with it a little bit and watching vids on the Youtubes in hopes of finally playing with it and getting some cool work out of it.  So much can go wrong with digital in just equipment that sometimes its hard to identify user error. O, but not this guy, nothing but cranks and springs and gears.  It really is the basis for what genuine photographer is, plus film just had a different look to it that is hard to explain.  Anyway, these images were pulled from two rolls that I took here in the Kansas City area.  I had them developed at Photographx Unlimited because I wanted to support local before I thought about sending this stuff off in the mail to anyone. I feel like they got the best out of these considering the light leakage. Hope you enjoy them, or enjoy tearing them apart, whichever. But know that there are more rolls of film coming in the mail so there will be more showing up soon.

From a Trip Suzanne and I took to Tulsa, OK to see Norah Jones. I had to stop in Picher, OK to see what all the fuss was about.

One of the writers on the upcoming short that I am working on. He we see him in his natural habitat.

Nicholaus James is the director of this up and coming short.

Chris Bylsma is playing a lead role an in this moment we see him searching for a Snickers bar.

Shadowing sketchsters being sketchy

Giving out the Whats, Whens, and Wheres, and Why(for actors)

I got caught.

And so did the train

I'm sick and it is Terrible

Saturday night until Mid day Monday I was constantly running a fever, which I haven't had since the mid 90s. It also feels like a demon is destroying my intestines.  Well now the fever is finally gone, but the demon still lurks in my belly, appearing about every 20 minutes and staying for about 10.  It has not been fed anything beyond bread and crackers since Saturday. But this demon apparently doesn't feed on human food but rather human organs. I'm down 3 pounds. I miss food. I'm tired of Pedialyte freeze pops.

The Bet

Whereas, a wager shall be accepted by both parties (Michael A Lopez Vs. Michelle Morrison) regarding the employment status of Tony Romo at the  Dallas Cowboys of the NFL,

Whereas, Michelle Morrison wagers that Antonio Romiro AKA Tony Romo shall be employed with the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL and offered a new binding contract between this day and the opening game of the 2014 football season,

Whereas Michael A Lopez wagers that Antonio Romiro AKA Tony Romo shall not be employed by the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL for the 2014 football Season,

Whereas, both parties agree to the wager of two tickets for attendance to the first game to be played by the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboy Stadium in the 2014 football season,

Whereas, both parties agree to invite the winner of said wager as guest to previously mentioned NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium,

Whereas, both parties agree that loser of said wager shall be responsible for covering the cost of said tickets only, and agree that all other costs associated with, but not limited to, the attendance of the said football game shall be solely responsible to the individual in which additional cost can and shall be incurred.

Whereas, the commissioner of this bet shall be Robert Barrette, furthermore; any and all arbitration shall be brought forth to the commissioner for final decision.

Let it me known, that on this 4th Day of February in the year of 2013 that this agreement has been made between Michelle Morrison and Michael A Lopez for the purposes therein, and shall be binding in all cases expect those of death.

Out of Paper

The grip that I had was tighter than any before
not quite enough to make fingers bleed
Nor able to extinguish what is once possessed

Whole civilizations were built under your guise
flat as we saw the world, as we saw you
and America looks like China upon Niña eyes
your spirit of we the people created them, those

All but exterminated we build a new, Sooner
Never were you alone but always together
worth his weight in gold with you, or without
we've made due with fruit, with timber

But full of spirits and thought and you,
you are no where to be found anew
only used, no spaces left
no one to tell this tale and so it shall die

Still a use for paper exists

Digital Lecture

Newspaper ad dollar, 20 million of those
Same level as 1950, classifieds down 92%
pitch the print since 2000
Craigslist indeed

Storytelling, one producer for many consumers but
its many producers for many consumers, even
many producers for few consumers
Journalism is now open for free markets

Advertising equals Hey you! Buy this.
A campaign needs to be entertaining
Youtube views and friends sharing with
friends of strangers

I don't sell stuff, I offer experiences
this is a new drug
Our work needs to be social
We must bring the audience in

Trash out Thursdays

This is a story that begins when I began my shift at a watering hole local to central Overland Park.  I began working here almost two years ago as a way to earn some extra money.  It has since become a place that I go to get paid to vacate my house for reasons other than filming something.  As such, I really have no life and am very money hungry, but more to the point.

Thursdays bring in quite the group of eclectic has-beens, nerver-weres, and never-had-a-chances.  This is due in part to our friendly staff and atmosphere, mostly however; it is directly attributed to $.75 alcohol.  So as the night goes on I decided to guard the back door, this is to ensure no one enters without paying the cover as well as making sure no one tries to sneak out the back with booze; A no-no in the great state of Kansas.

At some point in time I notice two very enthusiastic dumpsters fires that are not too pleased with the cover charge.  From here on out they shall be characterized as "Lithium Fire" and "Old Smokey".  LF is about 24 by my guess while OS is about 45.

OS was not very happy about having to pay the cover but LF had convinced her that it was a good idea and that they would enjoy themselves here.  Now upon entering our bar something was said to LF that brought about a reason for her to pull her pants down and show us her bare ass.  Now first off, I dunno if she is unnecessarily proud or just stupid, but this is something that no one should have been subjected to, especially so soon in what would turn out to be a long winding relationship.

Unfortunately for me, OS needed a cigarette as soon as she got inside and proceeded immediately out to the patio, where I was posted in the corner.  Of course she found me and began to talk to me about:  How she had been drinking since 2PM (it was around 10PM). How LF was a closet meth user.  And how proud she was of her three sons, one of them being named Michael as well.  Well, his name is actually Tristan Michael.  He likes to go by Michael, which we let slide for now; but come adulthood that mother#@$er is Tristan.  Now while she was talking to me about all this LF decided to disappear into the darkness of our bar.  Furthermore, all the other bouncers had discovered that I was being verbally abused and decided to add their own two cents in.  We have walkie talkies with ear buds so of course OS can't hear all the terrible things they are saying about her, how much I appreciate these thing apparently, and all the terrible things I would do to her given the chance.  I'm sure you can guess what they were saying so I won't go into the terrible details of that.  On a side note, they were all impressed that I didn't lose it once and kept a straight face the whole time.

Finally I am free of her as she needs another drink... or so I thought.  Turns out the guys had purchased a rose from the flower lady that peddles her pedals to our customers.  They then promptly gave it to OS and told her that I thought she was the tops and deserved it.  I stayed outside and began talking to other patrons when I see her return to the patio, but this time she has a man with her and they proceed to head out to the parking lot to exchange... things (vomit).  She returns back to the bar about 5 minutes later and finds me as I am hiding from her behind other customers on the patio.  She proceeds to tell me how sweet I am for getting her a rose and how much she appreciates it (all news to me).  Well I didn't want to make her feel like a shit so I went right along with it.  The guys thought that this was just too funny and were so proud of themselves.

By this time LF has resurfaced and is pissed off at these other girls, when the other bouncers ask her why she says because "She didn't take her medicine. She's a lil bi polar, and drinking doesn't help it".  I walk away and laugh and claim victory, because if I am going to give a rose to someone (without my knowledge) I apparently picked the right dumpster fire.  OS heads back out the parking lot with yet another guy, LF is bouncing around angry, people are laughing at me, and we aren't even really that busy.  Anyway long story short towards the end of the night I told OS to make sure she called me and gave her the bouncers number that actually gave her the rose saying it was from me.  LF is that last person out the door, berates the other bouncers for being rude because they would use their tongues to clean up the spillage on her cleavage.  She says nothing to me because she knows I'm "interested" in OS.  How ya like meh now!!!

The Apple is bad

So I have just recently upgraded from a 2007 Macbook Pro to a 2011 Macbook (trust me it is actually an upgrade) and have also recently made the switch from FCP7 to Adobe Premiere CS5.  Everything was going perfectly fine and well until I had to pull in some pro res footage from a shoot many moons ago.  Being that I shoot with DSLR predominately, I up until now had never realized this to be a problem since CS5 natively works with the the H.264 footage from the DSLR.

Now here is the real dilemma; since I no longer have any "Pro" software from Apple on this machine I am not able to use the free codec download that is available from Apple.  What a freaking headache.  But I have searched the bloggersphere and have found this that I will be reposting here.  Further; I followed all these instructions AFTER upgrading from Quicktime Player 7 to Quicktime Pro, so I am not sure if that step is necessary for this to work for you or not.

As I found out, thanks to Thomas Worth, one doesn’t need nor Motion or Compressor from FCP to work in Premier Pro 5 with Pro Res 4444 encoded .mov files.
You can download the Apple codecs here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396
You’ll have to unpack the PKG file and install the codecs manually,
because Apple doesn’t want you to install them unless you have Final
Cut Pro already installed. Use a utility like unpkg to extract the
files, then copy them into /Library/QuickTime:
You can download unpkg for free here:
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
After one done all that, PrPro5 and Adobe Media Encoder automatically add these codecs to Quick Time export codecs and work with Pro Res 4444 .mov containers natively, and I would say even smoother , than with .MOVs .
To me, in such setup CS5 Production becomes the best option for Mac.

This information was posted by a Sergey on September 25th 2011

Here is the link to this specific post if you would like to read the entire post.

Full Post


Thanks

I hear what you're seeing

"I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus-- the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company of man."

 "Blindness separates us from things but deafness separates us from people."

                   ~Helen Keller

Mistakes

You can't erase what it is that is yearned,
And the things that are done, are done.
To pick up the pieces from what's begun,
Try to show the world what was learned.

Weed through all the garbage, the advice
nodding at the difficult and trash, like this piece
Hoping that you'll take heed and seize these dreams
But perfect you're not, what was learned is now forgot

Closed Roads

Its been about a year.  A year since we discussed ourselves on the open road.  It was all worked out, I would do the driving and you would provide the playlists as we swept across the country.  Of course the plains would be the starting point, what else do we know really.  The beauty of this trip, this once in a lifetime trip is that neither of us knew where we were going.  There was no need for a map, just driving forward, lest one of us had the urge to lean right, or possibly left.  So much of the country to see.  So many instances to stop, jump out of the car and run across flint hills.  Pause a moment to make a snow angel in the OK dunes.  Enjoy a Polaroid with the historians of the Ozarks.  Just take a moment to look around corners and find spaces under rocks none others have found.  Too busy with the board room or that final edit.   Relegated to the passage of songs and pictures shall this trip be enjoyed; neither one of us willing to budge in the wrong directions.

October 11, 2011

Enough

Life is this game, a rat race.  Sometimes you will feel as though every goal, every task, every desire has been met, completed, and fulfilled.  Other days will find you asking what you are doing it all for in the first place.  Nobody ever ends up at the end of the street that they started heading down.  Either way, through the highs and lows, it will never be enough.

And in this rat race that will never be enough, we yearn.  We yearn for more tomorrows and gasp at the amount of yesterdays that have graced us.  Is 40 the new 30?  30 the new 20?  The truth is there is no new ages.  40 is 40 and 30 is 30.  These things will never change and the things that you wanted to do when you were 18 will never be the same things that you will want to do when you are 28.  But what matter is it to you if when you were 18 you had the time of your life?  Furthermore, who cares what you did when you were 18 is 28 feels so great.  Either way, having the ability to ponders tomorrow and reflect on yesterdays will ensure, it will never be enough.

And in this rat race that will never be enough, we yearn for which we do not have, wondering if one day it wi

A Broken People

I'm sure we all understand that we are not perfect beings.  Not a single one of us can be the first to cast a stone.  While this is blatantly obvious, perplexing is the thought that at any given time one person can be the change.  Make the difference to see all that has been hidden from you previously.  Its nothing more than the blind leading the blind.  We all have suffrage and dilemmas which make it impossible to see what the horizon bestows upon others.  Those others still will yearn for what they themselves have missed that you so desperately cling, as if it were to disappear at any moment.  We are not adults out of spontaneity, we are planned, molded, developed, f@#^ed.  No one is designed so perfect as to see all that others have to offer.  Maybe being satisfied with the knowledge acquired is just an excuse to not covet what I don't understand.  Remember this though, this in it of itself, laissez-faire, is not something people are just born with.  It is a calculated mechanism in which those overloaded with experiences are reduced to interpreting none as opposed to selecting pertinence or worse yet, interpreting all stimuli.  Over time, the failed plans, failed developments will begin to show through.  Most of us have been quite successful in hiding flaws as we are instructed to do so early in the molding.  Every now and then we will unfurl these truths for others to bare witness.  To see what is so closely guarded.  Those that witness may make an attempt to mend this tapestry, change or add what they see before them, make a complete piece of a broken fabric.  What is failed to see is the exquisite differences between theirs and yours.  Both are misshapen, riddled with holes, poorly colored in areas and beautifully polished in others.  The idea here is to not fix what has been presented, rather to be in awe of how different a life can be planned, molded, developed, and f@$ed within the same species.  Though one day the two fabrics may become one, in the beginning; they hadn't the slightest bit of similarity.


This piece was written 21 Dec 2011.

Yet to be titled Video

I am currently in the works of putting together an music video for an undisclosed band at the time.  They are undisclosed as I haven't mentioned that I would be blogging my ideas and what not.  Anyway, I am approaching this piece as a 3 minute or so silent movie, that just so happens to have a song slapped over the top of it.  I have consulted a couple of people and am definitely needing to consult a couple more but I am beginning to think that what I have is starting, slowly albeit, to head in the a good direction.  The idea that is currently running through my head is as follows. (And remember, it is coming right off of my head so if it doesn't make sense, well, then you see how my brain works.):

I am thinking that World War III has just ended about 4 years prior.  This was a war of nuclear arrogance and as can be imagined, the world is in ruins.  A population of 7 billion humans has been decimated to roughly 50 million.  These people are now indigenous to the areas in which they survived.  Formerly, The Midwest United States, The Russian Tundra, Antarctica, Greenland, and Northern Canada are all that remains.  These 50 million are those that are deemed healthy.  All others living are referred to a roaches.  Roaches (so named after experiments during the 20 century demonstrated their resistance to radiation) are humans in spirit, and not much else.  Most no longer have faces as they are generally severely burned.  Most have never stood a chance but some, some have began their treks to the safe zones on the planet as there is no flora, or fauna to be eaten in their native waste zones.  In the former state of Missouri a pharmacist at an unknown place begins feeding a female roach that has made it to the barrier.  She carries with her a backpack, full of masks.  These mask have come to represent her mood as her face is covered in cloth, too burned to recognize the humanity she once had.  Most roaches approach the bluff and attempt to climb to the safe zone, but with little success.  The Pharmacist begins feeding her for two reasons: 1. she still wears a cross around her neck and 2.  She never attempted to climb but rather just knelt, not to pray, but just to wait, hoping.  A bond quickly develops between these two.  Our pharmacist continues to feed her and and occasionally creates new masks for her, as hers are so badly worn.  We also see he is beginning to not see, but create the love of his life in the masks that he is creating for her.  The bond deepens and soon he begins to devise a plan to bring her in to the city, bring her into the safe zone.  The food he has been feeding her has heavy doses of (insert drug name referencing Iodine here) so he believes that the city shall be safe.  Further he can finally prove that his treatment works in an effort to help others across the world.  He sends notes indicating his ideas and gets her to agree to spend her days here, above the bluff, with him.  The night of the attempt the Pharmacist is standing by waiting for her to appear through the tunnel in which she was instructed to enter.  We discover that the masks he has been creating are replicas of his deceased wife, who did not make it through the war. 

Now I have this ending one of two ways.  1.  He reveals the cross that he has been wearing this whole time, she emerges from the tunnel and he lives to quickly die of radiation next a second chance wife.  He dies happy and she becomes patient zero in the treatment of nuclear radiation exposure.  She is grateful to save humanity, sad her pharmacist is no longer with her.  Upset that the treatment that she help guinea pig is not being used for the other roaches, who begin coming to the bluff in droves, kneeling, waiting, hoping.

2.  He reveals the cross that he has been wearing this whole time, many roaches emerge from the tunnel as she has disclosed the plan to many in an effort to save her friends, her "species".  The local authorities are quick to react to the breach and in doing so kill the Pharmacist while he is watching her run by, with a weeping mask on.  She is sad for him, ashamed of having mislead the pharmacist.  She removes the cross from her neck and throws it behind her.  It lands in front of our pharmacist, a blank and dead stare.

Corporate Frenemies

Hello, this is what competition is all about.  Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.  I think what I like about this commercial is that is pokes fun at the culture that has become synonymous with Apple buyers.  At the end of the day folks it is still a corporate company, just like Samsung, Wal*Mart, Goldman Sachs or any other company that Occupy Wall Street is currently protesting.  Occupiers protesting Apple?  I just blew your mind didn't I?

Render Queue

I have a couple of clips that I am rendering out so I thought I would take the time and write a little on here.  So lately, I am trying to remember what it was like before Facebook existed.  Before I was connect to 500 plus people every waking moment of the day.  It makes sense that we as humans yearn for such a connection and yet its also a curse.  I have so many of these friends and hardly ever talk to any of them.  And when a conversation does spring up it tends to be empty and half-hearted.  Lately it seems as though that is really the only kind of conversation that I have with anybody.  The GF works and goes to school enough that we don't get to spend as much time as we'd like to.  It's funny that when we do have a real conversation it throws me off a little bit.  It just doesn't happen often enough.  But, we will have this holiday week.  Finally.  Yay!

There was a time in my life when I was spontaneous.  When I had a list of 20 people that I could call and something interesting would materialize.  These times, that list of 20, the something interstings; they have all eroded from my life.  What replaces them is a constant push in business interests in an effort to make more money.  The goal is to make my 30's more enjoyable, more travel and what not.  I am maybe growing impatient waiting to work through the next 3 years.  It is partly my fault for this dilemma because there was a weening effort on my part as well.  Those moments of spontaneity became less and less interesting and more revolved around drinking at some location.  Soon the location even became mundane.  A look at those 20 folks today will not reveal anything different from those same folks ten years ago.  So what am I supposed to do for fun now?  Searching for it is getting a little tiresome.

Holiday Rush

Excuse me, I am trying to get out of here.  Well, it is the holiday rush, so who are you to sit here in line as if you had nothing else going on.  My clients are needing all there work yesterday.  The very fabric of their family structure hangs in the balance.  My edits could make their season or crush all hope of their survival.  Just as well, I have a house to clean and grill to prep.  We decided this year Thanksgiving will be done here at home on the BBQ.  Yeah it is a little non traditional but non the less I still need supplies, and fast.  Have you no plans other than to stand in this line and listen to me rant about the season.  And don't even get me started on the gifts.  So many gifts.  I think people refuse to by anything for themselves the last quarter of the year in hopes that others will do it for them.  Don't see much good in that do you?  See, I figure folks just end up getting disappointed really.  Sure they may get some of what they want.  Who the hell really knows what they want anyway!?  They only thing I want right now is to get the hell out of this store.  I have a client meeting in an hour and phone conference thirty minutes after that.  Shit, wait.  Maybe it was a conference call in thirty minutes and a client meeting an hour after that.  Bah!  What is with this lady anyway, who needs that much Koolaid the Wednesday before thanksgiving.  You know you don't say much man.  My clients are kinda like that too.  I need an assistant; she. . .(pause). . . or he should be here doing this.  I think I have waited here so long that it is actually costing me money.  Look at this damn toy.  I don't even know what this toys do anymore.  But the bosses little girl needed something, right?  Hopefully I'll get a promotion out of this or something.  It's $60 dollars.  In fact look at all this shit in the basket.  None of its for me, except for the toothpaste.  Ridiculous I say, I'm going to spend $135 dollars.  Know what I'm gonna get outta the deal?  That's right, toothpaste.  Well, theoretically it will save me hassle and nagging later, but you know what, I think it just gives everybody to check something off the to do list and move right on down and start up on the next one.  Hell I wish I had a nagging list,  too busy filling other people's request.  You know what would be number one?  Getting the hell out of lane 13 here at this damn store and getting to the damn meetings and phone calls that I am can't even remember the damn order and time of because I am too busy buying whatever the hell this toy is and rendering out this video before tomorrow so that I can relax.  (Pause)  Well hell buddy if you don't wanna here what I have to say you can move to another line.  Look sir all I am doing is trying to vent.  And I never touched you so I don't think that was very appropriate at all.  Bah, shit. other loud noises.  Look officer this guy shoved me first.  All I am trying to do is buy this stupid toy for some kid that I don't even like and get out of here to a meeting.  No I don't have time to go with you and talk about it.  Shit Shit.  O come on, man.  Are the cuffs really necessary. Bah!!

Unobscured

I continue to spit because this life is disgusting.
But what else would you expect from a child left behind


"And why do some many people like The Twilight Series but no one is a big fan of The Host?"

"Let me ask you this; would you rather give your daughter the life that you have been giving her now, or would you like to work towards giving her the world now.  I mean look at you, sacrifice this and sacrifice that, what the hell do you think you are already doing?  You might as well push through and give her what you think she deserves."

"Pancreatic cancer is the #4 killer in respect to all cancers?  What the hell could the first three be!?"

"He loves the wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle part"



That all that I really have right now.  Sorry. It's kinda terrible

Saturday Unedited and Unproofed

Well I let the leaves get out of control.  I should really get outside and get those raked up.  Also the cars need to be washed and wax before what I believe will be another harsh winter.  Not as harsh as the late 80's early 90's.  Some of those years were just brutal from what I remember.  And certainly not with a snowpocalypse like what we had last winter.  That wasn't so much of a snowpocalypse as it was that the various weather teams across the metro predicted it so accurately.  When the hell does that ever happen!?  I also need to get the cars washed and waxed for the impending winter doom.  So interesting that such a harsh season could be my favorite.  Very simple explanation really, see in the summer you are left at arms length from the ones you care about.  The personal space is so much bigger when it is 100 degrees outside.  Humans produce about 800 BTUs of heat every hour.  Doesn't seem like much considering your grill probably does around 35,000. Yet when it is so warm outside I just. . .it's too damn hot.  But the winter, O the winter is when you realize how much value that heat has.  Especially when the personal space can be invade with someone you love and the doubled BTUs can be shared.  A walk on the plaza, a cold night in, movies, parks, tree lights.  1600 BTU's is the only to keep it, 800 is just so lonely.