Mojowski

still shot from our film project, Mojowski 77.

here Mojowski's car is pulling up to strip club. Shot it in a normal parking lot then added all the neon in post.

spring 2010

the spring 2010 media class. UCLA - Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. Professor ( lol ) William J. Barminski presiding.

the wife and her boyfriend

lol. He is from Germany and is 17 hands. How can I compete?

poppy fields

yes, poppies. California poppies. Whole hillsides of them.

Chris, Rose and I took the hour drive out to the Poppy Fields. You can see them miles away. Big swaths of orange on the distant hills. And as you get closer the orange light is everywhere. It is really amazing. Hill and dale full of flowers.

And the aroma is like a drug. More sage that anything else. All warmed by the sun and fragrant beyond belief.

Vivian

Vivian is gone. We got the call around 11 pm and drove for 2 hours . We walked into the ER and saw her. She was still breathing all hooked up to tubes and machines. But she was really already gone. A massive brain aneurism.

Somethings are like lightening strikes. A bolt out of the cold black night. They illuminate so much more than the trees. You see a quick flash of your own awe-struck eyes. Then all is dark again.

They took her, lovely sweet Vivian off the machines and put us in a private room with her. We stood the death vigil. Every breath you could hear and feel. After about 3 hours her breathing became shallow. And then it just stopped. It is a strange experience. One of those adult things. As much as I hated it, as much as I wanted to run away and hide, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else. A person deserves to have those who loved them be with them at the end. As much as it pains us to be there we own it to them.

back to school

a new quarter has begun. ( we at UCLA are on the 10 week quarter rather than the normal semester ) So I have a new cast of characters to engage with. All new faces. I try to pick out the one's who will be good and the one's who'll be slack. But it's far too tough on a first listen. Everyone tells me how much they want to be in the class and how hard they'll work. Time will tell as it always does.

But I love being on campus. When I stroll around I like to picture myself as a 22 year old in Austin, Texas. Wide-eyed and full of wonder. I see the faces of the young people and send myself back to that moment when I was them. For a brief moment I am fresh-faced and naive.

And I am truly lucky. I get to work here and teach young people and be a part of this great university.

sprung

spring has. Been sleeping with the windows open at night again. Cool fresh air and the far off noise of the city all night. So good. I always remember the last and first day of the year we can keep the windows open all night. And now it is spring and the orange blossom fill the house with their fragrance.

I love waking up in the middle of the night. I can hear the hum of the city in the distance and feel the warmth of my wife next to me. The cool air drifts in in waves. The skunk stops by at some point and noses around at the screen door. The cats snore and crowd the bed. I tuck into the pillows and let my mind wander off.