Saturday morning I walked over to Portland State and took in the Vikings' first fall football scrimmage. Then I had an idea related to that and a video shoot I want to do next weekend.
If something comes of it I'll post the piece next week, and I do think something special might be in store.
Last night I entertained myself with another documentary, watching Third Reich: The Rise and Fall. Not to be confused with the more familiar Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, based on William L. Shirer's mammoth 1960 study of the war, it is rather a smaller project that I found quite intriguing for its use of home movie footage shot by both civilians and soldiers.
I suppose I'm the last soul in the world to have seen these images, but they were new to me, so that was meaningful last night as I watched.
I've not seen much of the home footage for whatever reason, but it was nicely integrated with much of the familiar news, combat, and propaganda reels we are used to from documentaries about Nazism.
Or, perhaps I've forgotten some of the material. In that case shame on me, for it is the kind of stuff that should never be forgotten, even as we watch other disasters at home and abroad unfold before our eyes.
Fifteen years ago the late Michael Marantic showed me a home movie his father had made in Germany in 1938, and I thought about how well that footage would have fit into the movie I watched last night.
Marantic died suddenly a few years ago at just 43 years. I hope that valuable piece of family history found its way back to the family vaults, because it was really quite amazing and should be preserved for the record.
A month or so ago I read Jim Thompson's noir novel The Killer Inside Me, so I picked up another today and find myself once again enjoying his style.
It took me awhile to get to Thompson, but I'm glad I finally have.
The trick this week will be to combine that reading with some press-related reading that I'm committed to.
TS
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