Coming in October

(Sketch Deemer)

Varmints, the libretto, will be C. Deemer's fourth Round Bend publication.

Happy to have this in the autumn.  It's a hoot, quite out of the mainstream.

I saw the premier of the play years ago.  Never saw it as a libretto in those days, but that's Deemer for you, always exploring the edge.

The author also recently informed me how to link in the new Blogger interface.  So you know this guy knows what's up.

TS

An Ordinary Sunday

I don't like the new Blogger at all.

I prefer to use HTML in composition to post links in a paragraph's body.  Unless I'm doing something wrong (which I very well could be, but the point is I haven't grasped what it is yet), the new blogger is buggy.

When I switch to compose after writing my text in HTML and installing my links, which I like to do to see how things look before publishing, the post's paragraphs close.

Several times, I've had to open them again in what amounts to a tedious reformatting exercise.

New Blogger looks all space age to me, like a late-model car's dashboard with too many doodads and thingamajigs.

There's probably a way to revert to the old template, but I haven't figured that out yet either.  Sounds like another step that I'd rather not bother with.

Oh well, even I'm tired of hearing myself bitch.

I didn't manage to see the UO spring game on television yesterday, but it sounds like the Ducks may have a front runner in one of the PAC's best quarterback competitions headed into the new season.

Marcus Mariota had an 82 yard touchdown run, which is quite a feat for a quarterback.  Generally, quarterbacks are not among the fastest players on a college team, or even a pro team for that matter.

As effective and savvy as he was, Oregon's Darron Thomas certainly wasn't very fast last year, particularly after banging up a knee.

Oregon's two best running quarterbacks in my memory, both of whom could also throw it, were Akili Smith and Dennis Dixon.  Kellen Clemens had decent speed, but nothing like Smith and Dixon.

Older Duck fans remember one of the fastest in the storied history of good Oregon quarterbacks.  Reggie Ogburn couldn't pass, but he was an elusive and speedy option quarterback.

Sounds like Mariota has the speed and the arm to match Dixon, a Pittsburgh Steelers backup QB.

We'll see how it goes about 16 weeks from now when the college season starts.  I'm looking forward to that.

Finally, I was browsing through my traffic report at Feedjit a little earlier today.  There are sure a lot of people around the world interested in tattooed tits.

I don't particularly dig tattoos, though tits are nice.  But to each his own.

Dudes and others, if you want to see tatted ladies sans clothing this probably isn't the best site for that, but thanks for dropping by.


TS

Rough Cut #2/Roadside Narrative

This fragment has a little different feel than the one by Mr. Connery, who shot and cut the scene in the following post.

I shot this footage and cut it together.

Which begs the question.  Can a DP and producer/director get along aesthetically?  As in politics, compromise is in order.

This scene, or something similar to it, might make a decent opening.  But then again, it's very early in the shoot.  The two minutes combined in this clip and the one below don't make much of a dent in a 30 or 60 minute program.

Yet, I think we've made a fair start.  Both scenes have their strengths, which I hope to build upon.

I have a lot of material to work through, and I'll periodically post other scenes, partial or otherwise, to gauge how things are going.

The gathering is just beginning.

In short, game on.

The music is by my ex-neighbor Dan Faehnle from his Ohio Lunch CD.

If Dan sues me I'll be happy.  Oh, and Dan, in case you read this, I'd really like to use your music on the final cut.  Contact me if there is any chance of doing that.

I think Rush's commentary, a happy accident of the shoot, is perfected irony in this context.  But you'd have to see more of the movie or read the book to fully appreciate that.


TS

Rough Cut #1/Dreams of Journalism

This is a rough cut partial of the "Dreams of Journalism" chapter from my memoir. I'm not particularly happy with the script or my voice in this scene, but I think the images are quite good.

There's something to work with here, given a little rewriting and the right voice.

Terence Connery, my DP and editor for this segment of the shoot, put this clip together.   In case you're not aware of it, a lot of work goes into making a one and a half minute scene like this one.

The soundtrack is Oscar Peterson.  Attention heirs:  This is a short promo.  Mr. Peterson's music will not be on the final commercial version of this project, unless you want it to be.


 TS

Zen No Zen

After coming home yesterday afternoon and editing a short scene from the Sweet Home footage for A Marvelous Paranoia, I'm convinced the project has the potential to be what I imagine it to be--a docupersonal based on my memoir.

Yet something else is at play under the surface, and I'm not sure I know what that is.  Am I creating a self-indulgent prank, or a meditation on the past?  Could it possibly be both?

Why in the world would anyone but an understanding fellow narcissist care?

It is a perfect thing to be painted black.  I hate this project enough to make it complete.  The task is unavoidable, and I will spend hours honing it.

What is clear is that the project itself is an aspect of the struggle, another moment of not knowing.  It seems then that the entire point is to demonstrate that while one would like to know, the quest is often fool hearty.

I would do Zen rather than this if I could, believe me.  But then I do not think that would make me happy either.

So I do this instead, whatever it is.


TS

Day Two/Cascadia

SWEET HOME, OREGON--The second day of shooting for A Marvelous Paranoia was neither as intense nor as busy as day one.  Partly that was due to the awful weather that returned to Oregon yesterday.

I'm happy with what we were able to accomplish in a day and a half of concentrated work at any rate.

Some things weren't there for us yesterday, such as clear pictures of Three Sisters, and the soda springs at Cascadia.  The springs were capped, with pollution warnings posted prominently.

Ah, the will to despoil nature persists!

We did spend some time at the high school, where I had a nice chat with the principal and we grabbed some important video.

Also, I was interviewed by the local paper, the New Era.  Perhaps a piece will show up online that I can link to later.  If it happens, I will not forget you before accepting all the awards that are sure to follow.

Later, we edited a couple of scenes to get a feel for what we've accumulated.  Lots of good stuff.

Assembling it will be the trick as we build the piece into a whole.

This project has just started, but I feel like we've had a good start.  Naturally, a lot of work remains.


TS

Into the Valley

Dateline--Sweet Home, Oregon.

I'm very pleased with today's shoot, as my DP Terence and I grabbed a lot of good imagery for the video-telling of A Marvelous Paranoia, my memoir of growing up in this town (9,000 pop.) at the eastern edge of the Willamette Valley.

In Millersburg, just off Interstate 5 north of Albany, we concentrated on the massive--what else--mills that dot the landscape and jut into the sky like great, grey concrete monuments to a fading, yet surviving industrial age.

A few minutes later, searching for the house where my mother lived for many years after I left the Valley for adventures in New England and California, we drove through a maze of impoverishment, effectively creating a drastic counterpoint to our earlier view.  The rundown neighborhood was dominated by a trashy, dilapidated mobile home park that looked like meth central for the entire region.

The contrast between Albany's industrial well-being and its hopelessness was a reminder of the resounding imbalance that rules today's America.

We drove on to Lebanon, which has a charming Main Street in spots.  Terence and I walked the length of the old retail section, rolled tape and revealed a community fighting off the influence of the big box stores situated at the edge of town.

We grabbed shots of the farm country between Lebanon and Sweet Home before checking into our motel for a brief respite.  Then we were off to the offices of the New Era, the weekly community newspaper where I worked  when I was a teenager.   Terence photographed me searching the newspaper's archives for the first published stories I wrote in the late sixties.

As we were wrapping up those scenes, Scott Swanson, the co-publisher and editor of the paper, asked Terence and I to return to his office tomorrow.

I guess he plans on interviewing us for a story in his newspaper.  I can't think of a pair of more deserving guys.

From there we visited my parents' graves at Gilliland Cemetery in the hills on the east side of town.  It was sad up there, but beautiful.

A good day.  Time to rest and plan for tomorrow's shoot in the Cascade Mountains.


TS

Into the Past

This graph shows the plunging median value of homes in Sweet Home, Oregon since the Great Recession of 2007 commenced.

I'll be in Sweet Home tomorrow to gather video footage for a documentary of my experiences growing up there. 

When I attended elementary and high school in Sweet Home the economy was better than it is these days. Logging and the wood products industry thrived there in the sixties.

In a addition, two large dams were built along the South Santiam River east of town.  Workers came from all over to secure the plentiful family-wage jobs that sustained the community.

By my graduation in 1969, those jobs were thinning rapidly. Today, Sweet Home is sustained by the remnants of its once huge logging industry, a few mills, and tourism.

The city is home to the yearly Oregon Jamboree, a country music festival featuring many of America's bestselling country acts.


TS

Video Project Nears

I had a meeting yesterday afternoon with my video crew for the Sweet Home shoot. We're prepping for our initial gathering of footage for the video narrative of my memoir, A Marvelous Paranoia.

We were lamenting that by Tuesday, when we drive to our first locations, the beautiful weather we're briefly having in the Pacific Northwest will likely return to normal--that is buckets of rain will threaten to overwhelm us.

We were discussing the project in a beer garden exposed to the glorious, life-giving sun, on a rare gorgeous Portland day.

Then we reminded ourselves how important reality is to the project. That is, it rains here in Oregon nine months out of the year. While being what I consider a humorous look at growing up in Oregon, I'm also reminded that a certain pathos guides the book, and that is to a large degree a circumstance of the sadness that afflicts Oregonians susceptible to dismal skies.

Pictures of the very clouds roiling in the mid-Valley, hinting at the kind of darkness that sometimes consumes the unwary among us, are in fact apropos to the narrative.

Falling rain is necessary.

Rain is as elemental to an Oregon artist as big waves and sunny skies are to a California surfer.

Provided we can keep our gear dry, I welcome the rain, for rain is an underlying aspect of the story.


TS

New Blogger

Since my last post on Thursday things have changed at Blogger.

Now I am trying to figure out the new big ideas confronting me in an entirely revamped template.

The overriding question is WTF? Did I want this? Did I ask for something new to mess up my mind? Why can't people leave well-enough alone?

I was perfectly happy with the old template, the one I've used since 2010 when I started this site, the one I never completely mastered to begin with, but at least grew comfortable with.

All I know is the old Blogger did the job the way I wanted the job to be done. Now I feel like I'm starting over.

I have things to do today, and now I have to deal with this?

Well, here I go.  I'm pressing the Publish button.  I guess I'll know if I've figured the posting part of things out in a few seconds.

I know I'm destined to have trouble with the new design and gadgets functions, and the like.

Jeez...


TS

P.S.  Wonderful.

RIP Levon Helm

One of the transcendent moments from The Last Waltz (1976).

Gifted musician and actor Levon Helm dead at age 71.

Late add-on; this from PBS's Quick Hits.


TS

At Oregon: Smoke Weed and Win

This is not big news. However, it is interesting that some of the players claim 40 to 60 percent of the team smokes.

There are more potheads in the sports world now then there were 40 years ago, when I played football for one season at Southern Oregon College. But even back then players smoked, just like their hippie classmates.

Talk about culturally induced lifestyles. Of the four black players on the SOC team that year three of them smoked. The other one didn't feel like putting his commercial piloting dreams at risk and abstained.

Irwin was a great guy, but the other three were funnier, particularly when I indulged with them.  Marvin was the funniest, a tall wide-receiver with pitch-fork hands who speared the ball out of the sky.

I prefer my pilots be tested and my football players be left alone.

I played baseball at an Oregon junior college the following year.   Amphetamine was the go-to drug of choice on that team. I always figured that was because baseball can be sleep-inducing; speed keeps you awake, and ready to field that liner flashing towards your forehead if you play third, as I did.

The chief difference between then and now, I'd guess, without having any evidence of it, is that speed has probably lost favor among athletes, while pot consumption has likely grown along with its general use throughout American society.

Amphetamine is still the drug of choice among violent criminals, however, along with booze.

Pot prohibition is one of those silly laws that rankles for its lack of common sense. Alcohol is far more damaging to the liver and the soul.

Believe me, I should know.

I would argue that driving under the influence of anything is bad, particularly NASCAR. There are enough naturally stoned, redneck drivers out there already, along with a vast segment of people whose licences should be revoked because they can't park.

In fact, I'm not much of a pot smoker now, nor have I ever been. I've socialized with it in ways that I haven't with booze, that is in a more earthy fashion. Drinking can easily become compulsive and addictive. Look around.

When I go on a drinking jag, bad things tend to happen. Nothing violent happens usually, but one's motor reflexes and good sense diminish rapidly, unless one is Irish.

Weed has never overwhelmed my good sense like booze has on many occasions.

I laughed reading this article; a player noted--and I've heard this many, many times--"I don't even like beer, so I don't drink it." He had those loathsome munchies when he confessed this.

In order of their wasteful effects on humans, I say booze is number one, television is number two, and consumerism is number three. Stupidity ranks fourth.  Or, arguably, number one-A.

Pot is way down the list of my concerns, believe me, but try telling that to a politician who seeks the Christian voting bloc in an upcoming election.

We're a nation of hypocrites, no doubt about it.


TS

Tom Clark Recovering from Accident

I'd noticed two weeks ago that poet Tom Clark wasn't making regular posts at his blog, Beyond the Pale.

I hoped he was simply on vacation or engaged with other projects, but the thought crossed my mind that something bad might have happened.

Indeed, Tom suffered serious injuries when a car struck him while he walked near his home in Berkeley on April 3. His wife Angelica writes that he is better now, but also faces an ongoing series of medical appointments on his way to a full recovery.

You never know, folks. You never know.

I'm a little out of the loop with this.  I've never met Mr. Clark in person, so I'm obviously reporting something that his close friends already know about.  We have on a few occasions written short e-mail notes to one another regarding literary matters.  His praise of the Deemer brothers' poetry was one of the best things to happen to RBP last year.

From those communiques and his work, I gather Tom has a great spirit and understanding of how things are--and just as importantly, how things could be--in the world.  He has a view I admire, in other words.

Luckily it wasn't Tom's turn this time. Here's hoping for the best and Tom's full-time return to masterminding one of the most thought-provoking blogs on the Internet.


TS

Mixed Bag

(Stott Field, PSU)

Running a publishing empire like this one can be a tad stressful at times, but I have to say that today has drifted past with great ease and a sense of calm.

A rare day in that regard (and I know this isn't an empire, but I thrive on my lame jokes). I feel relaxed.

Generally I'm grinding, bursting with insecurities and confusion, and a sense of not knowing.

Today? Just living the life and hoping for the best.

Saturday evening, I took a number of long strides in learning the new RBP editing system that I eventually plan to use to produce what I hope are videos a notch-step above what I've created in the past.

A broadcast television pro who, as he describes it, works in the "belly of the beast" helped me enormously. We'll see what transpires with my new-found understanding, or what I hope is understanding and not another dead end.

Additionally, I'm editing the third book in K.C. Bacon's trilogy of New Rotterdam tales, which should be ready for publication by late summer.

That's going well.  I think I'm a good editor, not of my stuff of course, but of other things that pass under my nose.  This part of the job always levels me out somewhat.  The nuts and bolts stuff that clears my head and makes me think I'm contributing something of value to the world.

I like to think RBP has published some quality books to date (do tell me otherwise if you want Buddy Dooley to smack you upside the head), and I believe Bacon's latest will fit comfortably into the oeuvre.

What else is a man to do, I ask you? This is a racket after all, not unlike attempting to sell small figurines to equestrian-loving damsels.

Or a stack of baseball cards to a Cardinals fan.

BTW, I went over to Stott Field on the Portland State campus the other day and took in a Viking spring football practice, as has been my habit since moving into a nearby neighborhood  a couple of years ago.

Maybe I'll post a little practice video here next week, like a football blogger.

I'm liking what I see from the Vikings in the third season of Nigel Burton's coaching tenure. Burton has his players and system in now. I look for PSU to make the playoffs next November.

Burton has the team playing fast and focused. I'm not a big fan of Chip Kelly at Oregon, but his influence on the college game is readily apparent. Kelly is a big-time practice coach and his methodology has spread throughout the college landscape.

His mantra is "play fast, hard, and finish."

That's what we say here at Round Bend as well.


TS

Tutorial

My DP on "the project," a video-telling of my memoir, A Marvelous Paranoia, came over yesterday and worked with me on RBP's new video editing program.

People pay good money to tech institutes to learn what I received for free yesterday (Note: I'm not claiming I retained all of it, but it was a fantastic opening).

After 30 minutes of familiarizing himself with the system's terrain, Terence turned into a magician in front of my eyes. That's what it was like, watching this pro go to work with the tools at hand, the first time he'd ever seen them.

To an editing pro, a concept is a concept. All editing systems are not equal, but editing is more than the available tech. The convergence of tools and artistry make the editor. A million dollar system won't help an editor who hasn't imagination and vision.

For me, the editing program is a maze of technical chicanery; in his hands it was notably simplistic. He was already off on jags of creativity while I sat gaping at the possibilities.

I've done some editing in my time, but not to the level I witnessed in Terence's smooth operation.

Terence and I are shooting the first video scenes for the memoir project later this month.

With this fellow as my DP and editor, I project a winner.


TS