Tag Archives: Work

Ode in Blood

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Movie Set Photo 7
Movie Set Photo 1
Movie Set Photo 2
Movie Set Photo 3
Movie Set Photo 4
Movie Set Photo 5
Movie Set Photo 6
Movie Set Photo 9
Movie Set Photo 8
As It Appears In the Shot


Dan sent the many photos displayed in this post’s gallery. They show the movie set that he has been working on for the past several weeks. The film is a graduate thesis project at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, in Orange County, CA. The film is called “Ode in Blood“. Here is a synopsis of this motion picture:

Ekwueme (E.K.) is a West African immigrant who needs money to bring his family safely to America. He gets a job as a handy-man, working for a very traditional and stoic Ensō Tanaka, who pays him handsomely for seemingly menial tasks. The two men begin to develop a bond that is put to the test when Ensō asks E.K. to help him commit hara-kiri: Japanese ritualistic suicide. E.K. must decide if he will fulfill Ensō’s wish; a wish that goes against everything that E.K. believes in, but that will promise to bring him what he wants most in this world: his family.

Most of the photographs are of the sets, while they were under construction. Some of the photos show the back of the set’s walls and how they were constructed. The final picture shows a camera shot of a finished set. One of the actors, I’m guessing that it is Ensō, is seen in this shot. I believe that this production shot was taken on the part of the set depicted in the Movie Set photo #8. I think that the two mirrors were transformed to look like the louvered windows. A pair of doors that Dan worked on are shown in photo #7. The following video is the teaser for this film. The movie is due out in May. I believe that it will be released on the Internet.

Western Indian Paintbrush

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Western Indian Paintbrush

Western Indian Paintbrush

They announced bonuses this week and mine was a good one. Of course, I have effectively already flushed the money down the toilet. I’ll use it to pay off last year’s sewer work. Even though the media seems to be hating on us and trying to make our dream look like a nightmare, none of that will be booked until next year. Live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself, that’s my motto.

The Dow, reached 14,000 today, for the first time in five years. This is a sign of recovering markets, if not the full economy. Last quarter’s GDP was down and last months unemployment was up, so it’s not all rosy news. Although, private sector hiring is up, government employment is down and as I mentioned, the markets are way up, critics still see President Obama as a socialist. He must be the worst example of a socialist ever. 😉

My house is underwater. Not the whole thing, just the basement. Our basement seems to have found a new way to get wet. We got a lot of rain this week. Our new sewer and gutters seems to have been circumvented by last year’s drought. Anne thinks that the dry weather has caused the soil to pull away from the foundation. I think that one of the supposedly uncloggable downspouts has clogged. The result is that now ground water is weeping up through all the cracks in the basement’s floor. At least it is now relatively clean water and no longer poo water. So, I don’t have to bleach the floor afterwards.

After Monday’s balmy 75 °F high, we’re back in the ice box again. This morning’s low was in single digits. It is enough to make one want to run away. Consequently, we started planning our Spring Break and now we are looking at New Mexico as our vacation destination. I was there, last year on business and this business trip to vacation trip model that we first pioneered several years ago in Florida looks like a repeat. When I was there on business last year, I mainly hung out in southwest New Mexico. This time we are looking at the north end of the state, Santa Fe and Taos. We are soliciting ideas on places to stay, places to eat and places to see. Please let us know your recommendations.

MetroLink

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MetroLink Over I-170

MetroLink Over I-170

The picture with this post is a photograph that I have wanted to take for quite some time. I pass this point every morning on my way into work. Occasionally, like this photo shows, one of the MetroLink trains is seen passing from left to right, as I pass underneath it. I know that it doesn’t look all that photogenic, but that doesn’t make this shot any less compelling to me. When you are engaged in a repetitive motion activity, like your daily commute, anything different is good. This MetroLink/morning commute meet-up has occurred often enough over the years to lose some of its novelty value, but it only occurs a few times per year, so it is still different from the norm. Normally, I am driving by myself in rush-hour traffic. So, trying to take a photograph is not only difficult, but also dangerous. Last Saturday though, Anne was doing the driving north, on our way for some birding at the Riverlands. I was in the front passenger seat and I had my camera in-hand, so getting this shot was relatively easy. It just took many years, for the stars to align and for this opportunity to finally occur for me.

12 People, 1 Purpose, Justice 4 All

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Frost

Frost

I was going to write a series of posts detailing the rape trial that I was a juror on this week, but Anne who is way wiser about all things than I, advised against it. Those readers who know both Anne and I, know that this is true. Those readers, who are not personally acquainted with us, will just have to take her word for this. Per her advice, I shall offer you an abbreviated and highly sanitized recounting of the trial.

The trial began immediately after the seating and swearing of the jury. This was on Tuesday afternoon. The prosecution called two witnesses, the alleged victim and the arresting detective. Beyond testimony, only one piece of evidence was entered, a recording of the defendant’s interrogation. Wednesday was consumed with watching this four and half hour DVD and hearing the defendant’s confession.

On Thursday, both sides rested and then made their closing arguments. We began deliberations by mid-morning. The bailiff locked us in the jury room. Per our instructions, we elected a foreman. She and another juror read the jury instructions. We were now ready to deliberate.

I was nervous going in, but the jury deliberations turned out to be quite amicable. We quickly reached agreement on not guilty. We all had problems with the alleged victim’s story, the chronology of the case and most importantly with the truthfulness of the confession.

I went back to work on Friday. One co-worker asked me, did I really think that the defendant was innocent or was there just not enough evidence to convict him? His question echoed the central point of the prosecution’s case, “something happened”. I still don’t know, if I agree with this assertion, but “something” is too vague a thing to hang a man’s life on. There was not enough evidence to convict.

Trials and Tribulations

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Western Indian Paintbrush in the Sand

Western Indian Paintbrush in the Sand

I was still in the jury box all day and I shall be there again tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow will end my civic obligation. I think that all of my fellow jurors share a similar sentiment. We would all like this trial to be over. This experience is interesting at times, but mainly it is boring and it does come with a rather heavy emotional tariff. I’m still under the judge’s gag order, so that is all I can say.

I biked to court today and returned home both for lunch and at the end of the day. I don’t have to report until nine, so my mornings are pretty leisurely. Lunch was late, but at an hour and 45 minutes it also facilitates ample down time. I got out at five and it is full dark by then. I have lights, enough to be seen with, if not enough to see. I’m running with blinking LEDs fore and aft. I have a halogen light system, but I suspect that security might have an issue with me bringing in what could be construed as bomb making material, my water-bottle sized NiCd battery. Leaving tonight, both the bailiff and a fellow juror asked me to be careful going home. Hey, isn’t this why we have two alternates?

File this under tribulations, when I came home at lunch my home DSL was out. I couldn’t surf the web, while I had my sandwich and tangerines. Instead, I tried to diagnose and correct the problem. My diagnosis was that it was all AT&T’s problem. My brand new AT&T modem thought that it was connected to the Internet, but it was just fooling itself. I came home tonight prepared to run the gauntlet of help-line hell, but fortunately, everything was working just fine again. This rather lackluster post is the result of my working again home DSL.

No Splashing in the Jury Pool!

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Saint Louis County Courthouse

Saint Louis County Courthouse

It was another unusually warm December day today, so I spent all day splashing in the pool, the jury pool that is. I rode my bike into downtown Clayton and parked it right outside the county courthouse. It’s less than two miles, so it was virtually a no sweat ride, at least in the cool of the morning. After locking up the bike, I filed through security. It wasn’t as invasive as the usual TSA fare. I had to remove my belt, but not my shoes and there were no blue nitrile gloves to be seen, two-by-two, hands of blue …

The jury selection room is on the sixth floor of the courthouse and it pretty much consumes the entire floor. I estimate that there were 600 prospective jurors there in the morning. After everyone was checked-in and seated, a judge came in and read us all the rules. There were no surprises. Two bailiffs then came in and called out 24 and 36 names respectively. These two sets would eventually be culled down to twelve person juries, plus maybe a few alternates. The remaining 500+ of us settled down to waiting, waiting for lunch. They released us early for lunch, so I had plenty of time to ride back home for a leisurely repast.

I figured out that cell phones, even cell phones with a camera were OK. I had my iPhone with me when I returned after lunch. We sat around for another hour and then a clerk came to the microphone. She called out about sixty names and mine was among them. We were told that we could leave for the day, but had to return tomorrow morning. The rest of the pool, those whose names were not called were dismissed from jury duty.

I rode home and then since it was such a nice day, did a turn in the park, for some bonus miles. There is a chance of rain on Tuesday, but hopefully I’ll be able to ride again. Being selected to appear for jury duty a second day greatly increases my chances of actually serving on a jury. Two juries were seated today. Based upon my estimate of the number of people recalled, I expect another two juries will be seated. With twelve jurors and three alternates per juries, only about sixty or 10% of the original jury pool will actually serve on a jury. By being recalled, my odds of actually serving has gone from one-in-ten to a one-third or maybe even a 50-50 chance. If seated, the average trial lasts two-days. Some are as short as one day, but a few are much longer. My boss would not be pleased with the last option.