Every time I show the film I get people coming up to tell me their car theft stories. The best story I heard was a friend of mine was showing his in-laws my other film about being a father, You’ll Change, and Stolen Toyota was on the same tape. They watched both films and laughed. He told me they really enjoyed it. The next morning they went outside and their car had been stolen.

We live our lives and leave some friends by the wayside as we move forward. Ever now and again a name, a memory from the past resurfaces and we smile. I feel bad that Russ and I lost touch. I’m also very lucky as I have both memories and his drawings.

Since the reunion I have pulled out his drawings a few times. I realize he’s still with me. That makes me feel a little better. I can still hear his voice, and remember the funny and stupid things we used to do. And that is gold.

I’m very lucky, I still love editing, both picture and sound, and with the experience I’ve accumulated after all these decades, I’m pretty good at what I do although I still have so much to learn. And like David Lean, I feel like I can edit myself out of any corner that I got myself into as a director.

Now I just hope I won’t be called upon to edit Gunsmoke again, although somewhere in a box I still have my old Revis film splicer, just in case.

I do remember editing one 16 mm project on two rewinds and a metal viewer that was better than the Super 8 versions, but not by much. I had to make all of my cuts with a razor blade on a metal splicing block and then put them together with these little editing tapes you bought separately.

Then they looked down at Moses standing right next to me on his short leash. Their eyes got wide and they couldn’t get away from us fast enough. Excuse me sir! one of them said as they squeezed past us. I looked down at Moses. He was quietly watching them and his hackles were up. He did not like these guys and they knew it.

I recently watched a documentary on Paul Robeson, and it was wonderful. I stumbled across it one evening when I was checking out documentaries on You Tube. Yes, You Tube.

In fact I have stumbled upon a treasure trove of documentaries that I didn’t know existed and many of them come from a place I would have never suspected.

It takes a different kind of personality to want to dedicate themselves to their art, whatever art that may be, and to live with the decision to do that. I have been “financially challenged” most of my life. I have had good years and I’ve had horrible years financially.

Do we own our phones, or do they own us? What I now worry about is how much time I spend staring at my phone screen with no particular goal, to the detriment of doing other things.

Please, put down your phones. They are robbing you from real human interaction, and interaction with the world. They also have a way of numbing you to what’s going on around you. Remember that phrase, “Doom Scrolling”? Yeah, don’t do that.

One of the joys of talking with my buddy Chris Martin is I never know where our conversations are going to take us. We were planning on talking about Frank Zappa, Sparks, and Werner Herzog, when suddenly we're talking about rewriting. And yet our conversations have an organic way of moving through all sorts of different subjects. And yes, we did indeed talk about Zappa, Sparks, and Herzog.

It’s been an interesting few weeks. I have been interviewed for two podcasts and they are both out right now.

The first one, Frankly Festivals is hosted by my friends Jon Gann and Bart Weiss. Their podcast is all about film festivals and with years of experience running and consulting on various film festivals all over the world, these two guys know what they’re taking about.

My connection to newspapers is very strong. No I wasn’t a journalist, I was a paper boy. I used to deliver the evening paper (The Oregon Journal), wearing my big canvas paper bag. Years later I drove a truck for the newspaper delivering bundles to grocery stores, machines, and other locations.

That’s when I realized how badly I wanted this. I wanted to be there. The more I learned the more I realized this was all I ever wanted to do. And I was willing to work as hard as I could to make it happen.

These conversations are not just about films. We talk about creativity, music, things that influenced us, learning new things, and discovering new and different art forms that are pushing boundaries.

I still love quoting Alfred E. Newman.

Crime Doesn’t pay … as well as politics.

Elections are when people find out what politician stand for, and politicians find out what people will fall for.

America is still a land of promise, especially during a political campaign.

Blood is thicker than water … but it makes lousy lemonade.

and

If at first, you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.

Doris was my father’s older sister. He was born in 1925, less than 2 years before she died. There are only a couple photos of her that I know of.

I look at the photo of Doris and I wonder what kind of person she would have grown up to be? Was she a happy kid? What games did she like to play? What kind of an older sister would she have been to my father, and what kind of aunt would she have been to us?

On January 26, 2025 my short film You’ll Change turns 33 years old. Not the film specifically, actually the star of the film, although she never appears in it, my daughter Fiona. The film is about her impending birth.

The Sky Caps saw us coming as the back bumper of the car was practically dragging on the ground. One guy came running up with his hand truck asking if we needed help. I already had a huge wad of cash in my hand that he could see. We were not subtle when it came getting our stuff onto the plane.

My apologies for taking the last month off from posting. Everything’s fine mostly. I just needed some time to think, reflect, and figure out what I want to do as far as writing/filmmaking in the next few years. I was feeling tired and burnt out. So I took a break.

People have this idealized vision of the past. I get it. I remember my childhood and the places my parents used to take us as kids. I have a lot of good memories from that time.

Just because I have fond memories growing up doesn’t mean I want to go back to those times.

I heard later when the rest of the faculty heard what we had done they all wanted to shut us down. Mel fought for us and since he was technically in charge of our film, the rest of the faculty backed off. I guess it was a real tense situation, but Mel won out.

We kept shooting and finished the film.