this next chapter: Moab

Im here. in moab utah. USA. i didnt think id still be here. but i am... and am trying to make the most of it. in the us that is. I floated here, moab, from a bit of west coast travel in an effort to try to understand my own country, and my participation with it. i realize i will always be an american. so i might as well, embrace what i can, and im pretty sure that i am actually doing it. i am living in moab in the red rock deserts of tranquility and brutality, sandwiched between the la sal mountains and the san rafael swell, we are in paradise. this really is paradise. the main problem now, is how to continue filmmaking, live a passionate life and experience a plethora of new things, gain new skills, and connect with new people. i think im doing ok so far. sadly no lovers, only moab. my dear. no concrete new skills... only my life which everyday feels like vacation. like mike said. every day feels like vacation.its so true. but im making money, friends, experiences.. i dont know what else to say... im possibly buying a truck on tuesday... so there is another real commitment. learning and being responsible for a car! a diesel... so i can turn it into a vegidiesel... and run on waste vegi oil... for free. big commitment... and then who knows i might get a dog. eeesh.. seriously who knows.. maybe i will know when the right step is supposed to happen. maybe it will no matter what. and im just along for the ride basically. that life is directing me and im along for the ride... it seems to be pulling me sometimes and sometimes to let me be... to relax and soak up life. so for now i am relaxing and soaking up life. a different life. mika is finally out in the desert. and i am not wasting any of my life. it is all precious. every day of it. the light is precious. i must keep some of that light with me.. in the future. i think i can probably capture that light into my celluloid. i seriously think i should stay here and film all winter. a new film. in black and white... plus x. the desert in the winter... it can have actors. i can film the land. my bolex works great, i have film .. there is no excuse now. i must. i must have a car to take me places to film. i think that is the next step. a little at time. what really makes me passionate about the desert. its ocean of time...its memories... that haunt the land. its sunsets and magical sunrises. the peace here. that the rest of the world may never know. the peace of the land. we are honed to respect and honor the land, and she provides quite fruitfully for us., we have the purest water at matrimony springs, the best produce, the best farmers. goat cheese. we are set. and if moab can prove to me that she loves me back... we then id say i have a girlfriend, and that im in love. are you that to me moab? just let me know. whisper to me how you feel about me. just a whisper.

March 15th, 2008

The rebirth of "the death of cleopatra"
shooting went phenonmenally well of the recasting event! we had so many wonderful people around to help with casting and filming. this is a few minute segment of the most intense part of the process. mixing the polyurethane liquid foam parts for 30 seconds before it starts to rapidly expand 18 to 1 ! by the time we got the fourth bucket in... we were pushing the top of the mold to keep the material in, only to be splattered by this toxic polymer.... i think it was a fun event for all... something new no doubt. the 16mm we shot turned out beautifully.. with some minor fogging on some parts... which i still havent figured out why... mysterious... anyways, this film is coming together... ive got to start editing pretty soon here. today. here's to keeping my mind open, for the film to guide me to new places... i learned that sometimes accidents are what turn out the best, and control can be stifling to what the medium seeks to do....

the queen himself

Queen Kleopatra Ptolemy VII

diario del primer rodaje...
underway... after a last minute, mold (as in decay and fiberglass shell) crisis... today i think all is resolved and we are proceeding with casting her majesty, the last pharaoh of Egypt. we are filming tomorrow, sat. and sunday march 15th and 16th in a dynamic, and industrial sculpture studio. i must say that i really like working with these other materials, thinking dimensionally, instead of temporal moving images. i am reminded that sculpture is also a temporal medium... in its spacial experience... the time of viewing, and also in its own finite life. in a lot of ways, cinema and sculpture are very similar.... so tomorrow... i think all i need to be worried about... are shots. framing, lighting... making sure the film captures... the event. pouring white expanding liquid into her... to fill her joints, and crevices, to give her a life... pretty soon there will be two of her. ive become so attached to this beautiful amber fiberglass mold, spent a lot of time with her, then abandoned her... i dont know what exactly it will feel like for me... to realize her birth in positive form... and not the negative, ive been working with up to this point.

wish me luck.... uh... internet....

Cleopatra's teeth!

here is my next huge project underway for adv. 16mm film production. a 7 minute film, conceptually, an examination of the process of replication in the
likeness of. drawing from ancient Egyptian cultural history, and
intersecting with the ancient and modern practices of dentistry, the
film will be part the process of recasting of a statue of Cleopatra
depicting her death, suicide by an Egyptian cobra and part
rephotographing images of tooth decay in pregnant women. the film will
focus around the desire for reproduction, from the original (shell or
skin) to the replica, to preserve immortality.

This video is my archeological detective research of this mold. commentary included.